their measures, that abstinence from calumny, that favourable interpretation of their designs, and that general regard for their characters and persons, without which no public institutions can be properly respected and maintained? And when the Apostle further commands every soul to 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; what does he mean? Does he not place loyalty and good order in the state, on the footing of a divine authority? And does he not consider disobedience to the civil magistrate, to be rebellion against God? Will not the Christian, then, cheerfully submit himself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him, for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well?

4. The apostolical commands on this subject deserve the more implicit obedience, because they are incomparably more easy to us than they were to the primitive Christians. The Apostles enjoined submission to civil authority when it was lodged in the hands of pagan and cruel masters, when persecutions raged against the infant cause of Christ, and many plausible

reasons for discontent or resistance might have been urged. If, then, to a heathen prince obedience was to be paid by the primitive Christians, how much more is it to be paid by us to the paternal Christian government under which we live-a government which protects the rights of the poor as well as of the rich, which grants a large and practicable measure of freedom and security, which protects the religion of the Bible, provides for the due celebration of the worship of God, grants liberty of conscience, and encourages in all its institutions the interests of piety and virtue?

5. I know that many men think they sufficiently reply to all this by enumerat ng the defects and errors which they attribute to government, and by clamorously demanding the abolition of unnecessary appointments and the institution of a general reform. But the Christian who attends to his Bible, will know that these and a thousand other similar statements, even supposing them to be all true, can never affect the plain fundamental duty of loyalty to our king and obedience to the laws. The Christian will indeed employ any public privileges attached by those laws to his station in society, with purity and discrimination. He will discountenance evil wherever it may appear, and promote every wise and gradual plan of improvement consistent with the usages and

the constitution of his country. But he will also know that the grand foundations of law lie deep in the nature of man, and are not to be disturbed by any secondary and doubtful questions. To protect the quiet citizen against the villain who would attack his life, his property, or his just interests; and to erect a solemn tribunal for the decision of claims and the termination of controversies, is an indispensable and radical blessing, without which the selfishness of unrestrained nature would soon pass on to incurable rancour, confusion, and blood. This great foundation of law nothing can shake. To say that infirmities attach to the best administration of law, is to say nothing, or nothing to the purpose. To dwell on the particular ill consequences of general principles, or to magnify incidental misfortunes, or to impute to the government faults which arise from the frail nature of man or the appointments of Providence, is to speak with wickedness as well as folly. Every Christian knows that no government can make a bad man a good one, or a discontented man a happy one; and that things are then on the best footing when the greatest encouragement is given to virtuous industry, and the largest measure of general happiness is diffused through a state. And in these respects, what country can be compared to our own? Where are the laborious classes, which are al

ways the most numerous in every community, placed on so good a footing, and so much protected as here? Where are the highest honours and emoluments so easily open to real talent and modest merit as here? Where is the poor man's property guarded with so much care, and his legal rights and freedom defended with such jealousy as here? Where are all the legitimate ends of government so largely and prominently attained, as here? Now, to forget all these and a thousand other blessings, and, in a season of public calamity, when a wet harvest has increased the embarrassments arising from a bad trade, to come forward and calumniate the government under which we live, and to hold a language which would go to overturn all law and authority, is just the same as for a man to destroy his plough and fire his barns, because he thinks he has discovered some trivial defects in them, or because an unfavourable season has shortened his gains.

6. We ought to be the more cautious to maintain a willing loyalty to our King and the laws at such a time as this, because it is clear that desperate and wicked men have been working on the distresses of the poor in various parts of the country to excite a spirit of discontent and sedition. There are always men to be found, especially in a free government, who are ready for every attempt. These men know

neither the fear of God nor the fear of man. They cast off the bonds of religion and of law at once. They are as noxious as persons infected with the plague. In times of prosperity they retreat into their lurking dens, and sow their principles covertly and cautiously. But the

moment that any gloom hangs over the public mind, they thrust themselves forward into an odious notice, they bask and frolic in the tears and miseries of their fellow-creatures, they poison the distressed and unsuspecting minds of the poor, they address themselves to the idle, the profane, and the unfortunate, they dwell with a coarse but mischievous rhetoric on the defects incident to all governments, they propose schemes of base intrigue and covert insurrection, they affect to be themselves the people of England, and they work by the popular names of petition, and reform, and retrenchment. In such a moment, when traitors are at the gates, it is no time for the soldier within the citadel to show a discontented temper. The Christian will avoid every expression or action which may seem to countenance conspiracy. He will repress that dangerous curiosity in himself and in those dependent on him, which would lead them even to look into the writings-blasphemous as well as disloyal-of the agents of mischief; or so much as to be present at the tumultuous assemblages where the more part