On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
at the card-table , &x . " What ^ Sir ! do none but the profane and worthless frequent the card-table ? To admit this would he illiberal indeed . What a pity it is ^ that when a man wishes to defend his cause , he shoulS thus fly out of the track in
which it evidently liesj and hawl frightful objects in to set down to his adversary ' s account , in order that observers may fee terrified at the sight of them ! I presume that if a dissenting minister plays at cards , it will not be ^ nor need it be , with the worthless and profane , but perhaps with members of his own
society who are not so terribly afraid of this methodistica scare-crow . I love not the terms " holy function / 5 It ' suited well with the Bratnins , who would have the poor Indians believe that the divine knowledge was hidden in them . It suited welt the Pharisees and Scribes , who > while they loaded the vulgar with burdens hard to be borne , would not touch them wit h
one of their fingers . It is not amiss with our modern pharisees , who > both in ecclesiastical and civil matters , will preacfe ** that the people have nothing to do with the laws but to © bey them / ' But , Sir ^ it suits not me , who slip a dissenting teacher , I love to be considered as a man amongst men ^ chosen to advise because I am supposed to have a little more know * ledge than the mass of my congregation : but I cannot bear that any degree of sanctity should be connected with my office ; for if there is , I am sure there will soon be a degree of reverence attached to my person , and more or less of that blind ' sub- *
mission and implicit faith which the immaculate representative of Christ in St . Peter's chair has , till of late , persuaded the wide Christian world to admit of . I do not , therefore , like to affect any degree of sanctimony that every one of my society ought not also to exhibit . As truth , in respect of . virtuous practice ^ can be but one , my congre g ation ought every one of them to be as virtuous as myself * nor am I required to be more virtuous than they . If then occasionally to frequent the card-table is Tiotto be virtuous , the same law forbids both them and myself
from sitting down to it . But if virtue be not offended by an innocent indulgence—if virtue permit the small gratification of 4 t counting red and black spots on pieces of paper / ' then are both they and I at liberty to join the social band , and thus to pass the social evening . *
From time immemorial , there has been what is called the p arson ' s game / ' Even the parties that are the most rigid in their avoidance of conformity to the world , and those who have attached the highest degree of sanctity and veneration to the parson ' s character , have thought it no harm that a dissenting-mi- * nislcr should sit down to the backgammon-table , and spend an hour or two m rattling the dice : and where is the super-eminent
Untitled Article
646 On Dissenting Ministers playing at Cards .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1806, page 646, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1731/page/30/
-