1.A 20. LETTER XX
LETTER XX.
God’s laws practicable Angelic and Adamic laws Not binding on us Moral law binding Perpetual Yet no unconverted sinner keeps it Wesley’s views of the law Fletcher’s Clarke’s Watson’s Peck’s To these the author agrees The Scripture testimony Illustrated by poetry. MY DEAR M : I think God never gave a law to any of his creatures that they could not keep, provided they availed themselves of the means he established to enable them to keep it. And he has manifested his wisdom and goodness in adapting his laws to the nature, capacities, and circumstances of the various orders of his intelligent and unintelligent creatures.
Thus he doubtless required and still requires of the holy angels, the most perfect unsinning obedience to him, of which their perfect natures and large capacities were capable; and for ceasing to do this a part of them were thrown down to hell. To Adam, also, He gave a law which demanded a perfect obedience every way suited to his nature and capacity, which could have been nothing less than loving God with all his heart, and a manifestation of this love in every act of external obedience; and so long as Adam continued thus to obey he stood " justified by the deeds of" that law under which he was placed. But he sinned, and we all sinned in him, and have consequently " come short of the glory of God" have cast ourselves off from the protection of his glorious power. Hence we are no longer under the Adamic covenant, which was i covenant of works, but are placed under a covenant of grace, confirmed in the hands of a Mediator. And until this Mediator should come, and make an atonement for sin by " the sacrifice of himself," God substituted, for the time being, the sacrificial law, first successfully used by Abel, and subsequently practised by the patriarchs, until Moses came, and prescribed, under the direction of God, the whole ritual of the Jewish service. These sacrifices were intended to set forth the purity of God on the one hand, and the impurity and sinfulness of men on the other, and the necessity of an atonement for both wilful and involuntary sins, or sins of ignorance, in order to render the acts of worship acceptable. The whole of this was a remedial system, and derived all its efficacy from pointing to the Lord Jesus, who was to come as the great atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
Now this law, with all its burdensome ceremonies, the people could, and the pious and conscientious among them did keep; and by keeping it according to its spirit and design, were justified in the sight of God. I say the pious portion of the people did keep the ceremonial law. How were they made pious? Not by obedience to this law. Like Abraham, they were justified by faith. Like him, their hearts were renovated and sanctified by the internal operation of the Holy Spirit, applying the merits of the Lord Jesus, the promised Messiah, washing away their sins; and these were received by faith in his infinite atonement.
Well, then, to regulate their conduct, that they might furnish an irrefutable evidence of this purity of heart, God gave them the moral law, written upon two tables of stone,* the sub stance of which was engraven upon every sanctified heart by the Spirit of God himself, so that they could fulfil its precepts. This law is eternal in its obligations. While the angelic law is adapted to angels, and therefore only obligatory upon them; while the Adamic covenant was suited to him in Paradise, as a holy, wise, and innocent man, and therefore ceases to be binding upon us as a condition of salvation; and while the ceremonial law of Moses, no longer needed, is utterly abolished by the coming of Christ, and therefore is binding upon no one, the moral law remains, and will forever remain in all its force, and is therefore the rule by which all men are bound to regulate their conduct.
[* I do not say this was the origin of the moral law. This law is founded in the immutable nature and fitness of things the nature of God and the nature of man and prescribes what is fit and right, and therefore must be binding upon all rational intelligences; and hence all were bound by its precepts, as well before as after the giving of the law by Moses, and being thus founded, it can never be either repealed, or relax in its demands, so long as those relations exist to which it is suited. It was only then made known in legible characters, being inscribed on tables of stone.* But do any keep it? " No mere man since the fall," while in his unrenewed state, doth ever keep it, but doth daily break it in thought, word, and deed;" and hence all such are condemned, and would remain forever condemned, were it not for the merciful interference of the Lord Jesus, the second Adam, who, whenever we believe in him as our almighty Redeemer and Saviour, brings us from under the curse of the law, and justifies us freely by his grace; and on condition of our " walking in the light, as he is in the light, cleanses us from all unrighteousness." Now the sanctified Christian, having a new nature, a new principle of action, new motives to impel him forward, in consequence of Divine love reigning in his heart, is enabled to keep this law, by loving God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself.
Let us now inquire if this be not according to the sentiments of our standard writers upon this subject. Thus Mr. Wesley, in his sermon on Matt, 5:17 to 29, after having explained the nature and obligations of the law, says :
" From all this we may learn that there is no contrariety at all between the law and the Gospel; that there is no need for the law to pass away, in order to the establishing of the Gospel. Indeed, neither of them supersedes the other, but they agree perfectly well together. Yea, the very same words, considered in different re spects, are parts both of the law and of the Gospel. If they are considered as commandments, they are parts of the law; if as promises, of the Gospel. Thus, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy -heart, when considered as a commandment, is a branch of the law; when regarded as a promise, is an essential part of the Gospel; the Gospel being no other than the commands of the law, proposed by way of promise. There is, therefore, the closest connexion that can be conceived between the law and the Gospel. On the one hand, the law continually makes way for and points us to the Gospel; on the other, the Gospel continually leads us to a more exact fulfilling of the law." And in the latter part of the sermon, while drawing the contrast between the Pharisee and the Christian, he says :
" But still the righteousness of a Christian exceeds all this righteousness of a Scribe "or Pharisee, by fulfilling the spirit as well as the letter of the law; by inward as well as outward obedience. In this, in the spirituality of it, it admits of no comparison. This is the point which our Lord has so largely proved in the whole tenor of this discourse." And he further adds :
" Be not content to keep the whole law and offend in one point. Hold thou fast all his commandments, and all false ways do thou utterly abhor. Do all the things whatsoever he hath commanded, and that with all thy might. Thou canst do all things through Christ strengthening thee; though without him thou canst do nothing."
