except as included in true faith. "They which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham;" for they cannot be justified any other way; they must be justified either by the law or by faith: they are justified by faith, "for as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." In this curse disobedience is condemned without regard to the number or degree of offences. Those, therefore, who heard it, and their posterity, were left to the inference that any violation of the law whatsoever was contrary to the will of God. The Jewish law was of a complex nature, and more comprehensive than the present systems of jurisprudence. By it all religious and moral duties were made known; by it several of the external duties of religion were prescribed; by it men were instructed in the love of God, and it is to the Jews and Christians in many instances the same essential ordinance and religious institution 18. Even the harbouring of desires that tended to unlawful actions was expressly denounced and laid under a curse, although that curse was not like the commandment which it sanctioned, in the letter or power of the law. "Thou shalt not covet." what Israelite, what Gentile could be accounted perfectly righteous before God as having been free from sinful desires, from the too eager pursuit of some object not authorized by the Divine law, from carelessness with respect to the great

18 Seventh Article.

But

commandment of loving God to the utmost of his ability, and that like unto it, of loving his neighbour as himself? By this standard our consciences bear us witness that "there is none righteous." "What things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God 19." Every one of us is liable to some portion of the divine displeasure. We cannot merit, but must receive God's favor as a free gift. This is all that is to be understood by the curse of the law. And the reason of its promulgation was no other than to make us grateful for the dispensation which was established immediately after the Fall", by which dispensation justification depends upon faith as it has been previously explained. For the curse never was executed, but all the world are by it led to the acknowledgement that God's method of salvation is a dispensation of grace in every way suitable to his goodness and our imperfection.

How then does this explanation of the curse of the law agree with the proposition of which

19 Rom. iii. 19.

20 ، Since it is essential to a law, that it be in a matter that is possible, it cannot be supposed that God would judge man by an impossible commandment. A good man would not do it, much less the righteous and merciful Judge of men and angels. But God by holding over the world the covenant of works, 'non fecit prævaricatores sed humiles,' did not make us sinners by not observing the axpiBeta, the minutes and tittles of the law, but made us humble,' needing mercy, begging grace," &c. Bp. Taylor's Necessity of Repentance, Vol. VIII. p. 264. by Heber.

the examination of St. Paul's chapter is to form the proof? the curse of the law of Moses? of the moral law?

argument in this How is this curse How not rather

That Paul deduced this curse from the law of Moses which forbids secret sins, and, therefore, supposes a secret and spiritual curse, and asserted from the Mosaic law that every one was liable to it, and could be justified only by the divine mercy, is sufficient to our argument. If this curse were in the law of Moses, (and of that alone the Apostle had been previously treating) it is a mere assumption to allege that it is taken from the moral law, or from the covenant of works, or from any other law that we may create, of which this chapter is in every other passage silent.

Some divines assert that every man is required to be sinless in thought, word, and deed; that the law passes sentence upon every one as incapable of fulfilling its requirements; and that this sentence is averted from penitent believers by Christ having suffered in their law-place.

That any man is in danger of everlasting misery because he is not sinless, seems at first sight contrary to our natural notions of benevolence and equity.

Of the external evidence in favor of such an opinion, there is nothing of more apparent importance than those parts of the Epistle to the Galatians which have been already noticed, and the conclusion of St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, that all men are actually sinners,

not in the mere ignorance and imperfection of their nature, but in those cases which are the soonest discovered by human reason and experience to be perversions of human liberty. "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. There is no fear of God before their eyes. They are all gone out of the way"." When therefore we read at the close of this catalogue of vices and enormities" therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified: for by the law is the knowledge of sin," or, by the law men are convinced that they are sinners, it is by no means obvious that the law is a command to do that which is impossible, and that the sinner is condemned for not complying with this law.

To be under the curse of the law, I have shewn equivalent to two things; first, to be without any claim upon the divine favor from the imperfection and guilt by which we are excluded justification except as a free gift, and, secondly, to be obnoxious to a punishment proportionate to our offences.

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law." Deliverance from this curse must imply the expectation of our inheriting the divine favor, and of receiving justification by some other claim than by our obedience to the law; or, by our obedience to the law with some especial provision for the passing by of wilful sins. And, secondly, this justification must be a free gift,

21 Rom. iii.

or in other words, it must be within the power of every individual to accept as well the terms of his justification as the act of his justification. Being a sinner he can no more deserve that his obedience should merit a conditional efficacy, than he can merit the being entitled to the reward of unsinning obedience.

Such a deliverance is justification by faith. This deliverance or justification by faith is the "blessing of Abraham." "The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached before the Gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Wherefore they which are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." c. iii. 8, 9.

Those who are of faith are the children of Abraham, v. 7.

The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed, v. 16.

Those who were included in the blessing of Abraham were included in the promises made to Abraham; the blessing and promise of Abraham being in effect the same thing.

The

All nations were blessed in Abraham. children of Abraham, or those who were of faith as Abraham was, are of all nations.

So that the blessing of Abraham that was. to come upon all nations was the justifying the nations through faith.

This blessing was to come upon the nations through Jesus Christ: "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations through Jesus Christ.