PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

straint, which wa.'> impo-;ed by an authority lllb\:nhuman.
At lea!'t they might be represented by theft
~nemies as maintaining notions of this dangerous
tendency.
To some error or calumny of this kind~
the \vords of St. l~eter seem to allude: "For so is
the will of God, that with weB doing ye may put
to silence the igtl0rance of foolish men: as free, and
not u_.ing your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness,
~i. e. seditiol1) but as tIle servants of God." After
311, jf anyone think this conjecture too feebly sub.
ported l)y testimony, to be .relied upon in the interpretation
of scripture, he \vill then revert to the considerations
alleged in the preceding part of this
Chapter.
After so copious an account of what we apprehend
to be the general design and doctrine of these nlucn
agitated passages, little need be added in explanation
of particular clauses. Sr. Paul has said, " \Vhosoevel·
resisteth the power, re~isteth the ordinarlce of God."
This phrase, " the ordinance of God," is by lnany so
illterpreted, as to authorize the most exalted and superstitious
ideas of the regal character. But, sureI}F ~
such interpreters have sacrifict-d truth to adulation.
For, in the first place, the e}~pression, as used by St.
Paul~ i~ jU3t as applicable to one kind of government ..
and to one kiild of succession, as tc another-to the
elective magitrates of a pure republic, as to an absolute
hereditary monarch. In the Ilext place, it i~
not affirmed of the supreme Inagist rate exclusi\rel}-,
that lie is the ordinance of God; th,~ title, \\7hate\'cr
;t imports, helongs to every inferior officer of th~
state as much as to the hjghe~t. Th:; Jjvine right (\;
lings is, like the divine right of other magi .;trates-­
the lavw' of the land, or evt:l1 actual ~lnd qlliet posse.> ..
~ion of their office; a right rutifled, we humbly pre­
SUil1C, by the divine appr0bation, S3 long as obedif...
nee to t11cir autllority appears to. be 11cCeSSar)~ or con··