Reformed Political Resistance Theology
annotated bibliography
( work in progress by Gregory Baus
contact: ideologATgmail )
1. (1550) Heinrich Bullinger, Decades
“So then, truly, we should at no time defend tyrannical power, and say that it is from God. For tyranny is not a divine, but a devilish kind of government; and tyrants themselves are properly the servants of the devil, and not of God.”
(from the Second Decade, sermon on the 6th commandment, You shall not murder, and on the magistrate)
https://www.monergism.com/decades-ebook
2. (1556) John Ponet, A Short Treatise on Political Power
“...the political power or authority being the ordinance and good gift of God, one thing, and the person that executes the same (be he king or caesar) another thing. The ordinance being godly, the man may be evil and not of God, nor come there by God… [princes] commanding their subjects that [which] is not godly, not just, not lawful, or hurtful to their country, ought not to be obeyed, but withstood.”
https://faculty.etsu.edu/history/documents/ponet.htm
3. (1558) Christopher Goodman, How Superior Powers Ought to be Obeyed of their Subjects: and Wherein they may lawfully by God's Word be disobeyed and resisted
“For though the Apostle says: There is no power but of God: yet does he here mean any other powers, but such as are orderly and lawfully instituted by God. …[E]lse should He approve all tyranny and oppression, which comes to any commonwealth by means of wicked and ungodly rulers, which are to be called rightly disorders, and subversions in commonwealths, and not God's ordinance. …[W]hen they are such, they are not God's ordinance. And in disobeying and resisting such, we do not resist God's ordinance, but Satan's, and our sin, which is the cause of such.”
https://defytyrants.com/01/superior-powers.pdf
https://constitution.org/1-Constitution/cmt/goodman/obeyed.htm
4. (c. 1564) John Knox, The Difference Between The Ordinance of God and Persons
“[T]he plain words of the Apostle make the difference… the powers are ordained of God for the preservation of quiet and peaceable men, and for the punishment of malefactors. From this it is plain that the ordinance of God and the power given unto men is one thing, and the person clad with the power or with the authority is another… it is evident that the prince may be resisted, and yet the ordinance of God not violated… the power in that [Scripture passage] is not to be understood to be the unjust commandment of men… if men, in the fear of God, oppose themselves to the fury and blind rage of princes; in doing so, they do not resist God, but the Devil, who abuses the sword and authority of God.”
https://www.truecovenanter.com/knox/knox_history_magistracy.html
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48250/48250-h/48250-h.htm#Page_318
5. (1574) Theodore Beza, Right of Magistrates
“...as long as right and justice have prevailed no nation has either elected or approved kings without laying down specific conditions. And if those kings violate these the result is that those who had the power to confer this authority upon them have retained no less power again to divest them of that authority.
...the man who meets with highway robbers ...[may] resist them in just self-defense which incurs no blame because certainly no one has received a special command from God that he meekly allow himself to be slain by robbers. Our conviction is entirely the same about that regular defense against tyrants.”
https://www.yorku.ca/comninel/courses/3020pdf/Beza.pdf
6. (1579) Hubert Languet and Philippe du Plessis Mornay, Vindiciae, Contra Tyrannos / Defense Against Tyrants, or, concerning the legitimate power of a prince over the people, and of the people over a prince
“Briefly, as the apostle says, ‘The prince is ordained by God, for the good and profit of the people, being armed with the sword to defend the good from the violence of the wicked, and when he discharges his duty therein, all men owe him honor and obedience.’ ...[Tyrants] are more properly unjust pillagers and free-booters [pirates], than lawful governors.”
https://www.portagepub.com/dl/law/vindiciae.pdf
[written after the 1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of Huguenots; demonstrating just how far a tyranny might go if not resisted]
7. (1579) George Buchanan, De Jure Regni apud Scotos / The Law of Kings in Scotland
"...He says that 'a king is God’s minister, wielding the sword of the law for the punishment of the bad, and for the support and aid of the good.' 'For these passages of Paul’s,' says Chrysostom, 'relate not to a tyrant, but to a real and legitimate sovereign' ...if we are bound to obey a good, does it follow that we should not resist a bad prince? ...Paul, therefore, does not here treat of the magistrate, but of the magistracy --that is, of the function and duty of the person who presides over others, nor of this nor of that species of magistracy, but of every possible form of government. ...But the magistrate is terrible. To whom, I beseech you? To the good, or to the bad? To the good he cannot be a terror... if you examine that kind of tyrants by Paul’s rule, they will not at all be magistrates."
