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Untitled Article
feeling . The stern truth is told , both of the past and of the present ; and it is so told as to make us feel that in the severest condemnation there is no malignity , that in the proposed changes there is no aim at party triumph , but that the writer ' s single object is to show how mankind have been injured , by what arts , under
what pretences , and how their deliverance from this wretched thraldom may be effected . In the latter portions of the volume , those which relate to the present condition and practices of the church of England , there is a dignity , a beauty , and a richness of style , with a distinctness of poetical conception , and an elevation
of sentiment , that remind us strongly of the prose works of Milton , into the spirit of which the writer has evidently been drinking deeply . It will be seen by our remarks that we think ( he work might have been made , in a few particulars , more complete ; the finest portions of it could in no way have been made more beautiful or effective .
A distinct definition of priestcraft was , in our opinion , desirable . The author should have shown when and how the occupation of the priest becomes a craft . He should have shown why its becoming a craft , a circumstance which in relation to most occupations is not only necessary but innocent and useful , is in this case the cause of so much mischief , Many important conclusions might
have flowed from such an investigation . It would probably have appeared that the fundamental mistake is the supposing that any spiritual office can be beneficially performed for hire . A theological lecturer , like any other lecturer or teacher , may be hired ; that is , he may be paid in money for communicating that knowledge which it has cost him money ( or time and toil , which is the
same thing ) to acquire . Such an arrangement is evidently for the benefit of both parties . But if priests be ( as those of the establishment and some other sects claim to be ) gifted with and called by the Holy Ghost , their exercise of the gifts and obedience to the call can have nothing to do with money without the grossest profanity . The workings of the Spirit of God in and by them are not things to make a craft of . They must relinquish their pay or
their pretensions . But it is by their pretensions that they obtain their pay , or the largest portion of it ; and this incongruity and falsity at the outset poisons the fountain , and makes the waters which issue from it pestiferous to their remotest course . Even the modified pretensions of many sectarian ministers smack of the craft . All assumptions , made ex ojfficio , of religious emotions , feelings , sympathies , show craft , a bad craft , priestcraft . In the craftof the actor , the external indications of emotion are exhibited
for hire ; but only the imitation is required or paid for . Whatever of soul there may be in them is for ihe actor ' s honour and the spectator ' s gratification , but is no part of the bargain , trade , or craft . Now the priest ' s ministrations to the spiritual wants of individuals , if known to be without soul in them , would be only
Untitled Article
500 History of Priestcraft .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 500, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/60/
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