over a world that is going to expire-oh And, to complete the freeness of the it is sad to think that pulpits should have gospel. There are many who keep at a no power of disturbance, and the voice distance from its overtures of mercy, till of those who fill them should die so impo- they think they have felt enough and tently away from the ears of men who in mourned enough over their need of them. a few little years will be sealed to this Now we have no such command over our great catastrophe of our species-when sensibilities; and the most grievous part tokens so portentous and preparations so of our disease is, that we are not suffici so solemn as these will mark that day of ently touched with the impression of its decision, which closes the epoch of time, soreness; and we ought not thus to wait and ushers in an irrevocable eternity! the progress of our emotions, while God The second lesson which we should is standing before us with a deed of justilike to urge upon you is, that the disease fication, held out to the ungodliest of us of nature, deadly and virulent as it is, and all. To give us an interest in the saying, that beyond the suspicion of those who that God justifieth the ungodly, it is enough are touched by it, is not beyond the that we count it a faithful saying, and that remedy provided in the gospel. Ungodli- we count it worthy of all acceptation. It ness is the radical and pervading ingre- is very true, that we will not count it a dient of this disease; and it is here said faithful saying, unless, from some cause of God that he justifies the ungodly. The or other, (and no cause more likely than discharge is as ample as the debt; and a desire to escape from the consequences the grant of pardon in every way as of sin) we have been induced to attend to broad and as long, as is the guilt which it. And neither will we count it worthy requires it. The deed of amnesty is equiv- of all acceptation, unless our convictions alent to the offence; and, foul in native have led us to feel the need of a rightand spiritual character as the transgres-eousness, and the value of an interest sion is, there is a commensurate righteousness which covers the whole deformity, and translates him whom it had made utterly loathsome in the sight of God, into a condition of full favour and acceptance before Him. Had justification been merely brought into contact with some social iniquity, this were not enough to relieve the conscience of him, who feels in himself the workings of a direct and spiritual iniquity against God-who is burdened with a sense of his manifold idolatries against the love of Him, who requires the heart as a willing and universal offering-and perceives of himself that the creature is all his sufficiency; and that, grant him peace and health and abundance in this world, he would be satisfied to quit with God for ever, and to live in some secure and smiling region of atheism. This is the crying sin with every enlightened conscience. It is the iniquity of the heart that survives every outer reformation, and lurks in its profound recesses under the guise and semblane of many outward plausibilities-it is this, for which in the whole compass of nature, no healing water can be found, either to wash away its guilt, or to wash But thirdly, while the office of a righteaway its pollution. It is a sense of this ousness before God is thus brought down, which festers in the stricken heart of a so to speak, to the depth of human wicksinner, and often keeps by him and ago-edness, and it is an offer by the acceptnizes him for many a day, like an arrow ance of which all the past is forgiven-it sticking fast. And it is not enough that is also an offer by the acceptance of which justification be brought into contact with the sin of all our social and all our relative violations. It must be made to reach the deadliest element in our controversy with God, and be brought into contact as it is in our text, with the sin of ungodliness.

therein. But if your concern about your soul has been such, that you have been led to listen and that for your own personal behoof, to the offer of the gospelthat is warrant enough for us to explain to you the terms of it, and to crave your acceptance of them. Whatever your present alienation, whatever the present hardness of your heart under the sense of it, whatever there be within you to make out the charge of ungodliness, and whatever to aggravate that charge in your wretched apathy amid so much guilt and so much danger-here is God with a deed of righteousness, by the possession of which you will be accepted as righteous before Him; and which to obtain the possession of, you are not to work for as a reward, but to accept by a simple act of dependence. It becomes yours by believing; and while it is our office to deal out the doctrine of of the gospel, we do it with the assurance, that, wherever the belief of its truth may light, it will not light wrong; but that, if the faith of this gospel be formed in the bosom of any individual who now hears us, it will be followed up by a fulfilment upon him of all its promises.

all the future is reformed. When Christ confers sight upon a blind man, he ceases to be in darkness; and when a rich indi vidual confers wealth upon a poor, he ceases to be in poverty-and so, as surely when justification is conferred upon the

ungodly, his ungodliness is done away. | him a-working. So that while we hold it His godliness is not the ground upon a high privilege, that we can say to the which the gift is awarded, any more than ungodliest of you all, Here is the free and the sight of a blind man is the ground unconditional grant of a justification for upon which it is communicated to him, you, the validity of which you have simor than the wealth of a poor man is the ply to rely upon the privilege rises inground upon which wealth is bestowed. conceivably higher in our estimation, that But just as sight and riches come out of we can also say, how the unfailing fruit the latter gifts, so godliness comes out of of such a reliance will be a personal the gift of justification; and while works righteousness emerging out of the faith form in no way the consideration upon which worketh by love, and which transwhich the righteousness that availeth is forms into a new creature the man who conferred upon a sinner, yet no sooner is truly entertains it. this righteousness granted than it will set

LECTURE XIV.

