cover our fins, but the righteoufnefs of Jefus Chrift? By what poffible means could we, unrighteous and unholy creatures, be juftified, but only by the interpofition of the Son of God in our behalf?"-Having, in this clause, made a profeffion of his faith, the good man, on the contemplation of fuch a privilege, breaks out into a kind of holy tranfport: "O fweet and delightful exchange! a difpenfation unfearchably wife and gracious benefits, quite unexpected, and rich beyond all our hopes! that the fin of many fhould be hid by one righteous perfon; and that the righteousness of one fhould justify many tranfgreffors."

The following words are remarkably ftrong, and the fentiments peculiarly bold. But they come from the pen of the finest writer in ecclefiaftical antiquity. They have the great name, and venerable character of St Chryfoftom, for their recommendatory preface *. "Fear not, fays he, on the account of any of thy paft tranfgreffions of the law, when once thou haft fled by faith to Jefus Christ. The most enormous and the most destructive violation of the law is, to be withheld, by the consciousnefs of any guilt whatever, from believing on Christ. When thou acteft faith on him, thou haft fulfilled, I might fay, more than fulfilled the law: For thou haft received a better righteousness, than it could ever require : thou art poffeffed of a better obedience, than any creature could poffibly pay."

Two or three witneffes of diftinguished ability, and undoubted veracity, are a fufficient confirmation of any caufe. For this reafon, and to avoid a tiresome prolixity, I have fet afide a multitude of voices; which, from the

Du Pin queftions the authority of this epiftle, he allows it to have been written by an ancient hand. Dr Cave, as capable a judge, thinks, there is no reason to doubt but it is the genuine work of Juftin.

*

Μη τοινυν φοβηθης, ως τον νόμον παραβαινων, επειδαν τη πιςει προσήλθες τότε γαρ αυτον παραβαινεις, δε δι αυτόν τω Χριςω μη πιςευσης ως αν πιςευσης αυτω, κακείνον επληρώσας και πολλω πλεον η εκελευσε πολλω γαρ μείζονα δικαιοσυνην ελάβες.

Homil. XVII. in X. ad. Rom.

writings of our own, and foreign divines, are ready to pour their united evidence; and left the bufinefs of quotation, though fparingly managed, should seem dry and tedious ; I will relieve your wearinefs, and enliven the collection, by an extract from the prince of English poetry. Michael, the prophetic archangel, mentioning the deftructive confequences of the fall; and afferting the Godhead of that glorious Perfon, who undertook to be the repairer of this deadly breach, adds,

Which he, who comes thy Saviour, shall secure,
Not by destroying Satan, but his works,

In thee and in thy feed. Nor can this be,
But by fulfilling (that which thou didst want)
Obedience to the law of God, impofed
On penalty of death; and suffering death,
The penalty to thy tranfgreffion due;

And due to theirs, which out of thine will grow,
So only can high justice rest appaid *.

Here then is the exprefs determination of our Homilies, fupported by the authority of our Articles, established by the concurrence of our Liturgy, ftill farther ratified by the unanimous atteftation of feveral celebrated divines; whofe lives were the brightest ornament to our church, and whose writings are the most unexceptionable interpretation of her meaning. As a capital, to complete this grand column, fupervenes the declaration of the ancient fathers, thofe who flourished, and with the highest renown, in the first and pureft ages of Chriftiani

ty. So that, if great authorities carry any weight; if illuftrious names challenge any regard; this tenet comes attended and dignified with very confiderable credentials.

Yet I will venture to affirm, that all these, confiderable as they appear, are the leaft of thofe teftimonials, which recommend the doctrine to my Theron's acceptance, and which have gained it admittance into the heart of

His most affectionate

Milton, book 12. l. 393.

ASPASIO.

VOL. II.

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LETTER IV.

ASPASIO TO THERON.

DEAR THERON,

THE family, in which I have the fatisfaction to refide, though remarkable for their genteel figure and ample fortune, are still more amiably distinguished by their benevolence, hofpitality, and charity. As they live at a distance from the market-town, the lady has converted one apartment of her houfe into a little dif penfatory; and stocked it with fome of the moft common, the most needed, and most falutary medicines : which, in cafes of ordinary indifpofition, the diftributes to her indigent neighbours, with fingular compaffion, and with no fmall fuccefs. This fine morning, Emilia has ordered fome skilful hands into the fields, to cull their healing fimples, and lay up a magazine of health for. the afflicted poor. Camillus is withdrawn to receive his rents, and fettle accounts with his tenants.

