For he that said, Do not commit adultery
That same lawgiver, who is but one, and is God, that gave out the
seventh command, and forbids adultery,
said also, Do not kill;
delivered the sixth command, which forbids murder.
Now if thou commit no adultery;
do not break the seventh command;
yet if thou kill,
break the sixth command,
thou art become a transgressor of the law;
not of that particular precept of the law, the seventh command,
for the contrary is supposed before, but of the sixth only; and
yet by so doing, a man becomes a violator of the whole law; for
the law is but one, though it consists of various precepts; and
the breach of one precept, as well as of another, is the breach
of the law: and besides, there is but one lawgiver, who has
enjoined one command, as well as another, and whose legislative
power and authority is despised and trampled upon by the
violation of one command, as of another. This is the apostle's
argument, and way of reasoning, proving the above assertion, that
he that breaks the law in one particular instance, is guilty of
the breach of the whole law.