The Life and Letters of the Rev. George Mortimer, M.A.: Rector of Thornhill, in the Diocese of Toronto, Canada WestArmstrong, John
Religion
The Life and Letters of the Rev. George Mortimer, M.A.: Rector of Thornhill, in the Diocese of Toronto, Canada West
Armstrong, John
Mortimer, George, 1784-1844
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.
* * * * *
In another letter, in reference to the above subject, he writes:—
Oh, my dear sister, I quite tremble when I think of the probable results
of the present wide spread of tractarian notions. High churchism, if it
be suffered to proceed, and does not meet with a speedy and most
effectual check from the rulers of our Church, will hurry hundreds and
thousands into Romanism, or force the decidedly Evangelical into
secession. Awful times seem to be awaiting us, and I hardly dare think
of them: indeed, I keep putting away every consideration almost as fast
as it comes; or, rather, I endeavour to keep rolling the weighty care
upon One who is both able and pledged, in answer to believing prayer, to
sustain it. These principles are exerting no small degree of influence
in our province. Oh, forget us not in your prayers! we greatly need
them. As to myself I need say but little. My health and spirits are
restored to a degree which I little anticipated, and I am enabled to go
through such duties as I engage in with comparative ease and comfort. A
calm, tranquil, peaceful old age has been mercifully vouchsafed me, and
all I want is more grace to enjoy and improve my many mercies. I am
always backward to speak of spiritual things, lest while recounting God’s
mercies, “self-applause should step in;” but I still owe it to the
goodness of my condescending God and Saviour to testify that I do hope
his work is not retrograding in my soul. Infirmities, I have many—mental
and spiritual, as well as bodily; but still some precious deepenings are
I hope not fallaciously discernible.
TO THE REV. JOHN COOPER.
Thornhill, near Toronto, Upper Canada,
Jan. 4, 1841.
My much endeared Friend,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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