1. This statement of Abraham's being justified by faith is directly contradicted by St. James —
[St. James, it is true, does say that Abraham was justified by his ivorks ; and specifies the offering up of* his son Isaac as the work for which he was justified : and farther declares, that in that act the passage quoted by St. Paul received its accomplishment d. But here is no opposition between the two Apostles ; as the scope of the context in the two passages will clearly evince. St. James is evidently speaking of the difference between a living and a dead faith ; and he shews that Abraham clearly proved his to be a living faith, by the fruits it produced6. But St. Paul is speaking of the way in which Abraham was justified before God : and the faith whereby Abraham was justified, was actually exercised forty years before the time that St. James speaks off : which we consider as a decisive proof of these two things, namely, that Abraham was justified (in St. Paul's sense of that term) by faith without works; and next, that St. James did not intend to contradict St. Paul, but only to guard his doctrines from abuse.]
2. Though it was not for offering up his son that God justified Abraham, yet it was for another act of obedience, namely, his submitting to circumcision —
[This idea is entertained by many, who oppose the doc- trine of justification by faith alone: but it is as erroneous as that before stated : for Abraham had no son at all, when he exercised faith in God's promises, and by that faith was justi- fied before God : and he had waited some years in expectation of the promised seed, before Sarah gave him her servant Hagar to wifeg: and Ishmael was thirteen years old when God re- newed his covenant with Abraham, and enjoined him the use of circumcision : so that, in this, as in the former case, Abraham was justified many years before the act took place for which our objector would suppose him to be justified. And this is so important an observation, that St. Paul, in the verses follow- ing our text, dwells upon it with all the emphasis imaginable11 deducing from it a truth which is of infinite import- ance to us, namely, that, as Abraham was justified in his uncircumcised state, he is as truly the father of us uncir- cumcised Gentiles, as he is of his lineal descendants, the circumcised Jews.]
d Jam. ii. 21 — 23. e Jam. ii. 18.
f The faith by which Abraham was justified was exercised twenty years before Isaac was born. See Gen. xv. 5, 6. And we suppose Isaac to have been at least twenty years old when his father offered him up.
e Gen. xvi. -'3. h ver. 9 — 11. with Gen. xvii. 23.