and from the throne of his mental superiority, so thoroughly despises-shutting in fact every mouth, and making the righteousness of all before God, not a claim to be challenged, but a gift to be humbly and thankfully accepted of from His hands.

In

We are far from disputing the justness | greater tendency to boast of ceremonial of their preference for the former of these observations, then was the righteousness two men-but we would direct them to the of the ceremonial law most severely use that they should make of this prefer- struck at by the apostle, as having no ence, when turning to its rightful and con- | place in our justification. But if there be sistent application the statement of our now a greater tendency to boast of moral apostle, that from the affair of our justifi- observations, now is the righteousness of cation all boasting is excluded. We ask the moral law most pointedly the object them upon a reference to their own prin- of his attack, as out of propriety and of ciples and feelings, whether this assertion place in the matter of our justification. of the inspired teacher points more to the În a word, this verse has the same power exclusion of the moral or of the ceremo- and force of conclusion still, that it had nial law? Is it not the fair and direct an- then. It then reduced the boastful Jew to swer that it points the more, to that of which the same ground of nothingness before men are inclined to boast the more? To God, with the Gentile whom he despised. set aside the law of works in the matter And it now reduces the eloquent exof our justification is not to exclude boast-pounder of human virtue to the same ing at all-if it be only those works that ground, with that drivelling slave of rites are excluded, which beget no reverence and punctualities whom he so tastefully, when done by others, and no complacency when done by themselves. The exclusion of boasting might appear to the mind of an old Pharisee, as that which went to sweep away the whole ceremonial in which he gloried. But for the very same reason should it appear to the mind of him who is a tasteful admirer of virtue, This is far from the only passuge, howto sweep away the moral accomplish- ever, which excludes the moral as well ments in which he glories. To him, in as the ceremonial law from any standing fact, the ceremonial law, in which he has in the province of our justification. no disposition to boast whatever, is not many places it is said, that our justificaso touched by the affirmation of the apos- tion is not of works in the general, and tle, as the moral law on which alone he without any addition of the term law at would ground a boastful superiority of all, to raise the question whether it be the himself over others. The thing which is moral or ceremonial law that is intended. shut out here from the office of justifica- And in the preceeding part of the epistle, tion, is that thing which excites boasting they are moral violations which are chiefly in man. Carry this verse to the Jew who instanced, for the purpose of making it vaunted himself that he gave tithes and out, that by the deeds of the law no flesh fasted twice in the week; and these are shall be justified. In the theft and adulthe observances, which, as to any power of tury and sacrilege of the second chapter, justifying, are here done away. Carry and in the impiety and deceit and slander this verse to the man who stands exalted and cruelty of the third, we see that it over his fellows, either by the integrities was the moral law, and the offence of a which direct or by the kind humanities guilty world against it, which the apostle which adorn him; and these are the vir- chiefly had in his eye; and when, as the tues, which, as to their power of justify-end of all this demonstration, he comes ing, are just as conclusively done away. to the conclusion of the world's guiltWhatever you are most disposed to boast why should we restrict the apostle, as if of, it is that upon which the sentence of he only meant to exclude the ceremonial expulsion most pointedly and most deci- from the office of justifying? When he sively falls; and the ground of a Phari- says that by the law is the knowledge of see's dependence on his conformities to sin, is it the ceremonial law only that is the ceremonial law, is not more expressly intended-when in fact they were moral cast away by this passage-than is the sins that he had all along been specifying? ground of his dependence, who, in our Or is it the sole purpose of the apostle, to own more refined and cultivated age, humble those who made their boast of the would place his dependence before God ceremonial law-when he instances how on those moralities, which to him are the the law administered to himself the conobjects of a far more enlightened admira-viction of his sinfulness, by fastening tion, and of a far juster and truer complacency.

It is thus, that the towering pretensions, even of the most moral and enlightened of our sages in modern days, may be utterly overthrown. If there was then a

upon the tenth commandment, and telling us that he had not been criminal, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet! What do you make of the passage where it is said, that we are saved-not by works of righteousness, which we have done?

Does not this include all doings, be they | that sun which stands visibly before you of a moral or be they of a ceremonial-whatever glory may accrue to Him, character? And in the verses which im- who arrayed this luminary in his brightmediately precede this quotation from Titus, whether think you was the moral or the ceremonial law most in the apostle's head-when, in alleging the worthlessness of all the previous doings of his own converts, he charged them with serving divers lusts and pleasures, and with living in malice and envy-hateful and hating one another? This distinction between the moral and ceremonial, is, in fact, a mere device, for warding off a doctrine, by which alienated nature feels herself to be pained and humbled and revolted, in all ages of the world. It is an opiate, by which she would fain regale the lingering sense that she so fondly retains of her own sufficiency. It is laying hold of a twig, by which she may bear herself up, in her own favourite attitude of independence upon God; and gladly would she secure the reservation of some merit to herself, and of some contributions out of her own treasury, to the achievement of her own justification. But this is a propensity, to which the apostle grants no quarter, and no indulgence whatever. Wherever it appears, he is sure to appear in unsparing hostility against it; and never will your mind and the mind of the inspired teacher be at one, till, reduced to a sense of your own nothingness, and leaning your whole weight on the sufficiency of another-you receive justification as wholly of grace, and feel on this ground that every plea of boasting is overthrown.

