...without the law once : but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." And then he demands, " Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. . . . Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which...

...sin ; that is, I had not so fully understood the abominable nature thereof as I do, but by the lanv: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet; and hereupon he concludes, that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (2.)...

...eompelled to plead guilty. He will now thoroughly eomprehend the meaning of St. Paul's eonfession : I had not known sin, but by the Law : for I had not known lust, exeept the Law had said, Thou shalt not eavet. But sin, taking oeeasion by the eommandment, wrought...

...to discover itself in the blackest colours ; the apostle plainly evinces this truth, when he says, Sin taking occasion by the commandment, -wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, Rom. vii. 8. and, indeed, there is nothing in the whole compass of providence, or in the methods of...

...are many crimes which men would not have known to be sins, " I " had not known sin," says St. Paul, " but by the " law : for I had not known lust, except the law " had said, Thou shalt not covet." It is the law, then which by awakening and enlightening our conscience, teaches us that sin deserves...

...recesses, as easily to elude the view of man. And it is not without cause that the Apostle says, " I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet:" (£• ) because unless it be stripped of its disguises and brought to light by the law, it destroys...

...are infected, and from which none are free. The seventh chapter is full of this doctrine ; sw vcr. 8. Sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. If man was in Ids primitive state of purity and holiness, he would take occasion by the divine commandment...

...illustrates this sentiment, as well as establishes its truth, by reference to his own experience : " I had not known sin, but by the law ; for I had not...lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Contrasting the purity and spirituality of the Divine law, with the corruptions which he found in himself,...

...what law is " the knowledge of sin?" By the moral, or by the ritual law? — " I had not known sjn, but by the " law; for I had not known lust, except the law had • " said, Thou shalt not covet."f Indeed all the apostle's preceding discourse had been concerning the violations of the moral...

...by the law we have the knowledge of sin, and tbat it is by Hie 1aw's forbidding sin, chap. vii. 7. " I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law hail said, thou shalt not covet." There the apostle determines two things ; first, That the way in...