tists, or any set of revolutionists of the present day, to go about the country proclaiming and disseminating their principles, and then to be arrested and brought to trial for sedition: can any one conceive them defending themselves against the charge, by pleading that they did not intend that they themselves, but that their disciples, should obtain the government of the country, and enforce their principles; that they aimed at the possession and the monopoly of civil rights' and privileges, not for themselves, but for their successors; that they did not mean to take up arms till they should have collected a sufficient number of followers; and that they taught all men to yield obedience to the existing government till they should be strong enough to overthrow it? Who does not see at once that to urge such a plea would convince every one of their being madmen? And yet this is what must be imputed to Jesus and his disciples, by any one who can suppose that they meant to be understood by the Roman magistrates as merely disclaiming all interference with civil government, till they should become numerous enough to enforce the claim ;-all resort to secular coercion in religious matters, till they should have strength to employ it effectually ;

See Appendix, Note (A.)

all political monopoly, till they should be in a condition to maintain it by a strong hand.

Jesus then it is plain, when He said "My kingdom is not of this world" could not have meant to be understood as implying that it should be so hereafter.

One of the modes in which it has been attempted to explain away the teaching of Christ and his Apostles, is by representing them as inculcating only the duty of Subjects towards Governors, and not meaning that the same principles should be applied in reference to the duty of Governors towards Subjects: so that though Christians were to "be subject, for conscience' sake," even to idolatrous rulers (as long as nothing at variance with Christian duty was enjoined) the right was reserved, it seems, to Christians, whenever they might obtain political power, to employ this in forcibly maintaining and propagating their own religion, and securing to its professors a monopoly of civil rights. As if a citizen, of whatever persuasion, had not the same claim to the rights of a citizen, that a ruler, of whatever persuasion, has to the rights

" I know not how the oppression under which the Vaudois are now suffering (see the Pamphlet referred to in the Preface) can be objected to by Protestants who hold these principles, unless they renounce altogether the rule of doing as we would be done by.

of a ruler! As if the Christian-principles implied in "render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's"... "render unto all their due," were not equally applicable to the duties either of Subject or of Prince!

And supposing (what is inconceivable) that any such groundless and fanciful distinction had been in the mind of our Lord and his Apostles, and moreover that they had meant the Roman magistrates so to understand them, and also that those magistrates had given them credit for sincerity, still, after all, nothing is gained by these suppositions: since there could be no security against a Christian's obtaining political power, or against a man's embracing Christianity who was already in power. And if this power was to be exerted in propagating the Religion by those coercive means which a civil magistrate is enabled to employ, no one in his senses can doubt, that had Christ and his Apostles been understood as acknowledging this, they would have been pleading guilty to the charges brought against them.t

hidden

§ 11. But had He then some hidden meaning, Supposed which He did not intend to be understood at the meaning of time? Did He design to convey one sense to declara

our Lord's

tion,

t

See Essays on the Dangers, &c. pp. 210-213.

the Roman governor, and another to his own disciples ?—to reserve for his followers in future times, that power to enforce the acknowledgment of his gospel, which He pretended to disclaim.

It seems almost too shocking even to ask such a question and yet it is but too true, that such, in substance, (however glossed over in words) must be the meaning attributed to our blessed Lord by those who would reconcile his declarations before Pilate with that which they represent as the right and the duty of every Christian Governor. "The magistrate" they say (I am giving the very words that have been employed) "who restrains, coerces, and punishes any one who opposes the true faith, obeys the command of God:" and they contend that a Christian Governor is not only authorized, but bound, to secure to the professors of the true faith a monopoly of political power and civil rights. Now, to reconcile such doctrines with the declarations of Christ and his Apostles, a meaning must be attributed to those declarations which it would have been madness for them to have avowed at the time;-in short, a hidden meaning.

It is recorded of an ancient king of Egypt,— one of the Ptolemies-that he employed a celebrated architect to build a magnificent Light

House, for the benefit of shipping, and ordered an inscription in honour of himself to be engraved on it; the architect, it is said, though inwardly coveting the honour of such a record for himself, was obliged to comply; but made the inscription on a plaster resembling stone, but of perishable substance: in the course of years this crumbled away; and the next generation saw another inscription, recording the name, not of the King, but of the architect, which had been secretly engraved on the durable stone below.

of a double

Now, just such a device as this is attributed Dishonesty to our Lord and his Apostles by those who meaning. believe them to have designed that secular power should hereafter be called in to enforce the Christian Faith, though all such designs were apparently disavowed, in order to serve a present purpose. According to such interpreters, "My kingdom is not of this world," was only an inscription on the perishable plaster; the design of "coercing and punishing" by secular power all opponents of the true faith, was, it seems, the engraving on the stone beneath. "Render unto Cæsar the things that be Cæsar's," was but the outward part of the inscription; the addition was an inner hidden engraving, directing that Christians, when become strong enough, should compel both Cæsar and his subjects.