On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    The Bishop of London is well known to be a bold and busy man . The sermons before us are very characteristic . With singular temerity his lordship has ventured on applying the test of utility to the Established Church , and on appealing to the

    religious condition of the United States of America in corroboration of his argument . We are ready to follow him in this application and appeal . It is by the principle of utility that the Church ought to be tried ; and the example of the United States is entitled to great weight in the discussion . So far we are agreed . Provided the fact can be made out , we allow that ' the strongest

    argument for an Established Church is this ; that it is the only , or , at any rate , the most efficient instrument of instructing the people in the doctrines of religion , and of habituating them to its decencies and restraints . ' ( p . 35 . ) Moreover , should it appear that ' in no other way is it possible to make a thoroughly

    effectual provision for the spiritual instruction , and moral improvement of a whole people , ' and that in this way such provision can be made , we confess ourselves in the wrong , and will beg our duty to the Bishop , and henceforth reverence the lawn , and see on it 'God ' s own stamp , ' according to the admonition of the pious Blackwood .

    But it seems to us , at the very outset , that no machinery can be adequate for the purposes above described , which does not commence with universally educating the population . The connexion between education and morality , education and religion , education and national character and prosperity , is much more satisfactorily ascertained than the connexion between

    preaching ( without education ) and all those blessings . The Bishop has some perception of this fact . He almost affirms that the established clergy do educate the people . His language approaches nearer and nearer towards the assertion of this magnificent falsehood as he waxes warm in his argument , and triumphant in his conclusions . First we are told of the clergy

    ' promoting and superintending the Christian education of the young . ' ( p . 36 . ) This struck us as a felicitous discovery . Anon we found them ' in the midst of a poor , unenlightened population / not only ' labouring solely for their good , ' but ' assistin g , superintending , perhaps conducting the education of their children . " ( p . 37 . ) This is r better sjill ; ' and there is ' better thence again ; ' for , irradiated by the light of episcopal

    imagina-* ' The Uses of a Standing Ministry and an Established Church , Two Sermons b yC . J . Blomfk-ld , V . D ., Bishop of Loudon / F * Uow «» , 1 « 34 .

    Untitled Article

    249

    Untitled Article

    OX THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT . *

    Untitled Article

    No . 88 . T

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 249, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/17/