venture to neglect any one of his positive commandments, and, by so doing, fulfil an implied duty of higher and more essential importance. It is easy to see that he may be mistaken, with respect to the nature of such a duty; and it is certain that he is mistaken if he believes it paramount to obedience to any command which God has expressly given. Nor can a nation be in a more dangerous condition than when the people individually refuse to obey the laws and submit to the government, because they believe themselves competent to frame wiser and better enactments, and to institute a more vigorous, more effectual, and more just system of administration. And if this presumption with regard to temporal institutions be joined to a similar frame of mind with respect to those which are divine, the most disastrous consequences are necessarily to be apprehended, in confusion, anarchy, and bloodshed.

It is upon these two points where we are called upon so expressly to obey that the cardinal Christian virtue, humility, is especially required of us; and it is perhaps upon these that it is less exercised than upon almost any other. Every one thinks himself competent to judge and form his own opinions with respect to religion and politics. It matters not how ignorant he may be of the Scriptures themselves, of the true method of interpreting

them, of the decrees of the first general councils, of the testimony to the Catholic doctrine to be found in the earliest Christian writers, and of the universal practice of the ancient Churches; or, on the other hand, how little he may be acquainted with political history in general, or the history of his own country in particular, of the manner in which its institutions have grown up into their present form, of the principles upon which they are based, and of all the complicated variety of questions relating to rights and privileges in which they are involved:-with the greatest ignorance on all these points, which are,nevertheless, so essential to be understood in order to enable any one to judge correctly, persons are ever ready to assert their opinions on both these subjects, and to make it a matter of conscience to maintain them, even to the extent of violating the positive command of Scripture, to be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

But this is not the case with respect to any other species of knowledge. No one ventures to pretend that he is skilled in languages without having properly studied them, or to be an adept in science of any kind without having bestowed upon it much diligence and attention. Much less are men vain enough to attempt to apply them practically unless they have attained considerable proficiency. They know that a person who should endeavour to guide

a vessel over the ocean without being skilled in navigation would certainly lose his way, and probably be shipwrecked and perish; that his greatest wisdom in this science consists in duly applying the rules and calculations made by those who have preceded him, which experience has proved to be sufficient to conduct him to the port of his destination, rather than upon every occasion to stop to frame tables for himself, and to rely upon his own calculations, which may turn out to be erroneous, when there are others, that are known to be correct, ready for his use. But on the practical question of religion and politics there are many persons who, be they never so ignorant on both subjects, believe themselves competent to frame wiser and better rules and calculations for the direction of the helm of Church and State than those which have been founded on the wisdom and practice of ages, and which experience has proved to be safe and beneficial; and they are ready to stake the political safety of the nation, and the everlasting salvation of their own souls, upon their own crude and unfounded notions, rather than adhere to that faith of the holy Catholic Church which has conducted the saints and martyrs to everlasting rest in heaven, and maintain those venerable institutions which have been the glory of their forefathers and the bulwark and safeguard of their country.

It is a far more difficult thing to understand how to guide the vessel of state through the tumult of the people, than to steer a ship laden with merchandise through the noise of the seas and the noise of their waves; and it is of far less consequence for a man that his goods and his merchandise should perish in the deep than that he should make shipwreck of his faith, and so lose his own soul. And yet, while men are anxious to take every precaution for that which is less difficult and less important; while they are desirous of calling in the aid of the most skilful, and of following closely in the steps of those who have had the greatest experience; while they are perfectly alive to the danger of relying upon their own unskilfulness and inexperience in such matters; they are nevertheless inconsiderate enough on questions of much greater difficulty, and on subjects of the last importance, to make light of and neglect the learning, wisdom, and experience of ages, to depend upon and follow their own vague notions and views, which they hardly know how or why they have adopted, and thus precipitately and heedlessly to run into danger, and risk the safety, both temporal and eternal, of themselves and others.

From this we may clearly see the wisdom and goodness of God in superadding to those general precepts which equally relate to every other kind of science and knowledge this particular command

with respect to political science, to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; for it thus forms a check to that proud boldness and rashness which is so likely to lead us into error on a subject in which we are so much inclined to interfere, and so likely to go wrong. And we have further reason to be thankful that it has been imposed upon us as a divine command, that the more powerful restraint of a moral and religious obligation should be added to keep us back from danger, into which we are so very prone to rush.