t a, Ctobnar - 
 
 ^ PRINCETON, N. J. *" 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 BV 647 .V38 1842 
 
 Vaughan, Robert, 1795-1868 
 
 Congregationalism 
 
CONGREGATIONALISM 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 POLITY OF INDEPENDENT CHURCHES, 
 
 VIEWED IN RELATION TO 
 
 THE STATE AND TENDENCIES OF 
 MODERN SOCIETY. 
 
 ROBERT VAUGHAN, D.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JACKSON AND WALFORD, 
 
 18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 
 
 1842. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface 
 
 PAGE 
 V 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 On the Nature of the Independence claimed by Congrega- 
 tional Churches '. 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 On the Principles of Congregationalism as anticipating the 
 greatest conceivable Improvement in the Social Condition 
 of Mankind 5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On Congregationalism in its relation to Popular Intelligence 10 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 On Congregationalism in its relation to the higher depart- 
 ments of Learning and Science 13 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 On Congregationalism in its relation to the Arts of Peace . 21 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 On Congregationalism in its relation to the Principles of a 
 Representative Government 2o 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 On Congregationalism in its relation to the Free Intercourse 
 of Nations 33 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On Congregationalism in its relation to the Principle of Union 
 as acted upon by Independent States in ancient and 
 modern times 38 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 On the Systems of Congregationalists and Episcopalians in 
 England, as regards an Efficient Ministry 64 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 On the Condition and Prospects of the Principles of Congre- 
 gationalism 79 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 On the Character of the Efforts now made to punish Protestant 
 Nonconformity, and to crush and destroy it .... 89 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 On the Public Press in its relation to Congregationalism . 107 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On the Claims of the Church of England as viewed by Epis- 
 copalians and Congregationalists, and on the True State of 
 the Controversy between these parties 117 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 On the mixture of Politics with Religion, and the opinion of 
 Alexis de Tocqueville concerning the Union of Church 
 and State 137 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 On the Slowness of Religious Improvement, with its analo- 
 gies in Nature and Providence 152 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Suggestions concerning certain Improvements in the Practice 
 of English Congregationalists 165 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The present publication is divided into two books. 
 The first book consists of an Address, delivered before 
 the Autumnal Meeting of the Congregational Union 
 of England and Wales, convened at Nottingham, in 
 October last. Some change has been made in a few 
 forms of expression, for the purpose of securing to the 
 different parts of the subject the advantage of appear- 
 ing as the topics of distinct chapters. In other 
 respects, the matter of the first book is printed almost 
 verbatim as it was delivered. 
 
 Having occupied the attention of a very patient 
 auditory more than two hours and a half, it was inex- 
 pedient, on many accounts, to prosecute our inquiries 
 further on that occasion. But while restricted to such 
 limits, it was unavoidable that several matters of great 
 importance, in relation to the question to be examined, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 should be passed over, or touched upon in a manner 
 much too general to be satisfactory. In complying 
 with the request of the ministers and delegates to 
 print the Address, I might have interwoven other and 
 more enlarged observations with it ; but I have pre- 
 ferred leaving that portion of my manuscript undis- 
 turbed, and have treated of certain points belonging 
 to the general subject, which are of a more practical 
 nature, and bear more immediately on our present 
 circumstances, in the series of chapters which consti- 
 tute the second book. 
 
 It will be observed, therefore, that the degree in 
 which my fathers and brethren assembled at Notting- 
 ham may be held responsible for the publication of 
 this volume, must be limited to the contents of the 
 first book. 
 
 In that division of the work, and in what follows, 
 my views concerning the nature and tendency of the 
 principles of Congregationalism are freely expressed, 
 and my intention in giving publicity to my thoughts 
 on this subject is made sufficiently plain. In sending 
 forth such a volume I shall, no doubt, have made 
 a large demand on the candour and forbearance 
 of such of my readers as may be disposed to indulge 
 in extreme views, whether on the right hand or 
 the left. My earnest request is, that the judgment 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 formed in regard to what I have written, may be a 
 judgment having respect to it as a whole, and not 
 exclusively to any of its parts. If it should not appear 
 from the ensuing pages, that a man may cherish a 
 strong preference in respect to his own religious party, 
 and still do homage to religion itself, as a good much 
 too benignant and divine to be confined to the limits 
 of any party, then have I failed in regard to one 
 object, which I not only meant should be on the whole 
 perceptible, but to which I had hoped to give a distinct 
 prominence. The wrongs privately inflicted on Eng- 
 lish Congregationalism at this moment, by large classes 
 of the wealthy and the powerful, are many, widely 
 diffused, and too often merciless — such as might well 
 excuse some sharpness of rebuke, and almost any 
 measure of retaliation. We hope to bear these things 
 as Christians, but we feel them as men, and must be 
 allowed to protest against them in the language 
 natural to the injured. 
 
 Notting Hill, Dec. 21, 1841. 
 
PRIHC 
 
 BUI 
 
 HEQLOGIC&L 
 
 CONGREGATIONALI SM. 
 BOOK I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THE INDEPENDENCE CLAIMED BY 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 
 
 The subject which the Committee of the Congrega- 
 tional Union of England and Wales have requested me 
 to treat, is the natural bearing of Congregationalism 
 on the social and religious interests of mankind, an 
 particularly as connected with the State and Ten- 
 dencies of Modern Society. 
 
 The limits of this subject preclude me from touching 
 upon the evidence which might be adduced from the 
 pages of the New Testament in support of the scrip- 
 tural character of Congregationalism. It must be 
 sufficient to say that we think we find enough of 
 precept, of precedent, or of clear principle, in the 
 Sacred Scriptures, to give to our practice as congre- 
 gationalists a sanction truly apostolic. 
 
 B 
 
2 THE INDEPENDENCE CLAIMED 
 
 Taking that authority as our guide, we learn that the 
 only proper members of a Christian church are true 
 believers — devout persons ; that every society of such 
 persons, formed, as a general rule, under the sanction 
 of the Christian ministry, and designed to uphold the 
 divine worship and ordinances, is truly a church of 
 God, and part of the universal church, consisting of 
 all such persons throughout the world; that such 
 societies were at the first, and should have continued 
 to be, purely voluntary; and that every church so 
 constituted, was strictly independent of all uninspired 
 authority, in the conduct of its worship, the admission 
 of its members, the exercise of its discipline, the 
 choice of its officers, and the entire management of its 
 affairs. 
 
 This independence, thus comprehensive and com- 
 plete, had respect, it will be perceived, to the authority 
 of man only, and not at all to the authority of 
 God. It is not left to any church, or to any body of 
 churches, to make laws in respect to religion, but to 
 study the law of the Christian dispensation, as given 
 by Christ and his apostles, and to carry it into effect. 
 Our province is purely executive. The law of Christ, 
 indeed, is before us, for the most part, in the form of 
 certain great rules or principles, which admit of con- 
 siderable latitude in their application. But while 
 these principles leave much to human discretion, they 
 also put limits to it, restricting the province left open 
 to the exercise of Christian prudence to small matters 
 
BY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 3 
 
 affecting the mode of administration merely, without 
 ceding power of a strictly legislative character to any 
 authority on earth. The rule that should be observed, 
 and the spirit in which it should be observed, are 
 always sufficiently plain. Our business is in no sense 
 to originate, but simply to administer or apply. 
 
 Of course, if the church at large has no right to 
 impose laws of its own on any particular church, much 
 less has the world any such right. Power which it 
 has not been deemed safe to place in the hands 
 of Christians with regard to their brethren, it can 
 never be safe to trust to men who are not Christians — 
 to the world, in the character of superior to the 
 church. Whenever the state endows religion, it is 
 proper that the ministers of religion should be held 
 responsible to the state in their religious character. 
 But from this reasonable consequence it follows, that 
 Congregationalism can never become a state religion, 
 seeing that, so far from bowing to the law of the 
 magistrate in matters of religion, it does not allow one 
 church to receive law from another church, or from 
 any number of churches. This independence of par- 
 ticular churches is the centre principle — the great 
 element of Congregationalism. The administrative 
 power in each church is the voice of its majority, 
 from which there is no appeal, except by the consent 
 of both parties, and even then simply in the spirit of 
 arbitration. 
 
 This does not of course preclude the moral influence 
 b 2 
 
4 INDEPENDENCE IN CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 which may be exercised by some ministers or churches 
 with regard to others, inasmuch as that is a sort of 
 power which comes into existence with all our social 
 relations, and cannot be excluded from them. The 
 wise and good will ever carry along with them the 
 moral weight of wisdom and goodness. A man does 
 not surrender his independence by deferring to the 
 councils of a friend ; nor by acting with his fellows in 
 favour of a common object, according to plans agreed 
 upon as consistent with the liberty of their common 
 principles. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE PRINCIPLES OF CONGREGATIONALISM AS AN- 
 TICIPATING THE GREATEST CONCEIVABLE IMPROVE- 
 MENT IN THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF MANKIND. 
 
 It must be conceded that this system is characterized 
 by simplicity. It is at the same time very compre- 
 hensive, most wisely adjusted, and of great power 
 when directed aright. In the nature of these prin- 
 ciples, as in much beside, the ultimate purposes of 
 Providence in relation to our world, have been fully 
 anticipated by the prescience of divine revelation. 
 
 One of the most philosophical and richly endowed 
 minds ever applied to the study of our history, has 
 spoken of that memorable groundwork of English 
 liberty, the Magna Charta, in terms, which, in 
 this respect, are eminently applicable to the nature 
 and destiny of the principles of church polity con- 
 tained in the New Testament. " It is observable," 
 says Sir James Mackintosh, "that the language of 
 the Great Charter is simple, brief, general without 
 being abstract, and expressed in terms of authority, 
 not of argument, yet commonly so reasonable as to 
 carry with it the intrinsic evidence of its own fitness. 
 
6 CONGREGATIONALISM ANTICIPATES 
 
 It was understood by the simplest of the unlettered 
 ao-e for whom it was intended. It was remembered 
 by them; and though they did not perceive the 
 extensive consequences which might be derived from 
 it, their feelings were, however unconsciously, exalted 
 by its generality and grandeur. It was a peculiar 
 advantage that the consequences of its principles 
 were, if we may so speak, only discovered gradually 
 and slowly. It gave out on each occasion only so 
 much of the spirit of liberty and reformation as the 
 circumstances of succeeding generations required, and 
 as their character would safely bear. For almost five 
 centuries it was appealed to as the decisive authority 
 on behalf of the people, though commonly so far only 
 as the necessities of each case demanded. Its effect 
 in these contests was not altogether unlike the 
 grand process by which Nature employs snows and 
 frosts to cover her delicate germs, and to hinder them 
 from rising above the earth till the atmosphere has 
 acquired the mild and equal temperature which 
 ensures them against blights. — To have produced it, 
 to have preserved it, to have matured it, constitute 
 the immortal claim of England on the esteem of 
 mankind." * 
 
 With this distinguished historian and statesman, 
 we may suppose that the Barons at Runnymede were 
 far from perceiving the extent of that vast system of 
 
 * History of England, I, p. 221, 222. 
 
ALL SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT. 7 
 
 liberty and improvement which history has shewn to 
 have been virtually included in the great charter. 
 We may conclude that at best the dim outline only 
 was before them. But the seeds of political justice, 
 wisdom, and humanity, contained in that document, 
 have grown with our growth and strengthened with 
 its strength ; and with every step in our advancement 
 as a nation it has only seemed to become possessed of 
 a new appropriateness and value. 
 
 What has been thus said with regard to the political 
 principles of the great charter, may be said with still 
 greater truth in regard to the principles relating to 
 social religion set forth in the New Testament. 
 When knowledge, virtue, and piety shall have been 
 diffused and augmented, so as to realize the most 
 sanguine visions of the philanthropist and the seer, 
 then will Congregationalism be found in alliance- with 
 the state of things most favourable to a development 
 of its beauty and power. Its nature is such, that its 
 ripeness must come with the world's ripeness. The 
 manhood of the species will be seen in that day, and 
 with it the putting away of childish things ; but the 
 change which will prove fatal to a thousand inven- 
 tions which human imbecility has worshipped, will 
 be as life from the dead in respect to the pure and 
 rational institutes of Holy Writ, as they will then be 
 seen in their fitness to assimilate earth more and more 
 to heaven. 
 
 It is admitted that the " saving health" of the gospel 
 
8 CONGREGATIONALISM ANTICIPATES 
 
 is not suffered to be dependent on the complexion of 
 its outward institutions. God, we are happy to be- 
 lieve, has his renewed minds, his saved men, in every 
 communion. The religion of the cross may bear 
 long with human infirmity in such matters. But 
 when the world shall make its nearest approach to- 
 ward the social state which the most enlightened and 
 humane have ever laboured to promote, then will 
 come its nearest conformity to the laws of a pure 
 Congregationalism. God has so devised this system, 
 that the province of man in social life will ever be — 
 not to amend, but to copy it ; not to go beyond it, but 
 to follow after. The system will not change, but it will 
 seem to enlarge, to improve, and to brighten as the 
 world shall be made to possess a greater aptitude for 
 receiving it. The condition of society which is always 
 especially to be desired, is that in which men shall be 
 most observant of the maxim — " Whatsoever ye would 
 that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto 
 them" — and with such a state of society, the spirit 
 and letter of Congregationalism must ever perfectly 
 harmonize. 
 
 How instructive is this view of the religion of Holy 
 Writ ! It can extend its infinite blessedness to men 
 in all conceivable diversities of outward condition and 
 observance. It descends to the weakness of the 
 present; it will rise to the strength of the future, and 
 will be ever in advance of that strength. It possesses 
 a universal adaptation. It has harmonized with all 
 
ALL SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT. 9 
 
 that is good in the past, and it is capable of harmoniz- 
 ing, in the same manner, with all that is, and with all 
 that shall be. 
 
 Remember, too, where this system originated — not 
 among the republics of Ancient Greece, but under the 
 shadow of the Asiatic despotisms ; not in connexion 
 with the philosophical indifference of Ancient Rome, 
 but in Jerusalem, the city where the narrowness, in- 
 tolerance, and formalism of a degenerate people had 
 long made the name of the Jew a proverb and a 
 loathing. 
 
 Nor is this result to be regarded, as in the case of 
 our Great Charter, as being, in great part at least, a 
 sort of lucky accident. It is announced to us as pro- 
 ceeding from the Divine foreknowledge — as the work 
 of design ; and this elevation of society at large to the 
 spirit of a Christian brotherhood, as depicted in the 
 principles of Congregationalism, is to partake of the 
 nature of a fulfilled prophecy. We may be well 
 assured that such superiority to local and temporary 
 prejudice would not have had place in the scheme of 
 an impostor. It is the work of the Divine prescience 
 and wisdom, and everywhere breathes the Divine 
 benignity. 
 
 The chief design of the subsequent chapters will be 
 to illustrate and confirm this general representation. 
 With this view, reference will be made to some of the 
 more obvious of the beneficial tendencies which now 
 characterize society generally, and it will be made 
 
 b3 
 
10 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 plain that Congregationalism is not only in harmony 
 with them all, but that, in respect to them, while 
 there is very little that it can learn, there is much that 
 it can teach. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON CONGREGATIONALISM IN ITS RELATION TO 
 POPULAR INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 One of the most characteristic features of modern 
 society, consists in the efforts which are made in 
 favour of Popular Intelligence ; and little need be 
 said to shew that Congregationalism harmonizes with 
 everything that is wisely done in relation to that 
 object. 
 
 The discovery of printing, the right of private judg- 
 ment, liberty of worship, and freedom of discussion on 
 all subjects — these facts present a state of things in 
 which any attempt to stay the progress of popular in- 
 telligence would be vain ; and in which to cultivate 
 that power, and to direct it to good ends, becomes the 
 great duty. To retrace our steps in this respect is 
 impossible ; to continue as we are is impossible ; 
 and nothing accordingly remains but that we go for- 
 ward. The most reluctant, both at home and abroad, 
 
TO POPULAR INTELLIGENCE. 11 
 
 feel this ; and all, either willingly or otherwise, are 
 found contributing to the movement. It is a change 
 which has come with the force of a great law of Pro- 
 vidence, and which it would be at once childish and 
 irreligious to oppose. 
 
 But to Congregationalism nothing could be more 
 congenial than these appearances. It is a system to 
 be worked by a popular power ; and it must in con- 
 sequence depend, if it is to be worked orderly, on 
 popular intelligence. It bestows a kind of franchise 
 on all who become parties to it, and it exacts the 
 measure of discernment and goodness necessary to a 
 right exercise of that franchise. It regards every 
 church as a self-governed body, and as a body accord- 
 ingly which should be pervaded by the amount of 
 intellectual and moral culture necessary to that end. 
 Its aim is to make all men Christians, and to render 
 all Christians competent to a wise observance of the 
 duties which arise out of the Christian fellowship. It 
 does not resemble an eastern despotism, where every- 
 thing was to be done for the people, and nothing to be 
 done by them ; but may be compared rather, to one of 
 those free states in which men were accounted citizens, 
 in which each citizen had his public duties to discharge, 
 and all were made to pass through a preparatory 
 education that they might know 7 how to discharge 
 them. Hence the lawgivers of the free states of an- 
 tiquity were their schoolmasters. They were con- 
 cerned to enact wise and good laws ; but the} 7 were 
 
12 CONGREGATIONALISM, ETC. 
 
 fully sensible that their laws would be so many worth- 
 less tablets, except as wise and good citizens could be 
 trained to see to the administration of them. Popular 
 intelligence and popular virtue, therefore, constituted 
 the only atmosphere in which they could hope to reap 
 the fruit of their labours. 
 
 It is strictly thus with Congregationalism. Leave 
 it in the hands of ignorance and worldliness, and it 
 must be disgraced, corrupted, and destroyed. Like 
 every system of the same free and generous com- 
 plexion, it is equally open to use and to abuse, and was 
 clearly meant for the wise, and not for the unwise. It 
 has its different spheres, for those who hold offices, and 
 for those who possess greater ability, or greater weight 
 of character than their brethren ; but it has no place 
 for the utterly passive and useless, and none, accord- 
 ingly, for minds without instruction, or without vir- 
 tue. Hence the zeal of congregationalists in the cause 
 of general education is every way natural, and always 
 to be relied upon. Their system prospers as such 
 efforts prosper ; it dies as they become extinct ; and 
 the age, in consequence, which is distinguished from 
 all others by its zeal in support of this object is that 
 which must hold out to Congregationalism its fairest 
 prospect of advancement. Others may have their 
 reasons for speaking contemptuously of the manner 
 in which knowledge is now made to descend to the 
 masses of the people — we have none. Our hope, on 
 the contrary, is there. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON CONGREGATIONALISM IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
 HIGHER DEPARTMENTS OF LEARNING AND SCIENCE. 
 
 With this new zeal, and this general movement, in 
 regard to popular intelligence, we may connect, as a 
 second feature of modern society, the tendency so 
 widely evinced to appeal to reason rather than to 
 precedent, and to account the labour and discoveries 
 of the past as a starting point, rather than the halting 
 place, in regard to the present and the future. 
 
 The charge, indeed, is sometimes brought against 
 our age, and against Congregationalism, and the state 
 of society with which it especially harmonizes in par- 
 ticular, that while there are tendencies in such con- 
 nexions highly favourable to a certain amount of 
 intelligence, those tendencies are blended with others 
 which are directly hostile to the higher pursuits of 
 learning, to more meditative and profound habits of 
 thought, to everything partaking of the nature of the 
 refined and the beautiful, and which may not be con- 
 verted into an immediate source of gain. 
 
 It must, I think, be admitted, that this charge is not 
 
14 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 without some foundation. But the ground of this 
 objection is much more apparent than real. Nor is 
 the position which it is intended to serve, one that 
 can be judged at all in a summary manner. Admit- 
 ting that this is one of the dangers of modern society, 
 have not all states of society their dangers, and is not 
 one state better than another, not as being wholly 
 free from evil, but simply as having its evil more 
 outweighed by its good ? 
 
 It is manifest that the more society is graduated 
 into castes and divisions, the more must the privileged 
 be at leisure to give themselves to their peculiar 
 speculations ; while the more men approach toward 
 the same level, the more must they be men of the 
 same habits and pursuits. But the whole truth is not 
 involved in this fact. Men who have been the mono- 
 polists of intelligence, have generally been the mono- 
 polists of power ; and they have commonly reigned in 
 the midst of their splendour at the cost of the rights of 
 humanity. It often happens, that by such means, less 
 is done to elevate one class, than to depress many. 
 Privilege may operate as a narcotic upon talent, 
 rather than as a stimulant. It may give impunity to 
 indolence, and authority to weakness ; and thus not 
 only fail of doing its proper work, but become the 
 great impediment in the way of those who would do 
 it. In the East, its effect has been to stereotype so- 
 ciety rather than to improve it ; and it has done the 
 
TO LEARNING AND SCIENCE. 15 
 
 same mischief almost everywhere, in a greater or lesser 
 degree. 
 
 At the same time, no man of sense will pretend 
 that the aristocratic elements of society are without 
 their advantage. There is a nameless grace, dignity, 
 and loftiness of purpose, which seem like the natural 
 attributes of high birth and exalted station. There is 
 also an aristocracy in letters and science, to whom the 
 dignity of learned leisure would seem to be every way 
 appropriate, and upon whom its influence might be 
 expected to prove in a high degree favourable. But 
 in both these cases the promise and the danger go 
 together. In the history of nations, the power to 
 become luxurious has commonly been the precursor 
 to indulgence, corruption, and ruin. It is the same 
 with great families as with great nations. The heir to 
 a great house must always have his footing in slippery 
 places. The circumstances which appeal to his loftier 
 passions, are opposed no less strongly by those which 
 appeal to much meaner inclinations. To hope for such 
 persons is delightful ; but we too often find it much 
 easier to fear than to hope. It is the same with your 
 intellectual aristocracy. The power to luxuriate there, 
 also, often proves a temptation much too strong to be 
 resisted ; and every where facts present themselves, as 
 if for the purpose of shewing, that too much indepen- 
 dence, and too much leisure, may be as dangerous as 
 too little. 
 
16 CONG REG ATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 Even in Greece, the elite in learning and philosophy 
 would never have had existence, apart from the large 
 and intelligent middle class, which bore the name of 
 citizens, and which separated between them and the 
 multitude given to the drudgery of mere manual oc- 
 cupation. Nor would that higher class have attained 
 to so envied an elevation, had not their distinction 
 been made to depend on their real superiority, and 
 had they not been so closely pressed upon in all things 
 by the culture of the great body of the citizens. The 
 intelligence of that body came first ; that of the higher 
 class followed, and was produced out of it ; and to 
 the end, the mental power of the few existed in inti- 
 mate relation with that power in the many. The cul- 
 ture of the greater number gave existence to a sym- 
 pathy with the more elevated pursuits of the lesser 
 number, sufficient both to generate and sustain them ; 
 and when that atmosphere of sympathy, in which alone 
 the plant could live, had failed, its beauty passed 
 away, and it utterly perished from want of its proper 
 nourishment. 
 
 The world might have been long before it would 
 have seen the age of Augustus, or of Lewis XIV., 
 if it had not previously seen the age of Pericles. 
 The great fault, indeed, even in Greece, with regard 
 both to learning and philosophy, was, the exclusive 
 bearing which still clung to them ; and the great im- 
 provement of modern civilization upon the ancient 
 
TO LEARNING AND SCIENCE. 17 
 
 is, that it connects much more of the useful with 
 the speculative, and is more solicitous about extending 
 its treasures to society at large, than about restricting 
 them to a favoured circle of intellectual aspirants. 
 
 With all this, Congregationalism is in perfect accord- 
 ance. It covets most earnestly popular intelligence, 
 as the soil from which extraordinary minds may be 
 expected most naturally to spring up, and from which 
 alone they can derive permanent sustenance and 
 power. It aims to form intelligent churches ; it must, 
 in consequence, have an intelligent ministry ; and it 
 must, as a further consequence, have its seminaries of 
 learning to realize that intelligence. It rests nothing 
 upon privilege or prescription, but everything upon 
 truth and reason. It leans not on extraneous support 
 of any kind, but upon its own intrinsic merits. It 
 knows that the learning and science of the world may 
 be arrayed against it, and it is prepared to do battle 
 with the learning and science of the world in its own 
 cause, and to abide, single-handed, the issues of that 
 conflict. This is the spirit of our system, and if so, 
 where is the department of knowledge with which it 
 may not be expected to sympathize and intermeddle ? 
 It may content itself with average attainment for 
 average purposes ; but it does not rest at that point. 
 Its argument depends on a wide range of philology 
 and history, and embraces a multitude of subtle ques- 
 tions relating to social policy and the nature of man ; 
 
18 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 — can these things be wisely dealt with by the igno- 
 rant, or by the only moderately informed ? It con- 
 templates changes which will affect the whole com- 
 plexion of modern society ; and its reasons for these 
 changes must be shewn, or its pretensions be a 
 mockery. Assuredly no contempt can be greater 
 than the abettors of such a system deserve, if, with all 
 this pretension, they could be content to see it allied 
 with ignorance — if they were not prepared to give 
 their meed of encouragement to studies having respect 
 to the very highest departments of learning and 
 science. 
 
 It must, however, be admitted, that the age has its 
 danger in this form, and that Congregationalism shares 
 in this danger along with the age. Where much 
 time is given to action, there must be little time for 
 meditation. Where men are almost perpetually 
 occupied in applying what they know, they are not in 
 the way of advancing rapidly toward what they do 
 not know. It is natural to conclude, that it is not in 
 such scenes, but in those of seclusion and reflection, 
 that thought will become clear and profound, and the 
 intellect make a real progress. It is, in fact, from such 
 solitudes, that the impulses have generally gone forth, 
 which have put the more busy and noisy world into 
 undulation. It may be that we are somewhat want- 
 ing in this particular. But of this we may be sure, the 
 mistake of the world hitherto has been in the opposite 
 
TO LEARNING AND SCIENCE. 19 
 
 direction, and the penalty which has been attendant on 
 that error through the past, is not likely to be equalled 
 by the defects that may result from an altered ten- 
 dency in the future. Men of genius should be a 
 reflection of the genius of their country ; but we have 
 been too prone to forget that a nation may possess 
 great men without being itself a great nation — the 
 power to benefit society having too often existed 
 without any real disposition to befriend it. Society 
 appears to have become much more observant of this 
 fact than in any former age ; and seems disposed, in 
 consequence, to bring all pretensions to greatness 
 to the test of utility in something of the spirit of 
 retribution. 
 
 We admit, then, that there are some tendencies in 
 modern society, which are not favourable to the higher 
 pursuits of the intellect. It must be confessed, also, that 
 Congregationalism has not done all that might have 
 been expected from it, considered as a system, in this 
 way ; though we think it has done quite as much as 
 could well have been expected from it in the unfa- 
 vourable circumstances in which it is placed in this 
 country. Religion and society among us, have their 
 impression from remote worldly usage, much more 
 than from the authority of holy scripture. Even now, 
 we are the offspring, in nearly all things, of the middle 
 age, much more than of the New Testament. Congre- 
 gationalism, accordingly, does not compete with other 
 systems on equal terms. We are severed, both by law, 
 
20 CONGREGATIONALISM AND LEARNING. 
 
 and by the custom and temper of society, from that 
 alliance with the wealth and power of the land which 
 might serve to develop the capabilities of our system, 
 and to shew that everything which the mind of an- 
 cient Greece became, in connexion with its freeborn 
 polity, the mind of a Christian nation might become, 
 in connexion with the polity which congregational 
 churches derive from the pages of the gospel. We 
 make no secret of the fact, that we stand in much 
 nearer relation to the popular power of ancient Athens, 
 than to the despotic power of imperial Rome ; and we 
 know of nothing in our system inconsistent with any 
 of those higher forms of culture which the latter city 
 adopted from the former. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON CONGREGATIONALISM IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
 ARTS OF PEACE. 
 
 Another characteristic of society, during the last 
 quarter of a century, and which it seems probable 
 will rather strengthen than pass away, is its repug- 
 nance to war, and its strong disposition toward the 
 Arts of Peace. 
 
 Everything done to deliver a people from barbarism, 
 is so much done toward delivering them from the 
 dominion of the war passion, and from subjection to its 
 worst enormities. The degree in which civilization 
 succeeds to barbarism, is the degree in which the capa- 
 bilities of a people must have been diverted from the 
 practice of war, to pacific occupations. But civilization 
 may take a more peaceful complexion, or a less. It s 
 great object may be to encourage industry, ingenuity, 
 and commerce, as in the instance of Tyre, Sidon, and 
 other cities ; or it may be of a mixed nature, as in 
 Athens and Carthage ; or it may be that even in its 
 most advanced state, the military passion will still be 
 the dominant one, as in Sparta and Rome. 
 
 Europe has passed through all these stages. It has 
 
22 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 had its age of general barbarism, which followed upon 
 the fall of the Roman empire ; its heroic age, of w T hich 
 the crusades were the natural outbreak ; its age of a 
 mixed civilization, during which the mind of its 
 people has been given equally to war and commerce ; 
 and within our own time, a new era appears to be 
 dawning upon it— one in which a knowledge of 
 finance is to be in greater requisition than skill in 
 military tactics ; in which minds of the first order are 
 to be much more intent on the gains of a large 
 traffic, than on the wreaths of victory; on building 
 great cities, than on raising large armies ; and in which 
 men will be famous, not in proportion to the wrongs 
 they may have inflicted on other countries, but to the 
 service which they may have rendered to the domestic 
 policy and the moral greatness of their own. 
 
 This last stage in the history of European society is 
 assuredly its best, and from this also Congregationalism 
 has everything to hope. As a polity, it must be in 
 keeping with the state of society toward which such 
 habits and pursuits naturally tend. The substitution 
 of a commercial, in the place of a military spirit, must 
 always tend to substitute a system of equal liberty, in 
 the place of feudal rudeness, arbitrariness, and oppres- 
 sion. The history of commerce in modern Europe, 
 if we except the Moorish power in Spain, is every- 
 where allied with the history of civil freedom. It has 
 been thus in Italy, Germany, Holland, and Great 
 Britain ; while all the European states which have not 
 
TO THE ARTS OF PEACE. 23 
 
 become commercial, have remained more or less feudal 
 and enslaved. 
 
 The reason of this connexion between commerce and 
 freedom is not difficult to discover. The immediate 
 object of commerce is gain ; and the value of property 
 when acquired, must depend upon two things — the 
 security with which it may be retained, and the liberty 
 of the person in order to the enjoyment of it. But 
 the safety of property, and the safety of the person, 
 are the two great departments of civil liberty. The 
 whole scheme is comprehended in these two provi- 
 sions. It is the natural effect of commerce to make 
 men feel, much more strongly than they would be 
 likely to do in other circumstances, the need of this 
 twofold protection against wrong ; and the habit of 
 mind which makes them sensible to their need in this 
 respect, is of that sagacious, inventive, and bold com- 
 plexion, which must qualify them to see how this 
 need may be best supplied, and to apply themselves 
 effectually to the business of providing for it. Hence 
 it is, that the people of commercial states are so com- 
 monly a self-governed people, the money aristocracy 
 which in time grows up among them, being much less 
 powerful to prevent this free course of things, than the 
 landed aristocracy existing in other connexions. 
 
