GALATIANS vi. 9, 10 CONTINUED AND 11 To 14.

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same Communion of faith, and Members with ourselves of the Family of JESUS -with them the bond of Brotherhood should be sealed-and this is the Home at which Christian charity should begin its kindly offices; though there it should not end, if opportunity and means be Given to expand its energies, and enlarge its circle of zealous operation-following the example of the Apostle under the renewed encouragement elsewhere given by him, Therefore, my beloved Brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the Work of The LORD! forasmuch as ye know, that your labour is not in vain in The LORD1 Cor. xv. 58. The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews admonishes us not to cast away our confidence, which hath great Recompence of Reward; for we have need of patience, that after we have done the Will of GOD, we might Let us be faithful unto death for then have we receive the Promise-x. 35, 36. the Promise of a Crown of Life-Rev. ii. 10.-The Man of pre-eminent. wisdom under DIVINE Illumination hath thus urged consistency and perseverance in well-doing, saying, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might! whither and thus assigns the unanswerable reason for such recommendation; for (adds he) there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the thou goest-Eccles. ix. 10-and how soon any of us may go, what Mortal can tell?Our SAVIOUR in His Comprehensive Sermon from the Mount, Said, Love Enemies! your Ye have heard that it hath been said (Lev. xix. 18; Deut. xxiii. 6) Thou shalt love thy Neighbour, and hate thine Enemy! But I Say unto you, bless them, that curse you! do good to them, that hate you! and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you! that ye may be the Children of your FATHER, Which is in Heaven; for He Maketh His Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good; and Sendeth Rain on the Just and on the Unjust-for, (Adds He) If ye love them, which love you, what reward have ye! Do not even the Publicans the same? and if ye salute your Brethren only, what do ye more than Others? Do not even the Publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your FATHER, Which is in Heaven, is PerfectMatt. v. 43 to 48. Such is the range of Christian benevolence, and such the expanse of its beneficent grasp, though it be more particularly zealous for the Members of its own Community. Ever true to his CHRIST-Taught Gospel, the Apostle Paul, in admonition to Titus, wrote, This is a faithful Saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they, which have believed in GOD, might be careful to maintain good works-iii. 8.-St. John in his opening Epistle saith, We know that we have passed from death unto Life, because we love the Brethren. He, that Whosoever hateth his Brother is a loveth not his Brother, abideth in death. Murderer; and ye know that no Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the Love of GOD, because He Laid down His Life for us; and we ought to lay down our Lives for the Brethren. But whoso hath this World's good, and seeth his Brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of GOD in him? My little Children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue (only), but in deed and in truth 1 John iii. 14 to 18.

VERSES 11 to 14-Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. As Many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the Cross of CHRIST; for neither they, themselves, who are circumcised, keep the Law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But GOD Forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our LORD JESUS CHRIST! by Whom the World is crucified unto me, and I unto the World.

It seems to have been more usual with the Apostle to get Others to write his letters under his own dictation; and hence is this noting of his having written

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with his own hand, and that too at great length. Such being the fervour and untiring zeal of his Spirit, that, though deprived, perhaps from circumstances he could not controul, of the usual assistance afforded him by Others who were willing, when able, to act as his Amanuenses, he shrunk not from the toil of writing himself, when separated under bondage or imprisonment from those, who would gladly have aided him in such exercises and works of Christian Brotherhood and love. To bleed under an adherence to a symbolic or typical rite, which had ceased to have virtue or efficacy, when Superseded by the Great Sacrifice of The SON of GOD, Who Shed His Blood on the Cross, that He might Purify us as a Peculiar People zealous of good works, and exulting in His Name through a deeply rooted faith, that there is no name under Heaven and no sacrifice upon Earth, whereby we may be Saved, but the Name and the Cross of JESUS CHRIST, was a time-serving, cowardly yielding to Jewish prejudices, in order to avoid the opposition to the pride and prejudice of the Synagogue Rulers, which would subject them to bodily injury, possibly even unto death. But to what a fearful cost would such a tampering temporizing conduct expose Such as yielded to it-thus, after having The Gospel of Salvation fully Revealed to them, setting at nought Its most fundamental Truth, and making the Cross of CHRIST of none effect. The entire observance of the Moral Law was far more essential as an earnest of vital faith in the Whole of The DIVINE Appointments and Prophetic Delineations of Duty, than a subjection to the entire order of ritual and ceremonial offices, where a neglect, or slighting, or perversion of the Moral Law prevailed. To have exulted in obtaining Converts to the Jewish observances of rites, regardless of the Spirit, with which that submission was accompanied, could not possibly be justified in the Sight of The JUST and HOLY and All-Seeing GOD, Who Looketh upon the heart; and this therefore is fitly the subject of condemnation by Paul. And his triumphant appeal to JEHOVAH to Guard him against any act of glorying, save in the faith of the Crucified JESUS, is a Lesson and an Encouragement to us to rest our boast on the Same Sacrifice and Redeeming Love-suffering neither the attractions, nor the vilifications of an irreligious World, to disturb or distract us in our onward course of doing honour and rendering subservience to The MEDIATOR, for a Covenant of Peace and Blessedness, when this World shall pass away, and New Heavens and new Earth shall Open upon us for an Everlasting Inheritance.-The true character of circumcision is elsewhere given by St. Paul, when he says, We are the Circumcision, which worship GOD in The SPIRIT, and rejoice in CHRIST JESUS, and have no confidence in the flesh-Phil. iii. 3. And he afterwards says, I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS my Lord; for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win CHRIST, and be found in Him; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but That, Which is through the faith of CHRIST, the Righteousness, Which is of GOD by faith; that I may know Him, and the Power of His Resurrection, and the Fellowship of His Sufferings; being Made conformable unto His Death, if by any Means I might attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead.---8 to 11; Gal. ii. 20.

