Memoirs of the life, ministry and writings of the Rev. Rowland Hill

Author's Preface

TO THfi

LIFE OF MR. HILL.

The following sheets havinff been issued to the public periodically, and their publication having extended through a space of six or eight months, an opportunity has thereby been afforded of ascertaining a fact on which the compiler of the " Memoirs" felt not a little anxious at the outset, and on which he now uses the freedom of tendering a few prefatory observations.

When the application was first made to him to prepare the biographical part of the volume, he confesses that he was not a little staggered at the proposal. The dissimilarity of his owr views and opinions to those which were entertained by Mr. Hill, particularly on the subject of civil establishments of the Christian Religion, or the right of the civil magistrate to interfere with the claims of the King of Zion, together with a variety of collateral topics, is so generally known that he not only hesitated for a moment, but thought it necessary to question the publisher, 'what kind of a life he expected?' whether it was to be a faithful portrait of the Original, according to the best judgment the present writer could form of him, or a slap-dash panegyric which should, in flaming colours, blazon his virtues and conceal his defects, or hide from the public view his numerous foibles: and that, if the latter was What he expected, he had applied to the wrong quarter. The reply was, I shall impose no restraint upon you — ^but leave vi

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you at liberty to say what you please of the subject of the Memoir; with this proviso, that you say nothing but what you believe to be true, and what you are prepared to defend, if called upon so to do,"

With this mutual understanding he entered upon the task; *nd now his only remaining anxiety arose from a fear, lest a faithful exhibition of naked facts, should provoke the syco- Dbancy of some and the bigotry of others, whose minds were so blinded by prejudice as to be incapable of listening to the voice of reason, and the more imperious demands of Revelation. The experiment, however, has been made, and the result has been most cheering. In a few instances, it cannot oe denied, that the protest which has been entered against Mr. Hill's laMtudinarianism has called forth an effusion of spleen and invective from persons who were incapable of '^'ittiiig- two ideas together, and consequently whose praise or blame a-3 of equal value, in the estimation of Mr. Hill's biographer * Their impotent hostility to the publication has .^esn more than countervailed by the patronage it has received

* Should the reader wish for a specimen of the delectable things referred to, he may obtain it by perusing a few pages in the " Evang'ilisal Register" for last October. The reviewer evidently pens his remarks feelingly on the subject. In going over the pages of the Memoirs of Mr. Hill, he has not been able to divest his mind of a troublesome text of scripture, to wit, " Thus saying, thou reproachest us also But he is entitled to our sympathy : the poor man is so encumbered with his black gotvns and reverend companions, to all of whom it is incumbent upon him to testify his obsequiousness, that he has no room in his conscience for a particle of reverence to the King of Zion. It seems never yet to have entered his imagination that the New Testament was intended by the God of Heaven to regulate the worship and obedience of Christ's disciples ! Like Mr. Hill, he chooses to legislate for himself, for " Who is the Lord, that he should obey Him ?" The object of his idolatiy is « Calvinistic Methodism," which we all know to be a very different thing from the Christianity of the New Testament. It were, perhaps, too much to expect from a writer of his stamp, that he should wholly abstain from calling nicknames, and throwing out false and calumnious insinuations, as in the application of the epithet " Sandeman," to the writer of the Life of Mr. Hill. If it proceed from sheer Ignorance, he is to be pitied ; if from malevolence, a different term would be required to characterise his conduct.

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vil from the impartial and thinking portion of the religious public, among whom it has met with a most favourable reception. This is truly a matter of the purest satisfaction to the author of the Memoir, who, had the case been otherwise ; — had he, by a fearless declaration of what he believes to be the truth, been accessary to the loss and injury of the Proprietor, he must have deeply deplored his temerity. Such an issue of the undertaking would have entailed upon him sensations and feelings, which the consciousness of its having resulted from a discharge of duty would have been insufficient to compensate. But, happily, for both the author and the publisher, meir united efforts have been crowned with success ; for wnrie tne former has been allowed to discharge the dictates of conscience in what he has written, it has been without detriment to nis employer.

And now that I have thus far intruded myself apon tna notice of the reader, I intreat his patience while 1 suojom a few additional remarks on another topic.

