Explore "Church and Dissenters" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Even to a church, -- the only pure democracy, because in it persons are alone / considered, and one person _à priori_ is equal to another person, -- even to / a church, discipline is an essential condition. But a state regards / classes, and classes as they represent classified property; and to / introduce a system of representation which must inevitably render all / discipline impossible, what is it but madness-the madness of ignorant / vanity, and reckless obstinacy?
I have known, and still know, many Dissenters, who profess to have a zeal / for Christianity; and I dare say they have. But I have known very few / Dissenters indeed, whose hatred to the Church of England was not a much / more active principle of action with them than their love for Christianity. / The Wesleyans, in uncorrupted parts of the country, are nearly the only / exceptions. There never was an age since the days of the apostles, in which / the catholic spirit of religion was so dead, and put aside for love of / sects and parties, as at present.