Wicked People—oppressive Rulers

    It is an inestimable advantage to a nation to have the right of succession to the throne settled by laws with definite and indisputable precision. This prevents all that mischief which arises from disputed succession; and shuts up every avenue from designing men to excite disturbances on the death of a sovereign. An objection apparently strong presents itself to this doctrine. Rulers ought to be the wisest and most just of men. In succession by birth, it cannot be known whether the monarch may be a wise man or a fool, a righteous man or an oppressor of the people. All very true. But the people of the Lord have no reason to be disquieted on this account. Their God rules the world, and appoints the rulers in his Providence. It is an incalculable blessing to have wise and righteous rulers; but, if it is otherwise, God designs it for his own inscrutable purposes. He never sends a tyrant or an oppressor, when a righteous and merciful ruler would serve the end he has in view for him. When wickedness greatly abounds, it may be necessary that Providence should grind the people by oppressive rulers; and even in countries where tyranny cannot exist, he can baffle the wisdom of statesmen, and increase the burdens of the people, through the very means which policy has devised to lighten them, or effect prosperity. The whole history of the kings of Judah and Israel shows that God sent oppressive rulers to a wicked people. The history of all nations manifests the same Providence. Christians who waste their time in speculations or attempts to bless a wicked world by a perfect civil government are as foolish as the man who proposed to regulate the weather by machines constructed on the laws of electricity.