Although upon a careful review of the biography of Mr. Hill, I find nothing in the way of comment, animadversion, or even censure on certain parts of his history, which 1 am disposed to retract, particularly his marked inconsiste^icy in defending an establishment, whose multifarious corruptions and Antichristian abominations his own pen had so glaringly exposed on a variety of occasions ; and his incessant endeavours to undermine the principles of Protestant Dissenters, and thus throw every thing relating to the worship and order of the Churches of Christ into confusion and anarchy : yet, I doubt whether I have made sufficient allowance for him, on the ground of the disadvantages attendant on his education^ and the injury which he sustained in early life by the perversion of his principles, in consequence of his connection with Eton and Cambridge, He has not, it is true, left us without evidence, that he was aware of the prevalence of irreligion and immorality in these seminaries of learning ; yet, it may be fairly questioned whether he himself was ever duly impressed

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with a conviction of the demoralizing tendency of those sinks of iniquity. Within the last few weeks, a pamphlet has issued from the press, under the title of " ^ Letter to His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester^ Chancellor^ on the present corrupt stale of the Cmoersity of Cambridge^ by R. M. Beverley, Esq., which has disclosed scenes of profligacy, irreligion, and vice, most appalling to every virtuous mind. Having,- like Rowland Hill, passed through those renowned seats of learnirg, \Mi spent several years in prosecuting his studies there, Mr. Beverley tells his Royal Highness what he has seen and knows to be true of them. As a fair sample of th3 whole, the reader may take the following extracts: and first as respects the College of Eton.

" li is lamentable to reflect," says Mr. Beverley, " on the education of the young gentlemen of England. They are generally sent to a public school, say Eton, which is unquestionahly the worst school in England. There, for five years they learn a few fragments of the Greek and Latin authors, done lip in selections, and which might by a scholar be easily read in a fortnight. They make a great many Latin verses, which an Eton boy soon acquires a habit of constructing with slovenly rapidity ; and they learn by heart much Greek and Latin verse. Nothing useful in any way is taught them; they know nothing of history, nothing of any science, nothing of the great questions which are agitated in this age. A more ignorant creature could hardly be found, than a first-rate Eton boy. From this bad and immoral school they go to Cambridge, still worse and tenfold more immoral: and there thev bring: into play, the smatterings of the Greek and Latin which they had acquired at Eton, read a few more Greek tragedies or comedies, and being fully initiated into the fashionable " cram" of the L^niversity, obtain the prizes, and finally, perhaps, if the church be their destiny, the fellowships, and livings of the colleges. After which they grow large, read the Quarterly Review, and the Standard Newspaper, and die at last of tlie fat rot. These are the clerical gentlemen.

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''As there is no attention paid at Cambridge to any instruction in the doctrines of Christianity, the effect of this scandalous omission is visible even among the evangelical clergy. Some of the serious clergy have in full manhood been converted from a life of previous debauchery, to a sense of their sinful lives, and so brought to deep repentance. They then for the first time begin to read the Scriptures, ana are thus launched into the mighty ocean of Revelation, without any knowledge of the sea-marks, or any acquaintance with the constellations, to direct them in difficulties. The study of the Gospel, and an insight into [the nature of Christ s Kingdom, its laws, institutions, immunities, privileges, and bless- .ings] is all a novelty to them. Every word o: ::i'e rny-oiies of faith is as strange to their minds as if they had been Mahometans or Chineze Bonzes ; for amongst the ordinary members of the Church of England what is known of the Gosjiel ( As therefore they have never been instructed in any part of doctrinal theology, it is no wonder that they should, in many cases, run into dogmatical extravagances. We often hear such converts in the heat of their zeal declare, that thev reject all books but the Bible, and that they will read it pure and sincere, without note or comment: they say they have no need of the old divines and expositors — their knowledj^e is spiritual ; and no books can tell them that which they have received, not by the wisdom of man, but by express Revektion. They take a [distorted] view of every Evangelical [doctrinal] sentiment, and push every thing into, extremes. We may remark this process amongst some of them ; it is too often before our eyes ; and the usual result is, that after a short time preaching the doctrines of the Gospel with fervent vivacity, they push on into the modern heresies, and are ultimately caught in the wild fanaticisms of the Irving School, or the thorny wilderness of Hyper-Calvinisni. How many a promising clergyman has thus been lost to all that is useful ! and how entirely this tendency to heresy is confined to the

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members of either the Episcopal or Presbyterian establishments. Heresies thrive in establishments !

