Part 6

9. Once more, what shall we say concerning the youth of this place? Have _you_ either the form or the power of _Christian_ Godliness? Are you humble, teachable, advisable; or stubborn, self-willed, heady, and high-minded? Are you obedient to your superiors as to parents? Or do you despise those to whom you owe the tenderest reverence? Are you diligent in your easy business, pursuing your studies with all your strength? Do you _redeem the time_, crowding as much work into every day as it can contain? Rather, are ye not conscious to yourselves, that you waste away day after day, either in reading what has no tendency to _Christianity_, or in gaming, or in――you know not what? Are you better managers of your fortune than of your time? Do you, out of principle, take care to _owe no man any thing_? Do you _remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy_; to spend it in the more immediate worship of God? When you are in his House, Do you consider that God is there? Do you behave, _as seeing Him that is invisible_? Do you know how to _possess your bodies, in sanctification and honour_? Are not drunkenness and uncleanness found among you? Yea, are there not of you, who _glory in their shame_? Do not many of you _take the name of God in vain_, perhaps habitually, without either remorse or fear? Yea, * Are there not a multitude of you that are forsworn? I fear, a swiftly-increasing multitude. Be not surprized, brethren. Before God and this congregation; I own myself to have been of that number; solemnly swearing to _observe all those customs_, which I then knew nothing of; _and those statutes_, which I did not so much as read over, either then, or for some years after. What is perjury, if this is not? But if it be, O what a weight of sin, yea, sin of no common dye, lieth upon us! And doth not _the Most High regard it_?

10. * May it not be one of the consequences of this that so many of you are a generation of _Triflers_? Triflers with God, with one another, and with your own souls? For how few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer? How few have any thought of God in the general tenor of your conversation? Who of you is, in any degree, acquainted with the work of his Spirit, his supernatural work in the souls of men? Can you bear, unless now and then, in a church, any talk of the Holy Ghost? Would you not take it for granted, if one began such a conversation, that it was either _Hypocrisy_ or _Enthusiasm_? In the name of the Lord God Almighty, I ask, what religion are _you_ of? Even the talk of _Christianity_ ye cannot, will not bear. O my brethren! what a _Christian_ city is this? _It is time for thee, Lord, to lay to thine hand!_

11. For indeed, what probability, what possibility rather, (speaking after the manner of men) is there that _Christianity, Scriptural Christianity_, should be again the religion of this place? That all orders of men among us should speak and live as men _filled with the Holy Ghost_? By whom should this _Christianity_ be restored? By those of you that are in authority? Are you convinced then, that this is _Scriptural Christianity_? Are you desirous it should be restored? And do ye not count your fortune, liberty, life, dear unto yourselves, so ye may be instrumental in the restoring it? But suppose ye have this desire, who hath any power proportioned to the effect? Perhaps some of you have made a few faint attempts, but with how small success? Shall _Christianity_ then be restored by young, unknown, inconsiderable men? I know not whether ye yourselves could suffer it. Would not some of you cry out, “Young man, in so doing thou reproachest us?” But there is no danger of your being put to the proof; so hath _iniquity overspread us like a flood_. Whom then shall God send? The famine, the pestilence, (the last messengers of God to a guilty land) or the sword? _The armies of the |Romish| aliens_, to _reform_ us into our first love? Nay, _rather let us fall into thy hand, O Lord, and let us not fall into the hand of man_.

Lord, save or we perish! Take us out of the mire that we sink not! O help us against these enemies, for vain is the help of man. Unto thee all things are possible. According to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die; and preserve us in the manner that seemeth to thee good; not as we will, but as thou wilt.

SERMON V.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.

ROMANS iv. 5.

_To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness._

1. HOW a sinner may be justified before God, the Lord and judge of all, is a question of no common importance, to every child of man. It contains the foundation of all our hope; in as much as while we are at enmity with God, there can be no true peace, no solid joy, either in time or in eternity. What peace can there be, while our own heart condemns us? And much more, he that _is greater than our heart and knoweth all things_? What solid joy, either in this world or that to come, while _the wrath of God abideth on us_?

2. And yet how little hath this important question been understood? What confused notions have many had concerning it? Indeed not only confused, but often utterly false; contrary to the truth, as light to darkness: notions absolutely inconsistent with the oracles of God, and with the whole analogy of faith. And hence, erring concerning the very foundation, they could not possibly build thereon: at least, not _gold, silver, or precious stones_, which would endure when _tried_ as _by fire_; but only _hay and stubble_, neither acceptable to God, nor profitable to man.

