Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (6)

+III. The Gospel bestows a richer inheritance than the law.+--"The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. . . . We are children of the free" (vers. 30, 31). The two systems were irreconcilable. The law and the Gospel cannot coexist and inherit together; the law must disappear before the Gospel. The higher absorbs the lower. The Church of the future, the spiritual seed of Abraham gathered out of all nations, has no part in legalism. It embraces blessings of which Mosaism had no conception--"an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away" (1 Pet. i. 4).

+Lessons.+--1. _The law and the Gospel differ fundamentally._ 2. _The law imposes intolerable burdens._ 3. _The Gospel abrogates the law by providing a higher spiritual obedience._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 21-31. _Legal Bondage and Spiritual Freedom contrasted_--

+I. In their inception and development+ (vers. 21-27).

+II. In their ceaseless antagonism+ (ver. 29).

+III. In their inevitable results+ (vers. 28, 30, 31).

Ver. 21. _A Lesson from the Law_--

+I. Addressed to those eager for its subjection.+--"Ye that desire
to be under the law."

+II. Is suggestive of solemn warning.+

+III. Should be seriously pondered.+--"Tell me, do ye not hear the
law?"

Ver. 26. _Jerusalem Above._

+I. The Church of Christ as she exists in the present world.+--"Jerusalem, above and free."

1. _Above; that is, seen in connection with God and the scenes of the heavenly world._--(1) Her Head is from above. (2) If we take the Church as a whole, though she is in part on earth, the greater number of her members are in heaven. (3) Our Jerusalem is above because her members all fix their affections there and thither then as the great end of their profession.

2. _Jerusalem above is free, and so are her children._--From the bondage of seeking salvation by works of law, from the guilt of sin, from its dominion.

+II. The filial sentiment with which we ought to regard the Church of Christ.+--She is "the mother of us all." The general idea is, that if we are indeed spiritual, under God, we owe all to the Church. To her God has committed the preservation of His truth. In stormy times she has sheltered her lamps in the recesses of the sanctuary, and in happier times has placed them on high to guide and save. The Spirit of God is in the Church. To her you owe your hallowed fellowships. In the Church it is that God manifests Himself.

+III. The animating anticipations we are thus taught to form of the Church as glorified.+--Turn to the description given in Revelation xxi. 1. _Mark the wall great and high_--denoting the perfect, impregnable security of those who dwell there. 2. _At the gates are angels_--still ushering in the heirs of salvation and disdaining not to be porters to this glorious city. 3. _Mark the foundations,_ garnished with all manner of precious stones--implying permanency. 4. _Mark the circumstance that in the twelve foundations are inscribed the names of the twelve apostles_--the whole being the result of their doctrine. 5. _The whole city is a temple all filled with the presence and glory of God._ No holiest of all is there where every part is most holy. All are filled, sanctified, beatified, by the fully manifested presence of God. He is all in all; all things in and to all.--_Richard Watson._

_Jerusalem a Type of the Universal Church._

+I. God chose Jerusalem above all other places to dwell in.+ The Church catholic is the company chosen to be the particular people of God.

+II. Jerusalem is a city compact in itself by reason of the bond of love and order among the citizens.+ In like sort the members of the Church catholic are linked together by the bond of one Spirit.

+III. In Jerusalem was the sanctuary, a place of God's presence,+ where the promise if the seed of the woman was preserved till the coming of the Messiah. Now the Church catholic is in the room of the sanctuary, in it we must seek the presence of God and the Word of life.

+IV. In Jerusalem was the throne of David.+ In the Church catholic is the throne or sceptre of Christ.

+V. The commendation of a city, as Jerusalem, is the subjection and obedience of the citizens.+ In the Church catholic all believers are citizens, and they yield voluntary obedience and subjection to Christ their King.

+VI. As in Jerusalem the names of the citizens were enrolled in a register,+ so the names of all the members of the Church catholic are enrolled in the Book of Life.

+VII. The Church catholic is said to be above:+ 1. In respect to her beginning. 2. Because she dwells by faith in heaven with Christ.--_Perkins._

Ver. 28. _Believers Children of Promise._

+I. The character.+--1. Believers are the children of promise by regeneration. 2. By spiritual nourishment. 3. In respect of education. 4. With respect to assimilation, likeness, and conformity.

+II. State the comparison.+--1. Isaac was the child of Abraham, not by natural power. Believers are children of Abraham by virtue of promise. 2. Isaac was the fruit of prayer, as well as the child of the promise. 3. Isaac's birth was the joy of his parents. Even so with reference to believers. 4. Isaac was born not after the flesh, but by the promise; not of the bondwoman, but of the free. So, believers are not under the law. 5. Isaac was no sooner born but he was mocked by Ishmael; so, it is now. 6. Isaac was the heir by promise, though thus persecuted. Even so believers.

+III. How the promise hath such virtue for begetting children to God.+--1. As it is the discovery of Divine love. 2. The object of faith. 3. The ground of hope. 4. The seed of regeneration. 5. The communication of grace. 6. The chariot of the Spirit.

