culties of the soul shall be enlarged, and these curious matters shall be the objects of the mind's delightful contemplation throughout the ages of eternity. We are looking for reasons, where we ought to look for facts: this is the effect of pride; we want to be wise above that which is written.

JUSTIFICATION.
(6th Link.)

We have considered, in the preceding article, the great Redeemer as stepping forward between his people and the justice of God, and throwing over them a robe of righteousness, which covers them, or screens them from the punishment due to them for sin.

The great Judge of the court of heaven having accepted of this surety, will now pronounce them acquitted or justified in his sight. As it is written :

There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Rom. viii. 1.

Whom he did foreknow, them he justified. Rom. viii. 30.

But ye are washed, but ye are justified, but ye are sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus. 1 Cor. vi. 11.

That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Tit. iii. 7.

I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me. Jer. xxxiii. 8.

For I will pardon them whom I reserve. Jer. 1. 20.

In all this God will appear just, and the justifier of the unjust.

The grace which justifies a rebel man

Is free, eternal, personal, divine.

The sinner, justified by grace, has pass'd
From death to life, and shall not be condemn'd;
Peace is his portion here; he rests on Christ;
And shall be glorified with him at last,

When time shall be no more. O blessed state!

Made free from guilt, deliver'd from the curse,
Complete in Jesus, own'd an heir of bliss;
All flowing from Jehovah's sovereign grace.
Hail, favour'd sinner! let this matchless love
Dispel thy slavish fear, and cheer thy soul
Amidst the toils and conflicts of the way,

Till with thy Jesus thou art glorified.

Merely speculative! Say not thus, my dear friend. "How may I be justified before God, my Maker, my Governor, and my Judge?" is, of all inquiries, the most interesting and important. It is the main hinge, on which every instance of practical religion Hervey's Dialogues.

turns.

Q. What is justification?

A. Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Q. What are the parts of justification?

A. It consists of two parts. First, the pardon of sin; Acts xiii. 39." And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Secondly, the acceptation of our persons as righteous; Rom. v. 1—3. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Q. Whose act is it to justify sinners?

A. It is the act of God alone; Rom. viii. 33. "It is God that justifieth." Man's justifying of himself is nothing; Luke xvi. 15. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God." Nor other men's justifying of us; Rev, iii, 1. "I know thy works, that thou hast a name to live, and art dead."

Q. Is there any thing in man to merit his justification?

A. No: it is an act of free grace in God; Rom. iii. 24. "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ,"

Q. If it be not for any inherent righteousness; how then?

A. It is for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us; Rom. iv. 6. "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works."

Q. How is Christ's righteousness made ours?

A. By application of it to us by faith; Gal. ii. 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

Flavel's Exposition of the Assembly's Catechism.

The doctrine of justification makes a very distinguished figure in that religion which is from above, and is a capital article of that "faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Far from being a mere speculative point, it spreads its influence through the whole body of divinity, runs through all Christian experience, and operates on every part of practical godliness. The importance of it is such, that a mistake here has a most malignant efficacy, and is attended with a long train of dangerous consequences. Nor can this appear strange, when it is considered, that the doctrine of justification is no other than the doctrine of "a sinner's acceptance with God." Being of such peculiar importance, it is inseparably connected with many other evangelical truths, the harmony and beauty of which we can never behold, while this is misunderstood; till this appears in its glory, they will be involved in clouds and darkness.

The word justification is a forensic term, and signifies the declaring or pronouncing a person righteous, according to law. Justification is not the making a person righteous, by a real inherent change from sin to holiness, in which the nature of sanctification consists; but it is the act of a judge, pronouncing a person acquitted from all judicial charges.

That justification does not consist in a real change from sin to holiness, will further appear, from considering that justification is diametrically opposite to condemnation. Now the sentence of condemnation is never supposed to make the person criminal, on whom it is pronounced. There is no infusion of evil qualities into the cul

prit's mind, nor is he, in the least, made guilty by it in the eye of the public, or in his own estimation. But being arraigned as a criminal, and proved guilty of a capital offence, according to the tenor of that law by which he is tried; he is judged worthy of death, and condemned accordingly. So in justification, the subject of it is pronounced righteous in the eye of the law; is deemed worthy to live, and his right to life is declared.

Hence that justification of which the scripture speaks, and is now the subject of our enquiry, is called "a justification of life," Rom. v. 18. That the words justify, justified, justification, are used in the sacred scriptures in a law sense, and as opposed to the words condemn, condemned, and condemnation, is manifest to every attentive reader.

Further: Justification, in a theological sense, is either legal or evangelical. If any person could be found, who has never in the least instance broken the divine law, he might be justified by it in a way that is strictly legal, But, in this way, none of the human race can be justified, or stand acquitted before God; for❝ all have sinned: there is none righteous, no, not one." The whole world, having transgressed, are guilty before the eternal Judge, and under the sentence of death by his righteous law. Here every offender is excluded from all hope, and abandoned to utter destruction. For, as an obedience absolutely perfect is the only righteousness which the law can accept; so, punishment inconceivable or death eternal, is the only penalty it will inflict on such as fall under its

curse.

That justification, about which the scriptures principally treat, and which alone reaches the case of a sinner, is not by a personal, but an imputed righteousness; a righteousness without the law, (Rom. iii. 21.) provided by grace, and revealed in the gospel; for which reason, the obedience by which a sinner is justified, and his justification itself, are called evangelical. In this affair, there is a wonderful display of divine justice and boundless grace: of divine justice, if we regard the meritorious cause and ground on which the Justifier proceeds, in absolving the condemned sinner and pronouncing him righteous:-of boundless grace, if we consider the

state and character of the persons to whom this great blessing is granted.

Again: Justification is either at the bar of God, and in the court of conscience; or in the sight of the world, and before our fellowcreatures. The former is by pure unmixed grace, through faith; and the latter is by works. It is the former I shall now consider, which may be thus defined: Justification is a judicial, but gracious act of God, by which the sinner is absolved from the guilt of sin, is freed from condemnation, and has a right to eternal life adjudged, for the sake of the obedience of Christ alone, which is imputed to him, and received by faith.

To justify is evidently a divine prerogative: "It is God that justifieth." That Sovereign Being, against whom we have so greatly offended, whose law we have broken by ten thousand acts of rebellion against him, has the sole right of acquitting the guilty and pronouncing them righteous, in the way of his own appointment. Jehovah, whose judgment is according to truth, is the justifier of all that believe in Jesus. Here grace reigns; for God, the infinitely wise God, appoints the way. God, the righteous and merciful God, provides the means. God, (let the divine name be repeatedly mentioned with profoundest reverence) even the God of all grace, imputes the righteousness, and declares the sinner acquitted, in perfect agreement with the demands of his violated law, and the rights of his injured justice.

Booth.

Justification is not an infusion of righteousness into persons. To justify, is not to make men holy and righteous, who were unholy and unrighteous, by producing any physical or real change in them: for this is to confound justification and sanctification together, which are manifestly distinct-the one being a work of grace in us; the other an act of grace towards us; the one is imperfect, the other perfect; the one is carried on by degrees, the other complete and finished at once. Besides, justification is never used in scripture in a physical, but in a forensic sense; Deut. xxv. 1. Prov. xvii, 15. Isa. v. 23. Rom. v. 16, 18. and viii. 33, 34. and stands opposed, not to a state of impurity or unholiness, but to a state of condemnation.