66

I, 3. xix. 2.

esteem, and reciprocal tenderness and affections," as the heart in which Christian virtues flourish; and particularly that benevolence which bishop Taylor nobly calls friendship to all the world, friendship expanded like the face of the sun, when it mounts above the eastern hillst." In the Old Testament, Moses speaks of a friend Deut. xiii. 6. who is as a man's own soul: we have a striking example of friendship in the history of Jonathan and 1 Sam. xviii. David; and in the Book of Proverbs mention is made 2 Sam. i. 26. of a friend who loveth at all times. We see by these Prov. xvii. instances that human nature is not one thing in the scriptures, and another thing in fact, or in the gravest and best ancient or modern moralists. Besides, as friendship is a connection which many may not be able to form, and therefore is not a general duty, if indeed it can be called a duty incumbent on any, it has been doubted whether it could properly be made the subject of a direct precept by a divine lawgiver.

17.

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 Rom. xiii. evil; that they are the ministers of God for good; that 3,4. they who do good shall have praise of them; and that they are sent by the Sovereign Lord for the punish- 1 Pet. ii. 14. ment 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 1Tim.ii. 1,2. should be subject to the higher powers as the ordi- Rom. xiii. I, nance of God, and not only through motives of fear, but of conscience; and should render tribute, custom,

s Shaftesbury's definition: ubi

supr.

t Ubi supr.

u See S. Jenyns's View of the Internal Evidences of Christianity, p. 53.

2, 5, 7.

fear, and honour, where they are respectively due. In 2 Pet. ii. 10. St. Peter's language, they should be afraid to speak 1 Pet. ii. 13. evil of dignities: they should submit themselves to the king, and to governors, for the Lord's sake; for so is

-17.

22.

the will of God: they should both fear God and honour the king. There occurs one limitation to the Act. v. 29. 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 Col. iii. 20, 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 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 power, resisteth the ordinance of God:" "Submit 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 mankindx.

It may be observed that the virtue of gratitude is nowhere expressly taught in the New Testament. But this amiable act of justice to benefactors is both re

x 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. vol. iv. 331. See also Gibbon's learned and elegant History, vol. ii. 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 Hoadley's Measures of Submission, &c. Defence of the Sermon, p. 31, and Obj. 17, p. 72. Works, fol. 2d vol.

p. p.

-18.

commended by example, and is supposed to be dictated by the human heart. Our Lord praised Mary's re- Mat. xxvi. spectful piety in anointing his feet, and declared that 10, 13, and the fame of it should be as extensive as the propagation of the gospel: and St. Paul strongly expresses his Phil. iv. 15 sense of benefits conferred on him by the Philippians. Doing good to those who do good to us, is an inferior Luk. vi. 33. part of Christian morality: it is considered as an obvious truth, that the debtor to whom most had been Luk. vii. 41 remitted would love most: and St. Paul enforced his -43. humane request to Philemon by suggesting with much delicacy the motive of gratitude among other reasons Philem. 19. for granting it. We must also recollect that ingratitude is mentioned with implied censure and with Luk. vi. 35wonder by our Lord; and that St. Paul ranks it among Luk. xvii. the most aggravated crimes.

17, 18.
2 Tim. iii. 2.

Rom.xii. 12.

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 Mat.xix.18. Christianity teaches an overruling Providence, wherever it exhorts to resignation and patience, wherever Mat. xxvi. it proposes a precept or an example of enduring to the 39, and p.p. end, wherever it asserts that we are the servants of Jam. i. 3, 4. God or of Christ, that we are bought with a price, that 2 Pet. i. 6. we are not our own, that our body and spirit are God's, Heb. xii. 1, it furnishes arguments against this crime. But remarks of this kind, where well founded, only prove Christianity is not a system of morals explicitly prehending every duty to which it nowhere pretension.

that

I Pet. ii. 20.

2,3.

Rom. vi. 22.

I Cor.vii.22.
Eph. vi. 6.
I Pet. ii. 16.

Rev. vii. 3.

commakes xix. 2.

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 dey Jenyns's View, ubi supr.

I Cor. vi. 19, 20. vii. 23.

xvi. 13. Rom. viii. 35, &c.

Mat. x. 28. scribed in the following terms: "Fear not them who 1 Cor.xv.58. kill the body:" "be ye steadfast, unmovable :" "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 Luk. xii. 7. reliance on his 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

Mat. x. 31.

nature.

SECT. 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 Luk. x. 16. the will and authority of God: "He that despiseth Jo. xii. 50. me despiseth him that sent me:" "Whatsoever 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: Rom. ii. 14. 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 Luk. xii. 57.

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.

66

48.

Jo. xiii. 15.

XV. 13.

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 by proposing to our imitation the example of God himself: Mat. v. 45, he exhorts us to follow his own example in acts of Luk. vi. 36. meekness and lowliness. He leads us to grateful obe- Mat. xi. 29. dience by exhibiting to us both the wonders of God's Jo. iii. 16. love, and his own no less astonishing acts of love in Jo. iii. 13. assuming our nature and laying down his life for us. And he gives us a most affecting inducement to observe his laws when he says, Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." He has also unveiled to us the future world, and assured the righteous of Mat. xxv. everlasting life, and the wicked of everlasting punishment. He has graciously addressed himself to our imagination and senses on this subject; has circum- Mat. xxv. stantially described the awful scene; has taught men Jo.v.28,29. that he will confess or deny them in the presence of the angels and of his heavenly Father; and even that Luk. xii. 8, he will reward their benevolent actions, and punish Mat. x. 32, their malevolent ones, as if he himself had been their 33. xxv. 40, immediate object.

Jo. xv. 14.

46.

31, &c.

9.

45.

The means of performing our duty which Christ has granted us come next to be considered. The ordinance of baptism reminds such as are able to reflect on it of their covenant with God, of dying to sin, of having Rom. vi. 4. their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. The Heb. x. 22.

1 Pet. iii. 21.