them for the increase of the number of those who were called believers, but who were not so in heart, so soon as they borrowed some of the notions of the law of Moses, and some of those of worldly kingdoms, thinking that they were enlarging the kingdom of God, by persuading Satan's servants merely to change * the name of their master, without changing the spirit of their worship, then the unity of which St. Paul spoke so earnestly was lost; and men ceased to be one with each other in the Father and

* This bears upon a vast subject, and one of the greatest importance both to the temporal and spiritual advancement of the nations of Europe, the history of the nominal conversion of the northern nations to Christianity, when they settled themselves in the several provinces of the Roman empire. The adoption of Christianity as the national religion in point of form and profession of opinions, while its spirit and principles were either unknown or hated, has introduced a confusion into our civil and ecclesiastical relations, under which we are at this moment labouring. It has led, for instance, to the maintenance of these two inconsistent propositions by the very same persons :—that the government may interfere in church matters, because in a Christian country the government is to be regarded as Christian, and the king must be a member of the church; and yet that Christianity does not meddle with political institutions, with forms of government, questions of public rights, legislation, war and peace, &c., because Christ's kingdom is not of this world.

the Son. The purpose for which Christ's church was founded, so far as this world was concerned, the advancement of that kingdom of God, for whose coming we daily pray, became presently stopped. And, therefore, wars, and intrigues, and lusts, and eager worldly passions of every kind, and low and careless principles of living, are almost as common in the world now, as they were before the formation of the Christian society. Is this, then, the kingdom of God upon earth, where every thought, and word, and deed, are brought into the obedience of Christ? or, where are now to be seen any marks of that Christian unity, that common striving not against flesh and blood, but against all manner of spiritual evil, which was to subsist between every Christian? It was the remark of a writer in the early ages of the Church, that men were not born Christians, as they were born Jews, or Greeks, or Romans; that they were made so afterwards by their own effort, and act, and deed. But now people are born Christians, and but too seldom think of making themselves so. They seem to think themselves Christians in the same way as they are Englishmen, by the accident of their birth; and they too often never think of inquiring into the objects of a society, into which they

entered without trouble, and indeed without their own knowledge. Here, then, is one great cause why Christian unity is destroyed, because the Church is full of so many unreal members, who take not the smallest interest about it, and are actually all the time in the service of the enemy. What would become of an army, in which, in the hour of battle, the soldier had to suspect every one who stood near him, lest an enemy might be disguised under the uniform of a friend? Or, how would it be possible for him then to pick out and distinguish those on whom he could rely, when they were scattered up and down, and lost amid the crowd of traitors to the cause? And, would he not feel far more closely united to a band of ill-armed and unorganized labourers or artisans, who should sally forth at that moment to take part with him heartily against the common enemy, than to those who wore the same clothes, were arrayed in the same regiment, and commanded by the same officers, but who in heart and spirit were false and hollow?

But whilst the true Christian unity was disappearing, a false one of a very different kind sprung up in its room. To be Christians, in the real sense of the term,was a sacrifice of all sorts of evil and selfish feelings; but to become members

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of the Church, and to call themselves Christians, was no sacrifice at all. In order, then, to keep up a bond of some sort between men who had no real spiritual union with each other or with Christ, great stress was laid not on a sameness of principle in religion, but on a sameness of opinion; not on a unity of faith in the scriptural sense of the word, but of faith in another sense, and which in fact is very nearly the same as opinion. Of this kind of unity the bonds were soon greatly increased, and the system added greatly to the worldly power and splendour of the Church. For, as soon as it was said that they who hold such and such opinions, were sound members of the Church, the careless and the ignorant, who had neither the ability nor the desire to inquire into their truth, embraced them with little scruple, glad to find

The distinction between faith in the scriptural, and faith in the ecclesiastical sense of the term, is exactly that which exists between principle and opinion, and which cannot be more justly defined than in the words of Aristotle. "By having good or bad principles, we are good or bad men: but our opinions make us neither good nor bad. Our principles make us take up a thing or avoid it: our opinions pronounce upon its nature or qualities; but opinion does not pursue an object, or fly from it. The excellence of principle is goodness-that of opinion is truth."-Aristotle's Ethics, III. 2.

themselves admitted so cheaply to the privileges of Christ's Church, without the painful effort of becoming born again with new principles and affections, of dying to sin and to the world. On the contrary, they carried the maxims and spirit of the world with them into their profession of Christianity. They thought that they could serve Christ by using the weapons of Satan; as if the kingdom of Christ were like a worldly kingdom, so that its interests were advanced by increasing its nominal dominion, instead of having for its object, the putting down every evil thought and work; "the kingdom of God is within us." Hence arose what were called "pious frauds,” that is, forgeries of books written by the Apostles, or by other distinguished Christians; forgeries of books, in which the heathens were made to express their belief of Christianity; and in after times, forgeries of miracles, and all that train of lying signs and wonders with which the Church of Rome has laboured to advance the cause of Antichrist; as if it were possible for that man to be serving the kingdom of Christ, who, by lies and falsehood, was at the same moment serving Satan; or, as if Satan was not well satisfied that his kingdom was really in no danger, so long as its principles and prac