But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Ver. 25. Whoso looketh into, &c.] παρακυψας, as into a glass, wishly and intently with the body bowed down. Get thee God's law as a glass to toot in, saith Mr Bradford (Ser. of Repent.); so shalt thou see thy face foul arrayed, and so shamefully saucy, mangy, pocky, and scabbed, that thou canst not but be sorry at the contemplation thereof. It is said of the basilisk, that if he look into a glass, he presently dieth: sin doth. Physicians in some kind of unseemly convulsions wish the patient to view himself in a glass, which will help him to strive the more when he shall see his own deformity; so reflect, &c.
The perfect law of liberty] The moral law, in opposition to the ceremonial, or so called because never is a man free indeed till out of a principle of love he keep God's law.
Not a forgetful hearer] Some are as hourglasses, no sooner turned up but running out immediately. Their souls are like filthy ponds, wherein fish die soon and frogs live long; profane jests are remembered, pious passages forgotten.