his own conduct; and, (in so far as he possesses legitimate influence,) to the principles upon which the government of the state is conducted. The immediate effect of religion upon the individual mind of a statesman belongs to a department of inquiry less elementary than that pursued in this treatise. But if he believe that the machinery of society works freely for the benefit of the people in proportion to the prevalence of religion; and if he also acknowledge the duty, asserted by Dr. Paley, of endeavouring to produce the greatest portion of public happiness and prosperity in a given space of country; then he must of course, as a mere politician, be occupied in a continual struggle to increase the influence of sound, pure, and orthodox principles of Christainity. He will not be satisfied with that moderate portion of morality which may be thought barely sufficient to prevent the actual degradation of society, but he will aspire after that further and higher portion which shall urge it on to a continual state of advancement. He will never suppose that his task in this respect is concluded; for it would be to forget the principles of the system he has adopted, were he to rest upon any other supposition than that human affairs have a natural tendency towards the principle of evil, which requires incessant counteraction. It would be his policy then to countenance every institution, public or private, fulfilling the great objects of circulating the Holy Scriptures, of spreading the knowledge of their contents, and of extending the influence of their precepts among the people. Nor would he be prevailed upon to withdraw that countenance, although trifling inconveniences, from which no human institutions are exempt, may be thought to qualify

their general usefulness. That the good outweighs the evil in the balance will be sufficient to influence his determination.

Above all, should a church establishment fulfilling these conditions be one of the public institutions of his country, he will consider it as so much the more entitled to his special care and protection as well as to his love and veneration, as it affords, from its fixed and permanent principles, the greater security against perversion and abuse, and an acknowledged standard of reference by which any deviation into the paths of heresy and immorality may be immediately discovered. Moreover, if the connexion of religion with policy be as close as I have ventured to assert in this treatise, I think it cannot be disputed that such a church establishment is emphatically a part of the political constitution of the state; and that it is strictly the duty of the government to provide means both for the efficiency of its ministers in learning and piety, and for an adequate increase of their numbers in proportion to the augmented wants of an increasing population. When these conditions are fulfilled, it obviously follows that official encouragement should be exclusively confined to the clergy of the establishment, since through its agency alone can the state have due security for the permanent instruction of the people in those tenets upon which its political prosperity mainly depends. And as in a free country men are only amenable for their public conduct to the laws, and this by a slow and tedious process, it seems absolutely necessary to the security of the state that no persons among the laity professedly hostile to the religious establishment, or even indifferent to its welfare, should be admitted to offices of dignity and influence. In a despotic

country, where the will of the sovereign can instantly and effectually interpose, and where all dignity and influence centre in his person, greater latitude may perhaps be admitted without detriment.

These several conclusions can only be impugned by arguments which suppose either that the interests of policy are altogether independent of religion, or that the religious establishment of a country is not founded - upon the orthodox principles of Scripture. But as the state in providing an establishment substantially denies the first of these propositions, and in fixing its particular doctrines virtually contradicts the other, it is undoubtedly bound to use every legitimate effort to secure the religious instruction of the people in the established tenets. If it be evident that a political establishment cannot endure in a free country unless the habitual opinions of the people are directed in a current favourable to its objects and principles, it is doubly so that, in a case so exclusively within the province of mind as religious instruction, an establishment formed for that purpose must fall to the ground, unless it possess the means of obtaining a permanent influence over public opinion. The duty of the statesman therefore, (and under that denomination I include every individual of influence in the state,) does not admit either of doubt or dispute. But his success will, after all, be contingent. If the establishment he supports be really founded in the pure doctrines of the Gospel, and has been duly and zealously set forth to the people in all its purity, it will doubtless secure their hearts against the inroads of all opponents. But if both, or either of these conditions be wanting, the spiritual arms, which can alone be fairly used in its defence will not be found of temper to

withstand a vigorous attack, and the illegitimate weapons of persecution will be too often called in aid. It is superfluous to refer to the respective practice of the Roman Catholic and Protestant establishments in illustration of this remark. A few observations however may be profitably made upon the means of restoring the influence of a pure and orthodox established religion, from which the minds of the people have been partially alienated.

It is evident that this result can only have arisen, in the first instance, from the gradual debasement of religious sentiment in the educated part of the community, the influence of whose opinions and example will always extend sooner or later throughout the whole community. The religious establishment, consisting as it does of human agents, can scarcely. altogether avoid the contagion. The spirit of the times, whatever it may be, will more or less affect it, and the tone of its doctrine and the strictness of its practice will be insensibly lowered, without shockthe feelings of the people, or being very clearly perceived by the establishment itself. The instructors of free agents are almost imperceptibly guided by the turn of mind which they perceive to be prevalent among their pupils. They have a natural, and in some respects a laudable apprehension of closing the minds of their hearers, against all improvement by shocking their prejudices and running counter to their preconceived opinions.

It is probable that causes of this description operated in lowering the scriptural and orthodox spirit of most of the Protestant churches of Europe during the last century. The rise and progress of modern philosophy and liberality, which were only cant

terms for atheism and deism, insensibly corrupted the sound and vigorous principles in which the Protestant laity of Europe were educated for more than a century subsequent to the reformation. The taint of the poison was transmitted to their posterity, and seemed habitually fixed in the constitution of many of the higher ranks of society. They could not bear with patience the humbling truths of the Gospel, and it is natural to conclude, from the causes just stated, that those truths were in consequence less frequently promulgated; and most certain it is, that scarcely any desire was exhibited, either by the state or by individuals, for affording the people augmented means of instruction in the tenets of the establishment in proportion to the evident necessity created by their increasing number. But as every departure from established principle necessarily leads in time to a reaction, especially where freedom of discussion is permitted, active and inquiring minds were led by the obvious symptoms of degeneracy to compare the doctrines, the sentiments, and the characters of modern times with those which are associated with our dearest recollections in the history of the Protestant Church. It was then that the benefit of Establishments shone forth in all its lustre. The reaction, it must be confessed, far exceeded the original impulse of the force impressed, and was not a little tinctured with enthusiasm and extravagance. But it served to rouse the energies and restore the elasticity of the body of the orthodox church; and her fixed and permanent principles afforded an unerring rule by which to judge of the extent to which a salutary re-action might fairly be carried. But as the uneducated part of mankind are prone to extremes,