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promote the real welfare of society . It places them above the speculum , whence the evils that spread around can be properly viewed . The present Bishop of London has left his iEschylus unfinished . His elevation has prevented the finishing this useful contribution to the classical literature of our country , and he has put forth a diatribe about the keeping of the Sabbath , which would have come more fitly in the same style , in the same erroneous and limited view of the subject , from some flaming zealot puffed up with the amens of the conventicle ; but the assumption of power which his lordship possesses not , which no title now can give any man , shows the absurd tendency of the existence of an office as weak and useless as it is vain , ostentatious and expensive .
But the disposition of the order ,, the spirit which actuates them as a body , the damning proof that they exist for themselves and their makers ,, and not for the public good , has lately come out . The reform bill invited their co-operation ; it was the darling of the intelligent—the country cried for it with an eagerness not to be resisted , with an authority not to be despised with impunity . And the bishops , who are the ministers of peace , whose professed doctrine breathes peace on earth and good will to man , and liberty to the captive , and holiness to the Lord , and the putting away the old man of the flesh with the affections and lusts ; these bishops in the first attempt—it is well known , it will never be forgotten , it will never be forgiven—cast out the bill . In that one deed they sealed their own condemnation . They can never face the nation again . The veil is taken away . Over each episcopal throne we may now write , or we may soon legally write , * Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin . ' A bishop will hereafter be a
byword , and a term of reproach . What more irrefragable proof can be given than their own conduct ? If the public papers in this instance relate the truth , with one consent they have laid aside their silk aprons , and their ample wigs , and appear like other gentlemen ! Alas ! how art thou fallen ! O Lucifer ! Lay aside the apron and the wig ! Why what are they ? Where is their glory ? Did fear compel this voluntary resignation of insignia , which they had been bowing , and cringing , and pamphleteering , and some of them more honourably striving to gain ? Did they wish to escape the notice of an indignant people ? Where is their spirit of martyrdom ? Where the dignity of such language , * I am ready to be offered up ; ' ' I can endure all things ; I glory in tribulation V Conscience is a brazen wall , and a consciousness of studying the welfare of the people would ^ arm and even protect then ? far better than the sneaking deposition of their wigs and aprons . The plea has been advanced , that as members of the legislative body , they were bound to give a conscientious vote for the good of the nation . Let us then see what kind of conscience episcopal dignity forms . What they were implored to vote against was the
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Tf ^ hat constitutes a J&ishop ? 473
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No . 67 . A . 2 M s > . ; : ¦
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 73, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/41/
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