Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

baptismal form, the salutation to the Corinthians. To these I added the principal passages usually adduced in proof of the divinity of Christ and the personality of the Spirit. In short, it was a mere appeal to the letter of scripture, without the smallest attempt at metaphysical refinement. I considered that doctrine continually as a doctrine of pure revelation, to which reasoning can add nothing but darkness and uncertainty. It appears, however, to me replete with practical improvement, being adapted to exhibit the part which each person in the blessed Trinity sustained in the economy of redemption, in the most engaging light, and to excite the utmost ardour of gratitude. The time was when I maintained the dual system, supposing the Holy Spirit to be an energy; but I have long found abundant reason to renounce that doctrine, and now find much complacency in the ancient doctrine of the Trinity.

As you mention the [meeting-house] being shut up, I hope it is to heighten it. I have no doubt that the extreme heat and closeness of the place must have a very injurious effect on the health both of the minister and people. I hope you

continue comfortable, and that the Lord is giving testimony to the word of his grace. The interest of religion, in a church which I served so long and so happily, will ever lie near my heart.

I am your affectionate Brother,

ROBERT HALL.

[ocr errors]

LXVI.

TO THE REV. ISAIAH BIRT.

My dear Sir,

Leicester, May 29, 1822.

I am much obliged to you, for your very cheerful compliance with my proposal respecting supplying and preaching for our school during my visit to Kidderminster. It is an arrangement which gives high satisfaction to our people. The prospect of spending a little time with my dear and honoured friend, is, I confess, my chief inducement for proposing it. I should be very unhappy if I did not spend a little time with you, at least once a year; and as Providence has happily placed us in the same general vicinity, I shall always eagerly embrace the opportunity it affords. Friendship is the balm of life; and the thought that time must dissolve, ere long, the tie that has so long united us, would be melancholy indeed, were it not for the consoling recollection of a reunion in a better world: "Let us love one another, for love is of God;" and I hourly hope we are both training up for a world of perfect love. I am certain of it respecting you. O that I had as great an assurance respecting myself! But I have a feeble hope, which I would not exchange for a world!

With respect to the other part of the arrangement, having heard nothing from Tamworth as yet, it seems premature to say any thing of it.

But I must say, that I can by no means comply with it. My lecture is on Wednesday, to which I justly attach a great importance; and the arrangement you mention would occasion my absence two Wednesdays, which I would not incur for any ordination whatever. Ordination services, as they are now conducted, I consider as of more shew than use. The presence of one or two ministers, along with the church, accompanied with prayer, and laying on of hands, and a few serious exhortations, would be a genuine scriptural ordination. Nothing can be more distant from this, than the manner in which these things are at present conducted. Suffice it to say, that I can by no means consent to be absent two lectures for such a purpose. You may, therefore, expect to see me on Friday at Birmingham. I beg to be most affectionately remembered to dear Mrs. Birt, and to dear Mrs. Tucker and her husband.

I am your affectionate Brother,
ROBERT HALL.

LXVII.

TO THE REV. THOMAS LANGDON OF LEEDS.

ON THE DEATH OF HIS DAUGHTER.

My dear Friend,

Leicester, January 9, 1823.

I am much concerned to hear of the heavy bereavement with which it has pleased God to afflict you and dear Mrs. Langdon, by the unexpected removal of your most amiable daughter.

I never saw a young female whose character impressed me with higher esteem. I cannot wonder for a moment that your tears flow freely on her account. It is, indeed, a most severe and afflictive stroke, which none but a parent, and the parent of such a child, can duly appreciate. I feel myself highly honoured and gratified in the recollection of having possessed any share in her esteem.

Still, my dear friend, there is much mercy mingled with the severity of the dispensation. It is an unspeakable mercy to be able to reflect on the decided piety of the dear deceased, which so eminently prepared her for the event you so deeply deplore. Nor is it a small alleviation of the anguish resulting from such a stroke, to reflect that the time is short, and the end of all things at hand. Painful as is the thought to all your friends, to you, my dear friend, it must be familiar, that, in all probability, her separation from you will be but of short duration; and that she has entered, a little while before you, into that blessed eternity for which you have long been waiting.

[blocks in formation]

I must beg your pardon for not sooner replying to your favour, in which you condescend

to inquire my opinion on the subject of Hutchinsonianism. The reason of my delay was my conscious inability to give an opinion entitled to any degree of weight. I have been in the habit of considering Hutchinsonianism as a tissue of fancies, unsupported by reason or scripture; and all that has occurred to me to read on that system, has confirmed that impression. I have attentively perused Parkhurst's Dissertation on the Cherubic Figures in the Temple: it appears to me a most confused and unsatisfactory disquisition; nor is he able to answer, in any tolerable degree, the objection arising from their being represented in the attitude of worshippers. He attempts to get over this by observing, that though the divine persons whom they represent could not without absurdity be represented in the character of worshippers, their symbols might: but this is to me utterly unintelligible. He is evidently much embarrassed with the four faces; a most unlikely symbol of a Trinity. I am equally dissatisfied with his notion of the three elements of air, light, and fire, being intended as natural types and symbols of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For this there appears to me not a shadow of proof. The metaphors of scripture afford none whatever; as is evident from this one consideration, that the figurative language of scripture is interpreted as naturally and as easily, without the aid of the Hutchinsonian hypothesis, as with it. What is that sort of typical instruction which never instructed? And where is the people

« ForrigeFortsæt »