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Untitled Article
traffickers that are the honourable of the earth . The times in which their fortune and influence have beeft acquired have hot demanded the renunciation of their faith and worship ; and the still growing liberality of the age Tiolds out a prospect of their continuance in their religious profession , and of their families being a counter-balance to the numerous secessions which in less propitious days weakened the Dissenters in political importance . It
may be thought to give some plausibility to this speculation , that there is at present as great a number of Protestant Dissenters in the House of Commons as have appeared there since the Revolution , and as marked a disposition in the House to listen with indulgence and respect to the Dissenting claims , whenever those claims are brought before the Legislature ; though it must be admitted , and the admission is not creditable to the Dissenters ,
that a Dissenting grievance is rarely ' represented even in the House of Commons , and never directl y and always faintly . Numerically , the Dissenters of England are an important body . No census has been taken of them , nor are there any tables of their congregations to which we can refer ; but they were many " years ago ^ computed by some of their well-informed leaders to consist of not less than two millions
of persons , and of late they have increased far beyond the ratio of the growth of the population of the country . Every Dissenter is a religious worshiper ; his character is derived from his place in some congregation . In common parlance , all that do not frequent meeting-houses are Churchmen . This , however , is a very unsatisfactory criterion of strength for the Church of England . The unclassed absentees from her communion consist of unbelievers and scoffers , of immoral men , of those that are indifferent to all
religion , and of the lowest orders of the people , whose ignorance and wretchedness incapacitate them for opinions and moral feelings , and banish them from all the assemblies of their decent and serious countrymen . Of those that attend the Established worship , multitudes are led by habit rather than by any preference for which they can assign a reason ; a considerable
number are disaffected to the political constitution , the discipline and the doctrines of the Church ; and not a few are accustomed to join occasionally and with approbation in the worship of some one or other of the numerous sects of Nonconformists . Measured by actual and stated attendance upon religious services , the number of Dissenters is equal to that of Churchmen ; and taking man for man we should say that the Dissenters form by far the
more active and influential part of society in the middle ranks of life . Amongst them religion is considered as a personal concern , and the terms of their communion , the style of their preaching , their forms and orders , and the spirit of their social intercourse , tend to interest the individual in the business of the party , and to excite him to zeal , and to move him to undertake his proportion of labour for the common object . The circumstance , besides , of his being relatively to his country and to a considerable number of his neighbours a Nonconformist , puts him of necessity into an attitude of defence , and obliges him to arm himself with texts and arguments . A sectary
( we use the word of course innocuously ) is likely to become a proselytist ; in some cases , he can defend himself only by carrying the war into the enemy ' s territories . In the degree that he is sensible of suffering injury for his opinions or worship , will self-interest prompt him to strengthen his own position by drawing over converts . Higher motives may also sway his mind , and he may feel it to be an imperative duty to promulgate what he believes to be divine truth , and to assert the claims of pure scriptural worship . From whatever cause it originates , the habit of thinking for himself , and of main-
Untitled Article
250 State of Religious Parlies in England .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 250, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/18/
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