a man's being in a fever hath, to the sincerity of his professions or addresses to any earthly prince.

Once more; the love of God, and of our Saviour, was at first, in his own words and those of St John, many times repeated, the "keeping his commandments, or doing his will."* But the notion of it was, it seems, left very jejune; and so hath been improved by his later followers, till the same name, still kept up in the language of christians, is far removed from the thing principally and first intended; and is come by degrees to signify a violent passion, commotion, and extacy, venting itself in such sort of expressions and disorders, as other passions do'; and this regulated and defined by such a variety of imaginations, that an ordinary christian, with the utmost sincerity in his heart, is filled with nothing but eternal suspicions, doubts, and perplexities, whether he hath any thing of the true love of God, or not.

I have mentioned these particulars, not only to show the evil itself, and to how great a degree the nature of things hath suffered, in the opinions of men, by the alteration of the sense of the same words and sounds; but to give you occasion to observe, that there can be no cure for it, in christians, but to go back to the New Testament itself; because there alone we shall find the original intention of such words; or the nature of the things, designed to be

John xiv. 15, 21, 23. xv. 10.

1 John ii. 5. v. 3. 2 John 6.

signified by them, declared and fixed by our Lord, or his Apostles from him, by some such marks, as may, if we will attend to them, guide and guard us in our notions of those matters, in which we are most of all concerned.

It is with this view, that I have chosen those words, in which our Lord himself declared the nature of his own kingdom. This kingdom of Christ is the same with the church of Christ. And the notion of the church of Christ, which, at first, was only the number, small or great, of those who believed him to be the Messiah, or of those who subjected themselves to him, as their king, in the affair of religion; having since that time been so diversified by the various alterations it hath undergone, that it is almost impossible so much as to number up the many inconsistent images that have come, by daily additions, to be united together in it; nothing, I think, can be more useful, than to consider the same thing under some other image, which hath not been so much used, nor, consequently, so much defaced. And, since the image of his kingdom is that, under which our Lord himself chose to represent it; we may be sure that, if we sincerely examine our notion of his church, by what he saith of his kingdom, that it is not of this world, we shall exclude out of it, every thing that he would have excluded; and then, what remains will be true, pure, and uncorrupted. And

what I have to say, in order to this, will be comprehended under two general heads.

I. As the church of Christ is the kingdom of Christ, he himself is king; and in this it is implied, that he is himself the sole lawgiver to his subjects, and himself the sole judge of their behaviour, in the affairs of conscience and eternal salvation. And in this sense, therefore, his kingdom is not of this world; that he hath, in those points, left behind him no visible, human authority; no vicegerents, who can be said properly to supply his place; no interpreters, upon whom his subjects are absolutely to depend; no judges over the consciences or religion of his people. For, if this were so, that any such absolute vicegerent authority, either for the making new laws, or interpreting old ones, or judging his subjects, in religious matters, were lodged in any men upon earth; the consequence would be, that what still retains the name of the church of Christ, would not be the kingdom of Christ, but the kingdom of those men, vested with such authority. For, whoever hath such an authority of making laws, is so far a king; and whoever can add new laws to those of Christ, equally obligatory, is as truly a king, as Christ himself is; nay, whoever hath an absolute authority to interpret any written, or spoken laws, it is he, who is truly the lawgiver, to all intents and purposes; and not the person who first wrote, or spake them.

In human society, the interpretation of laws may, of necessity, be lodged, in some cases, in the hands of those who were not originally the legislators. But this is not absolute, nor of bad consequence to society; because the legislators can resume the interpretation into their own hand; as they are witnesses to what passes in the world, and as they can, and will, sensibly interpose in all those cases, in which their interposition becomes necessary. And, therefore, they are still properly the legislators. But it is otherwise in religion, or the kingdom of Christ. He himself never interposeth, since his first promulgation of his law, either to convey infallibility to such as pretend to handle it over again; or to assert the true interpretation of it, amidst the various and contradictory opinions of men about it. If he did certainly thus interpose, he himself would still be the legislator. But, as he doth not, if such an absolute authority be once lodged with men, under the notion of interpreters, they then become the legislators, and not Christ; and they rule in their own kingdom, and not in his.

It is the same thing, as to rewards and punishments, to carry forward the great end of his kingdom. If any men upon earth have a right to add to the sanctions of his laws; that is, to increase the number, or alter the nature, of the rewards and punishments of his subjects, in matters of conscience or salvation; they are so far kings in his stead; and

reign in their own kingdom, and not in his. So it is, whenever they erect tribunals, and exercise a judgment over the consciences of men; and assume to themselves the determination of such points, as cannot be determined, but by one who knows the hearts; or when they make any of their own declarations or decisions, to concern and affect the state of Christ's subjects, with regard to the favour of God; this is so far, the taking Christ's kingdom out of his hands, and placing it in their own.

Nor is this matter at all made better by their declaring themselves to be vicegerents, or lawmakers, or judges, under Christ, in order to carry on the ends of his kingdom. For it comes to this at last, since it doth not seem fit to Christ himself to interpose so as to prevent or remedy all their mistakes and contradictions; that, if they have this power of interpreting, or adding laws, and judging men, in such a sense, that christians shall be indispensably and absolutely obliged to obey those laws, and to submit to those decisions; I say, if they have this power lodged with them, then the kingdom, in which they rule, is not the kingdom of Christ, but of themselves; he doth not rule in it, but they; and whether they happen to agree with him, or to differ from him, as long as they are the lawgivers and judges, without any interposition from Christ, either to guide or correct their decisions, they are kings of his kingdom, and not Christ Jesus.