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    more than in the mother-country , during the same period , and where it is probably destined to flourish greatly beyond the English example . Of this there can be no doubt , if it thrives henceforth as it has done heretofore ; for , under the presidency of a single prelate , still in the effective performance of all the duties of a good bishop , and a good citizen , the American Church of England , without a particle of political support , has , as we have seen , extended itself . Within a few years a

    million of pounds sterling were appropriated by Parliament , on the special recommendation of the crown of Great Britain , for the repair and construction of churches ; with views , doubtless , to political as much as to religious consequences . I venture to predict , that , within the period to elapse from that appropriation to its expenditure , a larger sum of money will have been raised in the United States by voluntary subscriptions , and expended for similar purposes , and to greater effect / —p . 61—65 .

    Time has already amply verified the predictions of the orator . By the ' American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year 1831 / we find that in seven years the ten dioceses had become fifteen ; the three hundred and fifty clergymen had increased to five hundred and twenty-eight ; for one theological seminary there are two ; and though the number of churches be not included in the return , we cannot but infer that

    they bear some proportion to the other indications of prosperity . Is not this a more creditable , a more useful and happy condition than that of the same church in Great Britain , dishonoured and crippled by the treasures which it exacts from a reluctant , disgusted , and increasingly-disaffected nation ? And this prosperity is shared in common with other forms of Christianity . Jt is a part of the general progress of religion .

    They all * increase , and multiply , and replenish the earth . * The Church of England ought to be compared , not merely with episcopalianism in America , but with what may be called the American Church , —by which we mean the aggregate of religious denominations in the United States , considered as forming one whole—a great , free , prosperous , rich , mighty , and growing church , utitaxing and untaxed , which yields efficient support to

    the order of society , and diffuses intelligence , piety , and morality through the population . The hireling shepherd may wish to draw a veil over the picture ; but what say the sheep to it ? What are rich livings and lordly honours in the opposite balance , even without the weight , which yet must be thrown into the scale , of public opprobrium and indignation ?

    The Church of England , as a church , has not fair play . Its honest members and ministers are * swamped * by the flood of those who belong to its communion from interested motives , and who change what might , perhaps , be its fair and fertile fields into a corrupt and stagnant marsh . The blight is on it of aristocracy , sycophancy ' , and cupidity . Its sincere friends * if they tvill but open their eyes , must see that there is but one hope for it ,

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    122 Religion Without Taxation .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 122, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/50/