what religion it should eftablish, it continues
fo ftill." And the fame learned author, who
is remarkable for perfpicuity and ftrength
of argument, further fays; "Nothing,
therefore, can be more unjust or impertinent,
than those fuggeftions, that upon my princi-
ples, popery will be the true religion in
Spain, prefbytery in Scotland, and Mahome-
tifm in Turkey. Thefe are, indeed, the eftab-
lished religions in thofe places; but not one
jot the more true for being established. To
the laws establishing religion, civil obedience
is due, in the fame measures and under the
fame referves in Spain, as in England; but
affent of judgment against private convic-
tions is no part of the obligations arifing
from the establishment in either."

Changes in fucceffion of the

ountry.

Thus did our British ancestors adopt for religion in this fome centuries the Druidical inftitutions; after that, they embraced the Chriftian religion, under king Lucius, which was preached to them by St. Damianus, fent hither from Rome for that purpose by St. Eleutherius; and when the Saxons conquered the island, a part of the community retired into the mountains of Wales, to preferve their liberties and religion from the innovations and en

Rogers's Vindication, p. 208.

croachments.

The

croachments of their new mafters.
Saxons, however, continued for many years
to keep up the religious establishment in the
community, which they had brought with
them out of Germany. About four hundred
years after the preaching of St. Damianus,
the English Saxons, who then properly were
the community or political fociety of this
country, were converted to christianity by
St. Auguftine and his fellow preachers, fent
alfo for this purpose from Rome by St.
Gregory the Great. From this time then,
until the reformation, the majority of this
community adopted the Roman Catholic re-
ligion, and made it the established religion of
the country.

When I speak of the adoption of religion either by one or more individuals, I wish ever to be understood to speak of it, as of the free act of a free agent. True it is, that our

bleffed Redeemer came upon earth to establifh the Christian religion; and his injunction to mankind to fubmit to and adopt it is mandatory and unexceptionable; but then it is equally true, that the act of submission to, and adoption of it, muft neceffarily be the free and voluntary act of the individual. It was by preaching, that our bleffed Lord himself and his apoftles and their fucceffors propagated

G 3

Original conftitutional connection of church and State.

gated and established the Christian religion: the effects of preaching are perfuafion and conviction; and thefe effentially prefuppofe the freedom of the perfon to be perfuaded and convinced. Perfuafion and conviction formally exclude every idea of neceffity and compulfion.

From the firft formation of man to the prefent hour, the following faying of dean Tucker was equally true: «No human authority ought to compel man to furrender to any one his right of thinking and judging for himfelf in the affairs of religion, because this is a perfonal thing between God and his confcience, and he can neither be faved nor damned by proxy."

The very earliest traces of our constitution befpeak its interwoven texture of church with ftate. Upon the avowed affumption, that religion generally promotes morality, our ancestors wifely determined, that a religious eftablishment fhould be fanctioned by the community, and the legal establishment of it should form an effential part of the English conftitution. Now although government, as we have before seen, be effential to

* Vid. Religious Intolerance no part of the general plan, either of the Mofaic or Chriftian Dispensation, by Jof, Tucker, D. D. Dean of Glouc, 1774•

fociety,

fociety, yet the particular form of government, which each particular fociety should adopt, was left to the free option of the fociety, and neceffarily remains open to whatever changes or improvements the fame fociety fhall think proper, convenient, and neceffary, from time to time to introduce. So although a religious establishment be effential to the English conftitution, yet the particular form of that establishment muft as neceffarily remain open to the general fenfe and option of the community, as the freedom of each individual's intercourse and communication with his creator muft for ever rea main perfectly uncontrouled. Without entering, therefore, into any polemical controverfy or dispute about the particular tenets, doctrines, or principles of what once was, or what now is the religion fanctioned by the law of England, whatever my own religious opinion or belief may be, I am bound by principle to allow to my neighbour the fame liberty and right of following the dictates of his conscience, which I claim to myself; and whatever that mode of worship may be, in the free and confcientious adoption of which the majority fhall concur, the community hath the unimpeachable right of countenancing and fupporting it by civil fanctions, or, in other G4 words,

The right of a community to

give civil fanction to what

ever they concur in.

The effects of
a civil eftablifh-
ent merely
civil.

1

words, of making it the established religion of the country; for the adoption of a particular church establishment by the state has precisely the fame binding obligation upon the community, as the enacting any other civil regulation or ordinance whatsoever; but *«a religious establishment is no part of Christianity, it is only the means of inculcating it."

The civil establishment of religion in a country cannot by poffibility operate any effect upon the nature or truth of the religion itself; thus the Prefbyterian religion in England, where it has no civil establishment, is one and the fame religion as it is in Scotland, where it is the established religion of the country. The Roman Catholic religion is one' and the fame, fince it hath ceased to be the established religion of this country, as it was, whilft it was fanctioned and established by the law of the land. The effects of this civil fanction or establishment are neceffarily of a mere civil nature; thus are the minifters of the established religion fupported, maintained, and dignified by the state; they form a feparate body from the laity; are bound by