now, the term evangelical is used as a term of re- proach. We mean not to justify any persons what- soever in using unnecessary terms of distinction, more especially if it be with a view to depreciate others, and to aggrandize themselves : but still the distinctions which are made in Scripture must be made by us ; else for what end has God himself made them ? Now it cannot be denied, that the Apostle characterizes the great subject of his ministry as the Gosjiel ; nor can it be denied that he com- plains of some teachers in the Galatian Church as introducing another Gospel, which was not the true Gospel, but a perversion of it^. Here then he lays down the distinction between doctrines which are truly evangelical, and others which have no just title to that name. Of course, wherever the same differ- ence exists between the doctrines maintained, the same terms must be proper to distinguish them ; and a just view of those distinctions is necessary, in order to our being guarded against error, and established in the truth.
But we beg to be clearly understood in reference to this matter. It is not our design to enter into any dispute about the use of a terin, or to vindicate any particular party ; but merely to state, with all the clearness we can, a subject, about which every one ought to have the most accurate and precise ideas.
We have seen what was the great subject of the Apostle's preaching, and which he emphatically and exclusively called the Gospel: and if only we attend to what he has spoken in the text, we shall see what really constitutes evangelical preaching. The subject of it must be " Christ crucified ;" that is, Christ must be set forth as the only foundation of a sinner's hope : and holiness in all its branches must be enforced ; but a sense of Christ's love in dying for us must be inculcated, as the main-spring and motive of all our obedience. Tlie manner of setting forth this doctrine must also accord with that of the Apostle in the text:
P Gal. i. 6, 7.