from the necessity of obedience. Our Lord did not set his disciples free from the obligations of duty, when he showed that they could claim nothing for the discharge of duty, and said, "Ye, when ye have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do." Neither does St, Paul exempt the Roman Christians from the obligation to holiness, when he affirms that "as by the offence of one judgment came upon all unto condemnation; so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”3 "To them that are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation," because "the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all;" but they that are in Christ Jesus, "walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit:" knowing, that "if we live after the flesh, we shall die; but if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live." "For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

It may seem a nice distinction, to allow that a man is not saved without good works, and yet to deny that his works contribute to his justification.

2 Luke xvii. 10.

3 Rom. v. 18.

See Rom. viii. 1—14.

But though a nice distinction, it is perfectly intelligible and reasonable. Above all, it is scriptural. It is that conclusion from the whole volume of antecedent revelation which St. Paul was empowered to indite for the instruction and guidance of that world, for which Christ died. Whereas to unite together two things so distinctly separated in the Christian scheme, as man's JUSTIFICATION and his SANCTIFICATION, is, in effect, to devise a scheme of salvation for ourselves. It confounds the new state in which we are placed, with the new nature which we are to receive. It removes the distinction between what is, and what is not, inherent in us: between what Christ has done, and what he enables us to do. Man's condition, without the satisfaction of Christ, may be illustrated by that of Peter, when, being cast into prison by Herod, he was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains:" and the keepers before the door kept the prison. An angel came, raised him up, released him from his fetters, opened the prison doors, and set him free. In all this Peter had no more part, than man has in his justification. It is "the Lord our righteousness," who delivers us from the wrath to come." But man

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being thus delivered, is "sealed with the Holy

Spirit of promise," and walks before God in righte

ousness and holiness; just as Peter gave proof of the liberty which he had attained by the angel's power, when in his own power he hastened to the house of Mary the mother of John, and joined the assembly of the disciples.

This may serve as an illustration of the manner in which the believer is first justified, and then sanctified. He begins by perceiving himself lost, and betaking himself to Christ for deliverance. He proceeds to live, as his deliverer instructs him to live, and enables him to live, and declares that he must live, if he is to receive the benefit he desires. But his instructor and strengthener, is still his deliverer; even if his works were perfect, he is still his deliverer, because without him he would have been lying in darkness: but his works are not perfect, and need his constant thankfulness that they are not his trust; that his ground of confidence is in Him who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification-though still he has no other evidence of a title to depend upon his Lord and Saviour, than the testimony of his conscience, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, he is living "righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world,” and striving to be perfect, even as his Father who is in heaven is perfect."

So that the doctrine on which St. Paul insists, is

this: that the good works which the Christian performs, whether before or after believing, are no meritorious cause of our salvation; have no share And St. in effecting our acceptance with God. James, when he affirms that "by works faith is made perfect," does not mean that those works procure our reconciliation with God, but prove it; and in declaring that "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only," he means that a man does not with his heart believe unto righteousness, who does not in his life make confession unto salvation." "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law are justified." No others have been justified before God. Known unto him are all things from the beginning. And none are ever received into his favour, whose "patient continuance in well doing" he has not foreseen.

There is, in truth, in the doctrine itself a provision against the licence which is sometimes alleged to spring from it. The more the atonement of Christ is dwelt upon, the greater will appear the heinousness of sin, requiring such an expiation. St. Paul lays great stress on this; and repudiates the idea, that those who have been "baptized into the death of Christ" for sin, "who believe in his death as a propitiation for sin," should yet admit it into their prac

6 James ii. 14—26.

7 Rom. x. 10.

8 Rom. ii. 13.

tice, instead of being deterred by the example which that affords.

And if anything can be relied on as the result of experience, this may be fearlessly maintained, and must be re-asserted whenever it is denied: viz. that they who have most intimately understood, in their own hearts, the doctrine of justification by faith, have been the most "careful to maintain good works :" and that they who have most clearly proclaimed that doctrine, in their public ministrations, have been the most successful in producing, through the power of the Holy Ghost, that "holiness" in others, "without which no man shall see the Lord."

Still, in defiance of such experience, the doctrine of justification by faith is exposed to perpetual cavil. In the many, there is a sort of conventional apprehension of it, as if it must necessarily be connected with licentiousness. And others, of larger information, are swayed, unconsciously to themselves, by the unwillingness of the heart to resign all pretensions of its own and are thus led to mix up and confound together the merits of Christ and the works of Christians, till there remains no sure ground to rest upon. They plead as their excuse, that morality and works of righteousness are in danger. The same accusation was made against the apostle himself.

9 Rom. vi. 4.