Thomas Houston on the nation’s obligation to the moral law

[Reformed Covenanter]

This standard [of national righteousness] can be none other than the Moral Law, the rule of universal rectitude, propounded with greater or less degrees of clearness, but demanding of all cordial and unlimited obedience. National righteousness implies freedom from national crimes, – recognition of the obligation of the Divine law, – and the practice of equity, truth and mercy, in acts of positive obedience to the will of Jehovah, the universal Sovereign. To have the character of righteousness in a proper and full sense, nations must receive the law from the hands of the Mediator, and rulers and subjects to a large extent embrace and exemplify the Gospel. They must assume the revelation of mercy as the basis of their public measures, and carry into application those principles of universal justice which receive the fullest development, and the most powerful confirmation from the Mediatorial system.

The law of nations, or the law of nature, is the same as the Moral Law, originally written on man’s moral constitution, and still found in scattered and imperfect lineaments in the hearts and consciences of men, and in the laws and customs of all nations under heaven. The only full and clear republication of this law is contained in the Scriptures of truth, in connexion with the remedial scheme that effectually provides for man’s recovery from ruin, through the wondrous obedience and death of the Lawgiver. This is the grand rule of moral rectitude to nations as well as to individuals. ...

For more, see Thomas Houston on the nation’s obligation to the moral law.