26 
Erastianmo- from another point of view Erastianism, that it 
Hobbesism ° f would be a practical denial of truth and goodness, 
tr^cfion c ° n " ^7 its seeming admission that in different states 
“ the right 33 and “ the true 33 or “ good 33 would 
be different, because laws are different ; the reply has been 
that this would be only a temporary inconvenience, since 
Christianity, (which Erastianism vaguely assumes,) would 
tend to perfectibility, and so in due time it would be found 
that the varieties in law would become less and less, and the 
best interests of humanity and the best laws of States become 
everywhere coincident. But then, to admit this, is equally to 
acknowledge an ideal of good law, to which, all the while, the 
individual responsible agent was urging the State. 
VIII. 
47. The position now arrived at must be confessed at this 
point again to be sufficiently intricate. All the facts assure us 
The embar- °f the mutual responsibilities of personal agents, 
rassed posi- living 1 in community as their very nature requires. 
tion of our . ° J *' • 1 
conclusions at All the tacts assert some kind ol supremacy m each 
t is pomt. personal agent as absolutely essential to such self- 
government, as any fair responsibility assumes, and even 
demands. All the facts discover to ns the incongruity and 
inequitableness of such personal self-governing beings existing 
in community without any moral balance held among them. 
And what are the necessary conditions for the holding of any 
such moral balance ? Evidently such as no human law attains, 
or can be conceived to attain. 
It cannot be conceived, because our personal determining 
in all matters of detail, and our inward relation as individuals 
to the “ true-always,” can with no exactness be ascertained 
by any other individuals, as far as we know, much less by 
the State, with that constancy which constant responsible 
action would require. Some government being needed among 
moral agents, it must not be government under any mere law 
that might be established, it must be government adminis- 
tered as to responsible beings — i.e. government suited to 
their nature ; since every being must be governed according 
to its nature. 
The need of 48. The Governing power which has to adjust 
Termng m p ow" the la w and practice of Duty in a community of re- 
finite Weapon- s P orLS it>Ie beings, each claiming by nature some self- 
sibie agency, government in detail, so far as he is responsible, 