We may here notice another shift, by which nature tries to ease herself of a conclusion so mortifying. She will at times allow justification to be of faith wholly; but then she will make a virtue of her faith. All the glorying that she would have associated with her obedience to the law, she would now transfer to her acquiescence in the gospel. The docility, and the attention, and the love of truth, and the preference of light to that darkness which they only choose whose deeds are evil-these confer, in her fond estimation, a merit upon believing; and here therefore would she make a last and a desperate stand, for the credit of a share in her own salvation.

If the verse under consideration be true, there must be an error in this imagination also. It leaves the sinner nothing to boast of at all; and should he continue | to associate any glorying with his faith, then is he turning this faith to a purpose directly the reverse of that which the apostle intends by it.

There is no glory, you will allow, to yourself, in seeing with your eyes open

ness, and endowed you with that won. drous mechanism, which conveys the perception of it. There is no part of the glory of a gift, ascribed to the mendicant, who simply looks to it-whatever praise of generosity may be rendered to Him who is the giver; or still more to Him who hath conferred upon the hand its moving power, and upon the eye its seeing faculty. And even though the beggar should be told to wait another day, and then to walk to some place of assignation, and there to obtain the princely donation that was at length to elevate his family to a state of independence-in awarding the renown that was due upon such a transaction, would it not be the munificence of the dispenser that was held, to be all in all ; and who would ever think of lavishing one fraction of acknowledgment, either upon the patience, or upon the exertion, or upon the faith of him who was the subject of all this liberality? And be assured that in every way, there is just as little to boast of on the part of him, who sees the truth of the gospel, or who labours to come within sight of it, or who relies on its promises after he perceives them to be true. His faith, which has been aptly termed the hand of the mind, may apprehend the offered gift and may appropriate it; but there is just as little of moral praise to be rendered on that account, as to the beggar for laying hold of the offered alms. It is with the man whom the gospel has relieved of his debt, as it is with the man whom the gold of a generous benefactor has relieved of his. There is nothing in the shape of glory that is due at all to the receiver; and nothing could ever have conjured up such an imagination, but the delusive feeling that cleaves to nature of her own sufficiency. There is not one particle of honour due to the sinner in this affair; and all the blessing and honour and glory of it must be rendered Him, who, in the face of His manifold provocations, and when He might have illustrated both the power of His anger and the triumphs of His justice, gave way to the movements of a compassion that is infinite; and had with wisdom unsearchable, to find out a channel of conveyance-by which, in consistency with the glory of such attributes and with the principle of such a government as are unchangeable, He might call His strayed children back again to the arms of an offered reconciliation, and lavish on all who cone the gifts of a free pardon in time and a full perfection of happiness through eternity.

And to cut away all pretensions to glo rying on the score of faith-the faith it

self is a gift. The gospel is like an offer | but he must also awaken his eye to the made to one who has a withered hand; perception of it. And let him who wants and power must go forth with the offer ere the faith cavil as he may, in the vain imthe hand can be extended to take hold of agination of a sufficiency that he would it. The capacity of simply laying hold still reserve for man in the matter of his of the covenant of peace, is as much a redemption-certain it is, that he who has grant, as is the covenant itself. The help- the faith, sees the hand of God both in less and the weary sinner, who has looked conferring it at the first, and in keeping so fruitlessly after the faith which is unto it up afterwards. And, thankful both for salvation, knows that the faculty of see- the splendour of his hopes, and for the ing with his mind, is just as necessary to faculty of seeing it, his is an unmixed senhim, as is the truth itself which is address-timent of humility and gratitude to the ed to it. He knows that it is not enough being, who has called him out of darkness for God to present him with an object; into the marvellous light of the gospel.

LECTURE XIII.

ROMANS iv, 1-8.

"What shall we then say that Abraham, our father as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

their acceptance with God. Paul pro. fesses of himself, that he gloried not in the flesh; and, in enumerating the reasons which might have led him so to glory, he refers, not merely to his descent, but to his circumcision, and to his pharisaical zeal, and to his blamelessness in regard to the righteousness of the law. Abraham had rites and performances laid on him, and he was punctual in their observation; and the question is, What did Abraham procure by these services?