 But not only does Congregationalism harmonize, 
 considered as a polity, with these social tendencies — 
 it blends much more freely with them, in consequence 
 of the connexion which is always designed to subsist 
 
24 CONGREGATIONALISM, ETC. 
 
 between its principles and the feeling of enlightened 
 piety. What it is as a polity, it is simply as means to 
 that end. It may be approved by some who do not 
 connect themselves with it; but its administration 
 among us, is restricted to men of accredited piety; and 
 it is devout men whom we may best expect to remem- 
 ber the precept, "As far as within you lies, live 
 peaceably with all men." In the arts of peace such 
 men find their proper element. The religious con- 
 scientiousness which separates them from the pleasures 
 and licence of the world, leaves the full force of their 
 character — with all its habits of peculiar self-control — 
 to bear upon such pursuits as are still open to them. 
 They pursue their object with a less divided attention, 
 and in general, as the consequence, with a greater 
 measure of success. Accordingly, since the age of 
 protestantism, the commerce of Europe has been for 
 the most part in the hands of religious men. It has 
 been thus in Germany, Holland, France, the Northern 
 States, Great Britain, Ireland, and America. Thus 
 the arts of peace are found favourable to religion, and 
 religion favourable to them. Every step, also, in the 
 transition of society, from its purely military state, to- 
 ward a state in which those arts prevail, is a step in the 
 advance of society from its more unequal and arbitrary 
 form, in which there is no liberty, toward its congrega- 
 tional form, in which the theory of all liberty is per- 
 fected. The enemies of civil freedom know this. It 
 would be well if its friends were equally alive to the fact. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON CONGREGATIONALISM IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
 PRINCIPLES OF A REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 From the tendency observable in modern society in 
 regard to the arts of peace, another fact, scarcely less 
 observable, has resulted — viz., the prevalence of a 
 strong disposition in favour of a Representative Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Abstract schemes in relation to government are of 
 little value. The government of every state, must de- 
 rive its first complexion from the character of its 
 people ; and it can react upon them, in the way of im- 
 provement, only by slow degrees. The best govern- 
 ment, accordingly, is that which is best adapted to the 
 measure of intelligence and virtue possessed by the 
 people for whom it is designed. Men may have their 
 fond ideas in regard to what society should be, and their 
 notions, accordingly, in regard to what government 
 should be ; but they are obliged to take society as it is, 
 and they find that governments, in consequence, are. 
 matters which will take their shape much more from 
 circumstances than from theory. Hence wise men 
 will often do much to uphold things as they are, though 
 
 c 
 
26 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 differing widely from their own notions as to the state 
 of things abstractedly the most desirable. Men who 
 would hail with devout enthusiasm, the setting up of 
 a republic, among a people possessing the culture of 
 heart and intellect necessary to sustain it, might be 
 the first to deplore the folly — the inevitable mischief 
 of entrusting such a system to the agency of the un- 
 taught and unprincipled. We may not judge, there- 
 fore, with regard to what men are theoretically in such 
 matters, from what they are practically, the question 
 of government being ever with the wise and good a 
 question of right and humanity, but of right and 
 humanity always taking their form from circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The principles which obtain in congregational 
 churches are essentially popular, and we have no wish 
 to conceal that they are in agreement especially with 
 those departments of our social policy in which po- 
 pular suffrage and power are most conspicuous. But 
 if the views just stated be correct, there is nothing in 
 Congregationalism to prevent its disciples being good 
 subjects of the state under an aristocracy, a monarchy, 
 or even under a despotism. 
 
 My intention in these remarks is to meet the old 
 charge, still often preferred against us — viz., that we 
 are republicans in our church polity, and must, in con- 
 sequence, be republicans in state affairs. This objec- 
 tion is' the effect of ignorance, or of something worse. 
 It overlooks the fact that we do not profess to derive our 
 
TO REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 27 
 
 views with regard to the best forms of civil govern- 
 ment from the scriptures at all, but from those broad 
 moral grounds which are open to us in common with 
 all men. 
 
 It overlooks, also, another fact — viz., that Congrega- 
 tionalism, in our view of it, is intended exclusively for 
 churches consisting of devout persons— the brother- 
 hood of instructed and virtuous believers ; and that we 
 can never reason, accordingly, from the polity which 
 obtains in our churches, to the polity which ought to 
 obtain in the state, except as we can regard the state 
 as consisting of such persons only as we now receive 
 in the character of church members. Even then, also, 
 — in a state of things which nothing short of the mil- 
 lennium could be expected to bring about, and which 
 even that could hardly be supposed to realize, even 
 then, we could only reason from the spirit of our polity 
 as Christians, either as to the spirit or the form of our 
 institutes as citizens, the inspired writers having been 
 careful to limit their instructions to thus much only 
 concerning the relation subsisting between the laws of 
 the church and the laws of the kingdoms of this world. 
 The former have a fixedness adapted to the immutable 
 purpose of the gospel ; the latter are left open to va- 
 riableness, according to the ever changing combina- 
 tions of worldly affairs. 
 
 But while it is proper to shew that our opponents 
 reason, or rather dogmatize most indiscriminately on 
 this subject, we are free to confess the sympathy which 
 c2 
 
28 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 subsists between Congregationalism and every well 
 ordered system of popular representation. We account 
 this as to the honour of our system, and not as its 
 reproach. The man who avows himself the friend of 
 monarchy, is not necessarily the advocate of despotism ; 
 and the man who avows himself the friend of popular 
 representation, is not necessarily the advocate of a de- 
 mocracy. There is many a space between these 
 extremes at which a wise man may halt ; many a com- 
 bination from the two which he may cordially approve. 
 He may be sincerely persuaded that the conjoint 
 existence of both, would be much preferable to the 
 separate existence of either ; and there may be cir- 
 cumstances in which he may account the one as unduly 
 preponderating, or the other. 
 
 We do not hesitate to say, that there is scarcely a 
 vestige of systematic liberty in the world, — liberty de- 
 fined by law, liberty in the sense of giving protection 
 to the weak against the strong, and liberty, above 
 all, on the side of the governed against the tyranny of 
 the governing, which has not been wrung by the 
 popular elements of society, from the hold of its 
 more presiding elements. There have been nobles 
 and monarchs who have assisted the people in these 
 struggles, sometimes from selfish motives, and some- 
 times for purposes the most generous and patriotic, 
 but in the main the conflict has been as above stated ; 
 and nations have become free, in proportion as they 
 have been able to give power to the representative 
 
TO REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 29 
 
 principle, along with the other elements of society, and 
 only in that proportion. The representative prin- 
 ciple may rarely appear to be all that it should be. 
 But without it nothing is as it should be. It may 
 not seem to be perfect, but it is the only power that 
 has proved effectual permanently to diminish the 
 evils, which must otherwise blight and destroy huma- 
 nity without end. It may have its defects, its faults, 
 its revolting abuses ; but it precludes greater evils, and 
 brings an amount of good which nothing else can 
 bring. 
 
 In the history of crowned heads, wisdom and 
 patriotism will be the exception, and not the rule ; and 
 in the history of an aristocracy, the permanence of 
 sagacity and power will naturally be the permanence 
 of efficiency to rule for a class more than for the people. 
 To expect that it should be otherwise, is to expect 
 against nature. If a nation, therefore, is to possess a 
 system of liberty, the nation must realize it, and 
 realize it through the medium of a representative 
 government. Our own nation has acted under this 
 impression, with more or less intelligence, during the 
 last three centuries. The result is the present power 
 of the British House of Commons, and the security of 
 our property and persons by law, in place of being 
 dependent upon the accidents of the royal pleasure, or 
 on court favour. We owe next to nothing in this form 
 t o our princes of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties, but 
 everything to the English people, aided by the generous 
 sympathy of a large portion of our gentry and nobles. 
 
30 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 Now the tendency of society to leaven itself more 
 and more with an element of this nature is everywhere 
 observable. Great resistance is made to it, but its 
 course is still, upon the whole, onward. Its intervals 
 of seeming retrocession, are more such in appearance 
 than in fact, and seem to be among the means 
 appointed to favour its safer progress. Mankind are 
 not likely to unlearn what they have learnt in this 
 respect ; and with everything wholesome of this sort 
 that is, or that is likely to be, Congregationalism is in 
 the strictest unison. It will everywhere be strong in 
 the strength of such principles. 
 
 The congregational church retains the right of 
 choosing its own officers, and managing its own affairs ; 
 and the social policy which aims to elevate the people, 
 and which gives them a suffrage in public affairs, to 
 the extent in which they may be expected to make a 
 wise use of that powder, is assuredly so much of social 
 Congregationalism. Our parochial assemblies, our 
 municipal bodies, and our lower House of Parliament, 
 are all based on a recognition of the justice of that 
 principle in regard to society, which lies at the founda- 
 tion of the polity of our churches. Rights like those 
 which belong to the people in our churches, are thus 
 claimed and exercised by the people of the state. The 
 people, in these cases, have their place at the parish 
 vestry, in the town -hall, or at the polling booth ; and 
 having chosen their own officers or representatives, 
 they act in relation to the public good through the 
 men of their choice. Nor is this measure of depen- 
 
TO REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 31 
 
 dence and responsibility, on the part of the church- 
 warden, the city magistrate, or the greatest senators of 
 the land, accounted otherwise than reasonable, whole- 
 some, and consistent with the dignity of those func- 
 tionaries. Why a similar dependence and responsi- 
 bility on the part of the ministers of religion should be 
 esteemed degrading, and incompatible with fidelity, 
 we are at a loss to understand. The body of devout 
 persons by whom the congregational minister is called 
 to his office as a pastor, must be admitted generally to 
 be at least as honourable a constituency as the mixed 
 multitude who exercise a similar power in relation to 
 our civil authorities. We must be allowed to say, that 
 it is not a whit more true of the dissenting minister, 
 that he <( must please to live" than of the honourable 
 gentlemen who occupy the benches of the house of 
 the people at St. Stephen's; and that the principle 
 which repudiates popular suffrage in the one case, to be 
 consistent, should repudiate it equally in the other. 
 
 Tastes differ on such matters, or it might have been 
 expected, that to become possessed of place or power 
 in a manner bespeaking least equivocally that they 
 have been fairly earned, would be much the most 
 gratifying course of things even to a proud man. 
 Where there is a consciousness that the distinction 
 which can only be obtained by real superiority is not 
 likely to be attained at all, the case is of course dif- 
 ferent. It is natural that such men should lean upon 
 the accidents of family connexion and private patron- 
 
32 REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 age, and upon systems in which more care is taken to 
 prepare the places for the men than the men for the 
 places. But it is surely a mistaken sense of dignity, 
 which disposes a man to look on the broad suffrage of 
 his fellow men, as the least honourable path to emi- 
 nence. It is observable almost everywhere, that they 
 are the weak, and not the strong, who so think ; men 
 who covet office without fitness, and emolument with- 
 out labour. No doubt, there are some kinds of talent, 
 in regard to which the public at large will not always 
 be the most competent judge ; but in general, the 
 talent of adaptation to the work needing to be done 
 may be safely left to its discernment. The incon- 
 veniences that would attend the application of this 
 principle to any church constituted as is the present 
 church of England, are at once perceivable. It would 
 be, indeed, to place the new cloth upon the old gar- 
 ment. But that is a consequence for which we are 
 not responsible. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON CONGREGATIONALISM IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
 FREE INTERCOURSE OF NATIONS. 
 
 While our polity is thus in accordance with the ten- 
 dencies of society in regard to the arts of peace, and 
 in regard to the principles of a representative govern- 
 ment, it is not less in agreement with the feeling 
 which has been gathering strength for some time past 
 among us in respect to a more equal and generous 
 Intercourse between the Nations of the World. 
 
 The feature of Congregationalism which must arrest 
 the attention of every intelligent observer on the first 
 glance, is its broad and equal justice. Its beauty is, 
 that it is constituted at once to resist oppression, and 
 to fail, from its own necessary inaptitude to such an 
 office, if it should attempt to become an oppressor. 
 It provides for a resistance of tyranny from within, as 
 well as from without ; nor can it ever depend on any- 
 thing adventitious to itself. In regard to other com- 
 munions, it may claim equality, but it can take no 
 precedence. In regard to the state, it may demand 
 justice, but it can never accept of favour. It prohibits 
 exclusiveness in every form, internal and external. It 
 
 c 3 
 
34 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 will not tolerate such an influence within its own 
 limits ; it will not act upon it in relation to those who 
 are beyond them. Neither the church nor the world 
 has anything really to fear from it, but rather very 
 much to hope. It can never do men harm, except as 
 it may be done by reason and persuasion. Do it 
 wrong, and it may become dangerous. Do justly 
 toward it, and it is bound from its own nature to do 
 justly in return. Its spirit is that of the precept, 
 " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, 
 do ye even so unto them ;" and the maxims of society 
 which are most in unison with that precept are its 
 natural rallying points. It is no more opposed to gra- 
 dations in rank or in opulence, than to gradations 
 in intelligence or in moral worth. But it knows 
 nothing of the policy which would bestow favour and 
 wealth on some portions of society, at the cost of jus- 
 tice to the rest. 
 
 Now the relation is obvious between this love of 
 equal justice between man and man, and between class 
 and class, and the love of it in the intercourse of na- 
 tion with nation. Men are always found basing their 
 notions concerning domestic policy and foreign policy 
 upon the same principles. What they are to their 
 country, in this respect, they are to the world. They 
 are the abettors of favouritism, or of its opposite ; and 
 as such, have generated feud or harmony at home, and 
 have called forth retaliation or reciprocity from abroad. 
 Congregationalism will assuredly dispose to patriotism. 
 
TO THE INTERCOURSE OF NATIONS. 35 
 
 But it will not inculcate patriotism at the cost of phi- 
 lanthropy. It may consist with a peculiar and ardent 
 attachment to one country. But its deepest homage 
 will be reserved for those immutable principles of 
 right which should be common to all countries. It is 
 based altogether on moral grounds, and looks with 
 unspeakably greater interest on the character of man 
 as such, than on any of the circumstances of men. It 
 possesses, accordingly, a powerful tendency to disen- 
 thral the mind from the force of conventional super- 
 stition and prejudice, and to place it in a condition to 
 judge more freely and justly on all questions affecting 
 humanity upon a large scale. Its principles, rightly 
 understood, and the spirit of them being duly imbibed, 
 must teach us to regard our nation only as our larger 
 family, and the world as made up of a family of na- 
 tions. Rivers, mountains, seas, languages — all were no 
 doubt meant to separate the human family into sec- 
 tions. But the diverse products of nature and art in 
 different countries, were meant to bring the whole into 
 salutary intercourse. The isolation of nations, was 
 designed as a good to each ; their intercourse, as a 
 good to them all. Nations, as well as individuals, have 
 their particular capabilities and tendencies, which 
 constitute their character. These acquire their natural 
 development best in a state of separateness and inde- 
 pendence. But as the beauty and strength of society are 
 made up from the varieties of individual character, so 
 in the social intercourse of nations it is designed that 
 
36 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 each should be the better for all, and all the better for 
 each. 
 
 On this subject it is important to observe, that since 
 the primitive ages of the world, the progress of nations 
 in civilization has been the effect of migration, much 
 more than of invention. For the most part, it has come 
 to such nations from other countries, and has not 
 been originated among themselves. Now the grand 
 agency, by which the treasures of civilization and of 
 human happiness have been thus conveyed from land 
 to land, has been a bold and unfettered commerce. It 
 is certain that the early inhabitants of Europe migrated 
 from the eastward. It is no less certain that civiliza- 
 tion migrated after them in the same track, and ele- 
 vated them, race after race, from the barbarism into 
 which they had fallen in their more scattered and out- 
 cast condition. Conquest may have done something 
 to facilitate this course of events, but nothing in com- 
 parison with commerce. The adventurous merchant 
 has been the great discoverer, and the great civilizer. 
 Hence, to chain the commerce of the world, would be 
 to place fetters on the appointed means of its advance- 
 ment. Every selfish impediment of that nature is so 
 much wrong done to humanity. By such means, pre- 
 judice is strengthened in place of being diminished ; 
 and the social evils of the world are perpetuated in 
 place of being removed. 
 
 Congregationalism, based as it is on a reverence for 
 the equal and humane, must ever frown on such a 
 
TO THE INTERCOURSE OF NATIONS. 37 
 
 policy, and prompt its true disciples to protest — and, 
 if need be, to protest loud and long — against it. In 
 our age, nations are beginning to suspect the wisdom, 
 as well as the justice, of their restrictive maxims in 
 regard to commerce ; and in all that is wisely done 
 toward rendering them obsolete our principles teach 
 us to rejoice. 
 
 The means of secular improvement, then, must mi- 
 grate, in the manner adverted to, if the world is ever 
 to arrive at a general and advanced state of civili- 
 zation. And if this be admitted, the course which 
 must be taken by Christian nations, in regard to 
 Christianity, (if the world is ever to become Chris- 
 tian,) will be at once manifest. It is by means of 
 free intercourse that the barbarous are to cease to be 
 savages, and to become men ; and through the same 
 means only, will the paganized cease to be the victims 
 of licentiousness and suffering, and become the holy 
 and happy disciples of the gospel. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON CONGREGATIONALISM IN ITS RELATION TO THE PRIN- 
 CIPLE OF UNION AS ACTED UPON BY INDEPENDENT 
 STATES IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 
 
 But what, it may be said, can Congregationalism do 
 in regard to such general objects ? Is not each church 
 fixed in its isolation by your rigid principle of inde- 
 pendency ? Are not the whole shut out, by this their 
 fundamental law, from ever realizing the strength of 
 association — the power of a comprehensive and duly 
 organized Union? 
 
 We answer that it is wholly a mistake to suppose 
 that we are precluded from any real advantage of that 
 nature. We are prepared to shew, on the contrary, 
 that in this respect our polity is in beautiful harmony 
 with the great outlines of Divine Providence towards 
 the nations of the world ; and with everything most 
 salutary in the social institutes of the most enlightened 
 states; so as to leave the fault entirely with our- 
 selves, if we do not realize the maxim more fully 
 than any other communion has done, that — union is 
 strength. 
 
 But let it be remembered, that union is strength 
 
PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 39 
 
 only in proportion as it is a union of the strong. There 
 is a unity which may act as an incubus on the parts to 
 which it relates ; and there is a unity which may be 
 strong in the strength of the parts included in it, and 
 which may re-act to the increase of that strength. 
 This last is the sort of unity which the wise in the 
 study of social policy have always been most desirous 
 of realizing ; and this I hope to shew is the kind of 
 unity of which Congregationalism is especially suscep- 
 tible. In this respect, there is a most perceptible and 
 beautiful harmony between what is strictly natural to 
 our system, and what is admitted to be most whole- 
 some in its influence on general society. 
 
 The permanent strength of a nation must always 
 depend on the character of its people, and not upon 
 the genius of its sovereigns or its statesmen. By the 
 latter means, a state may rise above itself in one age, 
 only to fall below itself in the next. Such genius is 
 not hereditary. It may be most wanting when it is 
 most needed. But the character of a people must 
 be, to a considerable extent, enduring and certain. It 
 does not grow up in a night, it cannot be made to 
 wither in a night. If, however, a people possess intel- 
 ligence, virtue, patriotism — the qualities which give 
 strength to nations— it would seem, that, in Europe at 
 least, it is indispensable that such a people should have 
 been accustomed to take some part in public proceed- 
 ings. Such power must have become theirs, remotely, 
 if not immediately— locally, if not in a more general 
 
40 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 form. In the popular states of antiquity, it was this 
 sort of power, attaching to the citizen, which gave him 
 at once his ardent love of country, and his ability to 
 do it service. He learnt to feel deeply interested in 
 the welfare of the state, from being frequently called 
 to act in relation to it ; and was made to understand 
 the public business, and to become expert in it, as the 
 consequence of his being thus made a party to it. His 
 country came, as I have said, to be regarded as his 
 greater family, his own household in a larger sense. 
 As it was in this respect in the cities of Greece, and 
 in Rome in its better days, so has it been in the nations 
 of modern Europe, in proportion as they have become 
 steadily powerful and really great. Each nation has 
 been strong, collectively and continuously, as it has 
 been strong locally, and in a manner to affect the cha- 
 racter of its people. 
 
 Germany, for example, has derived nearly all her 
 greatness from her municipal liberties. To the prin- 
 ciple of those liberties, as extended from the city to 
 the province, and from the one province to the union 
 of the whole, the Dutch were indebted for their inde- 
 pendence, and their well-earned ascendancy. Among 
 ourselves, during nearly two centuries, municipal cor- 
 porations have been so many local receptacles for the 
 lowest dregs of political corruption. Our character as 
 a nation would have suffered greatly from this Stuart 
 inroad upon our ancient freedom, if the usages of our 
 country had not been such as to place our people a 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 41 
 
 good deal in the path of public affairs in other con- 
 nexions. Our trial by jury, our electoral franchise., 
 and our business habits as a mercantile nation, have 
 been of unspeakable value in this respect. 
 
 To the United States of America, the observations 
 now made are peculiarly applicable. The Atlantic 
 rolls between us and those States, and at this distance 
 we are observant of little more than the proceedings 
 of Congress. But you must look beyond the Con- 
 gress, representing all the States, to the more local in- 
 stitutions peculiar to each, if you would become ac- 
 quainted with the causes which contribute most to the 
 nourishment of American sagacity and patriotism. 
 The Congress has its definite constitution, but one 
 not more carefully defined than is that of each state, 
 and of each township — it being provided, by a carefully 
 graduated distribution of suffrage and authority, that 
 the capacity and feeling of the people should be every- 
 where trained, to the greatest available extent, for the 
 service of the great commonwealth. Each township 
 is a commonwealth, as truly as that all the states are a 
 commonwealth. Each state, and each township, has 
 its own important and independent sphere of action ; 
 and each local government is a type of the general 
 government. 
 
 France has never been self-governed, simply because 
 France has never consisted of self-governed provinces, 
 or of self-governed towns. Paris has been France ; 
 and Paris has not governed effectually, because Paris 
 
42 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 has been alone. Some French philosophers, and men 
 from whose wisdom on other points better things were 
 to have been expected, have been disposed to repre- 
 sent the mind of the greatest Englishmen as partaking 
 of the insular character of our situation, and have 
 spoken of our principles and course in these matters 
 as too local and restricted, and as wanting in the freer, 
 bolder, more generalized tone of speculation, which 
 they esteem as one of the most brilliant characteristics 
 of the mind of their own country. But we must con- 
 fess, after giving some attention to this subject, that 
 we think the censure in this case should fall the other 
 way. Our neighbours have failed hitherto in their 
 legislative career, because they have not been suffi- 
 ciently patient, or sufficiently humble, to begin at the 
 beginning. They have been fascinated with the 
 splendour of results, and have overlooked the more 
 obscure processes by which they have been realized. 
 They have taken upon them to legislate for the mil- 
 lions and for mankind, before they have learned to 
 legislate wisely for the graduated sections of their own 
 people. They have not been willing to understand 
 the simple truth, that the general must be made up of 
 the local ; that every great state should consist of a 
 number of lesser states ; and that the way to make the 
 whole good is to make the parts good. 
 
 Now if these are just views as to what society should 
 be, if they are such as stand approved, as assuredly 
 they do, by many of the most sagacious statesmen of 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNIOX. 43 
 
 our own and other lands, then I have to remark, that 
 what society should be in this respect, Congregation- 
 alism is. Its churches are located in all parts of the 
 country, each church embraces a system of self-go- 
 vernment in matters of religion, and each, as a corpo- 
 ration of its own order, possesses a stronger guarantee 
 for good government, than can be said to belong to the 
 municipal corporations of these kingdoms, even in 
 their present highly improved state. In the state, the 
 test of privilege is solely a pecuniary one; in our 
 churches, it is in a measure intellectual, and especially 
 moral. Every church is not only possessed of its own 
 sphere of independent action, but is placed in circum- 
 stances eminently adapted to call forth all its powers 
 of self-improvement. It has to provide its own ex- 
 penditure, to manage its own secular business, and to 
 regulate its own discipline. If weak, these demands 
 upon it may well engage nearly all its capabilities ; 
 and if strong, it has to add to the matters of its own 
 internal government, attention to plans by which the 
 strong may assist the weak, and by which new ground 
 may be successfully occupied at home and abroad. We 
 do not see what could well be added to the general 
 outline of this system, to render it more conducive to 
 religious or to social improvement. 
 
 But while these observations may serve to shew, that 
 we are disposed to guard with some caution against 
 being so fascinated by the idea of unity as to overlook 
 the facts from which unity must derive its strength 
 
44 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 and value, we are far from looking upon union, when 
 wisely constituted, as a matter of small importance. 
 
 The idea of unity is inseparable from that of so- 
 ciety. Society consists of men united. It is formed 
 of many^ who have become one, instead of the whole 
 being scattered, and each being alone. Without union, 
 in some shape, man must be a savage, and even the 
 race itself must become extinct. The principle of 
 union, accordingly, is inseparable from human nature, 
 and it is only about the extent or the mode in which 
 it may be acted upon, that there can be any room for 
 a difference of opinion. It is certain that without 
 some enlightened conceptions in regard to this matter 
 of unity, small states can never become great, and 
 great states can never become really powerful. Men 
 are in danger of error on this subject in opposite direc- 
 tions. Some minds are disposed to err, in the manner 
 already explained, by supposing that a unity of great 
 compass must be a unity of great power ; on which 
 principle, the Asiatic despotisms must have been the 
 most stable fabrics society has ever exhibited, whereas 
 we know that the shock of the first untoward accident 
 was commonly sufficient to crumble them into ruin. 
 But other minds, fully alive to that error, and fixed 
 on working out their principle of unity within narrow 
 limits, are in danger of looking with so much jealousy 
 to the independency of the circle immediately about 
 them, as to lose sight of the importance of the social, 
 or uniting principle, in its wider applications. 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 45 
 
 The great difficulty of wise and patriotic statesmen 
 has been, to create and sustain public spirit in relation 
 to objects of local interest, and to bring the feeling thus 
 awakened into harmony with more central efforts, in 
 relation to more general objects, — so as, in fact, to place 
 the constitution of the city, in a confiding relation with 
 respect to the constitution of the province, or with any 
 such general confederation for the common interest 
 as circumstances might demand. The monarchical 
 and despotic err in the former direction ; the republican 
 and democratic in the latter. The one seeks unity for 
 the sake of power, the other for the sake of liberty ; 
 and while the man who seeks power, commonly errs 
 as seeking it in mere numbers and vastness, the man 
 who seeks liberty, is hardly less liable to mistake from 
 his disposition to regard liberty as endangered when- 
 ever it passes be} 7 ond the walls of a single city, or the 
 acres of a very limited territory. The danger of the 
 one theory is from its tendency to expansion; the 
 danger of the other is from its proneness to collapse ; 
 union being coveted unwisely in the one case, and 
 avoided unwisely in the other, from its being viewed 
 apart from those provisions which might give it the 
 strength expected from it on the one hand, and the 
 benignant influence in regard to general liberty which 
 is not expected from it on the other. 
 
 The great defect in the polity of ancient Greece 
 was the want of a central power of this nature. All 
 its constitutions were municipal — the constitution of 
 each state being, in fact, that of a single city. It was 
 
46 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 $o in Athens, in Sparta, and everywhere. But these 
 cities had no system of union among themselves — no 
 central representative body for such general objects as 
 mio-ht be common to them all. The natural conse- 
 quences followed. The states which refused to be- 
 come strong by means of union, were each left to feel 
 its own weakness in a state of isolation ; and much of 
 the time and energy which might have been given to 
 the benefit of their common country, was employed in 
 wasting and devouring one another. Under the strong 
 pressure from without at the time of the Persian in- 
 vasion the Greeks became a united people ; but so 
 unaccustomed were they to acting in that character, 
 that their feuds, once and again, endangered every- 
 thing, and without the aid of some favourable accidents, 
 even their high patriotism and courage might not 
 have sufficed to save them. 
 
 It is true, the cities of Achaia evinced more wisdom 
 on this point. Those cities w T ere twelve in number ; 
 each retained its own constitution, and its own perfect 
 independence ; but all united, on certain general 
 grounds, for their common protection. It is to be 
 regretted that this humane and noble expedient came 
 into the field so late. Its effect was powerful ; but 
 it only served to give one more brilliant day to 
 Greece, before its glory was utterly obscured ; and to 
 indicate, in the old age of that extraordinary people, 
 what might have been done by such means in the time 
 of their manhood. 
 
 This confederative, or union principle, which the 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 47 
 
 Greeks adopted so partially and so late, has not been 
 overlooked by the popular states of Europe in later 
 times. It is in this principle, especially as tending 
 to bring out the true theory of representation, that the 
 free states of the modern world possess their great 
 advantage over the free states of antiquity. The 
 states and cities of the Low Countries, some three 
 centuries since, might each have resolved upon retain- 
 ing its place apart, and upon the plea of not endanger- 
 ing its particular liberties, by entering into any 
 general confederation, each might have chosen to 
 take its own share in the struggle against the op- 
 pressor, after its own fashion. But who does not see 
 what the consequence of this sort of stickling for 
 independency must have been. Each acting in its 
 own way, each would have been subdued in its own 
 turn, and all would have been enslaved together. But 
 the people of those countries were capable of studying 
 political principles so as to reserve to each state its 
 own proper state-independency, and at the same time 
 to bring them all into union for the protection of 
 their common liberty and interest. It was their wis- 
 dom in this respect, which not only enabled them 
 to secure their own freedom, but rendered them the 
 great stay, during nearly two centuries, of the pro- 
 testant religion and of general liberty over the conti- 
 nent of Europe. None of the ancients displayed 
 greater skill or prowess, upon the land or the deep, 
 than did these moderns. Among none of the ancients 
 
48 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 were there institutes based in the same degree upon 
 the just, the wise, and philanthropic. From none 
 of the achievements of antiquity did results follow of 
 so great importance to humanity. The early Dutch 
 curbed the power of Spain, the later curbed the power 
 of France — altogether, they were a noble race, but 
 owed their greatness mainly to the fact, that they 
 knew how to combine a love of liberty, as belonging 
 to their particular state or city, with a love of unity in 
 regard to objects equally affecting the whole family of 
 states and cities which their union included. 
 
 Observations of the same character might be made 
 in regard to the United States of America. The 
 congress in America, realized the unity and power 
 which had existed with so much effect in the States- 
 General in Holland. In the absence of such organiza- 
 tion, even the parts must have been feeble, and the 
 whole an easy prey. It was the necessity which dis- 
 posed the Anglo-Americans to the union, that placed 
 them on the true path of freedom and greatness. 
 
 In our own country, the same principle has been 
 vigorously acted upon, and in a manner which has 
 been made to accord with the monarchical and aris- 
 tocratic powers belonging to our mixed constitution. 
 Our house of commons is to us, in a great degree, 
 what the municipal representatives in the Achaean 
 league were to the Achseans ; what the states-general 
 were to the Low Countries ; and what the assembled 
 members of congress are to the United States. It is 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 49 
 
 the principle of union, accomplishing by one assembly 
 in one place, what must otherwise have been left to 
 many assemblies in many places. It leaves to pro- 
 vinces and cities, such matters as fall most naturally 
 under their superintendence; and it reserves to itself, 
 as the representative of all, the power of conducting 
 affairs equally affecting all. It is in itself a republic, 
 but a republic in alliance with an aristocracy and a 
 monarchy. It is the union of a number of lesser 
 states ; and a union so devised, that while each is left in 
 a measure independent, the whole are harmonized and 
 made strong. 
 
 In these several instances, then, we see union on a 
 large scale, and in its most enlightened form. These 
 memorable exhibitions of the power of social or- 
 ganization, present the advanced points in regard to 
 government that have been gained by the most 
 civilized states down to our own time. The question 
 now arises — are we up to the line marked out 
 by those points, and if not, do our principles require 
 that we should place ourselves there ? We have seen 
 that in those principles of self-government which 
 have their inalienable lodgment in our separate 
 churches, we possess all the elements of strength ne- 
 cessary to render such a union powerful. Nothing 
 remains, accordingly, but that we ascertain if there be 
 fair and open space left to us on which such union may 
 be formed ; and if the objects connected with our 
 
 D 
 
50 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 denomination that may be served by it, are of such a 
 nature as to make the formation of it expedient. 
 
 Persons who are not congregationalists, and who 
 have been at little pains to inform themselves concern- 
 ing our principles or conduct, generally suppose that we 
 have no such thing as union among us. It is thought 
 to be the very element of " independency," that we 
 should be much more enamoured with isolation than 
 with union. Our system is supposed to be the favourite 
 it is with us, because it serves to scatter us, in the dis- 
 jecta membra fashion, in a thousand directions, and is 
 in its nature opposed to our being conjoined as into 
 one body. This appears to such persons to be the 
 state of things when they look toward us from a dis- 
 tance ; and when they hear us talk, our utterances are 
 not always of a kind to remove the impression thus 
 made. 
 
