The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-01-03
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY s. 1856

collected by the State and established as law, il
may also rightfully resist the law by force, which
would produce disorder and lead to anarchy. II
was argued, also, that insomuch as civil govern
ment is of divine appointment it must be compe-
tent to act as an arbiter between conflicting con-
sciences, and that implicit obedience to its de-
crees, as such arbiter, is therefore a religious
duty. AS might we'll have been foreseen, there
arose, on the side of the Puritans, contestants
worthy of the majestic principle they defended
! contestants whose voices, then silenced by per-
secution or drowned by public clamor, have
reached this more congenial age, and are now
giving form and condensation to the whole
science of political ethics. Not again recalling
the names of Locke and Sidney, there was
Edwards, profoundest metaphysician of all ages
and Milton, always discontinued and distrusted
among men, but familiar with angels, and learn
ed in the counsels of Heaven. II was their suf-
fcient reply, that unenlghtened and unsanctifed
consciences will never disturb despotism with
their remonstrances, and that consciences
Illuminated and purified cannot be perverted to
error !; that God has delegated to no human tri-
bunal authority to interfere between Himself
and the monitor which He has implanted in the
bosom of every moral being, and which is re-
! sponsible to its Author alone; and that the
boundaries of human authority are the boundaries
of eternal justice, ascertaned by the teachings
of that monitor which, where it is free and fully
awakened, must always be the same. They an
swered farther, and with decisive energy, that
traditions and compacts subversive of freedom
were altogether void, because the masses of men
living at one time in State must always have
supreme control over their own conduct, in all
that concerns their duty to God and their own
happiness.
| Fortunately, the Puritans had keen sagacity.
They would not ask liberty of conscience as a
political concession; because, if granted as such
it might be revoked. Fortunately, they were not
purposely political or civil body, but purely
religious one a church in the wilderness as they
described themselves; church without secular
combinations, interests, or ends church with no
interest but duty, no end but to avoid the divine
dsfavor, and no head but God. Fortunately, also,
the age was as yet a religious one. Skepticism,
which has since so wildly overrun large portions
of Europe and scattered its poisonous seeds even
here, had not then entered the world; and the
plenary nature and authority of the revelation
contained in the Holy Scriptures, to which the
Puritsns appealed, was universally acknowledged
1t was especially felictous that the lives of the
Puritans indicated their sincerity, magnanimity
and piety. Equally in domestic and social life,
and in the great transactions of the State in
which they became concerned, their conduct was
without fear and without reproach. With all
these advantages, the Purtans, as naturally as
wisely referred themselves to the Divine Reve-
gated. With effective simplicity they confined
themselves to the main point in debate. They
neither pretended to define nor to make sum-
maries of all the natural rights of man which
tyranny might invade nor to trace out the ulti-
mate secular consequences of the great principle
on which they insisted. They rested the defence
of the one natural right, which was distinctly
invaded, on no grounds of expediency or of public
utility, but the grounds alone that God had
given it, and that man could not either invade or
surrender it, without sin against the Divine Ma
jesty II the popularity Of the right thus in
vaded and defended, that lent to the Purtans
their browning advantage. Religion is the pro-
foundest and most universal affection of our
nature. Apparently the cause of innumerable
differences and endless controversies it is never
theless, the one common and principal element
which controls the actions of all men. 1t sus-
tanned the Puritans. 1t gradually won for them
the respect and sympathes of men and of ma
tons. The right assaulted brought equally con-
science and the love of liberty, the two most
elastic and enduring springs of activity, into re-
| sistance Its invasion was sacrilegOus, because
it assumed to add to the Divine commandments,
and to take away from disobedience to them the
curses that written against it in the Book OF
Life. Primitive apostolical eloquence, which re-
minds US of the inspired apology of Paul before
Agrippa, revived in its defence. The Purtans
spake from their prisons after this manner:
"Upon careful examination of the Holy Scriptures,
we find the English hierarchy 10 be different from Chriss
institution and be derived from Anchrst, being the
same the Pope LEFT in this land which dare sub
all that believe the gospel walk I'm that holy path and
order which he has appointed in his church Wherefore
together subjected souls bodies TO those laws
and ordinances and have chosen to ourselves such
sry of pastors teachers elders and deacons as Christ
has given his church worlds end hoping
for ths promised assistance OF his
upon him. Notwithstanding any prohibition OF men, or
| US re rel q DrOy
our church order 10 be warranted by the word OF God
allowable by her Majesty laws and no ways prejudical
10 the sovereign power and dispreve the public
archy worship and government by such evidence
shall not be able 10 withstand protesting il
fail herein, only willingly to sustain such deserved
punishment as shall be inflicted upon us but TO become
saries We therefore, in the name of God and
OF our sovereign the Queen pray that may have the
namely that may be received 10 bail, ill be by
order of law convicted of crime bonds
We plight our faith unto God and our allegiance 10 her
Majesty, that will commit anything unworthy OF
the gospel of Christ to the disturbance the
peace and good order of The land and tha, we will he
forthcoming such reasonable warning as your lord
ships shall command Oh, let not perish before trial
and smeni especially inporng and crying on, 10 Won
for the same. However, take the Lord Of Heaven
and Earth and his angels together with your con-
sciences and all persons in all ages to whom this our
| supphcailon may come, TO witness that have here
truly advertised your honors of and maze and
have in all humility offered 10 Christian trial"
How sublimely, and yet with touching effect,
does this opening of their cause by the Puritans
illustrate the DIVINE instruction that the fear OF
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom?
Let us consider now the scope and full import
of the Puritan principle. That scope is not mar
rowed by any failure of the Puritans themselves
to comprehend it, or even by any neglect on their
part to cover il fully in their own political con-
duct Christianity is the same, however mar
rowed or perverted by erroneous creeds or prac-
tees among the faithful. Nor is the real merit OF
the Puritans diminished because they did not fully
comprehend all possible applications of the prin.
cple they maintained. Human progress is only
the following of an endless chain, suspended from
the throne of God. The links of that chain are
infinite in number. The human hand can Qrasp
only one of them at once.
The Puritan principle of the inviolabilitv OF
the right of conscience necessarily covers the
inviolability of all the acknowledged natural
rights of man, as well those which concern his
duty to himself and his duty to others, as those
which arise out of his direct duties towards God
Certainly the Creator and Ruler of the Universe
the bene6cent Father and Preserver of all life
the universal Lawgiver and Judge of all moral
beings, is not in any human sense q Jealous and
exacting God, incensed by the Withholding OF
homage due to himself and yet regardless of the
neglect of other human duties which he has pre-
scribed. Assuredly, when he commands us not
only to walk humbly before Himself, but also to
perfect our own nature, and to do Justice and
love mercy towards other men, he has given us
the absolute right to the free exercise of our
faculties, in performing these latter duties that
he has given US for the performance of the first
Nor is there any homage to God so acceptable as
the upright heart and pure. He that loveth not
, his brother, whom he hath SEEN how can he love
God, whom he hath not seen
The Puritan principle further involves the DO
litcal equality of all men, Absolute rights arise
out of the moral constitution of man. There il
on Of ill III.