Page:St. Paul's behaviour towards the civil magistrate.pdf/10

 acknowledging the power of Pilate to be from above, who was but a deputed governor must fall to the ground; because both supreme and inferior are said to act as one authority, by the same divine commission and so are equally borne out by it against an opposition or at least equally elevated above all pretences of subjects to judge concerning their conduct: and because the subject's duty is equally to both submission, and non-resistance; the authority of both being ultimately resolved into the divine commission and it being as impossible to oppose, in an instance, the lowest officer in authority without opposing the supreme, as it is said to be, to oppose the supreme, without opposing God himself, whose vicegerent he is. I proceed, in the second place,

II. To consider if this account of St Paul's behaviour will not give us light into the true interpretation of the doctrine delivered by himself, and others in the New Testament, concerning government and lead us to some observations of importance to governed societies, and to that in particular to which we belong. For can any one think that these passages were recorded for nothing, but to serve for an embellishment of St. Paul's story? or can any one think that St Paul had a regard to his own particular worldly interest in the parts of his conduct? He that suffered, and