L I B RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N IVLR.SITY 
 
 or ILLI NOIS
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 IN 
 
 ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 
 
 %n tbbitss 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE EELIGIOLTS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, REVISED. 
 
 " That we, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, 
 which is the head, even Christ." — Ephesians iv. 15. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LOXGMAXS, GEEEX, EEADEK AND DYEE, 
 
 39, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1875
 
 Issued by the Representative Body of the Religious 
 Society of Friends in Great Britain. 
 
 12, Bishopsgate Street Without, London.
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 IN 
 
 ITS RELATION TO THE STATE 
 
 Questions of grave import in connection with this great 
 subject are now, in various parts of the world, agitating 
 the pubHc mind. The propriety of ''Church EstabHsh- 
 ments " is called in question. What such Establishments 
 involve, what would be the result of the separation between 
 the Church and the State — these are inquiries which are 
 now urging themselves upon public attention. Let us 
 approach them in a spirit of religious seriousness, yet with 
 calmness and trust. There may be periods to which the 
 language may be applicable, " Yet once more I shake not 
 the earth only, but also heaven." But the Christian knows 
 that the foundation stands sure, and that whilst that which 
 is transitory may be shaken, it is in order that that which 
 cannot be shaken may alone remain.* 
 
 It is admitted on all hands that the Church of Christ rests 
 upon no earthly establishment. Planted by the Son of God 
 Himself, it grew up, not only without the support, but in spite 
 of the opposition of the State ; and still lives, in ever -renewed 
 
 * Heb. xii. 26, 27.
 
 4 THE CHURCH 
 
 youth, to wage its conflict with the world, centuries after 
 the final ruin of the mighty empire that once sought its 
 destruction. 
 
 Before appealing to considerations more immediately 
 affecting the question before us, we would offer a few 
 observations on the argument in favour of " Church Estab- 
 lishments," usually drawn from the Mosaic Institutions. 
 
 I. — Mosaic Institutions. 
 
 The Lord had not left Himself "without witness" in the 
 heathen world, even whilst suffering the nations "to walk in 
 their own ways " ;* but it was to Israel that the high privi- 
 lege of a Theocratic Government was especially granted. t 
 The Most High revealed Himself to that Nation both as its 
 Deliverer and its King. He was at once the Object of 
 worship and the Fountain of law. Had that age been 
 prepared to realise the high conception proposed in the 
 Theocracy, the Church and the State would have been 
 co-extensive and correlative expressions of a most glorious 
 and blessed fact. In the words, "Ye shall be unto me a 
 kingdom of priests and an holy nation" (Exodus xix. 6), we 
 recognise the high calling of Israel. 
 
 But it was soon apparent that the nation was not " a 
 kingdom of priests." The people disclaimed the glorious 
 privilege of immediate access to their Heavenly King ; and, 
 by their acts of open treason and rebellion against Him, 
 proved themselves unworthy of the privileges to which He 
 had called them. Long was the course of training, preparatory 
 to the full manifestation of the kingdom of God, through which 
 
 * Acts xiv. 1 6, 17. 
 
 f It is noteworthy that even the wealth of the Greek language, as 
 moulded by Heathenism, could supply josephus with no term ade- 
 quately descriptive of the constitution of his own people. He almost 
 apologises for introducing the new word " Theocracy " Joseph, cont. 
 Apion. lib. ii. c. 16, ed. Huds.
 
 IN ITS RELATION Tu THE STATE. 5 
 
 Israel had to pass. The discipline of the law was needed ; 
 but it was as a " schoolmaster to bring unto Christ." * 
 
 It is not the place here to enlarge upon the sacred 
 meaning which, according to the inspired teaching of the 
 New Testament, was veiled under the sacrifices and the 
 service of the tabernacle and the temple. Pointing to Christ, 
 and testifying of Him, in Him they were at once ended and 
 fulfilled. The glorious promise of the New Covenant " made 
 the first Covenant old." t In so far as it was ceremonial and 
 typical, it was a temporary system ; and it can furnish no 
 precedent for the imitation of the Church now, when the type 
 has served its purpose, and has been displaced by the sub- 
 stance which it prefigured. And yet there are marks even in 
 this preparatory dispensation that command our attention. 
 
 First. — The arrangement as to Tithes was one specially 
 adapted to the peculiar circumstances of Israel. The 
 whole land of Canaan was allotted to the people of Israel, 
 under the authority of God Himself, as a free donation 
 from Him. Hence the Tithe is emphatically declared to be 
 His,t and is treated as a reservation set apart for his 
 peculiar service. It was appropriated to those members of 
 the nation who, having Him for their inheritance, were 
 excluded from otherwise sharing in the allotment of the 
 land.§ But let it be observed that there is in the Old 
 Testament a remarkable absence of any distinct provision for 
 the compulsory enforcement of the payment of tithes. All 
 appears to have rested on the conscience of the Tithe-payer. || 
 The great principle that the semce of man to his Maker 
 should be free and uncompelled, with which the State must 
 not interfere, appears yet more strikingly on the occasions of 
 the rearing of the tabernacle and of the temple. On each 
 
 * Compare Exod. xx. 19, 20; xxxii. — xxxiv. Ezek. xx. 25, 26. 
 2 Cor. iii. 7 — 9. Gal. iii. 24. 
 
 I Jer. xxxi. 32 ; Heb. viii. 7-13. 
 \ Levit. xxvii. 30. § Numb, xviii, 20 — 24. 
 
 II See Deut. xxvi. 12 — 15.
 
 6 THE CHURCH 
 
 of these solemnities the offerings from the tribes were '' free- 
 will " offerings.* The idea of a compulsory tax seems not 
 to have entered into the mind either of David or of Solomon, 
 far less into that of Moses. Under that dispensation, it was 
 not imagined, even in an Oriental Court, that forced pay- 
 ments, or legally-exacted sacrifices, befitted the service of 
 Him who looked for the worship of the heart. "The people 
 rejoiced for that they offered willingly, because with perfect 
 heart they offered willingly unto the Lord, and David the 
 king also rejoiced with great joy." (i Chron. xxix. 9.) 
 
