THIS volume, though entire in itself, is also the continuation of a
former work, the" Formation of Christendom," already written and
published by me in three volumes. It is, in fact, the further
unfolding of the subject under a particular aspect. In truth, the
relation between Church and State leads perhaps more directly than
any other to the heart of Christendom; for Christendom, both in
word and idea, means not only one and the same Church subsisting in
all civil governments, but also a community of Christian
governments, having a common belief and common principles of
action, grounded upon the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the
Redemption wrought thereby. For this reason, the Formation of
Christendom can hardly be described, unless the relation which
ought by the institution of God to subsist between the two great
Powers, the Spiritual and Civil, appointed to rule human society,
is first clearly established. In this volume, therefore, I treat
first of the relation of these two Powers before the coming of
Christ. Secondly, of their relation as it was affected by that
coming, in order to show what position the Church of Christ
originally took up in regard to the Civil Power, and what the
behaviour of the Civil Power towards the Church was. And, thirdly,
the question of principles being thus laid down, the remainder of
the volume is occupied with the historical exhibition of the
subject during the first three centuries; that is, from the Day of
Pentecost to the Nicene Council. The supreme importance of that
period will appear to all who reflect that the Church from the
beginning, and in the first centuries of her existence, must be the
same in principles with the Church of the nineteenth and every
succeeding century. And this volume is, in fact, a prelude to the
treatment of the same subject in the first three centuries, down to
the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. The subject which I am
treating is, then, strictly historical, being the action of a King
in the establishment of a kingdom; the action of a Lawgiver in the
legislation which He gave to that kingdom; the action of a Priest
in founding a hierarchy, whereby that kingdom consists; but,
moreover, which is something much more-the action of One who is
Priest, Lawgiver, and King at once and always, and therefore whose
work is at once one and triple, and indivisible in its unity and
triplicity, and issuing in the forming of a people which is simply
the creation of its King.
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