+Inferences.+--1. _If believers are children of promise, then boasting is excluded._ 2. _Then salvation is free._ 3. _The happiness and dignity of believers--they are the children of God.--Pulpit Assistant._

Ver. 29. _On Persecution._

+I. That no privilege of the Church can exempt her from persecution.+--1. _From the consideration of the quality of the persons here upon the stage, the one persecuting, the other suffering._ (1) The persecuting--"born after the flesh." Like Hannibal, they can part with anything but war and contention; they can be without their native country, but not without an enemy. These whet the sword, these make the furnace of persecution seven times hotter than it would be. The flesh is the treasury whence these winds blow that rage and beat down all before them. (2) The suffering--"born after the Spirit." Having no security, no policy, no eloquence, no strength, but that which lieth in his innocency and truth, which he carrieth about as a cure, but it is looked upon as a persecution by those who will not be healed. "For he must appear," said Seneca, "as a fool that he may be wise, as weak that he may be strong, as base and vile that he may be more honourable." If thou be an Isaac, thou shalt find an Ishmael.

2. _From the nature and constitution of the Church which in this world is ever militant._--Persecution is the honour, the prosperity, the flourishing condition of the Church. When her branches were lopped off she spread the more, when her members were dispersed there were more gathered to her, when they were driven about the world they carried that sweet-smelling savour about them which drew in multitudes to follow them.

3. _From the providence and wisdom of God who put this enmity between these two seeds._--God's method is best. That is method and order with Him which we take to be confusion, and that which we call persecution is His art, His way of making saints. In Abraham's family Ishmael mocketh and persecuteth Isaac, in the world the synagogue persecuteth the Church, and in the Church one Christian persecuteth another. It was so, it is so, and it will be so to the end of the world.

+II. The lessons of persecution.+--1. _The persecution of the Church should not create surprise._ 2. _Not to regard the Church and the world as alike._ 3. _Build ourselves up in faith so as to be prepared for the fiery trial._ 4. _Love the truth you profess._ 5. _Be renewed in spirit.--A. Farindon._

Ver. 30. _Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son._--To cast out is an act of violence, and the true Church evermore hath the suffering part. How shall the Church cast out those of her own house and family? 1. By the vehemency of our prayers that God would either melt their hearts or shorten their hands, either bring them into the right way, or strike off their chariot wheels. 2. By our patience and longsuffering. 3. By our innocency of life and sincerity of conversation. 4. By casting our burden upon the Lord.--_Ibid._

_The Fate of Unbelievers._

+I. All hypocrites, mockers of the grace of God, shall be cast forth of God's family,+ though for a time they bear a sway therein. This is the sentence of God. Let us therefore repent of our mocking and become lovers of the grace of God.

+II. The persecution of the people of God shall not be perpetual,+ for the persecuting bondwoman and her son must be cast out.

+III. All justiciary people and persons that look to be saved and justified before God by the law,+ either in whole or in part, are cast out of the Church of God, and have no part in the kingdom of heaven. The casting out of Hagar and Ishmael is a figure of the rejection of all such.--_Perkins._

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER V.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Stand fast in.+--Stand up to, make your stand for. +The liberty wherewith Christ has made you free.+--As Christ has given you this liberty you are bound to stand fast in it. +Be not entangled.+--Implicated in a way which involves violence to true spontaneous life. +The yoke of bondage.+--Contrasted with the yoke of Christ, which is compatible with the fullest spiritual freedom.

Ver. 2. +If ye be circumcised.+--Not simply as a national rite, but as a symbol of Judaism and legalism in general; as necessary to justification. +Christ shall profit you nothing.+--The Gospel of grace is at an end. He who is circumcised is so fearing the law, and he who fears disbelieves the power of grace, and he who disbelieves can profit nothing by that grace which he disbelieves (_Chrysostom_).

Ver. 5 +Wait for the hope of righteousness.+--Righteousness, in the sense of justification, is already attained, but the consummation of it in future perfection is the object of hope to be waited for.

Ver. 6. +Faith which worketh by love.+--Effectually worketh, exhibits its energy by love, and love is the fulfilling of the law.

Ver. 9. +A little leaven.+--Of false doctrine, a small amount of evil influence.

Ver. 10. +He that troubleth you.+--The leaven traced to personal agency; whoever plays the troubler. +Shall bear his judgment.+--Due and inevitable condemnation from God.

Ver. 11. +Then is the offence of the cross ceased.+--The offence, the stumbling-block, to the Jew which roused his anger was not the shame of Messiah crucified, but the proclamation of free salvation to all, exclusive of the righteousness of human works.

Ver. 12. +I would they were cut off which trouble you.+--Self-mutilated, an imprecation more strongly expressed in chap. i. 8, 9. Christian teachers used language in addressing Christians in the then heathen world that would be regarded as intolerable in modern Christendom, purified and exalted by Christ through their teachings.

Ver. 13. +Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.+--Do not give the flesh the handle or pretext for its indulgence, which it eagerly seeks for. +By love serve one another.+--If ye must be in bondage, be servants to one another in love.

Ver. 15. +If ye bite and devour one another, . . . consumed.+--Figures taken from the rage of beasts of prey. The _biting_ of controversy naturally runs into the devouring of controversial mood waxing fierce with indulgence. And the controversialists, each snapping at and gnawing his antagonist, forget the tendency is to _consume_ the Christian cause. Strength of soul, health of body, character, and resources, are all consumed by broils.

Ver. 18. +If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.+--Under no irksome restraint. To him who loves, law is not irksome bondage but delightful direction. Active spiritual life is a safeguard against lawless affection.

