ts enactments and constitution of evil, these obligations, in
living at peace with all men, in giving scope wisely and consistently to
every good law, and in the paying of dues lawful in themselves, they
ought to acknowledge; even in cases where the imposts of such a
government are so combined, as that it may be difficult or impossible to
distinguish between what is required for lawful, and what for unlawful
purposes, within certain limits, they will not withhold their
contributions, but protest against the sinful uses to which the revenues
of the nation may be put. But when, by direct contribution or otherwise,
they are required to support or countenance measures palpably sinful, or
to give a pledge of loyalty by oath, or otherwise, to systems immoral or
unscriptural, accounting it better to obey God rather than men, this
they ought at all hazards to refuse. And when privileges, ensnaring in
their nature, and in the acceptance of which is implied an
acknowledgment of such governments,[276] are held out to them,
reflecting that the oaths sworn and the various other public actions
performed by the representatives of the people, are accepted in the name
of the one and the other, and are attributable to both, and that those
who bear rule, are in general viewed as pledged to promote the system
for which they act, these they ought conscientiously to
reject;[277]--pondering the question addressed to
Jehoshaphat,--"Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate
the Lord?"[278] To systems of government, therefore, under which the
unlawful authority of the rulers is homologated by the servile
acquiescence of a majority of the people, a minority are not bound to
yield subjection. The laws of a nation, only when accordant with the
statutes of the Eternal, confer obligation; and no acts of men can annul
the demands of statutes formed according to His word, and consequently
deriving their authority from Him. When will Zion be built up if her
children testify not against the principle of those rulers who, divided
as to means, but united in design, assail, as it were, with axes and
hammers the institutions of religion, like the carved work of God's
sanctuary, and defile the same by attempting to cast them to the ground?
Let the voice of a distinct testimony for the prerogatives of Messiah
the Prince, be resolutely lifted up. And though it would not, nay could
not, in many cases be faithfully uttered in the councils of a nation