hesitate or waver, the Lord by his ministering servant still cries out with greater importunity, with more urgent expostulation than ever, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God follow him, but if Baal then follow him'."

THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.
THE EPISTLE. Gal. iii., 16 to 22.

16 To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by pro

mise.

19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of

transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

The Apostle's argument here is, that the Jews had not that exclusive interest in the promises of God to which they laid claim. Not content with the sole and separate enjoyment for many ages, notwithstanding great backslidings, of God's peculiar favour; not content with the privileges of intercourse with God, signal deliverance from enemies, preservation from idolatry, the glory, the covenants, the promises which they had possessed so long, abused so often, and never deserved, they would have limited God's future and everlasting mercies to themselves alone, and denied them to the rest of mankind. The Messiah, indeed, long promised and long expected, was born among them, within the limits of their land, and of one of their own tribes2. He preached, when he entered on his ministry, to them alone, to them pre-eminently. And when he was about to leave the world, he directed his Apostles to preach, first to them, and afterward to all nations. This was not extraordinary, and was 1 1 Kings xviii., 21.

2 Compare Matt. i., 2, 16, with Heb. vii., 14. See also Matt. ii., 4, 5, 6, and Micah v., 2. 4 Luke xxiv., 47.

3 Matt. x., 5, 6; xv. 24.

indeed natural under the circumstances. "God had not cast away his people'." They were still dear to him. They were not, however, to keep all favour to themselves, and to keep it for ever, and so the Saviour became, according to the announcement of the angel, the Saviour of all people, and his Gospel was preached indiscriminately to the nations of the earth. And of this universal preaching of the Gospel, we of this land, and of this family, are among the fruits. We are, in the sense of the Apostle, Abraham's seed, united by faith to him in whom all nations are blessed, and so "heirs according to the promise"."

But amongst the many that were converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Apostles were to be found Jews, men who had heretofore lived under the Mosaic dispensation, and might very probably, even after they had embraced Christianity, retain some of the prejudices of their early education. This actually occurred. The Jewish converts, when they became Christians, did not wholly renounce Judaism. They remembered the Mosaic law with reverence, and when (as at first) only partially acquainted with the principles of Christianity, they could scarcely bring themselves to believe that their beloved law was abrogated. This, however, the Apostle proves beyond a doubt in the Epistle for the day, and refers all his Christian readers, whether Jew or Gentile, to "the principles of the doctrine of Christ." He tells them, that "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made," and that to them that believed like Abraham, Abraham's reward would be given, remission of sins that are past, and the hope of eternal life.

Before we arrive at our practical conclusion, let us first bestow a portion of our attention on the Apostle's unanswerable argument. And first, he lays down as the basis of his argument a fact, in which all would agree, that "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made1." If then, says he, Christ be this promised seed of Abraham in whom all nations should be blessed, (and this you do not deny,) how can you limit the inheritance of a universal blessing to a few Israelites? How can you make that the condition of obtaining the inheritance, which was not in existence when the promise of the inheritance was given? I do not mean to say, says the Apostle further, that the law in which the Jews make their boast and justly, is on this account to be altogether set aside and discarded; for, on the contrary, it

1 Rom. xi., 1. 3 Gal. iii., 29.

2

Luke ii., 10, 11.
4 See Gen. xvii., 7.

is admirably calculated, by inducing a universal sense of sin, to prepare men's minds for an acknowledgment of the truth, and it contains nothing that contradicts the truth. But this I assert, and assert without fear of contradiction, that the observance of the law is not necessary to salvation, first, because it is a covenant made between other parties, and subsequently to the original offer of salvation; further, because it contains no provision for "the remission of sins," which is an essential preliminary to salvation; and finally, because it does not offer or recognise any motive beyond the present life, in a word, does not, as the Apostle says, "give life." Those, then, concludes the Apostle, are the real children of Abraham, the undoubted heirs of the promise, who, although not Israelites, are yet, in the true sense of Abraham's covenant, believers in him who gave the promise. And that, he also concludes, will be the true and only method of obtaining part and lot in an inheritance of the promise, which comes up most closely to the method pursued by Abraham, faith in him who gives the promise, and faith which acts upon its conviction immediately and without hesitation. For such believers, for such faith, there is remission of sins now, and a promise of life hereafter.