 Secondly. — The organisation of the Jewish Church bore 
 evidence of ifs Divine and intrinsically spiritual nature, by 
 admitting alongside of the priesthood a free development of 
 the prophetical order. This was, doubtless, an essential part 
 of the Divine arrangements. The great utterance of Moses 
 to Joshua remains a standing reproof to all who would limit 
 the freeness of the Spirit's work. " Enviest thou for my 
 sake ? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, 
 and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them ! "t Like 
 the Judges, but in a yet higher degree, the Prophets bore 
 witness to the immediate presence of the Spirit of God in the 
 Church. They were limited to no particular tribe, family, or 
 sex. If Samuel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, were of the tribe of 
 Levi, the great prophets Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, and 
 Amos, proclaim the working of the same free Spirit amongst 
 other tribes, of whom no mention is made as regards the 
 Priesthood. Whilst Miriam, Hannah, Deborah, and Hul- 
 dah, bear an emphatic testimony to the oneness of man's 
 spiritual nature, and that the Most High freely vouchsafes 
 the gifts of his Spirit to the handmaid as well as to the 
 servant. 
 
 It was through the prophets, in an especial manner, that a 
 continued testimony was maintained in the Jewish Church 
 against idolatry, worldliness, and corruption. Through 
 
 * Exod. xxxvi. 3 — 6. I Chron. xxix. 5 — 9. 
 t Numb. xi. 29.
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 7 
 
 them the deep things of the Law, the significance of the 
 types, and the spiritual blessings of His kingdom who was 
 to suffer in order that He might reign, were more and more 
 revealed ; and the Christian who now reads the Old Testa- 
 ment in the light of the New may clearly trace the true 
 course of Divine progress in these things — a progress, not 
 from the substance to the shadozu, but from the type to the 
 Antitype, from the carnal to the spiritual, from earth to 
 heaven. 
 
 II. — Founding of the Christian Church. 
 
 " The fulness of time " v/as accomplished.*' The work of 
 preparation was ended. '' The Word was made flesh." In 
 a life of spotless righteousness ; in all the ministries of un- 
 wearied compassion and love ; in suffering, in shame, and in 
 death, His glory was revealed, "the glory as of the only 
 begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth."t The 
 King was come, "just and having salvation. "J How easy 
 would it have been for Him, to whom " all power was given 
 in Heaven and in Earth," to have founded his Church by 
 assuming the empire of the world. But — and how significant 
 is the fact — He refused in this manner to assert His power, 
 or so to establish his kingdom in the earth. 
 
 Not onty had the Christian Church in its origin no con- 
 nection with the State, but such a connection is expressly 
 disclaimed by its Divine founder. " My kingdom," are his 
 emphatic words, " is not of this world. "§ To the same effect 
 He declares to his immediate followers, "Ye know that the 
 princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they 
 that are great exercise authority upon them. ; but it shall not 
 be so among you."|| As the King in whom the righteousness 
 of the Law was fulfilled. He set aside the ancient polity and 
 worship of the Jews, but not for the purpose of establishing 
 
 * Gal iv. 4. f John i. 14. J Zech. ix. 9. 
 
 § John xviii. 36. || Matt. xx. 25, 26 ; Lu. xxii. 25, 26.
 
 8 THE CHURCH 
 
 any new national polity, or national religion. Men, indeed, 
 were to come under his yoke, but as a spiritual yoke. The 
 religion of Jesus was not limited to the Jew or the Gentile, 
 but was, from the very first, designed to embrace the world. 
 
 For three hundred years, in that critical period of its exis- 
 tence in which, if at all, external support might seem most 
 necessary, the Christian Church was not only without any 
 national existence, but was emphatically opposed to an ex- 
 clusively national spirit; a witness to a cold and hostile world 
 of the spiritual presence and sustaining love of Him who died 
 not for one nation only, but for all. By His power alone 
 Christianity, unfettered by aUiances with the Governments 
 of this world, struck its roots so deeply, and spread them so 
 widely, as to acquire an imperishable hold upon the nations 
 of the earth. It was then that the noble words were uttered, 
 " Unam omnium rempublicam agnoscimus — mundum." * 
 
 The idea of a national Church established by law was 
 wholly foreign to the conceptions of the Christians of the 
 first three centuries. With them Caesar ruled in another 
 sphere, and had no authority, as Caesar, in the kingdom 
 of Christ. Christianity was, from its origin, a spiritual 
 dispensation — a religion of the heart, unrestricted by the 
 boundaries or the prejudices of race or nation, and needing 
 no support from earthly power and penalties. 
 
 Again, both in the foundation and in the development of 
 the Church and polity of Israel, we find abundant evidence 
 of the Divine Presence and Government. The great acts 
 that mark the progress of the Hebrew Church are the 
 Divinely-regulated acts of spiritual men. But how little is 
 this feature apparent in the conduct of those who have been 
 the principal abettors of State interference in the Christian 
 Church ! We turn to the Emperor Constantine as the first 
 who gave a practical illustration of this interference. What is 
 there in his character or career to sanction such an inno- 
 
 Tertulliani Apolog. c. 38.
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 9 
 
 vation upon the principles of ttie New Testament? A suc- 
 cessful soldier, a half-heathen, half-Christian autocrat, the 
 murderer of his son, and, perhaps, also of his wife, after 
 summoning and presiding over an assembly of bishops in 
 the council of Nicsea, he postponed, from motives either of 
 policy or of superstition, his final adoption of the Christian 
 profession to the last moments of his life. " Great," as he may 
 be called, if measured simply by the energy of purpose which, 
 after a lapse of more than fifteen centuries, has still left its 
 impress upon the external condition of the Church, he was a 
 man in w^hom, like the empire w^hich he ruled, the admixture 
 of the " iron " with the " miry clay " has rendered him, what 
 he will probably ever remain, one of the unsolved enigmas of 
 history. * As regards the results of his policy, to adopt the 
 candid admission of a late distinguished historian, "the 
 reign of Constantine bears witness that the State which seeks to 
 advance Christianity by the worldly means at its command, may 
 be the occasion of more injury to this holy cause than the earthly 
 power which opposes it with whatever virulence.'' f 
 
 • * See Gibb. ch. 18 and 20 ; and the Sixth Lecture of Dean Stanley 
 on the " Eastern Church." Niebuhr, in his lectures on the History of 
 Rome, thus sums up the character of Constantine: — "His motives in 
 establishing the Christian religion were something very strange indeed. 
 His religion must have been a rare jumble. On his coins he has 
 'Soli Invicto'; he worships pagan deities, consults the haruspices, 
 holds heathen superstitions; and yet he shuts up the temples and 
 builds churches. As ^ the President of the Nicene Council, we can 
 only look upon him with disgust: he was himself no Christian at all, 
 and he would only be baptised in artkulo mortis. He had taken up 
 the Christian faith as ^ supersddon, which he mingled with all his 
 other superstitions. When, therefore. Eastern writers speak of him 
 as an to-aTroaroXoc, they know not what they are saying ; and to call him 
 a saint is a profanation of the word." — Niebuhr's Lect. iii. 303. Bohn's 
 ed. 
 
 t Neander's Church History, vol. iii. p. 41, Clarke's Edidon. The 
 italics are his own.
 
