dissolve establishments, are much aggravated by writers. Much less opposition, I am persuaded, would arise from the source of real bigotry, than from the quarter of interest, and the bigotry that was set in motion by persons who were not themselves bigots.
It is imagined by some, that christianity could not have subsisted without the aid of the civil powers, and that the dissolution of its establishment would endanger its very being. The Bishop of Gloucester, says, that "the state was induced to seek an alliance with the church, as the necessary means of preserving the being of religion;"[1] and that "all the advantage the church expects from the alliance with the state, can be no other than security from all outward violence;"[2] "it being impertinent," as he justly observes,[3] "in the church to aim at riches, honours, and power; because these are things which, as a church, she can neither use, nor
