sciences at the feet of others, who have no right in such a manner to trample upon them. The peace of Christ's kingdom is a manly and reasonable peace, built upon charity and love and mutual forbearance, and receiving one another, as God receives us. As for any other peace, founded upon a submission of our honesty as well as our understandings, it is falsely so called. It is not the peace of the kingdom of Christ, but the lethargy of it; and a sleep unto death, when his subjects shall throw off their relation to him, fix their subjection to others, and, even in cases where they have a right to see, and where they think they see, his will otherwise, shall shut their eyes and go blindfold at the command of others, because those others are not pleased with their inquiries into the will of their great Lord and Judge. To conclude, the church of Christ is the kingdom of Christ. He is King in his own kingdom. He is sole Lawgiver to his subjects, and sole Judge in matters relating to salvation. His laws and sanctions are plainly fixed, and relate to the favour of God, and not at all to the rewards or penalties of this world. All his subjects are equally his subjects; and, as such, equally without authority to alter, to add to, or to interpret his laws, so as to claim the absolute submission of others to such interpretation. And all are his subjects, and in his kingdom, who are ruled and governed by him. Their faith was once delivered by him. The conditions of their happiness were once laid down by him. The nature of God's worship was once declared by him. And it is easy to judge whether of the two is most becoming a subject of the kingdom of Christ, that is, a member of his church, to seek all these particulars in those plain and short declarations of their King and Lawgiver himself, or to hunt after them through the infinite contradictions, the numberless perplexities, the endless disputes, of weak men, in several ages, till the inquirer himself is lost in the labyrinth, and perhaps sits down in despair or infidelity. If Christ be our King, let us shew ourselves subjects to him alone, in the great affair of conscience and eternal salvation; and, without fear of man's judgment, live and act as becomes those who wait for the appearance of an allknowing and impartial Judge, even that King whose "kingdom is not of this world.” AND DISCOURAGEMENTS WHICH ATTEND THE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THE WAY OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT, IN ORDER TO SHEW THAT, SINCE SUCH A STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES IS MEN'S INDISPENSABLE DUTY, IT CONCERNS ALL CHRISTIAN SOCIETIES TO REMOVE (AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE) THOSE DISCOURAGEMENTS: IN A LETTER TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. BY FRANCIS HARE, D.D., SUCCESSIVELY DEAN OF WORCESTER AND ST. PAUL'S, AND FROM THE 8VO EDITION OF HIS WORKS, PUBLISHED IN 1746. LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, 18, BISHOPSGATE STREET; SMALLFIELD & SON, 69, NEWGATE STREET. ADVERTISEMENT. THE following Letter has been pronounced "one of the best pieces of irony in the English language.” It was published anonymously, and was so well received that it went through several impressions in a few years. The author is said by Whiston (Memoirs, p. 102) to have "aimed to conceal himself, finding this paper rather an hindrance to preferment;" but the writer was early discovered, and the Tract stands as part of Bishop Hare's Works, collected in the year 1746, into 4 Volumes 8vo. It will be seen by these Works that the shrewd Prelate acted upon his own sense of "Difficulties and Discouragements," and turned from the study of the Scriptures to the more profitable course for an author, even though an ecclesiastic, namely, Party Politics. No one can now mistake the object of the Letter; yet the Convocation was offended at its humour, and, says Whiston, (ubi sup.,) "fell upon the writer, as if he were really against the study of the Scriptures." It cannot be thought unseasonable to reprint the Tract at a period when "The Bible, the Bible only," is the publicly-declared motto of an immense body of Christians, and is inscribed in flaming colours upon all exclusive Protestant banners. The intelligent reader will learn from it the twofold lesson,(1) the inconsistency of asserting the sufficiency and supremacy of the Bible, while no care is taken to bring before the people an unexceptionable Text and a perfect Translation-nay, while every effort of this kind is frowned upon, and the labourer in this department of sacred learning is usually reviled for his pains; and (2) the absurdity and even cruelty of calling upon men, as they value their souls, to read and judge of the Scriptures for themselves, and then giving them hard names, denying them Christian privileges and trying to deprive them of civil rights, if, in the exercise of the Protestant Right and Duty of Private Judgment, they arrive at conclusions not palatable to the multitude, or not agreeable to some local and temporary standard of truth, which, like St. Paul's idol, has been "graven by art and man's device." The two biblical scholars whose case is cited by the author in illustration of his argument, are the celebrated WILL. WHISTON, the Mathematical Professor at Cambridge, and Dr. SAMUEL CLARK, the Rector of St. James's: the characters of both are, according to the invariable testimony of their contemporaries, faithfully and admirably drawn. |