ver magistrates
any civil state acknowledged, were to be subjected to throughout the
same.--_Page_ 50. Such a measure of these qualifications (viz.,
scriptural) and duties cannot be required for the being of the lawful
magistrate's office, either as essential to it, or a condition of it
_sine qua non_: I. It cannot be required as essential thereunto; for
then it would be the same thing with magistracy, which is grossly
absurd, and big with absurdities. In the _next_ place, it cannot be a
condition of it _sine qua non_, or, without which one is not really a
magistrate, however far sustained as such by civil society; for then no
person could be a magistrate, unless he were so faultlessly. The due
measure and performance of scriptural qualifications and duties belong
not to the being and validity of the magistrate's office, but to the
well-being and usefulness thereof.--_P._ 87. The precepts, already
explained, are a rule of duty toward any who are, and while they are
acknowledged as magistrates by the civil society. Nothing needs be added
for the clearing of this, but the overthrow of a distinction that has
been made of those that are acknowledged as magistrates by the civil
society, into such as are so by the preceptive will of God, and such as
are so by his providential will only; which distinction is altogether
groundless and absurd: All providential magistrates are also preceptive,
and that equally in the above respect (viz., as to the origin of their
office) the office and authority of them all, in itself considered, does
equally arise from, and agree unto the preceptive will of God.--_P._
88. The precepts already explained (_Prov._ xxiv, 21; _Eccl._ x, 4;
_Luke_ xx, 25; _Rom._ xiii, 1-8; _Tit._ iii, 1; _1 Pet._ ii, 13-18), are
a rule of duty equally toward any who are, and while they are
acknowledged as magistrates by the civil society; they are, and continue
to be a rule of duty in this matter, particularly, to all the Lord's
people, in all periods, places, and cases." These few passages,
containing the substance of Seceders' principles on the head of civil
government, may be reduced to the following particulars: 1. They
maintain the people to be the ultimate fountain of magistracy, and that
as they have a right to choose whomsoever they please to the exercise of
civil government over them; so their inclinations, whether good or bad,
constitute a lawful magistrate, without regard had to the divine law. 2.
That the l