were immersed in sensuality, and abandoned to idola. try. It must therefore be the evangelical, the imputed righteousness, even that which was wrought by Christ, and is received by faith. Israel, in the mean time, the nominal Israel, who with great pretensions to sanctity, and many costly obla tions, followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.' Attained! they have done nothing less. They are fallen vastly short of it; they are pronounced guilty by it; they stand condemned before it.'t Wherefore did they so grossly mistake, and so grievously miscarry? Because they forsook the good old way in which Abraham, David, and their pious ancestors walked. They adopted a new scheme, and would fain have substituted their own, instead of relying on a Saviour's righteousness. They sought for justification, not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law; a method which their fa ther's knew not, which their God ordained not, and which proved, as it always will prove, not only abortive, but destructive. At this stone they stumbled, on this rock they split. Let their ruin be a way-mark, and the apostle's observation a light-house to my Theron. Our zealous writer tries every expedient: he mingles Surely, the righteousness, which is by faith,' cannot consist in humbly committing the soul to Christ, in the way that he hath appointed. According to this notion, the justifying righteousness would spring from ourselves, would be constituted by an act of our own, and not by the perfect obedience of our Lord. I am sorry to see this and the preceding interpretation in the works of an expositor, whose learning I admire, whose piety I reverence, and whose memory I honour: yet I must say, on this occasion, with one of the ancient philosophers; Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, sed magis amica veritas. +This, I apprehend, is the purport of the apostle's speech, when he tells us that his countrymen had not attained unto the law of righteousness.' He uses the figure peoσ, and means more than he expresses; somewhat like the dramatic poet, who says of certain literary pretenders, Qui se primos esse rerum omnium existimant Nec tamen sunt. that is, they are quite the reverse: or, like the prophet in the close of this chapter, who assures the believers in Jesus, they shall not be ashamed; that is, they shall be encouraged, em boldened, established. Rom. ix. 30-32, hope with terror. Having pointed out the rock on which the Israelites suffered shipwreck, he directs us to the haven in which sinners may cast anchor and find safety. He gives us a fine descriptive view of the Christian's complete happiness; he opens (if I may continue the metaphor) a free and ample port for perishing souls; not formed by a neck of land, or a ridge of mountains, but by a magnificent chain of spiritual blessings; all proceeding from, and terminating in, that precious corner-stone Jesus Christ; who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Wisdom, to enlighten our ignorant minds; righteousness,t to justify our guilty persons; sanctification,t to renew our depraved natures; redemption, to rescue us from all evil, and render us, both in body and soul, perfectly and eternally happy. Let it be remarked, how carefully our inspired writer sets aside all sufficiency, as well as all merit in man. He represents the whole of our salvation, both in its procurement and application, as a work of freest grace. Christ is, and not we ourselves, the author of this glorious restoration, the cause of this great felicity. He is made all this unto us. How? Not by our own resolution and strength, but of God, by the agency of his mighty power and blessed Spirit. He shews us the all-sufficient fulness of Christ; he brings us by ardent longings to Christ; he implants us into Christ, and makes us partakers of his merits. In the process of the same epistle, the sacred penman enumerates the constituent parts of that great salvation #1 Cor. i. 30. +Righteousness and sanctification; the former imputed, the latter inherent. This preserves a distinction between the noble articles, and assigns to each a grand share in the economy of salvation. To say that, if one of the blessings is communicated by way of imputation, the other should be communicated in the same manner, seems to be cavilling, rather than arguing; because the subjects are of a different nature, and therefore must be enjoyed in a different way. The cocoa tree is, to the American, food and clothing, a habitation and domestic utensils; but must we suppose it administering to all these uses in one and the same unvaried method? because in one respect it is eaten, in another it is wore, must it be thus applied in all? I believe, the illiterate savage, who enjoys the several gifts, need not be taught the ab surdity of such a supposition. which the Son of God has procured for ruined sinners: But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' 'Ye are washed,' cleansed from the filth and discharged from the guilt of all your iniquities: 'ye are sanctified,' delivered from the death of sin, and endued with a living principle of holiness: 'ye are justified,' restored to a state of acceptance with God, and invested with a title to eternal glory: all which inestimable prerogatives are conferred upon the true believer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,' in consideration of his atoning blood and meritorious righteousness: by the Spirit of our God,' through the efficacy of his operation, revealing Christ and working faith in the heart. Some gentlemen have talked of a new remedial law; whereas the apostle declares that Christ is the end of the' old, the unalterable, the Mosaic law, for righteousness to every one that believeth.'