Book Description

Excerpt from A Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln Other. And to the community. There is a ferment in the public mind, threatening danger to all exist ing institutions; and among the rest to that, in the welfare of which we are most deeply interested, the Established Church. For in addition to those who are opposed to it on religious grounds - because they object to its doctrines or its discipline, or think its union with the State prejudicial to its spiritual character - it has to encounter other, and even more formidable opponents. There are some who wish to bring about what are called organic changes in the civil constitution. They naturally labour for the subversion of the Established Church; not because they are hostile to it in particular, but because it is an institution, closely connected with the other institutions of the land, and therefore an obstacle in their way. There are others, of whom I have already observed that they aim at effecting a change, not in the political constitution of the country, but in the frame of society itself. Their doctrines strike at the root of all religious and moral obligation. Man, according to them, is not a moral agent, having within him a principle of immortality, but a mere compound of perishable matter. Consistently with this doctrine, they teach that he ought to seek his true happiness in pro curing for himself the greatest possible amount of animal enjoyment; and that the existence of an intelligent Creator and righteous Governor of the universe, to whom he is accountable for his actions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.