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Untitled Article
fear for the result . The other reforms immediately to be looked for , are within the church itself , and consist in the better distribution of the funds allotted to it , and in the correction of the abuses of sinecures and pluralities .
The public , including all sects and denominations , has a right to expect that these reforms should take place , but if they are honestly undertaken by the members of the establishment , those who do not belong to it , will only look on with pleasure , willingly abstaining from all interference with matters in which they profess to have no personal concern .
There must , however , be no deception practised , or public indignation will be speedily roused , and the friends of the church must not suffer themselves to be deluded into the notion that by the most searching and judicious internal reforms they can disarm all opposition . They will still be attacked with arguments against
the right of any sect to enjoy the peculiar patronage of the state , and they may , perhaps , find that , nothing they can do will very long delay the final measure of placing all sects on the same footing of unrestrained but unpatronized freedom , and appropriating to the public service property which can no longer be rightfully or beneficially applied to the service of religion .
Such is the prospect before them , and they will do well to reconcile their minds to it by dwelling on the probability that their bishops , relieved from the engrossing occupations arising from temporal dignity , political power , and superabundant wealth , will be more devoted to the duties of their sacred office , and , in
consequence , more esteemed and more influential in society ; that the respectable body of their clergy will no longer be disgraced by that portion , whose choice of a profession has been influenced by the preferment their family could command ; that theological
knowledge and pulpit eloquence will be more generally cultivated when they afford the natural means of securing professional success ; and that congregations will be to a great degree purified from the debasing mixture of those whose formal attendance is influenced only by fashion , and the hope of worldly advantage .
Benefits such as these cannot be too dearly purchased , and will , perhaps , after a little experience , be gratefully acknowledged by many who would never voluntarily have adopted the only means of securing them . However this may be , as it is essential to the
welfare of society at large , that the church should have the opportunity of attaining these benefits , it is highly probable that no partial reforms , however respectable and acceptable , will long turn the wishes and thoughts of men from the conclusive and really satisfactory measure .
We know it is the opinion of many enlightened men , warm friends of religious liberty , that by improving its forms , making its spirit more comprehensive , and better distributing its funds , the establishment may be completely adapted to the wants of our No . 75 . Q
Untitled Article
Church Reform . 209
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1833, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2610/page/65/
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