129.
-- the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
Were the Nicolaitans a sect, properly so called?
The word is the Greek rendering of 'the children of Balaam;' that is, men of grossly immoral and disorderly lives.
Ib.p.

130.
For if he who 'shall break one of the least moral commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven', (Mat.v.

19,) it must be a very dangerous experiment, &c.
A sad misinterpretation of our Lord's words, which from the context most evidently had no reference to any moral, that is, universal commandment as such, but to the national institutions of the Jewish state, as long as that state should be in existence; that is to say, until 'the Heaven' or the Government, and 'the Earth' or the People or the Governed, as one 'corpus politicum', or nation, had 'passed away'.

Till that time,--which was fulfilled under Titus, and more thoroughly under Hadrian,--no Jew was relieved from his duties as a citizen and subject by his having become a Christian.

The text, together with the command implied in the miracle of the tribute-money in the fish's mouth, might be fairly and powerfully adduced against the Quakers, in respect of their refusal to pay their tithes, or whatever tax they please to consider as having an un-Christian destination.