"...there is in Holy Writ, an express command for the extirpation of crimes and criminals, without any exception of degree or rank, there is nowhere any peculiar privilege granted, in that respect, to tyrants, more than to private persons; [moreover], the definition of powers furnished by Paul does not, in the least, refer to tyrants..."
https://www.portagepub.com/dl/caa/buchanan.pdf
8. (c.1583) Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on The Heidelberg Catechism
“Although it may sometimes be the case that wicked men are elevated to positions of authority, who are not worthy of honor; yet the office must be distinguished from the persons who are invested with it; so that whilst we detest the wickedness of the men, we should nevertheless honor their office, on account of its divine appointment. And as they are to be honored on account of their office, which is to rule their subjects according to the will of God, whose ministers they are, it is manifest that we must obey them only in as far as they do not go beyond the proper limits of their office.”
(from Exposition of LD 39, Q.104 on the 5th commandment)
9. (1601) Andrew Melville, Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
“...a legitimate magistracy is from God, whose authority Paul calls εξουσιαν—lawful, not without law, or an unrestrained license... Hence an impious and unjust tyranny, which is neither from God, as such, nor at all according to the divine ordination, he excludes as illegitimate from this legitimate obedience…”
https://www.covenanter.org/reformed/2016/4/21/melville-on-romans-xiii1-5
10. (1603) Johannes Althusius, Politica Methodice Digesta
“...if he governs against the rule of law, he becomes punishable by the law ...When he abuses his power, he ceases to be king and a public person, and becomes a private person. If in any way he proceeds and acts notoriously or wickedly, any one may resist him…”
“...the people, or members of the realm, will not recognize such a perfidious, perjurious, and compact-breaking person as their magistrate, but treat him as a private person and a tyrant to whom it is no longer required to extend obedience and other duties it promised.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/althusius-politica#Althusius_0002_403
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/althusius-politica#Althusius_0002_480
11. (1609) David Pareus, Commentary on Romans
“So, is tyranny also from God? Fanatics claim that all are from God, just as plagues, diseases, and punishments are from God. But the Apostle will soon refute this calumny. Authority must be distinguished from the abuse of authority and the person. The authority of a tyrant is indeed from God, but tyranny, that is, the abuse of authority and the cruelty of a tyrant as such, is from Satan, not from God…
The powers are ordained by God, i.e., within certain limits and laws of justice and morality, beyond which, unless they confine themselves, they deviate from the divine order… all confusion, whether in powers and authorities or in other matters, [is] the work of the devil, adverse to God and harmful to human affairs.”
https://americanreformer.org/2024/06/chapter-13-to-the-romans/
12. (1611) Andrew Willet, Hexapla, a six-fold commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans
“We must make a difference between the power in itself considered, and the way of attaining unto that power, and the use or manner of execution. The first is always of God, but not the second, [nor] the third... Tyrannical government, as it is tyrannical, is not of God, for that is the fault and corruption of the governor... these [civil] powers are not simply of God, as other things, but specially ordained, that is, by special precept from God. There are other things of God, as famine, war, sickness, poverty, but not ordained by precept and commandement...
True it is, that the ordinance of God is not to be resisted, so it be not against God, as the inferior magistrate, to whom the prince commits the sword is not to use it against his prince, so neither is the prince to be obeyed, using his authority against God, in commanding impious and unhonest things... When obedience then is denied in unjust and unlawful things, not the authority which is God's ordinance, but the abuse of the authority is gainsaid.”
