INTERESTING EXTRACTS CONCERNING THE LAW OF GOD
By M. E. Cornell
Testimony of Eminent Authors.—No. 3.
INTERESTING EXTRACTS CONCERNING THE LAW OF GOD.
The law of ten commandments, called in Scripture the “lively oracles,” “royal law,” &c., seems to have been exalted purposely above those laws which were merely ritual and ceremonial. That the moral law should be spoken by the voice of God, and then written by his own finger in stone, is significant of its superiority over all other laws. And the fact that when the first tables were broken, other tables like the first must be prepared, and then God himself write the same identical ten commandments, no more, no less, on the second tables, shows the design of the Law-giver to impress the mind of man with the fact that this law was above all—the supreme and immutable constitution of the Creator of all things. This law is not Jewish—the voice that was heard, shook the whole earth on which all nations dwell. That which was spoken, concerns all nations. Strange that any should regard the ten commandments as merely Jewish! The Jews themselves, with all their blindness and self-exaltation, as being Abraham’s children and hence the exclusive heirs of the promises, have not vanity enough to claim that this was exclusively theirs. Their ancient commentators speak of “The Statutes of Adam,” and the “Precepts of Noah,” which, according to the account of Maimonides were substantially the same with the ten commandments. Acts 7:38; Rom. 3:2, compared with Deut. 4:8–13, will show clearly enough that the “oracles of God” were the ten commandments. Webster defines the word thus: “Oracle, from orare, to speak, to utter, from os, oris, the mouth.” “Oral, pertaining to the mouth, . . spoken, not written—as oral law, &c.” Josephus applies “oracle” to the ten commandments, and describes it as spoken, “that they might hear God himself speaking to them about precepts which they were to practice: that the energy of what should be spoken might not be hurt by its utterance by the tongue of a man. . . . And they all heard a voice that came to all of them from above, insomuch that no one of these words escaped them.”—B. iii, chap. 5. The Emphatic Diaglott, Bible Union, Anderson, and others, render “‘living oracles,’ oracles given by the living God, and that resembled the living God; a transcript of the divine mind and will.” No wonder that the apostle James (2:8) gives it the title, “royal law.” Webster defines royal, thus: “Fr. real. Lat. regalis. Kingly; pertaining to the crown; regal.” This “royal,” or supreme law, was not to wax old and vanish away like the ceremonial ordinances; hence it was engraved on stone, to show both its superiority and durability. All this will be readily admitted of every command except the fourth. But how can those who are willing to observe the first, second, and third commandments, stop short of the fourth? How can those who admit a holy God and his holy name refuse his holy day? Among those not to be saved, the Rabbis reckon the “deniers of the law,” and “him who says that the Creator has changed one command for another, and that the law has long since lost its authority, although it was given by God, as Christians and Mohammedans.”—Hilchoth T’shuvah, c. iii, 8. The great reformer, Martin Luther, believed in the perpetuity of the law of God. “Master Jobst, dining with Luther one day [in the year 1541], showed him certain propositions he had drawn up, to the effect that the law ought not to be preached, since it is not the law which justifies us. Luther grew quite angry at this: ‘What!’ he exclaimed, ‘shall our own people, while we ourselves are yet alive, propound such things as these? Oh! how highly ought we to honor Master Philip [Melanchthon] who inculcates with such perspicuity and truth the use of the law. . . . He who destroys the doctrine of the law, destroys, at the same time, political and social order. If you eject the law from the church, there will no longer be any sin recognized as such in the world; for the gospel only defines and punishes sin by reference to the law. If heretofore I, in my discourses, spoke and wrote so harshly against the law, it was because the Christian church was overwhelmed with superstitions, under which Christ was altogether hidden and buried; and I am anxious to rescue pious and God-fearing souls from the tyranny of the conscience; but as to the law itself, I never rejected it.”—Michelet’s Life of Luther, Hazlitt’s Trans., p. 315. In a letter against the Antinomians, printed in Samuel Rutherford’s Spiritual Antichrist, pp. 71, 72 (London, 1648), Luther says: “I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of ten commandments. . . . Can it be imaginable that there should be any sin where there is no law? Whosoever abrogates the law, must of necessity abrogate sin also.” Calvin says: “The law has sustained no diminution of its authority, but ought always to receive from us the same veneration and obedience.”