3. In order to do justice, as far as in me lies, to the vast importance of the subject, to save those that seek the truth in sincerity, from _vain jangling and strife of words_, to clear the confusedness of thought, into which so many have already been led thereby, and to give them true and just conceptions of this great mystery of godliness, I shall endeavour to shew,

_First_, What is the general ground of this whole doctrine of justification.

_Secondly_, What justification is.

_Thirdly_, Who they are that are justified. And,

_Fourthly_, On what terms they are justified.

I. I am, first, to shew, What is the general ground of this whole doctrine of justification.

1. In the image of God was man made, holy as he that created him is holy; merciful as the Author of all is merciful, perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect. As God is love, so man dwelling in love, dwelt in God, and God in him. God made him to be _an image of his own eternity_, an incorruptible picture of the God of glory. He was accordingly pure, as God is pure, from every spot of sin. He knew not evil in any kind or degree, but was inwardly and outwardly sinless and undefiled. He _loved the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his mind and soul and strength_.

2. To man thus upright and perfect, God gave a perfect law, to which he required full and perfect obedience. He required full obedience in every point, and this to be performed without any intermission, from the moment man became a living soul, till the time of his trial should be ended. No allowance was made for any falling short. As indeed there was no need of any; man being altogether equal to the task assigned, and thoroughly furnished for every good word and work.

3. To the entire law of love which was written in his heart (against which perhaps he could not sin directly) it seemed good to the sovereign wisdom of God, to superadd one positive law: _Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree that groweth in the midst of the garden_: annexing that penalty thereto, _In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die_.

4. Such then was the state of man in paradise. By the free, unmerited love of God, he was holy and happy; he knew, loved, enjoyed God, which is (in substance) life everlasting. And in this life of love, he was to continue for ever, if he continued to obey God in all things: but if he disobeyed him in any, he was to forfeit all. _In that day_, said God, _thou shalt surely die_.

5. Man did disobey God. He _ate of the tree, of which God commanded him, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it_. And in that day he was condemn’d, by the righteous judgment of God. Then also the sentence whereof he was warned before, began to take place upon him. For the moment he tasted that fruit, he died: his soul died, was separated from God; separate from whom the soul has no more life, than the body has when separate from the soul. His body likewise became corruptible and mortal; so that death then took hold on this also. And being already dead in spirit, dead to God, dead in sin, he hastened on to death everlasting; to the destruction both of body and soul, in the fire never to be quenched.

6. Thus _by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men_, as being contained in him who was the common father and representative of us all. Thus _through the offence of one_, all are dead, dead to God, dead in sin, dwelling in a corruptible, mortal body, shortly to be dissolved, and under the sentence of death eternal. For as _by one man’s disobedience, all were made sinners_; so by that offence of one, _judgment came upon all men to condemnation_, Rom. v. 12, _&c._

7. In this state we were, even all mankind, when _God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end we might not perish but have everlasting life_. In the fulness of time, he was made man, another common head of mankind, a second general parent and representative of the whole human race. And as such it was that _he bore our griefs_, the Lord _laying upon him the iniquities of us all_. Then _was he wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He made his soul an offering for sin_: he poured out his blood for the transgressors: he _bare our sins in his own body on the tree_, that _by his stripes we_ might be _healed_: and by that one oblation of himself once offered, he hath redeemed me and all mankind; having thereby made a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.

8. In consideration of this, that the Son of God hath _tasted death for every man_, God hath now _reconciled the world to himself, not imputing to them their former trespasses_. And thus, _as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification_. So that for the sake of his well-beloved Son, of what he hath done and suffered for us, God now vouchsafes on one only condition (which himself also enables us to perform) both to remit the punishment due to our sins, to reinstate us in his favour, and to restore our dead souls to spiritual life, as the earnest of life eternal.

9. This therefore is the general ground, of the whole doctrine of _justification_. By the sin of the first _Adam_, who was not only the father, but likewise the representative of us all, we all _fell short of the |favour| of God_: we all became _children of wrath_: or, as the apostle expresses it, _judgment came upon all men_ to _condemnation_. Even so, by the sacrifice for sin made by the second _Adam_, as the representative of us all, God is so far reconciled to all the world, that he hath given them a new covenant. The plain condition whereof being once fulfilled, _there is no more condemnation for us_, but we are _justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ_.

