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Untitled Article
sects ; a party which , if more numerous than any tingle gect , is less so than the others united ?¦ « In other vvords ^ will they be satisfied that the present Establishment should remain ?" Now this must he confessed to be a very candid statement—it is plain and fair dealing without cant and hypocrisy ; but the case is so strongly put , that , however excellent as an arqumentum ad hominem for the clergy of the
diocese of Peterborough , we much question his Lordship ' s prudence in exhibiting it thus forcibly to the public , supposing , as he seems to do , that the public do not already reason in the way which he so greatl y deprecates . In this supposition , however , we are convinced , that the Right Reverend Prelate is not a little mistaken . We are persuaded , that a considerable portion of the public do already regard the Established Church as only a sect among sects , and are unable to aiscern any reason why the mere circumstance of having exclusive title to civil power should make her more than a sect ; and
though we are confident that there is no body of Dissenters in the country who have any intention , as is unfairly insinuated in p . 14 , of despoiling the Church of her revenues , yet there is no doubt a numerous and growing party in the country , whose influence no bigoted opposition to liberal measures will tend to diminish , who are deeply sensible to the mischiefs of religious monopoly , and who cannot perceive why " the emoluments which are set apart for the service of religion , should be exclusively enjoyed by the
ministers of owe sect . " We are disposed , notwithstanding , to think that , in this instance , the Bishop ' s fears for his Church have obscured the ordinary clearness of his views , and made him apprehend danger from the very quarter where he ought reasonably to have looked for safety . For we hesitate not to affirm ,
that the chief danger to existing establishments will not proceed from the adoption of liberal measures , but from pertinacious resistance to them ; and that a seasonable concession to the spirit of the times and the demands of reason and justice will do more to ensure perpetuity of the establishment , and infuse a moral vigour into her institutions , than the combined zeal of the whole bench of bishops in enforcing minute and vexatious regulations on the inferior clergy , and ostentatiously obtruding her claims on every public occasion . So strong is the disposition of most men to cling to whatever is established , so deeply seated in the human mind is the feeling of respect for what is ancient and venerable , that if establishments would only liberalize their institutions and breathe into their outward forms a spirit of accommodation to the manners and opinions of the age , we think they might almost subsist for ever . Whether such a result would be desirable or not , this is
not the spirit by which establishments are usually actuated ; and it would almost seem to be a part of the general plans of Providence concerning them , that , when they have fulfilled their purpose , they should be instigated to work their own destruction by a blind and infatuated opposition to every suggestion of improvement and reform .
The distinguished Prelate appears to us to have taken his strongest ground in setting forth the services that have been rendered to literature by our national clergy , and the great loss that would be sustained by society in the dissolution of so learned and accomplished a body . We will yield to none in our admiration of the genius , the erudition , and the virtues , which have so often adorned the ministers of our Established Church , and have thrown
a lustre on the communion to which they belonged ; nor are we less convinced than his Lordship himself of the necessity , in the present state of society , of an order of learned men to explain , defend , and inculcate Chris-
Untitled Article
Review . —Bishop of Peterborough ' s Charge . 247
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 247, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/31/
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