ELDER CORNELL’S FIFTH SPEECH

My friend goes back to Romans 7, and admits that it refers to the ten commandments. This is all we claim. Paul declares that this law made known his sin: that it slew him, etc. Could an old dead law slay Paul? Bro. Grant makes the first husband in Paul’s illustration, the law. I will read it again. “For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulterer, though she be married to another man.”DSQ63 25.4

Here are three parties-the woman, the husband, and the law. The husband dies, and the woman and the law are left. The law don’t bind the woman to the old dead husband. She is it liberty to be married to another man. But the same law that bound her to the first husband now binds her to the second. We can not possibly by any rule of language make the law the first husband. The woman is bound by the law the her husband “so long as he liveth,” not so long as the law lives. Paul’s application of this illustration is pimply this. The first husband was the “old man” of sin [original illegible] the “carnal mind,” which Paul says is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8:7. The death of the first husband is “Our old man crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 6. When we are married to Christ, the second husband, we are “free from sin,” instead of being free from obedience to the law. Christ does not give those who are married to him license to break his Father’s law.DSQ63 25.5

Dr. Gill and others are quoted, against the perpetuity of the law. If this question is to be settled by the testimony of men, I can give two to his one.DSQ63 26.1

I will quote only a few. Dr. Chalmer, speaking of the Sabbath, says, “It stands enshrined among the moralities of a rectitude that is immutable and everlasting.” John Wesley, speaking of the ten commandment law, says, “Every part of it remains in force upon all men in all ages. Neither time, place, nor circumstances make it liable to change” Dr. Albert Barnes, speaking of the same, says, “True piety has respect to all the commands of God, and keeps them.” Bishop Hopkins is very earnest against the “Corrupt and rotten notion of the law’s abrogation.” Alexander Campbell, on the precepts of the decalogue, says, “Which not only in the Old Testament, but in all revelation, are the most emphatically regarded as the synopsis of all religion and morality.” H. H. Dobney (Baptist minister), of England, speaks of “The moral law, presented to us in the shape of distinct commandments, ten in number, prescribing to each one of us concerning God in the first place, and then concerning our deportment to fill our fellow creatures.” Dr. Cumming of England, says, “The law of ten commandments is in its nature unchangeable and permanent. It was ordained by the Supreme Lawgiver, as the infallible rule of life, to all men, in every age of the world, in all places, under all circumstances, in every nation and generation of men on the earth. Not one jot or tittle of it was ever abolished, nor diminished nor altered in the least degree, by the change of dispensation [original illegible] to Christian.” The Encyclopedia of [original illegible] Literature, on the fourth commandments says: “Its position in the midst of the moral law distinctly points to its perpetual and universal obligation.’” The Religious Encyclopedia says, “It is wholly a mistake that the Sabbath, because not re-enacted with the formality of the decalogue, is not explicitly enjoined upon Christians.” Dr. Thomas Dick, on the fourth command says, “This is a command which never was abrogated, and which never can be abrogated, in relation to any intelligent beings, so long as the creation exists.” Dr. Clarke says this law is the “rule of life,” even for Christians. Dr. Thomas Scott says, “To imagine that any redeemed sinner should be allowed to disobey it, is absurdity, impossibility, blasphemy.”DSQ63 26.2

My friend repeats his denial that the Sabbath originated at creation. If the Sabbath was not known from creation, what was it that suggested to the patriarchs the reckoning of time by weeks. There was nothing in nature to suggest such a division of time. They must have received it from God’s original appointment of the week and Sabbath. Josephus remarks: Moses says that in just six days the world and all that is therein was made, and that the seventh day was a rest and a release from the labor of such operations: whence it is that we celebrate a rest from our labor on that day, and call it Sabbath; which word denotes rest in the Hebrew tongue,-Antiq., Book I, chap. 1.DSQ63 27.1

At last my friend has brought forward his code of re-enacted commandments. Let us examine it. For the third commandment he quotes Matthew 5:34, “Swear not at all,” but this was spoken about three years before the crucifixion. So that he has the third command re-enacted before he has the ten abolished! He has found where the nine commandments are quoted or referred to in the New Testament, but in no place are they given over upon new authority. They are simply quoted, the name as the prophecies are quoted, upon original authority. Christ enforced his teachings by quotations from both law and prophets. Matthew 7:12. “Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”DSQ63 27.2

I will was show that the Sabbath is plainly recognized as an existing institution in the New Testament. Proof: 1. Christ honored it as his regular preaching day. Luke 4:16, 31. “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days.” Luke 13:10. “And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.DSQ63 27.3

2. He recognized the existence of the Sabbath law by declaring his acts on the Sabbath to be “lawful,” i. e., according to the Sabbath law. Matthew 12:12.DSQ63 28.1

3. When he was speaking to the disciples concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in a. d. 70, he recognized the Sabbath as an institution that would actually exist at that time. Matthew 24:20. “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” No hint that the Sabbath would be abolished any more than the seasons of the year.DSQ63 28.2

4. Those who had been favored with most of Christ’s personal instructions, kept the Sabbath after Christ’s crucifixion, “according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56.DSQ63 28.3

5. Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. If it was made “for” man, it is not abolished. This is the very best evidence that the Sabbath is not for any particular age or class of people, but for the entire race.DSQ63 28.4