_This wisdom_ hath asked me, How it is possible for Christian kingdoms in the neighbourhood of one another, to preserve themselves, unless the strength and weapons of war, are every ones defence, against such invasions, incroachments, and robberies, as would otherwise be the fate of Christian kingdoms from one another?
This question is so far from needing to be answered by me, that it is wholly on my side; it confesses all, and proves all that I have said of the state of Christendom.――For if this is the governing spirit of Christian kingdoms, that no one of them can subsist in safety from its neighbour, but by its weapons of war, are not all Christian kingdoms equally in the same _unchristian_ state, as two neighbouring _bloody knaves_, who cannot be safe from one another, but as their murdering arms protect them? This plea therefore for Christendom’s wars, proves nothing else but the want of Christianity all over the Christian world, and stands upon no better a foundation of righteousness, than when one murdering knave kills another, that would have killed him.
But to know whether Christianity wants, or admits of war, Christianity is to be considered in its right state.――Now the true state of the world turned Christian, is thus described by the great gospel-prophet. “They shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up its sword against nation, (_N. B._) neither shall they learn war any more.”――This is the prophet’s true Christendom, with the same essential mark set upon it, as when the Lamb of God said, _By this_ shall all men _know_, ye are my disciples, _if ye love one another as I have loved you_.
Would you see when and where the kingdoms of this world are become a kingdom of God, the prophet tells you that it is _then_ and _there_ where all enmity ceaseth.――“The wolf, saith he, shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.”――For, N. B. _they shall not_ HURT or DESTROY _in all my holy mountain_, that is, through all holy Christendom. _Isaiah xi. 6._
See here a kingdom of God on the earth; is nothing else but a kingdom of mere love, where all HURT and DESTROYING is done away, and every work of enmity changed into heavenly love.
As to the present state of Christendom, working under the spirit and power of the great fiery dragon, it is not my intention, to shew how any part of it can preserve itself from being devoured by every other part, but by its own dragon weapons.
But the Christendom I mean, that neither wants, nor allows of war, is only that where Christ is King, and his holy Spirit the governor of the wills, affections, and designs of all that belong to it.――It is my charge upon all the nations of Christendom, that this necessity of murdering arms, is the dragon’s _monster_, that is equally brought forth by all and every part of fallen Christendom; and that therefore all and every part, as well Popish as Protestant, are at the same distance from the Spirit of their Lord, and therefore all want the same entire reformation.
In these last ages of Christendom, many reformations have taken place; but alas! Truth must be forced to say, that they have been in all their variety, little better than so many lesser _Babels_ come out of _Babylon_ the great.――For among all the reformers, the one only true reformation hath never yet been thought of.
The wisdom of this world, with its worldly spirit, was the only thing that had overcome the church, and had carried it into captivity. For in captivity it certainly is, as soon as it is turned into a kingdom of this world. Not a false doctrine, not a bad discipline, or corrupt practice ever prevailed in the church, but had its birth from worldly wisdom.
This wisdom, was the great evil root, at which the reforming axe should have been laid and must be laid, before the church can be again that virgin spouse of Christ, which it was at the beginning.
If therefore you take any thing to be church-reformation, but a full departure from the wisdom of this world, or any thing to be your entrance into a salvation-church, but the _nature_ and _Spirit_ of Christ, in you, then, whether Papist or Protestant, all will be just as much good to you, as when a Sadducee turns Publican, or a Publican a Pharisee.――And here it is well to be observed, that the church of Christ is solely for this end, to make us holy as he is holy. But nothing can do this, but that which hath power to change a sinner into a saint. And he who has not found _that power_ in the church, may be assured, that he is not yet a true son of the church.