 It might, indeed, have been no more than proper 
 in the class of persons adverted to, had they been so 
 far considerate as to have asked themselves, whether 
 it was altogether just, from the little, the very little 
 they may have known of us, to suppose that we were 
 without the disposition to attach some natural mean- 
 ing to those scriptures which speak so explicitly of 
 the unity which must ever belong to the true church 
 of Christ; and of the obligation resting upon all 
 churches and all Christians, to exercise, as far as pos- 
 sible, mutual recognition, to hold mutual fellowship, 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 51 
 
 and to abound in good offices one toward another ? 
 General principles of this nature occur, both in the 
 precepts and precedents of scripture ; and such as seem 
 to point to a wide visible unity among Christians, as 
 not only possible, consistently with all the institutes 
 delivered to churches for their separate observance, 
 but as obligatory, partly from the fitness and beauty 
 of the thing itself, and partly from the useful purposes 
 it might be made to subserve. 
 
 The primitive churches, while they retained the 
 company of inspired apostles at their head, were in a 
 condition, in that respect, peculiar to themselves. 
 Their circumstances, moreover, apart from that fact, 
 were such as to render any formidable display of 
 organization among them, however much they might 
 have been disposed toward it, exceedingly inexpe- 
 dient and dangerous. But due allowance being 
 made for these facts, the general lessons of the New 
 Testament, which constitute our warrant in doing so 
 many things for which we have no exact precedent in 
 apostolic times, are lessons which extend their sanc- 
 tion abundantly to the union of ministers and churches, 
 to any extent that may be practicable, useful, and 
 consistent with leaving our separate churches in their 
 proper independency. In the New Testament, those 
 who serve God are treated as men, not as children. 
 Its instruction is given with a designed latitude of ex- 
 pression, the pupil being supposed capable of using it 
 discreetly. It is deemed enough to inculcate prin- 
 
 d 2 
 
52 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 ciples, much in the application of them being left 
 to take its shape from the suggestions natural to a 
 Christian prudence. This is a great fact in regard 
 to the New Testament dispensation, as compared 
 with the Old, and we act in accordance with it 
 every day. 
 
 It is common with congregational churches in a 
 small town, or in a large city, to unite and to prose- 
 cute their plans of usefulness in their locality by 
 means of a general committee, which, in such case, is 
 a sort of joint representative body. It must be plain 
 that every such association of congregational ministers 
 and churches, is a congregational union. It is a 
 union of ministers and brethren to do good — to do 
 good more effectually by acting together, than they 
 could do by acting apart ; to do good of a kind in which 
 they feel a common interest ; and in a manner which 
 involves no interference with the liberties proper to 
 either ministers or churches when considered separately. 
 
 As it is with Congregationalism when viewed thus 
 in connexion with towns and cities, so it is when 
 viewed in connexion with the country at large. 
 There are many objects in regard to which congrega- 
 tionalists must act on a principle of union, if they are 
 to act at all with efficiency. It is thus in regard to 
 the colleges in which our ministers are educated ; in 
 the matters of various societies, which aim to extend 
 religious instruction to our seamen and peasantry, to 
 the people of Ireland, and to the heathen world. In 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 53 
 
 reference to all these objects, the congregationalists of 
 a whole kingdom agree to act through the medium of 
 a chosen number of their body ; and this they do 
 because it may be done without the slightest infringe- 
 ment on the principles of independency ; because the 
 objects themselves bear an equal relation to them all ; 
 and because, moreover, they are of such a nature that 
 it would not be possible to attend to them with effect 
 except upon this principle of union. 
 
 But to congregationalists it scarcely need be ob- 
 served, that there are other forms, partaking still 
 more of the nature of system, in which we act upon 
 this principle. Every one possessing the slightest 
 knowledge of our denomination, must be aware that 
 congregationalists have their county unions in nearly 
 all the counties of England. These unions are so 
 many home missionary societies. They are formed 
 that the strong may assist the weak, and that the 
 whole might act with more effect for the diffusion of 
 the gospel by acting conjointly. Their proceedings 
 also relate to various matters, which, as being colla- 
 teral to our church polity, rather than a part of it, have 
 been left by the Head of the church to the guidance 
 of Christian feeling and discernment. It must be 
 remembered, also, that each of these county unions 
 extends its recognition to the approved ministers and 
 churches of its own district; and that while any 
 member of an approved congregational church, may 
 obtain admission, on the ground of that fact, into any 
 
54 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 congregational church in any county in England ; so 
 the minister, approved in one county, is virtually an 
 approved minister in all our counties. When it is 
 further remembered, that our churches are not more 
 characterized by their one polity, than by their " one 
 faith," their belief in the Trinity, the atonement, and 
 the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, it will be 
 manifest to every impartial mind, that with much less 
 of unity than some other religious bodies in appear- 
 ance, we possess greatly more in reality. Without 
 any denominational creed or confession, we possess 
 almost immeasurably more oneness of opinion than 
 those who most zealously uphold such things. The 
 external semblance of agreement may not be with us, 
 so much as elsewhere ; but if our conformity is neither 
 so strict, nor so obtrusive, our unity is greater — yes, 
 greater than will be found extending over the same 
 space anywhere beyond the limits of our communion. 
 
 It thus appears, then, that there is everything in 
 the Christianity we profess to dispose us to conjoint 
 efforts for our common objects ; that there is nothing 
 in our ecclesiastical system, as affecting particular 
 ministers or churches, to prevent their becoming thus 
 united; and that our practice, in a multitude of 
 instances, is in strict consonance with this liberty. 
 
 But it is only within the last ten years that we have 
 availed ourselves of this liberty so fully as in the or- 
 ganization of this union — the one central union, made 
 up of nearly all the county unions of England and 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 55 
 
 Wales. It is well known that the object we have 
 thus realized, is precisely that which was contemplated 
 by Dr. Owen, and other fathers of independency in 
 England, a little before the Restoration. It was to 
 form a union of this nature that a large number of 
 ministers and laymen were at that time convened, 
 from all parts of the country, in the Savoy Palace ; 
 and the platform of a congregational union, embracing 
 all the congregational ministers and churches in the 
 land, was agreed upon, and made public. But with 
 the Restoration came the end of religious liberty, and 
 an end, of course, to the possibility of perpetuating this 
 enlarged association of our body. From the prostrate 
 condition to which independency was thus reduced, it 
 has been gradually recovering through the long in- 
 terval which has followed. But it is only within the last 
 few years, that it has appeared to be strong enough to 
 demonstrate its power of association in a form so 
 general as in the constitution of this union — and wise 
 enough, it would seem, to perceive the important 
 practical objects which might be aided by such means. 
 No sober man will hesitate to admit that it must be 
 well to bestow attention on everything which, being 
 lawful in itself, may serve to give us our due weight 
 and place, as a religious body, among the men of our 
 time. Now, to this end, it is of great moment that 
 we should shew to other religious communions, and 
 to society at large, that while we are animated by that 
 love of liberty which ensures to our churches their 
 
56 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 separate independence, we are at the same time so far 
 governed by a love of order, as to be capable of giving 
 to our entire denomination a character of unity. 
 Unhappily, we have been so long without any visible 
 union — any union of a nature at once to express our 
 general sentiment, and to secure general observation, 
 that we have at present much to do in order to dis- 
 abuse the public mind on this subject. It is known 
 that a principle of this kind is recognised among 
 catholics, and churchmen, and methodists, and pres- 
 byterians, and quakers ; but we independents are 
 regarded very generally as passionately fond of our 
 system, mainly because of its supposed power to put 
 churches asunder, in place of bringing them together. 
 This misconception may be so contrary to truth, as to 
 be in our view ridiculous. But it is not on that 
 account the less prevalent, nor the less pernicious; 
 and its mischiefs will be widely perpetuated, unless 
 we can succeed in giving so much prominence to the 
 signs of unity among us, as may cause them to 
 operate in the way of a corrective no less widely. 
 
 So long as we allow the public mind to be thus 
 misled, so long must we be content to suffer loss. The 
 maxim, " divide and conquer," is based on the truth 
 that the disunited are weak, and that the united only 
 are strong. The body which does not possess enough 
 of the power of self-government to become one, will 
 never be regarded by shrewd men, whether in the 
 church or the world, as a body competent to do any 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 57 
 
 great thing. If we would have men suppose that we 
 are capable of acting powerfully upon affairs beyond 
 our own enclosure, we must allow them to see that 
 there is this kind of power within that enclosure. But 
 if society is left to regard us as a people always in pro- 
 cess of being consumed by their own inbred jealousies 
 and feuds, we should expect to be treated as men 
 whose aid must be of small value, and whose hostility 
 may be safely despised. It has been thus with the 
 history of popular power in all nations, and it will be 
 thus with the history of such power in all churches. 
 Nor must we expect mankind to give us credit for 
 being really one, except as we furnish to them the 
 visible signs of our being such. We have not our due 
 place in this respect at present ; and we have it not, 
 because, through indolence or pride, we have been 
 heedless of the prudential arrangements that might 
 have secured it. Nothing is more formidable in the 
 eye of the statesman than the consolidated power of 
 union, when in alliance with the diffused power of 
 popular freedom. The weak side of popular liberty is 
 in the facilities which it necessarily affords to men who 
 are bent on faction, disorder, and anarchy. But let 
 this evil be provided against by a well-adjusted con- 
 centration, and no other form of power may be com- 
 pared with it. It resembles the far-famed Grecian 
 phalanx, in which each man was fully armed, and 
 brave in heart, and the whole so conjoined as to be- 
 come one moving mass of skill and courage, bearing 
 d3 
 
58 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 like the pressure of a mountain against all that op- 
 posed it in the battle-field ! 
 
 We are, I am sure, in the general, very little aware 
 of the degree in which mankind are swayed in their 
 preference of one religious system to another by this 
 one advantage of a strong visible unity. The impres- 
 sion thus made seems to be equally powerful in the 
 case of the wise and the unwise, of the good and the 
 evil. Even wise men are not well at ease, when they 
 seem to be leaning upon a framework which has the 
 appearance of being everywhere disjointed, and ready 
 to fall abroad ; and the unwise conclude, as by in- 
 stinct, that the truth must be with the many who seem 
 to be agreed, rather than with the few who seem to be 
 everywhere divided. Good men naturally confide in 
 unity, as being the strongest form of goodness, wherever 
 they can see that it is in alliance with goodness ; and 
 bad men do their homage to it, as being the strongest 
 form of that mere power which is ever the object of 
 their worship. Yes — and men of the most opposite 
 political principles seem to find their place alike within 
 this enchanted circle. To the monarchist, unity is 
 sure to be attractive, because the apex of the social 
 pyramid appears to him as the proper place of sove- 
 reignty; and even the democrat feels its influence, 
 inasmuch as it presents to his love of equality the idea 
 of a common centre, and of a common dispensation of 
 things, in which there will be no respect of persons. 
 Hence there are myriads who are democrats in politics 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 59 
 
 and catholics in religion. Truth must be one in God, 
 and we do not readily conceive of it as shattered into 
 fragments among men. We are in danger, accord- 
 ingly, of finding it scarcely more difficult to suppose 
 that there is no true religion, than to suppose that the 
 true religion should be devoid of the sublime aspect 
 of unity. It is scarcely to be doubted that the pre- 
 tensions to this quality which are set forth by the 
 church of Rome, false as they are in the main, have 
 been the most successful of all the instruments which 
 that church has employed in making proselytes to her 
 communion. It is too true, I fear, that our " varia- 
 tions" as protestants have been the great cause why 
 protestantism has made so little progress during the 
 last two hundred years, and why the converts which 
 have been made during that interval have been in so 
 great a degree either to infidelity or to Catholicism. 
 
 It must be confessed that this source of mischief is 
 one that does not admit of being wholly removed. We 
 can never give to protestantism the sort of oneness 
 which is made to attach to popery. But much would 
 be done toward lessening this disadvantage, if the great 
 sections of the protestant church were each of them soli- 
 citous to give visibility and prominence to the spirit of 
 unity pervading them, so far as might be practicable. 
 
 It is no doubt true, also, that this susceptibility in 
 the human mind, which causes men to become so 
 much enamoured with the idea of unity, has led to 
 great error and evil. But where is the susceptibility 
 
60 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 in man of which this may not be affirmed ? It must 
 be remembered, too, that however much it may have 
 been abused, it is still in human nature ; that nothing 
 can eradicate it ; and that we are not likely to make 
 it serve the purposes of truth or goodness — which, be- 
 yond doubt, it was designed to do — by resolving to 
 act as though it had no existence. We must deal 
 with human nature as it is ; and he is not only a sorry 
 philosopher, but, what is more, is a person who would 
 seem to be wanting in the humility and benevolence 
 proper to the Christian, who is not willing to adapt 
 himself to humanity in the use of all the innocent ex- 
 pedients by which it may be benefited. Our great 
 want has been, and in a measure still is, a more calm, 
 discriminating, and enlarged habit of thought on this 
 subject. 
 
 The great enemy of truth has been always endea- 
 vouring to neutralize its influence in the world as by 
 a double expedient — tempting the one half of man- 
 kind to apply it so grossly to wrong purposes, that the 
 other half might be frightened from attempting to 
 apply it to right purposes. Thus, by means of wicked- 
 ness on the one side, and of weakness on the other, the 
 whole mission of truth is often made to fall to the 
 oround. This snare, which has been laid with so 
 much success in all time past, is not laid fruitlessly 
 among ourselves. 
 
 The church of Rome, for example, has set up a 
 false appearance of unity, affecting to be influenced 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. 61 
 
 by a oneness of opinion and feeling which she does 
 not possess. But can it have been wise on our part 
 to have been so long prevented by such a cause from 
 shewing ourselves to be one on the points concerning 
 which we are sincerely agreed ? The church of Rome, 
 and some other churches, have enforced their symbols 
 of unity and conformity by civil penalties, and in so 
 doing have done much to perpetuate hypocrisy and 
 oppression. But should we allow ourselves to be de- 
 terred by that fact from declaring to the world the 
 general agreement in opinion, and the general con- 
 formity in usage, which really obtain among us ; even 
 though renouncing, at the same time, all authority to 
 legislate, and all power to coerce ? Ecclesiastical 
 councils have done much harm, — say, if you will, 
 greatly more harm than good; but should we there- 
 fore conclude that it is not in the nature of clerical 
 assemblies, or of assemblies composed as are those of 
 this union, of ministers and laity, ever to do otherwise ; 
 and should we, in consequence, fix one broad sentence 
 of proscription upon all such conventions ? Churches, 
 taken into alliance with the civil power, have prose- 
 cuted their schemes of organization and unity at the 
 manifest cost of truth, justice, and piety ; but for this 
 cause shall churches, not so allied, refuse to avail them- 
 selves of the power of order and concentration really 
 to advance these objects, in place of subverting them? 
 If we are made of such volatile material as to allow 
 ourselves to be driven off, in this tangeant manner, 
 
62 CONGREGATIONALISM IN RELATION 
 
 from error on the one side, into what is no less 
 erroneous on the other, then is it plain that, in our 
 case, the snare adverted to has done its work. 
 
 We ought, however, in such case, to go a step fur- 
 ther. In many lands, and during long spaces of time, 
 the abuse of the gospel, and the abuse of the light of 
 nature, have been much more conspicuous than the 
 use that has been made of them. Both, accordingly, 
 ought to be proscribed — it being an axiom in this kind 
 of philosophy, that the institute or usage which has 
 been found injurious in one complexion of circum- 
 stances, must be found injurious in all circumstances. 
 The argument is, that union has been abused, and so 
 abused, that it should be no more trusted. But who 
 does not see that the Deist might take this ground 
 against Christianity; that the Atheist might take it 
 against the system of nature ; and that the Anarchist 
 might take it as an exception to the social principle in 
 any form ! 
 
 It scarcely need be observed, that the degree in 
 which we should suffer ourselves to be earned away 
 by a delusion of this nature must be the degree in 
 which we should proclaim ourselves to all the world, 
 as a people doomed by their own narrow views and 
 jealousies to fret themselves into a state of per- 
 petual insignificance, and to remain destitute of the 
 power to do anything considerable in the world, in the 
 way either of good or harm. The imbecile always 
 give hostages to fortune after this manner, ever telling 
 
TO THE PRINCIPLE OF UNION. bd 
 
 the more sagacious of mankind that there is nothing 
 worthy consideration either to be hoped or feared from 
 them. 
 
 It promises well for the future influence of indepen- 
 dency, that the wisdom which has always disposed us 
 to act in the full spirit of this union elsewhere, has of 
 late prompted to the same mode of action upon a scale 
 as extended as the limits of our common country. That 
 we should so do, and in a manner so conspicuous as 
 to remove the last shade of misconception from the 
 public mind with regard to our principles in this 
 view of them, has long been the great need of our 
 denomination — the desideratum, indeed, of Congre- 
 gationalism, ever since those troubled times, when 
 it was given to the people of these kingdoms to 
 revive the polity of the primitive church under that 
 name. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON THE SYSTEMS OF CONGREGATIONALISTS AND EPIS- 
 COPALIANS IN ENGLAND, AS REGARDS AN EFFICIENT 
 MINISTRY. 
 
 The design of this and the following chapter is to 
 indicate the kind of answer that might be given to 
 such objections as may be made to the tone of repre- 
 sentation which I have ventured to adopt with regard 
 to our polity. 
 
 It will, perhaps, for example, be said, that so far 
 does it fail of being the case that there is a natural 
 alliance between Congregationalism and the higher 
 order of culture, that, as every man knows, the educa- 
 tion even of its ministers is often pitiably defective, 
 and that even the average of culture among our 
 pastors is so limited, as to be a matter of reproach cast 
 very generally upon the whole denomination. 
 
 This objection rests in part upon ignorance, and in 
 part upon a restricted view of things most likely to 
 commend itself to weakness and prejudice. We meet, 
 on every side, with a very wise class of persons, who 
 have learnt to suppose that people not educated at 
 Oxford or Cambridge can never have been educated 
 
UNIVERSITIES. 65 
 
 at all. Great care is taken that dissenting ministers 
 shall not be educated at those places ; and the con- 
 clusion seems to follow, as of course, that they have no 
 education. Thus our supposed want of education is first 
 made to be a matter of necessity, and then a matter 
 of reproach. It is quite out of the way of this class of 
 persons to understand, what every person of real intel- 
 ligence knows — viz., that universities never educated 
 any man. The multitudes who leave universities, do 
 so to float on with the most untaught masses of society 
 to a common oblivion. The really educated are the 
 exception, not the rule ; and every mind so educated, 
 educates itself. Milton owed little to Cambridge, 
 and Gibbon still less to Oxford. If those seminaries 
 had never existed, both these minds would have been 
 much as we find them ; and the same may be said, 
 in the main, of all who become eminent. 
 
 Now it may be asked, — Do you really intend by 
 these observations to utter the Gothic announcement 
 that universities are profitless institutions? By no 
 means. We have no wish to see them extinct ; we 
 have no wish to utter one really disparaging word 
 concerning them ; we only wish that, like all well- 
 conducted persons, they should be made to know 
 their own place. It is for this cause that we cannot 
 allow it to be said, that these institutions have done 
 for their great men the things which all great men do 
 for themselves ; nor must we be expected to concede, 
 that refinement and learning are confined to college 
 
66 CLERGYMEN AND 
 
 walls; or that men in the habit of touching those 
 walls do necessarily contract those qualities.* 
 
 It will suffice here to remark, that congregationalists 
 possess their colleges in common with episcopalians. 
 Many thousands of our hardly-earned wealth have 
 
 * It is, in some respects, amusing to observe, the sober earnest- 
 ness with which a large class of persons seem to act on this assump- 
 tion, in respect to such dissenters as presume to take upon them 
 the responsibilities of authorship. With these very orderly people, 
 ecclesiastical learning is a sort of preserve, which must be kept 
 sacred to the foot of the authorized. The licence to enter that 
 enclosure must be obtained from certain authorities resident in 
 Oxford or Cambridge ; and you may well pity the poor intruder 
 who is detected as making his appearance within those limits with- 
 out such qualification. The report given of him by the grave func- 
 tionaries who take upon them to judge such offences, will be, in 
 general, of a very ill-favoured description. It may not be amiss 
 for me to mention an instance or two of this kind which have fallen 
 in my own way. They will be given as samples of what is very 
 common, and may serve to shew that neither the absurd nor the 
 unprincipled are by any means upon one side in the existing 
 controversies. 
 
 Something more than a dozen years ago I issued my prospectus 
 of the Life of Wycliffe. There was at that time as curate at Lutter- 
 worth, a Rev. Mr. Pantin — such, if my memory serves me, was the 
 "name — who, as holding the clerkly office in that memorable parish, 
 had thought it to be cognate to him that he should give to the world 
 some account of the great Reformer. On seeing the advertisement of 
 my intended publication, Mr. Pantin became very much disturbed. 
 Inquiries were made without delay, and it soon appeared that the 
 person signing himself " Robert Vaughan" was, in the language of 
 our clerical friends, a " dissenting preacher." This discovery greatly 
 increased Mr. Pantin's disquietude. It rose at once to a feeling of 
 astonishment, indignation, and alarm. The reverend gentleman 
 then bethought himself of what it might be possible for him to do, 
 in order to strangle that first-born of my brain and labour at its 
 
DISSENTING MINISTERS. 67 
 
 been expended in rearing such edifices. Large volun- 
 tary contributions are annually raised for the support 
 of such establishments. In England and Wales they 
 are some twelve or fourteen in number ; and if in place 
 of being scattered over the whole country^ they were 
 
 birth-time. For this object Mr. Pantin sought an interview with 
 Mr. Murray, who had announced my work in his list of forthcom- 
 ing publications ; but Mr. Murray begged to decline all proffered 
 enlightenment on the subject from the curate of Lutterworth. Sub- 
 sequently, my book was advertised as in course of publication by 
 the late Mr. Holdsworth ; and Mr. Pantin, undismayed by his 
 failure in Albemarle-street, solicited an interview with that gentle- 
 man, and delivered such caution and discouragement in regard to 
 the book as appeared to him meet. But all this anxiety and effort 
 was without effect. The book saw the light, and a great eyesore to 
 Mr. Pantin did it prove ; for, after frowning upon it in all such 
 ways as were within his power for several years, a long dull paper, 
 with the signature of my old friend the curate, was put forth in the 
 British Magazine, which was meant to work me much harm, by 
 impeaching the accuracy of some statements in my Introduction. 
 The nature of those statements I do not just now remember, except 
 that I know they were not such as at all to affect the main object of 
 the work. There is reason to think that after the appearance of that 
 paper, the supply of bile in the case of Mr. Pantin was found to be 
 in a somewhat more healthy proportion, and that he has since, in con- 
 sequence, betaken himself to some more appropriate occupation. 
 
 Contemporary with Mr. Pantin's paper in the British Magazine, 
 were several others, consisting of criticisms on my account of the 
 Wycliffe MSS. in Trinity College, Dublin. Concerning the spirit 
 of these criticisms, and the degree of confidence that may be placed 
 in them, the reader will judge from two specimens, which I refer to 
 from memory. 
 
 In vol. ii., p. 429, I have stated that several of the papers in the 
 appendices of my work are printed from the appendix to Lewis's Life 
 of Wiclif. On this note my critic observes, that it is not only for 
 several, but for the whole of the papers contained in these appen- 
 
68 CLERGYMEN AND 
 
 located together, they might be made to constitute a 
 university of much better pretensions than many on 
 which princely and royal patronage have been largely 
 bestowed. The effect of these institutions as they 
 now exist is, that, as a rule, our ministers must be 
 
 dices that I am indebted to my predecessor. Now, to say nothing 
 of the absurdity of supposing that I must have been under obliga- 
 tion to Mr. Lewis for such papers as were to be found in sources 
 so well known as the printed pages of Knighton, Walsingham, 
 Rymer's Fcedera, and Fox's Book of Martyrs, I have distinctly to 
 state that the above assertion is contrary to fact. This may be seen 
 by looking only to the first paper in the series appended to either 
 volume. The paper, No. 1, in the first appendix, was never before 
 published : it is from the archives of the cathedral of Durham, and 
 relates to the history of the Wycliffe family. The paper of the 
 same number also, in the second appendix, was copied by my own 
 hand from the still unpublished MS. So much for the accuracy 
 of my critic in regard to a matter of fact. From the next specimen, 
 the reader will judge as to the claims of my opponent in regard to 
 ingenuousness. 
 
 The heading to the second section of my account of the Re- 
 former's writings is as follows: — "Section II. — Including the 
 Wycliffe manuscripts in England and Ireland. This series con- 
 tains nearly forty MSS. preserved in the library of Trinity College, 
 Dublin, the existence of which has been hitherto unknown to the 
 Reformer's biographers." Now it is the manner of Mr. Lewis, not 
 only to give the titles of the Reformer's MSS., but to say where 
 they are to be found, and if there were duplicates, to mention them 
 also ; thus making his list a catalogue, not merely of the Reformer's 
 works, but of the number of his extant MSS. This judicious ex- 
 ample I followed. Any ingenuous man, one would think, might 
 have seen at a glance, from the terms of the above heading, that 
 such was my meaning. But my critic, well acquainted as he was 
 with the manner of my predecessor in this respect, has been pleased 
 to understand me as meaning to say that my catalogue included 
 nearly forty works of the Reformer, unknown to his previous bio- 
 
DISSENTING MINISTERS. 69 
 
 educated men, in the university sense of that expres- 
 sion ; but exception will be left in favour of others, 
 whose piety, information, and general ability, may 
 entitle them to a place among ministers of the gospel, 
 though not qualified in the manner of persons who 
 pass a university curriculum. 
 
 graphers, and not merely that number of duplicate or additional 
 MSS. ; and upon this interpretation of my words, the reader is 
 called upon to wonder as he is told that, upon examination, it turns 
 out that my list does not contain a single addition to the known 
 writings of Wycliffe ! 
 
 After this manner a gentleman can write who, in a late work, 
 subscribes himself " James Henthorn Todd, D.D., Fellow of Tri- 
 nity College, and Treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral." I join 
 most heartily in the solicitude of this gentleman, that the Reformer's 
 works might be published, and carefully edited ; and as this will 
 probably be some day accomplished, I take this opportunity of 
 putting upon record the expression of my full confidence, that the 
 effect will be to confirm everything material in the account which I 
 have given concerning the history, character, writings, and opinions 
 of Wycliffe. In Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where the 
 greater part of the Wycliffe MSS. are preserved, I had an apartment 
 assigned to me, and the MSS. were left in my possession so long as 
 t had need of them. But according to the usage of Trinity College, 
 Dublin, I could have no permission to examine its MSS. except 
 under the eye of one of its fellows. That slight inaccuracy should 
 have arisen from this cause will surprise no man ; but to have fallen 
 into some trivial mistake from oversight, in such a case, is a small 
 matter, compared with the position of a man who stands convicted 
 of error in regar-d to ingenuousness, and clear matter of fact, as the 
 manifest result of a paltry sectarian prejudice. 
 
 As I have touched upon this subject, I shall venture to advert 
 to one other specimen of this edifying description. There is a pe- 
 riodical which assumes to itself the title of the " Church of England 
 Quarterly Review." It has recently contained two articles on my 
 History of England under the House of Stuart. In that work I 
 
70 CLERGYMEN AND 
 
 As dissenters, we are anxious for scholarship, but 
 we must have preachers. In the church of England 
 there must be a modicum of scholarship; but the 
 mind well furnished in other respects, and an aptness 
 to teach, are left, for the most part, to come as they 
 
 have the following passage on the proceedings of the Long Parlia- 
 ment against the Episcopal clergy : — " Many of the Episcopal clergy 
 were deprived of their livings on the charge of being scandalous 
 ministers, and not unjustly. But men, whose only delinquency 
 consisted in refusing to become parties to the League and Covenant, 
 were called ' malignants ;' and on account of the malignancy said 
 to be thus manifested, with respect to the gospel and the parliament, 
 persons of this description were sometimes expelled to make room 
 for others more conformable to the new standard of orthodoxy. 
 Such sufferers deserve a place among the confessors of the seventeenth 
 century no less than the Puritans. 7 ' (Vol. i. p. 412.) Now, while 
 commenting on this very passage, the reviewer describes me as fully 
 justifying the parliament in expelling men "for the unpardonable 
 crime of malignancy, and for no other" ! 
 
 In the next page this writer adds : " With respect, indeed, to 
 Laud's death, Dr. Vaughan has out-heroded Herod himself, for he 
 has actually justified his execution." My only observations on 
 this subject are in the following extract, which, as the reviewer 
 quotes from a paragraph just preceding, must have been open 
 before him when he penned the above passage : — " This proceed- 
 ing, in every view of it, refects nothing but disgrace on the 
 Long Parliament. It exhibited, in several respects, a wider de- 
 parture from the forms usually observed in such cases than the 
 attainder of Strafford, and without the plea of necessity, which 
 greatly extenuated, if it did not justify, the sentence, passed on that 
 offender. The advanced age of the primate, his growing infirmities, 
 and the wonderfully altered condition of public affairs, all contri- 
 buted to render him an object rather of pity than of apprehension, 
 and to make it the policy of his enemies to leave him in the insigni- 
 ficance into which he had fallen. By proceeding against him as a 
 traitor, they could not fail to'raise him to the dignity of a martyr, 
 
DISSENTING MINISTERS. 71 
 
 may. We are sure that on this point our own course 
 is the wisest. If we sometimes err upon the one 
 hand, the church of England has erred in a much 
 greater degree upon the other. Some three-fourths 
 of our ministers at present may be esteemed, as I 
 
 and to create a sympathy in his favour in many quarters where it 
 woiild not otherwise have existed. That he would have been a party 
 to the introduction of popery is highly improbable; but that he 
 would have destroyed the constitution, by causing the monarchy to 
 usurp its place, is beyond doubt ; and his moral delinquency on 
 this account was as great as could attach to any treason denned by 
 statute ; particularly as it stood connected with so many acts of op- 
 pression aud cruelty. But no statute had pronounced such conduct 
 to be treason ; and the extreme measures resorted to for the purpose 
 of bringing the primate within the penalties of that offence, inasmuch 
 as no great public interest demanded them, deserve to be reprobated 
 as contrary to humanity, justice, and sound policy " (I. 414.) This, 
 good reader, is all I have said about Laud's trial or execution, and 
 upon this I am represented as actually justifying both ! The author 
 of these misrepresentations, to which the clerical conductors of the 
 Review are also knowingly pledged, is, as I am told, the Rev. 
 Thomas Lathbury, A.M., Oxon, author of a "History of English 
 Episcopacy" — a book the character of which may be learnt from 
 No. CXXIX. of the Edinburgh Review. 
 
 It would be easy for me to multiply instances of this nature, 
 and to shew that they constitute the rule, in the treatment to which 
 dissenting authorship is exposed from the hands of our clergy, and 
 that better things are only the exception. Yet does it seem to be 
 assumed, that on the side of the church of England there is always 
 dignity, forbearance, decorum, and refinement ; and that every feel- 
 ing hostile to her pretensions must be vulgar, wanton, and unpro- 
 voked. She is the pure, the harmless — always enduring wrong, 
 never inflicting it. Her accredited defenders may descend to the 
 coarsest violations of candour, justice, and truth, and you are 
 expected to be, in return, the pattern of patience, submission, reve- 
 rence, and gratitude ! 
 
72 CLERGYMEN AND 
 
 presume, fairly educated men. The scholarship of 
 some of these far exceeds the average attainments of 
 the parochial clergy ; and the remainder, if not so 
 much at home as their episcopalian rivals in classical 
 studies, are possessed, in general, of a much wider 
 range of theological learning ; and if not remarkable 
 as preachers for that very cautious taste, and timid 
 faultlessness, so observable in clergymen, they are 
 distinguished, both in thought and manner, by a 
 much greater freedom, boldness, aptitude, and force. 
 No man of discernment, acquainted with the sermons 
 which dissenting ministers preach, and with those 
 which clergymen not only preach but print, will 
 question this statement. 
 
