Church Reform: The Only Means to That End, Stated in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the TreasuryCarlile, Richard
Religion
Church Reform: The Only Means to That End, Stated in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the Treasury
Carlile, Richard
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Church and state -- Church of England; Rationalism
That revelation, according to the gospel itself, I take to be, that, as
knowledge is the only distinction between man and any other animal, the
more can be accumulated for him in the Church, the more good will be
done, and the more he will be saved from evil. Existing things can alone
be the subject of man's knowledge, and it is of more importance to him
to know their properties than their time or history. Now, nothing of the
properties of existing things is taught in the Church; but through the
medium of the mystery remaining unrevealed, unexplained, or untranslated
in our language, every thing is falsified to man's credulous view and
consideration, by the ministers of the Church; nature appears to him
distorted, and he lives without certainty, and dies deceived as to the
future. Knowledge is as infinite as existing things, and man's power of
acquisition illimitable. It is, then, a proper labour and business, and
moral duty, of each generation of men, to leave behind them, for their
successors, the largest possible amount of knowledge. This is true
wealth, and will increase the value of all other wealth: without
knowledge, other wealth is mere animal gratification. The spirit of
knowledge gives life and new properties to everything, as far as man's
use of it be in question. The Church is the proper fountain of this
knowledge; should be the public library, the parish laboratory for
investigations, the school for infants and adults, and everything that
is auxiliary to the acquisition and extension of knowledge. From all I
can trace, I verily believe that such was the original purpose and
construction of the Christian Church; and that back to this it may be
easiest and best reformed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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