CHEAP editions of standard works will most effectually compete with popular editions of such works as are dear at any price. A publisher who brings the sacred classics of the Church within reach of the million, consecrates his press as an altar of large philanthropy. He is a printing preacher, with the public and posterity for his congregation. With these impressions, I, for one, cordially welcome the present reprint of the highly-honoured volume of William Romaine.
With the exception of a few occasional sermons, and his edition of Calasio's Concordance, it is the author's only publication; there are many voluminous contributors to the Christian Library, whose posthumous reputation would have rested more securely, had they lain more quietly in manuscript, and perspired less profusely in sheets of type. The age of Romaine was the blessed dawning of that evangelical revival in the Church of England, when men had not only to "bear the heat and burthen of the day;" but to be content with little else than "souls for their hire," and scorn, misrepresentation, and oppression for their warfare. A great crisis, by the grace of God, generates great contemporaries to work it. "There were giants in those day&" None but Titans could contend with the popular tutelaries of the time; but they nobly reversed the issue in the Pagan fable, by becoming "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." "By honour and dishonour, through good report and evil report," they made way for the truth, God working with them and confirming their word. Romaine, however, wrought steadily as well as zealously. His mission was for the Church, and therefore in the Church, and hence, unlike his illustrious contemporaries, Whitfield and the Wesleys, he set up no separate community–nor attempted to purify the doctrine by the sacrifice of the discipline of the Church; but rather laboured, by the grace of God, at the restoration of both to their primitive truth and order. Hence, at a juncture of his ministerial history when he held no better appointment than the precarious lectureship of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, nor possessed other means of subsistence than its wretched stipend of £18 a year; when the antipathy to his ministrations there was so bitter and offensive, that the churchwardens refused to open the church-doors until the exact hour of his lecture, keeping his hearers standing till then in the street, and Romaine often read prayers and preached by the light of a single candle which he held in his hand;–though, at such a trying crisis of his faith and affection for the Church, he was offered, through Whitfield, a church in Philadelphia, and £600 a year, he was too thorough a churchman to be tempted to desert her.
It is well worth the consideration of our evangelical brethren in the Church of this day, that their spiritual fathers in Christ, with all affection and respect for their nonconforming contemporaries, held fast by a hearty and ingenuous churchmanship, which was neither charged with bigotry by their brethren of other denominations,, nor precluded the friendliest co-operation on both sixties, on those common ,grounds of Christian philanthropy; such as the establishment: of the British and Foreign Bible Society by-and-by afforded. Consistency is often mistaken for bigotry by either party to a difference of sentiment. The thing to be aimed at is a sincere liberal construction of motives one towards another, and a generous "striving together for the faith of the Gospel," and the love of the brotherhood of man.'
The father of William Romaine, a French refugee from the persecutions consequent upon the infamous revocation of the Edict of Nantz, had suffered enough for conscience sake to make him tender and considerate of opinions diverse from his own; yet he felt it easier to forsake his country than to abandon his faith. His son inherited the paternal constancy, with the charity which qualified and adorned it. He could forego, as we' have seen, the prospect of ease and competency, which could only be secured by his secession from his Church; but he endured too much contumely among his own brethren, not to sympathize with the sectaries who differed from him in circumstantials, but suffered with him in essentials. He was true to them, so far as he believed them to be in the truth of Christ; and all the truer, that he was true to his own convictions, where he disagreed with theirs. It is some such a relation to dissenting brethren which evangelical churchmen should honestly sustain in our own day; not merging our own principles in that kind of indefinite armistice, sometimes called "catholicity of spirit," where the catholicity is too apt to be all on one side, without a jot of reciprocity, except of clap-trap, from the other; but firmly and fully avowing our churchmanship, demonstrate, by our example, the perfect compatibility of Christian unity, though without uniformity; and of evangelical fraternization, without confusion, or disingenuous interchange of affection, respect, and co-operation.