II. 1. But what is it to be _justified_? What is _justification_? This was the second thing which I proposed to shew. And it is evident from what has been already observed, that it is not, the being made actually just and righteous. This is _sanctification_: which is indeed, in some degree, the immediate _fruit_ of justification: but nevertheless is a distinct gift of God, and of a totally different nature. The one implies, what God _does for us_ through his Son; the other what he _works in us_ by his Spirit. So that altho’ some rare instances maybe found, wherein the term _justified_, or _justification_, is used in so wide a sense as to include _sanctification_ also; yet in general use, they are sufficiently distinguished from each other, both by St. _Paul_ and the other inspired writers.

2. Neither is that far-fetch’d conceit, that justification is, the clearing us from accusation, particularly that of _Satan_, easily proveable from any clear text of holy writ. In the whole scriptural account of this matter, as above laid down, neither that accuser nor his accusation appears to be at all taken in. It cannot indeed be denied, that he is the _accuser of men_, emphatically so called. But it does in no wise appear, that the great apostle hath any reference to this, more or less, in all that he hath written touching justification, either to the _Romans_ or the _Galatians_.

3. It is also far easier to take for granted, than to prove from any clear scripture-testimony, that justification is, the clearing us from the accusation brought against us by _the law_. At least, if this forced, unnatural way of speaking, mean either more or less than this, that whereas we have transgressed the law of God, and thereby deserved the damnation of hell, God does not inflict on those who are justified, the punishment which they had deserved.

4. * Least of all does justification imply, that God is _deceived_ in those whom he _justifies_; that he thinks them to be what in fact they are not, that he accounts them to be otherwise than they are. It does by no means imply, that God judges concerning us, contrary to the real nature of things: that he esteems us better than we really are, or believes us righteous, when we are unrighteous. Surely no. The judgment of the all-wise God, is always according to truth. Neither can it ever consist with his unerring wisdom, to think that I am innocent, to judge that I am righteous or holy, because another is so. He can no more in this manner confound me with Christ, than with _David_ or _Abraham_. Let any man to whom God hath given understanding, weigh this without prejudice; and he cannot but perceive, that such a notion of justification, is neither reconcileable to reason, nor scripture.

5. The plain scriptural notion of justification is pardon, the forgiveness of sins. It is that act of God the Father, whereby for the sake of the propitiation made by the blood of his Son, he _sheweth forth his righteousness_ (or mercy) _by the remission of the sins that are past_. This is the easy, natural account of it given by St. _Paul_, throughout this whole epistle. So he explains it himself, more particularly in this, and in the following chapter. Thus in the next verses but one to the text, _Blessed are they_, saith he, _whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered: blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin_. To him that is justified or forgiven, God _will not impute sin_ to his condemnation. He will not condemn him on that account, either in this world or in that which is to come. His sins, all his past sins, in thought, word and deed, _are covered_, are blotted out: shall not be remembered or mentioned against him, any more than if they had not been. God will not inflict on that sinner what he deserved to suffer, because the Son of his love hath suffered for him. And from the time we are _accepted through the Beloved, reconciled to God through his blood_, he loves and blesses and watches over us for good, even as if we had never sinned.

Indeed the apostle in one place seems to extend the meaning of the word much farther; where he says, _Not the hearers of the law, but the doers of the law shall be justified_. Here he appears to refer our justification, to the sentence of the great day. And so our Lord himself unquestionably doth, when he says, _By thy words thou shalt be justified_: proving thereby, that _for every idle word men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of judgment_. But perhaps we can hardly produce another instance, of St. _Paul’s_ using the word in that distant sense. In the general tenor of his writings, it is evident he doth not. And least of all in the text before us, which undeniably speaks, not of those who have already _finished their course_, but of those who are now just _setting out_, just _beginning to run the race which is set before him_.

III. 1. But this is the third thing which was to be considered, namely, who are they that are justified? And the apostle tells us expresly, _the ungodly_: He, that is, God, _justifieth the ungodly_: the ungodly of every kind and degree, and none but the ungodly. As _they that are righteous need no repentance_, so they need no forgiveness. It is only sinners that have any occasion for pardon: it is sin alone which admits of being forgiven. Forgiveness therefore has an immediate reference to sin, and (in this respect) to nothing else. It is our _unrighteousness_ to which the pardoning God is _merciful_: it is our _iniquity_ which he _remembereth no more_.