 10 THE CHURCH 
 
 III. — Introduction of " Church Establishments,'" 
 
 Nor does the character of the age in which the professing 
 Church accepted an alliance with the State increase our 
 confidence. 
 
 I. — More than three centuries of despotism had accustomed 
 the Roman world to look upon the functions of Sovereign 
 Pontiff (" Pontifex Maximus ") with which, since the time of 
 Augustus, the emperors had been regularly invested, as in- 
 separable from the imperial prerogative. These functions 
 included the supreme control of the religion of the State. 
 They had been assumed by Constantine as a matter of course ; 
 and, notwithstanding the profession of Christianity, the title 
 was continued by at least six of his immediate successors.* 
 Thus both princes and people had become habituated to 
 State interference in religious things ; and even Christians, 
 yielding to the seductive influences around them, were ready 
 to accept it, in their own favour; too little reflecting that 
 such an interference was essentially heathenish, and altogether 
 at variance with the true spirit of the Gospel. But this was 
 not the only feature that marked the growing degeneracy of 
 the Church. 
 
 2. — The simple piety of Apostolic Christianity had hal- 
 lowed and ennobled the plain duties of domestic and ordinary 
 life. Marriage, and all the holy relations which spring from 
 it, had received a fresh consecration. But in the age of 
 Constantine and Theodosius a vitiated doctrinal system 
 presumed to discredit that which God had sanctified. The 
 blessed relations of husband, of wife, of parent, were treated 
 as of little account by multitudes who were taught to prefer 
 the so-called angelic virtues of the monk or the nun. Re- 
 ligious excitement expended itself upon monastic seclusion 
 and uncommanded austerities. Men vainly sought the 
 victory over self by fleeing from the appointed conflict with 
 
 * Gibb. ch. xxi. sub. fin. vol iii. p. 409, ed. 1802.
 
 iX ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. II 
 
 the world. A false standard of holiness was set up ; and, as 
 a natural consequence, the pursuit of imaginary virtues 
 threw into the shade the practice of ordinary duties. Vene- 
 ration for the relics of martyrs quickly led the way to an 
 estimate of their character, and of the efficacy of their in- 
 tercession, altogether opposed to the testimony of Holy 
 Scripture. Ceremonies multiplied apace ; insomuch that 
 even Augustine, overflowing as he was with that love which 
 " endureth all things," was constrained to write to his 
 friend Januarius : "With servile burdens they so oppresse 
 our very religion, which God of his mercy would have 
 to be free under very few and most manifest sacraments 
 of Divine service, that the state of the Jews is much more 
 tolerable [than the state of the Church of Christ]." - If, 
 according to a late eminent writer, who has collected a mass 
 of evidence upon the subject, the prevailing infatuation in 
 favour of celibacy and asceticism be enough to fix " the 
 Brand of Apostasy " upon the Church of the fourth century, 
 how, it may be asked, shall we be safe in keeping up, without 
 question, ecclesiastical systems based to so large an extent 
 upon corrupt maxims then current ? t How, indeed, can we 
 accept that as a model Church, of which Chrysostom com- 
 plains—contrasting it with the simplicity of the Apostolic 
 age "in which the Spirit of God ordered all things? " " But 
 now," he proceeds to say, " we have scarcely the steps and 
 tokens of these things. The Church now may be likened to 
 
 * Augustini Epistol. 119. Opera, vol. ii. fol. 576. Ed. Erasm. See 
 Jewell's " Defence of the Apology," p. 292. Ed. 161 1. 
 
 f " I appeal to serious and candid minds, competently informed in 
 Church History, and ask whether the Brand of Apostasy be not herein 
 fixed by the Apostolic hand upon the Nicene Church." — Isaac Taylor, 
 "Ancient Christianity," vol. i. p. 310. The capitals are those of the 
 author. See i Tim. iv. i — 4. Neander, in his chapter on Monasri- 
 cism, (Church History, vol. iii. p. 322 seq), does ample justice to 
 the Christian leaven which worked in the midst of asceticism, in spite 
 of the fearful evils incident to the system.
 
 12 THE CHURCH 
 
 a woman that hath lost her old modesty, and that beareth 
 only certain badges and tokens of her former felicity ; and 
 that, being utterly bereft of the treasures, keepeth only the 
 cases and boxes of the precious things she had before. To 
 such a woman the Church this day may be likened."* 
 
 The apostle Paul early foresaw that " some should depart 
 from the faith : " he assures the primitive believers that "the 
 mystery of iniquity was already working," and warns the 
 elders at Ephesus that from among their own selves should 
 men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples 
 after them.t In the face of these solemn intimations we are 
 not to be surprised at the appearance, very early, of the tares 
 amongst the wheat ; nor can we accept as Divine any testi- 
 mony, how venerable soever, from succeeding ages which 
 fails to harmonise with the plain teaching of the New 
 Testament — the great and abiding record of "the truth as it 
 in Jesus." Upon the full reception of this truth, and upon 
 the acting out of its requirements in a holy life, under the 
 operation of the Spirit of God, must ever depend the vitality 
 of the Church. From age to age it has pleased the Lord, in 
 his mercy, to raise up witnesses to its living power. And it 
 is consolatory as well as instructive, to mark this truth still, 
 amidst prevailing corruption, triumphantly vindicating its 
 Divine character and its exclusive claim to our allegiance ; 
 and to note the evidence continually accumulating that all 
 decay and deadness in the Church, with their attendant 
 evils, have been the result not of a humble, self-denying 
 walk in accordance with its dictates, but of a departure from 
 it. Tried by the standard of the New Testament, we are 
 surely not mistaken in pointing to the era of ecclesiastical 
 
 * Chrysost. Homil. 36 on i Cor. xiv. 30, Opera, torn. iii. pp. 486, 
 4.87, Ed. Savil. We have availed ourselves of Bishop Jewell's vigorous 
 English in the translation. The words seem to have made a deep im- 
 pression upon kim, as he quotes them more than once ; " Defence of 
 the Apology," pp. 31 and 399. 
 
