+III. Shares its privilege and blessing with all who believe.+--"They which are of faith, the same are the children of . . . are blessed with faithful Abraham" (vers. 7, 9). With Abraham's faith the Gentiles inherit his blessing. They were not simply blessed _in_ him, through his faith which received and handed down the blessing but blessed _with_ him. Their righteousness rests on the same principle as his. Reading the story of Abraham, we witness the bright dawn of faith, its springtime of promise and of hope. These morning hours passed away; and the sacred history shuts us in to the hard school of Mosaism, with its isolation, its mechanical routine and ritual drapery, its yoke of legal exaction ever growing more burdensome. Of all this the Church of Christ was to know nothing. It was called to enter into the labours of the legal centuries without the need of sharing their burdens. In the "Father of the Faithful" and the "Friend of God" Gentile believers were to see their exemplar, to find the warrant for that sufficiency and freedom of faith of which the natural children of Abraham unjustly strove to rob them (_Findlay_). +Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel has an honourable antiquity._ 2. _Righteousness is the practical side of true religion._ 3. _Faith is the way to righteousness._ _GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._ Vers. 6-9. _Righteousness through Faith._ +I. The Divine method of blessing in past ages+ (ver. 6). +II. Modern believers are spiritual successors of the most eminent examples of faith in ancient times+ (ver. 7). +III. The unchanging Gospel taught in Holy Scripture+ (ver. 8). +VI. Ensures the enjoyment of promised blessings+ (ver. 9). Vers. 6, 7. _Imitators of Abraham's Faith._ +I. We must have knowledge of the main and principal promise touching the blessing of God in Christ,+ and all other promises depending on the principal; and we must know the scope and tenor of them that we be not deceived. +II. We must with Abraham believe the truth and power of God+ in the accomplishment of the said promises, or in the working of our vocation, justification, sanctification, glorification. +III. We must by faith obey God+ in all things, shutting our eyes and suffering ourselves to be led blindfold, as it were, by the Word of God. Thus did Abraham in all things, even in actions against nature. But this practice is rare among us. For there are three things which prevail among us--the love of worldly honour, the love of pleasure, and the love of riches; and where these bear sway there faith takes no place.--_Perkins._