Him." In the midst of this removal of diadems and these wide-spreading revolutions, men very properly inquire as to what must be the result when the people are thus aiming to take civil power into their own hands, and claim to be governed under forms and rulers of their own choice. As may be inferred from the words of the prophet just quoted, the question is intimately connected, not only with the stability of just government, but with the spread of the Gospel ; and every one who is the friend of his race and of Christianity, should be willing to contribute his aid to illustrate its importance and defend it from error and abuse. In all great changes which affect social or political organizations of long standing, there is danger of rashness and excess; and in breaking away from one set of evils, communities sometimes rush into others of an opposite character, but still more disastrous tendency.

Men always become vain in their imaginations when they turn away from the word of God, and neglect to hear it in relation to any subject on which it condescends to give us instruction. A distinguished author has of late entitled one of his best Essays "The Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight;" and it is to be viewed among the redeeming signs of the times, that public men and profound thinkers are turning increased atten

tion to the inspired volume, not only as a revelation of mercy to fallen man, but as a record of the cardinal principles of wisdom and equity which should enter into the government of nations. Happy will it be for all lands when their rulers will take increasing counsel from "the Father of Lights" "by whom princes decree justice," both as to the source of their authority over men, and the manner in which it should be exercised. This would be another step towards the promised consummation, when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Not a few of those who are counted among our leading statesmen have become deeply impressed with these convictions; and at their suggestion, I have endeavored in the following Lectures to illustrate

The connection between the Holy Scriptures and the Science of Civil Government.

I am far from supposing that I can do full justice to the subject. I approach it as an expositor of Scriptural truth, not as a statesman or a jurist; and Í shall feel rewarded if I may be the means of leading the minds of abler and more accomplished men to develope it at greater length and to more perfection.

The tradition that Divine authority was requisite

to establish laws, or a government of laws over a people, was very general during the ages of antiquity. The belief also seems to have been most widely diffused wherever civilization and refinement had made the greatest advancement. The laws of Crete were said to have been given to Minos by inspiration from Jupiter. Apollo, we are told, revealed the laws of Lacedæmon to Lycurgus; and to ensure a just interpretation of them, the deity allowed himself to be consulted from time to time at the Oracle of Delphos. Numa declared himself indebted to Egeria for the statutes and ordinances which lay at the foundation of Roman greatness and supremacy. Referring to the general prevalence of such traditions, an able commentator on government has remarked, “there is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous." But while we fully agree with him as to the fact, we entirely dissent from him when he adds, "yet nothing can be inferred from it, but that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful." The unanimity of the belief, leads, as we think, to quite a different conclusion. Sound philosophy has discovered, that in all such traditions there is a mixture of truth with error; that there is scarce a fable to be found in the mythologies of ancient times without a "moral," which can be traced back to some revelation previously

derived from the true God. Accordingly we consider these fictions or fables respecting the origin of civil laws as another acknowledgment of the truth so conspicuously repeated in the Scriptures, that "there is no power but of God;" that "the powers that be are ordained of God;" in other words, that the obligation of the ruled to obey their rulers rests upon the Divine will as its great and ultimate

reason.

But while there is a general concurrence among moral and political writers in the doctrine that civil government is founded on the will of God, they are by no means so fully agreed respecting the extent to which he has revealed his will on the subject. And the object which we now propose to ourselves is to inquire how far the Scriptures go, in revealing the essential principles which enter into a just and wise construction of the civil authority which man may rightfully exercise over man. We turn "to the law and to the testimony," and ask, Is government, simply as government, all that we find there sanctioned as the ordinance of God; and have its different forms been left to be elaborated by the sagacity of politicians and statesmen, all of them sharing alike in the Divine approbation? Do the Autocrat of Russia, and the Sultan of Turkey, inheriting thrones which have been gained by violence and blood, hold their

power by a tenure as scriptural as the chief Magistrates of these United States, who have been raised to their office by the choice of those whom they govern?

The Bible, if we do not mistake its meaning, answers these inquiries in a way that may well render it increasingly valuable in the eyes of every one who desires the present and future happiness of his race. As we follow its teachings, we find it goes back into the antiquity of nations, and records their origin and progress, with a clearness to which no other volume can aspire. It shows that the form of government first prevailing in the world was the patriarchal. And while the earth was peopled rather by families than by nations, dominion in the hands of one man might not have been productive of any oppressive wrongs. But when communities had become widened into large kingdoms, ties of kindred were lost in ambition for power; and tyranny, with its unsparing exactions, was soon felt as the scourge of humanity. Then, as the Scriptures teach, the Most High made known a remedy for this sore evil. But it is not his manner to ordain mere abstractions when he gives ordinances for the benefit of man. If government of any kind is to be rendered intelligible or tangible, it must have some form or embodiment; and as "at the beginning," he taught