THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR

SOME BRIEF GROUNDS, SERVING TO PROVE THAT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ARE YET IN FULL FORCE, AND SHALL SO REMAIN TILL

HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY.

1. The matter of the ten commandments was written in the heart of Adam before his fall, as doth appear in Gen. 1: 27, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; also in Eccl. 7. 29, God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. And the Apostle plainly asserts, that the gentiles, which had not the law, (in the letter of it,) did by nature the things contained in the law, which showeth the work of the law written in their hearts. Rom. 2: 14, 15. Now if the gentiles had the word of the law written in their hearts in their sinful state, doubtless they had it in more perfection in their state of innocence, as considered in Adam ; for the letter of the law was added because of transgression. Gal. 2: 19. Now if there was transgression before the letter of the law was added, that implies that there was a law before then; in that the letter of the law is said to be added, it implies that the matter of it was in being before, but much worn by sin; and that is one reason why the Lord was pleased to add the letter.

Let it be considered, how it can stand with Scripture or right reason, that Jesus Christ should abrogate this law. Did Christ blot out this law from the hearts of all men by his death? Then all men have not the law of nature to guide them; for we cannot be so gross as to imagine that the law is put into their hearts upon a new account, for that were to bring all men under the new covenant.

2. God spake all these commandments unto the people, and they heard his voice, (Deut. 5: 22-24,) with great majesty and glory, and he added no more; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and delivered them unto Moses-all of which holds forth their perpetuity; they are spoken by God, they are written by him in tables of stone; never any ceremony. Job desired that his words might be graven with a pen of iron and lead in a rock of stone forever. Job 19: 24.

SO

was

3. Afterward the first tables were broken, which I suppose did signify the Israelites' breaking of the first covenant; for Moses broke them on account of their having made a golden calf, and so had broken the covenant. Whereupon Moses was then commanded to hew two tables like the first, and God wrote the same words again upon them, (Deut. 10: 1—4,) and they only of all the laws were put into the ark, and when the ark is set in its proper place between the cherubim there is nothing in it but the two tables. 1 Kings 8: 9. Now the ark was a type of Christ, and the putting of the law into it did signify the putting of it into the heart of Christ, (Psalm 40: 6-8, Thy law is in my heart,) and from thence they are transcribed into the hearts of the seed of Christ. See Jer. 31: 33, where God promises to put his law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. Now what law is this that must be put into the heart, when the law of sacrifice is abolished? Compare Heb. 10: 6—9, with the fore-mentioned Psalm. That this is the law that is here spoken of is manifest if we consider how proper and suitable it is for the heart of a believer. Paul calls it the law of his mind in Rom. 7: 23, and in verse 22 he professeth he delights in the law of God after the inward man; and God saith he will put the law in his heart and write it

there; both which phrases hold it forth to be the same law that was written by God and put into the ark. Man's heart is the tables, and God himself is the writer; the matter written is the law. Hear what Wisdom saith to this: My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments within thee; keep my commandments and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye; bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thy heart. Prov. 7: 1-3. Now what laws are these but the table laws? And Wisdom's son is to have them written upon the fleshy tables of his heart.

4. When God promiseth to exalt his first-born higher than the kings of the earth, and that his covenant should stand fast with him, and that his seed should endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven, (Psalms 89: 28, 29,) yet he saith, If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutets, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take away, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. Verses 30-32. Mark it, this covenant was with Christ, (though with David in the type,) in behalf of all the seed; and the chastisements must be the portion of the seed if they break the law of God, though his covenant stand fast. Now as this covenant reaches all the seed, so doth the law and the punishments for the breach of it; and if so, then what law is it that reaches all the seed, if not the law of the ten commandments, with those laws which are comprehended in them.

5. These commandments are eminently distinguished and marked out from all the ceremonial laws, both to show their eminency and perpetuity: they are said to be the work of God, in Exod. 32 :

16; and the Psalmist saith, The works of his hands are verity and judgment. And these works are called, all his commandments, in Psalm 111: 7, and they are ten. Deut. 4: 13. And therefore I conceive Wisdom's son is to bind them to bind them upon his fingers, to show the number of them, there being for each finger one, and that both hands might be active in them. And Zacharias and Elisabeth were said to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. Luke 1: 6. They are distinguished from the ceremonial ordinances, and called all the commandments, to set forth their number, as before said, and their eminencey; and therefore they are so frequently called in the Scripture, the commandments of God, distinct from the other laws, which were shadowy in the time of the law of shadows, (as these places of Scripture, besides many others, do show, viz., Deut. 5. 31, 6: 11, 7: 11,8: 11, 11: 1, 30: 16, 1 Kings 2: 3, 8: 58, 2 Chron. 19: 10, Neh. 1: 7, and 10: 29, &c.,) and distinct from the testimony of Jesus in clear gospel times. In Rev. 12: 17, note that the dragon's war is with the remnant of the woman's seed which kept the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. And again, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14: 12. And when the man would know what he should do to be saved, Christ told him that he knew the commandments. A cloud of witnesses would come in, if need were, for the confirmation of them. But farther observe what the Scripture saith to their duration. The Paslmist saith, All his commandments are sure, they stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. Psalm 111: 7, 8. Note it; all his cammandments, which are the works of his hands, as aforesaid, stand fast for ever and ever; that is, not only in the time of the minis