But the first question here is, What is that faith, which, by the appointment of God is so necessarily concerned in our justification? It is not, I remark, a mere speculative faith, however firmly rooted or long established. Such is the evidence of the Gospel report, that men may assent to its truth, while their hearts are unreconciled to its doctrines; and while these doctrines exert no decisive influence upon their hearts or lives. Such men believe, but their faith is dead, or inactive. The faith which justifies, is a faith of God's operation, and the fruit of the Spirit; a faith which works by love, and which brings the heart into a willing and cheerful obedience to all the Divine commands. In particular, it may be stated, that this faith receives the record which God has given of his Son, cordially approves of his character and work, and with an eye steadfastly turned towards him as the grand medium of mercy to this lost world, humbly trusts in his righteousness and blood, as the meritorious ground of pardon and acceptance with God. The true believer is one who has been thoroughly convinced of his lost and ruined state as a sinner; who has seen and felt the justice of God in his condemnation, and who in his very heart has been made to subscribe to the excellency of God's law, the purity of the precept and the righteousness of the penalty. He has been made willing that God should reign, and has rejoiced to know that he is unalterably determined to maintain the honor of his government. It has been grateful to him to find that God could preserve the rights of his throne, his love of holiness and hatred of sin, and yet, through the mediation of his Son, forgive the penitent and believing sinner. In this state of mind he has embraced Christ as his almighty Saviour and friend, and committed the keeping of his soul unto him, desiring nothing so much as to live to his glory. Such is a true believer, and such the nature of that faith which is indispensably concerned in

our justification. But how is it concerned? Not as a righteousness, you have already heard, whether in whole or in part, on account of which God is pleased to pardon and accept us. How then? Only as the appointed means of bringing the soul into such a union with Christ, that his righteousness may be imputed to us, or improved in our favor. The Scriptures speak much of the believer's union with Christ. They represent it under various similitudes-as the husband and the wife, the vine and the branches, the head and the members, the foundation and the building; and this union is strong and indissoluble. It is both a union of affection and a union of compact; nay, I may say it is a vital union, the Spirit which was given without measure to the head descending abundantly on the members, and quickening them all with the same life-giving power. Now as faith is the grand instrument of forming this union, on our part, and the influence of the Spirit, which works faith in us, the chief mean on his, there seems a propriety in considering faith as that which in a peculiar manner unites the soul to the Redeemer, and consequently that which gives us an interest in his righteousness; and hence it is that we are said to be justified by faith, and by the faith of Christ; because it is by faith that we are thus united to him, and his righteousness reckoned to our account.

Two things are certain from the Bible: that they who are justified stand in a peculiar relation to Christ, as his children, his disciples, his friends, nay, as the members of his body, his flesh and his bones; and that it is faith, the root and source of all other graces, that brings them into or constitutes this relation. This relation supposed, justification follows, not as an act of justice due to the subject of it, but as an act of rich and unmerited grace; which brings me in a few words to inquire, in the

Fifth and last place, wherein it appears that we are justified freely by the grace of God.

By the grace of God, we mean his free and unmerited favor-that which flows from his sovereign goodness, and which he can give or withhold as he pleases, without trespassing upon the rights of those who are concerned. In this sense, the entire scheme and work of our salvation is a matter of grace. God was under no obligation to provide a Saviour for this lost world. He might in justice have passed them by, as he did the rebel angels; and when a Saviour was provided, it was a matter of mere grace that he determined to make this provision in regard to any effectual. He might, so far as justice is concerned, if he had pleased, have left all to reject this salvation which the Gospel proposes-I mean all to whom the Gospel comes-and to sink to a deeper hell for their contempt of his offered mercy. That they are made willing in the day of his power, is a matter of mere grace. All are alike disposed to reject the provisions of the Gospel, and all would reject them if God did not interpose by taking away the heart of stone and giving an heart of flesh. But as in all these steps, so necessary to our justification, there is grace, so it is with justification itself. It is an act in the highest degree gratuitous, God forgiving freely those whom, on the ground of justice, he might eternally punish. Christ, indeed, has died the just for the unjust, and by his death an all-sufficient atonement has been made; but this infers no obligation on the part of God to forgive sin, antecedent to the consideration of his promise in the covenant of redemption. There was no such value or merit in the work of Christ even as to bring the eternal Father into debt, or bind him on the score of justice to dispense pardon to any of the human family. From the absolute infinitude of his nature he can receive nothing from others, not even from his own dear Son, and of course can be brought under

obligation to none except by his own vouchsafement. "For who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again; for of him, and through and to him, are all things." To his Son he promised, as a reward for his labors and sufferings, that he should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; and to all true penitents he gives joyful assurance that he will pass by their transgressions and restore them to his everlasting friendship. But this is all a matter of grace-grace in the provision for these favors, and grace in their actual bestowment; and hence justification itself, no less than the gift of a Saviour, is by the Apostle regarded as an act of God's free grace. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." How great this grace is, in the present world we shall never be able fully to comprehend; but enough may be seen of it, when thoughtfully and prayerfully considered, to awaken the deepest gratitude, and to call forth the song of thanksgiving and praise.

LECTURE XIX.

ON THE PRAYER OF FAITH.

JAMES i. 5, 6, 7.-" If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him; but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

THIS is one of the many promises made to prayer; and, if properly understood, would teach us both how to pray and what to expect from the performance of this duty. It places distinctly before us not only the indispensable obligation but the peculiar importance of prayer. "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." But if God will give wisdom to him that asks and that because he is liberal and upbraideth not -no reason can be assigned why he should not give other needed blessings to those who duly solicit them. In this passage we are taught, also, the manner in which prayer should be offered, to make it acceptable and availing: "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord." It is not every kind of prayer which is prevalent, but the prayer of faith only. The doubting or wavering man has no reason to expect anything from the Lord. If he receive it at all, it must