II   MORAL GOVERNMENT  

The primary idea of government is that it provides direction, guidance, and control by using rules or laws.  There are two kinds of government, moral government and physical government.  That is, all guidance and control must be exercised according to either moral or physical law; because every law must be either a moral law or a physical law. 

A        Physical government is control that is exercised by force, rather than by free will.  Physical government controls substances.  Any government that controls substance must be physical.  This is true whether the substance is material or immaterial, whether of matter or of mind.  States and changes, whether material or mental, that are not actions of free will, must be subject to law of cause and effects, or physical laws.  Therefore, these physical states or changes must belong to physical government.  Physical government, then, is the administration of physical law, or the law of force.  

B        Moral government consists in declaring and administrating moral law.  It governs our free will by using motives.  This is different from physical government, which governs physical substances by force.  Physical government presides over and controls physical states as well as physical changes, and all involun­tary states and changes. 

1     Moral government presides over and controls, or seeks to control the actions of our free will.  It presides over intelligent and willful states and willful changes of mind.  It is a government that uses motives, as opposed to a government that uses force.  Moral government is administered according to moral, as opposed to physical law.  And it administers moral as opposed to physical law. 

2     Moral government includes dispensing rewards and punishments.  This is administered by means as complicated and as vast as all the works, providences, ways, and grace of God.  (Means: That which is used to achieve an end.)

a     There must be a good and acceptable reason for moral government, or it is not right.  No one has a right to prescribe rules for, and control the conduct of another, unless there is some good reasons to do so. 
     There must be a need for moral government, or administrating it is tyranny.  Moral government is indispensable to the highest good of the universe.  The universe depends on moral government as a way of securing its highest good.  This dependence is a good and sufficient reason for moral government to exist.  Please understand that moral government is necessary for moral beings, and therefore it is right. 
     Our nature and circumstances demand that we should be under a moral government; because no community can perfectly harmonize in all their views and feelings without perfect knowledge, or to say the least, without the same degree of knowledge on all the subjects that they need to act on.  However, no community ever existed, or will ever exist, where everybody possesses the same amount of knowledge, and where all the members completely agree in all their thoughts, views, and opinions.  However, if they don’t have the same opinions, or if they don’t have the same amount of knowledge, they will not completely harmonize in anything they do.  Therefore, there must be, in every community, some standard or rule of duty, that everyone in the community are willing to conform themselves to.  There must be a leader or a controlling mind, whose will shall be law, and whose decision shall be regarded as infallible by all the subjects of the government.  No matter how different their intellectual accomplishments are, they must all agree in this: they must all agree that the will of the lawgiver is right, and everyone should obey him.  His will must be authoritative, and not merely advisory.  There must be a penalty attached to, and incurred by every act of disobedience to this will.  If someone persists in disobeying the lawgiver, exclusion from the privileges of the government is the lowest penalty that can consistently be inflicted.  The good, then, of the universe requires that there should be a moral governor. 
     Whose right is it to govern? 
     We have just seen that the highest good of the universe is the end, or the purpose, of moral government.  The one whose physical and moral attributes best qualify him to secure this goal of government is the one who should govern.  All eyes and hearts should be directed to the one who is best qualified to fill this position and to administer all the just and necessary rewards and punishments.  It is both his right and duty to govern.  

C    That God is this moral governor, we conclude:  

1     From our own nature.  From the very laws that God has placed in our nature, we naturally affirm our responsibility to God for our conduct.  Since God is our creator, we are naturally responsible to Him for the right exercise of our powers.  And since our good and His glory depends on conforming to the same rule that He conforms to, He is under a moral obligation to require us to be holy, as He is holy. 

2     God’s natural attributes qualify Him to maintain the relationship of a moral governor to the universe.

3     God’s moral character also qualifies Him to maintain this relationship.  

4     We conclude that God is this moral governor from His relationship to the universe as creator and preserver.  When we see His relationship in connection with our need for a moral government, and when we see His nature and attributes, we know He has the right to be our moral governor.

5     God’s relationship to the universe, and our relationship to Him and to each other, makes Him obligated to establish and administer a moral government over the universe.  It would be wrong for Him to create a universe of moral beings, and then refuse or neglect to administer over them a moral government, since government is necessary for their nature and relationships.  

6     God’s happiness must demand a moral government, since He could not be happy unless He acted according to His conscience.  (Conscience is the sense or consciousness of moral praiseworthiness or blameworthiness; the faculty of recognizing the difference between right and wrong conduct; conforming to one’s own sense of right conduct.)

7     If God is not a moral governor, He is not wise.  Wisdom consists in choosing the best possible end, or goal, and in the use of the most appropriate means to accomplish that goal.  If God is not a moral governor, it is inconceivable that He would have had any important goal in view when He created moral beings.  If God is a moral governor, He would have chosen the most desirable goal when He created the universe.  

8     The conduct or providence of God plainly indicates a plan to exert a moral influence over moral agents.

9     His providence plainly indicates that our mind is governed by moral laws, or by laws suited to our nature.  

10     All nations have believed that God is a moral governor.

11     We would have to disapprove of His character if God created moral agents, and then refused to exercise a moral government over them.

12     The Bible, which has proven to be a revelation from God, contains a most simple and yet comprehensive system of moral government.  

13     If the fact that our being subjects of a moral government is wrong, then everything we believe in must be false. 

D    What is implied in the right to govern?  (Imply: to suggest or understand without directly expressing) 

1     The right to govern implies the need for a government, as a way of securing its own important end.  

2     The right to govern implies the duty, or obligation to govern.  You cannot have a right to govern unless there is an obligation to govern; for the right to govern is based on the need for a government; and if you have a government, someone must have the right to govern.

