tized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins."* But baptism in the Christian church, like circumcision in the Jewish, does not of itself make men religious. What St.Paul says of the Jew, is equally true of the Christian. "He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly."+ Nor is a man a Christian, merely because he has received the outward seal of the covenant. Simon Magus believed and was baptized and yet St. Peter afterwards assured him, that he "had neither part nor lot in the matter: for his heart was not right in the sight of God;" he was "still in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." Now what was his case, may be yours. Though you have been baptized, you may yet have no part nor lot in the matter.

Again, you are not religious merely beeause you are called a Ghristian, and have been born of Christian parents. This was a great mercy conferred on you, and may have proved a special blessing. But it is not religion. It was the boast of the Jews, that they were the children of Abraham at the time when John the Baptist called them "generation of vipers." It was the boast of Saul, that he was "of the stock of

2

* Acts, ii. 38.
# Acts, viii. 21, 23.

+ Rom. ii. 28.
Luke, iii. 7, 8.

Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews,"* at the very time when he was, as he himself afterwards tells us, "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious."+ The same apostle also declares, that "they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." And as it was then, so it is now. All are not real Christians who are called Christians, and have been born of Christian parents.

Further, you are not religious merely because you frequent the church, attend the Lord's supper, and are regular at your devotions. These things are necessary to be done as means of making and keeping you religious, nor can you be truly religious without doing them: but the mere doing of them is not religion. There were many of the Pharisees, who probably went far beyond you in all these performances. They fasted often, they made long prayers; they were scrupulously exact in all the ceremonies of religious worship; but at the same time they were but hypocrites, "whited sepulchres," as our Saviour calls them, "beautiful outward, but within full of all uncleanness." Notwithstanding then your attention to these outward parts of religion, you may be no better than the Pharisees were. You may

*Phil. iii. 5.
Rom. ix. 6.

+1 Tim. i. 13.

Matt. xxiii. 27.

fast and say your prayers, and come to church, and communicate at the Lord's table, and be but whited sepulchres at last. You may do all these things, and yet have no true religion. Let us inquire,

II. What true religion is.

α

If it be not circumcision nor uncircumcision, what is it? St. Paul tells us it is "a new creature." True religion is not an outward but an inward thing. It relates not merely to the outer, but to the inner man. It consists not in forms and ceremonies, but in the state and dispositions of the heart. It is not a new name, but a new nature. This is plainly the apostle's meaning. When he says, that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature," he clearly means to say, that all pretensions to religion without a great and thorough change wrought in the heart, by the power of GoD, are nothing, and of no avail. The expression which he uses, implies at once the greatness of the change, as well as the power by which it is wrought.

A new creature, or a new creation, as the word may mean, describes a very great change in a man, It signifies the making him quite a different kind of person from what he was before. It denotes such a

change as took place, when God at the cre ation of the world turned darkness into light, and confusion into order. And this is the very view which St. Paul gives of this change in another place, when he says that "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness," that is, at the creation of the world," has shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."* St. Peter also gives the same account of the matter. He describes the change which true religion makes in a man by the expression of his being "called out of darkness into a marvellous light."+ Now such a change must needs be a very great one. It must be a thorough change of the whole man; a change of the soul, which is a man's self: a change of his mind and judgment, of his views and principles, putting into him new desires, and motives, and resolutions, and producing a suitable change of life and conduct.

The greatness of this change shews also the power by which it is-wrought. Creation is a divine work. None can create but God. He it was who said, "Let there be light, and there was light." He alone formed

man at first, and he alone can form him again. He alone can shine into the heart, and renew the soul. The change, therefore, which is here described, is a divine work. It is a great inward change wrought by the power of God. This is what availeth. Nothing will avail but this. It is all in all in religion.

Such is the doctrine which the apostle here lays down. And is it not a doctrine which the whole Bible equally lays down? Assuredly it is. There is not any one point more clearly taught in scripture than the absolute necessity, in order to our being truly religious, of such a change as has been here described. In proving this point, the only difficulty lies in making choice of proofs: for there are so many, that to bring all would be impossible.

The very rite of circumcision itself taught the necessity of this change. For though it was a "seal of the righteousness of faith,' yet it was also a sign of the inward renewal and purification of the heart. Thus the Israelites were exhorted by Moses to "circumcise their hearts;" and by the prophet Jeremiah, to "circumcise themselves unto the Lord" Thus St. Paul expressly says, that "neither is that circumcision, which is * Rom. iv. 11. · Deut. x. 16.-Jer. iv. 4.