My Lord,
I THIS evening received your Lordship’s kind letter, and though it is late, and nature calls for rest, yet in the fear of him to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, I desire now to sit down and give your Lordship an explicit answer. God, even that God by whom I am to be judged, can witness, that with a disinterested view to promote his glory, and the welfare of precious and immortal souls, I entered into holy orders, according to the form of ordination of the church of England; and, as thousands can testify, for near these twenty years last past, I have conscientiously defended her homilies and articles, and upon all occasions spoken well of her liturgy. Either of these, together with her discipline, I am so far from renouncing, much less from throwing aside all regard to, that I earnestly pray for the due restoration of the one, and daily lament the wanton departure of too, too many from the other. But, my Lord, what can I do? When I acted in the most regular manner, and when I was bringing multitudes even of Dissenters themselves to croud the churches, without any other reason being given than that too many followed after me, I was denied the use of them. Being thus excluded, and many thousands of ignorant souls, that perhaps would neither go to church nor meeting-houses, being very hungry after the gospel, I thought myself bound in duty to deal out to them the bread of life. Being further ambitious to serve my God, my King, and my country, I sacrificed my affections, and left my native soil, in order to begin and carry on an Orphan-house in the infant colony of Georgia, which, through the divine blessing, is put upon a good foundation. This served as an introduction, though without design, to my visiting the other parts of his Majesty’s dominions in North-America; and I humbly hope, that many made truly serious in that foreign clime, will be my joy and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus. If it was not for this hope, nay, my Lord, if I was not assured, that the blessed Redeemer (O amazing condescension) hath vouchsafed to own me for the real conversion, and turning of many from darkness to light, the weakness of my frequently worn out and decaying body, the innumerable temptations that have beset my soul, together with the violent opposition I have met with from various quarters, would long since have quite overwhelmed, and at least have prevailed on me to accept some of those offers that have been made me to nestle, by accepting of which I might have screened myself from that obloquy and contempt, which, in some degree or other, every day I have the honour to meet with for Jesu’s sake. But hitherto having obtained help from God, without eating a morsel of the church of England’s bread, I still continue to use her liturgy, wherever a church or chapel is allowed me, and preach up her articles, and enforce her homilies. Your Lordship therefore judgeth exceeding right, when you say, “I presume you do not mean to declare any dissent from the church of England.”—Far be it from me; no, my Lord, unless thrust out, I shall never leave her, and even then (as I hope whenever it happens it will be an unjust extrusion) I shall still continue to adhere to her doctrines, and pray for the much wished-for restoration of her discipline, even to my dying day. Fond of displaying her truly protestant and orthodox principles, especially when church and state are in danger from a cruel and popish enemy, I am glad, my Lord, of an opportunity of preaching, though it should be in a meeting-house; and I think it discovers a good and moderate spirit in the Dissenters, who will quietly attend on the church service, as many have done, and continue to do at Long-Acre chapel, while many, who I suppose stile themselves her faithful sons, by very improper instruments of reformation, have endeavoured to disturb and molest us. If the lessor of this chapel, my Lord, hath no power to let it out, or if it be not legally and properly licensed, I have been deceived indeed; and if upon enquiry I find this to be the case, I shall soon declare in the most public manner, how both your Lordship and myself have been imposed upon. But if it appears, that the lessor hath a right to dispose of his own property, and that the place is licensed, if not in the court books of the Quarter Sessions, yet in the Commons or some other proper court; and as some good, I trust, has been, and hope will yet be done by this foolishness of preaching, surely your Lordship’s candour will overlook a little irregularity; since I fear that in these dregs of time, these last days, wherein we live, we must be obliged to be irregular, or in short we must do no good at all. My Lord, I remember well, (and O that I may more than ever obey your Lordship’s admonition) and often recollect that awful day wherein I was ordained priest, and when authority was given me, by my honoured friend and father good Bishop Benson, to preach the word of God. O that the glorious exhortation, which he delivered with so much solemnity, may be written upon the tables of my heart! Mindful of this, I shall be always ready to go out, and seek for Christ’s sheep that are dispersed abroad, and be willing to spend and be spent for the good of his children which are in the midst of this naughty world. Never did I so much as dream, my Lord, that this was only a local commission, or that the condition annexed, “Where you shall be lawfully appointed thereunto,” was to confine me to any particular place, and that it would be unlawful for me to preach out of it. It is plain my Lord Bishop of Gloucester did not think so; for when his secretary brought a licence for me, his Lordship said, “It would cost me thirty shillings, and therefore I should not have it.” And when after being presented to the late Bishop of London, I applied to him for a licence, his lordship was pleased to say, “I was going to Georgia, and needed none.” Accordingly I preached in most of the London churches under his Lordship’s immediate inspection; and why any other licence than my letters of orders should now be required, I believe no substantial, I am positive no truly scriptural, reason can be assigned. It is true, as your Lordship observes, there is one canon that says, “That no curate or minister shall be permitted to serve in any place, without examination and admission of the Bishop of the diocese.” And there is another also, as quoted by your Lordship, which tells us, “That neither minister, church-wardens, nor any other officers of the church, shall suffer any man to preach within their chapels, but such as, by shewing their licence to preach, shall appear unto them to be sufficiently authorized thereunto.” But, my Lord, what curacy or parsonage have I desired, or do