Political Science Of The State

492 POLITICAL SCIENCE.
of citizenship, he would, without doubt, admit that non-
citizens ought to have those securities which justice makes
right.
Another objection which he notices is that, owing to almost
necessary differences of religious opinions, the state will have
a vague and very comprehensive creed ; or, if it adopts the
creed of a particular sect, dissenters will either be excluded
from political rights or will be qualified to legislate for the
concerns of an established religion with which they do not
hold communion.
In reply he says, " I call a state * Christian ' when it de-
clares its belief in the divine origin and supreme authority of
the Christian revelation as contained in the Scriptures ; I call
the united kingdom, as yet, a Christian nation, although it
be neither Episcopal nor Presbyterian, but establishes the
one form in England and the other in Scotland/' And if the
parts complain that the state is not fit to legislate for them
because its supreme government consists indifferently of both
parties, this supposes so strong a sense of differences as to
render it proper that they should rather form a confederacy
than a state.
But it is said also that " the church is essentially distinct
from the state and ought not to be confounded with it. It
may be correct to say that they are allied together, but not
that the state is actually the church." To this Arnold replies
that if the sole object of political society is, as Warburton
holds it to be, the conservation of body and goods, the dis-
tinction between it and the church is necessary and perpet-
ual. But if the object of the church is the advancement and
improvement of our intellectual nature, as Warburton defines
it, " then it is as nearly as possible identical with what Aris-
totle declares to be the object of the state, namely the happi-
ness of society, happiness, as he expressly insists, consisting
both in physical and moral good, but much more in the latter
than in the former (Arist, pol., vii. or iv., I, 2, 3, 4, 12),
Every state which is not Christian seeks man's highest happi-
ness with mistaken views, and every church, before the state