fies the law of nature. In John x. 34, and elsewhere, it signifies the Old Testament. In Gal. iii. 11, it is put for the works required by the law. In John i. 17, and elsewhere, it is a name given to the whole of the Mosaic dispensation. In popular use in Christian countries, it most commonly signifies the Moral Law containing the ten precepts or words as the Hebrew expresses it.

The law given from Mount Sinai consisted of three kinds of enactments:

1. Ceremonial prescriptions and carnal ordinances. These were very numerous. All the times, and modes, and circumstances of public worship, and all the varieties of cases that could arise under a ritual the most minute are here ordained. If salvation by rites the most exact, and extensive, and Heaven-appointed had been possible, verily it had been by the Mosaic law. It far outdoes all modern devices. Yet it was powerless. It never made the comers thereunto perfect. Heb. x. 1. Indeed it was an intolerable burden. Acts xv. 10. It could not be endured. It has been

wholly abolished. Acts xv. 28. And yet it had a shadow of good things to come. Heb. x. 1. Its , typical representations of the Messiah were both numerous and instructive. It was abolished by being fully accomplished.

2. Another part of the law given from Sinai related to judicial proceedings. It regulated commerce between man and man. It provided for the establishment of justice, and for the punishment of crime. Some of its provisions, as the cities of refuge, had a typical reference. Some of them constitute a good part of the foundation of the municipal and judicial

rules of all Christian nations. They are not, however, of binding force on us except as they contain the principles of right and equity applicable to all men; or, unless they are incorporated into the laws of the state to which we belong. We are not living under the theocracy.

3. The third part of the code given from Sinai is the Moral Law. Very often in Scripture it is mentioned by way of excellence as The Law. This is the great code by which men's thoughts accuse or excuse them before God, and by which they will be finally judged.

A

CHAPTER III.

THE MORAL LAW AS GIVEN IN
EXODUS XX. 1-17.

ND God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Six days

IV. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore 'he LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. VI. Thou shalt not kill.

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VIII. Thou shalt not steal.

IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Forty years later, Moses rehearsed these commandments to Israel, with slight variations, which in no degree affect our duty to God or man.

THE MORAL LAW AS GIVEN IN
DEUTERONOMY V. 6-21.

I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

I. Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

II. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

IV. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

VI. Thou shalt not kill.

VII. Neither shalt thou commit adultery.

VIII. Neither shalt thou steal.

IX. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.

X. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Thus we have in two different books the whole Moral Law. Its precepts are of two kinds; some enjoining duties; some forbidding sins. The fourth and fifth command certain things. All the rest pro. hibit certain things.