I will not dispute with you, whether the established church will be a gainer by this new connexion on the score ofdignityand fashion. I amtold, indeed, that there are among the nonconformists those who can wear as gay a coat, play as good a hand at whist, and give as modish an account of an opera or a play, as “those men of the world” among us, who “think it more creditable to be accounted members of our venerable church, than a subscriber to the meeting-house:” but I cannot say how many there may be of this description among the subscribers to the Bible Society. However, though “few men of opulence, and fewer still of rank, frequent the meeting-house or conventicle,” there is “influence and consideration”[48a]enough among the members of our communion to give respectability to both. I grant, indeed, that “the presence ofa noblemancannot make the company which he honours with his presence either creditable or polite,” yet surely the presence of anumberwill go a great way towards doing it: but then I admit with you, that they must not be “wandering stars,”[48b]which shed a momentary lustre, but luminaries which keep afixedposition, and dispense acertainlight.
You expect, as the result of this new association, that all will become unity, and charity, and Christian benevolence, and that you shall see “realized the pretty hand-in-hand frontispiece to the Christian Ladies Pocket-Book 1803.”[48c]Now though I am not so sanguine in my expectationsas you are, yet I trust you will not be wholly disappointed. And, in my opinion, a Protestant clergy will be not acting less out of their character by promoting “unity, charity, and Christian benevolence,” than by disturbing them: nor can Christian prelates be quite so much disgraced by shaking the hands of Dissenting ministers in the frontispiece of a pocket-book,[49]as they would be if represented as drawing those hands through the holes of a pillory.
Your fears are awakened for thepurityof the church:—I am certainly more tender of herpuritythan I am of herdignity; and that because I have been taught to regard herwhite raimentas her truestglory. But what defilement has she to apprehend from a co-operation with persons differing from her, in an object upon which they are agreed? If Socinians are to be feared, if Calvinists are to be shunned, I question whether the Bible Society will furnish dangers nearly so great as those which the established church incurs from members of her own communion. Socinians arenot remarkable for their zeal in promoting the circulation of the Scriptures; and I question whether half a dozen of them have subscribed their names as members of the Bible Society. As for the Calvinists, they constitute, it must be remembered, only a proportion of those denominations which are represented in the committee. The Wesleian Methodists are notCalvinists; many of the Presbyterians are notCalvinists; the Quakers are notCalvinists; the Lutherans are notCalvinists; and individuals of other persuasions, which might be named, are notCalvinists. Besides, though “scratchings and fightings” may be “usual with the parties when on the outside of the tavern walls,”[50]that is not a reason for there being theological wranglings within. The line of business is, with few exceptions, as direct at the Bible Committee as it is at Lloyd’s; and there is as little reason to expect the peculiar tenets of Calvin or Socinus to enter into a debate for dispersing an edition of the Scriptures, as there would be if the same men were met to underwrite a policy of insurance. But why may it not be hoped that churchmen will not be the only losers by this connexion? What if some ofusshould grow less proud and phlegmatic, may not some ofthembecome less snarlish and fanatical? The friction which takes off our asperities will assuredly do the same by theirs. It istherefore highly probable, that we may severally bring away with us our faith, our hope, and our charity, which are all we wish to save; and leave nothing behind us but that “bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, and malice,”[51a]which can very well be spared.
You ask, “what concord hath a mitre with a meeting-house?” The Pharisees of old were fond of asking questions of the same sort—“Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” The Pharisees were very little satisfied with the answer they received; and, I dare say, any answer that could be given to the Country Clergyman would satisfy him as little. I must therefore leave him to doubt whetherany concordcan subsist between kindred souls, pursuing the same object under different forms, and in unequal stations, till he shall see how near the spirits of an Usher and a Baxter, of a Taylor and a Henry, of a Tillotson and a Watts, of a Seeker and a Doddridge, willventureto approach each other, in the new heaven and new earth wherein dwellethrighteousness.
And pray what are we to understand by your merry question about theunequal yoke? “Why (you ask) should a clergyman of the church of England be unequally yoked with a lovely sister of the conventicle?” And then you desire “a certain officer of the Society”[51b]to be consulted. Whatsort of an answer that “officer” might think proper to give, it belongs to himself to determine; but I confess I see nothing in the question which I should be afraid to meet. I am at a loss to see what harm “a lovely sister of the conventicle” can do to any man. I am sure there is every probability that such an “unequal yoke” would do the Country Clergyman’s temper a great deal of good. But I cannot give him any great encouragement, if he shouldventure himselfupon such a speculation,into the company of those of whom he has always hitherto been horribly afraid. The sectaries, on whom he has laid such heavy blows, will keep (I fear) their “lovely sisters” for priests of a gentler nature and better breeding; and leave the Country Clergyman to whisper his tale of love into some high-church ear, and to be as “equally yoked” as Richard Hooker,[52]or any other country clergyman ever was before him.
