A letter to a country clergyman, occasioned by his address to Lord TeignmouthOwen, John
Religion
A letter to a country clergyman, occasioned by his address to Lord Teignmouth
Owen, John
British and Foreign Bible Society; Sikes, Thomas, 1765 or 1766-1834. Address to Lord Teignmouth; Teignmouth, John Shore, Baron, 1751-1834
Let these _neutrals_ (for such _at least_ I am privileged to call them)
be withdrawn, and there remain fifteen members to support the church’s
interests, and fifteen, as it is supposed by the Country Clergyman, to
impugn them. The former will naturally be links of the same chain;
common interest, and pledges of a peculiar nature, dictate to them an
uniformity of reciprocal support, from which they may not be expected to
depart. They may therefore be reckoned upon to the extent of their
number. But will you, Sir, who seem to know something of the world, will
you allow yourself to believe, that the same uniformity of co-operation
may be expected from the fifteen members who are to fight the battles of
_dissent_? Some among them are advocates for _infant_ baptism, some for
_adult_ baptism, and some for _no_ baptism at all. Some hold the tenets
of Calvin, some of Arminius, and some of neither. Their sentiments upon
church government are also scarcely less various, than their opinions
upon matters of faith: so that, widely as they may seem to dissent from
the church of England, many of them would be found, if controverted
questions could arise, to differ still more widely from each other. Yet
all these discordant members must harmonize together; and the foreigners,
who probably differ from them all, must harmonize with them; or else _the
standing majority against the church_ must remain a mere _standing_
bugbear, to scare the Country Clergyman, and terrify those who choose to
participate his alarms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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