liberties in the hour of peril: and if peace and liberty of conscience will not satisfy the

to life or death, according to the merit of his deeds. Justyn Martyr to Antonius.

"We are defamed for sedition against the imperial majesty, yet were the christians never found to be Albinians, Nigrians, or Cassians, (Albinus Niger, and Cassius, were traitors against the emperors Marcus, Antonius, Commodus, Pertinax, and Severus,) but they that swore by the emperor's deity, the very day before; they that vowed and offered sacrifice for the emperor's health, were found to be the emperor's enemies. A christian is an enemy to no man, much less to the emperor, knowing that the imperial majesty is ordained of God, and therefore necessarily to be loved, reverenced, and honoured, whose prosperity, together with the welfare of all the Roman empire, they desire so long as the world standeth. We therefore honour the emperor in such sort as is lawful for us, and expedient for him, we reverence him as a mortal man, next unto God, of whom he holdeth all his authority, only subject to God, and so we make him sovereign over all, in that we make him subject to God alone." Tertullian to Scapula, viceroy of Carthage.

When Ambrose was commanded to deliver up his church in Myllaine, to Maxentius, an Arian bishop, he declared his resolution in a sermon to the people, who were very sorry for his departure, in these words :-"quid turbamini, volens nunquam vos deseram ?" Why are you troubled, I will never willingly leave you, if I be compelled, I have no way to resist, I can sorrow, I can weep, I

catholics without power and authority in the state, it ought to be no offence to them to

can sigh, my tears are my weapons against soldiers' armour. Goths, such is the munition of a priest, by any other means than tears, I neither ought nor can resist. Not disability but duty, not want of strength, and martial forces, but a reverend regard of the emperor's majesty, commanded by the law of God, kept Saint Ambrose from resisting, for he might easily have wrought the churches liberty, his own safety, and the Arians calamity, by the overthrow of the emperor through the force of the garison in the city, who refused to attend the prince to any other church than that wherein Ambrose

was.

The bishops of Spain assembled in a national council at Toledo, made this decree against perjury and treason-Whosoever amongst us shall, from this time forward, violate the oath which he hath taken, for the safeguard of this country, the state of the Gothick nation, and the preservation of the king's majesty; whosoever shall attempt the king's death, or deposition, whosoever shall by tyrannical presumption, aspire to the regal throne, let him be accursed before the Holy Spirit, before the blessed saints, let him be cast out of the catholic church, which he hath polluted by perjury, let him have no communion with christian men, nor portion with the just, but let him be condemned with the devil and his angels, eternally together, with his accomplices, that they may be tied in the bond of damnation, who were joined in the society of sedition.

When Boniface took upon him the decision of a con

be told, that we owe a regard to our own consciences, as well as theirs, and that though

troversy, between the kings of England and Scotland, and commanded king Edward of England either to give up his claim, or to send his procurators to the apostolic see, to shew his right, and to receive such orders from the pope, as justice and equity might require. The lords and commons then assembled in parliament, at Lincolu, sent Boniface this answer, on the king's behalf"Whereas our most dread lord Edward, by the grace of God, the noble king of England, caused your letters to be read openly before us, touching certain occurrences of state, between him and the king of Scotlaud, we did not a little marvel at the contents thereof, so strange and wonderful, as the like hath never been heard of. We know, (most holy father) and it is well known in this realm, and also to other nations, that the king of England ought not to make answer for his right before any judge, ecclesiastical or secular, by reason of the free estate of his royal dignity and custom, without breach, at all times, inviolably observed. Wherefore, after treaty had, and diligent deliberation, this was our resolution, -that our king ought not to answer in judgment, nor to send procurators or messengers, to your court, seeing that tendeth manifestly to the disinheriting of the right of the crown, the overthrow of the state of the kingdom, and the breach of the liberties, customs, and laws of our fathers, for the keeping whereof we are bound, by the duty of an oath, and will (by God's help) maintain and defend, with all our power and strength." Dated at Lincoln, Anno Dom. 1301, & Anno Edvardi primi 29. The christian has this important lesson to recollect

T

we rejoice in that toleration which defends and protects them in the full exercise of their religious worship, we see no reason to part with our own security.

and practise, obedience to the laws, and support to the magistrate in the execution of them.-This is his duty, and it is his safeguard,- for rebellion against lawful authority, upon any plea, is as the sin of witchcraft. It is a man's entering into a league with Satan, against the order of nature and providence, and the well-being of mankind, and his own soul. The contriver of revolutions, and the beginner of civil or religious strife in a country, is as one who letteth out water from an embankment of the sea,- he drowns the fields, and meadows, and villages, in the neighbourhood, and is soon after seen himself, a carcase floating upon the borders of the flood.

In the history of the primitive saints, we read of many who were slain, for the truth's sake, of none who slew others for the sake of truth,-can we suppose that Peter, the pretended founder of the Romish church, would have attempted to depose a lawful sovereign, for not listening to his instructions? Do we find any direction, or encouragement to such a thing, in any of his writings his zeal once induced him to draw his sword, and cut off the high priest's servant's ear, yet I believe he never could have been persuaded to become a Faux, a Garnet, or a Catesby. His master had taught him a better lesson, "put up thy sword again into its place. He that taketh the sword shall perish with the sword."

Of all the civil constitutions under heaven, the British is demonstrably the best. It has been long tried, and stood the rudest tests; the lapse of ages tends only to invigorate and render it more effective. It is, through its excellence, under the Almighty, that an inconsiderable island has acquired the resources, energy, and strength of the mightiest continental empire. It is the object of God's peculiar care; because it is most like his own administration.* It is an honor to be born under it, a happiness to live under it, and a glory to defend and support it. It is like that mighty tree described by the prophet, widely diffused in its roots, and vast in its stem. Its branches are spread over all the earth, and under them, fowl of every wing find shelter. It is the envy of the nations of the world, and should be the boast of its own sons-God alone can overthrow it, but he will not destroy the work of his own hands. It is the nursery of every thing pure in religion, sound in policy, good in law, wise in counsel, deep in learning, and sublime

*See a loyal, ingenious, and learned Lecture on the Origin and End of Civil Government, by Adam Clarke, LL. D.