Again, this principle either, as above said, denies magistracy to be
God's ordinance instituted in his word; or then says, that he hath
instituted ordinances in his revealed will, without prescribing any
qualifications as essential to their being, but entirely left the
constitution of them to the will of man. But how absurd is this, and
derogatory to the glory of God, in all his perfections, who is a God of
order, once to imagine, that he hath set any of his ordinances, either
as to matter or manner, upon the precarious footing of the pure will of
wicked and ungodly men? The smallest acquaintance with divine revelation
will readily convince, that he hath not. It may as well, and with the
same parity of reason, be refused, that there are any qualifications
requisite, as essential to the being and validity of the office of the
ministry, but only necessary to its well-being and usefulness; and
therefore, is as lawful (in its exercise) in the want of these
qualifications, as the ordinance of magistracy is accounted to be.
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