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    liberty , but ultimately conduce to peace and charity . Justice , however , requires that in this Christian rivalry all parties should stand on an equal footing , and that no one , through the partial favour of the state , should be placed on a vantage ground above the rest . The preference shewn to one sect converts it into a privileged and dominant order , and creates those invidious distinctions among Christian professors , which engender

    sectarianism , and mingle a feeling of distrust and jealousy with the intercourses of social life . The wealth and splendour of the national church , its monopoly of the seats of learning , and the grace bestowed upon it by all that is polished and elegant in literature , ' mark it out as a religion peculiarly befitting the higher classes , and predispose its members to make an adherence to it the oadge of gentility . On the other hand , the excluded party are impelled by a spirit of contradiction to shew their contempt for

    advantages and accomplishments , which are placed beyond their reach , by unreasonably depreciating them , and running into the opposite extreme of too great a disregard to refinement and elegance . Individuals may be found on both sides , whose liberality enables them to rise above the contracted views of their party ; but such is the predominant bearing towards each other of

    the two great masses into which the existence of an establishment divides the religious world : and while these invidious distinctions subsist , it is idle to talk of an equality of civil privileges extended to all Christian professors of every denomination ; . for the mere circumstance of belonging to the excluded or the favoured party makes a difference to a man , which he feels more or less in all the relations of life .

    Such a state of society is the fruitful parent of sectarianism , which is the spirit of party , as opposed to the pure and disinterested love of truth for its own sake . In this respect , the influence of an establishment is scarcely less injurious to Dissenters than to its own members . Were all Christians placed in circumstances of perfect equality , without any inducement , direct or indirect , to approve one set of opinions more than another , truth would have a fair chance , and men , having no countervailing attraction , would search for

    it with a single heart . The stock of religious knowledge would be increased , and the certainty of religious truths more clearly ascertained , by every controversy which arose among Christians ; and truths of the most vital and practical importance would be sure , in the progress of society and knowledge , to engage the largest share of public interest and attention . But where one party is favoured and another excluded , the doctrines or forms which constitute the ground of separation between them , acquire an interest

    and secure an attention quite disproportionate to their real value and importance . Even inquiries in some degree foreign to the leading controversy "between the two parties , contract a bearing towards it , and are warped from the straight and obvious course which they ought to pursue . What is worst of all , a spirit of rancour and jealousy , arising naturally out of the relative situation of the disputants , almost unconsciously influences their minds , and prevents them from seeing the question in a clear and impartial light .

    The patronage of the civil power naturally renders the great body of the clergy steady supporters of the government ; Dissenters , on the contrary , from their education and from other causes , are as naturally disposed to league themselves with the popular party . Hence no small share of political feeling mingles itself with the sentiments which Churchmen and Dissenters are accustomed to entertain towards each other ; and in the decision of questions purely theological , considerations are permitted to have weiffht , which ought to be wholly kept out of view . In these remarks , we of course speak

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    14 Spirit aha Tendencyi of Religious Establishments .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/14/