such as that baptism effects regeneration; that the eucharist is a principal medium of grace, and not a mere non-essential emblem; that the Holy Ghost is communicated by the laying on of the bishop's hands, &c. But we think it would not be difficult to show that a vast amount of superstition about the virtue of water baptism, infant sprinkling, the Lord's supper, and the laying on of hands, not a whit better than the superstitions of the Catholics and Puseyites, has been encouraged among Congregationalists and their sister churches, by their clergy, and exists among them to this day. The mysteri ous importance which is attached to immersion, by Baptists on the one hand, and to infant sprinkling, by Pedo-baptists on the other, is, to say the least, a stock on which the doctrine of baptismal regeneration may be easily grafted. We were taught by Congregationalists, in our younger days, to look for some wonderful communications of grace in the ceremony of eating bread and drinking wine, and were tempted sometimes to doubt our own spirituality because we found no miraculous power in those elements. Here is fit soil, at least, for the hocus-pocus of transubstantiation. When a minister is or dained, the clergy lay their hands on him. What do they mean by it? Is it done in imitation of the practice of the primitive church? It is well known that the laying on of hands in that church was not a mere ceremony, but actually communicated the Holy Ghost. The practice then, in Congregational ordinations, either is a piece of pure nonsense without scripture foundation, or it signifies that divine power passes from the ordainers to the ordained. Taken either way, it smells strongly of Puseyism. It is well called the imposition of hands. So Episcopal sanctification of buildings, places, vestments, &c., has its counterpart in Congregational dedications. And in short, for every full blown mummery of the Episcopal and Catholic churches, a corresponding germ at least, may be found in Congregationalism and Presbyterianism.

When the fathers of our churches-such men as Dr. Woods, Dr. Hewitt, and Dr. Cox-are called from time to time to mourn over the lapse of their favorite, well-trained sons into Prelacy, have they not reason to inquire whether the clerical assumptions and formalisms of their own denominations have not sown the seeds of the bitter fruit they are eating?

The point where Popery, Prelacy, and the dissenting sects all fully unite, is in certain spiritual principles, back of all forms. Their common essence is legality. They are all equally ignorant of the essential distinction between the Jewish and Christian dispensations; all blind to the spiritual power of Christ's resurrection, by which true believers are emancipated from sin, law, and carnal ordinances. Having no idea of the possibility of holiness of heart in this world, they are all obliged to provide systems of carnal nursing for guilty consciences. Ceremonies and duty-doings are the natural substitutes for grace. Indulgences, either retail as in the Catholic system, or wholesale, as among Protestants, are indispensable in all systems which make no provis ion for salvation from sin. A Levitical priesthood is the necessary substitute for the Melchisedec order, where there is no immediate communication with God. In a word, all sin-allowing, law-teaching churches are of necessity spiritually reducible to one common genus, viz., that of Judaism. Some of

them may go further than others in the outward development of their legal tendencies, but they are all one at the root; and all will put forth, either in the bud, flower, or fruit, the same formalisms and idolatries.

So long as nothing but Protestant Judaism is arrayed against Popish, and Puritan Judaism against Prelatical, no rational hope of overthrowing the kingdom of formalism can be entertained. If the Congregational and Pres byterian clergy are, as they suppose, the forlorn hope' of religious freedom and spiritual religion, we may well say-Woe to the world.

6

Yet there is reason to hope that the pressure of Prelacy is working a good change in the Puritan churches. The combativeness which the arrogance and formalisms of Episcopacy excite, reacts upon them and disposes them to lower their own pretensions, and think lightly of their own ceremonies. They are lightening their ship of all the Puseyistic lumber they can spare. No halfway movement, however, will save them. That kind of reformation was tried in the first rebellion against Popery, and its failure is now abundantly manifest. Congregationalism and Presbyterianism must be born again.' The change from Judaism to Christianity is not a mere modification,-it is a radical revolution. Yet the war with Prelacy is, we trust, generating a predisposition to that revolution. Its tendency, in common with that of ma ny other movements of the age, is toward freedom from old-world puerilities, and the development of spiritualism. It is a premonitory symptom of the Second Reformation.