 •]• I Tim. V. I — 3. 2 Thess. ii. 7. Acts xx. 30.
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. I3 
 
 establishments in the age of Constantine and Theodosius, as 
 an era of grievous and increasing departure. And " if," to 
 use the words of Jewell, " the form of the Church were so 
 much altered in Chrysostom's days, what may we then think 
 of the times of darkness that have followed ? " * 
 
 IV. — Contrast between Primitive Christianity and the Age of 
 
 Church ^^Establishments.'" 
 
 It would be impossible, within the limits of these pages, to 
 do more than briefly hint at a few points — 
 
 I. — According to the teaching of the New Testament the 
 Lord Jesus Christ is the one Sacrifice for sin, the one 
 Mediator between God and man. Through Him all believers 
 have the same privilege of free access by one Spirit unto the 
 Father; and all are made to partake of the one Spirit. None 
 can offer up his brother's heart; neither can any man or order 
 of men worship or mediate for the rest. Hence the words 
 applied in the New Testament to Christian ministers have no 
 reference either to sacrifice or to priestly mediation. Except 
 in its obvious use as regards the sacrificing priests of the 
 Jews or the heathen, the term "priest" is there exclusively 
 appropriated either in the highest sense to Christ Himself, or 
 in a figurative sense to his people prepared by his redeeming 
 love to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through 
 Him. " The sacerdotal title is never once conferred upon 
 Christian ministers. The only priests under the Gospel, 
 designated as such in the New Testament, are the saints, 
 the members of the Christian brotherhood. As individuals, 
 all Christians are priests alike." "f* 
 
 Beautiful is the idea of the Christian congregation presented 
 to us in the New Testament, in epistles, let it be remembered, 
 
 * "Defence of the Apology," p. 31. 
 t Professor Lightfoot on the Epistle to the Philippians, pp. 182, 183.
 
 14 THE CHURCH 
 
 addressed by the Apostle Paul to four of the most important 
 primitive Churches — at Corinth, at Ephesus, at Thessalonica, 
 and at Rome. The whole congregation is, according to the 
 Apostle, "the body of Christ," "drinking into one Spirit," 
 and, through that Spirit, enjoying union and fellowship with 
 Christ "the Head." The gifts of the Spirit are, in his view, 
 a pledge of the presence and love of the risen Lord. They 
 were "diverse," and no one member monopolised either the 
 possession, or the exercise of them. The " prophetic gift," 
 which is defined as the ability conferred by the Spirit "to 
 speak to men to edification and exhortation and comfort," is 
 commended by the apostle as a gift to be especially desired.* 
 He expressly declares that " all might prophecy one by one," 
 that all might "learn, and that all might be comforted." 
 This hallowed liberty is, in his mind, in no wise inconsistent 
 with the "decency and order" which he, at the same time, 
 inculcates. Whilst every gift was to be " proved," the Spirit 
 was not to be quenched, nor "prophesying" despised. t 
 
 Now it must be admitted that, in order fully to realise the 
 above conception, the congregation, or, at least, the spiritual 
 members of it, including in an especial manner the ministers, 
 must be preserved in a tnte dependence upon Christ alone. In 
 proportion as this is lacking, the "decency" and "order" 
 will be disturbed. Justin Martyr, in the middle of the second 
 century, is an important witness to the recognition in the 
 Church, down to his own day, of spiritual gifts " both in men 
 and women." He speaks of the continued possession by the 
 Church of the " prophetic gift," as a standing testimony to 
 the fulfilment of the ancient evangelical promises, and an 
 
 * I Cor. xiv. I, 3. 
 
 t For the above statement see i Cor. xii.-xiv; Eph. iv. 4-12; 
 I Thess. V. 19-21; Rom. xii. 1-8, with the concurring testimony of 
 the Apostle Peter, i Pet. iv. 10, 11. In the Church at Antioch there 
 were both "prophets" and teachers. Ac. xiii. i. Judas and Silas were 
 "prophets." Ac. xv. 32. The Apostle Paul was a guest at Cassarea in 
 a house where the "four daughters" all "prophesied." Ac. xxi. 8, 9.
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 15 
 
 evidence of the abiding presence of the Spirit that inspired 
 them.* According to a still later writer, quoted by Eusebius, 
 "the apostle shows that the gift of prophecy should be in 
 every church until the final coming [of the Lord] ."t Inti- 
 mations of " the liberty of prophesying" appear in the works of 
 Irenseus, and of several other writers down to the beginning 
 of the third century; J from which period the traces of its 
 existence become more and more indistinct ; and it has been 
 generally assumed (but with what " warrant of Holy Scrip- 
 ture" still remains to be proved), that the prophetic gift, as 
 exercised under the direct sanction of the Apo&tles, has been 
 superseded by the "ordinary" exercises of study or learn- 
 ing. § But has the effect upon the Church of the practical 
 suppression or disuse of so important a gift been sufficiently 
 considered ? Noiseless as may have been the change pro- 
 duced, it cannot have been the less certain. From week to 
 week the congregations assembled. Services, of which, as 
 must be confessed, there are few, if any, distinct traces in 
 the New Testament, but which have been ascribed, with an 
 appearance of probability, to an imitation of the usages of 
 the Jewish Synagogue, and which are distinctly referred to 
 by writers of the second and third centuries, || appear to have 
 assumed more and more of a regular form. The preaching 
 of the Gospel, originally powerful in its simplicity through 
 the " demonstration of the Spirit," seems to have become 
 more and more confined to the stated utterances of the 
 Bishop or Presbyter ; which in their turn gradually became 
 
 * Justin Martyr, Dial, with Tryph. §§ 82, 87, and 88, where he says, 
 " It is plain to be seen that there are amongst us htb men and women who 
 have received gifts from the Spirit of God." 
 
 t Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. v. c. 17. 
 
 % See Irens. Adv. Hseres. lib. ii. c. 32, § 4. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 
 lib. iii. c. 27, lib. v. c. 17, 18. 
 
 § See Mosheim de rebus Chrisdanis ante Constant, pp. 130, 131. 
 
 II Justin Martyr, Apol. i. c. 6"] ; Tertull. Apolog. c. 39.
 
