excel in the observance of social duties; abound in mercy; bear a prudent testimony against evil practices; be most punctiliously exact in fulfilling all our engagements, and performing all our promises; live in a most peaceable and neighbourly manner; perform every office of kindness and charity which can please or benefit; and set an example of industry, honesty, and generosity.

VII. We should as professing Christians be exemplary in our obedience to the civil magistrate.

The Scriptures which enjoin this duty are too numerous to be quoted at length.* One only shall be given, but that is a very striking one. "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers; for there is no power but of God; the powers that be, are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." This injunction must of course be understood as relating to matters purely civil; or in other words to those laws which are not in opposition to the spirit and letter of divine revelation. If rulers enjoin any thing which is condemned by the word of truth, it is the duty of a Christian, without hesitation, and at all hazards, to act upon the

*Rom. xiii. 1, 2. Acts xxiii. 5. Titus iii. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. 1 Tim. ii. 1-3,

principles, and follow the example of the apostles, and "obey God rather than man."

God forbid I should teach a doctrine so pernicious as that one of the first efforts of true piety when it enters the soul is to extinguish the love of civil liberty: or that having broken the fetters of vice, it immediately bows the regenerated soul into submission to the yoke of despotism. No such thing; religion, is a noble, and sublime, and elevating principle. It expands, not contracts the mind. It is not a spirit of bondage which causes its possessor to fear; but it is a spirit of power, and of a sound mind. It lifts the soul from the dust, and does not chain it there; it has raised a noble army of martyrs, every one of whose millions was a hero that defied the tyrant's rage, and spurned his yoke. Religion therefore is no friend of slavery, nor can any of its precepts be quoted by the tyrant as an excuse for his trampling on the liberties of mankind.

Avowing thus much, and admitting that the most spiritual Christian may take an interest, and ought to take an interest in public affairs ; nay, that he ought to maintain a ceaseless jealousy over the constitution and freedom of his country, still I contend that a constant, and noisy, and factious meddling in party politics, is as injurious to his own personal religion, as it is to the interest of piety in general. We do not cease to be citizens, when we become Christians; but

we are in danger of ceasing to be Christians, when we become politicians. It is with politics as with money; it is not the temperate use, but the immoderate love of it, that is the root of all evil. Thousands of professors of religion have made shipwreck of their faith and a good conscience, during the tempests of political agitation; let us then, as we value our lives, be cautious how we embark on this stormy and troubled ocean.

There is one way in which many Christians offend against the laws of their country without scruple, and without remorse; I mean by endeavouring to evade the payment of taxes. Had there been no Christian statute to condemn this practice, the general principles of reason would be quite sufficient to prove its criminality. But the New Testament has added the authority of revelation to the dictates of reason; and thus made it a sin against God, no less than a crime against society, to defraud the revenue. "Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's; tribute to whom tribute is due, and custom to whom custom," is the authoritative language of St. Paul. This precept derives great force from the consideration that it was delivered at a time, and under a government, in which the taxes were not imposed by the people themselves, but by the arbitrary power of a despot. Certainly if, under these circumstances, it was the

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duty of a Christian to pay the tribute money, any effort which we make to evade it, must be additionally criminal, since we are taxed by the will of our representatives. The excuses usually made in justification of this practice, only serve to show how far even some good people may be imposed upon, by the deceitfulness of the human heart. Every time we have made a false return on the schedule which regulates our quota of taxation, or that we have purchased knowingly a contraband article of food, beverage, or dress, we have committed a fraud upon society, have assumed a power to dispense with the laws of our country, have violated the precepts of the New Testament, have brought the guilt of a complicated crime upon our conscience, and have subjected ourselves to the displeasure of God, and the discipline of his church.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE DUTIES OF CHURCH MEMBERS TO THEIR PASTORS.

It is the will and appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ, the king and head of his churches, that they should behave towards their pastors, as his ministers, who come in his name, bear his commands, and transact his business; and who

are to be treated in every respect, in a manner that corresponds with their office. In a subor dinate sense, they are ambassadors for Christ, and are to be received and esteemed in a way that corresponds with the authority and glory of the Sovereign who commissions them. Whoever slights, insults, or neglects them, in the discharge of their official duties, disobeys and despises their divine Master, who will keenly resent all the injuries that are offered them. No earthly sovereign will allow his messengers to be rejected and insulted with impunity, much less will the Lord of the church. Those who entertain low thoughts of the pastoral office, and neglect its ministrations; who speak contemptuously of their ministers; who excite a spirit of resistance to their counsels, admonitions, and reproofs; who endeavour to lessen that just reverence, to which for their works' sake, and on their Mas ter's behalf they are entitled, certainly despise them, and not only them, but Him that sent them also, and for such conduct will incur the heavy displeasure of Christ, Luke x. 16. 1 Thess. v. 13.

But to descend to particulars; the duty of church members towards their pastors includes: I. Submission to their just and scriptural authority.

It is readily admitted that the unscriptural, and therefore usurped domination of the priesthood is the root whence arose the whole sys