PAUL never forgets, in the course of this | observances, was necessary to perfect argument, that he is addressing himself to Jews; and, bred as he was in all their prejudices, he evinces a strong and a ready sense of the antipathies, that he would ever and anon be stirring up in their minds, by the doctrine on which he expatiated. He knew how much they all gloried in Abraham and how natural it was for them therefore to feel that Abraham had something to glory of in himself; and, as he urged that faith which excludes boasting, the case of the patriarch occurred to him; nor could he have selected a better than that of one so eminently the favourite of God as he was, for illustrating the principle upon which God holds out friendship and acceptance to mankind.

Ver. 2. If by these services he was justified, he has whereof to glory, whereof to boast himself. But no! his boasting too must be excluded. He has nothing whereof to glory of before God.

Ver. 3. Genesis, XV., 6. This is said Ver. 1. The term flesh does not stand of Abraham, previous, by several years, related to the circumstance of Abraham to the institution of the great Jewish rite being our father. It does not mean what of circumcision. He was in favour with is it that Abraham, our father by earthly God, before this deed of obedience. He descent, hath found-but what is it that was dealt with by od as a righteous perAbraham our father hath found by his son, before this work of righteousness was natural or external performances. What-done by him. God had declared Himself ever can be done by the powers of nature, to be his reward; and by his trust in this can be done by the flesh. The outward declaration, did he become entitled to the observances of Judaism can be so done; reward. This conferred on it the characand thus the Mosaic law is termed by Paul ter of a gift. Otherwise it would have the law of a carnal commandment. In been the payment of a debt, as of wages the question he puts to the Galatians-rendered for services performed.

Having begun in the Spirit are ye now Ver. 4. It would not have been regardmade perfect by the flesh ?" he is expos- ed as a gratuitous thing, but as a thing tulating with those who thought that the due.

rite of circumcision, one of the Jewish

Ver. 5. Observe a few things here.

The man who has obtained justification | count of works done, either before or after may be looked upon as in possession of a the deed of conveyance has passed into title-deed, which secures to him a right to his hands. But no sooner does he lay God's favour. The question is, How comes hold of the deed, than he begins, and that he into possession of this title-deed? Did most strenuously, to qualify himself for he work for it, and thus receive it as a re- the possession-to translate himself into turn for his work? No, he did not work the kindred character of heaven-to wean for it; and thus it is that justification is to himself away from the sin and the sordidhim who worketh not-that is, he did ness of a world, which he no longer renothing antecedent to his justification to gards as his dwelling-place-and, with a bring this privilege down upon him; and foot which touches lightly that earth from it is a contradiction to allow that it is by which he is to ascend so soon into the doing anything subsequent to justification fields of eternal glory that are above him, that he secures this privilege, for it is se- to aspire after the virtues that are current cured already. He is now in possession there; and, by an active cultivation of his of it. He has not to work for the purpose heart, labour to prepare himself for a staof obtaining what he already has. And tion of happiness and honour among the neither did he work for it at the time that companies of the celestial. he had it not. He came to it not by doing We would further have you to remark, but by believing. His is like the case of that you must beware of having any such a man getting in a present the title to an view of faith, as will lead you to annex to estate. He did not work for it before it it the kind of merit or of claim or of glowas presented, and so get it as a reward. rying under the gospel, which are annexIt was a gift. He does not work for it af- ed to works under the law. This in fact ter it is presented, for it is his already. were just animating with a legal spirit, But you must remark here-though it is the whole phraseology and doctrine of the not in consideration of works done either gospel. It is God who justifies. He drew before or after the grant that the privilege up the title-deed, and he bestowed the was bestowed-yet that is not to say, but title-deed. It is ours, simply by laying that the person so privileged becomes a hold of it. The donor who grants a busy, diligent, ever-doing, and constantly- worldly estate to his friend, counts his working-man. When When it is said that the friend to have right enough to the property faith of him who worketh not is counted by having received it. God who offers us for righteousness-it is meant, that he an inheritance of glory, counts us to have does not work for the purpose of obtain- right enough to the possession of it by our ing a right of acceptance, and that it is relying on the truth and the honesty of not upon the consideration of his works the offer. Under the law, obedience would that this rite has been conferred upon have been that personal thing in us which him. But it is not meant that such a per- stood connected with our right to eternal son works not for any purpose at all. life. Under the gospel, faith is that perTo recur to the case of him who has a sonal thing in us which stands connected gratuitous estate conferred upon him, he with this right; but just as the act of neither worked for the estate before he stretching forth his hand to the offered obtained it, nor for it after he has obtain-alms, is that personal doing of the mendied it. But from the very moment of his assured prospect of coming into the possession of it, may he have become most zealously diligent in the business of preparing himself for the enjoyment of all the advantages, and the discharge of all the obligations connected with this property. He may have put himself under the tuition of him who perhaps at one time possessed it, and do it thoroughly, and could instruct him how to make the most of it. He did not work for it; but now that he has got it he has been set most busily a-working, though not for a right to the property, yet all for matters connected with the property. He may forthwith enter on a very busy process of education, to render him meet for the society of those with whom he is now in kindred circumstances. And thus with the Christian, who by faith receives the gift of eternal life. It cannot be put down to the ac

