ble Court, and you know
by what these honorable functionaries and their coadjutors have done
out of its limit, how much I was mistaken in the notion that no Boston
Commissioner would ever kidnap a man! Perhaps you will pardon me for
the mistake. I will soon explain it by a quotation.

After the rescue of Shadrach, in my Sunday prayer I publicly gave God
the thanks of the congregation for the noble deed. Perhaps that was a
crime. I think Judge Saunders could make it appear that I was an
"accessory after the fact," and then Judge Curtis could call the
offence not a felony but a "misdemeanor," and "in misdemeanors all are
principals." Nay, it might be "levying war" "with force and arms."

After the Hon. Judge Sprague had made himself glorious by charging the
jury "to obey both" the will of God and the laws of men, which forbid
that will; and after Commissioner Curtis had kidnapped Mr. Sims, while
he still had him in his unlawful jail, on Fast-day, April 10, 1851, I
preached a sermon "of the Chief Sins of the People," and said,--

"He [Judge Sprague] supposes a case: that the people ask
him, 'Which shall we obey, the law of man or the will of
God?' He says, 'I answer, obey both. The incompatibility
which the question assumes does not exist.'

"So, then, here is a great general rule, that between the
'law of man' and the 'will of God' there is no
incompatibility, and we must 'obey both.' Now let us see how
this rule will work.

"If I am rightly informed, King Ahab made a law that all the
Hebrews should serve Baal, and it was the will of God that
they should serve the Lord. According to this rule of the
judge, they must 'obey both.' But if they served Baal, they
could not serve the Lord. In such a case, 'what is to be
done?' We are told that Elijah gathered the prophets
together: 'and he came unto all the people, and said, How
long halt ye? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal,
then follow him.' Our modern prophet says, 'Obey both. The
incompatibility which the question assumes does not exist.'
Such is the difference between Judge Elijah and Judge Peleg.

"Let us see how this rule will work in other cases; how you
can make a compromise between two opposite doctrines. The
king of Egypt commanded the Hebrew nurses, 'When you do the
office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, if it be a son ye
shall