142 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



An Antinomian objection. Paul's decisive reply. 



tion." (^. 76.) He must either franklj admit its truth, — or, 

 as the only alternative, he must point out the " chapter and 

 verse'' which re-enacts the fourth commandment for Gen- 

 tiles ! One of these courses I have a right to demand from a 

 candid disputant. 



But it is here advanced by my friend, as a comprehensive 

 and conclusive objection, that if the Sabbath law be assumed 

 to be abolished, because not included among the ^' necessary 

 things," by the same argument, ''all the ten commandments, 

 except the first and seventh, are abrogated. That is to say, 

 profaneness towards Grod, disobedience to parents, lying, rob- 

 bery, and murder, are no longer sins under the Christian dis- 

 pensation ! And this, then, is the ' liberty wherewith Christ 

 has made us free !' " {p. 74.) 



I am bound to suppose the objection a candid one, and not 

 a mere rhetorical flourish ; though I must confess it is one 

 well calculated to surprise. If this appears to J. N. B. a fair 

 inference from the premises, I can only lament that, in his 

 application of principles which are incontrovertible go^^jpel 

 truths, he should fraternize so marvellously with those Anti- 

 nomians, whose doctrines he formerly pronounced " most 

 frightful.^' (p. 18.) To such reasoners, I know of no more 

 pertinent nor decisive reply than that of Paul : "What then? 

 Shall we sin, because ' loe are not under the Law,' but under 

 grace ? God forbid ! Know ye not, that to whom ye yield 

 yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, to whom ye 

 obey? .... Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become 

 dead to the Law — hy the hocJy of Christ ; that ye should be 

 married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead.'' 

 *' Ye are not under the Law, but under Grace." 



I might remind J. N. B. that the Gentiles already had a 

 law more binding than the Decalogue, prohibiting these crimes 

 {Rom. ii. 14); and that to re-enact it on an occasion like this, 

 when it was not even disputed, would have been a simple ab- 

 surdity. I might convict him by his own language, that the 



