nature subsists as would entitle any one to be regarded and treated as righteous on his account; but it is a relation which is constituted entirely by faith. The influence of faith in forming it, and in making it proper that they who are united to him should be treated as righteous, will be explained hereafter. It is sufficient now to remark, that the relation which is sustained is one that is formed, not one that exists by nature. It is formed by a personal union of the soul to Christ, and by the gracious concession on his part, in accordance with the Divine arrangement, that we may avail ourselves of his infinite and inexhaustible merits, so that we may be treated as if they were our own. There are two additional thoughts which may be suggested to illustrate this :—

(a) The one is, that his merit is inexhaustible. There is no diminution or exhaustion of the merit of his work by the numbers that avail themselves of it. This makes the plan of redemption wholly different from anything which occurs among men. A man of the widest credit and highest standing may be conceived to allow his name to be so often used by those who have no claim to it, or who turn out to be worthless and abuse his claim, as to exhaust his credit and make his name good for nothing. Not so the Saviour. No numbers that apply exhaust his credit, or diminish at all the merit of that blood by which they are saved. That blood is as efficacious now, and that holy name of our Advocate is as much honoured in heaven now, as when the first sinner was justified, and when the gates of glory were first thrown open to receive a ransomed soul.

(b) The other remark is, that the Lord Jesus becomes the Surety that the universe shall suffer no wrong by our being admitted to heaven. So far as we are concerned, he pledges himself to meet all the claims of the law and of justice upon us. That is, he becomes the Surety, that, under this arrangement, as great good shall result to the universe from our being saved as would be attained by our punishment for ever. By such punishment, nothing would have been gained in regard to the honour of the law, the truth of God, and the interests of justice, which are not secured under the present arrangement by the substituted sorrows of the Son of God in making the atonement. Thus he becomes the "Surety of a better covenant" (Heb. vii. 22), and stands before the universe as the public pledge that no harm is done to any interest of truth and justice by the admission of one who is an acknowledged sinner into heaven. Thus the publican was justified; thus Paul, the persecutor and blasphemer, won Christ and was found in him, not having his own righteousness, which was of the law, but that which was through the faith of Christ' (Phil. iii.

6

8, 9); and thus multitudes of the profane and the sensual, by believing on Christ, have entered heaven and been blessed. There stands the Great Advocate, not for their sins, but for them; and there stands the security that no injury shall be done by treating even such sinners for ever as if they were righteous, "and that all that law or justice could ask, all that could be secured either by their own personal perfect obedience, or by their enduring the eternal penalty of the law, has been secured by his holy life and meritorious death. When, therefore, they enter heaven, it is not over prostrated law; over an humbled government; over disregarded threatenings; by a changeful policy; or by partiality in the administration; it is because their Great Surety has himself secured the honour of the law, and because in their conscious destitution of merit he has enough for them all. His name is the guarantee to justice and to God; his inexhaustible merits, the reason why they may be treated as if his righteousness were their own.

This is what is properly meant by imputation. The true doctrine implies no transfer of moral character; no infusion of righteousness into the soul; no physical identity between the Redeemer and his people; no such charging of their sins to him as that he became in any proper sense a sinner, or deserved to be put to death,—nothing but the purpose on the part of God, in virtue of what he has done, to treat those who are themselves guilty as if they were righteous. "By that righteousness being imputed to us," says President Edwards, "is meant no other than this, that the righteousness of Christ is accepted for us, and admitted instead of that perfect inherent righteousness which ought to be in ourselves. Christ's perfect obedience shall be reckoned to our account, so that we shall have the benefit of it, as though we had performed it ourselves." *

I have thus submitted to you some views on perhaps the most important subject of religion. They pertain to that great doctrine which separates Christianity from every other system of religion, and to the answer which Christianity furnishes to the question, asked with so much solicitude in every age, "How shall man be justified with God?" The answer is, that we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." It is this doctrine which divides the religion of the gospel from other systems; which makes it what it is; which gives it whatever influence or power it has in speaking peace to the troubled conscience, and bidding the spirit that is captive under sin go free. It is this which will enable man to appear *Works, vol. v. p. 394.

before his final Judge justified, not by any miserable attempt to deny the fact that he is a sinner: to apologize for his errors and follies, and found a claim to favour on such apology; to substitute an external morality for that holiness of heart which the law of God requires, or to present as a ground of acceptance the vain oblation of outward forms.

