1.rn(hs arc nil h11.sed on thoso profound relntions helween the law and the gospel, which he di~cuseee so fully nnd exactly in his Epistles to the Galntians nnd the Homans. And it must be remembered thnt while no one so clearly oxhibite tl10 lnw in its 1tspcct of law, ns the opposite pole to the gospel, yet it ie St. Paul, the o.aserto; of Christian liberty against the bondage of law, who says, as hie Divine Master enid in other words, "Do we then nuke void the law through faith? God forbid: yen, we establish the law." 1 St. Peter says of the epistles of his brother apostle, that in them there are many things" hard to be understood, which they that nre unlearned (aµn9iic) and unstable wrest to their own destruction." 2 And undoubtedly much of the mis• understanding and imperfect apprehension of these epistles, which has been prevalent it1 all ages of the Church, has been due to va,gue and inexact notions as to the Divine law. C<Jrtainly, ,vit.hout distinct conceptions and definite knowledge on this im• portant subject, the foundations not only of Christian ethics, but of Christian doctrine, can be very insufficiently laid. 5. As the o.rgument in this Introduction is purely theological, or, more strictly, thcosophical,-if a much-abused term may be used in its true and proper sense of that wl,ich treats of the philosophy of religion,-it is neither necessary nor expedient to encumber it with any critical questions, except those which -may be required for illustration of the argument.· That the Pentateuch is what it claims to be, that is, of :\fosaic origin, 3 anj given by inspiration of God, is therefore assumed. It is 1rnfficie11t for our purpose tho.t it is recognised as such in other writings of the Old 'l'estamcnt, o.nd w:i.s so received by Chrii,t himself and his o.postles, nnd is therefore ,;o accr.pted by his Church. The book was, according to the account it gives of itself, in the fii-st instnnco compiled and written out by Moses for the use of that 1iation of Israel, which, a.s is recorded in this Book of the Law, God had ch6sen out of all ni,tions of the earth to be in covenant with himself. It was committed to the charge of the priesthood, as the "book of the covenant," to be preserved by the side of the o.rk of the covenant; and portions of it were to be read publicly to the people every seventh year, at one of their most solemn festivals, as o. testimony of the covenant between God and the nation. 4 This was the primary purpose of the Torah, to be the Divine standard of a national religion; but, as we have already concluded from our Lord's teaching and from the office of St. Paul, it was written not for one nation only, but for mankind. Indeed we might draw the same con• clusion from the book itself, in which the history of the chosen nation is but an episode in the history of man, all whose families were ultimately to receive the blessings of the seed of Abraham. How far particular laws given to the nation of Israel were given as suitable to their circumstances and for that age, and how far they are of unirnrsal obligation, can only bP ascertained when the principles on wl,ich they were founded are determined. And, further, in what sense any of these, which were law in the fullest sense under the covenant of law, are law under a hig·Ler and better covenant, can only be determined through that knowledge of the second covenant, with which the New Testament supplies us. 6. Fur it must be observed here that there is an ambiguity in the use of the term "law" which causes much confusion at times, and which it will be necessary to preclude in our present argument. The definitions of law which are sometimes given are far too general and comprehensive to be of any value for this investi-
, Rom. iii. 31. • 2 Pet. iii. 16. • Of course tl,is does not imply either that J11oscs <lid not make use of more ancient docu• nients, or that the book was not revised by Ezra or others who had authorily, • Deut. ,:xxi. 9-13. IN'l'HODUCTION TO 'flIE PJ<:N'fA'l'EUCH. V
gntion. For cxnmplc, Hooker,' in opening his argument on law, defines it tlllls: "'fhat which doth assign unto ench thing tho kind, that which doth m0dernt0 tho force nnd power, that which doth nppoint the fonn nnd meMure, of working, tho si\mo we term o. law." And he distinguishes four kinds of Jnw: (I) "Th() lnw which Go<l from before the beginning hath set for himself;" (2) "the law wl,ich naturnl ngents hnve given them to observe; " (3) "the lnw which angels do work by;" (4) "the lnw whereby man is in his nctions directed to the imitation of Goel." There are objections .. both to the definition o.nd to the distinctions which it is unnecessary to discuss; but for our argument, the cl,ief objection is thnt the one most important distinction is not sufficiently marked, vi,1, the difference between such laws ns those which we cnll laws of nature-by which is meant the order in which certain physical events__ succeed one another as sequences of cause an1l effect-and such Jaws a.a those of the State, which originate in the anthoiity of the lawgiver nnd are enforced by the punishment of the transgressor. The latter are laws in the strict sense of the ,vorcl, o.s ordinarily understood in human language. The Hebrew word Torah in Holy Scripture seems hardly ever to be used in any other sense than ns n direction to a rational being,2 this involving a prohibition of the contrary. 3 The Greek word voµoc is sometimes used in a wider sense, as the English "law" is; e. g. St. Paul speaks of the "law of the spirit of life," and the" law of sin," where he means not any external direction, but a principle of causation; but these are eiceptions both to the Scriptural usage of the word (which is ordinarily the equivalent of Torah\ and to the classical usage, in which voµoi:, when not law in its strict sense, is the opposite of q,vd,,. As, however, the argument of this introduction will be·analytical and not synthetfoal, it is unnecessary to discuss further at present the exact force of the term, because its complete meaning must be gathered from that portion of Holy Scripture which is emphatically and distinctively "the LAW."