in the state and enjoyed the privileges of government, should contribute proportionally to the support of the state. Then came the fatal moment. On this deliverance by the civil power, the priesthood drew the sword. The head of the church entered into hostile collision with the head of the feudal aristocracy. And whether shall the law or the priest conquer? We need not inquire. The time is come when both Pope and feudal prince must fall before a third power, friendly both to church and state, when rightly constituted, yet, admitting only its own supremacy, its own rightful supremacy, the supremacy of reason and conscience and word of God.

THE CHURCHES OF THE REVIVAL.

Under the dominion of Rome, Europe was an unity. The same civilizing influence spread all round from the imperial city. Authority was easily spread along with it; and thus, while civilization progressed, authority was easily maintained. But when the Roman Empire was dismembered and ultimately destroyed, and the field occupied by other races, a number of foci of the new order of civilization, and consequently of authority, were lighted up. A new order of princes--a race of feudal chiefs, each in the midst of a territory more or less circumscribed, set agoing a new order of things. And Europe from that day to this exhibits quite a contrast to what it did before the middle ages. Unity and the dominion of one were its characteristics in the days of the Roman Empire. Variety has ever since been and is now its characteristic; and the balance of power among its constituent states is now the prevalent theory of European politics. In all these features and changes the

So much the For the church

church has naturally participated. In the church, however, as compared with the state, we note this difference, that its unity was longer in being brought to a head, and that it survived the empire for a long period. This arose partly from the circumstance that the church was an economy of a much more recent origin than the empire ; and partly from this, that the ecclesiastical power always moves more slowly than the civil power. better in the present instance at least. thus formed a connecting link between the old and the new order of things; and while New Europe tended to be all variety, the survival of the Church of Rome every where, after the Roman Empire had completely vanished, tended powerfully to maintain a certain degree of unity in the midst of the extreme variety which was coming into her, and consequently to prevent discord and mutual destruction between the rising states. Still, however, when the hour came, and at a certain lapse of time after the empire had ceased to exist as an unity, the church, which was but an image of the empire, underwent the same transformation which the empire itself had experienced. The palpable unity became a palpable variety. And we have now no longer to speak of the church, but of the churches of the Revival of Europe; the churches of Britain, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland for instance, just as the apostles themselves speak of the church that is at Corinth, the church that is at Ephesus, the churches of Asia, &c. The Church of Rome did what it could to prevent such a change, unhappily for its own interests, happily for true religion. The church of Rome, imitating still the principles of the Roman Empire, as it had done from the first, instead of repeating the voice of Christ, and manifesting love, and using persuasion in favour of unity, persevered in the exclusive exercise of authority. But authority, especially in matters of

religion, came with exceedingly bad grace from a court and clergy now become equally arrogant and profligate. And now Europe grows sick of it. Reason and conscience begin to breathe in many breasts. Some feel that it would give a charm and a new life to the principle of obedience, could they but see that the thing commanded was reasonable and right. Others perceive that many things in the church are plainly wrong. Nay, some begin to discover that both church and state will never be on a right basis till they act according to laws known and admitted by those who are called upon to obey. Jurisconsults seeing that the people are weary of living in a state of things where there is no depending on the edicts of the authority, all being personal to the prince and arbitrary, begin to revive publicly the knowledge of civil law, and by making known the immortal works of classic antiquity, long concealed in the cells of the monasteries, they awaken the demand for constitutional liberty. By their side, certain enlightened Christians, made aware of what Christianity really is, by the perusal of the sacred scriptures long retained in the exclusive hands of the sacerdotal order, begin to make known the sad corruptions of the gospel by the Church of Rome. At the same time philosophers, favoured by new lights such as never shone on the world before, begin to reveal the beautiful arrangements and beneficent laws by which the God of nature administers the affairs of that kingdom.

Moreover, this great work, in which jurisprudence, theology, and philosophy unite in awaking a new era, is mightily assisted by the discovery of a new art,-a discovery the most important by far that ever has been made. Books are printed. The many begin to read and reflect. And when this is the case, it is all over with mere authority. And here let me not recall to the reader's mind the disgraceful attempts of the Romish

priesthood to put a stop to the work of general enlightenment, in all that is most delightful and dear to the spirit of man. Let me not recall the tortures, the martyrdoms they inflicted on those who had the best eyes, and who dared to declare what they saw, now that Europe was becoming a valley of vision. Suffice it to say, the reign of the Romish priesthood was over. They could not put out the light, to the exclusive possession of which, among themselves hitherto, they owed their supremacy. "It moves, however," said Galileo, as he rose from his knees,—not from adoring God, though his wisdom appeared in new glory, when it was demonstrated that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of the system, but from the ignominious attitude in which he received the inflictions of the Church of Rome, for having maintained that glorious truth. "It moves, however," said he; and so it did. The new order of things moved in Europe, in spite of every effort of the Romish priesthood to put a stop to it.

But what we have here chiefly to remark is, that, in the progressive amelioration of all things during this epoch of the revival, the church was reformed. The word of God began to be generally circulated, that all might know His will. And here and there, where the light was brightest, where the spirit of man was freshest, and the shadow of ancient Rome the faintest, evangelical churches arose, formed, as nearly as could be discovered, according to the word of God and the spirit of the primitive churches; and in their creeds based upon that great doctrine, which is at once the essential element of evangelical religion, and of catholicity and Christian feeling, the doctrine of justification by faith. And accordingly, along with deep personal piety, we find, in the leading reformers, a catholicity of spirit, and an advocacy of the cause of catholicity, wonderful for the time.

they lived in. Instead of those stringent views of the constitution of the visible church, which insist on conformity to all the requirements of the dominant communion, and which have at all times characterized the Church of Rome, the reformers differ, yet view each other as Christians. They differed too widely, indeed. But what else could be expected from careering intellects like theirs, each bursting forth in its own God-sustained individuality, from the trammels of absolute conformity to error?

It were unreasonable to expect that so great a change as a perfect reformation of the abuses of Rome, could be effected at once, or in a single age. God never in providence, and almost never in grace, gives being to perfection at once. Development is the watchword of His administration. And so it was now. When authority had been the only idea of government for so many centuries, it was not to be expected that the supremacy of the word of God, and the rights of reason and conscience its interpreters, in a word, the doctrine of Christian liberty, should be generally understood and recognised all at once. More especially, since it so happened that the first great reformers were themselves members of the Romish priesthood, it was not to be expected that they could divest themselves altogether of their sacerdotal feelings and education. No wonder if there is still a good deal of intolerance in Luther. No wonder that Calvin maintained that heresy should be punished by the civil magistrate, and winked at, if he did not actually second, the execution of the provoking but unhappy Servetus. It is only those men who are animated, to a certain degree, at least, by the spirit of their times, who can ever either excite or head great movements. In times when a spirit of persecution for religious differences universally prevailed, and was deemed holy, Luther and Calvin