That this is possible, Romaine, and the kindred spirits of his times, distinctly illustrated. They also furnished another fact, entitled to more weight than it has met with from what are called high-churchmen, viz., the perfect consistency of evangelical doctrine, and charity to dissent, with sound Church principles. The true Church is neither high, nor low, nor broad, nor any other impar sibi; but true to itself by being true to others, not at the cost of its own truth, but by doing a kingly justice to truth of all kinds. Thus, though Romaine's ministry at St. Ann's commenced in a deep unaffected sense of his own weakness, and much trembling for the weight of its responsibility, he nevertheless wrote to one of his friends, that "he entered upon his living, not only in the faith and patience of Christ, but also with a considerate and decided preference to the Church of England, in which he determined to preach His name and wonderful salvation!" He was the first to promote a weekly sacrament in his church, and the alms collected on these occasions, with his supplemental charity sermons, realized an average of £300 a year for the poor of his parish and their schools. When the French (political) emigrants appealed to British condolence, the son of the French Protestant exile feelingly compassionated the distresses of his Romish compatriots, and zealously and successfully pleaded for their relief. Some anonymous libeller, misinterpreting his motive, charged Romaine with sympathizing with the religion, as well as the trials, of his Roman Catholic clients. There is too much of this ungenerous suspicion, and uncharitable misrepresentation, in individuals, from whose professions more candour might be reasonably expected. As if a Christian brother or sister could not devote themselves to the alleviation of human suffering, irrespective of the creed of the sufferers, without a leaning to Romanism, or to other opinions savouring of self-righteousness or merit in the sight of God. Such imputations indirectly disparage sound doctrine, and virtually ascribe to heresy such goodly fruits as grow and ripen under far higher and holier auspices. Our unwearied district visitors, collectors, and Sunday-school teachers, do not parade the streets in "long clothing," and "sad countenances" to match; but their zealous labours and sacrifices, in addition moreover to the ordinary duties of their proper callings, as far exceed the partial devoteeism of "Sisters of Mercy," as the spirit that moves them breathes the better atmosphere of an obedience to "those things they should have clone, not leaving the other undone."
"The Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith," is a beautiful monument of the author's literary gift's, as well as of his piety. It was composed about A.D. 1766, chiefly during the period of anxiety and agitation incident to the progress of the Chancery suit which was instituted the progress of the Chancery suit which was instituted to set aside his nomination to St. Ann' s. His success in this critical case illustrated not a few of his own views of triumphant confidence, in the "covenant ordered in all things, and sure." It was his personal verification of the principle, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even, your faith." His reputation for learning had been established some ten years previously, by his appointment to the professorship of astronomy in Gresham's College. Science, indeed, may smile, at the temerity of his attack upon the Newtonian theory; but, at least, it exhibited his mental independence, which, whether in philosophy or religion, would "call no man master on earth." It was his practical version of the rule, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." His detection .in the calculations of the day of a difference of 121,000,000 of miles, furnished him with a quaint point of invective, not so much against the science, as the divinity of the day, which latter he charged with "bringing up souls, so many miles short of Heaven." The conceit, at least, indicated a greater sympathy with the work of the paster than with the office of the professor.
An unremitting student of the Scriptures, which he habitually read through once a year, the Hebrew Psalter being his invariable companion at the breakfast table,–Romaine, by the grace of God, became a ripe and ready divine; and as a preacher and writer, none ever attained a greater popularity; and, what is infinitely more, important, none were ever more signally blessed with proofs of usefulness in his ministry.
