MR. VENN'S LOVE FOR THE LITURGY.

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Powley, one of his former curates, whom he had presented to a chapel in the parish of Huddersfield, and who faithfully remonstrated with him upon this occasion, he thus vindicates his attachment to the Church.

How often have I declared my utmost veneration for the Liturgy! How often in your hearing, how often in the church, declared the superior excellency, in my judgment, of the Liturgy to every mode of worship, not only amongst the Dissenters, but that had ever been in the Church of Christ, as far as I had knowledge! Nay, more than once have I said, I never was present at any meeting where I perceived the power of godliness as amongst the congregations of our Church, where the Gospel is preached. Now, after all this, I think, in justice, you ought to have supposed me as much a friend to the Church of England as yourself. I have long, you know, had to combat with the senseless prejudices against our Form; and see plainly the advantage Satan makes of these prejudices, and lament it. But this evil, compared with the sort of religion taught now by some of the clergy, appears to me but small. One lays waste the grand fundamental truth; the other only exhibits it in a less edifying manner. On Saturday, I dined with our Bishop. I find he has no objection to a revisal and alteration of the Liturgy. This change will one day, I fear, take place; and then the measure of our iniquities will be full, when we have cast the doctrine of Christ out of the public worship,

avowedly as a nation. May we be the more zealous and active, according to the utmost of our strength; encouraging and comforting both each other and our flocks with the certain success of the Gospel, in spite of earth and hell!

I will here also refer to another circumstance, which is in some measure connected with this subject. During Mr. Venn's residence at Yelling, he occasionally preached in neighbouring parishes, at the houses, and, in some few instances, in the barns of the farmers; and, in his visits to London, he officiated at the chapel of the Rev. Rowland Hill. With respect to this point, I am furnished with the sentiments of my father, recorded in a detached form, but with the intention of their being inserted in the Memoir. I introduce them, however, in this place, because they equally apply, in their general tenor, to the case of the chapel at Huddersfield; and I gladly avail myself of the opportunity of expressing my own feelings, with respect to that transaction, as well as with respect to his preaching in unconsecrated places, by simply recording my entire concurrence in the spirit of the remarks which follow.

"Were I to deliver a panegyric agreeable to my own views of that excellent man, in whom I every day saw something new to admire and honour, I should draw a veil over what I am going to relate. But the faithfulness of an historian compels me to do violence to the feelings of a son. His mind was naturally ardent; and he was of a temper to be carried out by

UNCONSECRATED PLACES.

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zeal, rather than to listen to the cold calculations of prudence. Influenced by the hope of doing good, my father, in certain instances, preached in unconsecrated places. But having acknowledged this, it becomes my pleasing duty to state, that he was no advocate for irregularity in others; that when he afterwards considered it, in its distant bearings and connexions, he lamented that he had given way to it, and restrained several other persons from such acts by the most cogent arguments; and that he lived long enough to observe the evils of schism so strongly, that they far outweighed in his mind the present apparent good."

In the month of July 1771, Mr. Venn was married to his second wife, Mrs. Smith. The two following letters were written to this lady previous to their union, but after she had accepted his offer of marriage. He was at this time travelling in Yorkshire; but did not visit Huddersfield.

Upper Thorp, near Dewsbury,
June 25, 1771.

PERHAPS my dear friend has written again, though my removals have prevented me from receiving the favour. But I can never want a subject, either for discourse or for a letter, whilst you have a heart to delight in the things of God. I have already sent you some thoughts on that freedom and simplicity with which the faithful in Christ Jesus ought to

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FREEDOM IN PRAYER.

address the Lord God Almighty-That neither the sense of our manifold offences, nor the poor stammering tongue with which we can speak, nor the coldness and deadness of our hearts, ought to discourage us, or beget in us the least doubt of the Lord's hearing our requests: for, indeed, very small in His sight must be the difference between the wisest and the most ignorant-between this saint, who with a peculiar fluency mentions every circumstance, and that, who is almost at a loss for words of any kind. He looketh only to the heart, which dictates the prayer, and often is full of the spirit of prayer when utterance is greatly wanting.

With respect to the subject-matter of prayer, it ought to vary with our temptations, feelings, and various wants: for, as the main design of prayer is not to inform the Omniscient, but to make us sensible of our own indigence and absolute dependence upon God for all, this design can never be so well promoted as by a familiar, and very particular, enumeration of those things which concern us. For instance: Ithankfully acknowledge His faithfulness, in answering according to my petitions, and giving me, in you, all I could wish, in a friend, in a wife ;that when I was going to fix in a solitary place, no longer able to serve in a large and populous one, He should indulge me with a companion of peculiar talents, to entertain and enliven the solitude. was a great and pernicious error, which first was set on foot by formality and superstition, to make men conceive of Jehovah, not as a loving Father, but a Great and awful Being only, before whom they were not thus familiarly to speak.

It

BISHOP HILDESLEY.

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I have just now received your letter of the 22d. A thousand thanks for it! though it made me much regret my being absent when the good bishop* was with you. I longed before to have seen him but to have seen him at your table, and talked freely and fully about the grand matter of all, would have been a high gratification. If we live, I shall hope for many such interviews; in which, your being one of the party will enliven me more and seeing you enjoy the discourse, will make it doubly delightful to myself.

Before this, you will be able to tell all our friends when, by God's leave, I shall be in town. Indeed, I think it long; and I shall stay but one night at Yelling, and there leave the children. Inclosed you receive a letter from my boy. It is his own entirely; for I always choose to have them express themselves in their own way. I dare almost venture to promise that you will have little trouble from him. Pray give my dutiful love to your mother; and tell her, if she loves a warm room, her apartment at Yelling will in that respect please. Remember me to our dear friends in the Grove. I did fully purpose to write to them both, when I set out; but so many are my engagements, that I can find no time to write to any one, but to that person most esteemed and beloved by me, whose I am in the best bonds, and to whom I would ever fervently pray I may approve myself a most affectionate and tender friend and husband.

Adieu, my dear friend! From

From yours, &c.

* Dr. Hildesley, Bishop of Sodor and Man.

H. VENN..