I have endeavoured also to show, that though this method of justification is entirely peculiar to Christianity, and separates it from all other religious systems, yet that it accords with principles prevailing everywhere in society, and on which men act every day and in every land. It is the embodiment and concentration of these principles, and shows their operation on the highest scale possible. Thus, as already remarked, in matters pertaining to this life, we owe to the name, and standing, and credit of others, an introduction to the world; facilities for doing business; valued friends who may succour us in trouble :—and on substantially the same principles, though on an infinitely higher scale, we owe to the merits of another-the Son of God-an introduction to the Divne favour; the friendship of angelic beings; the peace of paron; the calmness of a Christian death; a passport to heaven, and the crown incorruptible beyond the grave. Whatever of joy a peace, of honour or favour, we shall have in the long ages of eernity, is to be traced to the operation, on the highest scale possole, of this principle-that we may be benefited by the sacrifice nd toils, the name and merit, the righteousness and sufferings of Another.

Incommon affairs we do not disregard or undervalue this. Thos who enter on life consider it a felicitous circumstance in their condition, if they may go forth with such passports and commendations to the esteem of the world. That young man woul justly regard himself as destitute of every manly and geneous feeling, as well as every principle of self-respect, who shoid discard and spurn this advantage, and prefer to go forth to the orld without the commendation or the patronage of a single fried. We are going to a more important theatre of being than is tis narrow world. We shall soon pass beyond its outer bouds, and move through other regions. We are to go up and mecour Maker; to enter on a mode of existence that shall have no end to be associated with orders of beings now to us unknown;anchere are great interests at stake, compared with which all the corerns of earth are trifles. We go to a royal court the court of heren-where we have no claim of right to appear. We go up to obin, if admitted there, the favour of a Being whose law we have viated, and whose displeasure we have incurred. We go where

we can take no wealth with us; and where, if we could, it would avail nothing;-where we shall be disrobed of all in a graceful exterior, or in fascinating manners, that may commend us to others here; and where, if it should accompany us, it would be valueless;-where the name of a father, or the powerful influence of a friend that might recommend us to the favour of men, would be of no avail;-where no earthly thing on which we here rely as a passport to others could be a commendation. But there is One in human flesh that dwells there. He once lived among men. He was most holy, and lovely, and pure; but He died. He rose from the tomb, and the everlasting gates were opened, and He entered his native skies. To the very interior of the court of heaven; to the sacred seat of Deity; to the throne itself He has been admitted, and is seated there. With all that heaven He is familiar, for He is there at home. With all its streets of gold; with all its far-disant mansions; with all its many departments fitted up for the abodes of the blessed, He is familiar. His powerful aid He proffers is in our sin and ignorance and helplessness, and assures us of his willingness that we should plead his name, and make mentin of his merits as if they were our own, as a reason why we shoul be welcome there. In heaven, his plea has never been denied the claim of his merits has never been dishonoured. Shall we fuse his offer? Shall we spurn his name? Shall we turn away rom that Friend, and Advocate, and Patron, and go there friedless and alone? Shall we seek to commend ourselves to a holyGod by our own doings, and to stand there in our own attemp to vindicate our ways? Shall we spurn the robes of salvation hich he proffers, so white, so pure, so full and flowing, andgird ourselves with the rags of our own righteousness ?-Howyou, my hearers, may feel on this point, I know not. But for o, I, who expect to stand soon before that holy throne of Deity, sire to have some better righteousness than any which I have een able to work out myself. I wish to have something which Inay plead in the place of that which I have failed to render. I vuld have some better passport to the skies than can be furnisheby my poor prayers and services in the cause of God. I must ve some Friend there whose name is all-prevalent; whose petitic is never denied; and about acceptance through whose merits tre cannot be the shadow of a doubt.

SERMON XXXV.

THE INFLUENCE OF FAITH IN JUSTIFICATION.

ROM. i. 16, 17.-"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

In the last discourse, when showing how we are saved through the merits of Christ, it was remarked, that the means by which we become interested in his merits, or by which they are made available to us, is fuith. I propose now to show the influence of faith in our justification. The doctrine of the text is, that a man is considered just before God, and treated as such, not in virtue of his own works, but in virtue of his exercising faith in Christ. "For therein," that is, in the gospel, "the righteousness of God," or God's plan of regarding and treating men as righteous, "is revealed from faith to faith;" that is, by faith unto those who have faith, or who believe; "as it is written, The just shall live by faith," or those justified by faith shall have everlasting life. It is needless to prove at length that this is the settled doctrine of the New Testament. "Therefore we conclude," says the apostle in the third chapter of this epistle (ver. 28), "that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Again, “By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference," Rom. iii. 20-22. So the apostle Paul says again, "A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ," Gal. ii. 16. In accordance with this, is the great doctrine which the Saviour taught his disciples to promulgate, as comprising all that he designed them to preach: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned," Mark xvi. 15, 16. That is, there is no other method of being saved but by believing, or by faith; and if a man has not this, he must be lost.