ROMANS iv, 9-15.

Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: and the father of eircumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of cur father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heir, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression."

In the passage which stands immediate- | was not another deed of conveyance, but ly before Paul had asserted of Abraham, that it was his faith and not his obedience which was counted unto him for righteousness; and that it was through the former medium, and not through the latter that he attained the blessedness of those to whom God did not reckon the guilt of their offences. And from this particular instance, does he proceed, in the verse before us, to a more general conclusion upon the subject.

an infeftment upon the deed that had already been drawn out; and though circumcision should at any time be abolished, and some other form, as that of baptism, be substituted in its place, this no more affected the great principle upon which man acquires a right of property to a place in Heaven, than the great principles of justice upon which an earthly possession is transferred from one man to another, would be affected by a mere change in V. 9, 10. He resolves the question pro- the forms of an infeftment. The promise posed in the 9th verse by adducing the of God who cannot lie makes it sure; and case of Abraham. In what state was heyet a visible token may be of use in imwhen righteousness was imputed to him? The historical fact is, that he found acceptance with God, several years before the rite of circumcision was imposed upon him. The case of their own Abraham, was the case of one who was justified in uncircumcision. An agreement between him and God had previously been made. A covenant had previously been entered upon. There was a promise by God; and there was a faith by Abraham, which gave him a right to the fulfilment of itand all this antecedent to his being circumcised. And when it was laid upon him as a binding observation, it was as the token or the memorial of what had passed between them. It was not the making of a new bargain. It was the sealing or the ratifying of an old one. It

pressing its sureness, by serving the purpose of a more solemn declaration. It is just expressing the same thing symbolically, which had before been expressed by words. By refusing the second expression you draw back from the first; by joining the second expression you only repeat and ratify the first. Thus circumcision is a sign-not a covenant itself, but, in the language of Genesis, the token of a covenant. And thus also it is a seal, marking that more formal consent, (to a thing however that had been before agreed upon) which lays one or both of the parties under a more sure or at least, more solemn obligation.

V. 11. The term sign may be generally defined a mark of indication-as when we speak of the signs of the times, or of the

V. 13. Not heir of the present evil world, but of a better country than this, that is an heavenly-a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is Goda new earth, as well as new heavens, wherein dwelleth righteousness-Not to inherit this world, but to be counted worthy of obtaining that world upon which the righteous are made to enter after their resurrection from the dead. The promise of all this was not to those who obey, but to those who believe-not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

signs of the weather. A sign becomes a | which actuated the doings and the history seal, when it is the mark of any deed or any of Abraham; and in virtue of which he declaration, having actually come forth obtained a meritorious acceptance with from him who professes to be the author God-even prior to the rite of circumciof it. It authenticates it to be his-so that sion being laid upon him. should it be a promise, it binds him to performance; or should it be an order, it carries along with it all the force of his authority; or should it be an engagement of any sort, it fastens upon him the obligation of discharging it. It may sometimes happen that a seal marks the concurrence of two parties in the matter to which it is affixed-and the sign of circumcision was just such a seal. It was enjoined by God. It was consented to by Abraham. God sealed by it the promise which He had formerly made of a righteousness to Abraham who believed; and Abraham expressed by it that he was a believer. It did not change the footing upon which Abraham obtained the favour that was due to righteousness. It only gave the form and the solemnity of a symbolical expression to that, which was already in full reality and effect, though it had only yet been the subject of a verbal expression. The symbolical expression may afterwards be changed, or it may be dispensed with altogether; and yet the original connection between faith and the imputation of righteousness, subsist as it was at the beginning. Abraham is the primary model of this connection, V. 15. To escape from this, there must and remains so after the abolition of that be some other method of making out temporary rite which marked the Jewish a righteousness unto eternal life than economy. And now that that economy is through the law; for, admit the arbitradissolved, he is still the father of all them tions of the law, and wrath will be wrought who believe though they be not circum- out of them. Condemnation will be the cised that like as righteousness was im-sure result of this process. It must and puted to him when uncircumcised, so may it be imputed unto them also.

