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UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION OF THE MORAL LAW. 211

SECTION IV.-OBLIGATION AND PERPETUITY OF THE MORAL LAW.

478. THE obligation of the moral law is universal. All men, in every region of the earth, are subject to its authority. It was, substantially, the law given to man at his creation, from which his subsequent apostacy could not release him.

It is founded in relations which subsist wherever there are human beings endowed with reason and the power of volition.

479. The other laws given to the Jews were national and local. The ceremonial law could not be practiced in all its parts, but within narrow limits. The Temple could not be resorted to on all necessary occasions, nor the three annual festivals be observed in Jerusalem by persons whose usual residence was in the remote countries of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

480. The judicial law was the civil law of the Jews, intended solely for the government of their nation; to which, therefore, other nations were not more subject than men living in one country are at present subject to the laws of another.

Nay, some things were enjoined upon the Jews, which by other nations are considered as unlawful; for example, the marriage of a widow to the brother of her deceased husband who had died without children.

The ceremonial law is abolished, as well as the judicial, or civil, so far as it did not embody the moral precepts, which are of perpetual obligation.

481. While the authority of certain ordinances, religious and civil, extended only to the Jews, the Decalogue is the law of nations. Morality is not the subject of positive institution, and of human regulation. It is not determined by geographical boundaries, so that what is right on one side of a river or mountain is wrong on the other, and virtue and vice exchange characters, according to changes of climate. Piety toward God, truth, justice, and charity toward men, and the exercise of temperance or self-government, are duties in every country under heaven. The moral law is the rule of our present conduct, and will be the rule of our future judgment.

There cannot be a more erroneous view of the Christian

religion, than to suppose that it sets men free from the obligations of morality.

482. To produce conformity to the moral law is the design of the death of Christ, of his ministrations in heaven, of the operations of the spirit upon the human heart, of the institutions of the Gospel, and the dispensations of Providence.

The work of redemption would be only half performed in delivering men from the punishment of sin. To emancipate them from the influence and practice of it; and to render them obedient to God: this is the other half, and is surely of equal importance. [Dick's Lectures.]

478. Within what limits does the obligation of the moral law extend? 479. Was the obligation of the ceremonial law, also universal? 480. Was the obligation of the judicial law, universal?

481. How does it appear that the moral law is perpetual, as well as universal, in its obligation?

482. By what means is a conformity to the moral law secured to men?

SECTION V.-EXPOSITION OF THE MORAL LAW.

483. THE purpose of dividing the law into two tables, seems to have been to distinguish the two classes of precepts which the Decalogue contains. We can conceive of no other reason. The two classes obviously embrace our duties to God and our duties to man, respectively. So our Savior seems to have divided them, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart: and thy neighbor as thyself."

On this principle the first four precepts must have belonged to the first table; and the six following, to the second. In confirmation of this view may be stated the fact, that the apostle calls the fifth precept, "the first commandment, with promise:" he must be understood to represent it as the first precept of the second table.

484. It is not necessary to expose the inexcusable conduct of those who, to justify the use of images, have attached the second precept to the first; and who, to make out the complement of ten precepts, have been compelled to divide the tenth, though it admits not properly of division, as it relates to only a single point, covetousness, or unlawful desire.

485. The first precept points out the OBJECT OF worSHIP: and while it forbids us to have any other God be

THE FIRST TABLE.

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fore him, it calls upon us to acknowledge and worship Him alone.

The second prescribes the MEANS OF WORSHIP, not by images, or any other plan of human invention, but by the rites and ordinances which are divinely appointed.

The third declares the MANNER in which the service of God should be performed, namely, with reverence, as opposed to profaneness, and every abuse of religious institutions.

The fourth specifies the TIME of worship, to wit, one day in seven, which is to be wholly devoted to God; not, however, to the exclusion of other seasons which the events of Providence may point out, and the regular devotional exercises of every day.

486. The proclamation of this law was prefaced by these words:—' "I am Jehovah thy God," which contain an ample ground and satisfactory reason for the obedience of every human being.

They evidently imply that He is the self-existent and eternal Being, who created all worlds, and peopled them with their inhabitants; that he has sovereign authority to prescribe a rule of action to his creatures; and that he knows best what laws are requisite to preserve the order, and secure the happiness of his vast empire.

