its agents are simple and obvious. The first is that governments and magistrates have authority only within their legitimate spheres. As civil government is instituted for the protection of life and property, for the preservation of order, for the punish- ment of evil doers, and for the praise of those who do well, it has to do only with the conduct, or external acts of men. It cannot concern itself with their opinions, whether scientific, philosophical, or religious. An act of Parliament or of Congress, that English- men or Americans should be materialists or idealists, would be an absurdity and a nullity. The magistrate cannot enter our families and assume parental authority, or our churches and teach as a minister. A justice of the peace cannot assume the prerogatives of a governor of a state or of a president of the United. States. Out of his legitimate sphere a magistrate ceases to be a magis- trate. A second limitation is no less plain. No human authority can make it obligatory on a man to disobey God. If all power is from God, it cannot be legitimate when used against God. This is self-evident. The Apostles when forbidden to preach the Gos- pel, refused to obey. When Daniel refused to bow down to the image which Nebuchadnezzar had made ; when the early Chris- tians refused to worship idols ; and when the Protestant martyrs refused to profess the errors of the Romish Church, they all com- mended themselves to God, and secured the reverence of all good men. On this point there can be no dispute. It is important that this principle should be n«t only recognized, but also publicly avowed. The sanctity of law, and the stability of human govern- ments, depend on the sanction of God. Unless they repose on Him, they rest on nothing. They have his sanction only when they act according to his will; that is in accordance with the design of their appointment and in harmony with the moral law.
Sixthly, another general principle is that the question, When the civil government may be, and ought to be disobeyed, is one which every man must decide for himself. It is a matter of pri- vate judgment. Every man must answer for himself to God, and therefore, every man must judge for himself, whether a given act is 'sinful or not. Daniel judged for himseli. So did Shadrach, Me- shech, and Abednego. So did the Apostles, and so did the martyrs.
An unconstitutional law or commandment is a nullity ; no man sins in disregarding it. He disobeys, however, at his peril. If his judgment is right, he is free. If it be wrong, in the view of the proper tribunal, he must suffer the penalty. There is an ob- vious distinction to be made between disobedience and resistance.
PAKT IH. Ch. XIX. -the law.
A man is bound to disobey a law, or a command, which requires him to sin, but it does not follow that he is at liberty to resist its execution. The Apostles refused to obey the Jewish author- ities ; but they submitted to the penalty inflicted. So the Chris- tian martyrs disobeyed the laws requiring them to worship idols, but they made no resistance to the execution of the law. The Quakers disobey the law requiring military service, but quietly submit to the penalty. This is obviously right. The right of resistance is in the community. It is the right of revolution, which God sanctions, and which good men in past ages have exercised to the salvation of civil and religious liberty. When a government fails to answer the purpose for which God ordained it, the people have a .right to change it. A father, if he shamefully abuses his power, may rightfully be deprived of authority over his children.1
Obedience to the Church.
The Apostle commands Christians " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves : for they watch for your souls." " Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God." (Heb. xiii. 17, 7.) Our Lord said to his disciples, that if an offending brother resisted other means to bring him to repentance, his offence must be told to the Church ; and that if he neglected to hear the Church, he was to be regarded as a heathen man and a publican. (Matt, xviii. 17.) •
The principles which regulate our obedience to the Church, are very much the same as those which concern our relation to the State, —
1. The visible Church is a divine institution. In one sense indeed it is a voluntary society, in so far as that no man can be coerced to join it. If he joins it at all, it must be of his own free will. Nevertheless it is the will of God that the visible Church as an organized body should exist ; and every man who hears the Gospel, is bound to enroll himself among its members and to submit to its authority.
2. All Church power is of God, and all legitimate Church officers are his ministers. They act in his name and by his au- thority. Resistance to them, therefore, is resistance to the ordi- nance of God.
1 All these subjects are fully expounded in the great works on Jurisprudence and Civil Polity. For a popular discussion of them, reference may be made to, Discussions of Church Principles. By William Cunningham, D. D., Principal of New College, Edinburgh. Edin- burgh : T. and T. Clark, 1863, particularly chapters vi. and vii. See also the Princeton Review for January, 1851, article " Civil Government."