Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/184

 under that of the civil magistrate. In their present ideas, the ecclesiastical establishment is a creature of the state. They consider themselves as civil officers, employed by the king to teach the religion the state has adopted, and they receive their wages, as other servants of the crown.

Now, admitting all this, what have the people to do with them as ministers of the gospel, and servants of Jesus Christ; since they teach for doctrines the commandments of men? Hitherto the christian people of this country have imagined, that their ministers came to them with a commission from Christ, to teach them the things that relate to their everlasting happiness, and thereby secure the salvation of their immortal souls. Hitherto they have held them in reverence as successors of the apostles, and submitted themselves to them, as to persons, who watched for their souls, as those who must give an account to their chief shepherd, when he shall appear, and who, for their good, were invested with