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LETTERS TO A YOUNG MAN,

PART I.

OCCASIONED BY

Mr. Wakefield's Essay on Public Worship;

To which is added,

A REPLY

TO

Mr. Evanson's Objections to the Observance of the Lord's Day.

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THE following Letters were written after reading the first edition of Mr. Wakefield's Essay. A second edition has been published since, and in this, "that he may not appear,' as he says, "too morose and unrelenting," he gives a sketch of" a plan of public worship, in which he would acquiesce, till mankind shall be so well disciplined with knowledge and virtue, by means of more learned, assiduous, and disinterested teachers, as to be able to conform with greater accuracy to the real power and spirit of Christianity, delineated in the life and doctrines of its Founder; when the Gospel shall shine in its native splendour, and every mist of

"A short Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of public or social Worship," 1791, 2d and 3d ed. in 1792.

"This tract occasioned, as might have been expected, various answers; some of which were judged by the public to have considerable merit. On most of these,

ceremony and superstition dissolve before its rays. But this, in my opinion, will not be while human nature is what it now is, or while the world continues, I therefore ask no longer term for the duration of public worship.

In this plan of Mr. Wakefield's, however, I do not discover any thing particularly excellent, or materially differing from the plan of public worship adopted by some whom he, with an evident sneer, calls Unitarian Dissenters; though if Mr. Wakefield be not an absolute unique among Christians, this is the class to which he himself belongs, being an Unitarian, and not conforming to the Established Church. He proposes to conclude the service with " a short address from the minister, to God," though without saying whether the people are to join in it; and yet in other places he seems to prefer a liturgy with responses to any other mode of worship. As to long or short, they are only terms of comparison, and all prayers in general use among us would have appeared short to many of our ancestors. If the generality of the

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our author briefly animadverted, in A general Reply to the Arguments against the Enquiry into public Worship,' 1792. In the course of the discussion he readily took occasion to retract or qualify some positions which he had too hastily advanced; but to the leading principle of his Enquiry, he continued uniformly to adhere, from the honest conviction of his mind." Mem. of Wakefield, 1804, I. p. 356, Note.

Enquiry, p. 4. (P.)

+ Wakefield replies, " many of your own brethren, who have not yet set up in our Socinian hypothesis, are scandalized with you, and very reasonably, for denying them the name of Unitarian Christiaus; and it would be much more honourable to Christianity, if these names of distinction were less lavishly employed, especially by a reference to those who are as strenuous in asserting their pretensions to a belief of the Divine Unity as ourselves: and surely we should allow them to know best what they believe.- -Our predecessors were called Christians first at Antioch; let us correct ourselves in future, and call conscientious believers by no other name in England." Short Strictures, 1792, pp. 12, 13.

A long prayer, it must be admitted, will scarcely ever occur where a congregation adopt a Liturgy, which appears to afford the only adequate representation of common or social prayer. This opinion may be more generally received and applied to practice, should Nonconformists ever agree to consider the question of a Liturgy, separate from that tyrannous imposition with which it has been associated throughout the disgraceful history of what Priests and Statesmen call the Church,

It may, however, deserve more serious consideration than it has yet received from Unitarian as well as other Dissenters, whether the minister's emphatically long prayer, still generally read or uttered before our congregations, best serve the professed purpose of social prayer, or whether indeed the practice be not virtually discountenanced by the precepts and examples of the New Testament. Thus Wakefield, in reply to this passage of the Letters, fairly asks, "Are the prayers at your meetings longer or shorter than the precepts and example of Christ appear to authorize?" Short Strictures, p. 13. See also his Matthew, 1782, p. 94, where he remarks, (on ch. vi. 7,) that " all the prayers that occur in the New Testament are short and pertinent." I am aware of an ingenious apology for long prayers, and I have no disposition to withhold any remarks from such a pen.

"Even those didactic prayers," says Mrs. Barbauld, "which run out into the enumeration of the attributes of the Divine Being, and of the duties of a virtuous life, though, perhaps, not strictly proper as prayer, have their use in storing the minds of the generality with ideas on these important subjects; and the beauty and

hearers, to whose inclinations ministers will generally conform, do not think the prayers, or the exhortations, too long, they are not too long with respect to themselves, whatever they may be with respect to others. But that Mr. Wakefield should indulge Christians with a mode of worship which he at the same time acknowledges to be not only "without any authority from the Gospel of God, but incon

sublimity of many of these compositions must operate powerfully in lifting the heart to God, and inspiring it with a love of virtue." Remarks on Mr. Wakefield's Enquiry, 3d ed. 1792, p. 40.

