The life and work of St. Paul

THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 437
whom he wrote, because they were deduced from their own principles, aud
grounded on their own methods, however startling was the originality of the
conclusions to which they lead. Merely to translate them without brief
explanatory comment would add very little to the reader's advantage. I will
endeavour, thereforo, to throw them into a form which shall supply what is
necessary to render them intelligible.
" Brethren," hs says, " I will give you an every-day illustration. 1 No one
annuls, or vitiates by additions, even a inero human covenant -when it han been once
ratified. Now tha Promises weiie uttered to Abraham ' and to his seed.' The word
employed is neither plural iu form nor in significance. A plural word might have
been used hud many been referred to; the reason for the use of a collective term is
pre-eminently radicated, and that one person is Christ.2 What I mean is this :
God made and ratified a covenant with Abraham ; and the Law which came four
hundred and thirty yeara afterwards* cannot possibly nullify the covenant or abrogate
tho promise. Now God has bestowed the gift on Abraham by promise, and
therefore clearly it was not bestowed as a result ot obedience to a law. 4
" \Vhy, then, was the Law P you ask ; of what use was it P " Very briefly St.
Paul gives them the answer, which in the Epistle to tho Romans he elaborates with
so much more fulness.
Practically, the answer may be summed up by saying that tho Law was damnatory,
temporary, mediate, educational. 6 It was added to create in the soul the sense of sin,
und so lead to tho Saviour, who in due time should come to render it no more
necessary; 6 and it was given by the ministry of angola? and a human mediator.
It was not, therefore, a promise, but a contract and a ; promise direct from God
is far superior to a contract made by the agency of a human mediator between God
and man. 8 The Law, therefore, waa but " supplementary, parenthetical, provisional,
1 iii. 15. Kara aiS^-tv, i.e., i( a.v6fujriinav irapafciyf*aT*>y (Chrys,).
2 V. supra, pp. 30, SL
8 In Qen. xv. 13, Acts vii. 6, &o., the period in Egypt seems to count from Abraham's
visit. * iii. 1518.
5 iii. 15, eTriSiaras-o-eTai | 19, irpoireT^Sij ; Rom. V. 20, iraptcrr>9ev. The LftW Was (1) TWV
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