"The Life of Faith," first appeared in one volume, followed, some years after, by the two volumes on "The Walk and Triumph of Faith," completing the work which is now presented in the cheapest form as yet offered to the public. The author's views are expressed in a more experimental than theological form, interspersed with striking reflections and prayers of an. eminently useful character, tending to the promotion of personal faith, and to "perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." St. Paul animadverted on some professors in the Apostolic Churches, whose lives were those of "enemies to the cross of Christ." Unhappily there has never lacked a succession of such members in any age of the Church, abounding most in times of greater evangelical profession. There are various classes of Christians, to whom this volume, under God, must be useful, if they read it in a spirit open to conviction. These are those whose profession of Christ never seems for any considerable period in the "same mind,"–who seem clothed, like Joseph, with "a coat of many colours," and none of them "fast," tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, except the "wind which bloweth where it listeth." There are others whose hearts appear more established, not with grace indeed, but "with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein;" their ideas of the way of righteousness, not being the inspiration of God, never effectually lead them to Him, but to something which is their own, and thus they fail of that "perfect peace of the mind which is stayed on God." There are others who rashly and inconsiderately embark in their discipleship, as Peter cast himself into Gennesareth; but never having realized "the plague of their own hearts," and the ruin and misery of the fall, they assume a confident, and even presumptuous carriage, –"Though all men Should deny thee, yet will not I," –are the spokesmen of the churches and primates of the vestries; but at the first real trial or temptation, pusillanimously disown their Lord–"I know not the man!" There are others, right enough in doctrine, who seem to hold fast by the truth as it is in Jesus, so far as their confession of faith is concerned; but, by reason of whose oft infirmities and inconsistent conversation, the way of truth is evil spoken of; who offend weak brethren, distress the strong, and give occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. There are others who are the real earnest children of God, who yet content themselves with too low a standard; who are too apt to count themselves to have apprehended, and therefore are not forgetting the things which are behind, nor reaching forward, as they should do, to the things which are before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of their high calling. Not only so, but overlooking the monition "how they ought to walk and to please God, so they would abound more and more," they exhibit a defective typo of Christianity to the world. Now all these classes of persons may be benefited, in the way of doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, if they read this book in a humble, teachable frame of mind, with earnest prayer that it may be blessed to them. Chiefly, indeed, it is intended for those who have been convinced of sin and of righteousness; to whom the word of God has been made effectual, by the application of the Holy Spirit, to teach them the nature of the Divine law; and who, upon comparing their hearts and lives with it, have brought themselves in guilty. Well may the revered author exclaim, in the original preface: –"How very few attain and preserve in their consciences the sense of God's being perfectly at peace with them. It ought to rule there always and by all means: but, for want of it, they afford continual occasion for a legal and unbelieving spirit to rob them of their peace, and thereby to distress them in their hearts. As guilt comes in, love goes out. What weakens the cause must also weaken the effect. Love, with its fruits, must decrease in proportion as the believer withdraws his heart-dependence from God. Then he begins to walk uneven and uncomfortable; he grows cold and indifferent about spiritual things; * * his faith is attacked, and gives way. As this yields, the decay becomes general, and it is found true: ' If ye will walk contrary unto me, saith God; then will I also walk contrary to you.' If it be very difficult, under such trials to preserve a sense of God's lovingkindness; yet it should be remembered, there is a gracious provision made for the establishment of the soul so safely in Jesus Christ, that the peace of God may rule in it always and by all means."
What that gracious provision is; how it should be applied; and what arc the results in the "life, walk, and triumph of faith;"–are the matters so nobly, wisely, and impressively discussed in the following treatises. They were evidently the fruit of reading, meditating, and praying over those Scriptures which describe the walk of faith. He who desires some practical help in the way of discovering how he stands with God, and sound counsel and encouragement in furthering his progress in the spiritual life, cannot fail, by the same blessing, of being greatly edified by the perusal of these pages. These reprints of the standard works of our evangelical fathers are better calculated to set us right as a party, alike with adversaries and indiscreet brethren, than most of the more recent publications of the same school. "No man, having tasted old wine, straightway desireth new, for he saith, The old is better!" Sit anima mea cum Romaine, and with such as he! Let our religious tracts–at least, those put into circulation by churchmen–be more consistently enriched by quotations from evangelical fathers of our own communion, rather than by such uniform draughts from the holy wells of puritan divinity, as if our own brooks were dried up, as Cherith, and had driven the man of God farther into the wilderness; let us be so far true to ourselves, and without a particle of uncharity, or disparagement of others' gifts and graces, our own position, alike as churchmen and Christians, will be all the more intelligible, unequivocal; and respected.