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Untitled Article
office of a bishop , and in this desires , as disinterestedly as man can , a good work . * A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid ; ' and men did formerly look to see the good work , with such appliances to boot , prospering in their hands . But oh ! how poor the labour , though so rich the pay ! How basely have they spurned the labour , which the slightest portion of that love for the people which ought to dwell in their hearts , would have made them eager to perform . They have put forth a prayer calling cholera what we have no reason to believe it was ; what it would have been most unjust if it had been , since it attacked almost exclusively the wretched poor ; what has proved an invaluable blessing hitherto in exciting , from selfish motives , an active interference to remove filth and -dirt , and establish cleanly habits amongst the lower ranks . They have witnessed the most scandalous abuses of church property in all cases of plurality , in almost all cases of non-residence , in the existence of profligate clergymen , and they have done all in their
power to remedy the evils , i . e . in the estimation of competent judges they have put every impediment in the way of ; removing abuses ; and all their measures have thwarted the wishes of the people to have some duty done for the public property , which the legislature appropriated to the support of the ministers of the Protestant faith . In the public form of prayer , every thing that is antiquated , every thing that is ridiculous , every thing that is anti-scriptural , every thing that substitutes Jewish devotion with all its exclusive appropriation of divine goodness , with all its execrative prayers upon enemies whom Christ commands us to love , with all its local prejudices , and with all its earthly bearings
—is retained . And while the priest piously exclaims , * I am like a pelican of the wilderness ; ' the clerk and people devoutly respond , * I am like a sparrow on the house-top . ' Why then not add the beard to the wig , and resemble Aaron , down whose beard the oil flowed , and in whose official character there is something much more like a modern bishop than in Paul , Peter , or any of that humble tribe . Kven the falsehoods with which this pious farrago is sprinkled , they have not had the industry , or the honesty to expunge , and though the nation pays millions annually to have all done in a manner worthy a great nation , the most damnatory creed still retains the name of Athanosius , who is known not to have composed it . The confession of the fraud would endanger the doctrine ; else the labour would not be great , which would accomplish this piece of common honesty . But what this book of common prayer is , we shall take another opportunity to show . The bishops of the present race do preach more frequently than has been their wont , and the fashionable world which witnesses this effect of condescending love , gives considerable eclat to every instance of their zeal v But the office seems to put a damp upon fill literary emulation * a } l spontaneous iijteyectuality , all effort * U >
Untitled Article
472 Wliai constitutes a Bishop ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 472, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/40/
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