ghts of conscience, and even forbade the
free expression of opinion in all matters conflicting with the
provisions of the laws of the Roman government. In his defence before
Felix, Paul never so much as speaks of Roman law, though well acquainted
with it, but "he reasoned of _righteousness_, and _temperance_, and the
_judgment to come_." Here was a suitable occasion to condemn the
regulations and to question the authority of the villainous statutes of
Rome; but instead of this, Paul plead his rights _under_ the unjust
regulations of the law. He charged Felix with _official_ delinquency,
with _personal_ crime, and, as a _man_, he held him up to public scorn,
and threatened him with the vengeance of God! He appealed _to the law_,
and justified himself _by the law_. He claimed the rights of a "_Roman
citizen_"--demanded the protection due to a Roman citizen--and he
scorned to find fault with the law, cruel and unjust as he knew it to
be. And the consequence was, that the licentious infidel who ruled,
"_trembled_."

The views we have here presented are not at all new, but have been
uniformly acted upon by evangelical Christians, in all ages of the
world. Since the days of St. Paul and Simon Peter, no reformer has
appeared who was more violent than that good and great man, MARTIN
LUTHER. JOHN CALVIN possessed a revolutionary spirit--he fought every
thing he believed to be wrong--he was unyielding in his disposition, and
unmitigated in his severity. Yet neither of these great men ever made
war upon the existing laws of their respective countries. JOHN WESLEY
was the great reformer of the past century--he reformed the whole
ecclesiastical machinery of the modern Church of Christ; and his
doctrines, and manner of conducting revivals, are leading elements of
American Christianity. But Mr. Wesley never made war upon the English
government, under which he lived and died. On the other hand, it is a
matter of serious complaint among sectarians not friendly to the spread
of Methodism, that Wesley wrote elaborately against the war of the
Revolution. He was devoted to law and order, and he deemed it a
religious duty to oppose all resistance to existing laws. In his
troubles at Savannah, Georgia, like Paul before the licentious
governor, he appealed _to the law_, and sought by every means in his
power to be tried _under_ the law, asking only the privilege of being
heard in his own defence! And it was, in all the instances we have
menti