 But it is the manner of opponents to be silent in 
 respect to everything that may not be made a matter 
 of blame. We hear little, accordingly, in the quarter 
 adverted to, with regard to anything which dissenting 
 ministers do well. The burden there, is of our sup- 
 posed deficiencies and faults, and a strayed anecdote, 
 betraying any real or supposed defect in knowledge, 
 in taste, or in some matter of polite usage, in the case 
 of our humbler brethren, is accounted of especial value. 
 Such a matter may really weigh as nothing, compared 
 with the very different things which might be found 
 in the same connexion, and in the same persons ; but 
 it admits of being put into the place of all such things, 
 the exception being passed off as the rule, and even an 
 opposite being used as a sample. Society among us 
 
DISSENTING MINISTERS. 73 
 
 is too full of this kind of prejudice. The inter- 
 ested administer to it with the greatest assiduity ; 
 the press teems with it. On this subject, the edu- 
 cated, who affect to despise the inconsiderateness 
 and coarseness of the common people, seem to account 
 no form of misrepresentation too gross, no sort of 
 abuse too extravagant. No doubt, it becomes us to 
 bear this wrong with Christian meekness ; but we 
 are men, and there are times when we feel that to re- 
 buke such injustice with some sharpness would be no 
 more than duty toward the injured, toward truth, and 
 toward the God of truth. This self-control is the 
 more difficult to be exercised, when we remember 
 how easy it would be to shew, that if we fail in some 
 respects in the character of our ministry, the church 
 of England does so still more. For her faults in this 
 way are not necessarily less than our own, because 
 they are of another kind. 
 
 It would be well, even for churchmen themselves, 
 if they could be prevailed upon to inquire, whether the 
 sacrifices which they have made to their tastes on this 
 point have not been very costly as regards their prin- 
 ciples. In their excessive solicitude that the clergy- 
 man should not be a vulgar man, they have forgotten 
 that it is important he should be popular. In their 
 anxiety that he should be very unlike the people, they 
 have not borne in mind that it is really of some mo- 
 ment that he should be capable of making himself 
 understood by them, and of exercising a power over 
 
 E 
 
74 CLERGYMEN AND 
 
 them. The great wish has been, that he should be a 
 gentleman ; and the effect, in many cases, has been 
 that he is left to be a preacher to gentlemen. He is 
 a man of taste, in some sort, but he is a man without 
 power. It has been found possible to drill him to his 
 present standing, but nothing can now be done to 
 make him effective. He has had capacity enough to 
 learn the technical things which he has been obliged to 
 learn, but he is found sadly wanting in the ability 
 to teach the useful things which it should be the great 
 business of his life to teach. He is very polite, but 
 verv insipid ; very decorous, but very dull. Even 
 the common people see his obtuseness and inaptitude ; 
 and in the conflicts which ensue between robust 
 worldly sense, and incurable college stupidity, the man 
 who has been prepared for his office by a process de- 
 signed to secure him especial reverence, finds himself 
 despised. 
 
 All this applies to the weak only ; but in the case 
 of the strong, the change is often for the worse. The 
 man who might only have been pitied before, may 
 then become hated. The great requisites in the 
 former case have been demanded in his, and he is 
 withal a man of some shrewdness and power. But the 
 whole has issued in the formation pf that too familiar 
 character — a worldly-minded priest. He is a mi- 
 nister of religion, but he is himself without reli- 
 gion. He has taken upon him a sacred office, but it is 
 solely because it happens to be allied with worldly 
 
DISSENTING MINISTERS. 75 
 
 credit and emolument. He could not have taken that 
 office upon him without being, in some degree, a 
 scholar, but usage permits him to do so without being 
 a Christian. Christian he may be in name, but he 
 does not understand Christianity, and cannot, in con- 
 sequence, either love it or teach it. The hungry flock, 
 in such case, look up and are not fed. They naturally 
 wander in search of pasture elsewhere, and the curse 
 of this spiritual shepherd as naturally follows them. 
 
 We might attempt to describe the sort of clergymen 
 who are just now going forth from the new schools of 
 divinity in Oxford. It is manifest that by their mea- 
 sure of intellectual and moral culture, by their profes- 
 sional decorum, and the oracular announcement of 
 their high and exclusive authority, this class of persons 
 are capable of being much more mischievous than any 
 merely imbecile, or than any profane and worldly 
 priesthood could possibly have been. The vocation 
 of these men is to diffuse notions and impressions 
 which embrace everything belonging to the most de- 
 basing forms of superstition, and they have addressed 
 themselves to their work in a spirit which seems to 
 promise them a large measure of success. 
 
 Now, if churchmen must deal with the ministry of 
 dissenters in the way of rigid scrutiny, let them not 
 betray the childish temper of being offended if they find 
 their own ministry made subject to a similar ordeal. 
 We are most willing to do honour to the good men among 
 the clergy ; but we cannot affect ignorance of the fact 
 e 2 
 
76 CLERGYMEN AND 
 
 that they are not all good. We look to the efficient ; 
 but we must look also to the non-efficient. We look to 
 those who preach truth — the truth which saves souls ; 
 and we look to those who preach error — the error that 
 destroys them. Over all the good the church of 
 England does, we sincerely rejoice ; but then there 
 are her omissions, and there is the fearful amount of 
 harm which is done in the place of good ! 
 
 To such an extent has the mode of providing a 
 ministry in the established church failed of its object, 
 that within the last two centuries, she has seen 
 half the nation withdraw from her communion ; 
 while the majority of her ministers, at this moment, 
 if left to depend on the support which their proper 
 ministerial ability might realize for them from society, 
 would at once cease to be ministers. The people 
 would still have ministers, but they would not be such 
 ministers. In all our great cities, and in the manu- 
 facturing districts, this want* of adaptation in the 
 services of the clergy, to the state of mind with which 
 they have to deal in the masses of the people, is most 
 apparent. The people in those districts are almost 
 wholly lost to the established church; and there is 
 little prospect of her ever regaining them. Is this 
 really a state of things in which to exult over the 
 alleged inefficiency of the dissenting ministry, as com- 
 pared with that supplied from Oxford and Cambridge ? 
 But this comes of attaching more importance to a 
 certain kind of scholastic learning, and to our own 
 
DISSENTING MINISTERS. 77 
 
 little conventionalisms, than to the use that may 
 be made of minds enriched with valuable informa- 
 tion, to real genius, or exalted piety. If the first be 
 wanting, all that follows, it seems, should weigh 
 as nothing. On this subject, the church of Rome 
 has been more wise in her generation. She has 
 never thought so meanly of her reputation as to 
 suppose that it must suffer if any part of her affairs 
 should be entrusted to comparatively rude hands. She 
 has found a place in her system for every man, wo- 
 man, and child, capable of doing it service. She has 
 known how to mingle flexibility with her rigour — how 
 to uphold discipline, and how to assign a place to the 
 knowledge, zeal, genius, and devotedness of all her 
 children. Multitudes, whom the church of England 
 has denounced as schismatics, and left to the uncove- 
 nanted mercies of God, would have been cherished by 
 the church of Rome as favourites among her offspring. 
 She would have known how to bear with eccentricity, 
 and at the same time how to keep it within bounds. 
 How to seize upon every new outbreak of religious 
 ardour, and to direct it to its object — in a word, how 
 to adapt every new phase of religious movement to 
 the temper of the times, so as to subserve her own 
 power and grandeur. 
 
 Do we mean, then, to express an indiscriminate 
 approval of this policy on the part of the church of 
 Rome ? We do not so mean. But we mean to say, 
 that we long to see the time when the church of 
 
78 CLERGYMEN, ETC. 
 
 Christ will be as wise to do good as the church of 
 Rome has been to do evil ; when the great Christian 
 community will know how to avail itself to the utmost 
 extent of its various resources ; and when the fashions 
 of the world, which are passing away, will be made to 
 subordinate themselves to the great moral results of 
 the gospel, which must endure for ever. The efficiency 
 of our ministry at present is by no means such as 
 we hope to see it exhibit, nor such as we doubt not 
 it will exhibit in the times to come ; but we will ven- 
 ture to say, that, upon the whole, we would not change 
 its character and prospects for those of any other 
 ministry in any other section of the visible church. 
 
 Be it remembered, too, that we are what we are, 
 under God, notwithstanding the rank, the wealth, and 
 the power of the land are so far under the influence of a 
 bounty to impede our course at every step. The na- 
 tural connexion of our system with the higher order 
 of culture cannot be fully ascertained, except as it 
 shall be allowed to develop itself, side by side with 
 other systems, upon equal terms. In place of this, 
 we have, in most respects, to labour as against the 
 stream, while our opponents have only to float on with 
 it. We repeat, there is much in the present dissenting 
 ministry which needs amendment and elevation ; but 
 we maintain that those who think us most in fault are 
 themselves more faulty still. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE 
 PRINCIPLES OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 But supposing it to be admitted that there is more 
 involved in the view now stated with regard to the 
 Christian ministry than would seem to be familiar to 
 the thoughts of English episcopalians, it may still be 
 objected, and with an air of great confidence too, that 
 our system can hardly possess the adaptation to the 
 state of society which we claim for it, seeing that it 
 fails in so great a degree to commend itself to the 
 leading classes among us, and that with the whole land 
 open to the application of our voluntary principle, our 
 denomination is still restricted to its present compara- 
 tively narrow limits. 
 
 To this second objection, I answer, that two centu- 
 ries ago Congregationalism could make mention of 
 knights and nobles, of some of the greatest names in 
 literature and in arms, and of not a few among the 
 most intelligent and wealthy in the middle class, as 
 giving to it their honest preference before all the 
 systems of that age. The most interesting space, 
 beyond all comparison, in the history of British intel- 
 
80 POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF 
 
 lect, was the space between 1640 and 1660; but the 
 true manhood of those memorable times was clearly 
 the manhood of English independency. Many noble 
 spirits then sighed to be free, free in law, free in 
 thought, free in utterance, and it was in the nature 
 of independency to give them what they sought. 
 
 We know what followed. With the return of the 
 Stuarts came a long reign of profligacy among the 
 rich, and of ignorance, irreligion, and intolerance 
 among the poor. Nothing of nature or of godliness 
 remained. Conventionalism, in its worst form, was 
 triumphant. It is confessed that independency did 
 not make much impression on the corruption of those 
 times. But this is no more than may be affirmed of 
 Christianity itself. During nearly a century and a 
 half from the Restoration, piety may be said to have 
 been divorced from episcopalianism. If found any- 
 where, it was almost exclusively among the presbyte- 
 rians, or the congregationalists. Within the last cen- 
 tury, God has blessed the church of England with a 
 . growing number of devout ministers ; but this change 
 she owes to methodism, operating powerfully upon 
 dissent, and through dissent upon her own laity and 
 clergy. Two hundred years since, the church of 
 England was the church of the whole nation: it is not 
 now the church of more than half of it, and within the 
 same space, independency, which, including baptists 
 and paedobaptists, did not reckon more than some ten 
 or twelve ministers and churches, has risen to number 
 
CONGREGATIONAL PRINCIPLES. 81 
 
 between three and four thousand. In these churches, 
 too, as in the early days of independency, we find a 
 considerable number of the more wealthy and intelli- 
 gent of the middle class ; and, on the whole, the deno- 
 mination may be said to possess more than treble the 
 strength at this time that it did at the commence- 
 ment of the present century. 
 
 Some of the most bitter of our opponents have 
 affected to pity our supposed weakness as a deno- 
 mination, particularly as it is supposed to have been 
 evinced in the issue of recent controversies. If such 
 persons can review the facts adverted to, and conclude 
 that time is telling in their favour, and not in ours, 
 we can only say, that we must leave them to the 
 solace of that conclusion. But it is possible they 
 may some day learn that a cause which embraces the 
 many, especially if that many should possess a con- 
 siderable amount of sound practical intelligence and 
 real culture, cannot fail to exert a powerful influence 
 on the few. The mighty follow the multitude much 
 more readily than superficial thinkers suppose. The 
 cause which commends itself to the latter will soon 
 commend itself to the former. In all free countries, 
 opinion, laws, and institutes are not from the privi- 
 leged, but from the people. It is much easier to 
 assimilate a class to a nation, than a nation to a class. 
 Hence, in such cases, the cause which is on its way 
 to possess the popular suffrage, is on its way to possess 
 the power of legislation. Three centuries were re- 
 
 e 3 
 
82 POSITION AND PROSPECT OF 
 
 quired to raise the primitive church above proscription 
 and persecution, and who can tell what another cen- 
 tury may do for independency ? Why should not 
 matters continue to take the course during the two 
 centuries to come, which they have taken during the 
 two centuries now closed? Should they so do, the 
 issue must be sufficiently plain. Changes of this 
 nature are not brought to their issue by the struggles 
 of a day or of a generation. Providence is careful that 
 they shall be slow, in order that they may be safe. 
 
 We must observe, further, that so far is it from being 
 the fact, that the voluntary principle, on which our 
 churches have ever been founded, has the whole land 
 open before it, and may go without let or hindrance 
 to possess it, that just the reverse is the existing state 
 of things. The whole surface of our country, on the 
 contrary, is mapped out, and given over, to its myriad, 
 or more, of spiritual incumbents, who are charged to 
 keep watch and ward to the utmost against the in- 
 trusion of the abettors of that principle. Every acre 
 of the soil is covered, in this manner, by a machinery 
 based upon a principle of coercion ; and it has been 
 the work of ages to mould the habits and thoughts of 
 our people in accordance with that machinery. And 
 it is in these circumstances that the voluntary prin- 
 ciple is said to have fair-play. Fair-play ! — it has 
 had no more fair-play hitherto, as addressed to the 
 people of Great Britain, than the lessons of sobriety 
 may be said to have, as addressed to the constitution 
 
CONGREGATIONAL PRINCIPLES. 83 
 
 of a confirmed, drunkard. The change demanded 
 here, is one affecting national habit — habit which has 
 been made strong by means of the institutes and pre- 
 possessions of a thousand years. Were everything 
 coercive, as connected with religion, struck away, and 
 all religious communities apprised that the support 
 and diffusion of their particular faith and worship 
 must depend in future on their own voluntary effort, 
 all such effort being a matter in which they /would be 
 held responsible to God only, and not at all to man, 
 in such case, it might be said that some approach had 
 been made toward putting this principle fairly upon 
 its trial ; but at present, its history is that of a prin- 
 ciple making its way in the face of a mighty disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Still it does make way. So far are we from being 
 discouraged by the slowness of its progress, that we 
 are astonished at its rapidity. The cognizance which 
 this principle has obtained from the public mind, and 
 the approval which it has extorted from the public 
 judgment, during the last twenty years, are such as 
 the most sagacious could not have anticipated, even 
 in their most sanguine moments. Opinions which 
 our fathers of the last generation proclaimed to a 
 listless public, and to listless churches, are now the 
 matters of thought, discussion, and agitation, from one 
 end of these kingdoms to the other. Notions which 
 were then accounted too absurd to be worthy of the 
 slightest attention, are now found to be fraught with 
 
84 POSITION AND PROSPECT OF 
 
 so much important truth, that no ecclesiastical per- 
 sonage, no statesman, may safely be unmindful of 
 them. 
 
 For example, we now find it avowed, even in jour- 
 nals which are regarded as the ablest defenders of 
 the established church, that the church of the majority 
 should be no longer considered as the church of the 
 nation, and that the time has come, in which the state 
 should forbear to extend toward that church any 
 further marks of preference or favour. The church 
 herself is now told, from high places, that she must 
 look to her own resources for all means of future ex- 
 tension. Voluntary churches, with dependence on a 
 voluntary provision for the support of the ministry in 
 them, are rising up in all parts of the land ; and to the 
 principle of voluntaryism, as thus recognised, we see 
 the clergy in hundreds, and the whole grade of dig- 
 nitaries, from the metropolitan downwards, readily 
 assemble to do homage. Even bishops are not 
 ashamed to go forth on this principle to our colonies ; 
 and our baronial prelates at home assure us, by their 
 conduct, that they see nothing degrading to the epis- 
 copal dignity in such a course of proceeding. In the 
 same manner, the pretension of the clergy to the 
 superintendence of national education has been repu- 
 diated, and they have been successfully told to con- 
 tent themselves with educating the children of their 
 own flock. More than this, also, has come out of the 
 late discussions. The eyes of churchmen have been 
 
CONGREGATIONAL PRINCIPLES. 85 
 
 turned so effectually toward the relation in which thev 
 stand to the civil power, that Edinburgh and Oxford 
 have vied with each other in the most novel and 
 startling utterances on that subject. The strength of the 
 church of Scotland seems to be about to depart from 
 it, and the establishment itself would appear to be on 
 the verge of extinction. In Oxford, the same rest- 
 lessness, under the Erastian power of the state, is 
 prevalent, and may soon betray itself in forms as little 
 to have been expected as the course of affairs in 
 Scotland. 
 
 Now, in all this, we see the progress of our princi- 
 ples — of those principles which the New Testament in- 
 culcates, which the primitive church acted upon, which 
 the corruptions of the dark ages so long concealed from 
 the eyes of men, and which, revived in the history of 
 independency, and passing from our churches to all 
 churches, are destined, under the blessing of God, to 
 give to our common Christianity its proper freedom, 
 purity, and power. It is our fate, as holding these 
 principles, to be at once denounced and imitated. 
 We are, however, content to be despised, so we may 
 instruct. We are willing to be accounted weak, so 
 we may impart salutary council to the strong. We 
 can even bear with men who heap insult upon our 
 persons, so they adopt our principles. We think 
 more of truth than of names, and the man who does 
 homage to the truth, must therein minister pleasure 
 to us. 
 
86 POSITION AND PROSPECT OF 
 
 On all the grounds, then, to which our attention 
 has been directed, we see reason to hold fast to our 
 Congregationalism, as the true ordinance of God, and 
 as carrying with it elements of law and order, which 
 are not better adapted to secure purity and strength 
 to the church, than to expand, invigorate, and ennoble 
 the most enlightened institutes which have hitherto 
 obtained among the kingdoms of this world. All 
 this we venture to affirm concerning Congregationalism. 
 What we are, as the men who have been called to the 
 working of it ; and what the system itself is, as com- 
 mitted to our hands, are quite other questions. We 
 presume not to think that we have been wholly 
 faithful to it ; but, to use the language of Edmund 
 Burke, " whilst we humble ourselves before God, we 
 do not know that it is forbidden to repel the attacks 
 of unjust and inconsiderate men." We do not indeed 
 see, upon the whole, that we stand exposed to the 
 casting of the first stone from any of our contempo- 
 raries. On this point, we cannot descend to appear 
 humble at the cost of being insincere. But most sin- 
 cerely do we confess, that we have not done all we 
 might have done, and that we are not doing all we 
 should be doing. If strong in our hold on the 
 middle class of our countrymen, we have been too 
 much content with that portion of strength. We have 
 not studied, as we should, to influence the more edu- 
 cated and the higher sections of society ; and in regard 
 to the lower, we have been perhaps nearly as much 
 
CONGREGATIONAL PRINCIPLES. 87 
 
 at fault. We have seized upon the middle of the 
 chain ; but the ends of it we do not hold, and have 
 hardly sought to hold. From this cause, even our 
 strength is comparative weakness. Our God is dis- 
 honoured ; our country is wasted, perilled, and near to 
 being destroyed ; our people live, to an awful extent, 
 without fear, and die without hope. Do we, then, 
 make a boast of our wisdom, of our fidelity, or of our 
 zeal before God ? God forbid ! Be that far, very far, 
 from every one of us. " Oh ! thou Father of lights, 
 from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift, 
 shed, we beseech thee, upon us new light and power, 
 by the outpouring of thy Holy Spirit. Compas- 
 sionate, for the sake of our adorable and crucified 
 Saviour, our many infirmities. Behold us, oh ! thou 
 All-merciful, with pity, and cleanse us from our guilt, 
 through the blood of the great sacrifice appointed to 
 take away sin; humble us in heart, as we bow in 
 spirit before the bleeding victim on that cross ; fill us 
 with all faith in his mercifulness and power ; raise us 
 in light, gratitude, and hope, to his service and 
 favour ! Create, O God ! create in us the mind that 
 was in Him. Enable us to look on man, on salvation, 
 and on the means of saving men, as he looked upon 
 them. Vouchsafe unto us, thou Lord of all might, 
 the manifold power that may fit us to labour in his 
 manner and in his spirit, setting thee always before 
 us. Grant unto thy servants the grace which may so 
 sustain them, that, ( by pureness, by knowledge, by 
 
88 PROSPECT OF CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by' 
 love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of 
 God, by the armour of righteousness on the right 
 hand and on the left, by honour and by dishonour, by 
 evil report and good report,' — that in all these things, 
 and by all these things, we may prove that we are of 
 thee. Prostrate, — prostrate, O God! at thy feet, 
 would we pour forth the agony of our soul for thy 
 blessing ! Oh ! fit us to live to thee, to die to thee ! 
 Give us to see of the prosperity of thy truth on this 
 sin-marred and long-distracted earth, and raise us at 
 last to the kingdom and brotherhood of heaven. Oh ! 
 that it may please thee to smile upon us thus, to deign 
 to use us thus, to provide for us thus. We implore it 
 for the sake of his wounds and death, his spotlessness 
 and griefs, by whose name we are called — and to the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be all the 
 praise and glory ! Amen." 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE CHARACTER OF THE EFFORTS NOW MADE 
 TO PUNISH PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY, AND TO 
 CRUSH AND DESTROY IT. 
 
 During the meeting of the Union at Nottingham, 
 it was made to appear that the congregationalists of 
 England and Wales are steadily increasing in num- 
 bers and efficiency. Our places of worship multiply 
 in an improved ratio every year. The proportion of 
 them built in favourable positions, and with better 
 attention to architectural taste and convenient accom- 
 modation, is much greater than formerly. The number 
 of our churches in almost every direction is becoming 
 greater; and to most of these, considerable accessions 
 continue to be made. Our ministry is in the same 
 course of advancement, in respect to numerical 
 strength, and in respect to the proportion of our 
 brethren who are possessed of sound learning, and the 
 still larger proportion who bring considerable average 
 ability to the duties of their office. In Wales, it is 
 
90 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 generally conceded, that the intelligence of the dis- 
 senting body, including in many districts some nine- 
 tenths of the population, is with the independents; 
 and the effect of Welch independency, direct and indi- 
 rect, upon the morals and the religion of the princi- 
 pality, is becoming every day more powerful and 
 salutary. With the increase of our means, intelli- 
 gence, and piety, as a denomination, will always be 
 the increase of our efforts to train the children of the 
 generation to come in the way in which they should 
 go. In short, it is the belief of persons who are no 
 incompetent judges on such a question, that British 
 Congregationalism has doubled, and perhaps even 
 trebled its strength, during the last quarter of a cen- 
 tury. We also give thanks to our God, that the signs 
 of a growing piety are to a great extent observable 
 both among our ministers and people. 
 
 But in forming a judgment in regard to the present 
 state of Congregationalism, our attention must not be 
 restricted to facts of this nature. They give the real, 
 but they do not give the relative position of our body. 
 Our increase in ruimbers must be viewed relatively to 
 the increase in population. In the same manner, our 
 increase of churches and edifices, must be viewed rela- 
 tively to the increase of the same description in other 
 denominations. In this light our circumstances bear 
 another complexion. We can hardly natter ourselves 
 that we are keeping pace with the population. Nor 
 can it be pretended that the independent chapels 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 91 
 
 built within the last few years have been as numerous 
 as the new churches. But it is hardly to be doubted 
 that the places of worship built by all denominations 
 of dissenters, during the last twenty years, exceed in 
 number those built by churchmen ; and a comparison 
 as to the relative increase of hearers, would probably 
 be found to weigh still more favourably on the side of 
 dissent. For it must not be concluded, that the 
 greater effort now made in the cause of the established 
 church is the effect of a much wider diffusion of 
 church principles. In the present state of opinion 
 and feeling on such matters, every increase in the 
 population, must be expected to give some increase to 
 the number of persons who go to church. But the 
 zeal now evinced on the subject of church-extension, 
 is not to be attributed to any real increase of church- 
 men, so much as to a new feeling of alarm and interest 
 in the case of multitudes who were always church- 
 men, but who, until excited by recent occurrences, 
 were indifferent and at ease in respect to such matters. 
 So long as this zeal to build churches shall con- 
 tinue to be regulated by the principle now in alliance 
 with it, we shall not be found preferring any com- 
 plaint against it. The principle of the efforts now 
 making to effect church-extension recognises the duty 
 of each section of the Christian church to provide its 
 own sanctuaries, and to support its own ministers, by 
 its own voluntary offerings; and this principle we 
 regard as most consonant with social justice, and 
 
92 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 general liberty. We are aware that this zeal may be, 
 in many cases, much more political than religious. It 
 may do much for the church, because it expects the 
 church to do much in return for a party in the state. 
 It may be an ardour having much more to do with 
 politics than with religion. It may look to the worldly 
 influence of the establishment, much more than to 
 its spiritual influence. Even devout men, who are 
 truly anxious to promote the spiritual instruction and 
 the spiritual feeling of the people, may have much of 
 this less elevated feeling mingling with their better 
 thoughts and purposes. All this, however, and 
 much more, we think we could bear, without attempt- 
 ing to subject the motives of those parties to any very 
 rigid scrutiny, if they could only be content to restrict 
 themselves to the use of honourable weapons in the 
 onsets which they are now everywhere making upon 
 us. But they do not so restrict themselves. 
 
 Our struggle, just now, is not so much against bad 
 laws, or bad rulers, as against the persecutions practised 
 -by means of private wealth and private power. In all 
 places, especially in the smaller cities and towns, 
 and in the rural districts, every mean and merciless 
 device that can be resorted to in order to mark 
 dissent as a crime, and to visit it with punishment, is 
 put into requisition. Dissenters find the opponents 
 of their principles in their landlords, their customers, 
 and their employers, and almost everywhere the in- 
 stances are manifold in which such persons are made 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 93 
 
 to feel that their religious preferences are accounted 
 an offence, and that the classes above them are bent 
 upon putting a complete end to dissent ; or, failing in 
 that object, are resolved on punishing those who per- 
 sist in adherence to it to the extent of their power. 
 Every sort of appeal is made to the hopes and fears of 
 the dependent classes of the people, with the intent 
 to diminish the numbers attending our chapels or 
 schools. The course pursued is one of enticement 
 or terror, as the case may demand. The clergy 
 generally find their most effective coadjutors in the 
 more zealous ladies of their flocks, many of whom 
 descend to arts, for the accomplishment of their object, 
 that are too contemptible to admit of description. In 
 short, all those disgraceful expedients which are so 
 commonly resorted to at the time of an election, for 
 the purpose of sending a favourite candidate to par- 
 liament, have become so much fixed custom among 
 us, for the purpose of compelling the poor and de- 
 pendent to abandon one religious profession in favour 
 of another. What is done in this way, moreover, is 
 done everywhere after the same manner. It bears 
 the aspect of a thoroughly adjusted system or con- 
 federacy, and we have reason to know that it is in 
 reality, in this respect, what it appears to be. It is a 
 scheme which has its centre and circumference, with 
 their mutual understanding and relations. 
 
 It is a bad sign in the condition of any people, 
 when the idea of wealth becomes identified with the 
 
94 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 idea of oppression ; when it is seen that the possessors 
 of substance can make their own laws, and adjust 
 their own penalties, according to tastes or fashions of 
 their own ; and when men are made to feel that of all 
 modes of punishment this is the most insidious, the 
 most pitiless, and the most difficult to escape. This 
 marked alliance between property and tyranny could 
 not be made palpable in any connexion without dan- 
 ger. But in our case, the hazard attendant on such a 
 system must be peculiarly perilous, inasmuch as it is 
 directly opposed to the letter and spirit of the Holy 
 Scriptures, which are open to the inspection of all 
 men ; and opposed no less to the laws of the land, 
 which, thanks to a generous ancestry, have been 
 made to breathe another spirit These inculcate the 
 lessons of equity, responsibility, and freedom. The 
 Bible and the constitution are with us, and with such 
 aid we cannot doubt the issue of the present struggle. 
 But in the mean time a large portion of the rich 
 appear to have resolved upon exhibiting themselves as 
 the oppressors of the poor, and that in respect equally 
 to the things of this world and of the next. The 
 worst enemy of the opulent could not have prompted 
 them to a course more likely to bring a memorable 
 retribution along with it. 
 
 The Scriptures require that, in respect to the things 
 of religion, " every man should be persuaded in his 
 own mind." In other words, that religion should be, 
 in all cases, a matter of conscience between man and 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 95 
 
 his Maker. But the parties adverted to will concede 
 no liberty to conscience, except as it may lead the 
 inquirer into servitude to their pleasure. God re- 
 quires men to serve him in such way as they may 
 believe to be most acceptable to his nature. But the 
 intolerant would constrain them to forsake that path, 
 and to study to please men rather than God, even in 
 the immediate exercises of worship. Every induce- 
 ment offered by such persons to the conscientious, 
 is so much bounty laid upon hypocrisy, and upon 
 hypocrisy in religion. It would prevail on men to 
 declare a preference in religion by their outward con- 
 duct, which has no place in their heart. To succeed, 
 must be to cause them to worship by restraint, not 
 willingly, which is the reverse of the apostolic rule, 
 and in all cases an offence rather than a homage to 
 the Omniscient. 
 
 But thus it has ever been with persecutors. To 
 make the required confession, and to practise the re- 
 quired conformity, however insincerely, have always 
 sufficed to stay the fires of intolerance. The end of 
 the bigot is to make slaves. He cares little about the 
 secret principles of men, so they act with his party. 
 They may insult their Maker to any extent by their 
 frauds and concealments, so they perform a visible 
 obedience to himself. By following such examples, 
 our modern persecutors may seem for a while to be 
 serving their object ; but the ultimate effect of their 
 conduct must be pernicious, both to their particular 
 
96 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 party and to the cause of truth. In general, the effect 
 of their labours, even where they appear to be suc- 
 cessful, must be to seduce men to do evil, in place of 
 aiding them to do well. To be employed in en- 
 deavouring to place the apparent interests of mankind 
 in opposition to the dictates of their conscience, is to 
 take up the vocation of the tempter, and possibly with 
 fatal effect, inasmuch as the man who is taught to 
 make light of the voice of conscience on one point to- 
 dav, may learn to make light of it on some graver point 
 to-morrow. The man who ceases to be conscientious, 
 even in a slight degree, is in danger of soon ceasing 
 to be in any degree religious, and may possibly have 
 to trace his path to destruction from the point at 
 which the snare was laid which made him a confor- 
 mist against his convictions. We have the best 
 authority for concluding, that men may become 
 proselytes, only that they may be made tenfold more 
 the children of the devil than before. 
 
 Persons who do not scruple to contravene the 
 clearest precepts of holy Scripture, must not be ex- 
 pected to restrain themselves on any principle of 
 deference to the constitution or laws of their country. 
 There are seasons when the persons of whom we now 
 speak can very zealously inculcate the virtue of 
 subordination, the duty of homage to the law, and 
 such like doctrines. Now it would be no more than 
 consistent, we think, in these friends of law and order, 
 to bear in mind that, according to law, dissent is not a 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 97 
 
 crime; on the contrary, it is recognised and pro- 
 tected, — in the language of the great Lord Mans- 
 field, " established." As such, it is set forth by 
 the legislature of these realms as good, and not as 
 evil; as a matter which should be sheltered, and 
 even fostered, rather than suppressed. The entire 
 majesty of British law is thus extended to the meanest 
 shed that may be set apart to the worship of God, 
 no less than to the proud arches covered by the 
 turrets of Westminster, or by the dome of St. Paul's. 
 That shed may be little proof against the rude ele- 
 ments which often beat around it ; the men and 
 women assembled there may be from among the 
 poorest of the people ; and the man who ministers as 
 their instructor and their priest may be like them ; 
 but the genius of the British constitution is there, 
 and, in the loftiness of her freeborn spirit, declares 
 that poor edifice to be a proper sanctuary for the 
 worship of Almighty God, and those poor of the 
 people to be truly a body of Christian worshippers ; 
 and gives forth in solemn warning, that the man of 
 low degree or high degree who shall dare invade that 
 sanctuary to disturb its peacefulness, shall be ac- 
 counted an enemy to justice and goodness, and be 
 punished accordingly. God bless thee, noble coun- 
 try ! Honour be to the men, those still often calum- 
 niated men, from whose patriotism and piety this true 
 greatness, under God, has come to thee ! Would that 
 all were English who are of England ! But it is not so. 
 
