openly relinquished, by his successors in the apostolic chair* " Those who have the happiness to believe that all the events in the world are under the control of Divine Providence, will be slow to think that any great and extensive evil has been permitted to exist without some portion of good inseparably connected with it. That this has been the case with respect to the great ecclesiastical usurpation of the church of Rome, I cannot entertain a doubt. This subject has been very ably treated by a learned writer, who has attained high distinction as well in the political as in the literary world; and the elegance and beauty of whose style is so captivating, that it is impossible to peruse his works without great pleasure, even when we may happen not to be able to coincide with his opinions †. M. Guizot, after making a just distinction between (what have been too often confounded) Christianity and the church, the essence of the former being a common belief, and common feelings and sentiments, and the latter consisting of an organized system of ecclesiastical authority, proceeds to state that he considers the church as the human means of the preservation of Christianity in the world. His views are clearly expressed in the following words: "S'il n'eût pas été une église, je ne sais ce qui en serait avenu au milieu de la chute de l'empire romain. Je me renferme dans les considérations purement humaines; je mets du côté tout élément étranger aux conséquences naturelles des faits naturels: si le christianisme n'eût été, * History of England, chap. xiii. vol. ii. p. 296, 8vo ed. comme dans les premiers temps, qu'une croyance, un sentiment, une conviction individuelle, on peut croire qu'il aurait succombé au milieu de la dissolution de l'empire et de l'invasion des barbares. Il a succombé plus tard, en Asie et dans tout le nord de l'Afrique, sous une invasion de la même nature, sous l'invasion des barbares mussulmans; il a succombé alors, quoiqu'il fût à l'état d'institution, d'église constituée. À bien plus forte raison le même fait aurait pu arriver au moment de la chute de l'empire romain. Il n'y avoit alors aucun des moyens par lesquels aujourd'hui les influences morales s'établissent, ou résistent indépendamment des institutions, aucun des moyens par lesquels une pure vérité, une pure idée acquiert une empire sur les esprits, gouverne les actions, détermine les évènemens. Rien de semblable n'éxistait au IVe siècle, pour donner aux idées, aux sentiments personnels une pareille autorité. Il est clair qu'il falloit une société fortement organisée, fortement gouvernée, pour lutter contre un pareil désastre, pour sortir victorieuse d'un tel ouragan. Je ne crois pas trop dire en affirmant qu'à la fin du IV et au commencement du Ve siècle, c'est l'église chrétienne qui a sauvé le christianisme; c'est l'église avec ces institutions, ses magistrats, son pouvoir, qui s'est défendue vigoureusement contre la dissolution intérieure de l'empire, contre la barbarie, qui a conquis les barbares, qui est devenu le lien, le moyen, le principe de civilisation entre le monde romain et le monde barbare." These remarks appear just and satisfactory. The Christian religion was at first established by supernatural agencies. Since the first age, I see no satisfactory reason for doubting that its preservation and advancement in the world have been left to natural means; and the church appears to have been the means appointed for those purposes. Let it not be for a moment supposed that I am here denying, or attempting in the slightest degree to weaken a belief in the Divine influence on the mind of man. All who admit that prayer to Almighty God is a duty must in consistency assent to this doctrine. When a man prays for Divine assistance to enable him to resist temptation, he must hope that such assistance will be granted. When he prays for Divine aid on his inquiries after religious truth, he must hope that it will be given to him. I see, however, no reason to believe that Divine direction to man is afforded in any other way than through the medium of his rational and moral faculties; and it is to the working of these, however aided and directed, that I apply the terms human means. "A religious establishment," Paley justly observes, "is no part of Christianity; it is only the means of inculcating it." The question then of the expediency and of the value of it must depend on its answering the purpose for which it is established. We have found reason to conclude that the right of private judgment is the privilege and inalienable possession of every Christian. To infringe on that right can be no other than a usurpation. In like manner civil and political liberty are rights of the human race; and no other infringements of them are lawful than such as are required for the public good. In the middle ages the civil and political rights of men were disregarded; and the mass of the people all over Europe were subjected to the tyrannical rule in some degree of the sovereign, but far more extensively to that of the feudal lords. The assertion which has just been made, indeed, requires some limitation; and in our own country in particular the spirit of liberty led to many struggles against the arbitrary and tyrannical proceedings of the ruling powers, which in several important instances were crowned with signal success. It cannot, however, be denied that the general character of the middle ages was violent, oppressive, and tyrannical. The mass of the people were totally unprovided with the means of combining and organizing their strength so as to offer effectual resistance to the oppression of their rulers. The church was in those times the only refuge from the tyranny of the civil powers. The liberties to which man has an inalienable right were trampled on both by the civil and the ecclesiastical powers, but the one was to a considerable extent antagonistic to the other, and the consequence was some mitigation of the wretchedness of the people in that dismal period. But when in process of time the invention of printing had given a far wider extension to knowledge than had ever been known before; when the noble sentiments of the great writers of Greece and Rome became widely disseminated in the European world; and, above all, when the Holy Scriptures were made accessible to the people, the world was awakened from its long slumber; a love of civil and religious liberty prevailed extensively; a greater share of political and civil freedom was extorted from kings and nobles; and the Reformation asserted the principles of religious liberty, although its leading advocates swerved lamentably in practice from these principles. The religious tyranny of the Church of Rome, and the political tyranny of kings and barons in the middle ages were alike opposed to the rights and well-being of the human race; but by Divine Providence the former proved no small mitigation of the oppressions exercised by the latter. No one will be found bold enough to deny the vast advance of literature and science since the era just adverted to; but doubts may still be entertained on the subject of religion. The laudator temporis acti may well exclaim,-"Look at the noble churches which were erected during the middle ages; and call to mind what has been done since in the way of providing places for religious worship. Consider the state of our own metropolis. In its ancient part, the city of London, you meet with churches in all directions, and which were quite large enough for the accommodation of all its inhabitants at its most populous period, while in the north-western part of the metropolis you might, till within a few years, have passed through street after street, and square after square, comprising a part of the district compared to which the remainder is quite insignificant, without finding a church or any building whatever erected for the purpose of religious worship. Of late, indeed, many churches have been erected in this part of the metropolis; but even at the present moment, the places of worship, including as well the chapels of Roman Catholics and Dissenters as those of the established religion, are very far, indeed, from affording sufficient room for all the inhabitants of the populous and wealthy parishes of St. Pancras, St. Marylebone, and Paddington." The observation is a fair one, and of no small weight in a discussion as to the state of T |