An Address to Lord Teignmouth, president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, occasioned by his address to the clergy of the Church of England — Background and Themes

Transcribed from the 1805 F. C. and J. Rivington edition from Bodleian Library scans by David Price, email [email protected]

[Picture: Pamphlet cover]

AN ADDRESS TO _LORD TEIGNMOUTH_. PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, OCCASIONED BY HIS ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

_BY A COUNTRY CLERGYMAN_.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON, No 62, ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD; _By Bye and Law_, _St. John’s-Square_, _Clerkenwell_.

THE emotions of my mind, upon receipt of your Lordship’s address as President of the British and Foreign Bible Society, were such as I am not inclined, for several reasons, to describe. Your friends represent you as not hostile to the established church: nay, some assert that you are its firm supporter; and doubtless it never could have entered your Lordship’s mind to address a clergyman with proposals of lending his zeal and exertions for the promotion of religion, but in the character of the church’s friend. Judge then, my Lord, at my surprize, to see your Lordship’s name at the head of such a list of subscribers as that enclosed to me; to find your Lordship’s patronage and protection bestowed upon every description of its enemies, and your request that I would promote their design. Judge, my Lord, what must have been my grief, to find a man of your Lordship’s respectability deserting the cause of sound religion, and our poor country’s best defence, and confederating with persons openly labouring the destruction of all that is sober, or established!

My Lord, I presume to address you, invited by your Lordship’s known good sense and candour, and much emboldened by a strong conviction that some enemy hath craftily obtained your Lordship’s countenance to his project; which, I am sure, if your Lordship knew all, you would spurn with indignation and contempt. I am persuaded that you know not the men and their communication, to whom you have joined yourself. Let this then be my excuse for intruding myself upon your notice; and if I fail to convince your Lordship, at least let me promise myself that patience and respect which is always due to sincerity and good intention. At present, my Lord, you appear as the head of a party, (rather, should I say, a legion of parties) by whom every opponent is sure to be reviled, as illiberal and uncharitable, and as an enemy to the gospel. I confess I expect the honour of their reproaches. I am thankful that I have enjoyed them before. “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” From you, my Lord, I expect the treatment of a Gentleman and a Christian; and if I fail in the respect which is due to those honourable characters, I sincerely profess it shall be contrary to my resolved purpose; and I beg your Lordship to let Charity do its perfect work, and cover this failure among the multitude of my other sins.

It is very true, my Lord, that “to promote the circulation of the scriptures at home and abroad, is an object in which every one who professes the religion of Christ, must feel a deep interest.” But the _object_ of a society, my Lord, is not to be known from its public declaration in print. Your experience of the world will suggest to you, that the most important objects, whether of a good or evil tendency, have been prosecuted, and are now continually pursued in a close and clandestine manner, under favour of public declarations of a different and often of a contrary character. It is impossible for any man to say what shall be the _real_ object of any society, till he be in possession of the favourite object of each of its members; for although a body of men may at first associate for, and appear to bind themselves to the promotion of some specific common object, we well know, that in process of time, this common object is generally lost in neglect; and at last, each individual pursues that particular object which, as a private man, engages his affection and preference.