Ver. 19. +The works of the flesh.+--1. _Sensual vices_--"adultery [omitted in the oldest MSS.], fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness." 2. _Theological vices_--"idolatry, witchcraft." 3. _Malevolent vices_--"hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders." 4. _Vices of excess_--"drunkenness, revellings."

Ver. 22. +The fruit of the Spirit.+--The singular _fruit,_ as compared with the plural _works,_ suggests that the effect of the Spirit's inworking is one harmonious whole, while carnality tends to multitudinousness, distraction, chaos. We are not to look for a rigorous logical classification in either catalogue. Generally, the fruit of the Spirit may be arranged as: I. _Inward graces_--"love, joy, peace." II. _Graces towards man_--"longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." III. _A more generic form of inward graces_--"meekness, temperance."

Ver. 23. +Against such there is no law.+--So far from being against love, law commands it.

Ver. 24. +Have crucified the flesh.+--Not human nature, but depraved human nature. +With the affections and lusts.+--Affections refer to the general frame of mind; the lusts to special proclivities or habits.

Ver. 26. +Not to be desirous of vainglory, provoking+ [challenging], +envying one another.+--Vaingloriousness provokes contention; contention produces envy.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 1.

_Christian Liberty_--

+I. Should be valued considering how it was obtained.+--"The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." It is a liberty purchased at a great cost. Christ, the Son of God, became incarnated, suffered in a degree unparalleled and incomprehensible, and died the shameful and ignoble death of the crucified to win back the liberty man had forfeited by voluntary sin. The redemption of man was hopeless from himself, and but for the intervention of a competent Redeemer he was involved in utter and irretrievable bondage. Civil liberty, though the inalienable right of every man, has been secured as the result of great struggle and suffering. "With a great sum," said the Roman captain to Paul, "obtained I this freedom;" and many since his day have had to pay dearly for the common rights of citizenship. But Christian liberty should be valued as the choicest privilege, remembering it was purchased by the suffering Christ, and that it has been defended through the ages by a noble army of martyrs.

+II. Should remind us of the oppression from which it delivers.+--"And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." The Galatians had been bondmen, enslaved by the worship of false and vile deities. If they rush into the snare of the legalists, they will be bondmen again, and their bondage will be the more oppressive now they have tasted the joys of freedom. Disobedience involves us in many entanglements. It is among the most potent of the energies of sin that leads astray by blinding and blinds by leading astray; that the soul, like the strong champion of Israel, must have its eyes put out, when it would be bound with fetters of brass and condemned to grind in the prisonhouse (Judg. xvi. 21). Redemption from the slavery of sin should fill the heart with gratitude. A wealthy and kind Englishman once bought a poor Negro for twenty pieces of gold. He presented him with a sum of money that he might buy a piece of land and furnish himself a home. "Am I really free? May I go whither I will?" cried the Negro in the joy of his heart. "Well, let me be your slave, massa; you have redeemed me, and I owe all to you." The gentleman took him into his service, and he never had a more faithful servant. How much more eagerly should we do homage and service to the divine Master, who Himself has made us free!

+III. Should be rigorously maintained.+--"Stand fast therefore." The price of freedom is incessant vigilance; once gained it is a prize never to be lost, and no effort or sacrifice should be grudged in its defence. "As far as I am a Christian," said Channing, "I am free. My religion lays on me not one chain. It does not hem me round with a mechanical ritual, does not enjoin forms, attitudes, and hours of prayer, does not descend to details of dress and food, does not put on me one outward badge. It teaches us to do good but leaves us to devise for ourselves the means by which we may best serve mankind." The spirit of Christian liberty is eternal. Jerusalem and Rome may strive to imprison it. They might as well seek to bind the winds of heaven. Its seat is the throne of Christ. It lives by the breath of His Spirit. Not to be courageous and faithful in its defence is disloyalty to Christ and treachery to our fellow-men.

+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is the true Emancipator of men._ 2. _Christian liberty does not violate but honours the law of love._ 3. _Liberty is best preserved by being consistently exercised._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._

Ver. 1. _Freedom from Bondage._--1. Every man by nature is a bondslave, being under the bondage of sin. The Jews were under bondage to the ceremonial law, involving great trouble, pain in the flesh, and great expense. 2. Jesus Christ by His obedience and death has purchased freedom and liberty to His Church--liberty not to do evil, nor from the yoke of new obedience, nor from the cross, nor from that obedience and reverence which inferiors owe to superiors; but from the dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, the curse and irritating power of the law, and from subjecting our consciences to the rites, doctrines, ceremonies, and laws of men in the matter of worship. 3. Though civil liberty be much desired, so ignorant are we of the worth of freedom from spiritual bondage that we can hardly be excited to seek after it, or made to stand to it when attained, but are in daily hazard of preferring our former bondage to our present liberty.--_Fergusson._

_Bondage and Liberty._

+I. We are in bondage under sin.+

+II. We are subject to punishment.+--Implying: 1. Bondage under Satan, who keeps unrepentant sinners in his snare. 2. Bondage under an evil conscience, which sits in the heart as accuser and judge, and lies like a wild beast at a man's door ready to pluck out his throat. 3. Bondage under the wrath of God and fear of eternal death.

