the awful curse; and that other nations experienced the same.

We learn further, not only that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the church and creation of God, is called "King of kings, and Lord of lords:" "The Prince of the kings of the earth;"-that God says, "I will make him, my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him"-not only charges all official men—the highest and the lowest, to serve him, thus, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth, and serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little;" but they are most expressly enjoined to yield obedience in their official capacity to his laws. Thus to Moses who was a king in Jeshurun, God said, Exod. xviii. 19, 20, "Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do." To Joshua, the successor of Moses, Joshua, i. 7, 8, God says, "Be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Observe the

law laid down for the king, of whom it was foretold that he should reign over them; Deut. xvii. 14—20, "When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me: thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren

shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites: and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of his law, and these statutes, to do them: that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." Jehoshaphat sent Levites throughout all Judah to teach the law of the Lord; he told his judges, " Take heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in judgment;" and moreover, "he set of the Levites, and of the priests, and of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem; and he charged them, saying, "Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully, and with a perfect heart."

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Here we have a different standard entirely-from either the popular will-fickle public opinion-an ever-shifting expediency, or the will of a tyrannical despot; all being made subject to the will and responsible to the authority of God: which alone can regulate and control the passions of man."

Good

God prospered Jehoshaphat abundantly. Josiah read the book of the law in the hearing of all the people, and engaged to abide by God's testimonies. Ezra confessed the sins of the people, "because they had forsaken the commandments which God had

commanded by his servants the prophets." And Artaxerxes who was not a typical but a heathen king, with the Divine approbation, among other things for the rebuilding of the temple of God, and the re-establishment of his worship, enjoined, "And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not." It would be very difficult to show why rulers should not be equally bound, and find it equally easy now to ascertain the mind and will of God for the same ends-having the clearer and more full revelation of the gospel, complete in all its parts, and so many means and aids for knowing it; and what advantage can be gained either for the honour of God, the purity of religion, or the welfare of mankind, by absolving them from the obligation of ascertaining, maintaining, and acting upon this standard, it is difficult to understand.

This argument might be carried still further, by showing that rulers were severely punished for disobeying the revealed will of God, as in the case of Jeroboam, Ahab, and others: who brought destruction on themselves and their house, and ruin and desolation on their country; while, on the other hand, those rulers who obeyed the divine law, were honoured and blessed of God, and the people under them prosperous and happy, such as David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Amaziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah, 1 Kings xix. 8; xv. 11; xxii. 43; 2 Kings xiv. 3; xviii. 3; xxii. 2; illustrating the saying, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice." Prov. xxix. 2. How totally different from the perverted, and I must say irreligious and wicked conduct of many in the present day, who raise to offices of trust and power, irreligious, unprincipled, and even most immoral men, merely because they are the ready tools to execute their schemes as if men whose virtue could not be trusted in the ordinary relations of life, could be wise and upright magistrates or legislators. What an example

to the young-saying in effect, be ye as profligate as you please, it will not mar your advancement to honour.

It might have been shown that rulers are required to be persons of religious character "men fearing God, loving the truth, and hating covetousness." "He that ruleth over men must be just: ruling in the fear of God, as the light of the morning, when the sun ariseth, even as a burning without clouds; Exod. xviii. 21; 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4.* Indeed, we feel that we are attempting to prove a proposition that is selfevident to every mind that believes there is a moral Governor of the universe, who has revealed his will to men; and those who are ignorant of the opinions and practices of many in the present day, or who have any fear of God before their eyes, might be apt to suppose we were engaged in a very needless occupation; and it is to us altogether astonishing, not that human nature is so base as to act on such principles, but that men professing godliness, should not only act upon them, but formally endeavour to justify them. I can conceive no possible circumstances or relations, in which men and their opinions or doings are severed from the will and authority of that God, of whom and through whom and to whom are all things-to whom be glory for ever and ever. On this subject, Dr. Dwight, of America, eloquently says, "They prove beyond all reasonable debate, that the whole vindicable conduct of rulers towards their subjects, and of subjects towards their rulers, is nothing but a mere collection of duties;-objects of moral obligation required by God, and indispensably owed to him by men. The Christian religion, therefore, the rule of all duty, and involving all moral obligation, is so far from having nothing to do with this subject, that

* On this and several of the collateral topics handled in this lecture, much sound reasoning and valuable truth will be found in the work of the Rev. Mr. M'Indoe, of the Reformed Presbytery, entitled, "The Application of Scripture Principles to Political Government essential to the Piety, Virtue, Order, Freedom, and Prosperity of Christian States."

it is inseparably interwoven with every part of it. Accordingly the Bible regulates, and were it not sinfully prevented from its proper influence, would exactly and entirely control all the political doctrines and actions of men. It is, indeed, as easy and as common to deny truth, and refuse to perform our duty, to disobey God and injure men in political concerns, as in any other. In truth, there has been no field of iniquity more extensive than this: none in which more enormous crimes or more terrible sufferings have existed. All these crimes and sufferings have sprung from the ignorance of, or disobedience to, the Scriptures. Were they allowed to govern the political conduct of mankind, both the crimes and sufferings would vanish; every duty, both of rulers and subjects, would be performed, and every interest would be completely secured. In what manner the doctrine against which I am contending ever came to be received by any man who was not peculiarly weak or wicked, I am at a loss to determine. It would seem, that even the careless and gross examination of the most heedless reflector must have evinced its folly and falsehood. A dream is not more unfounded; the decisions of frenzy are not more wild. To villains in power, or in pursuit of power, office, and public plunder, it is undoubtedly a most convenient doctrine; and it will quiet the reproaches of conscience, where conscience has not ceased to reproach: and throw from its hinges the gate which opens to every crime and selfish gratification. To subjects, to a state, to a nation, it is literally fatal. The people who have adopted it, may be certainly pronounced to have bidden a final adieu to their peace and happiness, their virtue and their safety." The French Revolution will occur to every mind as an illustration-in, which the rule of infidels and atheists became the rule of ferocious tigers ravening in crime and blood-proving the truth of the scriptural saying, "as a roaring lion and a raging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people;" and, in this case, enormously multiplying the evil, where the mul