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CHAPTER II.

THE THEORY OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND
THE STATE.

PART I.

THE DUTY OF THE STATE IN RESPECT TO RELIGION.

1. THE maxim, phrase, or cry of “Church and State,” so familiar to our ears and mouths, has been adopted in the present day, as one of its leading symbols, by a great political combination, which is unjustly treated when it is denominated a party, because it is entrenched in a broader and more comprehensive position than any party, properly so called, can occupy; because it is composed of men belonging to many once separate parties, who have now come into cordial union, not (of necessity) through any change in their original and peculiar opinions, but in consequence of having fallen back with the movement of events upon those larger and deeper principles which formerly, as now, they held in common.

In

2. The notions, however, which are attached by each man, or class of men, to this celebrated and effective watchword, are various and fluctuating. the minds of some it may represent what is no better than one among the thousand forms of egoism and

intolerance an impression that some opinion must, according to the law of this world's course, preponderate over all others in influence and distinction, and a selfish eagerness that, among competing claims essentially equal in authority, our neighbour's rather than our own should be in relative depression. Others again will befriend the connection of Church and State for the same reason which would, in different circumstances, have induced them to discourage it; simply, that is to say, as an existing connection, the sheer acquiescence in which, for no other reason than that it does exist, flatters and indulges the indolence of our nature. With a larger and a higher class than either of those which have been named, the phrase is the index of some hereditary or personal attachment, laudable in itself, valuable in its results, yet falling very far short of its real signification.

3. But underneath and beside all these faulty, or at best deficient conceptions, there is much of that instinctive attraction towards truth which has often saved men from themselves: an unconscious bias, the merciful though unappreciated gift of God, not to be despised nor lightly esteemed by any one who studies in practical philosophy, inasmuch as every such person must be well aware that it is futile, that it is insane, to refuse the aid of right conclusions merely because they have not been formed on right premises, or because they have been reached and entertained without any distinct intellectual analysis of their grounds. Thankfully, however, accepting all assent, and employing all

concurrence, the man who is in earnest will desire on this as on all subjects to aim at bringing the understandings of his fellow-men into harmonious cooperation with their instincts and affections; and now, with an earnestness proportioned to the stress of the period, to the intricacy of the subject, and to the magnitude of the interests involved in it, should we endeavour to apprehend the great idea of fixed and active relation between the Church and the State-of association between the supreme organisation of earthly power, and the supreme organisation of spiritual authority. It is not a matter of narrow compass, obvious to the eye upon a superficial view, but a deep fundamental truth of human society, and therefore of the nature in whose capacities and necessities that society is grounded; prolific of results, alike affecting public institutions and individual character, together with the destinies that are ordained to depend upon them.

4. Let us proceed to consider of the various modes, in which this extended and difficult question may be treated.

It appears, then, to me, that there are four principal modes in which our subject may be investigated-to omit in this place any notice of minor and incidental arguments.

The first, directly; by inquiring for positive precept, or direct example equivalent to precept, from Scripture.

The second, ethically; by the analytical examination of the nature of a state, and the deduction there

from of its purposes and conditions of action so far as they respect religion.

The third, consequentially; by showing the necessity of religion for the fulfilment both of the higher and of the lower, which last are also the primary and universally acknowledged ends of a state.

The fourth, inductively; by tracing through history the actual forms or images of civil and of spiritual power, and thus indicating both a primeval authority, and the universal consent of mankind in favour of their combination together for the fulfilment of their joint and several designs.

5. The first of these represents specifically the voice of immediate command, represented by the symbol shall.

The second the voice of design, or of God speaking through his works: even as by the sun and the rain, and "by the things that are made, "He is pleased to "His eternal power

teach us His "invisible things;" and Godhead," and the duties that flow from them; so by the very nature of a man, or of a society of men, which is likewise His creature, does He instruct us to discover their several laws of being, assigned to them by the creative Mind. By this kind of investigation are we shown what ought to be—that is to say, duty is laid before us, not as simple will or command, but with some insight into its orderly growth out of the nature of things.

The third mode of inquiry represents the voice of

*Rom. i. 20.

penal admonition, whereby when our higher sensibilities are blunted, the seat of feeling is reached through the medium of the lower; and from consequences, palpable to the grossest discernment at least when they have arisen, men learn that that which ought to be, likewise must be, or torment is the result; that the command will take effect, that the right will sooner or later clothe itself with power.

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The fourth, or experimental mode, apprises us of what has been; and in proportion as historical evidence enables us either to trace up the substance of any institution to a strictly primeval ordinance, or to show universality of prevalence, or to prove that the amount of its reception has varied in different times and countries, directly as the nobler influences of human nature; in such proportion does it approximate to the establishment of a general law obligatory upon us all. This is the kind of induction proper to moral sciences.

6. Upon the whole these methods very much correspond with the main directors of moral action, whose titles respectively are-it is written; it is natural; it is expedient; it is customary. All may aid together in leading us up to the fountain of all duty, the will of God. The first, as giving us His own utterance. The second, as reading in actual nature the will of its Author. The third, as a formula verifying these; since all things which are obligatory are also

Dante, Inferno, canto iii. 95.

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