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Untitled Article
of the goods of others haa made them redundant in fine feeling and thoughts . I trusty however , that I ., lowly as is my state in this great scale of converttional things , have not derogated from my youth—far less turned traitor to its early aspirations . I have only learned to know that they are futile ; which is now finally
proved to me by your lordship . If I sit down * by the waters of Babylon , ' to weep for the degradation of human nature , my tears are not unmingled with pity and indignation , at the vices , the ignorance , the intolerance , covetousness , and miserable hypocrisy of those who sit in the ' high places , ' and are equally prominent in
unworthiness , as in conventional elevation . You vouchsafe me your spiritual advice and exhortation . You quote the words of Luke , telling me to preach the gospel to the poor ; ' inferring thereby , I presume , that the rich have no need of it , —or , it is of no use to attempt it with them . I answer you ,
' The poor have the gospel preached to them , '—have long had it ; they now want bread ! This is my own case ; but it would now be poison to receive it from hands such as thine ; for thou hast torn the seal from my eyes most completely . Yet , even in the erroneous estimate which a country curate , who has passed the whole of his life in the seclusion of collegiate walls , the retirement of a private family , and the lonely innocence of a green village , could
form of the real character of a dignified prelate , it does not appear that any very extravagant requisitions were preferred by my communication ! It only contained a request , which , if your lordship ' s sense of justice had been equal to your station , was less a favour than a right . But I now see the magnitude of my mistake . Well may your lordship speak of my ' naivete of ignorance / for what you felt as sarcasm was not intended as such .
Your lordship has made many severe animadversions—not to term them unfeeling and barbarous—on my domestic calamities ; the tra gic fate of my noble-minded boy ; my own conduct , &c . ; and you quote sundry passages from scripture , intended to support your cruelty and want of comprehension . I am not disposed to 'bandy texts' with your lordship , or any other great Master of Arts , as I have never bee ( n addicted to profuse quotation ,
considering it in general as begging the question ; ' and have always preferred composing sermons on the principle of argument from authority , rather than the unsatisfactory plan of making authority and ' established law' supply the absenteeism of the former . I shall only reply therefore , to your numerous texts of denunciation &c ., by offering two or three for your own especial reflection , The first applies to myself . It is this ; ' Be not soon shaken in mind ! ' the second also has a similar reference : ' Love is strong as death ! ' It is a noble and exalted aphorism , and is one of those grand theories of comprehensive humanity which prove the divinity of their author , and ' justify the ways of God to man . ' Sneer not , my lord , c * t f the lofty grave tragedians , ' and at their
Untitled Article
The Curates Rejoinder . 475
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 475, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/15/
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