To Sir Harry Trelawney.
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DCCCXCII. — To Sir Harry Trelawney.
FOR a long time I have had a desire to see you, but could not find an opportunity: And indeed I had reason to believe my company would not be agreeable; as you were intimate with those who think they do God service by painting me in the most frightful colors. It gives me much satisfaction to find that you have escaped out of the hands of those warm men. It is not at all surprising that they should speak a little unkindly; of you too in their turn. It gave me no small satisfaction to learn, from your own lips, the falsehood of their allegation. I believed it false before, but could not affirm it so positively as I can now.
Indeed, it would not have been without precedent, if from one extreme you had run into another. This was the case with that great man, Dr. Taylor, of Norwich. For some years he was an earnest Calvinist; but afterwards, judging, he could not get far enough from that melancholy system, he ran, not only into Arianism, but into the very dregs of Socinianism. I have reason, indeed, to believe he was convinced of his mistake some years before he died. But to acknowledge this publicly was too hard a task for one who had lived above eighty years.
You have need to be thankful on another account like wise; that is, that your prejudices against the Church of England are removing. Having had an opportunity of seeing several of the Churches abroad, and having deeply considered the several sorts of Dissenters at home, I am fully convinced that our own Church, with all her blemishes, is nearer the scriptural plan than any other in Europe.
I sincerely wish you may retain your former zeal for God; only, that it may be a “zeal according to knowledge.” But there certainly will be a danger of your sinking into a careless, lukewarm state, without any zeal or spirit at all. As you were surfeited with an irrational, unscriptural religion, you may easily slide into no religion at all; or into a dead form, that will never make you happy, either in this world, or in that which is to come. Wishing every scriptural blessing, both to Lady Trelawney and you, I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate servant.
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