our blessed Saviour treated this pretence of the Jewish church, and it will be a very good direction to us how to behave in a case which is so very much the same: he speaks of them as human inventions; as doctrines of their own, and not doctrines of God: Laying aside the commandment of God,' says he, ' ye hold the tradition of men:' Mark vii. 8. And again, ver. 9. 'Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.' In the following verses he shows them how their tradition contradicted the law of Moses, and then tells them, 'You make the word of God of none effect through your tradition which ye have delivered;' manifestly considering the written law of Moses as the commandment of God, and the traditions of the elders as the law of men and of their own making.

Moses and the Prophets make the Scripture of the Jews, and to them our Lord constantly appeals: he bids the Jews' search the Scriptures;' tells them, they err, not knowing the Scriptures;' and when the Pharisees put a question to him concerning divorce, tempting him, his answer is, What did Moses command you?' And when he told the Pharisees that on the two commandments, of loving God and our neighbor, 'hang all the law and the prophets,' he plainly told them that the law and the prophets contained the whole of their religion, and that they had no other rule to go by: for had he considered the traditions of the elders as a rule of religion, he must have reduced them to his general precepts likewise.

In the well-known parable of the rich man and Lazarus, our Saviour has, in the person of Abraham, fully determined this point. The rich man desires that Lazarus may be sent from the dead to warn his brethren that they come not to that place of torment: Abraham refuses this request for this reason, because his brethren wanted no means to instruct them in the right way. What was their rule then? Abraham tells him, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'

The application of this case is so easily made to our own, that there is hardly any reason to insist on it particularly. The Jewish church had Moses and the Prophets, and abounded with traditions of their own, taught and received as essential

to their religion. What our Saviour thought of their traditions, what of the law and the Prophets, you have heard. The Christian church likewise has the Apostles and Evangelists; they have also too many traditionary doctrines, which have no foundation in Holy Writ: what are we to do then? Do we want better authority than that of our Saviour to reject the traditions of men, and to hold fast the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets of the gospel? that is, as St. Jude exhorts us, to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.'

SUMMARY OF DISCOURSE LXII.

ROMANS, CHAP. XIII.-VERSE 1.

WE have, in this and the following verses, the-duty which subjects owe to their temporal governors, taught and maintained by several arguments; to understand the sense and propriety of which, we must consider the circumstances of the time, place, and persons here concerned. There is no appearance in the gospel that our Saviour intended to alter the civil governments of the world. His errand was of a different nature; and he speaks of government only as occasion required. In Matt. xxii. 17. we find a captious question put to him by the Pharisees, whether it was lawful to pay tribute to the Roman emperor or not? The question arose from hence; that a certain Jewish sect held this payment to be unlawful. The author of this opinion was Judas of Galilee, who, when the nation was ordered to be taxed, raised a great rebellion. His fate is related fully by Josephus, and mentioned by Gamaliel in Acts v. 37. By degrees they gathered strength, and in the reign of Claudius ravaged many places in Samaria: their pretence for freedom was, as we learn from St. Chrysostom, that being the freemen of God, they ought not to be the subjects or slaves of men. They were called Galileans, their founder being of that country, as also many of his followers. By this name Christians went in the first ages; they are so called by several heathen writers: Julian thus also designates them. Hence the Christians going by the name of Galileans were thought by the heathens to entertain the opinions of those who refused obedience to earthly princes, and were for setting up an independent government.

Thus Tertullus the orator accused St. Paul, (Acts xxiv. 5.); thus also did the Jews accuse the Christians to the magistrates of Thessalonica, (Acts xvii. 16.) Hence that question of the Pharisees, Is it lawful to pay tribute to Cæsar? for they hoped to have found something whereof to have impeached our Saviour before the Roman governor. The collectors of tax seem to

have had the same jealousy concerning our Saviour, when in Matth. xvii. 24. they inquired of St. Peter whether his Master would pay tribute or no; to which he answers, yes: and our Saviour, though he intimates that he ought to have been exempted, says to St. Peter, when he had cast his hook into the sea, and taken the piece of money from the mouth of the fish, 'Give it them as tribute for me and yourself, lest we should offend them.' This scandal, which he and his Apostles lay under, urged both him and them to vindicate themselves, and to teach their followers such obedience to the higher powers as might leave no pretence for such an accusation. That the Apostles had reference to the same in pressing obedience of all kinds on their disciples, is evident from the argument with which they close their instructions; that the word of God be not blasphemed, or evil spoken of: this text commented on, showing that Christians were more liable to reproach in this case than in any other: hence the reason why our Lord bids St. Peter pay the tribute: hence St. Paul's orders to Titus, ch. ii. 5. and 10. also Tim. vi. 1. See also 1 Peter, ii. 15. 16. Besides these reasons, drawn from the Apostles' own writings, St. Jerome, in his comment on Tit. iii. 1., and St. Chrysostom, on Rom. xiii., teach the same thing. Hence we may see why the Apostles so earnestly press their new converts with a more than ordinary obedience to their governors: the honor of Christ and the gospel was nearly concerned in their behavior, which ought to be dearer to them than their lives: this point enlarged on. St. Paul more especially labors this point, when he writes to the Christians at Rome, where the least disorder would be

soonest taken notice of, and most improved to the prejudice of the gospel. If we examine what St. Paul has taught on this point, we shall find it built on reasons purposely adapted to confute the error of the Galileans and some judaizing Christians, and to require such a scrupulous obedience as might clear the gospel and its professors from the scandal thrown on them by the heathen. The doctrine of the former part of the text opposes that of the Galileans; and is supported in the latter part by arguments peculiarly adapted to combat their error, He allows what they say to be true respecting God; but this is so far from exempting them from subjection to temporal power, that it proves the contrary: for the power of the magistrate being delegated from God, is therefore more especially to be regarded by those who pretend in a peculiar manner to be his servants. It was obvious to object to this reasoning, that the powers then in being could not be ordained by God, because they had thwarted all his purposes. To prevent which he purposely adds, ai dè ovoaι éžovoía, the powers which now be, are ordained of God; whence he draws this consequence, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. In what sense the rulers of the world may be said to be the ordinance of God, and to derive their power from him, is to be found from the state of the world, which requires them to protect the innocent and defend the weak: therefore to pretend an exemption from their power is to act in opposition to his will. As some pretended to withdraw their obedience from the prince, because they had been made partakers of the freedom of the gospel, so others in a state of servitude thought they had a right to throw off their bondage for the same reason the Apostle therefore uses the same way of arguing with them, exhorting them to submit to their masters as unto God. Thus he lays down this general rule: Let every man abide in the same calling, &c. (1 Cor. vii. 20.); which he particularises in Ephes. vi. 5. 7. The same is somewhat dif