Paul says, Gal. iii, 10:—­“For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse; for it is written, Deut. xxvii. 26, ’ Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.’” And he interprets this to mean that all mankind, Jews and Gentile, are liable to damnation, (except those who are saved by faith) because no man ever did continue in all things written in the law.  Now, in the first place I would observe, that Paul has inserted the word “all” in the passage he quotes from Deuteronomy, (in the original of which it is not) in order to make it support his system; for the whole of his argument is built upon this one surreptitiously inserted word. 2.  The words according to the original are simply these:—­“Cursed is he that continueth not the words of this law to do them;” i. e.,—­He who disobeys, or neglects to fulfil the commands of the law, shall be under the curse denounced upon the disobedient.  But who would conclude from this that repentance would not remove the curse?  Does not God expressly declare in the xxx. ch. of Deut., that if they repent, the curses written shall be removed from them?  And have we not innumerable instances recorded in the Old Testament, of sinners, and transgressors of this very law, received to pardon and favour, upon repentance and amendment?  So that this argument founded upon an unwarrantable undeniable interpolation, and supported by bad logic, is every way bad, and insulting to God and his (by Paul acknowledged) word.

Gal ch. iii. 16:—­“To Abraham, and his seed were the promises made, He saith not ’ and to seeds,’ (as of roomy) but as of one, ’ and to thy seed,’ which is Christ.”  Here is an argument which one would think too far-fetched, even for Paul; and it is built on a perversion of a passage from Genesis, which Paul, bold as he was in these matters, certainly would not have ventured, if he had not the most assured confidence in the blinking credulity of his Galatian converts.  His argument in this place is drawn from the use of the word “seed” in the singular number, in the passage of Genesis, from whence he quotes.  And because the word seed is in the singular number, fag tells the “foolish Galatians,” as he justly calls them, that this “seed” must mean one individual (and not many,) “which,” says he, “is Christ.”  Now, let us look at the xv. ch. of Gen., from whence he quotes, and we shall see the force of this singular argument, derived from the use of the singular number.  “And He (God) brought him (Abraham) forth abroad, and said.  Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars if thou be able to number them, and He said unto him, so shall thy seed be.—­And He said, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they shall afflict them, &c., afterwards they shall come out with great substance.—­In that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, unto thy seed have I given this land,” &c.  Again, ch. xxii.,