he destined bondage of those who were then free in Israel,
which was soon to take place, as it did, in the fall of Jerusalem, when
all the males of seventeen, were sent to work in the mines of Egypt, as
slaves to the State, and all the males under, amounting to upwards of
ninety-seven thousand, were sold into domestic bondage;--I say, in view
of these things, Peter was moved by the Holy Ghost to write to them,
and his solicitude for such of them as were in slavery, is very
conspicuous in his letter; (read carefully from 1 Peter, 2d chapter,
from the 13th verse to the end;) but it is not the solicitude of an
abolitionist. He thus addresses them: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you."
He thus instructs them: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for
the Lord's sake." "For so is the will of God." "Servants, be subject to
your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to
the froward."--1 Peter ii: 11, 13, 15, 18. What an important document is
this! enjoining political subjection to _governments of every form_, and
Christian subjection on the part of servants to their masters, whether
good or bad; for the purpose of showing forth to advantage, the _glory
of the gospel_, and putting to silence the ignorance of foolish men, who
might think it seditious.

By "every ordinance of man," as the context will show, is meant
governmental regulations or laws, as was that of the Romans for
enslaving their prisoners taken in war, instead of destroying their
lives.

When such enslaved persons came into the church of Christ let them (says
Peter) "be subject to their masters with all fear," whether such masters
be good or bad. It is worthy of remark, that he says much to secure
civil subordination to the State, and hearty and cheerful obedience to
the masters, on the part of servants; yet he says nothing to masters in
the whole letter. It would seem from this, that danger to the cause of
Christ was on the side of _insubordination among the servants_, and a
_want of humility with inferiors_, rather than _haughtiness among
superiors_ in the church.

Gibbon, in his Rome, vol. 1, pages 25, 26, 27, shows, from standard
authorities, that Rome at this time swayed its scepter over one hundred
and twenty millions of souls; that in every province, and in every
family, _absolute slavery existed_; that it was at least fifty years
later than the date of Peter's letters, before the absolute power of
life and death over the slav