respect persons, neither take a gift; for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord giveth thee.”* And in order to secure this impartial administration of justice, they were commanded to "provide out of all the people, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens; and let them judge the people at all seasons," &c. &c.+ So, again, with respect to the government of nations, and the obedience due to the laws and regulations of kingdoms-all is to be ordered in the fear of God. "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: For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the * Deut. xvi. 18-20. ↑ Ex. xviii. 21, 22. same," &c. &c.* If rulers, therefore, are bound to govern in the fear of God; subjects are equally bound, by the same principle, to honour and obey. And in respect of either, as in the case of Saul, "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry."+ Upon the same principles, and under the same responsibilities, are business and trade to be conducted, whether between man and man, or nation and nation. "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have I am the Lord your God." And in crying out against the fraud and dishonesty of those who impose on and cheat their neighbours by swerving from these equitable regulations, the Lord asks, “Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is * Rom. xiii. 1-8. † 1 Sam. xv. 23. Lev. xix. 35, 36. deceitful in their mouth: therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins."* And who can depict the vast responsibilities, or the awful guilt, of wicked pastors and people? "Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord!"+ "If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."‡ Nor does the manner in which patrons generally dispose of their pastoral appointments screen them from their liabilities to this law, but rather increase their condemnation ten thousand fold. The way in which Jeroboam appointed even his idolatrous priests became a sin to his house, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth. How many imitate that wicked man, incur a greater guilt, and provoke a heavier curse! If you descend still lower in the scale of relative and social life, you will find *Mic. vi. 10-13. Ezek. xxxiii. 8, 9. ↑ Jer. xxiii. 1. that "wives are to submit themselves unto their own husbands as unto the Lord,”—that "husbands are to love their wives even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it,”—that "children are to obey their parents in the Lord; for this is right,"-that "fathers (and mothers) are to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,"-that "servants are to be obedient to them that are their masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as unto Christ,”—that " masters are to do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven."* In short, the plain and positive rule of this universal responsibility is, "Render therefore to all their dues; honour to whom honour,"-"to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's."+ (iv.) And can anything be more lovely and beautiful in itself, or more equitable, reasonable, and holy, in its obligations and claims, than the systematic proportions of such an order and constitution of things as we thus behold? Here is nothing redundant; nothing unnecessary; no * Eph. v, 22, 23, aud vi. 1—9. thing unfiit; nothing that does not conduce to our mutual benefit and advance the general welfare! In the body national and politic, as in the body spiritual and ecclesiastic, God hath set the members every one of them as it hath pleased him. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you;-but God hath tempered the body together, that there should be no schism on the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.* How wise, how benevolent, how good is this appointment! And it is not right, then, that men should stand mutually responsible one to the other, and especially to God, our sovereign maker and great disposer? Is it not right that, in whatever position we are placed in this great framework of the body of human society, we should love and seek the good of each other, and honour and obey the ever-blessed God? Is it not right that our faculties and members in our own individual capacity, and all our talents and influence in our respective gradations, from the cottage up to the throne, should be engaged in the discharge of this great duty, that, while man 1 Cor. xii. 12-31. |