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"disobedience." Men are filled with pride, and are unwilling to embrace any sentiment that tends to abase them. They are also full of worldly and carnal lusts, which they cannot endure to have mortified and subdued. In short, their prejudices and their passions are altogether adverse to the Gospel: so that, when the word is preached to them, they instantly set themselves against it. In vain are proofs adduced; in vain are motives urged; in vain are all human efforts to conciliate their regard to Christ: the language of their hearts is, "I have loved strangers, and after them will I go." The contempt which the Pharisees poured on Christ, on account of his prohibiting the love of money, is traced by the Evangelists to this very source; "The Pharisees were covetous, and they derided himi." And our Lord expressly recommends obedience as the best preparative for receiving the knowledge of his Gospel; "If any man will do God's will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God."

But, according to the words of the text, it seems as if men's unbelief was to be traced ultimately to the decrees of God respecting them. We cannot however understand them as establishing so awful a doctrine: nay, we cannot think that the doctrine of absolute reprobation can ever be established, while those words remain in the Bible, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner!." Nevertheless we are not disposed to explain away the words of the text; for they certainly have a very awful and important meaning, to which it becomes us to attend. God has decreed, that they who will not receive the Gospel for the illumination of their minds, shall eventually be blinded by it; that they who are not softened by it, shall be hardened"; that they to whom it is not a savour of life unto life, shall find it a savour of death unto death"." The Gospel is certainly so constituted, that it shall produce these effects. Christ is "set for the fall, as well as for the rising, of many in Israel." "He is for a sanctuary," to protect and save the humble; but he is also "for a stone of stumbling," yea, "for a gin and a snare, that many (even all that are proud, perverse, and obstinate) may stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken P."]

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"But ye" (believers) are exalted to the highest privileges by the Gospel

[The various terms here used were originally intended to mark the privileges of the Jewish nation: but they are

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applicable to believers in a higher and more appropriate

sense.

Believers are "a chosen generation:" they have been " chosen of God from before the foundation of the world." Though the misery of unbelievers is owing, not to any absolute decrees of reprobation, but to their own pride and wickedness, we must not imagine that the happiness of believers is owing to their own inherent goodness: for they have no good qualities which they have not first received from Gods; and consequently their good qualities are the effect, not the cause, of God's kindness to them. Though therefore we cannot accede to the doctrine of reprobation, we have no doubt whatever on the subject of election; since both by Scripture and experience it is established on the firmest grounds.

Believers are also "a royal priesthood:" they are now made both "kings and priests unto God." They are chosen of God to reign over their own lusts, and to have the nearest access to him in all holy duties. There is no difference now between Jew and Gentile, or between male and female: but all are permitted to approach unto the mercy-seat of their God, and to offer to him the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise.

Moreover, they are "a holy nation, and a peculiar people." All are united under the same King; all obey the same laws; all participate the same interests. They are all separated by God, and "set apart for himself:" they are not of the world, though they are in it: they are mere "pilgrims and sojourners' here; and are travelling to "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

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All these distinctions they enjoy; and they owe them all to the sovereign grace of God.]

ADDRESS

1. Unbelievers

[You need only to examine your regard for Christ, and you will soon find with which class you are to be numbered. You may easily discover whether Christ be supremely precious to your souls, or whether you are averse to the doctrines and precepts of his Gospel.

Think with yourselves, what guilt you contract, and to what danger you are exposed, while you remain insensible to all the love of Christ: your guilt is greater than that of the very persons who crucified him, because you sin against greater light, and contradict your most solemn professions. O provoke not God to give you over to judicial blindness; nor make I Eph. i. 4. s 1 Cor. iv. 7. t Rev. i. 6.

God's richest mercy an occasion of your more aggravated condemnation !]

2. Believers

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[You see in the latter part of the text how infinitely you are indebted to your God: once you were in darkness; now you are brought into the marvellous light" of his Gospel: once you were not the people of God; now you are: once you had not obtained mercy; now you have obtained mercy."

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And for what end has God vouchsafed to make this alteration in your state, and to distinguish you thus from millions, who are still left in the very condition in which you so lately were? Was it not "that you should shew forth the praises, yea the virtues" too, of Him that called you?" Entertain then a becoming sense of your obligations: and endeavour to "render unto the Lord according to the benefits" conferred upon you. Shew forth his praises by frequent and devout acknowledgments; and shew forth his virtues by following his steps and obeying his commandments.]

