Excerpt from The Formation of Christendom, Vol. 4 Christ originally took up in regard to the Civil Power, and what the behaviour Of the Civil Power towards the Church was. And, thirdly, the question of principles being thus laid down, the remainder of the volume is occupied with the historical exhibition Of the subject during the first three centuries; that is, from the Day Of Pentecost to the Nicene Council. The supreme im portance of that period will appear to all who reflect that the Church from the beginning, and in the first centuries Of her existence, must be the same in principles with the Church Of the nineteenth and every succeeding Century. And this volume is, in fact, a prelude to the treatment Of the same subject in the last three centuries, down to the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. The subject which I am treating is, then, strictly historical, being the action Of a King in the establish ment of a kingdom; the action Of a Lawgiver in the legislation which He gave to that kingdom; the action Of a Priest in founding a hierarchy, whereby that kingdom consists; but, moreover, -which is something much more - the action of One who is Priest, Lawgiver, and King at once and always, and therefore whose work is at once one and triple, and indivisible in its unity and triplicity, and issuing in the forming Of a people which is simply the creation Of its King. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.