the penalty due to disobedience: for it is written "cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." Hence to be "accounted righteous before God," is to be righteous indeed to be looked upon as persons who have fulfilled the law, in all respects, to the uttermost, and are thereby entitled to eternal life. But you perceive that it is altogether a different thing from the being made righteous. That consists in grace being put into the soul. It is righteousness wrought in us by the operation of the Holy Ghost. It is begun and carried on in the present life, but perfected only in Heaven. It is called sanctification. But the righteousness of justification, is not righteousness wrought in us, but righteousness put upon us. The righteousness of another imputed, and therefore in no respect a righteousness of our own: and it perfectly justifies all who receive it, leaving nothing to be done for their justification by themselves. For if we are "accounted righteous before God," we are, as I have before said, perfectly righteous: and what more is required to gain for us the rewards promised to obedience? If God has said, “do this and live," and I am looked upon by Him as having done all that He required of me, then, as the reward of my obedience, I have life for evermore.

But that we may not appear to speak vain-confident language, unwarranted by fact, let us pass on to the next words of the Article; which state the ground or meritorious cause of this righteousness, which justifies the soul in the sight of God.

"We

eousness.

are accounted righteous before God (say the Reformers) only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and not for our own works or deservings." Here they recall to our minds the great and marvellous work which the Divine Son of God did for sinners. When we had sinned, and by breaking God's law incurred its penalty, He undertook, by Himself satisfying its demands, to deliver us from its curse, and to reinstate us in our former rightFor this end he came, and yielded to that law an active and passive obedience. By His life and death, He did and suffered what we ought to have done and suffered. For us, and for us alone, He lived and died. What He endured in our flesh, was for the removal of our guilt; and what He wrought in our flesh, was intended for our righteousness. Justice thus accepted His obedience and now the merit of it being imputed to the sinner, his sins are all washed away, and though unrighteous in himself, he is invested with a righteousness that might rival the spotless character of an unfallen spirit in the realms of glory. He once derived guilt from Adam, and now, in the same way, he derives righteousness from Christ. And this righteousness comes direct from God's hand, and is a perfectly free gift: not at all procured by "our own works or deservings." It is given to us whilst we are sinners, and because we are sinners; and how can sinners deserve justification? And we are sinners after we are justified; sinners, always, to the last hour of our present existence; and we can, therefore, no more renew or maintain justification

by our works, than we can purchase it by our works at the first. There can be no merit in man's imperfect doings. Merit only attaches to perfect obedience, and as there was only one Man that ever rendered perfect obedience "the Man Christ Jesus," there is only one possessed of merit, and therefore, only one whose righteousness can avail to our justification.

The Article proceeds to state how this righteousness is obtained. God gives it freely for Christ's sake, and we receive it by faith. "We are accounted righteous, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith;" and again it says, "We are justified by faith only." God gave the world a Revelation, that He might therein proclaim this righteousness and offer it to sinners:Faith believes the Divine Word, rests with confidence on the gracious promise, goes forth, and takes the blessing. And the righteousness of Christ thus apprehended, becomes the sinner's righteousness: it at once removes him from a state of condemnation, and places him in a state of grace: he obtains thereby the free and full forgiveness of all his sins; the smile of his offended Father again beams upon him, and he "rejoices in hope of the glory of God." This is what the Reformers meant when they said that we are "justified by faith only." They do not speak of faith as a justifying grace, to the exclusion of all other Christian virtues, declaring that that justifies, and that other things do not. They give no more justifying power to faith than to any thing else that a man may feel or practice:

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that is to say, they give it no justifying power at all. They as much exclude faith from the office of justifying, as they do charity, the sacraments, and other religious acts: for they had before said that we are accounted righteous only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and not for our own works or deservings." The addition, therefore, of the words "by faith," denotes only the means by which the righteousness of Christ is made ours, and has no reference whatever to the ground of justification. Faith does nothing more than apprehend the justifying righteousness of Christ; and how then can itself justify? This point of Christian doctrine, plain and simple as it is, is strangely misunderstood and misrepresented, not only by Papists, but also by modern Protestants. It is asserted, in a system of theology recently introduced, that "faith justifies in a subordinate sense;" and thence it is argued that other things justify in the same way. Baptism, repentance, the Holy Eucharist, fasting, and good works of every kind—all these put together, are said to contribute to justification, because faith contributes to it. What a departure from the doctrine of the Reformation! What a strange perversion of the words " justified by faith only!" Study the words of the Article, take them in "the plain and full meaning thereof," and certain I am that you can extract from them no other meaning than this, that nothing justifies us but the merit of Christ, and that faith does nothing more in the work of justification than receive the merit by which we are justified.

This, Brethren, was the doctrine that engaged the pen of many learned and pious men at the time of the Reformation. Martin Luther, of whom Bishop Jewell remarks, that "he was an excellent man, given by God to enlighten the world," and who emphatically said of the precious doctrine of justification by faith, that "if we once lose this sun, we fall back into our former darkness," thus writes"Now the truth of the Gospel is, that our righteousness cometh by faith alone, without the works of the law. The corruption or falsehood of the Gospel is, that we are justified by faith, but not without the works of the law. With the like condition the false Apostles also preached the Gospel. Even so do our Papists at this day. For they say that we must believe in Christ, and that faith is the foundation of our salvation; but it justifieth not except it be furnished with charity. This is not the truth of the Gospel, but falsehood and dissimulation. But the true Gospel indeed is, that works of charity are not the ornament or perfection of faith, but that faith of itself is God's gift, and God's work in our hearts, which therefore justifieth us, because it apprehendeth Christ the Redeemer. Man's reason hath the law for its object, thus thinking with itself, This I have done, this I have not done.' But faith being in her proper office, hath no other object but Jesus Christ the Son of God, delivered to death for the sins of the whole world. It looketh not to charity; it saith not, What have I done? What have I offended? What have I deserved? But what hath Christ done? What hath He deserved? Then the