So that, if there be any worthiness in our Lord's most holy nature, any merit in his exercise of the sublimest virtues, completed by his submission to the most ignominious sufferings and tormenting death; then, according to this standard system of orthodox divinity, these are the ground, these are the substance. of a sinner's justification. And according to the dictates of the most unbiassed reason, they are the best, the surest ground that can either be wished or imagined.

Does it not from the preceding quotations appear, that the doctrine of justification through the imputed righteousness of our Redeemer is far from being disclaimed by the established church? I am sorry, but constrained to own, that we rarely find any considerable strictures of this great evangelical peculiarity in our modern theological discourses. Yet there have been preachers of the highest repute for learning, for judgment, and for piety, who professedly maintained this grand truth of the gospel.

The devout bishop Beveridge, in his Private Thoughts, has left upon record the following very remarkable acknowledgment; which if it suited his state of eminent holiness, cannot be too humbling, my dear Theron, for your lips and for mine: 'I do not remember, neither do I believe, that I ever prayed in all my lifetime with that reverence, or heard. with that attention, or received the sacrament with that faith, or did any work with that pure heart and single eye, as I ought to have done insomuch, that I look upon all my righte ousness but as filthy rags, and it is in the robes only of the righteousness of the Son of God, that I dare appear before the Majesty of heaven.'

The fervent and affectionate bishop Hopkins speaks in perfect consonance with his brother of St. Asaph : The law was given us, not that we should seek justification by the observance of it, but finding it impossible to be justified by fulfilling it, we should thereby be driven to Christ's righteousness, who hath both fulfilled it in himself, and satisfied for our transgressing of it; and therefore saith the apostle, "the law was a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justi

* See his Sermon on John vii. 19.

fled by faith." To this end it was promulged, that seeing the strictness of its precepts, the rigour of its threatenings, and withal being convinced of our impotence to fulfil its commands, we might be urged by its terrors to fly to Christ, and find that righteousness in him which may answer all the demands of the law."

Bishop Reynolds, styled by his contemporaries, and not without reason, 'a walking library,' bears his testimony in the following words: Christ as our surety paid our debt, underwent the curse due to our sins, and bare them all in his own body on the tree; became subject to the law for us, and representatively in our stead fulfilled all the righteousness the law required, active and passive. For sin being once committed, there must be a double act to justification; the suffering of the curse, and the fulfilling of righteousness anew: the one, a satisfaction for the injury we have done to God as our Judge; the other, the performance of a service which we owe unto him as our Maker.'

To this illustrious triumvirate let me join bishop Davenant; who for his great abilities and unquestionable integrity, was appointed one of our religious plenipotentiaries, at the renowned synod of Dort. In his very valuable exposition of the Epistle to the Colossians he writes to this effect: Ye are complete in Christ. Ye are furnished, in that all-sufficient Redeemer, with whatever is requisite to everlasting salvation: with wisdom, since it is the consummation of this noble endowment to know Christ and him crucified; with righteousness, because he has perfectly satisfied the law,t

See his treatise entitled The Life of Christ; which, as well as all his other works, abound with striking sentiments, have much elegance of diction, a copious variety of learning, and a lively animating spirit of evangelical piety.

+ In this respect principally (says our author, enlarging upon the text) are believers complete, because though destitute of any righteousness that may properly be called their own, Christ has graciously enriched them with his. Vid. Davenant, in Epist. ad Coloss. cap. ii. com. 10.

Let me beg leave to intimate, that this exposition of the Epistle to the Colossians-the perspicuity of style and accuracy of method-for judgment in discerning, aud fidelity in representing the apostle's meaning-for strength of argument in refuting errors, and felicity of invention in deducing practical doctrines, tending both to the establishment of faith and the cultivation of holiness, is, I think, inferior to no writing of the kind; and

and thoroughly expiated our guilt; with sanctification, because his Spirit dwelling in our hearts mortifies our corrupt affections, and renews the soul after the image of its Creator."

Let me bring up the rear with a testimony, which, for clearness, solidity, and a full representation of the evangelical doctrine, might very justly have claimed a place in the van. It is taken from an author, whom the general consent of our nation has distinguished with the title of judicious. The judicious Hooker, in a Treatise on Justification, says, 'It is a childish cavil our adversaries so greatly please themselves with, exclaiming, that we tread all Christian virtues under our feet, because we teach, that faith alone justifieth: whereas, by this speech we never meant to exclude either hope or charity from being always joined as inseparable mates with faith in the man that is justified, or works from being added, as necessary duties required of every justified man; but to shew that faith is the only hand, which putteth on Christ to justification, and Christ the only garment, which being so put on, covereth the shame of our defiled natures, hideth the imperfection of our works, and preserveth us blameless in the sight of God; before whom, otherwise, the weakness of our faith were cause sufficient to make us culpable, yea, to shut us out of the kingdom of Heaven, where nothing that is not absolute can enter."

