on a perfect equality with the circumcised ; and that, as faith alone was available for Abraham's salvation, so it would avail for the salvation of all who truly relied upon the Promised Seedk. True it is, we are to " walk in the steps of our father Abraham," and not to imagine that we can be saved by a dead inoperative faith1 : but still it is by faith only that we become children of Abraham, and by faith only that we become par- takers of his blessings™: if we seek these benefits in any other way, " we frustrate the grace of God, and cause the death of Christ to be in vain"." In the very same promise then that the Gospel was preached to Abraham, it is preached to us : to every one of us it is said, " In the Promised Seed shalt thou be blessed." And with this agrees the testimony of St. Paul, who, specifying distinctly all the great blessings which the Gospel offers to us, tells us, about nine times in eleven verses, that it is all " in Christ," " in Christ," " in Christ0."]
2. That all who embrace it shall be partakers of its blessings —
[There is no exception whatever; no difference between Jews and Gentiles: if only we " be of faith, we are from that moment blessed with all the blessings which Abraham himself enjoyed." Was he justified ? So shall we be. Was he made " the friend of God ?" So shall we be. Was God to him " a shield, an exceeding great reward ?" Such will he be to us also. Is Abraham now "in the kingdom of his God? We also shall, with him and Isaac and Jacob, sit down there," yea, and shall be " in Abraham's bosom " to all eternity. All this, and infinitely more than we can either utter or conceive, shall we receive, if we truly believe in Christ : for " all things are ours, if we be Christ'sp."]
From hence we may see,
1. The antiquity of the Gospel —
[In every age the doctrine of justification by faith only is stigmatized as a new doctrine : it is very generally represented as such amongst ourselves : and so it was by the Papists at the time of the Reformation : in the apostolic age it was regarded in the same light. When " St. Paul preached Jesus and the resurrection, it was asked, what this new doctrine meant q." But it is as old as Abraham, to whom it was distinctly preached : yea, it must be traced to the time of Adam ; for to him also was it preached, when he was told that " the Seed of
k Rom. hi. 30. » Rom. iv. 12. with Jam. ii. 20, 24, 26.
m ver. 7, 9. " Gal. ii. 21. ° Eph. i. 3—13.
p 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. fi Acts xvii. 18, 19.