who are without it, those who in your nomenclature are the unholy in your estimation stigmatized as without a God and without religion. As Abraham then was not accepted as righteous on account of circumcision, or on account of any thing but that faithfulness of spirit which is open to all nations, when we say that we have him to our father, we assume no ground for boasting, for neither had he, nor have we any claim upon God as workmen that have performed their stipulated task and earned their wages. The workman who has done his work demands his hire as a right, but we, the servants of God, feel that our duties are unlimited, and whatever we may have done, it is with the spirit of the deepest humility that we enter into the presence of our heavenly master, profoundly convinced that no finite service can be commensurate with infinite obligation. When therefore we learn, that God will esteem us as righteous, if our hearts be right, that our belief and trust in him, the faithfulness of our spirit will be accounted unto us for righteousness, and though man will be judged according to his works, that those works will be estimated, not according to their magnitude, number, or importance, but according to the testimony they bear to the purity and fidelity of the spirit that inspires them. When we are treated thus

graciously, and know, that all our fellow-creatures, even those, whom we esteem impious, because they are not under the law are admissible to the same grace with ourselves, we shall be far from indulging in the littleness, and the extravagance of worldly boasting; our souls will be chiefly occupied with the holy aspirations of gratitude.

We shall unite with David, in felicitations .. upon the man, whom God does not treat as a hired labourer to be paid nothing more than he has strictly earned, in felicitations on the man whose righteousness is measured, not by the works he has actually carried into effect, for they must ever be far short of his duty, but by the faithfulness of spirit which prompts them; without or independent of circumcision and the other works of the law. Blessed are they, says the Psalmist, in whom the favor, the mercy of God is as a fan to dissipate, or as a veil to cover from his sight, actions that are irreconcilable to, or deviations from the law of Moses. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute such actions.

Now let me ask you, was this blessedness pro- .. nounced upon, were these felicitations addressed exclusively to the circumcised? For we say that Abraham was accepted by God as righteous, like those blessed persons described by David

Was he so..

on account of his faithfulness. accepted before or after he was circumcised, not after but before.

Circumcision was a sign which he received,.. the seal of God's attestation to his righteousness, or of his acceptance as righteous, grounded on the faithfulness which characterized his spirit, when in a state of uncircumcision. So that, if reference be made to the signification or end of that sign, which you consider the legitimate mark of family connection with Abraham, if reference be made from the sign to the thing signified, you will recognise Abraham as a father of all the uncircumcised, who, being faithful, though without the sign, are invested with the thing signified, namely righteousness before God, who, being faithful to God are therefore by inheritance accepted as righteous, as sons of Abraham through faithfulness. You.. will recognise him as a father of these, as well as of the circumcised, that is, of such of the circumcised as are not only circumcised in the flesh like Abraham, but who tread in the steps of Abraham, being impelled by that spirit of faithfulness which was the living principle of action in the bosom of our father Abraham, before he had received circumcision as the seal of his acceptance.

For it is a mistake to suppose, that the pro- .. mise to Abraham and his seed of inheriting the

world, which is tantamount to the imputation or recognition of righteousness in the promiseé, is through the law, it is an acceptance as righteous, which grounds itself upon faithfulness, which grounds itself upon what is open to all nations, making Abraham not the father of the Jews only, but of the whole world, of all the faithful, of whatever nation or lineage.

If indeed those, who deduce their claim ex- .. clusively from the law, are the only inheritors, faithfulness obviously becomes of little or no value; he who makes his claim as creditor, that is as having fulfilled his legal obligations, having performed the limited works assigned, will see no use in referring his judge to the strict faithfulness of his spirit. He obtains the inheritance of the world as his exclusive right, as the remuneration stipulated for under the law. What inheritance remains then for others? The inheritance of the world belongs to the Jew, what then remains to the faithful, to those, who are, as Abraham was before the institutions of Moses or even the earlier practise of circumcision were known, faithful. Do you not see that these exclusive pretensions of the law make fidelity of little or no importance, and invalidate the promise grounded thereupon? You vainly attempt to give a gracious and.. benignant character to the law. Its practical

effect is not hope but terror.

It says, do this, or forbear to do that, or you shall die. The terrors of God, and our knowledge of those terrors chiefly ground themselves on its denunciations; were no law existing, no transgression of the law could take place. It is a document of debt against those who are under it, and till they liquidate that debt to the full, there can be no claim, no hope, and if liquidated, the claim would be not of favor but of right. Therefore the claim of the faithful, the claim of .... the inheritance in Christ, does not ground itself upon the law, which would be making it a claim of debt, but on faithfulness, that is on the sincerity of that spirit, which prompted Abraham, and must prompt all the children of promise, not to rest in a compliance with any definite written law, but to aim like him at the faithful discharge of all their obligations.

Thus, as they must ever be sensible of their deficiences, they will be disposed to receive the inheritance not as a debt but as a gift, not as due to the works of the law, and consequently peculiar to the Jews, but as the free gift of God, and therefore open to all nations, that Abraham may be the father of all the faithful. Thus will the mountain of the Lord's house be no longer an exclusive possession, serving only to sustain and foster an unsocial, and selfish