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LETTER

TO

THE REV. HENRY GREY,

ON CERTAIN PASSAGES CONTAINED IN THE

Letters of Anglicanus.

BY THE

REV. CHARLES THOMSON,

MINISTER OF THE SCOTCH CHURCH, NORTH SHIELDS,

NORTHUMBERLAND.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR WILLIAM WHYTE & CO.
13, GEORGE'S STREET.

AND SOLD BY M. OGLE, AND WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW; A. BROWN
AND CO. ABERDEEN; AND LONGMAN AND CO. LONDON.

MDCCCXXVIII.

Price Sixpence.

LETTER,

&c.

REV. SIR,

A PAMPHLET, entitled "A View of the Character, Position, and Prospects of the Edinburgh Bible Society, in Seven Letters, by Anglicanus," reached this quarter about four or five weeks ago; and, at the same time, a report that you were the author of that production. The report, I confess, astonished me. The pamphlet is so profane, and so calumnious; it contains such indiscriminate abuse of the worthiest individuals, and so heartless, unprovoked an attack, upon the religion, character, and usefulness of those ministers of your own church in the North of England, who have adhered to the principles of the Edinburgh Bible Society, that I never should have entertained, for one mo ment, the suspicion, had I not been otherwise well informed, that it could have proceeded from the pen of the Rev. Henry Grey, minister of the Presbyterian Church, St Mary's, Edinburgh.

Your character for consistency, clear views of the truth, and firm and decided attachment to the strict and uncompromising morality of the Gospel, had indeed begun to wane in this neighbourhood-as I suspect it had long since done in Scotland-in consequence of the part you have taken respecting the British and Foreign Bible Society. In it we perceived evidence both of your deplorable indifference to the purity of the Holy Scriptures, and of your utter disregard of the manifold injunctions they contain, for christians to "come out, and be separate" from all those who "walk according to the course of this world," and are guilty of aggravated, unrepented, and unforsaken sin. You gave in your adherence to persons of this description, and separated yourself from that honourable committee, who have earned such a title to the approbation of all who "tremble at God's word," by the firm and unflinching stand which they have made against that torrent of Bible adulteration, and human expediency which, issuing from Earl Street in connection with the name of the magnificent and influential British and Foreign Bible Society, threatened to leave us neither the knowledge of what was Scripture, nor any deference to the authority of that which might be ascertained to be Scripture. You likewise chose a most inauspicious moment in which to make your separation. You deserted the cause of purity, and went over to the ranks of practised deceivers, at a time when your doing so was well calculated-in as far as your influence would go, though that, it is matter of thankfulness, was but a very little way-to cripple the efforts of those who were contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints;" and to strengthen and confirm in their delinquencies, men who had been proved guilty of perpetrating for years, the “damnable” sin, of " doing evil that good may come" who had

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endeavoured to bring the word of God into contempt, had lent their influence to the "circulation of vital error, and laid a deadly snare for the souls of men."-No very high estimate could be formed of a minister of the Gospel, who countenanced the impenitent perpetrators of such enormities. But you were thought to be a man of peace. You had credit for a meek and gentle spirit; and there were many amongst us, who, while they lamented your adjunction to the corrupters of God's most holy word, were yet willing to find a sort of palliation for it, in a certain sentimentalism of disposition, which, assuming the delusive appearance of attachment to old friends, had prevented you from abandoning them, even after they had been proved unworthy of your confidence or esteem. The men of Earl Street, with their good words and fair speeches, and with their " form of godliness," cunningly mixed up with worldly pomp and show, had, it was believed, exercised a species of fascination upon a mild, and somewhat flexible mind, which still continued, though forbidden by the Bible, to "know men after the flesh."

Such apologies we were disposed to make for your conduct in reference to the British and Foreign Bible Society-grieving, but not much wondering, at the Earl Street propensities of the Rev. Henry Grey. But what was our astonishment when the "Seven Letters by Anglicanus" made their appearance amongst us, accompanied by the report that you-one of our brethren-was the author of that untruthful, bitter, and malignant publication! Our favourable estimate of your disposition was found to have been erroneous. That such an indecent production should have issued from some of the rabblement who have, in so many parts of the United Kingdom, shown, in their universal approbation of the London, and as universal abuse of the Edinburgh Committee, alike their ignorance and their disregard of the truth, might have been expected. But that so venomous a pamphlet should be the composition of one, considered so meek and mild a gentleman as the Rev. Henry Grey; that such gross misstatements should emanate from the pen of a minister who professes to "live after the most straitest sect" of our religion; and that so rude an assault upon Scotland and her Church, and so wanton and unhallowed an endeavour to blast the reputation, and destroy the usefulness, of the Scottish Presbyteriau Ministers in the North of England, should be made by one who has adopted Scotland as his country -who has been cherished by her beyond many of her as deserving sons and who eats the bread of the Scottish Presbyterian Church, did indeed fill me with amazement. I had often witnessed, since the present Bible Society controversy began, the desolating and debasing influence of Earl Street; but till the "Letters by Anglicanus" appeared, I had no conception of the extent to which the mischief had been carried.

On the morning after I had received the pamphlet, I wrote to you by post, expressing unequivocally my opinion of it; mentioning what information had reached this quarter respecting its author; and calling upon you either to deny the authorship, or, if you were the guilty individual, to repent, confess, and make atonement to your injured brethren, for your sin; assuring you at

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