V. 12. It is not enough that they be of the circumcision, that they may be the children of Abraham, in the sense under which the apostle contemplates this relationship in the passage before us. It is faith which essentially constitutes this relationship. They who have the faith are his children, though they have not the circumcision. They who have the circumcision are not his children, if they have not the faith. The sign without the thing signified will avail them nothing. It is true that circumcision is a seal set to it by the will and authority of God, and guarantees a promise of righteousness on His part. But it is of righteousness unto faith; and when there is no faith, there is no failure of any promise connected with this subject, though it should remain unfulfilled. The way to ascertain the reality of this faith, is not by the simple act of a man submitting to have the seal of circumcision put upon him. It is by his walking in the steps of that faith

V. 14. If it be of the law, then it must be of perfect obedience to that law. It cannot be through the medium of a broken, but through the medium of an observed law; and not till its conditions are fulfilled, can faith have any warrant to lay hold of the promises. This is just as good as nullifying faith altogether; and just as good as rendering the promise quite ineffectual-because in fact there has been no perfect obedience. There have been infractions of the law by all, and all therefore are the children of wrath.

will pronounce the guilt of transgression upon all; and, to get quit of this, there must be some way or other of so disposing of the law, as that it shall not be brought to bear in judgment upon a sinner. It has been so disposed of. It has been magnified and made honourable in the person of our illustrious Redeemer; and so borne away from the persons of those who through faith in Him are made, by the constitution of the economy of the gospel, partakers of His righteousness. The judgment of the law has been shifted away from them; and, with this, the charge of transgression has been lifted away from them.

The following is the paraphrase.

'Doth the blessing of an imputed righteousness come then upon the circumcision only-or may it also come upon those who are uncircumcised? We have said that it came upon Abraham, and that it was faith which was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now in what circumstances was he at the time when it was 80 reckoned? Was he in circumcision, or

uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but | Abraham. He, the first Hebrew, believed in uncircumcision. And circumcision he and was circumcised; and it was laid received merely as a token or as a seal of the righteousness of that faith which he had when he was uncircumcised-that he might be the great exemplar of all those who after him should believe, though they were not circumcised-that to them also, even as unto him, there might be an imputation of righteousness-and that he might furthermore be the exemplar of those who were circumcised; and were at the same time, more than this, walking in the steps of that faith which their father Abraham had while uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should obtain the inheritance, was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they only are to inherit who fulfil the law, then faith is rendered powerless, and the promise can have no fulfilment. Because the law worketh wrath and not favour; and it is only when it is taken out of the way that transgression is removed and righteousness can be imputed.'

The first lesson we shall endeavour to draw from this passage is, that it seems to contain in it the main strength of the scriptural argument for Infant Baptism. It looks a rational system, to make sure of the thing signified ere you impress the sign-to make sure of the belief ere you administer the baptism-if this outward ordinance signify any thing at all, to make sure that what is so signified be a reality. And all this has been applied with great appearance of force and plausibility to this question; and the principle educed out of it, that, ere this great and initiatory rite of our faith be laid upon any individual, he should make a credible profession of that faith. In confirmation of this, we are often bidden to look to the order in which these two things succeeded one another in the first age of Christianity. We read of this one convert and that other having believed and been baptized; not of any having been baptized and then believing. And so this should be the order with every grown up person who is not yet baptised. Should there be any such person, who, from accidental circumstances, has not had this rite administered to him in his own country-demand the profession of his faith, and be satisfied that it is a credible profession, ere you baptise him.

Let missionaries, these modern apostles, do the same in the pagan countries where they now labour-just as the first apostles did before them-just as was done with Abraham of old, who, agreeably to Paul's argument, first believed and afterwards underwent the rite of circumcision. But mark how it fared with the posterity of

down for a statute in Israel, that all his children should be circumcised in infancy In like manner, the first Christians believed and were baptised; and, though there be no statute laid down upon the subject, yet is there no violation of any contrary statute, when all our children are baptised in infancy. At the origin of the two institutions the order of succession is the same with both. The thing signified took precedency of the sign. Along the stream of descent which issued from the first of them, this order was reversed, and by an express authority too, so as that the sign took precedency of the thing signified: And so has it been the very general practice, with the stream of descent that issued from the second of them; and if the want of express authority be pled against us, we reply that this is the very circumstance which inclines us to walk in the footsteps of the former dispensation. Express authority is needed to warrant a change; but it is not needed to warrant a continuation. It is this very want of express authority, we think, which stamps on the opposite system a character of presumptuous innovation. When once bidden to walk in a straight line, it does not require the successive impulse of new biddings to make us persevere in it. But it would require a new bidding to justify our going off from the line, into a track of deviation. The first Christians believed and were baptised. Abraham believed and was circumcised. He transmitted the practice of circumcision to infants. We transmit the practice of baptism to infants. There is no satisfactory historical evidence of our practice having ever crept in-the innovation of a later period in the history of the church. Had the mode of infant baptism sprung up as a new piece of sectarianism, it would not have escaped the notice of the authorship of the times. But there is no credible written memorial of its ever having entered amongst us as a novelty; and we have therefore the strongest reason for believing, that it has come down in one uncontrolled tide of example and observation from the days of the apostles. And if they have not in the shape of any decree or statuary enactment that can be found in the New Testament, given us any authority for it-they at least, had it been wrong, and when they saw that whole families of discipleship were getting into this style of observation, would have interposed and lifted up the voice of their authority against it. But we read of no such interdict in our Scriptures; and, in these circumstances, we hold the inspired teachers of our faith te have given their testimony in favour of

