the Church; to provide that all the people committed to their care may have the free power of worshipping God" in spirit and in truth;" to remove offences, if possible, by removing sin, if that be not possible, by removing the sinner; this is the office of the Magistrates. God's minister in the Church is to point out the road to happiness and heaven: God's minister in the State is so to order things, that not only this road may be safe and easy to travel, without apprehension of molestation or violence; but, at the same time, the many devious paths which lead to vice and misery may be (as much as possible) closed; that the avenues to them be watched and guarded; that the thoughtless and wilful be warned against trespassing therein; that those who do stray into them may be sought out and brought back.

Revelation and the light of Nature, as both proceeding from the one all-wise Being, a Being immutable in his essence and attributes and dealings, cannot but be in perfect accordance with each other. The magistrate ought not therefore so to interpret the one, that it contradict the interpretation of the other. The practical deductions, which he draws from the book of nature, ought to harmonize with the practical deductions which his fellow minister draws from the book of revelation; otherwise "the light that is in him is darknessd." b Isaiah xlix. 23. c St John iv. 23.

St Luke xi. 35.

But from the earliest ages of the Church there have been diversities of interpretation: and some of these involving the most important practical consequences. Take, for instance, the claim of universal jurisdiction set up by the Church of Rome; which, though at first applied to spiritual matters only, was carried to its acme by Boniface the eighth, in the Bull wherein he asserted that " Jesus Christ had granted to his Church both the spiritual and the temporal sword; that the whole human race was subject to the authority of the Pope; and that all who dared to dispute it were excluded from all possibility of salvation.” Thus the Bishops of Rome assumed the power of deposing refractory princes, of conveying their dominions to others, of transferring the allegiance of subjects from person to person, and of levying taxes and impositions throughout the whole of Christendom. Another instance is the opinion of the Society of Friends respecting the unlawfulness of judicial oaths and the sinfulness of bearing arms". Another, the tenet of certain Anabaptists relative to the community of goods h. Among the various systems of

e

Mosheim, Century XIV. part ii. c. 2.

f Bishop Burnet on the Articles, XXXVII. Mosheim, Century XIII. part ii. c. 2.

8 Barclay's Apology, Prop. XV. §. ii. prop. 5 and 6.

"The Anabaptists and Separatists and Sectaries. ... whose tenets are..... inconsistent with monarchy." Bacon, vol. iii.

interpretation, therefore, it is expedient to choose some one which shall be recognized as more probable or plausible than the rest; and to which, in consequence, the ascendency shall be given. And in making such a selection, the ruling powers must bear in mind, that truth is one; that error is manifold: the former they must embrace, and repudiate the latter they must not ask with a sneer, "What is truth i ?” but they must bend the pride of human intellect to seek for it; when found, they must uphold it at all hazards. In this, as in all other matters,

p. 568. fol. London, 1740. Compare also the tenets of the Carpocratians: "His [Carpocrates's] doctrine with respect to practice was licentious in the highest degree; for he not only allowed his disciples a full liberty to sin, but recommended to them a vicious course of life, as a matter both of obligation and necessity; asserting, that eternal salvation was only attainable by those who had committed all sorts of crimes, and had daringly filled up the measure of iniquity..... He held that lusts and passions, being implanted in our nature by God himself, were consequently void of guilt, and had nothing criminal in them; that all actions were indifferent in their own nature, and were rendered good or evil only by the opinions of men, or by the laws of the State; that it was the will of God, that all things should be possessed in common, the female sex not excepted; but that human laws, by an arbitrary tyranny, branded those as robbers and adulterers, who only used their natural rights. It is easy to perceive, that, by these tenets, all the principles of virtue were destroyed, and a door opened to the most horrid licentiousness, and to the most profligate and enormous wickedness." Mosheim, Century II. part ii. ch. 5. § 14. See Iren. contra Hæreses, lib. I. c. 25. § 4. lib. II. c. 32. § 2. Clement. Alex. Stromatum, lib. III. § 2. Epiphan. contra Hæres. xxvii. § 2. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. IV. c. 7. And note ", page 4.

i Bacon's Essays, i.

their motto must be salus populi, suprema lex: the authority with which rulers are invested is held in trust for the community it must be exercised for the public weal, for the ultimate good of the people', taking that word in its largest sense, as comprehending various classes in their several degrees of rank and subordination with one rule for rich and poor, for courtier and peasant: no one member of the body politic must be favoured and cherished to the detriment or neglect of any other member.

For any abuse of his high trust the ruler is accountable to Him whose minister he is. To his own Master he must stand or fall". From God he has received the sword; to God alone is he bound to resign it. If he wields it to the injury of his subjects, they are able (it is true) to force it from his hands: and an extreme case might occur which would justify the sufferers in wrenching the iron rod of despotism from the clutch of their oppressor. Just as if we saw a soldier under the excitement of

* Locke, vol. v. p. 432. § 158. Bacon, Ess. lvii. Cic. de Legg. iii. 4.

"In the chief magistrate of such a government as ours, it is not great talents which are required, so much as that plain integrity and humane attention to the good of his people, which seeks only for their happiness and safety." Marquis of Lansdowne's Speech, 1797.

Locke, vol. v. p. 423. § 142.

Kings must be answerable to God Almighty, to whom they are but vassals, for their actions and for their negligent omissions." Bacon, vol. iii. p. 566.

delirium, intoxication, or passion, brandishing a weapon to the terror and imminent danger of all around him, instead of stopping to argue upon our legal right to disarm him, it would be natural for us (if we could) to arrest his hand and wrest the weapon from his grasp. Now the soldier was entrusted with arms for the preservation and service of the community, under certain regulations, and at the order of the government : nor, if he be guilty of abusing his power, is he amenable to the individuals who interfere to seize or disarm him. In all ordinary cases, those who should place themselves in array against the soldiery would be guilty of resistance to the authority of the magistrate by whose appointment the soldiery were acting for here our Lord's injunction would be imperative on us; "Put up thy sword into the sheath for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword"." But where the necessity of the case was such as to call for promptitude of action, the magistrate would exculpate the parties who should interpose, at their own personal peril, to protect the lives of others. In like manner, he who places himself in array against the magistrate is guilty of resistance to the authority of God, by whom the magistrates are armed and placed in their ranks". Whether the emergence on any particu

• St Matthew xxvi. 52. St John xviii. 11.

* Αἱ δὲ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι ὑπὸ Θεοῦ τεταγμέναι εἰσίν. Romans xiii. 1.