RELIGION. 



Urumenl of lyiauny and opptefTioii. If iiiagiilrates and 

 rulers availed themk-lvcs of the afliitaiici; whitii religion 

 affords for mclioratinfr the cliaraftir and condition of the 

 members of the community over which they prefide ; if they 

 patronized and enconraged the principles and protelfion of 

 it for the purpofe of rcilraining the profligate and vicious, 

 and of promoting a virtuous c-onduft with a view to the 

 welfare and profperity of the itate ; and it they made ufe of 

 the mighty powers with which religion furnifhes them merely 

 for the purpofe of maintaining order and peace in the com- 

 munity to which they belong, and of fecuring and advancing 

 its true interefts ; there could be no reafon for alarm or 

 complaint. Religion and civil government might unite 

 their efforts for fuch laudable purpofcs, and co-operate m 

 promoting them, without any apprclienfion of danger ; but 

 lamentable experience has teilified th.at in too many inftanccs 

 religion has been made fubfervient to ambition and worldly 

 policy, infomuch that many perfons of juft reflettion and 

 comprehenfive views have dreaded the interference of civil 

 governors in matters of religion, if, in iomc cafes, they . 

 have done good, in others their interference has been perni- 

 cious, not only to religion, which has been thus corrupted 

 and degraded, but to the civil community itfelf. Never- 

 thelefs the opinion, that it is neceffary for the ftate to pre- 

 fcribe the principles, and to regulate the modes of religion, 

 has been almoll univerfally prevalent. 



We are thus led briefly to diiculs the fubjeCt of national 

 eflabliflmients of religion ; and that wf may do this without 

 prejudice and partiality, we fliall ftatc tiie arguments on both 

 fides of the queflion, as mwcli as poliible in the language of 

 thofe who oppofe, and of thofe who defend them. Amongft 

 thofe who have thought freely, and who have written as freely 

 on this fubjeft, we find fome who contend againll eftablillt- 

 ments in any degree whatever. They will not allow that 

 religion fliould receive any fupport from the itate, but infill 

 that it ought to be left entirely to its own operation. There 

 is naturally, they fay, no more connettion between civil go- 

 vernment and religion, than between the former and any 

 thing elfe that depends upon opinion ; lefs than the bulinefs 

 of philofophy or religion. Becauie thefe refpett the 

 prefent life, with which civil governors have to do ; whereas 

 religion refpeSs the life to come, with which they hYtve 

 nothing to do. However, the conclufivenefs of this kind 

 of reafoning feems to be materially affected by our preli- 

 minary remarks. Religion, it is faid, is a concern that lies 

 out of the proper province of the civil magiitrate. Its ob- 

 jeft is inviiible ; its principles and affettions, which are the 

 fprings of moral and religious condutf , as well as its mo- 

 tives and fanttions, are not fubjecf to the direction and con- 

 troul of fecular counfel and power ; its feat is the under- 

 llanding and heart : nor is the external conduft, to which 

 alone the cognizance of the civil magiftrate extends, of any 

 importance in a moral view, independently of the internal 

 principles in which it originates, and by which it is guided 

 and governed. Befides, it has been urged that civil rulers 

 have no right to prefcribe to the judgment in the province 

 of religion, or to frame and enforce rules of moral conduct, 

 for the obfervance or violation of which mankind are ac- 

 countable only to God ; nor are they competent or qualified 

 for the exercife of fuch high powers. And if they cannot 

 controul the faculties of the mind, their iniluence on the 

 profeffion and praftice, and that outward conformity to 

 modes and rites of a religious nature which they may enforce, 

 without the confent of the judgment and concurrence of 

 the will, are calculated to do much gi-eater harm than good ; 

 and to add to the number of hypocrites or martyrs. As 

 tlie civil magiflrate cannot bellow the rewards, nor infliS 



the punifliments, that are appropriate to rehgion ; and as 

 he cannot eflimate the moral worth or demerit of his fub- 

 jctts, he cannot, without culpable prefumption, afl'ume, nor 

 without intruding on the province of the fupreme and al- 

 mighty God, exercife the authority of a fpiritual and final 

 judge. Civil governors in general, fuch are their rank and 

 llation, the courfe of their education, and the habits of 

 their lives, arc lefs able than many others of lower con- 

 dition, but of different views and conncftions, to decide 

 concerning religious truth, or to determine who are qua- 

 lified to advife and afi-iil them. Moreover, it has been ob- 

 ferved, that neither magiftrates nor their ccclefiaftical ad- 

 vifers are warranted to eflablifh a flandard either of reli- 

 gious faith or moral condudl, to which all the members of a 

 community are required to conform, and from which they 

 are not allowed to deviate without incun-ing fome lofs or 

 damage. Such a flandard, let it be ever fo liberally framed, or 

 ever fo mildly enforced, is not likely to be fo comprehenfive, 

 as to include all the teachers and all the profeflors of reli- 

 gion, who are entitled to the proteftion of the flate in which 

 their lot is call. Befides, if fuch a flandard of faith and 

 practice could be devifed, thofe who objeft to religious 

 eflablifliments on the ground now flated, conceive, that 

 their civil rulers have no right to eflablifh and impofe it ; and 

 thus to deprive perfons, who cannot approve it, of worldly 

 honours and benefits, to which they have naturally an equal 

 claim with others of their fellow-fubjedls ; — a claim, which 

 they do not forfeit by the exercife of their own judgment in 

 the province of religion. It has alfo been argued, that 

 Chriflianity, fo far from countenancing, rather difcourages 

 every kind of religious cllablifhment, that interferes with 

 the right of private judgment. The language of the divine 

 Author of our holy religion is, " Render to Csefar the things 

 that are Ca'far's, and to God the things that are God's ; — 

 Search the fcriptures ; — Call no man mafler on earth ; — 

 My kingdom is not of this world." And that of his apoftles, 

 " Let every man be fully perfuaded in his own mind ; — 

 Judge ye what I fay ;" &c. &c. The advcrfaries of efla- 

 blifliments allege, that a national church, conflituted by 

 the civil magiflrate, and governed by laws enaSed by his 

 authority, and the Chriftian church, founded on the doc- 

 trine of Chrifl and his apoflles, are eflentially dillinft ; and 

 they fay, that fuch a church, e.gr. the church of England, 

 lefs exceptionable than many others, which claims and ex- 

 ercifes, according to its 20th article, " power to decree 

 rights and ceremonies, and authority in matters of faith," 

 has, agreeably to the true nature and conflitution of the 

 Chriftian church, no fuch power and authority ; that it is 

 inconfiflent with the allegiance which Chrillians, as the 

 fubjefts of Jefus Chrifl, owe to him, the only lawgiver 

 and king in the church ; who, as they fay, hath exprefsly 

 commanded that no power of this kind fliall ever b& claimed, 

 or ever be yielded by any of his follov/ers. In the profe- 

 cution of this mode of reafoning, they farther add, that if 

 the church of England hath really this authority and right, 

 the church of Rome had it before, and, as the elder and 

 mother-church, ought to have been obeyed ; and confe- 

 quently the reformation, as it has been called, was a rebel- 

 lion againfl fuperiors, a difobedience to the authority veiled 

 in the church, and ought, as fuch, to be renounced by re- 

 turning to the church of Rome. They alfo argue, that 

 this power to order the manner of God's wortliip, and to fettle 

 articles of faith, is not at all lodged in the biihops or clergy, 

 who are the fpiritual paftors and guides in the eftablifhed 

 church, but entirely in the king and parhament of thefe 

 realms. So far were the bifhops and clergy from having any 

 concern in the firll forming our prefent eftablifhed church, 



or 



