(1.) That the Church and State could no longer be united or identified as they had been under the theocracy. The Christian Church at the first was established in an enemy's country. For three centuries it was not only independent and separate from the State, but it was in every way opposed and persecuted by the civil power. It is still the fact that the Christian Church exists in Pagan and Mohammedan countries. (2.) From the necessity of the case it is a body independent of the State. It has its own organization, its own laws, its own officers, and its own conditions of membership. It has the right to administer its own discipline agreeably to the laws of Christ its king and head. (3.) As it was intended by Christ that his Church should be thus catholic or universal, existing under all forms of human government, civilized or savage, it was clearly his intention that it should be thus independent and distinct from the State. He declared that his kingdom was not of this world. It is not of the same kind with worldly kingdoms ; it has different ends to accomplish, and different means for the attainment of those ends. It is spiritual, that is, concerned with the religious or spiritual, as distinguished from the secular interests of men. It moves, therefore, in a dif- ferent sphere from the State, and the two need never come into collision. (4.) As the Church, since the advent is identical with the Church which existed before the advent, although so different in its organization, in its officers, and in its mode of worship, the conditions of church-membership are now what they were then. Those conditions still are credible profession of faith, and obedi- ence to the divine law. But it is no longer the duty of the State to require such profession or to enforce such obedience, so that every citizen of the State should be "ipso facto" a member of the Church. The two bodies are now distinct. A man may be a member of the one, and not a member of the other. The Church has the right to exercise its own discretion, within the limits pre- scribed by Christ, as to the admission or exclusion of members.
Doctrine of the Church of Rome on the Baptism of Children.
It has already been remarked that the Romish theory of the Church is founded on that of the ancient theocracy. That theory, however, is necessarily modified by the catholicity of the Church. Being designed for all nations, it could not be identified with any one nation. National citizenship is no longer the condition of church-membership. Rome, however, teaches, —
1. That the Church is, in its essential character, an external,
560 PART in. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
organized society, so that no man can be a member of Christ's body and a partaker of his life, who is not a member of that society.
2. The Church is an institute of salvation. Its sacraments are exclusively the channels for conveying to men the benefits of the redemption of Christ.
3. As the sacraments are the only channels of grace, no gracious affections or fruits of the Spirit can be required of those who receive them. Being designed to make men good, goodness can- not be the condition of their reception or efficacy.
4. The sacraments, and especially baptism, being thus neces- sary to salvation, it is the duty of all men to apply that they should be administered to them and to their children.
5. With regard to those children whose parents, through igno- rance or indifference, neglect to bring them to the Church for baptism, they may be presented by any one who takes an interest in their salvation, that they may be baptized on the faith of the Church, or on that of those who are willing to act as their spon- sors. It is no matter, therefore, whether the parents of such children are Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, or Pagans, as they all need, so they are all entitled to the sacrament of baptism. To exclude them from baptism, is to exclude them from heaven.
The Roman Catechism1 declares that the people must be taught that our Lord has enjoined baptism on all men, so that they will all perish eternally unless they be renewed by the grace of bap- tism, whether their parents be believers or unbelievers. In the answer to the next question the Scriptural authority for the bap- tism of infants is given ; and in answer to the following question it is taught that infants, when baptized, receive the grace signi- fied, not because they believe by the assent of their own mind, but because of the faith of their parents if believers, and if not, then by the faith of the Church universal; and they may be properly offered for baptism by any one who is willing to present them, by whose charity they are brought into the communion of the Holy Spirit.
6. Although not identified with the State, the Church theoreti- cally absorbs the State, and does so in fact wherever it has the ascendancy. The Church is a body which has two arms — a spir- itual and a secular. It demands that the State require all its subjects to profess its faith, to receive its sacraments, and to sub- mit to its discipline ; and where it has not the power thus to ren-
1 n. ii. quaes. 25 [31, xxx.] ; Streitwolf, vol. i. p. 274.