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(Gal. v. 1.) What yoke does he mean? Not that of ecclesiastical discipline, but that of circumcision, and the ritual law. For thus it immediately follows-Behold I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. And, again, he reminds them-Brethren, ye have been called into liberty-that is, into freedom from the law of circumcision--only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh; but by love serve one another.

In all this, there is not the least ground to surmise that Christian liberty implies a permission to depart from the unity of the church, or a right to contemn its faith and government, and to resist its discipline. And to guard against any mistake of this kind—to obviate the perverse interpretation of every seducer-the apostle enumerates amongst those works of the flesh, which are here forbidden, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, and heresies; these are not things indifferent. They do not come within the lawful verge of a tender conscience, or of Christian liberty for it is categorically declared, that THEY WHO DO SUCH THINGS,

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SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM of God.

St. James recognises the perfect law of liberty. (Chap. i. 25—ii. 12.) But this law requires obedience to sacred ordinances and it gives no credit to a profession of faith, unaccompanied with works of righteousness.

St. Peter also has some remarks upon this subject. According to his declaration and precept-It is the will of God, that, with well-doing, ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As FREE, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men: love the brotherhood: fear God: honour the king. (1 Peter, ii. 16, 17.)

This is not a liberty which indulges in frivolous cavil against the law of discipline, contemps just authority, and sanctions division. For, throughout the whole of this paragraph, the apostle enforces the indispensable duty of submission to government and good discipline, whether spiritual or temporal: and the brotherhood, whom we are here commanded to love, are those who live in union with the visible church of Christ.

Thus the great principle of Christian liberty is not once extended, throughout, the apostolical writings, as a licence to alter the faith, to dissolve the unity of the church, or to set aside its government and discipline.

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It is true, the same apostle, whose words I have last quoted, takes notice of that kind of liberty for which many professors in our age are strenuously disposed to contend: but how far he authorises the use of it we may judge from his own expressions.

The subject is thus introduced :-There shall be false teachers among you, who, privily, shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.-And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and DE

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THEY, SELF-WILLED, they are not AFRAID TO SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNITIES. These false teachers allure their disciples, under the pretence of introducing them into Christian liberty: but, as the apostle proceedswhile they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. (2 Pet.

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ii.) I need not add, that theirs is not an example for imitation.

And as to the justice of the apostle's censure, how could these seducers give a more decisive proof of their slavery to corruption, than by perverting the plain declarations of the Gospel, for the promotion of a design which the Gospel unequivocally forbidsfor the purpose of justifying the devices of disorderly men, and seducing the ignorant and unwary from the fold of Christ, into the crooked paths of error and delusion?

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But I trust, brethren, ye have not so learn ed Christ. If so be, ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, ac ceptable to God by Christ Jesus. (1 Peter, ii. 8+5.).

I might here remark some particular por tions of scripture, upon which our separatists have laid great stress as favourable to their cause. Of these, there are several, as they have been ambitiously sought for, artfully interpreted, and claimed for a long time.

without contradiction. Let it, however, suf fice to produce two of them; in the former of which, it has been presumed that separation is expressly authorised; and in the latter, that the spiritual presence of Christ is promised in the Gospel to the members of private conventicles. Loth:

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The evangelist records, that one of our Lord's disciples said unto him, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us, is on our part. (Mark, ix. 38—40.)

This passage, it has been urged, forbids the restraining of those who teach the Gospel out of the communion of the established church; and, consequently, authorises the act of separation.

But, if we consider, in the first place, the time when our Lord spoke these words, we shall perceive, that it was before his apostles had received their commission, for the gooi vernment of the church. And, as no law can be transgressed before it is promulgated,

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