The law of God as contained in the ten commandments, explained and enforced

Front matter

THE

LAW OF GOD,

AS

Chapter I. Gkeat Truths

PT1HINK not that I am come to destroy the law or JL the prophets ; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. . . . It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.

Jesus Christ.

To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams. Samuel.

The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. . . . A good understanding have all they that do his commandments.

David.

The commandment is a lamp and the law is light.

Solomon.

He will magnify the law and make it honourable. . . . The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. Isaiah.

The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good. . . . Do we then make void the

GREAT TRUTHS.

law through faith ? God forbid : yea, we establish the law. Paul.

If thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law but a judge. . . . There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. James.

Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law. John.

If we have not the spirit of grace, the law comes only to convict and slay us. Augustine.

If even for one day I fail to compare my heart with the law of God, I am sensible of a decline in my devotional feelings. . . . If I give unto the law its proper definition, and keep it within the compass of its office and use, it is an excellent thing ; but if I translate it to another use and attribute that unto it which I should not, then do I not only pervert the law, but also the whole Scripture. Luther.

The law is like a mirror, in which we behold, first, our impotence ; secondly, our iniquity, which proceeds from it ; and lastly, the consequence of both, our obnoxiousness to the curse. Calvin.

There was never so much matter and marrow, with so much admirably holy cunning, compended, couched and conveyed in so few words, by the most laconic, concise, sententious and singularly significant spokesman in the world as we find in the moral law.

Durham.

The dignity of the name of divine laws is reserved to those which concern the duties of religion, such as the two fundamental laws [love to God and love to

GREAT TRUTHS.

man] the Decalogue, and all the precepts contained in the Holy Scriptures about faith and practice.

Domat.

Two things there are, which, the oftener and the more steadfastly we consider, fill the mind with an ever new, an ever rising admiration and reverence ; the starry heavens above, and the moral law within.

Kant.

Ignorance of the nature and design of the law is at the bottom of most religious mistakes.

John Newton.

None but rogues and felons look at a law to find out how they may evade it. Hare.

Of the law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, the greatest as not exempted from her power. Both angels, and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and measure, yet all with uniform consent, admitting her as the mother of their peace and joy. Hooker.

I am confident of it, and affirm boldly there is not one man made free by Christ, that makes it his rule to be bold to commit sin because of the redemption that is in the blood of Christ ; but that Christ who hath redeemed from sin and wrath, hath also redeemed from a vain conversation. All that have the pardon purchased by Christ for them, have also the power of God in them, which keeps them that they break not out licentiously. Crisp.

GREAT TRUTHS,

1 Though the moral law is not a Christ to justify us, yet it is a rule to instruct us. . . . The law of God is a hedge to keep us within the bounds of sobriety and piety. Thomas Watson.

Those only, who obey the word of the Lord's direction, shall enjoy the consolations of his love. Mason.

If a man have not spiritual and just apprehensions of the holy law, he cannot have spiritual and transforming discoveries of the glorious gospel.

COLQTJHOUN.

The purity of the law appears from its forbidding sin in all its modifications, in its most refined as well as in its grossest forms ; the taint of the mind as well as the pollution of the body ; the secret approbation of sin, as well as the external act, the transient look of desire, the almost unperceived irregular motion.

Dick.

The divine legislator sees and knows the relations of things perfectly. He can draw no wrong deductions from them. He can make no mistake. Whatever laws have certainly emanated from him are certainly right. Sharswood.

LAW DEFINED.

Chapter II. Law Defined

A LAW is a rule of action. Johnson.

A law is a rule of action laid down or prescribed by a superior. Worcester.

Law as applicable to human conduct in general, may be defined a rule of moral action proceeding from a superior, having right to command, and directed to inferiors bound to obey.

Edinburgh Review.

Law is beneficence acting by rule. Burke.

Law in its general and most comprehensive sense signifies a rule of action. Blackstone.

A law is that which directs, prescribes, or controls.

Stowell.

That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, that which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint the form and measure of working, the same we term a law. Hooker.

The law is void of desire and fear, lust and anger. It is mens sine affectu, mind without passion, written reason, retaining some measure of the divine perfection. It does not enjoin that which pleases a weak,

LAW DEFINED.

frail man, but without any regard to persons, commands that which is good, and punishes evil in all, whether rich or poor, high or low. It is deaf, inexorable, inflexible. Sidney.

