not,' says he, 'on account of any of thy past transgressions of the law, when once thou hast fled by faith to Jesus Christ. The most enormous and the most destructive violation of the law is, to be withheld, by the consciousness of any guilt whatever, from believing on Christ. When thou actest faith on him, thou hast fulfilled, I might say more than fulfilled, the law; for thou has received a better righteousness than it could ever require: thou art possessed of a better obedience than any creature could possibly pay.'

Two or three witnesses of distinguished ability and undoubted veracity are a sufficient confirmation of any

For this reason, and to avoid a tiresome prolixity, I have set aside a multitude of voices, which, from the writings of our own and foreign divines, are ready to pour their united evidence; and lest the business of quotation, though sparingly managed, should seem dry and tedious, I will relieve your weariness, and enliven the collection, by an extract from the prince of English poetry. Michael, the prophetic archangel, mentioning the destructive consequences of the fall, and asserting the Godhead of that glorious Person who undertook to be the repairer of this deadly breach, dds,

Which he, who comes thy Saviour, shall secure,

Not by destroying Satan, but his works,

In thee and in thy seed. Nor can this be,

But by fulfilling (that which thou didst want)
Obedience to the law of God, impos'd

On penalty of death; and suffering death,
The penalty to thy transgression due;

And due to theirs, which out of thine will grow.
So only can high justice rest appaid.

Here, then, is the express determination of our homilies, supported by the authority of our articles, esta blished by the concurrence of our liturgy, still farther ratified by the unanimous attestation of several celebrated divines, whose lives were the brightest ornament to our church, and whose writings are the most unex

δαν τη πίστει προσήλθες τότε γαρ αυτόν παραβαίνεις, οτε δι' αυτόν τω Χριστω μη πιστευσης" ως αν πιστευσης αυτώ, κακείνον επληρώσας και πολλω πλέον η εκελευσε πολλω γαρ μείζονα δικαιοσυνην έλαβες. Hom. xvii. in x. * Milton, book xil. 393.

ad Rom.

ceptionable interpretation of her meaning. As a ca pital, to crown and complete this grand column, super. venes the declaration of the ancient fathers, those who flourished, and with the highest renown, in the first and purest ages of Christianity. So that, if great authorities carry any weight, if illustrious names challenge any regard, this tenet comes attended and dig nified with very considerable credentials.

Yet I will venture to affirm, that all these, considerable as they appear, are the least of those testimonials which recommend the doctrine to my Theron's acceptance, and which have gained it admittance into the heart of His most affectionate,

ASPASIO.

LETTER IV.

Aspaslo re-establishes the tenet from the Scriptures of the
Old Testament.

Apasio to Theron,

DEAR THERON,

THE family in which I have the satisfaction to reside, though remarkable for their genteel figure and ample fortune, are still more amiably distinguished by their benevolence, hospitality, and charity. As they live at a distance from the market-town, the lady has converted one apartment of her house into a little dispensatory, and stocked it with some of the most common, the most needed, and most salutary medicines, which, in cases of ordinary indisposition, she distributes to her indigent neighbours, with singular compassion, and with no small success. This fine morning Emilia has ordered some skilful hands into the fields to cull their healing simples, and lay up a magazine of health for the af flicted poor. Camillus is withdrawn to receive his rents, and settle accounts with his tenants.

Suppose we act in concert with these valuable persons; suppose we range the delightful fields of Scripture, and form a collection, not of salutiferous herbs,

but of inestimable texts, such as may be of sovereign efficacy to assuage the anguish of a guilty conscience, and impart saving health to the distempered soul: suppose we open the mines of divine inspiration, and enrich ourselves, not with the gold of Ophir, but with the unsearchable treasures of Christ, or with that perfect righteousness of our Redeemer, which is incomparably more precious than the revenues of a county or the produce of Peru.

In pleading for imputed righteousness, we have already urged the authority of our established church, and the suffrage of her most eminent divines. The opinion of excellent writers, which has been the result of much learning, great attention, and earnest prayer, is no contemptible evidence: yet we must always re. serve the casting voice for those infallible umpires the prophets and apostles. If we receive,' with a deferential regard, the witness of men, the witness of God is greater;" and challenges the most implicit submission; which remark naturally leads me to the intended subject of this epistle, or rather calls upon me to fulfil my late engagement, and shew, that the above-mentioned doctrine is copiously revealed through the whole process of the Scriptures.