VERSES 15, 16-For in CHRIST JESUS neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but a new Creature; and as many as walk according to this Rule, Peace be on them, and Mercy, and upon the Israel of GOD!

Here is the most distinct avowal, that, as respected The Gospel Covenant, and in reference to the Great and All-Comprehensive Sacrifice of CHRIST, circumcision was a matter of entire indifference in the Great Work of the Soul's

Salvation-unnecessary-but only prejudicial when relied upon as of the least weight or value, when contrasted with the Expiating and Purifying Incarnation of The SON of GOD. The Effect of a true faith in the Latter was indeed to renovate and regenerate the Soul, and fit it for Heavenly Communion. And the Apostle, under the deep conviction of the fruits of that faith in his own heart and feelings, puts forth the Prediction, more prominently perhaps than the supplication, that unto All Such Persons in the then present, or in any after Generation, as cherished that faith in a lively and influential and abiding Spirit, would That Peace of GOD, so inexpressibly Rejoicing to the heart, and so utterly beyond the conception, as well as experience, of the Worldly-minded, Descend, and Bring with It the Assurance of Pardon and Reconciliation, and the firm expectation of a final Communion and Fellowship with the Hosts of Angels and Saints in the Courts of the House of The LORD, and in the participation of That Happiness, which Beatified and Sanctified Spirits can alone know. And how exquisitely exhilarating to the believing Soul is the looking forward to that Holy Association, which will embrace the All from the Creation of the World to the last hour of its existence, who shall be Recognized by The SON of GOD, as Given to Him of The FATHER before the World was, and shall live for ever under the Benign Beamings of His Exhaustless Love and Favour!The Apostle elsewhere confirms his position, that, if any Man be in CHRIST, he is a new Creature-that old things, and old habits, especially of sinfulness, have passed away, and all things have become new-and all things, conformable to Such a renovated Spirit, are of GOD, Who hath Reconciled us to Himself by JESUS CHRIST-2 Cor. v. 17, 18. -In the foretellings of Eventual Peace to the Spiritualized in heart, as characterized by being Israelites. indeed, without guile, or yielding to Satan's subtilty, the Apostle followed in the prophetic train of the Kingly David, who proclaimed that Peace shall be upon Israel-Psalm cxxv. 5.

VERSES 17, 18. From henceforth let no Man trouble me! for I bear in my body the Marks of The LORD JESUS. Brethren, the Grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST be with your Spirit! Amen.

After so full an exposition of his views of the unnecessariness of circumcision, (to which ordinance of the Jewish Church, and when studying at the feet of Gamaliel he had doubtless himself submitted, if in infancy it had not been inflicted upon him as is probable,) and after dwelling so minutely and impressively on the Essential Doctrine of a virtual crucifixion of the flesh with the inordinate affections and lusts thereof, the Apostle sums up his admonitory letter with an injunction against his being further troubled, with such fallings away from the faith, of those, to whom his Doctrine had been preached or read. The infliction of bodily suffering for his persevering continuance in the faith of JESUS CHRIST, and his uncompromising avowal of it, and unflagging efforts to bring Others to the Same Saving Way of thinking and of acting, bore testimony, that he had not shrunk from declaring All the Council of GOD, as Revealed to Him by The SPIRIT in CHRIST JESUS. And such Fellowship in the Sufferings of his Great LORD and MASTER, should bear him out in Others' estimation as not rejecting Circumcision, but upon a conviction, that the observance of it, after the Advent and Crucifixion of CHRIST, could not be admitted as an available exercise of faith; but as tending to lessen in Others' views That Work of GODLY Expiation, Which is indeed The All in All, as the Justification of a hope and confidence in The Offer of Redemption and Sanctification. Marks of The LORD JESUS indeed are not always Manifest in the excoriations of a scourged skin; there are harrowings of the Soul at the recollection of past

