CHAPTER XXII.

LETTERS- -TO REV. T. THOMASON ON PUBLISHING THE 'HORÆ HOMILETICE-EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACE TO THE HORE-REV. T. THOMASON ON RELIGIOUS WORKS IN INDIA-ON ACTING WITH TENDERNESS AND CAUTION -CLERICAL EDUCATION SOCIETY MEMORANDUM ON THE RESTORATION OF HIS STRENGTH-TO BISHOP BURGESS ON THE HORE HOMILETICE -REMARKS ON

A CRITICISM OF THE BISHOP'S-EXTRACTS FROM SERMONS ON 'THE NEW BIRTH

6 -AND

JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS.'

1820.

CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.

To the Rev. T. THOMASON.

"My beloved Brother,

66

"July 7, 1820.

"I have not of late dared to take up such a sheet as this. And my letters have been few as well as short but eleven volumes sent out to the public will plead my excuse. . . . It is a great joy to me to see them all safely edited: it has been the chief object for which I have of late wished to live; and I am now quite willing to depart, and be with my Lord and Saviour: though, if my life and health be yet spared, I propose, with God's help, to prosecute the work, gleaning every fine passage that I can find in the inspired Volume. But I have no intention of ever publishing more in my life-time. life-time. When I am gone, the public may have them if they please. They will have had abundant opportunity from sixteen volumes already published, to shew whether they wish for more, or are cloyed and surfeited with what they have got. Were the publication of a different kind, I should

without hesitation say, that I had already published a great deal too much: but from the peculiar nature of it as a book of reference, I conceive that they who like it at all, will be glad to have every fine portion of Scripture treated in the same way. But my executors will be able to judge better than I can do. At all events the Clergy will derive a benefit from the voluminousness of the work: and if it lead the ignorant to preach the truth, and the indolent to exert themselves, and the weak to attain a facility of writing their own, and the busy and laborious to do more and with better effect than they otherwise could have done, I shall be richly repaid for my labour. My prayers for God's blessing upon it will, I hope, ascend as long as I am able to pray at all: for I know, that without His blessing it will be published to no purpose. I am encouraged by frequent testimonies from persons unknown to me respecting the usefulness of my former work: and I fondly hope that the present will not be found inferior to that in any respect. I have, at least, laboured that it should not: and I rather think that it will be generally thought superior.

"I before told you the reason of my title Horo Homileticæ. It will be found in the Greek of Acts xx. 11*, and the adoption of the word 'Homilies' by the English Reformers. With such a title it will be suffered to stand on a shelf: whereas with the former title it was thrust into a cupboard.”...

It may be proper to introduce here some extracts from the Preface to this Work, to exhibit the particular object Mr. Simeon had in view in its publication.

* Εφ' ἱκανόν τε ὁμιλήσας ἄχρις αὐγής.

EXTRACTS from the PREFACE.

"It has not, as the Author believes, occurred to any Divine, to supply a regular series of Discourses on the most important parts of the whole Volume of Scripture; and to adapt these Discourses, by their general construction, their simplicity, and their brevity, to the special service of the younger order of the Clergy. It is the particular object of these Volumes, which the Author now humbly presents to the public, to supply this deficiency in Theological writings. And he trusts this labour of love will be regarded by his brethren in the Ministry, not as an act of presumption, but as a humble and affectionate attempt to render their entrance on their holy and honourable calling more easy, and their prosecution of it more useful.........

"The Author is no friend to systematizers in Theology. He has endeavoured to derive from the Scriptures alone his views of religion, and to them it is his wish to adhere with scrupulous fidelity; never wresting any portion of the Word of God to favour a particular opinion, but giving to every part of it that sense, which it seems to him to have been designed by its Great Author to convey.

"He is aware that he is likely, on this account, to be considered by the zealous advocates of human systems as occasionally inconsistent: but if he should be discovered to be no more inconsistent than the Scriptures themselves, he will have reason to be satisfied. He has no doubt but that there is a system in the Holy Scriptures (for truth cannot be inconsistent with itself); but he is persuaded that neither Calvinists nor Arminians are in exclusive possession of that system. He is disposed to think that the Scripture system, be it what it may, is of a broader and more

comprehensive character than some very exact and dogmatical theologians are inclined to allow : and that, as wheels in a complicated machine may move in opposite directions and yet subserve one common end, so may truths apparently opposite be perfectly reconcileable with each other, and equally subserve the purposes of God in the accomplishment of man's salvation. This the Author has attempted to explain more fully in the Preface to his former Work. But he feels it impossible to repeat too often, or avow too distinctly, that it is an invariable rule with him to endeavour to give to every portion of the Word of God its full and proper force, without considering one moment what scheme it favours, or whose system it is likely to advance. Of this he is sure, that there is not a decided Calvinist or Arminian in the world, who equally approves of the whole of Scripture. He apprehends that there is not a determined votary of either system, who, if he had been in the company of St. Paul whilst he was writing his different Epistles, would not have recommended him to alter one or other of his expressions.

"But the Author would not wish one of them altered: he finds as much satisfaction in one class of passages as in another; and employs the one, he believes, as often and as freely as the other. Where the Inspired Writers speak in unqualified terms, he thinks himself at liberty to do the same; judging that they needed no instruction from him how to propagate the truth. He is content to sit as a learner at the feet of the holy Apostles, and has no ambition to teach them how they ought to have spoken. And as both the strong Calvinists and Arminians approve of some parts of Scripture and not of others; such, he

L. S.

M M

expects, will be the judgment of the partisans of these particular systems on his unworthy comments;-the Calvinists approving of what is written on passages which have a Calvinistic aspect; and the Arminians of what is written on passages that favour their particular views. In like manner he has reason, he fears, to expect a measure of condemnation from the advocates of each system, when treating of the passages which they appear to him to wrest, each for the purpose of accommodating them to his own favourite opinions. He bitterly regrets that men will range themselves under human banners and leaders, and employ themselves in converting the Inspired Writers into friends and partisans of their peculiar principles. Into this fault he trusts that he has not hitherto fallen; and he unfeignedly hopes and prays to be preserved from it in future. One thing he knows, namely, that pious men, both of the Calvinistic and Arminian persuasion, approximate very nearly when they are upon their knees before God in prayer;-the devout Arminian then acknowledging his total dependence upon God as strongly as the most confirmed Calvinist; and the Calvinist acknowledging his responsibility to God, and his obligation to exertion, in terms as decisive as the most determined Arminian. And that which both these individuals are upon their knees, it is the wish of the Author to become in his writings. Hence it is that he expects to be alternately approved by both parties, and condemned by both. His only fear is, that each may be tempted to lay hold only of those parts of his work which oppose their favourite system, and represent them as containing an entire view of his sentiments. He well knows the force of prejudice, and the bitterness of the Odium