Illr.`,`_ "---. _. NO POWER ON EARTH INDEFECTIBLE. 351 1. If God had positively declared his will concerning this point, that such a sovereignty was by him granted irrevocably and immut- ably, so that in no case it might be removed or altered, then, indeed, it must be admitted for such; but if no such declaration appear, then to assert it for such is to derogate from his power and provi- dence, by exemption of this case from it. It is the ordinary course of Providence so to confer power of any kind or nature on men, as to reserve to himself the liberty of transferring it, qualifying it, ex- tending or contracting it, abolishing it, according to his pleasure, in due seasons and exigencies of things; whence no human power can be supposed absolutely stable, or immovably fixed in one person or place. 2. No power can have a higher source or firmer ground than that of the civil government has, for all such power is from heaven, John xix. 11; and in relation to that it is said, " There is no power but from God; the powers that are are ordained by God," Rom. xiii. 1; but yet such power is liable to various alterations, and is like the sea, having ebbs and flows, and ever changing its bounds, either personal or local. Any temporal jurisdiction may be lost by those revolutions and vicissitudes of things to which all human constitutions are subject, and which are ordered by the will and providence of theMost High, who "ruleth in the kingdom of men, appointing overit whom he pleaseth," " putting down one, and setting up another," Dan. v. 21; Ps. lxxv. 7. Adam, by God's appointment, was sovereign of the world, and his first-born successors derived the same power from him; yet incourse of time that order has been interrupted, and divers independent sovereignties do take place. Every prince has his authority from God, or by virtue of divine ordination, within his own territory, and according to God's ordi- nance the lawful successor has a right to the same authority; yet by accidents such authority often fails, totally or in part changing its extent. Why, then, may not any spiritual power be liable to the same vicissitudes? Whymay not a prelate be degraded as well as a prince? Why may not the pope, as well as the emperor, lose all or part of his kingdom? Why may not the successor of Peter, no less than the heir of Adam, suffer a defailure of jurisdiction? That spiritual corporations, persons, and places, aré subject to the same contingencies with others, as there is like reason to suppose, so there are examples to prove. God removed his sanctuary from Shiloh: " Go ye now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at first,"&c., Jer. vii. 12, 14. He deserted Jerusalem.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=