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Untitled Article
ing attack upon our Protestant establishments , it is surely better for us , ray reverend brethren , to examine ourselves and see if there be not some ground for condplaint ; some abuse which , while the consciousness of it weakens the hands of our best friends , furnishes our adversaries with a ready point of attack . To this , if an enlightened judgment does not guide us , the clstmctfr of our
opponents certainly will ; for , what is the point against which the assault is at present addressed ? It is not against the doctrinal orthodoxy of our church ; for of this many of our opponents are ' satisfied , while it is a subject about which others &re ' philosophically , indifferent ; neither is it against the tnoral char&ctet of
our clergy , for excepting where it serves the purposes of party to traduce it , this is universally admitted ; but it is against our tethporalities . And this is precisely the point on which it must be most painful to a delicate and conscientious minister of Christ to be put on the defensive . He can bear the contradiction of sinners against himself , because it was the trial to which his blessed Master was
exposed ; he can bear the scoff of the infidel and the sneer of the ungodly on the score of his personal holiness ; he can even bear that his good name should suffer a temporary eclipse , for he knows that the Lord shall yet bring forth his righteousness to light , and his judgment as the noon-day . But the suspicion of covetousness , the imputation of the love of filthy lucre , the base " idea that for silver and gold he should hinder the gospel , —there is something here , from which the minister of Christ should revolt with horror . He should say , u Perish the dross for ever ,
rather than that it should prove a stumbling-block , or cause one weak brother to offend ! " Yes ; better perish the temporalities ; better that we should return , naked as we came out ; that we should stand up to day in the land in our pristine poverty ^ without purse or scrip ; that we should suffer all things ; than that we should hinder the gospel of Christ .
* It was in this spirit that the Apostle spake , " Nevertheless , we have not used this power , but suffer all things , lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ . " Paul magnified the power , he demonstrated his claim to temporal provision , as a preacihler of the gospel : but how great was his self-denial 1 How honourably '
did he appeal to his own disinterestedness ! *• I have coveted no man ' s silver or gold , or apparel ; yea , ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my necessities , " &c . Such Was Paul ' s glorying ! Yea , and he counted it better for him to die , than that any man should make his glorying void !
• And yet , it is for the contrary to all this , that we are assailed ,, and are most assailable 1 For it is here , in which we have most departed from apostolic purity ; in which we have least followed Paul , as he followed Christ . The great bod y of the parochial clergy may , indeed , not be obnoxibus to this charge . They may regret the difficulty in which they are sometimes placed , between
Untitled Article
566 Signs of ifie Times .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 566, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/62/
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