inversion, worshipped the creature more than the Creator, who is the God of blessedness and eternity.

Having laid open the 'inexcusable enormities of the Gentile sinner, he next exposes the egregious folly of the boasting Jews; by declaring, that notwithstanding those peculiar privileges, in which they placed their whole confidence and glory, they were in equal guilt with the Gentiles, and stood as much in need of the righteous. ness of God as the Gentiles did. Those peculiar marks of distinction, by which they were known from the rest of mankind, did not supply the want of that inward moral rectitude which they ought to have laboured after, that they might, in the truest and noblest sense, have been the chosen Israel of God.

To be the people of God, only by an external shew of religious duties, does by: no means accord with the true intent and design of the great and glorious Author of it. It is the spirituality of devotion, and not the circumstances of any outward S 4

act,

act, which can recommend us to God's favour and acceptance.

This was the fatal mistake of the Jews, that they carried their, prospects no farther than the outward appearances of things, and confined their researches to the surface of religion only. They were scrupulously exact in all the minutiæ of ceremonial performances, that they might be thought most strict lobservers of the divine law, whilst they omitted things. which were of far more weighty, even of eternal, consequence. To this their error. the Apostle opposes himself, and expressly contradicts their false. reasonings, by. telling them, "That he is not a Jew which " is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh," the true circumcision which God. primarily requires. "But he is a Jew, "who is one inwardly," who is thoroughly purified from all gross and corrupt affections; and true circumcision is that of the heart, which disposes to the truth and sincerity of worship. And this being in the spirit and not in the letter, the due

4.6

66

L

praise comes from God, who is the discerner of our thoughts; and not from men, who are wholly incapable of passing judgment on the inward frame and disposition.

Were this false reasoning confined to the Jews alone, it would be no part of the duty of a preacher of the gospel of Christ to encounter it. But sad experience too well evinces, that it extends itself also to a large portion of the modern professors of Christianity, who shelter their want of inward purity and devotion under the same flimsy pretences, which served the Jews of old as a cloak for their hardness and impenitence.

The Jews knew that they were the chosen people of God, distinguished from all other nations as having the Almighty for their immediate king and governor. And for this reason they concluded, that it was impossible he should reject them, or turn the stream of his affection to any other people. Their being the seed of Abraham they vainly fancied was a demonstration

monstration to them of their standing right in the sight of God.

And this is a language which too many Christians adopt, however unwarrantably, to their own use and service. They have embraced the evangelical doctrine of life and immortality; and, because they believe, they fondly think that they have eternal life. They forget the genuine characteristic of a disciple of Christ, which is obedience and a sincere regard to the laws of his gospel. Hereby, says he, shall all men be satisfied of the truth of your profession that you are my disciples, if you are careful to maintain a purity of heart, and a firm obedience in outward life. All other pretensions to Christianity are false and unsafe: You may call me Lord and Master; but, so long as you neglect the great duties of justice and charity, according to the tenor of my everlasting gospel, ye cannot be my subjects. It is he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, who is my beloved and truest friend. Christians are called indeed of God; but then they are called by righteous

righteousness unto God. It is but part of their happiness that they know: it is in the sincerity of their obedience alone that they can find a perfect happiness in his favour. Peculiar privileges, without peculiar circumspection in conduct, will only display more apparent folly here, and greater reason for condemnation hereafter.

2dly. The Jews magnified themselves very much on account of the law, which was given to them by Moses. They thought that the observance of it was so pleasing to God, that they should, by a punctual discharge of this part of their duty, be accepted by him, and be accounted righteous before him.

And is not this the case of many at this day? They profess the highest veneration for the sacred mysteries of religion; they allow the holy Scriptures to be a system of excellent truths, calculated for the happiness of the whole man in both worlds. They yield likewise an obedience to the rules which concern outward life, that they