Suppose we act in concert with these valuable persons. Suppofe, we range the delightful fields of fcripture, and form a collection, not of falutiferous herbs, but of ineftimable texts; fuch as may be of fovereign efficacy to affuage the anguifh of a guilty confcience, and impart faving health to the diftempered foul. Suppofe, we open the mines of divine infpiration, and enrich ourselves, not with the gold of Ophir, but with the unfearchable treafures of Chrift: or with that perfect righteoufnefs of our Redeemer, which is incomparably more precious, than the revenues of a county, or the produce of Peru.

In pleading for imputed righteousness, we have already urged the authority of our established church, and the fuffrage of her moft eminent divines. The opinion of excellent writers, which has been the refult of much learning, great attention, and earnest prayer, is no contemptible evidence. Yet we muft always referve the cafting-voice, for thofe infallible umpires, the prophets

and apostles. If we receive, with a deferential regard, the witness of men; the witness of God is greater, 1 John v. 9. and challenges the molt implicit fubmiffion; which remark naturally leads me to the intended fubject of this epiftle, or rather calls upon me to fulfil my late engagement, and fhew, that the above-mentioned doctrine is copiously revealed, through the whole procefs of the fcriptures.

Let me detach a very fignificant portion from the epiftle to the Romans; which, though little inferior to a decifive proof, is produced only as an introduction to others. Now the righteoufnefs of God, without the law, is manifefted, being witneffed by the law and the prophets; even the righteoufness of God, which is by the faith of Jefus Chrift unto all, and upon all them that believe, Rom. iii. 21, 22. The righteousness of God, fignifies that righteousness, which the incarnate God wrought out in his own all-glorious perfon *. It is ftyled the righteoufnels of God, by way of fuperlative pre-eminence; in oppofition to any righteoufnefs of our own, and in contra-diftin&tion to the righteoufness of all creatures whatever. This righteousness is without the law. Its efficacy has no dependence on, its merit receives no addition from, any conformity of our practice to the divine law; being complete, abfolutely complete in itself, and altogether fufficient to procure the reconciliation and acceptance of

This explication, or fomething to the fame purpose has occurred already. But it is hoped, that the candid reader will not condemn the repetition, as a difagreeable and jejune tautology.Because it is so confonant to the practice of our great apostle, who repeats the term, re-inculcates the doctrine, and hardly knows how to defift from the favourite topic; like one, who was quite enamoured with the fubje, who found mufic in the words, and whofe happiness was bound up in the bleffing. Because it is conformable to another and a greater example. The Lord Jehovah himself, within the compafs of one chapter, once and again, yea, a third and a fourth time, ftyles this wonderful obedience, My righteoufnefs. As though the God of infinite perfection gloried in it; thought himself most eminently magnified by it; and was jealous to have all the honour refulting from it. See Ifa. ii.

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finners. This righteoufnefs is witnessed by the law and the prophets; receives an uniform atteftation from the various writings of the Old Teftament. To investigate which atteftation, t examine its pertinency, and weigh its fufficiency, is our prefent pleafing bufinefs.

We may begin with that gracious declaration, made to the first tranfgreffors: The feed of the woman shall bruife the ferpent's head, Gen. iii. 15. fhall destroy the works of the devil, and retrieve whatever was loft by his malicious artifices. How could this be effected, but by reftoring that righteoufnefs, which, for a while our first parents poffeffed; which they ought always to have held faft; but from which they fo foon and so unhappily fwerved. Take the pofition in the right fenfe, and Chriftianity is, if not entirely, yet very nearly as old as the creation. It was comprehended in this bleffed promife, as the ftamina of the largest plants are contained in the fubftance of their refpective feeds: every fubfequent revelation being no more than a gradual evolution of this grand evangelical principle; acting like the vegetative powers of nature, which, in rearing an oak, with all its fpread of branches, only expand the tunicles, and fill up the veffels of the acorn.

This doctrine seems to have been typically taught, by the remarkable manner of clothing our first parents. All they could do for their own recovery, was like the patched and beggarly mantle of fig-leaves: This they relinquifh, and God himself furnishes them with apparel, Gen. iii. 21. Animals are flain, not for food but facrifice; and the naked criminals are arrayed with the skins of thofe flaughtered beafts. The victims figured the expiation of Chrift's death; the clothing typified the imputation of his righteoufnefs. In perfect conformity, perhaps with a reference to the paffage thus interpreted, the apoftle juft now expreffed himself, even the

* In fome fuch fenfe, I think, our first parents must underftand the promise. Otherwise it could yield them no effectual relief, under the diftreffing fenfe of their own mifery, and the dif inal apprehenfion of their posterity's ruin.