+ Follow the course of a river, it will constantly lead you to the ocean: trace the veins of the body, they invariably unite in the heart; mark likewise the tendency of the law, it no less constantly and invariably conducts you to Christ as the centre of its views and the consummation of its demands. The moral law aims at discovering our guilt, and demonstrating our inexpressible need of a Saviour. The ceremonial points him out as suffering in our stead, making reconciliation for iniquity, and purging away every defilement with his blood. They both direct the wretched transgressor to renounce himself, and to fly to the Redeemer; who alone has paid that perfect obedience, and brought in that everlasting righteousness, which the sinner wants and the law exacts: who is, therefore, the only proper accomplishment of the one, and the only suitable supply for the other. What is the grand design of the whole Scriptures ? St. Paul, displaying their sublime origin, and enumerating the gracious purposes they are intended to serve, writes thus: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God; and is profitable-for doctrine,' to declare and + Rom. x. 4. * 1 Cor. vi. 11. establish religious truth-for reproof,' to convince of sin and to refute error- for correction,'* or renovation of the heart and reformation of the life for instruction in righteousness,' in that righteousness which could never have been learned from any other book, and in which alone sinful men may appear with comfort before their God. We have seen the principal scope of the law and the leading design of the Scriptures; let us add one inquiry more. What is the chief office of the Spirit? If all these coincide, and uniformly terminate in the imputed righteousness of Christ, we have a confir. mation of its reality and excellence great as man can desire, I had almost said, great as God can impart. What says our Lord upon this point? When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he shall convince + the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, be cause I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.' Is it possible for words to be more weighty and compre. hensive? Here is a summary of Christian faith and of Christian holiness; not that superficial holiness which is patched up of devotional forms, and goes no farther than external performances; but that which is vital, and springs from the heart; consists in power, not in mere profession; whose praise, if not of men, who are smitten with pompous outsides, is sure to be of God, who distinguishes the things which are excellent. 'He shall convince the world of sin,' of original and actual sin; the sin of their nature as well as the sin of their life; the sin of their best deeds, no less than of their criminal commissions and blameable omissions: above all, of their sinning against the sovereign, the only remedy, by unbelief; because they * 2 Tim. iii. 16. Προς επανορθωσιν. +He shall convince,' seems to be the most proper translation of eλeye; as it implies, the sure success which attends the operation of the divine Spirit. Man may reprove, and no conviction ensue: whereas, that almighty Agent not only reproves, but reproves with power, so as to determine the judgment and sway the affections. John xvi. 8-11, believe not on me.' He shall convince' of righteousness,' of the divine Redeemer's righteousness, which the foregoing conviction must render peculiarly welcome: convince them that it was wrought out in behalf of disobedient and defective mortals, that it is absolutely perfect, and sufficient to justify even the most ungodly of all which an incontestible proof is given by his resurrection from the dead, his triumphant ascension into heaven, and session at the right hand of his Father; because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more." He shall convince' of judgment:' those who are humbled under a sense of guilt, and justified through au imputed righteousness, shall be taught by happy experience, that the prince of this world is condemned' and dethroned in their hearts; that their souls are rescued from the tyranny of Satan, are made victorious over their corruptions, and restored to the liberty, the glorious liberty, of the children of God. You wonder, perhaps, that I have not strengthened my cause by any quotation from the Epistle to the Galatians. What I design, my dear Theron, is not to accumulate, but to select arguments: however, that I may not disappoint an expectation so reasonable, I proceed to lay before you a very nervous passage from that masterly piece of sacred controversy. Only let me just observe, that the epistle was written to persons who had embraced Christianity, and professed an affiance in Christ; but would fain have joined circumcision, would fain have superadded their own religious duties to the merits of their Saviour, in order to constitute at least some part of their justifying righteousness; against which error the vigilant and indefatigable assertor of the truth as it is in Jesus remonstrates: We who are made Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith For if the work had been imperfect in any degree, our Redeemer, instead of teking up his stated and final residence in the regions of glory, must have descended again into this inferior world to complete what was deficient. |