Being fully persuaded," to
follow the same writer, "that prelatical ordination and the three orders
are indispensable to their profession, they are, like too many of their
fellow professors in the mother country, deeply dyed with Laudean
principles, or that love of formula in religion and grasping for power
which has so conspicuously shown itself among the Oxford tractarians,
and which, it is to be feared, is gradually undermining Protestant
conformity, by gnawing at its very heart, in the colleges of Great
Britain." Vital piety, or that deep sense of religious duty that impels
men to avoid the devious paths of sin, and to live "near to God," is, I
am inclined to believe (and I regret it, as a painful truth), by no
means common in America. There are, however, many pastors who faithfully
warn their flocks of the dangers of the world, and who strenuously
advise their hearers to take warning lest they be over-captivated with
the "Song of the Syrens." These, however, I must say, are chiefly in the
free states, for I cannot regard southern ministers in any other light
than pharisaical, while they continue openly (as is their constant
practice) to support from their pulpits the institution that is the main
stay of the southern states; I mean slavery.
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