be actually committed. But God, whose eye nothing escapes, and who esteems not so much the external appearance as the purity of the heart, in the prohibition of adultery, murder, and theft, comprises the prohibition of lust, wrath, hatred, coveting what belongs to another, fraud, and every similar vice. For, being a spiritual legislator, he addresses himself to the soul as much as to the body. . Human ་ laws are satisfied, when a man abstains from external transgression. But on the contrary, the divine law being given to our minds, the proper regulation of them is the principal requisite to a righteous observance of it." The moral law enjoins all those things which are honourable to God and profitable to man. It extends to the affections and pronounces unholy desires to be sin, and all pious longings to be pleasing to God. It regulates motives. It declares David's desire to build a house for God to be pleasing to his Maker. It declares worthless all the fiery and ostentatious zeal of Jehu for the reformation of the true religion. The heart is the very centre of its dominion. The state of men's spirits no less than the actions of their lives falls under its precepts. Wickedness conceived is as truly an offence against its righteousness as wickedness acted out. "The thought of foolishness is sin." A malicious feeling, like a malicious word or deed, an unholy conception as truly as a wicked performance, infracts its principles. "Man judgeth by the outward appearance, but the LORD pondereth the heart." V. The law is right. It is an unerring standard of duty. It is holy, just, and good. The Spirit of God is its author. Whoever is perfectly conformed to it knows no sin. Whoever wants conformity to it in all respects is perfectly wicked. Whoever wants conformity to it in any respect is so far a sinner. There is no moral goodness but is here enjoined. There is no moral evil but is here prohibited. Whether men's hearts and lives agree with other codes is a matter of comparatively small importance. If they agree with this, no more is required. If they disagree with this, conformity to any other can do them no good beyond this life. Every thing in the moral law is "exceedingly lovely and desirable." VI. This law is of perpetual obligation. Some statutes expire by limitation. On their very face they are to be of binding force only for a term of years. But the law of God, as it has been the code of heaven ever since the creation of angels or men, so shall it be in the "dateless and irrevoluble ages of eternity." Sometimes a statute ceases to be binding, because it is repealed by a competent authority. But God has never repealed a single provision of the moral law. Christ himself declared that his mission was not to set aside any of its enactments but to fulfil them. And long after Christ's ascension the apostles repeated in various forms the precepts of the decalogue as in full force. This law is unrepealed and unrepealable. Colquhoun: "The authority and obligation of the law of nature, which is the same as the law of the Ten Commandments, being founded in the nature of God, the Almighty Creator, and Sovereign, and Ruler of men, are necessary, immutable, and eternal.” It is making Christ the minister of sin, and his blood the justification of licentiousness, to hold that the gospel sets aside or relaxes the moral law. Having stated with great force the doctrine of salvation by grace, Paul says, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! yea, we establish the law." Rom. iii. 31. We have never seen the Ten Commandments aright, unless we have perceived that "the obligations under which believers lie to yield obedience to them are greatly increased by the grace of the Redeemer and the mercies of redemption. If the saints are obliged as creatures, they are still more firmly bound as new creatures to keep those commandments. The great Redeemer gives this high command to all his redeemed: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It Because VII. This law, like its Author, is supreme. admits of no rival code-no conflicting claims. Within certain limits, father, mother, teacher, guardian, civil governments may and must be obeyed. But when they trench upon the authority of the statutes of the Lord, we can but set them aside. "We ought to obey God rather than man. Acts v. 29. God is greater than man, his commands override all others. God's supremacy establishes the supremacy of his laws. If He is over all, so are they. If He admits no rivals, neither do they. If any authority must yield, surely it ought not to be that of Heaven. If any claims may be deferred, those of the decalogue must not. Obedience to it may be threatened and followed by imprisonment, expatriation, confiscation, and crucifixion; but still it must be rendered. Though all other governments be disobeyed, here is a government that must not be slighted. VIII. This law is in itself practicable. Man did obey it perfectly until he fell from righteousness. His failure to obey it now is not chargeable to the law itself, but to his love of sin. A perfectly holy creature finds no difficulty in perfectly conforming to its requirements. It can be kept-it can be kept perfectly-it can be kept without weariness to its subjects. Though in the best of mere men on earth, piety is imperfect, yet the judgment of all the pious is, that the fault is their's and not God's. Duncan: "What a strong argument for the divine origin of the system of Moses is furnished by the excellence of the moral precepts embodied in it! In science, in art, in almost every thing of a merely secular kind, the Israelites were far inferior to many nations of antiquity; yet in the writings possessed by them we find views of the character of God, and of the duty which he requires from men, immeasurably superior to those which prevailed among the most intelligent contemporary nations-nay, to those which are contained in the writings of the wisest philosophers of Greece or Rome. This fact cannot be explained on any other principle than that stated by the Psalmist The Lord made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments they have not known them. : CHAPTER VI. CORRECT RULES OF INTERPRETING THE LAW. EV VERY document is to be explained according to its nature and design. As the law of God is spiritual, and the intention of giving it was the promotion of the divine glory, it becomes a matter of great importance that we rightly understand it. An error here may be fatal. By rules of interpretation, let no one. understand so much a reference to the mere words of the law as to the general scope of the whole; and yet the sense, of course, is not to be learned without a correct grammatical construction of the words in which it is delivered. Let these rules be heeded. I. Although no two commandments are precisely the same, yet it frequently occurs that one and the same thing, in different aspects, is required or forbidden in several commandments. Thus the eighth commandment says, "Thou shalt not steal," and the tenth says, "Thou shalt not covet." Now though there may be covetousness without actual stealing, yet there cannot be actual stealing without covetousness. So both these commandments virtually forbid us to lust after that which belongs to another. In like manner, covetousness often leads to Sabbathbreaking, and thus the fourth commandment often |