$64. UNITY OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

In the present state of things, unity of social organization is violated in four ways. We have, 1, the state as a whole, separate from the church; 2, many different states independent of each other; 3, many different churches independent of each other; and 4, a variety of benevolent and reformatory organizations independent of both church and state. Each of the nations is a kingdom by itself; each of the sects is a kingdom of itself; and every branch of benevolent effort and reform is a kingdom by itself.Now however useful or necessary these fragmentary organizations may be while the religious and political world is without form and void, and darkness is upon the face of it, we are certain that the kingdom of God is not in any of them; and that when that kingdom comes, a principle of unity will appear which will draw them all into one organization, or sweep them away with the besom of destruction.

This is plainly predicted in scripture, at least so far as the separation of church and state, and the division of the world into independent nations, are concerned. The word of prophecy is, that when the carnal principle of unity which existed more or less in the series of Gentiles monarchies shall have spent itself, and the political world shall come to be a congerics of in

dependent kingdoms, (as it is this day,) the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.' Dan. 2: 44. The very name of the kingdom here predicted, and the divinity of its origin, prove that it is to be a religious kingdom, i. e. a church in the proper sense of the word; and this church, according to the plain terms of the prophecy, is to break in pieces all the political governments of the world, and take their place. In other words, the church, instead of being separate from the state and subordinate to it, and instead of being joined to the state, is to BE the state; and this Church-State is to be the only government over the whole world.

This sweeps away two of the disunities mentioned above-the division of the church and state, and the division of the nations. We hardly need present any separate proof in regard to the other two-the division of the church into sects, and the independency of benevolent and reformatory organizations. It is eminently ridiculous to suppose that the kingdom of God will be composed of a multitude of denominations, differing in doctrine, and antagonistical in action,-that Christ will break in pieces the nations and reduce the political world to unity, and yet consent to leave the religious world in its present fragmentary state. The prediction is not that God will set up a score or two of separate and hostile religious kingdoms, which shall break in pieces and supersede the nations; but that he will set up A KINGDOM’— one organization, that shall take the place of all its predecessors, of course religious as well as political. And it is equally ridiculous to suppose that this kingdom will leave its own proper work of evangelizing and reforming the world to be performed by independent Bible Societies, Missionary Boards, and Temperance Unions.

6

The great disadvantage which attends the present plurality of independent organizations, is the distraction of heart which it produces. A man wishes to be a patriot, and at the same time a Christian. This might be, if the government of his country and the church of God were one, or if one of them were a subordinate branch of the other. But the government of his country is a kingdom by itself, and the church to which he belongs is a kingdom by itself. Christ says truly, that no man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.' A devoted allegiance to two or more independent kingdoms is impossible. The man must choose between his conntry and his church. If he will be a devoted patriot, he must be an indifferent churchman. If he will hold to his church, he must despise his country. Or in the vain struggle to serve both masters, he will be a hearty and faithful servant of neither.

The people of Ireland are experiencing the miseries of a divided allegiance. They are politically the subjects of the crown of England, and spiritually the subjects of the See of Rome. Just in proportion as they are religious, they must be seditious. The same is true, in a greater or less degree, of Roman Catholics in all countries that are politically independent of the Pope. And in fact, the same is true of religionists of every name, who belong to churches which are separate from the civil governments under which they live. Men

whose religion is a mere formal Sunday affair, may be liege subjects of the powers that be; but whoever loves his religion and his church with supreme devotion, has necessarily more or less treason against his country in his heart. Observation will attest that our most devoted patriots are lukewarm religionists, and our most devoted religionists are lukewarm patriots. This is the necessary result of the position in which the separation of church and state places men, even where the relations of church and state are not unfriendly. Again, the division of the world into independent nations, makes it impossible for a man to be a patriot and a cosmopolite at the same time. Loyalty and universal philanthropy are incompatible, because the policy of each insulated kingdom is inevitably hostile to the interests of the world at large. So the division of the religious world into sects necessarily raises a competition in each man's heart between the claims of the church universal and those of the church to which he belongs. If he is a warm Presbyterian or Methodist, he must be indifferent or hostile to the rest of Christendom. If his heart turns toward the whole body of believers, he loses his interest in his own church, and very probably will be cast out of it as a renegade.

