4. If the Mediator's kingdom is not of this world, but spiritual, heavenly, and divine, and if the kingdoms of this world are under the dominion of Satan, and if the subjects of Christ's kingdom are not permitted to use carnal weapons, then we may infer who is the "great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." A virgin or chaste woman is a familiar symbol in the Scriptures of the true church of God; and an unchaste woman is as familiar a symbol of an apostate or corrupt church. As a lewd woman calls herself by the name of her husband, notwithstanding she has constant intercourse with other men, so the corrupt church calls herself by the name of Christ, notwithstanding she has constant illicit intercourse with the kings of the earth.[11] To understand the true nature of spiritual whoredom will assist us in ascertaining the bounds of mystical Babylon. The children of Israel were separated from all the nations of the earth and set apart to be holy unto the Lord. As they were in covenant with the God of Israel, he addressed them in the endearing character of a husband. Whenever they made any covenant or formed a confederacy with the nations around them, or imitated their idolatrous abominations, they were charged with spiritual whoredom. The church, under the gospel dispensation, is redeemed from amongst men out of every nation, and sanctified and set apart to be a peculiar people to show forth the praises of God. It is styled the Bride, the Lamb's wife. Its members are not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of the Spirit. They do not belong to any earthly kingdom, for our Lord has said, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world"; but they are citizens of the heavenly Zion and belong to the household of God; they are members of the same community, with the innumerable company of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect; and are to be governed by the very same spirit and temper which reigns amongst those blessed inhabitants above. God is an overflowing and unbounded ocean of blessedness and love; love is therefore the fulfilling of the law. Whenever the subjects of the Redeemer unite themselves to the kingdoms of this world, and engage in their political contentions and fightings, then it appears they commit spiritual whoredom, for they forsake the fountain of living waters and hew out to themselves cisterns,--broken cisterns, which can hold no water. When they thus mingle with the world and unite in its pursuits they may spiritually be styled adulterers.