with denying, either the fact, or the validity of the ministerial institution. It is true this practice is sometimes defended, but on a very mistaken notion, namely, that personal holiness gives the best title to the privileges of the priesthood. Most certain it is that holiness becometh the house of the Lord, and is the garment which should always deck the servants of the altar. But the unworthiness of the ambassador is to be carefully distinguished from the authority of the commission under which he acts; private profligacy, however incongruous it may be, and however disgusting in the representative of majesty, has no effect in vitiating the character of what he may perform in his public capacity. We mention not this fact in reference to ourselves, for, God forbid, that we should glory in our shame; nor as if it furnished us with an exemption from the obligations incumbent on Christians in general; for deeply, and awfully responsible shall we be for the example we set, as well as for the doctrines we preach: nevertheless the ordinances of salvation we dispense are those we have received from the Lord Christ; they are His and not ours, nor can any of our infirmities and corruptions contaminate their inherent holiness; the ministerial acts of the satanic Judas were just as valid as those of the heavenly-minded, and therefore beloved, disciple.

Y

To return; let us briefly mention another instance of the apparent distrust of professing Christians in the wisdom and power of their Divine lawgiver. He has told them to assemble round His table, and to partake of the emblems of His body and blood; and numbers of them seem to regard the cup of blessing, just as Naaman did the waters of Jordan, a remedy of no more virtue to heal the leper than any other of the natural productions of the earth. And so far, indeed, are they right, that it possesses no such property of itself; the natural effect of the fruit of the vine is only to make glad the heart of man; but, when sanctified by the word of the Lord, and mingled with an infusion of the spiritual dew from heaven, it acts as an antidote to sin, and a cordial to the soul of the faithful and pious communicant.

Are there now any of you, my brethren, who are conscious of such a practical disregard, either of the doctrines or institutions of Christianity, as, I have contended, must argue a want of belief in Him? perhaps you will tell me, that in your case, at least, I have ascribed them to an improper motive, and you may be ready to accost me in the fervent language of the Psalmist-"I hate the sins of unfaithfulness; there shall no such cleave unto me." But let me admonish you, that one of these things is necessarily true,-either you do not believe the word of God, and then the motives

of your conduct are such as I have assigned, or else, if you do believe it, you are self-condemned for acting as if you did not. In either case let me entreat you to remember, that, if you wish to be saved by Christ, you must be saved in His way; and surely you may be well contented that He who has purchased for you the blessings of salvation, should be suffered to convey them to you by what methods He pleases. Let your reason, indeed, be the guide of your faith, but let it not wander from its proper office and sphere, to enter into a competition with the wisdom of the Most High. His ways may be now far above, out of our sight, but, depend upon it, even the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and that, at length, He will be found true, though all men be liars. Leave His part to His own management, and thankfully accept and execute that which He has assigned to you, and so will the doctrines and institutions, which were to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, become to you, through the merits of Christ, the power of God unto salvation.

SERMON XX.

THE LIFE OF FAITH.

GAL. ii. 20.

I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.

THESE words admit both of a primary and secondary meaning. To understand the first of them it is to be observed, that one great object of the apostle, in writing this epistle, was to correct the notions of certain Judaizing Christians among the Galatians, who imagined that even the reception of the Gospel as a rule of faith and practice was insufficient to justification, unless accompanied by a strict adherence to the ritual of the law of Moses. To show, therefore, his own sense of these erroneous opinions, he relates, in the earlier part of this chapter, and in the preceding one, how strenu

ously he had opposed both them and their defenders, and how totally he had himself renounced all dependence upon the Mosaic law, for justification and pardon in the sight of God. Indeed, as he strongly argues, there could have been no reason why they, who had originally been Jews like himself, and particularly they who, like him, had attained to great knowledge and practice of the Jewish religion, should have ever become Christians at all, unless they had been convinced of the inefficacy of their own faith, now that Christ had come into the world to establish a better; and, therefore, the apostle most reasonably declares that his acceptance of Christ's religion was a sufficient proof that he thought his own, whatever it might have been once, was now no longer capable of granting pardon and salvation to those who had an opportunity of knowing the truth as it is in Jesus, and who were persuaded that He came out from God. This is the apostle's reasoning-" We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." He then goes on to describe his entire emancipation from all the rites imposed by the law of Moses, in the strong lan