But though I can pardon in this “certain officerof the Society,” hishymenealerror (for matches, you know, Sir, are made in heaven), yet I have no such allowance to make for those other transgressions, in which he is, or ought to be, a freer agent. “Perhaps (you say) he can resolve us, how a clergyman of the church can attend the meeting-house, without danger to his principles, or gross indecorum towards the church and its spiritual superior. He perhaps can show us too, how a clergyman of the church can securely, and without breach of trust, take his pupils to hear the harangues of those who daily revile her. This, to common understandings, does not appear to be the likely way ‘to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines, contrary to God’s word,’ which every clergyman at his ordination solemnly promises to do. It wants some clearing up.”[53]
There is really, Sir, no accounting for the fancies of some of our order. Dean Swift was fond of vulgar manners, and therefore he would take his dinner in a cellar; some clergymen love the sports of the field, and therefore join the hounds at a fox-chase: I suppose this “certain officer of the Society” has a sort of ear for public speaking, and has sometimes stepped a little out of his way in order to gratify it. But then (as you might naturally say) are not thetheatresopen forhim, as well as for his brethren; and if he wants a slice of good oratory, cannot he give six shillings to a box-keeper, and take it like a gentleman?Hemay perhaps have a doubt (for he seems to hold opinions of his own) “how a clergyman of the church can attend”the theatre, “without danger to his principles, or gross indecorum towards the church and its spiritual superior.” Perhaps also he may entertain a doubt “how a clergyman of the church can, securely, and without breach of trust, take his pupils to hear the harangues of those” dramatic characters, “which,” as Archbishop Tillotson says, “do most notoriously minister to infidelity and vice.”[54a]Possibly “this,” to his understanding, may “not appear to be the likely way ‘to frame and fashion himself and his family according to the doctrine of Christ, and to make both himself and them, as much as in him lieth, wholesome examples and patterns to the flock of Christ,’[54b]which every clergyman at his ordination solemnly promises to do.” But I think with you, that the whole of this matter “wants clearing up.” I have, I confess, some difficulty about conceiving how this priest can execute either such, or so many duties as he is said to do, of a parochial and domestic nature; and yet find either time to conduct his pupils to hearthe church reviled, or pupils tractable enough to be conducted by him. But, as I said before, the whole matter “wants clearing up;” and if you should be found to have aimed a blow at his professional character, which he has not quite deserved, you have nothing to do but to say, as the Roman assassins are reported to do when they stab the wrong man in the dark, “Padrone è un sbaglio,”—“I beg your pardon, it wasa mistake.”
Your last objection respects “the purity of the Holy Scriptures,” which, you think, will be endangered “if the translation and edition of the Sacred Book are to be intrusted to all the different denominations of Christians.”[55]The greater part of this objection has been anticipated. It has been already stated that the Society is restrained to editing and distributing the versions,printed by authority, throughout the united kingdom. In supplying the different parts of the European continent, the Society will find the versions already in circulation among the Protestant churches; and its proceedings in these cases will be chiefly directed by those Lutheran prelates and ministers, with whom a confidential communication has, I understand, been already opened, through the medium of its foreign secretary. Nor can there be any danger of the Bible Society intrusting “either the translating or the editing the Holy Scriptures tothe care of that denomination of Christians called Papists;”[56a]for, besides theimprobabilityof “that denomination of Christians” joining the Bible Society, there is the absolutecertainty, that there would always be in the committee astanding majority against them. With regard tonewtranslations, they relate, as has been already observed, to languages, over which the jurisdiction of the church of England would be as nugatory as that of any other denomination of Christians. The manner of conducting these must be almost, if not entirely, matter of discretion; and such a committee as the Bible Society has been shown to possess, affords the best security that such discretion will never be wanted. So far as the influence of the church in these cases is of importance, she has it, by the natural constitution of the committee; and if a preponderating influence be desirable, the doors are opened for obtaining it by proportional subscription. Should she adopt this measure, as I trust she will, “you see the consequences as well as I can.” The Society will then contain, beyond all question,a standing majority in favor of the church; and there will be no room for apprehending that “our present pure English Bible will be thrust aside to make way for others:” but while “every different party has its doctrine and its interpretation,” all parties will have butone Bible.[56b]