To every good law be required these properties : that is to say, that it be honest, righteous, possible in itself, and after the custom of the country, convenient for the place and time, necessary, profitable, and also manifest, that it be not captious by any dark sentences, or mixed with any private wealth, but all made for the commonwealth. St. Germain.

The Moral Law is a divine, unchangeable rule given to man, and accommodated to his nature, as he was created by God, obliging him to serve to God's glory as his last end. Willard.

The Moral Law is that which prescribes to men their religious and social duties ; in other words, their duties to God and to each other. N. Webster.

The Moral Law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding every one to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity, and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole man, soul and body, and in the performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he oweth to God and man: promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of it. Westminster Assembly.

A law, then, is a rule of binding force, given by a competent authority. It consists of two parts ; first.

a precept or direction given ; and secondly ', a sanction annexed, consisting of good secured to the obedient, or of evil threatened against the transgressor, or of both of these. A law without a sanction may be disregarded at pleasure. It is no law. It is mere advice. Blackstone: — "Of all the parts of a law, the most effectual is the vindicatory. . . . The main strength and force of the law consists in the penalty annexed to it." Promises of good, irrespective of law, are mere gratuities. Threatenings of evil, having no reference to law, are but arbitrary expressions of displeasure.

The Hebrew word commonly rendered Law, occurs more than two hundred times. It primarily signifies instruction, then precept. In a few cases it signifies a custom or manner so established as to form the rule of procedure. ,

The Greek word rendered Law occurs in the New Testament nearly two hundred times. Primarily it signifies any thing allotted or apportioned, then a usage or prescription, then a law.

It is not certain whether the Latin word rendered Law comes from a verb which signifies to read, because, in Rome, the laws were not binding till they were posted so that they might be read; or from a verb which signifies to tie or make fast, because law is of binding force.

In the Scriptures, the precise meaning of the word Law is varied according to the subject under consideration. In Psalms i. and xix., it is put for the whole word of God as then written. In Horn. vii. 23, it twice has the sense of a force governing our actions in our present sinful state. In Rom. ii. 14, it signi-

LAW DEFINED.

fies the law of nature. In John x. 34, and elsewhere, it signifies the Old Testament. In G-al. 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

LAW DEFINED.

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.

16 THE MORAL LAW AS GIVEN IN EXODUS.

Chapter III. The Moral Law As Given In Exodus XX. 1-17

A ND God spake all these words, saying, I am the XjL 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.

IT. 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.

IV. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days 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 the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

THE MORAL LAW AS GIVEN IN DEUTERONOMY. 17

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.

L 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.

2 *

18 THE MORAL LAW AS GIVEN IN DEUTERONOMY.

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 man-servant, 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 Lata. Its precepts are of two kinds ; some enjoining duties ; some forbidding sins. The fourth and fifth command certain things. All the rest prohibit certain things.

THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

Chapter IV. The Giving Of The Law

I. r | IHE law was first given from Sinai two thou- JL sand five hundred and thirteen years after the creation. It is now, (1864,) three thousand three hundred and fifty-five years since this, code was delivered to mankind in writing. To those living previous to the time of Moses, many of its precepts seem to have been pretty clearly taught by the light of nature, as indeed they are to all men. Paul says, "As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law." Rom. ii. 12. Speaking of the heathen he adds, that " the work of the law is written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness" to it. Rom. ii. 15. Doubtless also, much of the divine will was known to eastern nations, by revelations with which they were made acquainted from time to time, before and during the existence of the theocracy. Melchisedec, Job, and the wise men who brought their gifts to the infant Saviour, are illustrations of what is here meant. It has always been true that, " in every nation, he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him." Acts x. 35.

