Infer —
1 . How great was the love of Christ towards our fallen race !
[That he who was happy in the bosom of his Father should become a curse ! That he should submit to such misery in our place and stead ! Well might that anathema be denounced against the ungrateful11 — Let us then study to " comprehend the heights and depths of his love."]
2. What folly and impiety is it to seek justification by the law !
[When the moral law was once broken, it was absolutely impossible that any man should be justified by itx. There remained no way of escaping its curse but by embracing the Gospel y. What folly then is it to reject salvation when it is freely offered, and to seek it in a way in which it cannot be found ! Nor is the impiety of the conduct less than the folly. It declares that the sacrifice of Christ was unnecessary, or ineffectual. This conduct proved destructive to the bulk of the Jewish nation2. May we never imitate them to our eternal ruin !]
3. How strong are the Christian's obligations to holiness !
[Christ did not die to deliver us from the curse only, but from sin alsoa. Shall we hope to attain one end of his death while we defeat the other ? We should reject such a thought with the utmost abhorrence b. Let every one then strive to attain the disposition of St. Paulc — ]
11 1 Cor. xvi. 22. x Gal. iii. 21. y Gal. iii. 22.
z Rom. ix. 31, 39, & x. 3.
a Tit. ii. 14. b Rom. vj# !, c 2 Cor. v. 14. 15.