crimination whereas, if they occasionally conversed for half an hour with each other, they would soon rectify their mutual misapprehensions, and concur in aiding, rather than undermining, the efforts of each other for the public good. The number of those who are zealous in the cause of religion is not so great, but that they may find ample scope for their exertions, without wasting their time in mutual contentions: and it is my earnest wish, that the only strife we may ever know in future, may be that which the Apostles recommend, of 'contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,' and of 'provoking one another to love and to good works.' "With these sentiments and wishes, I beg leave to subscribe myself, "Dear Sir, with great respect and esteem, "C. S." "Your most obedient Servant, Thus amicably terminated a controversy, which for some months caused considerable excitement in the University; the pamphlets running (as Mr. S. described it in a letter at the time) like wildfire.' Would that all discussions on religious topics, between earnest and serious men, were conducted in the same spirit of candour, and brought with the like courtesy and Christian feeling to a conclusion! Mr. Simeon was not slow to express his opinions with stern fidelity, especially when dealing with young men who made a profession of piety, if an occasion arose demanding a marked rebuke. Such a circumstance occurred at the close of this year, when an undergraduate, with whom he was to a certain extent acquainted, had been strongly suspected of writing some very flippant comments upon the margin of a book belonging to the College Library. 66 Sir, "Dec. 14, 1810. "In your letter to me you say, 'you never wrote such a paragraph to your knowledge.' You have nothing to do but to write down the same words, and you will soon see, on a comparison of the handwriting, whether you wrote it or not. It is evident you have been in the habit of writing in the books of the College Library. This, not to speak of the presumption, is a most flagrant breach of confidence, and deserves the most serious reprehension. What, if every undergraduate took the same liberty? If your conduct excited prejudice only against yourself, I should think that I had little to do with it, except in a way of private advice; but it involves the whole body of religious young men, and religion itself together with them: and therefore calls for a public testimony of my disapprobation. You are not at all aware how contrary your conduct in this matter has been to the modesty that becomes a young man, and a religious professor in particular: and I hope you will take occasion from it to mark how exceedingly defective you are in that prime ornament of a Christian character. My advice is, that you compare your handwriting with the paragraph in question, in order to refresh your memory; and that, when you have found out the extent of your misconduct, you go to your Tutor, and confess it, and humble yourself for it. When you have done that, and obtained forgiveness of your College, I shall be happy to see you again upon the former footing." CHAPTER XII. LITURGY-APPOINTED SELECT SERMONS ON THE 6 EXCELLENCY TO DR. MARSH-DEFENCE OF TO MR. THOMASON-MAR MR. SIMEON'S REGARD FOR THE SIMEON'S SERMONS DR. BUCHANAN-INSTALLATION OF MR. DUKE OF GLOUCESTER-AWFUL DEATH-LAMENTED DECEASE OF KÖNIG MR. PRESTON'S ACCOUNT OF HIM. 1811-1812. Ir will have been frequently observed in the foregoing Memoir how strong and constant was Mr. Simeon's regard for the Liturgy and Services of our Church. From an early period in his college life, when he says that the prayers were 'as marrow and fatness' to him, during the space of thirty years after until the season of his late indisposition, when he remarks, 'surely the Liturgy is of more service than is generally imagined:' his attachment to our ritual had been unwavering. This long-cherished and cordial regard for the formularies of our Church induced him, when appointed at length select preacher at St. Mary's, to deliver a course of Sermons on "The Excellency of the Liturgy.' These were preached before the University during the month of November (1811) from the text: Deut. v. 28, 29. They have well said all that they have spoken: O that there were such an heart in them! On publishing these four Sermons the following spring, Mr. Simeon prefixed to them a Letter addressed to Dr. Marsh, the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, as an 'Answer' to his 'Inquiry respecting the neglecting to give the Prayer-Book with the Bible.' In the course of his argument Dr. M. had endeavoured to draw a parallel between the Assembly of Divines, who set aside the Liturgy, and the friends of the British and Foreign Bible Society, whom he accused of neglecting to give it away.' To heighten the representation, he says-"There was another feature in the Assembly of Divines, which we may distinctly perceive in the modern Society: it consisted chiefly of Calvinists: and the Calvinistic Clergy of the Church of England are generally members of the modern Society. Now a man who adopts the doctrines of Calvin cannot be zealously attached to our English Liturgy: a Calvinist may in many respects have a great regard for it: but he cannot have much pain in parting with it, as it abounds with passages so decisive of conditional salvation, that no ingenuity can torture them into the language of absolute decrees. Indeed we know that the English Liturgy was so offensive to the Calvinists of Scotland, that the very attempt to introduce it in that country produced an insurrection, which ended in the solemn league and covenant, to which the English Calvinists acceded." "In this passage," replies Mr. Simeon, “you avail yourself of a popular cry against a great body of the Clergy as espousing Calvinism, and as carrying their tenets to a very dangerous extent. But, Sir, it is greatly to be regretted that those who impute such sentiments to the Clergy here alluded to, will not tell us from whence they take their statements. If they would quote the obnoxious passages, they would put it into the power of those who might be supposed to be implicated in the charge, to say, whether they maintained such opinions or not. opinions or not. As for a great number of opinions which they are supposed to hold, I dare to assure the public, that Socinianism, or even Atheism itself, is not farther from their real sentiments, than such expressions as are often put into their mouths*. "Among the Clergy designated as Calvinists, I have no doubt but that I am ranked: (with what justice that name, in its obnoxious sense, can be given me, the reader will see in the Sermons here brought before him:) and I believe, indeed I am sure, that my sentiments in general do coincide with those, which the great body of the Clergy here referred to maintain. And, that the readers of your pamphlet may know how far these sentiments are repugnant to the Articles or Liturgy of the Church of England, I shall here present them with an extract from the Preface my work, entitled, 'Helps to Composition." " (Here follows the extract which has been given entire in pages 178-189.) Mr. Simeon then proceeds: "Now, Sir, I do not say of those whom you designate as would express himself in precisely the same terms as I have done, or that there are not shades of difference that every individual Calvinistic Clergy, "Innumerable passages of this kind may be found in the Bishop of Lincoln's (Tomline) Refutation of Calvinism. It is much to be regretted that great and good men, whom no consideration whatever could induce to be guilty of wilful misrepresentation, will not use some more effectual means of ascertaining the sentiments of others, before they undertake to state them to the public, and to hold them up to the abhorrence of mankind." |