ΤΟ WALTER BARTON MAY, ESQ. OF HADLOW CASTLE, IN THE COUNTY OF KENT. WITH EVERY FEELING OF GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION, THIS SERMON IS DEDICATED, BY HIS MOST FAITHFUL AND DEVOTED FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. A SERMON, &c. GALATIANS vi. 14. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. WHEN Christianity was first promulged it met with nothing but opposition. It was ridiculed and rejected both by Greek and Jew, and its ministers were treated with contempt and scorn. It was not, however, left to make its own way, nor were its ministers dependent upon their own exertions. God bore witness to the truth of the new dispensation, and signs and wonders were wrought in proof of the Divine commission of the Apostles. But, with incontrovertible evidence before their eyes, the Jews disputed the Divine original of the Gospel, and insisted on the permanence and efficacy of the temple-worship. The principal part of the nation were totally averse to the doc trine of the Cross; to them it was "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence ;" and every effort was employed to reclaim such as had embraced its overtures, and abandoned the ceremonial rites of the Levitical law. Artifices of all descriptions were contrived; terror and allurement were alternately tried to destroy the impression that the ministry of the Apostles had produced. "False brethren" insinuated themselves; and, under pretence of correcting the errors of the Christians, attempted to blend the old religion with the new; while, in reality, their object was to escape the persecution that hung over them, and recover the favour of their priests and rulers. Not sincere themselves, they wished to undermine the sincerity of others; and finding it impossible to extricate themselves from the perils that accompanied the profession of the Cross, they endeavoured to mitigate the fury of their persecutors by mixing up with Christianity rites and ceremonies that had been abolished. Thus, with the hope of recovering the favour of the party they had left, and security from vengeance, they proposed that the ritual worship should still be observed, and the great and vital truth which the Apostles had propagated, reduced to the comparative insignificance of a speculative opinion. Intelligence that these designs were in progress at Galatia, came to the ears of St. Paul. With |