274 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



prophets was the starting-point the existence of a God- 

 Kingdom on earth is with him the culminating point ; 

 because all his notions of the excellency of Christianity 

 culminate in the visible Church, and in that Church in 

 the shape of an imperial power. In short, the Mediaeval 

 idea of the Church, an idea undoubtedly grand, and well 

 calculated to occupy men s minds, really stands before 

 him when he approaches prophecy, and everywhere he 

 sees as the centre of prophecy the very image which he 

 has himself brought with him to its study. 



Now the very fact that to us it seems so obvious that 

 the Christian Church never has taken the shape of a 

 visible realisation of the prophetic latter-day theocracy, 

 while to our opponent it is equally obvious that it has 

 done so, makes it plain that we stand on ground so different 

 that we can hardly argue about the fulfilment of prophecy 

 in detail until we have adjusted our mutual relations on 

 a more general question. Are we and the High Church 

 party at one on the question if the Church is, or is yet 

 designed to be, a visible Theocracy at all ? I think we 

 are not. The question is not merely one of present or 

 future fulfilment. It is not merely one of literal or figura 

 tive fulfilment. While our antagonist holds that above 

 all things the Church is a theocracy, an imperial power in, 

 though not of, the world we, I think, must hold that 

 such a power the Church neither is now, nor ever shall be. 

 I do not expect that you will all be prepared to give your 

 assent to this proposition without further explanation. 

 You will perhaps be inclined to say that I am running 

 into the opposite extreme from our High Church antagon 

 ists ; but I beg at least thatyou will suspend judgment 

 till I explain more fully what I mean. 



The High Church position is (as we know) that the 

 Church is essentially a Kingdom, that it is in the form of 

 a Kingdom that it becomes visible, and that the present 

 constitution of that Kingdom in the hands of a visible 

 hierarchy is essentially the form of the final glory predicted 



