And not only the aspect of life in the relations of men to each other, but its end also is changed. The moral nature assumes its true position, and, acting in the presence of a perfect law as its standard, and of a perfect gospel as its ground of hope, the idea of true liberty dawns upon the mind. This consists in the coincidence of the affections and inclinations with correct principle. It is only when the internal constitution of a reasonable being is in harmony with the law under which he acts, that he is conscious of no restraint, and knows what true freedom is. The chief value of what is commonly called liberty, consists in the opportunity it gives to use our faculties without molestation for the attainment of this. This is that glorious liberty of the sons of God, of which the Scriptures speak. It is not a mere freedom from restraint which may be abused for the purposes of wrong-doing; and become a curse, merely making the difference between a brute enclosed and a brute at large; but it is, in its commencement, the resolute adoption of the law of conscience and of God as the rule of life; in its progress, a successful struggle with whatever opposes this law; in its completion, the harmonious and joyful action of every power in its fulfilment. This is the only liberty known under the government of God. He who knows it not is the slave of sin. He who struggles not for it, is in a contented bondage of which physical slavery is but a feeble type. The perfection of this liberty is only another name for moral perfection, which, as I have said, is the great end of the individual; and as the direct motives and means for the attainment of this are furnished only by the government of God, it is evident that "We ought to obey God rather than men."
Having thus spoken of the effect of human government upon man in his individual character, I now proceed to inquire, whether it is equally limited and negative in its bearing upon him in his social condition.
And here I remark, that it is only incidentally that human government is necessary to man as a social being at all. Society was before government, and if man had retained his original state, it might, perhaps, have existed without it till the end of time. Man is constituted by his Creator a social being; he has faculties to the expansion and perfection of which society is requisite, but he has no faculties the necessities of which constitute him a political being. There must be politicians, just as there must be farmers, and merchants, and physicians, that they and others may enjoy social life; but social life is corrupted when politics enter largely into it. It is not sufficiently noticed, that it is through social institutions and habits far more than through political forms, that the happiness or misery of man is produced. It was not from the oppressions of the government, but from a corrupted social state, that the prophet of old wished to flee into the wilderness. It was because his people were all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men, because every brother would supplant, and every neighbor would walk with slanders. Such a state of things may exist under any form of political organization. It may exist under ours. Men may be loud in their praise of republican forms, and yet be false, and unkind, and litigious; they may be indolent, and profane, and sabbath breakers, and gamblers, and licentious, and intemperate. Yes, and there may be neighborhoods of such men, and the place where they assemble nightly, hard by a banner that creaks in the wind, may be the liveliest image of hell that this earth can present. I certainly know, and my hearers are fortunate if they do not know, neighborhoods in this land of liberty and equality, where the only use made of liberty is to render families and society wretched, and where the only equality, is an equality in vice and social degradation, which no man is permitted even to attempt to rise above without constant annoyance. Better, far better, is family affection, and kind neighborhood under a regal, or even a despotic government, than such liberty as this.
Government then is not an end, but a means. Society is the end, and government should be the agent of society, to benefit man in his social condition. The extent to which it can do this will depend on its form, and the power with which it is entrusted. Absolute power, which should be used for this purpose, is generally abused. Considering itself as having interests distinct from those of the people, it too often seeks to keep them in a state of degradation, and to appropriate to itself the largest possible share of those blessings which ought to be equally diffused. "Get out of my sunlight," said Diogenes to Alexander the Great: "Get out of my sunlight"—cease to obstruct the free circulation of blessings intended for all, might the people say under any arbitrary form of government ever yet administered. Still, such a government, when under the direction of wisdom and benevolence, has power to produce great social and moral revolutions for the good of mankind. Such a revolution was commenced by Peter the Great, and his measures, though necessary, were such as none but an absolute monarch could have adopted. Aside from christianity, the judicious exercise of such a power is the only hope of a people debased beyond a certain point. The King of Prussia can maintain a better and more efficient system of schools, than any republican government. He can provide qualified teachers, and can compel the children to attend.
But when, as in this country, government is the direct agent of society, when it is so far controlled by the people as to secure the majority at least from oppression, being merely an expression of the will of that majority, it can have no power to produce moral and social reformations. Laws do not execute themselves, and in such a state of things they cannot be effectually executed if the violation of them is upheld by public sentiment. In such a case, when vices begin to creep in, and the tendency of things is downwards, we must have a force different from that of the government; we must have moral power. Here religion comes in, and must come in, or "the beginning of the end" has come. The intellect must be enlightened, and the conscience quickened, and moral life infused into the mass; the good and the evil must commingle in free conflict, and public sentiment must be changed. When this is done, when patriotism, and philanthropy, and religion, have caused an ebb-tide in the flood of evil that was coming up over the land, then government may come in, not to carry forward a moral reformation by force, but to erect a barrier against the return of that tide. It can secure what these agents have gained. It can put a shield into the hands of society, with which it can, if it pleases, protect itself against that selfishness and malignity which always lurk in its borders, and which moral influence cannot reach. If, for example, polygamy were established among us as it is among the Turks, a government like ours could do nothing for its removal. But religion could awaken a sense of obligation, and statistics could point out the number of poor women and uneducated children thrown by it for support mainly upon those who had pledged themselves to be the husband of one wife, and christian and philanthropic effort might show that it was injurious to individuals, and families, and the state; and then a law might be passed, as there has been, to defend society against this evil.
