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pestilent heresies . In truth , the subject is but little attended to excepting as a matter of feeling ; to study it in connexion with the philosophy of mind , or the nature of civil government , falls to the lot of comparatively a few . It may be observed , however , in reply to Mr . Belsham , that some of the ablest
writers who have appeared against the Church of England during the last half century , have attacked the principle of ecclesiastical establishments ; and , I believe , it will be found that nearly the
whole of those persons who maintain the right of private judgment in its most unlimited sense , have adopted sentiments adverse to the incorporation of religion with the state . It appears to me that Mr . Belsham bears rather hard upon those
Dissenters who participate in the parliamentary grants ; for , whatever may have been their origin , they are now neither given nor received for any statepurpose . Their object is purely eleemosynary ; and , although I do not
stand forward as their advocate , yet I really see no reason why Dissenters should forego any advantages they can obtain with a good conscience under the present system , merely because they think that a better might be substituted in its stead . As little do 1
blame Mr . Belsham , with his views , for wishing to see the ministers of religion occasionally lifting " their mitred heads in courts and parliaments . " The transition from an established church
to a courtly clergy is both easy and natural ; and if one sect is to be allowed to fill the seats of parliament with so much dead lumber , I see no reason why other sects should not be accommodated in a similar manner .
But the princi p le itself is altogether pernicious : it is highly detrimental to civil liberty ; it operates as a clog to reformation , and can only be regarded as an absurd relic of othe * times , when the ecclesiastical aristocracy claimed the privilege of intermeddling with the affairs of the state .
Upon the whole , I cannot agree with Mr . Belsham , that Christianity either claims or requires the protection and patronage of the civil power . Such a supposition might be fairly urged as primfc facie evidence against the divu nity of the system itself ; for , if it is the offspring of Deity , it paay surely be supposed to come better « up ^> orted
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and recommended than by civil pains and penalties , or the meretricious arts of the politician . The motives that draw people together into civil communities have nothing to do with religion , and the laws that are to bind
them relate wholly to their civil conduct . It is true , that most nations have artfully contrived to mix them up together , but for the basest purposes . Although a zeal for religion has been the pretence , the real motive has been to strengthen the hands of the civil
power . It is not to be concealed that a large class of persons imagine Christianity to be the basis of civil society , and they shudder for the fate of both were they p arted asunder . This notion , however , is the effect rather of habit and feeling than of correct views of
either . They rest on considerations perfectly distinct , as might easily be made appear to a calm and judicious inquirer . Matters of faith and of religious worship have really no more necessary connexion with the wellbeing of society than any particular theory relating to life , matter or
motion , or the system of the universe . I do not mean to deny that they may not be made to have a powerful influence ; for experience certainly proves that they have . Mr . Belsham well knows the effect upon society of an extensive belief in hereditary depravity , and that the moral demeanour of the
great mass is supposed to be upheld by the fear of spending an eternity in hell-torments . Now , whether the the * ological opinions that influence mankind be true or false , it is not my present business to inquire ; all I contend for is , that it id not the province of the magistrate to teach them , either himself or by his deputy .
Let no one tremble for the fate of Christianity when dissevered from the state . It has obtained too firm a hold upon society to be easily lost . The purest motives that now influence mankind to believe and to teach it will
still remain in full force , and it involves considerations too interesting and important to be neglected or forgotten finally , if it come from heaven , its Author is fully able to protect it : and
we may rest assured that he will no more suffer it to fail , than the air we breathe or the food that nourishes our animal existence . I must apolpgi ^ e for trespassing so long upon the pa-
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On Mr . Belsham * * Arguments for Civil Establishments of Religion . Si :
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vol . xvi . M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 81, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/17/
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