VI.

SER M. understood him,) that Men are justified barely by Faith or Believing, as diftinguished from Virtue or Righteousness of Life; but that men are juftified by the Obedience of the Gospel, (fo the word Faith always fignifies in St Paul's epistles, ) and is therefore fometimes expreffly called The Obedience of Faith, Rom. xvi. 25 ; and obedience to the Faith, Rom. i. 5; and Acts vi. 7, they are justified (he faith) by the Obedience of the Gospel only, by that Fidelity or Sincerity in Religion, which the Gospel requires, without obferving the ceremonies of the Law of Mofes. In like manner, when he tells them that their Salvation is not of Works, but of Grace, Rom. xi. 5; and Gal. v. 4. he does not mean that God faves them without the works of Virtue and Righteoufnefs; but that they are faved by the gracious difpenfation of the Gospel, (That is always the meaning of the word, Grace, in these Epiftles,) they are faved by the gracious difpenfation of the Gospel, by the merciful Terms of Repentance declared through Christ, and not by the ritual and rigorous Obfervations of the Mofaick

Law.

Law.

VI.

Further ; because one great End SER M. of This Laft Difpenfation of the Gospel, was to teach men to worship God with pure worship, in Spirit and in Truth, with all Holiness and Righteousness of the Heart and Mind; in oppofition to external Forms and carnal Ordniances, Such as Circumcifion, Bodily Washings, Purifications, and the like; which affect the Body only; therefore St Paul frequently expreffes the Gofpel of Christ by the figurative Name of Spirit, and the Law of Mofes by that of Flesh: Gal. iii. 3, Are ye fo foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the Flesh? These Phrafes, which otherwise might feem very difficult, because different from modern ways of fpeaking; do, from what has been faid, appear plainly to fignify This only, that the Galatians were worthy of reproof, for that fince their embracing the Religion of Chrift, they imagined they could ftill become more perfect, by continuing the practice of Jewish obfervances. And that This is his true and only meaning may be shown yet more evidently from the following parallel

SER M. parallel places; Rom. ii. 29, Circumcifion, VI. is that of the Heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter: And ch. vii. 6, We are delivered from the Law; that we should ferve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter: And Phil. iii. 3, We are the circumcifion, which worship God in the Spirit,and have no confidence in the Flesh. Spirit, in all these places, is the fpiritual worship of the Gofpel; and what he here ftiles Flesh, is the fame as what he elsewhere calls a carnal commandment, Heb. vii. 16; and ch. ix. 10, carnal ordinances, namely meats and drinks and divers washings. Thefe, where there is no true Virtue and Righteoufnefs of Life, are the Forms of Godliness without the Power of it; the corruption, which our Saviour principally meant to reform in the words of the Text; and which St Paul cautions againft, when he declares, that the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteoufnefs, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; Rom. xiv. 17: that we are minifters of the New Teftament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, 2 Cor. iii. 6: that Circumcifion is nothing,

nothing, and uncircumcifion is nothing, SER M. but Faith which worketh by Love: And VI. in ftanceth in Abraham, Rom. iv. 3, 10. that before his receiving the Seal of Circumcifion, he believed in God, and obeyed his commandments, and it was counted unto him for Righteousness: The Religion of Abraham, was the fame as the Spiritual Religion of the Gofpel; He lived before the Law, as our Saviour requires that Chriftians fhould do after the law; worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth.

3dly, As Some among the Antient Jews, and Antient Chriftians, were, in the manner already fhown, guilty of tranfgreffing this great Precept of worShipping God in Spirit and in Truth; fo among Chriftians of all later Ages likewife, there are Many too juftly chargeable with being guilty of the fame Fundamental Fault in different refpects. In the

If PLACE, Thofe of the Church of Rome, do in the Highest degree tranfgrefs this great Commandment of our Saviour, when inftead of that Spiritual Worship, which our Lord intended to eftablifh,

they

SERM. they on the contrary fill their religion VI. with more rites and ceremonies, than even

the Law of Mofes itself was burdened withal; And (which of all other things is the most profane,) compell men by force, to make external and hypocritical Profeffions in matters of Religion; which yet, they well know, if it is not feated in the Heart, is no Religion at all.

2dly, Or tranfgreffing this precept in the Text, thofe Chriftians also are guilty in All communions, who place the chief of their religion in the Form of Godlinefs, in barely going to Church, and in receiving the Sacrament, and in fuch other outward Performances, which ought not indeed to be left undone, but which are Then only acceptable to God and useful to the Souls of Men, when they are Means of producing that True Holiness, Charity, and Righteoufnefs of life, which is, in Heaven, as well as upon Earth, the eternal and unchangeable effence of Religion. Such perfons as These therefore are well reproved by the Prophet Jeremy; ch. vii. 4. Truft ye not in lying words, faying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the

Lord,