Excerpt from The Relative Positions and Duties of the Clergy and Laity: A Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of North Carolina, at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention, in St. James's Church, Wilmington, May 9th, 1841

III. The next point, then, to be observed, is that of due subordination anion g the difierent classes of men in the Church. Each one has his distinct place assigned him by infinite wisdom, and the point of duty is to keep his place. 'he principle here involved, pervades every sound and well governed association of men. Without it, indeed, no as sociation can long exist. Let subordination be banished from Our families, our work shops, and farms, and count ing houses, and seats of learning and courts of justice, and what but their immediate and total destruction will ensue? We see the force, therefore, of those repeated and earnest exhortations of the Apostle to the Churches, to be quiet, to do their own business, a to submit one to another, submit to those who are over them in the Lord;5 and of the requirements of the holy Catholic Church, founded upon these exhortations - that, in doing our duty to our neighbor, we are to honor and obey the civil authority; to submit ourselves to all our governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters.0 Every member, then, of the chris tian Church, from the highest to the lowest grade, is bound to act in his appropriate sphere, to confine himself to the duties Of his particular station, and to treat with proper respect and consideration, all orders and degrees of men, either above or below him, - remembering that each has his place, not by self-promotion, nor by any human au thority, but by the appointment of Almighty God.

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