—Institutes, B. ii, chap. vii, § 15. Dr. McCaul says: “How can a man have a just idea of setting the Lord always before him, who thinks that a cunning evasion of God’s commandments is permitted?”—Old Paths, p. 159. Alexander Campbell, in his debate with the Roman Catholic Bishop Purcell, says: “It is a poor apology for this expurgation of the decalogue, that it is not so done in the Douay Bible. What myriads, then, through this fraud, must have lived and died in the belief that the second commandment was no part of God’s law. It is clearly proved that the pastors of the church have struck out one of God’s ten WORDS! which, not only in the Old Testament, but in all revelation, are the most emphatically regarded as the synopsis of all religion and morality.”—Debate with Purcell, p. 214. Thomas Alexander, writing in the Religious Telescope, Jan. 21, 1857, said: “The law written on the two tables of stone is also written on our nature. In the keeping of it, as individuals, and so as families, and as a nation, there is great reward. God not only blesses the day, but he blesses those that hallow it. Let each of us, therefore, as he would see God in peace, keep holy the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” John Wesley says: “In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ, are they who openly and explicitly ‘judge the law’ itself, and ‘speak evil of the law;’ who teach men to break [λυσα, to dissolve, to loose, to untie the obligation of,] not one only, whether of the least, or of the greatest, but all the commandments at a stroke; who teach without any cover, in so many words, ‘What did our Lord do with the law? He abolished it’!”—Wesley’s Works, Vol. i, pp. 225, 226. William Tyndale, the martyr, A. D. 1630, remarks: “All the whole law is comprehended in the ten commandments. And the ten commandments are comprehended in these two: Love God and thy neighbor. And he that loveth his neighbor, in God, and in Christ, fulfilleth these two; and, consequently, the ten.” “Now if any man, that submitteth not himself to keep the commandments, do think that he hath any faith in God, the same man’s faith is vain, and is no faith that can justify or be accepted before God.” “Now read all scriptures, and see where God sent any man to preach mercy to any, save unto them only that repent, and turn to God with all their hearts, to keep his commandments.”—Doctrinal Treatises, p. 470. John Quincy Adams once remarked: “The decalogue, having been spoken by the voice, and twice written upon the stone tables, by the finger of God, may be considered as the foundation of the whole system.” President Mahan in his work on Christian Perfection, p. 281, says: “The doctrine of holiness as here maintained, contemplates the moral law as the only rule and standard of moral conduct; and consists in perfect conformity to the precepts of this law.” Charlotte Elizabeth, in a letter to the Bishop of Jerusalem, remarked: “I would to God that our dear brother Ewald could convince the Christian church that the ten commandments are not abrogated!” Neander was for the law: “It is no New-Testament idea, least of all a Pauline one, that Christ effected the abrogation of the law by his doctrine.”—Hist. Chr. Dogmas, p. i. Dr. Adam Clarke, speaking of the law as that which makes known sin, remarks: “And let it be observed that the law did not answer this end, merely among the Jews, in the days of the apostles; it is just as necessary to the Gentiles, to the present hour. Nor do we find that true repentance takes place where the moral law is not preached and enforced. Those who preach only the gospel to sinners, at best only heal the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly.”—Commentary on Rom. 7:13. Dr. Cummings of England says: “The law of ten commandments is, in its nature, unchangeable and permanent. It was ordained by the supreme Law-giver, as the infallible rule of life, to all men, in every age of the world, in all places, under all circumstances, in every nation, and generation of men on the earth. Not one jot or tittle of it was ever abolished, nor diminished, nor altered in the least degree, by the change of dispensation from Jewish to Christian.”