 10 THE CHURCH 
 
 more rhetorical in their character, and more and more de- 
 pendent upon the exercise of human learning or skill.* 
 
 Can we be mistaken in believing that under these altered 
 circumstances the dependence of the people upon their risen 
 and living Lord became, imperceptibly, it may be, yet surely, 
 exchanged for a dependence upon those who were placed 
 over them as ministers ? If no direct evidence of this can be 
 adduced, it is, at least, a striking fact that the age in which the 
 ^^ prophetic gifV is stipposed to have ceased, is the age in which the 
 Bishops and Presbyters began to assume that new relation to the 
 congregation which ere long raised them from the humble position of 
 "servants'' or "pastors,'' to that of " priests" and " mediators." \ 
 The change must not be ascribed to them alone. The people 
 also had their part in it. In proportion as the dependence of 
 the members of the congregation failed to be placed upon 
 Christ alone, they lost, through unfaithfulness, that life in 
 which alone they could have dominion over the world, and 
 abdicated the functions of the heavenly priesthood to which 
 each was called. Those functions became more and more 
 confined to a select circle ; so that in the third century the 
 
 * Origen (Comment, in Roman : lib. ix. c. 2, vol. 7, p. 292, ed. Lom- 
 matzsch) has some striking observations upon the contrast between the 
 exercises of human wisdom then becoming common, heard with " great 
 applause," but with little fruit of conviction or faith ; and the simple 
 and unpremeditated utterances of those who spoke " according to the 
 grace given them," which were often made powerful to the conversion 
 of unbelievers and the arousing of the careless. So greatly had the 
 practice of going to hear, rather than to worship, increased in Chrysostom's 
 time, that we find him often sharply reproving the tumultuous clapping 
 of hands and other tokens of applause that interrupted his preaching. 
 See Neander's Life of Chrys. pp. 255-257. 
 
 t The expression " Priest" is frequently used by Tertullian and sub- 
 sequent writers. How far the sacerdotal ideas were carried a little later 
 may be seen in the work called the " Apostolical Constitutions," pasii?n. 
 See, for example, lib. ii, c. 26, where the bishop is styled " Mediator 
 with God," an " Earthly God after God," &c.
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 1/ 
 
 very word which had been appHed by the Apostle Peter to the 
 whole congregation, as " the heritage"* of the Lord, became 
 exclusively appropriated to those engaged in the public work 
 of the ministry. Just as in a later period, as the idea 
 gained ground of the peculiar sacredness of the ascetic life, 
 the very " clergy " themselves were divided between the 
 " secular " and the " religious," The phrase " entering the 
 Priestly order" began to be appropriated to the assumption 
 of the clerical function. The people were more and more 
 excluded from their part in the work and government of 
 the Church. That which even Cyprian, in the middle of 
 the third century, speaks of as a matter of course, the 
 presence of the people (either "assisting" or "consenting"), 
 in all important deliberations, gradually ceased ; though for 
 centuries no bishop was chosen without the popular voice, 
 and no bishop, after he was chosen, could do anything of 
 importance without the consent of his presbytery.f 
 
 2. — In words of Divine majesty the Son of God pro- 
 claims Spirituality and Truth the essential characteristics of 
 the worship of the New Covenant. " The hour cometh 
 when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, 
 worship the Father. God is a Spirit : and they that worship 
 Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." J " Without 
 altars, without temples, without images ;" — such were the 
 features which the religious assemblies of the early Church 
 presented to the world around them.§ Some of the noblest 
 remains of Christian eloquence are vindications of this sim- 
 plicity against the scoffs of the heathen. Origen, in a 
 memorable passage of his treatise against Celsus, rises above 
 himself as he contrasts the gaudy pomp of untruth in the 
 idol temple, with the humble, sincere, and as yet unadorned 
 
 * I Pet. V. 3. 
 
 t Concil. Carthag. iv. can. 22, 23. 
 
 J John iv. 21, 24. 
 
 § Minucii Felicis, Octavius, §§ 10, 32, pp. 61, 160, ed. Davis.
 
 i8 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 worship of the Church ; the lifeless and perishing images of 
 Phidias and Polj^cletus, with the living and enduring realities 
 of the new creation, wrought in believers by the Spirit of 
 God.* As sacerdotal ideas entered in, this ancient sim- 
 plicity disappeared. The common meal in which the early 
 believers had united in commemorating the Saviour's love 
 became a sacrifice, though, for ages, only a spiritual sacrifice ; 
 — the table became an altar — the ministers, priests — the 
 simple meeting-house, or " upper room," a stately temple. 
 Already, in the beginning of the third century, we are met 
 by the undisguised appeal of Tertullian to an extra-scriptural 
 tradition, in support of practices even then current, for which 
 no Scripture could be pleaded. t The century did not close 
 without leaving behind it what has been justly styled " a 
 vast increase of ceremonial in the Church." J The reign of 
 Constantine gave a fatal stimulus to these tendencies. In 
 glaring contrast with the Saviour's words— who, in con- 
 secrating the worship of the heart, had for ever aboHshed 
 the special sanctity of place — the first professedly Christian 
 Emperor erected with great magnificence, a Christian 
 "temple," on the supposed site of the Lord's sepulchre. 
 Under the auspices of himself and of his aged mother 
 Helena, a new, if not the first, impulse was given to the search 
 after relics, by the alleged discovery of the cross of wood 
 on which the Saviour had died.§ This quickly led to an 
 almost incredible multiplication of similar incidents, and 
 ultimately to a veneration for the dead, and for images, not 
 easily, if at all, distinguishable from actual worship. How 
 true and suggestive is Jerome's description of the Church 
 which he saw around him ! " Greater in power and wealth. 
 
 * Origen contra Celsum, lib. viii. c. 17-19, p. 389, ed. Spenc. 
 f Tertull, de Corona Militis. c. 3. 
 