That

The various benevolent and reformatory associations of modern times, have greatly multiplied the distractions of the religious world. The leading churches of this countny committed a suicidal act when they set the example, in the formation of the Bible and Missionary Societies, of instituting semi-religious associations separate from the regular church organizations. example has been followed till now almost every department of moral enterprise has an organization of its own, and the proper business of the churches is nearly all taken out of their hands. And these moral organizations are not merely independent of the churches, but more or less hostile to them. Of course all who are members of churches, and at the same time adherents of the societies, are in a strait betwixt two.' Their religion draws them one way, and their zeal for moral enterprises another. How many have been seduced from their church-allegiance by their attachment to the Temperance and Antislavery associations! And then even if a man's heart is not divided between his church and the reforms-if he has gone quite over to the new societies, he is still distracted by the multiplicity of independent enterprises which claim his devotion. Temperance, Moral Reform, Antislavery, Nonresistance-each a kingdom of itself-demand his allegiance. He has but one heart, and he must either give it to one of them and become a man of one idea,' or coquet with them all.

A true man would wish to be a loyal servant of all good interests-to be at the same time a Christian, a patriot, and a friend of every kind of reform. And this he might be, if religion, politics and morality, were embodied in one organization. But we know nothing more hopeless and heart-distracting than to attempt, in the present state of the world, to gratify a propensity to universal philanthropy, by surrendering one's self to the various organizations which occupy the field of human interests. Whoever makes this attempt will surely experience the worst woes of polygamy. He will find himself married to a dozen or more of independent and quarreling wives. The most he can do, will be to dally with them all. He can be a husband to none.

This state of things cannot last for ever. Whether we look at prophecy, or the nature of the case and the signs of the times, we see clearly that God is coming into the field; and that when he comes, all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, will be gathered together in one,' or, as it is in the original, will be reduced under one head.' Eph. 1: 10. The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will comprehend and unite all the interests which are now under the supervision of civil governments, churches, reform societies, communities, &c. We put it to the consciences of those who are waiting for that kingdom, whether, in going out of the present state of things to meet its coming, their first step is not to withdraw, and stand aloof from all the associations, new and old, which occupy its destined place? It is not to be hoped with reason, that any of the existing organizations will grow to be the kingdom of God. As well might we expect that a bramble will grow to be an oak. The initial principle of all-comprehensive unity which we have spoken of, is not in them, and never will grow out of them. Let us then leave them, and, standing alone if need be, but in a readiness for cooperation with God and man at the appointed time, wait patiently for the universal, everlasting kingdom. Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy.' All confederacies but one are destined to extinction; and that one is not yet manifested in this world. Let us resolve to join that confederacy or none.

6

§ 65. PEACE PRINCIPLES.

THE true scriptural peace-principle is, not that punishment of wrong doing is in itself unjustifiable, but that it is the proper office of God, as supreme governor, to inflict such punishment; and that it is wrong for individuals to take the law into their own hands. 'Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord.' Rom. 12: 19. The same Jesus that directed his disciples, as individuals, to resist not evil, to bless their enemies, and do good to their persecutors, also assured them that God their king would 'avenge them speedily.' Luke 18: 8. He who suffered himself to be led as a lamb to the slaughter,' that he might fulfill all righteousness as an individual and a subject, also predicted to his oppressors, in the midst of their cruelty and of his submission, that the time was coming when he would be seen sitting at the right hand of power' as their king and judge, and when they would call on the rocks and mountains to hide them from his wrath. Matt. 26: 64; Luke 23: 30.— The non-resistance which was inculcated on the primitive church by the apostles, was constantly mingled with promises of the speedy advent of a kingdom in which every man should be rewarded according to his works'-the wick ed with destruction, as well as the righteous with eternal life. 2 Thess. 1: 6-9.