II. In giving the law, God exercised an unques-

THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

tionable right. Every one's conscience says as much. Man is a creature. Surely his Creator has a right to direct him. In this very connection God claims universal sovereignty, saying, " All the earth is mine." Ex. xix.~5. Calvin: "God asserts his authority and right of giving commands, and thereby lays his chosen people under the necessity of obeying him." Man is dependent. If he, on whom he depends may not direct him, surely none else can, and man is not fit to direct himself, for he is blind, foolish and perverse. That God is fit to be a lawgiver, it is blasphemy to deny. The act of God in giving this law is therefore no usurpation, no encroachment upon our rights. It is but controlling, regulating, and asserting his own sovereignty over that which belongs to him by every conceivable tie. Weak as men are, they claim the right of doing as they please with their own. Who can deny the same to God ? He is infinitely wise. None of his enactments are foolish or mischievous. In their operation they produce good only. Even the best temporal princes have erred for lack of wisdom. To charge the same on God is atrocious wickedness. God is good. He has no evil designs. Malevolence is as far removed from him as folly. He is the most loving Being in the universe. Such a governor could not enact unrighteous laws.

III. In giving the law, God delivered it not as counsel or advice but as law. The very form of enactment indicates this — " Thou shalt," " Thou shalt not," " Honour thy father," and " Remember the Sabbath day." None but the perverse can misunderstand such language. Besides, God annexes sanctions to some of the precepts in immediate connection with

THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

theni, and sanctions to the whole code in many general teachings of Scripture. These sanctions consist of rewards promised, and punishments threatened. AH, therefore, which could prove any writing to be a law in the highest sense of the term, is found here. Competent authority enacts. The enactment has all the form of statute. The statute is supported by adequate sanctions. Stowell : " Obedience and blessing, disobedience and a curse, holiness and heaven, impurity and hell ; these are the unalterable connections which constitute the sanctions of the law of God." '

IV. In giving a law, we should expect God to enact nothing dishonourable to himself. This is just what we find in the moral law. There is no objection to the assertion that this law is a transcript of the moral character of God. He is not dishonoured by such a remark. The law is worthy of its author. The glory which Jehovah gets from the holy angels arises from their conformity to it. A great end accomplished by the gospel is the recovery of believers from sin to an agreement with the excellence of this law. In it there is nothing derogatory to the character of God. The only perfectly happy society in the universe is that of heaven, where every member is wholly conformed to the requirements of this code. The only perfectly wretched community in the universe is that of the world of darkness, where every member is entirely opposite and contrary to all the provisions of this law. On earth bodies of men are found to be either happy or miserable in proportion as they are more or less conformed to this code, so far as it regulates their intercourse with each other.

THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

V. This law was given amidst the most extraordinary displays ever made upon earth, or ever to be made until the last day. The Jews have a tradition that there were seventy thousand angels present at the giving of the law. This may he a very incorrect enumeration ; probably it is. The number may have been far greater ; for t£ the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels." The number present was probably "innumerable." Heb. xii. 22. We have the best authority for stating that the law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Gal. iii. 19. The whole visible church of God on earth was also assembled around Mount Sinai on that occasion.

The greatest of all was that God himself was there — God, who is a consuming fire, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, whose dwelling-place is eternity, and before whom all nations are as a drop of the bucket. Yes, Jehovah was there in the brightest robes of glory and the most august and overpowering tokens of divine majesty. " So terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." Heb. xii. 21. If such was the effect upon Moses, who spake to God face to face, it requires no stretch of the imagination to conceive how terror must have seized the people. Ex. xx. 19; Deut. v. 5, 23-28. Nor was God angry with them for being thus alarmed. The sight must have been terrific. The poetio description given by Moses is in these words :

" The Lord came from Sinai, And rose up from Seir unto them ; He shined forth from Mount Paran, And he came with ten thousands of saints :

From his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people."

VI. The moral law was given in a way altogether peculiar. God never made to man in like manner any other communication. In the midst of the grand and awful appearances already alluded to, it was spoken by the Almighty in an audible voice from the top of Sinai, in the hearing of all the people. No other part of the law of Moses was thus uttered by Jehovah. Deut. iv. 33 ; v. 4, 22. Without any variation it was also twice written on tables of stone by the finger of God himself. Ex. xxxii. 15, 16 ; xxxiv. 1 ; Deut. x. 4, 5. The Lord would have it graven on a rock. These tables were long preserved in the ark of the testimony, covered with the divine glory. Ex. xxv. 16, 21 ; xxxvii. 1-9. Moreover, great preparations were, by divine command, made by the people for the space of two days together. They cleansed themselves and their raiment from all pollutions that they might come and stand before the Lord. Ex. xix. 10, 11. Every man seems to have been anxious to make himself ready for that great and dreadful day of hearing the law ; a day more great and dreadful than ever any shall be, except that of judging men according to the law.