 J Dr. Swainson, "The Nicene and Apostles' Creeds," p. 42. 
 § See the authorities in the Second Volume of Isaac Taylor's 
 "Ancient Christianity," p. 277, seqq.
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. I9 
 
 but with less of virtue, since it came under the influence of 
 Christian princes."* 
 
 Here we might pass on, did not the tendencies of our own 
 times invite another observation. Under the influences that 
 were every day becoming more prevalent, it need not be 
 surprising that the primitive singing " with the Spirit " — 
 the true " melody of the heart" sanctified for praise, should, 
 about the middle of the third century, give place to the 
 regular choir; and still later, to the stately chaunt of 
 Ambrose, or of Gregory. But it is very remarkable how 
 long the ideas of a purer age maintained the protest of the 
 Apostolic Church against minghng the sounds of instruments 
 w^ithout life, with the worship of the living God. It is a fact 
 to which we would invite the serious attention of our 
 fellow-Christians, that for more than twelve hundred years 
 this primitive testimony precluded the use of organs in public 
 worship. Thus speaks Thomas Aquinas, writing about the 
 year 1250, as quoted by the accurate Bingham: — "The 
 Church does not use musical instruments, as harps and 
 psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to 
 Judaize."t 
 
 * Vita Malchi, Hieronymi Opera, vol. ii. 41, ed. Vallarsii. 
 
 f Aquin. Summa, Secunda Secunds, Quasst. 91. Artie. 2, par. 4. 
 Bingham's Antiq. 315 ; where note particularly the testimony or 
 Chrysostom — *' It " (instrumental music) " was only permitted to the 
 Jews for the heaviness and grossness of their souls ; God conde- 
 scended to their weakness, because they were lately drawn ofF from 
 idols." " Theodoret," continues Bingham, " has many the like ex 
 pressions in his comments upon the Psalms and other places." Com- 
 pare the testimony of William Thorpe (about the year 1407), in 
 I Wordsworth's Eccles. Biography, 169 — 172, and what the late Dr. 
 Wordsworth there quotes from Lewis's Wyclyffe, pp. 132 — 135, as said 
 " very beautifully " by Wyclyffe on worldly singing in public worship : 
 " And if they seyn that Angels praise God by song in Heaven ; seye that 
 we kunnen (know) not that song ; but they ben in full victory of 
 their enemies, and we ben in perilous battle, and in the valley of
 
 30 THE CHURCH 
 
 It is our privilege to recognize all who in every age have 
 by their fruits proved themselves members of the universal 
 Church — how much soever they may have been under bon- 
 dage to false systems. But whilst the servants are to be 
 honoured in their places, they are not to be set up above their 
 Lord. And we cannot close our eyes to the fact that, from 
 the third century downwards, the retrograde tendency of 
 man's fallen nature is to be traced in the growth of sacerdotal 
 assumption, in the increasing pomp of ceremony, in the mul- 
 tiplication of rites, in the false estimate of the outward 
 and ceremonial, and in the prevailing reliance upon the 
 efficacy of self-imposed services. The divine salt of the 
 truth gradually lost its savour as it mingled with the earth. 
 In obtaining [a. secular ascendancy, the Church became 
 leavened, and, in so far as it was leavened, enfeebled and 
 corrupted by the spirit of the world. Slow, yet continued, 
 was the decline of the heavenly life, and with this decline no 
 less certain the backward movement from the Antitype to 
 the type, from the spiritual to the ritual, from Christ to man. 
 
 3. — How suggestive is the fact that the expression '* reading, 
 or saying, prayers,'' to which modern usage has familiarized 
 so many, is not to be found in Holy Scripture, with all 
 its wealth of words to convey religious thought. Prayer — 
 that act which, of all others, ought to be the free commu- 
 nion of man with his Maker, the expression at once of the 
 feeblest cry for life, and of the deepest wants of the soul 
 — was, in the early ages of the Church, unrestricted, even in 
 the congregation, to any form of words. The language of 
 Tertullian in the beginning of the third century is express, 
 " We pray without a prompter, because from the heart."* 
 
 weeping and mourning ; and our song letteth us fro better occupation, 
 and stirreth us to many great sins, and to forget ourselves." — i Words- 
 worth's Eccles. Biog. p. 171. 
 
 * " Denique sine monitore, quia de pectore oramus." — Tertulliani 
 Apologet. c. 30. So Jusdn Martyr, fifty years earlier, describes the 
 presiding minister of the congregation as praying " according to his
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 21 
 
 The origin of public liturgies is involved in great obscurity, 
 but it is agreed on all hands that their introduction was 
 very gradual ; and, even in districts where usage had settled 
 into uniformity in the use of the same liturgy, it was long 
 before all public extemporary prayer was excluded. Even 
 then a certain latitude was allowed at the discretion of the 
 ''ordinary." And, so far as England was concerned, it 
 was not until the reigns of Edward the Sixth and Queen 
 Elizabeth that an absolute uniformity in public prayer was 
 adopted. Ages after liturgies had been introduced, "the 
 use of York," "the use of Sarum," "the uses of Hereford 
 and Bangor," remained to attest the primitive liberty which 
 the bishops had themselves enjoyed in their particular juris- 
 dictions."^ 
 
 4. — The Apostle Paul from his own example, and from the 
 words of the Lord Jesus, urged upon the bishops or presby- 
 ters of the Church at Ephesus the importance of providing 
 from their own labour for the w^ants of themselves and of 
 "the weak" around them.t Instances occur even in the 
 
 ability." "Ocrrj cvvafxig avro). — Justin Martyr, Apol. i. c. 68, p. 270. 
 Ed. Otto. See Lord Chancellor King's Observations, " Primitive 
 Church," part ii. pp. 34 — 37. Compare Rom. viii. 26, 27 ; i Pet. iv. 
 1 1 . Lord King largely proves that " the primitive Christians had no 
 stinted Liturgies, or imposed forms of prayer" — p. 33. See also 4 
 Bunsen's Hippolytus, 152, and 221 — 225. 
 
 * Augustine, in an instructive epistle (Epist. 118, Opera, vol. ii. fol. 
 556, Ed. Erasmi), sufficiently indicates the absence of uniformity in his 
 day. Compare Socrates, Eccles. Hist. lib. ii. c. 22. " Every Church," 
 says Bingham, "was at liberty to make choice for herself, in what 
 method and form of words she would perform these things ; and it was 
 no breach of unity for different Churches to have different modes, 
 and circumstances, and ceremonies." Antiq. book xvi., ch. i., § 5, par. 
 2, p. 864, Ed. Bohn. " The rites of the Churches throughout the 
 British Empire zvere not by any means uniform at the middle of the 
 sixteenth century.'''' — Palmer's Origines Liturgicce, vol i. p. 189. 
 
 f Acts. XX. 33-35. The observations of Baumgartcn on this import- 
 ant passage deserve our thoughtful attention : " The Church oi Christ
 
