this therefore I say, that the law, which was not till four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul the promise, that was ratified before by God, so as to set the promise afoot.

now if the right to the inheritance be from the law, it is no longer founded upon the promise; altho' God made a donation of it to Abraham by promise.

"To what purpose then was the law?" it was added as a check to transgressors, till the offspring should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels with the intervention of a mediator.

and if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's offspring, and his heirs by virtue of the promise.

he, who was of the bond-woman, was born according to the ordinary course of nature; but he, who was of the free-woman, was born by virtue of the promise.

Now we, my brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise.