"HE WILL MAGNIFY THE LAW AND MAKE IT HONORABLE."
By S. Pierce
A. N. Seymour, in his 47th "unanswerable argument against seventh-day Sabbath-keeping," after having quoted the scripture above, says, "Where is the authority for saying that the law here referred to is confined to the decalogue? Let them give a thus saith the Lord that the ten precepts are a law first, then we will hear them." That they are a law, we refer the reader to Ex. xxiv, 12. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me in the mount and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them." Again, in Deut. v, after Moses had rehearsed the substance of the ten commandments to Israel, he says in verse 22, "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone and delivered them unto me." The record verbatim of what God with that voice said, is found in Ex. xx, 3-17. The above three scriptures taken together prove, 1. That God spake from Sinai the ten commandments with such a voice that the whole nation heard. 2. That he wrote them on two tables of stone. 3. That these constituted a law entire, or else he left his work unfinished, for he added no more. 4. That they were to be the basis of religious teaching. Ex. xxiv, 12; Deut. vi, 1, 7-9. In Neh. ix, 13, 14, it is also said, "Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, true laws, good statutes, and commandments, and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath." The above we understand God himself gave and made known. This constitutes one code. "And commandedest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant." This we understand constitutes another. Now if the law referred to in the text is the whole system of law as recorded by Moses, then the language of Nehemiah above is somewhat remarkable; and still more remarkable is the language of Eze. xx, 11-13: "And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness, they walked not in my statutes, and despised my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them. Then I said I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness." Now compare this with verses 24, 25. "Because they had not executed my judgments, but despised my statutes, and polluted my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols; wherefore [for which reason] I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they should not live." Consequently the good must have been given first, and these not good were given because the others were broken. We now wish to ascertain which of these laws the Lord was going to magnify. It does not seem a reasonable conclusion that he should magnify that code which was not good, that was against us, contrary to us, which he was about to blot out by nailing it to his cross. Col. ii, 14. The law of commandments contained in ordinances which he abolished in his flesh. Eph. ii, 15. Would it not be more reasonable to believe that he would magnify that law which is holy, just, and good [Rom. vii, 12], that perfect law of liberty by which we are to be judged? James i, 25; ii, 11, 12. Is it not evidently the law of which the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass?" Matt. v, 18. As proof that this is the law magnified, read verse 19; and as proof what law it is, read verses 21, 27. By his comments here on the sixth and seventh commandments of the decalogue, to show how broad they are, we discover how greatly he magnifies them. But when he treats of divorce [verses 31, 32], the126requisition of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth [verses 38-40], and of hating our enemies [verses 43-44], these principles he utterly repudiates. Hence we conclude that whatever he ratifies pertains to the good statutes, and these he magnifies. But those which he repudiates belong to statutes which were not good, and those he abolished. But here we inquire, Did he ratify and magnify the Sabbath law? Let the Lord himself answer. "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day." All believe that the fulfillment of this must have been as late as A. D. 70, thirty-nine years after those Sabbaths mentioned in Col. ii were nailed to the cross. Hear him again. Mark ii, 27. "The Sabbath was made for man." This expression meaning all mankind, as every grammarian knows, sweeps the first eleven "unanswerable arguments" all to destruction at once. But the climax of truth on this point is, that all flesh are going to observe this institution in the world to come, where they need no shadows; still they claim it to be a shadow, against reason, and more especially contrary to scripture. Still it is argued that to magnify the law alters or changes it. Let us see if it does. Gentlemen frequently visit some elevated site for the purpose of gratifying their vision with a view of country scenery. Supposing, while thus employed, they should at a distance discover a splendid edifice; and although it may not be so distant but that they can decide whether it be a private mansion or a public building, having with them a telescope for such purposes which magnifies 500 or 1000 times, they make use of it for a more particular examination of the object of their curiosity. They find by the aid of this glass that they can examine the exterior of this edifice in all its most minute particulars. The outside doors, windows, window-blinds, and clapboards, can all be distinguished from one another; and even the shingles on the roof may be distinguished and counted. This is called magnifying that object. Does it alter that edifice to magnify it? Not in the least. Then does it alter the law of God to magnify it? No more than it did the edifice. What does this telescope do to accomplish this magnifying process? It only cuts short the angle of vision so as to apparently bring the object near in proportion to the power of the instrument to magnify. Well, what is it then to magnify the law? The Lord promised in the new covenant to bring his laws so near as to put them in their mind and write them in their hearts.