logical expression as was then possible, in the
doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity. It is true that this idea
of the unity of man with God was not immediately carried out to any of
the consequences which might seem to be contained in it. It remained for
a time a religion, and a religion only; it did not show itself to be the
principle of a new social or political order of life. Rather it accepted
the old order represented by the Roman Empire, and even consecrated it
as "ordained of God," only demanding for itself that it should be
allowed to purify the inner life of men. Such a separation of the things
of Caesar and the things of God was then inevitable; for it is impossible
that a new principle can ever be received simply and without alloy into
minds, which are at the same time occupying themselves with its utmost
practical or even theoretical consequences. In this sense there is great
truth in what Comte says about the value of the separation of the
spiritual from the temporal authority. The power of directly realizing a
new religious principle, just because it draws away attention from the
principle itself to the details of its practical application, is likely
to prevent that application being either effective or even a true
expression of the principle. Such practical inferences cannot safely be
drawn by direct logical deduction; they will be made with certainty and
effect only by spirits which the principle has remoulded. The decided
withdrawal of the Christian Church from the sphere of "practical
politics" was, therefore, not merely a necessity forced upon it from
without; it was a condition which its best members gladly accepted,
because without it the inner transformation of man's life by the new
doctrine would have been impossible. If Christianity had raised an
insurrection of slaves, it never could have put an end to slavery.

But while this withdrawal was necessary, it contained a great danger;
for the inner life cannot be separated from the outer life without
becoming narrowed and distorted. Confined to the sphere of religion and
private morality, the doctrine of unity and reconciliation necessarily
became itself the source of a new dualism. What had been at first merely
neglect of the world was gradually changed into hostility to worldly
interests; and the germs of a positive morality, reconciling the flesh
and the spirit--which appear in the New Testament--were neglected and
overshadowed in the gro