1820.

Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine:

FOR FEBRUARY, 1822.

BIOGRAPHY.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE CHARACTER OF

THE LATE REV. JOSEPH BENSON :

BY JABEZ BUNTING.

(Continued from page 13.)

II. IN reference to the public character of MR. BENSON, as a Minister of CHRIST, I deem it necessary to mention the following particulars.

1. He was "a scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven," and able to "bring forth out of his treasure things new and old." Of him it may truly be said, that he was "mighty in the Scriptures; with which, in their original languages, he was familiarly conversant. With the Greek Testament, especially, he was accurately acquainted. He frequently quoted it, even in social conversations, on subjects of Divinity; and often happily availed himself, in the pulpit, of the illustrations suggested to him by his critical knowledge of its peculiar beauties and idioms. He was well skilled in every branch of Systematic and Polemical Theology. His opinions were the same, on all great doctrinal questions, with those which are well known as characterizing the living ministry and printed works of MR. WESLEY and MR. FLETCHER. These he firmly believed to be revealed in the Holy Scriptures; and for the authority of that Volume, convinced as he was of its divinity and inspiration, he had a profound reverence. Its testimony, once ascertained, he allowed not himself, for a moment, to question or to modify. He viewed it as "the judgment of God's mouth;" and had acquired the all-important habit of bowing at once to its decisions. At a very early period, indeed, of his ministry, there was one doctrine of Christianity which, for a time, he was disposed, (in consequence of having read a book which speculates, perhaps unwarrantably, on certain "deep things of Gop,") not to deny, VOL. I. Third Series. FEBRUARY, 1822.

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but to explain in a particular manner, partaking more of human refinement than of scriptural simplicity and soundness. This, however, was but a temporary perplexity; and he was afterwards distinguished by his peculiarly correct and decided views of every point connected with that awful subject.* The tribute so honourably paid in this place, by DR. ADAM CLARKE, on the day of his interment, to

It is probable that MR. BENSON was at first inclined to favour the speculations, to which I refer, under the notion that some part of the difficulty connected with the established system of faith, respecting the Divine Essence, might thus be evaded, and the objections of gainsayers more easily and triumphantly repelled. It is in this way, as it appears to me, that other great men, in various ages of the church, have been unawares led into dangerous theories. Nothing, however, can be more hopeless, than to attempt to serve the cause of orthodox Christianity by such explanations of its mysteries as are adopted on purpose to conciliate the prejudices of Infidels or of Socinians. The objections of such men to the doctrines which we hold sacred, go to the very root of the matter; and are not to be successfully resisted by concessions on minor points. Undoubtedly, all concessions which are demanded by truth, ought at once to be fearlessly made; but they should be made only because they seem agreeable to the Scriptures, not, because they will please our theological opponents. Writers who set out on the latter principle, that of lessening the difficulty of a particular doctrine by explanations of it less offensive to its adversaries than those usually given by its advocates, are in the utmost peril of being led to concessions inconsistent with the truth they mean to serve, and which their keen-sighted antagonists do not fail to seize and to magnify, as admissions which betray a consciousness of weakness, and indicate an approaching discomfiture. Under the influence of such a desire to render some revealed fact or doctrine more palatable, the plain testimony of God's Word is inadvertently overlooked, or twisted into a meaning which does not naturally and fairly belong to it. And the result of the conciliating process often is, that, while not one principled gainsayer is for a moment staggered, much less converted, the sincere but too compromising friend of truth is led, in the eagerness of debate, to use unguarded and mischievous expressions; and is enumerated, however wrongfully, by the boastful disciples of error, among the favourers of their heterodoxy. Perhaps it was in this way that the learned and pious Author of the Book which occasioned the early perplexities of MR. BENSON, as stated in the passage to which this note is appended, exposed himself to those imputations of a leaning towards Socinianism, for which, I hope, there was no solid foundation in his actual sentiments. The examples of such men are, in this respect, highly monitory.In reference to MR. BENSON, I am happy to communicate an instructive fact, which has come to my knowledge, since the Sketch of his Character was delivered from the pulpit. It was during the time when MR. BENSON was engaged in completing the unfinished Work of Mr. Fletcher, in answer to DR. Priestley, that he was led to perceive, clearly and fully, the unscriptural and dangerous character of those refinements, to which he had before inclined. When he came to look at the subject in all its aspects and bearings, he saw that the Divinity of our LORD, which he always believed to be a scriptural verity, could not be maintained against so acute an assailant, without the complete abandonment of his former explanatory and conciliatory speculations;-and he did completely and for ever abandon them, and successfully defended the old doctrine in the old sense, the sense in which the Catholic Church has held it from the beginning. And it will, probably, be found, (after all the abuse which a dogmatizing arrogance, falsely calling itself by the name of "liberality" and " independence," has lavished on ancient Creeds and Confessions of Faith,) that the old sense is that which alone fully embodies the

his pre-eminence as a profound and able Divine, I have heard, in terms equally strong and unqualified, from the lips of no incompetent judges, who do not belong to our own Connexion.-One of his excellencies, as a Theologian, is well described in the following extract of a letter from an aged Minister in our Body,-himself known to his intimate friends as distinguished by the strict and discriminating accuracy of his theological views:-"He had a mind capable of embracing the whole analogy of faith, and at the same time of minutely analyzing it. He readily discerned where truth, pushed beyond its proper limits, verged on error. At the same time, his heart, influenced by the HOLY SPIRIT, received that truth in all its power, so that it became in him a living and operative principle. Hence his expositions of the Scriptures were clear, distinct, and full; while his applications to the consciences and hearts of his hearers were powerfully, and sometimes irresistibly impressive, and reminded me often of the most pointed parts in the works of RICHARD BAXTER. He was indeed a burning and a shining light."

I will only add, on this article, that when, two days before his death, I asked MR. BENSON, if I should say to the CONFERENCE, that the great truths of the Gospel, which he had so long preached to the People, and enforced on the Preachers, were now, in his dying views, as important and valuable as heretofore;-he most energetically replied, "YES, O YES! YES!"

2. MR. BENSON, as a Preacher, had perhaps fewer faults, and more excellencies, than ordinarily fall to the lot of one servant of CHRIST, however gifted. His ministry of the word was soundly evangelical; but guarded against antinomian perversions of the Gospel with a remarkable degree of anxiety, for which the part he bore, in early life, in transactions connected with certain theological controversies, will naturally account, and which the tendency, even yet discoverable in some part of the professing world, to run into such perversions, may go far to justify. CHRIST should be preached boldly and freely; but he should also be preached fully and consistently, in all his offices, as a SAVIOUR from sin, as well as from hell. His ministry was scriptural, not metaphysically subtle, nor modishly sentimental. His subjects, arguments, and illustrations, were all derived from the Book of which he was called to be the expounder to his hearers; and, even among scriptural topics, he was religiously scrupulous to select those which were most important, and most suited to the state and necessities of the people.— His ministry was, as to its manner, plain, but dignified. He paid little attention to the mere graces and elegancies of style. But he positive revelations of Scripture, and which best enables us to guard, on all points alike, the sacred deposit of evangelical truth. It is the peculiar characteristic of the "armour of righteousness," that it defends us at once" on the right hand and on the left."