The same writer afterwards says, "Let it be considered, when the length and abstracted nature of our public prayers is objected to, that we have nothing to take their place. If our attention was excited by processions, garlands, altars, and sacrifices, and every action of our lives intermixed with some religious rite, these expressions of our homage might be more readily dispensed with; but in reality, tedious as Mr. Wakefield may think long prayers, they suit better with the gravity of the national disposition and the philosophic turn of our ideas, than any substitute which could be suggested by the most classic taste. Our prayers are become long, because our ceremonies are short." Ibid. pp. 47, 48.

Yet this writer, I flatter myself, would admit, that if Nonconformists availed themselves of short ceremonies, not to fill up an allotted portion of time by listening to long prayers, but by recalling "to take their place" the, unhappily, long-neglected Exposition, a congregation, considering its various states of age and information, and in which “ the rich and the poor meet together," would be likely to depart with increased scriptural knowledge, without abating in the spirit of devotion, because it had been expressed in words comparatively few.

At present it is, I fear, too generally the practice, for a minister merely to read the Scriptures, just as any inexperienced individual of the congregation might do, if he possessed an audible and well-modulated voice; and, as now, thanks to Mr. Raikes, and the spirit which his benevolence excited, almost every individual may do for himself. The design and connexion of the Scriptures read are, I believe, scarcely ever explained; and as seldom is suggested even a verbal amendment of King James's translation. Thus are unavoidably fostered those prejudices, resulting from early instruction, “a bad effect, but from a noble cause," which have frequently retarded the attainment of the genuine sense of scripture.

It may be urged that the sermon is designed to explain the Scriptures which have been read. This is not, I apprehend, generally the case. Mrs. Barbauld, shewing how" nothing that is taught at all is taught in so vague and desultory a manner as the doctrines of religion," alleges "the custom of prefixing to every pulpit discourse a sentence, taken indiscriminately from any part of the Scriptures, under the name of a text, which at first implying an exposition, was afterwards used to suggest a subject, and is now, [1792,] by degrees, dwindling into a motto." Ibid. pp. 63, 64.

Thus, while a pastor, unconscious, probably, of the small proportion of his flock to whom he can be intelligible, is reading from the pulpit one of those elaborate discourses which are called his great sermons, and which, from the press, shall perpetuate his reputation for metaphysical acuteness, classical taste, or accurate discrimination of human character,

"The hungry sheep look up and are not fed."

Mrs. Barbauld makes the following just complaint, deserving the most serious consideration of all who devote themselves to the honourable offices of religious instruction: "A congregation may attend for years, even a good preacher, and never hear the evidences of either natural or revealed religion regularly explained to them: they may attend for years, and never hear a connected system of moral duties extending to the different situations and relations of life: they may attend for years, and not even gain any clear idea of the history and chronology of the Old and New Testament, which are read to them every Sunday." Ibid.

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sistent with its true character," appears to me not a little extraordinary. Surely nothing to which this description can properly apply ought to be tolerated by any Christian, in condescension to any man, or any prejudice.

I am sorry to see so much appearance of bigotry against the whole body of Dissenters, mixed with so many professions of uncommon liberality, as appears in this pamphlet.† Alas, what have they done? What have they done to provoke the implacable resentment of Mr. Wakefield?

Enquiry, p. 56. (P.)

+ On the appearance of these Letters, Mr. Wakefield immediately published those short, but severe strictures, to which I have already referred, and I think it due to his memory here to express my firm conviction, that the style of recrimination too observable in that pamphlet, and unworthy of his general courtesy and benevolence, was such as the author, on reconsideration, by no means approved. He has, however, in the following paragraphs, recorded his dispassionate judgment," of the Dissenting ministry," those whom he “ had opportunities of knowing of the Presbyterian denomination; those," he adds, " who call themselves, and very justly too, liberal Dissenters."

