service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." The contract is equally binding on the master and on the servant, diversified only by the nature of the duties, and the circumstances in which the parties are placed. Still the obligations are equal, and if the one party violates those which belong to him, the other ceases to be bound by his. A servant is essentially different from a slave, the absolute property of his master; a character which I strongly doubt, notwithstanding all that very able men have advanced to the contrary, if the law of nature allows to be attached to any human being. God, having constituted every man a rational and accountable creature, requires of him to discharge the duties attached to that constitution; and as he is responsible to his Creator for his actions, so he never can be divested of that liberty on which this responsibility de

a Eph. vi. 5-8. Col. iii. 22. 1 Pet. ii. 18.

b See Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson, Bishop of Landaff, vol. ii. pp. 288-299. The excellent Bishop appears to me, in the beginning of his speech on the slave trade, delivered in the House of Lords on the 23d of March, 1807, to reason from erroneous principles as apparently drawn, whether from the law of nature, or from the Jewish economy. This, I think, I could easily evince; but the subject would carry me far beyond the compass of

a note.

pends. It is a reversal of the divine work, in creating man, to reduce him to the condition of a brute, and to deprive him of the characteristics of that nature which God has bestowed on him. This is a power which no human being can possess over another. A man may indeed sell his services for life, or he may be condemned to slavery for a crime; but there are limitations to both cases. In the first instance, the service must be such as a man can morally perform ; and, in the second, the punishment itself ought to tend to his moral reformation. Our religion injoins on masters punctually to pay the wages of their servants; to impose on them no commands inconsistent with their duty to God; to exercise towards them mildness and gentleness; to care for them in sickness; and to endeavour to promote their spiritual welfare. These duties are either expressly commanded, or may, by fair inference, be deduced from express precepts. "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers, that are in thy land, within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."a "Ye mas

a Deut. xxiv. 14, 15.

ters, do the same things unto them, (your ser vants, whom he exhorts to do service as unto the Lord, and not to men,) forbearing threatening; knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him." "The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all."b

Subjects, and those in subordinate and inferior stations in civil society, are, by Christianity, bound to obey the laws and commands of civil rulers and superiors, when they injoin nothing contrary to the law of God, or to the fundamental principles and constitution of the state to which they belong; to pay that external honour and deference which are due to their exalted stations to entertain for their persons, sin. cere affection, in proportion to the fidelity, wis dom, and integrity of their administration; to address prayers to God in their behalf; and to facilitate the success of their government by a hearty co-operation with it, in their respective spheres. "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers." "Submit yourselves to every or, dinance 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." "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities

and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work." "Render unto Cæsar," says our Saviour," the things which are Cæsar's," (not the things which are not Cæsar's,)" and unto God, the things that are God's." "I exhort," says

the apostle Paul, "that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." "Ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. Render, therefore, to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour." "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." "Fear God; honour the king."

On the other hand, no trust can be more important and sacred than that with which a sove, reign, a governor, or a magistrate, is invested; no crime more atrocious than the abuse or perversion of it. It is the blackest of treasons; because it exhibits breach of trust, attended with the most fatal consequences to the great body of mankind; consequences which affect both their spiritual and temporal interests, and may ex

a Rom. xiii. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. Tit. iii. 1. Matt. xxii. 21. b 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. c Rom. xiii. 5, 7. Acts xxiii. 5. 1 Pet. ji. 17,

a

tend their baneful influence to remote posterity. Independently of the positive evil thus produced, vicious example aggravates it tenfold, and corrupts the very springs of right moral conduct. The propensity to imitate those who are placed in the highest stations, and whose most religious duty is to repress vice, and to encourage virtue, on which the welfare of the community so nearly depends, is almost universal, and the few wise and good remain alone exempt from the baleful contagion. When the generality of the people observe those who are, by their offices, the guar, dians of the laws, living in utter contempt of all that salutary statutes injoin, and in the practice of all that they prohibit, they are disposed to consider laws as enactments merely arbitrary, punishments, as partial and cruel inflictions, and the evasion of them, as the only point to which prudence and caution should be directed. Awful is the responsibility of corrupt rulers in the sight of God. They may escape human vengeance, but his they cannot elude. Neither can they evade secret execration. If deeply criminal be the conduct just now stated, the faithful, conscientious, and wise discharge of public duties is, on the other hand, meritorious and honourable, in proportion to the extent of the sphere in which it is displayed. It is sure of

a Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis. Regis is here put collectively for all in possession of power,