other. Our Lord bids St. Peter pay the tribute, left, fays he, we should offend them: and thus St. Paul, in his Epiftle to Titus, ch. ii. ver. 5. orders Titus to admonish wives to be obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blafphemed; and, ver. 10. to exhort fervants to be obedient to their own mafters, and to please them well in all things, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things: fo likewife in the first Epistle to Timothy, ch. vi. ver. 1. the Apoftle gives this exhortation, Let as many fervants as are under the yoke count their own mafters worthy of all honour; and then he repeats the forementioned reafon, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blafphemed: thus likewise St. Peter, preffing obedience to governors, gives this reason for it, For fo is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to filence the ignorance of foolish men, 1 Pet. ii. 15. that is, of fuch men as fcandalize the doctrine of the Gofpel, as if it taught us to claim a freedom inconfiftent with the obedience that fubjects and fervants and children owed to their respective fuperiors: and, with regard to this abused notion of Chriftian freedom, the Apostle adds, in the very next verse, As free, and not ufing your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the fervants of God. Befides these reasons, drawn from the Apoftles' own writings, to fhew with what view they fo frequently infifted upon, and inculcated obedience of all kinds, we have to the fame purpose the express authority of St. Jerom and St. Chryfoftom. St. Jerom, in his comment upon the Epiftle to Titus, at these words, Put them in mind to be fubject to principalities and powers, gives this reason

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why the Apostle there, and elsewhere, infifts on the obligations which Chriftians were under to obey their rulers: Quia Jude Galilæi illud tempus dogma adhuc vigebat, et habebat plurimos fectatores—Becaufe the doctrine of Judas of Galilee yet prevailed at that time, and had many followers. St. Chryfoftom, in his comment upon the thirteenth of the Romans, teaches us the fame thing: Καὶ γὰρ πολὺς περιεφέρετο λόγος τότε, ἐπὶ ςάσει καὶ καινοτομία διαβάλλων τὰς ἀποςόλες, καὶ ὡς ἐπ ̓ ανατροπῇ τῶν κοινῶν νόμων, ἅπαντα καὶ ποιένται nai Xéyovta:—For there was at that time a ftrong report that the Apoftles were feditious and innovators, and that their principles and practices tended to the fubverfion of the common laws.

From this account it is easy to see what made the Apostles fo frequently, fo earnestly press their new converts to fhew a more than ordinary obedience to their masters and governors: the honour of Chrift and the Gospel was nearly concerned in their behaviour, which ought to be dearer to them than their lives, and to outweigh all other confiderations whatever; and therefore they ought to bear every thing rather than give any umbrage to the enemies of the Gospel, by pretending upon any account, how plaufible foever, to withstand the commands of their lawful governors. And for this reafon St. Paul more especially labours the point, when he writes to the Chriftians at Rome, which was the ordinary refidence of the Emperor, and where any the leaft diforder would be the fooneft taken notice of, and moft improved to the prejudice of the Gofpel. And if you examine what St. Paul has taught concerning obedience and fubjection to the higher

powers, you will find it answer exactly to thefe circumftances now fet before you, and to be built upon reasons purposely adapted to convince the error of the Galileans and some judaizing Chriftians, and to require fuch an exact and fcrupulous obedience, as might clear the Gospel and its profeffors from the scandal thrown on them by the heathen world.

Let every foul, fays he, be fubject unto the higher powers. This is the doctrine laid down in oppofition to fuch as taught that there were no higher powers who had any claim to their obedience, but that they were under the immediate government of God, and therefore owed no fubjection to man. The Apostle supports his doctrine with arguments peculiarly adapted to combat the error he opposes, as you will perceive in the following words: For there is no power, fays he, but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. As if he had faid, You argue that you ought to be subject to God only, and to acknowledge no other power or authority but his. What you say is true: but so far is this reafon from exempting you from the fubjection to temporal power, that, well confidered, it will prove juft the contrary: for the power of the magiftrate is a power delegated from God, and therefore more especially to be regarded by those who pretend in a peculiar manner to be the fervants of God. It was obvious to object against this reasoning, That the powers then in being could not be the powers ordained by God, because they fo evidently thwarted all his purposes: they had put to death the Lord of life; they perfecuted his followers; they were the

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supporters of fuperftition and idolatry, and the main obftacle in the way of the Gofpel: to prevent which furmises the Apostle purposely adds, The powers which be, αἱ δὲ ἶσαι ἐξεσίαι, the powers which now be, are ordained of God. From these positions he draws the confequence in direct oppofition to the principles and practices of those who were defpifers of government: Whosoever therefore refifteth the power refifteth the ordinance of God. To refift the ordinance of God was certainly inconfiftent with their profeffion who pretended to dedicate themselves to the obedience of God; and fo entirely, that for that reason they would own no obedience to any one elfe, left they fhould feem to fet up another to share with God in his right to their service. The Apoftle fo far allows their principle, as to argue from it, and fhews them, that they cannot refift the civil power confiftently with their refolutions of obeying God; because submitting to our earthly princes is part of the obedience which God requires from us. If we inquire in what particular sense the rulers of the world may be faid to be the ordinance of God, and to derive their power and authority from him; we shall find that the ftate of the world requires that there fhould be some to rule, invested with power to protect the innocent, and to defend the weak from the violence of the oppreffor: and therefore government is agreeable to the will of God; and to pretend an exemption from it would be acting in oppofition to his will and the order of his establishment.

As fome pretended to withdraw their obedience from the prince, because they had been made par

takers of the freedom of the Gofpel; fo others, who were in a state of fervitude, thought they had a right to throw off their bondage, supposing a state of flavery to be inconfiftent with the liberty of the Gospel of Chrift: they went upon the fame reason which the others did, and pleaded their relation to God and Chrift as a full release from the condition of flaves. The Apoftle therefore uses the fame way of arguing to them, and exhorts them to yield obedience to their mafters as unto the Lord, as unto God; fhewing them that their masters, with respect to temporal affairs, stood in the place of God; and they were therefore to fubmit unto them as unto God. Thus in the feventh chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians the Apoftle lays down this general rule, Let every man abide in the fame calling wherein he is called; that is, as he explains himself, whether he be fervant, or whether he be free, let him not think that his condition is repugnant to his religion: if he be fervant, let him fo continue. Servants, fays he, in the fixth of the Ephefians, be obedient unto them that are your maflers according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in fingleness of your heart, as unto Chrift; not with eyefervice, as men-pleasers; but as the fervants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing fervice, as to the Lord, and not to men. The fame is repeated, with fome finall variety of expreffion, in the third of the Coloffians: and in 1 Tim. vi. he treats of this matter with fome warmth, and affirms, that this doctrine of obedience is the law of God, and that whoever denies it confents not to wholefome words, even the words of our Lord Jefus