"These," says Mr. Wakefield, “ take them altogether, are, in one word, the most respectable set of men I know: genuine lovers of truth, liberty, and science: zealous and attentive to the peculiar duties of their profession beyond all praise, and in their devotion to theological subjects much more meritorious than their brethren of the Church of England; meeting, indeed, with fewer obstacles to the pursuits of religious knowledge. In their moral capacity, they are also in a much greater degree decent and exemplary to their people, than the generality of the clergy of the Establishment, and more generally addicted to useful literature. The reasons of this superiority are extremely obvious. No person is educated for the ministry with them, who does not previously shew a disposition to seriousness and learning: whereas, in the Church, a boy is brought up for a clergyman, because his father can procure him preferment: and, if he is fit for no other labour, he is thought capable at least of digging in the Lord's vineyard. Nor is it of much consequence, whether his morals and talents are acceptable to a congregation. He is tied to his parish, and his parish to him, like husband and wife, for better and for worse. But in their knowledge of ancient literature, as far as it relates to languages, and of the Belles Lettres, they fall very far short indeed (I speak in general) of the more respectable members of the Establishment: nor truly can it be otherwise, as long as every end must have its means. These branches are not cultivated with such assiduity, such affection, or for so long continuance, among Dissenters: and those whom I have met with, are usually very ready to acknowledge their inferiority in this department; and this in proportion to their own learning and good sense." Short Strictures, 1792, pp. 6, 7.

To the above complaint of an "appearance of bigotry," Mr. Wakefield replies, "They, who are conversant with my sentiments and my connexions, know that many of my most valuable and beloved friends, to whom I would not wish to be unacceptable on any consideration, are Dissenters; whose good-will and affection will, I trust, accompany me to the end of my days, not impaired by calumny, nor separated even by death. Charity never faileth.

Αυταρ εγω τιμαν τε και ανθρωπων φιλότητα,
Πολλων ἡμιονων τε και ίππων προσθεν ἑλοιμαν.

I still prefer fair fame, with better sense,
And more than riches, men's benevolence.

THEOC.

FAWKES.

"But my friends (for they are not faultless and infallible) must, and will, endure me both to speak and write of them and their opinions, and all other things, as they are, without partiality and disguise." Ibid. pp. 13, 14.

What have they done but, in common with other denominations of Christians, (if they, who have hardly any thing in common, can be called a denomination,) adopt modes of public worship, approved by themselves, as most conducive to their own edification? And, surely, the circumstance of length or brevity, that of forms or no forms, responses or no responses, cannot be of so much consequence as to make us the subject of such pointed satire. However, if others be no more affected by it than I feel myself to be, the dart will fall pointless. We have no great reason to dread either the club of the arguments,* or the shafts of the ridicule, with which we are threatened.

Mr. Wakefield, wishing to appear in the character of a reformer, and to exhibit Christianity in greater purity than it has hitherto been seen in, should have recommended his system by discovering more of the genuine spirit of it than appears in his virulent and unprovoked censures of Dr. Price,t whose character every consideration calls upon me to vindicate. Mr. Wakefield allows him to have been," in the main, a very virtuous and amiable man, and a great proficient in various parts of learning;" which is certainly merit enough for one man, since no person excels in every thing. But he adds, that he was "exceedingly illiterate, like the majority of the Dissenting ministers," (for they must come in for their share of censure,)" in the branch most essential to theology; and with all his zeal for civil freedom, no true friend of religious liberty.'

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This, in my opinion, (and I certainly knew more of him. than Mr. Wakefield can pretend to do,) is a character that is far from being applicable to Dr. Price, or the generality of Dissenting ministers. That Dr. Price had been as well acquainted with the learned languages (for that I suppose to be the branch of knowledge that Mr. Wakefield alludes to) as the generality of the clergy, even those who have been educated at our Universities, I have no doubt, (for the real scholars even among them are not numerous,) and that he retained as much Latin and Greek as the generality_of scholars do at his time of life, I have also no doubt. For

• Enquiry, p. iv. (P.)

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that Mr. Wakefield denied that these censures, which are omitted in the 3d Edition of the Inquiry, were unprovoked. In the first edition of his Memoirs he had entered, probably under much misapprehension, into a detail on this subject, which, respect to the memory of such men as Price and Wakefield, disinclines me to repeat. In his pamphlet Mr. Wakefield remarks, "What I said of Dr. Price, was said in my own defence." Strictures, p. 11.

As the Rev. Mr. George Morgan was better acquainted with the literature of

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