The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-27 00:00:00

SCRIPTURAL POLITICS.

On Sunday morning, the 17th of April, the Rev. H.
M`Neile preached a sermon on the duty of subjects to the
civil ruler, selecting for his text a portion of the epistle for
the day (I. Peter, ii. c., 13 and 14 v.) as affording a valua-
ble opportunity of enlarging upon it. His congregation felt
the power and justice of his arguments ; and in order to make
them more extensively known, seemed, as by general consent,
to desire their publication. The requisition subjoined was
resorted to, which was immediately signed by the most re-
spectable and intelligent part of his congregation, to whom
access could be conveniently had, in so short a period. In
the interim Mr. M'lsleile had taken his departure for a brief
sojourn in Paris, to which place the requisition was immedi-
ately forwarded, and a reply, which gives the substance of
the reverend gentleman's discourse, has been received in the
form of a letter to the requisitionists. The following is a
copy of the note which was forwarded to Mr. M'lsTeile with
the signatures attached to it :

" Liverpool, April 18, 1842.
" REVEREND DEAR SlR.—Assured as we are that the
subject of your discourse yesterday morning is one little un-
derstood and much misrepresented, we, the undersigned,
beg to suggest its publication (at your earliest convenience)
in any form you may think most desirable, and remain, with
affectionate regard, sincerely yours,
R. W. Preston William Jones
Joseph Miller Joshua Edwards
W. G. Leete Christ. Bushell
W. N. Skerrett John Middleton
S. Woods, jun. John Rigby
11. Fulton Robert Wynne
George Gibson George Langtry
W. Titherington M. G. Glazebrook
John Brooks W. Pemberton
S. R. Gresson Robert Livingston
Andrew Taylor William Lea
G. J. Ihler, jun. Robert D. Collis
James Tyrer J. Price
Robt. Williams W. T. Keightley
C. Cotesworth R. H. Sherlock
Thomas Sherlock J. W. Pilcher
Francis Grundy W. S. Sherwood
Edward Sears Henry Hargreaves
Charles Robinson Richard Brvans
J. F. Lace W. J. Paton
L. Addison T. B. Forwood
William Rowett John Littler
Edward Tennant Henry Halton
William Danson C. J. Townley
Charles Bell Anthony Wilkinson
Job Stafford T. T. Glazebrook
William Cleaver Henry Perris
T. C. Fairclough William Benson
Wm. D rev ar Edward Batty
C. B. Great-Rex Richard Woolfall
Sam. Johnstone Thomas Greene
Edward Jones James P. Nice
N. Cairns.

" To the Rev. H. M•Neile."
To this the Rev. Gentleman replied as follows :
Jersey, 14th May, 1842

