They take this tenet of the head and heart, not from the great name
which it immediately bears, nor from the greater from whence it is
derived; but from that which alone can give true weight and sanction
to any learned opinion, the common nature and common relation of men.
Persuaded that all things ought to be done with reference, and referring
all to the point of reference to which all should be directed, they
think themselves bound, not only as individuals in the sanctuary of the
heart, or as congregated in that personal capacity, to renew the memory
of their high origin and caste; but also in their corporate character
to perform their national homage to the institutor, and author, and
protector of civil society; without which civil society man could not by
any possibility arrive at the perfection of which his nature is capable,
nor even make a remote and faint approach to it. They conceive that
He who gave our nature to be perfected by our virtue, willed also the
necessary means of its perfection.--He willed therefore the state--He
willed its connection with the source and original archetype of all
perfection. They who are convinced of this his will, what is the law
of laws, and the sovereign of sovereigns, cannot think it reprehensible
that this our corporate fealty and homage, that this our recognition
of a signiory paramount, I had almost said this oblation of the state
itself, as a worthy offering on the high altar of universal praise,
should be performed as all public, solemn acts are performed, in
buildings, in music, in decoration, in speech, in the dignity of
persons, according to the customs of mankind, taught by their nature;
that is, with modest splendour and unassuming state, with mild majesty
and sober pomp. For those purposes they think some part of the wealth
of the country is as usefully employed as it can be, in fomenting the
luxury of individuals. It is the public ornament. It is the public
consolation. It nourishes the public hope. The poorest man finds his own
importance and dignity in it, whilst the wealth and pride of individuals
at every moment makes the man of humble rank and fortune sensible of his
inferiority, and degrades and vilifies his condition. It is for the man
in humble life, and to raise his nature, and to put him in mind of a
state in which the privileges of opulence will cease, when he will be
equal by nature, and may be more than equal by virtue, that this portion
of the general wealth of his country is employed and sanctified.
I assure you I do not aim at singularity. I give you opinions which have
been accepted amongst us, from very early times to this moment, with a
continued and general approbation, and which indeed are so worked into
my mind, that I am unable to distinguish what I have learned from others
from the results of my own meditation.
It is on some such principles that the majority of the people of
England, far from thinking a religious national establishment unlawful,
hardly think it lawful to be without one. In France you are wholly
mistaken if you do not believe us above all other things attached to it,
and beyond all other nations; and when this people has acted unwisely
and unjustifiably in its favour (as in some instances they have done
most certainly) in their very errors you will at least discover their
zeal.
This principle runs through the whole system of their polity. They do
not consider their church establishment as convenient, but as essential
to their state; not as a thing heterogeneous and inseparable; something
added for accommodation; what they may either keep or lay aside,
according to their temporary ideas of convenience. They consider it as
the foundation of their whole constitution, with which, and with every
part of which, it holds an indissoluble union. Church and state are
ideas inseparable in their minds, and scarcely is the one ever mentioned
without mentioning the other.
(In preparing these pages for publication, the selector has discovered
how unconsciously he was indebted to the intellectual inspiration of
Burke, in the following extract:--
"Founded in Christ, and by Apostles form'd,
Glory of England! oh, my Mother Church,
Hoary with time, but all untouched in creed,
Firm to thy Master, by as fond a grasp
Of faith as Luther, with his free-born mind
Clung to Emmanuel,--doth thy soul remain.
But yet around Thee scowls a fierce array
Of Foes and Falsehoods; must'ring each their powers,
Triumphantly. And well may thoughtful Hearts
Heave with foreboding swell and heavy fears,
To mark, how mad opinion doth infect
Thy children; how thine apostolic claims
And love maternal are regarded now,
By creedless Vanity, or careless Vice.
For time there was, when peerless Hooker wrote,
And deep-soul'd Bacon taught the world to think,
When thou wert paramount,--thy cause sublime!
And in THY life, all Polity and Powers
The throne securing, or in law enshrined,
With all estates our balanced Realm contains,
In thee supreme, a master-virtue own'd
And honour'd. Church and State could then co-work,
Like soul and body in one breathing Form
Distinct, but undivided; each with rule
Essential to the kingdom's healthful frame,
Yet BOTH, in unity august and good
Together, under Christ their living Head,
A hallow'd commonwealth of powers achieved.
But now, in evil times, sectarian Will
Would split the Body, and to sects reduce
Our sainted Mother of th'imperial Isles,
Which have for ages from Her bosom drank
Those truths immortal, Life and Conscience need.
But never may the rude assault of hearts
Self-blinded, or the autocratic pride
Of Reason, by no hallowing faith subdued,
One lock of glory from Her rev'rend head
Succeed in tearing: Love, and Awe, and Truth
Her doctrines preach, with apostolic force:
Her creed is Unity, her head is Christ,
Her Forms primeval, and her Creed divine,
And Catholic, that crowning name she wears."
"Luther," 6th edition 1852.)