ther it was lawful or not to give tribute unto Caesar,
mentioned by the three other evangelists; his reply to an application
that was made to him, to interpose his authority in a question of
property; "Man, who made me a ruler or a judge over you?" ascribed to
him by St. Luke; his declining to exercise the office of a criminal
judge in the case of the woman taken in adultery, as related by John,
are all intelligible significations of our Saviour's sentiments upon
this head. And with respect to politics, in the usual sense of that
word, or discussions concerning different forms of government,
Christianity declines every question upon the subject. Whilst
politicians are disputing about monarchies, aristocracies, and
republics, the Gospel is alike applicable, useful, and friendly to them
all; inasmuch, as, 1stly, it tends to make men virtuous, and as it is
easier to govern good men than bad men under any constitution; as,
2ndly, it states obedience to government, in ordinary cases, to be not
merely a submission to force, but a duty of conscience; as, 3rdly, it
induces dispositions favourable to public tranquillity, a Christian's
chief care being to pass quietly through this world to a better; as,
4thly, it prays for communities, and, for the governors of communities,
of whatever description or denomination they be, with a solicitude and
fervency proportioned to the influence which they possess upon human
happiness. All which, in my opinion, is just as it should be. Had there
been more to be found in Scripture of a political nature, or convertible
to political purposes, the worst use would have been made of it, on
whichever side it seemed to lie.

When, therefore, we consider Christ as a moral teacher (remembering that
this was only a secondary part of his office; and that morality, by the
nature of the subject, does not admit of discovery, properly so
called)--when we consider either what he taught, or what he did not
teach, either the substance or the manner of his instruction; his
preference of solid to popular virtues, of a character which is commonly
despised to a character which is universally extolled; his placing, in
our licentious vices, the check in the right place, viz. upon the
thoughts; his collecting of human duty into two well-devised rules, his
repetition of these rules, the stress he laid upon them, especially in
comparison with positive duties, and his fixing thereby the sentiments
of his followers; his ex