If, therefore, the church of Christ be the kingdom of Christ, it is essential to it, that Christ himself be the sole lawgiver, and sole judge of his subjects, in all points relating to the favour or displeasure of Almighty God; and that all his subjects, in what station soever they may be, are equally subjects to him ; and that no one of them, any more than another, hath authority, either to make new laws for Christ's subjects; or to impose a sense upon the old ones, which is the same thing; or to judge, censure, or punish, the servants of another master, in matters relating purely to conscience, or salvation. If any person hath any other notion, either through a long use of words with inconsistent meanings, or through a negligence of thought; let him but ask himself whether the church of Christ be the kingdom of Christ, or not? And, if it be, whether this notion of it doth not absolutely exclude all other legislators and judges, in matters relating to conscience, or the favour of God; or whether it can be his kingdom, if any mortal men have such a power of legislation and judgment in it. This inquiry will bring us back to the first, which is the only true account of the church of Christ, or the kingdom of Christ, in the mouth of a christian; that it is the number of men, whether small or great, whether dispersed or united, who truly and sincerely are subjects to Jesus Christ alone as their lawgiver and

judge, in matters relating to the favour of God, and their eternal salvation.

II. The next principal point is, that, if the church be the kingdom of Christ, and this kingdom be not of this world; this must appear from the nature and end of the laws of Christ, and of those rewards and punishments, which are the sanctions of his laws. Now his laws are declarations, relating to the favour of God in another state after this. They are declarations of those conditions to be performed, in this world, on our part, without which God will not make us happy in that to come. And they are almost all general appeals to the will of that God; to his nature, known by the common reason of mankind; and to the imitation of that nature, which must be our perfection. The keeping his commandments is declared the way to life; and the doing his will, the entrance into the kingdom of heaven. The being subjects to Christ, is to this very end, that we may the better and more effectually perform the will of God. The laws of this kingdom, therefore, as Christ left them, have nothing of this world in their view; no tendency, either to the exaltation of some, in worldly pomp and dignity; or to their absolute dominion over the faith and religious conduct of others of his subjects; or to the erecting of any sort of temporal kingdom, under the covert and name of a spiritual one.

The sanctions of Christ's law are rewards and punishments. But of what sort? Not the rewards. of this world; not the offices, or glories of this state; not the pains of prisons, banishments, fines, or any lesser and more moderate penalties; nay, not the much lesser negative discouragements that belong to human society. He was far from thinking that these could be the instruments of such a persuasion, as he thought acceptable to God. But, as the great end of his kingdom was to guide men to happiness after the short images of it were over here below; so he took his motives from that place, where his kingdom first began, and where it was at last to end; from those rewards and punishments in a future state, which had no relation to this world; and, to show that his kingdom was not of this world, all the sanctions, which he thought fit to give to his laws, were not of this world at all.

St Paul understood this so well, that he gives an account of his own conduct, and that of others in the same station, in these words, "Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men ;" whereas, in too many christian countries, since his days, if some, who profess to succeed him, were to give an account of their own conduct, it must be in a quite contrary strain; "Knowing the terrors of this world, and having them in our power, we do, not persuade men, but force their outward profession against their inward persuasion."

Now, wherever this is practised, whether in a great degree, or a small; in that place there is so far a change, from a kingdom which is not of this world, to a kingdom which is of this world. As soon as ever you hear of any of the engines of this world, whether of the greater or the lesser sort, you must immediately think that then, and so far, the kingdom of this world takes place. For, if the very essence of God's worship be spirit and truth; if religion be virtue and charity, under the belief of a Supreme Governour and Judge; if true real faith cannot be the effect of force; and if there can be no reward where there is no willing choice; then, in all, or any of these cases, to apply force or flattery, worldly pleasure or pain, is to act contrary to the interests of true religion, as it is plainly opposite to the maxims upon which Christ founded his kingdom; who chose the motives which are not of this world, to support a kingdom which is not of this world. And, indeed, it is too visible to be hid, that, wherever the rewards and punishments are changed from future to present, from the world to come, to the world now in possession; there, the kingdom founded by our Saviour is, in the nature of it, so far changed, that it is become, in such a degree, what he professed, his kingdom was not; that is, of this world; of the same sort with other common earthly kingdoms, in which the rewards are worldly honours, posts, offices, pomp, attendance, dominion;

and the punishments are prisons, fines, banishments, gallies, and racks, or something less, of the same

sort.

If these can be the true supports of a kingdom which is not of this world; then sincerity and hypocrisy, religion and no religion, force and persuasion, a willing choice and a terrified heart, are become the same things; truth and falsehood stand in need of the same methods to propagate and support them; and our Saviour himself was little acquainted with the right way of increasing the number of such subjects, as he wished for. If he had but at first enlightened the powers of this world, as he did St Paul; and employed the sword which they bore, and the favours they had in their hands, to bring subjects into his kingdom; this had been an expeditious and an effectual way, according to the conduct of some of his professed followers, to have had a glorious and extensive kingdom, or church. But this was not his design; unless it could be compassed in quite a different way.

And, therefore, when you see our Lord, in his methods, so far removed from those of many of his disciples; when you read nothing, in his doctrine about his own kingdom, of taking in the concerns of this world, and mixing them with those of eternity; no commands, that the frowns and discouragements of this present state should in any case attend upon conscience and religion; no rules against the