by an exercise of faith; that is, the sinner upon conviction that he cannot obtain justification by the deeds of the law, makes a believing application to Christ as his surety, whereupon Christ's righteousness is set over to the sinner's account, and the law recognizes it as his, as much as if he had accomplished it himself. Hence we are said to be justified by faith.

Parishioner. If we are justified in this way, entirely irrespective of our deeds, is there not a danger that we may feel a diminished sense of obligation to the law?

Pastor. Wicked men may pervert the doctrine, but those who believe it truly, are in no danger in this respect. The same Scriptures, which unfold this doctrine, declare the perpetual authority of the law as a rule of life. Our obligations to obedience are in no sense diminished. We do not indeed obey it in the hope of obtaining justification from it, but we obey it because God commands; because faith necessarily leads to obedience; because we cannot be personally holy without such obedience; and above all, because the sinner who is justified, is at the same time renewed in the image of God, and therefore loves the divine law, and desires above all things to comply with its holy requisitions. God forbids, and all the circumstances of the case forbid, that because grace is manifested in our justification, we should live in sin that grace may abound.

Parishioner. I have heard it affirmed that justification is nothing else than pardon.

Pastor. I am aware that this is said, but the opinion must be the result of a very partial and imperfect apprehension of the way of salvation. Justification is a term derived from legal proceedings, and is the act by which an individual is acquitted of a charge on evidence that he is not legally answerable for it. The act pronounces him just. On the contrary, an individual may be pardoned by an act of clemency, when the law adjudges him guilty. In justification, therefore, not only are our personal iniquities pardoned, but our persons are accepted as righteous in the sight of God, on account of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.

Parishioner. With what propriety can it be said that God pardons our sins, if Christ has made a full atonement for them? If he has paid our debt, how can God be said to forgive it?

Pastor. Christ it is true, paid our debt but it was mere

grace which accepted that payment instead of exacting it from us personally; so with propriety it may be said to be forgiven us, although paid by our surety. The very ground on which alone our pardon was possible, was provided by the grace of God. He pardons us therefore, although he exacts from our substitute a full payment.

Parishioner. You say a man is justified by faith; is faith ever the proper ground of justification?

Pastor. Certainly not. The righteousness of Christ, the object which faith contemplates, is the exclusive ground of justification; and we are said to be justified by faith, because it is the means by which the righteousness of Christ is received and appropriated. To say that the mere act of believing in God's plan of mercy, is accounted our righteousness, and becomes the basis of our justification, is no better than to say, that we are justified by our works; for faith is our own act. This opinion is the necessary result of a denial of the doctrine of imputation. For if our sins were not imputed to Christ to be atoned for, and his righteousness is not imputed to us for justification, then, God must pardon us by a sovereign act, without any satisfaction made to his justice, or he must receive our own act of faith as cancelling our obligations, or we must perish.

In other words, our only hope must be that God will cease to be just in order that he may be merciful. But this can never be. God has no " darling attribute" in the way of preference, but all his attributes are equally dear to him, as being equally essential to his nature. Justice and mercy must concur and unite in the sinner's salvation, and this can only be the case on the principle before stated, that Christ as our substitute, has not only endured the penalty of the law in our stead, thus saving us from the horrors of perdition, but that he has obeyed the law in our behalf, thus furnishing us a righteousness for justification, and thereby securing our title to heaven. What is called the New Divinity most fatally errs in this particular; commencing with the denial of imputation, it finally leaves the sinner without any scriptural title to heaven. Whatever others may say, it is my firm conviction, that the doctrine of justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ, is essential to the gospel scheme. Take it out of the system and the gospel is no longer "good news;" attempt to modify it, and the scheme of divine truth is marred; suggest a substitute for it, and God will pour confusion on the impious invention. Thus you may see that the doctrines

of truth so far as they have fallen under our consideration, beautifully cohere; while a system of error, the further we trace it, becomes worse, and more disjointed.

Parishioner. I have never seen the importance of the doctrine of imputation in so clear a light as I do now, and I readily acknowledge that the admission of it, is necessary to a just comprehension of the plan of salvation. I am still anxious, however, to have my mind settled respecting the mode in which a sinner becomes interested in the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Pastor. I will endeavour to make a plain statement on the subject. Thus we have already seen, that by the fall, men are entirely alienated from God; they are averse to all that is good, they are prone to all that is evil; they are the enemies of God, and unwilling to be reconciled to him on the humiliating terms of the gospel; in a word, to use the language of the Confession of Faith, "man by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation, so as a natural man being altogether averse from that which is good and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or prepare himself thereunto."

