Welsh Journals

Vol. II.] APEIL, 1869. [No. 4. THE CARDIFF CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE. CHURCH AND STATE—Continued. "We have traced in our previous paper something of the way in which the Church of Christ gradually lost its primitive simplicity and purity, and surrendered itself to worldly honds. A mighty impetus was given to this disastrous tendency, when about the year 324 a.d. Constantine became the imperial patron and master of the Christian Faith, and although its relations to the State were not legally defined, it became actually the religion of the Roman Empire. It is not necessary for us to detail the circumstances which led to this, and it would be wearisome work to go on step by step from this period through all the darkness and foulness of the middle age. The fall of the Western Empire before the Barbarians; the rise and growth of the Papal Power; the treachery, and fraud, and violence, and all the subtle workings of the "Mystery of Iniquity," that marked its path to the height of its supre¬ macy ; all this we must pass by, merely observing that by the middle of the eleventh century, the Popedom had become avast complicated system of mingled spiritual and carnal power, tyrannizing over the greater part of Europe. "The kingdom which is not of this world" appeared no longer to have place in this world. The most visible thing on earth, and the most palpable too, was the professed Church of Christ. So visible was it, that its rulers had princely vestments, titles, thrones, palaces, sceptres, and empire. So palpable was it, that in opposition to the ex¬ ample of Christ, it bade its " servants fight," not merely for purposes of defence, but in furtherance of the designs of supremacy and aggrandize¬ ment. " The sword of the spirit rested in neglect, while the sword of steel flashed in the eyes of the enemies of Popedom." * The gloom of ignorance and superstition and spiritual death reigned over the people. The human mind was for the most part sunk in abject, helpless slavery * Fletcher's History of Independency, p. 248.