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errors of others. "Thou, therefore, art inexcusable, whosoever thou art, that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth"-the sentence which God will pass upon us, will not be man's sentence, or guided by man's opinion, but according to truth. We may succeed in blinding the eyes of men; we may possibly, in their sight, by blaming others, raise an opinion of our own righteousness, but how will this profit us in the eyes of God, whose judgment will be according to truth, without any respect to our privileges, our advantages, or professions? He will render to every man according to his deeds, whether he be a Jew or a Gentile; for with God there is no respect of persons.

Having thus laid down the principles on which the righteous judgment of God will be founded, and taught the proud and haughty Jew that those privileges of

which he boasted, should, if abused, only add to his condemnation, while mercy should be extended to the Gentile according to his endeavours to do the will of God, he now turns the whole strength of his argument more fully on the Jew, and reasons with him on the effect which that knowledge of the will of God vouchsafed to him has had, or ought to have had, on his conduct. Thus, in the seventeenth verse, he says, " Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God." Thou art one of that family of Abraham, to whom the promises were made, and neglecting the real meaning or spirit of those promises, you suppose the promise to be binding on God's part, without the fulfilment of the conditions on yours, without that faith and righteousness which caused God to choose and distinguish Abraham. Supposing, therefore, yourself the favourite of heaven, from the merely accidental circumstance of being born the child of Abraham, you rest in the law, you trust

in the law, not as a means by which you are to advance yourself in holiness, but as a privilege by which you are to be distinguished in this world, and to be saved in the next; and as having a higher knowledge of God from the law, you make that knowledge a boast, not that you turn this knowledge to your profit, or have a truer knowledge of God to any good purpose, but as you make that knowledge your idle boast in comparing yourselves with the ignorant heathen. It is from the law also that you know God's will, and are ready, as your reason must be, to approve those things that are more excellent; and set up by this distinguishing knowledge, which is not, in fact, yours, or any merit to you, for it is the gift of God bestowed on you in his Scriptures, you are sufficiently confident in your own wisdom and knowledge to consider yourself a guide to the blind, and an instructor of the foolish. "Thou, therefore," says the apostle, "which undertakest to teach another, teachest thou not thyself?

Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, who boast that the knowledge thou derivest from the law distinguishes and raises you above the rest of the world, do you notwithstanding, by the breach of this very law, dishonour God? For the name of God, of that God whom you claim indeed as your peculiar God and Father, and of whom you make your boast, is nevertheless blasphemed among the Gentiles, among those whose ignorance you pretend to pity and to instruct, and his holy religion brought, by your practice of it, into contempt."

Do not then deceive yourselves by attaching value to a mere name or profession, or trust to any privilege, however valuable, the conditions of which are not, on your part, fulfilled. Circumcision, the sign and seal of the co

venant entered into with your father Abraham, when God directed the expectation of mankind to that great deliverer, even Christ, a descendant of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, profiteth verily if thou keep the law-is of the greatest advantage to you if you keep that law, the observance of which was the condition of the covenant; but if thou be a breaker of the law, if you do not, on your part, fulfil the conditions of the covenant, what reasonable expectations have you that God, on his part, should fulfil his? The offer he made to you was, on his part, freely and in mercy made; the conditions which, on your part, he offers to accept, are but your bounden duty as a creature to your Creator. If then, though resting in the law, you break the law, your circumcision is of no profit to you; it becomes uncircumcision; you put yourself out of covenant with God, and renounce your privileges. But do not herein deceive yourselves, you cannot with them shake off your allegiance.

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