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of priests as statesmen I We must give our constitutional divine ' s exposition of the duty which a political church owes to those who are in alliance with it , or , in other words , who pay its wages : " Though it must he admitted , that the pulpit ou ^ ht not to be the place for enforcing" political measures , yet , from the fact , that the Church of England is an essential part of the British Constitution , and also , because the clergy , in the exercise of their daily ministrations , are more irnmediately b ht into contact with the le l
roug- peop , they were the ony persons by whom the King ' s conduct could be fairly and justly represented . And , moreover , as , notwithstanding the objections of schismatics and visionary zealots , the alliance between Church and State , in other words , a church by law established , is not only necessary , but highly imperative , both from Scripture and antiquity , for the welfare and advancement of true religion ; it is just that the State should call in the aid of the Church in matters partly ecclesiastical and partly political , because , generally speaking , the Church is part of the State , the one is connected with , and dependent on , the other . "—Pp .
333 , 334 . Williams was , or seemed to be , a true bishop of such a church , and a fit expounder of the doctrine of Laud and his followers , when he said , ( though probably in irony , ) " I will not proceed against the Puritans , for I expect not another bishopric . "
We may now advert to the vindictive proceedings against Laud's " violent enemy , " for refusing to sanction the slavish and traitorous doctrines of Main waring and Sibthorpe , by licensing the latter ' s sermoa in favour of the king ' s title to levy taxes , and be a tyrant if he pleased , and of his right to unqualified submission , " at the hazard of eternal salvation . " Mr . Lawson admits these doctrines to be " subversive of part of the constitution of this kingdom , " and to be " preaching directly against the statute-book ; " but
even this he must afterwards qualify by the milder proposition that they are " against the spirit of the constitution . " Let the reader beware , however , bow he supposes that Mr . Lawson thinks a whit the worse of his favourite or his proteges on account of these trifling peccadillos , " I am convinced , " he adds , on the contrary , " that they so preached from the best of motives , namely , out of respect to and regard for their sovereign . ' * He then enters upon an elaborate dissertation to prove that they had classical authority for
their positions , namely , Tacitus , Seneca , and others—nay , even Cicero , who , because he has said " nee patri , nee patrice , vim ofFerri oportere , " is very logically supposed to include in his denunciation resistance to a prince , he being pater patricc . It is then shewn that they had also the authority and example of the Christian soldiers , who obeyed Julian the Apostate , and of our Saviour , who did not resist Pontius Pilate ; and , finally , we are gravely told that " it must be recollected that the measures which he [ Charles ] was compelled to adopt by his fanatical parliaments , and those in particular on
which I am now commenting , were not for his own advantage , but for the honour and service of his kingdom . One consolation is afforded under any circumstances , that iC if the state rightly demands part of a man ' s property he is remunerated by protection from foreign and domestic enemies ; if the church rightly demands it , in return he receives instruction , and through the medium of the clergy he is made partaker of all the benefits of the Christian dispensation . " The authorities which our author has adduced , he is assured , »« will not be thought lightly of , except by those sectarian enthusiasts who obstinately look with contempt on all human authority
Untitled Article
376 Life and Times of Archbishop Laud .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/8/
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