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A15414.0001.001/1:7.2?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
13. (1614) Thomas Wilson, A Commentary Upon The Most Divine Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans
“Paul speaks not of the persons, but of the functions, which must be respected...
In these several kinds of power and authority, howsoever the acquisition or assuming of it, be not always of God, as in tyrants and usurpers, which by violence and force do intrude themselves into government without a due calling, after the example of Nimrod, and the first Roman Emperors, and Richard III in England; and though the abuse of the power being carried not after the will of God, but after the lust of man, and being used not for the weal, but to the hurt of the subject, be not of God but from Satan and wicked men. Yet the very power itself considered alone, is certainly a divine ordinance erected and appointed of God for the common good of mankind; as riches and marriage be good though often they be ill-gotten and ill-used. Therefore our Apostle not speaking of the person nor of the abuse, nor of the manner of getting the authority, but of the very thing itself, said it is of God...
Hence magistrates may learn the bounds of their power, which is not indifferently to terrify all good and evil, or to wink at offenders, and afflict well-doers. For this is the abuse of power, and they which do thus shall purchase judgement to themselves...
Paul sets down not always what is done by rulers, but what should be done.”
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A15525.0001.001/1:3.14?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
14. (1639) Alexander Henderson, Instructions For Defensive Arms
“We must either acknowledge Tyranny to be the ordinance of God, and for our good, or else exclude it from the Apostles' argument, admitting resistance thereof to be lawful, at least by the shield for defense, if not by the sword for invasion .... From the end of Magistracy, the Lord hath ordained Magistrates to be his ministers for the good of his people, whence have proceeded these common principles of Policie, Princes principally are for the people and (their) defense, and not the people principally for them; the safety and good of the people is the supreme Law ... the people maketh the magistrate, but the Magistrate maketh not the people"
https://stax.strath.ac.uk/downloads/41687h81f#page=49
15. (1643) Herbert Palmer, Scripture and Reason Pleaded for Defensive Arms
“God has given to men power and authority, to urge the execution of His laws, and to make some laws under Him and His, and to punish according to the merit of the offenses, the transgressions of the one or the other. And so far as this, they are to be subjected unto by every soul, either actively or at least passively, and not to be resisted, by wilful froward disobedience, and much less by taking up arms against such laws, or them that exercise authority to them. But this is all the authority God gives to any, and not to make laws against His, nor yet to punish those that obey His laws. And if any such laws be made, or any such punishment offered to be inflicted (even by reason of such laws made) they are not the ordinance of God, He has afforded them no such authority, no such power. Nay such laws and rulers according to [God's ordinance] are the [wrong-doers], the opposers and resisters of God's ordinance, of the law of nature, or Scripture, or both. The [unjust] laws therefore are null and the authority null quoad hoc.”
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A55033.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext
16. (1644) Samuel Rutherford, Lex, Rex, or The Law and the Prince; a Dispute for the Just Prerogative of King and People: containing the Reasons and Causes of the Most Necessary Defensive Wars of the Kingdom of Scotland
“That power which is contrary to law, and is evil and tyrannical, can tie none to subjection, but is a mere tyrannical power and unlawful; and if it tie not to subjection, it may lawfully be resisted.”
“...while king and parliament do acts of tyranny against God's law, and all good laws of men, they do not the things that appertain to their charge and the execution of their office; therefore, by our Confession, to resist them in tyrannical acts is not to resist the ordinance of God.”
https://www.portagepub.com/dl/caa/sr-lexrex17.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=SK8rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA141#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=SK8rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA220#v=onepage&q&f=false
17. (1645) William Ball of Barkham, Tractatus De Jure Regnandi, & Regni: The Sphere Of Government, According to the Law of God, Nature, and Nations.
