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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Mr . Hornbrook was a man of genuine piety , benevolence and tenderness of spirit . He was also one of the most modest of human beings , never assuming- airs of superiority on account of his having formerly been enrolled
among the clergy of the Church of England , but grieved and humbled that he had continued in that body so long . * I hav ^ e frequently heard him speak with tears on the subject of the annexed letter . With the best theological writers of his age and country he was
extremely conversant : among these , Sykes was particularly his favourite ; and I mast express my obligations to Mr . Hornbrook ' s memory for his having first put into my hands that author ' s " Scripture Doctrine of the Redemption of Man by Jesus Christ . "
Many interesting thoughts and recollections are awakened by the review of my intercourse with my venerable friend . As often as I have read the communication which I now transcribe for your pages , I have found it impossible to suppress the exclamation , " Offences must needs come : but
alas for those by whom they come 1 " JOHN KENTISH . < c MR . URRAN , f cc As your valuable magazine is held in Ligh esteem , and much read , your
inserting the following case in your next , will much oblige , " Your very humble servant , < c A Distressed Clergyman , < c Having had great objections , for many years , to the subscription at present required of the clergy , by law , to the Thirty-nine Articles , &c , I took a resolution never to subscribe more , on any account whatever : and I have , accordingly , more than once declined applying to my friends , when they have had it in
their power to provide for me ; in consequence of which , I still remain in the situation in which I set out , when I first entered into orders ; namely , in that of a country curate . It may likewise be proper to mention here , that I also joined with those of the clergy who lately petitioned Parliament for relief in this matter
of subscription . " By means of a small income which * So Mr . Lindsey . Apology , &c . p . 225 . t Gent . Magazine for Dec . 1777 , p . 5 G 6 .
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I have besides my curacy , which last brings me in about forty pounds per annum , I am enabled to give a little assistance to some near relations , who would otherwise be reduced to great straits , and , which I should have
mentioned before , to maintain a small family of my own , which it would not be in my power to do was it not for the small income of my cure . This , therefore , has prevented me hitherto from resigning my office in the Church , as I am satisfied I should otherwise have done before this
time . For my wading through the different parts of the Liturgy in the manner I have done for some time past , notwithstanding my objections to them are much the same with those of Mr . Lindsey and Mr . Jebb , must be allowed by every serious man to be a task sufficiently hard and irksome .
" But here it will be asked , If your case be really so distressing as you have represented it , why do you not apply yourself to some other employment , in order to procure a subsistence in a manner that might be more agreeable ? ' To which I answer , that though I have frequently taken the matter into
consideration , yet , having now been engaged m the ministerial office between twenty and thirty years , and confined myself entirely to the studies proper to a clergyman , I . have not been able to think of any business to which I can turn myself ; it being rather too late for a man of fifty to apply himself to new studies . And should it
be said , * You may open a place of worship somewhere uppn Unitarian principles , as Mr . Lindsey has done , ' I ask , where is it likely I should find a congregation to join with me ? Could Mr . Jebb * have found such a one , I dare say he would not have turned himself to
the study of physic . Besides , having been always accustomed to a plain country congregation , and always preached to them in a plain manner , suited to their capacities , it would now be difficult for me to render myself in auy manner agreeable to a town congregation .
" Having thus laid my case , in a few words , before the public , if any of your numerous readers should have it in their power , and will be so kind as to point out any method of relief , it will be doing an act of charity to a person in real distress . " In p . 16 of the Gentleman ' s Magazine for 1778 , the foregoing letter was * See , however , Mr . Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey , pp . 94 , 134 , 135 « J .. . K «
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102 A Letter by the late Rev . John Hornbrook .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 102, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/38/
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