صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

man] the Decalogue, and all the precepts contained in the Holy Scriptures about faith and practice.

DOMAT.

Two things there are, which, the oftener and the more steadfastly we consider, fill the mind with an ever new, an ever rising admiration and reverence; the STARRY HEAVENS above, and the MORAL LAW within. KANT. Ignorance of the nature and design of the law is at the bottom of most religious mistakes.

JOHN NEWTON.

None but rogues and felons look at a law to find out how they may evade it. HARE.

Of the law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, the greatest as not exempted from her power. Both angels, and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and measure, yet all with uniform consent, admitting her as the mother of their peace and joy. HOOKER.

I am confident of it, and affirm boldly there is not one man made free by Christ, that makes it his rule. to be bold to commit sin because of the redemption that is in the blood of Christ; but that Christ who hath redeemed from sin and wrath, hath also redeemed from a vain conversation. All that have the pardon purchased by Christ for them, have also the power of God in them, which keeps them that they break not out licentiously.

CRISP.

Though the moral law is not a Christ to justify us, yet it is a rule to instruct us. The law of

God is a hedge to keep us within the bounds of sobriety and piety. THOMAS WATSON.

Those only, who obey the word of the Lord's direction, shall enjoy the consolations of his love. MASON.

If a man have not spiritual and just apprehensions of the holy law, he cannot have spiritual and transforming discoveries of the glorious gospel.

COLQUHOUN.

The purity of the law appears from its forbidding sin in all its modifications, in its most refined as well as in its grossest forms; the taint of the mind as well as the pollution of the body; the secret approbation of sin, as well as the external act, the transient look of desire, the almost unperceived irregular motion.

DICK.

The divine legislator sees and knows the relations of things perfectly. He can draw no wrong deductions from them. He can make no mistake. Whatever laws have certainly emanated from him are certainly right. SHARSWOOD.

A

CHAPTER II.

LAW DEFINED.

LAW is a rule of action.

JOHNSON.

A law is a rule of action laid down or pre

scribed by a superior.

WORCESTER.

Law as applicable to human conduct in general, may be defined a rule of moral action proceeding from a superior, having right to command, and directed to inferiors bound to obey.

EDINBURGH REVIEW.

Law is beneficence acting by rule.

Burke.

Law in its general and most comprehensive sense signifies a rule of action. BLACKSTONE.

A law is that which directs, prescribes, or controls.

STOWELL.

That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, that which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint the form and measure of working, the same we term a law. HOOKER.

The law is void of desire and fear, lust and anger. It is mens sine affectu, mind without passion, written reason, retaining some measure of the divine perfection. It does not enjoin that which pleases a weak,

frail man, but without any regard to persons, commands that which is good, and punishes evil in all, whether rich or poor, high or low. It is deaf, inexorable, inflexible. SIDNEY.

To every good law be required these properties: that is to say, that it be honest, righteous, possible in itself, and after the custom of the country, convenient for the place and time, necessary, profitable, and also manifest, that it be not captious by any dark sentences, or mixed with any private wealth, but all made for the commonwealth. ST. GERMAIN.

The Moral Law is a divine, unchangeable rule given to man, and accommodated to his nature, as he was created by God, obliging him to serve to God's glory as his last end. WILLARD.

The Moral Law is that which prescribes to men their religious and social duties; in other words, their duties to God and to each other. N. WEBSTER.

The Moral Law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding every one to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity, and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole man, soul and body, and in the performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he oweth to God and man: promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of it. WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.

A law, then, is a rule of binding force, given by a competent authority. It consists of two parts; first,

a precept or direction given; and secondly, a sanction annexed, consisting of good secured to the obedient, or of evil threatened against the transgressor, or of both of these. A law without a sanction may be disregarded at pleasure. It is no law. It is mere advice. Blackstone:-"Of all the parts of a law, the most effectual is the vindicatory. . . . The main

strength and force of the law consists in the penalty annexed to it." Promises of good, irrespective of law, are mere gratuities. Threatenings of evil, having no reference to law, are but arbitrary expressions of displeasure.

The Hebrew word commonly rendered Law, occurs more than two hundred times. It primarily signifies instruction, then precept. In a few cases it signifies a custom or manner so established as to form the rule of procedure.

The Greek word rendered Law occurs in the New Testament nearly two hundred times. Primarily it signifies any thing allotted or apportioned, then a usage or prescription, then a law.

It is not certain whether the Latin word rendered Law comes from a verb which signifies to read, because, in Rome, the laws were not binding till they were posted so that they might be read; or from a verb which signifies to tie or make fast, because law is of binding force.

In the Scriptures, the precise meaning of the word Law is varied according to the subject under consideration. In Psalms i. and xix., it is put for the whole word of God as then written. In Rom. vii. 23, it twice has the sense of a force governing our actions in our present sinful state. In Rom. ii. 14, it signi

« السابقةمتابعة »