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nothing else could have made his creatures acquainted. It is, therefore, the highest possible support of moral govern

ment.

21. It greatly glorifies God, far above all his other works and ways.

22. It must be to him a source of the purest, most exalted, and eternal happiness.

23. It opens the channels of divine benevolence to state criminals.

24. It has united God with human nature.

25. It has opened a way of access to God, never opened to any creatures before.

26. It has abolished natural death, by procuring a universal resurrection:

1 Cor. 15: 22, 'For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.'

27. It restores the life of God to the soul, by restoring to man the influence of the Holy Spirit.

28. It has introduced a new method of salvation, and made Christ the head of the New Covenant.

29. It has made Christ our surety:

Heb. 7: 22. 'By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.'

30. It has arrayed such a public sentiment against rebelion, as to crush it whenever the Atonement is fairly understood and applied by the Holy Spirit.

31. It has procured the offer of pardon to all sinners of

our race.

32. It has been the occasion of a new and most aggravated kind of sin.

33. It has, no doubt, added to the happiness of heaven. 34. It has more fully developed the nature and importance of the government of God.

35. It has more fully developed the nature of sin.

36. It has more fully developed the strength of sin.

37. It has more fully developed the total depravity and

utter madness of sinners.

38. It has given scope to the long-suffering and forbearance of God.

any

39. It has formed a more intimate union between God and man, than between him and other order of creatures. 40. It has elevated human nature, and the saints of God, into the stations of kings and priests to God.

41. It has opened new fields of usefulness, in which the

benevolence of God, angels, and men may luxuriate in doing good.

42. It has developed and fully revealed the doctrine of the Trinity.

43. It has revealed the most influential and only efficacious method of government.

44. It has more fully developed those laws of our being upon which the strength of moral government depends.

45. It has given a standing illustration of the true intent meaning, and excellency of the law of God. In the Atonement God has illustrated the meaning of his law by his own example.

46. The Atonement has fully illustrated the nature of virtue, and demonstrated that it consists in disinterested benevolence.

47. It has for ever condemned all selfishness, as entirely inconsistent with virtue.

48. It has established all the great principles and completed the power of moral government.

LECTURE XXXIII.

HUMAN GOVERNMENT.

HUMAN GOVERNMENTS A PART OF THE MORAL GOVERNMENT of God.

In the discussion of this subject I will,

I. INQUIRE INTO THE ULTIMATE END OF GOD IN THE CREA

TION OF THE UNIVERSE.

II. SHOW THAT PROVIDENTIAL AND MORAL GOVERNMENT ARE INDISPENSABLE MEANS OF SECURING THIS END.

III. THAT CIVIL, AND FAMILY GOVERNMENTS ARE INDISPENSABLE TO THE SECURING OF THIS END, AND ARE THEREFORE TRULY A PART OF THE PROVIDENTIAL AND MORAL GOVERNMENT OF God.

IV. INQUIRE INTO THE FOUNDATION OF THE RIGHT OF HUMAN GOVERNMENTS.

V. POINT OUT THE LIMITS OR BOUNDARIES OF THIS RIGHT. VI. MAKE SEVERAL REMARKS RESPECTING THE FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, THE RIGHT AND DUTY OF REVOLUTION, &C.

VII. APPLY THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES TO THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF GOVERNMENTS AND SUBJECTS IN RELATION TO THE EXECUTION OF NECCSSARY PENALTIES; THE SUPPRESSION OF MOBS, INSURRECTIONS, REBELLION; AND IN RELATION TO WAR, SLAVERY, SABBATH DESECRATION, &c.

I. The ultimate end of God in creation.

We have seen in former lectures that God is a moral agent and is, therefore, the subject of moral law. That is, His own infinite intelligence must affirm that a certain course of willing is suitable, fit, and right in Him. This idea or affirmation is law to Him, and to this His will must be conformed or He is not good. This is moral law, a law founded in the eternal and self-existent nature of God. This law does and must demand benevolence in God. Benevolence is goodwilling. God's intelligence must affirm that He ought to will good for its own intrinsic value. It must affirm His obligation to choose the highest possible good as the great end of His being. If God is good, the highest good of himself and of the universe must have been the end which He had in view in the work of creation. This is of infinite value and ought to be willed by God. If God is good this must have been йis end. We have also seen,

II. That Providential and Moral Governments are indispensable means of securing the highest good of the universe.

The highest good of moral agents is conditionated upon their holiness. Holiness consists in conformity to moral law. Moral law implies moral government. Moral government is a government of moral law and of motives. Motives are presented by Providential government, and Providential government is therefore a means of moral government. Providential and moral government must be indispensable to securing the highest good of the universe.

III. Civil and family governments are indispensable to the securing of this end, and are therefore really a part of the Providential and moral government of God.

In the discussion of this question I will show,

FIRST, That Human Governments are a necessity of hu

man nature.

SECOND, That this necessity will continue as long as men exist in the present world.

THIRD, That Human Governments are plainly recognized in the Bible as a part of the government of God.

FOURTH, That it is the duty of all men to aid in the establishment and support of Human Government.

FIFTH, It is absurd to suppose that Human Government can ever be dispensed with in this world.

SIXTH, I shall answer objections.

I. Human Governments are a necessity of human nature.

1. There must be real estate. Human beings have numerous physical and moral wants that can not possibly be supplied without the cultivation and improvement of the soil. Buildings must be erected, &c.

2. It must belong to somebody. Somebody must have the right, the care, the responsibility, and therefore the avails of real estate.

3. There must, therefore, be all the forms of conveyancing, registry, and in short, all the forms of legal government, to settle and manage the real estate affairs of men.

4. Moral beings will not agree in opinion on any subject without similar degrees of knowledge.

5. Hence, no human community exists or ever will exist, the members of which on all subjects will agree in opinion. 6. This creates a necessity for human legislation and adju dication, to apply the great principles of moral law to all human affairs.

7. There are multitudes of human wants and necessities that cannot properly be met, except through the instrumentality of human governments.

II. This necessity will continue as long as human beings exist in this world.

1. This is as certain as that the human body will always need sustenance, clothing, and that the human soul will always need instruction, and that the means of instruction will not grow spontaneously, without expense or labor.

2. It is as certain as that men of all ages and circumstances will never possess equal degrees of information on all subjects.

If all men were perfectly holy and disposed to do right, the necessity of human governments would not be set aside, because this necessity is founded in the ignorance of mankind, though aggravated by their wickedness.

3. The decisions of legislators and judges must be authoritative, so as to settle questions of disagreement in opinion, and bind and protect all parties.

4. The Bible represents human governments not only as existing, but as giving their authority and power to the support of the Church in its most prosperous state. This proves that human government will not be dispensed with when the world is holy:

Isa. 49: 22, 23, "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their faces toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.'

III. Human Governments are plainly recognized in the Bible as a part of the moral government of God.

1. Dan. 2: 21. 'He changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.'

Dan. 4: 17, 25. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.' "They shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth

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