Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Defence of the Church Missionary Society Against the Objections of the Rev. Josiah Thomas, M.A., Archdeacon of Bath
The question then recurs, Vi hat 13 the authority of this Protest of the Archdeacon of Bath. None whatever. He appears to have had 110 r1i01e right to assume anyj jurisdiction over this peace able and lawful meeting of benevolent individuals, for a simple and legitimate object of charity, than he would have had to interrupt an assembly conveneo for planning a bridge or projecting a hos pital: he might, 111 fact, almost as well have advanced a claim of right to enter the private abode of individuals, in order to regulate the detail of personal beneficence.
The Reverend the Archdeacon, however, forgetful of these 'oh vions principles, and assuming a variety of positions, every one of which turns out to be unfounded, ventured to overstep his lawful authority, and to make a Protest, which loses all its weight the mo ment the real ciicumstances of the case are explained; - a fault this, surely, of no common magnitude. Respect, indeed, is always due to measures, however erroneous, if they have been suggested by an honest zeal, and a strong and imperative sense of duty. But when the act to which zeal and duty impel men, is itself that of protesting against intemperate zeal and a mistaken sense of duty in others when a censor stands up specifically to point out the distinction between a well informed and an ignorant piety when such a censor is invested with an o?ice of respectability tn the Church, and his denunciations derive weight from his public sta tion, and, above all, when such a person comes forward to deliver an address composed in the calmness of the closet, and therefore with every advantage of previous deliberation it is plain that we have a right to expect more than common caution and reserve, a mind well informed on his Stibject, and arguments sound and per Spicuous in support of his assertions. I will not stop to say how totally the Archdeacon has failed 1n all these respects.
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