sight of God, that he has given us this solemn warn- ing, " All liars shall have their part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
The tenth commandment, " Thou shalt not covet," is perhaps the most extensive of any ; because while the others forbid the indulgence of any sinful act, this forbids the first risings of desire after any sinful object : it utterly condemns the least motions of dis- content at our own lot, or of envy at the lot of others. It was this commandment which first wounded the conscience of the Apostle Paul ; he was in all points relating to the ceremonial law, and according to the letter of the moral law, blameless ; and he conceived that he must therefore of necessity be in a state of salvation : but this good opinion of his state arose from his ignorance of the spirituality and extent of the law : and when his eyes were once opened to see that the law condemned him for the first risings of evil as well as for the actual commission of it, he became guilty in his own sight, and acknowledged the justice of his condemnation. Thus he says of him- self; " I had not known sin but by the law ; for I had not known lust (i. e. the evil and danger of it) unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet : for 1 was alive without the law once ; but when the com- mandment came, sin revived and I died." The plain meaning of which is this : before he understood the spirituality of the law he thought himself safe ; but when that was revealed to him, he saw himself justly condemned for his offences against it. May that same, that salutary, conviction be wrought also in our hearts! for our Lord has told us, that " the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick ;" plainly intimating thereby, that we must feel our need of him, before we shall be willing to receive his saving benefits. Though therefore we may think as highly of our state as the Apostle did of his, yet if we feel not our condemnation by the law, we shall but de- ceive ourselves ; and though we be possessed of his knowledge, zeal, and holiness, yet shall we, like him,