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WHEN IS CIVIL GOVERNMENT SO CONSTITUTED THAT CHRISTIANS CAN SWEAR ALLEGIANCE TO IT?

We assume that this is a legitimate subject of inquiry, and we are confident that it is, at the present time, one of much practical importance. The time has gone by, we trust forever, for the false and pernicious dogma-that allegiance is due whatever government exists, irrespective of its moral character-to be maintained by intelligent Christians. With them it is scarcely any longer a serious question, in theory at least, whether or not the divine law is above all human laws. The assumptions of infidelity have become so arrogant, and betray so clearly its purpose to make the will of man supreme, that the religious mind has become aroused in some degree to a sense of the practical value of a truth long treated as an abstraction, receiving only a cold and inoperative assent.

We do not propose, in this article, to contest the point with infidelity. It is wiser to endeavor to harmonize the friends of truth, and persuade them to take the only position from which the common foe can be successfully attacked. Those who, few in number, have contended long for the supremacy of the law of God in civil things, while professed Christians generally are either silent or opposing, have a right to be heard, and should speak out, that their weight may be felt in bringing matters to a proper issue in the great moral conflict already commenced. With this view we propose, in a few particulars, to answer the inquiry at the head of this article.

First: Civil government, in order to receive the allegiance of Christians, should recognize the God of the Bible as the source of power. "King of nations," (Jer. 10:7), is one of His titles. Is this an unmeaning title, conferring an empty honor on the object of all true fear and worship? Does it not indicate that nations are His subjects-that he rules over them, and that they are under obligation to acknowledge and submit to His authority. But where should this obedience begin, or what is its first act? It is perfectly clear that there cannot be obedience where there is no recognition of the authority to which it is due. The want of this vitiates all that follows, for it is a practical refusal of subjection-a constructive declaration of independence. The title, "King of nations," and elsewhere, "King of kings," means more than that God governs nations by His providence as He governs the irrational and inanimate creatures; it asserts his prerogative of ruling them, by his moral law, and it implies the duty on their part of owning Him as their King.

"There is no power but of God: the powers that be, are ordained of God." Rom. 13:1. The true meaning of these propositions is, that God is the author of civil rule. He has instituted it in His word, and He constitutes it according to His word. When it is so constituted it is a power ordained of God; but when it is not so constituted-when the authority of God is not owned-it is not the higher power to which every soul is commanded to be subject. Of such, God himself says, "They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made them princes, and I knew it not." Hos. 8:4.

Can Christians be active participants in the sin of disowning the authority of the "King of nations?" Can they ignore the existence of the source of power? What says an enlightened conscience? We are sure its decision will be, they cannot.

Second: In order that Christians may own allegiance to civil government, it must acknowledge the authority of Messiah. This nations are commanded to do under pain of divine displeasure. "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth-kiss the Son, lest he be angry," (Ps. 2:10,12). The Lord Jesus Christ is appointed heir of all things, (Heb. 1:20). All power in heaven and in earth is given to Him, (Matt. 28:18). He is given to be the head over all things to the Church, (Eph. 1:22). One of His official titles is "Prince of the kings of the earth," (Rev. 1:5). We need not multiply proofs of the truth that civil rule is put under the Mediator. It is found everywhere in the Bible, and any view of the system of grace that does not include it, is essentially defective.

But are nations under no corresponding obligation? Are not authority and obedience correlate terms? Who will dare to say that though Christ is King of nations, nations are not bound to own Him as their King? or, to say what is not less impious, that though they are bound to acknowledge Him, they may omit to do so and be sinless? We are slow to believe that any thoughtful Christian would hesitate to say that nations sin in not subjecting themselves to Messiah's authority. Let it be borne in mind that the sin of refusing to submit to the Man of God's right hand is a sin in the nation's constitution, interwoven with its very existence. It must also be remembered that all such national sins are the sins of the people of which the nation is constituted. By becoming incorporated with the nation, they become partakers of its sins. They assume formally, and in a manner most clear, the responsibility of a national refusal to kiss the Son. They give their consent to, and unite in, the nation's treasonable declaration, "We will not have this man to reign over us."

