Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. If God be sovereign, All under-Sovereigns are not to rule against him, but to be obedient to his Orders. If they rule by his Authority, Prov. 8.15. they are not to rule against his interest, they are not to imagine themselves as absolute as God, and that their Laws must be of as sovereign Authority against his honour, as the Divine are for it. If they are his Lieutenants on Earth, they ought to act according to his Orders. No man but will account a Governor or a Province a Rebel, if he disobeys the Orders sent him by the sovereign Prince that commissioned him. Rebellion against God is a crime of Princes, as well as Rebellion against Princes a Crime of Subjects. Saul is charged with it by Samuel in a high manner for an act of simple disobedience, though intended for the service of God, and the enriching his Country with the spoils of the Amalekites. 1 Sam. 15.23. Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft, like Witchcraft or Covenanting with the Devil, acting as if he had received his commission not from God, but from Satan. Magistrates, as commissioned by God, ought to act for him. Doth humane authority ever give a Commission to any, to rebel against it self? did God ever depute any earthly sovereignty against his glory, and give them leave to out-law his Laws, to introduce their own? No, when he gave the vicarious dominion to Christ, he calls upon the Kings of the Earth, to be instructed, and be Wise, and kiss the Son, Psal. 2.10.12. i. e. To observe his orders, and pay him homage as their Governor. What a silly doltish thing is it, to resist that supreme Authority, to which the Arch-Angels submit themselves, and regulate their employments punctually by their instructions? Those excellent Creatures exactly obey him in all the acts of their subordinate Government in the World; those in whose hand the greatest Monarch is no more than a silly fly between the fingers of a Giant. A contradiction to the interest of God hath been fatal to Kings. The four Monarchies have had their wings clipped, and most of them have been buried in their own ashes; they have all like the imitators of Lucifers pride fallen from the Heaven of their Glory to the depth of their shame and misery. All Governors are bound to be as much obedient to God, as their Subjects are ⟨p. 766⟩