MY DEAR FRIENDS,
I received your letter in Paris the week before last, but
was so situated and have been since so occupied as to render
it quite impracticable for me to attempt sooner, to comply
with your request. You wish me to publish the sermon
which, in the ordinary course of my ministrations among you,
I had the privilege to deliver on Sunday morning the 17th of
last month. In the hope that, under the divine blessing, the
publication of such a statement might have some effect in
correcting the general and injurious prejudice which I e 1-
deavoured to combat on the occasion, I would willingly com-
ply with the letter of your request, if I had the sermon ver-
batim in manuscript. I am sorry however to say that I have
it not ; and must therefore content myself with an endeavour
to write to you the substance of what I said.
My text, taken from the epistle of the day, was—l. Peter ii,
13, 14—Submit yourselves to every ordinance 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 punish-
ment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.
With this passage of holy Scripture before us, I began by
saying that the instruction given to us in the Bible is not
confined to those things which are generally considered to be
distinctively religious, but that it extends tolthose things also
which are commonly called political. In other words, it
addresses itself to,the duties of a man, not only as an im-
mortal individual, with reference to God and the world to
come ; but also as a member of civil society with reference
to the government under which he lives, or of which he may
form a part, whether supreme or subordinate.
On this point, however, there exists a deep-rooted preju-
dice in the minds of many who profess, in all sincerity, to
receive the Bible as a revelation from God. The faithful
christian Pastor is compelled to experience the action of this
prejudice. Should the Gospel of the day contain the well-
known words of our Lord—Render unto Ccesar the things
that are Ccesar's, and unto God the things that are God's—
the Pastor may read the whole passage at the Communion
Table without exciting any comment. He may ascend his
pulpit, and preach from the latter clause, enlarging on the
things that are God's, and on man's duty with reference to
them. He may repeat this, Sunday after Sunday throughout
the year, entering into details and specifying particulars.
Still no special notice is taken : he is giving what is received
as a matter of course, as religious instruction. But if, on
any one Sunday in the year, he should, in the honesty and
impartiality of his heart, select the former clause for a text ;
and treating it as he did the other—enlarge on the things that
are Ctesar's, and on man's duty with reference to them, enter-
ing into details, and specifying particulars : immediately the-
prejudice referred to, is called into action ! He is political !
All his religious instruction for months and months,—is for-
gotten. In his one trespass he is condemned ; as if his
subject had no place in the Revelation of which he is an
authorised interpreter. Yet his subject, and possibly his
manner of treating it, is as truly SCRIPTURAL in the second
case, as in the first.
I proceeded then to comment on the Epistle of the day,
which contains at the eleventh verse these words, Dearly
beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lusts which war against the soul; and at the
thirteenth verse, submit yourselves to every ordinance of
man, &c. When the whole passage is read in the service of
the Church, no objection is made, or perhaps felt, against the
political part of it. When the eleventh verse is selected as
supplying topics for a Sermon ; when the fleshly lusts therein
condemned are enlarged upon ; the manner in which they
war against the soul pointed out ; and the duty of abstaining
from them urged with all the energy and interest derived
from Christian motives : no comment is made ; the Clergy-
man is giving religious instruction ; and if this strain be per-
severed in all the year through, he retains unblemished his
reputation as a spiritual teacher. But should it happily occur
to him, that he is not at liberty to dwell exclusively on some
parts of holy Scripture to the continued neglect of others,
and should he, in the honest exercise of the impartiality re-
sulting from such a reflection, select the thirteenth verse for
his subject of discourse—no sooner does he enlarge on the
" ordinances of man," beginning with the king or queen as
supreme, and tracing delegated trust to those in authority
under the sovereign—no sooner does he insist upon the duty
(though, with the Apostle, he adds " for the Lord's sake ")
of submission to such civil authority, entering into particu-
lars and specifying details ; than he is assailed with the full
force of the prejudice which would excommunicate political
preaching as an intolerable nuisance, and thereby deprive
political duties of all the sacredness and power of religious
obligation.
Yet mark the structure of the Apostle's instruction. The
affectionate compellation in the beginning of the eleventh
verse, lends its holy urgency to each of the exhortations fol-
lowing. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers—no
longer of this fallen world, but citizens of heaven—and pil-
grims, not resting here, but moving forward to a better
country ; strangers and pilgrims, redeemed, quickened,
sanctified, called with an holy calling to walk after the ex-
ample of Jesus Christ ; I beseech you to abstainfrom fleshly
lusts which war against the soul. And not only so, but I
beseech you further as strangers and pilgrims. and by all
the high and holy privileges and obligations connected with
your calling as such, that you submit yourselves to every
ordinance of man, &c.
What then is the duty of a minister of Christ's church,
solemnly commissioned to " preach the word " ? Is he to
yield to the force of existing prejudice, and wilfully to sup-
press from month to month, from year to year, a portion of
that divine revelation ? Is he for the sake of present peace,
to become instrumental (however unintentionally so) in for-
warding the designs of the disaffected, by leaving the Insti-
tutions of his country, and the authority of her Rulers dis-
sociated from the high sanction of the word of God, and the
constraining influence of Christian motives ?
"It is required in stewards that a man be foundfaithful.”
(I. Cor. iv. 2.) Suppose the case of a steward, employed
by a nobleman, and sent to the management of his estate.
On making himself acquainted with particulars, he perceives
that certain fields on his lord's property have been allowed
to lie fallow and useless for years ; and, on inquiry, he finds
a strong prejudice amongst the tenantry against any attempt
to cultivate those fields. What becomes his duty? Is he
to yield to the prejudice of the tenantry, and leave the fields
uncultivated, to the detriment of his master's interests : or
is he to resist the prejudice, and advance, with caution and
skill indeed, but with unwavering determination, to reclaim
the wastes, that they also (not instead of the others, or to
the neglect of any other, but also in addition to all the
others) may yield a return to his lord ?
The answer, in this case, is ready ; and the application is
plain, and convincing to the " Stewards of the mysteries of
God," the Ministers of the Church, emphatically commanded
by the Apostle in his instructions to Timothy, and by the
Church in her Ordination Service to preach (not selections,
but) the word. Should any of you still differ with me on
this point, and feel it right to condemn such preaching how-
ever occasionally introduced, then, I have a request to make
of you. It is short, simple, fair. It is that your condemna-
tion may begin at the beginning. Let it fall upon the text
first. Call this a political text, and then call an exposition
and application of it, a political sermon. I am abundantly
content to share in the reproach (if it be reproach) thus heaped
upon the Apostle.
The ordinances of man are national, relative, domestic,
ecclesiastical The primary application of this text is to the
national ordinances of government in all its departments,
and the general duty here inculcated upon christian people
is submission. But no sooner is the duty of submission to
civil authority inculcated as the Christian rule, than the mind
of man, always perverse, rushes forward to the consideration
of those rare and extreme cases wherein submission ceases

to be a duty; and under shelter ofthe exception screens it-
self from the obligation of the rule. Such exceptions have
occurred and may occur. Men in authority have sometimes
commanded what God has plainly forbidden ; or forbidden
what God has plainly commanded, and thus made it the duty
of Christian subjects to disobey. The Prophet Daniel found
himself in such circumstances, when the decree of his sove-
reign was published forbidding prayer to God : the Apostles
Peter and John, when commanded by the ecclesiastical au-
.