“...Every soul ought to be subject to the higher power, so far forth as that power does lawfully extend (for God commands no unlawful thing)... This hinders not but that it may be lawful to oppose tyrants, usurpers, and such like... it must surely be understood of power, one way or other, lawful... The enslaved or oppressed people may free themselves (if they find convenient occasion) from their bondage without any special warrant from God...
[Also, there is in the words of Christ, concerning God and Caesar] not only a distinction of things spiritual and temporal, God's and Caesar's; but also a limitation of things temporal. For it is not said "Render all your money, or substance to Caesar," but "the things which are Caesar's," so much as is due to him.”
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A77930.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext
18. (1649; 1651) John Milton, (1649) The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
“...such magistrates he means, as are, not a terror to the good but to the evil, as bear not the sword in vain, but to punish offenders, and to encourage the good. If such only be mentioned here as powers to be obeyed, and our submission to them only required, then doubtless those powers that do the contrary, are no powers ordained of God, by consequence no obligation laid upon us to obey or not to resist them. And it may be well observed that both [Paul and Peter], whenever they give this precept, express it in terms not concrete but abstract, as logicians are wont to speak, that is, they mention the ordinance, the power, the authority before the persons that execute it, and what that power is, lest we should be deceived, they describe exactly. So that if the power be not such, or the person execute not such power, neither the one nor the other is of God, but of the Devil and by consequence to be resisted.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/allison-the-tenure-of-kings-and-magistrates
(1651) A Defense of the People of England
“Sometimes the very form of government, if it be amiss, or at least those persons that have the power in their hands, are not of God, but of men, or of the devil, Luke 4 'All this power will I give unto thee, for it is delivered unto me, and I give it to whom I will.' Hence the devil is called the prince of this world; and in Revelation 12, the dragon gave to the beast his power, and his throne, and great authority. So that we must not understand St. Paul, as if he spoke of all sorts of magistrates in general, but of lawful magistrates; and so they are described in what follows.
...He that resists the powers, to wit, a lawful power, resists the ordinance of God. Kings themselves come under the penalty of this law, when they resist the senate, and act contrary to the laws. But do they resist the ordinance of God, that resist an unlawful power, or a person that goes about to overthrow and destroy a lawful one? No man living in his right wits can maintain such an assertion. The words immediately after make it as clear as the sun, that the apostle speaks only of a lawful power; for he gives us in them a definition of magistrates, and thereby explains to us who are the persons thus authorized, and upon what account we are to yield obedience, lest we should be apt to mistake and ground extravagant notions upon his discourse. 'The magistrates,' says he, 'are not a terror to good works, but to evil: Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. He beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil.'
...whatsoever magistrate takes upon him, to act contrary to what St. Paul makes the duty of those that are in authority; neither is that power nor that magistrate ordained of God. And consequently to such a magistracy no subjection is commanded, nor is any due, nor are the people forbidden to resist such authority; for in so doing they do not resist the power, nor the magistracy, as they are here excellently well described; but they resist a robber, a tyrant, an enemy”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/griswold-the-prose-works-of-john-milton-vol-2#lf0233-02_head_002
19. (c.1650) Edward Gee, An Exercitation Concerning Usurped Power
“There is no power but of God, (saith the Apostle) the powers that be are ordained of God: Rom. 13.1. It were a sense too large, and not to be defended to take these words absolutely, and unlimitedly of all power, in regard either of title, or measure, and use. An unjust power in regard of measure, or the stretching of power beyond its due bounds, or the abuse of it is generally denied to be of God by way of warrant; and an unjust power in regard of title, or an authority set up, and admitted against, or without right, God himself denies to be of Him.
…That the Apostle, in commanding obedience to the higher powers, can only be understood of such as possess their authority lawfully… To be of God here must import not merely a permissive counsell, or providence, but a divine approbation, authorization, and vocation; they are said to be of God thus, that come in by God's way, or are called to their places as God hath appointed in his Word.”
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A85885.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext
20. (1659) Richard Baxter, A Holy Commonwealth
“Question 6: But is it not enough to oblige us to subjection, if the power has but the ordination of [God's] decree, and disposing providence de eventu?
