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to it knows no sin.

Whoever wants

conformity to it Whoever wants so far a sinner.

in all respects is perfectly wicked. conformity to it in any respect is There is no moral goodness but is here enjoined. There is no moral evil but is here prohibited. Whether men's hearts and lives agree with other codes is a matter of comparatively small importance. If they agree with this, no more is required. If they disagree with this, conformity to any other can do them no good beyond this life. . Every thing in the moral law is "exceedingly lovely and desirable."

VI. This law is of perpetual obligation. Some statutes expire by limitation. On their very face. they are to be of binding force only for a term of years. But the law of God, as it has been the code of heaven ever since the creation of angels or men, so shall it be in the "dateless and irrevoluble ages of eternity." Sometimes a statute ceases to be binding, because it is repealed by a competent authority. But God has never repealed a single provision of the moral law. Christ himself declared that his mission was not to set aside any of its enactments but to fulfil them. And long after Christ's ascension the apostles repeated in various forms the precepts of the decalogue as in full force. This law is unrepealed and unrepealable. Colquhoun: "The authority and obligation of the law of nature, which is the same as the law of the Ten Commandments, being founded in the nature of God, the Almighty Creator, and Sovereign, and Ruler of men, are necessary, immutable, and eternal." It is making Christ the minister of sin, and his blood the justification of licentiousness, to hold that the gospel sets aside or relaxes the moral

law. Having stated with great force the doctrine of salvation by grace, Paul says, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! yea, we establish the law." Rom. iii. 31. We have never seen the Ten Commandments aright, unless we have perceived that "the obligations under which believers lie to yield obedience to them are greatly increased by the grace of the Redeemer and the mercies of redemption. If the saints are obliged as creatures, they are still more firmly bound as new creatures to keep those commandments. The great Redeemer gives this

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high command to all his redeemed: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

It

VII. This law, like its Author, is supreme. admits of no rival code-no conflicting claims. Within certain limits, father, mother, teacher, guardian, civil governments may and must be obeyed. But when they trench upon the authority of the statutes of the Lord, we can but set them aside. "We ought to obey God rather than man." Acts v. 29. Because God is greater than man, his commands override all others. God's supremacy establishes the supremacy of his laws. If He is over all, so are they. If He admits no rivals, neither do they. If any authority must yield, surely it ought not to be that of Heaven. If any claims may be deferred, those of the decalogue must not. Obedience to it may be threatened and followed by imprisonment, expatriation, confiscation, and crucifixion; but still it must be rendered. Though all other governments be disobeyed, here is a government that must not be slighted.

VIII. This law is in itself practicable. Man did

obey it perfectly until he fell from righteousness. His failure to obey it now is not chargeable to the law itself, but to his love of sin. A perfectly holy creature finds no difficulty in perfectly conforming to its requirements. It can be kept-it can be kept perfectly-it can be kept without weariness to its subjects. Though in the best of mere men on earth, piety is imperfect, yet the judgment of all the pious is, that the fault is their's and not God's.

Duncan: "What a strong argument for the divine origin of the system of Moses is furnished by the excellence of the moral precepts embodied in it! In science, in art, in almost every thing of a merely secular kind, the Israelites were far inferior to many nations of antiquity; yet in the writings possessed by them we find views of the character of God, and of the duty which he requires from men, immeasurably superior to those which prevailed among the most intelligent contemporary nations-nay, to those which are contained in the writings of the wisest philosophers of Greece or Rome. This fact cannot be explained on any other principle than that stated by the Psalmist The Lord made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments they have not known them.'

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CHAPTER VI.

CORRECT RULES OF INTERPRETING THE LAW.

VERY document is to be explained according to its nature and design. As the law of God is spiritual, and the intention of giving it was the promotion of the divine glory, it becomes a matter of great importance that we rightly understand it. An error here may be fatal. By rules of interpretation, let no one understand so much a reference to the mere words of the law as to the general scope of the whole; and yet the sense, of course, is not to be learned without a correct grammatical construction of the words in which it is delivered. Let these rules be heeded.

I. Although no two commandments are precisely the same, yet it frequently occurs that one and the same thing, in different aspects, is required or forbidden in several commandments. Thus the eighth commandment says, "Thou shalt not steal," and the tenth says, "Thou shalt not covet." Now though there may be covetousness without actual stealing, yet there cannot be actual stealing without covetousness. So both these commandments virtually forbid us to lust after that which belongs to another. In like manner, covetousness often leads to Sabbathbreaking, and thus the fourth commandment often

forbids the same sin as the tenth.

And as the third

commandment requires the reverent use of God's name, and as the right observance of the fourth commandment greatly promotes the fear of God, so these two commandments thus far enjoin the same thing. Colquhoun: "The first commandment is so closely connected with all the other precepts, that it is obeyed in all our obedience, and disobeyed in all our disobedience. Obedience or disobedience to it is virtually obedience or disobedience to the whole law."

II. Where a duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden: and where a sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded; and where a promise to the obedient is annexed, the contrary threatening to the disobedient is included; and where a threatening against the transgressor is annexed, the contrary promise to the obedient is implied. Colquhoun:

"The duties required in the law cannot be performed, without abstaining from the sins forbidden in it; and the sins forbidden cannot be avoided, unless the contrary duties be performed. We must not only cease to do what the commands forbid, but do what they require; otherwise we do not obey them sincerely. A negative holiness is far from being acceptable to God. Every affirmative precept includes a negative one, and every negative command contains an affirmative." Thus the fifth commandment requires us to honour father and mother. Of course it forbids every act of disrespect to them. The eighth commandment, which forbids the sin of stealing, requires us to do all within our power to promote the temporal welfare of our fellow men. So also the promise of long life, affixed to the obeying of the fifth cominand

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