If
we think his scheme of truth was too narrow, was not true, we may
rejoice that he could not realize it; that it remained, after two
centuries of effort, unrealizable, and is a "devout imagination" still.
But how shall we blame him for struggling to realize it? Theocracy,
Government of God, is precisely the thing to be struggled for! All
Prophets, zealous Priests, are there for that purpose. Hildebrand
wished a Theocracy; Cromwell wished it, fought for it; Mahomet attained
it. Nay, is it not what all zealous men, whether called Priests,
Prophets, or whatsoever else called, do essentially wish, and must
wish? That right and truth, or God's law, reign supreme among men, this
is the Heavenly Ideal (well named in Knox's time, and namable in all
times, a revealed "Will of God") toward which the Reformer will insist
that all be more and more approximated. All true Reformers are by
nature of them Priests, and strive for a Theocracy.
MARY STUART: HER REIGN AND EXECUTION
A.D. 1561-1587
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
Apart from the peculiar interest of her own life and reign, Mary
Stuart is an important personage as having been the mother of the
first sovereign of the Stuart line in England (James I).
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