ABSTRACT
The doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, has been urged on Christians, by the Clergy in particular, from the example of Jesus, who wrought a miracle to pay his tax to a heathen prince—to a bloody tyrant—to Tiberius Cæsar. As a matter of prudence , of policy, every considerate man would do the same under similar circumstances. The kingdom of Christ was not of this world —it was no part, therefore, of his design, either to support or destroy any particular from of civil government. Full of pride and conceit, these persons imagined, that having assumed the profession of Christianity, they were too great and important to be subject to the dominion of heathen magistrates, if to any at all. Every civil government, unless it be established by a divine charter, must be founded upon mutual compact betwixt the Prince and the People, the governors and the governed.