+III. We are in bondage to the ceremonial law.+--To feel this bondage is a step out of it; not to feel it is to be plunged into it.

+IV. We have spiritual liberty by the grace of God.+--1. Christian liberty is a deliverance from misery. (1) From the curse of the law for the breach thereof. (2) From the obligation of the law whereby it binds us to perfect righteousness in our own persons. (3) From the observance of the ceremonial law of Moses. (4) From the tyranny and dominion of sin. 2. Christian liberty is freedom in good things. (1) In the voluntary service of God. (2) In the free use of all the creatures of God. (3) Liberty to come to God and in prayer to be heard. (4) To enter heaven.

+V. Christ is the great Liberator.+--He procured this liberty: 1. By the merit of His death. The price paid--His precious blood--shows the excellence of the blessing, and that it should be esteemed. 2. By the efficacy of His Spirit--assuring us of our adoption and abating the strength and power of sin.

+VI. We are to hold fast our liberty in the day of trial.+--1. We must labour that religion be not only in mind and memory but rooted in the heart. 2. We must join with our religion the soundness of a good conscience. 3. We must pray for all things needful.--_Perkins._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 2-6.

_Christianity Superior to External Rites._

+I. External rites demand universal obedience.+--"Every man that is circumcised is a debtor to do the whole law" (ver. 3). The Galatians were in a state of dangerous suspense. They were on the brink of a great peril. Another step and they would be down the precipice. That step was circumcision. Seeing the imminence of the danger the apostle becomes more earnest and emphatic in his remonstrance. He warns them that circumcision, though a matter of indifference as an external rite, would in their case involve an obligation to keep the whole law. This he has shown is an impossibility. They would submit themselves to a yoke they were unable to bear, and from whose galling tyranny they would be unable to extricate themselves. Knowing this, surely they would not be so foolish as, deliberately and with open eyes, to commit such an act of moral suicide. There must be a strange infatuation in ritualistic observances that tempts man to undertake obligations he is powerless to perform, utterly heedless of the most explicit and faithful warnings.

+II. Dependence on external rites is an open rejection of Christ.+--"Christ shall profit you nothing; . . . is become of no effect unto you; ye are fallen from grace" (vers. 2, 4). Here the result of a defection from the Gospel is placed in the most alarming aspect and should give pause to the wildest fanatic. It is the forfeiture of all Christian privileges, it is a complete rejection of Christ, it is a loss of all the blessings won by faith, it is a fall into the gulf of despair and ruin. It cannot be too plainly understood, nor too frequently iterated, that excessive devotion to external rites means the decline and extinction of true religion. Ritualism supplants Jesus Christ. "It is evident that the disciples of the Church of Rome wish to lead us from confession and absolution to the doctrine of transubstantiation, thence to the worship of images, and thence to all the abuses which at the end of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth excited the anger and scorn of Luther, Calvin, Zwinglius, and others. The primary faith of the Reformers is in the words of Christ. The primary faith of the ritualists is in Aristotle. If the British nation is wise, it will not allow the Roman Church with its infallible head, or the ritualists with their mimic ornaments, or those who are deaf to the teachings of Socrates and Cicero, of Bacon and Newton, to deprive them of the inestimable blessings of the Gospel."

+III. Christianity as a spiritual force is superior to external rites.+--1. _It bases the hope of righteousness on faith._ "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith" (ver. 5). Look on this picture and on that. Yonder are the Galatians, all in tumult about the legalistic proposals, debating which of the Hebrew feasts they shall celebrate and with what rites, absorbed in the details of Mosaic ceremony, all but persuaded to be circumcised and to settle their scruples out of hand by a blind submission to the law. And here on the other side is Paul with the Church of the Spirit, walking in the righteousness of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit, joyfully awaiting the Saviour's final coming and the hope that is laid up in heaven. How vexed, how burdened, how narrow and puerile is the one condition; how large, lofty, and secure the other! Faith has its great ventures; it has also its seasons of endurance, its moods of quiet expectancy, its unweariable patience. It can wait as well as work (_Findlay_).

2. _Faith is a spiritual exercise revealing itself in active love._--"Faith worketh by love" (ver. 6). In ver. 5 we have the _statics_ of the religion of Christ; in ver. 6 its _dynamics._ Love is the working energy of faith. "Love gives faith hands and feet; hope lends it wings. Love is the fire at its heart, the life-blood coursing in its veins; hope the light that gleams and dances in its eyes." In the presence of an active spiritual Christianity, animated by love to Christ and to men, ritualism diminishes into insignificance. "In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision" (ver. 6). The Jew is no better or worse a Christian because he is circumcised; the Gentile no worse or better because he is not. Love, which is the fulfilling of the law, is the essence of Christianity, and gives it the superiority over all external rites.

+Lessons.+--1. _Externalism in religion imposes intolerable burdens._ 2. _To prefer external rites is an insult to Christ._ 3. _The superiority of Christianity is its spiritual character._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 2-4. _Christianity nullified by Legalism._

+I. To accept legalism is to reject Christ+ (vers. 2, 4).

+II. Legalism demands universal obedience to its enactments+ (ver.
3).

+III. Legalism is a disastrous abandonment of Christianity.+--"Ye are
fallen from grace" (ver. 4).

