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There are but two ways , as I conceive , of reasoning this subject . Ecclesiastical establishments must be defended on the score either of truth or of utility . If the former , the civil magistrate is converted at once into a
teacher of Christianity ; he is made the infallible expounder of the divine law , and the immediate vice-gerent of the Supreme Being upon the earth . In short , he approximates very near to the condition of the Roman pontiff , or the grand Lama of Thibet . But if
truth is to be the basis of any particular religion before it is recommended and enforced by the civil magistrate , he can have 110 pretensions to deviate from the laws and regulations of its
Founder , who must be best acquainted with both its nature and requirements . These can only be learnt by having recourse to his own testimony , or to that of agents immediately commissioned and authorized by him .
Christians , I know , differ widely in the degree of authority which they attach to the writings of the New Testament . But every Christian , I presume , and Mr . Belsham amongst the rest , professes to derive his religion
from thence . He builds upon no other authority , and any deviation from , or addition to , what was taught and practised by Jesus Christ and his apostles , must be considered so far a departure from their religion . I need not tell Mr . Belsham that there is not the
shadow of an authority in the New Testament for investing the civil magistrate with the protection of Christianity , or for decorating him with the swelling title of " Defender of the Faith . " The Jewish Church , indeed , was essentially involved with the state ,
it made an integral part of it , its worship was symbolical , and it was clothed , iii the enaphatical language of the apostle , with " the beggarly elements of the world . " Now , if I understand any thing of the design of Christianity , it
was to destroy this system altogether , and to substitute for the gross and unworthy views which then prevailed respecting the Divine nature and government , a worship of a more refined and intellectual nature . The
Jewish religion was a system of worldly polity ; but Jesus Christ says , " My kingdom is not of this world , " a declaration which , notwithstanding the ingenuity that has been exercised to
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explain it away , must ever remain a significant token of genuine Christianity , and effectually prevent it from being amalgamated with the policy of princes , or the institutions of civil society .
Much unnecessary heat has been diffused by different contending parties in order to prove the superior practical efficacy of this or that particular system . It is quite natural that every man should consider his own religion the best , and that he should be desirous
of recommending it to others ; but charity , if not an enlightened understanding , should check the beginnings of hatred and resentment , and repress that imagined superiority which is seldom wanting in established Christians . The essential principles of human conduct belong * , in fact , to everv svstem . duct belongin factto every system
, , , and these alone are legitimate objects of legislation . The more sublime and refined parts of religion , such as relate to the nature and being of a God , to the inode in which he is to be worshiped , to the nature of the soul , and the expectations of man in a future
state , are subjects not cognizable to human laws , and can never be ingrafted on them without injury . The overfondness that has been always shewn for legislating in these matters , instead of being serviceable to mankind , as Mr . Belsham supposes , has , I doubt
not . been of essential iniurv in imnenot , been of essential injury in impeding the progress of knowledge , and in paralyzing the best feelings of our nature . Mr . Belsham observes , that * ' if
Christianity had been oppressed in Europe , as it was in Asia and Africa , which it probably yvould if it had not been established , it cannot be doubted that the Christian religion would have been reduced to the same miserable
state in which it now exists in those extensive continents . " Of this I have great * doubts . Christianity was never in a more flourishing state than before it was polluted by the embraces of the Roman emperors . The history of our own country , and of all Europe ,
certifies that sects are most prosperous when under the rod of oppression . Look at the Nonconformists , for instance . Besides , it by no means follows that Christianity would have been always persecuted , if it had not been established . Such was not its fate always under the Roman emperors ,
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78 On Mr . Belsham s Arguments for Civil Establishments of Religion .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 78, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/14/
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