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THE

CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

SEPTEMBER, 1827.

Keligious Communications.

LECTURES ON THE SHORTER CATECHISM OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES-ADDRESSED TO YOUTH.

LECTURE XXIX.

(Concluded from p. 340.)

The righteousness of Christ is commonly considered as constituted by his active and passive obe dience. In his active obedience is usually included, the holiness of his nature and the righteousness of his life, in full and perfect conformity to the whole law, without the least defect at any time or in any degree. Thus the entire equity and reasonableness of the law were shown; and the reflection and dishonour cast upon it by the disobedience of man were completely removed, by its receiving the honour of the perfect and ceaseless obedience of the eternal Son of God. He magnified the law and made it honourable.

The passive obedience of Christ includes his satisfaction for sin, by bearing, in all their extent, the inflictions of the curse of the broken law of God due to all his people -"He bare our sins in his own body on the tree-he was made a curse for us"-His infinite dignity and worth, connected with his inconceivable sufferings, rendered the short endurance of those sufferings as complete a satisfaction to the peVOL. V.-Ch. Adv.

nal demands of the law, as could have been made by the endless torments of all those in whose room and stead he stood. The sufferings and death of Christ are called his passive obedience, because they were, on his part, entirely voluntary, and undergone in perfect acquiescence in the will and appointment of the eternal Father.

The union or aggregate of this active and passive obedience of Christ, constitutes that complete and finished righteousness, which is the formal meritorious cause of the justification of every saint. It is on this account, precisely, and no other, that believers are accepted of God as righteous.-We are told expressly that "the righteousness of God is UPON all them that believe." This is the declaration of infallible truth. But this righteousness cannot, in the language of Scripture, be upon them that believe, otherwise than by being imputed or reckoned to them.

Much noise has been made about the words imputed righteousness, as well as the phrase the satisfaction of Christ. But it may be truly said that the whole is noise, and nothing else. The substantial ideas conveyed by those words and phrases, and all that we intend or mean by them, are fully and clearly conveyed in other language, into which they are not introduced at all; and though we will not relinquish the 3 C

words imputed righteousness, because they are proper, precise, and scriptural words; yet, if the ideas for which they stand are admitted by those who reject them, we desire to have no controversy on the subject. I know of no expression in the New Testament, in which the doctrine of imputation, in both its parts, that is, the imputation of our sins to Christ, and the imputation of his righteousness to us, is more distinctly and unequivocally expressed, than in a text where the word imputation is not used.-It is this "For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." I cannot conceive what rational meaning can be affixed to this declaration but this alone "That Christ was treated as a sinner on our account, that we might be treated as perfectly righteous on his account;" and this is precisely what we mean by imputation.*

It has been said by those who object to the doctrine of imputed righteousness, that "what is actually not ours, cannot justly be reckoned or accounted as ours.' But in regard to this, I must say that it

seems to me scarcely to deserve the name of a quibble-it is rather an unqualified false assertion. Take the common iilus

tration of this topick-An individual is imprisoned for a debt which he can never pay. A benevolent individual pays it for him. Cannot this payment be reckoned or accounted as being made by the prisoner himself, and he be discharged and treated as owing nothing, as really as if he had paid the debt out of his own pro perty and purse? and may not the benefactor demand the prisoner's discharge, as a matter of justice? He certainly may; all righteous laws will permit it; and the whole transaction sometimes takes place in fact in well ordered society. Take another illustration-The offspring of a beg gar is adopted by a man of wealth. May not this adopted offspring be reckoned, or accounted, as the child of his benefactor, and become his heir, and even bear his name, as really as if the adopted party had come out of the loins of his putative father? who knows not that such a procedure as this sometimes actually takes place among men?

We admit after all that there is something

We have no conception that our personal sins became Christ's personal sins-God forbid!—And we have no idea that his personal righteousness becomes our personal righteousness. We only mean and say, that his righteousness is imputed to us-that is, reckoned, or computed as ours, or set to our account. We say, that God so accounts or reckons to us the righteousness of Christ, as to treat us as if we had obeyed the law and satisfied justice in our own persons.Nay, we must not omit to mention, that the people of God, in consequence of being invested with the righteousness of Christ, will be entitled to and actually receive a heavenly inheritance, unspeakably richer and more glorious than they would have received, if their first covenant head had remained sinless.

