The magistrates commission from heaven. Declared in a sermon preached in Laurence Jury, London, the…The magistrates commission from heaven. Declared in a sermon preached in Laurencejury, London, the…

What the Father Gregory Nazianzen said of Moses, that he was [Greek or Hebrew], an Ocean of Divinity, the same may be said of Paul: for do but view this particular Epistle to the Romans, you shall see in the former part of it, that he hath a Medulla, or a Synopsis, as I may so say, purioris theologiae, he hath a Synopsis of the pure and exact Divinity of Original sin, of Sanctification, of Justification, and of Election. In the twelfth Chapter you may see Pauls Ethics and Morals, wherein the efficient cause of Actions is made, not with Aristotle, mans power, but the grace of God; and the end, not mans glory, but the glory of God. And in the fourteenth Chapter, ⟨p. 2⟩there you have Paul a Casuist, determining cases with a great deal of circumspection and caution. And then in this Chapter here you have Pauls politics: The beginning of this Chapter is the Magistrates Magna Charta, or his Commission sealed from Heaven, whereby he may be encouraged to go through his office, notwithstanding all men that dispute about lawfulness of Magistracy: and notwithstanding all the discouragements that he shall meet with in the practice of it; there being nothing more necessary to a Magistrate then to be informed of this, that his Calling is of God, and that God hath a peculiar providence over such. It is related of Frederick Duke of Saxony, when he was almost discouraged by the popish doctrine about Magistracy, and the office of a governor; at last, when Luther writ a book De magistratu, and the Duke had read it, he lifts up his hands to Heaven, thanking God that at last he was convinced, the state of Magistracy he lived in, to be pleasing to God, and that he might in it do him a great deal of service. Now the Apostle, he deals very exactly, and methodically about a Magistrate.