A CHARGE
DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY,
At the Primary Visitation of the Diocese of Durham, in the Year 1751.
WITH NOTES,
CONTAINING A DEFENCE OF THE CHARGE AGAINST THE OBJECTIONS OF AN ANONYMOUS WRITER,[1]
BY THE EDITOR.
It is impossible for me, my brethren, upon our first meeting of this kind, to forbear lamenting with you the general decay of religion in this nation, which is now observed by every one, and has been for some time the complaint of all serious persons. The influence of it is more and more wearing out of the minds of men, even of those who do not pretend to enter into speculations upon the subject: but the number of those who do, and who profess themselves unbelievers, increases, and with their numbers their zeal. Zeal! it is natural to ask—for what? Why, truly, for nothing, but against everything that is good and sacred amongst us.
Indeed, whatever efforts are made against our religion,
- ↑ The publication of Bishop Butler's Charge, in the year 1751, was followed by a Pamphlet, printed in 1752, entitled, A Serious Inquiry into the Use and Importance of External Religion, occasioned by some Passages in the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Durham's Charge to the Clergy of that Diocese, &c., humbly addressed to his Lordship. This Pamphlet has been reprinted in a miscellaneous work: such parts of it as seemed most worthy of observation, the reader will find in the Notes subjoined to those passages of the Charge, to which the Pamphlet refers.