We profess ourselves to be of the number of those, in whose favour the promise was made, of the number of those who really believe in him who was promised, and desire to be united to him by faith both here and ever. If this profession is sincere, do we pursue Abraham's method, for that must be the only and true method which in Abraham's case was successful? "Abraham believed in God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness1." And how did he believe in God? Not by remaining where he was and making no effort to go further, not by simply believing, and paying no heed to the command of him in whom he believed. No; he obeyed at once, when he was called to go out into a place "which he should after receive for an inheritance," and renouncing all the idolatry, all the worldliness, all the iniquity in which he had been brought up, "went out, knowing not whither he went."

And must we not, if we would be "Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise," do likewise? Must we not bestir ourselves, and, not regarding crosses or self-denials or mortifications of pride, go forth on the walk of faith, and take the road to heaven? Must we not, for Christ's sake, declare plainly 2 Heb. xi., 8.

1 Rom. iv., 3.

we

"seek a better country"

by our life and conversation, that we than the present world? Must we not, "renouncing the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that we neither follow nor are led by them'," show that "seek a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God?" Yes, ours must be this working faith, or we shall miss the fulfilment of the promise. We must be substantially believers in Christ, and live like men whose practice resembles their profession. And then, but not till then, will the Saviour blot out all former sins, and finally, but only if the faith which makes a good beginning continues strong, as it was at first, unto the end, cause us to "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," and all the believing people of God, "in the kingdom of heaven"."

It will be a help to those who have not yet attained to this lively belief, as well as to those who have attained to it, but need occasional confirmation, to read from time to time the commandments of the law of Moses. There they will see sin pourtrayed in its liveliest colours, sin threatened with vengeance, sin brought home to the conscience, "all, in a word, concluded under sin." There they will see a strict rule of duty, which man of himself cannot follow. There they will see the difficulty of obedience, which a Saviour alone can render easy. There they will think of their own insufficiency, and conclude that they need a Saviour. They will conclude that sin is hateful to God, and that none can be clean in his sight. They will conclude that to do all that is commanded well, is not possible with man, and only possible with God. And the result of such conclusions will be, if fairly drawn and faithfully followed, that the sinner will believe, and the believer become confirmed in his belief, the sinner will sin no more, and both, in due season, will inherit the promises.

1

Baptismal Service.

3 Matt. viii., 11.

2 Heb. xi., 10.

THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE EPISTLE. Gal. v., 16 to 24.

16 I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,

| variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like : of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

The Apostle here exhorts the Galatians to "walk in the Spirit," and it his evidently his object throughout the whole of the Epistle, to place this obligation before them in the clearest light, and to enforce it in the strongest manner. And this he does, by pointing out, first, as an immediate result of "a walk in the Spirit," a preservation from the tyranny of those carnal lusts, between which and the Spirit there is constant warfare. He then enumerates the several "works of the flesh" which rankle in the soul of fallen man, and assures his brethren the Galatians, that it is impossible for any "who do such things to enter into the kingdom of God." And as if he did not deem even this a sufficiently strong argument to wean men from the lust of the flesh, and to persuade them to "walk in the Spirit," the Apostle describes, further, what the works or fruits of the Spirit are, and with as much fulness and particularity as he had previously described the works of the flesh. And with a view to the still greater encouragement of Christians in so holy a course, he tells them, that the divine law which so unreservedly condemns and denounces sin, is no longer in force with respect to those, who, by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, walk no longer after the flesh but after the Spirit;" but that on the contrary, this spirituality of mind and walk, this complete mastery over evil affections and carnal lusts, is the highest perfection of the Christian character, and the surest indication of a real interest in Christ.

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