ins. The people of
four centuries ago must have depended solely upon their priests for
knowledge and direction, or they would not have submitted to their
inquisitorial practices. Germany must have advanced far in her
appreciation of philosophical and critical research in theology, or she
would not have such devoted students as she can boast of. The Americans
cannot have attained to any high practice of spiritual liberty, or they
could not follow preaching so zealously as they do. The English cannot
have fully understood, or taken to heart the principles of the
Reformation, which have so long been their theme of eulogy, or they
would not foster a political hierarchy within the bosom of their church.

As the studies of the clergy lie in the past, as the days of their
strongest influence are behind, and as the religious feelings of men
have hitherto reposed on the antique, and are but just beginning to
point towards the future, it is natural, it is unavoidable, that the
clergy should retard rather than aid the progress of society. A
disposition to assist in the improvement of institutions is what ought
not to be looked for from any priestly class; and, if looked for, it
will not be found. Such a mode of operation must appear to them
suicidal. But much may be learned by comparing the degree of clerical
resistance to progression with the proportion of favour in which the
clergy are held by the people. Where that resistance is greatest, and a
clerical life is one of peculiar worldly ease, the state of morals and
manners must be low. Where that resistance is least, where any social
improvement whatever is found to originate with the clergy, and where
they bear a just share of toil, the condition of morals and manners
cannot be very much depressed. Where there is an undue partition of
labour and its rewards among the clergy themselves,--where some do the
work and others reap the recompence,--the fair inference is that morals
and manners are in a state of transition. Such a position of affairs
cannot be a permanent one; and the observer may be assured that the
morals and manners of the people are about to be better than they have
been.--The characteristics of the clergy will indicate, or at least
direct attention to, the characteristics of dissent: and any extensive
form of dissent is no other than the most recent exposition of the
latest condition of morals among a large, active, and influential
portion of the people. A foreign