A

SERIOUS EXPOSTULATION,

&c. &c.

WHEN I consider the subject and the object of my Visitation Sermon, delivered before (what is technically styled) at learned audience; and when I recollect the anxiety with which (in my desultory mode of writing) I endeavoured (at the expense of repeated repetitions) to preclude all those misconceptions which form the pretext and the ground of your Remonstrance, I stand in utter amazement at the accusations which you' have ventured to bring against me. They are accusations, Sir, the more serious to me, and, if they are false, to you, in that you carry with you the ready credence of hundreds who will not read a word, nor hear a syllable on the subject, except from yourself or from your friends. I feel this as a Christian man ought to feel it, and I trust I shall be enabled to bear it as a Christian minister ought to bear it; while I will frankly confess, that I would ten thousand times rather be the object of such unprovoked and unmerited injustice than the author of it.

You accuse me, Sir, p. 3. of challenging and compelling you, uncourteously even, to the arena of controversy; and

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SERIOUS EXPOSTULATION

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you refer for the proof to my preface. By your own shewing, however, it will appear, to every impartial reader, that you are yourself the aggressor; that I am indeed the person aggrieved; and that instead of being unwilling, you were, in fact, eager for the controversy, and confident, I doubt not, of a splendid victory. I have already said, that my Sermon was never meant for publication. I now say, that my most intimate friends (one at the very time it was preached, and several subsequently) have uniformly told me, that they would never have advised me to publish a Discourse which they justly considered as much less perfect than it might have been ; but they have declared with equal uniformity, that (with all its imperfections) your conduct in the matter left me no alternative.

I am not answerable for the terms of the communication which was originally made to me from you, in which, however, your name was not mentioned; but I have no hesitation in saying, that the words which you substitute, p. 4. would have rendered it equally imperative, in my judgment, and in that of my friends, to publish that which, without such unnecessary interference on your part, would most certainly never have seen the light in its present shape, nor probably in any other. Here, then, Sir, is the compelling power; here is the unprovoked aggression on your part: and yet you, who thus dare me to print my Sermon by the menace of an Answer, would have your readers believe, that the statement in my preface challenged and compelled you most reluctantly to come forward. You seem, however, not quite satisfied with this account of the matter; for, in p. 40, you say, "I should never "have touched the question controversially, if I had not been "involved in the request of the Clergy, that you would print your Sermon." Permit me, Sir, to acquaint you, that my Sermon was not published at the request of the Clergy, and that I have told the world so in my preface. If I had, indeed, consented to publish it with their imprimatur, it must be obvious, that all responsibility on your part, and on the part of any one or more adhering to you, might most easily

have been removed, without involving you in any controversy public or private. With respect to the accusation of uncourteousness, I must take leave to say, that your attitude and manner in the whole matter have not seemed to merit much courtesy from me; while I am willing to persuade myself that I have not been really deficient in any courtesy which you had a right to claim or to expect. You rendered it indispensably necessary that I should refer to you; but I made my reference in such a way (perfectly intelligible to yourself and your friends) as relieved you from all peculiar responsibility, and in such a way also (at least such was my intention) laid you under no obligation whatever to appear in print, if you had not been previously determined to do so at all ha

as

zards.

When the fervour of that controversial spirit, which has hitherto led or misled you in this matter, shall have somewhat subsided, I most earnestly pray for your own sake, much more than for mine, that you may feel, as you ought, the deep injustice of which you have been guilty, not in controverting my opinions, (for the published opinions of all men are open to controversy,) but in absolutely denouncing me, in express terms, as having preached and published dangerous doctrinea fearfully unsound and delusive statement, p. 4.-a doctrine contrary to that of the Bible, p. 6. and to that of the Churchof England, p. 19.-a doctrine, moreover, not according to Godliness, and leading decidedly to fatalism of the worst kind, p. 33.

Such, in brief, Sir, are the formidable accusations (itali cised) which you have thought yourself entitled to bring against the oldest native minister of this district of our small. communion, who, in preaching before his Bishop and his Brethren (ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God, 1 Cor. iv. 1.) endeavoured to press on their attention, and on his own, the sacred nature and the practical importance of that commission which they hold in common, and especially of those mysteries of which they are the stewards. Thewhole commission is distinctly included, nor is more at