minute particulars, and not one may be omitted, how much more must not everything that He has ordained for us be fulfilled?
And now observe to what point this goes. 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass.’ [1] If the sun were suddenly to disappear — that torch of the world to be extinguished in full noon; if the heavens were to fall on us with a crash, or to roll back from overhead like a self-revolving roof; if the earth gave way under our feet, and its firm foundation were in a moment reduced to powder: — how utterly should we be lost! Yet for the least of God’s commandments to be broken is a much worse misfortune and a much more complete loss of all things.
Suppose they are broken, will Jesus Christ — who has said that they shall be kept — be therefore accounted a deceiver? God forbid! For they are always broken on a condition: — that is, that their breach will be punished. Hence, if we ever committed a fault and were able to evade its chastisement, Jesus Christ would have been mistaken; but as we cannot commit the smallest sin without its being brought up at the Judgment — where we shall
- ↑ Matt, xxiv, 35.
