Dissenter

His first crude notions about the one thing needful do not get purged and they invade the whole spiritual man in him and then making a solitude, they call it heavenly peace.

I remember a Nonconformist manufacturer in a town of the Midland counties telling me that when he first came there some years ago, the place had no Dissenters but he had opened an Independent chapel in it and now church and dissent were pretty equally divided with sharp contest between them.

I said that seemed a pity.

"A pity?" cried he.

Perhaps if a government like that of Elizabeth, with secular statesmen like the Cecils and ecclesiastical statesmen like Whitgift, could have been prolonged, Presbyterianism might, by a wise mixture of concession and firmness, have been absorbed in the establishment.

Lord Bolingbroke, on a matter of this kind, a very clear judging and impartial witness, says in a work far too little read, his remarks on English history, The measures pursued and the tempo observed in Queen Elizabeth's time tended to diminish the religious opposition by a slow, a gentle, and for that very reason, an effectual progression.

There was even room to hope that when the first fire of the Dissenters' zeal was passed, reasonable terms of union with the established Church might be accepted by such of them as were not intoxicated with fanaticism.

These were friends to order, though they disputed about it.

It is probable enough that William's eye for an ecclesiastical scruple was not quite so keen as his insight into the principles of civil government and the workings of European policy.

For he seems to have been surprised and disappointed at finding that Churchmen and Dissenters, though the Toleration Act was accepted by the Churchmen without serious difficulty, and by the Dissenters with hearty rejoicings, would neither of them so much as look at his scheme of comprehension.

He evidently understood neither the dissidents of dissent nor the Anglicanism of the Anglican communion.

The comprehension bill had a troubled time of it even in the House of Lords where it was first introduced, and after some debate in the House of Commons it was shelved.

Lord Bolingbroke, on a matter of this kind a very clear-judging and impartial witness, says in a work far too little read, his remarks on English history, The measures pursued and the temper observed in Queen Elizabeth's time tended to diminish the religious opposition by a slow, a gentle, and for that very reason an effectual progression.

There was even room to hope that when the first fire of the Dissenters' zeal was passed, reasonable terms of union with the established Church might be accepted by such of them as were not intoxicated with fanaticism.

These were friends to order, though they disputed about it.

If these friends of Calvin's discipline had been once incorporated with the established Church, the remaining sectaries would have been of little moment, either for numbers or reputation, and the very means which were proper to gain these friends were likewise the most effectual to hinder the increase of them and of the other sectaries in the meantime.

But it is true that a barbarian often wants the political support of the Philistines, and he unquestionably, when he flatters the self-love of Philistinism and extols in the approved fashion its energy, enterprise, and self-reliance, knows that he is talking claptrap and, so to say, puts his tongue in his cheek.

On all matters where Nonconformity and its catchwords are concerned, this insincerity of barbarians needing Nonconformist support and therefore flattering the self-love of Nonconformity and repeating its catchwords without the least real belief in them is very noticeable.

When the Nonconformists in a transport of blind zeal threw out Sir James Graham's useful education clauses in 1843, one half of their parliamentary representatives, no doubt, who cried aloud against trampling on the religious liberty of the Dissenters by taking the money of Dissenters to teach the tenets of the Church of England, put their tongue in their cheek while they so cried out.

And perhaps there is even a sort of motion of Mr Frederick Harrison's tongue towards his cheek when he talks of the shriek of superstition and tells the working class that theirs are the brightest powers of sympathy and the readiest powers of action.

There thus emerged an important corpus of inspiring Puritan prayers that are still largely unused.

So what this introduction is describing is that the Puritans, who were made up of a variety of different denominations, so in our last week's episode, we talked about the different denominations, some that you'll recognize from that episode, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, English Dissenters, so Baptists, and Anglican Evangelicals, all worked together to cultivate the these Puritan prayers and meditations.

So they were coming from different theological viewpoints, but across an ocean, gathering these meditations and prayers and putting them together into something that the church could benefit from and that we still benefit from in the Valley of Vision.

So in my particular version, it's divided up into prayers.

Having said that, of course, he could not help waiting in himself, and indeed writing.

He therefore published his Letter to Dissenters, and that ran like wildfire through society because it rather neatly encapsulated the dissenter's dilemma.

Could they trust this king, this king whose first loyalty was clearly not to them, not to Whigs or dissenters, but instead to Catholics? Could they trust this king who used the methods of absolutism so diametrically opposed to their political views and such a dangerous, reversible sword? Or, as Halifax put it, were they to be hugged now, only that you may better be squeezed at another time.

Halifax urged them all to choose Protestant unity and loyalty, to work with the Church of England against the false blandishments of a papist.

And to understand this, we need a little context.

Right, about the Dissenters.

Yeah.

He targets a group called Dissenters.

In Victorian England, Dissenters were Protestants who had broken away from the official state Church of England.

They proudly rejected the Anglican bishop's prayer book because they thought written official forms of prayer were too rigid, too state-controlled, and lacked the Holy Spirit.

Right.

Lord Bolingbroke, on a matter of this kind, a very clear judging and impartial witness, says in a work far too little read, his Remarks on English History, "The measures pursued and the temper observed in Queen Elizabeth's time tended to diminish the religious opposition by a slow, a gentle, and for that very reason, an effectual progression.

There was even room to hope that when the first fire of the Dissenters' zeal was passed, reasonable terms of union with the Established Church might be accepted by such of them as were not intoxicated with fanaticism.

These were friends to order, though they disputed about it.

If these friends of Calvin's discipline had been once incorporated with the Established Church, the remaining sectaries would have been of little moment, either for numbers or reputation, and the very means which were proper to gain these friends were likewise the most effectual to hinder the increase of them and of the other sectaries in the meantime." The temper and ill judgment of the Stuarts made shipwreck of all policy of this kind.

But it is true that a Barbarian often wants the political support of the Philistines, and he unquestionably, when he flatters the self-love of Philistinism and extols in the approved fashion its energy, enterprise, and self-reliance, knows that he is talking claptrap and, so to say, puts his tongue in his cheek.

On all matters where Nonconformity and its catchwords are concerned, this insincerity of Barbarians needing Nonconformist support and therefore flattering the self-love of Nonconformity and repeating its catchwords without the least real belief in them is very noticeable.

When the Nonconformists, in a transport of blind zeal, threw out Sir James Graham's useful education clauses in eighteen forty-three, one half of their parliamentary representatives, no doubt, who cried aloud against trampling on the religious liberty of the Dissenters by taking the money of Dissenters to teach the tenets of the Church of England, put their tongue in their cheek while they so cried out.

And perhaps there's even a sort of motion of Mr. Frederick Harrison's tongue towards his cheek when he talks of the shriek of superstition and tells the working class that theirs are the brightest powers of sympathy and the readiest powers of action.

Lord Bolingbroke, on a matter of this kind, a very clear judging and impartial witness, says in a work far too little read, his remarks on English history, The measures pursued and the temper observed in Queen Elizabeth's time tended to diminish the religious opposition by a slow, a gentle, and for that very reason an effectual progression.

There was even room to hope that when the first fire of the Dissenters' zeal was passed, reasonable terms of union with the established Church might be accepted by such of them as were not intoxicated with fanaticism.

These were friends to order, though they disputed about it.

If these friends of Calvin's discipline had been once incorporated with the established Church, the remaining sectaries would have been of little moment, either for numbers or reputation, and the very means which were proper to gain these friends were likewise the most effectual to hinder the increase of them and of the other sectaries in the meantime.