Imatges de pàgina
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growing more and more out of sight; we must not be surprised, if an evil, which every thinking wellwisher to his country deprecates, should advance upon us with more hasty steps than we may at present be willing to believed This appears to be an object that well deserves the attention of those whose office it is to watch, "one quid detrimenti respublica capiat."oitinateh ali at gangong

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Should our governors think as they ought upon this subject, that our ecclesiastical establishment has in the present, as in every former day of trial, proved the firmest support to the government of this country, they will of course conclude that it is worth preserving. To speak with an immediate reference to those mad doctrines, the unhingers of all regular society, which have of late been circulated with such pernicious industry, the clergy of the establishment may say with Othello, that they have "done the state some service." Indeed, to constitutional government they have at all times felt it their duty to promote the firmest attachment. It will, therefore, be but a prudent exertion of political wisdom, to provide all means, consistent with sound judgment, for the more general extension of the benefits of an establishment, to which the government of this country confessedly stands indebted; with the view of counteracting, as much as may be, the present plan of limiting and contracting them in la lo 9 tiden Hodi bb,

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The most decisive experiment having been made, that the principles of non-conformity ultimately produce faction in the state, and infidelity in the Church; those to whom the guardianship of our

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constitution has been committed, cannot better discharge their trust, than by giving all possible encouragement to the building additional Churches in all populous places, where those already built prove too small for the accommodations of the inhabitants. * qid-sow

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If to remedy this inconvenience, the present modé of erecting chapels at the charge of individuals, with an eye to private emolument, continue to be adopted, we are promoting the very object which Dr. Priestley has before him; for we are thereby separating the great body of the people from the established Church; and in a manner forcing them to become non-conformists, by rendering their communion with the Church incompatible with their circumstances. In which case, we must not be surprised, if the body of the people should feel uninterested for the preservation of an establishment, which seems to take so little concern about them.

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The consequences of such a ruinous practice are incalculable, and never more to be dreaded than in these times, when the licentious doctrines of equality and consequent insubordination are industriously propagated; doctrines, which a plan of religious worship, separating the rich from the poor, seems peculiarly calculated to promote,

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There is, indeed, an equality, by which all Christians stand connected with each other, as children of the same heavenly Father; which ought as much as possible to be kept alive among us in all religious assemblies. A Church, therefore, never looks so much like what it ought to be,

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as when all ranks of people join together in these general acts of worship, which are expressive of their general dependence upon that of Lord over all," who, in one sense or another, is rich unto all that call upon him."* The Goda whom we worship is no respecter of persons; the Church, therefore, which we frequent, ought, as far as may be consistent with order and decency, to keep this in view that the rich, from this indistinctive plan of worship, may continually be taught to remember that the poor man is his brother; and that the poor man may be supported in the conscientious discharge of his humble and laborious duties in life, by looking forward to the day, when all worldly distinctions will be swallowed up in that common relationship, which all true members of the Church will then bear to Christ, its head. de Sorry we are to think, that the doctrines which have long been industriously circulated, and which have produced too successful an effect upon the minds of the people of this country, are inimical tob government in any shape. The very name of an establishment in these days, as it implies some restraint upon liberty, conveys to the ears of many an unwelcome sound. Separated from the errors and freed from the chains of Popery, we seem, alas!> (to make use of the words of a great writer) to be breaking out into a state of religious anarchy." An attention, therefore, to the subject before us, becomes a matter of most important concern. 19A C at 1% 01 - buer t

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* Rom. x. 12.

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We do not profess ourselves to be in the number of those, if there be any such, who think that there is nothing amiss amongst us; for this would be to lay claim to that perfection which belongs not to man. At the same time, in reference to the present state of things in the world, it may be proper to suggest to the reader, the great danger of his being too readily impressed with the idea of improvement, either in Church or state. There are no two words in the English language, the sound of which, from the use that has been lately made of them, conveys so strong a sense of alarm to the thinking mind, as those of liberty and reformation. Things most valuable in themselves become most destructive in their abuse. We have lived to see, what we should not other? wise have believed, the giants of infidelity waging open war against heaven; false philosophers, under the specious pretence of diffusing light and liberty through a benighted and enslaved world, engaged in a more dating league of systematic opposition to the plans of Divine Providence for the benefit of mankind, than has been ever witnessed. It is with a mixture of horror and indignation, that we look back to the scenes which these ministers of rebellious darkness have been permitted to bring forth; it is with awe and trembling, we look for. ward to what may, in the Divine Council, be the winding up of this eventful tragedy.list you

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It is some consolation, indeed, to those who are humbly waiting for their Lord's coming, to think," that the gates of hell shall not finally prevail" against his Church. At the same time, it should

seem as if woe had been pronounced against "the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea;” and that the Devil was come down unto them, "having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time197 i 90it ams- adt A .00x of Jon Ji From the chapter which modern history presents to our perusal, we feel confident in the assertion, that even the most corrupt religion is to be preferred to no religion at all; and that where, refor tion is really wanted, it is not to be effected by means which tend to the dissolution of constituted authority; whilst from the plan, which has been adopted for the purpose of enabling infidelity to triumph over the Christian cause, we hesitate not to affirm, that the preservation of our establishment is essential to the continuance of the Church in this country; it being the best security against that Babel of religious confusion and consequent infide lity, which would be the ultimate effect of its de struction. An establishment is to be regarded as « the out-work of religion. The enemy who pulls it down, does it but with a view to the more complete destruction of the citadel which it was designed te secured,oitengil i is food to stutzim

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Some well-meaning people, indeed, have found a way of satisfying themselves upon this head, by making the Church of Christ and Church of Enge land mean two different things: and thus, while they flatter themselves that they are acting upon the best principle, they are putting themselves into a state of preparation to become instrumental in the destruction of that Church of which they

*Rev. xii. 12.'

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