ordering, ruling, and governing of them afterwards, when they came to man's estate; and for that also it had no superior authority, or power over, or above it on earth, appearing in the Scriptures, although it be called either patriarchal, regal, or imperial, and that we only term it potestas patria: yet, being well considered, how far it did reach, we may truly say, that it was in a sort potestas regia; as now in a right and true construction, potestas regia may justly be called potestas patria." And to this it subjoined the following Canon.

"If any man shall therefore affirm, that men at the first, without all good education, or civility, ran up and down in woods and fields as wild creatures, resting themselves in caves, and dens, and acknowledging no superiority one over another, until they were taught by experience the necessity of government; and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest, giving them power and authority so to do; and that consequently all civil power, jurisdiction, and authority, was first derived from the people and disordered multitude; or either is originally still in them, or else is deduced by their consent naturally from them; and is not God's ordinance originally descending from Him, and depending upon Him; he doth greatly erre." (Can. 2.)

All the theories of the origin of Government, however they may vary in the details of their application, or even though they urge results opposed to what might naturally or legitimately be inferred from their principles, may be referred to these two; that which supposes a state of nature, (as it is called,) in which men, no ways connected with each other, did for mutual security establish a civil government, abridging their own natural rights, and setting kings over them on certain conditions, the system of a "social

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compact;" the other, that which supposes men always to have existed in society, as being derived from a common origin, and the authority of the governor to have been derived from that, originally given to the head of the family by God, (as Abel was naturally to have been subject to Cain, Gen. iv. 7.) the " Patriarchal system." And so (as Bp. Sanderson above observed) all turns on this, whether property be supposed antecedent to government," i. e. whether men be supposed in a state of having something of their own, (whether actual property, or with Hobbes "a right of every man to every thing,") and thence to have formed governments for themselves, and so the original of government be with the people, or whether "government be antecedent to property," i. e. established by God in the first instance, and derived from Him. The former of these (and so the so-called "social compact") is obviously an unbelieving theory, (even if any who adopted it should not have been unbelievers; Hooker, although he employs some of its language as having been derived from the Roman law, manifestly does not adopt the theory itself,) and is that of Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Gibbon, Montesquieu, and other politicians; the other is that of the Church; and it is remarkable, that the latter, the religious view, though connected with the high doctrine of Non-resistance, found no acceptance with King James I, who wished to assist the insurgent Netherlands; the other, although virtually subverting authority, was a favourite with the court of King Charles II, so that "an original power by nature in the people was the only theme then in fashion:" (Sir R. Filmer, Obs. on Forms of Government, p. 18.) so little do states or statesmen often know of the principles whence their strength is derived! The unbelieving character of the received theory, and wherein this unbelieving character

consisted, is again pointed out by Bp. Sanderson.

"True it is, that a mere rationalist, (i. e. in plain English, an Atheist of the late edition,) who giveth more faith to such heathen philosophy as affirmeth the world to have been ab æterno, than to divine revelation, which assureth us it had a beginning, (and some of the great champions of the opinion we now speak of, have given cause enough of suspicion that they are little better,) such a one, I say, cannot possibly get out of the circle," [since on any natural principles, property presupposed government, and government property], "but to us who believe the Scriptures and acknowledge a creation, the solution of both is easy."

In like manner Bp. Horsley:

“Mankind from the beginning never existed otherwise than in society and under government. Whence follows this important consequence, that to build the authority of princes, or of the chief magistrate under whatever denomination, upon any compact or agreement between the individuals of a multitude living previously in a state of nature, is in truth to build a reality upon a fiction." Serm. xliv. preached before the House of Lords, on the anniversary of the Martyrdom of King Charles I.

Some sentences are inserted in the Sermon now, which could not be introduced into the delivery, for fear of interfering with a service, which was to follow.

EXOD. xiv. 13.

Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will shew to you to-day.

THE history of the Old Testament is the Sun of all other history, Christian or profane. In it, the cloud which veils the mercy-seat, as well as the pathways of Divine Providence, is withdrawn, and the light from behind the cloud flashes through, the token of the Divine presence to those who can behold it, light to His people, although to the Egyptians darkness. So marked, indeed, is the analogy of the kingdoms of unseen and revealed Providence, that men must acknowledge it one way or the other; unless they trace it where it is less distinct, they will lose sight of it where it is most clear; unless they explain what is less known by what is declared, they will explain away what is declared by what is obscure; unless they make use of the light given them where they might see, it will be withdrawn from them where they think they see. Twilight, in that it has a portion of light, has a correspondence with day-break; and whoso, when the light is come, will not explain the indistinct outlines which he saw, "men as trees, walking," by the distincter and revealed forms he now beholds, must go on to walk in the darkness which he loves rather than light. They who interpret not what

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men call nature by the Bible, will bring down the Bible to the standard of nature.

This has been done of old times. This very history of the passage of the Red sea, Josephus, it has been wisely noticed," in his worst spirit of compromise," compared to an escape of Alexander; and the modern historian of the Jews, who, with a righteous indignation, censured Josephus, was himself much to be blamed for the like parallels; and what was in his case rightly condemned, was, in another form, circulated as religious teaching". Whoso, again, will not recognize the finger of God in His providential cures, will not see it in His miraculous; they who resolve every thing into secondary or physical causes in the one case, and will not see Him who is the Cause of all causes, and worketh by all those things, whose operation meets our senses, will lose all sense for discerning His hand, where Scripture plainly declares it. When men had explained away, as the mere effects of imagination, cures, in modern times, out of the wonted

a These cases are adduced, not to censure the individuals;the error was not theirs only, it is that of their age;—but to illustrate the exceeding liability to such error, whenever the attempt is made to interest people in the Bible, on the current principles of ordinary life, to make the characters of the Bible interesting any how to persons of any stamp. The Society alluded to corrected its work, yet it is instructive, that a Society in high repute should have fallen into the error, which had recently been so strongly condemned. It too was attempting to keep pace with the times, and to conciliate half-believers.