if so,
the other nine are not binding. It cannot be that God ever intended to
mislead his subjects. Let us illustrate this. Suppose that the Congress
of these United States in their present emergency, should promulgate two
separate codes of laws, one to be perpetual, the other temporary, to be
abolished when peace was proclaimed between this country and Mexico. The
time _comes_, the temporary laws are abolished; but strange to hear, a
large portion of the people are now insisting upon it that because peace
is proclaimed that both [15]these codes of laws are forever abolished;
while another class are _strenuously_ insisting that it is only the
_fourth_ law in the perpetual code that's now abolished, with the
temporary and all the rest is still binding. Opposed to all these is a
third class, headed by the ministers and scribes of the nation, who are
writing and preaching from Maine to Florida, insisting upon it without
fear of contradiction, that when peace was proclaimed this fourth law in
the perpetual code was to change its date to another day; gradually,
(while some of them say immediately) and thenceforward become perpetual,
and the other code abolished; and yet not one of these are able to show
from the proceedings of Congress that the least alteration had ever been
made in the perpetual code. Thus, to me, the case stands clear that
neither of the laws or ten commandments in the first code, ever has or
ever can be annulled or changed while mortality is stamped on man, for
the very reason that God's moral law has no limitation. Jesus then
brought in a new covenant, which continued the Sabbath by writing his
law upon their hearts. Paul says "written not with ink, but with the
spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables
of the heart." 2 Cor. iii: 3. And when writing to the Romans he shews
_how_ the Gentiles are a law unto themselves. He says, they "shew the
work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences always
bearing them witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else
excusing one another," (when will this be Paul) "in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."
ii: 15, 16. How plain that this is all the change. The Jews by nature
had the law given them on tables of stone, while the Gentiles had the
law of commandments written on their hearts. Paul tells the Ephesians
that it was "the law of commandments contained in ordina