Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke [225]
your arms against men, who, not contented with endeavouring to turn your eyes from the blaze and effulgence of light, by which life and immortality is so gloriously demonstrated by the Gospel, would even extinguish that faint glimmering of nature, that only comfort supplied to ignorant man before this great illumination--them who, by attacking even the possibility of all revelation, arraign all the dispensations of Providence to man. These are the wicked dissenters you ought to fear; these are the people against whom you ought to aim the shafts of law; these are the men to whom, arrayed in all the terrors of government, I would say, You shall not degrade us into brutes; these men, these factious men, as the honourable gentleman properly called them, are the just objects of vengeance, not the conscientious dissenter; these men, who would take away whatever ennobles the rank or consoles the misfortunes of human nature, by breaking off that connection of observations, of affections, of hopes and fears, which bind us to the Divinity, and constitute the glorious and distinguishing prerogative of humanity, that of being a religious creature; against these I would have the laws rise in all their majesty of terrors, to fulminate such vain and impious wretches, and to awe them into impotence by the only dread they can fear or believe, to learn that eternal lesson--Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere Divos.
At the same time that I would cut up the very root of atheism, I would respect all conscience; all conscience, that is really such, and which perhaps its very tenderness proves to be sincere. I wish to see the established Church of England great and powerful; I wish to see her foundations laid low and deep, that she may crush the giant powers of rebellious darkness; I would have her head raised up to that heaven to which she conducts us. I would have her open wide her hospitable gates by a noble and liberal comprehension; but I would have no breaches in her wall; I would have her cherish all those who are within, and pity all those who are without; I would have her a common blessing to the world, an example, if not an instructor, to those who have not the happiness to belong to her; I would have her give a lesson of peace to mankind, that a vexed and wandering generation might be taught to seek for repose and toleration in the maternal bosom of Christian charity, and not in the harlot lap of infidelity and indifference.
INDEX.
Abstract views, on the danger of.
Abstract words, effects of.
Accumulation a state principle.
Administration and legislation, on the due balance of.
Age, our own, on the injustice paid to.
Alfred the Great, political genius of. --the promoter of learning. --his religious character.
Ambassadors of infamy, their tyranny.
Ambition, incentives of. --disappointed, picture of.
America, great national progress of. --on her resistance to taxation. --on her early colonization, and the greatness of her future. --on the Protestantism of. --on the embassy of England to.
Analogy, on the pleasures of.
Anarchy contrasted and compared with reformation.
Architecture, influence of.
Armed discipline, necessity of.
Art, on correct judgment in.
"Articles" of the Church, necessity of the.
Atheism, atrocious principles of. --incapable of repentance.
Atheists, literary, their proselytism and bigotry.
Attraction, Newton's discovery of the property of.
Authority, abuses of, dangerous.
Axioms, political.
Barons, English, on the restraints imposed upon the.
Bathurst, Lord, on his recollections of American colonization.
Beautiful, what constitutes the. --in feeling, Burke's ideas of. --in sounds, on our general ideas of.
Beauty, delicacy essential to. --female, on the influence of.
Bedford, duke of, on the royal grants to. --on his attacks on Mr. Burke. --reply to "his Grace."
Bribery, objects and evils of.
Britain, her war with France vindicated. --state of, at the time of the Saxon conquest. --the ancient inhabitants of.
British
At the same time that I would cut up the very root of atheism, I would respect all conscience; all conscience, that is really such, and which perhaps its very tenderness proves to be sincere. I wish to see the established Church of England great and powerful; I wish to see her foundations laid low and deep, that she may crush the giant powers of rebellious darkness; I would have her head raised up to that heaven to which she conducts us. I would have her open wide her hospitable gates by a noble and liberal comprehension; but I would have no breaches in her wall; I would have her cherish all those who are within, and pity all those who are without; I would have her a common blessing to the world, an example, if not an instructor, to those who have not the happiness to belong to her; I would have her give a lesson of peace to mankind, that a vexed and wandering generation might be taught to seek for repose and toleration in the maternal bosom of Christian charity, and not in the harlot lap of infidelity and indifference.
INDEX.
Abstract views, on the danger of.
Abstract words, effects of.
Accumulation a state principle.
Administration and legislation, on the due balance of.
Age, our own, on the injustice paid to.
Alfred the Great, political genius of. --the promoter of learning. --his religious character.
Ambassadors of infamy, their tyranny.
Ambition, incentives of. --disappointed, picture of.
America, great national progress of. --on her resistance to taxation. --on her early colonization, and the greatness of her future. --on the Protestantism of. --on the embassy of England to.
Analogy, on the pleasures of.
Anarchy contrasted and compared with reformation.
Architecture, influence of.
Armed discipline, necessity of.
Art, on correct judgment in.
"Articles" of the Church, necessity of the.
Atheism, atrocious principles of. --incapable of repentance.
Atheists, literary, their proselytism and bigotry.
Attraction, Newton's discovery of the property of.
Authority, abuses of, dangerous.
Axioms, political.
Barons, English, on the restraints imposed upon the.
Bathurst, Lord, on his recollections of American colonization.
Beautiful, what constitutes the. --in feeling, Burke's ideas of. --in sounds, on our general ideas of.
Beauty, delicacy essential to. --female, on the influence of.
Bedford, duke of, on the royal grants to. --on his attacks on Mr. Burke. --reply to "his Grace."
Bribery, objects and evils of.
Britain, her war with France vindicated. --state of, at the time of the Saxon conquest. --the ancient inhabitants of.
British