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were their pretences, was the hope of plunder and of power, ver. 11.-(6) The admission which some christians gave them into their churches, was to their reproach, ver. 12.-(7) They are characters whose society we should avoid, as we tender our own salvation; for the course which they steer leads to perdition, ver. 12, 13.

[Its having been suggested by a correspondent, that the characters described by Jude were apostates from the truth, and not the enemies of the state, the subject had nothing to do with civil government; and that as the fatal consequences of Cain's impiety, of Balaam's covet ousness, and Corah's rebellion, are adduced by the apostle as a warning to those in his day; it must allude to the rejection of divine authority, and the government which God has established in his church. This objection elicited from Mr. Fuller the following defence and modification of his previous statement.]

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It is certainly true, that the error of Balaam,' Jude 11, was not jacobinism, and that the sin of Cain and of Corah was not committed against civil government. But on a reperusal of the Epistles of Peter and Jude, it does not appear to me that civil government can justly be excluded from the things against which these men set themselves. There is nothing surprising that they should despise and set themselves against all that which set itself against their lusts, which every species of legitimate authority did, whether civil or ecclesiastical. It is thus interpreted by all the expositors and lexicons to which I have access. They admit indeed that the passage referred to in 1 Pet. ii. 10, proves a part of their opposition and contempt to have been directed against Christ, and the authorities in his church; but consider other parts of it as directed against civil government. The term rendered 'government or dominion,' in 2 Pet. ii. 10 and Jude 8, is never applied, I believe, to ecclesiastical authority, but either to that which subsists among the different orders of angels, or to civil government amongst men. Ephes. i. 21. Col. i. 16.

Christ, it is true, exercises all authority and dominion; but the dignities which they blasphemed, do not seem to relate to his spiritual authority. Moreover, the argument used by the apostle Jude in ver. 9, seems to imply that the authority or dominion, against which these men set themselves, had in it a mixture of evil, which afforded them a handle for running it down. Jude's answer is, Be it so, that it has a great many evils attending it, as administered by wicked men; yet an archangel, when speaking to the worst of beings, did not dare to use such language as theirs. The answer supposes that to exist which did not exist in Christ's spiritual government, nor yet in the ecclesiastical government of the church at that time; but which might well be supposed to exist in the imperial government of Rome, under .which the early christians suffered so much persecution.

POLITICAL SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.

I HAVE been much edified by some things which appeared in print, respecting the present state of our country, especially by those which have been directed against what may with propriety be called Political self-righteousness. I am persuaded this is a sin which cleaves closer to men, and even religious men, at the present time, than most of us are aware of; and that we are more in danger from it, than from almost all our other national sins put together.

I have heard it said in conversation, when the sins of the nation have been mentioned as a ground of fear, True; but we are not so bad as our enemies.' Mr. Robert Hall, in his fast sermon lately published,* has shown,

* "Sentiments proper to the present Crisis." Oct. 19th 1803.

with great force of evidence, the folly of this way of speaking. The thing itself, considering our religious advantages, he observes, is very doubtful; and if it were otherwise, it has been common with the great Disposer of events to punish a nation that has had a portion of true religion in it, by one that has been utterly irreligious, though afterwards he has poured out his wrath upon the latter.

I have heard it still more frequently said, 'The Lord has many praying people in this country; surely therefore he will not deliver us up.'* A praying people may indeed avert the divine judgments; but if we trust to the efficacy of our prayers, we shall be more likely to bring them upon us. This notion has been well combated by another correspondent;† and my soul unites with his in trembling for the consequences of our religious self-complacency. Alas, our navy and our army, it is to be feared, will too generally trust in themselves: but let not them that fear God do so too. Our brethren in distant countries may hope the best of us; the good minister at Berlin may be allowed to mention the numbers whose prayers continually rise to God in this country;' but we must not depend upon them ourselves, for this will render them of none effect.

There is a passage in that admirable book, the Holy War, which I could scarcely ever read without tears. When Mansoul, in the day of her distress, had drawn up a petition to Emanuel, a question arose, by whom it should be sent. Now, says the writer, there was an old man in the town, and his name was Mr. Gooddeed, a man that bare only the name, but had nothing of the nature of the thing. Now some were for sending him; but the recorder, Conscience, was by no means for that;

* Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary, has fostered this delusive sentiment.

+ One who wrote in the Evangelical Magazine on the capture of the Missionary ship Duff, by a French privateer, on its second voyage to Otaheite. ED.

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for, said he, we now stand in need of, and are pleading for mercy; wherefore, to send our petition by a man of his name, will seem to cross the petition itself. Should we make Mr. Gooddeed our messenger, when our petition cries for mercy? Besides, quoth the old gentleman, should the prince now, as he receives the petition, ask him and say, what is thy name; and nobody knows but he will, and he should say, old Gooddeed, what think you that Emanuel would say but this: Aye, is old Gooddeed yet alive in Mansoul? Then let old Gooddeed save you from your distresses.-And if he says so, I am sure we are lost; nor can a thousand old Gooddeeds save Man'soul.'

We subscribe to all this in matters which respect our eternal salvation, but it is no less applicable to things of time. Instead of religious people flattering themselves with the idea of being the bulwark of their country, it becomes them to take heed lest they prove the contrary. Though the religious people in a nation may, by their interest with heaven, be its greatest blessings; yet there are cases in which they may prove the reverse. To Paul was given, not only his own life, but the lives of all them that sailed with him: but Jonah had well nigh been the destruction of those that sailed with him. God does not look for those things, as I may say, from the ignorant and ungodly, as he does from them that know him. It is their province to stand between God and their country: but if they be loose, lightminded, vain or worldly, what is to be expected? We may declaim against the wickedness of the slave trade, and many other things: but are there not with us, even with us, sins against the Lord our God?

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Thus spake the Lord by his prophet: The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine

indignation upon them: I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath.' Ezek. xxii. 29–31.

God's ancient people were compared to a vine, and their country to a vineyard: this vine was cultivated with great care and expense, and a hedge of defence was set about it. But when he looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. What was the consequence? Go to, saith the Lord, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up: and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.' Isai. v. 5. If God's vine bears no fruit, the wall that protects it may be expected to be broken down on its account; and thus our unfruitfulness may not only dishonour God, and injure ourselves, but render us a curse to our country.

I write not thus, to promote dismay. I have never for a moment been the subject of such a feeling; but to cut up, as far as many be, self-righteous hope, and to excite that humble and holy trembling which becomes sinful creatures, whether in respect to this world or that which is to come.

THOUGHTS ON CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

An original letter, written in March 1808.

THE question proposed for discussion is,-Whether the obedience to Civil Government, required in the scriptures, includes ATTACHMENT?

It certainly does not include attachment to any thing, but what is declared to be an ordinance of God;' nor to

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