The National Register.
London, England, 1811-09-01 00:00:00

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The late Rev. T. SPENCER, .of LIVERPOOL.

LETTER 11. •

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

SlR—Anxious to do some little justice to the subject, but, at
the same time, fearful of trespassing, by too long a letter on the
space which your kindness has so readily granted me, I am in-
duced to confine myself, at present, to some remarks of a general
nature, on the office and talents of a minister of the gospel; re-
serving, for my next communication, the more particular stric-
tures on the style and method of the late Mr. Spencer's sermons :
and to accomplish this with the better effect, the present hints,
I hope, will not be deemed an unseasonable preliminary.
I firmly hold with those good and soberly-thinking men, who
consider the age for the effusion of the Holy Ghost in his mira-
culous gifts as past; and, therefore, I judge, that every man of
piety and sense, wishing to offer his services to God, as a minis-
ter of the gospel of his Son, will be concerned to enquire, what
previous qualifications are necessary to an entrance upon so sa-
cred an office. A mind under such conscientious impressions,
would doubtless he led to esteem as indispensibk pre-requisites,—
First—The saving experience, in his own heart, of the infinite
value of the blessings of salvation : and,
Secondly—The possession of a pure, disinterested zeal, to pro-
mote the glory of God, and the best interests of the human-kind,
by the extension of the knowledge of this salvation.
Under the first pre-requisite, I include—a heart sanctified by
the belief of the truth; and a life and conversation becoming a
true servant of Jesus Christ : and under the second, I suppose
such a zeal to be under the guidance of a mind, possessing a
clear and comprehensive view of the Christian doctrines of sal-
vation, as revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa-
ments : for, surely, they who would step forward to teach others,
should appear to have been taught themselves.
The triumph of pure and undefiled religion, is much impeded,
in one day, by that zeal (or ratherphrenry,) which has hurried
so many into the pulpit, under the influence of the heat of a (per-
haps, piously) disordered mind; which has been mistaken for
the fire of divine inspiration 1 And it is to be regarded as a sad
evil, that in various and populous parts of the kingdom, (not ex-
cepting even the Metropolis,) there are numbers of these self-
ordained, zealous preachers, who, by the manner in which they
handle divine subjects on the sabbath, evidently evince, that they
are themselves ignorant of the " very first principles of the oracles
of God ;" and prove, that the week-days—which, by a true
Christian pastor, are filled up with labours of love amongst his
flock, and in communion with his God, in h,,ly meditations and
prayer,—are to them, a season fur the exercise of the only gift
at which they were born to be sharp or to shiuc—with the
needle, the awl, or the brush!
I know some characters, of good sense in other matters, who
yet seem, from sabbath to sabbath, to enjoy the labours, (or,
rather, labourings,) of such expounders of the truth ; and who
even speak of their preaching (pardon my improper use of the
term,) as of primitive and apostolical fashion ! for, say they, (and
it is a favourite argument,) " Were not the Apostles FISHER-
MEN, &c. poor and illiterate ?" Now, Sir, this idea is so majes-
tically bold and imposing, that I cannot presume to enter the
lists, in argument against it : I, therefore, only beg to hint at one
little difference that evidently subsists, between the gifts of our
modern apostles, and those of the lake of Genneserat. The
illiterate fishermen of Galilee, it appears by the 2d chapter of the
Acts, could discourse with fluency and propriety, in twenty dif-
fitrent tongues, on the " wonderful works of God ;" but our mo-
dern primitives, it is known, rest all their apostolical dignity, on
being scarcely able to speak, with common propriety, in their
otother-tongue 1 But to return from this digression—
In conjunction. with, the requisites mentioqed, of faith, sod,
and knowledge, we must suppose the ability, in some tolerable