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fuch an acceptance of his righteoufnefs as is attended with an humble and fixed dependance upon it. For this purpofe he is exhibited in the gofpel, and for this purpose faith receives him, trufts in him, and leans all the ftrefs of its eternal hopes upon him.

And this will help to explain the famous doctrine of the reformation concerning juftification by faith alone. Not that faith itself is oug justifying righteoufnefs, either in whole or in part *. In itfelf it is weak and imperfect, like all other graces, and pleads no merit of its own. It is the glory of faith, that it unhinges the foul of all dependance upon every thing in felf. It is a felf-emptying grace. It knows it can do nothing feparate from the righteousness of Chrift, its great and most glorious object; and therefore it receives and refts upon that. We put on the Lord Jefus Chrift by faith, Rom. xiii. 14. Faith applies to Chrift, and unites the foul unto him; feeks in him all it wants, and trufts alone in the pardoning mercy of God through him. Here is the centre and dependance of faith; and thus the foul comes to be clothed upon with his righteousness. As the Father faid concerning the Prodigal upon his return, bring forth the best robe, and put it on, Luke xv. 22. This beft robe Chrift hath wrought out, the Spirit applies, and faith re

ceives.

And this gives us the true and easy sense of thofe paffages, in which we read of being juftified by faith, and that faith is counted for righte O 2 oufness.

* See above pag. 47, 48.

oufnefs, and the like. The plain and obvious meaning of which I take to be, that we are juftified by that righteoufnefs which is the great and peculiar object of faith; that righteousness, which faith receives, and on which it refts, is made ours in a way of believing, or imputed to us for our juftification. I know what pains have been taken to reprefent this interpretation as ridiculous and abfurd, and how many prejudices have been raifed againft it: But as it has fallen fo unavoidably in my way, I cannot but briefly fuggeft a few things in fupport of it. And,

ift, I would obferve, that this way of expounding these phrafes is very agreeable to the phrafeology of fcripture upon other occafions. Nothing more common there than to put the act for the object, the act as in us for the object on which it terminates. So Jacob is faid to fwear by the fear of his father Ifaac, that God that was the object of his fear, and is the only object of all religious fear, Gen. xxxi. 53. And God is faid to be the hope of Ifrael, Jer. xiv. 8. and Christ is exprefly called our hope, 1 Tim. i. 1. and we are faid to be faved by hope, Rom. viii. 24. which cannot be underftood of hope as a grace in us, for the Apostle defcribes it, as a hope that is not feen, is not yet in hand; must therefore be meant of the object of hope, either Chrift himself, or the promife of grace in and through him. And again, Believers are faid to fly for refuge, to lay hold of the hope fet before them, Heb. vi. 18 Hope here is put for the ob ject of hope. "But then this may be different

ly

"ly taken, and import either the happiness "which is the matter of our hope, or the per"fon in whom we place our hope; which is "moft probable. Chrift therefore is here meant "by the hope fet before us *" We fee by thefe instances, to which many others might cafily be added, that nothing is more common in fcripture than to put the act for the object on which it terminates; and it is but fuppofing fuch an eafy figure of fpeech, and the plain fenfe opens before us of the texts under debate.

2dly, This way of expounding these paffages maintains a clear and full diftinction between juftification by faith and by works, which the Apoftle ftates fo carefully, and which must be everlastingly, maintained. In this way of explaining the doctrine of justification by faith, the righteousness of Chrift bears all the glory, and works are for ever excluded, as they ought to be, and are by the Apoftle; and faith it felf concurs no farther, than as by that we receive and apply that righteoufnefs by and for which we are juftified: Whereas, in every other way of explaining this doctrine, works are brought in as co-operating with faith; or rather faith is confidered as including repentance, love, new obedience, and good works of every fort.

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*Mr. Pierce gives a good reason why by hope here cannot well be understood the happiness which is the matter of our hope; because of that expreffion, which entereth into that within the vail; for then the sense would run thus, 66 we have fled for refuge, tolau hold upon the hope of heaven, which hope of heavens, "entred into heaven;" which is maniseftly abfurd. Vide in locum.

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3dly, Another reason that I would offer for this way of expounding the texts under confideration, is, that it falls in with the natural and undoubted fenfe of those other paffages, in which we are faid to be justified by the blood of Chrift, Rom. v. 9 and to be made righteous by the obedience of Chrißt, Rom. v. 18. and where he is faid to be made of God unto us righteoufness, 1 Cor i. 30, &c. The blood, the obedience, and righteoufnefs of Chrift, are the foundation and matter of our justification, that for which we are justified: These we receive by faith, and fo, according to the grand establishment of the gospel, God imputes them to us, or we are interested in them for our justification. How eafy this fenfe, and how confifient does it make the Apostle's way of expreffing himself throughout! But those that oppose this interpretation, what do they offer in the room of it? They tell us, that God hath, in confideration of the fufferings and death of Chrift, difcharged us from the firft covenant which required perfect obedience as the condition of our juftification, and in the room thereof brought in another law or covenant more fuited to the weakness of our fallen ftate, in which we are juftified, not by the righteoufnefs of Chrift, but by our own fincere, though imperfect obedience. But is this giving the natural and genuine fenfe of thofe paffages, where we are faid to be juftified by the blood of Christ, and to be made righteous by the obedience of Chrift? Inftead of being juftified by the blood, and obedience, and righteousness of Chrift, it is establishing a scheme for being justified by our own righteousness and

obedience,

obedience. Indeed, how to reconcile this with' those plain and ftrong expreffions of being juftified by the blood, and made righteous by the obedience of Chrift; and with thofe other numerous texts in which works of every fort are excluded from all agency in our juftification, I profefs, for my part, I cannot fee. Not to ob ferve at prefent, that this is bringing in a new rule of duty and judgment in oppofition to the moral law, whofe eternal and unchangeable obligations we have, I hope, fully established. I might add, in the laft place, that this is the common and genuine fenfe of the Reformed churches *.

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* I might eafily make this appear by referring to the Harmony of Confeffions. But inftead of that, I fhall transcribe a paffage of a celebrated writer, who knew as well as any man, what the fenfe of the Proteftant churches was, and how to ftate and defend it: "Inquirendum porro reftat, quomodo fides jultificet. "Non certe eo fenfu, quafi Deus, loco perfectæ obedi"entiæ, quam ex legis rigore habere debebamus ad "juftificationem, actum dei & novæ obedientiæ Evangelicæ ex fide promanantis, gratiofe acceptet; Hoc "enim eft totum Evangelium irritum facere. In locum perfectæ obedientæ, quam lex ad juftificationem poftulabat, Evangelium non fubftituit noftram fidem, "fed Chrifti obedientiam, qua jus legis impletum eft, "Falfum etiam eft, fidem, novamque obedientiam u" nam eandemque rem effe. Fateor, fidem virtutem "effe lege Dei præceptam, et credentem, eo ipfo "quod credit, obedire Deo. Fateor item, nullam fi "dem pro vera & viva habendam effe, quæ non eft "bonis operibus foeta. Sed tamen aliud longe fides "eft, aliud obedientia ex fide promanans, præfertim "in hoc, de quo agimus, juftificationis negotio, ubi femper Paulus omnium qualiumcunque operum obe

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