64,2 Dr, Percival's Notes and lllujirations ^ 



ing rnajieri are, at the fame time, inftrufted not to defpxfe their 

 fer'vants, becaufe they an brethren ; but, rather, to do them /ervices, 

 becaufe they are faithful and belo'ved partakers of the benefit, i Tim. 

 vi. I, 2. Several of the injunftions of fcripture, regarding 

 fubmiflion, are to be confidered as prudential, not as moral 

 precepts. If a man finite thee on the right cheek, turn to him 

 the left alfo. And, if any man take thy cloak, let him ha've thy 

 coat alfo. Such a rule could relate only to the particular circum- 

 ftances and fituation of thofe, to whom it was delivered. And 

 the command to bear injury, opprefllon, or injuftice can, in no 

 inftance, give a fandtion to the commiflion of thofe crimes. 



St. Paul addrefles an epiftle to Philemon, a native of Coloffe 

 in Phrygia, in behalf of Onefimus, his Have ; who had robbed 

 and run away from him, but was, afterwards, converted to the 

 Chriftian faith, at Rome. The ApolUe fays, / befeech thee for my 

 fin Onefimus, 'whom I haw fient again : Thou, therefore, recei'va 

 him that is my own bowels, not now as afervant, but above afir- 

 'vant, a brother beloved, fpecially to me ; but how much more unto 

 thee in thefiejh and in the Lord ! * Servitude, under fuch circum- 

 ftances, is virtually annihilated. And it was by the fpirit of 

 meeknefs and brotherly love, that chrftianity was adapted to 

 promote a gradual abolition of the cruel bondage, in which more 

 than two thirds of the Roman empire were held, at the time «f 

 its promulgation. 



Note (F) fee page 24. 

 TAXES ON THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE. 



At Tobolfki, in Siberia, the price of provifions is fo extremely 

 low, that it feems to encourage both idlenefs and debauchery in, 



• It has been conjedlured, that Onefimus received his freedom, and 



was afterwards bilhop of Beroea in Macedonia. " When Jgnatiut wrote 



<« his epiftle to the Ephefians, about the year 107, their biftiop's name was 



"Om/iKtis; and Grafiui thought him to be the fame, for whom Paul in- 



" terceded with Philmon." Lardner's Hiftory of the Apoftles. Bifliop 



Watfon'i Theological Trafts, vol, II. p. 297. 



the 