Answer: That's a contradiction. It must have a law, grant, commission, or other moral donation, or it is no power, that is, no right of governing. The kings that give up their kingdoms to the Beast, may fulfill God's decreeing and providential will de eventu. The death of Christ by the Jews may fall under a certain decree and providence, but it is a grant of right that must prove the right. Possession of strength is separable from possession of true governing right. If a plague come upon us, it is by decree and disposing-providence, and yet we may do our best to resist it. The Devil rules the children of disobedience, not without God's permissive decree and providence, but yet he [the Devil] has no right to rule them, nor they any warrant to obey him.”
“...Question 11: Must we obey no ruler but such as are here described, as are not a terror to the good, but the evil?
Answer: If the very drift and work of their government were for evil works against good, then they acted as the Devil's substitutes, and could not be magistrates, nor servants of God, but nullify their office as to them.”
https://ia800605.us.archive.org/21/items/holywealth00baxt/holywealth00baxt.pdf#page=350
21. (1665) John Brown of Wamphray, An Apologetical Relation of the particular sufferings of the faithful Ministers & professors of the Church of Scotland, since August 1660.
“...God giveth no command to do evil, nor to tyrannize. He is not God's vicegerent when he playeth the tyrant, and therefore he may be resisted and opposed without any violence done to the office or ordinance of God. ...it is only powers that are ordained of God that must not be resisted; and tyrants, or magistrates turning tyrants, and exercising tyranny, cannot be called the ordinance of God --though the office, abstracted from the tyranny, be the ordinance of God.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=v_sQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA86#v=onepage&q&f=false
(c.1665) An Exposition of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans
“Tho' we ought and may yield passive obedience unto usurpers... yet we are not allowed to acknowledge such for our lawful magistrates and superiors, nor bound to subject ourselves unto them...; for it is only to such as the word termed powers does properly agree... a power that is from God's approbation and authorization... a power whose proper end is to be a terror to evil and not to good; and to be an encourager to good and not evil, which no ways can agree to an usurper.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=pS4PAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA504#v=onepage&q&f=false
22. (1667; 1669) James Stewart of Goodtrees, (1667) Naphtali, Or The Wrestlings of the Church of Scotland For the Kingdom of Christ and (1669) Jus Populi Vindicatum, Or The People’s Right, to defend themselves and their Covenanted Religion, vindicated
23. (1673) Samuel Pufendorf, On the Duty of Man and Citizen According to the Natural Law
24. (1687) Alexander Shields, A Hind Let Loose, or an historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland
“But tyrannical powers are not of God in this sense. And it were blasphemy to assert they were of the Lord's authorization, conscience cannot bind to a subjection to this... To this conscience is concerned in duty to render honor as due, by the prescript of the fifth commandment; but for tyranny, conscience is bound to deny it, because not due, no more than obedience, which conscience dare not pay to a throne of iniquity, and a throne of the devil, as tyranny may be called, as really as magistracy is called the throne of God... The discernible standing of government upon conscientious grounds, is the only thing that can bring in conscience, and a conscientious submission to it... And if that be, then there is needful a rule of God's revealed preceptive will, (the only cynosure and empress of conscience), touching the founding and erecting of government, that it have the stamp of God's authority.”
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/37137/pg37137-images.html
25. (1690) John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
"if the law be transgressed to another’s harm; and whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command, to compass that upon the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another. This is acknowledged in subordinate magistrates. He that hath authority to seize my person in the street, may be opposed as a thief and a robber, if he endeavors to break into my house to execute a writ, notwithstanding that I know he has such a warrant, and such a legal authority, as will empower him to arrest me abroad. And why this should not hold in the highest, as well as in the most inferior magistrate, I would gladly be informed."
