Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/167

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They try to embrace as much of the earth as they are able, using every means and every ruse of violences to get hold of the territory of the weaker: sometimes by money, and at other times by inheritance, but always desiring to rule and to extend their realm as far as they can.³⁷

 

That is why no Christian can have any part in any government.³⁸ He is good because it is God's will and not because the state requires it.³⁹ His ethic is therefore superior to that of non-Christians who abide only by a legal goodness.⁴⁰ For the same reason no Christian can exercise authority over another Christian.⁴¹ This fundamental postulate underlies all of Chelc̄icky̍'s philosophy. It carries with it many implications: A Christian cannot tax another Christian⁴²; however, if Christians live in a non-Christian state, they ought to pay their taxes for the sake of public peace.⁴³ A Christian may not perform military service for that means imposition of a coercive burden on other Christians.⁴⁴

Men are governed not so much by the tyrants they fear as by the institutions they love; and what is, therefore, more worth loving than the "sweet rule of Christ?" In the long run love, not fear and coërcion and hatred, will prevail:

 

 

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37 NF, I, chap.XIV, p.75*

38 Chap.XXX, p.143*; cf.pp. 154*, 156*, 158*, 161*, 250*.

39 Chap.XXXIV, p.154*.

40 Chap.XLV, p.178*.

41 Chap XXXVII, pp.164*–166*.

42 Chap.LXXXVIII, p.251*.

43 Chap.XCI, p.256*

44 Chap LXXXIII, p.245*.