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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.
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and venerable Rector in the Church of England fixed upon it with admiration , as having shadowed forth the leading features of Lord John Russell ' s Reform Bill half a century ago , and transcribed it himself for the express purpose of appearing in the Monthly Repository aud the Christian Reformer .
Extract from a Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of St . ^ 4 saph , delivered in the year 1782 , by the eloquent and patriotic Bishop Shipley . —Shipley ' sWorks , 8 vo ., Vol . II . p . 138 . * 'The time , perhaps , is soon approaching , when you will be trusted once more with the choice of your representatives .
Whenever it comes , give the world a proof of your own integrity , by votes and recommendations iu favour of intelligent and worthy men , nieu of independent fortunes ; but not raised by the pluuder of the public ; who hare shewn their love for their couutry by their hatred of corruption . Nor is it sufficient to choose men wise and honest ; but ,
considering the weakness of our common nature , we ought to employ the inost just and probable methods to keep them so . We ought to favour and support the endeavours of many worthy men to preserve the integrity of their representatives , by not trustiug them with power too long ; by transferring the right of election from the » hameless inhabitants of small boroughs , without property or principle , to great
commercial towns , or to larger districts ; and , as much as possible , to place the power of choosing our lawgivers in the hands of honest and independent men , who have an interest not to abuse it . Above all , we should encourage those plans which tend to restrain the expenses and lessen the profits and the frauds of Government ; and to guard against the growth of that encroachiug power , from which neither we nor our fathers have been
sufficiently able to secure ourselves . But some affect to be alarmed at these proceedings , as dangerous innovations , and a change in the constitution . That it is a chauge must be allowed ; but a change that we ought to wish and pray for ; a change from rottenness and disease to vigour , health , and gladness . Changes
and alterations are the natural steps which the mind of man makes in Us progress towards improvement ; they arise from the wisdom of experience . The constitution itself is little more than a collection of such changes and alterations as our forefathers found necessary to be made iu the form of this govern-
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ment ; and why should not we be allowed to watch over our own safety , as well as they ? " The order , constancy , and beauty of the creation itself is preserved by those periodical and salutary changes by which the whole frame of nature is in a manner renewed and invigorated . But , after all , what are the alarming changes these men are afraid of ? Suppose that they were all to take place , the full effect of them could amount to no more than to give the nation a chance of having more
houest representatives than we have hitherto been blest with . Now , honesty was really that noxious weed which some men seem to think it , yet it does not take root so deep , nor spread so fast , that we need be under any fear of its overrunning the land .
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Proem to John's Gospel . To the Editor . Sir , I have lately been engaged in a correspondence on a part of Scripture which has generally been acknowledged to be full of difficulties , and it has given rise to a great difference of opinions . My correspondent aud I agreed upon one point , and we differed on another . It is the
purport of this address to you to obtain clearer information , and by setting before your readers our respective opinions , to see whether this disputed subject may not be brought to a satisfactory conclusion . The preface to John ' s Gospel was the subject under discussion , and we agreed that it related to the two different states in which what John calls the Word appeared . The question between us was when the second state commenced .
In the discussion of this question there is one great advantage , namely , that we are not encumbered with disputes about various readings , and very little on difference of translations . The English reader is nearly as competent a judge on the subject as the profoundest Greek scholar . There are only two words of any importance in which translators differ ; the one is in the use of the terms him and it ;
the old English versions using the term it where the authorized Bible has adopted the term him ; the former saying , All things were made by it—the latter , by him . Aud the English reader is to be apprized that the Greek uses two different verbs to express what we do by one verb—was . The one explains absolutely the existence of a thing—the other , its commencing existence . Thus the passage , " all thing * were made by him , " should be rendered
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408 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 408, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/48/
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