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LAW OF PASSIVE OBEDIENCE.
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the illegal proceedings of magistrates cannot be attributed to private resentment on his own account, but merely to his zeal for the public good, founded upon the great Christian principle of "loving his neighbor as himself," since the maintaining of good laws is, certainly, the most effectual means of promoting the welfare and happiness of society. His resolute and free censure of the magistrates at Philippi, in the message which he sent by their own Serjeants,[1] his spirited remonstrance to the chief captain at Jerusalem[2] and his severe rebuke to the high priest himself, even on the seat of judgment,[3] are remarkable instances of this observation.
- ↑ "And, when it was day, the magistrates sent the Serjeants, saying, Let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told this, saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace. But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast (us) into prison: and now do they thrust us out privily! nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. And the Serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city." Acts xvi. 35 — 39.
- ↑ "The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.—And, as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard (that) he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain was also afraid after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from (his) bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down and set him before them." Acts xxii. 24—30.
- ↑ "And Paul earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this
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