In taking leave of this subject, I, in the name of my Master, our common Lord, charge all, under my pastoral eare, "that they be subject to principalities and powers; that they obey magistrates; that they make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, for kings and all in authority; that they submit themselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King as supreme, or unto governors, as those sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and the praise of them that do well; for so is the will of God, that with well-doing they put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, and not using their liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the King."*

The Seceders of Scotland, like the Dissenters of England, have often been calumniated as disaffected to government, by men who, conscious that their own loyalty was the offspring of selfishness, were indisposed and perhaps incapacitated to give others credit, for principles less mercenary, or more generous than those which they knew to actuate themselves. The conduct of these two sister bodies is the best answer to such calumnies; and ought to put these calumniators to silence, if it cannot put them to shame; and I trust, that long after the names Churchmen and Dissenters are known only as the record of an unjustifiable distinction, which, originating in ignorance and selfishness, and producing impious. assumption and cruel oppression, on the one side, and degrading submission, or unmerited suffering, on the other, ought never to have existed, and has been for ever destroyed, -our descendants will continue to make it evident that they are loyal subjects, because they are Christian men—that they "honour the king," because they "fear God"-that their loyalty is fully as much a principle as a feeling, not a childish admiration of pomp and splendour, nor a weak attachment to a particular individual or family, nor a sordid calculating

* Tit. iii. 1; 1 Tim. ii. 1; 1 Pet. ii. 13-18.

regard to self-interest; but an enlightened reverence for civil government, as a wise and benignant ordinance of God, and a manly respect for those who in his providence are appointed to discharge its functions; and that while they "render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, they will" never "render to" any but "God the things that are God's."

THE DUTY OF THE

CIVIL MAGISTRATE

WITH RESPECT TO THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

BY JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D.

LONDON:

SOCIETY FOR THE LIBERATION OF RELIGION FROM STATE PATRONAGE AND CONTROL, 2, SERJEANTS' INN, FLEET STREET,

AND

ARTHUR MIALL, 18, BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following remarks are printed from the "Appendix" to

a Sermon

"ON THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION TO THE

WELL-BEING OF A NATION,"

preached by the late Rev. Dr. J. PYE SMITH, in the year

1834. They are now re-published with the sanction of the

Author's representatives.

2, SERJEANTS' INN,

August, 1866.

THE DUTY OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE

WITH RESPECT TO THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

THOUGH the incorporation of men into bodies, for mutual aid, protection, and defence, in relation to the affairs of this dying world, be a just description of a nation united under any form of civil government, it does not follow that the individuals composing that incorporation, whether the people or the rulers, are exempted from any of their obligations in relation to God, religion, and eternity. On the contrary, all those obligations are immensely increased. Not only the ordinary opportunities of working out their own salvation and being instrumental in promoting that of others, but those extraordinary talents or means which are entrusted to them by the arrangements of Providence OUGHT by them to be used for the same great ends. Every prince and statesman, equally with the common man, lives under a personal obligation to employ his power, property, character, and influence of every kind, in a holy manner, and for the holiest purposes. He is bound to do all things, with a universal and consistent regard to the account which he shall soon give of himself to the Great Judge. Partnership cannot indeed be carried into the eternal world; nor can men answer in a body for the deeds which they have agreed to perform by confederation: but each one must answer personally for his particular share in counsel