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PARTI. the laws, is confirmed by the declaration, that the Roman government was not only, as he had already stated, the ordinance of God to them, but also "a minister of God" to them "for good." The security which they possessed as to life and property under the Roman government, when compared with the danger as to both which exists in a state of anarchy, was a great blessing. Of that, as of every blessing, God was the author, and the Roman magistrate was his minister. I think it not unlikely that the apostle had a particular reference to the fact, that till persecution commenced, the Roman magistrates, however they might despise and disapprove of the Christians, were, in preserving the public peace, their protectors against the Jewish assassin and the Pagan mob. But for a regular government, the primitive Christians would have been torn to pieces as by wild beasts.

The apostle very probably had before his mind the instances in which "the power," the Roman magistrate, had been the " minister of God" to himself" for good." It was a Roman magistrate, Gallio, who refused even to enter on the consideration of a charge against him by the Jews at Corinth, when he understood that it referred not

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a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness," but to what he called " a question of words, and names, and of their law." It was an authority under the Roman government which did him a similar favour at Ephesus. It was a Roman military magistrate who rescued him from the fury of the populace, and secured him from the feller

purpose of sworn conspirators at Jerusalem. It PART 1. was a Roman governor who, however imperfectly he performed his duty to him, preserved him from the murderous designs of his countrymen, and protected him in the important right of appeal.* From his own experience he could say, "The power is a minister of God" to Christians " for good;" and, following his example of peaceable submission to the laws, the Christians of Rome might expect to meet with similar "rewards" for their "good work."

nish them if

nate.

On the other hand, if they, by conspiracy and Would purevolt, disturbed the public peace, they might lay insubordi their account with punishment; and if they met with it, it would be no more than they deserved. "But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain." "That which is evil" must be understood with similar limitations as the phrase contrasted with it. The Christians might do many things that were evil, without at all exciting the displeasure of the Roman magistrates; aye, to do what was in the highest degree evil to return to idolatry, was the readiest way to obtain praise of many of them. But if the Roman Christians, by being disobedient subjects, did that which was, in the estimation of both the apostle and the Roman magistrates, "evil," they had good cause to be afraid. Punishment severe and certain and sudden, was likely to overtake them. "He," the Roman magistrate," beareth the sword," and "he beareth" it “not in vain.” The Roman emperor, and some of the subordinate magistrates, wore a small sword * Acts xviii. 14; xix. 35; xxi. 31; xxiii. 12-23; xxv. passim.

PART 1. or dagger, pugio, as a part of their official dress;* an emblem of their having the power of taking away life. The apostle's statement is, The Roman magistrate has the power to take away life, and is not slack to use it. The Roman govern

In doing so would be

ster.

ment is a powerful and active government.

In the following words the apostle states that, God's mini- in his estimation, as a divinely inspired messenger, the exercise of the power to punish, of which the Roman magistrates were possessed, in the case of those Christians who should "resist the power" and do " that which was evil," in plotting or rebelling against the government, was a worthy exercise of it; and that, in thus employing it, he was equally God's minister as in protecting the peaceable and orderly. "He is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." The word translated "wrath," (opyn,) properly signifying violent commotion of mindas anger, is frequently in the New Testament, and obviously here, used to signify punishment, the effect of such mental excitement.† One of the most judicious of the Fathers says, "He calls punishment, wrath." The clause would more completely answer to that to which it is obviously antithetic, by a slight transposition, and supplying one word from the former clause. "He is a minister of God to thee for punishment, an avenger of him that doeth evil." As in the former case, they would enjoy security-this would come from

*Sueton. in Vitellio xv. Galba. xi. Tacit. Hist. iii. 68. Aurel. Vict. de Cæsar. xiii.

Rom. iv. 15; ii. 8; iii. 5; v. 9.

Theodoret.

God, and in conferring it the Roman magistrate PART I. would be his minister; so in this case, they would be punished-this punishment would indeed be from God, and in inflicting it the Roman magistrate would be his minister.

This was stating the sentiment in the way most fitted to give it weight with those to whom it was addressed. Their scruples about obedience were grounded on the Roman magistrates not being " of God." Now, says the apostle, they are " of God;" and instead of your securing his approbation by resisting them, it is He who will punish you by their instrumentality. Such is the force of the second argument. They who resist the Roman government, shall receive to themselves punishment. That government which, in protecting the peaceable, is a minister of God for good—is armed with the power of punishing the disorderly and rebellious, and is disposed to use it; and should it ever, in the case of any of you, be exercised on account of conspiracy or rebellion, it will be properly exercised: you will meet with but what you deserve, and the Roman magistrate will only inflict on you a part of that punishment which the Supreme Ruler accounts your due.

tion.

"The conclusion of the whole matter" is to be Recapitulafound in the sixth verse: " Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake."* It is necessary, the apostle states,

'

* These words are well interpreted in the Saxon confession. Magistratui politico subditi debent obedientiam, sicut Paulus inquit, non solum propter iram,' id est, metu pœnæ corporalis,

PART. that they should be subject-i. e. plainly to "the higher powers—the powers that be—the power— the rulers,"-in one word, the Roman government in all its functionaries; and it is necessary that they be subject on two accounts,-on account of" wrath"-of the punishment, the merited punishment, which an opposite mode of conduct was sure to bring upon them; and not only on this account, but for a higher reason-on account of conscience, from a regard to the divine authority interposed in this matter, not merely in the evidence that forces itself on every thinking mind that civil government is in accordance with the divine will, but also in the clear, and, but for the glosses of interpreters of subsequent times, we should have said, the unobscurable revelation of his will, by an inspired apostle, in the plainest and most unambiguous language, assuring them that the Roman government was to them a divine appointment.

Such is the meaning-such, so far as I have been able to discover it, is the whole meaning of this much controverted passage. It is a strong assertion and enforcement of the duty of civil obedience on the Christian Romans. The whole passage is an answer to the question, Are Christians subject to the authority of a government administered by heathens? And the answer is a very strong affirmative.

quâ adficiuntur contumaces ab ipsis magistratibus, sed etiam propter conscientiam,' id est, contumacia est peccatum offendens Deum et avellens conscientiam a Deo."-Corpus et Syntagma Confessionum, Pars ii. p. 91, 4to. Gen. 1654.

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