Mr. Fletcher, in his Checks, vol. 1, pp. 100, 101, after having shown that the Levitical law was abolished, and that Jesus Christ saves us whenever we repent and believe, from the curse of the law, denounced upon actual transgressors, says :
"And did our Lord side with Antinomians? Just the reverse. Far from repealing the two above-mentioned precepts, he asserts that on them hang all tin- law and the prophets; and had the four Gospels been then written, he would, no doubt, have represented them as subservient to the establishing of the law, as he did the Book of Isaiah, the evangelical prophet. Such high thoughts had he of the law, that when a lawyer expressed his veneration for it by declaring that the love of God and our neighbour was more than all the whole burnt- offerings and sacrifices, Jesus, seeing that he had answered discreetly, said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of tiod. Tin- Gospel itself terminates in the fulfilling of the commandments."
Dr. Clarke, also, in his notes on Matt, 5:17- 20, says :
" He completes this law, and the sayings of his prophets, in his members, by giving them grace to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbour as themselves." And in respect, to the righteousness of the Christian exceeding the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, he remarks :
"Unless it [your righteousness] take in not only the letter, but the spirit and design of the moral and ritual precept; the one directing you how to walk so as to please God. the other pointing out Christ the great atonement, through and by which a sinner is enabled to do so, more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, who only attended to the letter of the law, and had, indeed, made even that of no effect by their tradition, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." In his notes on Romans 8:4, That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, he says :
" That the guilt might be pardoned through the merit of that sacrifice; and that we might be enabled, by His own grace and Spirit, to walk in newness of life, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves; and thus the righteousness, the spirit, design, and purpose of the law is fulfilled in us, through the strength of the Spirit of Christ, which is here put in opposition to the weakness of the law through thejteh"
Mr. Watson, also, in his Institutes, vol. ii, p. 470, bears the following testimony to the obligations of the moral law, which he supports by a variety of facts and arguments :
" The summary of the law and the prophets, which is to love God with all our heart, and to serve him with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, is unquestionably enjoined, and even rc-euactcd, by the Christian lawgiver." And on page 471 he has the following:
: We have the whole decalogue brought into the Christian code of morals by a distinct injunction of its separate precepts, and by their recognition as a permanent and unchangeable obligation. The fourth commandment, respecting the Sabbath only, being so far cxcepted, that its injunction is not so expressly marked. This, however, is no exception in fact; for besides that its original place in the two tables sufficiently distinguishes it ^from all positive, ceremonial, and typical precepts, and gives it a moral character in respect of its ends which are, first, mercy to servants and cattle, and, second, the worship of Almighty God, undisturbed by worldly interruptions and cares it is necessarily included in that law which our Lord declares he came not to destroy or abrogatein that law which St. Paul declares to be estal>- lis/ted by faith, and among those commandments which our Lord declares must be Ayyrf, if any one would enUr into lift"
Dr. Peck says :
" The question has never been raised in the Church, except by rank Antinomians, whether men are bound to keep the commandments of God, or, which is the same thing, to be governed by the moral law. Nor has the practicability of this duty ever been denied by any others, except, perhaps, the old school Calvinists. But the question at issue is, whether the fulfilling of the law, which is both obligatory and attainable, amounts to perfect obedience. " Christian Perfection, page 261. With this I heartily agree, and hence have not used the word "perfect obedience" on ac count of the ignorance and infirmities of our nature, which inadvertently lead to those deviations from the perfect rule of right, which require the atoning merits and continual intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ to render our works acceptable. The above comments, with the exception of the one on Romans 8:4, and Dr. Peck s, are founded on the following words of our Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount :
" Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily, I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall do, and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." This celebrated passage of Scripture must set the question at rest respecting the perpetually binding influence of the moral law, and therefore nothing more need be said on the subject.
O, my dear M., can we love God, the Author, and not love his law which he has given for the regulation of our conduct? Is not this law tho face of God unveiled to man, the "brightest efflux," as Wesley says, "of his nature," the clear development of his purpose, and the most distinct expression of his will? And therefore what more substantial evidence can we give of our allegiance to the Sovereign, than a cheerful, loving obedience, according to the best of our knowledge and power, to his commandments? Hence says our poet :
" Lo! I come with JOY to DO The blessed Master’s WILL Him in OUTWAKD WORKS pursue, And serve his pleasure still; Faithful to my Lord’s COMMAND*, I still would choose the better part; Serve with careful Martha’s handi, And loving Mary’s HEAET."
Unite the two, "loving Mary’s heart," and " careful Martha’s hands," or, in other words, unite a loving heart and a careful hand, unite inward and outward religion, so that we can say, "Careful without care I am," and we have the " perfect Christian," May my dear M. adopt, with a full confiding heart, the next verse of that most admirable hymn, in which the poet so sweetly blends together a calm submission to the will of God, and a diligent discharge of every duty :
" Careful without care I am, Nor feel my HAPPY TOIL; Kept in PEACE in Jesus name, Supported by his SMILE; JOYFUL thus by FAITH to show, I find his SERVICE my reward; Every WORK I do below, I DO IT TO MY LORD."