"...in whatsoever he has no authority, there he is no king, and may be resisted: for wheresoever the authority ceases, the king ceases too, and becomes like other men who have no authority. ...the principle from which [this] doctrine flows; and that is, the breach of trust, in not preserving the form of government agreed on, and in not intending the end of government itself, which is the public good and preservation of property."
26. (1698) Algernon Sidney, Discourses Concerning Government
“He therefore is only the minister of God, who is not a terror to good works, but to evil; who executes wrath upon those that do evil, and is a praise to those that do well…. [T]he same rule, which obliges us to yield obedience to the good magistrate who is the minister of God, and assures us that in obeying him we obey God, does equally oblige us not to obey those who make themselves the ministers of the Devil, lest in obeying them we obey the Devil, whose works they do.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/sidney-discourses-concerning-government
27. (1705) Benjamin Hoadly, The Measures Of Submission
“And this may serve to explain yet farther in what sense these higher powers are from God; viz., as they act agreeably to his will, which is, that they should promote the happiness and good of humane society, which Paul all along supposes them to do. And consequently, when they do the contrary, they cannot be said to be from God, or to act by his authority, any more than an inferior magistrate may be said to act by a prince's authority, while he acts directly contrary to his will.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=b0EVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false
28. (1708) Thomas Bradbury, 8th Sermon on The Divine Right of Revolution
“It is according to the word of the Lord, that the rights of human nature shall be established, [for] 'to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth; to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approves not' (Lam 3:34-36). It is [a] pity the doctrines of slavery should be promoted under the Christian name, when there is nothing wider from the design of our Lord's coming into the world and the rules that he has left for His people to walk by. What can be more absurd and cruel than to tell us that He who came to deliver us from Satan has made it essential to our peace with Him that we submit to all the excesses of tyranny.
...There is nothing in reason to persuade me that my life is another's property; and am I brought into this misery by the gospel? Our Lord came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them; and are His rules so much a discord to Himself? I know two or three sentences in the thirteenth chapter to the Romans come under a yearly execution by some that walk in craftiness, and handle the word of the Lord deceitfully. But it is plain the apostle could never say that a tyrant is an ordinance of God... [tyrants] are no more jure divino than a distemper is, and we may apply to the rational methods of cure in one case as well as the other.
The reason that he gives for our obedience strikes off so wild an opinion as this: that 'they are not terrors to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? If thou dost that which is good, thou shalt have praise from the same. He is the minister of God to thee for good; but if thou dost evil, be afraid for he bears not the sword in vain. He is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil' (Rom 13:3-4). Yet this text that shows us the just measures of our submission has been abused by the slight of men to make rulers above law and subjects beneath it.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=L1PhBpjJQakC&pg=PA156#v=onepage&q&f=false
29. (1738) Philip Doddridge, The Family Expositor, or a Paraphrase and Notes on The New Testament
“[God’s ordination of governments, in the general] cannot make what is wrong and pernicious in any particular forms, sacred, divine, and immutable, any more than the hand of God in famine or pestilence is an argument against seeking proper means to remove it.
...'are not a terror to good works, etc.' If circumstances arise in which this argument is not applicable, it is reasonably to be taken for granted that the apostle did not intend here to pronounce concerning such cases. Nothing can be said for interpreting these passages in favor of unlimited passive obedience... And this would subvert the great foundation of magistracy itself, which is appointed by force to ward off and prevent, or avenge such injuries.”
