144 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The Decalogue dead as a " rule of obligation." 



grace and truth came by Jesus/' This is ^Hhe liberty where- 

 with Cbrist batb made us free;" even a '^perfect laio of 

 liberty !" 



If tbat " ministration of deatb, written and engraven in 

 stones/' bowever glorious once, isnow completely ^^ done away^' 

 (2 Cor. iii. 7); if "now we are delivered trom. the law, tbat 

 bei ng c?ea(i/" — (even tbat code wbicb said "Tbou sbalt not 

 covet/' Ro7n. vii. 6, 7) — tben bas its autbority utterly and 

 forever ceased. It is not as a " covenant of life" (p. 18), it is 

 not as a "ground of justification," tbat it bas become incom- 

 petent; for tbis, Paul tells us, it ever was. {Rom. iii. 20; 

 Gal. iii. 11, 21.) It is as a ^^ride of moral oWgation'^ tbat 

 tbe Decalogue bas become bencefortb irrevocably "dead!"* 



* " Now let lis adopt the obvious iuterpretation of the Apostle's 

 woi'ds," says AVhatbly, "and admit the entire abrogation, according 

 to him, of the Mosaic law; concludmg that it was originally designed 

 for the Israelites alone, and that its dominion over ihem ceased when 

 the Gospel system commenced ; and we shall find that this concession 

 does not go a step towards establishing the Antinomian conclusion, 

 that moral conduct is not required of Christians. For it is evident 

 that the natural distinctions of right and wrong which conscience 

 points out, must rcmain where they were. These distinctions, not 

 having been introduced by the Mosaic law, cannot, it is evident, be 

 overthrown by its removal, . . . Before the commandments to do no 

 murder, and to honor one's parents, had been delivered from Mount 

 Sinai, Cain was cursed for killing his brother, and Ilam for dishonor- 

 ing his father ; which crimes, thcrefore, could not cease to be such, 

 at least as any consequence of the abolition of that law. Nor necd 

 it be feared that to proclaim an exemption from the Mosaic law should 

 leave men without any moral guide, and at a loss to distinguish right 

 and wrong ; since, after all, the light of reason is that to which every 

 man must be left, in the iuterpretation of that very laAV. So far, con- 

 sequently, from the moral precepts of the Law being to the Christian 

 necessary as a guide to his judgmcnt in detcrmining what is right and 

 wrong, on the contrary, this moral judgment is necessary to determine 

 what are the moral precepts of Moses. ... It is not because they 

 are commandments of the Mosaic law that he is bound to obcy them, 