2. This seems not to be at all considered by those who so vehemently contend, that a man must be sanctified, that is, holy, before he can be justified: especially by such of them as affirm, that universal holiness or obedience must precede justification (unless they mean, that justification at the last day, which is wholly out of the present question) so far from it, that the very supposition, is not only flatly impossible (for where there is no love of God, there is no holiness; and there is no love of God, but from a sense of his loving us) but also grosly, intrinsically absurd, contradictory to itself. For it is not a _saint_ but a _sinner_ that is _forgiven_, and under the notion of a sinner. God _justifieth_ not the godly, but the _ungodly_; not those that are holy already, but the unholy. Upon what condition he doth this, will be considered quickly: but whatever it is, it cannot be holiness. To assert this, is to say, the Lamb of God takes away, only those sins which were taken away before.

3. Does then the good Shepherd seek and save only those that are found already? No. He seeks and saves that which is lost. He pardons those who _need_ his pardoning mercy. He saves from the guilt of sin (and at the same time from the power) sinners of every kind, of every degree: men who till then were altogether ungodly; in whom the love of the Father was not; and consequently, in whom dwelt no good thing, no good or truly Christian temper: but all such as were evil and abominable, pride, anger, love, of the world, the genuine fruits of that _carnal mind, which is enmity against God_.

4. These _who are sick, the burden of whose sins is intolerable_, are they that _need a physician_; these who are guilty, who groan under the wrath of God, are they that need a pardon. These who are _condemned already_, not only by God, but also by their own conscience, as by a thousand witnesses, of all their ungodliness, both in thought and word and work, cry aloud for him that _justifieth the ungodly, through the redemption that is in Jesus: the ungodly and him that worketh not_; that worketh not before he is justified; any thing that is good, that is truly virtuous or holy, but only evil continually. For his heart is necessarily, essentially evil, till the love of God is shed abroad therein. And while the tree is corrupt, so are the fruits; _for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit_.

5. If it be objected, “Nay, but a man, before he is justified, may feed the hungry, or clothe the naked; and these are good works:” the answer is easy. He _may_ do these, even before he is justified. And these are, in one sense, _good works_; they are _good and profitable to men_. But it does not follow, that they are, strictly speaking, good in themselves, or good in the sight of God. All truly _good works_ (to use the words of our church) _follow after justification_. And they are therefore good and _acceptable to God in Christ_, because they _spring out of a true and living faith_. By a parity of reason, all _works done before justification, are not_ good, in the Christian sense, _forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ_ (tho’ from some kind of faith in God they may spring) _yea rather, for that they are not done, as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not_ (how strange soever it may appear to some) _but they have the nature of sin_.

6. Perhaps those who doubt of this, have not duly considered the weighty reason which is here assign’d, why no works done before justification, can be truly and properly good. The argument plainly runs thus:

No works are good which are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done:

But no works done before justification are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done:

Therefore no works done before justification are good.

The first proposition is self-evident. And the second, that no works done before justification, are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, will appear equally plain and undeniable, if we only consider God hath willed and commanded, that _all our works_ should _be done in charity_, (ἐν ἀγάπη) in love, in that love to God, which produces love to all mankind. But none of our works can be done in this love, while the love of the Father (of God as our Father) is not in us. And this love cannot be in us, till we receive the _Spirit of adoption, crying in our hearts, Abba, Father_. If therefore God doth not _justify the ungodly_, and him that (in this sense) _worketh not_, then hath Christ died in vain; then notwithstanding his death, can no flesh living be justified.

IV. 1. But on what terms then is he justified, who is altogether _ungodly_, and till that time, _worketh not_? On one alone, which is faith. He _believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly_. And _he that believeth is not condemned_: Yea, he _is passed from death unto life_. For _the righteousness_ (or mercy) _of God is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe:――Whom God hath set forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood: that he might be just, and_ (consistently with his justice) _the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus: therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law_: without previous obedience to the moral law, which indeed he could not till now perform. That it is the moral law, and that alone which is here intended, appears evidently from the words that follow. _Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law._ What law do we establish by faith? Not the ritual law: not the ceremonial law of _Moses_. In no wise; but the great unchangeable law of love, the holy love of God and of our neighbour.