440 FEELINGS AND MOTIVES OF SIR R. HILL. very great body of the lettered and the wealthy; who can converse luminously on almost every topic but the one which involves their highest duty here, and their unchangeable destiny in another state of existence. The seriousness of mind with which Sir Richard Hill wrote his Apology for Brotherly Love, is evinced in the concluding paragraph of his preface. "For my own part," he said, "I glory in bearing this, most probably my dying testimony in behalf of that pure religion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which has been my only support in the house of my pilgrimage, for a great number of years, under various trials of various kinds; and feeling as I do, that this earthly tabernacle must soon be put off, I am the more anxious to declare the whole counsel of God; neither do I count my reputation, or even my life itself, dear to me, so that I may be found faithful, and finish my course with joy." The work itself consists of seven letters to Mr. Daubeny, and at the end of the book is a sermon, from John vi. 37, preached at Paul's Cross, by Bishop Babington. He said to Mr. Daubeny in the first letter, "neither do I think any excuse can be expected from me for addressing these letters to you, after the severe and pointed attack against myself, which I find in your late publication. I might, however, have treated that attack with the same silent pity and contempt that I did on a former occasion, had not the blow been repeated from so respectable a hand as your own, which causes it to come with a force which at once sensibly hurts my own feelings, is calculated to wound still deeper my religious principles, and to injure what little influence I may have to do good among my fellow creatures. But, I assure you, Sir, that I feel still more the stab you have given to your excellent mother, the Church of England, than the HIS ATTACHMENT TO THE CHURCH. 441 arrows which you have shot against me as an individual." In explanation also of the object of his taking up his pen, Sir Richard Hill added, Sir Richard Hill added, "As I must ever esteem the doctrines of our Church to be of greater consequence than her walls, I shall take but little notice of what you have advanced, however large a part of your performance it has taken up, on the subject of externals, confining myself principally to the defence of those evangelical truths, which have borne the test of so many ages, stood the shock of so many heretical earthquakes, and like the ark of Noah, risen triumphantly above all storms and billows which threatened their overthrow, either from avowed enemies without, or from false brethren within for, as our Lord asked the Pharisees of old, 'Whether is greater, the gold, or the temple which sanctifieth the gold?' so permit me to inquire which is of most consequence, the outward polity of the Church, or those sacred verities for the sake of which that outward polity was instituted? If the clothing of the king's daughter was of wrought gold, yet her grand excellence consisted in this, that she was all glorious within." After some other remarks on the positions taken by his opponent, lest he should be misconstrued, he proceeded, "As a member of the Church of England, I avow my sincere attachment to that Church, in doctrine, in constitution, and in discipline. I believe her to be the most pure and apostolical Church upon earth, and therefore I communicate with her, and with her only. pray for an increase of her borders and faithful ministers, and that all who attend her worship may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.' These, Sir, are my real sentiments as a Christian and a Churchman." After this statement, and the assurance I 442 HIS HOPE OF A BRIGHTER DAY. of his full concurrence in the episcopal form of church government established in this kingdom, Sir Richard Hill conceived that he had a right to protest against being considered as a schismatic, because he respected the conscientious opinions of men of other denominations, and was willing to extend the right hand of fellowship to nonconformists of piety, candour, and moderation. He desired to see the spirit of bigotry and intolerance laid low, and that of peace, love, and universal good-will rising in its stead. "This benign and amiable spirit" he considered that Mr. Daubeny would “remand to the shades, and again call up that meagre, narrow-minded spectre, whose whole employment is to stalk over Christendom, in order to affright the timid and ignorant, and to set the whole household of faith together by the ears." He then continued, in a strain that marks the happy frame which was ripening him in his declining days, for a world of perfect love, "O blessed day, when the only contention among the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, shall be who shall love him most and serve him best. This day, however, from the great revival of religion both among churchmen and dissenters, I humbly trust is about to dawn upon us, and even now is piercing through the black clouds of infidelity and profaneness which lately threatened to burst over our Sion, but which nothing can more effectually tend to retard, than the creation of jealousies, envyings, and heart-burnings among those whose souls should ever unite in that song of the heavenly host, 'glory be to God in the highest; on earth peace, and good-will towards men.' " With these views, it was not likely that Sir Richard Hill should coincide with Mr. Daubeny, in his giving over all who belonged to any Church not constituted as UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 443 ours is, to the uncovenanted mercies of God. And he asked him whether Bishop Hall, whom he so much commended in his "Guide" as the firm friend of episcopacy, would have crossed the sea to the Synod of Dort to sit in a convention, and to unite in examining the opinions sent forth by the members of the university of Leyden, with Arminius at their head, if he had looked upon the deputies of the various churches then assembled, who differed from him in notions of Church government, in the light of heretics to be condemned with such a censure as this? On the contrary, he quoted the entirely different persuasion of this great and admirable man, from his treatise on the beauty and unity of the Church. The Church is columba una-one dove; whether ye consider it as the aggregation of the outward visible churches of Christian professors, or as the inward, secret, universal company of the elect, it is still one. To begin with the former, what is here below that makes the Church one? One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Where these are truly professed to be, though there may be differences of administration and ceremonies; though there may be differences of opinions, yet there is columba una; all those are but diversely coloured feathers of the same dove. Whatever Church, therefore, hath one Lord, Jesus Christ the righteous; one faith in that Lord; one baptism into that faith, it is the one dove of Christ; to speak more short, one faith abridges all." At the same time, however, that Sir Richard Hill approved the sentiments thus strikingly expressed by this eminent prelate, and stated his firm belief that Churches whose respective polities differed from ours, were not to be condemned on that account, if sound in the faith and not constituted in a way directly opposed to Christ's positive commands, he was most desirous to 444 SUPERIORITY OF THE LITURGY. repeat his unalterable opinion of the superior excellence of our own ecclesiastical constitution. While also he placed the acceptable worship of God in spirituality, he was anxious to declare his unqualified commendation of our liturgy, as compared with the extempore prayers of the dissenters, which he could not approve: "I would say a few words more, relative to these only spiritual worshippers in the true Church, and observe, that although it is their high privilege to pour out their hearts before God in secret prayer, in that way, and in those words which may best suit their particular cases, yet I am decidedly of opinion with you, that in the public congregation, a scriptural form is far superior to any extempore effusions whatever; and I know of none equal to the excellent liturgy of our Church-so sound, so devout, so plain and simplified, yet suited to the different states and conditions of the believer, under his various trials and exigencies, and not liable to be deformed by graceless, weak, or empty ministers, in a way which frequently disgusts or hurts the feelings of a congregation, where only extempore prayer is used, and where, when one sentence is finished, we know not 1 It is not uncommon with dissenters to call our forms crutches. Watts considered that they stinted the Spirit. This remark drew from the pen of the late Samuel Wesley, an epigram, the first and last stanzas of which were these: Form stints the Spirit, Watts has said, And therefore it is wrong; At best a crutch the weak to aid, A cumbrance to the strong. E'en Watts a form for praise can choose, |