In the infancy of the Christian church, the relation between pastor and
flock was closely analogous to that between parents and children. On
the one side were men of a disinterested and paternal spirit, so
earnestly living the new life hid with Christ in God, that hardly the
possibility could be conceived of a desire to exalt and magnify self,
over the ignorance and degradation of their spiritual charge. On the
other side were men, children in knowledge, incapable of estimating the
ministry simply after the consciousness of benefits received. We are
not then to condemn the arrangement, which clothed the ministry with an
official dignity, the office being revered independently of the claims
of the man; nor to wonder, if the arrangement outlived the necessity,
or passed the bounds of moderation; or if it was not fully calculated,
the danger, lest men of the primitive spirit yield places to those of
an inferior stamp; and how truly eternal vigilance is the cost, at
which all things here must be saved from their tendencies to
deterioration. Accordingly the history of the Papacy for centuries
has been, that its ministers are sure of unbounded respect from the
populace, independently of their personal claims. The consequence is,
that while a few are thus moved to heroic and almost angelic devotion
to the spiritual good of their flocks, the many would never command
respect for what they are as men.

Similar remarks may be applied to the infancy of civil society. The
prevalence of monarchy and aristocracy has been too universal, to be
charged wholly upon force or chance. And yet in the origin, rational
considerations can hardly be supposed to have been distinctly
entertained. Still there may have been a dim consciousness of thoughts
like these: It is so necessary that civil rulers be at all events
respected, and so uncertain how to secure due respect to men meriting