for the admmistration of law and justice, and for the promotion of earthly weal, could not possibly persist forever in her hostility § 13. NEW POSITION OF THE CHURCH IN THE EMPIRE. 93 to Cliristianity, but must at least allow it a legal existence and free play ; and if she would attain a higher development and better answer her moral ends than she could in union with idolatry, she must surrender herself to its influence. The kingdom of the Father, to which the state belongs, is not es- sentially incompatible with the church, the kingdom of the Son ; rather does " the Father draw to the Son," and the Son leads back to the Father, till God become " all in all." Hence- forth should kings again be nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to the church,' and the prophecy begin to be fulfilled : " The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." ' Tlie American separation of church and state, even if re- garded as the best settlement of the true relation of the two, is not in the least inconsistent with this view. It is not a return to the pre-Constantinian basis, with its spirit of persecution, but rests upon the mutual reverential recognition and support of the two powers, and must be regarded as the continued re- sult of that mighty revolution of the fourth century. But the elevation of Christianity as the religion of the state presents also an opposite aspect to our contemplation. It in- volved great risk of degeneracy to the church. The Roman state, with its laws, institutions, and usages, was still deeply rooted in heathenism, and could not be transformed by a ma- gical stroke. The christianizing of the state amounted there- fore in great measure to a paganizing and secularizing of the church. The world overcame the church, as much as the church overcame the world, and the temporal gain of Chris- <3 / tianity was in many respects cancelled by spiritual loss."/ The / mass of the Koman empire was baptized only with water, not with the Spirit and fire of the gospel, and it smuggled heathen manners and practices into the sanctuary under a new name. The very combination of the cross with the military ensign by Constantino was a most doubtful omen, portending an un- happy mixture of the temporal and the spiritual powers, the • Is. xlix. 23. ' Rev. xi. 15. / M- 94 THIKD PEEIOD. A.D. 311-590. kingdom whicli is of the earth, aud that which is from heaven. The settlement of the boundary between the two powers, which, with all their nnity, remain as essentially distinct as body and soul, law and gospel, was itself a prolific sonrce of errors and vehement strifes about jurisdiction, which stretch througli all the middle age, and still repeat themselves in these latest times, save where the amicable American separation