That these laws are not mere acts of divine sovereignty, but founded upon the nature of things, and are calculated to preserve the harmony and order of the intelligent universe, will appear from the following illustrations and remarks.

THE FIRST TABLE OF THE LAW.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

487. It is worthy of remark that each precept of the law is addressed to men in their individual capacity, in order to impress their minds more deeply with their personal accountability, and to excite them to a more diligent and conscientious obedience.

I. Prohibitions involved in the First Precept.

488. (1.) This precept forbids, in the first place, ATHEISM, which may be divided into explicit and constructive. 489. Explicit atheism consists in the formal denial of

the existence of God. He is an atheist who contends that the universe contains no other intelligence than the human mind; says that the universe is eternal; that there is nothing in it but matter and motion, and talks of nature, and chance, and fate-words which have no meaning, but serve as a substitute in discourse for the name of a living, designing agent, by whom all things were created, and are governed.

490. Constructive atheism is an expression which is designed to embrace all those sentiments which amount to the denial of God, or lead to this conclusion, although they do not formally express it.

Such atheism was charged upon Epicurus and his followers, who, as Cicero says, granted in words that there were gods, but in reality took them away, because they represented them as removed to a distance from mortals, and taking no interest in their affairs.

491. The same charge which was advanced against Epicurus may be brought, with equal justice, against those who deny the providence of God, his particular oversight and regulation of each and all of the affairs. of this world; and who substitute in the room of the all-perfect Being of the Scriptures, a god fashioned according to their own likeness, an ideal of their own brain.

492. The expression, practical atheism, denotes such conduct as virtually contradicts the profession of the lips; accordingly an apostle speaks of some "who profess to know God, but in works deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate."

493. (2.) In the second place, this precept forbids POLYTHEISM, or the worship of more deities than one.

494. Polytheism was introduced long before the time when the law was given at Mount Sinai. It existed in Chaldea while Abraham sojourned there; and it seems that this patriarch was a worshiper of false gods before he was called to leave his country and his kindred. By the time of the exodus from Egypt, the evil had spread far and wide; and we have reason to believe that Polytheism prevailed among all nations, although there might still be some individuals who continued exclusively to adore the Creator of heaven and earth.

495. The design of the call of Abraham was to sepa

ANCIENT POLYTHEISM.

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rate his descendants from the apostate race, and to constitute them a distinct and peculiar people, among whom the knowledge and worship of Jehovah should be preserved till the time for the introduction of Christianity, when He would again reveal himself to the world, and destroy the gods of the Gentiles.

By this precept the religions of all heathen nations are condemned; for they are directly opposed to the fundamental doctrine of the unity of the divine essence; and they either exclude the true God, or they associate others with him as sharers in the honors to which He alone is entitled.

496. We are informed by Hesiod, Varro, and other ancient authors, that no less than thirty thousand subordinate divinities were comprised in that system of Polytheism which prevailed among the Greeks and Romans. They had both celestial and terrestrial deities. They assigned peculiar gods to the fountains, the rivers, the hills, the mountains, the valleys, the groves, the sea, and even to hell itself.

To cities, fields, houses, families, gates, nuptial chambers, marriages, births, deaths, sepulchres, trees, and gardens, they also appropriated distinct and peculiar deities. Their chief idol was Jupiter, whom they called the father of gods and men.

Instead of worshiping the living God, they deified a host of dead men, called heroes, distinguished for nothing so much as for murder, adultery, sodomy, rapine, cruelty, drunkenness, and all kinds of debauchery.

To such contemptible divinities splendid temples were erected, adorations addressed, costly offerings presented, and rites and ceremonies performed, subversive of every principle of decency and morality, and degrading to the reason and character of man.

[For a full account of the rise of Polytheism and Pantheism, consult Douglas on Errors regarding Religion; also Dewar's Moral Philosophy, vol. ii. pp. 152-182.]

497. In ancient Egypt, the meanest, and the most contemptible objects-sheep, cats, bulls, dogs, cows, storks, apes, vultures, and other birds of prey; wolves, and several sorts of oxen, were exalted as objects of adoration. Each city and district in Egypt entertained a peculiar devotion to some animal or other, as an object of worship;

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