98 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 It is this very conduct, to which the constitution 
 thus attaches honour rather than reproach, that mul- 
 titudes who boast of being the great conservators of 
 things as they are, would discountenance, punish, and 
 suppress. To accomplish this object, they set up the 
 laws of their own conventionalism, in opposition to 
 the laws of the land ; and in the tyranny which marks 
 the laws to which they give the impress of their own 
 passions, they shew plainly what the laws of the state 
 would become, if they were once powerful enough to 
 dare the moulding of them anew. We do not hesitate 
 to tell the parties who are tyrants to the full extent of 
 the small power they possess to-day, that they would 
 be tyrants to the extent of a much greater power if it 
 should fall to them to-morrow. The men who are 
 unfaithful in little, are the men who would be un- 
 faithful in much. The hard-hearted oppressor on 
 a small scale, only wants space and means to become 
 the same man on a large scale. The man, moreover, 
 who persecutes after the fashion of the nineteenth 
 century among us, would have persecuted after the 
 manner of the sixteenth century, had he lived at that 
 time. The spirit which now prompts him to inflict 
 his petty injuries on the dependent tenant, the 
 humble tradesman, or the needy domestic, on ac- 
 count of their religious faith, would have prompted 
 him three centuries ago to have been a party in send- 
 ing such offenders to prison and to the stake. The 
 men who are obliged to content themselves now with 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 99 
 
 calumniating the objects of their dislike, are the very 
 men who a few generations since would have realized 
 the more exquisite gratification of seeing them burnt 
 alive. Circumstances have changed, but the human 
 heart is the same. It is alarming to think on the 
 prospect of multitudes in this respect, if the will is 
 to be taken for the deed in regard to evil as well 
 as good ! 
 
 We can readily anticipate the sort of objection that 
 will be made to these remarks. The parties intended 
 will no doubt require to know, and, possibly, with the 
 air and tone of indignation, if it is really so, then, 
 that the condition of obtaining our approval is, that 
 they should become wholly inactive, and strictly 
 silent in regard to their principles, and that they 
 should allow society to take just any course it may 
 choose ? We answer, that the persons who will be 
 most disposed to make this kind of objection are per- 
 sons who must know that no such indifference to their 
 principles is expected from them, that nothing of the 
 kind is even desired. In religion, men should be 
 honest, and should hold truth, and endeavour to dif- 
 fuse truth, in the manner of those who believe it to 
 be truth. 
 
 But we do not mean to affect blindness to the fact, 
 that there are circumstances in the history of this 
 new display of religious zeal which must expose it to 
 much suspicion and to unfavourable remark. Not 
 only are the means which it descends in many 
 f 2 
 
100 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 cases to employ, such as tend to corrupt the mind, 
 rather than to convert it to goodness, but the course 
 which it takes in other respects, is often such as to 
 betray its spuriousness to every dispassionate ob- 
 server. 
 
 To seek the conversion of the irreligious is the 
 duty of every religious communion. But, at present, 
 the zeal evinced is not so much a zeal to make men 
 religious who were not so, as to make parties go to 
 their parish church who have been accustomed to go 
 to the dissenting chapel. In respect to education, 
 also, it is manifest that the solicitude generally felt 
 is not so much to abate the ignorance and vice of 
 society, as to break down every apparatus of edu- 
 cation which has not an exclusive connexion with the 
 established church. It is not the ignorance of the 
 lower classes, so much as the bias of the knowledge 
 which may be imparted to them, that is viewed with 
 apprehension. That they should not be educated at 
 all is accounted a less, a greatly less evil than that 
 they should be educated in a manner which may lead 
 them into the ways of dissent. To save them from 
 utter ignorance and vice may be well, but to save 
 them from the religion of dissenters is the very best 
 thing that can be done for them. From what we 
 know of the proceedings of a very large proportion of 
 zealous episcopalians at this moment, we cannot en- 
 tertain a doubt that their feeling is precisely to this 
 effect. They have zeal, but it is not so much a zeal 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 101 
 
 for Christianity as a zeal against sects. It has little 
 connexion with patriotism, but it is animated to the 
 full with party feeling. It would sink into listlessness 
 to-morrow, if it could only be assured that other 
 religious bodies, and that the political disaffection 
 abroad, would follow its example. We so conclude, 
 from the fact that it has increased only as the zeal of 
 dissent has increased, and that its visible aim has been 
 to counteract dissent, much rather than to work side 
 by side with it, or to employ itself largely upon the 
 ground left in the greatest degree at its disposal.* 
 
 It is, we think, strictly proper, that the persons 
 who are carried away with this false ardour, should 
 
 * If this estimate of the zeal of the parties adverted to should be 
 deemed uncharitable, let the reader weigh the following facts : — 
 The population of Westminster consists of about 56,000. For 
 not more than 5000 of this population is provision made, as 
 respects church accommodation, by the establishment. In one 
 district, it has been ascertained that, of 1635 families, 1324 were 
 living in the habitual neglect of public worship; of 302 shops in 
 the same district, 235 are open for traffic on the Lord's day. Not 
 a few of ihe habitations in Westminster are known haunts of the 
 most vicious of both sexes. In the Almonry, directly under the 
 shadow of Westminster Abbey, are about twenty -seven houses, 
 nearly the whole of which are houses of ill-fame of the most abo- 
 minable character. These houses have been so occupied during 
 the memory of the oldest inhabitants of the parish ; and, what is 
 more, they are all the property of the Dean and Chapter of West- 
 minster ! 
 
 But let it be marked, that in all leases now granted by the said 
 dean and chapter is the following clause : — " or shall build or 
 erect, or suffer to be built or erected, any chapel or meeting-house, 
 for any separate congregation of people dissenting from the church 
 
102 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 be distinctly apprized that its nature is well under- 
 stood — that there is more than enough in its circum- 
 stances and fruits to render its faulty character plain 
 to every man — even to the humblest; and that 
 society, in consequence, is not likely to be greatly 
 imposed upon by a policy, which, under the mask of 
 pious profession, may be readily seen to be prose- 
 cuting its separate schemes of selfishness and intoler- 
 ance. 
 
 My clerical neighbour is satisfied that his system is 
 more scriptural than mine, and that it has a better 
 aptitude than mine to benefit society. Then, in the 
 name of everything ingenuous, let him reason and 
 persuade, publicly and privately, in order to convince 
 
 of England as by law established, or the said messuage or tene- 
 ment to be used for any such chapel or meeting-house." 
 
 Now the first conclusion from these facts clearly is, that, in the 
 esteem of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, the people of 
 Westminster had much better be without Christianity at all than be 
 Christianized by dissenters. The second conclusion, following as 
 clearly as the first, is, that there is not so much to merit discounte- 
 nance in houses of the lowest infamy, as in places of religious 
 worship, whenever the worship in them is not that of the established 
 church. If facts have any meaning, these facts have this meaning. 
 If the Dean and Chapter of Westminster can do such things, what 
 may we not expect elsewhere ? 
 
 Have I pleasure in calling attention to these matters of accusation ? 
 1 have no pleasure in so doing. But the press has given them pub- 
 licity, they remain uncontradicted, and I must suppose them well 
 founded ; and to expose that most demoralizing temper which is 
 especially embodied in these facts, whether found among churchmen 
 or dissenters, is the duty of every Christian, and of every friend to 
 the order of society. 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 103 
 
 men, not only that they ought to be Christians, but 
 that they should be Christians of his church rather 
 than of mine. But let him blush at the thought of 
 seeming to say, that mankind had better be without 
 religion, than fail of receiving it with the adjuncts of 
 his particular church ; and that the young had better 
 be without education, than fail of being educated 
 after the same model. Let him, above all, blush to be 
 found acquiescent, even by his silence, in the conduct 
 of the man who can task his ingenuity to the utmost to 
 find out means of punishing all persons who, being 
 unconvinced by his reasonings or dogmas, continue 
 obedient in the things of religion to their own con- 
 science. Our complaint is, not that churchmen have 
 principles, nor that they have zeal in the cause of 
 them, but that their zeal should be so wanting in 
 charity, in the love of equal justice, in the feelings of 
 humanity — in a word, that it should have come into 
 so much alliance of late with the maxim which teaches 
 men to do evil that good may come. The man is a 
 living libel on the gospel, who inculcates by his actions, 
 that to be a good Christian it is necessary to be a per- 
 secutor ; or who sanctions the practice of doing what 
 is wrong in morals, for the sake of what is accounted 
 rio-ht in religion. But this is now done by multitudes in 
 all parts of these kingdoms, many who make the gravest 
 professions of religion being most conspicuous in 
 these displays of a schismatical and tyrannical temper 
 in place of the spirit of the gospel. 
 
104 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 We do not mean by these observations to convey 
 the impression that we regard religious prejudice and 
 uncharitableness as wholly on one side. In what degree 
 dissenters may have been at fault in this shape, will 
 occur as a matter of distinct inquiry presently. Indeed, 
 that fault of this nature should be found among dis- 
 senters, and that it should exist in the degree just now 
 observable within the pale of the established church, 
 will occasion no great surprise to any man of reading 
 in ecclesiastical history, especially if he has been 
 accustomed to reflect on what he reads. The root of 
 it all is in human nature, the diversity in its develop- 
 ment is from circumstances. Men in the same cir- 
 cumstances have always acted more or less in the same 
 spirit. Few things have been more common than 
 that the zeal of one sect against another, should seem 
 to exceed the zeal of either against impiety — especially 
 when secular advantage has been conferred upon one, 
 to the exclusion and disparagement of the other. But 
 this infirmity is not the less foolish, nor the less cri- 
 minal, nor the less pernicious, because it has prevailed 
 very widely and very long. 
 
 The fact that the profession of our faith has been so 
 generally and so deeply disgraced by this means 
 during the past, should have disposed us to guard 
 against such infirmities, as the evil by which we were 
 most likely to be beset, and should have rendered us 
 careful to shew that there is something in the progress 
 of a Christianized civilization in which men may con- 
 
MODERN PERSECUTION. 105 
 
 fide, as destined to wipe away this reproach. Some- 
 thing of this nature has been done, but little — very 
 little, compared with what should have been done. 
 We are still degrading the church by subjecting it to 
 the passions of the world, and, for the most part, have 
 still to learn how to be religious in the spirit of reli- 
 gion. In this respect all the lessons of experience 
 seem to be, in a great degree, lost upon us. In the 
 bigotry which rates against sects, we see the bad 
 power which creates them, and the parent, moreover, 
 of sects which utterly discard religion, as well as of 
 those which corrupt it. 
 
 We abound in some directions with very orderly, 
 and in others with very spiritually-minded persons, 
 who would almost as soon think of going to worship 
 in a Mahommedan mosque, or in a Pagan temple, as 
 of allowing themselves to be seen within the walls of a 
 dissenting chapel. These persons know that evange- 
 lical dissenters are accepted of God as truly as them- 
 selves. But to recognise them publicly in that cha- 
 racter, by even an occasional act of worship or com- 
 munion, would be deemed an ecclesiastical delin- 
 quency, a sort of religious defilement. Would that 
 these parties, who, in thus spurning the religion of 
 English dissenters, spurn the Protestantism of three- 
 fourths of Europe, could be induced to listen to the 
 sort of use which is made of this prevalent exhibition 
 of temper, by the Infidel Lecturer in his crowded 
 Hall of Science, and could hear the bursts of derision 
 f 3 
 
106 MODERN PERSECUTION. 
 
 and exultation which mark the orator's too successful 
 attempt to make it appear that the mission of Chris- 
 tianity has been, directly and literally, not to send 
 peace on the earth, but a sword — not to constrain men 
 to say, " See how these Christians love," but rather 
 to provoke them to say, " See how these Christians 
 hate." The Socialist in low life, and the sceptic of a 
 higher grade, are alike observant of these things ; and 
 are not only confirmed in their errors by such appear- 
 ances, but are more than ever disposed to put Chris- 
 tianity to scorn, by identifying it with these exhibi- 
 tions in the character of Christians. But even this 
 sort of experience — the increase of sects, both infidel 
 and Christian, as the natural effect of the course in- 
 tended to suppress them, is so perversely interpreted, 
 that the evil deplored is felt to be augmenting daily, 
 rather than diminishing. Every Christian should be 
 a member of the church of his preference, but he 
 should still be a member of the church universal. He 
 should not be indifferent to principle, but he should 
 be observant of charity. He should know how to 
 unite with the love of his particular church, a proper 
 affection toward all churches ; and should give visible 
 proof that the latter feeling exists along with the 
 former. 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 ON THE PUBLIC PRESS IN ITS RELATION TO 
 CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 To the worst passions in alliance with the evil 
 adverted to in the last chapter, the public press is 
 constantly employed in ministering every sort of 
 stimulant. 
 
 During the last century, the great body of the 
 humbler and labouring classes in England were much 
 more superstitious than sceptical, and more inclined to 
 indulge in drunkenness, or in rude sports, than to read 
 or think on any subject. If led to any expression of 
 feeling with regard to religion, it was commonly in 
 seizing upon some methodist preacher, plunging him 
 in a horsepond, or placing him under the nearest 
 pump, and sending him, wounded and half dead, either 
 to prison, or beyond the limits of the offended parish. 
 In these proceedings, the people commonly looked to 
 find a protector in their clergyman, and in general 
 they were not disappointed. The vicar could find 
 means to persuade the magistrate, and secure them. 
 This was the sort of hostility to be expected at that 
 time in the rural districts and smaller towns. 
 
108 THE PUBLIC PRESS IN 
 
 In the larger cities, the same classes sometimes dis- 
 tinguished themselves as "church and king" mobs ; 
 and signalized their ascendancy by destroying dissent- 
 ing places of worship, and committing even the 
 private dwellings of dissenters to the flames. The 
 English gentry, during that period, were the most 
 ignorant in Europe, giving themselves up almost 
 entirely to field sports, to fits of intoxication, and to 
 every kind of excess- In regard to the clergy, such 
 were their general habits, that no man was shocked if 
 he saw the parson keep his full speed by the side of 
 the squire in the chase, nor on learning that his 
 reverence was almost any man's equal at the bottle, 
 and in some other accomplishments as little in accord- 
 ance with his profession. Even in the highest circles, 
 the most corrupt and factious temper in relation to 
 politics, was allied with the worst species of intrigue 
 in relation to the court, and with the most frivolous 
 dissipation, inanity, and vice, in the daily — or rather 
 the nightly fashions of society. All these things con- 
 curred to present a picture of social degeneracy, 
 reaching so thoroughly from the highest to the lowest, 
 as to make it a matter of wonder that we should ever 
 have been rescued from it. Men disposed to pro- 
 phesy gloomy things, might have given no little of 
 the plausible to their predictions in those days. 
 
 But where are we now ? With regard to the 
 higher circles, their character and habits are, in great 
 part, as those of another race, compared with their 
 
RELATION TO CONGREGATIONALISM. 109 
 
 predecessors of the last century. Not only are the 
 mansions of many of them the houses of every domestic 
 virtue, but instances are not of rare occurrence, in 
 which everything socially, intellectually, and morally 
 elevated, is consecrated by the pervading sanctities of 
 religion; not of a religion taking its precise com- 
 plexion from this section in the field of our general 
 piety or that, but possessing more of the valuable 
 perhaps from being moulded, in some degree, by 
 the influence of independent principle. Similar re- 
 marks might be made with respect to the gentry of 
 England ; and with regard to the clergy, with all their 
 present faults in another shape, they are, as a whole, 
 men of eminent purity and consistency, if compared 
 with the same class a hundred, or even fifty years 
 since. But in the case of the mass of the people, the 
 change is still more striking. Notwithstanding all 
 we may see to deplore in their present condition, 
 none of the classes above them have improved in the 
 same proportion, with regard to temperance, culture, 
 self-government, or social power. So far as they con- 
 nect themselves with religion, they are found in much 
 the greatest numbers with methodists and dissenters. 
 Many of them, unhappily, have placed their politics 
 in the stead of religion. They know more of news- 
 papers than of the Bible. But the system of dissent is 
 more to their taste than that of the established church. 
 They know that in general dissenting ministers are 
 much more capable of dealing with their state of mind 
 
110 THE PUBLIC PRESS IN 
 
 than clergymen. If there are to be religious mobs in 
 our time, it is the church that has to fear, not those 
 who dissent from it. The upper classes must not 
 hope again to gratify their intolerance by means of 
 brute force in the lower. That force is no longer 
 what it was ; and such as it is, it is no longer at their 
 bidding. 
 
 Now we might have expected, as the consequence 
 of these signs of improvement in social character, that 
 the tone of the public press would also have become 
 much elevated ; that it would be characterized, not 
 only by a greater degree of intelligence and taste, but 
 by a greater regard to truth, and an avoidance of 
 those gross personalities, and of that extravagance in 
 abuse, by which the press of the last century was so 
 generally disgraced. 
 
 But the change in this respect has not been such 
 as might have been expected. We have more power, 
 and as much baseness. The talent displayed within 
 the memory of the present generation in our public 
 journals, not merely in our Reviews and Magazines, 
 but more particularly in our newspapers, is such as to 
 have given a new feature to the history of society. 
 This talent, as regards literature, is a novelty in its 
 variety, its extent, and its power; and as regards 
 politics, the editor of a newspaper, from being a 
 functionary scarcely a remove from the fellowship of 
 Grub-street, now holds a place among the most 
 intelligent, able, and influential men of his time. But 
 
RELATION TO CONGREGATIONALISM. Ill 
 
 numbers have not brought purity. Greater ability 
 has not brought a greater regard to principle. We 
 have more workmen, and the work is better done, but 
 the improvement is in the skill, not in the morality. 
 Politics and religion still divide us into parties, each 
 appearing to claim all the virtues for itself, and to 
 impute all the vices to its opponents. Changed as 
 are the relations of these parties, and improved in many 
 respects as is the general spirit of society, demand it 
 seems is made upon the press, to bring to our present 
 differences a virulence as unprincipled as we find 
 disgracing its productions in the shape of pamphlets 
 and newspapers a century since. Hence there is 
 nothing in the meanest personalities, or in the utmost 
 licence of misrepresentation in the past, which has 
 not its parallel in the present, and this in the case of 
 leading journals, recognised as the organs of great 
 political and religious parties. 
 
 Subsequent to the restoration, the policy of the 
 ruling powers in England was not only to exclude the 
 Nonconformists from the established church, but to 
 deny them toleration, and to wipe away, as a foul 
 blot, every trace of sects in religion from our future 
 history. In aid of this policy, such men as Le Strange, 
 Parker, and Roger North, employed the press against 
 the Nonconformists, in a manner as unscrupulous as 
 the father of falsehood himself could have desired, and 
 in a spirit of malignity which must have been no less 
 to the taste of that remarkable personage. When the 
 
112 THE PUBLIC PRESS IN 
 
 party thus assailed were down, this abuse of them was 
 incessant, that they might be kept down ; and when 
 they rose in some degree from their prostration, with 
 the growing liberalism of the times, especially sub- 
 sequent to 1688, their better position only served to 
 give more keenness and force to the jealousy and 
 enmity of their persecutors. 
 
 The bitterness of the invectives directed against 
 them by the Jacobite factions, lay and clerical, during 
 the reigns of William and Mary, and of Queen Anne, 
 and for some time afterwards, could hardly be ex- 
 ceeded. The whig statesmen of those times might 
 have curbed the libellous spirit which was then abroad, 
 but instead of chaining the press, they chose the 
 more magnanimous policy of fighting the enemy with 
 his own weapons, and the consequence of the liberty 
 thus ceded to a herd of fanatical politicians and high- 
 church divines, was an abuse of the liberty of unli- 
 censed printing, in all respects of the complexion that 
 we have ourselves witnessed during some years past. 
 The statesmen of those times were not without fault ; 
 but, in general, they laboured greatly more than any 
 of their predecessors, through a long period, to expand 
 the liberties and advance the true greatness of their 
 country. Yet were they traduced in all the possible 
 forms of misrepresentation, and denounced from day 
 to day, and year to year, without either stay or weari- 
 ness, as men lost to every public virtue, and bent on 
 every sort of mischief and impiety. In these misre- 
 
RELATION TO CONGREGATIONALISM. 113 
 
 presentations, and in these denouncements, Noncon- 
 formists fully shared, as being the natural allies of the 
 Whigs. 
 
 Some time previous to the commencement of the 
 American war, this storm, especially as it affected 
 protestant dissenters, had in a measure subsided. But 
 with the revolt of the American colonies a new scene 
 opened upon Britain and Europe. During a con- 
 siderable space preceding that event, English dis- 
 senters had been sinking into an unprecedented state 
 of apathy, and to their consequent weakness and in- 
 action, they were indebted for their comparative ex- 
 emption from those attacks which had been directed 
 so unsparingly against their predecessors. But on the 
 question of the American war, dissenters were more in- 
 clined to the side of the colonists than to that of the 
 mother country, which exposed them to much resent- 
 ment and suffering. Then came the Revolution in 
 France, and in the early days of that movement, dis- 
 ssenters expressed themselves strongly in favour of the 
 changes contemplated in that kingdom, and their con- 
 duct in this instance called forth further indignation 
 from the same quarter. The circumstances of the 
 American war, and the excesses of the French Revolu- 
 tion, contributed to place the English government in the 
 hands of the enemies of liberal opinions during nearly 
 half a century. But with the usurpation of Napoleon, 
 men became more of one mind in opposing the mili- 
 tary power of France, and a considerable space oc- 
 
114 THE PUBLIC PRESS IN 
 
 * curred, both previously to the peace of 1815 and 
 subsequent to it, during which churchmen and dis- 
 senters were brought into such intercourse as had 
 not before subsisted between them, and were found 
 acting together for the furtherance of many objects re- 
 lating to their common Christianity. But the agita- 
 tions attendant on passing the Catholic Relief Bill, the 
 Reform Bill, and some subsequent measures, have 
 served to generate a schism between churchmen and 
 dissenters, which promises to be of no short duration, 
 and not a little mischievous. Dissent is identified 
 with liberalism, and it is the pleasure of a powerful 
 party opposed to both, to identify both with every- 
 thing revolutionary and irreligious. 
 
 My design in these observations is to shew, that in 
 our history, the relative position of parties in re- 
 ligion, has been constantly varying according to that 
 of parties in the state ; and that the social struggle 
 which is now changing its aspect so variously among 
 us, has really nothing in it that should occasion either 
 surprise or misgiving. The institutions and circum- 
 stances of our country are of a sort to render such a 
 course of things unavoidable ; and our being exposed 
 just now to the full force of a prejudiced or venal 
 press, is no more surprising than that similar conjunc- 
 tives in the past, fraught with the most important 
 results to posterity, should have brought the same 
 consequence along with them. The fierceness of 
 the attacks made upon us through the press, has 
 
RELATION TO CONGREGATIONALISM. 115 
 
 always been in proportion to the defeats which our 
 opponents have sustained elsew T here. It is not our 
 weakness, but our strength, immediately and relatively, 
 which has called forth this opposition, and charged 
 the journalism of the hour in this manner against us. 
 It commends itself, as it does, to the humbler classes, 
 because it knows that they are much more with us 
 than against us. The abuse of liberalism to day, 
 is followed by the abuse Of dissent to-morrow, because 
 it is known that each of these is as a right hand to the 
 other ; that conjoined, they have proved, on many 
 occasions, more than a match against all that may be 
 opposed to them ; and that they will no doubt be 
 found strong enough, in their time, to do again as 
 they have done before. 
 
 Be it remembered, then, that this kind of storm is 
 no new thing in the history of protestant noncon- 
 formity. Its beatings were not only often braved by 
 our forefathers, but were as often made to favour the 
 furtherance of their cause. Be it remembered, too, 
 that we only suffer, on account of our religion, in the 
 manner in which many of the most distinguished men 
 in our country are willing to suffer as the cost of their 
 political integrity, of their sincere patriotism. We 
 have seen statesmen, whose public virtue every in- 
 formed and honest man in the kingdom must have 
 known to be unimpeachable, described from morning 
 to morning and from evening to evening, from w 7 eek 
 to week and from month to month, and from one 
 
116 THE PRESS AND CONGREGATIONALISM. 
 
 quarterly publication day to another, as men possessing 
 no more ability than has sufficed to render them the 
 most despicable examples of hypocrisy, fraud, and 
 inhumanity, that ever disgraced the history of a free 
 people. All this a press, that would be thought very 
 religious, has said concerning the liberal in politics ; 
 it can have nothing worse to say concerning the liberal 
 in religion; and good men will, I trust, be prepared to 
 brave the full compass of this kind of rhetoric, if need 
 be, in the cause of patriotism, humanity, and religion. 
 It is not the want of adaptation in Congregationalism 
 to the state and tendencies of society which exposes 
 it to these attacks, but a perception of the contrary. 
 Were it a feeble, dying thing, the best policy would 
 be to leave it to itself. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE CLAIMS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS 
 VIEWED BY EPISCOPALIANS AND CONGREGATION- 
 ALISTS, AND ON THE TRUE STATE OF THE CON- 
 TROVERSY BETWEEN THESE PARTIES. 
 
 But it will be said that the fault in this respect is 
 not all on one side, that dissenters in fact have been 
 the aggressors, and that they should have laid their 
 account with the sort of opposition which their con- 
 duct has naturally tended to provoke. 
 
 We will not pretend to say that there is no degree 
 of truth in this representation ; but we think we can 
 make it appear, that the error included in it is much 
 greater than the truth. It has respect to one or two 
 points only belonging to the question at issue, and 
 not to the many which it embraces. We admit that 
 there is a use of the press on the side of liberal prin- 
 ciples, which we should be as little disposed to justify 
 as the similar use of it against those principles. Nor 
 do we mean to affirm that the press, as connected 
 with dissenters, has been without fault. But there is 
 one claim which we may make in strict justice — let 
 
118 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 those who mark the sharper utterances of our brethren 
 in relation to the established church with so much 
 displeasure, remember the things which are said of 
 them, as well as the things said by them. If this 
 small piece of justice be done us, we feel we can abide 
 the issue, without much apprehension, in the case of 
 every considerate and honest mind. 
 
 With regard to the press in general, we are fully 
 persuaded that, upon the whole, the contempt of 
 principle, in the case of the accredited organs of the 
 party claiming to be, by eminence, moral and religious, 
 has greatly exceeded the faults, in that shape, charge- 
 able upon their opponents. There may be instances 
 equally bad on both sides, but the preponderance of 
 the vicious is, as we honestly think, manifestly on the 
 side of those who affect to be so much our superiors, 
 and who, as such, should have been our examples. 
 The parties who tell us they have most to lose by the 
 disorganization of society, are those who have done 
 most towards bringing about that catastrophe, by a la- 
 mentable display of the corruptness, either in its direct, 
 or more covert forms, which naturally leads to it. 
 
 But if on both sides there has been much to blame, 
 on both sides there is no doubt a large measure of 
 sincerity. On subjects of this nature great allowance 
 should assuredly be made for the strength of pre- 
 judice. In the case of multitudes, the zeal now evinced 
 in the cause of the established church, has its origin, 
 no doubt, in much laudable purpose and feeling, such 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 119 
 
 as the men who think it mistaken should be prepared 
 to respect. In the view of no small numbers of her 
 children, the church of England is possessed of such 
 attractions as belong not to any other institute on 
 earth. Among all the ordinances of God, or of man, 
 she is esteemed the most lovely, the most benignant. 
 Her antiquity carries the mind back to the infancy of 
 our condition as a people. Her visible structures, in 
 every form and shade of beauty, are the still and sen- 
 sible links which connect her history with all the 
 changes of the past. In their completeness, or as they 
 take the shape of the ivy- mantled ruin, they serve 
 to call up the bygone in lengthened succession, until 
 the imagination rests upon the rudest appearances, 
 amidst the deepening shadows of the most distant 
 time. Before her altars all our fathers stood on their 
 bridal day, and to her sacred enclosures they surren- 
 dered their ashes when their race was run. Her 
 solemn forms of worship became more and more im- 
 pressive to the living, as being through so many ages 
 mementos of the dead. Beneath her roofs — beneath 
 the humblest in common with the proudest — the men 
 of all degrees have worshipped for more than a thou- 
 sand years. The very paths leading to the spaces on 
 which her spires and turrets lift themselves towards 
 heaven, have been in a measure sacred in the usages of 
 our people ; and the sabbath morning groups in our 
 parishes, are among the social pictures we have always 
 been fond of cherishing. 
 
120 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 But the institution thus interwoven with our home- 
 stead remembrances and sympathies, has still higher 
 claims on our veneration. As we look back on 
 the history of this church, we see monarchs, — a line 
 of dynasties, do homage to her sanctity. Queens 
 also, from the mother of Alfred downwards, bow at 
 her shrine, and give up their children to her blessing. 
 Her rulers, her scholars, and her devout men, are 
 often seen as the only august spirits of their times. 
 Not a few of them appear like personifications of the 
 repose of another world, coming forth amidst the dark- 
 ness and turbulence of the present. Such men, resting 
 on their own profound thoughts, and strong in their 
 own strength, are often seen rising high above all the 
 men of their time. When the season came, some of 
 these could take the place of the confessor and the 
 martyr, giving to the dignity of their episcopate, th 
 high adornment of a spirit ready to be offered as an 
 oblation on the altar of truth and sanctity. Such 
 were Latimer and Hooper, and such were Ridley and 
 Bradford. 
 
 All these images of the weal and woe, of the lowli- 
 ness and greatness, of the intellectual, the moral, and 
 the holy, through the past, arrest the eye of the 
 churchman's imagination, and serve to bind his heart 
 to the system with which they are so naturally asso- 
 ciated. The fall of that ancient institute, accordingly, 
 he would regard as one of the greatest calamities. 
 It would be the disappearance of the most venerable 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 121 
 
 and beautiful of all the objects belonging to our 
 history. It would be as putting an end to those 
 monuments of other days, which are allied the most 
 nearly with all our better recollections and feelings. 
 It would be, moreover, to bring down the ministers of 
 religion from their proper state of rank and opulence, 
 to the level of the dependant, the needy, and the 
 despised ; and to place the rural districts, and even 
 the towns and cities of our country, in such a state of 
 spiritual destitution as must soon reduce them to a 
 condition little short of the lowest rudeness and 
 heathenism. 
 
 Now we do not question that there are many per- 
 sons whose impressions with regard to the church of 
 England are really to this effect, and we admit it to 
 be every way natural that such persons should be 
 zealous churchmen. We admit, also, that the oppo- 
 nents of churchmen do notalways endeavour, so much 
 as they should, to place themselves in imagination 
 under those powerful influences which serve, in the 
 case of multitudes of well-meaning persons, to foster 
 so strong an attachment to the interests of our national 
 church. 
 
 But suppose it should be found that there are views 
 which may be taken of the history and character of 
 that church quite other than those on which the 
 attention of churchmen is generally fixed — views 
 which may seem to justify a repugnance to the church- 
 
 G 
 
122 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 establishment principle in the case of one man, as 
 much as the preceding views may be thought to 
 warrant attachment to it in the case of another. Shall 
 the candour which is ceded in the case of the church- 
 man, who acts gravely and devoutly upon his con- 
 victions in regard to the wise and religious on this 
 question, be denied to the dissenter who in pursuing 
 a different course is acting no less gravely or devoutly, 
 according to his principles, in relation to the same 
 subject? The one regards our church establishment 
 with favour, and to the Lord he so regards it ; the 
 other does not so regard it, and to the Lord he does 
 not so regard it. Both are equally Christians, equally 
 intent on one object — to do the will of their Lord ; 
 but their course is thus different, as the result of their 
 different impressions • in regard to the nature of that 
 will on this subject. 
 
