saving discipline of his yoke from our hearts and

consciences.

The name of liberty is greatly and justly dear to us: and therefore it may not be useless, before concluding this part of our subject, to observe how that stands related to the obligation we are now considering. Strong as is our natural desire of uncontrolled freedom, it is certain, however humiliating, that the first and most obvious need of mankind is restraint: that in a state of anarchy the conflicting motions of men's passions would be such as to force men to agree together to limit their personal liberty by permanent submission to some power distinct from their own. And it is only as men conscientiously comply with the obligations, whether towards superiors, equals or inferiors, which their incorporation into civil society imposes on them, that these restraints on individual wilfulness become less necessary with regard to them; thus only are they contributing, in the natural progress of things, to the growth and extension of that political liberty, the possession of which is indeed the greatest perfection and happiness of civil communities. Without a disposition to find our own in the general good,-in other words, without virtue, self-denial, charity and the fear of God,-the bestowal of greater liberty on a people is no blessing, but a curse not the less so, if their unbridled passions blind them to a sense of evils, for which the return of a more stringent despotism were a desirable substitute. Common as it is, in the present time, to consider the rights which an ex

tent.

tended freedom brings with it as simply benefits to the possessor, no thoughtful Christian will certainly so consider them, but rather as awful trusts and responsibilities; of which he can never acquit himself well to his own happiness or that of others, unless he be himself free-free in a higher sense than the abusers of that term usually imaginefrom the slavery of sin; and not only from the grosser forms of vice and unrighteousness, but from the guilt and torment of vanity, envy, and disconHow far the possession of this true freedom of Christ is qualifying us for the perpetuation and extension of that civil freedom with which we have so long been favoured, may well be a subject of doubt in thoughtful men, who watch the signs of the times, and the indications of the moral atmosphere around us. But as to what we very frequently hear, that all is necessarily progress-progress in the path of illumination, freedom and happiness,in proportion as our monarchical constitution is broken down, and advances made towards republicanism, may not the contrary conclusion rather press itself forcibly on the minds of reflecting men at present? Certainly, the tyranny which some would prepare for us, which would subject all questions on politics and religion to the decision of the masses of mankind, and bind all men under the penalty of shame and contempt to acquiesce in that most inartificial and miserable test of right, the suffrage of a numerical majority; this is far more intolerable to such as prize truth and freedom of thought, than any thing which

now threatens us from the opposite quarter,-from an authority possessing by ancient prescription the power of acting on behalf of the whole.

But the second head of inquiry, which our Lord's concluding words suggest to us, is, that beside the duties which we owe to the supreme magistrate, there are others which we owe to God. Not indeed that the former differ in the ground of their obligation from the latter; for all our duties resolve themselves ultimately into obedience to the will of God, and this to the human sovereign among the rest: as such I have endeavoured to treat it, and to collect the mind of God in nature and in revelation respecting it. But besides this, and every other duty of the second table, there is a properly religious duty which is directed immediately to God: this neither excludes the former, nor is excluded by it, but requires attention together with it, agreeably to the tenor of the words, "Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are God's."

The compatibility of these two duties, and at the same time their distinct nature, may be best seen by surveying them in the extreme case, when they partially come into collision with each other. For though that case is not directly contemplated by our Saviour here, and much less does it become us so habitually to contemplate it; the possibility yet exists that the requisitions of the supreme earthly ruler may interfere with, or oppose, the dues of God. Such a case occurred when the king of Babylon or

dered his image to be worshipped; when Darius ordered his name to be invoked in prayer; and when the early Christians were commanded to blaspheme their Lord, and burn incense before the emperor's statues. In all such cases the obligation to obey Cæsar is superseded by that higher one in which alone it had its being: with the holy children 'in the furnace, with Daniel in the lions' den, with the blessed martyrs at the cross, the pile, or the amphitheatre, the Christian's course is to obey God rather than man; in His strength to endure all, to "resist," should the case so proceed, even "unto blood," rather than defile his conscience by compliance. But what is the nature and degree of that resistance which has the example of God's faithful servants to justify and enforce it? In no instance does it extend further than to the particular unlawful command from which obedience is withholden; never is it otherwise than a passive resistance, much less does it extend to declaring the allegiance of Christian people annulled to one who issued such impious orders, or summoning the godly to war against him as an enemy and oppressor of the truth. Such indeed have been the principles of two opposite sets of men in later times, the one of which had apostolical authority, the other apostolical purity, most in their mouths and professions; but such was not the patience of the saints, the real saints, whose death in God's sight is precious; such was not the true mark of that catholic Church of Christ, against which the gates of hell should not prevail. "Ye have con

demned and killed the just," says St James, to the heathen magistrate; "he doth not resist you." "Being reviled, we bless," says St Paul; "being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat." In conformity with these examples the martyrs of that and the succeeding ages died, praying for the emperors that condemned them, and commending the same loyalty and allegiance to all the faithful; no insurrection or resistance, even when their numbers might well have admitted it, impaired the purity of their testimony during three centuries of matchless trial and suffering; so truly was the cross of Him in whom alone they overcame impressed on every part of their demeanour, and the power of that saving name exhibited in the energy of meek obedience "before Gentiles and kings," to the utmost regions of the earth.

Such then was the strict compatibility of the duties to God and to Cæsar, at a time when the Church was an insulated body in the State, nay, when oppressed and persecuted by it; but when her own inherent organization, instinct with life through the Holy Spirit breathed into her by her Divine Founder, daily extended her bounds and influence among those who vainly sought her destruction. Such, I say, was the united religion and loyalty which Christians preserved, even in these extreme circumstances. Should then these duties be less united, when the State itself became Christian, when its kings, nobles and magistrates, joined to the Church by baptism, became heirs through Christ of that immortal life to which the word