 22 THE CHURCH 
 
 fourth and fifth centuries of bishops being engaged in trade ;* 
 and ages passed away before it was supposed that secular 
 occupations which had been consecrated by the example of 
 the Lord and his apostles were incompatible with the duties 
 or the character of the Christian minister. Justin Martyr in 
 the second century, and Tertullian in the beginning of the 
 third,t speak of the offerings of the faithful, and of their ap- 
 phcation to the wants of the sick and the destitute, the 
 widows and the orphans, and the Christians in prison or in 
 exile. But neither of these writers speaks of any allowances 
 to the ministers. It is true that about fifty years later, in 
 the age of Cyprian, who had given up his own patrimony to 
 the poor of the Church, we find traces of such an allowance. 
 But even then, and for centuries later, all was free. The 
 words of Tertullian speak the voice of the Universal Church 
 in the West until at least the sixth or the seventh century, 
 and in the East down to our own day : " Nemo compellitur ; 
 sed sponte confert." — "No one is compelled to give; but 
 each contributes freely." % 
 
 in the midst of the world of the Gentiles will only fulfil its appointed 
 task by remaining faithful to this fundamental law of their Apostle of 
 giving without receiving. By this alone can it attain to a firm and inde- 
 pendent existence from which it will be enabled to chastise, to move, to 
 heal, and to improve the u^orld." — Baumgarten's Apostolic History, vol. ii. 
 p. 380. 
 
 * Bing. Antiq. Christian Church. Book vi. c. 4, § 13, p. 227. 
 
 f Justin Martyr, Apolog. I. c. Gj ; Tertulliani Apolog. c. 39. 
 
 J Tertull. Apologet. c. 39. Comp. Irenaeus Adv. Haeres. ii. c. 32, § 4. 
 Lactantius, Div. Inst. iii. c. 26. Tatian ad Gr^ecos, § 50. i Lingard's 
 Anglo-Saxon Church, 1 81-183. See the very curious letter of the 
 martyr Apollonius (a.d. 180-190) quoted by Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. 
 lib. v. c. 18, in which he proposes the following as a test whereby to 
 distinguish the false from the true prophet — " Does it not appear to thee 
 that the Scripture forbids any prophet to receive gifts and money ? When, 
 therefore, I see a prophetess receiving both gold and silver and precious 
 garments, how can I fail to reject her ?" And, again, towards the end — 
 " If they deny that their prophets took presents, let them at least acknow-
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 23 
 
 In thus alluding to known facts in connection with the 
 early Church, it must not be understood that we have over- 
 looked I Cor. ix. 14, Gal. vi. 6, or are indifferent to the duties 
 therein involved. One of the most distinguished amongst 
 modern Church historians treats these passages as especially 
 applicable to "travelling preachers," adding — "It cannot 
 be hence inferred that the case was the same with those 
 who held church offices in distinct communities."* But 
 whatever view m^ay be taken of their meaning, it is plain 
 that the true principle lies, not in a disregard of the Apostle's 
 exhortation to the bishops or presbyters of the Church at 
 Ephesus, but in a course of practice in accordance with 
 his entire teaching. "Vv^e freely acknowledge," says Bar- 
 clay, writing in the year 1675, " that there is an obligation 
 upon such to whom God sends, or among whom He 
 raiseth up a minister, that (if need be) they minister 
 unto his necessities. Secondly : That it is lawful for him 
 to receive what is necessary and convenient." And, after 
 referring to Gal. vi. 6, i Cor. ix. 11-14, and i Tim. v. 16, 
 and to the case of the Levites under the Law, he continues 
 — " Christ, when He sent forth his Apostles, said : Freely ye 
 have received, freely give — Matt. x. 8 ; and they had liberty 
 to receive meat and drink from such as offered them to supply 
 their need. Which shows that they were not to seek or 
 require anything by force, or to stint, or make a bargain 
 
 beforehand But on the contrary, these were to 
 
 do their duty, and freely to communicate, as the Lord should 
 order them,, what they had received, without seeking or ex- 
 pecting a reward. "t 
 
 ledge, that if they should be proved to have received the?n, they are no prophets^'' 
 As regards the Eastern Church, see Paolo Sarpi, Ecclesiastical Benefices, 
 c. II, p. 38, and Dean Stanley's "Eastern Church, pp. 44 and 336, 
 
 367. 
 
 * I Neander's Church Hist. 269. 
 
 + Barclay's Apology, p. 221. Ed. 1678.
 
 24 THE CHURCH 
 
 V. — Present Aspect of the Question. 
 
 With regard to the bearing of the foregoing on the position 
 of Churches established by law, we may conclude with a 
 few observations. 
 
 We accept, with thanksgiving unto God, all that glorious 
 result which, in his great mercy and goodness, was brought 
 about at the period known as the Reformation — the trans- 
 lation of the Holy Scriptures into the vulgar tongue ; the 
 presenting of them to the free perusal and reverent ac- 
 ceptance of the people ; and the awakening of multitudes to 
 the reception of many of the most important doctrines of the 
 Gospel, more especially those of the all-availing efficacy of 
 the sufferings and death upon the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and of his sole mediation and intercession with the 
 Father. 
 
 We desire no change in the interests of Party; but, in 
 the high and sacred interests of spiritual, primitive Chris- 
 tianity, we would invite Christians everywhere to consider 
 whether the time has not come for the termination, in a 
 manner accordant with the requirements of justice and 
 Christian wisdom, of arrangements, how ancient soever, by 
 which ecclesiastical systems in connection with the State 
 are kept on foot, for which it is impossible fairly to plead 
 either Divine institution or Apostolic practice or allowance. 
 
 We freely recognise the blessings which, in the over-ruling 
 providence of God, have been granted to multitudes under 
 the administration of " Established " Churches. But let it 
 be remembered that such a blessing is no conclusive evidence 
 of their conformity to His will. The genius of Pascal, the 
 sanctity of Fenelon, the zeal of Xavier, give no sanction to 
 the errors or corruptions of Rome. Nor do the learning of 
 Jewell, Hooker, or Beveridge, the piety and talents of Ridley 
 or Taylor, or the holiness of Ken or Wilson, set the seal 
 of Divine approbation upon the establishment of Protestant 
 Churches by human law.
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 25 
 
 We would respectfully invite attention to the following 
 considerations : — 
 
 First. — Millions of those who, as fellow-subjects of the 
 same commonwealth, have equal rights with the professed 
 members of Church Establishments, conscientiously dissent 
 from such Establishments, and their right to dissent is now 
 in the most enlightened countries recognised by the same 
 law as that under which Established Churches exist. 
 