3     The right to govern implies an obligation on the part of the subject to obey.  It cannot be the right, or the duty of the governor to govern, unless it is the duty of the subject to obey.  The governor and his subjects both depend on government as the indispensable means of promoting the highest good of everybody.  The governor and the subject must therefore be under a mutual obligation, the one must govern, and the other must be governed.  One must seek to govern, the other must obediently submit to be governed.  

4     The right to govern implies the right and duty to dispense just and necessary rewards and punishments, to distribute rewards that are proportional to obedience, and penalties that are proportional to disobedience, whenever the public interest demands that rewards or punishments be executed.

5     The right to govern implies an obligation, on the part of the subject, to cheerfully do whatever may be necessary to secure the goal, or purpose, of government.  In the case of disobedience, the subject must submit to the punishment he deserves, and if necessary, to aid in inflicting the penalty of the law.  

6     The right to govern implies an obligation, on the part of both the ruler and the ruled, to always be ready when the occasion arises, to make any personal and private sacrifice that are demanded by a more important public good.  To cheerfully meet any emergency, and exercise any degree of self‑denial that can, and will, result in a good of greater importance to the public than what that individual sacrificed.  Never forget that that present voluntary sacrifices should have an ultimate reward.  

7     The right to govern implies the right and duty to use whatever degree of force is needed to maintain order, to execute wholesome laws, to suppress insurrections, to punish rebels and rioters, and to uphold the supremacy of moral law. 
     It is impossible that the right to govern should not imply the use of force, and to deny this right is to deny the right to govern.  Should an emergency occur, and the ruler has no right to use the necessary means to secure order and establish the law; as soon as this emergency occurs, His right to govern ceases.  It is impossible for him to have a right and a duty to govern, and yet at the same time, He has no right to use whatever means are necessary to administer his government.  Should circumstances occur where the sacrifice that is needed to perpetuate the government overbalances the good to be derived from the government itself, this would create an emergency in which the right to govern would cease.  

E     The limits of this right.                                                                                                                                               The right to govern must be just as extensive as the need for a government.  We have seen, that the right to govern is based on the needs of moral beings.  The right to govern is based on the fact that the highest good of moral agents cannot be secured in any other way but by means of government.  The boundary of the right to govern must depend on the foundation of that right.  The right to govern must be as broad as the reason for government.  If the reason for the right to govern is wrong, then the limits of that right cannot be determined, and must also be wrong.  

F     What the right to govern the universe cannot be.

1     The right to govern the universe cannot be based on the fact that God is its Creator.  This is by itself no reason why He should govern, unless the universe needs to be governed: unless some good will result from God governing the universe.  Unless government is necessary, the fact that God created the universe gives Him no right to govern it.  

2     The right to govern the universe cannot be based on the fact that God is the owner and sole proprietor of the universe.  This is no reason why He should govern it.  Unless either His own good and/or the good of the universe demands government, being owner does not mean He has the right to govern.  Neither God, nor any other being, has a right to govern when government is totally unnecessary, and when government can be of no benefit to God or to His creatures.  In such a case, government would be perfectly arbitrary and unreasonable, and, as a result, it would  be unjust, tyrannical and wicked.  God has no right to govern if it won’t do any good.  No such right can exist.  

3     The right to govern the universe cannot be based on the fact that God possesses all the attributes, natural and moral, that is required to administer a moral government.  This fact is a condition of His right to govern; for without these qualifications He would have no right, no matter how necessary a government might be.  But possessing these attributes cannot give Him the right independently of the need for a govern­ment: for no matter how well qualified He may be to govern, unless government is committed to securing God’s own glory and the highest good of the universe, He has no right to govern it.  Possessing the required qualifications are conditions, and the need for a government is the foundation of the right to govern.  More strictly, the right to govern is based on the importance of the interests to be secured by the government, and it is conditioned on the fact that moral government is the necessary means of securing the goal of the highest good of the universe.  

4     The right to govern the universe cannot be given to God simply because of the importance of the interests to be secured, or the circumstance of the need for a government only.  God’s natural and moral attributes qualify Him to perpetuate that relationship better than any one else.  

5     The right to govern the universe cannot be an abstract right based on no reason whatsoever.  Our intelligence cannot accept a right to govern without basing it on some reason.  We cannot say that God has a right to govern, simply because He has such a right.  That’s not a good reason.  Our reason cannot accept that government is right simply because it is right.  That is unreasonable.  If this was true then God’s arbitrary will would be law, and then the right to govern would have no limits.  If God’s right to govern is a truth which has no reason for it, then God would have the right to legislate as little, or as much, and as arbitrarily, as unnecessarily, as absurdly, and as injuriously as possible, and no injustice could ever be done; because God would have, by this supposition, a right to govern without limit.  Give any other reason for the foundation of the right to govern other than the importance of the interests to be secured and the need for a government, and you may search in vain for any limit to the right to govern.  However, the moment the foundation and the condition of the right to govern are discovered, we instantly see that the right to govern must be just as important as the reason the right to govern is based.  The right to govern must be limited by the fact that government is necessary for the highest good of the universe.  No legislation can be valid in heaven or on earth, no rules or regulations can impose obligation, except on the condition that such legislation is demanded by the highest good of both the governor and the governed.  Unnecessary legislation is invalid legislation.  Unnecessary government is tyranny.  It can’t be based on right.  It is often true in the government of God that the sovereign, and not the subject, must be the judge of what is necessary legislation and government.  (Sovereign: the ultimate or supreme authority vested in a person or state)  Therefore, under no government are we to despise or reject laws simply because we can’t immediately see their importance, and as a result, we can’t see their wisdom.  Unless laws are unwise and unjust, we must respect and obey them even though we are unable to see their wisdom.  Under the government of God there can never be any doubt nor any ground for distrust and hesitancy concerning our duty to obey.