of in its relation to Christ, and doctrine that is not "after Christ" is delusive error. Teaching or doctrine professing to bear on the religious interests of man and the spiritual wants of his soul, which is not according to Christ, is deceitful. It may have the high-sounding name of philosophy; it may be priestcraft in some of its manifold forms; it may be religious rationalism professing to receive God's authority and word, but actually disparaging the glory of Christ's person, and the fulness of His redemptive work; and if so, it is vain deceit. Have not men in their wild vagaries invoked the stars in their courses to fight against Him who counts their number, and calls them all by their names? Have they not summoned the rocks and fossils of the past to bear witness against God's own history of creation, and so interpreted their supposed testimony as to deny His revelation? Have they not appealed to human reason, as to a god, against the voice of Him whose Spirit alone can give man understanding? What are these endeavours but the "oppositions of science falsely so called"?-doctrine not "after Christ."

It may be spiritualism, with its necromantic curiosity: it may be ecclesiasticism, with its intolerance and bigotry: it may be sacramentarianism, with its carnal and beggarly elements, professing in baptism to regenerate the souls of men, and in the consecrated symbols of the Lord's supper to secure salvation for the partakers thereof. But they are delusive only; leading men away from Christ, or making them seek something in place of Him, in which their hearts may rely. Thus are souls made a prey and led captive by the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world. Christ alone gives light, liberty, and life. He is the only source of religious life, the living centre of religious faith. Those whom He makes free are "free indeed," and only those who have the Son of God have life.

XIX.

The Circumcision of Christ.

"In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."-COLOSSIANS ii. 11, 12.

THRO

HROUGH the system of theosophy and angelology taught by the false teachers, the Colossians were exposed to the danger of two serious errors: first, the belief that they were under the influence, or at any rate needed the assistance, of intermediate intelligences such as angels or spirits; secondly, the persuasion that circumcision, the symbol of purification appointed by God, was still necessary. Both errors are met by the single clause, “Ye are complete in Him," an assertion that "is further expanded by two explanatory clauses."* The first, "who is the Head of all principality and power," is directed against the notion of needing the intercession or help of intermediate intelligences; and the second, contained in these two verses, against the idea that outward circumcision was still necessary to salvation. If they were "complete in Christ," they had no need to go beyond Him, or to resort to any ceremonies

*Bp. Ellicott's Crit. and Gram. Com. in loc.

imposed on them by Judaism. To the Christian, circumcision would be altogether a superfluous ceremony, since he has already experienced a nobler circumcision than that of the knife-a circumcision executed by no human hand. "We are the circumcision," says St. Paul to the Philippians, "which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." (Phil. iii. 3.) It is possible now, as in the Apostle's day, to place outward rites and even divinely appointed ordinances in a false position, and make them come between the soul and the Saviour, so as to hide His glory; and the very fact that multitudes in our day put the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper into this unscriptural position, should lead us very carefully to examine the teaching of St. Paul on this theme.

I. Every real Christian has experienced the true circumcision. The argument of the Apostle is, that there was no need for insisting that the Colossians should undergo the circumcision of the law, or submit to the external rite, since they had already, as disciples of Christ, received the blessing of a true circumcision of the heart-a circumcision which gave no physical pain, and "not made with hands." St. Paul, of course, refers to the spiritual change which had taken place in them-the new birth which every one has experienced who is a true child of God. It is a spiritual circumcision, one "not made with hands," and plainly distinguished from that which is made with hands. The idea of such a circumcision was not a novel one; for it is frequently referred to in various forms in Scripture, and was familiar to the Jews. While Israel was still in the wilderness, the Divine command was given to them, "Circumcise the foreskin of your heart;" and the promise was given in the same wanderings, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love

the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." (Deut. x. 16; xxx. 6.) In the time of the prophets the Jews were often characterized as "uncircumcised in heart." (Jer. ix. 26; Ezek. xliv. 7.) Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in his dying speech, used the same phraseology, and called his hearers "uncircumcised in heart and ears." (Acts vii. 51.) And St. Paul, in writing to the Romans, says, "He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter." (Rom. ii. 28, 29.) The true character of the operation and influence of this spiritual circumcision is the putting off of the body (of the sins)* of the flesh. It is the putting off of that which is elsewhere called "the old man," -corrupt human nature, with all its fleshly instincts and carnal tendencies. Manual circumcision, by the law of Moses, cut off only a small part of the fiesh; the spiritual circumcision which the sons of God experience is a moral transformation of the whole man. "Old things pass away, and all things become new." Old habits are abandoned, old associations broken up, and old companionships of evil forsaken. The soul is ushered into a new life, passes into a new experience; and with new thoughts, affections, and desires, finds itself in a new world of action, enjoyment, and hope. It is the putting on of the new man, "which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." It is in harmony with the idea of circumcision that the peculiar phrase, the body of the flesh, is used; and the truth conveyed is, that the whole corrupt nature, the entire fleshly

As several of the oldest MSS. omit the words Tŵv áuаpriv, of the sins, they are rejected by Ellicott, Alford, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Wordsworth, and the best authorities.

principle, is to be cut off and laid aside. Then the believer in Christ walks no longer after the flesh, is no longer carnal, or under the rampant power of sin; he has received the evangelical circumcision in a new heart and a right spirit, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost," and shows its presence and power in the crucifixion of the flesh, with all its affections and lusts, and in the beauty of a new and holy life. "He who is so circumcised is no longer in the flesh, and walks no longer according to the flesh, but in newness of life."*

Further, this spiritual circumcision is Divine-not handwrought, not the circumcision of Moses, but of Christ, that which is realized only under the power and grace of the gospel. It is called the circumcision of Christ, as that which appertains to the gospel, ordained and communicated by Christ. The mark in the foreskin was the token of being a Jew; the putting off of the old man, the spiritual renewal of the heart, is the token of being a Christian. The grand purpose of the gospel in relation to mankind was to accomplish this circumcision of the heart, so that children of disobedience might become children of God, and that the law of God might become part of the life of every manwritten in his heart, and engraved on his mind. This is the circumcision of Christ, the possession of a new moral nature, which has Christ for its author and for its model; and the experience of this personal and spiritual renewal is the highest blessing which we can receive from the gospel. The regeneration of the soul by the grace of the Holy Spirit is the overthrow of corruption and the death-blow of sin in every Christian man.

II. This true circumcision is realized only in connexion with Christ and in union with Him. "Buried with Him in

Meyer's Comment. in loc.