CHAPTER THIRD.

ON PARDON AND ACCEPTANCE.

SECTION FIRST,

In the light of philosophic truth, we have contemplated a spiritual leprosy in the moral constitution of man; and still more clearly have we seen it as exhibited in the light of the Gospel. This distemper cannot be considered without some degree of aversion, even by man himself, when his conscience becomes in any degree awakened; and then arises a question of intense interest, and in as far as unaided reason is concerned, of inexplicable difficulty, relative to the ground on which the sinner may hope for the pardon of his sins, and for acceptance with the moral Governor of the world.

This ground the eye of philosophy never saw, even afar off; and, independent of revelation, it must have remained to this day undiscovered. But unknown as the terms of pardon and acceptance must now have been, had the discovery been

left to the unaided research of man, their suitableness, when once revealed, is fully within his power of discernment, and it may become the subject of his cordial approbation. In point of fact, as our endeavour shall now be to evince, the communication of these blessings rests upon certain principles, which, in myriads of instances, regulate the conduct of human beings in their offices of kindness to their fellow-creatures.

The communication of pardon and acceptance rests, by Divine appointment, on the fitness of doing good to an individual, not for his own sake, but for the sake of another, to whom he bears the relation of dependence; on the fitness of recognising the latter in the character of a surety; and on the fitness of listening to his intercession, because of his finished and perfect work in the stead of the person, on whom these benefits are to be conferred.

The condition or ground of acceptance cannot be holiness, for we are accepted that we may be rendered holy. It cannot be repentance, for Christ is exalted to give repentance. It cannot be faith, for faith is that gift of God through which we become interested in the offered mercies of redemption. It can only be the active and passive obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ as the surety of his people. "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being

witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and yet the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

This, according to the epistles of Paul, is the doctrine of the Gospel concerning the terms of acceptance and the remission of sins. This, too, as we learn from the Acts of the Apostles, was the substance of his personal preaching. When he was sent for to appear before Felix the proconsul, attended on the tribunal-seat by his wife Drusilla, that he might speak before them "concerning the faith of Christ," he "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." He embraced this opportunity of unfolding the peculiarities of the Christian faith. This he did, by showing in what respect those requirements of the moral law which he included in the terms righteousness and temperance, and

those sanctions of the law which arise from the judgment to come, were calculated to evince the necessity of salvation through dependence on the Saviour. By explaining the nature, spirituality, and extent of the law in connexion with its certain and fearful penalty, his object was to shut them up to the necessity of acknowledging that pardon and acceptance are attainable only on the ground of the Redeemer's righteousness. Well might the apostle attach importance to this kind of reasoning. By this argument, the conviction of sin had been awakened in his own mind. “For," says he, "I was alive without the law once," i. e. in consequence of my superficial and inadequate notion of the Divine requirement, I had no apprehension of guilt or fear of condemnation, and was "in my own estimation, as touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless.""But when the commandment came," i. e. when I saw the extent, and perceived the spirituality of the law, "sin revived and I died," or, in other words, I felt, that as a violator of the law, I had incurred its condemnation, and was unable to stand before its scrutiny. In this state of mind he fled for refuge to Him "who is the end of the law for righteousness."

We enter not farther into the Scriptural illustration of this doctrine; but, we think, that the

principles which it involves will strike the reader with force, when we appeal, as we are now about to do, to his antecedent acknowledgment of their reasonableness. We hope, in the prosecution of our argument, to secure the decision of his judgment in favour of their application in the peculiar, glorious, and transcendent work of the blessed Redeemer, as being in harmony with the ordinary arrangements of Providence. There is not, indeed, any analogous case in which these principles are so combined as in the plan of our salvation; but it is enough for the accomplishment of our purpose, in illustrating the reasonableness of this plan, if, in the usual conduct of human life, we are enabled to trace the operation of these principles apart from each other.

I. The communication of pardon and acceptance rests, we have said, on the fitness, as appointed by God, of doing good to an individual, not for his own sake, but for the sake of another, towards whom he bears the relation of dependence.

In going along with the representation of Scripture on this point, we follow the current of our best feelings. Every one knows something of the emotion which turns his eye in tenderness upon the offspring of a man whom he once called his friend. It is not merely the interest which the

C