LECTURE IV.

NATIONAL CHURCHES.

ARGUMENT IN THEIR FAVOUR, FROM THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES, OR EXPRESS DECLARATIONS OF SCRIPTURE, RELATIVE TO THE DUTY OF RULERS TOWARDS GOD AND THEIR PEOPLE.

ACTS xxv. 11.

I appeal unto Cæsar.

WE have seen the evidence afforded in favour of the consecration of human authority to the advancement of true religion, as well in the general course of the divine dispensations as in the whole history of the chosen people; evidence, which, in the latter case, extends beyond the close of the Old Testament canon: the priestly having become also the kingly family, and the connexion between the Jewish church and state been thus rendered if possible still closer after the captivity than it had been before, till the usurpation of Herod followed by the encroachments of Rome put an end to the inde

pendence of the nation; and the sceptre departed from Judah because Shiloh was come.

I now propose, in conclusion of my remarks on the lawfulness of religious establishments, to offer such further evidence, on their behalf, as may seem either fairly deducible from the general declarations of scripture, or furnished by its express directions; and to shew the bearing of the whole argument on the duty of Christian rulers towards the Christian church.

In the course of New Testament history, we no longer observe the application of state authority to the advancement of religious truth. And no marvel. It pleased God in His infinite wisdom that the Christian like the Jewish church should prove its divine origin by standing for a considerable period the test of human opposition. The point therefore chiefly aimed at in the discourses of our Lord and His apostles, was, as we should naturally expect, the preparation of those who embraced the gospel for a state of approaching suffering; and in conformity with this design, the glimpses of future exaltation afforded them (at least in relation to the temporal prosperity of the church) were few, and indistinct, and studiously disposed in the back-ground, so as to form very secondary objects of contemplation compared with those which might be of immediate value as incentives to perseverance in well-doing.

But, will it on this account be contended that such a state of things was always to continue as an essential mark of gospel purity? that in the counsels of divine wisdom, no period of external prosperity was

marked out for the church of Christ? or that the example of rulers and governors in the time of its depression was the only one to be imitated in the time of its exaltation ?

As reasonably might a caviller have objected in the days of David or Solomon, that the church then established bore no distinctive features of the Israel of God: because the servitude of Egypt was at an end, there was no unreasonable task-master to exact,-no Pharaoh to pursue,-little to be observed but a scene of peace and splendour, such as it could scarcely have entered into the minds of the earlier patriarchs to conceive, and of which but faint intimations were to be found in the divine revelations at that time imparted for their comfort.

The truth is, that here, as in numberless other instances, and in perfect accordance with the genius of the gospel throughout, the scripture rule was laid down in large and comprehensive terms, with design that it should be applied to particular cases as they arose, without an exact specification of those cases with all their limitations before they arose. The general rule as to the conduct of affairs in the Christian church is" Let all things be done decently and in order:"-but, what was quite decent and orderly in its depressed and persecuted state, might be far otherwise in a state of prosperity and ease. No Christian would feel himself bound, even by the example of apostles and martyrs, to worship in dens and caves, at midnight or before daybreak, with the attendant circumstances of haste and trepidation, when a commodious building could be

procured; when no hindrance was offered to the exercise of his worship in the open day; and all things suited to its external comeliness could be easily obtained. Community of goods, and many other primitive observances would, and, did give way, as the accession of converts rendered them needless or inexpedient.-It would be as difficult to find an exact counterpart in the New Testament for the present state of the "dissenting interest" as for that of the church "by law established."-And the warmest opponents of establishments on the ground that we have no warrant for them in the express declarations of the word of God, do in fact admit of numerous arrangements and regulations as to the management of their respective societies, and that in no less important points than the right of electing their ministers; the mode of admitting their members; the duties of their officers; the order of their worship; for the proceedings of which, to use their own language, "we should search the New Testament in vain any otherwise than as these usages are deduced from the spirit and bearing of general principles." Is it then an extravagant supposition that in the new case of the conversion of a sovereign or the member of a legislature to Christianity, he might draw deductions, and warrantable deductions, from the spirit and bearing of general principles on the affairs of the Christian church, which would lead to a widely different line of conduct on his part towards it, from any of which he would find example among the rulers named in the New Testament. Is it too much to suppose, that he too, like David, in the

application of general principles and natural feelings, independently of any express injunction, should reason with himself that it became him not to allow the continuance of the church of Christ in the curtained and migratory state in which it had remained with his Pagan predecessors, but that, elevated as he was in influence and authority, it was for him, in gratitude to God and in duty to his people, to do his utmost to set it on an hill where it could not be hid, in a settled habitation whence it should not be moved?

I. What then are the general principles which would present themselves to his view when reflecting on this important subject, and searching the scriptures for his personal guidance?

1. First, that Christians are bound by their very profession as Christians, to do their utmost for the propagation of the truth they have embraced; "whether they eat or drink or whatsoever they do, to do all to the glory of God;" to occupy the talents which Christ has given them, whether many or few, till He come: when they will be rewarded or punished according to their use or neglect of them, much being required of those to whom much was given, and the reward or punishment increased, according to the amount of the trust. It would not I think at once occur to him that power and influence were not a trust-a talent to be thus used and accounted for; and the world, thank God, has been slow in making the discovery, that rulers and legislators, in those capacities, have nothing to do with the pro