DR. SCOTT'S COMMENTS ON THE LAW.
By Frank Starr
WHEN so many are teaching the abrogation of the law of God, it seems refreshing to read, on this point, the logical productions of those who wrote before this lawless sentiment had gained such ascendancy, and whose writings were so generally accepted half a century ago. We here give some extracts from the voluminous commentary of Dr. Thomas Scott. In his Practical Observations on the 20th of Exodus, he says: "This law, which is so extensive that we cannot measure it, so spiritual that we cannot evade it, and so reasonable that we cannot find fault with it, it will be the rule of the future judgment of God, as it is of the present conduct of man. Nor would it consist with the glory of the Lord's perfections, the honor of his government, the interests of his universal and everlasting kingdom, or even with the felicity of his rational creatures, to reverse, repeal, or relax one precept of it; for it is all perfectly 'holy, just and good.' . . . . But can it then be possible, if the law be so holy and excellent, and such honor have been put upon it by the obedience and sufferings of the incarnate Son of God, that any redeemed sinner should be allowed to disobey it? It is absurdity, impossibility, blasphemy!" How could the truth be more plainly stated? Concerning the sufferings of Christ, as portrayed in the 22d Psalm, he says: "Here we behold the eternal justice and holiness of our God; the immutable excellency and obligation of his law, the inconceivable odiousness and guilt of sin. . . . Let the Antinomian consider whether the Saviour thus honored the divine law, to purchase him the liberty of despising it?" The distinction between the moral law and the ceremonial, is thus stated in his notes on Ex. 34: 27, 28: "Moses wrote in a book the judicial and ceremonial precepts he had received; . . . . but God himself (as it is evident from texts referred to in the margin), wrote the ten commandments, the substance of the moral law, on the tables of stone. This difference strongly marked the permanency and perpetual obligation of the moral law, and the inferior importance and temporary obligation of the ceremonial institutions, and of the judicial law, except as coincident with the moral." Of chap. 24:12, he says: "The Lord called Moses to come up to him into the mount to receive the law, even the commandments, which God himself had written on two tables of stone, as well as spoken himself from the mount. Thus a peculiar honor was put on the moral law, and it was authenticated in another manner than either the judgments or the ritual institutions." One who officiated as Minister of the Gospel, made the assertion to me that the moral law was written on one table of stone, and the ceremonial on the other. The only proof claimed for this groundless statement, was the verse just noticed. Many suppose that the judicial precepts given to the Jews were very oppressive. Concerning them Dr. Scott says, commenting on Deut. 4:8: "Their laws also, whether moral or judicial, in proportion as they are examined and compared with the laws of other nations, will appear to every impartial judge most equitable and excellent." On Neh. 9:13: "The judgments given to Israel were more consistent with the true difference betwixt right and wrong, and the relative proportion of crimes and punishments, than the municipal laws of any other country have been." Also in explaining Ex. 21:1, he says: "Judgments. This word here means judicial laws, or rules of judgment, by which the magistrates and judges should proceed in determining causes, and trying criminals. Making some allowance for the circumstances varying in different ages and nations, there is a spirit of equity in these laws, which is well worthy of being transfused into those of any State." Speaking of salvation through Christ, in his observations on Psalm 37, he states: "They (the righteous) are accepted through the merits, because they are partakers of the Spirit, of Christ, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit." The fruits of the Spirit are such feelings and actions as are in harmony with the requirements of the law of God. Gal. 5:22, 23. These are necessary in order that the atonement may avail for us. There is a tendency to divide the word of truth in such a way as to set aside whatever is contrary to the carnal heart. But those who do this, wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. Terrible denunciations are pronounced against those who thus take away from the book of God. Springfield, Mich., March 14, 1881.