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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

    - THE IMPROPRIETY OF PREACHING POLITICS . « * . - ¦ - V To the Editor of the Monthly Repository . Sir , Your Correspondent Gogmagog , seems in his last letter , to

    have fallen into another error , besides the want of prudence , I mean in allowing Political Disquisitions a place in the pulpit , and only appearing to regret that both sides of the question are not allowed fair-play . I do not any more than your Correspondent defend the partial abstinence from Political subjects which

    disgraces the pulpit , for if politics may be at all introduced there , the most unreserved discussion of them must be in a religious point of view allowable . If the general excellence of our own government may be praised , its particular defects may be noticed . If a neighbouring Potentate may be held up to execration for his hypocrisy , his making religious institutions engines of government , his cruelty , tyranny , and insatiable

    ambition , he may be pointed out as a model for extensive foresight , unwavering decision of character , unshaken perseverance , and complete subjection of his passions to the dictates of his judgement . But I think none of these topics ought lo enter the pulpit . The design of religious instruction is to unfold the revelation the Deity has made of his own attributes , and our own nature ,

    to explain to us his will , and to furnish us with motives to obey it . Now , with which of these objects is the mention of political institutions connected ? Men ' s opinions on political subjects are formed in the world , and the alluding to them when we are attempting to raise metfs attention above the present world , is calculated to defeat that object . For these reasons , Sir , would it

    not be advantageous to banish from the pulpit this truittul source of declamation , and to treat the hearers , after the manner of our Lord , as men rather than as citizens ? Let instruction in the political rights of Englishmen be given them in every place where they meet in their civil capacity , but let not the pulpit be made its vehicle . It is not the care which Dissenting

    ministers take to avoid political reflection and declamation against the constituted authorities that deserves censure , it is their runninginto the contrary extreme , their flattering those prejudices they ought to pass unnoticed , their hyberbolical praise of the national character , and their uncalled-for eulogiums on the administration of public affairs that disgrace their character , and

    injure the cause of religion ? A Frieni > to Religious Freedom . April 8 , 1806 .

    Untitled Article

    C 191 )

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1806, page 191, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1723/page/23/