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    forms of church government , and stifles our predilection for what many of us believe to be the better system , that of the Independents . But there is a mode in which doctrinal profession is affected by the Royal Bounty . Though the State makes no inquiry into the creed of those who receive this fund , their Synod usually does ; and it is well known that the Synod had

    the power of influencing government by its representations ; and hence it becomes the interest of every minister to be subservient to the dominant party in the ecclesiastical body to which he belongs . Those who are acquainted with the North of Ireland will not require me to support this statement by an appeal to fact . In commendation of the freer Synod with which you are connected , I will say that we enjoy great liberty of opinion .

    The reason , however , is obvious : it is because the influential portion of the body hold Unitarian opinions . If time were to throw this liberal influence into a minority , there is-no security against the imposition of tests , and all the mental thraldom which it infallibly creates . I regard our

    superior freedom , then , not as any merit of the system , but a mere accident of position and relative numbers . That the average tendency of funds placed at the disposal , direct or indirect , of ecclesiastical bodies , is to produce subserviency to their leading faction , is a truth which may rest on an appeal to the whole history of establishments .

    4 . My last objection is , that the credit and influence of Christianity are much diminished by its alliance with the state . It is my firm conviction that more unbelievers have been made by establishments than by all the speculations which the friends of establishments deem so dangerous . As it is generally known that there exists a personal interest in religious profession , a wide-spread distrust in the sincerity of all belief is produced : a

    suspicion creeps over the public mind that , if interest were out of the way , much of what now passes for faith would appear to be but hollow pretension : and religion assumes a professional air which prevents its being felt and believed and loved , with that pure sincerity from which it derives its

    only value . It seems to me strange , my fellow-christians , to hear it said , that if there were no establishments , Christianity would not be sustained . Why , if there be a real love of it , it will be sustained . If not , then its present support is a reluctant one , and its acceptability is only in appearance , and our establishments have failed to carry it to the nation's heart . I am

    anxious , my friends , that we should relinquish every thing that can throw a doubt over our sincerity ; that we should prove our religion- to be no concern of interest , but a vital principle enshrined in our deep affection . This is a plain statement of the reasons that have convinced me that the principle of the Royal Bounty is wrong . And if the principle be wrong ,

    how can I believe the practice to be right ? I am not blind to the inconveniences of any general plan , for relinquishing it ; but if in its abandonment I see difficulty , in keeping it I see wrong . Let me entreat you to

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    On eke Receipt of Public Money by Dissenting Ministers . 835

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 835, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/39/