Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

course of study, and a persevering application of the talent which, I found, I had for the dead languages, and which, if I am not much mistaken, you also possess as much as ever I did. You have also the advantage of me in the article of elocution, by being endowed with a more musical voice than I could ever boast of, which, though perhaps more magnified now-a-days than it ought to be, is certainly a great beautifier of sacred offices, where it is natural, and kept within proper bounds. These, and some other things of less importance, which I need not mention, are advantages on your side to facilitate your progress in the way of offi cial duty; and I hope you will use them to that lau dable purpose.

• On the other hand, there are some particularities in your case, which were not in mine; two especially, • which may be a little disadvantageous, at least for a while, on your now stepping forward into something like public life. One is, that this is your first step of that kind. You have hitherto been all along under direction, scarce ever left to your own management, but led by motives of duty and affection to look up

[ocr errors]

to, and depend upon, others for advice and assistance ' on every occasion that called for such friendly aid. • Such having been the lot of your early years, you cannot be thought to be much acquainted with mankind in general, and must be at a loss for some time how to accommodate yourself properly to the different humours you may have to deal with, so as neither to lose sight of common prudence, nor of ministerial character: The humours of parents or of family con

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

C nec

* nections afford no adequate standard for the regulation of conduct, when the natural principles of love or fear may bias the judgment, or check it from exerting < its own powers. So it will require time and attention to enable you to become your own master, which • hitherto you have not been, and to know as much of the world as may shew you how to act consistently ' in it, of which you have hardly had any trials previous to what will now be expected from you. And this leads me to another remark on your case, pointing to what, I think, is no advantage to a young man, that C you enter the world in your sacred character, under a "weight of great expectations, greater perhaps than there

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

is any just ground for forming; and it will cost you • the utmost care and vigilance in every part of behaviour, if not to answer these expectations to the full, yet so as not to disappoint them altogether. Both ⚫ these are circumstances in your case, from which mine was exempted, since, young as I was, when invested ' with the sacred character, I had yet been called to struggle through various difficult scenes, left entirely to my own management, and since I entered upon the • ecclesiastical theatre, unknown and unheard of, with prejudices perhaps against me, but certainly with no • prepossessions in my favour. I had, therefore, on the whole, the fewer difficulties to encounter, as it is easier to overcome groundless prejudices, than fully to answer high expectations. Yet these are inconveniencies, if they be really such, which will be felt only at the first outset ; and you will find, that with the assistance which you can have, at no great distance, from that guide, who, under your heavenly FATHER, has the

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

• next

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

• next title in you, a little time and prudent circumspection will turn these appearances of discouragement into a proportionable addition of satisfaction and comfort. All this I have said in general, without any view to the particular charge you are designed for, to the circumstances of which I am as yet an entire stranger, and therefore can only pray, that the GREAT BISHOP may assist, fortify, and accept you. To his strengthening grace, and blessed protection, I most heartily recom• mend you, and with particular pleasure subscribe my

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

self

• Your affectionate, &c.

And fellow labourer in Christ, &c.'

After writing this friendly and affectionate letter, it was not long before Mr Skinner was better acquainted with the particular situation of his grandson's charge, which happened to lie in a place abounding at that time with those nominal Christians, who choose to distinguish themselves by the singular title of Unitarians. From the absurdity of their principles, there seemed to be little danger of an Episcopal congregation being swayed or affected by them. Yet at the desire of his young friend, anxious for the safety of his little "flock," and earnestly wishing to see them preserved from the "ravening wolves" that come in "sheep's "clothing," Mr Skinner drew up a short preservative against the Unitarian errors, in the form of a dialogue between an Unitarian, and a Trinitarian ;" the substance of which instructive little tract has been diffused through such of the "Letters addressed to Candidates for Holy Orders," contained in this volume, as serve

to

to point out what christians are to believe concerning the adorable THREE in JEHOVAH, and confirm them in a steady profession of this fundamental doctrine of their holy faith.

Some years after the writing of this little tract, the young man, at whose request it had been drawn up, was removed to a congregation exposed to the danger of imbibing those deistical tenets which, as a cover for the democratic, and levelling principles, that were combined with them, had been artfully disseminated by Paine and his disciples, assisted by republican infidels in all parts of the kingdom, but most successfully in some of the small manufacturing towns in the county of Forfar. On this subject Mr Skinner wrote the following letter to his grandson, of date January 12th, 1799:

[ocr errors]

I truly feel, both from what you told me in person, ' and from what father writes me, your for your situation among people, many of whom are already so perverse ' in principle, as gives too much cause to fear that they 'will grow more and more corrupted, if no effectual ' method can be devised for bringing them to a sounder, 'better way of thinking. You seem to be of opinion, ⚫ that if we could so far satisfy them, as "to get reason "properly defined, its nature, its powers, its province

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

fairly illustrated," all would be well. Now pardon your old grandfather for saying, that this is a needless proposal; needless, because impracticable. Reason, I take to be, in man, what instinct is in brutes, both of them felt, and acted by, but both belonging to the class which the philosophers of nature call nondescripts. The subterfuge, to which your antagonists fly off

[ocr errors][merged small]

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"Against reason, therefore against fact and common sense," has neither truth nor solidity in it. Tell a philosopher of the torrid zone (there may be illuminati even there) that you have seen water, even the sea, bearing an immense weight of solid matter upon its surface, men and animals walking as securely upon it as on the dry land, he would immediately cry out, "im' possible, because against reason and common sense :" and this he might do with the same strength of argument that the philosophers of F— can produce against the most objectionable parts of Scripture. The trite phrase, therefore, of "the reason and common sense of mankind" gives but a vague sound, and the "dernier resort" to it is a mere fallacy at best. It is not your business to define "reason." Let your adversary give the definition, who relies wholly on it. • Your weapon is "revelation," which you can produce

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

.

and lay on the table.

Ask the Infidel Club what they "It is incumbent upon you, gen

mean by "reason?" "tlemen, who are the challengers, to let me know with "what arms you intend to combat, and not pretend to

fight me with an "Elia, Lælia, Crispis," which you "can wield and thrust with as you please. Here is my weapon; take it into your hands, and examine its

66

66

edge; do me the same justice with yours; let me see "it and try it." These, one should think, are necessary "preliminaries, and what, I presume, the gentlemen of "honour" require. What! you will say, object against "reason" I shall be called an "unreasonable fool." Be it so: This is scolding, not arguing; and could casily be balanced with "irreligious wretch." I have long observed, that the champions of revelation are by • far

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »