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grounds widely different, an equally strong interest, the interest of truth and consistency, in extricating themselves from the false position in which they are placed towards each other.

That false position evidently arises out of the relation which has long subsisted between the Church and the State. It is, therefore, only by going back to the first principles upon which the relation between Church and State is founded, that we can trace the evil to its root.

When that relation assumed the form, which in theory, and according to the letter of the law, it still has, the State was in its corporate capacity identical with the Church. The State has undergone a most important transformation; and the consequence is, that the relation in which the Church and the State stand to each other, must be modified, if the connexion between them is to be preserved, and to be made actually, as originally it was intended to be, a blessing to both.

The great link on which that connexion depends, is the Royal Supremacy over the Church; the grounds, therefore, on which that Supremacy rests, and the principles by which its exercise ought to be regulated, will form the main subject of the inquiry contained in the following pages, in which it is proposed to

show:

1. What are the abstract principles upon which the Supremacy of the temporal power over the Christian Church is founded;

2. What has been, historically, the development of the Supremacy of the temporal power over the Christian Church, both in the world at large, and in this country in particular;

3. What are the alterations which, in course of time, the character of the temporal power has undergone, and what have been the consequences to the Church of those alterations in the character of the temporal power;

4. What are the modifications in the exercise of the Royal Supremacy, rendered necessary by the altered character of the temporal power, in order to free the Church from oppression, and to restore her to a state of internal consistency, and of efficient action, both upon her own members, and upon the general mass of the people.

Each of these points will be separately treated of in the following pages.

CHAPTER I.

THE THEORY OF THE SUPREMACY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OVER THE CHURCH.

THERE is, there always has been, there always will be, in the world a great controversy on the origin of power; some tracing the authority of rulers upwards to the appointment of God, others looking downwards, and recognising in the will of the multitude the fountain of all power. With the intricacies of this controversy the Christian is not embarrassed; he recognises no authority except that which is from above. His perplexities arise from the difficulty of adjusting the action of two powers which, both derived from God, are perfectly distinct in their nature, their character, and their purpose.

The one is the power of the kingdoms of this world; its nature is essentially earthly; its character is coercion by fear; its purpose, to preserve order, to maintain justice between man and man, to protect men's persons and their property, and by these means to secure for all, as creatures of this world, the greatest possible amount of happiness.

The other is the power of the kingdom of heaven; its nature is essentially heavenly; its character is sanctification by love; its purpose, to restore man to a state of holiness, to bind man and man together in the fellow

ship of Christ, to build up men in the life of Christ and in the hope of their eternal inheritance, and by these means to prepare them, as creatures of another and a better world, for a state of everlasting felicity.

The former, the temporal power, whose weapon is the sword, God establishes by giving to that sword power and success; He continues to uphold it by the protection of His providence, in a regular transfer of authority from hand to hand; except on particular occasions, when the overruling hand of His providence is manifested by His "putting down one and setting up another."

The latter, the spiritual power, whose weapon is the word of God, God established in the first place by giving to that word power and success; He continues to uphold it by the operation of His holy Spirit, in a regular transmission of authority which has the promise of the co-operation of that Spirit, from hand to hand; nor is there in His revealed word any ground to believe, that any change will take place in the commission on which that authority rests, and which was originally conferred in these terms: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

As long as these two powers continue to act in separation from each other, the course of both is simple; and equally simple the course of individuals subject to

their sway. The principle, "Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's," is of easy application, while the spiritual power stands altogether aloof from the kingdoms of this world, and the temporal power does not intermeddle with the things of the kingdom of heaven.

But the application of this principle becomes more difficult, when, either from an instinctive sense of the antagonism between this world and the kingdom of heaven, or through jealous fear of the effects which the growing influence of the spiritual power over the minds and hearts of men may produce upon its institutions, the temporal power is led to interfere with the action of the spiritual power. When Cæsar is not content to claim the things which are Cæsar's, when he requires obedience in things belonging unto God, it then becomes the duty of the individual Christian, and of the Church collectively, to be mindful of the second part of the rule, "to render unto God the things that are God's," and to decide between the conflicting claims of the two powers upon the principle of " obeying God rather than men."

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Conflict is not, however, the only form which the encounter of the temporal and the spiritual power in the course of their action upon the world may assume. The bearers of the temporal power are, as much as other men, subject to the influence of the spiritual power, and, when once brought under that influence, amenable to the eternal principles of grace and truth in which the spiritual power takes its origin, and for the maintenance and propagation of which it is esta

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