On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
fesred by the Reviewer against the Unitarians ; one extract will shew how well-prepared Servetus is to meet them . < c Our preaching is political . This reproach does really exceed all that 1 could' have conceited of the powers of
fate . Ydu happen to light on a sermon of a political cast by Mr . Madge , of Norwich * ( a young minister singularly distinguished by rhe spiritual fervour of his general pulpit eloquence , ) and you observe , * This is what we must look for from Unitarians . When we find
controversy substituted for religion , [ Paul ' s disputing at Athens was , it seems , no religion , ] we may naturally expect faction for politics . ' Meaning by faction , as appears from the rest of your quotation , a disapprobation of what are called Holy
Alliances . Perhaps , Sir , you will inform me what occasion of political preaching has ever been let slip by the ministers of your schism ? What address or petition to the King or the National Council has ever been agitated without
Your pulpit , drum ecclesiastic , Being beat with fist instead of a stick ? Is it not a fact as palpable as * the sun is visible at noon-day , ' thai you have absolutely thinned your churches , and disgusted both the rich and the poor of your congregations , who , when * hungering after the bread of life , ' have been dieted
on the froth of your whipt loyalty and the cream Of your time-serving adulation ? * The hustings of Westminster , ' indeed !» Do you know how many fathers of families have stayed at home , and read Seeker or Paley to their children , that they might escape the Sibylline furor of your party spirit , sucked from the leaves of
the Courier newspaper ? The hypocrisy of your charge is only equalled by its diverting simplicity . You have no dislike to political preaching in itself ; but the polities must be of your own dictation . It consists with the duties of a preacher to palliate and uphold the art and mystery of governing by a systematic
violation of the laws of the constitution , or to brand Dissenters ( whom , though you court them with a fawning show of liberality to serve a purpose of persecution , you yet both fear and hate ) as turbulent schismatics and sowers of sedition ; but foe must not say a word of those great
cardinal maxims of civil , and religious freedom , which speak unto . us--from-the ashes of English martyrs , or the * gory bed ' - of patriots who died ' for . liberty . The former is to inculcate the ' fearing God and honouring the King ; ' the latter i ? j to preach fdet&on . C € The secret is , that the preachers of
Untitled Article
your school have adopted with ap proba tion as an- axiom the inference of Ronsseau , which so many other infidels have echoed , and which , perhaps , has been , and stiU is , a principal cause of their being infidels , —that * the spirit of the gospel is favourable to tyrants , and that true Christians are form ed for slaves :
How utterly repugnant such a notion is to the genius of that religion of which the earliest promulgators were distinguished by their * boldness , ' is satisfactorily shewn by £ > r . Leechman , in his Discourse on * the Excellency of the spirit of Christianity / As a
Presbyterian he had , indeed , some fond notions of liberty , incompatible with the notkms of a true Episcopalian ; and his alleging it to be a mistake that God , by the propitiation through Christ , was rendered merciful and placable when he was otherwise before , for that * it is so far fron > being the cause of the divine mercy that
it is the effect of it , ' will not recommend his authority to you in other matters ; but , as he comes within the pale of your (' general church , ' which differs on these all-important points , ' and is yet a true church , though the Nazareans , so differing , stand convicted of being a false church , I shall press on your consideration an extract from the above discourse :
c Whenever this superiority to the fear of man and the fear of temporal evils and . dangers flows from the principles of the gospel , it is accompanied with a noble , freedom and independence of soul that can \ never dwell with mean and slavish principles : "—Pp . 85—i > 0 .
The Reviewer has provoked inquiry into the character and merits of Bishop Horsley . " It may seem extraordinary that you > Sir , who seldom speak of the actual church without a hint at slumbering prelacy , or at ' spiritual wickedness in high places , ' should best aw such pompous
eulogies on the higfa-clnarch bishop , the ^ reat Goliath of Gath , Dr . Horsley . I cau easily perceive why you do this . He is held up ( partly from error , partly policy ) as the champion of the-Church of England . Any defence of any Trinity was thought to cail for gratitude . But the Athanasianto
ism of the Bishop is directly opposed the Oxford decree , as it ia to the private opinions of the regular church > which fluctuate between this decree and the 4 Scripture doctrraeT of Saww £ ¦ Ota * k * - Again * Dr . Horsley ' s damnatory dogm ^ that , * thfe-jtfjORAn good of Unitarians a sw ; ' stands dontradioted by aH the a 0 * 0 *
divines ot the Establishment * lW * & ?; dead ; by . all - in shoJrt , r ( and they areua * many , ) Who hoJd with the Apostle J *> M
Untitled Article
108 \ Review . A — Pteafbr the Nazureness
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 108, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/44/
-