Now we ask in all earnestness, can Christians, true fearers of God, do this? By their profession they declare that they are on Christ's side, that they will at all times own Him, and set His glory above every other consideration. How can they reconcile with this declaration made to Him, to the Church, and to the world, their refusal to testify against national dishonor done to Him by disregarding His authority, and what is still worse, their active participation in the great wrong? We are convinced that Christians have not given this subject the conscientious examination its importance demands, or they would not be found in sworn companionship with Christ's enemies.

Third: A government to which Christians owe allegiance must take the law of God as its rule. This is indeed included in the preceding observations; for in no other way can the authority of God be owned and obeyed. But the importance of the subject demands for it special consideration.

"The Word of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God." To the truth of this proposition none who deserve the name of christian will hesitate to subscribe. It forms a part of the symbols of the faith of all Presbyterian Churches in every land. It is taught to their children [or should be!] among their earliest lessons, and its truth and importance commend themselves to every enlightened conscience.

Can it be admitted for a moment that the civil or political acts of men are exceptions to this rule? If so, it would read that the Bible is the only rule, except in civil things, in which the will of the people is the rule. This, though acted out by multitudes, would secure the assent of but few as a bald abstract proposition. In this instance the creed is better than the practice. But it should be remembered that a sound profession is no apology, still less justification, for wrong doing. If Christians unite with a nation that ignores all divine legislation, their creed, however sound; their declaration, however often repeated, that the Word of God is the only rule to direct men, is the merest trifling, that hardly deserves to be called hypocrisy. But in another aspect it is no light matter. "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin," (James 4:17), is a declaration not without significance and importance to all whose practice contradicts their profession. They at least cannot plead in extenuation of this sin that they did not know that nations are required to obey the divine law, seeing they have placed among the fundamental principles of their faith a proposition that most obviously asserts this truth.

We do not hesitate to say that Christians incorporating with a government that rejects the divine law and places the will of the people or a constitution of their making in its place, practically disown its high claims, and are found in the company of those who deny a great truth clearly taught in the Word of God, and precious to every believer, and which engaging in the service of Christ they have pledged themselves to maintain at all hazard. What saith the Scripture? "The Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King," (Isa. 33:22). "There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy," (James 4:12).

Fourth: A government that can receive the allegiance of Christians must give countenance and support to the Church. Can a Christian as a civilian ignore that spiritual institution with which are connected all his interests for eternity? Will he consent in any relation he sustains to place infidelity or a false or corrupted form of religion on a level with the religion that is "pure and undefiled before God and the Father," to honor "the bride, the Lamb's wife," no more than "the mother of harlots?" This is done by every government that does not recognize the Church as a heavenly institution, and is not to her "a nursing father," (Is. 49:23). And all who swear allegiance to such a government do this under solemnity, and we must add by the perversion, of an oath. What Christian would swear that a nation should not recognize the true Church and distinguish between her and all false systems of religion? From such an oath every pious mind would recoil. And yet how many do not hesitate to do substantially the same thing in a concrete form, by swearing allegiance to a government of which it is a boasted excellence that it makes no distinction between Christianity and infidelity.

"I lay down this maxim of divinity [i.e. theology]; Tyranny being a work of Satan, is not from God, because sin either habitual or actual, is not from God; the power that is, must be from God; the Magistrate as Magistrate, is good, in nature of office, and the intrinsical end of his office, Rom 13:4, for he is the Minister of God for thy good; and therefore an ethical, political, or moral, power to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God, then a license to sin, but [rather] from sinful nature, and the old serpent."-Samuel Rutherford. ("Lex,Rex," 1644).

Religion is the whole Bible: sects pick out a part of it. But what whole? The LIVING whole, to be sure-not the dead whole: the SPIRIT; not the letter.

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