enquiry of all his subjects into his original message from heaven; no orders for the kind and charitable force of penalties or capital punishments, to make men think and choose aright; no calling upon the secular arm, whenever the magistrate should become christian, to enforce his doctrines, or to back his spiritual authority; but, on the contrary, as plain a declaration as a few words can make, that his kingdom is not of this world; I say, when you see this, from the whole tenor of the Gospel, so vastly opposite to many who take his name into their mouths, the questions with you ought to be, whether he did not know the nature of his own kingdom, or church, better than any since his time; whether you can suppose, he left any such matters to be decided against himself and his own express professions; and, whether, if an angel from heaven should give you any account of his kingdom, contrary to what he himself hath done, it can be of any weight or authority with Christians.

I have now made some such observations, drawn from the church being the kingdom of Christ, and not of any men in that kingdom; from the nature of his laws, and from those rewards and punishments, which are the sanctions of those laws; as lead us naturally into the true notion of the church, or kingdom, of Christ, by excluding out of it every thing inconsistent with his being king, lawgiver, and judge; as well as with the nature of his laws, and of his

promises and threatenings. I will only make two or three observations, grounded upon this; and so conclude.

And, First. From what hath been said it is very plain in general, that the grossest mistakes in judgment, about the nature of Christ's kingdom, or church, have arisen from hence, that men have argued from other visible societies, and other visible kingdoms of this world, to what ought to be visible and sensible in his kingdom; constantly leaving out of their notion the most essential part of it, that Christ is king in his own kingdom; forgetting this king himself, because he is not now seen by mortal eyes; and substituting others in his place, as lawgivers and judges, in the same points, in which he must either alone, or not at all, be lawgiver and judge; not contented with such a kingdom as he established, and desires. to reign in; but urging and contending that his kingdom must be like other kingdoms. Whereas he hath positively warned them against any such arguings, by assuring them that this kingdom is his kingdom, and that it is not of this world; and therefore that no one of his subjects is lawgiver and judge over others of them, in matters relating to salvation, but he alone; and that we must not frame our ideas, from the kingdoms of this world, of what ought to be, in a visible and sensible manner, in his kingdom.

Secondly. From what hath been said it appears, that the kingdom of Christ, which is the church of

Christ, is the number of persons who are sincerely and willingly subjects to him, as lawgiver and judge, in all matters truly relating to conscience or eternal salvation. And, the more close and immediate this regard to him is, the more certainly and the more evidently true it is, that they are of his kingdom. This may appear fully to their own satisfaction, if they have recourse to him himself, in the gospel; if they think it a sufficient authority, that he hath declared the conditions of their salvation, and that no man upon earth hath any authority to declare any other, or to add one tittle to them; if they resolv to perform what they see he layeth a stress upon; and if they trust no mortal with the absolute direction of their consciences, the pardon of their sins, or the determining of their interest in God's favour; but wait for their judge, who alone can bring to light the hidden things of darkness.

If they feel themselves disposed and resolved to receive the words of eternal life from himself; to take their faith from what he himself once delivered, who knew better than all the rest of the world what he required of his own subjects; to direct their worship by his rule, and their whole practice by the general law which he laid down; if they feel themselves in this disposition, they may be very certain, that they are truly his subjects, and members of his kingdom. Nor need they envy the happiness of others, who may think it a much more evident mark

of their belonging to the kingdom of Christ, that they have other lawgivers and judges, in Christ's religion, besides Jesus Christ; that they have recourse not to his own words, but the words of others who profess to interpret them; that they are ready to submit to this interpretation, let it be what it will; that they have set up to themselves the idol of an unintelligible authority, both in belief, and worship, and practice; in words, under Jesus Christ, but in deed and in truth over him; as it removes the minds of his subjects from himself to weak and passionate men; and as it claims the same rule and power in his kingdom, which he himself alone can have.

But, Thirdly. This will be another observation, that it evidently destroys the rule and authority of Jesus Christ, as king, to set up any other authority in his kingdom, to which his subjects are indispensably and absolutely obliged to submit their consciences, or their conduct, in what is properly called religion. There are some professed christians, who contend openly for such an authority, as indispensably obliges all around them to unity of profession; that is, to profess even what they do not, what they cannot, believe to be true. This sounds so grossly, that others, who think they act a glorious part in opposing such an enormity, are very willing, for their own. sakes, to retain such an authority as shall oblige men, whatever they themselves think, though not to profess what they do not believe, yet to for

bear the profession and publication of what they do believe, let them believe it of never so great importance.

Both these pretensions are founded upon the mistaken notion of the peace, as well as authority of the kingdom, that is, the church, of Christ. Which of them is the most insupportable to an honest and a christian mind, I am not able to say; because they both equally found the authority of the church of Christ upon the ruins of sincerity and common honesty, and mistake stupidity and sleep for peace; because they would both equally have prevented all reformation where it hath been, and will forever prevent it where it is not already; and, in a word, because both equally divest Jesus Christ of his empire in his own kingdom; set the obedience of his subjects loose from himself; and teach them to prostitute their consciences at the feet of others, who have no right in such a manner to trample upon them.

The peace of Christ's kingdom is a manly and reasonable peace; built upon charity, and love, and mutual forbearance, and receiving one another as God receives us. As for any other peace, founded upon a submission of our honesty as well as our understandings, it is falsely so called. It is not the peace of the kingdom of Christ, but the lethargy of it; and a sleep unto death, when his subjects throw off their relation to him; fix their subjection to