from experience and observation, that when this is done, when men truly repent, they readily receive and rejoice in the Saviour's light. And the whole improvement may be briefly comprehended in the prophet's words, "Cease to do evil, learn to do well." To those who order their conversation aright, the Lord has promised to show his salvation. "If a man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God."

That this knowledge may be our blessed portion, the Lord mercifully grant through Jesus Christ.

SERMON V.

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THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ESTABLISHES THE LAW OF GOD.

Romans iii. 31.

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

ONE of the greatest obstacles which a preacher of the gospel has to contend with, is the prejudice that prevails against that method of salvation which it proposes. That men should be justified or accepted as righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, and not for their own righteousness, is opposed to our natural pride, and some think it inconsistent with reason and good morals. Hence it is a common objection against this doctrine of the cross, that it makes void the law through faith; that by teaching that men will be justified by faith, without the deeds of the law, we release them from their obligation to keep God's commandments, and render his law but a dead letter. This objection we find is as old as Christianity. The apostles were opposed with this pretended difficulty.

In this epistle to the Romans St. Paul explains and defends the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, and obviates

the objections made by Jews and others. This doctrine, he observes in this chapter, had been censured and (as is often the case of those who are censured) it was misrepresented. With those who have ears to hear, what is chiefly necessary to the receiving of this doctrine, is to understand it. What then, let us inquire, does the apostle teach? After reasoning upon the subject through three chapters, he comes to the conclusion in our text, "Do we then make void the law through faith?" After considering what I have said, will any one still urge this groundless objection? Do you conceive that we preach an unholy doctrine, and teach that men may "do evil that good may come?" Do we allow men to continue in sin that grace may abound?" Do we justify or any way countenance disobedience to the laws of God? "God forbid:" we view such doctrine with abhorrence: we will have God true, though all men are liars. Indeed the fact is the reverse: "yea, we establish the law." The doctrine of justification by faith, which we preach, confirms the authority of God's laws; it exposes the sinfulness and peril of violating any, even the least of his commandments.

Such is the apostle's statement or affirmation in this text. In discoursing farther on the subject, three things will naturally present themselves for consideration. First, What it is that we teach respecting justification by faith. Secondly, How or in what respects it establishes the law. And, lastly, The true inference implied indeed in the text, that they who oppose this doctrine make void the law.

I. In discoursing on the first of these heads, it will not be necessary to consume much of our time in explaining the word faith. It will be sufficient to observe, that the apostle does not here speak of faith abstractedly, or the mere belief of what the scriptures teach. He speaks of the doctrine of faith, or the gospel plan of salvation, as it stands opposed to a hope of eternal life for our own merits. He speaks of it as a principle of justification or ground of a Christian's hope, and is not defining the term, or telling you precisely what is included in a religious belief; he is proving, as he does clearly prove, that no man can be justified for his own good works and righteous conduct; that all mankind have so sinned as to come short of that perfection of virtue or goodness, which would be necessary to acquit them before God's tribunal; that our hopes of pardon and life eternal must stand entirely upon another foundation, that is, upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He does not, therefore, exclude any thing which the gospel requires from being necessary to our salvation; not repentance, for instance, nor prayer, nor holy living, nor a good heart, inclined to love God and do good to man. He only shows that we have no goodness which will justify us or give us a claim to heaven and happiness. He does not deny that salvation is promised to those only who repent, believe, and obey the gospel. He shows simply that whatever we do, though it may be the condition of our acceptance, is not the ground of our hope. Our obedience to the gospel and possession of Christian virtues, are evidence of our faith and acceptance with God; they are the fruit of that faith by which we are justified.

Our loving the brethren is an assurance that we have "passed from death unto life." "Good works spring necessarily out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree discerned by its fruit." The works of a Christian are wrought through faith, and of course he "shows his faith by his works;" by his religious performances he manifests that his trust is in Christ's merits, and not in his own.

And it is evident that to be rational and consistent, our hope must rest on the one principle or the other. We must confide either in our own merits, or in the righteousness of our Redeemer. To trust in part to our own goodness and partly in him, is as absurd as it is unscriptural. If Christ be a Saviour, he is not one in part, or in some imperfect degree; he is a Saviour complete, and the glory is all his own. He is separate from sinners. In the work he wrought, we could do nothing. "With his own right hand, and with his holy arm,

victory."

hath he gotten himself the

By the law," we mean the moral law which God has commanded, and man is bound perfectly to obey. The language of the law is on the one hand, "This do and thou shalt live:" "The man that doeth these things shall live by them." On the other hand the law declares, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." And such a law, it is evident, cannot justify sinners; for if they could be justified by their obedience to the law, they would not be sinners. But as the scriptures teach, all men are concluded under sin, and in God's sight accounted