Church; and which it might escape, or mitigate, by adopting that Polity more cordially.

1098. It is, of course, not meant that such education should be forced upon the people; but that Education, according to the Doctrine of the Established Church, should be offered to all who are willing to receive it. Without some provision for doing this, the National Church is, as we have said, incompletely established. The existence of a large Body of Dissenters, by no means diminishes the importance of making such a provision. The State, regarding the Church as the Teacher of Truth, will naturally, by means of the Church, encourage and facilitate the passage of men from Error to Truth. In the eyes of the friends of the Established Church, it must be a national benefit, when men are converted from Dissent to the Church. Every Community of Christians has, by its Christian Principles, a Missionary character (743). It must endeavour to extend true Religion to those whom it can reach. And the State, if it fully adopts and establishes the Church, must also partake in this Missionary character; and must look upon the Teachers of the Church, not only as the Religious Ministers for those who do belong to it but as Home Missionaries to those who do not.

1099. But though the consistency of the State, which has adopted the Established Church as the Teacher of the Truth, requires this; it may often be difficult for the Government to pursue this course. For this adoption of the Established Church, which we suppose to take place on the part of the Nation, may have been dissented from by a part of the Natior; as has been the case in England. And this being the case, any public measures which are requisite, in order to carry into effect the complete Polity of an Established Church, under the successive circumstances of an empire growing in population and extent, may be thwarted by the imperfect na

tional unity of sentiment on the subject. In the English Constitution, the Government cannot carry into effect any course of policy, without having with it, in a large degree, the concurrence of the Nation. And the enemies of the Established Church, acting through the forms of the Constitution, may be powerful enough to prevent the organization of the Church from growing and expanding, so as to continue commensurable with the growth of the nation and of the empire.

1100. The success of such a course of opposition may be looked upon as, to a certain extent, tending to disestablish the Church. If the Governors are really friends of and believers in the Established Church, they will oppose themselves to such a course of action. They will, of course, follow, with cordial reverence, the guidance of the Constitution, when it forbids them to act for the nation without the assent of the nation; but thinking the Established Church to be no less a blessing to the Country than the Political Constitution is, they will never, through indif ference or ignorance, estimate too low or represent too feebly that portion of the National Sentiment which is on the side of the Established Church. The Polity of an Established Church requires to be administered in a different spirit frem the Polity of the mere Protection of Religious Communities. Every State act which is conceived in the spirit of protecting all religions alike, is a step from Establishment to mere Protection. It is not that, in the Polity of an Established Church, nothing is to be done for Dissenters, by the State. They may receive from it, not only full Protection, but even such Assistance, as may make their influence upon the population more beneficial than it would otherwise be. such assistance is given as an act of Prudence: the assistance given to the Established Church is given as an act of Wisdom; for it is given for the support

But

of the Truth. The policy of Government ought not to consist entirely of acts of prudence, with no acts of wisdom. If the Polity of an Established Church is to be upheld, there ought to be, corresponding with every State act of bounty or favour to Dissenters, some State act recognizing the Rights, and protecting the means of action, of the Church.

1101. It may happen that the Governors of a Country are led, by their views of religious Truth and sound Policy, to establish, in it, the Church to which belongs the smaller part of the population. If they find that they and those who are of their Church, though few in number, are, by the possession of property in the country, and by their social and jural superiority, as well as by their possession of religious Truth, the natural and inevitable directors and leaders of the country, it does not appear how they can rightly shrink from the Duty of establishing and promoting true Religion. They must consider themselves as the natural instructors of the Country. They see that they are appointed to introduce into it Örder and Law; and they may naturally think themselves appointed to introduce into it true Religion also. They may very properly trust to the superiority of Truth over Falsehood; and may hope to see the Established Church draw into its fold the extraneous population, in proportion as civilisation and knowledge extend among them.

1102. When the Governors of a State have established, in any portion of it, the Church of the Minority, in the belief of its being the best form of Religion; their Polity is very incomplete, if they do not constantly aim, by education and otherwise, at such an extension of the Church. The neglect of this Duty will bring its own punishment. For instance: if some rival sect obtain a lasting hold upon the population, and convert the greater part of them into Dissenters; the position of the Established

Church is full of difficulty: for the general discontent at the exclusions which the preservation of the Established Church requires, and at its imperfect nationality, will grow with the growth of the national intelligence and activity. The difficulty is much increased if the Dissenters be adherents of a Polity of Spiritual Domination; and hence, subject to an extra-national Head. This circumstance, however, does not diminish, but rather increases the value of the Established Church in such a Country; as an anchor both of religious truth, and of national govern

ment.

1103. A State has, in some cases, different Churches established in different parts of its Empire; as the Anglican Church is established in England and the Presbyterian Church is established in Scotland. This is not inconsistent with the principle of an Established Church, if there be no fundamental Error held by any of such Churches; for then, they may be considered by the State as teaching the Truth under different forms, and in different ways. But in cases in which a State maintains a Religion which it believes to be false, its Polity is no longer Establishment, it is mere Protection.

1104. If it be asked, who is to judge for the State, what is true in Religion, and what is false ; we have already answered this question, in speaking of the Moral Character of the State (865). We have there stated that the Governors of the State, who act for it, also judge for it, in the manner and degree which the Constitution directs. They have their own convictions of religious Truth; and to these they must wish the expressions of belief, on the part of the State to conform, but still, in such a manner that they shall express belief on the part of the State, and not merely the belief of an individual. The expressions of the belief of the State must be the acts of a continued existence. For instance;

if the Governors of the State, and of the Established Church, find that the Church has fallen into grave religious and political Errors; as for instance, has been led to assert the lawfulness of false oaths; or the authority of an extra-national Sovereign: the Governors may undertake a Reformation of the Church. But they must, if possible, effect the Reformation by constitutional means. The Articles which are to define the Belief, and the Rules which are to determine the Organization, of the Reformed Church, must be decreed by the proper legislative Authorities, in the Church, and in the State. Hence the Governors of the State may often be compelled to make their public acts hang far behind their private convictions. The belief of the nation may change; but it cannot change all at once; and the Governors must not make the nation adopt a change of belief, merely because they themselves have changed. The Governors, in order to be able to make any great change for the nation, must put themselves in the condition of being able to make it with the nation.

1105. When Dissent has a hold upon any considerable portion of the population, the struggle between Churchmen and Dissenters will make its way into all parts of the nation; and will combine with any other political contests which may be going on; for instance, with the great and constant struggle between the Conservative and the Movement Party, of which we have already spoken (947). And it is a misfortune for the Established Church, that the cause of Freedom and Self-government, always very attractive and powerful names, appears, to a common glance, to be the cause of the Dissenters. Dissenters are naturally of the Movement party, in all measures in which the Church is concerned; and these measures, even if this be all, are no small part of the Polity of the State. And hence, again,