Gal. v. 2—4. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be cir- cumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law : ye are fallen from grace.
ON matters of morality, men will permit us to speak with the utmost freedom; but, on points of faith, they would have us use none but the mildest possible expressions, lest we should appear dogma- tical and severe. St. Paul, where moral offences had been committed, was lenity itself a; but when the fundamentals of our faith were endangered, his energy rose even to intolerance. I mean not to say that he disregarded morality, or that we should think lightly of it : but I mean, that we ought to entertain far different thoughts about the leading doctrines of religion, than those which generally prevail. Hear the Apostle, when he found that some of the Galatian Church had been drawn from the pure Gospel to a reliance on the observances of the Jewish ritual : " Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursedb." I grant, that he, as inspired, was authorized to speak in terms that would be un- seemly for one who is not under an infallible guidance : but, so far as our doctrines accord with those of the Apostle, we may, yes, and must, maintain them, with a measure of the firmness which he uses in the pro- mulgation of them. The passage which we have selected for our meditation this day contains nothing but what must be affirmed by every servant of Christ. But who that reads it must not tremble, lest he be
a 2 Cor. ii. 7. Gal. vi. 1 . b Gal. i. 8, 9.