Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 8.djvu/138

134 people; that is, one man in three or four thousand was thought answerable for the future welfare of all the rest. The clergy made an ecclesiastical theology, and called it Divine revelation; they established ecclesiastical ceremonies, which they named the ordinances of God. The people were only to believe the one and practise the other, and their calling and election were made sure; for the priest claimed to speak with authority superior to human consciousness. “Believe” and “Obey” were his two commands: “trust our office, and not your own soul!”

Second, the king and the aristocracy were responsible for the politics of the people: they made, expounded, and administered the statute laws, claiming authority above the collective interests or collective conscience of the people. The magistrate's statutes were a finality: the people's need and right were none. The official did not propose statutes; he made them, and enforced. Then the Church and State were both accounted Divine—that is, the final and ultimate authority. The priest, king, or noble, all claimed to hold of God, not of mankind; they were feudatories under Him, responsible to God, not to man. The ecclesiastical or political ruler had all the command and right; only obedience and duty belonged to the ruled. The king or noble was the State, the priest the Church.

So the political man said to the people, “Keep the statute law we make for you; pay the taxes of money in peace-time, of blood and yet more money in war-time; and then mind your own business. Leave us alone, either to enjoy the passive dignity of reigning, like King Log, or to practise the active work of ruling, like King Snake. So shall it go well with you here. We are responsible to God for you, and in heavy pains and penalties in the next life are we held in bond. You are responsible to us, and in heavy pains and penalties shall we hold you in bond in this life. God is our law, and we are yours.”

This royal vicariousness went through all society; the title to office and land all ran from the king or noble, not from the individual possessor, or the collective mass of men.

The ecclesiastical man said to the people, “Believe the doctrines we teach. You may understand them when you can: that is not necessary to salvation; for the Scripture says, ‘He that believeth not shall be damned;’ but it