thorities in Jerusalem, not to preach to the people in the
name of the Lord Jesus : the primitive christians when en-
joined on pain of death to worship the heathen idols ; and
some of our own Reformers, when compelled to choose be-
tween the burning faggot on the one side, and bowing in
adoration before a consecrated wafer on the other. These
were extreme cases, wherein the duty was clear, and there-
fore comparatively easy. Other cases have occurred and may
occur, of a most painfully embarrassing character, wherein
it is by no means clear whether resistance has become a duty
or not; wherein Christian men of enlarged intelligence and
matured judgment may conscientiously differ on that point,
and by their differences vastly increase their mutual difficul-
ties. It is within the limits of such debatable ground, that
the tendency of men's minds, their animus, their inclinations
and preferences will have opportunity to manifest themselves ;
and I think the legitimate influence upon Christian minds to
be derived from the apostolical injunction, is, that their cul-
tivated preference and consequent practical tendency should
be towards submission in all cases admitting of fair and
honest debate.

But, apart from such cases and such difficulties altogether ;
the general duty imposed upon Christians under ordinary
circumstances, is clearly submission to constituted authori-
ties. It is enlarged upon by St. Paul in his Epistle to the
Romans, xiii., 1-7. In this celebrated passage the apostle
does not contemplate the abuse of authority by " the powers
that be," but its legitimate exercise. It is legitimate, until
it involves disobedience to God. In matters therefore con-
cerning which there is no mention in the Word of God, one
way or other, the authority of the existing Ruler (whatever
may be the form of the government) is to be religiously
obeyed. The Apostle does not discuss the duty of the Impe-
rial Authority in enacting ; and I say nothing here of the
duty of our Legislators. In the obligation on all Rulers to
exercise their best judgment and m3st anxious and painstak-
ing discretion, another question is involved. But when the
law is passed, when the enactment :is made, the duty of
Christian subjects is plain, and their responsibility exceed-
ingly simplified.

Tribute is here specified by the apostle as indispensable in
every state. It is a clear Christian duty to pay it. The
amount to be levied, the manner of exacting it, and the uses
to which it shall be applied—these are matters for the discre-
tion of the government ; and on the government the respon-
sibility of doing right or wrong, wisely or unwisely, in these
matters, entirely rests. The responsibility of the subject
ceases with the payment of the sum demanded by the law ;
except so far as he is invested with some constitutional influ-
ence to be used for the confirmation, or for the the alteration
of the law.

This is a great relief to us, and will supply our Christian
antidote to :the inflammatory attempts now so sedulously
made to poison men's minds against the operation of au an-
ticipated law, for the levy of an income tax. Hopeless to
prevent the enactment itself ; instead of submitting to it as
an ordinance of man, or contenting themselves with fair ar-
guments or respectful petitions, calculated to modify it, or
to prove that it should be of short ;duration ; the writers I
allude to are endeavouring to excite disaffection against it, as
a law ; painting with evident satisfaction the animosities
against the government which are to be stimulated into action
by the day of payment. Be it our privilege to remember
that responsibilities vary with stations ; and that when a law
(which is our supreme authority) is passed, upon such a sub-
ject as tribute, so long as it is law, absolute submission is our
undeniable duty, and payment of the legal demand our light
and easy responsibility.
Responsibilities vary with stations ! The Ruler who sends
armies into the field is responsible for the justice or injustice
of the quarrel; but the Officers and Soldiers composing the
army are not so. The responsibility of each of them termi-
nates with obedience to those next in command over him.
This I illustrated by a painful but interesting reference to
the history of the Affghans, and the position of our Indian
Army at this moment.

I then proceeded to apply the same principle to the do-
mestic and relative " ordinances of man" ; addressing my-
self to children, servants, apprentices, and schoolboys ; and
endeavouring to place their duty of submission on the sure
foundation of Christian motives, in the light and warmth of
Christian privilege.