 That we may be equally good men, and still differ 
 thus upon this point, is so clearly a fact, that the man 
 who should hesitate to admit it, must be either an 
 imbecile or a bigot in such a degree as to be insen- 
 sible to reasoning in any form. Why, then, should 
 difference on this ground be allowed to put Christians 
 so strangely asunder ? If maintained with that regard 
 to social order which every sober and virtuous member 
 of society will be careful to observe, and with the spirit 
 proper to the Christian, we see not why the law of the 
 apostle in regard to the differences concerning meats 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 123 
 
 and days among the primitive Christians should not 
 be applicable to this difference of judgment, even 
 when carried out with much earnestness and zeal. 
 The spirit of that law is, that no supposed error in 
 judgment or practice, not inconsistent with personal 
 piety, and the ends of the Christian fellowship, should 
 be used as a plea for disunion. But contrary to this 
 rule, it is demanded from the dissenter, as the condi- 
 tion of his Christian recognition, that he should forego 
 his objection to ecclesiastical establishments, or at least 
 that he should abstain from acting in relation to such 
 institutes in any way that may be deemed unfriendly. 
 But surely the dissenter might just as reasonably take 
 the same ground, and refuse to acknowledge the piety of 
 the episcopalian, so long as he shall retain his principles 
 as a churchman, and endeavour to uphold them in the 
 world. Each is fully persuaded that his own views are 
 those of the scriptures, and the concession necessary to 
 concord is as much on the one side as the other. Were 
 our episcopalian brethren less the disciples of states- 
 men, and more the disciples of St. Paul, we think 
 they could not fail to see these things in this light. 
 We ask no favour from them, we only pray that they 
 will concede to us what we readily concede to them — 
 freedom of opinion, and freedom of utterance and 
 action in its favour. 
 
 But it will perhaps be deemed incredible, that a 
 mind of integrity and piety should see reasons for 
 being dissatisfied with the church of England at all 
 g 2 
 
124 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 so cogent as those which seem to require that she 
 should be regarded with a truly filial affection. The 
 persons who so think are as little accustomed to place 
 themselves in the circumstances of dissenters, as dis- 
 senters are accustomed to place themselves in the cir- 
 cumstances of churchmen. Both classes live too much 
 in a world of their own, each being little sensible to 
 the nature of the influences which are constantly 
 affecting the thoughts and habits of the other. 
 
 In reply to the incredulity of the churchman on 
 this subject, and to the preceding representation in 
 regard to the history and character of our national 
 church as viewed by churchmen, the dissenter would 
 be prepared to express himself much as follows : — 
 
 " I admit that your church is not without its 
 " attraction as a section of antiquities ; but as a re- 
 " ligious institute, the defects and evils which mark 
 " its early history are to me Very lamentable. In 
 " the middle age, it was an improvement on the 
 " paganism which it served to supersede or preclude, 
 " and it possessed at times its devout men ; but, as a 
 " whole, its moral and religious aspect has always pre- 
 " sented to me much more to deplore than to admire. 
 " Speaking generally, it perpetuated ignorance, in 
 " place of imparting knowledge ; it substituted the 
 " dregs of a debasing superstition, in place of the 
 " elevating power of an enlightened piety ; it taught 
 " men to put confidence in priestly arts, instead of 
 ls seeking to become right-minded towards God. Its 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 125 
 
 " aim was to awe and subdue the human spirit in the 
 " case of the many, and by that means to subserve 
 " the opulence and power of the privileged few who 
 " reigned over them. All these things, and more to 
 " the same effect, I bring to the test of reason, 
 " humanity, and Holy Scripture; and when I so 
 " do, I find in them a painful drawback from those 
 " poetic exhibitions of the church as existing in that 
 " age, which are sometimes made to pass before us 
 " in our lighter and graver literature. 
 
 " Even the grace and splendour of her pageants, 
 " and the science and magnificence of her edifices, 
 " fail to interest my natural taste as they might have 
 " done; inasmuch as I cannot forbear to mark the 
 " deep wrong which was perpetrated in great part by 
 " their means upon the moral nature of the men of 
 " those times. Those shows and mummeries were 
 " the gewgaws which served to beguile men into a 
 " perpetual childhood. The beautiful edifices through 
 " which they passed were the signs of skill in the 
 " priest, but of skill put forth in that form that the 
 " priest might reign by fear, and bring his votaries to 
 " the dust before him. Like the colossal piles of 
 " Eo*ypt, they were the impressive tokens of the 
 " power of a great priest-caste, which then reigned 
 " anions us in the manner of a theocracy. Men 
 " gazed on those structures as on the monuments of 
 " a dominion which destiny must surely have set up, 
 " and the boldest were scared from the thought of 
 
126 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 " resistance. In this sense, the glory of that church 
 u was her shame. It demonstrated her power to do 
 " good, and her want of the inclination. Her chosen 
 " office was to prevent light rather than to diffuse it ; 
 " and to give men up to delusion in any form, rather 
 " than to lead them to the truth. I admit the pic- 
 " turesque, but I want the passion for human culture. 
 " I confess to the aptness of the materials as worked 
 " up in romance ; but I want the signs of the moral, 
 " the devout, the aim to elevate humanity, the saving 
 " power of religion on the spirits of men ! 
 
 " Concerning the spirit which animated this sys- 
 " tem, I see proof enough in what happened when 
 " men began to oppose it, and when those who had 
 " so long kept the key of knowledge were loudly 
 " called upon to give that hidden treasure to the 
 " people. For this cause I see the bones of Wyeliffe 
 " taken from their grave, and declared infamous; 
 " his followers harassed, imprisoned, punished, com- 
 " mitted to the flames. Next comes the Reforma- 
 " tion, and with it the scenes which give to protes- 
 " tantism in England her company of martyrs. In 
 " the wrongs of those holy men, in their fiery ordeal, 
 " I see the strength of the grasp with which the 
 " middle-age church retained her power, and the 
 " end for which it was retained. In this manner 
 " does it tell me, that it not only loved darkness in 
 " an age of darkness, but that it had chosen darkness 
 " for its own sake, and in preference to light. Its 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 127 
 
 " intent is to make the past — the dark, depraved, and 
 " wretched past — continuous; and for that object it 
 " is prepared to inflict any measure of wrong upon 
 " the present. 
 
 " After a while, I see this persecuted protestantism 
 " become ascendant. But now popery has its mar- 
 " tyrs ; independency, too, has its martyrs ; puritanism 
 " abounds in its confessors. Men refuse to acknow- 
 " ledge the spiritual supremacy of the crown, and 
 " they die in consequence of that refusal. I see 
 " catholics thus die ; I see independents thus die. 
 " What transubstantiation had been to the protes- 
 " tant, this new article of faith becomes to both 
 " papists and protestants. The church of Elizabeth, 
 " strong on the side of liberty abroad, evinced little 
 " sympathy with it at home. That church had some- 
 " thing of the picturesque about her, in common with 
 " her predecessor of the middle age, but the strong lines 
 " of her portraiture are pride, ambition, tyranny — a 
 " lofty passion for dominion. Elizabeth herself may 
 " have preferred protestantism to popery, but she 
 " preferred her own power to either ; and her ruling 
 " churchmen were after her own heart. Hence the 
 " domestic policy of the Anglican church in that 
 " age,* tended to distress the intelligent and devout, 
 " especially among the clergy, much more than to 
 " teach the ignorant or reform the vicious. The most 
 " efficient preachers were always objects of jealousy 
 " to their superiors ; and as the result, we see the 
 
128 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 " mass of the people untaught, dissolute, or left in a 
 " state of mere feudal worldliness. It is true, the 
 " signs of a grave and manly piety were not wholly 
 " wanting ; but those on whom they were seen were 
 " counted as a sect, and as such were frowned upon, 
 " proscribed, persecuted. 
 
 " But with the accession of the house of Stuart 
 " came the grand struggle. I now see the Anglican 
 " church, the proud fabric of Elizabeth, brought to 
 " the dust by a strong hand — the hand of an op- 
 " pressed and indignant people. That church had 
 " counted forbearance a weakness, and toleration a 
 " crime. She risked all upon that policy, and she 
 " paid the penalty. 
 
 " With the Restoration comes the return of her 
 " power, and with it the return of the spirit which 
 " she had always displayed. She resumed that 
 " power under a solemn pledge to leniency and tole- 
 " ration ; and she not only denied both, but denied 
 " them in the face of the reproach which charged her 
 " with adding treachery to spoliation, and fraud to 
 " tyranny. It has been the work of nearly two cen- 
 " turies to bring back to her pale the amount of piety 
 " and ministerial ability which were then excluded 
 " from it. Her policy through all this interval has 
 " been to cling to the arbitrary in the past, and to 
 " put her strong discountenance upon its opposite. 
 " The friends of liberty have always had to lay their 
 " account with her opposition when endeavouring 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 129 
 
 " to expand the principles of freedom. Her con- 
 " cessions in this way have always come late, re- 
 " luctantly, and with a bad grace. 
 
 " More than this— the church which has always 
 " taken her place thus on the side of the servile, and 
 " as the antagonist of the free, has tended, in the 
 " case of multitudes, . to generate infidelity rather 
 " than religion. The infidelity of France was de- 
 " rived from England, and the infidelity of England 
 " pointed to the worldly, the corrupt, and the vicious 
 " among our clergy, as to the strong argument in its 
 " favour. In France, the abettors of the same system 
 " adopted the same policy. Every false religion has 
 " been a state institute ; and if the false and the true 
 " are to bear, in this respect, the same complexion, 
 " and are to be supported by the same means, it 
 " should not be accounted strange if some men evince 
 " a proneness to suspect that they are of the same 
 " origin. They agree in bestowing rank, opulence, 
 " and power, on their respective priesthoods ; and if 
 " along with this kind of bounty the same result is 
 " seen to follow in both cases, is it wonderful that 
 " men, seeing the fruit to be alike, are sometimes 
 " found regarding the trees as being also alike ? You 
 " may tell me that this conclusion is not legitimate. 
 " But there are causes which must always render 
 " it highly probable that men will adopt such conclu- 
 " sions. You may tell me of the service done to re- 
 " ligion in the eyes of the worldly by vesting it with 
 
 G 3 
 
130 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 " these forms of worldly patronage. But the case 
 " does not end there. I must look beyond that, — to 
 " the positive injury which is done to religion when 
 " it is made to wear, in this manner, the aspect of 
 " a mere engine of state policy, and when its aim 
 " would seem to be, not so much to instruct and 
 •' elevate a people, as to render them submissive, and 
 " to put honour upon a priesthood. 
 
 " Such, beyond question, was the complexion of the 
 " established church in England for a long period 
 " subsequent to 1660. In those times men no more 
 " expected religion in churchmen than in statesmen. 
 " There were of course exceptions, but as a rule, the 
 " vocation of the two classes was equally a worship 
 " of place and emolument. The educated classes 
 " saw this, and despising the ministers of religion, 
 " they passed, by too easy a process, to a rejection of 
 " religion itself. This mischief has never ceased to 
 " work among us. It affects the mass of the people 
 " now, as well as the educated, Nothing damages 
 " religion so much, even with the worldly, as world- 
 " liness under the mask of religion. But all this, 
 " and more, flows naturally from the system of the 
 " church of England. It is in the nature of that 
 " system, that it should recognise a multitude of men 
 " as ministers of religion, who have no religion. It 
 " is natural, in consequence, that these men should 
 " be, in the manner explained, as a stumbling-block 
 " in the path of our common Christianity ; and that 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 131 
 
 " they should not only fail to do the work which they 
 " take upon them office to do, but that, having the 
 " whole land divided among them, they should operate 
 " very widely as a strong impediment in the way of 
 " those who would do it in their stead ; so as to cause 
 " myriads of the people to be doomed to the condition 
 " of the blind following the blind. All these things I 
 " see in the working of the institute of an established 
 " church, and their effect is to confirm me in my 
 " attachment to the principles which are opposed to 
 " all such modes of attempting to uphold religion in 
 " the world — principles which I derive, as I think, 
 " from the nature of Christianity, and from the direct 
 " or indirect instructions of the New Testament. 
 
 " Be it observed, then, that I do not profess myself 
 " insensible, to the charms of that remote antiquity, 
 " of those social recollections, or of those intellectual 
 " and devout remembrances, which give so much of 
 " the imposing to the church of England when viewed 
 " under certain aspects. But these pictures, be it 
 " remembered, while they belong to the history of 
 " that church, do not present her whole history. 
 " They do not portray her whole character. They 
 " are rather as a veil, that must be drawn aside if the 
 " reality is indeed to be seen. They say nothing of her 
 " sins of omission. Nothing of her many positive de- 
 " linquencies. All that is truly venerable in her many 
 " associations I trust I can sincerely venerate. But 
 " I am never to forget, that this creation of the state 
 
132 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 " is not the great and the beautiful that has come 
 " down to us from the Creator. To the work of man I 
 " can give its proper homage, but I must reserve my 
 " deeper reverence for the work of God. Of the 
 " proportioned, the ornate, the impressive, in the ap- 
 " paratus of religion, I can be observant, and if found 
 " really to subserve religion, I can do it reverence, 
 " and, for its work's sake, could fix a strong love upon 
 " it. But it may prove to be an apparatus of another 
 " order. It may have served to give power to 
 " churchmen, while having little connexion with in- 
 " telligence and sanctity in the church. It may 
 " have put the scenic in the place of the moral ; the 
 •< institutional in the place of the spiritual; the grace of 
 " a mere pageant, in the stead of the beauties of holiness. 
 " It may have forced our poor nature down to the 
 " mockeries and littleness of earth, in place of raising 
 " it to- the realities and greatness of heaven. Such 
 " systems are as the sepulchres which were garnished 
 " outwardly, but within were full of all uncleanness. 
 " They are as graves which appear not. Their beauty 
 " is a meretricious beauty, and their power to fascinate 
 " is only so much reason why their embrace should 
 " be the more rejected. They promise, but they 
 " perform not. Their way, to the multitudes who 
 " confide in them, is not the way of life. 
 
 " This proneness to lose sight of the all-surpassing 
 " greatness and beauty of religion itself, in the wor- 
 " ship which is paid to the visible forms and machi- 
 
CHURCHMEN AND DISSENTERS. 133 
 
 " nery connected with it ; and this consequent sub- 
 " stitutionof a frivolous and treacherous formalism, in 
 " the place of a rational and pure devotion, has been 
 " the great sin of Romanism, and has been so much 
 " the fault of the church of England as to leave to the 
 " elements of historical or poetical interest attaching 
 " to her, but little power to awaken, in many minds, 
 u either admiration or sympathy." 
 
 Now the question which should arise here, is not 
 whether every one of the points touched upon in the 
 preceding paragraphs has been touched upon in a man- 
 ner wholly free from partiality or excess. Our business 
 in this place is with a matter of fact. It is, then, no 
 less true, that the views just now expressed, are, in 
 substance, entertained by dissenters, than that the 
 previous views on the same subject are in substance 
 entertained by churchmen. And the conclusion 
 .which we maintain as following from these facts is — 
 that with these different views, the dissenter may be, 
 at least, both as honest, and as much influenced by 
 considerations of piety, in coming to his conclusion 
 against the church of England, as is the churchman in 
 coming to his conclusion in her favour. It may per- 
 haps be easy to shew, on both sides, that the matters 
 at issue are not looked at so comprehensively and fully 
 as they might be. It may be that the men of either 
 party very rarely take in all the points of the case, 
 assigning to each its due place, and nothing more. 
 But fault of this nature is inseparable from the popular 
 
134 STATE OF THE QUESTION BETWEEN 
 
 mind in respect to all questions in any degree com- 
 plex. It springs from natural as much as from moral 
 infirmity. It results from want of capacity, as much 
 as from other causes. In this case, it cannot be made 
 to inculpate the dissenter more than the churchman. 
 
 But if thus much is admitted, it must follow that a 
 man may express himself desirous of seeing our eccle- 
 s iastical establishment at an end, and in so expressing 
 himself only give utterance to the conviction of a 
 truly honest judgment, and to the desire of a sincerely 
 devout heart. Should such a man in consequence 
 publish to this effect from the press, should he speak 
 to this effect from the platform, and should he petition 
 to this effect before the legislature, I know not on 
 what ground it is, either in morals or religion, that the 
 person so doing is to be proscribed and denounced 
 after the fashion which now prevails. If to carry out 
 dissenting principles is to become the antagonist of % 
 the church, to carry out church principles is to become 
 the antagonist of dissent. If it be made the condition 
 of friendship, on the one hand, that a man should not 
 seek the ascendancy of his own principles, then the 
 demand, on the other hand might be, with equal jus- 
 tice, to the same effect. The voluntary, in this case, 
 only does as the churchman ; and the call upon for- 
 bearance is at least as strong in the former case as in 
 the latter. 
 
 But the great difference between ourselves and our 
 episcopalian brethren is, that they virtually demand 
 
CHURCHxMEN AND DISSENTERS. 135 
 
 an abandonment of public principle on our part, while 
 we do not make any such demand upon them. It is 
 not the dissenter who renounces fellowship with the 
 churchman, but the churchman who renounces fellow- 
 ship with the dissenter. The dissenter has to bear 
 " the spoiling of his goods," and it is the churchman 
 who inflicts that spoliation upon him ; yet, strange to 
 say, the complaint of bad treatment, and the conse- 
 quent schism in regard to all fellowship, proceed 
 much more from the man who inflicts the injury 
 than from the man who endures it ! 
 
 The Rev. Hugh M'Neile is a zealous churchman, 
 and the Rev. John Burnet is a zealous dissenter. 
 Now it is surely conceivable that these gentlemen 
 should meet in the character of antagonists to-day, in 
 regard to matters concerning which they are at issue ; 
 and as friends the next day, in regard to matters of 
 much greater moment, concerning which they are 
 agreed. Mr. Burnet, I feel assured, would rejoice 
 that it should be so, and would scorn the thought of 
 renouncing friendship with Mr. M'Neile, because it 
 is the resolve of that gentleman to be zealous and 
 active in the cause of his principles as the friend of 
 church establishments. But these terms of amity, 
 worthy at once of the man and the Christian, find no 
 reciprocation from Mr. M'Neile. To become con- 
 spicuous as the opponent of an established church, is 
 the forfeiture of all friendly recognition in that quarter. 
 
136 QUESTION OF CHURCH AND DISSENT. 
 
 Both these gentlemen are, in this respect, as repre- 
 sentatives of their respective parties. 
 
 In England, baptists and paedobaptists, presby- 
 terians and independents, all have their differences. 
 Still they all have their occasions on which they can 
 be one, and they always live as brethren. How does 
 it happen that it cannot be thus with men who dis- 
 agree on the one question of church establishments ? 
 The only answer is, that the worldly comes in with 
 that one question, as it never can do with the others. 
 
 While admitting, therefore, that dissenters may not 
 have been faultless, we must insist that the sin of 
 schism, — the severance of Christian affection and in- 
 tercourse, — rests much less with them than with their 
 opponents, inasmuch as the fault of dissension must 
 always lie in the greatest degree upon those who 
 insist on the unreasonable as the condition of amity. 
 It is in vain to say that the objection taken is not to 
 conscientious and pious dissenters, but to political dis- 
 senters — as the phrase is. Every man, let his conscien- 
 tiousness, his piety, his regard to the orderly and the 
 constitutional, be what they may, is branded with that 
 name — a name intended to make him odious — as 
 surely as he shall presume to commit himself in the 
 public eye in the cause of his principles as a dissenter. 
 
 We never dream of telling pious churchmen, that 
 they can have no piety, if they also have zeal for their 
 church. But it is the practice of churchmen, even of 
 
POLITICAL DISSENTERS. 137 
 
 some of the best among them, to be telling us daily, 
 that we cannot be men of piety, if we have also a zeal 
 for dissent. We might have hoped that the absurdity 
 which characterizes this injustice would have sufficed 
 to deter men of sense, to say nothing of men of pro- 
 bity, from descending to be parties to it. But it often 
 happens, that what the weak do from prejudice, the 
 more sagacious tacitly encourage from policy. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE MIXTURE OF POLITICS WITH RELIGION, AND 
 THE OPINION OF ALEXIS DE TOCQUEV1LLE CON- 
 CERNING THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 The hardship of the case, adverted to at the close of 
 the last chapter, is, that the meddling of dissenters 
 with politics is made to be matter of necessity, and 
 that the necessity is laid upon them by the very per- 
 sons who turn it against them as their great reproach. 
 If the sketch given in some preceding pages, as regards 
 the manner in which the religious and political have 
 been necessarily blended in our history, is correct, it 
 is plain that so long as our institutions with respect to 
 religion shall retain their present complexion, intervals 
 
138 POLITICAL DISSENTERS. 
 
 must continue to recur, in which churchmen and dis- 
 senters will become liable to the charge of being much 
 more political than may be thought to comport with 
 the character of religious men. If this is an evil, its 
 origin is not difficult to discover. Every ecclesiastical 
 establishment is an avowed attempt to ally the poli- 
 tical with the religious. If we suppose the one half 
 of a nation to adhere to this establishment, as resting 
 upon the sound in worldly politics, and the other half 
 to dissent from it, as resting upon the unsound, how 
 can it happen otherwise, than that the disputes between 
 these parties should be as much political as religious. 
 As there is an alliance between the political and the 
 religious in every established church, it is unavoidable 
 that the conduct of those who dissent from such 
 churches will be influenced by considerations that will 
 be at once political and religious. Dissenters, accord- 
 ingly, are political, not in the first instance, but simply 
 because they are constrained to dissent from a political 
 institute called an established church. It is not the 
 dissenter, in consequence, who brings politics into 
 religion, but his opponent. The earnest wish of the 
 dissenter is to see religion separated from every such 
 adjunct, and to see the peer and the populace alike 
 employed in providing for the religious instruction of 
 the country, without seeking help of worldly politi- 
 cians in any way. But the struggle of the church- 
 man is directed toward a strictly opposite result. 
 Thus the dissenter is political by accident, because 
 
UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 139 
 
 the churchman is political upon principle. It is the 
 upholding of this mixed state of things among church- 
 men, which creates the necessity for a mixed opposi- 
 tion to it among dissenters. It is, we repeat, some- 
 what hard, that politics should be thus forced upon 
 us, and that our endeavour to deal with these religious 
 politics, in the manner of religious politicians, should 
 be made the theme of so much reproach. 
 
 But on this whole subject, I am disposed to transfer 
 to these pages a considerable extract from the work 
 intitled, " Democracy in America," by Alexis de 
 Tocqueville. On matters aifecting the state and pro- 
 spects of modern society, it has been the good fortune 
 of Tocqueville to be commended by men of the most 
 opposite political opinions, as one of the most pro- 
 found thinkers of the age. An author who has ob- 
 tained praise of this order from such authorities as Sir 
 Robert Peel, and " Blackwood's Magazine," if found 
 leaning toward the doctrine of English dissenters in 
 regard to the question of the union of church and 
 state, will not be suspected of doing so under any 
 influence apart from the suggestion of facts, and the 
 tendencies of a wise reflection. 
 
 " Upon my arrival in the United States," says this 
 author, " the religious aspect of the country was the 
 first thing that struck my attention ; and the longer I 
 stayed there, the more did I perceive the great poli- 
 tical consequences resulting from this state of things, 
 to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had 
 
140 TOCQUEVILLE ON THE UNION 
 
 almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit 
 of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to 
 each other, but in America I found that they were 
 intimately united, and that they reigned in common 
 over the same country. My desire to discover the 
 causes of this phenomenon increased from day to day. 
 In order to satisfy it, I questioned the members of all 
 the different sects ; and I more especially sought the 
 society of the clergy, who are the depositaries of the 
 different persuasions, and who are more especially 
 interested in their duration. As a member of the 
 Roman-catholic church, I was more particularly 
 brought into contact with several of its priests, with 
 whom I become intimately acquainted. To each of 
 these men I expressed my astonishment, and I ex- 
 plained my doubts : I found that they differed upon 
 matters of detail alone ; and that they mainly attri- 
 buted the powerful dominion of religion in their 
 country to the separation of church and state. I do 
 not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America, 
 I did not meet with a single individual, of the clergy 
 or of the laity, who was not of the same opinion upon 
 this point. 
 
 " This led me to examine more attentivelv than I 
 
 «/ 
 
 had hitherto done, the station which the American 
 clergy occupy in political society. I learned with 
 surprise that they filled no public appointments ; not 
 one of them is to be met with in the administration, 
 and they are not even represented in the legislative 
 
OF CHURCH AND STATE. 141 
 
 assemblies. In several states, the law excludes them 
 from political life ; public opinion in all. And when 
 I came to inquire into the prevailing spirit of the 
 clergy, I found that most of its members seemed to 
 retire of their own accord from the exercise of power, 
 and that they made it the pride of their profession to 
 abstain from politics. 
 
 " I heard them inveigh against ambition and deceit, 
 under whatever political opinions these vices might 
 chance to lurk ; but I learned from their discourses, 
 that men are not guilty in the eye of God for any 
 opinions concerning political government, which they 
 may profess with sincerity, any more than they are 
 for their mistakes in building a house or in driving a 
 furrow. I perceived that these ministers of the gospel 
 eschewed all parties, with the anxiety attendant upon 
 personal interest. These facts convinced me that 
 what I had been told was true ; and it then became 
 my object to investigate their causes, and to inquire 
 how it happened that the real authority of religion 
 was increased by a state of things which diminished 
 its apparent force. These causes did not long escape 
 my researches. 
 
 " The short space of threescore years can never con- 
 tent the imagination of man ; nor can the imperfect 
 joys of this world satisfy his heart. Man, above all 
 created beings, displays a natural contempt of exist- 
 ence, and yet a boundless desire to exist ; he scorns 
 life, but he dreads annihilation. These different 
 
142 TOCQUEVILLE ON THE UNION 
 
 feelings incessantly urge his soul to the contem- 
 plation of a future state, and religion directs his 
 musings thither. Religion, then, is simply another 
 form of hope, and it is no less natural to the human 
 heart than hope itself. Men cannot abandon their 
 religious faith without a kind of aberration of intel- 
 lect, and a sort of violent distortion of their true 
 natures ; but they are invincibly brought back to more 
 pious sentiments; for unbelief is an accident, and 
 faith is the only permanent state of mankind. If 
 we only consider religious institutions in a purely 
 human point of view, they may be said to derive an 
 inexhaustible element of strength from man himself, 
 since they belong to one of the constituent principles 
 of human nature. 
 
 " I am aware that at certain times religion may 
 strengthen this influence, which originates in itself, 
 by the artificial power of the laws, and by the support 
 of those temporal institutions which direct society. 
 Religions intimately united to the governments of 
 the earth have been known to exercise a sovereign 
 authority derived from the twofold source of terror 
 and of faith ; but when a religion contracts an alliance 
 of this nature, I do not hesitate to affirm that it com- 
 mits the same error as a man who should sacrifice his 
 future to his present welfare ; and in obtaining a 
 power to which it has no claim, it risks that authority 
 which is rightfully its own. When a religion founds its 
 empire upon the desire of immortality, which lives in 
 
OF CHURCH AND STATE. 143 
 
 every human heart, it may aspire to universal do- 
 minion ; but when it connects itself with a government, 
 it must necessarily adopt maxims which are only 
 applicable to certain nations. Thus, in forming an 
 alliance with a political power, religion augments its 
 authority over a few, and forfeits the hope of reigning 
 over all. 
 
 " As long as a religion rests upon those sentiments 
 which, are the consolation of all affliction, it may 
 attract the affections of mankind ; but if it be mixed 
 up with the bitter passions of the world, it may be 
 constrained to defend allies whom its interests, and 
 not the principle of love, have given to it ; or to repel 
 as antagonists men who are still attached to its own 
 spirit, however opposed they may be to the powers to 
 which it is allied. The church cannot share the 
 temporal power of the state without being the object 
 of a portion of that animosity which the latter ex- 
 cites. 
 
 " The political powers which seem to be most 
 firmly established have frequently no better gua- 
 rantee for their duration than the opinions of a gene- 
 ration, the interests of the time, or the life of an 
 individual. A law may modify the social condition, 
 which seems to be most fixed and determinate ; and 
 with the social condition everything else must change. 
 The powers of society are more or less fugitive, like 
 the years which we spend upon the earth ; they succeed 
 each other with rapidity, like the fleeting cares of life ; 
 
144 TOCQUEVIL.LE ON THE UNION 
 
 and no government has ever yet been founded upon 
 an invariable disposition of the human heart, or upon 
 an imperishable interest. 
 
 " As long as a religion is sustained by those feel- 
 ings, propensities, and passions, which are found to 
 occur under the same forms at all the different periods 
 of history, it may defy the efforts of time, or at least it 
 can only be destroyed by another religion. But when 
 religion clings to the interests of the world, it becomes 
 almost as fragile a thing as the powers of earth. It 
 is the only one of them all which can hope for im- 
 mortality ; but if it be connected with ephemeral 
 authority, it shares their fortunes, and may fall with 
 those transient passions which supported them for a 
 day. The alliance which religion contracts with 
 political powers must needs be onerous to itself; since 
 it does not require their assistance to live, and by 
 giving them its assistance it may be exposed to 
 decay. 
 
 " The danger which I have just pointed out always 
 exists, but it is not always equally visible. In some 
 ages governments seem to be imperishable, in others 
 the existence of society appears to be more precarious 
 than the life of man. Some constitutions plunge the 
 citizens into a lethargic somnolence, and others rouse 
 them to feverish excitement. When governments 
 appear to be so strong, and laws so stable, men do 
 not perceive the dangers which may accrue from a 
 union of church and state. When governments dis- 
 
OF CHURCH AND STATE. 145 
 
 play so much weakness, and laws so much inconstancy, 
 the danger is self-evident, but it is no longer possible 
 to avoid it ; to be effectual, measures must be taken to 
 discover its approach. 
 
 "In proportion as^a nation assumes a democratic 
 condition of society, and as communities display de- 
 mocratic propensities, it becomes more and more 
 dangerous to connect religion with political institu- 
 tions ; for the time is coming when authority will be 
 banded from hand to hand ; when political theories 
 will succeed each other, and when men, laws, and 
 constitutions, will disappear, or be modified from day 
 to day, and this not for a season only, but unceasingly. 
 Agitation and mutability are inherent in the nature of 
 democratic republics, just as stagnation and inertness 
 are the law of absolute monarchies. 
 
 "If the Americans, who change the head of the 
 government once in four years, who elect new legis- 
 lators every two years, and renew the provincial officers 
 every twelvemonth ; if the Americans, who have 
 abandoned the political world to the attempts of inno- 
 vators, had not placed religion beyond their reach, 
 where could it abide in the ebb and flow of human 
 opinions ? Where would that respect which belongs 
 to it be paid, amidst the struggles of faction ? and 
 what would become of its immortality, in the midst of 
 perpetual decay ? The American clergy were the first 
 to perceive this truth, and to act in conformity with 
 it. They saw that they must renounce their religious 
 
 H 
 
146 TOCQUEVILLE ON THE UNION 
 
 influence if they were to strive for political power ; 
 and they chose to give up the support of the state, 
 rather than to share its vicissitudes. 
 
 " In America, religion is perhaps less powerful than 
 it has been at certain periods in the history of certain 
 peoples ; but its influence is more lasting. It restricts 
 itself to its own resources, but of those none can 
 deprive it ; its circle is limited to certain principles, 
 but those principles are entirely its own, and under 
 its undisputed control. 
 
 " On every side in Europe we hear voices com- 
 plaining of the absence of religious faith, and inquiring 
 the means of restoring to religion some remnant of its 
 pristine authority. It seems to me that we must first 
 attentively consider what ought to be the natural 
 state of men with regard to religion at the present 
 time ; and when we know what we have to hope and 
 to fear, we may discern the end to which our efforts 
 ought to be directed. 
 
