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or hear its momentous declarations, your mind is becoming either more accessible or more impenetrable. Shall it be, in your case, "the savour of life unto life," or must it prove "the savour of death unto death?"" He that belieyeth on the Son of God, hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."

LECTURE IV.

THE CONNEXION OF FAITH WITH JUSTIFICATION.

ROM. III. 28.

Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Two reasons may be assigned for the paramount importance attached to Faith in the representations of the sacred writers. The first is, that Faith is the appointed medium, and therefore the only medium of obtaining a personal interest in the blessings of salvation. The second is, that Faith is the most powerful and efficacious of all the principles, which operate in the production of holy obedience to the will of God. The latter of these considerations will engage our thoughts in a subsequent discourse; the former demands our present attention, and requires that attention to be yielded with unremitting energy of mind, and with the feeling of deepest interest. Are we not hastening, with all the rapidity of the stream of time, to the righteous tribunal of our Judge? With the awful solemnities of the decisive day vividly

depicted before the eye of the mind, what question can assume an importance worthy to be compared with this-" How shall man be just with God?” On the reply which we deliberately make to this grand and momentous inquiry, will depend the entire system of our religion. The doctrine of Justification before God was correctly represented by the great Reformers as the article which determines the standing or the falling of the church: and it was not without reason that the celebrated Luther declared, that if this one doctrine be abandoned, there is abandoned with it the whole of the christian system.

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Let our attention be now directed to the two principal points on which it is important that our views should be scripturally correct:

FIRST, The nature of that distinguishing privilege which the scriptures denote by the term Justification: and

SECONDLY, The wisdom and goodness of God in appointing Faith to be the exclusive medium of obtaining this privilege.

Let your thoughts be directed—

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FIRST, TO THE NATURE OF JUSTIFICATION. Theological writers have often commenced their explanation of this subject by observing, that Justification is a forensic term, borrowed from the proceedings of a court of justice, in the acquittal of a person who had been arraigned

on some charge of crime. It will be found, however, in this instance, as it has often appeared to me in other instances, that illustrations borrowed from the usages and transactions of men, render, at best, but very slender assistance in the attempt to conceive aright of the divine procedure; and, indeed, not unfrequently involve, in additional obscurity, the very subject on which light is desired. The remark appears to me to apply to the subject of Justification. In a court of justice, a case of pardon is so completely dissimilar to a case of acquittal, that the one is totally incompatible with the other, as it regards the same individual and the same crimination. If a man be pardoned, it would be an obvious perversion of language to say that he was acquitted; if a man be acquitted, it would not only be an abuse of words, but an act of gross injustice to the individual, to say that he was pardoned. In the case of pardon, the prisoner must have been previously convicted, either by the evidence adduced against him, or by his own spontaneous confession. In this case, justice would proceed to pronounce, and to execute, the sentence of the law, did not mercy interpose and grant a pardon. In this case, the party is liberated; but he goes forth to the world under the stigma of a culprit, who has been found guilty of the offence alleged, although, perhaps, under

some circumstances of partial extenuation. Very different is the case of the individual who is acquitted. In his case, the evidence brought against him has failed to establish the charge. He goes out of court free from the imputation of crime, and re-instated in the rights and privileges of a good member of society. Now the term Justification might apply to the case of the man who had been acquitted, but could by no means apply to the case of the man who had been pardoned. The peculiarity, however, of the scripture use of the term, in reference to Justification before God, is, its application both to the case of pardon and to the case of acquittal; and it is thus applied with full propriety; because, in point of fact, however different, the course of proceedings may be from the model of human judicature, the same individual, who is first convicted and then pardoned, is also actually declared righteous in the sight of God.

This, it is obvious, would be impossible, if regard were paid exclusively to the character and actions of the offender. So far as he is personally and solely concerned, there is clear and ample ground for condemnation, but no ground at all for justification. He, however, who is "righteous in all his ways," is expressly said to " justify the ungodly." On no principle, then, can we conceive of the possibility of this, except on the principle of

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