CHA P. IV.

OF THE DUTY OF CIVIL OBEDIENCE AS STATED IN THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES.

WE affirm, that as to the extent of our civil

rights and obligations, Christianity hath left us where she found us; that she hath neither altered, nor ascertained it; that the New Teftament contains not one paffage, which, fairly interpreted, affords either argument or objection applicable to any conclufions upon the subject, that are deduced from the law and religion of

nature.

The only paffages which have been seriously alleged in the controverfy, or which it is necefsary for us to state and examine, are the two following; the one extracted from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, the other from the First General Epistle of St. Peter,

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ROMANS Xiii. 1—7.

"Let every foul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God;

"the powers that be, are ordained of God. "Whofoever therefore refifteth the power, re"fifteth the ordinance of God: and they that "refift, fhall receive to themselves damnation. "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but 66 to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of "the power? Do that which is good, and thou "shalt have praise of the fame: for he is the "minifter of God to thee for good. But if "thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he "beareth not the fword in vain: for he is the "minifter of God, a revenger to execute wrath

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upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye muft "needs be fubject, not only for wrath, but also "for confcience fake. For, for this caufe pay c you tribute also for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to "whom tribute is due, cuftom to whom cuftom, "fear to whom fear, honour to whom ho"nour.' ""

I PETER, ii. 13-18. "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of "man for the Lord's fake: whether it be to the "King as fupreme; or unto Governors, as unto "them that are fent by him for the punishment "of evil doers, and for the praise of them that

"do well. For fo is the will of God, that with "well-doing ye may put to filence the igno"rance of foolish men: as free, and not using $6 your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but 16 as the fervants of God."

To comprehend the proper import of these inftructions, let the reader reflect, that upon the fubject of civil obedience there are two queftions; the first, whether to obey government be a moral duty and obligation upon the conscience at all; the second, how far, and to what cafes, that obedience ought to extend ;-that these two questions are so distinguishable in the imagination, that it is poffible to treat of the one, without any thought of the other; and laftly, that if expreffions which relate to one of these questions be transferred and applied to the other, it is with great danger of giving them a fignification very different from the author's meaning. This dif tinction is not only poffible, but natural. If I met with a perfon, who appeared to entertain doubts, whether civil obedience were a moral duty which ought to be voluntarily discharged, or whether it were not a mere fubmiffion to force, like that, which we yield to a robber, whọ holds a piftol to our breaft, I should represent to him the use and offices of civil government,

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the end and the neceffity of civil fubjection; or, if I preferred a different theory, I should explain to him the focial compact, urge him with the obligation and the equity of his implied promife and tacit confent to be governed by the laws of the ftate from which he received protection; or I fhould argue, perhaps, that Nature herfelf dictated the law of fubordination, when she planted within us an inclination to affociate with our species, and framed us with capacities fo various and unequal. From whatever principle I fet out, I fhould labour to infer from it this conclufion, "That obedience to the ftate, is to be "numbered amongst the relative duties of human

life, for the tranfgreffion of which, we shall "be accountable at the tribunal of divine juftice, "whether the magiftrate be able to punish us for "it or not ;" and being arrived at this conclufion, I fhould ftop, having delivered the conclufion itself, and throughout the whole argument expreffed the obedience, which I inculcated, in the moft general and unqualified terms, all reservations and restrictions being fuperfluous, and foreign to the doubts I was employed to re

move.

If in a fhort time afterwards, I fhould be accofted by the fame perfon, with complaints of

public grievances, of exorbitant taxes, of acts of cruelty and oppreffion, of tyrannical encroachments upon the ancient or ftipulated rights or the people, and fhould be confulted whether it were lawful to revolt, or justifiable to join in an attempt to shake off the yoke by open refiftance; I fhould certainly confider myself as having a cafe and question before me very different from the former. I fhould now define and difcriminate. I fhould reply, that if public expediency be the foundation, it is alfo the measure of civil obedience; that the obligation of subjects and fovereigns is reciprocal; that the duty of allegiance, whether it be founded in utility or compact, is neither unlimited nor unconditional; that peace may be purchased too dear; that patience becomes culpable pufillanimity, when it ferves only to encourage our rulers to increase the weight of our burthen, or to bind it the fafter; that the fubmiffion, which furrenders the liberty of a nation, and entails flavery upon future generations, is enjoined by no law of rational morality: finally, I fhould inftru& him to compare the peril and expence of his enterprize, with the effects it was expected to produce, and to make choice of the alternative, by which not his own prefent relief or profit, but

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