But, it seems, you have got possession of a fact which strengthens all your fears: you have been “credibly informed that the British and Foreign Bible Society are at this time preparing an edition of the Holy Scriptures in the Welsh language, in which such liberties are taken in the translation as are by no means warrantable.” You are right in saying you give this “merely as areport;” however, I cannot help suspecting that, where the Bible Society, or any of itsofficers, are likely to suffer by it, you have no particular objection to publishing what are “merelyreports.” Others before you have charged upon the Society the nefarious crime of taking “unwarrantable liberties with thetranslation” and they had just as good authority for saying so as you have. The fact is, thatthe original informernever imputed to the Society the guilt of altering thetranslation, but theorthographyof the text; and he, it must be observed, had never seen any portion of the corrected copy. But before your pamphlet left the press—perhaps before it went there; the parties, to whom the information had been originally conveyed, were in possession of another sort ofreport—a Report from the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society; in which the corrections that had occasioned this alarm, were shown to have been made (whether right or wrong,judicent periti), upon a collation of the orthographical variations, in the severalauthorized editions only.However, the question between the parties is in a train of arbitration, under the direction of the syndics of the Cambridge University-press;who, andnot the Committee of the Bible Society, are to be the printers of the Welsh impression.
But lest the Welsh rumour should subside before the Society is overthrown, you have another little story to keep up the public prejudice against it. “The author (you say) has likewise beentold, that the distribution of tracts as well as Bibles, was in the original plan of some of the first projectors of this scheme, one of whom is known to be a zealous adversary of the establishment.”[58a]Now, Sir, it is very possible that the original projector of this Society, and his project too, may have been very exceptionable, and yet the present institution be entitled to a very honorable character. I have never thought the worse of the Reformation, because I could not for the life of me think well of Henry the Eighth and his “original plan.” The “Philanthropic Society” is founded upon a supposition, which I think a very just one, that something may be made of theoffspring, when nothing can be made of theparent;[58b]and I suppose the Country Clergyman would rather have his pamphlet judged from thefair copywhich he sent to the press, than from any one of those “original plans” of it, which were projected by his busy andinquisitivereporters. The question is, whether theactualplan of the Society comprehends or excludes the distribution oftracts. The answer to this is, that thefirst articleof the constitution peremptorilyexcludesthem. After such a declaration, it is as unreasonable to dispute thepresentobject of the Bible Society, by a reference to anyantecedentdesigns; as it would be to question whether the Paradise Lost be anepic poem, merely because it stood as adramain Milton’s “original plan.”
But I have done.—My business was not to proclaim theexcellenceof the Bible Society; but only to rescue it fromreproach. I have therefore confined my remarks to those specific objections with which you have opposed it.
Whatfurtherobjections you could have produced (and, it seems, you have nine times as many in reserve)[59]I shall not concern myself to inquire: if they resemble those, which have been already considered, I rejoice that you have had the grace to conceal them. You have already condescended enough “to do the enemy’s work:” and deserved sufficiently well of those who seek the church’s degradation. If this bereallythe object of the several denominations of Christians, they are abundantly more indebted to the hostility of thecassockthan to the friendship of themitre.Yours, Sir, is the description of services upon which they will set the most value: and, if they do you justice, “not a single nonconformist, Papist, Socinian, or Quaker, will be silent in your praise.”—“Ungrateful wretches would they be, were they to pass by unnoticed and un-eulogized so great a friend to their cause.”[60a]But I trust you have mistakenthem, as much as you have dishonoredus:theywill hope to get to heaven, though they should not have pulled down the church in their way; andweshall hope to get there too, though we should not havecompelledthem “to be like-minded,” nor refused them the free use of Bibles, and the offices of brotherly love.
And now, Sir, before I take my leave (a ceremony to which we are hastening with mutual impatience), let me challenge your acknowledgment of that courteousness and suavity with which I have treated you. It was natural for you to expect revilings and reproaches; you esteem them an “honor;” you “have enjoyed them before;”[60b]and I must do you the justice to say, that you take some pains to deserve them. However, in the present instance, you have been disappointed. I have neither reviled nor reproached you: I have not once called you “Beelzebub,” through the whole of my letter: I have never once insinuated that you were a wolf in sheep’s clothing:I have never once pried into the table of your alliances, nor dodged you from your house to your favorite places of amusement, nor pretended to know any more of your private history, than was strictly consistent with “a gentleman and a Christian.”
