men

of civil government ;-one spiritual community, composed of "of every kindred and tongue and people and nation," who, whatever be their earthly distinctions, are "all one in Christ Jesus;" as citizens of this world, the subjects of various earthly monarchs, but as citizens of the Jerusalem that is above, fellow-subjects of Him alone who "hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords."

.common

This may be connected with a fifth peculiarity, the bonds of union by which the members of this spiritual community are connected.—These are no geographical boundaries, nor vernacular language, nor civil institutions and observances. In our context, they appear summed up in one word," THE TRUTH:"-" Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." And the Evangelist by whom these words are recorded, himself says elsewhere:-" Beloved, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth; and hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him:"* and, speaking of one of his friends, he says:-" whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth, for the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever." They are thus united by ties of their own; by a common faith; by common spiritual interests; by common affections and desires centreing on the same spiritual objects; by common fears and common hopes, in which other men have no participation; and by all the mutual spiritual sympathies of the divine life.

In the sixth place, the constitution of the primitive Churches was peculiar, bearing no analogy to the kingdoms of this world. They were societies of spiritual men, each with its own office-bearers, minding its own spiritual concerns, and having no sort of connection with the secular governments of their respective countries. This simplicity of constitution had many excellences. By its entire separation from the

* 1 John iii. 18, 19.

+ 2 John, 1, 2.

secularities of earthly administrations, it was admirably fitted' for preserving the spirituality, which is the true glory, of the Church. It was not less admirable in its fitness for universality; there being no nation under heaven for which the Gospel was not designed, and no government under heaven with which the formation of these spiritual societies could interfere. And it was further worthy of admiration, in its being so constructed as not to admit of incorporation, so longas it retained its primitive simplicity, with the civil polities of this world. Its very nature prevented such incorporation; so that, before it could take place, a complete alteration was necessary in the whole frame and structure of the original plan. The primitive constitution was thus modelled for the very purpose of keeping asunder what the Lord never meant to be united; and it was necessarily changed by men, to effect the union of what the Lord designed to keep asunder.

A seventh distinguishing characteristic of this kingdom, is to be found in the means of its support and advancement. -These were not, as in earthly kingdoms, human power or worldly influence, in any of their diverse forms. Those who, to defend or promote the interests of this kingdom, "took the sword," were warned that they should "perish with the sword." * It was not to prosper "by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the living God;" that God, who "chose the weak things of the world to confound the things which were mighty." The word of God-the sword of the Spirit -was the only weapon tolerated in the spiritual wars of the King of Zion. This was the sword which He himself “girded upon his thigh," when, "in meekness, and truth, and right-eousness," he rode forth to "subdue the people under him;" and no other was ever used with his authority or approbation. His conquests are conquests of hearts; and the instruments of effecting them spiritual illumination and persuasion.

The same thing is true-and this is another peculiarity

*Matth. xxvi. 52.

in regard to the internal government of the Church.—This is altogether in unison with the means of advancing its extent. Of all the discipline in the kingdom of Christ, the ends are spiritual; and for effecting these ends, it is not any civil pains and penalties that are prescribed; it is affectionate and faithful dealing with the conscience of the offender; reproof, dictated by the spirit of kindness, and proportioned in severity to the nature and circumstances of his offence; and, as the ultimate step, beyond which no church can go, exclusion from the Christian society of which he has proved himself an unworthy member. All this interferes not, in any way whatever, with his status, and his privileges and rights, as a member of civil society, and a subject of the government of his country; his relation to the church and his relation to the state being essentially and totally distinct.

The last of the peculiarities of this kingdom, which I shall now mention, is, that it is "not of this world," in regard to its final distinctions.-Its gracious rewards, and its equitable punishments are beyond the present scene. They are reserved for the closing day of the Redeemer's mediatorial administration; when all his professed subjects shall be convened before his tribunal for judgment; when, by his discriminative test of his own word, the genuine shall be separated from the counterfeit, the precious from the vile. The inquiry, in that day, will not be, to what civil community they belonged on earth; what was their birth-place; what their patronymic designation: but whether they were really partakers of his converting grace, and loyal subjects of his spiritual reign.

From the enumeration of these "differential qualities" of the kingdom of Christ, you will be prepared for the conelusion, that it is the systematic and unavoidable tendency of national Establishments to corrupt the Church of God.—I am far from meaning to say, that there was no corruption in the Church till such Establishments came to be introduced. That would be a very different proposition-a proposition at variance with the plainest intimations both of early history

and of the New Testament itself. There was corruption, and no inconsiderable portion of it, in some of the Apostolic Churches themselves. But the corruption was local and limited; and what is of more importance, it was not occasioned by the system. It was neither inherent in its principles, nor a legitimate result of its practical operation :—it was contrary to both. It arose principally from the arts of deceit, on the part of intruders, who, for their own selfish and secular ends, “crept in unawares among the disciples of Christ. In the system, or constitution of the Church itself, there were quite sufficient means, when duly applied, if not of its entire prevention, (which would have required a perpetual miracle,) yet of its immediate and effectual expurgation whenever it discovered itself. In the case we are considering, corruption, we fear, and that to a mournful amount, is inseparable from the system. The very idea of nationality in religion precludes the possibility of spirituality and selection. And if, but for a few moments, we look at the facts of the case, we shall find them in perfect correspondence with what might reasonably have been anticipated.

During the first three centuries, as every one knows, Christianity was not only unsupported by any of the civil powers of the world-it had to struggle, with hardly any intermission, against their determined and ferocious opposition. Instead of any secular temptations then existing to the profession of it, the very profession, from the circumstances in which it was made, was a satisfactory pledge of sincerity. Yet, during that period, when left to its own native energies and "self-recommending excellence," to the zeal of those devoted friends who "loved not their lives unto the death," and to the accompanying agency of the Divine Spirit, the conquests of the truth were wide and wonderful. It was made signally apparent, what the Gospel could achieve without and against the power of man. In this its early history, therefore, we have surely a fair specimen of what it might have continued to do, had it been allowed thus to go forward on its own resources. We judge from what was to

what might have been.—But it was not allowed to pursue its original and divinely prescribed course. In the beginning of the fourth century, the Emperor Constantine (we stop not to inquire into the means) embraced the profession of the Christian faith. Into any investigation of the evidence for and against the personal religion of the Emperor, it would be foreign to our present purpose to enter. Had he only become a Christian man, it had been well; but, having professed himself a Christian man, he must needs be a Christian sovereign. The religion of the Emperor must become, by his arbitrary fiat, the religion of the empire; and imperial power, absolute as it was, must immediately be employed for its establishment, defence, and propagation.

If the imperial head of Rome was really brought under the saving power of the Gospel of Christ, and subdued to the humility of the Cross; what, in these circumstances, was the course it became him to follow? What was his duty? The same, I should presume, with the duty of any other converted sinner. He should have presented himself as a lowly subject of the Prince of Peace-"joining himself to the disciples :"-laying aside his crown, divesting himself of the purple, and of all the insignia of earthly greatness, he should have taken his place, in the simple fellowship of the Gospel, at the commemorative feast of redeeming love, esteeming and owning himself "less than the least of all saints." That had been a sight worth seeing; a spectacle, in sublimity of principle, for the admiration of angels. If, from their being interwoven with Paganism, and requiring what the laws of the kingdom of Jesus could not sanction, he found it impossible to carry on with consistency his imperial administration, and to retain his imperial honours ;-then, on the principle laid down, for all his followers alike, by Jesus himself,-" Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple," his duty was abdication, had the alternative been a lodge in the wilderness.

* Luke xiv. 33.