Thornhill, Oct. 21, 1840.
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WE congratulate you on dear Henry’s account. Oh, how glad should we have
been had Canada been commiserated by him: had I twenty sons and should
you ask, how I should wish to dispose of them, I would say, Oh, let them
be clergymen—pious, faithful, useful ministers of our beloved Church, and
let them all be fixed in Canada. I hope my dear nephew will be on his
guard: caution him against a religion of forms and ceremonies, and high
priestly assumption, none of which can be maintained without sapping the
grand fundamental article of our Protestant religion, JUSTIFICATION BY
FAITH. Once admit that there is anything inherently gracious in anything
but what is simple faith, and Protestantism is virtually at an end: let
anything be expected otherwise than from Christ by faith through the
power and agency of the divine Spirit, and carry out this admission to
its full length, and you are inevitably landed safely in Romanism. I
fear much for the younger clergy.
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