I owe this self-government to “those liberal-basis’d and broad-bottomed principles,” to which you appear so profound a stranger: and I trust, this consideration will do a great deal towards recommending them to your favor. They are, Sir, be assured, the genuine principles of Christianity, as well as those of the British constitution. They are calculated to reflect honor on the church, and to promote harmony through the nation. On them the British and Foreign Bible Society has been erected; and from such an institution, resting upon such “a basis,” the happiest events may, under God, be expected, to the country—to Europe—and to the habitable world.
I am, Rev. Sir,
Your humble Servant.
THE END.
S. Gosnell, Printer, Little Queen Street.
[1]Address, p. 1.
[2]Address, p. 1 and 2.
[3a]Address, p. 16.
[3b]This resolution was occasioned by the combination of the journeymen printers, &c. against their masters.
[6a]Address, p. 28.
[6b]Ibid.
[6c]P. 21.
[6d]“History proves that none butthe churchhave enjoyed thesplendour and favour of princes.” Address, p. 27.
[8]Address, p. 5.
[9a]Address, p. 32.
[9b]P. 5.
[9c]P. 6.
[10a]Address, p.8.
[10b]P. 9.
[10c]P. 8.
[11a]Address, p. 5.
[11b]P. 7.
[12]Address, p. 5.
[14a]Address, p. 7.
[14b]P. 10.
[15]Address, p. 8.
[16]Address, p. 8.
[17]Address, p. 8, 9.
[19]Address, p. 9.
[20]Address, p. 16.
[21a]Address, p. 11.
[21b]P. 26.
[24a]Address, p. 21.
[24b]P. 12.
[26]Address, p. 18.
[27]Address, p. 13.
[31]Address, p. 32.
[34]Address, p. 11.
[35a]Address, p. 16.
[35b]P. 2.
[35c]P. 16.
[35d]Ibid.
[36]It struck me suddenly at last, that your Lordship must intend by these classical words, only what the vulgar would call “broad bottom.” Address, p. 16.
[37a]Address, p. 17.
[37b]Ibid.
[37c]P. 18.
[39a]Address, p. 21.
[39b]“Whose delight,” speaking of the Dissenters, “has always been to clip the silver wings of the heavenly dove, and to pluck her golden feathers from her breast.” Address, p. 20.
[40a]Address, p. 21.
[40b]John, iv. 9.
[40c]Gal. iv. 26.
[41]Address, p. 25.
[44]It need scarcely be observed, that our virtuous Queen, and the wives of her royal sons, were of the Lutheran church.
[45]A church at Rome, calledSan Pietro in Vincolis, is said to have been built in consequence of such a miraculous event.
[47a]Address, p. 23.
[47b]P. 24.
[48a]Address, p. 28.
[48b]P. 27.
[48c]Ibid.
[49]The reader, who is not acquainted with this part of ecclesiastical history, must be told, that a bookseller, desirous, it is presumed, of reconciling all “denominations of Christians” to the purchase of his Christian “Ladies’ Pocket-book, for 1803,” took the liberty of representing three ministers, respectively of the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Independent denominations of Protestant Dissenters, and a prelate of the established church, together with an union of hands, in the frontispiece of his work.
[50]Address, p. 22.
[51a]Ephes. iv. 3.
[51b]Address, p. 32.
[52]Richard Hooker was prevailed upon by Mrs.Churchman, the wife of “a draper of good note,” as honest Isaac Walton calls him, to let her choose a wife for him. “Now,” continues the pleasant biographer, “the wife provided for him was her daughter Joan, who brought him neither beauty nor portion; and for her conditions, they were too like that wife’s, which is by Solomon compared to a dripping house: so that he had no reason torejoice in the wife of his youth, but rather to say with the holy prophet, ‘Wo is me,that I am constrained to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar’.” Walton’s Life of Hooker.
[53]Address, p. 32.
[54a]Vide Archbishop Tillotson on the Stage (as quoted by Law).
[54b]Vide Ordination Service.
[55]Address, p. 32.
[56a]Address, p. 33.
[56b]P. 34.
[58a]Address, p. 36.
[58b]This Society provides for educating thechildren of felons.
[59]“I have mentioned not a tenth part.” Address, p. 35.
[60a]Address, p. 24.
[60b]P. 4.