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sin, and a former rejecting or slighting of DIVINE Love, which pierce deeper than the thongs of whips, or the stings even of scorpions.- In the same Fraternal acknowledgments, he concludes as he began his address; and as the truest and most expansive Blessing he could ask of his Heavenly FATHERo Pour out upon them from the Stores of His Exhaustless Treasury, the Apostle asks that the Grace of JESUS CHRIST may be with their Spirit! well knowing, that if That Heavenly Influence and Operation of The SPIRIT be in them and Abound, they will have A Good beyond all they can ask or think, and Which will Impart to them an inward and never-failing peace and hallowed joy in the life that is, and the Promise of Perfect and otherwise Incommunicable Happiness in the Life to Come. And to this, and the whole of the Composition, which, on reflection or reperusal are brought again to his mind, the Apostle puts, as it were the Seal of confirmation in the emphatic word, Amen.-St. Paul in another period of his life, alluding to the persecutions he had endured, through his adherence to the faith, as Revealed to him, said, I Paul rejoice in my sufferings, and fill up that, which is behind, of the Afflictions of CHRIST in my flesh for His Body's sake, Which is the Church-Coloss. i. 23, 24.- -The InvoIcation of DIVINE Influence on the hearts of his Hearers and Readers was usually the opening and closing of the Apostle's addresses, as the Supreme of all attainable Benefits, even at the Hand of The All-Pervading and All-Controuling Bounty of PROVIDENCE, from Whom Flow the Riches of That Wisdom, Which endureth unto Eternal Life and Blessedness-See 2 Tim. iv. 22;— Philemon 25.

1st CORINTHIANS i. 1 To 3.

1ST CORINTHIANS, CHAPTER I.

VERSES 1 to 3.-Paul, Called to be an Apostle of JESUS CHRIST, through the Will of GOD, and Sosthenes, our Brother, unto the Church of GOD, which is at Corinth, to them, that are Sanctified in CHRIST JESUS, Called to be Saints, with All, that in every place call upon the Name of JESUS CHRIST, our LORD, both their's and our's, Grace be unto you, and Peace from GOD our FATHER, and from The LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Ever bearing in his mind the merciful Revelation, That had been Made to him, of The DIVINE Power and of the Gracious Incarnation and Mediation of JESUS, The SON of GOD, by Which Paul had not only been Withheld from a pre-determined course of extermination, as regarded the progress of the faith in CHRIST, but was in an especial degree Rendered Instrumental not only to Its immediate Propagation, but to the dissemination and confirmation of It in every after age of the World, he prefaces the proffer of his Ministerial instruction by the avowal, that his Calling to that Sacred and important Office was direct from The DIVINE Communication; a fact, of which there were many Witnesses among the Companions of his journey on his route from Jerusalem to Damascus, and to this was added the Prophetic testimony of the pious Ananias, whose veracity could not justly be doubted, as the purity and consistency of his life gave efficacy to it. The Apostle arrogates not to himself the previous desire to arrive at the Truth, but attributes the change both of feeling and opinion to the Especial Appointment of PROVIDENCE, virtually admitting that, Such being the Determination of The ALMIGHTY, it not only became Paul, not to resist it, but to direct the same eagerness and zeal he had before exhibited against the right Faith (and which constitutionally belonged to him), to the Advancement of DIVINE Truth, and the Salvation of Immortal Souls, by proclaiming the Glad Tidings of Pardon and Reconciliation towards Man's fallen Race, through the Atonement Offered in the Sufferings Endured, and the Righteousness Exhibited in the Life of The SON of GOD, so Marvellously and Mercifully Made Flesh Sosthenes, who was also strong in the like and as Man Dwelling upon Earth. faith, the well-chosen Companion of Paul, he here ranks in the bond of Brotherhood, both towards himself and in Christian love and benevolence towards those, he is addressing. And the Address is made to what is denominated the Church, which means the Communion of faithful Worshippers of GOD in CHRIST JESUS; being Sanctified by the Invisible Influence of The HOLY SPIRIT, thus in their degree Qualified to be Saints or Members of That Great and Comprehensive Salvation, Which JESUS Wrought by His Self-Sacrifice. To Such the Epistle is prominently written, but not to them alone; it is pressed upon All, who in every place, and in every age call upon That Name, on Which and on a true love of Which, Salvation alone depends. The true faith points to One SAVIOUR alike of Rich and Poor, High and Low, Learned and Unlearned; His Only Respect to Persons being Directed to the heart, and to its being in meekness and in thankfulness turned unto Him. And Such does CHRIST Graciously Call to the Bosom of His Affection in all the Tenderness of DIVINE Love; Extending to them His Advocacy with The SPIRIT, that they may have from Him Grace to be Sanctified, as they have from CHRIST Redemption to be Saved. But to call on the Name of JESUS CHRIST we must ever bear in mind, can only be Effectual to the Soul's Peace, when that call emanates from a For from the conviction of the equal Necessity and Sufficiency of His Sacrificial and Meritorious Intercession for us, in the Spirit of a true and lively faith. Record of His Own Lips we are Assured, that Many in the Great Day of

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