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people , the Scotch pay much more attention to the duties of religion than do the English , and are in their respective parishes far more attentive to the instructions of their clergy , and more affectionately attached to them .
than are the people in our parishes . Two leading circumstances may explain this . The mode of paying the clergy in Scotland is not so obnoxious as '' the ' mode that has been adopted in England ; and the clergy being provided for only according to their necessities and their comforts , and
compelled to do every one his own duty without the help of underlings , there is a stricter attention to the duties of the ministerial office amongst the clergy of Scotland , than there is amongst the clergy of England . These , perhaps , may be sufficient reasons why the Methodists have not succeeded in Scotland to the same extent
as they have succeeded in England . Perhaps I may add , the body of the people are better instructed there than here , and have not a taste for the kind of services which the Methodists offer
them I am acquainted with a serious , piou £ and laborious minister of the Church of England , in Lincolnshire , who but lately boasted that , although the Methodists had made three bold
pushes to form n society in his parish , they had completely failed , while they had succeeded in the parishes around j and the cause is distinct enough in the attention that gentleman pays to his clerical duties , and the high respect in which lie is held by all the
individuals in his parish . They love their minister so well , that they do not wish for any other . And those bishops have certainly j ^ i ven the best advice to their assembled clergy , who have told them , that if they would maintain
the dignity and the respectability of their rank , and prevent the Dissenters from making encroachments upon their territories , it is only to be done by a conscientious discharge of their
duties as parish priests . These , however , are generally little attended to : the Church is merely a life estate of an indefinite value : every one will , of course ,- make the best he can of it , and will leave to his unknown
successor to fight his own battles . There is a point of view , however , in which the two countries , although supplied with a state religion from
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somewhat different sources , are in respect of general character much more alike than is generally known . The ambiguity of the thirty-nine articles , &c , which has enabled the learned . Bishop of Lincoln to demonstrate that Calvinism is not the religion
of the Church of England ^ has also pat it into the power of a very respectable clergyman of his owfi diocese —not to disprove what the bishop has written , but—to prove also that Calvinism is the religion of the Church of England , in all its strictness . The reason is evident : for when I he
constitution of the church was drawn up , it was accomplished by men of moderate feelings , who were anxious to include the two strong-parties within its pale , in order to prevent any great and destructive schism ; therefore they employed language of a doubtful character , and placed some of the notions as checks and balances to others which
might have given offence , A man , therefore , may well be a Calvinist who is a member of the Church of England , and he may just as well be an Arminian . Indeed , since Dr . Paley
has so liberally supplied apologies for subscription , a man may hold almost any opinions , and still be a member of the Church of England . Hence the fact is not doubted , that there are a considerable number of Arians and
Unitarians in our Church . There does not appear to be so great a latitude in the Catechism of the Kirk , and yet it is an equally notorious fact , that a very large proportion of the clergy of the Church of Scotland are not Calvinists , nor any thing like
Calvmists . They are not , indeed , shackled by a set of prayers , creeds and ascriptions of praise , which they are compelled to read every sabbath day ; therefore , on the supposition that a man conscientiously subscribed to the Catechism when he was taken into
orders , his views of things may change afterwards * and he may continue to preach in the Church without any violation of his conscience , only by avoiding to bring forward those subjects on which he would be liable to
commit himself . And , indeed , I do not see why our northern brethren may not find as many reasons for signing the Catechism , as we can " find for signing the-thirty-nine articles . I cannot say at what period more
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324 271 * Prevalence of Vnitarianismm Scotland .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1818, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2476/page/36/
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