Vers. 5, 6. _Righteousness attained by Active Faith._--1. No personal righteousness entitles us to the blessed hope of the heavenly inheritance, but only the righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith. It is only the efficacious teaching of God's spirit which can sufficiently instruct us in the knowledge of this righteousness and make us with security and confidence venture our hope of heaven upon it. 2. To impose the tie of a command on anything as a necessary part of Divine worship wherein the Word has left us free, or to subject ourselves to such command, is a receding from and betrayal of Christian liberty. 3. The sum of a Christian's task is faith; but it is always accompanied with the grace of love. Though faith and love are conjoined, faith, in the order of nature, has the precedency.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 6. _Religion is Faith working by Love._

+I. External and bodily privileges are of no use and moment in the kingdom of Christ.+--1. We are not to esteem men's religion by their riches and external dignities. 2. We are to moderate our affections in respect of all outward things, neither sorrowing too much for them nor joying too much in them.

+II. Faith is of great use and acceptance in the kingdom of Christ.+--1. We must labour to conceive faith aright in our hearts, by the use of the right means--the Word, prayer, and sacraments, and in and by the exercises of spiritual invocation and repentance. 2. Faith in Christ must reign and bear sway in our hearts and have command over reason, will, affection, lust. 3. It is to be bewailed that the common faith of our day is but a ceremonial faith.

+III. True faith works by love.+--Faith is the cause of love, and love is the fruit of faith.--_Perkins._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-12.

_Disturber of the Faith--_

+I. Checks the prosperous career of the most ardent Christian.+--"Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" (ver. 7). The Galatians were charmed with the truth as it fell from the lips of the apostle; it was to them a new revelation; they eagerly embraced it, it changed their lives, and they strove to conform their conduct to its high moral teachings. The apostle was delighted with the result and commended their Christian enthusiasm. They were running finely. But the intrusion of false teaching changed all this. Their progress was arrested, their faith was disturbed, they wavered in their allegiance, and were in danger of losing all the advantages they had gained. The influence of false doctrine is always baneful, especially so to new beginners, in whom the principles of truth have not become firmly rooted. The loss of truth, like inability to believe, may be traced back to an unhealthy corruption of the mind. The great danger of unsound doctrine lies in this, that, like a cancer, it rankles because it finds in the diseased condition of the religious life ever fresh nourishment.

+II. Is opposed to the Divine method of justification.+--"This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you" (ver. 8). The disturber of the Galatians taught a human method of salvation--a salvation by the works of the law. This was diametrically opposed to the Divine calling, which is an invitation to the whole race to seek salvation by faith. The persuasion to which the Galatians were yielding was certainly not of God. It was a surrender to the enemy. All error is a wild fighting against God, an attempt to undermine the foundations that God has fixed for man's safety and happiness.

+III. Suggests errors that are contagious in their evil influence.+--"A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump" (ver. 9). A proverbial expression the meaning of which is at once obvious. A small infusion of false doctrine, or the evil influence of one bad person, corrupts the purity of the Gospel. It is a fact well known in the history of science and philosophy that men, gifted by nature with singular intelligence, have broached the grossest errors and even sought to undermine the grand primitive truths on which human virtue, dignity, and hope depend. The mind that is always open to search into error is itself in error, or at least unstable (1 Cor. xv. 33; Eccles. ix. 18).

+IV. Shall not escape chastisement whatever his rank or pretensions.+--1. _Either by direct Divine judgment._ "He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be" (ver. 10). The reference here may be to some one prominent among the seducers, or to any one who plays the troubler. God will not only defend His own truth but will certainly punish the man who from wicked motives seeks to corrupt the truth or to impair the faith of those who have embraced it. The seducer not only deceives himself but shall suffer judgment for his self-deception and the injury he has done to others.

2. _Or by excision from the Church._--"I would they were even cut off which trouble you" (ver. 12). An extravagant expression, as if the apostle said, "Would that the Judaising troublers would mutilate themselves," as was the custom with certain heathen priests in some of their religious rites. The phrase indicates the angry contempt of the apostle for the legalistic policy, and that the troublers richly deserved to be excluded from the Church and all its privileges. The patience of the Gentile champion was exhausted and found relief for the moment in mocking invective.

+V. Does not destroy the hope and faith of the true teacher.+--1. _He retains confidence in the fidelity of those who have been temporarily disturbed._ "I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded" (ver. 10). Notwithstanding the insidious leaven, the apostle cherishes the assurance that his converts will after all prove leal and true at heart. He has faithfully chided them for their defection, but his anger is directed, not towards them, but towards those who have injured them. He is persuaded the Galatians will, with God's help, resume the interrupted race they were running so well.

2. _His sufferings testify that his own teaching is unchanged._--"If I preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offence of the cross ceased" (ver. 11). The rancour and hostility of the legalists would have been disarmed, if Paul advocated their doctrine, and the scandalous "offence of the cross"--so intolerable to the Jewish pride--would have been done away. But the cross was the grand vital theme of all his teaching, that in which he most ardently gloried, and for which he was prepared to endure all possible suffering. The value of truth to a man is what he is willing to suffer for it.

