itself; it is essentially formless and indefinite; it is a spirit which can manifest itself only by embodying itself in something else,-in some form, in short. A voice on the other hand, is always a definite thing. It is always some particular truth—always some form. This distinction is indeed pointed at by revelation itself, when the power is said to be of God, the voice to be of Christ. For God is the Formless, the Infinite, the Universal. the Form-possessing, the Definite, the Individual.

Christ is

We see, then, how a Christian theocracy, or a government in harmony with the spirit of the gospel, may be constituted. From the Christian revelation respecting power, it follows that Christian people must ever submit to the powers that be. And if these powers already act according to the forms which the voice of Christ expresses, all is right. The Christian theocracy in that state is already fully developed; and there ought to be on the part of the people not only obedience but silence, or if a voice at all, then the voice of assistance and of mutual gratulation only. But if the "powers that be," bear upon the people in forms which are not in harmony with the voice of Christ-if they are oppressive-then all who hear that voice are called upon as Christians to utter it and maintain it until the time come when the many are convinced by their witnessing; and the government conforms to what is right;-which every government must do sooner or later, else a power will arise in some other quarter, which Christians will feel to be from God, and will join and obey.

He

We see, then, wherein the Christian or later theocracy differs from the Jewish or former one. In the former, God gave directly the form as well as the power. gave the very laws and ordinances, as well as the magistrates. In the later, he gives only the magistrates-He calls upon Christians to give the form, to frame the laws and institutions, the voice of Christ being given for

guidance. And in this change we are called upon to admire the deep insight which it displays beyond what immediately appears. For under the old theocracy, where the form was given as well as the power, Christianity never could have become an universal religion, at least not till there was an outward uniformity over all the human family. Society could never have advanced in civilization under it. In fact the Jewish theocracy was designed chiefly for fixing and for preventing. It was also intended for one people exclusively. But the theocracy described as Christian is, as it needs to be, capable of universal application, and admits of every variety of form. It is at once beautifully calculated to develope human nature and civilization by that exercise of reason and conscience, which it calls for; and to adapt itself to every successive change which society undergoes, as it advances in the scale of intellectual development and moral excellence.

It does not argue any defect in the Jewish economy, that it would not have answered when applied to societies and spheres of action for which it was never designed. It only argues man's imperfection, that he should have ever thought of so applying it. How illogical to argue that, because there was a Moses in Israel, therefore there ought to be a Pope in Christendom. If indeed the Pope could accredit his pretensions as Moses did his authority, by palpable miracles seen and believed and felt by all, then whatever the reasons and semblances to the contrary, we should be obliged to believe that the scheme of the old theocracy subsisted still, and should feel called upon to look up to the Pope for law in all things, as the Israelites did to Moses. But while the attempts of the court of Rome to get up miracles, shew its conviction of their necessity, the actual want of genuine miracles destroys altogether the analogy between the papacy and the theocracy, and leaves the Pope's pretensions wholly

unaccredited. If they be just and warrantable, it can only be because the voice of Christ decides in their favour; for that is the only standard of appeal as to any form of government under the Christian dispensation. But who that listens to the voice of Christ, and to that voice exclusively, believes in the Pope ?

Popery did, indeed, from the very fact of its being an imitation of the old Theocracy, serve a valuable purpose during a certain epoch, to which such a constitution was peculiarly suitable. For when the exhausted forms of the society of ancient Europe were destroyed by the deluge of new life, which flowed down from the north, in the early part of the middle ages, a chaos resulted for a time, out of which the first forms of society that arose resembled those of extreme antiquity. For such a state of things, therefore, a government on the theocratic principle was peculiarly fit, and just for the same reasons then, as in remote antiquity. The human mind being in the same circumstances, displayed the same phenomena, and needed the same form of government. And it is, indeed, truly curious to observe in how many details the forms and accessories of the ancient theocracies reproduced themselves during the early part of the middle ages. But now that these times are long since gone by, the theocracy, after the purely Christian model, is what every Christian ought to strive for. What this model is, I have endeavoured, in the preceding remarks, to delineate, and beg here to recapitulate in a single sentence. God gives the power; the people (guided by the voice of Christ) must give the form,-not, however, by rebelling against existing forms, but by witnessing for such as are more just, more holy,-the state consulting for what is just, the church for what is holy.

But if this principle be true, there ought, in strict propriety, to be as many forms of Christian government as

there are of Christian society. Pervading all, there ever ought, indeed, to be an unity of spirit, because the voice of Christ is one, and the general principles of reason and conscience are every where the same; but this unity of spirit must be invested in as many varieties of forms, as there are peoples in different states of civilization; else all cannot be equally well suited. In order to this, the just and the holy, the state and the church, must be formed into varied appliances. An uniformity over all in ecclesiastical arrangements, then, can only be best when society shall have become uniform in other respects likewise.

We see, then, what a fine display of catholicity true religion exhibited, in reference to civil government, at the advent of Christ, and the commencement of the gospel era. The people of God were no longer reckoned children, to be regulated and guided, in every particular of conduct, by a positive precept. The age of the manhood of the church is now arrived. The law is no longer announced in so many set phrases addressed to the outward ear. The law written on the heart,-reason and conscience, scripture and grace, co-operating and mutually assisting,must now develope the laws and institutions of the Christian era. And thus man, in following Jesus in the regeneration, and under Him resuming the image of God, is not only "renewed in the inner man to righteousness and true holiness," but is even likened unto God in this, that each Christian man, in the little society of which he is a member, is called upon to be a little Providence within his own sphere, to discover his special gifts, and to exercise them for the enlightenment and well-being of the circle through which his influence extends. Plainly, therefore, by the advent of the Messiah, humanity was greatly exalted in all that relates to society and the economy of this world. Let us now inquire how it went at this blessed epoch with doctrinal religion.

THE SACRIFICE.

The Messiah is at once the great high priest and the holy sacrifice; in a word, He is the sum and substance of all sacrificial religion, the object from whom, as to the past, every priest ordained by men derived whatever sacerdotal powers he ever legitimately possessed or exercised, from whom every drop of blood that had ever been shed in sacrifice derived its virtue to take away sin, and in whom, as to the future, all sacrifices ceased.

This is so palpably set forth in the epistle to the Hebrews, that it is wonderful how any one can admit the canonicity of that epistle, and yet maintain another doctrine. "When Christ cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not; but a body hast thou prepared for me. In burnt-offerings and sin-offerings thou hadst no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Above he saith, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings, thou wouldst not, and hadst no pleasure therein (namely, those that are offered according to the law). Then he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By which will expiation is made for us, through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. Now every priest standeth ministering daily, and offering frequently the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But Christ, when he had offered one everefficacious sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God, henceforth waiting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, he hath perfected for ever those for whom expiation is made. Moreover the Holy Spirit testifieth this to us, for after having said before, "this is the covenant which I will make with them after