the subject of the present section; and it has been truly said, that we may compile from it a short catechism of the gospel righteousness. Why is this righteousness termed the righteousness of God? Because it is even he who gives it freely by his grace, independently of the works of the law. How is it applied to the soul? By faith in Jesus Christ, who has purchased redemption for us through his blood. Who has given us this holy victim, to die for our sins? God hath set him forth, to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. To whom does this righteousness extend? To believers in every age and every nation, even unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Why was this righteousness only manifested in these last days? Because God would thus lead us to feel more deeply our need of reconciliation with him; because he would thus emphatically declare his faithfulness in the accomplishment of his promises; and because he would thus teach us to estimate the mysterious virtue of that most precious blood, which taketh away sin in every age, past, present, and to come. Lastly, how can God be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus? How can his righteousness be so declared, as at once to manifest that hatred against sin, which demands the exercise of his justice, and that love for the person of the

2 Quesnel.

sinner, which leads him to justify and save him? How can he who appears under the law, as a just and condemning God, appear under the Gospel, as a just and yet a saving God? All this is done through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood!

SECTION X.

CHAP. iii. ver. 27-31.

THE LAW NOT ABOLISHED, BUT ESTABLISHED BY FAITH.

The portion of the epistle which formed the subject of the last section, closed with what I described to you as the grand paradox of the Gospel, viz. the manner in which God is "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." In the five remaining verses of the chapter, the apostle supports, by new and powerful arguments, this all-important doctrine of justification by faith.

"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justi

Is he

fied by faith without the deeds of the law. the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? yea, we establish the law.

God forbid:

In the above passage, St. Paul seems to strengthen what he had been saying respecting the doctrine of justification by faith, by these three arguments: viz. that this doctrine tends to advance the glory of God; that God is the God, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles; and that this doctrine tends to establish the law.

1. This doctrine tends, in the first place, to promote the glory of God. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.* Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. St. Paul here says, that all boasting, whether on the part of Jew or Gentile, is utterly excluded, "that no flesh should glory in his presence." And if you ask how or upon what ground boasting is excluded, he answers, that it is excluded, not by the law of works, or the method of justifying men on the ground of their own obedience, but by the law of faith, or the method of justifying believers, or accounting them righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Sa

* Note 8.

6

11 Cor. i. 29.

viour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings.' The words which I have just repeated, form part of the eleventh Article of our church; and they may be regarded as a paraphrase of the apostle's declaration in the twentyeighth verse, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. For he excludes the deeds of the law, as far as those deeds are relied on as meritorious causes of our justification or salvation; there being but one only cause of that description, viz. the meritorious obedience and sufferings of our dear Redeemer and Saviour, Jesus Christ.*

2. St. Paul goes on to shew, in the second place, that this doctrine of justification by faith without the deeds of the law, as a title to eternal life, is strengthened by the knowledge of this truth, viz. that God is the God, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Had justification been by the works of the Mosaic law, which is the law more particularly referred to in the chapter before us, it might have been thought that God was the God of the Jews only. But, as the apostle asks, is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. For has

it not been clearly shewn in the progress of the argument, that "all," whether Jews or Gentiles, "are under sin ?" And is it not meet, therefore, that, since all men have alike departed from God, he should, in revealing a way for their recovery and reconciliation, suit it to the general case of all nations, though special reasons might require a temporary restriction of it to one particular people? Yes, he is the God of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. It is probable that the apostle here refers to a passage in Zechariah, in which the prophet foretells the progress of the gospel under the image of "living waters going out from Jerusalem." "And the Lord," as it is there said, "shall be king over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." This prophecy the Jews themselves understood as relating to the times of the Messiah; and it might well be employed, therefore, as a powerful argument in support of the doctrine of justification by Faith. For if God thus emphatically proclaimed himself to be "one Lord," and "his name one," must it not follow that, in the fulness of time, he will reveal one and the same way of reconciliation and salvation to "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues?" If he be "one Lord," and "his name

:

3 Ver. 9.

4 Zech. xiv. 8, 9.

5 Rev. vii. 9.