Brethren that they come not to that Place of Torment: Abraham refufes this Request for this Reafon, Because his Brethren wanted no Means to inftruct them in the right Way. What was their Rule then? Abraham tells him, They have Mofes and the Prophets; let them hear them.

The Application of this Cafe is fo easily made to our own, that there is hardly any Reafon to infift on it particularly. The Jewish Church had Mofes and the Prophets, and abounded with Traditions of their own, taught and received as effential to their Religion. What our Saviour thought of their Traditions, what of the Law and the Prophets, you have heard. The Chriftian Church likewife has the Apoftles and Evangelifts; they have alfo too many traditionary Doctrines, which have no Foundation in Holy Writ? What are we to do then? Do we want better Authority than that of our Saviour to reject the Traditions of Men, and to hold faft the Doctrine of the Apoftles and Prophets of the Gospel? that is, as St. Jude exhorts us, to contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints.

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DISCOURSE XIII.

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ROMANS xiii. I.

Let every Soul be fubject unto the higher Powers. For there is no Power but of God: The Powers that be are ordained of God.

W

E have, in this and the following Verses, the Duty which Subjects owe to their temporal Governors, both taught and maintained by feveral Reasons and Arguments: The Senfe and Propriety of which Arguments clearly to understand, it will be neceffary for us to confider the Circumftances of the Time, and Place, and Perfons here concerned.

There is no Appearance in the Gospel that our Saviour intended to make any Alterations

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Alterations in the Civil Governments of the World. He came upon another Errand, of quite a different Nature: He never purposely enters upon the Subject of Government, that being no neceffary Part of his Doctrine; but treats of it only as he was led by particular Occafions.

The

In the twenty-fecond Chapter of St. Mat thew, we find a captious Question put to him by the Pharifees, Whether it were lawful to pay Tribute to the Roman Emperor, or not? The Question arose from hence: There was at that Time a Sect among the Jews, who held it to be unlawful to pay any Tribute to the Roman Emperor, or to yield any Obedience to his Laws. Author of this Opinion was Judas of Galilee; who, when the Roman Emperor ordered the Nation to be taxed, raised upon that Account a great Rebellion; perfuading the People to ftand by their Liberties, and not to submit to fuch a Mark of Slavery, as paying of Tribute. The Fate of this Man is related fully by Jofephus; and is mentioned likewise by Gamaliel in Acts v. 37. After this Man rofe p Judas of Galilee, in the Days of the Taxing, and drew away much People after him: He alfo perished, and all, even as many as obeyed

bim,

bim, were difperfed. But though they were for the prefent difperfed, yet by Degrees they gathered Strength, and were the Authors of many Troubles; and in the Reign of Claudius were ftrong enough to ravage and destroy many Places in Samaria. Their Pretence for Freedom was, as we learn from St. ChrySoftom, that they were the Servants of the Lord, and therefore owed no Subjection to any human Creature; that they were the Freemen of God, and ought not therefore to be the Slaves, or the Subjects of Men. This Sect went by the Name of Galileans; the Author of it being of that Country, as likewife many of his Followers.

Now it is well known that this was a Name by which the Christians went in the firft Ages: They are mentioned under this Name by feveral Heathen Writers; and that it was in Ufe among all who spoke contemptuously of Chrift and his Religion, even fo late as in Julian's Time, we learn from his Writings still remaining, where he often fpeaks of the Chriftians under the Name of Galileans. And hence it came to pass," that the Christians going by the Name of Galileans were generally thought by the Heathens to entertain the fame Opinions with the Sect of Z 4 that

that Name; that is, they were taken to be Men of feditious Principles, who refused Obedience to earthly Princes, and were for fetting up an independent Government of their own. Thus when Tertullus the Orator accufes St. Paul, he charges him with being a peftilent Fellow, a Mover of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the World, and a Ringleader of the Sect of the Nazarens, Acts xxiv. 5. Of this Calumny we find the unbelieving Jews alfo making their Advantage against the Chriftians; for thus they accuse them to the Magiftrates of Theffalonica, Thefe who have turned the World upfide down are come hither alfo. A&ts xvii. 6.

Upon this Ground then it was that the Pharifees put that infidious Question to our Saviour, Is it lawful to pay Tribute to Cafar? hoping, no Doubt, to have found fomething whereof to have impeached him before the Roman Governor. The Collectors of Tax feem likewise to have had the fame Jealousy concerning our Saviour, when in the feventeenth of St. Matthew they inquire of St. Peter, whether his Mafter would pay Tribute, or no? for it is probable by their Queftion that they took our Lord for one of the new Teachers, who fet up in Defiance

to