clamour; remembering that the Nativity of our Saviour was announced as the means of establishing "peace on earth, and good will among men."

3.-Let us not omit our grateful acknowledgment of God's mercy in establishing this new Covenant of Grace, by an event so extraordinary as that to which this day's Festival is dedicated; and let us observe it with hearts full of wonder, praise, and thanksgiving; and not abuse it to the indulgence of luxury and intemperance.

Finally.-"Let us cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light; now in the time of this mortal life, in which our Lord came to visit us in great humility: that at the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and dead, we may be found an acceptable people in his sight, and rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost now and ever."

SERMON IX.

THE PROMISE MADE TO ABRAHAM.

GALAT. III. 20.

Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is one.

BEFORE I attempt to explain this difficult passage of Scripture, it may be expedient to call the attention of my hearers to the general scope and intention of the Epistle from which it is taken. Galatia, or Gallo-Græcia, was a district of Phrygia, in the Lesser Asia, so called from having been invaded and occupied by some wandering tribes of Gauls about two hundred and forty years before Christ. In this Country, which Saint Paul himself had more than once visited, and in which he had founded Christian Churches, great commotions had been excited by the artifices of certain adherents to the Jewish Law; who endeavoured, but too successfully, to persuade the Galatian Converts

that they had been taught the new Religion imperfectly, and at second hand;-that the founder of their Church himself possessed only an inferior and deputed commission, the seat of truth and authority being in the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem;-and that compliance with the ceremonies of the Mosaic Ritual was indissolubly connected with a profession of the true Christian Faith.* The object, therefore, of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians was twofold: viz. First.-To assert his own authority, not only in opposition to these false Judaizing Teachers, but as independent of any earthly superior whatever; and, Secondly, to shew that these insidious Teachers were endeavouring to impose upon the Proselytes to Christianity a yoke, which neither they, nor the Jews themselves, were able to bear, and from which all true believers were liberated by the Revelation of Christ.

In order to fulfil the first object, the Apostle remarks that his Faith was derived not from the instruction, or through the mouth of any Master, but by immediate revelation from our Lord himself. "I certify you brethren, (he says,) that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man; for I neither

* See Marsh's Michaelis, Vol. 4, p. 19; and Paley's Horæ Paulinæ, p. 454. 8vo.

received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Being thus enlightened, he could not doubt of the fulness of his commission, and that he was under no necessity to "confer with flesh and blood," or to seek information from those "who were Apostles before him."

In reference, indeed, to his former unconverted state; in contemplation of the great duties which he had to fulfil, and of his own infirmities and natural insufficiency to execute the task assigned to him; no one could express more profound humility than does St. Paul.— "I am (said he) the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But, by the Grace of God, I am what I am; and his Grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain:" and though he professes to "have laboured 'more abundantly than all the others,” he adds, "yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me." Notwithstanding, however, this modest and unaffected self-abasement, if at any time an attempt was made to compromise the truth, to concede any of those principles which this great Apostle of the Gentiles was chosen to inculcate and disseminate as widely as possible, or to abridge that liberty which was secured to every Christian by the terms of the New Covenant; we find him equally courageous

and resolute in maintaining the post assigned to him against all opposition. "There are some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But if any man, or an Angel from Heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which you have received, which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Speaking of those false brethren in particular, who were advocates for the ceremonials of the Old Covenant, who came privily into Christian Congregations that they might spy out the liberty which they had in Christ Jesus, and by whose dissimulation also Barnabas was carried away: he says,-"To whom we gave place by subjection, not for an hour; that the Truth of the Gospel might continue with you;" that is, might in its genuine and incorrupt state be established among you.

It certainly was an object of the highest importance that, in the infancy of the Christian Church, the authority of Saint Paul's doctrine should be firmly rooted in the heart and understanding of his disciples. No considerations of modesty or reserve could be allowed to operate in matters connected, not only with the future influence and authority of the Teacher, but also with the eternal welfare of those who were to be taught. Had Saint Paul, who professes to have received his instructions immediately from Heaven, proposed to his disciples

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