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    of classes * and not of individuals . Individuals there will always be greatly superior to the mass by which they are surrounded , but it is only by the movements and tendency of large masses that we can estimate the spirit of parties and the effects of a system . An establishment imposes restraints upon freedom of inquiry . The patronage of the state must be limited to some particular form of doctrine and discipline , otherwise it will have no equivalent for the patronage conferred , nor feel secure of the end for which its favours have been bestowed . Let

    the scheme of establishment be ever so comprehensive , where preferment is in the hands of the state , there can be but one sure method of obtaining it , and that is by compliance with the wishes of the ruling powers . Here is another most serious evil involved in the essential principle of all religious establishments . The religious worship of a great portion of the community is fixed by a prescribed standard of doctrine and discipline , and the honours and emoluments of the national church are made conditional on an

    adherence to it . But opinion is necessarily wavering , usually progressive ; and moral and religious opinion , depending so much on feeling and sentiment , on the state of manners and the advancement of general knowledge , is peculiarly liable to change—it may be hoped , peculiarly susceptible of improvement . Were the doctrines of Christianity solitary and insulated truths , burning in a narrow and secluded sphere of their own , and shedding no lustre on contiguous objects which increase by reflection the light they

    receive ; then , indeed , it might be conceived that the religious knowledge imparted by revelation should not exceed in one age what had been enjoyed in another . But the truths of religion are of vast extent , and abound in unsuspected bearings and dependencies on other truths ; they sustain a sort of general relation to the whole circle of human knowledge , and intermingle their light with every subject of consciousness , and every result of experience , and every deduction of reason . Thus , with the progressive

    developement of the human faculties , while the light of Christian truth is continually poured in upon the expanding circle of knowledge , a new set of objects is brought successively under its influence , and the religious views and feelings undergo modification and enlargement . Any restraint , consequently , upon the religious convictions is pernicious , because though such limitation may have been made with a tender regard to the predominant

    belief of one age , yet so infinite are the bearings of religion , so subtle and imperceptible its influences on the whole range of human thought and feeling , that it is impossible to foresee how such limitation may affect the religious mind of a coming age , and prove an obstacle to that strong individual conviction which is necessary to make religion the vital spring of action and the nourishment of our moral being .

    A religious establishment has been sometimes vindicated on the ground of its serving to protect religion against the inroads of ignorance and superstition ; but if there be any force in the foregoing observations , it must at least perpetuate as many error 3 as it excludes : ' Tarn ficti praviquc ten ax quam nuntia

    veri-It tends to fix and rivet the mind to one particular state of advancement , and there , by a sort of vis inertice , to keep it , while the current of public opinion and knowledge runs rapidly past it ; and thus occasions in its adherents a state of mind , of &H others the most unfavourable to depth and firmness of religious conviction , and the sure forerunner of scepticism and infidelity—a want of accordance between the faith that is outwardly professed

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    ^ Spirit and Tendency of Religious Establishments . 15

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/15/