infant baptism, by giving us the testimony | faith over forms, by waiting for the rise of their silence. of this inward grace ere he will impose the outward ceremonial, he stamps a reflection on that very procedure that was instituted for him who is called the father of the faithful.

It is vain to allege that the Jewish was a grosser dispensation-not so impregnated with life and rationality and spiritual meaning as ours-with a ceremonial appended to it for the purpose mainly of But is it not wrong, when the sign and building up a great outward distinction, the thing signified do not go together? between the children of Israel and all the Yes, it is very wrong; and let us shortly other families that were on the face of the consider who they generally are that are earth; and that this was one great use of in the wrong, when such a disjunction at circumcision, which, whether affixed dur- any time occurs. In the case of an adult, ing the period of infancy or advanced the thing signified should precede the life, served equally to signalize the people, sign. When he offers himself for baptism, and so to strengthen that wall of separa- he asks to be invested with the sign that tion, which, in the wisdom of Providence, he is a disciple-and he makes a credible had been raised for the sake of keeping appearance and profession of his being the whole race apart from the general so. Were it not a credible profession, world, till the ushering in of a more com- then the administrator is in the fault, for prehensive and liberal dispensation. The having put the outward stamp of Chrisflesh profiteth nothing, says the Saviour, tianity on one whom he believed to be a "the words I speak unto you they are counterfeit. Were it a profession renderspirit and they are life." But it so hap-ed credible by the arts of hypocrisy, then pens that in the ordinance of circumci- the minister is free; and the whole guilt sion, there are the very spirit and the very life which lie in the ordinance of baptism. Viewed as a seal, it marks a promissory obligation on the part of God, of the same privileges in both cases; and that is the righteousness of faith. Viewed as a sign, it indicates the same graces. It indicates the existence of faith, and all its accompanying influences on the character of him who has been subjected to it. That is not circumcision which is outward in the flesh, says Paul; but circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter. That is not baptism, says Peter, which merely puts away the filth of the flesh; but baptism is the answer of a good conscience unto God. If the baptism of infants offer any violence to the vital and essential principles of that ordinance-the principles of the ordinance of circumcision are altogether the same. Circumcision is the sign of an inward grace; and upon Abraham, in the previous possession of this grace, the sign was impressed. And, in the face of what might have been alleged, that it was wrong when the sign and the thing signified did not go together -this sign of circumcision was nevertheless perpetuated in the family of Abraham, by being impressed on the infancy of all his descendants. In like manner, when an adult stands before us for baptism, should we be satisfied that he has had the washing of regeneration, then may we put the question-Can any man forbid water, that he should not be baptised who has received the Holy Ghost as well as we? But should any man go further, and forbid water to the infants of his present or his future family, he appears to do so on a principle which God himself did not recognise; and, while he seems to exalt

that arises from an unworthy subject, standing arrayed in the insignia of our faith, lies upon him who wears them. But in the case of an infant, the sign precedes the thing signified. The former has been imprest upon him by the will of his parent: and the latter remains to be wrought within him by the care of his parent. If he do not put forth this care, he is in the fault. Better that there had been no sign, if there was to be no substance; and he by whose application it was that the sign was imprinted, but by whose neglect it is that the substance is not infused he is the author of this mockery upon ordinances. He it is who hath made the symbolical language of Christianity the vehicle of a falsehood. He is like the steward who is entrusted by his superior with the subscription of his name to a space of blank paper, on the understanding that it was to be filled up in a particular way, agreeable to the will of his lord; and, instead of doing so, has filled it up with matter of a different import altogether. The infant, with its mind unfilled and unfurnished, has been put by the God of providence into his hands; and after the baptism which he himself hath craved, it has been again made over to him with the signature of Christian discipleship, and, by his own consent, impressed upon it; and he, by failing to grave the characters of discipleship upon it, hath unworthily betrayed the trust that was reposed in him; and, like the treacherous agent who hath prostituted his master's name to a purpose different from his master's will, he hath so perverted the sign of Heaven's appointment, as to frustrate the end of Heaven's ordination. The worthies of the Old Tes tament, who, in obedience to the God