the freeness of the gospel salvation-while the view that we contend for is the only one which does full honour to the grace of God as all in all, and is at the same time eminently subservient to the practical righteousness as well as comfort of the believer. Though faith should be regarded as belief and nothing else, this is not to hinder but that it may have originated in a virtuous or good affection, or that the affections and deeds of virtue might follow abundantly in its train.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Yet neither is it the personal but the Judicial righteousness that is here spoken of-the righteousness of faith-that righteousness which is unto all and upon all who believe-not the righteousness here which is wrought in us by the Spirit; but that righteousness of Christ which is reckoned to us, and in virtue of which we are invested withi that right to heaven which He by His obedience hath won for us, or are presented with a part and a lot in that inheritance which He purchased in behalf of a guilty world. It becomes ours on believing. We believe unto righteousness—this righteousness being the object in which our faith terminates, the landing-place to which it carries us.

And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.' The apostle proceeds from an inward sentiment to the expression or manifestation thereof in an outward act; and such an act, as, in these days, was very generally speaking, the sufficient token or pledge of a universal obedience. For then

it held pre-eminently true, that he who confessed Christ forsook all, gave up all, made surrender or (which, as a manifestation of principle, was equivalent thereto) exposed themselves to the surrender and loss of all, by following after Christ. We read,1 "that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue;" and this was but a specimen or sample of that larger excommunication which every man underwent, or at least hazarded, in the act of becoming an ostensible and declared Christian-an excommunication from all that was dear to nature-becoming liable thereby not merely to be put out of the synagogue, but to be put out of society; to incur the loss of all which they had; to renounce or be renounced, to forsake or be forsaken of, house and brethern and sisters and father and mother and wife and children and lands, yea of their own lives also, for the sake of Christ and of His gospel. No wonder then that confession was so honoured in these days, it being the exponent in fact and symbol of a universal discipleship. It gave evidence, that even as Christ suffered in the flesh, so these ready and resolved followers of His had armed themselves likewise with the same mind--and prepared not only to suffer in the flesh but to cease from sin,2 that they should no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God. Well may it be said of every spirit who thus confesses Jesus Christ, that he is of God; and we may now John, ix, 22. 2 1 Peter, iv, 1, 2.

understand, whenever such a confession is meant, how no man could say that Jesus was the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. All who were so actuated were in full readiness to drink of the cup which Christ drank of, and to be baptized with the baptism, that baptism of deep affliction which He was baptized with; and we may well conceive of this fixity of principle and purpose, that, impossible to mere natnre, it could not be attained unto but through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The confession of these days in fact, as being the best evidence and pledge of a man's sincerity, was an effectual guarantee for his good works as well as his good words; and was therefore held in as great honour and demand, as obedience itself was. And as we read of those unworthy disciples who in works denied God-so may we learn from this expression that by works too we may confess Him; and though it be only the confession of the mouth that is spoken of in our text; yet when we consider the actuating spirit in which it originates, we are not to wonder though the same high ascriptions should be given to it, as we find given to the conformity of the whole man with the will of God and the prescriptions of the gospel. "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven.” It was because of their confessing Christ, that they had to endure a great fight of afflictions; but he that maintained his stedfastness notwithstanding, had the truth of our text literally fulfilled upon

him. The confession he made was unto salvationfor "he that endureth to the end shall be saved." 1

Understanding then, that, for reasons now given, confession was placed in the same rank, and had th same powers and consequences ascribed to it, with general obedience-it follows, that the apostle who tells us so often throughont his writings that we are saved by faith, in effect tells us at this place that we are saved by works. You must all have heard of the alleged contrariety between Paul and James upon this subject: but here there' appears to be almost as strange a seeming contrariety between Paul and himself-not a real opposition of course in either instance, but the mere semblance of one. and which has been so often and so successfully disposed of by the explanation of those who undertake to effect a reconciliation, as they term it, between the two apostles, that we shall not at present repeat any of them. We shall only call attention to a distinction in the language of the apostle, when he expresses the several effects of faith upon the one hand, and of confession upon the other. When man believeth it is unto righteousness-whereas when he confesseth, or confession is made by him, it is unto salvation; and understanding righteousness, as it unquestionably ought to be in this place, in its forensic or legal meaning, we learn from the first clause of the verse before us, that by faith we are justified-while understanding confessions as the equivalent of a universal obedience, we are told in Matt., x, 22.

the second clause that by works we are saved. The truth is, that justification and salvation are not perfectly synonymous. The former is part

of the latter, but not the whole of it. To complete one's salvation, there must be deliverance from the power of sin as well as from its punishment; and accordingly, while reconciled by the death of Christ, we are saved by his life—that is, because He lives, we shall live also; or because He hath overcome, we shall overcome also; or because of the grace dispensed upon us from the hands of a risen Saviour, He, through the work of His Spirit in us effectuates our sanctification-even as by His work in the flesh for us, He hath effectuated our acceptance with God. In like manner, if no man in these days could say that Jesus is the Lord but by the power of the Holy Ghost, then to be saved by the confession of the text, which is really tantamount to our thus saying, is to be saved by the operation of this heavenly agent-in perfect keeping with another declaration of the apostle, when he tells us that we are saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

Ver. 11. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.' That is either-First, Shall not be ashamed by the nonfulfilment of that which is the object of their confident expectation. It is a confidence which they might well cherish and avow-secure as they are from the mockery of any failure or disappointment Romans, v, 10.

VOL. IV.

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