(See _Gee_ on magistracy, in his excellent discourse on
providence.) That an overthrow of this necessary distinction, for the
sake of the above dangerous scheme, cannot be admitted of, in a
consistency with a due regard to the authority of revealed religion, and
that therefore the right and lawfulness of magistracy is not founded
upon the providential will of God, though they are countenanced and
supported by the majority of a nation, will partly appear from the
following considerations:
1. If there is no distinction to be made between the preceptive and
providential will of God, then is providence equally in all respects the
rule of duty, as much as the precept is, and so man should be left at an
utter uncertainty, what is duty, in regard of the opposition that is
many times between providential dispensations and the precept. Nay, then
it is impossible that man can be guilty of sin, in transgressing the
divine will, because God infallibly brings to pass, by his holy and
over-ruling providence, whatever he has decreed by his eternal purpose.
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