Let me detach a very significant portion from the Epistle to the Romans; which, though little inferior to a decisive proof, is produced only as an introduction to others: 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. The righteousness of God signifies that righteousness which the incarnate God wrought out in his own all-glorious person: it is styled the righteousness

1 John v. 9.

+ Rom. iii. 21, 22.

This explication, or something to the same purpose, has oCcurred already; but it is hoped the candid reader will not condemn the repetition as a disagreeable and jejune tautology; because it is so consonant to the practice of our great apostle, who repeats the term, reinculcates the doctrine, and hardly knows how to desist from the favourite topic; like one who was quite enamoured with the subject, who found music in the words, and whose happiness was bound up in the blessing, because it is conformable to another and a greater example. The Lord Jehovah himself, within the compass of one chapter, once and again, yea,

of God by way of superlative pre-eminence, in opposi tion to any righteousness of our own, and in contradistinction to the righteousness of all creatures whatever. This righteousness is without the law: its efficacy has no dependance on, its merit receives no addition from any conformity of our practice to the divine law, being complete, absolutely complete in itself, and altogether sufficient to procure the reconciliation and ac ceptance of sinners. This righteousness is witnessed by the law and the prophets,' receives a uniform attestation from the various writings of the Old Testament: to investigate which attestation, to examine its pertinency, and weigh its sufficiency, is our present pleasing business.

We may begin with that gracious declaration made to the first transgressors: The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head,' shall destroy the works of the devil, and retrieve whatever was lost by his mali. cious artifices.t How could this be effected but by restoring that righteousness which for a while our first parents possessed, which they ought always to have held fast, but from which they so soon and so unhap pily swerved? Take the position in the right sense, and Christianity is, if not entirely, yet very nearly as old as the creation. It was comprehended in this blessed promise, as the stamina of the largest plants are contained in the substance of their respective seeds; every subsequent revelation being no more than a gradual evolution of this grand evangelical principle, acting like the vegetative powers of nature, which, in rearing an oak with all its spread of branches, only expand the tunicles, and fill up the vessels of the acorn.

This doctrine seems to have been typically taught by the remarkable manner of clothing our first parents. All they could do for their own recovery was like the

a third and a fourth time, styles this wonderful obedience, "My righteousness: as though the God of infinite perfection gloried in it, thought himself most eminently magnified by it, and was jealous to have all the honour resulting from it. See Isa. l. Gen. iii. 15.

+ In some such sense I think our first parents must understand the promise; otherwise it could yield them no effectual relief under the distressing sense of their own misery, and the dismal apprehension of their posterity's ruin.

patched and beggarly mantle of fig-leaves. This they relinquish, and God himself furnishes them with apparel. Animals are slain, not for food, but sacrifice: and the naked criminals are arrayed with the skins of those slaughtered beasts. The victims figured the expiation of Christ's death; the clothing typified the imputation of his righteousness. In perfect conformity, perhaps with a reference to the passage thus interpreted, the apostle just now expressed himself, even the righteousness of God, which is not only made overt to all be. lievers as a rich portion, but putt upon all as a beautiful garment, whereby alone their moral deformity can be covered, and their everlasting confusion prevented. Milton, it is certain, speaking of this memorable transaction, considers it in the same spiritual sense

Nor he their outward only with the skins
Of beasts, but inward nakedness (much more
Opprobrious!) with his robe of righteousness
Arraying, covered from his Father's sight.

'In thy seed,' says the great Jehovah to his servant Abraham, 'shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.'t That the seed here mentioned is Christ, the apostles places beyond all doubt. Both Scripture and reason declare, that true blessedness must necessarily include the pardon of sins and the favour of God, the sanctifi cation of our souls, and the inheritance of life eternal; none of which are to be acquired by any human per formances; but all are to be sought, and all may be found, in the root and offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ, who is therefore most pertinently styled, The Desire of all Nations: the actual desire of every enlightened nation, and the impliqit desire of all nations whatever; because all, without any exception, covet what is to be derived only from Jesus Christ the righteous, real happiness.

The patriarchal age, and the legal economy, bore

Gen. iii. 21.

+ Rom. iii. 22. ΕΙΣ παντας, ΕΠΙ παντας τους πιστεύον Gen. xxii. 18.

τας.

See St. Paul's comment upon this invaluable promise, Gal. lil. 8, &c. This commentator, we all allow, was guided by the Spirit, and knew the mind of God. According to his exposition of the text, it is pregnant with the doctrine of justification by faith, and contains an abridgment of the gospel.

Hag. ii. 7.