For these
chapters are entirely made up of the history, how God, by His prophet
Daniel, taught the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar that he was God's
minister and steward. And the latter part of the book of Daniel is
the account of his teaching the same thing to another heathen, Cyrus
the great and good king of Persia. And here St. Paul teaches the
Christian Romans just the same thing about their heathen governors
and heathen laws, that they are the ministers and the ordinance of
God.
Now, our own English forefathers, as I said before, believed this
same thing; and if I had time, I could show you, I think, plainly
enough from God's dealings with England, how He has blest and
prospered us whensoever we have acted up to it. But whether we have
believed it or not, there is enough in our English laws, and in our
English Prayer Book too, to witness for it and remind us of it.
The very title which we give the Queen, "Queen by the grace of God;"
the solemn prayers for her when she is crowned and anointed, not in
her own palace, or in the House of Parliament, but in the Church of
God at Westminster; the prayers which we have just offered up for the
Queen, for the government, and for the magistrates--these are all so
many signs and tokens to us that they are God's stewards, called to
do God's work, and that we must pray for God's grace to help them to
fulfil their calling.
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