“If these kings had been wise and allowed Scotland to retain her religion as she learned it from the Bible, never would monarchs, since the beginning of the world, have reigned over a more pious, loyal, and devoted people. But the spirit of infatuation was upon them. Ignorant of the nature of religious principle, they had no idea how little it could be controlled by human power, and how much it could dare and endure for the sake of God and of duty. Frenzied by the possession of power, these princes sought to raise their own throne above the throne of God.”
“From a century of conflict we are thus taught, that principle is stronger than power--that confidence in God is mightier than laws and armies—and that, when kings and princes cross the sacred domain of conscience, and attempt to put the crown of Zion on a mortal brow, they are the highway to ruin; and whatever hardships they may cause to their subjects, they will in the end cause greater to themselves.”
“It is rebellion to break the law of the land, when it is not contrary to the word of God; but when the law commands to do what God has forbidden, to refuse obedience is not to infringe the rights of sovereigns, but to maintain the rights of God, to maintain his sole supremacy over the conscience, which can only be maintained, by obeying God rather than man, in all cases where their commands come into collision. This principle of obeying God rather than man, has been the guardian of freedom and religion in the days that are past; and woe to the land, to the church, to the human race, when it shall generally be accounted right to obey man rather than God”
“The absurdity of putting his sceptre into a mortal hand, was strikingly shown, by the incessant changes that occurred during the ecclesiastical reign of the four first temporal heads of the Church of England. What was orthodox during the supremacy of one king, became heterodox during the supremacy of another. What one of her supreme heads built up, the next of her supreme heads endeavoured to pull down. What one of them would have burned men for refusing to believe, another burned them for continuing to believe. Edward alters the laws of Henry; Mary overturns the reformation of Edward; and Elizabeth overthrows the fabric which Mary had cemented with the blood of martyrs. Happy would it have been for England and for Britain, if these inconsistencies had taught them that no one is qualified to fill God's throne, who is not possessed of the infinite, unchangeable, and everlasting attributes of God's nature.”
Excerpt From: Rev. William WHITE (of Haddington.). “Christ's covenant the best defence of Christ's crown, etc.” W. P. Kennedy. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright
