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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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class can exist , whether hereditary , or recruited as vacancies occur from the population at large , without imminent danger , a moral certainty , unless they be well watched , of its members pursuing their peculiar interests as a class in opposition to the common
social interest , by a set of expedients which are gradually systematized into an occupation ,, trade , or craft . Priests are under stronger temptations than ,, perhaps , any other set of persons to commit this offence against society . They have greater facilities . Something of the sacredness of the religion which they administer attaches to themselves . A habit of mental submissiveness towards
them has been generated , which invites them to its abuse . The interest which they are presumed to possess above , makes the devout believer desirous of being on good terms with them . They are often supposed themselves to keep the keys of paradise , and are almost always thought to know where they hang , and to be able to say a good word to the porter . And as they have superior opportunities for setting up a gainful craft , so is their craft , when
established , of the most oppressive and mischievous description to society . Religion soon suffers by becoming an article of trade . Its influences are immediately perverted , and in time it seems as if its very nature were transformed . Instead of correcting and purifying mankind , and uniting them in mutual goodwill , it degrades , demoralizes , and fills the world with divisions and persecutions . Mr . Howitt , in his Popular History , which we recently
reviewed , has given a rapid ' but faithful and impressive sketch of these enormities . He has tracked priestcraft around the globe , and from the earliest to the present times . The same extortion , hypocrisy , ambition , and cruelty , are everywhere apparent . Like other travellers , after having wandered over the world he rests at last at home . John Bull finds nothing to beat old England anywhere ; no more does Mr . Howitt . With due allowance for the
external restraint , for the checks of popular intelligence and political freedom , English priestcraft may compete with that of any nation , ancient or modern . We speak of it as it is ; not merely as it has been . We refer to the character and tendency of the system ; not to the men trained in it , and who are just what the system makes them , with the exception of some few who are worse , and other few who are too good to be spoiled by it . The system itself is one multitudinous device for getting money under false pretences ; it is a craft , and a dishonest craft .
Enormous as are the revenues of the church of England , we should scarcely grudge them did it really accomplish , or even did it wisely and heartily aim at its professed objects . No money would be too much for the work of making the people of England , through all their gradations of rank , and in all their various capacities ,
private or corporate , an instructed , moral , humane , and benevolent people . At no cost would such a consummation as this be too expensive . Could it be done , indeed , it would not be costly .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 790, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/58/
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