in the present state of things, he could not help thinking it quite a duty to direct the minds of young persons to such subjects. And on this and many subsequent occasions, he set forth his opinions on the matter, which I will state to you, as far as I can remember, in his own words.
"My good mother," he said, "not long before her death, which happened about half-a-year before I came to live here, said to me very earnestly one day, as I was sitting by her bed side.—'My dear Richard, observe my words: never dare to trifle with God Almighty.' By this I understood her to mean, that in all religious actions we ought to be very awful, and to seek nothing but what is right and true. And I knew that she had always disapproved of peoples' saying, as they commonly do, 'that it little matters what a man's religion is, if he is but sincere;' and 'that one opinion or one place of worship is as good as another.' To say, or think, or act so, she used to call 'Trifling with God's truth:' and do you not think, sir, (addressing himself to me,) that she was right?"
"Indeed I do," said I.
"And," he said, "I was much confirmed in these opinions by constantly reading a very wise, and, as I may say to you, precious book, which a gentleman gave me some years ago, whom I met by chance when I was going to see my father in the infirmary. It is called a Selection from Bishop Wilson's Works, and there are many places in it which shew what his opinions were on this subject; and I suppose, sir, there can be no doubt that Bishop Wilson was a man of extraordinary judgment and piety."
"He has ever been considered so," I answered.
"I could not think much of any one's judgment or piety either, who should say otherwise," he replied; "and what Bishop Wilson says, is this, or to this eff'ect:—That 'to reject the government of Bishops, is to reject an ordinance of God.'"[1]
That "our salvation depends, under God, upon the ministry of those whom Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost have appointed to reconcile men to God."[2]
That "the personal failings of ministers do not make void their commission."[3]
That "if the Unity of the Church is once made a light matter, and he who is the centre of Unity, and in Christ's stead, shall