Besides, a strict injunction was given them to beware of touching the mount, or offering to ascend it, — a fence was placed around it, which was not to be violated on pain of death. Ex. xix. 12. " If so much as a beast touch the mountain, it was to be stoned, or thrust through with a dart." Heb. xii. 20. And even after God had descended upon the mountain, and the people had been brought out of the camp to meet with him, Moses was again called up to receive a new and more imperative prohibition of the transgression of the appointed limits. "Go down," said God, "charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them." Ex. xix. 21, 22. No marvel that our Saviour said to the Jews, " Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me." John v. 46.

VII. At the giving of the moral law, it was not called by the name of the "Ten Commandments." Nor is it so denominated in any part of the Hebrew Scripture. It is more than once spoken of as the Ten Words. Ex. xxxiv. 28 ; Deut. iv. 13 ; x. 4. Yet the English version renders the Hebrew in these cases Commandments ; but the original requires it should be Words ; for we have not the word commonly rendered Commandments. Sometimes the Moral Law is called the Covenant, or the words of the covenant. Ex. xxxiv. 28 ; Deut. iv. 13 ; 1 Kings viii. 21 ; 2 Chron. vi. 11 ; Jer. xxxi. 32-34. Very often in Scripture the Decalogue has the name of the Law and sometimes of the Commandments. It is also often called the Testimony.

Chapter V. The General Character Of The Law

I. f 1 1HE law of God is unbending, uncompliant, J- This is the~ nature of all law. The law of gravitation in nature yields nothing to circumstances. The good man and the bad man alike feel its force in the prosecution of their benevolent or nefarious designs. A law that would yield to the caprices of men would be of no service either to direct them or to set forth the character of the lawgiver. The divine law may be broken, but it will not bend. We could have no confidence in the unchangeable character of God, if we found his law varying from time to time. He is a Rock, and his work is perfect. "I am the Lord, I change not." Mai. iii. 6. Domat : " There are no natural and immutable laws but those which come from God."

II. The law of God is one and not many. There is no conflict between its several precepts. The same authority enacts, the same benevolence pervades, the same sanctions attend each commandment. It is for this reason that an apostle says, " Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James ii. 10. The law is a chain of many links. Break which link you please, and the chain is broken. Hare : " All God's commandments hang together : they are knit and woven together like a fine net, wherein you cannot loosen a single stitch without danger of unravelling the whole. . . . There is no letting any one devil into our souls, without the risk of his going and fetching seven other devils wickeder than himself." Although, by its peculiar form, the law seems to require only a few leading duties and to forbid a few atrocious sins, yet even this arrangement is found to be useful. Calvin : "Anger and hatred are not supposed to be such execrable crimes when they are mentioned under their own proper appellations ; but when they are forbidden to us under the name of murder, we have a clearer perception how abominable they are in the view of God, by whose word they are classed under such a flagitious and horrible species of crime, and being influenced by his judgment, we accustom ourselves more seriously to consider the atrociousness of those offences which we previously accounted trivial."

III. The law requires compliance with its demands as obedience to Crod. It is not an accidental conformity to the letter of the law that will satisfy its claims. Men may avoid, for good reasons, the violations of its rules of temperance, honesty, and truth ; but without any reference to the authority of the divine lawgiver. For their sobriety and uprightness they have their reward in health, thrift, and respectability. Men find infractions of the commandments oftentimes inconvenient and troublesome. To avoid vexation they outwardly conform, but this is not obedience to Grod. In all this they are consulting their

THE GENERAL CHARACTER OE THE LAW. 27

own profit and advantage and not at all the glory of Him who made them.

Domat : " It is for God himself that God has made man. It is that he may know him, that he has given him an understanding ; it is that he may love him, that he has given him a will ; and it is by the ties of this knowledge, and of this love, that he would have men to unite themselves to him, that they may find in him their true life." This makes them like God.