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    are indebted for all we possess of English freedom . But I must acknowledge at the same time , that I have been disap * pointed in them . Many of those that have taken the lead in the churches to which I have belonged , appeared to me to be ignorant of the very grounds of dissent , and might for ought I could perceive , have been equally well elders in the church of Scotland , churchwardens in the church of England , or wardens and stewards among the Jews . I have met with some ministers

    who were ignorant of the Test and Corporation Acts , and others who haye said that they were measures of precaution against

    Arians and Socimaus . To Dissenting ministers as a body , I do not impute wholly the ignorance of their people with respect to their character and profession , for I have observed that discourses on the right of private judgment , are generally heard with listlessness , and complained of as not evangelical . No sooner is a sermon on this subject delivered in an Orthodox

    congregation , than one brother exclaims , "Ah ! I wish our pastor would dwell less upon the reason of man , and more uppn . the power of the Saviour ! " and another adds , * f I fe $ r that our dear brother so and so who sits under a gospel ministry in the church , will be offended at our minister ' s sentiments ; I

    wish he would leave these things alone ; I never knew any good come of them ! " In this manner a minister is ferreted out of his honesty , and must either stifle his sentiments , or starve . Never , to the latest hour of my life , shall I forget hearing an amiable and respectable minister , after having delivered an able discourse on the nature of the kingdom of Christ , reproached

    by a low-minded , purse-proud deacon , or as Robert Robinson would have said a Lord-deacon , a species of officer known only in congregational churches , —reproached , Sir , by this creature which had crawled from nothing into wealth by political obsequiousness , and had thriven by clandestine jobs and accommodations with the prime minister of the day—rby him reproached for having dirtied his hands with politics ! !

    It is curious to observe in what manner some persons among the Dissenters use the term politics , as if it meant not the observance and study of public men and public measures in gene ~ ral , but attachment to one particular set of men and measures . Thus , to censure and oppose the reigning administration , is to

    be political , to support and flatter them , whether ri g ht or wrong , is not so . He that in the pulpit describes the duties and explains the responsibility of magistrates , even though these topics come upon him in the regular course of interpreting scrip ? ture , meddles with politics ; but he does not who insists upon tl > e divine ordination and awful prerogatives of * f the power *}

    Untitled Article

    126 On the Study of Politics .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1806, page 126, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1722/page/14/