272 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Total dbrogation of " the Law" — fuUy established. 



of the Decalogue, tlien do I, in like manner, assume the task 

 of proving my affirmation. This I have already "done fuUy 

 anåfaii-Ii/J' Nor is there any room for evading the uniform 

 and perspicuous teachings of "the inspired Apostle/' If any 

 one venturcs to assert that Paul, in his frequent allusions to 

 "the Law/' speaks only of the " cercmoniar' part of it,* I re- 

 quire, in the first place, some Bible evidence to support the 

 assertion; and I challenge the proof that "the Law'' is ever, 

 in a solitary instance, referred to, independently of the ten 

 commandments, or with the design of excluding them from its 

 exposition.f And in the second place, I appeal to the explicit 



* There are some, even " Ministers of tlie Gospel," who have been 

 ignorant enough to assert this. Of course, I do not include J, N. B. 

 among these. 



f "It cannot be denied," says "Wiiately, in his Essays on Paul, 

 " that he does speak, frequently and strongly, of the termination of 

 the Mosaic law, and of the excmption of Christians from its obliga- 

 tions, without ever limiting or qualifjing the assertion, without even 

 hinting at a distinction between one part wliich is abrogated, and an- 

 other which remains in full force. It cannot be said that he had in 

 his mind the ceremonial law alone, and was alluding merely to the 

 abolition of that ; for in the very passages in question, he makes sucli 

 allusions to sin, as evidently show that he had the moral law in his 

 mind ; as, for instance, where he says, ' The law was added because 

 of transgressions :' ' By the law was the knowledge of sin :' with many 

 other such expressions. And it is remarkable that even when he 

 seems to feel himself pressed with the mischievous practical conse- 

 quences which either had been, or he is sensible might be drawn from 

 his doctrines, he never attempts to guard against these by limiting his 

 original assertion ; by declaring that, though part of the law was at an 

 end, still 2}art continued binding; but he always inculcates the neces- 

 sity of moral conduct on some different ground. For instance : ' What 

 shall we say then ? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ? 

 God forbid.' He does not then add that a part of the Mosaic law re- 

 mains in force; but urges this consideration: 'How shall we, who are 

 dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us 

 as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death V &c. 

 And such also is his tone in every passage relating to the same sub- 

 ject." [Essay v.) 



