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    gation of doctrines which they do not believe . According to this plan , just so much of the interposition of the civil power remains as to intercept the perfect enjoyment of religious liberty , and to check the free course of religious zeal , by rendering that a compulsory , which ought to be a voluntary contribution . The state is little more than receiver-general for the public ; and , for this trifling benefit , religion forfeits her free and independent

    character , and incurs the degrading imputation of being a mere instrument in the hands of government for the accomplishment of political purposes , and the maintenance of social order- The influence placed by this scheme at the disposal of the government , is nevertheless so neutralized by the number and variety of the parties amongst whom it is dispensed , as scarcely to be worth the trouble and expense of preserving it ; and when a government has become sufficiently liberal and enlightened to adopt a religious establishment

    on this broad and comprehensive basis , it will be prepared to go a step further , and to release religion from all connexion with the state , in the recognition of its perfect ability to perpetuate itself . That the New-England States of North America have followed this course , and have , at length , set religion quite free , may be regarded as a confirmation of the justice of this remark .

    In examining , therefore , the spirit and tendency of religious establishments , we must consider the effects which necessarily arise from the state ' s selecting some form or forms of Christianity , as the subjects of its patronage , in preference to others ; for such is the only kind of establishment which we have hitherto seen continue lo exist , and the only one which , we have good reason to believe , the state would find it worth while to uphold . It is impossible

    to establish a general Christianity ; general Christianity is a mere fiction of the human mind—a metaphysical abstraction , which it may be convex nient to use occasionally in reasoning , but which has , and can have , no real existence . Christianity , by which is to be understood all the mingled influences , convictions , and views , communicated to the mind by the doctrines of Jesus , will exist in a form somewhat different in the bosom of every individual professor , and under that form alone must be habitually

    contemplated and embraced , to produce all the beneficial effects of sincere belief . Every inducement , however remote , to draw away the minds of men from that one single form of Christianity , to which their own individual feelings and convictions naturally lead , and to fix them on some prescribed and foreign standard of faith , must impair the fervour and sincerity of belief , and prevent those beneficial practical consequences which ought to flow from it . Now , although the state should require subscription only to the simplest and most essential articles of Christianity , and should comprehend various modes

    of discipline in the national establishment ; yet the state would naturally look most favourably on those opinions , and on that discipline , in which it found the readiest sympathy , and the most effectual support of its own political views ; so that , notwithstanding the prospect held out of equal favour extended to a variety of religious parties , the circumstance of all honours and emoluments emanating from the state would inevitably produce a favoured party even in the bosom of the establishment itself . The present condition of the Church of England confirms this opinion ; of the two parties , into which it is divided , the evangelical enjoys a comparatively small share

    of the patronage of ttie state . Varieties of religious opinion , and various modes of worship and discipline , are , in the highest degree , beneficial to the community ; for the controversies which such varieties occasion , not only keep alive the spirit of truth and

    Untitled Article

    Spirit and Tendency of Religious Establishments 13

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/13/