ALLEGIANCE.

A question was raised in the later times of the persecution of difficult
solution, but of vast practical importance. This was the due limit of
submission to civil rulers, and the withdrawal of allegiance and
submission from those who had violated their compact with the people,
and had trampled under foot their constitutional rights. It is ably
shown by Dr. D'Aubigne,[2] as had been done before, that civil freedom
and religious reformation, originating with the people, have ever been
closely united and advanced together. Wherever the principles of
evangelical truth have been rightly understood and firmly maintained,
the people have refused to tolerate civil oppression. "_He is a freeman
whom the truth makes free._" All genuine civil freedom is based on
religious liberty. Calvinism, as is admitted even by many who are
opposed to it as a doctrinal system, has been the irreconcileable foe of
despotism all over the world;--by the heroic struggles, and cheerful
sacrifices of its adherents, the battle of freedom has been fought, and
its triumphs achieved in many lands. Particularly in Scotland, where the
Reformation, from the first, originated with the people, and was carried
forward in opposition to the mandates of arbitrary rulers, and
notwithstanding the relentless persecution of the civil powers, the
eminent instruments whom God honoured for advancing the truth, all along
contended for the liberties of their country, and earnestly pleaded that
the duties of rulers and ruled should be clearly defined, and the rights
of the people settled on a constitutional basis. This was the plea of
the illustrious Knox, as is seen in his expostulations with the Queen
and nobles of Scotland, and in his intercourse with the statesmen of the
day--English and Scottish--and in his writings. The works of Buchanan,
Rutherford, and Gillespie, bear ample testimony to the enlarged views of
their authors in relation to the proper bounds of civil and
ecclesiastical authority, and to their fidelity to the cause of genuine
liberty. The same great principles were contended for by Alexander
Henderson, embodied in the scriptural attainments of the memorable
Second Reformation, and clearly enunciated in the Solemn League and
Covenant of the three kingdoms, in which the covenanters explicitly
bound themselves to support the king and parliament in "the maintenance
of the true reformed religion." When the Scottish nation, forgetful of
their sac