https://archive.org/details/familyexpositoro1825dodd/page/634/mode/2up
30. (1744) Elisha Williams, The Essential Rights And Liberties Of Protestants
“There may be a pretended power where there is really none... the powers [referred to] in the text, the powers which be of God, the ordinance of God; it is only of such powers he speaks of subjection to... obedience is due to civil rulers in those cases wherein they have power to command, and does not call for it any farther... their power is a limited one: and therefore the obedience due is a limited obedience... The ground of obedience cannot be extended beyond the ground of that authority to which obedience is required... obedience [is] not due to such laws... [if] they had no rightful authority to make them.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1744-williams-rights-and-liberties-of-protestants-sermon
31. (1765) John Rotheram, Government A Divine Institution
“It seems to be clear both on the principles of reason and Scripture, that a malevolent power, a power of doing evil, may, and ought to be resisted; that he who employs his authority to the worst of purposes, cannot be that minister of God, to whom our obedience is required under the severest penalties, and that it must be lawful to resist him, who abusing and perverting the powers of government, does himself manifestly resist the wise and benevolent ordinance of God.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=rG30pc4RSxgC&pg=PA28#v=onepage&q&f=false
32. (1765) Andrew Eliot, A Sermon Preached Before His Excellency Francis Bernard
“Paul very plainly teaches us how far subjection is due to a civil magistrate, when he gives it as a reason for this subjection, ‘for he is the minister of God to thee for good.’ The end for which God has placed men in authority is that they may promote the public happiness. When they improve [use] their power to contrary purposes, when they endeavor to subvert the constitution and to enslave a free people, they are no longer the ministers of God, they do not act by His authority....”
https://books.google.com/books?id=SexbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false
33. (1775) Jonathan Edwards (Jr.), Submission To Rulers (‘sermon 14’)
"Upon the whole I think we may justly infer that the doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance are not the doctrines of the Bible, and that non-resistance to the supreme powers is no more taught in the Scriptures, than non-resistance to our fellow men, and even to thieves, robbers, and those who use the most abusive violence... The truth is, and the whole spirit of Scripture sustains it, that rulers are bound to rule in the fear of God and for the good of the people; and if they do not, then in resisting them we are doing God service." https://books.google.com/books?id=SWslNDthZKIC&pg=PA244#v=onepage&q&f=false
34. (1835) Charles Hodge, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans
“Paul is speaking of the legitimate design of government, not of the abuse of power by wicked men… No command to do anything morally wrong can be binding nor can any which transcends the rightful authority of the power whence it emanates… The right of deciding on all these points, and determining where the obligation to obedience ceases, and the duty of resistance begins, must, from the nature of the case, rest with the subject, and not with the ruler.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=VpMXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA533#v=onepage&q&f=false
35. (1845) Thomas Sproull, Letter on “The Higher Powers” https://www.covenanter.org/reformed/2016/4/27/letter-on-the-higher-powers
36. (1850) Asa Dodge Smith, Obedience To Human Law
“'For he,' that is the magistrate, of whatever description, 'is the minister of God to thee for good.' The good of the people is the great end of government. When it ceases to answer that end --when it becomes a curse rather than a blessing-- then have the people a right to change it, even by force if necessary. The very law that enjoins obedience contains thus its own limitation.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=t-DyWfKQAjQC&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false
37. (1850) James M. Willson, An Essay on Submission to the Powers That Be https://www.covenanter.org/reformed/2016/6/2/an-essay-on-submission-to-the-powers-that-be
(1853) Civil Government: An Exposition of Romans 13 1-7 https://www.covenanter.org/reformed/2016/6/2/civil-government-an-eexposition-of-romans-xiii-1-7
38. (1851) Josiah Dodds, An Essay on Civil Government https://www.covenanter.org/reformed/2017/3/22/an-essay-on-civil-government
39. (1860) John L. Girardeau, Conscience And Civil Government
“Obedience to the state, like that which is due to other institutions, even those which may claim Divine origin, is limited by the sphere in which it is designed to operate, and the end which it is intended to subserve…. the authority of the state is concerned about the objects of civil government, and terminates when it is thrust beyond these objects, and is exercised upon grounds of other than civil import. …The position will scarcely be controverted, that the obedience which is due to all institutions —the state among the number— is limited by their obvious design and the legitimate sphere in which their jurisdiction is intended to be exercised. When these are manifestly and arbitrarily transcended, the question is raised at the bar of enlightened conscience, whether protest and the refusal to obey may not become a solemn and imperative duty.