+Lessons.+--1. _The man who perverts the truth is an enemy to his kind._ 2. _The false teacher ensures his own condemnation._ 3. _Truth becomes more precious the more we suffer for it._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 7-10. _How Perfection is attained._--Everything in the universe comes to its perfection by drill and marching--the seed, the insect, the animal, the man, the spiritual man. God created man at the lowest point, and put him in a world where almost nothing would be done for him, and almost everything should tempt him to do for himself.--_Beecher._

Ver. 7. _The Christian Life a Race._

+I. Christians are runners in the race of God.+--1. They must make haste without delay to keep the commandments of God. It is a great fault for youth and others to defer amendment till old age, or till the last and deadly sickness. That is the time to end our running, and not to begin. 2. We are to increase and profit in all good duties. We in this age do otherwise. Either we stand at a stay or go back. There are two causes for this: (1) Blindness of mind. (2) Our unbelief in the article of life everlasting. 3. We must neither look to the right nor the left hand, or to things behind, but press forward to the prize of eternal life. 4. We must not be moved with the speeches of men which are given of us, for or against. They are lookers on and must have their speeches. Our care must be not to heed them but look to our course.

+II. Christians must not only be runners, but run well.+--This is done by believing and obeying, having faith and a good conscience. These are the two feet by which we run. We have one good foot--our religion--which is sound and good; but we halt on the other foot. Our care to keep conscience is not suitable to our religion. Three things cause a lameness in this foot: the lust of the eye--covetousness, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

+III. Christians must run the race from the beginning to the end.+--1. We must cherish a love and fervent desire of eternal life, and by this means be drawn through all miseries and overpass them to the end. 2. We must maintain a constant and daily purpose of not sinning.--_Perkins._

_Bad Companions._--"Bad company," wrote Augustine, "is like a nail driven into a post, which, after the first or second blow, may be drawn out with very little difficulty; but being once driven up to the head, the pincers cannot take hold to draw it out, which can only be done by the destruction of the wood." Of course, it is useless to define bad company. Men and women, boys and girls, feel instinctively when they have fallen in with dangerous associates; if they choose to remain amongst them they are lost. So in the high tides, barks of light draught will float over Goodwin quicksands; in summer at low tide the venturous boys and young people will play cricket thereon: but neither can remain long in the neighbourhood. The time comes when the sands are covered with but a thin surface of water, and beneath is the shifting, loose, wet earth, more dangerous and treacherous than springtide ice; and then it is that to touch is to be drawn in, and to be drawn in is death. So is it with bad company.--_The Gentle Life._

_Cowardly Retreat._--General Grant relates that just as he was hoping to hear a report of a brilliant movement and victory of General Sigel, he received an announcement from General Halleck to this effect: "Sigel is in full retreat on Strasburg; he will do nothing but run; never did anything else." The enemy had intercepted him, handled him roughly, and he fled.

Vers. 8-10. _The Disintegrating Force of Error._--1. Whatever persuasion cometh not of God and is not grounded on the Word of truth, is not to be valued, but looked upon as a delusion (ver. 8). 2. The Church of Christ, and every particular member thereof, ought carefully to resist the first beginnings of sin, for the least of errors and the smallest number of seduced persons are here compared to leaven, a little quantity of which secretly insinuates itself and insensibly conveys its sourness to the whole lump (ver. 9). 3. The minister is not to despair of the recovery of those who oppose themselves, but ought in charity to hope the best of all men, so long as they are curable; and to show how dangerous their error was by denouncing God's judgment against their prime seducers (ver. 10). 4. So just is God, He will suffer no impenitent transgressor, however subtle, to escape His search, or to pass free from the dint of His avenging stroke, whoever he be for parts, power, or estimation.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 9. _Reform of Bad Manners._

+I. We must resist and withstand every particular sin.+--One sin is able to defile the whole life of man. One fly is sufficient to mar a whole box of sweet ointment. One offence in our first parents brought corruption on them and all mankind; yea, on heaven and earth.

+II. We must endeavour to the utmost to cut off every bad example in the societies of men.+--One bad example is sufficient to corrupt a whole family, a town, a country. A wicked example, being suffered, spreads abroad and does much hurt.

+III. We are to withstand and cut off the first beginnings and occasions of sin.+--We say of arrant thieves they began to practise their wickedness in pins and points. For this cause, idleness, excessive eating, drinking and swilling, riot, and vanity in apparel are to be suppressed in every society as the breeder of many vices.--_Perkins._

Ver. 11. _The Perversion of Apostolic Preaching._--There are two attempts or resolves in constant operation as to the cross. One is man's, to accommodate to human liking and taste; the second is God's, to raise human liking and taste to it.

+I. The aim of man.+--The following may be named as the principal exceptions taken to the cross by those who rejected it:--

1. _It was an improbable medium of revelation._--Man can talk loudly how God should manifest Himself. Shall the cross be the oracle by which He will speak His deepest counsels to our race?

2. _It was a stigma on this religion which set it in disadvantageous contrast with every other._--It was unheard of that the vilest of all deaths should give its absolute character to religion, and that this religion of the cross should triumph over all.

3. _It was a violent disappointment of a general hope._--There was a desire of all nations. And was all that the earliest lay rehearsed, all that the highest wisdom enounced, only to be wrought out in the shameful cross?

