not let it enjoy any peace in harbouring its sinful inmate. Whenever
when it is in the throne. Here it minces not the matter with sinners, as we use to do one with another, but tells him plainly," 'You' are the 'man' in whom this exceeding sinful sin dwells, and you must answer for the guilt of it." And I think if anything could rouse a man to opposite it, utterly to destroy it, this would be it. The law lets him know that on account of this sin he is under the curse and wrath of God; it pronounces the sentence of everlasting condemnation on him for it. "Abide in this state and perish," is its language. It gives the soul this warning in this world, and will leave it without excuse in the world to come.
4. The law so follows on its sentence, that it alarms the soul, and does not let it enjoy any peace in harbouring its sinful inmate. Whenever the soul has obeyed the commands of sin, the law immediately flies on it with the wrath of the Lord, and makes it tremble. It shall have no rest, but is like a poor beast that has a deadly arrow sticking in its sides, that makes it restless wherever it is and whatever it does.
5. The law does not stop here; it also slays the soul, Romans 7:9; that is, by convicting of the nature, power, and deserts of this indwelling sin, it deprives him in whom it is of all the self-righteousness and hope he used to sustain himself with, - it leaves him as a poor, dead, helpless, hopeless creature; and all this as it opposes this sin. May we not now expect that its power will be broken, - that it will die away before these strokes of the law of God? But the truth is, such is its power and strength, that it is quite otherwise. For by every fall it gains new strength; so is it with all the falls that are given to indwelling sin by the law: for, -
(1.) It is not conquered. A conquest infers two things in respect of the conquered, - first, loss of dominion; and, secondly, loss of strength. Whenever any one is conquered he is deprived of both these; he loses both his authority and his power. So when the strong man is overcome, he is bound and his goods are taken. But neither of these befalls indwelling sin by the assaults of the law. It loses none of its dominion or strength by all the blows that are given to it. The law