This is the situation in which the gospel finds all men, and for the remedying of which it is especially provided. Although all men may hear the gospel, yet only some receive its benefits; and the reason is, that they exclusively are made willing in the day of God's power, while the rest, by a righteous exercise of divine sovereignty, are left to their own guilty choice in rejecting the offered salvation. The Holy Spirit, in such cases, accompanies the word with his almighty energy, and makes it effectual in enlightening the understanding, subduing the will, and renewing the heart. Regeneration is a thorough and instantaneous work of the Holy Spirit, implying a change in all the views, dispositions, and habits of the sinner, which could never be effected by any human power. In it, the sinner who was once blind, now sees; he who was once dead, now lives.

Parishioner. Although I admit, sir, that man is depraved, yet I have been inclined to believe that he was not entirely disabled to good. I have supposed that his moral and not his natural faculties were affected by the fall, and hence that his inability referred merely to the will, and was manifested in his indisposition to receive the gospel. And the reference of Scripture appears to be to this kind of inability, when it is said, "we are made willing in the day

of God's power," and in that other passage "ye will not come unto me that ye may have life." Do not these passages imply that a sinner possesses a natural, but not a moral ability to believe, and that he can if he will repent? Pastor. If the distinction between natural and moral ability contemplates no more than this, that in our natural condition, we possess all the faculties of mind, which a regenerated man employs in the service of God, I am ready to admit it. The same natural faculties characterize both the regenerate and unregenerate, and the work of the Spirit on the mind does not increase the number of these faculties. But if the distinction implies that these natural faculties are not disabled by the fall, this I deny, as being contrary to fact.

As an example; the understanding is called a natural faculty, and yet we are assured that it may be so blinded, that the natural man is not able to discern the things of the Spirit. And so it is of all the other faculties; they are perverted by the fall, and are just as much disabled to good, as the will, or governing faculty, as it has been called. The distinction under consideration, however, is of no service in the case, which it is intended to relieve. Let us suppose that the natural faculties of men were entirely unaffected by the fall, and possessed all their pristine vigour and purity, are they sufficient of themselves to accomplish true repentance and faith? Is it not, on the contrary, admitted by all that they are not sufficient? Have not the moral faculties an important part to act? If then the inability of the sinner resides solely in his will, is not the inability as complete and insuperable, as if it had reference to every other faculty? If I had but one hand, and a work was assigned me which could not at all be accomplished except by the aid of two hands, my inability would be just the same as to the result, as if I were deprived of both hands.

Besides, faith and repentance are eminently moral acts, and no natural ability, in the sense in which the terms are used, can possibly qualify a man for their performance. I admit that there is an inability arising from a defect of will or disposition, and hence it is said " ye will not come unto me that ye may have life;" but the inability refers to all the faculties, and hence it is said, "no man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him." This entire inability is evidently presupposed in the very nature of the gospel provisions, both in the work of Christ

and of the Holy Spirit. We are dead, until Christ gives us life-we are dead, until the Spirit quickens us into life. I feel therefore justified in saying, that it is deceptive to say to the sinner," you can repent if you will," for there is no appropriate ability for the work, but that which is imparted by the Holy Spirit.

Parishioner. According to this representation, I cannot perceive on what principle the sinner can be charged with guilt in continuing impenitent. Is God so hard a master, as to require of us that which we are in no sense able to perform?

Pastor. You suppose a man's obligation is to be measured by his ability, and hence that the want of ability cancels his obligation. Now this, if it be laid down as a general rule, is utterly untenable. A man may on this principle at any time escape from his obligations, by bringing on himself an inability to fulfil them. Is not this a strange and dangerous sentiment.? The truth is, that in the present case, our obligation arises from the command of God; our inability arises from our sin, and hence is a sin itself, instead of being an excuse for disobedience. We have seen that it was righteous in God to impute to us the sin of Adam. Now our inability is one of the consequences of this imputation and is in itself sinful. The criminal existence of it, therefore, can certainly be no reason why God should relax his claims upon us. It is just then that God should still continue to demand, although we have lost the requisite ability to obey. It is true that the sinner is under a solemn obligation to repent, believe, love God, and obey all his commandments; it is true that God expressly requires him to do these things; and yet it is equally true, that he can meet the requisition only in the strength of God, supernaturally communicated to him. It was in this view of our inability, that a Saviour was provided, who could furnish us with necessary ability, to believe, repent, and perform all holy acts. We have an ability therefore of some kind, but it is solely that ability which God imparts, when he enables us to work out our own salvation, by working in us both to will and to do. We never find Paul boasting of his natural ability, but we hear him exclaiming, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."

If you still say, that there is an apparent injustice in the case, I would answer, that the same difficulty attends