sword. And we know, too, that the Jews would not take our Lord's advice,
nor the apostles', but did rise again and again, both in Judea and
elsewhere, gallantly and desperately enough, poor creatures, in mad
useless rebellion, till the Romans all but destroyed them off the face of
the earth. But what has that to do with us, free self-governed
Englishmen, in this peaceful and prosperous land? In the early middle
age, when the clergy represented and defended Roman pure Christianity and
civilization against the half-heathen and half-barbaric Teutons who had
conquered the Roman Empire, then doubtless the text became once more full
of meaning, and the clergy had again and again to defend the things which
belonged to God against the rapacity or the wilfulness of many a barbaric
Caesar. But what has that, again, to do with us? Those who apply the
text to any questions which can at present arise between the Church and
the State, mistake alike, it seems to me, the nature and functions of an
Established Church, and the nature and functions of a free Government.

Do I mean, then, that the text has nothing to do with us? God forbid! I
believe that every word of our Lord's has to do with us, and with every
human being, for their meaning is infinite, eternal, and inexhaustible.
And what the latter half of the text has to do with us, I will try to
show you, while I tell you openly, that the first half of it, about
rendering to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, has nothing to do with
us, and never need, save through our own cowardice and effeminacy, or
folly.

We have no Caesar over us in free England, and shall not have, while
Queen Victoria, and her children after her reign; but if ever one, or
many (which God forbid!), should arise and try to set themselves up as
despots over us, I trust we shall know how to render them their due, be
they native or foreigner, in the same coin in which our forefathers have