d e It is also objected, that rules of civil policy are not to be found in the New Testament. But the duty of governors is obliquely regulated, when it is observed that they are not a terror to good works but to the evil; that they are the ministers of God for good; that they who do good shall have praise of them; and that they are sent by the Sovereign Lord for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. And the duty of subjects is directly and repeatedly enjoined. In St. Paul's language, they should & pray for kings and all that are in authority; they should be " subject to the higher powers as the ordinance of God, and not only through motives of fear but of conscience; and should render tribute, custom, fear, and honour, where they are respectively due. In St. Peter's language, they should be afraid to speak evil of dignities; they should submit themselves to the king, and to governors, for the Lord's sake: for so is the will of God: they should both fear God, and honour the king. There occurs one limitation to the duty of civil submission: We ought to obey God rather than men, But reason, and nature, and particular forms of government instituted by men, may introduce more limitations. Children are commanded to obey their parents, and servants their masters, in all things: that is, in all things reasonable and honest, not in matters of an impious or immoral m p. 53. See S. Jenyns's View of the Internal Evidences of Christianity, h Rom. xiii. 1, 2, 5, 7. M nature. But if these precepts are not to be understood strictly, much less are those above referred to, which are less strongly worded: "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: Whosoever resisteth the resisteth the ordinance of God: Submit power, yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." It is the manner of moral writers, and very remarkably so of the eastern ones, to deliver rules true for the most part, though not universally; and to leave the restrictions of them to the understandings and feelings of mankind. It may be observed that the virtue of gratitude is no where expressly taught in the New Testament. But this amiable act of justice to benefactors is both recommended by example, and is supposed to be dictated by the human heart. Our Lord praised Mary's respectful piety in anointing his feet, and declared that the fame of it should be as extensive as the propagation of the gospel and St. Paul strongly expresses his sense of benefits conferred on him by the Philippians. Doing good to those who do good to us is an inferior part of Christian moral १ " Hence we see that Lord Bolingbroke has as little reason to ascribe the doctrine of passive obedience to St. Paul, as that of absolute predestination. Works 4to. v. iv. p. 331. See also Gibbon's learned and elegant history : v. ii. p. 187, 4to. 2d. ed. where the author places among the evangelic virtues that passive and irresisting obedience which bows under the yoke of authority, or even oppression. The curious reader will find this objection considered and confuted in Hoadly's Measures of Submission, &c. Defence of the Sermon, p. 31, and Obj. 17, p. 72. Works, fol. 2d. vol. • Matt. xxvi. 10, 13, and P. P. Phil. iv. 15-18. • Luke vi. 33. ity it is considered as an obvious truth that, the debtor to whom most had been remitted would love most and St. Paul enforced his humane request to Philemon by suggesting with much delicacy, the motive of gratitude among other reasons for granting it. We must also recollect that ingratitude is mentioned with implied censure, and with "wonder, by our Lord; and that St. Paul ranks it among the most aggravated " crimes. t It may also be urged that the religion of Christ contains no direct prohibition of self murder. But we may justly reply that it is comprehended in the general precept,, Thou shalt not kill: and that wherever Christianity teaches an over ruling Providence, wherever it exhorts to resignation and 'patience, wherever it proposes a precept or an example of enduring to the end, wherever it asserts that we are the servants of God or of Christ, that we are bought with a price, that we are not our own, that our body and spirit are God's, it furnishes arguments against this crime. But remarks of this kind, where well founded, only prove that Christianity is not a system of morals explicitly comprehending every duty to which it no where makes pretension. It has also been advanced by an ingenious writer that the Christian law is silent on the subject of active courage. But fortitude in general is enjoined or AS A DIVINE INSTRUCTOR. described in the following terms: "Fear not them who kill the body: be ye steadfast, unmoveable : quit & ye like men, be strong: who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us." Resistance is not forbidden in extraordinary cases: and it may be necessary to exert the quality of personal valour on such occasions. It is certain that it cannot be founded on firmer principles than such as the gospel furnishes; an unshaken adherence to duty, a contempt of death for the benefit of mankind, a submission to God's will, and a reliance on his i Providence and future favour. But Christianity has as little to do with directly commanding and precisely regulating qualities of this kind, as with determining the lawfulness of usury or of war, what crimes shall be capital, what is the best form of civil government, and many other matters of a like nature. SECTION XI. OF THE OBLIGATION, MOTIVES, AND MEANS TO THE PRACTICE OF THEIR DUTY, WHICH OUR LORD AFFORDS HIS FOLLOWERS. ALL that our Lord advances is resolved by him into the will and authority of God. "He a that des piseth me, despiseth him that sent nte." <b What soever I speak, as the Father hath said unto me so I speak." The will of God, externally declared, is a sufficient ground of moral obligation to all his creatures; because an all wise and absolutely perfect being can only will what is right. A clear perception of duty must likewise induce an obligation on every intelligent being: for God has so framed all such that they are "a law to themselves:" and thus binding them to a particular mode of conduct is ultimately God's act and will, made known in a different manner. Our Lord refers to this principle in human nature when he says, "Yea and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" However, it is necessary to observe that God does not arbitrarily oblige to any matter of duty; but his wisdom and will are originally and invariably determined by antecedent fitness. But our Lord not only convinces our reason that we ought to obey him he likewise influences our will and affections by motives excellently adapted to our nature. He animates us to acts of benevolence |