strains this implied abdication of authority to authority exercised in those individual commands which expressly contravene some express command of God; and it is in the individual instances of such commands that Calvin asserts that the guilt and danger of contempt accompanying the just refusal to obey would be nothing in comparison of the guilt and danger of obedience. Certainly the priest Urijah, had he spit upon King Ahaz when the king commanded him to to make an altar after the fashion of the idolatrous altar at Damascus, though such contempt of majesty would not have been altogether free of blame, had done, however, better than he did when he executed the king's order; and yet this wicked act of the king's was no forfeiture of his title to the crown, nor a general release of his subjects from their allegiance. This passage, therefore, of Calvin carries in it no such meaning as may appear upon the first view of it, detached from the context; but it contains indeed a principle upon which the faithful are bound to act when the dreadful necessity arises. Calvin could never support the abominable doctrine that the ordinary misconduct of a king sets the subject free, without contradicting the principles he lays down, in the last chapter of his "Theological Institutions," of the duty of submission, even to the worst of kings, in things not contrary to the express commands of God. It is not to be apprehended that the learned and candid author of "Jura Anglorum" will be displeased that the memory of a great man should be vindicated from an unfounded accusation; which has been revived, not originally set up, by him upon the authority of Helin, and other writers, on whom he thought he might rely. No injustice Sunt hæc duo inter se connexa, nec potest alterum ab altero divelli: Præcedat igitur oportet timor Dei, ut reges obtineant suam auctoritatem.- Jure ergo Daniel hic se defendit, 'Quod nullam pravitatem commiserit adversus regem,' quia scilicet, coactus parere Dei imperio, neglexerit quod in contrariam partem rex mandabat. Abdicant enim," &c. of intention, nothing worse than a very pardonable mistake, is imputed to this respectable author. The Christian spirit of charity and tolerance which breathes through this work, and appears in the sentiments which the author avowed in a former publication, entitled "The Case Stated,” * acquits him of the most distant suspicion of a design to advance the credit of his own church by wilfully depreciating the character of an illustrious adversary. In the citation of passages in proof of the charge, it is justice to him to acknowledge, that he hath only copied verbatim as it should seem from an anonymous work, entitled "Philanax Anglicus." He will certainly esteem it no disservice done to that great cause in which his learning and his talents have been so honourably engaged, the cause of government and liberty united, if the levellers are deprived of the authority of Calvin's name; to which, together with that of Luther and of other celebrated reformers, some among them have pretended, in the pious design no doubt of passing off their political opinions as a branch of the general doctrine of the Reformation. When Salmasius upbraided Cromwell's faction with the tenets of the Brownists, the chosen advocate of that execrable faction replied, that if they were Brownists, Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Zwinglius, and all the most celebrated theologians of the orthodox, must be included in the same reproach. + A grosser falsehood, as far as Luther, Calvin, and many others are concerned, never fell from the unprincipled pen of a party-writer. However sedition might be a part of the puritanic creed, the general faith of the Reformers rejects the infamous alliance. It is alleged indeed against Calvin, by grave and respectable historians, that he expressed approbation of the outrages of John Knox in Scotland. If the charge be true, * See "The Case Stated," page 42-48.; but particularly page 47, 48. "Ita Lutherus, Calvinus, Zwinglius, Bucerus, et orthodoxorum quotquot celeberrimi theologi, fuere, tuo judicio, Brunistæ sunt." Defens. pro Pop. Ang. cap. v. sub fin. VOL. II. nis conduct in this instance was contrary to his avowed principles. But the accusation requires better proof than Knox's own interpretation of some general expressions in Calvin's letters. It cannot, however, be denied, that he too often indulges in a strain of coarse invectives against the foibles and the vices incident to kings; of which he sometimes speaks as if he thought them inseparable from royalty; and that he treats many of the princes of Europe, his contemporaries, with indecent ill language. Some allowance is to be made for the natural harshness of the man's temper; more, for his keen sense of the cruel treatment of Protestants in many kingdoms; but the best apology for him is, that he lived before a perfect specimen of a just limited monarchy had been anywhere exhibited, before the example of the British constitution in its finished state, and of the princes of the Brunswick line, had taught the world this comfortable lesson, that monarchy and civil liberty are things compatible, and may be brought to afford each other the most. effectual support. Մ |