[5] In the Dispatch of the 21st ult. the Editor, when speaking of the publicity given to the evidence respecting the Princess of Wales, expressed the following sentiments on this question: “There are cases in which a great deal more injury both to morals and liberty, may arise from the suppression than the exposure of indecencies.”—“Complaints have often been made from very high quarters of the publicity given to certain proceedings in Courts of Justice; and it is but justice to say, that within the last twenty years, the press has been very cautious in its manner of relating them. But it is a matter of doubt with many wise men whether the suppression of facts in such instances does not, upon the whole, do more injury to public morals than a complete disclosure of them; particularly so, if there be any suspicion that facts have been suppressed.”[6] Messrs. Gurney and Alley.[7] The Reader will find this fac simile accompanying the present pamphlet.

Facsimile of John Church’s letter to James Cook[11] A Correspondent, who happened to attend two or three times at Church’s Meeting-house, took down the following sentences from his Sermons. They may gratify the curiosity of the reader.

“God is frequently going forth, and we also are often going to the window to look for him; The more vile I am made to appear to the World the more God will assist me. Every citizen is a free-born. Many have wondered how I could go thro’ so much trouble. There have been a great many that have wished to see me—I can inform them I had much rather they had wished to see Christ. People may be laughed at for being fools, but you may depend upon it the more God will like them. All that believe not will certainly be damned. The duties of Christianity are not to be preached to an ungodly world; John Church is very much spoken of, but they had much better speak of Jesus; the people of the established church feel no spiritual joy. Spiritual discourse is enlivening to the senses, &c. The bread of life is not to be given away to Dogs. I am not going to turn auctioneer, but I am going to inform you that next Lord’s Day I am going to publish a book proving that God the Son, and the Spirit, are all one great God. My sermon will be good news and comfort to all poor sinners; Satan and all his spirits never sleeps; the power of life and death is only in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. Devils are allowed to harrass the people of God day and night—no wonder they perplex those they cant destroy. People are mostly liable to fall in their first love into awful heresies and temptation. All the Lord’s people do not see into the glory of my text—’tis like a jewel in a rock of Adamant. The worst sin was the murdering of God’s saints. When I sit in darkness the Lord will be a light unto me. Many men laugh at the doctrine of the new birth,—are there not many learned Doctors that know nothing of it? Let a man come under any circumstances I will receive him;—Don’t laugh at the doctrine of inspiration; he wise, it has often been preached by our church,—I am never tired of preaching, and I believe my dear brethren are never tired of hearing me. If every one that is saved should be as bright as the sun, what a place heaven must be, where there will be so many millions! Angels beckon me away, and Christ bids me come. The sight of Christ, you may depend on’t, will be worth suffering for. O that I had the voice of an archangel, I would indeed do wonders. I doubt the superiority of one angel over another in heaven—Christ is entirely independent, of or with God. We must have the spirit of God before we are his people. Believe in the predestination of eternal life, but not in eternal death; people that suffer were beforehand predestined so to do, by God. Bad or horrid is the religion of a proud Pharisee. That religion that is preached by the people of God is God himself. There can be no going forth until the Spirit of God has entered. The MOB is seldom stirred up but thro’ Priests, there is now a case of the very kind; when envy bursts forth thro’ jealous and envious neighbouring Priests, and published by Deists, there can be nothing to fear; and I verily believe that any thing prayed for to Christ will certainly be granted, as has always been the case with me. Let us for ever endeavour to turn every thing, whether good or bad, into good. I do not not believe that God begot Jesus Christ—they say too that Joseph was an impostor at this very day;—every thing that is done against the church is done against Christ; also that which is done against Christ is done against the Church; and any thing done against the people of God is done against Christ. It is a most blessed thing that we can throw our burthens upon Christ;—I do not care who hears me, whether God, or Man, Friends, or Foes, Devils or Angels, or any thing else, and let them call me an Antinomian again if they please. There must be spiritual life in the soul. The Lord Jesus Christ and the people of God are all one. Christ has no sorrow but the people of God must sympathise with him; and the people of God have no affliction but that Christ sympathises with them.”

[20] Alluding to his being turned out of Banbury.[21] Before Church got to bed to young Clark, he scoffed at secret prayer. What abominable hypocrisy, to hear the same man pretending to pray before a public congregation, where he can get himself paid for his devotions! how he must hate and despise himself on account of his own most odious cant!!![22] A full proof of this has been given, in the falsehoods he has repeatedly urged, to ward off the charges brought against him in these papers.[27] I am informed that Church belongs to that sect called Antinomians, which is thus described by the Rev. John Evans in his “Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World”:—

“The Antinomian derives his name from Anti and Nomos; signifying, against, and a Law, his favourite tenet being, that the law is not a rule of life to believers. It is not easy to ascertain what he means by this position, but he seems to carry the doctrine of imputed righteousness of Christ and salvation by faith without works to such lengths as to injure, if not wholly destroy the obligation to moral obedience. Antinomianism may be traced to the period of the reformation, and its promulgator was John Agricola, originally a disciple of Luther. The Papists in their disputes with the Protestants of that day, carried the merit of good works to an extravagant length; and this induced some of their opponents to run into the opposite extreme. “This sect (say the Encyclopedia) sprung up in England during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, and extended the system of libertinism much farther than Agricola, the disciple of Luther. Some of their teachers expressly maintained, that as the elect cannot fall from grace nor forfeit the divine favour, the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor are they to be considered as instances of their violation of the Divine Law; consequently they have no occasion to confess their sins, or to break them off by repentance. According to them it is one of the essential and distinctive characters of the elect that they cannot do any thing displeasing to God, or prohibited by Law.”

[38a] Mr. Adolphus.[38b] Messrs. Gurney and Alley.