I concluded with a similar application of the subject to our
ecclesiastical ordinances. For the management in detail of
the 'christian Church " ordinances: of man" are indispen-
sable. The Word of God does indeed contain all truth ne-
cessary to be believed for eternal salvation ; but it does not
contain all the detailed directions necessary for the:orderly
and regular management of the Church. It became, there.
fore, the duty of the Bishops of the Church to supply such
directions, and they are responsible for the propriety or
otherwise of the regulations which they have enforced. But
no private member of the Church, or inferior Pastor under
authority, is so responsible. Our responsibility ends with
obedience to the orders given. The portions of Scripture
now under our consideration, and parallel passages applying
more directly to the Rulers of the Church, supply our divine
warrant for such obedience, unless the thing commanded is
clearly forbidden in some other portion of the Word of God.

In this light we contemplate all prescribed days and hours
and forms of worship ; all ecclesiastical ordinances of man,
not actually specified in the Scriptures. If any of these in-
volve practices, or contain expressions, the Scriptural cha-
racter of which is doubted, we 'are of opinion that while it is
a matter of doubt and fair debate, submission to the ordinance
is a Christian duty. It is not till a man is thoroughly con-
vinced beyond a doubt, that the human ordinance is abso-
lutely opposed to the divine will, that he can as a Christian
resist it. As a matter of fact, with reference to some of our
own ordinances, this is a point on which good and conscien-
tious men have come to different conclusions. We do not
now discuss the merits of this question, neither do we for a
moment suspect the sincerity of those who have felt it their
duty towards God to refuse submission to the " ordinances
of man" among us. But on the principles involved in the
Scriptures now before us, and thus briefly elucidated, we in-
culcate (on the high constraining ground of Christian motive)
a preference for submission in doubtful cases, a willingness
to find it practicable, a sense of the duty of persevering in it
as far as possible, and a joy in finding it congenial.
I have thus endeavoured to give you a faithful, though very
brief and imperfect, digest of the sermon. I cannot even
attempt to repeat the language of affectionate earnestness
with which I urged upon your hearts and consciences the
Apostolical exhortation. The bare outline, as far as argu-
ment is concerned, you have in this letter ; and I sincerely pray
that the blessing of Him without whom nothing is strong,
nothing is holy, may graciously rest upon its perusal by you
all.

I am, my dear friends and brethren,
Your attached Pastor,
HUGH WNEILE

ANOTHER BLUNDER_ OF THE "LIVERPOOL

TIMES ! "

We look for a blunder in the Liverpool Times as naturally
as we expect a baa from a " silly sheep ;" and as seldom are
we disappointed. _

We never, in fact, take up this most stupid of journals
without being driven to explain, in the language of our great
dramatist,
" Another and another still they come!
What—will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ?"

His latest achievement in this line is contained in an article
in his last publication upon the subject of the bill, recently
introduced by Sir James Graham, for extending the power of
leasing church property. We noticed the leading features of
this bill on Tuesday ; and our readers will perhaps remember
that it relates solely to property held by ecclesiastical corpo-
rations, and that the surplus revenue to be derived by the
exercise of the powers given by the measure, is, in the case
of corporations aggregate,—(deans and chapters of colleges
and cathedrals, and other similar bodies)—is to be applied,
under the direction of the bench of bishops, to the augmenta-
tion of small livings, whilst in the case of corporations sole—
(vicarages, rectories, perpetual curacies, &c.)—the surplus
goes to increase the income of the incumbents themselves,
most of them the incumbents of large cures, and at present
inadequately paid.
Here then, upon the face of the proposition was a fine field
for a sectarian grumbler to exercise his spleen. The Times,
however, must needs travel out of the record in search of a
grievance which had lain impervious to any other than his
penetrating vision ; and, as is usual with him, flounders into
the perpetration of a piece of absurdity and ignorance, as
follows :

" There also is another point connected with this matter
which is deserving of consideration. Several thousands of
the livings in the church are private property, and, as such,
are frequently bought and sold. Now, if the effect of the
new mode of leasinc, should be to add any considerable sum,
say £40,000 or £50,000' to the annual value of this class of
livings, will it not make a present of several hundred thou-
sand pounds to the owners of that kind of property and give
a fresh impulse to that kind of trafficking? If so, that part
of the bill would be doubly objectionable, for already the
money-changers are much too well treated in the temple."
We need scarcely say, in reply to this senseless objection,
that to the " several thousands (!) of livings in the church"
which "are private property, and as such are frequently
bought and sold," this bill does not apply, for the simple
reason that private individuals are not "corporations." The
difficulty, sought to be remedied by this bill, did not and does
apply to livings which are private property, and which may
be legally bought and sold; for the owners of such livings
are already enabled to lease as they will. When will the
stupid blunderer learn to confine his twaddling pen to subjects
which he understands ?