in an intelligible and striking manner, the exercises of a soul when it believes in Christ, but cannot be considered so many distinct acts. Of these figurative expressions, no one is more frequently used, or better suited to express the whole of a genuine faith, than that of "receiving" Christ. "To as many as received him gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' Thus it is described in our Larger Catechism. "Justifying faith is a saving grace wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and word of God; whereby, he being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures, to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the Gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness therein held forth, for the pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation." This view of the subject is at once accurate and practical. How refreshing would it be to the people of God to hear preaching in the strain and spirit of this, and many other answers in our Larger Catechism, instead of cold moral harangues or metaphysical disquisitions, with which they are too frequently put off.

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Another description of faith in our "Confession" is remarkable for giving, in few words, a just and comprehensive view of the nature of faith in its diversity of actings, under the view of truths of a different kind. It is as follows, "The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts; and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word. * * * By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true, whatever is revealed in the word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein; and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace."*

From the view which has been taken of this subject, it is plain, that the thing to be believed, is not that Christ is already mine; or that he died for me in particular; or that my sins are pardoned. All these things may be certainly

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Confession of Faith, chap. xiv. 1, 2.

are true.

believed to be true by him who has first received Christ as offered; but until this is done, he cannot have any just ground of evidence that these propositions, or others of a similar kind, We may, and ought, however, to believe that God does truly and sincerely offer Christ and all his benefits to us in the Gospel, and this gracious offer is the ground of our warrant for receiving him as our Saviour. Some choose to call this offer a grant of Christ to the world; and insist, therefore, that we ought to believe in the very first instance, that Christ is ours. On this subject, we hope there is no real difference of opinion at bottom; we like to adhere to the plain language of the Scriptures, and of our standards. If it be asked whether there is not an appropriating act of faith? I answer that no act of ours can be more of an appropriating nature than receiving. He who receives Christ receives him as his complete and all sufficient Saviour. If one offers to another a large estate, the acceptance of the offer is the appropriating act. It would, however, in our judgment, be more correct to say, that God appropriated Christ and his benefits to us, when he imputed to us Christ's righteousness, and justified our persons.

We must not, however, overlook the necessity of a real and deep conviction of sin; not as a preparation for regeneration, but as a process suited to us as rational, moral agents. It is suitable that a sinner, whom God is about to save, should be made sensible in some measure, of his true condition. How otherwise could he exercise due gratitude for redeeming mercy? This appears to have been the common experience of those brought to believe in the times of the apostles; as on the day of Pentecost, in the prison of Philippi, and in the experience of Paul himself, who says, "I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." And again, "I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God." "For I had not known sin, unless the law had said thou shalt not covet." So then, "And the commandment which was ordained unto life, I found to be unto death."

SECTION XI.

THE TIME OF JUSTIFICATION.

On this subject men have erred on the widest possible extremes; for while some strenuously insist that justification is

from eternity, thus confounding it with election, or the purpose to justify; others are equally confident, that there can be no proper justification until after our account is rendered at the day of judgment; while a few would refer it to the time of Christ's resurrection when he as our substitute received an acquittance, and arose from the dead as the triumphan Head of all his people. But all these opinions are unscrip tural. If we are justified by faith, we cannot obtain this blessing until we believe; and it is equally certain, that upon this principle, our justification cannot be postponed until the final judgment.

The orthodox opinion may be thus expressed. From eternity, God determined to justify his chosen people, freely, through the mediation of his Son; by the obedience and death of Christ a solid foundation was laid for their justification, in consistence with the demands of law and justice; when an elect sinner is united to Christ and believes, his faith is imputed for righteousness; that is, the righteousness of Christ which is the object of faith, is made over to him, and his sins are, in that moment, pardoned, and his person accepted as righteous, in the sight of God, or in other words he is justified; and at the day of judgment, there will be a public manifestation of their being the disciples of Christ and the servants of God, by bringing to view before the assembled universe all their works of piety, justice, and mercy. Their thoughts will then be made manifest, also their words, and deeds; and the Judge of all, will declare them to be exempt from every charge, and will assign to them a portion in the heavenly inheritance, according as their works shall be found. He will say, "Come ye blessed inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

SECTION XII.

