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I exhort therefore, that first of all, fupplications, prayers, interceffions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; For kings and all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty.

TH

HE acceffion of GEORGE III. to the British throne, is the reason why we have pitched on these words, as a proper fubject of your prefent attention. The relation between kings and fub. jects being mutual, the duties of that relation must be no lefs fo. Thofe incumbent on the fovereign, will poffibly be recomended by fuch public teachers as are more immediately intrufted with the care of his foul. Thefe binding upon the fubjects, fhould,

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by their respective paftors, be no lefs reprefented and inforced. As, therefore, your inftruction becomes more immediately our province, it is hoped we will be forgiven, in the prefent Effay, through grace, to point out the new duties, which, to us, arife from this new relation. Nor, in doing fo, can the fervants of Chrift be faid to flide from their proper fphere, fince the apoftle of the Gentiles, in this letter to an eminent minifter of the gafpel, gave it fo particularly in charge. And if it was the duty of pastors fo to teach, and of Chriftians to practise, when kings and thofe in authority were moftly Heathens, what a forcible argument to it must neceffarily arife from the important confideration of our king, and thofe now in authority, being, by profeffion at leaft, Chriftians.

Though the letter is addreft to Timothy alone, you'll eafily fee, that the duties in our text were not recommended as incumbent exclufively on him; but as equally and indifpenfibly binding upon all to whom the knowlege of this Epistle should come. Without any critical remark upon the words at all, this conclufion might be juftly formed; but it will appear with greater evidence, if it's obferved, that the huper pantoon may be rendered of all men, as well as for them. In that point of light, the univerfal obligation of those duties will bear no difpute, Paul being, thereby, represented as exhorting all men, to make fupplication, prayers, interceffions, and giving of thanks, for kings, and for all that are in authority.

Befides, if the benefits arifing from a well confituted government, are diffufed through all the different orders of men, it must follow, by a most natural confequence, that the proper returns of duty, fhould, from all quarters, terminate in fuch governors.

If this appears to be the cafe, from the light of nature itself, can the confequence, with any tolerable grace, be denied,-when the authority of a divine revelation is put into the scale? There, as a duty to the Prince of the kings of the earth, Christians are enjoined to comply with the defign of this text, The nature and importance of the duties under view, are vastly mistaken, if men confider them as appendages only to the Chriftian practice, what may be neglected with impunity, or flightly dif charged with approbation; for our inspired author, in his exhortation to Timothy, fets them on the very front, makes them lead the van, and, by calling for the performance of them first of all, infinuates, that, in the eflimate of heaven, they are duties of the highest confequence, and cannot be neglected, nor performed with indifference, but at the peril,-the highest peril, of the unhapy delinquent.

The different terms ufed, by our apoftle, in expreffing this comprehenfive duty, ferve to fhowthe great extent, as well as neceffity of it.

Supplications may imply the deprecation of evil,—— penal, moral, and natural. Deprecating penal evils refpects deliverance from the guilt of fin, and fron all the wrath incurred by it, due to it, and confequent upon it, whether as to foul or body, as to time or eternity. Moral evil confifts in the difconformity of the heart and practice to the image and law of God, in the pollution and dominion of fin, in what renders men unlike God, unmeet for enjoying, incapable of ferving him; and deprecation, in that view, has the removal of that evil as its proper fubject. Natural evil, again, which may only be deprecated, in as far, as to infinite wisdom and goodnefs feems beft, takes in all the afflictions and difafters of life, all that is paining to the body, all that is perplexing to the mind, all that is diftreffing

in a perfonal or relational regard, and, in one word, it takes in adverfity in its whole breadth and length, under whatever colour, of whatever kind, to whatever degree, for whatever duration, and with whatever circumftances, common or peculiar, known or unknown, it may be attended.

Prayers may imply the more direct exercife of, imploring or petitioning;-which is fo extensive, according to their circumstances whom it refpects, that we cannot poffibly condefcend on all the particulars of it. All fpecial and fpiritual bleffings; all purchased and promised good; all common and diftinguishing favour; all outward and inward profperity; all perfonal, ftational, and relational mercies; grace here, glory hereafter, and every good thing;-all thefe are comprehended in the fubje& of prayer. Without excluding those for temporal benefits, petitions for benefits of a faving kind, feem, from the following context, to have been more especially in the apoftle's eye; where we are told, as an argument for inforcing this exhortation, that God will have all men," i. e. men of all forts, kings, and thofe in authority not excepted, "to "be faved, and to come to the knowlege of the "truth," verf. 4. If we take up the matter in this point of light, then, prayer is to be made, more particularly, for converting, renewing, perfevering grace; for light and life; love and liberty; peace and pardon; accefs and acceptance; fpiritual riches and righteoufnefs; furniture for work and warfare; ftrength and comfort; fealing and establishing influences; with whatever elfe may be wrapped up in the bofom of the gofpel-falvation, as enjoyed or expected by the heirs of promife.

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Interceffions may be applied, with equal juftice, to deprecation or petition, that term fignifying properly the interpofition of one person for another. According

According to this view, Chriftians are called to make the intereft of others their own, to interest themselves in it, to exercise a generous concern about it, and to deprecate evil, or implore good, with the fincerity and earneftnefs the particular cafe does, or may, require. This view of the term is juftified from the expletive argument used by Paul, to recommend the duty; "for, (fays he) there is one "God, and one Mediator between God and man, "the man Chrift Jefus," verf. 5. and, therefore, would he have faid, it is indifpenfibly binding upon all Chriftians, to make interceffion for kings, and for all that are in authority.

Giving of thanks, as it stands in this paffage, fays, that Christians are not only to bear the burdens of others, but to feel with them in their joy and happinefs, and to feel in fuch a manner and measure, as proper fentiments and expreffions of holy gratitude fhall have place. There is, perhaps, fomething more noble, fublime, and difinterested, in giving thanks for others when in profperous circumftances, than in exercising a concern about them when in adverfity. Adverfity is fome how naturally productive of pain, wherever it is obferved; from what principle in the irregenerate we will not now fay; whereas profperity, difcovered in the lot of others, frequently in all, always in moft, begets envy and difcontent: but the Chriftian virtue here recommended, will, according to the vigour and exercise of it, be expreffed in grateful returns to God, for what excellencies, natural, gracious, or acquired, have place in others, for what happiness is beftowed upon them, for what good is done by them, for what advantages they enjoy, for what usefulness they are capable of, and for every thing, that, to fuch perfons themselves, is a proper ground of thankf giving and praise.

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