The Making of the Primitive Baptists by Mathis James R.;

Author:Mathis, James R.; [Mathis, James R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

As the churches in this country are now going on, they will soon be no better than the church of Rome, and the High Church of England; for money and titles have always been the object of Popes and Popish priests, and also of the clergy of the Church of England, who once had the command of sixteen thousand weight of tobacco, annually, in this country, to turn into money.26

Such moneyed and educated clergy as the mission societies were producing aimed to “put the yoke of tyranny snug on our necks,” Lawrence wrote, with the missionaries “pensioners of state.” The aim of these men was power, for “money and education are power; and in the management of skillful hands, great effects may, in a short time, be produced.”27 The titles used by the mission boards were similar, in Lawrence's view, to those used by the Catholic Church and the Church of England and were “the corrupters of the Church of God.” “These are the scorpions that have stings intheir tails, and have stricken thousands to ruin.” They were direct threats to liberty and signs of tyranny: “Oh ye sons of Columbia! Stand up and look round yourselves; and behold what strides are making by an ever-busy clergy, to forge the chains of tyranny for your bodies and consciences! Be alarmed, before your necks are in the yoke — for these things must come in side-ways, or as an entering wedge; and one step off from gospel ground, gives room for another, until death is in the pot, and the devil at the wheel.”28

The symbolic link between missionary societies, the Catholic Church, the Church of England, and the contrast with the “true church” was made repeatedly by Lawrence in this tract, and he would make the similar link in his other writings.

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