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Untitled Article
ears . " "It is no Blight matter to attack the Established Church ; but my duty and my inclination lead me to the attempt ; and without the slightest care for the consequences , I begin the war which shall never end but with victory , or that final event which silences all writers /*
The object at which Mr . B . aims is the dissolution of all connexion between Church and State * He abhors that unholy union ; he traces some of its mighty mischiefs in the successive periods of Christianity ; and avows the conclusion to which every consistent Dissenter comes , - that the sooner religion is absolved from the polluting patronage of the world , the better , ? ' Let the Church of England be put on a footing with all the other sects
in the land . ' * * The State must repudiate the Church , and the Church the State . " ( Letter , p . 37 . ) He would have tithes abolished , and all Church property confiscated — taking care , however , " that all present incumbents should be allowed to retain their benefices for life , by which means , no person in possession would be at all injured ; and , as for those future parsons who are not yet in being , it cannot be said that they who do not exist would be injured by such an arrangement ; for no one hereafter
would take holy orders who did not know what he bad to expect . If , however , some should persist in thinking that we hereby injure some embryo parsons , as well might it be said that we are cruel to a crocodile , when we break a crocodile ' s egg . The cruelty is in imagination and not in reality ; for the crocodile is not yet in being . " ( Id . ) In pursuance of the object thus avowed , Mr . B . examines the claims of the English Church to be regarded as the one true and apostolic church . There is solid argument in the following clever piece of irony :
" On some weak minds , perhaps , the unceasing- assurances from the pulpit , that the Church of England i » synonymous with the Christian religion , may have made a little impression ; and I know some few persons who agree with the majority of the clergy in their definition of religion . Our reverend pastors present us a strange picture of Christianity in their sermons , their charges , and theh * tracts . According to their notions , the apostles , or at
least the immediate successors of the apostles , were reverend gentlemen , residing in wealthy livings , preaching fifty-two written , printed , or lithographed sermons in the course of the year , and securing livings for their clerical , or commissions in the Roman army for their military sons . In that golden age , according te their system , all the world was not only taxed by Caesar , hut tithed by Caesar , for the benefit pf the primitive clergy ; and the priests of the first three centuries abused themselves with card-playing ,
fox-JUuntin # , horse-r ^ cuig ^ shooting * fishing , and dancing , ap they do atj present . Pluralities were multiplied * an 4 translation * were frequent * St . Paul had a golden , prel > ei ^ 4 of PbAUppi ,, a large living at Rome , another at Thessalonica , and wa $ » btf ^ Mes * <( the veny f eyerend' the Dean of Corinth . St . Peter was translated from the bishop rick of Babylon to that of Rome ; and St . James was enthroned at Jerusalem , with great pomp' and large lawn sleeves , after having subscribed the Thirty-ni « e Articles according te Act
Untitled Article
628 On the . Corrupt State of the Church of England .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1831, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2601/page/52/
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