This inefficacy of our government to produce moral and social reformations should be well understood, because it throws the fearful responsibility of maintaining our institutions directly upon the people, where it must rest. A government originating in society, can have but slight ground to stand on in resisting its downward tendency. That there is in society such a tendency, all history shows. As nations have become older, they have invariably become more corrupt. They have never reached that point in general morality at which men cease to corrupt each other by associating together. Such a tendency, not counteracted, must be fatal to republican governments, for republican government is self-government, and as the internal law becomes feeble, external force must be increased; and accordingly we find that every people hitherto, have either been under regal power from the beginning, or have, in time, reached a point in corruption, when that power became necessary. Republican government then, is not so much the cause of a good social state, as its sign. It can never be borne up, with its stars and stripes floating, upon the surface of a society that is not strongly impregnated with virtue. Take this away, and it goes down by its own weight, and the beast of tyranny, with its seven heads and ten horns, comes up out of the troubled waters. Here is the turning point with us. All depends upon the influences that go to form the character of our people. Those who control these influences will really govern the country. To this point we turn our eyes anxiously. At this point we look to legislators to stand in their lot, and do what is appropriate to their station. At this point we look especially to fathers and mothers, the guardians of domestic virtue.—Those waters will be sweet that are fed by sweet springs. We look to christian ministers, to enlightened teachers, to patriotic authors and editors, to every good citizen. If there ever was a country in which all these were called upon to do their utmost, this is that country; if there ever was a government that was called upon to second in every proper way the efforts of these, this is that government. To all these we look; but our trust is only in the influences they may bring to bear from the blessed gospel of Christ, from the government of God. "We ought to obey God rather than men."
I have thus shown, as fully as the time would permit, though far too briefly to do justice to the subject, the grounds on which we ought to obey God rather than men. These are to be found in the relation of the divine, and of human government respectively, to the ends of individual, and of social existence. But the occasion on which the text was uttered, a subject having directly refused obedience to rulers lawfully constituted, will lead us to consider the effects of the principle of the text when acted upon by men in those relations in which civil liberty is directly involved—in the relations of subjects and of rulers. What then will be the effect of an adherence to this principle on the part of subjects, as such?
There is a tendency in irresponsible power to accumulate. It first gains control over property, and life, and every thing from which a motive to resistance based on the interests of the present life, could be drawn. But it is not satisfied with this. Nothing avails it so long as there is a Mordecai sitting at the King's gate that does not rise up and do it reverence. It must also control the conscience, and make the religious nature subservient to its purposes. Accordingly, the grand device of the enemies of civil liberty, has been so to incorporate religion with the government, that all those deep and ineradicable feelings which are associated with the one, should also be associated with the other, and that he who opposed the government should not only bring upon himself the arm of the civil power, but also the fury of religious zeal. The most melancholy and heart-sickening chapter in the history of man, is that in which are recorded the enormities committed by a lust of power, and by malignity, in alliance with a perverted religious sentiment. The light that was in men has become darkness, and that darkness has been great. The very instrument appointed by God for the deliverance and elevation of man, has been made to assist in his thraldom and degradation. When christianity appeared, the alliance of religion with oppressive power was universal. In such a state of things, there seemed no hope for civil liberty but in bringing the conscience out from this unholy alliance, and putting it in a position in which it must show its energies in opposition to power. This christianity did. It brought the conscience to a point where it not only might resist human governments, but where, as they were then exercised, it was compelled to resist them. This appeared when the text was uttered, and there was then a rock raised in the ocean of tyranny which has not been overflowed to this day. The same qualities which make the conscience so potent an ally of power, must, when it is enlightened by a true knowledge of God and of duty, and when immortality is clearly set before the mind, make it the most formidable of all barriers to tyranny and oppression.
By thus bringing the moral nature of man to act in opposition to power, and by giving him light, and strength, and foothold, to enable him to sustain that opposition, christianity has done an inestimable service, and has placed humanity at the only point where its highest grandeur appears. At this point, sustained by principle, and often in the person of the humblest individual, it bids defiance to all the malice of men to wrest from it its true liberty. It bids tyranny do its worst, and though its ashes may be scattered to the winds, it leaves its startling testimony, and the inspiration of its great example to coming times. The power to do this, christianity alone can give. No other religion has ever so demonstrated its evidences to the senses, and caused its adaptations to the innermost wants of the soul to be felt, as to enable man to stand alone against the influence of whatever was dear in affection, and flattering in promises, and fearful in torture. Other religions have had their victims, who have been led, amidst the plaudits of surrounding multitudes, to throw themselves under the wheels of a system already established; but not their martyrs, who, when duty has permitted it, have fled to the fastnesses of the mountains; and when it has not, have stood upon their rights, and contested every inch of ground, and met death soberly and firmly, only when it was necessary. When this has been done by multitudes it has caused power to respect the individual, to respect humanity; and while christianity was wading through the blood of ten persecutions, it was fighting more effectually than had ever been done before, the battles of civil liberty. The call to obey God rather than men met with a response, and it is upon this ground that the battle has been opened in every case in which civil liberty now exists. It is upon this ground alone that it can be maintained.