That the power here spoken of by the apostle, is not a _physical_, but a
_moral_ power; a power that is lawful and warranted, in regard of
matter, person, title or investiture. A legitimacy in each of these must
go to the making of a moral power; and an illegitimacy in any of these
is an illegitimacy in the very being and constitution, and so a nullity
to the power as moral, a making it of no authority. As the text speaks
only of this moral power, so it excludes every unlawful power (see Mr.
_Gee_ on magistracy, on this text). 2. That the _being_ of God, or the
ordination God here spoke of, is not a being of God _providentially_
only, but such a _being of_ God as contains in it his institution and
appointment, by the warrant of his law and precept; so that the
magistrates to whom the apostle enjoins obedience, are such as are set
up according to the preceptive ordination and will of God, as is evinced
not only by the author referred to above, and other divines, but what
sufficiently appears from the context, where the subjection enjoined,
and resistance forbidden, with their respective reasons, are what can
only be spoken with respect to powers ordained by the preceptive will of
God.
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