Dr. Adam Clarke a Law Man.
We find very many, who accept of Dr. Clarke’s opinion in support of the supposed change of the Sabbath, but seldom hear him quoted in favor of the law. It is worthy of observation, however, for those who quote from this favorite source, that Dr. Clarke does not abolish God’s law to establish first-day observance. While he teaches that justification by faith, in the boundless mercy of God, is as reasonable, as it is scriptural and necessary, he also teaches that Christ’s death does not lessen our obligation to obey the moral law. Thus he comments upon Rom. iii, 20: “On the score of obedience to this moral law, there shall no flesh, no human being, be justified; none can be accepted in the sight of God. And why? Because by the law is the knowledge of sin; it is that which ascertains what sin is, shows how man have deviated from its righteous demands, and sentences them to death because they have broken it. Thus the law is properly considered as the rule of right, and is the only way by which the moral obliquity of human actions can be determined.” At the close of this chapter the learned Dr. remarks: “There is great danger on considering the glorious scheme of salvation, lest while we stand amazed at what was done for us, we neglect what must be done in us. He warns us to beware of Antinomianism, that is, of supposing that because Christ has been obedient unto death, there is no necessity for our obedience to its righteous commandments. If this were so the grace of Christ would tend to the destruction of the law, and not to its establishment. He only is saved from his sins who has the law of God written in his heart.” Again the law which is to regulate the whole of the outward conduct is holy. All is excellent and pure; but it neither pardons sin, nor purifies the heart; and it is because it is holy, just, and good, that it condemns transgressors to death. It is not the law, that is the cause of your death, but sin; and it was one design of the law to show the abominable and destructive nature of sin; as well as to be a rule of life. It would be almost impossible for a man to have that just notion of sin, so as to produce repentance, or to see the nature and necessity of the death of Christ, if the law were not applied to his conscience by the light of the Holy Spirit. And let it be observed, that the law did not answer this end merely among the Jews, in the days of the apostle; 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. The law therefore is the grand instrument in the hands of a faithful minister, to alarm and awaken sinners: and he may safely show that every sinner is under the law, and consequently under the curse, who has not fled for refuge to the hope held out by the Gospel; for in this sense also Jesus Christ is the end of the law for justification to them that believe. Dr. A. Clarke’s comments on Rom. vii, 12, 13. E. M. P.
North Parma, N. Y.