Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
ADDRESS OF THE REV. J. CLOWES. 267
the ministers, I feel myself induced, by many powerful
and pressing motives, to call your attention, for a moment,
to a few considerations, reepecting the theological writings
ofthe Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, so far as the contents
ofthose writings appear to me more immediately to affect
the duties imposed on you by your holy functions and
high station.
" You are, in a peculiar sense, the ministers of God,
intrusted with the oracles of His Word, and commis
sioned to read, to meditate upon, to understand, to preach
and explain, the laws of the Eternal Wisdom therein con
tained. From you the people receive the interpretation
of those laws, and their understanding of them must
needs, in a great measure, depend upon yours. Ifthe
light which is in you be darkness, the light which is in
the people will most probably be darkness also ; but if
your bodies be full of light, it may then be reasonably
expected, that those of the people will be likewise full of
light. The state, therefore, of religious knowledge in the
land will ever take its standard from you, and of conse
quence, whatsoever is connected with religious knowledge,
has a peculiar claim upon your attention, and you must
necessarily feel yourselves bound, by every motive of
duty and good conscience, to take cognizance thereof in
the fear of God, and out of due regard to the interests of
that truth with which you are more especially intrusted.
"It is from this view of the importance of your sacred
character, and of the duties thence resulting, that I am
principally led to address you on the present occasion ;
and this, let it be believed, not in the spirit of petulance,
or any inclination to dictate authoritatively, still less in
the spirit of bigotry or any sectarian prejudices, but, if I
know my own heart, in a spirit of the most extended
charity, grounded in a sincere regard to the general
interests of religion, and particularly affected with vene
ration for your sacred character and station, and a sense
of the weighty obligations thereby laid upon you.
"The theological writings in question are confessedly
of a religious kind, treating on religious subjects, and
containing various and interesting explications of the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
