mife of forgiveness annexed to them. But this went no further than exemption from prefent punishment, and could not exempt them from that death which paffes upon all men. It gave no hope, not the

least hint of a refurrection or future life. "It was impoffible that the blood of bulls "and goats, or the sprinkling and washings "directed there, could take away fin:" and fo long as that continues, death, its infeparable attendant, must come along with it. So that they muft either flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope fet before them in the promise, or perish for ever.

But, may one fay, was not the promife, in being from the beginning of the world, on the faith of which the patriarchs before Abraham lived; and after it was renewed to Abraham, and the bleffing lodged in his feed, was it not the fame faith with that which was preached by Christ and his apoftles; only with this difference, that before, faith was pitched on Chrift to come in due time, and fince, on the fame Christ as already come? How then could the Apostle fay, that the faith was to be revealed afterward? as if it ne

ver

All this is

ver had been revealed before. true; and yet what the Apostle fays is very proper for expreffing what he was laying before those for whom he wrote. The promife, the feed Chrift, and the blessing, were all in being, and revealed and published to the world, and particularly to the Jewish nation; but there was a vail or covering over them, fee 2 Cor. xii. 13.-18. like that which feparated the moft holy place in the tabernacle and temple, until it was rent at the death of Christ. The Apostle's word properly fignifies, removing the vail or covering which kept them from being fairly feen. But when God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, made the light of his glory to fhine forth in the face of Jefus Chrift, then the promise and the bleffing, life and immortality, were fet in a fair and open light, 2 Tim. i. 10. where the Apostle's word is not as our translators render it brought to light, but new light thrown on life and immortality, as is evidently done in the gofpel; particularly in the death and refurrection of Chrift, and the glory that followed.

When the end, then, which the law of Mofes was defigned for, came to be an

fwered,

fwered, and those who were under its direction and leading were brought to Christ, which the Apoftle expreffes by faith being come, there was no more need of the pedagogue, being now greatly better provided. I need not observe again, that when he speaks of faith's being come, he has not only the manifestation of Chrift in the gospel in his eye, but likewise the receiving and believing it. It is obvious, that he here changes his expreffion again; and inftead of we, which he had ufed until he ` had brought the Jews he speaks of to Chrift, he makes ufe of ye, addreffing himself to the whole churches of Galatia, made up of both believing Jews and Gentiles. He had joined them before as equally children of Abraham, and heirs of the promise. Now he tells them how they came to be fo, and gives them another, and infinitely higher title, indeed the very highest a creature can poffibly attain, Ye are all, both Jews and Gentiles, children of God by faith in Chrift Fefus.

Though this tranflation is as exactly literal as can be, there is yet fomething of ambiguity in the expreffion which I think is not in the original. The doubt is, VOL. III. K k whether

whether the words, in Chrift, are to be joined with faith, which immediately precedes, or with being the children of God. On an overly view, it may be thought nearly the fame fenfe which way we take it for when the title of children of God is faid to be by faith in Jefus Chrift, Chrift is kept as much in his proper place as the teftimony of God concerning him puts him in. But, if I am not mistaken, the Apostle defigns fomething further; namely, to fay, that their fonfhip was not fo much by believing, as by the confequence and fruit of it, viz. their being in Christ. He fays indeed very plainly, that they were the children of God by faith; but it was only in Chrift that they were fo. The phrase Xps is never, fo far as I remember, joined with when believing in Christ is defigned; but is or ex Xpisov. And thus he explains it in the following verfe, where he gives the reason of what he says in this, That as many as were baptized into Chrift, as all believers on him were, had put on Chrif; which certainly muft import their union with him, by which they become Abraham's feed, and heirs of the promife. This expreffion we find brought in by our Lord himself, John xv. 5. where, un

πισος,

deg

der the fimilitude of a vine, and the branches, he afferts a mutual in-being, believers in him, and he in them. And John xvii. 21. he carries it as high as it can go; by the Father's being in him, and he in them, they become one in them, and are as nearly united to God as a creature can be. He had fet forth this oneness, John vi. 51. by the nearest union known among men, viz. that between the food, and the body which is nourished by it, fetting forth himself as the true bread which came down from heaven; and which not only fupports, but gives life where it was not, to all who receive it. Thence it became the common title of a believer, a man in Chrift. The apostles, after him, pitch on the nearest and closest unions known among men, to illuftrate the nearnefs and intimacy of this union, viz. the husband and wife, the head and the body; which all contribute fomething to give us fome notion of what is indeed incomprehenfible in our present ftate. This Apostle gives us the nearest, 1 Cor. vi. 16. 17. He that is joined to the Lord is one fpirit; and thence of courfe one life, one mind, the fame fentiments and affections, and therefore