John Brown of Haddington On the Civil Government and the Law of God

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

From pg. 23 of J.B. of Haddington's Systematic Theology:

God, as Creator and Governor of the world, is the author of all civil government. Nor have either subjects or magistrates the smallest degree of liberty or power, but what they derive from Him, and for what they must be accountable to Him. Not, therefore, the will of subjects, or the the consciousnesses of magistrates, but the Law of God, as Supreme Governor, must be the real standard of all laws enacted by men. Nor must men's civil interests, but the Glory of God, as Founder and Supreme Governor of nations, be intended as their chief end, in all civil subjection and government. To maintain the contrary, necessarily involves in the depths of atheism.