DANGER  OF  SYMPATHISING  WITH  REBELLION.  113

But  however  that  may  be,  the  studious  omission,
throughout  the  Bible,  of  any  word  of  encourage
ment  to  resistance,  is  surely  a  circumstance  of
more  meaning,  than  we  seem,  in  general,  willing
to  allow.  It  is,  as  every  one  knows,  the  fashion,
to  dismiss  this  consideration  at  once,  with  some
such  remark  as  the  following :  That  it  was  no  part
of  our  Saviour's  mission,  to  interfere  at  all  in  our
political  conduct: — a  very  unadvised  assertion,
surely,  unless  it  can  be  proved  that  political  con
duct  involves  no  moral  responsibility.  But  those
who  believe  that  the  sanctions  and  principles  of
the  Gospel  were  meant  to  guide  us  as  members  of
civil  society,  no  less  than  in  the  other  relations
of  life, — I  do  not  see  how  they  should  so  lightly
forget,  that  the  whole  weight  of  express  Gospel
precept  is  thrown  unreservedly  into  the  scale  of
submission.  The  exceptions,  be  they  rare  or
frequent,  are  not  however  thought  needful  to  be
mentioned  :  and  whoever  dwells  much  upon  them,
either  in  popular  instruction,  or  in  his  own  views
of  social  duty,  is  so  far  at  variance  with  Scripture.
Here,  again,  it  is  usual  to  say,  that  the  first
Christian  converts  had  wilder  notions  of  liberty,
and  were  more  disposed  to  be  turbulent,  than
mankind  in  general  are ;  that  passages,  therefore,
intended  for  their  guidance,  required  to  be  very
strictly  worded,  but  may  be  received  now  with
large  allowances.  It  is  usual,  I  say,  to  affirm
this  :  but  for  the  shadow  of  any  thing  like  proof  of

i

LIBRARY  ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE


1 1  4  DANGER  OF  SYMPATHISING  WITH  REBELLION.
