True Christian Religion (Chadwick) n. 430

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430. Public charitable duties are chiefly taxes and excise duties, which must not be confused with the duties of office. Those who are spiritual feel differently about paying them from those who are purely natural. Spiritual people pay them with a good will, because they are collected to run the country, to protect it and the church, and to pay for its administration by officials and governors, whose salaries and stipends have to be paid out of the public treasury. Those therefore who regard their country and their church as the neighbour pay their taxes freely and willingly, thinking it wrong to cheat and evade them. But those who do not regard their country and church as the neighbour pay them unwillingly and reluctantly, defrauding the collector and withholding money whenever they have an opportunity. For these people their home and their flesh are the neighbour.


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