—Signs of the Times, pp. 23, 39. Spurgeon of England says: “No human law-giver could have given forth such a law as that which we find in the decalogue.” “There is not a command too many; there is not one too few; but it is so incomparable that its perfection is a proof of its divinity.” “The law of God is a divine law, holy, heavenly, perfect. Those who find fault with the law, or in the least degree depreciate it, do not understand its design.” President Humphrey of Amherst College, on the ten commandments, says: “The law has no limitations, and therefore can never expire. It has never been repealed, and as the sacred canon is full and complete, we are certain it never will be. It is, therefore, binding on every one of us at this moment; and will be upon all future generations. No human authority may expunge a single word from the statutes of Jehovah.”—Essay on the Sabbath, p. 24. Dr. Albert Barnes, in his comments on Matt. 5:19, says: “We learn hence, 1. That all the law of God is binding on Christians. 2. That all the commands of God should be preached in their proper place, by Christian ministers. 3. That they who pretend that there are any laws of God so small that they need not obey them, are unworthy of his kingdom. And 4. That true piety has respect to all the commands of God, and keeps them.” PURITAN FATHERS ON THE LAW.
In the “Confession of Faith,” owned and consented to by the elders and messengers of the churches, assembled at Boston in New England, May 12, 1680, chapter 19, we have the following: “This law, so written in the heart, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall of man, and was delivered by God on Mount Sinai in ten commandments, and written on two tables; the first four commandments containing our duty toward God, and the other six our duty to man.” “The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it; neither doth Christ in the gospel anywise dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation.” “Neither are the forementioned uses of the law contrary to the graces of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully, which the will of God revealed in the law, requireth to be done.”—Mather’s Magnalia, Vol. ii, pp. 196, 197. None but Christ could change or annul the law of God. Did he do it? Matt. 5:17–19 is sufficient proof that he did not. Norton translates it as follows: “Think not that I have come to annul the law or the prophets. I have not come to annul, but to perfect. I tell you in truth, not till heaven and earth pass away, shall the smallest letter or stroke pass away from the law; no, not till all things are ended.” Dickenson renders it: “Imagine not that I have appeared to subvert the law or the prophets; I have not come to subvert, but115to establish. For I assure you, Sooner shall heaven and earth vanish than even a single point or tittle be taken from the law, till its object be accomplished. Any person, therefore, who shall violate one of the least of these injunctions and inculcate the same to others, will be regarded as the least in the reign of Heaven; but he who shall perform and teach them, will be received as great in the same dominion. For I declare to you that unless your integrity shall surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you cannot indeed enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Kendrick’s exposition of it is as follows: “Think not there is any such liberty or licentiousness in my kingdom that, to gratify your expectations of it, I will dispense with any of the rules of morality prescribed by Moses, and explained by the prophets. I am so far from any design of annulling them that I intend to teach them more clearly and perfectly than ever they were taught before.” Murdock’s Translation of the Syriac Testament: “Do not suppose that I have come to subvert the law or the prophets: I have come not to subvert, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, that until heaven and earth shall pass away, one iota, or one letter, shall not pass from the law, until all shall be fulfilled.” The Emphatic Diaglott: “Think not that I have come to subvert the law, or the prophets: I have come not to subvert, but to establish. For, indeed, I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one iota, or one tip of a letter, shall by no means pass from the law, till all be accomplished.” Dr. Geo. Campbell: “Think not that I am come to subvert the law, or the prophets. I am come not to subvert, but to ratify. For verily I say unto you, Heaven and earth shall sooner perish than one iota, or one tittle, of the law, shall perish without attaining its end.” H. T. Anderson’s New Testament, of high repute among the Disciples, says: “Think not that I have come to make the law or the prophets of no effect. I have not come to make them of no effect, but to give them their full efficiency. For verily I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot, or one point, shall in no way pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” The Douay, or Catholic, version reads: “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For, amen, I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”