cant that stands connected with his possession of the money received by him. Any other view of faith than that which excludes boasting, must be altogether unscriptural; and will mislead the enquirer; and may involve his mind in much darkness, and in very serious difficulties. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of faith. It is of faith that it might be by grace-not that it might be a thing of merit, but a thing of freeness-a present. Ye are saved by grace through faith. Conceive it a question, whether a dwelling-house is enlightened by a candle from within, or by an open window. The answer may justly enough be that it is by the window-and yet the window does not enlighten the house. It is the sun which enlightens it. The window is a mere opening for the transmission of that which is from without. Christ hath wrought out a righteous

ness for us that is freely offered to us of | he hath nothing to glory of before God. God. By faith we discern the reality of And what saith the Scripture about this? this offer; and all that it does is to strike Not that Abraham obeyed, and his obediout, as it were, an avenue of conveyance, ence was counted; but Abraham believed by which the righteousness of another God, and his belief was counted unto him passes to us; and through faith are we for righteousness. Now to him that worksaved by this righteousness. eth and getteth reward for it, reward is not a favour; but the payment of what is due. But it is to him who worketh not for a right to acceptance, but believeth on Him who offereth this acceptance and justifieth the ungodly, that his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of him to whom God reckoneth a righteousness without works-saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are so hidden from remembrance, that they are no longer mentioned. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon the

Ver. 6-8. They are Jewish authorities which Paul makes use of, when he wants .o school down Jewish antipathies-thus meeting his countrymen on their own ground; and never better pleased than when, on the maxim of all things to all men, he can reconcile them to a doctrine which they hate, by quoting in favour of it a testimony which they revere. Take sin in its most comprehensive sense, as including in it both the sin of omission and the sin of performance; and then the opposite to this, or sinlessness, will imply, not only that there has been no perform-guilt of his sin.' ance of what is wrong, but no omission of what is right. In this sense sinlessness is not a mere negation, but is fully equivalent to righteousness; and not to impute sin, is tantamount to the imputation of rightcousness. It is clear that the righteousness thus imputed, which the Psalmisting a principle for the purpose of informrefers to, was a righteousness without works-that is, without such works as could at all pretend to the character, or to any of the claims of righteousness. For what were the works of those who had this righteousness imputed to them? They were iniquities which had been forgiven, and sins which had been covered.

The first lesson we draw from this passage is one which we have often urged in your hearing; but aware of the difference that there is between the work of urging a principle for the moral purpose of influencing the heart, and the work of urg

ing and rectifying the judgment—we do not feel it so much a vain repetition to come over and over the same thing, for the one of these purposes, as for the other of them. To say what is thoroughly apprehended already, and that for the purpose of informing the mind, were tiresome and inapplicable; but to say what, when present to the view of the understanding, is fitted to work a spiritual impression, is said for the purpose of stirring up the mind. And this may be done, not in the way of presenting it with novelties; but the mind may be so stirred up in the way of remembrance. And this, by the way, suggests to us a very useful test of distinction, between one set of hearers and another, which may be turned by you all into a matter of self-application. The hearer, whose main relish it is to regale his intellect, will, in his appetite for what is original and argumentative and variegated, nause

There are certain technical terms in theology which are used so currently, that they fail to impress their own meaning on the thinking principle. The term impute' is one of them. It may hold forth a revelation of its plain sense to youwhen it is barely mentioned that the term impute in the 6th verse, is the same in the original with what is employed in that verse of Philemon where Paul says, "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account? To mpute righteousness to a man without works, is simply to put righteousness down to his account-though he has not per-ate, as tasteless and fatiguing, the constant formed the works of righteousness. The following is the paraphrase of the passage:

What shall we make then of our father Abraham; and how shall we estimate the amount of what he procured by those works of obedience which he rendered, and are still required of us by a law that lays such things upon us as we are naturally able to perform? For if Abraham did procure justification to himself by these works, he hath something to glory of though we have just now affirmed that all glorying is excluded. Our affirmation nevertheless stands good, for

recurrence of the few but all-impressive simplicities of the gospel. The hearer, whose ruling desire it is to refresh and to edify the spiritual life, will no more fèel distaste to the nourishment that he has already taken in for the good of the soul, than to the nourishment that he has already and often taken in for the food of the body. The desire for the sincere milk of the word, is not desire for amusement that he may gratify a thirst for speculation-but a desire for aliment, that he may grow thereby. And thus it is, that what may be felt as unsufferable sameness by him who roams with delight from one