654 THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE DISSENTERS. 



they are afraid to check. They affected to hold their power from the 

 mob, and they are become the vassals of their tyranny. 



But it is not yet too late if they will have the firmness necessary to 

 relieve themselves from this thraldom. They profess to be zealous 

 supporters of the Church ; and yet they fall into the measures of 

 those who now no longer covertly plot, but openly avow their hatred 

 and call for its destruction. Let us reason the matter calmly. 



In the first place Is an Established- Church necessary for the 

 well-being of England? We say, without hesitation, yes under all 

 circumstances, yes under present circumstances, indispensably. 

 If, indeed, men were on the point of forming a social system entirely 

 new, the question might be raised how far it would be politic to em- 

 body the Church with the State. But let us examine the very com- 

 position of society. To begin with a family. What is the authority 

 of a parent over his family ? what is the obedience and the respect 

 paid to him by the members of that family ? Is it the spontaneous 

 tribute of each individual, or the collective homage of the whole 

 body ? Is it to be granted or withheld at the caprice of each indi- 

 vidual, or is it to be uniformly rendered by all ? Is it, if the expres- 

 sion may be allowed, abstract or concrete ? Let us go a step farther. 

 A tribe or a nation is composed of many families, under some head, 

 whether it be a king, a dictator, a consul, or by what other name he 

 may be called. Is that authority conferred on him by the individuals 

 composing the tribe, or is it derived from the general assent? The 

 public acts of that chief, are they the acts of the individuals or of the 

 mass ? Again, let us take a representative government the House 

 of Commons, for example. Members are sent to this assembly not to 

 do the bidding or convey the sentiments of individual constituents, 

 but to consult on the interests of the whole body of society to make 

 laws which are to be binding on all to enter into engagements or 

 treaties which the whole nation is bound to fulfil. Individuals are 

 mere cyphers they are as units to the million. And yet this prin- 

 ciple, which pervades the whole system of society, is to be lost sight 

 of when we are brought into relation with our God, as if He were 

 the God of an individual, and not of the whole body. 



Again, it will be conceded on all hands that some order, some 

 regular system, is necessary for the well-being of all public bodies. 

 To begin with the first link of the social chain, there must be a 

 common and uniform medium for the communication of ideas there 

 must be one system of laws. Men, as if by instinct, adopt a unifor- 

 mity of habits and of manners they assume a peculiar and distinc- 

 tive external character they find by experience that this harmony 

 is not only useful but necessary in the most minute trifles of daily 

 life; and yet it is to be said, that this intuitive wisdom is applicable 

 only to our earthly transactions, and loses all its power the moment 

 we apply ourselves to our religious duties. 



If, indeed, there were many gods, as many gods as men, and each 

 god (like the genius of the great philosophy) exercised his authority, 

 and extended his providence over individuals and over individuals 

 only, each man might be excused from worshipping any but his own 

 tutelary divinity, but till we become platonists and cease to be not 



