Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon

It is at the particular desire of my much beloved and respected friend, Mr. Cams, by whom this Memoir was prepared, as well as from my great veneration for the character and labors of Mr. Simeon, that I have connected myself with the American edition of this truly edifying work. I know it will seem to any one who is acquainted with the extensive reputation of Mr. Simeon, among all descriptions of Evangelical Christians, and with his eminent usefulness during the many years of his devoted ministry, that a Memoir of him, and that prepared by a writer so nearly associated with him, while he lived, and so particularly competent to appreciate, and exJiibit, his character, now that he is gone, might well have been committed to the American press without the alliance of any additional name. An edition of three thousand copies in England, to begin with, shows what acceptance booksellers expect of it there, where the name of Simeon is identified in the minds.of hundreds of thousands of devout persons, in the Established Church, and among the Dissenting Churches, with all that is spiritually minded in personal character, and all that is admirable in the labors of a fervent and faithful minister of Christ.

It is not in the least from any Mea that the Memoir of that man of Grod can be materially aided in its circulation in this country, by my name going with it, that I am led to place it on the title page. Personal feeling has a great deal to do with the matter. The strong affection and reverence which I entertained for Mr. Simeon, while he was spared to the Church on earth, to afford us so eminent an example of the man who, according to the prayer of

St. Paul,* is “filled with the knowledge of God’s will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strength-^ ened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness f my admiration of what the grace of God made him in his office, a most single-minded, unwearied, undaunted, patient, wise, successful minister of the Grospel, induces me fondly to embrace this opportunity of rendering a heart-tribute to his memory. But in doing this, there is a strong auxiliary motive. It arises out of the humiliating controversy which, since the death of Mr. Simeon, has spread through the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in this country, (not to speak of its appearance, under a somewhat different guise, among other Christian communions,) unsettling the foundations of Gospel truth, bringing the great principles and the blessed fruits of the Protestant Reformation into contempt, till many have “turned away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables.” In view of all the reproach which the active promoters of these poisonous issues are continually casting upon evangelical views and measures, I feel great pleasure in doing homage to the ministry of Mr. Simeon. In all his views and feelings, and public work — in his whole constitution as a follower of Christ, as a theologiarl, as a preacher of the word; as a man laboring in every way to do good, and save the souls of men — lie was a most concentrated example of that in a minister, which the genius of Tractarianism most reviles and most earnestly labors to exterminate. What was meant by f7/^7’a-Protestant in the earlief developments of that 7ioic almost acknowledged Romanism, and what is now meant by Protestant in its later more honest avowals, may be seen in full manifestation, and may be accurately appreciated in Mr. Simeon. For the monstrous thing intended to be held up to public reprobation under the name, at first, of Ultra-Protestant, was not, as many were willing to suppose, the man of violent extremes in divinity, so fond of a few isolated points of Protestant faith as to reduce all other matters of religion into nonentity beside them; running away with

Coloesians i*, 9 — 11.

a few abstract questions of speculative importance, till the great matters of personal holiness were overlooked, and the Sacraments of Christ, and the ritual order of the Church, were treated with neglect Such men, if found in the Established Church of England, were too few to constitute a class, and too inconsiderable to be the objects of such a zealous crusade. It was a much more injBuential description of ministers, and I am happy to say, a much more numerous array, that excited an opposition so unsparing in the minds of Tractarians. It was the consistent follower of the Reformers; it was the man who most nearly walked in the steps, and enforced the doctrines, of those holy men who, at the expense of their lives, were God’s instruments in cleansing the* religion of England from the corruptions of Popery; it was the consistent holder and teacher of the Articles of the Church of England, referring himself, according to those Articles, for authority in matters of faith exclusively to the Scriptures, and utterly rejecting from all claim to the right of determining his cred, the writings or traditions of men; it was the man whose preaching was continually holding forth Christ, and not the Church, as the sinner’s refuge — the spirit of Christ, and not the offices of his ministers, as the sinner’s sanctification — the fruits of the Spirit in our habitual walk, and not the receiving of sacraments, as the only valid evidence of spiritual regeneration, and of all Christian character; it vras the man who drew a broad line between experimental religion and the relion of ordinances merely, keeping outward things in an outward place, and aiming, above all things, at the promotion, in the sinner’s heart, of a personal, direct living, by faith, upon Christ, for all hope and all holiness, suffering no human ministry, no sacraments, or rites, to have any part in mediating between his soul and his Saviour; yea, it was the mai in whom alj this was exhibited so completely and so earnestly, in the pulpit, at the fireside, in all his conversation, in all his writings, as in the fervent Simeon, that was the denounced Ultra-Protestant of the earlier Tractarian writings, and is now, under whatever name, the utter aversion of their disciples. Thus do I obtain the additional satisfaction in introducing this Memoir of Mr. Simeon, to the American reader.

I take pleasure in the opportunity of reiterating my protest against what I abhor. more and more, as the covert denial of the Gospel, and the very soul of the Romish Anti-Christ, by holding up such a character, such religious views, and such a ministry as his, for the imitation of all who, in the private walk of true piety, or the great duties of the Grospel-ministry, would glorify God and advance the salvation of men.

My attention was just now arrested by an expression of the learned Dr. Burgess, late Bishop of Salisbury, when near his end, as illustrating, in a few words, the leading peculiarity of those religious views, of which Mr. Simeon’s ministry was a constant expression, in contrast with tJiat system of manifold error mentioned above.

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