This was written under the lawa; and it is confirmed to us by the Apostle's citation of it under the Gospel. Now we must remember, that on our perfect obedience to it all its promises are suspended ; and if, in any one instance, even in thought or desire, we fall short of it, we must then be considered as violators of the law. This is a point not sufficiently consi- dered. St. Paul himself did not clearly understand it, previous to his conversion. He interpreted the law only in its literal sense ; and could not conceive that such an one as he had ever violated its commands : but when he saw that it forbade an inordinate desire as much as an overt act, he then saw that he was condemned by it, and had forfeited all hope of acceptance by his obedience to itb.]
But, to understand the law aright, we must know,
II. The sanctions with which it is enforced —
[It denounces a curse on every, the least, violation of its commands : " Cursed is every one," &c. What this curse is, we may know from other passages of Holy Writ. It was said to Adam, in reference to the forbidden fruit, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Now, from the moment of his transgression he became mortal as to his body : (for " death entered by sin ;" and never would have entered, if man had not sinned :) his soul, also, became spiritually dead to God ; and he was doomed to " the second death," in " the lake that burnetii with fire and brimstone." To this the Apostle Paul bears testimony, when he says, " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord0." Perhaps it may assist us more, if we consider what the penalty of transgression was to the fallen angels : they were cast out of heaven from the presence of their God ; and were consigned to " a lake of fire j)repared on purpose for them," there to endure for ever the vengeance of their offended God. Thus man, on his fall, lost the favour and presence of God, and was subjected to his heavy and everlasting displeasure. Being a partaker with the angels in their offence, he became a partaker with them in their punishment.
Now let every one that has transgressed the law in ever so small a degree, though it may have been only once, consider what the law says to him : it says, " Cursed is every one that continveth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them."]
This, I say, is,
III. The tremendous inference that must be drawn in relation to every one of us —
a Deut. xxvii. 26. *> Rom. vii. 7, 0. « Rom. vi. 23.