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^^^^^ ' ^ li ^^ y ^ me ^ df ^ ^ \ oa wU <^ «* && eptpted ? , amd ; pia-tieu ^ fe ^ fgt lihe Cfeu ^ eh of England . I iw i ^^ -V-iiWi . * Wng - I- « maji adffM ^ & aa Utopian church , such as I i )« yei ^ expept to see , such as can scarcely ^ be expected ever to exist in
this imperfect wqrld $ but such an one , as th ^ t * all established churches will rise in excellence in proportion as they approximate to it . It is the beau ideal , the imaginary standard of excellence ,
too beautiful and perfedt to admit the hope of its being realized . I am cbmplained of ^ for expressing that I liave no objection against the ministers of religion occasionally lifting " tteir mitred heads in courts and parliaments . " I hope I am not to be
condemned as unfriendly to liberty because I see no reason why the ministers of religion should be deprived of any honours and privileges to which their fellow-subjects have access . How far it might be proper , in certain states of society , to create different ranks and
orders of ministers , and to invest ministers of a certain degree with civil titles and privileges , is a mere question of detail which does not enter into the discussion of principle . It is a curious and important practical question , whether the Christian
religion has been upon the whole benefited b y the protection and support which it has received from the civil power : and I have been much blamed for using the expression that Christianity requires the protection of the magistrate .
That the Christian religion derives its origin from God , and that under the guardianship of his providence , it would by some means have been supported in the world , though all civil
patronage had been withdrawn from it , is a fact not to be disputed . But in our historical reasonings we are not to presume upon miracles : we are only to inquire what would have been likely to happen ceteris manentibus . to happen ceteris manentibus .
% If Christianity had been oppressed in Europe as it was in Asia and Africa , which it probably would if it had not been established , it cannot be doubted ™ at the Christian religion would have been redueed Ito the saine miserable state m which it now exists in those ^ ^^ ^ fefi » t ^¦ ., But- * -wfcteh > is , SSEty ;^ W # *^ ^ nstiap , and had cotiteiitel themselves
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with the mere protection fcfr Chri «^ ui itjjtt without afiJeH ? diiig £ viiege , without arming ^ degree of power , ami without allowing any revenue for t ^ e s ^ pp ^ i ^^ of ^ its teachers * it-feetwgfte& ratlh ^^
difficult question to decide what w > uld have been the actual state of-ChjS&tu anity in modern time& . i Thatvitt ^ ny and great evils would have been avoided , cannot be denied ; and it is the opinion of those who are hostile to thecintei > -
ference of the civil power , that Christi anity , in these circumstances , would have prevailed more generally , fand would have existed ih * a mu ^; -plu&E and moi ^ e perfect for in than M present , t .
.. But this is not a conclusion toMeh is to be hastily taken for granted , nor will the success of > the Christian religion , antecedently to the reign of Constantino ^ though often and confidently appealed to , warrant the inference . The ante-Constantine period was not , as it has often been represented , a state
of unabatmg persecution , much less does it deserve to be qualified as the best arid purest age of the church . ; The external state of Christianity was frequently peaceful and prosperous , and
the doctrine of Christy which began to be corrupted in the apostolic age , was bo thoroughly impregnated with the leaven of error and a false philosophy at the commencement of the fourth
century , that genuine Christianity was buried under the accumulation of filth and rubbish . It may even be said that the interposition of the civil power was of use to arrest the progress of error . For comparatively few additions have been made to the corruptions of
Christianity since the age of Constejntine . And , in all human probability , had the civil power interppjsed no check , error would have continued to spread and multiply to an inconceivable degree , and the faith and practice of Christians would now have , been as
widely different from the doctrine and spirit of the gospel , as that of the modern Hindoos from the pure md simple theism of their sacred "bo #$ j . * It is not in the suj ^ hine of §^;^ td prosperity that truth and viftpft ' 4 ipwe
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ M . » . * ¦ , See extract ^ from ihe Vedant and the Cena' Up ^ f ^^ tKife 4 i # ^ Wife # tti * . ' Hki 4 ^; $ ^^ Rammohun Roy , tin eminferit and learfiM
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Mr . M&fokamok ^\ MgM ^^ *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1820, page 577, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2493/page/13/
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