History of Brighthelmston; or, Brighton as I View it and Others Knew It: With a Chronological Table of Local EventsErredge, John Ackerson
History
History of Brighthelmston; or, Brighton as I View it and Others Knew It: With a Chronological Table of Local Events
Erredge, John Ackerson
Brighton (England) -- History
The Doctor, in his “Narrative,” says:—“I beg leave to mention as I
proceed, that from the pulpit, where I must have had a pretty good view
of the whole church, I saw very few officers; and of those few I knew not
one even by name: I thought there were not twelve. Of common soldiers
the number was also inconsiderable; I thought there were scarcely twenty,
and these were not of the camp, but of the Surrey militia quartered in
the town. There were, indeed, more of the same regiment in the porch or
in the church-yard; but too remote from the pulpit to hear a syllable of
sedition, if there had been any to hear. I mention the paucity of
officers and privates for the following reason; the public has been
taught by mistaken prints to believe that I was guilty of preaching peace
and good-will before the whole camp, that the aisle was crowded with
soldiers, and that all the officers of the camp attended. I appeal to
the parishioners present, whether the number of military men, privates
and officers included, was greater than I have conjectured. My sermon
was not exclusively calculated for a congregation of persons in any
particular profession. There was not a word addressed by an apostrophe,
as I have heard it asserted, to the officers. I had no reason to suppose
that any military men, but those of the Surrey militia quartered at
Brighton, would be at the church. I thought, and I believe it was so,
that divine service was performed by the chaplains in the camp, and that
the soldiers of the camp would not be permitted to straggle to the town
or the church, on a Sunday, during divine service. The public has been
much deceived in the exaggerated accounts of my preaching to the whole
army; but had the whole army been at the church, had it been allowed or
been possible, I am certain they would have heard nothing from me, but
what was authorized by the gospel, enforced by the law of man as well as
of God, tending to promote their happiness in all events, and animating
them to the discharge of every duty, on principles of humanity and
Christianity. I expressly asserted, while I was deploring the calamities
of war, that the conductors of war were often men of singular humanity
and honour. I expressly commended the beautiful gradation of ranks in
society. I enforced good order; I deprecated anarchy as much as
despotism.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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