66 accuser. Then, as St. Paul says, 'Every mouth is stopped, and "all the world is guilty before GOD.' Under these circumstances, "when there is no health or hope in us, when we hide our faces and are speechless, the All-merciful God, as we are taught in the "Gospel, for CHRIST's sake, freely pardons and justifies us."— pp. 77, 78. 66 66 3. It is wholly from GOD. .... "Justification is wholly the work of God; it comes from GoD "to us; it is a power exerted on our souls by Him, as the healing of the Israelites was a power exerted on their bodies. "CHRIST's Cross does not justify by being looked at, but by being applied; not by being gazed at in faith, but by being actually 66 $set up within us, and that not by our act, but by God's invisi"ble grace. .. Man cannot make the SAVIOUR of the world his 66 own; the Cross must be brought home to us, not in word, but "in power, and this is the work of the SPIRIT. This is justifica"tion; but when imparted to the soul, it draws blood, it heals, "it purifies, it glorifies."-p. 203. 4. Justification is perfect at once, renewal or sanctification gradual. 66 "He sanctifies us gradually; but justification is a perfect act, "realizing at once what sanctification does but tend towards. "In it, the whole course of sanctification is anticipated, reckoned, or imputed to us in its very beginning. Before man has done "any thing as specimen, or paid any thing as instalment, he has "the whole treasures of redemption put to his credit, as if he were and had done infinitely more than he ever can be or do. .. Thus justification is at first what renewal could be but "at last; and, therefore, is by no means a mere result or consequence of renewal, but an independent, though not a distinct "act of God's mercy."-p. 79. 66 66 ..... 5. Justification, meaning thereby the Christian's being made well-pleasing to GOD at all, does not vary; only, when used to denote the degree of that acceptableness, is it increased or diminished with holiness. "We here see in what sense it is true that justification admits "of increase, and in what, not. The fact that we are the Temple “of God does not admit of more or less; the words have no "meaning when applied to it. Righteousness then, considered as the state of being God's temple, cannot be increased; but, "considered as the divine glory which that state implies, it can "be increased, as the pillar of the cloud which guided the Israel"ites could become more or less bright."-p. 168. 6. Baptized infants are justified, as being made members of CHRIST. 66 66 "This view of the subject enables us to understand how "infants may be regenerate, though they give no indications of being so. For as God dwelt secretly in His material Temple, ever hallowing it, yet only in season giving sensible evidences "of what was there, so may He be present with their souls, rescuing them from Satan, and imparting new powers, mani"festing new objects, and suggesting new thoughts and desires, "without their being conscious or others witnesses of His work." -p. 169. 66 7. Justification, although an act at first external to ourselves, requires our subsequent concurrence. 66 "For these reasons, then, though justification, properly speaking, is a work external to us, it may be viewed as consisting in " evangelical obedience; first, because obedience is specially in"volved in GoD's imputation; next, because He does vouchsafe to "realize in part within us what He has provided in its fulness 66 66 out of us; and, lastly, because our concurrence in being justi fied, is a necessary condition of His justifying."-p. 104. 8. Justification, though productive of renewal, is distinct from it in idea. "If the justifying Word be attended by the spiritual entrance "of CHRIST into the soul, justification is perfectly distinct from "renewal, with which Romanists identify it, yet directly pro"ductive of it, which strict Protestants deny. The latter say "that renewal is a collateral result with justification from faith; "the former say that it precedes justification. Rather CHRIST'S "sacred presence, which shines forth in the heart straight upon "the word of justification, creates a renewal there, as certainly ast a light involves illumination, or fire heat. The one cannot "be separated from the other except in idea, unless the sun's rays can be separated from the sun, or the power of purifying "from water."—p. 170, 171. 66 66 ... 9. Justification does not consist in renewal or sanctification, or any thing of our own. 66 66 "Thus an examination of the promises made us in Scripture, "bears out the conclusion we had already drawn on other grounds, that the righteousness, on which we are called righteous, or are justified, that in which justification results or consists, which conveys or applies the great. gospel privileges, that "this justifying principle, though within us, as it must be, if it "is to separate us from the world, yet is not of us or in us, not any quality or act of our minds, not faith, not renovation, not "obedience, not any thing cognizable by man, but a certain "divine gift in which all these qualifications are included."p. 159. See also p. 173; Lect. ii. "Obedience considered as the formal cause of Justification;" Lect. viii. "Righteousness viewed as a Gift and as a Quality;" and App. § 4. p. 395–397. and below, on No. 11. 66 10. Our justification consists in our being members of CHRIST. 66 "That our justification, or our being accounted righteous by Almighty God, consists in our being grafted into the Body, or "made members of CHRIST, in GoD dwelling in us and our dwelling in GoD, and that the HOLY GHOST is the gracious Agent in "this wonderful work,-all this has been argued from Scripture "in various ways."-p. 233. See also p. 167, quoted Letter, p. 77. 11. Christians please GOD through the character of their obedience, not its perfectness. "The justifying Word, then, conveys the SPIRIT, and the "SPIRIT makes our works pleasing' and 'acceptable' to GOD, "and acceptableness is righteousness; so that the justified are "just, really just, in degree indeed more or less, but really in "this respect, that their obedience has in it a gracious quality, "which the obedience of unregenerate man has not."-p. 99. "Christians, fulfil the Law, in the sense of pleasing God; "and pleasing' is a very significant word, when well weighed. "Not that we are able to please Him simply and entirely, (for "'in many things we offend all ;' and 'if we say we have no sin, 66 we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,') but that the presence of the SPIRIT is a sanctifying virtue in our hearts, changing the character of our services, making our obedience new in kind, not merely fuller in degree, and in this sense a "satisfying obedience, rising up, answering to the kind of obe"dience which is due from us, to the nature of the claims which our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier has upon us."—p. 100. 66 66 66 12. Increase in sanctification does not diminish the necessity of pardon, in order to a man's remaining justified. b "In justifying, GOD takes away what is past, by bringing in "what is new. He takes us out of the fire, by lifting us in His "everlasting hands, and enwrapping us in His own glory. “Such is justification; but is it not plain that in its beginnings "it will consist of scarcely any thing but pardon? because all "that we have hitherto done is sinful in its nature, and has to be "pardoned, but to be renewed is a work of time; whereas as "time goes on, and we become more holy, it will consist more in "renewal, if not less in pardon, and at least there is no original “sin, as when it was first granted, to be forgiven. It takes us "then at Baptism out of original sin, and leads us all through life "towards the purity of Angels. Naturally, then, when the word “is used to denote the beginning of a justified state, it only, or "chiefly, means acceptance; when the continuance, chiefly sanc"tification. Writers, then, of congenial sentiments, or the same "writers on different occasions, will speak of it first as consisting “in the remission of sins, with Calvin or Melanchthon, next with "the Romanists, as consisting in renewal."-pp. 112, 113. add p. 128. And, in contrast with the Roman view, that the inherent righteousness of Christians, after justification, is that which constitutes their justified state. 66 "Such then is on the part of the extreme Romanists, the reso"lution of the question how inherent righteousness stands the scrutiny of divine holiness and constitutes our acceptance; they answer that it consists in an inward divine gift, which has the "power of applying, or springs from the application of CHRIST'S "merits, and so effects or presupposes the cleansing of all sin in 66 66 us. Protestants, on the other hand, are accustomed to consider "that the immediate antecedent to justification is an act of par"don from without upon the soul to be justified, which act, in consequence, is considered its formal cause. Now there are "many difficulties attending this theory, but its strength in argu"ment with Romanists lies in the authorities which can be brought 66 |