So that, if the consent of civil society is the
only essential condition of government which God has authorized, not
only are all scriptural conditions and qualifications useless and
unlawful, but also all human securities, either from intruders or for
lawful governors, are unlawful, in regard the very design of them all is
to oppose this grand foundation principle, the jure-divinity of which
_Seceders_ have found out, and do confidently maintain. And thus, by the
seceding scheme, is condemned, not only the practice of almost all other
nations, determining by law, some indispensable qualifications that
their rulers must have; but particularly the practice of these once
reformed lands, when reformation had the sanction, not only of
ecclesiastic, but also of civil, authority, is hereby condemned.
Scripture and covenant qualifications were then made essential to the
being of a lawful magistrate, by the fundamental laws and constitutions
of the nations; so that however the inclinations of the people might run
(as it soon appeared they were turned in opposition to these), yet, by
these laws, and in a consistency with that constitution, none could be
admitted to the place or places of civil authority, but such as
professed, and outwardly practiced, according to reformation principles.
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