If it be said that Christianity allows to individuals some degree and kind of resistance, and that some resistance is therefore lawful to states, we do not deny it. But if it be said that the degree of lawful resistance extends to the slaughter of our fellow Christians—that it extends to war—we do deny it: We say that the rules of Christianity cannot, by any possible latitude of interpretation, be made to extend to it. The duty of forbearance then, is antecedent to all considerations respecting the condition of man; and whether he be under the protection of laws or not, the duty of forbearance is imposed.
The only truth which appears to be elicited by the present argument is, that the difficulty of obeying the forbearing rules of Christianity, is greater in the case of nations than in the case of individuals: The obligation to obey them is the same in both. Nor let anyone urge the difficulty of obedience in opposition to the duty; for he who does this, has yet to learn one of the most awful rules of his religion—a rule that was enforced by the precepts, and more especially by the final example, of Christ, of apostles, and of martyrs, the rule which requires that we should be “obedient even unto death.”
Let it not, however, be supposed that we believe the difficulty of forbearance would be as great in practice as it is great in theory. We hope hereafter to show that it promotes our interests as certainly as it fulfils our duties.
The rectitude of the distinction between rules which apply to individuals and rules which apply to states, is thus maintained by Dr. Paley on the principle of expediency.
“The only distinction,” says he, “that exists between the case of independent states and independent individuals, is founded in this circumstance; that the particular consequence sometimes appears to exceed the value of the general rule;” or, in less technical words, that a greater disadvantage may arise from obeying the commands of Christianity, than from transgressing them. Expediency, it is said, is the test of moral rectitude, and the standard of our duty. If we believe that it will be most expedient to disregard the general obligations of Christianity, that belief is the justifying motive of disregarding them. Dr. Paley proceeds to say, “In the transactions of private persons, no advantage that results from the breach of a general law of justice, can compensate to the public for the violation of the law; in the concerns of empire this may sometimes be doubted.” He says there may be cases in which “the magnitude of the particular evil induces us to call in question the obligation of the general rule.” “Situations may be feigned, and consequently may possibly arise, in which the general tendency is outweighed by the enormity of the particular mischief.” Of the doubts which must arise as to the occasions when the “obligation” of Christian law ceases, he however says that “moral philosophy furnishes no precise solution;” and he candidly acknowledges “the danger of leaving it to the sufferer to decide upon the comparison of particular and general consequences, and the still greater danger of such decisions being drawn into future precedents. If treaties, for instance, be no longer binding than while they are convenient, or until the inconveniency ascend to a certain point (which point must be fixed by the judgment, or rather by the feelings of the complaining party), one, and almost the only method of averting or closing the calamities of war, of preventing or putting a stop to the destruction of mankind, is lost to the world forever.” And in retrospect of the indeterminateness of these rules of conduct, he says finally, “these, however, are the principles upon which the calculation is to be formed.”51
It is obvious that this reasoning proceeds upon the principle that it is lawful to do evil that good may come. If good will come by violating a treaty, we may violate it.52 If good will come by slaughtering other men, we may slaughter them. I know that the advocate of expediency will tell us that that is not evil of which good, in the aggregate, comes; and that the good or evil of actions consists in the good or evil of their general consequences.—I appeal to the understanding and the conscience of the reader—Is this distinction honest to the meaning of the apostle? Did he intend to tell his readers that they might violate their solemn promises, that they might destroy their fellow Christians, in order that good might come? If he did mean this, surely there was little truth in the declaration of the same apostle, that he used great plainness of speech.
We are told that “whatever is expedient is right.” We shall not quarrel with the dogma, but how is expediency to be determined? By the calculations and guessings of men, or by the knowledge and foresight of God? Expediency may be the test of our duties, but what is the test of expediency?—Obviously, I think, it is this: the decisions which God has made known respecting what is best for man. Calculations of expediency, of “particular and general consequences,” are not entrusted to us, for this most satisfactory reason—that we cannot make them. The calculation, to be anything better than vague guessing, requires prescience, and where is prescience to be sought? Now it is conceded by our opponents, that the only possessor of prescience has declared that the forbearing, non-resisting character is best for man.
