OF GOD -REDEEMER. 271 who, withoutrespect ofpersons, judgeth every man according tohis works, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear; forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot" These texts speak to the same purpose with that which I have in hand. Use. In applying these very useful truths, would time permit, I should begin at the intellect, with a confutationof divers contrary errors, and acollection of many observable consectaries. It would go better with all the commonwealths and princes on earth, if they well considered that the absolute propriety and sovereignty of God- Redeemer is the basis of all lawful societies and governments ; and that no man bath any absolute propriety, but only the use of the talents that God doth intrust him with ; that the sovereignty of the creature is but analogical, secundumquid; improper, and sub- ordinate to God, the proper sovereign ; that it belongs to him to appoint his inferior officers; that there is no power but fromGod; and that he giveth none against himself; that a theocracy is the government that must be desired and submitted to, whether the subordinatepart be rhonarchical, aristocratical, or democratical; a'nd the rejecting of this was the Israelites' sin in choosing them a king; that it is still possible and necessary to live under this the- ocracy, though the administration be not by such extraordinary means as among the Israelites ; that all human laws are but by- laws, subordinate to God's. How far his laws must take place in All governments. How far those laws of men are, ipso facto, null, that are unquestionably destructive of the laws of God: how far they that are not their own, may give authority to others ; and what aspect these principles have upon liberty in that latitude as it is taken by some ; and upon the authority of the multitude, especial- ly in church government. Should I stand on these and other the like consequents, which these fundamentals in hand might lead us to discuss, I should prevent that more seasonable application which I intend, and, perhaps, be thought, in some of them, to meddle beyond my bounds. I will only say, that God is the first and the last in our ethics and politics, as well as in our physics ; that, as there is no creature which he made not, so it is no good right of property or government which he, some way, gives not; that all commonwealths, not built on this foundation, are as castles in the air, or as children's tottering structures, which, in the very fram- ing, are prepared for their ruin, and, strictly, are no commonwealths at all; and those governors, that rule not more for God than for themselves, shall be dealt with as traitors to the universal sove-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=