THE DOCTRINE OF JAMES.

There is an apparent contradiction of Paul's doctrine by James, where he says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered up Isaac his son upon the altar." Again, " Ye see then, how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith alone."

"Likewise also, was not Rahab, the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way."

The reconciliation of these declarations with those of Paul can only be made by supposing James to speak of another kind of faith, and, perhaps, of another kind of justification, from Paul. And when the whole passage is carefully examined this thing becomes evident. He is censuring such as spoke good words to the needy, but gave no relief. "Even so," says he, "faith if it have not works is dead." Paul speaks of a genuine faith which works by love and purifies the heart; James of a barren and dead faith. "Though a man say he hath faith and hath not works can faith save him?" That is, can this empty profession of faith-this barren faithsave him? So through the whole passage he is evidently speaking of a mere empty profession of faith, or a mere historical faith, such as devils have. And some suppose that this is sufficient to remove the whole difficulty. They allege, that by works, James evidently means a true faith distinguished by the works which it produces; and that all that he aimed to establish was, that justification could not be obtained by a dead faith, but by a living operative faith which could only be manifested to others by works. But if we suppose, that he uses the word justify in a sense different from that of Paul, the difficulty will be still further relieved. Paul was speaking of a sinner's first acceptance with God by faith in Christ, James of cases in which a good man proves himself to be such by performing eminent works of righteousness, by which it became manifest that his faith was genuine, for while nominal professors said they had faith, which they could not show, as having no works to evidence it, he justified himself, by showing his faith by his works, as Abraham did, when he performed that extraordinary act of obedience of offering up his own son; and Rahab, in concealing and sending away the spies at the peril of her own life. Abraham's first justification took place long before this memorable event; but by this he manifested to all men, the sincerity and vigour of his faith." Seest thou," says James," how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect." Faith was operative in producing good works, and these works served to evince the sincerity of his faith, showing most clearly, that his faith was of the right kind. What the apostle James inculcates so earnestly is, that that faith which was imputed to Abraham for righteousness, was not a dead faith, such as these false professors boasted of, but was a faith productive of good works; and in this sense he was said to be justified by works.

CONCLUSION.

In conclusion we will sum up the leading particulars; and add a few thoughts, not sufficiently brought forward in the body of the essay.

1. Justification is an act of God. "It is God that justifieth."

2. Justification is a forensic term, that is, borrowed from the proceedings of courts of justice among men." It is the opposite of condemnation; and is not a work wrought within a man, but an act by which he is acquitted from every charge, and declared to be righteous in the eye of the law.

3. Justification by the law is impossible to a sinner; for the law cannot justify a man whom it condemns as a sinner. But" by the law is the knowledge of sin."

4. Justification without respect to some law, and some righteousness rendered to the law, is inconceivable.

5. No righteousness can be the ground of a sinner's justification, but one which is perfect; therefore faith cannot be our justifying righteousness; neither can our evangelical obedience and good works. When faith is said to be imputed for righteousness, we should understand the object of faith, namely Christ's righteousness. This is called the righteousness of faith, because faith apprehends and receives it.

6. The righteousness of Christ consists of his perfect obedience to the law, and his atoning sacrifice; both of which are requisite to be set down to the sinner's account, before he can be justified.

7. Justification does not consist merely in the pardon of sin, but includes adoption, and the acceptance of our persons as righteous.

8. The righteousness of Christ by which we are justified does not become ours by transfusion, or by the transfer of his holy acts to our souls, but by Imputation, which is the reckoning this to us, or granting it to us, and treating us accordingly.

9. Justification is complete in the first moment of believing It may be rendered more evident to ourselves and others by holy living, but our obedience adds nothing to the perfection of our justification.

10. Justification includes a full pardon for all our past sins, and an ample provision for the pardon of all which the believer may afterwards commit. Just as if a man owes a debt to a merchant, and some rich man deposits a sum and has it set down to his account, which is not only sufficient to