XVIII INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. church with that of earthly rulers. Our lord having compared his church to a kingdom, and those who bear office in her being deno- minated rulers, it has been hastily inferred that as earthly kings rule by delegation under God, the sovereign of the world, so may the officers of the church be considered as ruling by delegation under Christ, the sovereign of the church: and on this ground it has been contended that the admission of a visible head of the church, acting as the vicar of Christ upon earth, does not supersede, but rather sup- pose the existence of an invisible head in heaven. Now, there cer- tainly is an analogy drawn in Scripture between the church of Christ and the kingdoms of this world; but the error lies in overlooking the real point in which the analogy holds true. It is an entire mistake to suppose that as the moral Governor of the world may be said to delegate his power of jurisdiction to civil rulers, so Christ may be said to have delegated his spiritual power of jurisdiction to spiritual rulers. The truth is, that it is God alone, as the supreme gover- nor, who delegates both the civil and the spiritual jurisdiction; and while he has committedcivil government to the hands of civil gover- nors, he has intrusted spiritual government, not into the hands of spiritual governors, but into the hands of his own Son, the sole king and head of his spiritual kingdom. The metaphor of earthly princes, ruling under God and for God, is applied in Scripture not to illustrate the power of church-governors, but the power of the Lord Christ. There is no analogy, therefore, between any delegation of power by the moral Governor of the world to earthly rulers and the appointment by Christ of officers in his church. The real ana- logy lies in the fact that as God has delegated a kingly power to earthly monarchs over their peculiar kingdoms, so has he delegated a kingly power to his Son over his church, as his peculiar kingdom. Let us take as an illustration the case of David, an eminent type of Christ in his kingly office. God was pleased to raise him up to feed his people Israel, assigning him that nation as his kingdom, and giving him the sole and undivided possession of its throne. In like manner has he raised up his Son Jesus, and given him the sole and undivided possession of his spiritual kingdom, the church. Let it be remembered that the Mediator holds and exercises his kingly autho- rity by delegation from the Father: "Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." Our Lord Christ is, in truth, God's vicar and vicegerent, both in heaven and on earth. And to suppose that he, himself the delegate of his Father, when he went to heaven " to re- ceive for himself a kingdom," can delegate his powers to others is utterly monstrous. The very fact that "the Lord God hath given
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