Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/187

 trusted to make christian constitutions as any christian magistrate whatever. Perhaps he might be thought more proper, since, having no bias in favour of any particular sect of christians, he might be expected to be a more impartial judge in the case.

The reason which the Bishop of Gloucester gives for the propriety of making the civil magistrate the supreme head of the church, "whereby he becomes possessed of the sole right of ordering and decreeing every thing that the ministers and officers of the church had before a power of doing, (so that even all matters of opinion are out of the jurisdiction of the church)" is really curious. "The church," it seems, "wants protection from external violence. This protection the state only can give to it; but," says this author, "protection not being to be afforded to any person or body, without power over that person or body, in the person or body