to come. lates to our destiny in this world and that which is We are not, like the vegetative and animal creation, passive subjects, submitting to the imperative law of our nature, but active, accountable existences, voluntarily obeying or refusing to obey. All the features of this law we know are "holy, just, and good." Its very penalty is but the sterner accent of love warning us of our danger. Its penalty and precept are both written upon the conscience; and wo be to the transgressor, who, because it is no longer the rule of his justification before God, disregards it as the rule of his duty. LECTURE IV. THE BIBLE FRIENDLY TO CIVIL LIBERTY. Every considerate friend of civil liberty, in order to be consistent with himself, must be the friend of the Bible. I have yet to learn, that tyrants have ever effectually conquered and subjugated a people, whose liberties and public virtue were founded upon the word of God. The American people, I am confident, owe much in this respect to the influence of this great charter of human freedom. I need scarcely solicit the favourable regard of my audience, therefore, when I say to them, that the topic of the present lecture is the influence which the Holy Scriptures have exerted, and are adapted to exert upon civil liberty. Civil liberty is not freedom from restraint. Men may be wisely and benevolently checked and controled, and yet be free. No man has a right to act as he thinks fit, irrespective of the wishes and interests of others. This were exemption from the restraints of all law, and from all the wholesome influence of social institutions. Heaven itself were not free, if this were freedom. holds any such liberty as this, by a divine warrant. The spirit of subordination, so far from being inconsistent with liberty, is inseparable from it. It is essential to liberty that men should be subjected to the restraints of law; and where this restraint is limited by a wise regard to the best interests of the State, there men are free. Every restraint of natural liberty that is arbitrary and needless; that is imposed on one class of society, merely for the sake of aggrandizing, and augmenting the influence of another; every restraint that is not called for, for the purpose of securing to men of every rank and condition their just rights, and of diffusing the spirit of industry, virtue and peace, is in its own nature tyranny and oppression. The highest degree of civil liberty is enjoyed where natural liberty is so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society or State. A community may be free, for example, without extending to persons of all ages and both sexes the right of suffrage; without making all eligible to office; without abolishing the distinction of rank; without annihilating the correlative and reciprocal rights and duties of master and servant; without destroying filial sub ordination and parental claims; without abolishing the punishment of crime; without abjuring the restraints of sanative and maritime law; and without giving up the right of those compulsory services of its subjects which the common weal demands. The civil liberty of men "depends not so much on the removal of all restraint from them, as in the due restraint of the natural liberty of others." There are a few leading principles on which all free governments must forever rest. They are such as the following: That government is instituted for the good of the people-that it is the right and duty of the people to become acquainted with their public interests—that all laws constitutionally enacted, should be faithfully and conscientiously obeyed-that the people, by their representatives, should have a voice in the enaction of these laws -that mild and moderate laws should be invested with energy-that the life, liberty, and property of no man shall be infringed upon, except by process of law-that every man who respects and obeys the laws has a right to protection and supportand that all that is valuable in civil institutions rests on the intelligence and virtue of the people. Such, as far as I am acquainted with them, are the great principles of civil liberty and a free government, let the form of that government be what it may. It may be monarchical, be monarchical, or republican; its constitution may be written, or unwritten; but wherever the duties of magistrates and subjects are prescribed and defined, and their rights protected by the preceeding principles, a people may be said to be free. There never has been any such thing as true freedom among those who were ignorant of the word of God. The great mass of men from the more early ages of the world to the present time, have been controlled by mere arbitrary power. They have known very little of exemption from the arbitrary will of others. In many countries, this exemption has indeed been secured by established laws, and has had the semblance of salutary restraint; while the laws themselves have been lawless and arbitrary; at one time extravagantly severe, and at another extravagantly indulgent, and the mere expression of individual fickleness and authority. There are few profane historians, with the exception of Herodotus and Thucydides that can be relied upon, which give any account of the world earlier than Alexander. From that time downwards, the history of nations becomes more clear, just, and authentic; but from that time upwards, the Bible is the only source of authentic information. There was a general dispersion of mankind into various parts of the world, as early as the days of Peleg, and probably, just before the death of Noah, and under his direction. Eusebius and Winder give some very plausible reasons, to say the least, for this opinion. The dispersion was completed at the Tower of Babel, when the posterity of Ham, who, under the direction of Nimrod had wrested the plains of Babylon from the descendants of Shem, were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel. And the Bible in |