 " The two great dangers which threaten the exist- 
 ence of religions are schism and indifference. In ages 
 of fervent devotion, men sometimes abandon their 
 religion, but they only shake it off in order to adopt 
 another. Their faith changes the objects to which it 
 is directed, but it suffers no decline. The old re- 
 ligion then excites enthusiastic attachment or bitter 
 enmity in either party; some leave it with anger, 
 others cling to it with increased devotedness, and 
 although persuasions differ, irreligion is unknown. 
 
OF CHURCH AND STATE. 147 
 
 Such, however, is not the case when a religious belief 
 is secretly undermined by doctrines which may be 
 termed negative, since they deny the truth of our 
 religion, without affirming that of any other. Pro- 
 digious revolutions then take place in the human 
 mind, without the apparent co-operation of the 
 passions of man, and almost without his knowledge. 
 Men lose the objects of their fondest hopes, as if 
 through forgetfulness. They are carried away by 
 an imperceptible current which they have not the 
 courage to stem ; but which they follow with regret, 
 since it bears them from a faith they love, to a scep- 
 ticism that plunges them into despair. 
 
 " In ages which answer to this description, men 
 desert their religious opinions from lukewarmness, 
 rather than from dislike; they do not reject them, 
 but the sentiments by which they were once fostered 
 disappear. But if the unbeliever does not admit 
 religion to be true, he still considers it useful. Re- 
 garding religious institutions in a human point of 
 view, he acknowledges their influence upon manners 
 and legislation. He admits that they may serve to 
 make men live in peace with one another, and to pre- 
 pare them gently for the hour of death. He regrets 
 the faith which he has lost ; and as he is deprived of 
 a treasure which he has learned to estimate at its full 
 value, he scruples to take it from those who still 
 possess it. 
 
 " On the other hand, those who continue to believe 
 h 2 
 
148 TOCQUEVILLE ON THE UNION 
 
 are not afraid openly to avow their faith. They look 
 upon those who do not share their persuasions as 
 more worthy of pity than opposition; and they are 
 aware, that to acquire the esteem of the unbelieving, 
 they are not obliged to follow their example. They 
 are hostile to no one in the world ; and as they do 
 not consider the society in which they live as an arena 
 in which religion is bound to face its thousand deadly 
 foes, they love their contemporaries whilst they con- 
 demn their weaknesses and lament their errors. 
 
 " As those who do not believe conceal their incre- 
 dulity, and as those who believe display their faith, 
 public opinion pronounces itself in favour of religion ; 
 love, support, and honour are bestowed upon it, and it 
 is only by searching the human soul that we can detect 
 the wounds which it has received. The mass of 
 mankind, who are never without the feeling of re- 
 ligion, do not perceive anything at variance with the 
 established faith. The instinctive desire of a future 
 life brings the crowd about the altar, and opens the 
 hearts of men to the precepts and consolations of 
 religion. 
 
 " But this picture is not applicable to us; for 
 there are men amongst us who have ceased to believe 
 in Christianity, without adopting any other religion 5 
 others, who are in the perplexities of doubt, and who 
 already affect not to believe ; and others, again, who 
 are afraid to avow that Christian faith which they 
 still cherish in secret. 
 
OF CHURCH AND STATE. 149 
 
 " Amidst these lukewarm partisans and ardent 
 antagonists, a small number of believers exists, who 
 are ready to brave all obstacles, and to scorn all dan- 
 gers, in defence of their faith. They have done 
 violence to human weakness in order to rise superior 
 to public opinion. Excited by the effort they have 
 made, they scarcely know where to stop ; and as they 
 know that the first use which the French made of 
 independence was to attack religion, they look upon 
 their contemporaries with dread, and they recoil in 
 alarm from the liberty which their fellow-citizens are 
 seeking to obtain. As unbelief appears to them to be 
 a novelty, they comprise all that is new in one indis- 
 criminate animosity. They are at war with their age 
 and country, and they look upon every opinion which 
 is put forth there as the necessary enemy of the faith. 
 
 " Such is not the natural state of men with regard 
 to religion at the present day ; and some extraordi- 
 nary or incidental cause must be at work in France, 
 to prevent the human mind from following its original 
 propensities, and to drive it beyond the limits at which 
 it ought naturally to stop. 
 
 " I am intimately convinced that this extraordinary 
 and incidental cause is the close connexion of politics 
 and religion. The unbelievers of Europe attack the 
 Christians as their political opponents, rather than as 
 their religious adversaries. They hate the Christian 
 religion as the opinion of a party, much more than as 
 an error of unbelief; and they reject the clergy less 
 
150 TOCQUEVILLE ON THE UNION 
 
 because they are the representatives of Divinity than 
 because they are the allies of authority. 
 
 " In Europe, Christianity has been intimately 
 united to the powers of the earth. Those powers are 
 now in decay, and it is, as it were, buried under their 
 ruins. The living body of religion has been bound 
 down to the dead corpse of superannuated polity ; cut 
 but the bonds which restrain it, and that which is 
 alive will rise once more. I know not what could 
 restore the Christian church of Europe to the energy 
 of its earlier days — that power belongs to God alone ; 
 but it may be the effect of human policy to leave the 
 faith in the full exercise of the strength which it still 
 retains." 
 
 These profound thoughts deserve something more 
 than a hasty perusal from the reader. They will 
 repay the best attention he can bestow upon them. 
 It is in this manner that the doctrine of a despised 
 sect is making its way to a place among the elaborate 
 conclusions of philosophy, and the most sagacious 
 maxims of cabinets. Even in such places it begins 
 to be suspected that the severance of religion from 
 politics is a change which, instead of being fatal 
 to its existence, may be to it as life from the dead, 
 and probably the only change that can hold out the 
 prospect of its recovering, in many quarters, the 
 power which has so manifestly departed from it. Its 
 alliance with the state, which has been so common 
 to it through the past, may not be consistent with the 
 
OF CHURCH AND STATE. 151 
 
 destiny assigned to it in the future. The condition 
 of society, which seemed to require that it should be 
 taken under such guardianship, is fast giving place to 
 another, which seems to say, no less distinctly, that 
 the interval during which such guardianship might 
 have been expedient is approaching its close, and that 
 the history of religion in the time to come, is to be 
 that of the self-sustained and the free. 
 
 Society is advancing rapidly beyond that state in 
 which the community does nothing, and the govern- 
 ment does everything. It is approaching every day 
 more nearly toward the state in which the community 
 governs through its rulers, much more than it is 
 governed by them. But every step in this course, is 
 an advance toward the point at which religion, in com- 
 mon with many things beside, naturally passes from 
 the hands of cabinets and senates, to those of the 
 people, and may be safely left to the care of the general 
 intelligence and feeling. Among ourselves, this course 
 of things is in visible and rapid progress; and in 
 nothing more than in the manner and degree in which 
 the forethought, cost, and supervision, that have respect 
 to religion, are ceasing to be among the cares of states- 
 men, and becoming the work of the community. May 
 a gracious Providence continue to direct this transi- 
 tion, that it may be brought to its completion natu- 
 rally, constitutionally, safely, to the great good of our 
 common Christianity, and of our common country ! 
 
152 SLOWNESS OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 Then, when religion shall cease to be an affair of 
 politics, it may be expected that the ministers of reli- 
 gion will cease to be politicians, and not till then. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE SLOWNESS OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, WITH 
 ITS ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 That the change so earnestly desired by many, in 
 the relations subsisting between politics and religion, 
 will come, seems to be the prognostication of Provi- 
 dence, no less than of revelation. But there is little 
 reason to suppose that so momentous a transition will 
 be completed suddenly. It is on this point that not 
 a few minds among us have betrayed the want of that 
 more patient consideration, and of those larger views 
 in. relation to the progress of society, which are so 
 necessary as means of regulating sound expectation 
 on subjects of this nature. We have witnessed the 
 signs of change, and we still witness them ; but these 
 indications have not been such at any moment as to 
 warrant the kind of anticipation which appears to 
 have been founded upon them. No man who has 
 studied the past in our history, or looked broadly on 
 
ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 153 
 
 the present, has been much disappointed by recent 
 movements in regard to our public affairs. Institu- 
 tions which have survived the revolutions of a thou- 
 sand winters may themselves change, and may pass 
 utterly away; but, in general, it will be by slow 
 degrees. Their fall at last may indeed be somewhat 
 abrupt and violent, but it will be the effect of a long 
 chain of causes predisposing matters to such an issue. 
 Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as great 
 effects from little causes. There is always a certain 
 adequateness between the producing and the pro- 
 duced, either visible or latent, near or remote. It 
 was thus with the crusades, the reformation, and the 
 French revolution. Peter the Hermit, Luther, Mira- 
 beau, may have done much, but concurring circum- 
 stances did immeasurably more. 
 
 In this respect there is a beautiful and instructive 
 analogy, between the history of the natural and moral 
 world, and the history of revealed truth. Our impa- 
 tience of delay, which is so natural an effect of our 
 thoughtlessness, and of our other infirmities, is con- 
 stantly rebuked by the great facts of the divine 
 economy in nature, and providence, and religion. 
 These are all different departments of the divine 
 operation, but as they are all pervaded by the same 
 mind, we expect to trace in them the movement of 
 the same hand. It is, in this respect, as we might 
 anticipate, we find that God is everywhere, and that 
 he is everywhere the same God. 
 
 h a 
 
154 SLOWNESS OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 One of the most obvious characteristics in the 
 divine manner of proceeding in relation to the natural 
 world, consists in the complete absence of anything 
 like precipitation or hurry. Every change has its 
 steps, its stages, its progression. In this manner, we 
 have reason to believe, the substance of this earth 
 came into its state of fitness to become the abode of 
 man. Change after change passed, in ceaseless, but 
 slow succession upon it, until the last, which was to 
 give to it the appointed maturity, came and was 
 perfected. In those solitary processes, a thousand 
 years was with the Creator as one day, and one day 
 as a thousand years. 
 
 Since then, the seasons have never ceased to per- 
 form their quiet and measured course. The winter 
 does not come at once, nor the summer ; the spring 
 and the autumn have their place between them, and 
 these come almost imperceptibly, and so retire. Each 
 season follows upon the path of its fellow, but all 
 move considerately and slowly, and in a manner 
 which no power of man can disturb. It is the same 
 with day and night. How gentle is the falling of the 
 darkness — how tranquil and stately is the progress of 
 the light ! 
 
 As it is with the earth, so is it with all its products, 
 and its living things. In the vegetable kingdom, we 
 see the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear, all 
 succeeding each other according to a law which is 
 obeyed everywhere. In the animal kingdom, there is 
 
ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 155 
 
 the same budding of existence, followed by the same 
 slow transit from the tenderness of youth toward the 
 state of maturity. Seasons, indeed, may vary. Har- 
 vests may not be alike abundant. Living things may 
 not see their full age. In all these respects there is 
 contingency, as well as certainty — enough of certainty 
 to make prominent the law of the divine procedure, 
 and enough of contingency to admonish us of our 
 dependence. There is slowness to demand patience, 
 fluctuation to exercise faith, and certainty to give con- 
 fidence to hope. Hence " the husbandman waiteth 
 for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long 
 patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter 
 rain." 
 
 In perfect agreement with these laws in the natural 
 world, are the great facts in the moral world. Nearly 
 six thousand years have passed since the world became 
 the residence of man. But until within the last three 
 or four centuries, the greater part of the earth was not 
 even brought under the eye of discovery. It has 
 required two thousand years to bring our own country 
 from its state of barbarism, to its present condition of 
 social improvement. It has required nearly six thou- 
 sand years to bring the world generally into possession 
 of its present measure of civilization. Some men pro- 
 fess to believe that the chief end of man was meant 
 to consist in the enjoyments of civilized life. It is for 
 such persons to explain how it has happened that so 
 long an interval should have passed, and that men 
 
156 SLOWNESS OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 should still have realized this supposed end of their 
 being but so partially and imperfectly. Upon this 
 theory, the Creator in the system of deism is fully as 
 slow in conferring his benefits, as the Creator in the 
 system of revelation. There is assuredly some pro- 
 gress made in this respect ; but in the case both of 
 separate nations, and of the species at large, how slow 
 and how fluctuating has it been ! The favourable has 
 advanced only by little and little; the adverse has 
 frequently broken in upon its path; and if events 
 which seemed the most unpropitious have been found 
 at last among the means of progress, a series of ages 
 has often been required to bring these secrets of 
 Providence to light. 
 
 The history of revealed truth, is strictly in accord- 
 ance, in these respects, with the history of everything 
 good in connexion with humanity. The announce- 
 ment of a special economy, as the theme of a special 
 revelation, was coeval with the fall of man. But how 
 limited were the discoveries concerning the remedial 
 purposes of the Most High in the early ages of the 
 world ! The space from Adam to Moses was more 
 extended, by nearly seven centuries, than the space 
 between the Advent and our own time. But in what a 
 state of pupilage, with regard to religious knowledge, 
 were even good men kept through all that period. 
 Some fifteen centuries again passed between the age 
 of Moses and that of the Apostles. During this 
 period also, we see the greater part of men employed 
 
ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 157 
 
 in turning the truth of God into a lie. The rude in- 
 stitutes of the patriarchal times, are succeeded by the 
 age of Solomon and all his glory. But the world is 
 still overspread with religious darkness, and the 
 church, a feeble remnant at best, affords, for the most 
 part, small evidence of enlightenment. 
 
 After so long a delay, we might have expected that 
 the coming of Christ would be followed by an imme- 
 diate and universal diffusion of his religion. But how 
 different was its history. It is true it did make its 
 way through the provinces of the Roman empire, and, 
 at length, to the palaces and thrones of the Caesars. 
 But how partial was its saving influence even over the 
 nations which professed to adopt it ; and how soon 
 was it corrupted, so as to be little preferable to the 
 paganism which it had superseded. 
 
 When the Reformation came, it was natural that 
 men should say — The time, the set time to favour 
 Zion has come ! But after about a century of conflict, 
 we see the one-half of Europe giving its preference to 
 the new faith, the other half continuing its adherence 
 to the old ; and from that age to the present, there has 
 been little change in the relative posture of the two 
 great parties. Superstition, indeed, has lost much 
 ground within the last century, but it has not been, 
 as I fear, from the progress of protestantism, so much 
 as from the force of the new power — infidelity. 
 
 We know not the purposes that are to be subserved 
 by this method of proceeding. Important results, 
 
158 SLOWNESS OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 such as the Divine Mind alone can fully comprehend, 
 are, no doubt, involved in processes so vast, so pro- 
 tracted, and so costly. The work of grace is sometimes 
 compared to a building, and the inspired writers 
 anticipate its completion as the perfecting of the great 
 work of deity. In proportion to the extent, and 
 weight, and meditated duration of a building, are 
 the care and labour bestowed on its foundation. 
 For aught we know, this long trial of truth in the 
 world, may consist of little more than laying the 
 foundation upon which that great spiritual structure 
 is to rise which Jehovah will perfect in his time. For 
 aught we know, the space before the coining of Christ 
 was meant to demonstrate, by means of fact — by way 
 of extended experiment, in addition to the testimony 
 of Holy Writ, that it is not in the power of a fallen 
 creature's intellect, if left to itself, to discover truth at 
 all adequate to the exigency of its condition. For any- 
 thing we know, also, men have been permitted, since 
 revelation has been perfected, to reject its evidence, 
 and to corrupt its substance, that by means of fact, and 
 by extended experiment here also, it might be made 
 plain, that it is not in the power of a fallen creature's 
 heart, if left to itself, to make a saving use of revela- 
 tion, even when it is set forth — and set forth, attested 
 in a manner that ought to be convincing, and as con- 
 sisting of truths that ought to be felt as wonderfully 
 adapted to our capabilities and wants. It is reasonable 
 to suppose, that there are conclusions to come forth 
 
ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 159 
 
 from these mysterious facts, which will minister a 
 hallowed influence to other worlds, and to created 
 being through eternity. The dependence of a fallen 
 creature's intellect on the teaching of a Divine 
 Revelation, for finding its way back to truth ; and the 
 dependence of a fallen creature's heart on grace from 
 the same source, for finding its way back to goodness, 
 may be taught by these awful experiments so much 
 more clearly and memorably ; and these lessons them- 
 selves, may be of so much importance in relation to 
 the purposes of the Eternal, that it may be expedient 
 and wise, that this end should be accomplished even 
 by means of such cost and magnitude. Of this we 
 may be assured, if our world is ever to become reli- 
 gious, the foundation of its piety must be laid in a 
 deep conviction and feeling of the two great truths 
 which the history of the divine dispensations has 
 served, in this manner, to bring before us in a form so 
 certain and impressive. 
 
 But whatever of uncertainty there may be in the 
 above speculation, it is plain that there is much in 
 the providence of God to reprove the impatience 
 with which we often seek to realize our schemes of 
 social and religious improvement. The character of 
 society is not to be changed by a single effort, nor in 
 a single age. Nor are churches to be purified by any 
 such summary method. Old countries, like old 
 men, unlearn their early prepossessions very reluct- 
 antly. In regard to institutions, habits, and usages. 
 
160 SLOWNESS OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 it is commonly the work of ages to displace, what it 
 has been the work of ages to mould and establish. 
 Great changes of this nature, always demand much 
 time, and much effort. The causes which produce 
 them are sure to be many and weighty, though some 
 may be much more immediate and conspicuous than 
 others. In such cases, what is done suddenly, is 
 seldom done permanently. On the contrary, pre- 
 mature change may be generally accounted as service 
 done to the power which it has been meant to subvert. 
 At such times, the flowing waters have been dammed 
 up, in place of being drained off into new channels; and 
 have been repressed to-day, only to break out with 
 greater force to-morrow. In short, every new order 
 of things which is not made to rest upon national 
 character, must be brought in by violence, and must 
 be perpetuated by the same means. It is worse than 
 useless to attempt the placing of new public institu- 
 tions in the room of the old, without a corresponding 
 change in public feeling and opinion. The nation in 
 which such a scheme should succeed must necessarily 
 be divided into two classes — the oppressors and the 
 oppressed. Institutions, we know, may be better than 
 the people who have the working of them, and they 
 may be worse ; but if both are to exist long together, 
 there must be a real and a strong affinity between 
 them. It is not grateful to the sanguine to be re- 
 minded of truths of this nature ; but they are not the 
 less deserving of consideration on that account. We 
 
ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 161 
 
 must improve human character, if we would improve 
 human society. Men never become possessed of 
 good institutions, except as they rise in a good measure 
 toward the level of deserving them. 
 
 But this method of seeking human improvement is 
 obscure, laborious, and slow. The much more agree- 
 able mode of proceeding is to regard institutions as 
 carrying a sort of magic power along with them, and 
 to conclude that if these standards may once be set up, 
 the work will be done. To be thus employed, is to 
 labour as upon the house-top, and to revel amidst the 
 scenes of an immediate, though an imaginary triumph. 
 It is not pleasing to regard ourselves as humble links 
 in an extended chain of operations. It would be 
 much more gratifying to do some great thing at once 
 and completely, than to be lost, after this manner, in 
 a crowd or series of agencies, each being as nothing, 
 compared with the great and slowly-moving process 
 in which the whole are required to be engaged. We 
 enter into the labours of others, but we are anxious to 
 bring our own to some conclusion ; and our eagerness 
 to succeed, and our discontent under failure, we 
 ascribe without hesitation to feelings altogether praise- 
 worthy. It does not occur to us to inquire, how 
 much of this feeling may have resulted from undue 
 notions of self-importance, and other equally ques- 
 tionable influences. If our object is distinction among 
 men, such impediments will disturb us greatly. If 
 our aim is to stand approved of God, they will affect 
 
162 SLOWNESS OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 us comparatively little. God is constantly teaching 
 men that those who serve him must be humble ; that 
 they must learn to distinguish between their own self- 
 will, and the will of their Maker ; and that they must 
 often be content to seem to labour in vain, and to be 
 forgotten, in doing his pleasure. 
 
 These observations are applicable to the spirit and 
 circumstances of the controversy between churchmen 
 and dissenters in this country. Our national institu- 
 tions have been subject to modification and change, 
 and some of them to extinction ; but they have 
 always taken their new aspect as they took the old 
 one — by degrees; and the gradual manner in which 
 they came into being, is the manner in which such of 
 them as have disappeared have ceased to be. This 
 course of things has followed naturally from the fact, 
 that improvement in the character of our people, has 
 always been the precursor, and the main cause of im- 
 provement in our polity. The cause, in this case, 
 could not be stimulated beyond a certain rate of move- 
 ment, and the effect has moved only in the same pro- 
 portion. At present, attachment to the church of 
 England is an element of our national character, 
 affecting a large proportion of our people, and exist- 
 ing in marked alliance with the rank and opulence of 
 the realm. But a feeling alien from the claims of that 
 church, and more or less allied with religious institu- 
 tions of another description, has come to be an ele- 
 ment of our national character no less obvious, and 
 
ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 163 
 
 hardly less powerful. To put an end to the church 
 of England, or to put an end to protestant dissent, in 
 such a state of opinion and feeling, is not possible, 
 except by means that would raise one of these parties 
 to the place of absolute master over the other, and be 
 subversive of all liberty. In either case, the feeling 
 and strength of the party which might seem to be 
 losing ground, would prompt them to revolt against 
 the power above them ; and that power, to keep its 
 ascendancy, would of necessity become a tyranny. 
 
 Matters of such import are not to be decided by 
 bare majorities. In regard to such questions, the 
 principle of adjustment is the only principle of social 
 equity. That the church of England, with not more 
 than half the population professing adherence to her, 
 should continue to make her demands upon the whole, 
 as though the whole were still included in her com- 
 munion, is in every view preposterous. But that the 
 half of the community who are dissenters, should call 
 upon the other half, with all its preponderance of 
 rank and wealth, to forego, on the ground of that 
 fact, the principle of an established church in every 
 form, is, in my humble judgment, hardly less un- 
 reasonable. In such a state of things, an endowed 
 church should know how to adapt her pretensions to 
 her circumstances. But, on both sides, a large mea- 
 sure of concession and forbearance must be considered 
 due, so long as the balance, from opposite views and 
 impressions, shall be so nearly equal. 
 
1 64 SLOWNESS ,OF RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 It may seem a tedious thing to be obliged to wait 
 until a much greater number of churchmen become 
 converts to dissenting principles before we expect to 
 see any great change in our ecclesiastical affairs. But 
 I must confess that this course appears to me to be 
 the only natural and safe one ; and a course in which 
 we should, as Christians, be content to labour, though 
 in so doing we may have to bequeath the work un- 
 finished to our children. The churchman, on the 
 other hand, will find himself shut up, often no doubt 
 very much to his annoyance, to the same slow and 
 patient manner of proceeding. The time has come, 
 in which no man can fail to perceive that the prin- 
 ciple of an established church is not more rooted 
 among us than is the principle of dissent. The latter 
 principle, indeed, may be said to be much stronger 
 than the former, inasmuch as it harmonizes with the 
 probabilities of the future, while the former rests for 
 the most part on the usages of the past. Hence, 
 while it may be well to caution the abettors of eccle- 
 siastical reformation against indulging expectations 
 which will probably end in disappointment, there is no 
 want of encouragement to abound in effort with a view 
 to improvement. We see the changes in favour of our 
 principles which are passing rapidly over the face of 
 the world and of the church. God is manifestly 
 doing his own work after his own manner. Our 
 vocation is, at once to labour and to wait. In the 
 present aspect of our affairs there is much to check 
 
ANALOGIES IN NATURE AND PROVIDENCE. 165 
 
 presumption, but there is also much to give buoyancy 
 to hope. Reason and religion should alike dispose 
 us to submit our own will, as to the times and 
 seasons, to the indications of the will of the Om- 
 niscient. In what manner we may best employ our- 
 selves with this view, at the present juncture, will be 
 the subject of inquiry in the next chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN 
 THE PRACTICE OF ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALISTS. 
 
 There is a large class of persons in this country who 
 regard every form of popular power with misgiving. 
 It is to be expected that such parties will look with 
 little favour on Congregationalism. To minds of this 
 order our principles appear to be precisely that thing 
 in the church, which they would above all things 
 deprecate in the state. In the judgment of these 
 students of human nature, every community, viewed 
 at large, is a species of monster, constantly needing 
 the curb, and never to be trusted. We assure them 
 that our churches are not constituted of persons taken 
 indiscriminately from society, but of such as become 
 
166 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 Christians ; and that the equality of our brotherhood 
 is of a nature to leave ample space for the influence of 
 rank and wealth, and especially for the influence of 
 eminence in intelligence and moral worth. But it is 
 of little avail, in such cases, that we thus explain our 
 principles, and endeavour to guard them against mis- 
 construction. Our churches are still accounted as 
 a sort of rude commonwealth. Objection, in conse- 
 quence, is still made, arising in many instances from 
 nothing better than worldly vanity or pride ; in others, 
 from the force of prejudice in favour of what is 
 ancient ; or from an impression that everything with 
 which the people in general have somewhat to do, 
 must necessarily work disorderly, vulgarly, badly. 
 
 Very much of this kind of objection is, no doubt, 
 insincere. It may not often appear in that light, even 
 to those who indulge in it, and still it may be of that 
 character. We have frequently seen, that episco- 
 palians who could dwell on such topics with much 
 emphasis, while remaining within the pale of the 
 established church, have no sooner withdrawn from 
 that communion, than it has been found that the lowest 
 democracy in dissent has not been low enough for 
 them. The history of the sect known by the name 
 of the Plymouth Brethren, supplies some instructive 
 matter in this shape. So far, it seems, are those 
 genteel church-going people from objecting now to 
 an ecclesiastical government in the hands of a'Christian 
 brotherhood, that they have set up the government of 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 167 
 
 the brethren to the exclusion of any government by a 
 pastorate, or a ministry. Independency, in place of 
 being too popular in its forms of administration, has 
 not proved to be popular enough, and the humblest 
 and the highest take their place in this new com- 
 munion, according to the law of a more rigid equality 
 than has ever been known among us. But there is 
 some shrewdness in this policy. Fanaticism is never 
 clear-sighted enough to be wise, but its eyes are always 
 sufficiently open to be cunning. The dislike to Con- 
 gregationalism in this case, it seems, was not so much 
 because it was not true, as because it was not fashionable. 
 It has appeared proper to these parties to withdraw 
 from the established church, but in the hope of avoid- 
 ing the obscurity or reproach of taking their place 
 with any existing body of dissenters, they have run 
 even the principles of independency to seed. The 
 object intended by this course of proceeding, has been 
 in some sense realized. These persons have ceased 
 to be churchmen, and they have managed to escape 
 the humiliation of being lost in the crowd of dis- 
 senters. They have assumed a new religious pro- 
 fession ; but, on the whole, they lose nothing in the 
 way of social reputation by the change. Their old 
 friends will bear with them, so long as they assail the 
 principles of dissent as well as the established church ; 
 and so long as their labours tend to damage our cause 
 by exhibiting it in caricature. Men too often bring 
 into the church the passions that were natural to 
 
168 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 them in the world. Hence the vanity of the reli- 
 gionist is too often little else than the vanity of the 
 worldling under another name. 
 
 Still, a large portion of the education, wealth, and 
 station of the country is not in alliance either with the 
 political views before mentioned, or with these idle 
 excesses of the Plymouth brotherhood. In the esteem 
 of this better class, the popular power in England has 
 been the great means by which our liberties have been 
 realized, matured, and perpetuated. But even upon 
 these persons, to whom our principles should have 
 commended themselves strongly, we have made little 
 comparative impression. Such men are often as little 
 dissenters as any class of their opponents. We assist 
 them in the furtherance of their public principles, and 
 they assist us in the preservation of our religious 
 liberties, but only so far do we act together. Many 
 of those parties have an interest, direct or indirect, in 
 the property of the established church. But that 
 circumstance is by no means sufficient wholly to ex- 
 plain the fact adverted to. Something there must be, 
 either in our system, or in our mode of administering 
 it, not a little repugnant to the tastes and usages which 
 obtain in the educated and higher classes of society, 
 or the public principles of many such persons would 
 be found disposing them to sympathize with the spirit 
 of our polity much more frequently. 
 
 One cause of this state of things, so far as it is 
 affected by the^ character of dissenting ministers, may, 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 169 
 
 no doubt, be found in our pride, acted upon as it has 
 been by the pride of the higher classes. It is not 
 more in the nature of violence to produce violence, 
 than of pride to provoke pride. Let this passion be 
 offensively evinced by one party, and it will soon 
 become no less observable in the party against which 
 it is directed, and the positions of both will be taken 
 accordingly. The gradations of society in this old 
 and wealthy country 'are very nicely marked. Each 
 class values itself not a little on the things which are 
 considered as giving to it the precise position which it 
 holds. But intelligence, virtue, and piety, do not 
 conform themselves to this ascending scale. Not a 
 few who fill a comparatively humble place in social 
 life, are fully capable of analysing the pretensions of 
 those above them, so as to discover that they often rest 
 on very frivolous matters. Strong natural sense, 
 which is bestowed on men without respect of persons, 
 is quite equal to the conducting of a process of this 
 nature, and thus of producing a powerful reaction of 
 pride against pride. Scorn is not an easy thing to 
 bear in any circumstances, but it is particularly irri- 
 tating when it comes from people without any real 
 capacity or culture, and simply because accident has 
 placed them in certain connexions, and given them 
 familiarity with certain trivial mannerisms which ob- 
 tain in such connexions. This description does not, 
 of course, apply universally to the classes intended; 
 but it does apply to them very largely, and, in ge- 
 
170 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 neral, in a special manner to the persons who make 
 themselves conspicuous by their contempt of all 
 religious professions beside their own. 
 
 But let the real or imaginary refinements, upon 
 which these people so highly value themselves, be 
 as frivolous as they may, it is the business of the 
 Christian, and especially of the Christian minister, 
 to endeavour to reclaim men from their follies, and 
 not to confirm them in them. We may know 
 how to look on the small tastes, the small doings, 
 and the small talk of those persons, so as to smile, 
 as we perceive that even adult people can account 
 themselves so great on the ground of things which 
 are really so little. But this is not the only con- 
 nexion in which we have to bear with human weak- 
 ness. The poor have their infirmities in common 
 with the rich. Ignorance has its conceits, no less 
 than this conventional kind of knowledge. It is not 
 more our duty to study, in order to conciliate the minds 
 of men, in the lower classes, than in the higher. We 
 applaud the missionary who becomes himself half a 
 barbarian, that he might win the barbarous ; but why 
 should this principle of action be deemed applicable 
 to the scale which descends to the barbarous, and not 
 to that which ascends to the civilized ? Is it harder 
 to rise to the tastes of the man of refinement, than to 
 go down to the tastes of the man of the woods ? Is it 
 not in the power of circumstances to make the one line 
 of conduct as much our duty as the other ? 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 171 
 
 In regard to what is not in itself sinful, we should 
 always be ready to conform in lesser things for the 
 sake of the greater. No matter how insignificant 
 these things may appear to be, our estimate of them 
 should be according to the nature of the great things 
 to which they may be preliminary and subservient. 
 Whatever may be necessary to usefulness in respect 
 to a large portion of society, should have its place in 
 the list of our indispensable acquisitions. It is an 
 easy matter to despise such persons on account 
 of the undue importance which they attach to the 
 things in which they excel ; but so long as we thus 
 do, we must lay our account with being despised in re- 
 turn. Nor should we forget that we are no more at 
 liberty, in such cases, to return scorn for scorn, than to 
 return railing for railing. We are not allowed to 
 separate ourselves from all sympathy with such people, 
 because they have separated themselves from all sym- 
 pathy with us. That would be to return evil for evil, in 
 place of overcoming evil with good. Let the want of 
 just views in the upper classes concerning the nature 
 of religion, be as great as we suppose it to be ; and let 
 the conceit of superior knowledge on that subject, be, at 
 the same time, as prevalent as we suppose it to be, 
 — in these facts we only find so much strong reason 
 why we should endeavour to obtain a hearing in such 
 quarters, and be concerned to be employed in doing 
 what we may toward the softening of prejudice by 
 means of better instruction. 
 
 i 2 
 
172 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 But we have men among us, I fear, who never 
 thought of making the slightest effort toward quali- 
 fving themselves for usefulness in such connexions : 
 men who even make a boast of the repugnance 
 of their manners to all such association. Such persons 
 have their reward. The sin, in their case, is with 
 deliberation, and the penalty is certain. We see in 
 the history of this form of selfishness, that, in the pro- 
 gress of life, every man makes his own society, and 
 finds his own place. The laws of society are reci- 
 procal ; and if we know not how to consult the tastes 
 of other men, we must not expect that attention 
 will be paid to our own. Natural ability may do 
 much, but it is the will of Providence that we should 
 find as much to be depending on manner as on mind, 
 the former being much more within every man's 
 power than the latter. An agreeable presence and 
 address, are a more certain passport to general society, 
 than profound learning, or unusual talent. 
 
