comparison with another, but they are spoken of as being over other men who are not in office.
There was peculiar necessity, during the apostolic age, for inculcating the duty of obedience to civil magistrates. This necessity arose in part from the fact that a large portion of the converts to Christianity had been Jews, and were peculiarly indisposed to submit to the heathen authori- ties. This indisposition (as far as it was peculiar) arose partly from the prevailing impression among them that this subjection was unlawful, or at least highly derogatory to their character as the people of God, who had so long lived under a theocracy ; and partly from their constant expectation of a temporal Messiah.
For there is no power hut of God ; and the powers that he are or- dained of God. This is the ground of the command in the first clause. We must obey our rulers, because government is of divine appointment. It is not a matter which men may or may not have at pleasure ; it is the will of God that it should exist, and that those who exercise it should be obeyed within the sphere of their legitimate authority. It is doubtful whether the word power, in the first clause of this sentence, is to be taken as abstract or concrete, i. e. whether the meaning is, ' There is no government or authority but of God,' or ' There is no magistrate who is not of God ;' every civil magistrate is to be considered as clothed with divine authority. There seems to be little difference, as to the real sense of the passage, between these two modes of interpretation. The main idea obviously is, that government is of divine appointment, and conse- quently those who resist it disobey God. In the second clause, the powers that he are ordained of God, the sense may be either, all govern- ments are ordained of God, or all magistrates are thus ordained. Some commentators insist strenuously on the one mode, and some on the other. But, as just remarked, the sentiment is in either case the same. As the expression higher powers, at the beginning of the verse, is almost uni- versally understood of the persons who exercise authority, it would seem most natural to understand the same word in the same manner through the remainder of the verse. All magistrates, of whatever grade, are to be regarded as acting by divine appointment ; not that God designates the individuals, but that, it being his will that there should be magis- trates, every person w^ho is, in point of fact, clothed with authority is to be regarded as having a claim to obedience, founded on the will of God. In like manner the authority of parents over their children, of husbands over their wives, of masters over their servants, is of God's ordination. (2) Whoso, therefore, resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. This is an obvious inference from the doctrine of the preceding verse. If it is the will of God that there should be civil government, and persons appointed to exercise authority over others, it is plain that to resist such persons in the exercise of their lawful authority is an act of disobedience to God.
.^ind they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. This also ia