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West India proprietors to ' * take measures themselves voluntarily" for the gradual extinction of the opprobrious and an * Christian traffic 13 The appointment of clergymen for the instruction of the negroes is strongly urged upon the colonies . The second section shews the beneficial influence of
Christianity in all the great and important concerns of civil and social life . In the articleof [ government its operation has been highly useful and salutary , by inculcating the respective duties of governors and th § governed . The Pagan governments' fex
cepting those of Greece and Rome ) were ferociously despotic . In the freest states no true " , gettujfife , equal liberty was maintained i their provinces were continually exposed to plunder , rapine , &c . &c . The laws of the ancient governments were in many instances unjust , sdilguinary , and c ~ ruel , and the administration of them no less parti at and corrupt . The utmost venality prevailed even iti their highest \ courts of justice \ In all these great article ' s of civil policy , the' infinite siiperioritv of our own GovEMMNT admits of no question , and this is iC owing to the influence which the spirit of Christianity has
had on our civil constitution ( with which it is closely and essentially incorporated and interwoven ) , and on the temper of our governors i !" -r—Christians have an advantage over Pagans with
respect to war , vvhich is not now founded on " the diabolical principle of vengeance , " or carried on with < c vindictive and implacable Jury / ' the desire of which is not " the predominant passion , the general turn and temper of the present age , " which is seldom begun wantonly and injuriously , and whicii is generally accompanied by a mutual disposition , on all sides , to soften and alleviate its evils . In a note , the Bishop is anxious to explain that l ^ e excepts the country <* where Christianity is
extinguished , and philosophy substituted in its room , " from these observations ; for " there you immediately see all the savageness of ancient paganism /'—The Gospel has put a stop to human sacrifices . Xhe author closes his remarks upon this topic with language which will almost satisfy the methodistic part of the clergy , in the diocese of London , that their Jiight Reverend Father in God is evangahcaL
What a picture does this present to us of human nature unsubdued by grace , and of human reason ( that is , of natural religion , or , as it is now by the courtesy of the times called , philosophy ) unassisted byfevelation . " In the third and last section the Bishop endeavours to obviate jhe objection , that " ihese happy changes are owing solely to the benign influence of a humane philosophy 9 znd ihe gradual improvements of the human mind . " How comes it to pass ,
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JBishop Portends Pamphlet * 375
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1806, page 375, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1726/page/39/
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