"And largely discourse upon morality": in defence of practical Christianity

From Henry Handley Norris, a leading figure in the Hackney Phalanx, A Manual for the Parish Priest (1815), a defence of the 'practical Christianity' of the High Church tradition against evangelical (and later Tractarian) critiques:

Some years ago an outcry was raised against the great body of the clergy for preaching too much on the subject of morals, and neglecting the leading doctrines of the Gospel. The outcry I fear was raised with no good intention, and the charge I am persuaded was, in general, without foundation. I believe however, sober churchmen were at that time so disgusted with the sermons of some preachers, who were unceasingly bringing forward certain doctrines for the sake of perverting them, that there were parochial ministers who, through fear of running into this, were verging toward the opposite extreme: in avoiding the whirlpool they approached perhaps rather too near the rock; they allotted more than the just proportion of their discourses to the preceptive part of Christianity. But the morals insinuated in the accusation, the morality of the heathen philosopher, the rule of duty to be practised by men without relation to the Almighty Jehovah, I believe seldom if ever formed a subject for the Christian preacher. It is the duty of the parish priest to discourse, and largely to discourse upon morality—the morals of the Gospel—that rule of conduct to be practised by a Christian toward his neighbour and himself, enjoined by our blessed Lord, and enforced by the assurance of future reward or punishment.

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