CHAPTER 1 - ( CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18TH CENTURY ) - { 10 }


 CHAPTER  1  -  ( CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18TH CENTURY )  -  { PT.  10 } - What were the Anglican bishops like in those days? Some of them were undoubtedly men of powerful intellect and learning and of unblameable lives. But the best of them, like Thomas Secker, Joseph Butler, Edmund Gibson, Robert Lowth, and George Horne, seemed unable to do more than deplore the existence of evils that they saw but did not know how to remedy. Others, like George Lavington and William Warburton, brought fierce charges of enthusiasm and fanaticism and appeared afraid of England becoming too religious! The majority of the Anglican bishops, to say the truth, were mere men of the world. They were unfit for their positions. The prevailing tone of the Episcopal body can be estimated by the fact that Archbishop Frederick Cornwallis gave balls and parties at Lambeth Palace until the king himself interfered by letter and requested him to stop. Let me also add that when the occupants of the Episcopal bench were troubled by the rapid spread of George Whitefield's influence, it was seriously suggested in high quarters that the best way to stop his influence was to make him a bishop. What were the regular clergy like in those days? The vast majority of them were sunk in worldliness, and neither knew nor cared anything about their profession. They neither did good themselves, nor liked anyone else to do it for them.                                ________________________________________________________ 

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