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doctrines and discipline ; appeals which , however sincere , were totally irrelevant to the point at issue . : It cannot be disguised that the majority of the clerical members of the Church of England shewed themselves decidedly opposed to Catholic emancipation . * One class—they who have the addition of evangelical- —were not the least strenuous adversaries of the measure . Yet , even among this
division ot the clergy , as well as among the lay members of the denomination , we beheld individual exceptions , and gladly hailed them as patterns of an understanding more comprehensive and , we must add , of a sense of charity and justice more truly Christian , than characterizes the larger portion of their brethren . We conjecture that the writer of the pamphlet which gives rise to these observations , is of this respectable minority . Almost perfectly evangelical he appears to be in spirit : perhaps moderately so in discipline and doctrine . Ho never this be , we welcome him as a
sensible , intelligent , and unpretending author , who proposes it as his single aim to serve the cause of truth , equity , and brotherly kindness . The anonymous individual , whom , in this private print , he addresses , made a " serious appeal to the Bible" against concession . He announced to the people of- England that the Legislature was about to plunge them ipto the guilt of a great national sin 9 and that " it was certainly to be expected that if they consented to the Roman Catholic Relief Bill , God would
withdraw his favour , and visit them with heavy judgments . " That man ought to be an inspired prophet , who delivers such an oracle and such a menace . Against the sentiment and the threatening the present letter is directed : nor could its author fail of being aware that he had chosen the unpopular side .
" A noble opponent of Emancipation is pleased to warn us against ' the legal establishment of superstition and idolatry ; ' and even the more moderate of your party seem to take it for granted , that while they are actuated only by a pure and disinterested attachment to Protestantism , those who differ from them are sacrificing Christian principle to worldly expediency . Yet among them I know of several , and I believe there are many more , who are not influenced by terror or personal interest , and do not conceal an indifference or hatred to religion under the specious name of liberality They have no object at heart but the good of their country , and the honour of their religion ; and they endeavour to evince the orthodoxy of their faith by
shewing that it brings forth the fruits of the spirit , and to prove their confidence in the excellence of their church , by trusting its defence , under God ' s Providence , not to Acts of Parliament , but to the conformity of its doctrine with Scripture . In this crisis of religious excitation they have daily experience that they have taken the unpopular side , and have the mortification of being set down by the majority of their neighbours as secret abettors of Popery . This imputation they might be content to bear from the ignorant and unthinking : for these we hardly expect should understand that we can
do justice or shew mercy to those whose religion we condemn ; but when , the charge is repeated by men of education , when members of Parliament and ' country clergymen' assert that we are betraying the Protestant cause , our silence may Be construed into an acknowledgment of guilt . As one of this party , therefore , I enter my protest against so uncharitable and so unjust a conclusion ; and while I give the Anti-catholic full credit for zeal and sincerity , I claim from him equal candour , and expect that he should not question our attachment to Protestantism , because we cannot discover in the
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Vhurch-of-England Men and Catholic Claims . 465
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* P . 22 . VOL . HI . 2 K
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/17/
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