And calmly run on in obedience.”
What they are no longer free to do, is to do ill. And that freedom is as perfect servitude as the service of God is perfect freedom. In fine, and in the words (but expanding the meaning) of one of Samuel Butler’s metrical reflections:—
“Law does not put the least restraint
Upon our freedom, but maintain’t;
Or if it does, ’tis for our good,
To give us freer latitude;
For wholesome laws preserve us free
By stinting of our liberty.”