I desire to be admitted to serve in? Or into what church or chapel do I attempt to intrude myself, without leave from the churchwardens or other officers? No, my Lord, being, as I think, without cause denied admission into the churches, I am content to take the field, and when the weather will permit, with a table for my pulpit, and the heavens, for my sounding-board, I desire to proclaim to all, the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. Besides, my Lord, if this canon should be always put into full execution, I humbly presume, that no bishop or presbyter can legally preach at any time out of the diocese in which he is appointed to serve; consequently no city incumbent can even occasionally be lawfully assisted by any country clergyman, or even a bishop himself be lawfully permitted to preach a charity sermon out of his own diocese, without a special licence for so doing. And what a loss would that be to many noble charities here in town? As for that other canon which your Lordship mentions, and which runs thus, “Neither shall any minister, not licensed as is aforesaid, presume to appoint or hold any meetings for sermons, commonly termed by some, prophecies or exercises, in market towns or other places, under the said pains.” I need not inform your Lordship, that it was originally levelled against those who would not conform to the church of England, and that too in such high flying times, which I cannot believe any one of the present moderate bench of bishops would wish to see again restored. And if this be the true state of the case, how, my Lord, doth this canon belong to me, who am episcopally ordained, and have very lately published a small tract (which I humbly beg your Lordship’s acceptance of) on purpose to recommend the communion office of the church of England? But, my Lord, to come nearer to the point in hand, (and for Christ’s sake let not your Lordship be offended with my using such plainness of speech) I would, as in the presence of the living God, put it to your Lordship’s conscience, whether there is one bishop or presbyter in England, Wales, or Ireland, that looks upon our canons as his rule of action? If they do, we are all perjured with a witness, and consequently, in a very bad sense of the word, irregular indeed. May I not, therefore, say on this, alluding to what my blessed Master did on another occasion, “He that is without the sin of acting illegally, if the canons of our church be implicitly to be obeyed, let him cast the first stone at me and welcome.” Your Lordship knows full well, that canons and other church laws are good and obligatory, when conformable to the laws of Christ, and agreeable to the liberties of a free people; but when invented and compiled by men of little hearts and bigotted principles, on purpose to hinder persons of more enlarged souls from doing good, or being more extensively useful, they become mere bruta fulmina; and when made use of only as cords to bind up the hands of a zealous few, that honestly appear for their King, their country, and their God, like the withes with which the Philistines bound Sampson, in my opinion, they may very legally be broken. What pains and penalties are to be incurred for such offence, (as I have not the canons at present before me) I cannot tell; but for my own part, my Lord, if any penalty is incurred, or any pain to be inflicted upon me, for prophesying or preaching against sin, the Pope, and the devil, and for recommending the strictest loyalty to the best of princes, his Majesty King George, in this metropolis, or any other part of his Majesty’s dominions, I trust, through grace, I shall be enabled to say,
All hail reproach, and welcome pain!
I think there now remains but one more particular in your Lordship’s letter to be answered:—your Lordship’s truly apostolical canon taken out of 2 Corinthians x. 16; upon turning to, and reading of which, I could not help thinking, my Lord, of a passage I once met with in good Mr. Philip Henry’s life. It was this: Being ejected out of the church, and yet thinking it his duty to preach, he used now and then to give the people of Broad-Oaks, where he lived, a gospel sermon; and one day, as he was coming from his exercise, and meeting with the incumbent, he thus addressed him: “Sir, I have been taking the liberty of throwing a handful of seed into your field.” “Have you so, said the good man? may God give it his blessing! There is work enough for us both.” This, my Lord, I humbly conceive, is the case not only of your Lordship, but of every minister’s parish in London, and every bishop’s diocese in England; and therefore as good is done, and souls are benefited, I hope your Lordship will not regard a little irregularity, since at the worst, it is only the irregularity of doing well. But supposing this should not be admitted as an excuse at other seasons, I would hope it will have its weight at this critical juncture, wherein, if there were ten thousand sound preachers, and each preacher had a thousand tongues, they could not well be too frequently employed in calling upon the inhabitants of Great-Britain to be upon their guard, against the cruel and malicious designs of France, of Rome, and of hell. After all, my Lord, if your Lordship will be pleased to apply to Mr. B—— himself, (who, I suppose, knows where the place is registered) or if upon enquiry I shall find, that the lessor hath no power to let it out, as I hate and abhor every dishonourable action, after my setting out for Bristol, which I expect to do in a few days, I shall decline preaching in the chapel any more. But if the case should appear to be otherwise, I hope your Lordship will not be angry, if I persist in this, I trust not unpardonable, irregularity: for if I decline preaching in every place, meerly because the incumbent may be unwilling I should come into his parish, I fear I must seldom or never preach at all; and this, my Lord, especially at this juncture, when all our civil and religious liberties are as it were at stake, would to me be worse than death itself. I humbly ask pardon for detaining your Lordship so long, but being willing to give your Lordship all the satisfaction I possibly could, I have chosen rather to sit up and deny myself proper repose, than to let your Lordship’s candid letter lie by me one moment longer than was absolutely necessary. I return your Lordship a thousand thanks for your favourable opinion of me, and good wishes, and begging the continuance of your Lordship’s blessing, and earnestly praying, that whenever your Lordship shall be called hence, you may give up your account with joy, I beg leave to subscribe myself, my Lord,
Your Lordship’s most dutiful son and servant,
G. W.
LETTER MCXX.
To the Bishop of B——.
Tabernacle-House, February 23, 1756.