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SUBJECTION TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

1 Pet. ii. 13-17. Submit yourselves 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. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

THE great duty of a Christian minister is, to exalt the Saviour, and to call men to submit to his government. But we must not imagine that this is neglected, when our minds are led to the consideration of human governments, and the duties we owe to them for there is a manifest connexion between the two subjects; the latter being, in reality, a branch of the former. We cannot truly submit to Christ, unless we yield obedience to all his laws-to those which relate to our conduct in civil life, as well as

those which are given to regulate the inmost workings of our souls towards God. And we should be essentially wanting in our duty as Christian pastors, if we did not take occasion, especially from the interesting events of this day, to open to you a subject of such great and universal importance. The words which I have read will lead me to shew you, I. Our duty in relation to civil government

Civil government is an ordinance of God—

[It is called, in my text, "an ordinance of man:" and so it is, as far as relates to the particular form of government established in any particular kingdom. In some countries absolute monarchy is established: in our own, a limited monarchy. In some, there are republics; in others, the power is vested in an aristocracy. In fixing the precise mode in which the affairs of any nation shall be administered, the agency of man has been altogether employed: God having never interposed by an authoritative mandate from heaven, except in the case of the Jewish people. The history of our own nation sufficiently informs us, that the changes which take place in human governments are the result of human deliberation, or of human force. Yet, in its original appointment, civil government proceeds from God himself. He has ordained, that man shall not be left in the state of the brute creation, every one independent of his fellow, and every one at liberty to follow the bent of his own inclinations, without any regard to the welfare of others: but that power shall be vested in some for the good of the community; and that every one shall be responsible to that power for his own conduct, as far as the welfare of the community is concerned. St. Paul expressly tells us, that "there is no power, but of God; and that the powers that be, are ordained of God"."]

To it we are to submit, "for the Lord's sake"

[Power must, of course, be delegated to a great variety of persons, and in different degrees: and to it, in whomsoever it is vested, or in whatsoever degree, we are to yield that measure of submission which the laws require. We owe allegiance, primarily, "to the king, as supreme;" and, subordinately, to all other classes of magistrates or governors, who are appointed by him for the exercise of his authority in their respective jurisdictions. The obedience which we are to pay

a The Coronation of George the Fourth, July 19, 1821. But it might be applied to the King's Accession, or 30th of January. b Rom. xiii. 1.

may be rendered more easy, or more difficult, by the personal character of him who exacts it: but it is due, not to the man, but to the office; and therefore it must be paid, even though the man who executes the office may be far from deserving the homage he requires. If only we recollect that Nero was the governor of the Roman empire at the time that the Apostle wrote his epistle to the Church at Rome; and that towards him, notwithstanding his great cruelty and his bitter persecution of all who bore the Christian name, the Apostle required all to shew the utmost reverence and submission; we shall see that there is no room for any person to withhold allegiance from the reigning monarch on account of any thing that there may be offensive in his personal character. The words of the Apostle are most decisive on this point: "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," even though it be exercised by a very Nero," resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Nor does this observation extend to the supreme governor alone; but to all, according to the measure of authority that is vested in them and it is not only from fear of their displeasure that we are to render them this homage, but "for conscience' sake"," or, as my text expresses it, "for the Lord's sake."]

How "the Lord" is interested in our performance of this duty, will appear, whilst we consider,

II. The grounds and reasons of it

We are bound to yield submission to civil ment because of,

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1. Its being altogether of God's appointment

[The institution of government is from him, as has already been shewn. Moreover, the power that is exercised by earthly governors is God's authority delegated to men, who are constituted his vicegerents upon earth. It is not man therefore, but God, whom we are called to obey: it is God, I say, in the person of the civil magistrate. We are to "submit" ourselves to man; "for so is the will of God:" and, in rendering to man the service that is due, we are to consider ourselves, not as the servants of men, but "as the servants of God."

What need we further than this, to evince the indispensable necessity of submitting to civil government, and of obeying implicitly the laws which are enacted by the constituted

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e Numb. xvi. 11 1 Sam. viii. 7. with Rom. xiii. 4.

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