The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-07 00:00:00

. .
WE transcribe, from the Christian Guardian, the fol-
lowing letter, addressed to the editor, containing aivex-
tract of a letter-frOin.-Dr. Adam Clarkei'whith we recom-
mend to the attentive pertiSal of our readers, more. espe-
cially to such of them ..s are members of the WeNleythi
Methodist Connexion. lt is peculiarly' interesting at
this moinent, as..shewing, from the very highest authority,
!what are the feelings of that great and influential body.
in regard to'the Chnfch Establigliment, and' happily
trates the singular modesty of the Socinians, the most
implacable "foe of that. Church, in trying to identify,
themselves' with such Orthodox Christian Dissenter.--
under the .ensnaring title of that Great Body of thd
Dissenters," &c., &c. '
common with all. good churchmen. I cannot but feel
greaily indulged. to you tor the aeries of
,papers on the church and
4i.sSent, inserted in seine late numbers of the Guardian. The hitter
attacks of 'oi)en enemies, and the lukewarmness of profesiing•friends-
Gumongst which latter, I especially include, at ieast, one religious pub-
seein tsrrotider your la.hours, in this field, not less necessary'
titan seasonable. May they be crowned with success !
• Perhaps ttte following extract of a letter, received by me in .1820,
from a man Who,.in knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and of ancient
.lan;ttages, and, let me add, in sound judgment, was not a whit behind
the very chiefust.of Dissenters, I mean Dr. Adam Clarke, may not be
without itsinduenceover the minds of some who have ill milt at our
Zion. It was written to answer same observations on church govern-
ment, addreSsed by me to the doctor, and contains, I believe, his de-
liberate opinion, on the matters treated of in it,. The italics are the
d..ortor's own.

" I consider the Church of England the purest national chUrch in
the world, .I was brought up in its bosom : I was intended, for its mi-
nistry. I have been a Methodist for. half a century, I have been a
preacher for forty-three years, and I am highly deceived indeed, if I
be note thorouLh Afeitaber of the Church of Bneand, Its doctrines and
lle saeraments which constitute the essence •of a church,- I. hold eon-
seientiryusly as it holds them: 1 reverence the .I.,(largy,next •to the
Bilk; I proclaim its doctrines and administer its sacraments, not only
in the same spirit in which it holds and aciminiAtrs them, but also in
;he same words or fornk I also reverence its orders, and highly esteem
its:hierarchy ; and. have net a particle of a Dissenter in met though
19v,..e, and esteem all good men, and able Ministers wherever I find

BLit I preach,'arid hive !Ong preached without any kind of EiisFora,
orders. My family fell into decay, and my education was left imper-
fect. • I wcizild hare greatly preferied the hands of the Bialtop ; but
not having gone thro' the regular courses, I could not claim it.
f felt, Mdestribably felt; dual was ealledby the 'great Head of the
chutch•to 'reach ; the world ,I saw lying in the wiiked one : and at
the peril of my-sOtil, Finest not refuse to do what I °Mad to pluck the
brands out of the burning. I felt the palter of the Apostles' words
Ist Corinthians, ix. 16. On this princiPle I Itaire 'acted, btit this di-
vine cull; fur as such I have received it, never lessened. in my mind,
the human call, such as exists in the orders of the Church of Englaxd.
And as, fur the reasons abore, I could net apply for it, I could not,
with iny.titah and feeling, receive any kind of dissenting orders ; so
here I am, without holy orders, without 'pretended holy orders, and
without pretending to holy orders, preaching according to my power
the unsearchahle riches of Christ; and God, in his endless mercy, has
made this preaching his, power to, the salvation of some hundreds of
souls, both in the three kingdoms and abroad. Now, my dear Sir,
would you, even, with all your carnet and praiseworthy predilection
for the orders of yZir Church, say to me, " you shonld not preach,
tier administer the sacraments, because you are not episcopally
ordained "

Eveb now; at this age of comparative decrepitude, I would rejoice to
have that ordination, if I might, with it, have the full liberty to preach
Jesus, wherever I could find souls perishing for lack of knowledge. I
helleVe the Methodist preachers are best calculated to lead those on
in the way of hie, whom they have been the instruments of bringing
into it; but, in all other cases, I ever advise, where ye cannot hat*
Methodist preaching, go to the parish chinch, and no where else.
Among our Dissenting brethren I am, on this account, reputed a bigot.
The Methodists, as a body are not Dissenters, and, I trust, never will
hi, though we are not episcopally ordained, and hold plicei of separate
worship; but this has been of necessity, not of choice."
In another letter on the same subject, the venerable Doctor speaks
Thus We (i. e., churchmen and methodists), cannot be one body,
as we now stand, but we can be of one spirit. The church has our warm
attacluneut, and if. the time should ever come, which Dieu ne plaiset
that the bodies of the various dissenters were, to rise up against the
church, the vast bodies of methodists would not hesitate a second to be
/our light infantry.

We call you mother ehurch, because our founders were elere,ymen of
yonr church ; and our religious principles are those, and those alone of
the Church of England, Yet sheW 'us how we can be more readily
united, so•as not to be prevented from doing the work whioh God has
given us' to do, and my /wad and hand shall both be with you."
Such, Sit, were this excellent man's sentiments of the Church of
England and such, I verily believe, would be the sentiments of hun-
drElds of its enemies, &they had but a tithe of the Doctor's learning
and liberality. . G. •