410 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, virtues^ The primitive christians derived the institu- • tion of civil government, not from the consent of the people, but from the decrees of heaven. The reigning emperor, though he had usurped the sceptre by trea- son and murder, immediately assumed the sacred cha- racter of vicegerent of the Deity. To the Deity alone he was accountable for the abuse of his power; and his subjects were indissolubly bound, by their oath of fidelity, to a tyrant, who had violated every law of na- ture and society. The humble christians were sent into the world as sheep among wolves ; and since they were not permitted to employ force, even in the de- fence of their religion, they should be still more cri- minal if they were tempted to shed the blood of their fellow creatures, in disputing the vain privileges, or the sordid possessions, of this transitory life. Faithful to the doctrine of the apostle, who in the reign of Nero had preached the duty of unconditional submission, the christians of the three first centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocent of the guilt of se- cret conspiracy, or open rebellion. While they expe- rienced the rigour of persecution, they were never provoked either to meet their tyrants in the field, or indignantly to withdraw themselves into some remote and sequestered corner of the globe*. The protestants of France, of Germany, and of Britain, who asserted with such intrepid courage their civil and religious freedom, have been insulted by the invidious compari- son between the conduct of the primitive and of the reformed christians". Perhaps, instead of censure, « The political system of the christians is explained by Grotius, de Jure Belli et Pacis, 1. i. c. 3, 4. Urotius was a republican and an exile, but the mildness of his temper inclined him to support the established powers. ' TertuUian. Apolog. c. 32. 34, 35, 36. 'I'amen nunquam Albiniani nee Nigriani vel Cassiani inveniri potuerunt Christiani. Ad Scapulam, c. 2. If this assertion be strictly true, it excludes the christians of that age from all civil and military employments, which would have compelled them to take an active part in the service of their respective governors. See Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 349. " See the artful Bossuet (Hist, des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, torn. iii. p. 210 — 258.) and the malicious Bayle, tom. ii. p. 620. 1 name Bayle, for he was certainly the author of the Avis aux Refugies : consult the Dictionnaire Critique de Chaufiepie, tom. i. part ii. p. 145.