 Nor is proficiency in this respect so superficial a 
 thing as some men suppose. Nature may do a good 
 deal toward it ; but in the case of those who excel, 
 art and study have done more. It is true that it has 
 respect almost exclusively to little things, but these 
 little things are in constant occurrence, and demand a 
 constant attention. In time, indeed, art in this re- 
 spect will become as nature ; but only as the effect of 
 study, effort, and habit. Young men cannot be too 
 seriouslv admonished, that in human life the small 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 173 
 
 things are always as wheels to the great. It is not 
 many of our ministers, I trust, who need this kind of 
 caution. It would have been well for the social 
 position of Congregationalism if it had never been 
 needed. 
 
 Everything now said with respect to the importance 
 of personal demeanour in the intercourse of society, 
 must apply eminently to the pulpit. It has been 
 permitted to me, during some years past, to commend 
 evangelical truth to many persons whose station in 
 society, or whose position in connexion with science 
 and literature, would have been regarded by religious 
 people as likely to have given them a strong repug- 
 nance to such truth. But the result of my experience 
 is, a conviction that the exception which would be 
 taken to our ministry by such classes, if they could be 
 brought generally into connexion with it, would not 
 be to the matter of our preaching, so much as to the 
 manner of it. 
 
 In this connexion, however, I use the term " man- 
 ner" in its largest sense — as embracing the whole 
 method of presenting instruction, and not merely the 
 exterior mode of address, or the style of expression. Re- 
 ligious truth and religious duty, as commended to the 
 higher class of minds, require to be set forth with dis- 
 crimination ; and, to obviate difficulty, must be made 
 to rest, as far as may be, on the ground of our own 
 consciousness, in common with the word of God. 
 But this requires knowledge,, study, and self-culture. 
 
174 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 To dogmatize in the endless iteration of certain texts, 
 and certain common-places, is much more easy. For 
 such a manner of teaching, the most untaught are 
 often found to be fully competent. But it is not pos- 
 sible that these signs of the absence of culture should 
 fail of being at once perceived by a cultivated mind. 
 In such case, it is not unnatural that we should 
 ascribe the neglect of our instructions to a feeling of 
 enmity against *the truth. It would be very humi- 
 liating to suppose that it has resulted from the low 
 estimate which such persons have been obliged to 
 form concerning our own pretensions as expounders 
 of the truth. The unholiness natural to fallen men, 
 is necessarily repugnant to the holiness natural to 
 revealed truth ; but it may well be suspected that we 
 often impute to the depravity of our hearers, effects 
 which are more fairly attributable to our own feeble- 
 ness and faults. We know that the conversion of the 
 soul is the work of the Spirit of God. It is not to be 
 realized by the genius or labour of man. But God 
 works by means ; and, in general, by means which 
 partake of a visible adaptation to their end ; and it is 
 the law of his kingdom in this respect, that as men 
 sow so they shall reap. Men of disciplined habits of 
 thought, may descend, in their manner of inculcating 
 truth, to the capacity of the humblest ; but men de- 
 void of those habits, can never place themselves in a 
 position to secure the confidence of those who possess 
 them. Knowledge may adapt itself to the state of 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 175 
 
 ignorance, but the uncultivated can never become as 
 guides to men of understanding. It is true there are 
 many things of which a preacher may be ignorant 
 without loss ; but he must be capable of handling his 
 own subject, with the precision, compass, and freedom 
 of a workman not needing to be ashamed, if he does 
 not mean to be put to shame. 
 
 These observations relate strictly to the manner or 
 form in which the doctrines and duties of the gospel 
 should be presented, considered simply as the matter 
 of our teaching. Our effort should be to exhibit 
 them clearly, and fully, and separately from every- 
 thing that does not properly belong to them ; and to 
 place them in such connexion with evidence and 
 reason, as may cause them to carry with them the 
 force of the reasonable. In this manner men of capa- 
 city and education will think on such subjects, and in 
 this manner they will expect us to preach concerning 
 them. 
 
 But more than this will be demanded. The best 
 mode of exhibiting a topic, considered purely in its 
 substance, belongs exclusively to the intellect. Lan- 
 guage and utterance belong more to the province of 
 taste ; in which the simple and rigid conclusions of 
 the understanding are often variously modified by 
 more flexible influences. But in regard both to lan- 
 guage and to mode of address, the demand made 
 upon us by the educated is a reasonable one. It is, 
 simply, that we should be natural. It is that we should 
 
176 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 be careful to speak to them in terms which they can 
 understand, in place of suffering our meaning to 
 lie concealed beneath a multitude of unintelligible 
 phrases; and that our utterance should be that of 
 men who speak, and not that of men who sing. 
 Nearly all our popular preachers are in a good degree 
 exempt from fault in these respects. But this is 
 more than can be said in respect to many of our 
 brethren ; and, in almost every instance, the degree 
 in which they have failed as preachers, is the degree 
 in which they have been wanting in the command of 
 a natural language and of a natural manner. 
 
 Without going the length of a distinguished 
 Essayist, who would not seem to leave to theology any 
 sort of nomenclature, it ought not assuredly to be 
 supposed that the citation of a text, or the use of a 
 phrase, will be deemed sufficient to solve a problem in 
 morals, or to separate a great theological truth from 
 difficulty. Our appeal is ever to the Bible ; but 
 the lessons set forth there admit of being explained 
 in .ordinary speech. Men of taste require no more 
 of us than that our language, when we discourse to 
 them upon religion, may be such as we should use in 
 addressing them on any other subject ; the Scriptures 
 being appealed to, and appealed to largely, as a text- 
 book, and as our final authority. The objection is not 
 to the use of a scriptural phraseology, but to such a 
 use of it as serves to form the habit of uttering words 
 without meaning ; and to prevent the explanation of 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 177 
 
 the meaning intended, even when there is a mean- 
 ing, — to the great loss of those who seek religious 
 instruction, and who have no wish to be bewildered 
 with terms and expressions which to them are all of 
 doubtful import. It is the effect of education to sim- 
 plify our tastes. We may begin our processes in 
 mental improvement with some tendency to depart 
 from nature, but we end in returning to it. It is the 
 sign of some maturity in piety, as well as in taste, 
 when we are willing to be divorced both from the 
 cabalistic and the tawdry in religion. We greatly mis- 
 take if we suppose that either of these things can avail 
 us when addressing minds of unusual discernment. 
 
 With regard to the effect of a good natural elocu- 
 tion, we have many examples of men who fill some of 
 the most respectable positions in our ministry, mainly 
 by means of a felicity which belongs to them in 
 that respect. Neither their capacity nor their ac- 
 quirements are at all above mediocrity. They are 
 men of piety, and men of character; but it is the 
 fact that they possess an agreeable presence, and a 
 natural manner of expressing themselves, that has 
 enabled them to make a good use of their limited 
 resources, so that they succeed — succeed eminently. 
 The sermons which are listened to with much interest 
 from the lips of such preachers, would be attended by 
 a feeling of painful weariness as heard from some 
 men, who would not only set them to a sort of tune, 
 but to a tune which must necessarily operate as a 
 
 i 3 
 
178 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 species of torture, from its being made up of false 
 time, small compass, and bad melody. 
 
 With regard to all these faults — faults respecting 
 the mode of presenting the substance of our teaching, 
 the language in which we present it, and the elocu- 
 tion we bring to our office, our friends the evangelical 
 clergy, if I mistake not, are much more deficient than 
 dissenting ministers. But these defects all have place 
 among ourselves, and to an extent which considerably 
 affects the character of our ministry, and greatly 
 limits our usefulness. It must be permitted me, 
 therefore, strongly to repeat — that the demand made 
 upon us by minds of education is simply that we 
 should be natural. The objection of such persons is 
 not always to the truth we preach, but often in a much 
 greater degree to our want of care and judgment in 
 the mode of placing it before them. Their complaint 
 is not that we address them on scriptural subjects in 
 the language of scripture, but that we do not take 
 care to make ourselves well understood by addressing 
 them also in their own language. The demand in 
 such quarters is not that we should be men of great 
 genius or great learning, but that we should be men 
 of a grave and natural demeanour and utterance in 
 our intercourse with society, and that we should 
 take that same unartificial manner with us into the 
 pulpit. 
 
 In the above observations I suppose it to be dis- 
 tinctly understood that no discipline in regard either 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 179 
 
 to mind or manner will be of any avail in the absence 
 of a real piety. Without deep sympathy with the 
 spiritual designs of the gospel, the gifts of nature and 
 the results of study will take the form of so much 
 mere worldly artifice. What we need is, that the 
 wisdom which is careful to adapt the means to the end, 
 may be laid under contribution in a spirit which may 
 harmonize with the nature of revealed truth — in a 
 spirit of humility, dependence, and fervent devotion. 
 We should be above all things men of God ; but we 
 should be concerned, as such, to be found wise in our 
 generation — wise to win souls. 
 
 In respect to the classes of persons adverted to in 
 the preceding remarks, we are perhaps more at fault 
 in matters of church discipline, than in our preaching. 
 It is an essential principle of independency, that each 
 church is responsible for the purity of its own com- 
 munion. The church at Corinth, was addressed by 
 Paul as being thus responsible in the matter of the 
 " wicked person." The seven churches of Asia, are 
 addressed by our Lord in language which cannot be 
 otherwise understood. But the New Testament, 
 while so plain in its instructions on this point, leaves 
 the whole question, concerning the mode or form of 
 proceeding in regard to the admission of candidates 
 for communion, without any specific provision. That 
 the church should have some ground on which to be- 
 lieve that the persons desirous of being admitted to 
 membership with it are pious persons is manifest; 
 
180 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 but it is left to the great law of Christian benevolence 
 and sympathy to suggest, that the manner in which 
 such knowledge may be obtained, so as to expose the 
 feeling of the candidate to the least possible cost, is 
 that which should in each case be adopted. 
 
 Widely different from this strictly Christian method 
 of proceeding has been the practice of too many pro- 
 fessed independents. The one fixed species of ordeal, 
 to which our churches, or more frequently perhaps 
 our deacons, have been disposed to subject all persons 
 desirous of uniting with us, has operated in not a few 
 connexions as though devised by some special foe to 
 our body, for the purpose of letting all the ignorance 
 and coarseness of society into our churches, and pre- 
 cluding all its intelligence and delicacy from them. 
 In some cases it has been the rule that all candidates 
 for church-fellowship, whether male or female, should 
 make their appearance before the church, for the pur- 
 pose of stating the ground on which they hope that they 
 are Christians, being liable, at the same time, to answer 
 any interrogations which the brotherhood at large 
 might be disposed to put to them, for the purpose of 
 eliciting the required information. In some churches, 
 the parties are required to communicate statements to 
 the same effect in writing ; and in others, the deacons 
 erect themselves into a necessary tribunal for the 
 examination of such cases. 
 
 But concerning each of these methods of proceeding, 
 if made to be indispensable, I do not scruple to speak 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 181 
 
 as so much invention on the part of independents, and 
 as no part of independency rightly understood. Men, 
 in their inconsiderateness, or in "their wish to indulge 
 in some of the petty forms of authority, may give to 
 such practices the fixedness and importance of law ; 
 but when conformity to expedients of this nature is 
 made to be imperative, I do not merely say of them 
 that they are no part of the law of Christ, I must 
 condemn them as contrary to that law. The church 
 is empowered by that law to preserve her purity of 
 fellowship, but it is at the same time enjoined, that the 
 church should employ herself in relation to this object, 
 in common with every other, in the spirit of candour, 
 forbearance, meekness, and affection, — regulating her 
 course in regard to the admission of members to her 
 privileges, by the principle of avoiding, in the case of 
 persons desirous of such admission, all unnecessary 
 pain or difficulty. Even the practice of requiring 
 candidates to make their appearance at the church- 
 meeting at the time when their names are approved, 
 though very seemly and good in itself, I would rather 
 be understood to recommend than enforce. 
 
 In no connexion are our feelings more sensitive, or 
 more unlike, than in relation to this subject. The 
 sort of public recognition of our Christian profession 
 which usually takes place at such times, may be most 
 grateful to some minds, and most painful to others: 
 and the feeling of piety and of Christian affection may 
 
182 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 be fully as strong in the latter case as in the former. 
 In such matters we should be slow to arraign motives. 
 Not unfrequently, the feeling of difficulty in reference 
 to our usages in this respect, which I have heard im- 
 puted to the worst motives, I have known to proceed 
 from the best. We have no right to insist that our 
 own feelings should be, in this manner, as a law to the 
 feelings of other people, so as to conclude that 
 persons are necessarily to blame, if a course of pro- 
 ceeding which is pleasing to us, happens to be painful 
 to them. Our larger churches have generally a suffi- 
 cient number of wise men in them to discountenance 
 these petty assumptions, and to prevent the mischief 
 to which they would lead. But many of our people 
 have still to learn, in this respect, how to walk in the 
 liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free. We 
 should not do anything to confound the distinction 
 between the church and the world. But we sin against 
 Christ, against his church, and against humanity, 
 when we presume to set up our own devices in the man- 
 ner.of laws, so as to cause minds to remain as though 
 in the world, which might otherwise be among the 
 visible ornaments of the church. While resolved 
 not to open the doors of the church to the worldly, we 
 should be careful that we do not close them against 
 Christians. If the timid and susceptible, and persons 
 with the peculiar feelings often induced by education 
 and station, are to find their place among us more 
 
( 
 
 DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 183 
 
 frequently, it must be in part as the effect of a wiser 
 and more Christian-like adjustment of our practice in 
 this respect to the feeling of society. 
 
 Is there not also much room for improvement, as 
 regards our custom of restricting the ministerial and 
 pastoral offices in our large churches so commonly to 
 one person? If it be not true, as alleged by some, 
 that in the primitive times no church was deemed 
 properly constituted without a plurality of pastors, it is 
 a remarkable fact, that the usage of that age in this 
 respect, so far as we have been made incidentally 
 acquainted with it, is found to be uniformly of that 
 order. Of course, it does not follow because these 
 precedents all happen to look one way, that they 
 were designed to constitute a law. Had that been 
 intended, the law would have been declared. Were 
 we more fully informed concerning the customs of 
 those times, we should possibly become acquainted 
 with facts which would shew that though a plurality of 
 ministers, for the purposes of ruling and teaching, was 
 very common in the churches of that age, the general 
 practice on this point was not invariable. But while 
 this possibility should suffice, in the absence of more 
 direct instruction, to prevent our insisting that the 
 practice which obtained in some churches, was meant 
 to be as a law to all, the existence of such a practice 
 in all the churches whose usage in this respect has 
 become known to us, is a remarkable fact, and enough 
 
184 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 to justify suspicion as to the wisdom of our own 
 prevalent usage. 
 
 In general, we restrict the oversight of our churches 
 to one man ; and whatever variety of gifts may belong 
 to our pastors, we have one fixed system of duties to 
 which they must be alike conformed. Is not this 
 against nature ? Can it be reasonably expected that 
 it should work well ? Picture to your mind a re- 
 spectable dissenting church, capable of securing the 
 services of one of our most able ministers. It has 
 such a minister. He is expected to preach three times 
 every week, from year to year, and from one seven 
 years to another, on the same general subject, before 
 the same people, and always more or less with a new 
 force and freshness of matter and illustration. He is 
 not only the one preacher, he is the one pastor, and 
 is expected to know his people, to visit them — all of 
 them, however numerous his charge, rich and poor, 
 in sickness and in health. In proportion as such a 
 man is capable of preaching effectually at home, are 
 the calls made upon him to preach from home ; in 
 proportion as he is capable of giving a wise impulse 
 to the efforts of his own people in the cause of re- 
 ligion, education, and charity, is the claim made upon 
 him to give portions of his time and thought in aid of 
 the same objects as prosecuted in other forms, or upon 
 a larger scale, elsewhere. The more his charge is 
 found to exceed his utmost power of oversight, the 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 185 
 
 more loud are the calls of the public, if he will listen 
 to them, that would divert his attention from it. Of 
 such a man it is farther expected that he should be a 
 scholar ; that his habits should be such as to enable 
 him to retain his acquisitions, and to keep his mind 
 generally up to the level of the intelligence around 
 him. If need be, he will be expected to shew that he 
 can make use of his acquisitions in the way of author- 
 ship, and in a manner not to be discreditable to the 
 educated who recognise him as their teacher. In the 
 train of all this, comes the domestic character of this 
 minister. He is a husband and a father; he has 
 duties of a social, moral, and religious character to 
 discharge toward his own household. He must owe no 
 man anything. His house must be the home of the 
 orderly, the creditable, the Christian-like. The con- 
 trary of this would be felt as a disgrace and a calamity. 
 Now, I am not aware that there is anything ex- 
 aggerated in this representation. No man, perhaps, 
 on having all these points distinctly put to him, would 
 be prepared deliberately to say, that it is reasonable 
 to expect all this from any pastor. But the working 
 of our system, is such as to cause many a pastor to 
 feel, that service to something like this amount, is in 
 effect regarded as incumbent upon him. If wanting 
 in respect to any of these things, he has those about 
 him who will be observant, and complain. He finds 
 that his efficiency as a preacher, is not allowed to 
 make amends for his defects as a pastor ; and he well 
 
186 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 knows that his assiduity as a pastor, would not be 
 found to compensate for his ineffectiveness as a public 
 teacher. He is left at liberty to serve the public, but he 
 knows that his so doing must not be pleaded in excuse 
 of any neglect in regard to supposed duty toward his 
 church, his congregation, or his household. He may 
 cultivate the habits of a student, and may shew skill 
 in using the press in the cause of religion and 
 humanity ; but these things, peculiar as they may be 
 in a great measure to himself, must not be thought of 
 as a reason for his not doing every other thing just in 
 the manner in which every one else does it. 
 
 In this manner do w r e insist that our pastors shall 
 be good at everything, as though for the purpose of 
 preventing their being excellent in anything. The 
 gifts bestowed upon them by the Head of the Church 
 differ greatly from each other. But our custom is, to 
 do what in us lies toward making each man the exact 
 counterpart of his fellows, by rigidly prescribing the 
 same round of service to them all, and by taking care 
 to require that so much shall be done, as to leave to 
 no man the possibility of doing anything well. It 
 ought not to require any elaborate reasoning to satisfy 
 us that this course of proceeding is most unnatural, 
 and that the loss and mischief of it must be very great. 
 The disposition of one man is toward reading and 
 meditation ; while that of another is toward action, 
 and an immediate agency in public affairs. One is 
 distinguished by an aptness to teach ; another by the 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 187 
 
 power to rule well, or to speak the word in season to 
 him that is weary. Why should this perpetual di- 
 versity in the gifts of God, be counted by our system 
 as nothing ; or rather, why should our system be so 
 administered, as to seem to say that this variety of 
 endowment is an evil to be repressed, and not a good 
 to be used in the exercise of a Christian wisdom ? 
 Our manner is, to tell such men that it matters not 
 what their particular aptitudes may be ; if they take 
 their place among us, they must be content to become 
 the same men of all- work with their brethren. Many 
 bow their neck to this yoke very reluctantly. Some 
 are strong enough to evade it. But resistance, in the 
 present state of things, is attended with much that is 
 painful, in common with submission. 
 
 In what manner may we hope to see reform in this 
 particular brought about, without bringing other evils 
 along with it ? In our smaller churches, where the 
 support of more than one minister is impracticable, 
 much might be done, if the people generally could be 
 taught to be more considerate in their demands on 
 the time of a minister, in all those cases in which there 
 is reason to believe that it is well employed when left 
 at his disposal. The more intelligent part of the 
 congregation might do much to promote such con- 
 sideration among the less reflecting, by uniformly 
 putting their discountenance on that form of religious 
 selfishness, which knows not how to submit to loss, 
 even in the shape of attention from a minister, for the 
 
188 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 public good. It is too much to expect that the com- 
 paratively untaught and unthinking will become wise 
 of themselves in such matters ; and there is often a 
 feeling of delicacy, which prevents a minister from 
 saying all that he might say on a point relating to his 
 personal feelings; but men of sense and character 
 always have their influence over the less intelligent 
 about them, and they should employ that influence in 
 the protection of a minister who is endeavouring to 
 serve God after his own manner, and who, in so doing, 
 is manifestly serving him with his best. 
 
 In churches which are capable of supporting more 
 than one minister, the great remedy would seem to 
 be a co-pastor, or an assistant minister. Every one 
 knows that the prejudice against this expedient is very 
 strong amongst congregationalists. Sometimes this 
 repugnance rests mainly with the people, sometimes 
 with the minister. In the case of ministers and 
 people, the apprehension seems to be that favouritism 
 and discord would probably result from such an 
 arrangement. But if we do not possess sufficient 
 wisdom and self-government to provide against such 
 evils, it is indeed time we should beseech the Head of 
 the Church to bestow upon us the improvement 
 necessary to that end. Instances may no doubt be 
 adduced, in which such conjoint authority or labour 
 has not been found to work harmoniously ; but in 
 other instances the result has t>een in every way 
 pleasing ; and my deep conviction is, that in order to 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 189 
 
 its being generally successful, nothing more is needed 
 than that some of our leading churches should resolve 
 to adopt it, and to make it succeed. To speak of 
 one man as being the pastor of a church including 
 four, six, or eight hundred members, and of a con- 
 gregation making much more than double that num- 
 ber of persons, is assuredly preposterous. The pastoral 
 duty of such a minister must necessarily be left in 
 much, very much the greater part, undone ; and be 
 devolved, if performed in any shape, on a number of 
 deacons, who thus become co-pastors in every respeci 
 except that they may not be preachers. In such a 
 case, how much more effectually might a popular 
 preacher be aided by an assistant minister of judicious 
 pastoral habits. Surely there are many good men 
 who might be highly useful in this latter form, who 
 are not competent to sustain an interest as preachers 
 if left to rest wholly upon their ability in that capacity. 
 In many cases, how much of advantage might result 
 to the students in our colleges, if they were encouraged 
 to pass the first year or two after leaving their studies, 
 in the discharge of the limited duties of assistant 
 minister with some experienced pastor, and in con- 
 nexion with some well ordered church. Many of our 
 young ministers feel greatly the want of some tran- 
 sition connexion of this kind ; and we may be sure that 
 those among them who feel their need of it the least, 
 need it the most. It is not necessary that such 
 arrangements should be made otherwise than from 
 
190 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 year to year, and they might surely be so made in 
 other respects, as to prove highly advantageous both 
 to the youth and age of our ministry, as well as to our 
 churches. 
 
 My own charge is not of such an extent as to make 
 it strictly necessary, on that account, that I should 
 myself act upon this counsel which I thus venture to 
 give to others, nor is there anything in my years or state 
 of health to impose such an obligation upon me. But 
 I have been at some pains to prevail on my people to 
 make an experiment of this kind ; it having been my 
 practice for now three times seven years to live a good 
 deal in defiance of our system in this respect, attend- 
 ing carefully to the sick and afflicted of my flock, and 
 to others as I have had opportunity, but apportioning 
 my time to duties according to my conscience, and 
 according to such aptitude as God may have given 
 me to serve him in some ways more than in others. 
 
 We see, at this moment, some of our best men, not 
 only drooping, but coming prematurely to the end of 
 their course, from the manifest want of such lightening 
 of the burden which has pressed upon them as might 
 have been realized by some arrangement of the nature 
 which I now take upon me to press on the attention 
 of my brethren, and on the attention of the churches. 
 Nor is this all : the system which compels even our 
 best men to be so constantly engaged in public 
 services, and to so great an extent in the discharge of 
 comparatively petty duties, dooms even their mind to 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 191 
 
 a much lower state of culture than is expedient, and 
 causes them to leave the world without bequeathing 
 to the literature of our churches and of our common 
 country those works of erudition, genius, and piety, 
 which might serve to give to the eminent spirits of 
 our own time no unhonoured place with the great 
 fathers of nonconformity. My fear is, that the chief 
 impediments in the way of improvement in this re- 
 spect are jealousy and selfishness : — jealousy, on the 
 part of ministers, who allow themselves to be dis- 
 turbed with the idea of possible ministerial rivalry ; 
 and selfishness, on the part of our churches, who are 
 bent on securing as much personal benefit as possible 
 from a favourite minister. Bear with me in this 
 plain speaking — it is the language of an earnest affec- 
 tion, and not of unkindness. My mind cannot escape 
 from the conviction that we greatly need reform in 
 this respect ; and I am constrained, accordingly, to 
 urge it, and to pray for it. 
 
 If there has ever been a period in which this better 
 husbandry of the higher order of ability among us has 
 been important, that period is the present. Romanism 
 is availing itself of the press in a degree unprece- 
 dented since the age of the Reformation. Oxford, 
 and the church of England, have become imbued, to an 
 alarming extent, with the worst principles and tenden- 
 cies of the papal system. Be it remembered, too, that 
 the controversy which is thus forced upon us, in place 
 of being the superficial, or purely absurd thing, which 
 many persons consider it to be, is one having its root 
 
192 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 in all science and in all learning. Judging from pre- 
 sent appearances, it is not from episcopalians that any 
 effectual resistance to those corrupt forms of Chris- 
 tianity can be expected ; and if the conflict on the 
 side of genuine protestantism should be found to 
 devolve mainly upon congregationalists and presbyte- 
 rians, are we in a condition to sustain such respon- 
 sibilities ? My impression is, that our confidence on 
 this point should be small, until the improved notions 
 among our churches, in regard to the education proper 
 to our ministers, shall have become much more im- 
 proved ; and until we shall have become ashamed of 
 the usage which obliges our best men to be so 
 much men of action as to be almost strangers to me- 
 ditative labour, and to devote so much of their time 
 to the discharge of a multitude of ordinary duties, 
 as to be of necessity only very partially competent 
 to the more weighty duties that may devolve upon 
 them. 
 
 May I venture to touch on one other topic, even 
 more tender, perhaps, than the former — viz., the dis- 
 countenance often shewn by our ministers to medi- 
 tated attempts with a view to increase the number of 
 our chapels in towns, where, in the judgment of 
 nearly all persons except themselves, the extent of 
 the population has been such as to render efforts of 
 that kind highly expedient. Through deference to 
 feelings of this nature, some of our large cities have 
 been almost lost to independency, the ground, upon 
 which we have not deemed it proper to enter, being 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 193 
 
 soon taken possession of by the established church, or 
 by other sects. Time has thus been made to shew, 
 that the objections which have been allowed to para- 
 lyse our purposes, in such instances, were as wanting 
 in policy as in magnanimity. We know that one 
 interest having strength, is better than two without 
 strength. But it must not be supposed that fault in 
 this shape is obviated by a saying of that sort. As a 
 denomination, we must improve in this respect, if we 
 do not mean to suffer from such deficiency in the 
 future, even more than we have suffered from it in 
 the past. 
 
 But concerned as we are that our unendowed 
 Christianity should be found in alliance with every- 
 thing which may contribute to its social reputation 
 and power, it must be plain that the great vocation of 
 Congregationalism in these kingdoms, is at present, and 
 is likely long to be, to the mass of the people. We 
 need that our best talent should be employed more 
 than it has been in the way most natural to it. But 
 we need also that our general talent should be more 
 cultivated, with a view to adaptation to the precise 
 complexion of mind with which we have to deal in the 
 middle, but especially in the lower or working classes 
 of society. We must not expect to fill our proper 
 place, in connexion with general society, without 
 learning, and the usual accompaniments of learning ; 
 but as little must we expect to produce a salutary 
 impression on the humbler classes of the community, 
 
 K 
 
194 SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING 
 
 without studying to understand the special influences 
 to which their minds are exposed, and care to adapt 
 our matter and mode of instruction to the nature of 
 those influences. 
 
 The popular mind to which methodism addressed 
 itself, a century ago, is no longer the popular mind of 
 England. The preaching which produced such 
 effects then, was adapted to those times, but would be 
 greatly wanting in adaptation to our own. It com- 
 mended itself to a people who believed that they were 
 sent into the world to be obedient — obedient to their 
 betters, obedient to the laws, and to Christianity, in 
 some sort, as being a part of those laws. But the 
 modern preacher has another kind of world about him. 
 He has to begin, unhappily, so far as it respects great 
 numbers, at the beginning, by making plain the credi- 
 bility of the gospel ; and if successful on that point, 
 he has to work his way toward his ultimate object, 
 amidst the questionings of minds which know little of 
 submission to authority in any form, and which are 
 rather tutored to pride themselves in a spirit of oppo- 
 sition, to almost everything which happens to be re- 
 ceived and established. Speaking generally,- these 
 men have little of the submission, and as little of the 
 dullness which belonged to the same class a century 
 since. 
 
 It should never be forgotten that the Christian 
 preacher is not now the only preacher. The press 
 has become the rival of the pulpit. Every class has 
 
DENOMINATIONAL IMPROVEMENT. 195 
 
 its literature ; every factory loft has become a species 
 of reading room ; and the lower we descend in our 
 analysis of the literary products of the age, the more 
 stimulating and deleterious do we find them. The 
 man of the pulpit, who is not deeply alive to the force 
 of this antagonism of the press, is not fit for his voca- 
 tion. Can a preacher hope to minister effectually to 
 minds thus diseased without some closeness of study, 
 in order to understand a malady in its nature so 
 peculiar, so complex, so deeply seated, and fed so 
 constantly from so many sources ? The impassioned 
 appeals of early methodism, and the formal essay of 
 the parish minister, would be alike without effect on 
 such minds. Nor is the preaching of evangelical 
 divines, whether in the established church or among 
 ourselves, so wisely adjusted to this end as it might 
 be. The great requisite is, under God, that we 
 should know our subject well — the evidence and 
 reason of it ; that, as the effect of our familiarity with 
 it, we should be capable of making it plain, and 
 of giving it force ; and of doing this in such language 
 as men of education may approve, and which no man 
 may fail to understand. 
 
 Of course our general ministry must not be allowed 
 to lose its suitableness to our usual auditory, for the 
 sake of the classes alluded to ; but it is, at the same 
 time, important that the truth should be often so pre- 
 sented as to obviate the objections of such minds, and 
 that our own people should be made familiar with 
 
196 SUGGESTIONS, ETC. 
 
 the best mode of meeting such difficulties, though 
 the j may never have occurred as difficulties to their 
 own mind. The design of pulpit instruction is to fit 
 men for enjoyment, by fitting them for usefulness. 
 Perhaps one of the best modes in which our pastors 
 might endeavour to benefit the working classes, would 
 be to obtain the loan of some public building, not 
 appropriated strictly to religious meetings, for the 
 purpose of delivering short courses of lectures espe- 
 cially to those classes. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 T. C. Savill, Printer, 107, St. Martin's Lane. 
 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF JOHN DE 
 WYCLIFFE, D.D., illustrated principally from his unpublished 
 Manuscripts, with a Preliminary View of the Papal System, and of 
 the state of the Protestant Doctrine in Europe, to the commence- 
 ment of the Fourteenth Century. With a finely engraved Portrait, 
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2 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
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 A TRANSLATION of the TRIALOGUS of JOHN 
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 Illustrative Notes. 1 vol. 8vo.