SERMON VI. SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF TRUE RELIGION. GALATIANS, vi. 15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. TRUE Religion is to us "the one thing needful:" for without it we can have no real peace in this world, nor any happiness in the next. It is then of the highest importance to us, to have right notions of religion; to know what it is, and in what it is placed. And this is the more necessary, because there are so many mistakes on the subject; because there are so many things which pass for religion, when in fact they are very far from being what they pretend to be. In this view the text is particularly useful; for it gives in few words a description of what we are so greatly concerned to know. "In CHRIST JESUS," that is, in the Christian religion, which is the only true religion, what alone "availeth any thing;" what is of any value, or proves that we have any share in the blessings of the gospel, is "not circumcision nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." In this passage we may consider the apostle as pointing out to us two things. I. What true Religion is not. II. What it is. I. True religion is "not circumcision nor uncircumcision." Circumcision was a Jewish sacrament. It was the rite appointed by GoD as the door into the Jewish church. It was the sign and seal of his covenant; and under that dispensation the distinguishing outward mark of his people. So long therefore as the Jewish church and dispensation lasted, this ordinance could not be neglected by any, who would be truly religious. Though even then the mere performance of the ceremony did not make men religious; much less did it form the whole of true religion. But the gospel, when it came, put an end to the ceremonial law. The Christian church came in the place of the Jewish church. And the sacrament of baptism was appointed by Christ as the door into the Christian co venant. From that time then the rite of circumcision ceased to be a sacrament. The performance of it was no longer enforced by the command of God. It was henceforth a ceremony perfectly indifferent. Whether a person was circumcised or not, became a matter of no consequence. If a Christian happened to have been circumcised, as he was not on that account the better, so neither was he the worse, provided he did not trust to this ceremony for salvation, and so put it in the place of Christ. On the other hand, the uncircumcised Gentile, who embraced the gospel, was equally admitted to all the privileges of Christianity. His wanting this mark did not shut him out from the blessings of that church; where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision, nor uncircumcision, Scythian, bond, nor free: but CHRIST is all and in all."* Thus then, as says the Apostle in the text, "in CHRIST JESUS neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision." True religion is not placed in these things. Nor in fact is it placed in any outward forms, rites, or ceremonies. This is the general truth, which the Apostle may be understood to teach. And a most important truth it is. For • Col. iii. 11. men ever have been prone to rest in these things. They naturally prefer the form of godliness to the power of it. They find it easier to perform rites and ceremonies, than to practise faith and holiness. Hence it has come to pass, that those teachers who have laid an undue stress on outward things in religion, have always found numbers ready to believe and follow them. It was so in the Galatian church, when St. Paul wrote his Epistle. And it has been more or less. so in every age of the church. In our own days we are not altogether free from this error. So that to expose and condemn it is still a necessary part of a minister's duty. He is still called upon to remind his hearers of this important truth, that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision." In the full meaning and spirit then of this truth let me remind you, my brethren, that True Religion is not an outward thing. It does not consist in names or forms, in distinctions or privileges, in meats or drinks, in rites or ceremonies. This general truth contains many particulars. You are not religious merely because you have been baptized. Baptism indeed is one of the Christian sacraments. And he that would be saved, must "repent and be bap tized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins."* But baptism in the Christian church, like circumcision in the Jewish, does not of itself make men religious. What St. Paul says of the Jew, is equally true of the Christian." He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly." Nor is a man a Christian, merely because he has received the outward seal of the covenant. Simon Magus believed and was baptized: and yet St. Peter afterwards assured him, that he "had neither part nor lot in the matter: for his heart was not right in the sight of God;" he was "still in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." Now what was his case may be yours. Though you have been baptized, you may yet have no part nor lot in the matter. Again, you are not religious merely because you are called a Christian, and have been born of Christian parents. This was a great mercy conferred on you, and may have proved a special blessing. But it is not religion. It was the boast of the Jews, that they were the children of Abraham at the time when John the Baptist called them a "generation of vipers." It was the boast of Saul, that he was "of the stock of + Rom. ii. 28. Luke, iii. 7, 8. Acts. ii. 38. |