f God discovers the reverse, still acknowledging
the right of government in all these changes to be in _David_. Another
example is in the case of _Solomon_, who was ordained or designed by God
expressly for the kingdom of _Israel_. _Adonijah_ had obtained the
ascendancy, both in respect of actual possession, and the inclinations
and consent of the majority of the nation; the consent was general; 1
Kings, i, 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 25, and ii, 15. He had all to plead for
himself, which _Seceders_ make essential to the constitution of a lawful
king. He had got to the throne by providence, and had full admission and
possession, by the inclinations of the people. If then there is no
distinction to be made of those who are acknowledged by civil society,
into such as are so by the preceptive will of God, and such as are so by
his providential will only--then _Solomon_ had no right nor title to the
crown; and the enterprise of _David_ and _Nathan_, &c., of setting him
on the throne, was utterly unlawful. Both they and _Solomon_ ought to
have acquiesced in the duty of subjection to _Adonijah_, as being the
ordinance of God. But this would have been opposite to the express
direction of the Lord, appointing the kingdom to _Solomon_, "It was his
from the Lord," as _Adonijah_ himself confessed. To the same purpose
might be adduced, the instance of _Joash_, the son of _Akaziah_, who was
king _de jure_, even when _Athaliah_ had not only the countenance of
providence, but the consent of the people, in the possession of the
kingdom; 2 Chron. xxii, 10, 12. Again, the practice of nations, in
owning those for their lawful sovereigns, who, by providence, were put
from the actual exercise of their rule and authority, contributes to
confute this absurd notion. Thus, the people of _Israel_, who had risen
up for _Absalom_, do even, when _David_ was out of the land, own him for
their king. So, during the _Babylonish_ captivity, there are several
persons noted as princes of _Judah_, whom the people owned, as having
the right of government over them. With a variety of other instances,
all discovering, in opposition to their anarchical system, that it is
not by the dispensations of providence, that the right and title of the
lawful magistrate is to be determined. Moreover, as the Associate
Presbytery have so barefacedly belied the scriptures of truth, as to
assert that there cannot be so much as an instance found in all the
history of the Old Testament, of