From REV. G. W. BETHUNE, D.D. of Brooklyn, N. Y. "THE lectures of Professor Wines on the Jewish polity are conceived in a liberal and philosophical spirit, and are written with thorough scholarship and learning. They are elaborate, comprehensive, and interesting, showing great research and aptness in the lecturer. His plan is novel, and his inferences logically drawn, and practically useful.” From the REV. DR. J. W. YEOMANS, of Pennsylvania. "PROFESSOR WINES presents, in a compendious and impressive form, a philosophical view of the Hebrew polity, which makes the legislation of Moses appear, as it truly is, the most wonderful and instructive system of legislation the world has ever seen.” From FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D. D., of New York. "FROM the examination I have been able to give the work of Mr. Wines on the laws and polity of the Hebrews, I think that it is characterized by signal ability, and that its publication cannot but be useful." Introductory Observations-Nature and Plan of the Work- Claims of the Hebrew Law to our Study and Regard―The Review of the leading Constitutions of Gentile Antiquity, with special reference to the Question, how far Civil Liberty was INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT. THE design of this introductory essay is to inquire into the origin and foundation of civil society and government; to unfold the nature, sources, and sanctions of political power; and to establish some general principles of polity, law, and administration. Next in importance to the science of religion, which teaches our relations to the Creator, and the science of morality, which explains our relations to our fellow men, is the science of government, which unfolds our relations and duties as members of civil society. There is, indeed, a beautiful alliance between theology, ethics, and jurisprudence. These sciences have a common origin, a common basis, and a common end.* The science of legislation, in effect, embraces our relations to God, to individual man, and to society. It includes within itself the most important principles of religion, morality, and law. No subject can more worthily engage the attention of a rational being; a being who has the happiness of himself and his species at heart. * Translator's Pref. to Burlamaqui's Principles of Natural and Politic Law. The true origin of civil government and its ultimate foundation, undoubtedly lie in the will of God. Government is, therefore, a divine institution. Reason, revelation, and the best human authority, concur in enforcing this conclusion. Let us interrogate each of these teachers in turn. What, in the first place, is the testimony of reason, that faculty of the soul, whose high office it is to investigate the mutual relations of things, to compare these relations together, and thence to infer just principles for forming our belief, and guiding our conduct? The exact point we are now in search of is, whether it be the will of God, that laws should be instituted among men; the manner of their enactment will be inquired into hereafter. 1. The aptitude of our nature for government is a clear indication of the divine origin of government.* Man is endowed with understanding and choice, sensible of pleasure and pain, and adapted to be moved by the expectation of rewards and punishments. The possession of such powers and susceptibilities indicates a purpose, just as the structure of the eye and the ear shows that these organs were designed for sight and hearing. For why should the Deity give us a nature so exactly suited to the reception of laws, if he had intended that none should ever be made for us? This would be creating so many useless faculties; it would be instituting an admirable system of means to no end; and it would, therefore, signify a waste of contrivance, inconsistent with absolute perfection. 2. An examination of human nature, in another aspect of it, will evince, that man was made for society, and consequently for government and law; for without these society. cannot exist. Two leading principles enter as elements into * Burlam. Prin. Nat. Law, Part ii., Chap. 2. |