You will allow the sagacious bishop Sanderson to sum up the evidence; or rather to make an important remark on the whole of the controversy. That great light of the church, both in casuistical and practical divinity, observes, The tidings of a Redeemer must be blessed and welcome news to those that are sensible of their own poverty, and take it of grace. Our eagleeyed divine penetrates into the true cause of the prevailing averseness to this evangelical doctrine. founded on the state of the heart, more than upon any force of argument. People are but little, if at all, sensible of their spiritual and moral indigence; of the

It is

richly deserves to be read, to be studied, to be imitated, by our young divines.

See his sermon upon Isa. lii. 3.

defects which depreciate, and the defilements which sully, whatever they have, and whatever they do. Nay, strongly tinctured with pride, they would be themselves the alpha, and suffer the blessed Jesus to be no more than the omega, in procuring their eternal salvation. Therefore they can hardly be reconciled to the humbling character of an eleemosynary, one who lives wholly upon the alms of the gospel, and is dependent upon grace for his all.

Whereas, were this grand obstacle removed; were men convinced of sin, of exceeding sinfulness in their worst estate, and of remaining sinfulness in their best; they would soon be convinced of righteousness," of the absolute necessity and inestimable worth of a Redeemer's righteousness; they would no longer dispute against it, but cordially receive it, entirely rely on it, and adore the goodness, the transcendent and unutterable goodness of God, in providing it.

I think, in one of our conferences I undertook to produce my vouchers from the ancient fathers. Let me now subjoin two or three attestations of this kind: from one of which you will perceive that those early writers had a considerable degree of clearness upon the point; from the other you will see that, far from rejecting the doctrine, they embrace it with delight and rapture; and if you will admit of the last, you cannot be startled at any thing which I shall advance upon the subject. Let me only premise in general, that if those authors are not so copious and explicit with regard to the imputation of active righteousness, they abound in passages which evince the substitution of Christ in our stead; passages which disclaim all dependance on any duties of our own, and fix the hopes of a believer entirely upon the merits of his Saviour. When this is the case, I am very little solicitous about any particular forms of expression, and far from being angry, even though the words which I think most significant are not retained.

Clemens, an intimate acquaintance of St. Paul's, and whose name was in the Book of Life,t in his truly excellent Epistle to the Corinthians, assures that people,t John xvi. 8. + Phil. iv. 3. Οι δι' εαυτών δικαιούμεθα, ουδε δια της ημετέρας

We are not, in any respect or in any degree, justified by ourselves, but wholly by Jesus Christ: not by our own wisdom or prudence, which could never find out the way; not by the piety of our hearts, or works of righteousness performed in our lives, which could never be sufficient for the purpose; but by faith, the one invariable method by which the Almighty Sovereign has justified all his people ever since the world began. Justin, who was first a Gentile philosopher, then an eminent Christian, and at last a martyr for the truth, speaks more fully to the point: What else could cover our sins, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ? By what possible means could we, unrighteous and unholy creatures, be justified, but only by the' interposi tion of the Son of God' on our behalf? Having in this clause made. a profession of his faith, the good man, on the contemplation of such a privilege, breaks out into a kind of holy transport, 'O sweet and delightful exchange! a dispensation unsearchably wise and gracious! benefits quite unexpected, and rich beyond all our hopes! that the sin of many should be hid by one righteous Person, and that the righteousness of one should justify many transgressors.'

The following words are remarkably strong, and the sentiments peculiarly bold; but they come from the pen of the finest writer in ecclesiastical antiquity; they have the great name and venerable character of St. Chrysostom for their recommendatory preface + Fear σοφίας, η συνεσεως, η ευσέβειας, η έργων ων κατείργασα μεθα εν οσιότητι καρδιας" αλλα δια της πιστεως, δι' ης παντας τους απ' αιώνος ο παντοκρατωρ Θεός εδικαίωσεν. 1 Epist. ad Corinth. This quotation is explained as well as translated; but that every reader may distinguish the text from the paraphrase, the first is printed in Italic, the last in Roman characters.

• Τι αλλο τας αμαρτίας ημών ηδυνήθη καλυψαι, η εκείνου δικαιοσυνε; εν τινι δικαιώθηναι δυνατον τους ανα μους ήμας και ασεβείς, η εν τω υιω του Θεού; Ω ΤΗΣ ΓΛΥ ΚΕΙΑΣ ΚΑΤΑΛΛΑΓΗΣ, ω της ανεξιχνίαστου δημιουργίας, ο των απροσδοκήτων δε ενός πολλους ανομους δικαίωση. Epist. ad Diogn. Though Du Pin questions the authority of this epistle, he allows it to have been written by an ancient hand. Dr. Cave, as capable a judge, thinks there is no reason to doubt but it is the genuine work of Justin.

† Μη τοινυν φοβηθης, ως τον νόμον παραβαίνων, επει