" The University of Cambridge produces half the religion of the kingdom, according to the notions of the Church of England, which acknowledges and knows no religion but her own. Cambridge is the ever- teeming fountain of Bishops Priests, and Deacons. The Masters of Colleges are frequently dignitaries of the Church; and two -thirds of all the Fellows of the Colleges are priests. Every College has its chapel and cbapel-laws; the Undergraduates are compelled, generally speaking, to attend chapel eight times every week. Chapelprayers are read every morning and evening. The services of Sundays, Saint-days, and Vigils, are celebrated in Cathedral liturgy, with chaunters, surplices, and all the paraphernalia of tlie British mass. On those occasions, all the Graduates and Undergraduates are dressed in surplices. The official characters of the University go in state every Sunday, Saint-day, and high festival, to St. Mary's Church, and there is no lack of Sermons and Lectures. There are Professors of Divinity, Doctors of Divinity, Scribes and Pharisees, chief-priests and rulers of the synagogues in abundance; neither is there any want of Sadducees. Religion at Cambridge is entirely theatrical: every thing is done for show: all is pomp and ceremonies: white linen and scarlet robes, wax-candles, beadles, silver pokers, organs, anthems, and processions. If we inquire into the sects at Cambridge, we shall find, first, the Unbelievers (Infidels) no small body, but preserving all the exterior of State-religionists ; the Sadducees, or Socinians who also strictly conform and despise the Thirty-nine Articles , t\ie High-Church party, the most numerous of all: the Evangehcals, or serious Christians, commonly called the Simeonites ; and tne German School, minute in number, but resT?9ctade m talents, who have considerable reverence for the PoDish superstitions, a smattering of Plato's devotional Daganism. a large infusion of Kant's metaphysics, a attlo

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xi mysticism, a little of the Persian adoration of the sun, and a good deal of Coleridge's depths of nonsense, transcendental and unintelligible.

The general style of preaching, excepting always the sermons of the Evangelical party, is dry, profitless, dull, and Anti christian. The Gospel is quite unknown, and indeed is scarcely ever alluded to. They preach about virtue, and justification by good works, a little against enthusiasm, a good deal about subordination and the duty of being a Tory. They warn the hearers against ' the spirit of the age,' blow up the coals of Tophet for the Reform Bill and all its adherents; and exalt kings and governors, noblemen, bisnops, and magistrates. There is, however, nothing like eloquence to recommend their bad doctrine ; their Heathenism is too insipid to be palateable.

" Religion, however, at Cambridge, is not merely a crazy state-machine; it is a positive evil full of deadly poison. Nothing can be conceived worse than the system of forcing the Undergraduates to attend chapel and take the Sacrament. The evil effects of this forced and unnatural religion may easily be supposed. The mind is, in too many instances, set against attending any place of worship, and seeds of disgust to things which deserve the deepest reverence, are sown too deep, and take root too soon, to be easily eradicated. The Church of England is so accustomed to violence, she has so long dragooned men into her creed, and is so fond of soldiers and constables to support her power, that we cannot expect her to do otherwise when she is left to her own counsels. If she has played such pranks in greater matters, of course it will be but a mere trifle to drag the youth of England to her hated altars ; but it is a matter of deep concern to S6(? so detestable a system upheld as the excellency of wisdom ; it is something which more than raises one's contempt, to behold troops of young profligates, compelled to join in the lord's Supper, and ' eat and drink their own damnation.* 1 itnow that this has caused, and is causing, the deepest concern n xii

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the minds of some Undergraduates, whose consciences are not yet seared with a hot iron ; and I also know that things are said and done at these forced celebrations of the Eucharist, which in reverence to the spiritual head of the church of true Christians, shall be buried in deep silence."

From these extracts the reader may form his estimate of the Stygian Pool^ the turbid waters of which it was Mr. Hill's lot to sip in the days of his noviciate, and while qualifying for " Holy Orders Let him keep the fact in view, while he peruses the following pages, and make the necessary allowance.

W.J.

London, Dec. 10, 1833