Again, 1 _Cor._ vi, 1, 4,
5: "If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set
them to judge--Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not
one that is able to judge between his brethren?" All these texts, which
are plain, positive, moral precepts, whereby God hath set boundaries
about his own ordinance; that it be not corrupted by men, as they
demonstrate what magistrates ought to be, and prove that they cannot be
of God's ordaining who have not these qualifications: so they evince,
that scriptural qualifications are nothing less necessary and essential
to the being of a lawful scriptural magistrate, than the consent of the
people; and consequently, do sufficiently overturn this anti-scriptural
scheme. _Seceders_ indeed grant, that God hath declared his will,
concerning the choice of magistrates in the above, and such like
precepts; but, from their granting these scriptural qualifications to be
only advantageous to those that have them, and necessary to the
well-being and usefulness of lawful magistrates, and at the same time
denying them to be necessary to the being thereof; it necessarily
follows, as the consequence of their sentiments, that they allow civil
society a negative over the supreme Lawgiver in this matter; and in so
doing, exalt the will and inclination of the creature above the will of
the Creator, which is the very definition of sin.
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