But there is one passage of the New Testament, which, in the absence of a positive enunciation to the contrary, to our mind, of itself establishes the permanent authority of the decalogue, and which, when added to what has already been said, more than completes the proof that has been demanded of us. We allude to our Lord’s declaration: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” {29a} There can scarcely be a doubt to what the Redeemer refers when he speaks of “the law and the prophets.” He could not intend the ceremonial law, because the breaking of its least commands would not make a man “least in the kingdom of heaven.” Neither was it true that he did not come to put an end to its observance. It is the moral law, and those instructions of the prophets which flow from it—it is “the law and the prophets” as embraced in the precept, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself,” which our Lord evidently meant. The entire discourse to which this declaration forms the introduction, is of a moral character; and whatever meanings may have been put upon our Lord’s language, we think any unbiased mind, on reading the whole discourse, will come to the conclusion, that the moral law was chiefly and prominently in the Saviour’s mind, when he employed the language above quoted. {29b} But if one jot or tittle cannot pass away from the law, how should the entire law be abrogated? We conclude, therefore, that there is satisfactory evidence in the New Testament, that the decalogue is still in force in the Christian church—not so indeed that obedience to it forms the ground of the believer’s justification, or that want of perfect conformity to its requirements brings him under condemnation (this was not the case under the Jewish dispensation), but as the standard of right and wrong, as the infallible regulator of conscience, as that perfect rule of moral obligation, by seeking conformity to which we honour our Creator and Redeemer, perform the duties of this present life, and become fitted for the presence of God and the inheritance of the saints in light. To the believer the moral law has always been “the law of liberty,” because, it being “written in his heart,” he has “delighted in it after the inner man,” and kept its precepts from a principle of love. * * * * * THE END. * * * * * NORWICH: PRINTED BY THOMAS PRIEST, RAMPANT HORSE STREET. FOOTNOTES.