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    government to its own purposes ; and in this inevitable abuse we discern another evil springing out of the essential principle of religious establishments . From causes which are deeply seated in human nature , those with whom the powers of government are lodged , unavoidably contract interests at variance with those of the governed ; and , unless strictly watched and guarded , will endeavour to make themselves independent of the people , and to pursue

    their own measures uncontrouled . Confer on a government , in addition to all its other sources of power , the disposal of church patronage , and it will instantaneously feel the vast accession of strength thus acquired , and begin to devise the most beneficial application of that strength for the accomplishment of its own objects . All the checks that have been suggested to this abuse , would prove but feeble barriers against the all-prevailing influence of the power which dispenses the honours and emoluments of the clergy . The privilege delegated to the separate congregations of having a voice in the

    election of their pastors would ultimately become little more than nominal , and would rarely be exercised in opposition to the wishes of government . For it is the knowledge , that they must themselves support the object of the ^ r choice , which gives men an interest in the exercise of this privilege ; and whatever be the form of election , whatever the provisions made for the protection of the popular interest , whatever the checks interposed against the abuse of the authority of government , while human nature remains as it is , the ascendant influence alter all will be found in the same hands which hold

    the purse . In all established priesthoods we witness the same spirit of devotedness to government ; it is as conspicuous in the Presbyterian churches of Scotland and Ireland as in the Episcopalian establishment of England ; the apparent exception to this rule , which occurs in the general alienation of the lower clergy from the government for a considerable period after the revolution , turning out upon inquiry to be pnly a remarkable exemplification of the rule itself- ^ -the manifestation of attachment to a despotic government in exile , in preference to a popular one at home .

    The only rational vindication of establishments must rest on the ground that the evils , which are inseparable from them , are less than what would result frqm leaving religion free to maintain and diffuse itself . In this view it is a choice of difficulties . The , experience , of history clearly proves , we are told , that the divine energies of the religion of Jesus have not always

    been , ab { e to preserve it from destruction , and that whatever mischiefs may arise from the nature p , f establishments , it is better that Christianity should survive ev ^ n in this form , preserving a portion of its heavenly spirit in the m . idst pf corruptions , than be wholly swept away from the face of the earth . Our attention is directed to immense trgcts in Asia and Africa , once peopled

    by large and flourishing communities of Christians , and now oppressed apd degraded by the followers of Mahomet , as a proof that the interposition of tbe civil power may not always be unnecessary to protect the gospel . But these cases allege nothing in favour of the necessity of establishments . Christianity is an element in the moral condition of mankind , and will of

    course be affected by all the causes which influence that condition , drooping with its degradation and rising again with its renovation and improvement . Incorporation wWi the state wquJq npt have shielded Christianity frpm the incursions of Saracenic fury , inspired as it was by the wildest fanaticism ; on the contrary , the mere circumstance of its bein ^ established and presenting a more definite front of resistance would , in all probability , have drawn down upon it a more destructive race and rendered its ruin more complete .

    Untitled Article

    18 Spirit and Tendency of Religious Establtthments .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/18/