4. _It was a humiliating test._--Ambition, selfishness, insincerity, licentiousness, ferocity, pride, felt that it was encircled with an atmosphere in which they were instantly interrupted and condemned. Man is desirous of doing this away as a wrongful and unnecessary impression. He would make the offence of the cross to cease: (1) By fixing it upon some extrinsic authority. (2) By torturing it into coalition with foreign principles. (3) By transforming the character of its religious instructions. (4) By applying it to inappropriate uses. (5) By excluding its proper connections.

+II. The procedure of God.+--1. _It is necessary, if we would receive the proper influence of the cross, that we be prepared to hail it as a distinct revelation._ Science and the original ethics of our nature do not fall within the distinct province of what a revelation intends. Its strict purpose, its proper idea, is to make known that which is not known, and which could not be otherwise known. Not more directly did the elemental light proceed from God who called it out of darkness than did the making known to man of redemption by the blood of the cross.

2. _When we rightly appreciate the cross, we recognize it as the instrument of redemption._--This was the mode of death indicated by prophecy. The cross stands for that death; but it is an idle, unworthy superstition that this mode of death wrought the stupendous end. It is only an accessory. We must look further into the mystery. "He His own self bore our sin in His own body on the tree." It is that awful identity, that mysterious action, which expiates, and not the rood.

3. _When our mind approves this method of salvation, it finds in the cross the principle of sanctification._--A new element of thought, a new complexion of motive, enter the soul when the Holy Spirit shows to it the things of Christ. We are new creatures. We reverse all our sins and desires. We are called unto holiness. (1) Mark the _process._ We had hitherto abided in death. But now we are quickened with Him. (2) Mark the _necessity._ Until we be brought nigh to it, until we take hold of it, the doctrine of the crucified Saviour is an unintelligible and uninteresting thing. (3) Mark the _effect._ There is a suddenly, though a most intelligently, developed charm. It is the infinite of attraction. All concentrates on it. It absorbs the tenderness and the majesty of the universe. It is full of glory. Our heart has now yielded to it, is drawn, is held, coheres, coalesces, is itself impregnated by the sacred effluence. The offence of the cross has ceased.--_R. W. Hamilton._

Ver. 12. _Church Censure._--The spirit of error may so far prevail among a people that discipline can hardly attain its end--the shaming of the person censured, and the preservation of the Church from being leavened. In which case the servants of God should proceed with slow pace, and in all lenity and wisdom, and should rather doctrinally declare the censures deserved than actually inflict the censure itself.

_Judgment on the Troubles of the Church._

+I. God watches over His Church with a special providence.+

+II. The doctrine of the apostles is of infallible certainty+
because the oppugners of it are plagued with the just judgment
of God.

+III. Our duty is to pray for the good estate of the Church of God,+
and for the kingdoms where the Church is planted.--_Perkins._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13-18.

_Love the Highest Law of Christian Liberty._

+I. Love preserves liberty from degenerating into licence.+--"Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh" (ver. 13). Christian liberty is a great boon, but it also a solemn responsibility. It is hard to win and is worth the most gigantic struggle; but the moment it is abused it is lost. Men clamour for liberty when they mean licence--licence to indulge their unholy passions unchecked by the restraints of law. Christian liberty is not the liberty of the flesh, but of the Spirit, and love is the master-principle that governs and defines all its exercises.

"He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides."

We know no truth, no privilege, no power, no blessing, no right, which is not abused. But is liberty to be denied to men because they often turn it into licentiousness? There are two freedoms--the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought. Love is the safeguard of the highest liberty.

+II. Love is obedience to the highest law.+--"For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (ver. 14). "By love serve one another" (ver. 13). We may be as orthodox as Athanasius and as scrupulous as Jerome, we may be daily and ostentatiously building to God seven altars and offering a bullock and a ram on every altar, and yet be as sounding brass and as a clanging cymbal, if our life shows only the leaves of profession without the golden fruit of action. If love shows not itself by deeds of love, then let us not deceive ourselves. God is not mocked; our Christianity is heathenism, and our religion a delusion and a sham. Love makes obedience delightful, esteems it bondage to be prevented, liberty to be allowed to serve.

"Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security."--_Wordsworth._

+III. Love prevents the mutual destructiveness of a contentious spirit.+--"But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (ver. 15). The condition of the Galatians at this time was very different from the ideal Paul set before them. The quick, warm temperament of the Gauls was roused by the Judaistic controversy, and their natural combativeness was excited. It was easy to pick a quarrel with them at any time, and they were eloquent in vituperation and invective. The "biting" describes the wounding and exasperating effect of the manner in which their contentions were carried on; "devour" warns them of its destructiveness. If this state of things continued, the Churches of Galatia would cease to exist. Their liberty would end in complete disintegration. Love is the remedy propounded for all ills--the love of Christ, leading to the love of each other. Love not only cures quarrels but prevents them.

+IV. Love by obeying the law of the Spirit gains the victory in the feud between the flesh and the Spirit.+--"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh: . . . these are contrary the one to the other" (vers. 16, 17). The flesh and the Spirit are rivals, and by their natures must be opposed to and strive with each other. The strong man is dispossessed by a stronger than he--the Spirit. The master must rule the slave. "This soul of mine must rule this body of mine," said John Foster, "or quit it." The life of a Christian is lived in a higher sphere and governed by a higher law--walking in the Spirit. Christianity says, "Be a man, not a brute. Not do as many fleshly things as you can but do as many spiritual things as you can." All prohibitions are negative. You can't kill an appetite by starvation. You may kill the flesh by living in the higher region of the Spirit; not merely by ceasing to live in sin, but by loving Christ. The more we live the spiritual life, the more sin becomes impossible. Conquest over the sensual is gained, not by repression, but by the freer, purer life of love.

