Cylchgronau Cymru

A REPERTORY OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT & A RECORD OF CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG THE €AL¥INISTIC METHODISTS or PRESBYTERIANS of WALES. Vol. V. No. 7.] JULY, 1889. Price One Penny. #fj)ics cm5 g^ristictnttg. Lectures delivered to the Students in the year 1865, by the late Rev. L. Edwards, M.A., D.D., Principal of Bala College. "Written by ft. Leigh Roose. Lecture VII. LAW AND GOVERNMENT. We have found that man as a moral being is possessed, in the first place, of Reason ; secondly of Will; and Conscience may be regarded as the apex where tbese two meet. Some take it altogether as Reason ; others again class it under the same category as Will. But it seems more correct to say, that both Will and Reason meet together to constitute Conscience. Just so in the objective part of our subject. In the first place we have Justice ; and -secondly Benevolence ; and these two combined make up the subject of Law. In thus speaking we take law in its widest sense, viz., the law of God, or the moral law; for this takes in Benevolence as well as Justice ; but it does not apply so well to human laws, which must confine themselves to the sphere of Justice alone. And to show the distinction, perhaps we may make a few observations on human law. A very interesting question is the foundation of Law. Is it founded only on the wants and the wills of a number of men who unite under any particular form of Government ? or must we look much higher for its source ? There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that all right, all just laws must be founded on the Law of God. All governments derive their authority from God, and are instituted to execute the Law of God within their own limits. This is high ground, I confess, but you cannot elsewhere find stability, even in theory. Much depends on the question, whether government is to be looked upon as preceding the individual, or are the subjects to be regarded first as individuals, and government as the result of their deliberation and convention ? It appears to me that individuals are born under a government, and not the government formed by the individuals. Just as the members of the body •come into being as component parts of the body, and we'are not to regard the body as formed by the conjunction of the different members. Even the heathen philosophers regarded government as something sacred and divine ; and it is surely inconsistent for us who believe the Bible to satisfy ourselves with a theory of government which excludes the Law of God. In fact, I consider Government to be as divine as the church; not exactly in the same