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    Roman Catholic Church . Surely , then , we violate the Christian rule of doing as we would be done by , so long as we sanction a similar hardship inflicted upon them . For this reason , then , I think the system unjust . And though the government may be the authors , yet , by receiving the Royal Bounty , I should feel myself an abetter of the injustice .

    2 . The Royal Bounty seems to me to expose our office to all the objections of a sinecure . Not , indeed , that we have no labour . On the other hand , few , perhaps , have any conception how depressing are the anxieties , how overpowering the responsibilities , how intense the mental and moral effort which our duties entail . But then the labour is given to one party , our congregation , while this remuneration comes from another , the state .

    We sustain a twofold relation ; to our people , and to the government . For our people we work ; for the government we do not . Relatively to our people , then , our office is no sinecure ; relatively to the state , it is . Though it may be true that we are not useless citizens , and that we may not unfavourably influence the welfare of the community , yet this does not entitle us to remuneration from the public fund . To give any one a claim on that fund , it is not enough that he be a useful member of society ; but he must

    be the servant of the state , and devote his time to some specific office connected with the administration of government . But in that direction we have no official duties . In short , my friends , either we are officers of the state , or we are not . If we are , then are we a state-priesthood , acknowledging our religion to be matter of government selection : a secularization of our spiritual faith to which I cannot persuade myself to be a party * If we are not , then have we a remuneration without duty performed to the remunerators , and are holders of sinecures . 3 . All remuneration of a clergy by the state seems to me to check the circulation , and impede the progress , of religious opinion . To the genuine

    operation of religion upon the intellectual and moral condition of mankind , the most unlimited liberty of thought and expression seems to be essential : and every influence which creates profession without belief , or an interested preference of some doctrines and dislike of others , is to be deprecated , as tending to cut off religion from its immediate contact with the mind and heart . Now , when any emolument is given by virtue of connexion with some particular church , and forfeited by departure from its pale , there is an inducement of interest to remain in its connexion , and to suppress the tendencies to change . When a minister who depends exclusively on his con- * gregation changes his opinions , he has hopes of carrying his people with him in the new direction which his mind has taken : but the state and its patronage cannot be transferred . It is true that this interest is reduced pearly to its lowest amount among the Irish Presbyterians , because the government does not alienate its patronage in consequence of diversities of theological sentiment . But if the Royal Bounty do not create a personal interest in any particular creed , still it binds us down to the Presbyterian

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    834 ' On the Receipt of Public Money bp /> issentin # Ministers .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 834, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/38/