…In the last analysis, the responsibility incurred in resisting government must rest on the conscience of individual men. …Duty and responsibility are, of necessity, the correlates of conscience, and all questions affecting moral obligation must, from the nature of the case, terminate on men in their individual capacity.”
40. (1873) William Milroy, The Honor to which Legitimate Civil Government is Entitled https://www.covenanter.org/reformed/2017/3/15/the-honor-to-which-legitimate-civil-government-is-entitled
41. (1882) Philip Schaff, Epistle of Paul To The Romans (in A Popular Commentary on the New Testament, Vol.3)
“magistrates derive their authority from God, even when chosen by the people. This principle, moreover, respects the office, not the character of the ruler. But as the obedience is demanded because of God’s appointment, there inheres this limitation, that obedience is not demanded in matters contrary to God’s appointment. …the Apostle gives the reason for obedience to rightful authority”
https://books.google.com/books?id=ChwDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA131#v=onepage&q&f=false
-----
Even John Calvin, who is largely unreliable on this point, has to admit:
“[God] has appointed [civil powers] for the legitimate and just government of the world. For though tyrannies and unjust exercise of power, as they are full of disorder, are not an ordained government; yet the right of government is ordained by God for the wellbeing of mankind.”
(1539) from Commentary on Romans 13:2 https://books.google.com/books?id=YyJVAAAAYAAJ&pg=479#v=onepage
“Earthly princes lay aside all their power when they rise up against God, and are unworthy of being reckoned in the number of mankind. We ought rather utterly to defy than to obey them...”
(1561) from Commentary on Daniel 6:22
https://books.google.com/books?id=L2AzAQAAMAAJ&pg=382#v=onepage
(c.347-407) Chrysostom (and other Patristic writers) also held to this prescriptive/office view. God does not ‘ordain’ every de facto ruler, but has ordained just civil governance --the administration of civil justice, as such.
“What say you? it may be said; is every ruler then elected by God? This I do not say, he answers. Nor am I now speaking about individual rulers, but about the thing [ie, civil governance] in itself.”
Homily 23 on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf111.vii.xxv.html
(c.155-c.220) Tertullian, Scorpiace
“the things which are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things which are God's to God; but man is the property of God alone. Peter, no doubt, had likewise said that the king indeed must be honored, yet so that the king be honored only when he keeps to his own sphere…”
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0318.htm
Note: The historical confessions (and other doctrinal standards) of the Reformed churches do not oppose resistance to powers that violate civil justice.
The Westminster Confession of Faith 20.4 specifies that those who “oppose any lawful power, or the lawful exercise of it... resist the ordinance of God.” Tyranny is unlawful, not the ordinance of God, and may be lawfully opposed.
The Belgic Confession of Faith 36 specifies obedience only to “things that are not in conflict with God’s Word,” and denounces all, even civil powers, who would “subvert justice.”
The Second Helvetic Confession of Faith 30 similarly specifies obedience only to “just and fair commands.”
[Similarly, The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith 24.3 specifies that submission is only required to “lawful things commanded.”]
Romans 13:1-7 specifies that God prescriptively ordains the administration of civil justice. This involves the legitimate use of coercive retribution (the "sword") against aggressors ("wrongdoers;" those who commit aggression against another’s person or property), enforcing restitution by aggressors to their victims. According to God’s ordination, civil governance is strictly limited to this task. The civil rulers to which all should submit (also, 1 Peter 2:13-14; Titus 3:1) are those that administer actual civil justice. The claim to civil power or exercise of power or coercion on any pretense that violates civil justice is not ordained by God according to Scripture, and may be legitimately resisted. It is not only orders to sin that must be refused, but any would-be civil regulation beyond the God-ordained sphere of civil justice may be justly ignored (when not otherwise sinful). Those who are unjust are not legitimate authorities to whom believers should submit civil disputes among themselves (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).
See: Gregory Baus, Romans 13 and Stateless Civil Governance: A Reformed View (2019)
And https://reformedlibertarians.com/romans-13-reformed-view/