William McEwen on concupiscence refuting the legalist’s hopes

[Reformed Covenanter]

A small measure of acquaintance with their own hearts might have easily persuaded them that the demands of the moral law, or Ten Commandments, were too rigid for them ever to hope justification by their compliance with them. For however much it may be thought by superficial observers that the first nine precepts in the law may be fulfilled by an imperfect creature, yet it is evident that the very letter of the tenth commandment forbids the sins of the heart and all the motions of concupiscence.

How can the proudest legalist plume himself with the foolish conceit of being able to conform himself in all respects to the very letter of the law when the very letter of the law says, “Thou shalt not covet” (Ex. 20:17)? If then there were many Israelites who rested in the law, without looking any further, and fondly imagined that it was able to give them eternal life, this fatal mistake was not chiefly owing to the obscurity of their dispensation but to the blindness of their own hearts that were hard as the stones on which their law was written and veiled as their lawgiver’s face.

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William McEwen on concupiscence refuting the legalist’s hopes

A small measure of acquaintance with their own hearts might have easily persuaded them that the demands of the moral law, or Ten Commandments, were too rigid for them ever to hope justification by …

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