THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Church State A CHRISTIAN Church is, according to its idea, a spiritual The body only, not having necessarily any temporal interests and the whatever. It may exist alike essentially under every ideally possible form of goverment, and in every stage of social considered. civilisation. Its idea is neither in opposition to, nor in conjunction with, any body politic. Its contrary is the worldly, its aim the unworldly. It asks nothing of this world for its members as Christians which they are not already entitled to as men. To be allowed to live and grow the right of all creatures of GOD is its only petition. And this even simply on the ground that there is nothing in its constitution or its aims which is inconsistent with the legitimate interests of any human government. Though specially a spiritual society a Christian Church is no mystery. Publicity is a necessary means and condition of its growth. Its element is light-its object to enlighten. Its distinctive office is not to monopolise truth, but to communicate it: not so to guard a revelation as to conceal it, but to perpetuate by proclaiming it. It admits every one, without reference to worldly distinctions of any kind, into membership with itself, provided only that they will profess themselves qualified morally according to certain publicly prescribed and foreknown conditions. Its members are not desirous of differing visibly from the society by which they are surrounded otherwise than by an obvious superiority of character; and need to be recognised solely by their more exemplary performance of their duties as citizens or as subjects. So far indeed from a Christian Church being in any way opposed to the interests of a State, it may be rather said that it is a corrective compensating counter-agency to the necessary defects and evils of a merely political community. It is the humanising elevating element in the composition of all societies equally, strengthening and extending and multiplying their bonds of union at the same time that it is executing purposes peculiarly its own. But the ideal form is not that which can be fully realised in any scheme of worldly means. Though a Church is ideally independent for the character of its constitution on place or government, yet in the imperfect condition of things human, a particular Church cannot long be uninfluenced by political relations; nor when it has grown into strength as a worldly society can one Church be long more than co-extensive with one political community. But this does not arise from anything necessarily connected with the constitution of the Church so much as from the necessary constitution of the state. There are certain : principles which must be observed in order to the preservation and improvement of civilised society, which render it almost imperative for the State to interfere with a Church under some accidents of its existence. But this interference need not be in any way hostile to the true interests of the Church for there is no necessary opposition between their several interests and aims. On the contrary, perhaps at the very outset of any discussion concerning the aim and interests of a National Church, it should be distinctly stated that there is rather a natural alliance than a necessary antipathy between a Christian Church and a political community. Unquestionably social union, with its necessary accompaniment of a legislative administration, is a design of GOD. Man is as clearly made for incorporation into societies as he is for individual life; and is as much the subject of social as of personal responsibilities. A man can become full-grown only through sympathy and association with his brother men. And in order to prevent the evils to which such associations incidentally give rise, and to extract from them the greatest good, an efficient Government and Code of Law are necessary; necessary not as an evil, but as a means of effecting a good not otherwise attainable: a provision for doing that which individual men could not do by themselves. For be it remembered that new power is generated by union, a power shared by the individual as well as resulting to the body. For men do not merely gain the benefit of the sum of the powers of the individual members |