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Untitled Article
ritualists have said , " Let the potsherds of the earth strive together . " One of them , a quaint writer not long ago deceased , who had considerable power in the religious world , wrote a treatise on what is called amongst " Evangelical" persons , Backsliding , and along with other symptoms of backsliding described by the author , who well knew what would exalt his own reputation for sanctity , is set down " an eager attention to politics . ' ' This un-english and
unmanly sentiment has been kept up mainly of late by the extraordinary passion that has prevailed for foreign missions ; which being in some measure dependent upon the government for the time being , have led their supporters to court the favour of ministers of state by assuming the character of government-men . The Bible Society may also have tended the same way . The leaders in this institution have been from the first exceedingly ambitious of
the patronage of the great , and have accordingly flattered them by declamation opon the influence of the Bible in promoting loyalty ; by which is always meant upon anniversary platforms a devotedness to the will of the reigning party in the State . Many of the active Dissenters have , we know , secretly disapproved of this temper and these practices , but have remained silent lest they should provoke dissension and throw a stumbling-block in the way of " Evangelical" schemes .
A little reflection would , we think , satisfy the most zealously religious Dissenters that nothing is really gained to the cause of religion by the abandonment of patriotism . They do not think it necessary to close their shops or counting-houses , or to throw up their farms , for the sake of spiritual attainments ; and is it the proof of a more worldly mind to pursue public than private and selfish ends ? The money-getting spirit is tolerated amongst the warmest professors of sanctity , and it is hard that a generous zeal for the
good government of a community and the temporal interests of posterity should be alone stigmatized and marked with reprobation . St . Paul did not judge it inconsistent with his apostleship to assert his rights as a Roman citizen , and to demand satisfaction for wrongs inflicted upon him by insolent and tyrannical magistrates : and the best of the Puritans and early
Nonconformists , who were sufficiently spiritually-minded , regarded it as no impeachment of their Christian character to watch the proceedings of rulers , to guard their civil rights , and to make conscience of their political duties . They saw clearly enough that all misgovernment has an immoral influence upon a people ; that the doctrine of passive obedience holds out a temptation to bad laws , and that the habit of non-resistance is an invitation of
oppression ; that the reformation of religion is helped by all other reforms ; that every man has a deep interest in every other man ' s liberty ; and that , as John Milton , the purest and noblest of the first race of Nonconformists , has expounded his sense of Christian politics , " Any law against conscience is alike in force against any conscience . " In spite of casuistry and hypocrisy , the Dissenters must know , for all the world knows , that whilst they maintain consistency of character and cherish the spirit of Nonconformity , they never can be favourites with the Hi ghused tools
Church and Tory party m lireat Jbntam . lney may De as ; Dut the baser the work in which they suffer themselves to be employed , the sooner will they be thrown away when the work is done . The high Protestant principle asserted b y the Dissenters is naturally looked upon with jealousy , if not with hatred , by the enemies of public liberty . This party see with instinctive sagacity that all men of independent opinions and character are their opponents , and that there is an inseparable connexion between civil and religious freedom * They are not deceived because they
Untitled Article
State of Religious Parties in England . 253
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 253, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/21/
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