throne, and unto the Lamb.-For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, and hast made us unto God kings and priests for ever and ever."

your

Lastly, Are you built on this one foundation? Have you fled for refuge to this hope set before you? Are you trusting to the sacrifice of Christ for acceptance with God? Are these your professions? Live suitably to the character which you assume. Prove the sincerity of professions, by the holiness of your conduct. The spectacle exhibited on the cross imperiously enforces the apostle's exhortation, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity."* Did the Son of God make his soul an offering for sin, that you might indulge in sin? Did he die for the ungodly, that you might continue ungodly? Did he glorify the divine perfections by his sufferings, that you might dishonour them in your lives? You cannot for a moment entertain such presumptuous notions. Why are you depending for salvation on a crucified Saviour? Because God is an Holy God. If he were not an Holy God, who will not behold iniquity, you would stand in need of no atonement. Will he then countenance, will he tolerate wilful unholiness in you? On sinners penitent and humbled, he will multiply pardons; but against sinners obstinately impenitent his wrath will burn like fire for ever. Be not deceived. If unmortified lusts, if unsanctified tempers reign in you, you are not a true believer in Christ. You have no wellgrounded hope of eternal life. For " every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as Christ is pure."+-Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump." As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy."

12

SERMON II.

SCRIPTURAL STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF
JUSTIFICATION.

:

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 there is no difference 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 de.. clare 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 the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.-Romans iii. 21—26.

OF all the objects which can engage our attention, salvation is confessedly the most important. Nay, it is our only concern of real importance; for a failure here will be attended with consequences so dreadful, that it would have been far better for us never to have been born. With what earnestness should this reflection animate us in seeking the way of salvation; with what joyfulness in finding it; with what diligence in following it! Blessed indeed be God! the scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation. They mark the way so plainly, that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Whence comes it then, that so many perish with the word of God in their hands? Because it is not mixed with faith in them that hear it. Because men,

professing to believe the scriptures, too often refuse to be instructed by them, and are wise above what is written. May the good Spirit of our God direct and humble our hearts, while we proceed to the consideration of that highly-momentous passage, which I have chosen for the

text!

The leading design of St. Paul in this part of his epistle is to explain and illustrate the great doctrine of Justification. In the first chapter he had declared that the manifestation of this important doctrine was both the object and the glory of that gospel, which he preached:

"for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith" therein is fully disclosed that method which infinite wisdom has devised for accounting sinners righteous; that method, by which God, in the very act of justifying the ungodly, proclaims his own essential righteousness. Accordingly, the apostle, having proved the universal guilt both of Jews and Gentiles, and consequently the impossibility of their justifying themselves before God, introduces that comprehensive description of the method revealed in the gospel, to which I purpose on the present occasion to lead your attention.

With a view of prosecuting this design,

I. I shall briefly explain the nature and importance of Justification.

II. I shall shew the method of Justification revealed in the gospel, as it may be collected from the several leading particulars stated in the text.

I. The grand and sole object of the gospel, considered with respect to mankind, is to provide suitable means of deliverance, out of that state into which sin has plunged the human race. To understand then, and to appreciate the nature and the importance of the means provided, regard must be paid to the particulars of that state, from which deliverance is proposed to be effected. This state may be contemplated as twofold; as a state of guilt, and as a state of corruption. A state of guilt, which exposes the sinner to the penal consequences of sin: a state of corruption, which incapacitates him for the enjoyment of heavenly glory. This is a distinction which, for the sake of precision, in discussing doctrinal subjects, cannot be too frequently pointed out, and too constantly kept in view: a distinction, from want of proper attention to which, much ambiguity and misunderstanding in discussions of this nature continually originate. This has especially been the case with respect to the doctrine before us. Not adverting with sufficient clearness to this twofold state of the sinner, persons have confounded the means provided for delivering him from the punishment of sin with those devised for delivering him from the power of it. They have not preserved that due discrimination, which, in order to a clear comprehension of the subject, must ever be preserved between a title to heaven and a

C

fitness for enjoying it; between the sinner's justification and his sanctification. Let it then be plainly premised in the commencement of the present discussion, that justification has respect to the state of the sinner solely as he is guilty. Sin is the transgression of the divine law, which, like every other law, denounces vengeance on those who violate it. The sinner no sooner transgresses the commandment than he becomes subject to all the penal consequences of transgression. Execution may for a season be deferred: but sentence is gone forth; and merited punishment finally awaits him. What that punishment, what that sentence is, the scriptures fully state. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. -The wages of sin is death:" an eternal separation from the presence of Him, in whose favour is life: the everlasting destruction of body and soul in hell," which is the second death."*

Here then the nature and the importance of the doctrine under consideration are easily discerned. Justification includes a complete absolution from all these penal consequences of sin. It implies a transition from this state of guilt and wrath to a state of grace and pardon; nay, not to a state of grace and pardon only, but to a state of perfect reconciliation and acceptance. The sinner being justified has peace with God. Not only are his sins, that are past, so entirely remitted, that in the expressive language of scripture, they "shall be remembered no more;" "they are all cast into the depths of the sea; they shall be sought for, and there shall be none; they shall not be found;"+ but, though unrighteous in himself, he is treated as if he were righteous. He is invested with all the privileges, to which a righteous person would be entitled. No longer accounted a transgressor of the divine law, he is adopted into the family of God. He is "a dear son, a pleasant child:" and "if a child, then an heir, an heir of God," and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Such is the glorious change which justification effects in the state of a sinner. His guilt is removed. His person is accepted. His reconciliation with his offended God is accomplished. Can any doubt exist of the importance of this doctrine? Can any more

* Ezek. xviii. 4. Rom. vi. 23.
+ Jer. xxxi. 34.

Micah vii. 19.

Rev. xxi. 8.

Jer. 1. 20.

interesting subject be submitted to our consideration, than a discussion of the means, by which this glorious change is produced? To this discussion let our thoughts be now directed.

II. "The righteousness of God," or that method which the gospel reveals for the justification of the sinner, may be collected from the several leading particulars stated in the text.

I. The righteousness of God is "without the law." Taken in conjunction with the preceding verse and with the whole of the apostle's argument throughout the former part of this epistle, the law must here be understood primarily to imply the moral law, by which "is the knowledge of sin:" though so far as the Jewish people were concerned, the ceremonial law, which was to them a revelation of the divine will, may be also included. But the righteousness of God is without the law." The justification of a sinner has no connection with his own personal obedience either to the moral or the ceremonial law. In the act of his justification his own performances are not taken into the account. The very idea of a transgressor of the law being justified by his past obedience to the law is a palpable absurdity, and a contradiction in terms. While his future obedience not only is the effect, and therefore cannot be the cause, of his justification; but being at the best imperfect, itself stands in need of forgiveness, and consequently must for ever be excluded from the office of justifying. Hence it is so frequently asserted in the writings of the apostle, when speaking on this point, that a man is not justified “by works; by the deeds of the law; by the works of the law."* This truth will more fully appear from another particular stated in the text.

2. The righteousness of God is freely by his grace. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace." Now, as the apostle argues in another place, "to him that worketh is the reward, not of grace, but of debt;" and again, "if it be by grace it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace."+ The very notion of grace neces*Rom. iii. 20. 28. Gal. ii. 16. + Rom. iv. 4, xi. 6.