organization of the
kingdom of heaven. In this conception of the church the bond of union
was not moral and spiritual--not the inevitable result of divine life
and love in the individual members--but its pretended catholicity was
to be secured by official, administrative, legislative, and judicial
functions under a human headship and a self-perpetuating human
magistracy. Such was the "mystery of iniquity," and in its developed
form historically it was "the man of sin." The student of the New
Testament can easily see that the great Founder never intended that
the boundary of his church should be determined by the administrative
functions of a self-perpetuating clerical corporation. But, on
the other hand, the real church embraces the entire _spiritual
brotherhood,_ and out of this spiritual membership was developed by
the Spirit of God the capacity and authority to teach, guide, and
instruct. What a contrast these two conceptions present!

[Sidenote: The power of the keys]

Out of that worldly conception of the kingdom of God grew the Romish
figment of the "power of the keys." According to this idea, Christ
constituted his ministers a sort of clerical, close corporation
invested with direct authority over souls so that without their
priestly mediation the kingdom of heaven is forever shut against men.
The words "keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16:19) are evidently
nothing more than a figurative expression indicating the moral
influence in the kingdom which Peter in particular should wield with
peculiar energy and efficiency. According to Matt. 18:18 all the
apostles and others were to exercise the same functions. In time, this
expression denoting moral influence and usefulness in the service of
Christ was tortured into an engine of despotism and made the means of
spiritual tyranny over the consciences of millions of men and women.
The corporation entrusted with such power durst not be resisted, and
the church was identical with the hierarchy.

But all of Rome's boasted catholicity, centralized in an official,
administrative corporation, is a chimera; for it is a fact that
multitudes are accepted of God as members of the divine family who are
not identified with the hierarchy. The real catholic church, embracing
the whole spiritual brotherhood, is therefore something else.

[Sidenote: Main source of ecclesiasticism]

But we have not yet reached in this discussion the tap-root of the
evil tree of human ecclesi