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demn . I am solicitous that ihe clergy should free themseJves from attachment to part * ' ; that they should , indeed , be the loini&ers of Christ ; a . n , d as hiic . h , that they should nut withhold the censure
due 10 thobe who violate his precepts , to whatever party they may belong . And this appears to me to be mrre incumbent cm them , because 1 apprehend that many persons fotnx their principles of political and private morals ^ on very different grounds : naone
entertaining any value for character wil ] gravely defend a neighbour in the breach of aji ordinary precept ; but say that it is the duty , of our rulers to do Justly aad ta love mercy and we ape presently told that 6 k it may be very well in theory or , 4 ; how can they , when they have such a monster to con *
tead with ? " Let the Christian preacher inform his congregation , whether such instructions were given , to adorn our theory ^ or to jnend our practice ; and whether we are allowed to suspend their application , because others live in the ' violation of them !
Q But , " it will be said , < great delicacy must be felt with respect to a variety of topics , on which politicians are divided in opinion ; *|! Hi much difficulty would be found so to handle many of them , as to avoid au imputation of party , spirit , " The Bible , I reply , is not the creature e > f modern statesmen :
in preaching ifos doctrines you cann ^ therefore * befairly chargeable witj * party views ; $ nd as to inaputatipns which th <* uncandid may cyst upon you ., they cannot be tftkw ii > t <* the account ^ by
Chris-Uan oivw » i } $ : —indeed many of you hftve already proved your disre * g % )> l Qf thtfD , by the spirit with
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w ? hich you maintain your obnoxious controversies * Now I do nofc understand why a delicacy which you overlook for the sake of jlism puied articles of belief ^ should be held in so much reverence , when .
you are called upon , by the daily open and abomiuable departures from moral principles , in themselves undisputed and universally acknowledged , to be of fundamental importance .
But you aire aaxious to promote the spread of your several tenets , —thai your hearers shxmld be well-grounded in their religious opinions ; and here we come back to the point from whence we
started , that our disagreements are of less consequence than our agree , ments , opinions about which we differ than principles on which we are all agreed : and , recollect , that without these principles , no
one scheme about which you are so solicitous , is complete ; nor can it produce its intended effect , unless they are , as far as possible , acted upon implicitly . It may be a very good- maxim for an honest statesman , that
<* When vice prevails and impious man \ &w sway , " The poat of honour is a private station , " but I apprehend that a leader in the Christian warfare , should seek
his post where vice most prevails , for if he shu-ts his eyes to the vices of a court , or to the growing corruptions of a state , what is to counteract them ? What is to prevent them , under the combined
patronage of rank and fashion , wealth and power , from insinuating themselves , into the manners and habits even of yotyr own flocks ? Nay , has not this already taken place ? and m « mtt « -whrte >
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980 On the Ne ® e $ sitys of preaching against Political Immoralities ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1813, page 380, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2429/page/24/
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