+V. Love emancipates from the trammels of the law.+--"If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law" (ver. 18). The Spirit of love does not abolish the law, but renders it harmless by fulfilling all its requirements, without being compelled to it by its stern commands. Law does not help the soul to obey its behests, but it has nothing to say, nothing to threaten, when those behests are obeyed. To be under the law is to be under sin; but yielding to the influence of the Spirit, and living according to His law, the soul is free from sin and from the condemnation of the law. Freedom from sin, and freedom from the trammels of the Mosaic law--these two liberties are virtually one. Love is the great emancipator from all moral tyrannies.

+Lessons.+--1. _Love is in harmony with the holiest law._ 2. _Love silences all contention._ 3. _Love honours law by obeying it._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 13, 14. _The Service of Love_--

+I. Is the noblest exercise of Christian liberty+ (ver. 13).

+II. Preserves Christian liberty from degenerating into selfish
indulgence+ (ver. 13).

+III. Is the fulfilment of the highest law+ (ver. 14).

Ver. 13. _The Abuse of Christian Liberty._

+I. To use it as an occasion of fleshly and carnal liberty.+--When men make more things indifferent than God ever made. Thus, all abuses of meat, drink, apparel, rioting, gaming, dicing, and carding are excused by the names of things indifferent.

+II. Our liberty is abused by an immoderate use of the gifts of God.+--1. Many gentlemen and others offend when they turn recreation into an occupation. 2. When men exceed in eating and drinking. 3. They offend who, being mean persons and living by trades, yet for diet and apparel are as great gentlemen and gentlewomen.

+III. Liberty is abused when the blessings of God are made instruments and flags and banners to display our riot, vanity, ostentation, and pride.+--It is the fashion of men to take unto themselves a toleration of sinning. Some presume on the patience of God, others on the election of grace, and others on the mercy of God. A certain dweller in Cambridge made away with himself. In his bosom was found a writing to this effect: that God did show mercy on great and desperate sinners, and therefore he hoped for mercy though he hanged himself. Of this mind are many ignorant persons, who persevere in their sins, yet persuade themselves of mercy.--_Perkins._

_The Right Use of Christian Liberty._

+I. We ourselves must be renewed and sanctified.+--The person must first please God before the action can please Him.

+II. Besides the lawful use of the creatures we must have a spiritual and holy use of them.+--1. The creatures of God must be sanctified by the Word and prayer. 2. We must be circumspect lest we sin in the use of the creatures. In these days there is no feasting or rejoicing unless all memory of God be buried, for that is said to breed melancholy. 3. We must use the gifts of God with thanksgiving. 4. We must suffer ourselves to be limited and moderate in the use of our liberty. 5. Our liberty must be used for right ends--the glory of God, the preservation of nature, and the good of our neighbour.

+III. We must give no occasion of sinning by means of Christian liberty.+--_Ibid._

Ver. 14. _The Law fulfilled in Love to Others._

+I. The end of man's life is to serve God in serving others.+

+II. True godliness is to love and serve God in serving man.+--To live out of all society of men, though it be in prayer and fasting in monkish fashion, is no state of perfection, but mere superstition. That is true and perfect love of God that is showed in duties of love and in the edification of our neighbour. It is not enough for thee to be holy in church; thou mayest be a saint in church and a devil at home.--_Ibid._

_Regard for a Neighbour's Rights._--Speaking of the early American prairie settlements a modern historian says: "Theft was almost unknown. The pioneers brought with them the same rigid notions of honesty which they had previously maintained. A man in Mancoupin county left his waggon loaded with corn stuck in the prairie mud for two weeks near a frequented road. When he returned he found some of his corn gone, but there was money enough tied in the sacks to pay for what was taken."

Ver. 15. _Church Quarrels._--1. When schism in a Church is not only maintained on the one hand with passion, strife, reproaches, and real injuries, but also impugned on the other hand, not so much with the sword of the Spirit as with the same fleshly means, then is it the forerunner and procuring cause of desolation and ruin to both parties and to the whole Church. 2. As it is a matter of great difficulty to make men of credit and parts, being once engaged in contentious debates, to foresee the consequence of their doing so further than the hoped-for victory against the contrary party, so it were no small wisdom, before folk meddle with strife, seriously to consider what woeful effects may follow to the Church of God.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 16. _The Positiveness of the Divine Life._

+I. There are two ways of dealing with every vice.+--One is to set to work directly to destroy the vice; that is the negative way. The other is to bring in as overwhelmingly as possible the opposite virtue, and so to crowd and stifle and drown out the vice; that is the positive way. Everywhere the negative and positive methods of treatment stand over against each other, and men choose between them. A Church is full of errors and foolish practices. It is possible to attack those follies outright, showing conclusively how foolish they are; or it is possible, and it is surely better, to wake up the true spiritual life in that Church which shall itself shed those follies and cast them out, or at least rob them of their worst harmfulness. The application of the same principle is seen in matters of taste, matters of reform, and in matters of opinion.