 Secondly, — A portion, in many places a very large portion, 
 of the community, merely by reason of their Dissent, 
 are excluded from privileges and positions freely open to 
 others of their fellow-citizens who have no better claim to 
 them ; whilst the members of national establishments are 
 trained up under the impression that they have a kind of ex- 
 clusive inheritance in the Christianity of the State, and are, 
 perhaps unconsciously, taught to look down upon their Dis- 
 senting fellow-citizens as, in some sort, aliens as regards the 
 public privileges which the profession of Christianity secures. 
 
 Thus an established Church is placed, by the fact of its 
 establishment, in a position the very opposite to that which 
 is favourable to the development of Christian life, either in 
 its own members or in their fellow-Christians. On the one 
 side, it is apt to produce arrogance, self-conceit, or an absence 
 of loving sympathy ; and on the other, that irritation which 
 petty jealousies and annoyances rarely fail to engender; 
 whilst in each is created a spirit of mutual exclusiveness 
 which tends to separate rather than unite those whom the 
 same Lord and Saviour would join together in his own 
 love. 
 
 Thirdly. — Whilst the influence of the Church of the Old 
 Covenant, in connection especially with the recognised and 
 unsuppressed testimony of the Prophets, ever tended to the 
 holiness of the nation, can it be denied that the union 
 between the Church and the State, wherever it exists, 
 tends to secularise the Church of Christ, and to enfeeble its 
 testimony to holiness and truth ? In State churches we 
 see bishops encumbered with worldly dignity, rank, and
 
 26 The church 
 
 power; the force of law given to a system of compulsory 
 payments ; and ministers placed over congregations, without 
 any reference to their consent or concurrence. For all this 
 long-continued usage in the most corrupt ages may perhaps 
 be pleaded ; but it is destitute of any warrant in Holy 
 Scripture, and plainly opposed to the spirit both of the old 
 and of the new covenant. 
 
 Fourthly, — In Established Churches the functions of the 
 congregation are, to a large extent, monopolised by the 
 "clergy," to the great prejudice of both ministers and people. 
 The system has a direct tendency to keep the people in a 
 state of spiritual pupilage and dependence, and to suppress 
 the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which, according 
 to the plain teaching of Scripture, was to be one of the 
 special privileges of the New Covenant. But it is not the 
 people only who are thus restrained. In many of the 
 Churches established by law no minister is at liberty, 
 whatever be his position or Christian experience, or how 
 pressing soever the emergency, to pour out his heart freely 
 in public congregational prayer. He must pray according 
 to a stated liturgy, or not at all. 
 
 True it is that the State may lawfully exercise authority to 
 maintain its own ascendancy and to enforce civil obedience. 
 But does it, therefore, follow that this authority is to be 
 exercised to estabhsh or enforce the ascendancy of a particular 
 Church ? In what does the true influence and ascendancy of 
 a Christian Church consist ? Is it the ascendancy of earthly 
 dignity and power, or is it not rather that of faith and holi- 
 ness, of zeal and love ? Of old the Church overcame not by 
 carnal but by spiritual weapons, and by these it must over- 
 come now. It is by these weapons alone that Scriptural 
 Truth — for we plead for no other — must maintain its ascen- 
 dancy. And by these we are persuaded it will be far more 
 effectually protected, and commended to the minds and con- 
 sciences of the people at large, than by all the weapons 
 which the armoury of the State can furnish. 
 
 We feel the gravity of this great question. We would
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 27 
 
 urge nothing in the spirit of contention, or from the love of 
 change. We know well how much of wisdom is needed in 
 every attempt to correct old institutions ; and, especially in 
 all that relates to Christianity, how necessary it is that the 
 ground shall be cleared in the hearts of men, before either 
 the foundation or the superstructure can be safely laid. 
 Hence the necessity for patience, forbearance, and mutual 
 charity, no less than for earnestness and zeal. As each is 
 willing to be taught, all may find that they have much both 
 to unlearn and to learn. Yet, let us not be deterred from 
 facing the emergency by the magnitude of the issue, or the 
 extent or importance of the consequences involved. We 
 would especially call upon our fellow-Christians to have more 
 faith in their risen and exalted Lord. " He loved his Church, 
 and gave Himself for it ; " and still lives to mediate and 
 reign, that He may present it to Himself a glorious Church. 
 Let us not doubt his continued love and power, or think any 
 other means now necessary for the support of his truth, or 
 for the preservation of his Church in spiritual life and 
 vigour, than those which are warranted by the great charter 
 of his love in the New Testament ; and which, from age to 
 age, have given so many evidences of their divine efiicacy in 
 overcoming the world. 
 
 But the great question that underlies every other in relation 
 to the present subject, and compared with which every other 
 must shrink into insignificance, is that which appeals to every 
 heart, and in which all are alike interested. Are the Christian 
 people of every land prepared, in right earnest, to accept the 
 responsibilities and to take their legitimate share in the duties 
 and privileges of the children of God ? All ought to be priests ^ 
 putting on the garment of salvation and the robe of righteous- 
 ness, enjoying and exemplifying, in a holy life and con- 
 versation, the blessedness of the citizenship of heaven. The 
 welfare of millions, for time and for eternity, is involved in 
 the practical response to be given to this momentous question. 
 The affirmative answer of the nation's heart and life would 
 be the establishment of the Church indeed. But how much,
 
 28 THE CHURCH IN ITS RELATION TO THE STATE. 
 
 alas! is there in Churches now established, which not only 
 does not favour, but which must be confessed to be a positive 
 OBSTRUCTION to the full realisation, amongst the people, of 
 the New Testament idea of the kingdom of God. Do any 
 really imagine that, in removing the existing legal " Establish- 
 ments," States would cease to be Christian ? Can there be 
 a greater fallacy ? It is not the State that makes the Chris- 
 tian ; it is rather the Christian that moulds the character of 
 the State. So far, and so far only, as the people themselves 
 are brought under the power of the Gospel, Christianity will 
 rule supreme in the national Councils, and influence the 
 administration of the law. Were this truly the case with 
 the professors of the Christian name in every land, how 
 much cause would there be for hope that the Churches — no 
 longer kept at a distance from one another by State inter- 
 ference, but united in a true sense of their high calling in 
 Christ Jesus — might become faithful witnesses of his power 
 and redeeming love to the world around them, and illustrate, 
 more than they have ever yet done, the truth and blessed- 
 ness of the promise, " All thy children shall be taught of 
 the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. In 
 
 righteousness SHALT THOU BE ESTABLISHED."* 
 * Isaiah liv. 13, 14. 
 
 London: Barrett, Sons & Co., Printers, 21, Seething Lane.
 
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