of his professed subjects in this lower world, hath for
his own glory and the public good, authorized and instituted in his word
the office and ordinance of civil government and governors, for the
preservation of external peace and concord, administration of justice,
defense and encouragement of such as are, and do good, and punishment of
evil doers, who transgress either table of the law. For all which ends,
subordinate unto that of his own glory, God, the alone supreme fountain
of all power, has instituted and appointed this ordinance. And further
they maintain, that a due measure of those qualifications which God, the
great lawgiver requires in his word, together with what other
stipulations according to the same unerring rule, a Christian people,
who are blessed with the light of divine revelation, have made the
fundamental conditions of civil government among them, are essentially
necessary to the constitution and investiture of lawful authority over
such a people. No other but such a constitution and investiture, can
either be approven of by God, or answer the ends, ultimate or
subordinate, of this ordinance, unto the honor of the great institutor,
as appears from Prov. viii, 15, 16; Psa. cxlvii, 19, 20, and cxlix, G,
7, 8, 9; Isa. xlix, 23; Rom. xiii, 1, 2, 3, 4; Deut. xvii, 14, 15; 2
Sam. xxiii, 2, 3, 4; Exod. xviii, 21. Confess, chap. 23, Sec. 1. Seasonable
warning by the general assembly, July 27, 1649. Act 15, Sess. 2, Parl.
1, 1640.

They further assert and maintain, that the constituting of the relation
betwixt rulers and ruled, is voluntary and mutual; and that the lawful
constitution of civil magistrates, is, by the mutual election of the
people (in whom is the radical right, or intermediate voice of God, of
choosing and appointing such as are to sway the scepter of government
over them) and consent of those who are elected and chosen for the
exercise of that office, with certain stipulations according to
scripture and right reason, obliging each other unto the duty of their
different stations and relations. And further they affirm that when
magistrates are so constituted, Christians are bound by the law of God
to pray for the divine blessing upon their persons and government,
reverence and highly esteem them, yield a conscientious subjection and
obedience to their lawful commands, defend and support them in the due
exercise of their power; which power magistrates are especially to exert
for the outward d