What spirit then must those be of, _Reverend Sir_, who have lately joined in pronouncing the sentence of expulsion against six religious students, not only for having been of trades, and praying extempore, but for _reading_ and _singing hymns_ also? His Royal Highness the late Duke of _Cumberland_, was of a very different disposition, for when abroad in _Germany_, in one of our late wars, (as I was informed by a person then on guard) hearing one evening, as he was passing by, a company of soldiers singing at some little distance in a cave, he asked the centinel what noise that was; and being answered, that some devout soldiers were singing hymns; instead of citing them to appear before their officers, ordering them to the whipping post, or commanding them to be drummed out of the regiment; acting like himself, he only pleasingly replied, “Are they so? Let them go on then, and be as merry ♦as they can.” In this he acted wisely; for he knew, and found by repeated experience, as did other commanding officers, that singing, nay, and praying extempore too, in these private societies, did not hinder, but rather fitted and animated these devout soldiers to engage, and to fight their country’s battles in the field. And it may be presumed, that if these students had not been expelled for singing hymns, and praying extempore, they certainly would not have been less, but in all probability much better prepared for handling the sword of the Spirit, the word of GOD, and fighting therewith, either from the press or the pulpit, the battles of the LORD of hosts.
♦ removed duplicate word “as”
To see or hear such divine exercises treated with reproach, and spoken of with contempt by common and open blasphemers, is bad; but that any who came on purpose to be trained up for the sacred work of the ministry, should be looked on as criminal, and expelled ♦at university for being sometimes employed in them, is too sad a proof, not only that “our gold is become dim, and our fine gold changed, but that our very foundations are out of course.” What then must the righteous do?
♦ “an” replaced with “at”
What indeed, but weep and lament! And weep and lament indeed they must, especially when they hear further, that _meeting in a religious society_, giving a word of exhortation, or _expounding_ and commenting a little now and then upon some portion of scripture, are not the least of the accusations for which some of these young worthies had the sentence of expulsion pronounced against them.
It is recorded in the Old Testament, that in a degenerate age, “those that feared the LORD spake often one to another; that the LORD hearkened and heard, and that a book of remembrance was written before him for those that feared the LORD, and thought on his name: and they shall be mine in that day, saith the LORD, when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Thus it was in the Old Testament times. Nor are such meetings mentioned with less approbation in the new: for therein, in order that we may hold the profession of our faith without wavering, we are commanded to “consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling ourselves together, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as we see the day approaching.” Nay, one immediate consequence of that grand effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, we are told, was this, that “they who gladly received the word, and were baptized, continued stedfast in the Apostles doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayer.” This is a short, but withal a full and blessed account of the first truly apostolic primitive church; and we may venture to affirm, that as we are more or less partakers of a true apostolic primitive spirit, such kind of religious, fellowship-meetings, will in proportion increase or decrease among us. To talk therefore, or write, or preach against, or by private persuasion or open violence to oppose, or endeavour to suppress, and discountenance such kind of religious societies, is flying, as it were, in the very face of the scriptures of truth, and of the Holy Ghost himself.
In all charters granted by the crown, wherein authority is given to bodies corporate to enact laws, it is always with this limitation, “that no laws shall be enacted by such bodies corporate, contrary to the laws of the realm.” And as the scriptures are our grand _Codex Legum_ and _Magna Charta_, in respect to our religious principles and practices; what affront must we put upon our country in general, and the church of _England_ in particular, even by barely imagining, that any law now exists which prohibits her members from frequenting such societies as have the divine authority and superscription, so apparently stamped upon them?