Christian profession with its characteristic virtues of humility, charity, and benevolence; they will continue patiently in well doing; cheerfully acquiesce in all the dispensations of the Almighty; and on the sure ground of confidence in his promises, they will "look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

SERMON XII.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.

ROM. III. 28.

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law.

THE Apostle, having argued at great length that all, both Jews and Gentiles, have "sinned and come short of the glory of God,"* and that consequently all "boasting was excluded, if not by the Law of Works," yet certainly by "the Law of Faith," i. e. the Doctrine of the Gospel, concludes, as the result of the whole argument, "that a man is justified by Faith, without the deeds of the Law."

To be justified by God, according to the observation of one of our most able Divines,† does solely or chiefly import "his acquitting us from guilt, condemnation, and punishment,

* Rather of the "favour and approbation of God." Vide Schleusner ad voc.-doa.

† Dr. Barrow.

by free pardon, and remission of our sins, accounting us, and dealing with us as, just persons, upright and innocent in his sight and esteem." The word, which in our English Version is rendered Justification, will admit of being interpreted in different ways, as is manifest from various passages both of the Old and New Testament.* But it is evident that the word is here used in a judicial sense,† and that to be justified means to be pronounced just and innocent, absolved from all imputation of guilt. In the language of the Jews, "to make just, and to make wicked or unjust, is, in other words, to acquit, and to condemn. Thus we have the following aphorism in the Book of Proverbs: "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord;" and in Psalm 142, verse 2, we meet with a similar application of the same term:-"Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Frequent examples of a similar use of the word occur in the New Testament. In Matth. xii. 37, our Saviour admonishes those who indulge in profane or slanderous conversation,

* Vide Schleusner Lex. V. et N. T. ad voc.-dixaloovy et δικαίου.

+ Sensu forensi.

Chap. xvii. 15.

that "by their words they should be justified, and by their words they should be condemned." Saint Paul assures the people of Antioch in Pisidia, that "by him, whom God raised from the dead, all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses."* The same Apostle, speaking of himself, says, "I judge not my own self: for I know nothing by myself;t yet am I not hereby justified." In the 5th Chapter, verse 16, of the Epistle from which I have taken the words of the Text, he observes that "the judgment was by one unto condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification:" and in 1 Corinth. vi. 11, shewing the privileges of those who by baptism had been admitted into the Christian Church, he thus addresses them:-"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."

The doctrine which the founders of our National Church have established upon these, and such like Texts of Scripture, is expressed in the 11th Article, as follows:-"We are accounted righteous before God only for the

*Acts xiii. 39.

↑ Rather "am conscious to myself of nothing;" i. e.— "of no offence."

1 Corinth. iv. 3, 4.

merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings, Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as is more largely expressed in the Homily of Justification." Wholesome, or sound, no doubt, we must consider this doctrine; but has it been also full of comfort? On the contrary, whatever comfort individuals may derive from it, there is not, perhaps, one of the Articles of our Church which has been more grossly perverted and misapplied between contending parties than this.

There have been, and to this day there are, Teachers, who are so assiduous to inculcate the necessity and importance of Faith, as to undervalue moral duties, and, by magnifying the efficacy of one, and depreciating too much the importance of the other, have led the undiscerning into the delusions of Antinomianism; while others, out of hostility to these sentiments, insisting too much on the merit of Good Works, and exalting too highly the powers of unassisted Reason, have given encouragement to Heresies of no less dangerous tendency.*

The Apostle Saint James having asserted that "Faith, if it have not Works, is dead,

*Those of the Pelagians and Socinians.