law. I live no more, that is, I am no more obliged, by the institutions of law. As living through law, I am dead. But as living through Christ, I am alive; Christ lives in me. I am married to a new husband Christ, the union between Christ and me is such, that in reference to God, to whom I live, I am one with Christ; all the actions of Christ, in as much as I am pledged to follow his steps, are imputed to me; and all my actions, in as much as Christ, with reference to God's favor, identifies himself with all the faithful for life or death, all my actions are acknowledged by Christ as his, whatever I do and suffer to bring you to God; such acts and sufferings, however meritorious they may be, are merged in Christ. No christian lives for himself, but as Christ die and lives to God for all, so all live and die to God for Christ, or, which is the same thing, not for themselves exclusively, but for others, for all the holy who are Christ's members. Christ the son of God gave himself for me, and I have given myself for him. The life I now live in the body, I live, not in the righteousness of the Judaical, nor in the righteousness of any law, but in faithfulness of spirit, in a faithfulness even unto death, a faithfulness which was in the son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself unto death for me, to assure me of the

truth of the gracious message which he brought from heaven, viz. that God had in mercy liberated me entirely from the yoke of Judaism.

I do not put aside or make light of (consi- .. dering it as insufficient without the help of circumcision,) this grace of God, which accepts me as righteous without circumcision, without the works of the law. For if I imagine such acceptance to be still restricted to the circumcised, still grounded upon a compliance with the Judaical law, then did Christ die for me in vain. Then has he failed to assure me of my liberation; for I act as if no credence were to be placed in the divine embassage, which he sealed with his blood.

Oh, ye irrational Galatians, through whom.. has such fascination bewitched your senses, that the fact of which ye have been, as it were, eyewitnesses has failed to impress your minds with that truth which it necessarily infers. You have been baptized into, you have, though not in fact, yet in effect, seen the crucified Jesus. For vision itself could not have had a more convincing and moving effect upon your minds, than the testimonies and descriptions which have been afforded you of the fact of his crucifixion. The image of his crucified body, into which you were baptized or pledged, was visibly sealed by the manifestations of the spirit, as the image, of what you, immediately on baptism,

became in the eye of God, for immediately on baptism ye became in the eye of God one with Jesus, and by such manifestations, that image, uncircumcised though you were, as your own image, was engraved upon the tablet of your

hearts.

When ye were baptized, the manifestation .. of the spirit was given, the earnest of God's acceptance of your persons. Let me only ask you this, were you then circumcised? Was that testimonial of the forgiveness of your sins, vouchsafed exclusively to the Jew; was it suspended from the Gentile, till his compliance with circumcision? Was it not bestowed upon the faithful immediately on their hearing the announcement of, and accepting, by baptism into his crucified body, the dispensation of faithfulness?

Are ye so irrational? Having commenced " your life unto God, under the manifested auspices of the spirit, is your perfect establishment in that life to be sought in a carnal ordinance? Was it in vain, that ye were the subject of such manifestations of acceptance? If" indeed it be as you say, it was even in vain; if sincere baptism be insufficient without circumcision, the manifestation of the spirit the sign of your acceptance shed upon the uncircumcised was a vain and unmeaning exhibition,

I ask then, he who exercised his appointed ... office of administering to you the spirit or God's earnest of your acceptance, and of operating within you the effects of that spirit, the assured feelings of acceptance, was his success the fruit of any legal work that you performed, or simply of your faithful attention to his announcement of the dispensation of faithfulness? His announcement of that dispensation which substitutes faithfulness of spirit in the place of uniform perfection of obedience, which was first opened to Abraham, and is now confirmed.. to all who are in Christ Jesus, who are sincerely baptized into his crucified body?

You listen to those who say that the uncircumcised are not children of Abraham, and are therefore accursed, having no inheritance in God's promised blessings. Be assured that they who are of faithfulness, that is, who are of Christ's faithful spirit, are indeed, though uncircumcised, sons of God.

Abraham evinced a confiding and faithful spirit towards God; and that spirit was without circumcision, and even previous to its institution, accepted by God for righteousness, or as an acquittal or sufficient redemption from the curse denounced by God to Adam against sin : so likewise shall they, and all who, like Christ, evince, by the family characteristic as it were

of spiritual faithfulness, their legitimacy as the children of promise, as the spiritual sons of Abraham, be redeemed from the curse denounced on sin, have imputed to them all the works, or rather have assured to them all the effects of righteousness, on account of that spirit of faithfulness which was in Abraham, which was in Christ, and to which all the faithful by their baptism into Christ's crucified body stand irreversibly pledged.

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The writing also, or record of God's promise-.. anticipating the universality of the application of that promise, viz. that God's acceptance of the nations as righteous is on no restrictive or exclusive consideration, or privilege, like that of circumcision, but on the general principle of fidelity,―announced to Abraham, before legal works were enjoined, these glad tidings. "In thee shall all nations be blessed," that is, saved from the curse of sin, in the spirit that guides thee, in the spirit that shall guide Christ, in that spirit of faithfulness and love, which through Christ, shall guide the faithful among all the nations upon earth. Thus, in confuta- .. tion of the doctrine of those who say that the Gentiles, unless circumcised, are under the curse, according to this written record of God's promise, all who are faithful in spirit, all, without respect of persons or nations, are blessed