We are said, in the Catechism, to be pardoned and accepted “only” for the righteousness of Christ; because a sinner can make no other valid plea before God for pardon and acceptance, than that Christ his surety has fulfilled the violated covenant of works for him--fulfilled all righteousness in his behalf. The law required a fulfilment, in which every act of obedience should be a perfectly sinless act. Now, not one of our acts is of this kind. But of this very kind were all the acts of Christ; and therefore, his perfect, sinless acts, and not our imperfect acts mingled with sin, must have unique, or without a parallel, in the justification of a believing sinner. By faith, a mys terious union, or oneness, takes place be tween him and his Saviour. Of this oneness, the Saviour expressly speaks in his last intercessory prayer-Elsewhere he compares it to the union of a branch with the vine; and it is frequently referred to by the Apostle Paul. It is in virtue of this union, this oneness, this identity of the believer with his glorious spiritual head, that he becomes a partaker of all that has been merited by that head for the members of his mystical body-The righteousness of his head, becomes the believer's righteousness, and he is entitled to all its benefits,

the whole concern in the matter of our justification.

No act that is imperfect can ever justify, by a law which requires perfection. The imperfection of the act, so far as it exists, is a violation of the law, and therefore needs pardon, instead of being entitled to reward. If therefore the righteousness which justifies us must be a perfect righteousness, none of our acts can make any part of it, for they are all imperfectThis is clear to demonstration.-It is therefore the perfect righteousness of Christ, and that only, which is the efficient cause of our justifi. cation, in the eye of the perfect law of God. This righteousness is, by man, "received by faith alone." Yet, as we have just seen, the excellence of the act of faith, by which it is received, has no share in the righteousness that justifies. That act of faith, although sincere, is yet imperfect, and therefore needs pardon, in place of claiming to be a part of the righteousness which justifies. The same may also be said of repentance-it is indispensable to salvation. But it forms no part of the righteousness that justifies. That, as we have seen, must be a perfect righteousness, and can be nothing else. But our repentance is imperfect; and the riches of God's grace in the gospel is manifest in this very particular, that for Christ's sake our acts are accepted, if sincere, although imperfect-accepted to their proper end-not as having any share in our justification, but as evidence of our compliance with the terms of the Gospel covenant, and our consequent title to a gracious reward. Faith and repentance have by some been called conditions of salvation; and controversy has sometimes ensued on the propriety of their being thus denominated. But, in my apprehension, this is a needless controversy. The fact is this -There are two meanings of the word condition; one of which is

certainly not applicable to this point, and the other as certainly

15.

By condition is sometimes meant a valuable consideration, in consequence of which something is conferred. In this sense faith and repentance are not conditions of salvation: for they are not the valuable consideration, in consequence of which salvation is conferred on us. This valuable consideration is, as we have shown, nothing but the righteousness of Christ. But the word condition is sometimes used to denote something which must take place before a promise can be realized. In this sense, faith and repentance may be called conditions of salvation. They must always take place in persons of adult age, before salvation can ever be obtained.

You will, however, be careful to observe, that it is the grace of faith alone, which is even instrumentally concerned in our justification. Justifying faith will, indeed, be always accompanied by every other genuine grace of the Christian. But faith alone is concerned in justification, because it is the office only of this grace to receive and rest on Christ. We do not receive and rest on Christ by repentance, by hope, or by charity, but by faith alone; and therefore, it is by faith alone, as the proper instrument for the work, that we are justified.

There has also been a controversy, whether we are not to consider good works as connected with faith, in the matter of our justification. But there is no proper ground for this controversy. All admit, that in adult age, good works, as far as opportunity for them is given, always accompany saving faithThey prove it to be saving; and in this way justify our profession of faith before the world; which is precisely what St. James intends. when he says we are justified by works, and not by faith only. We are justified before men, by the works which flow from faith, and

which men can see. But in our justification before God, the Apostle Paul teaches that no work, no act of man, has any meritorious agency, more or less. We owe it all to the righteousness of Christ. Faith receives and rests on this; because, as has been shown, it is proper to faith, and to no other grace to do so. But this very act of faith, although sincere, is still imperfect, and its imperfection is pardoned through that very righteousness of Christ on which it rests, and to which it leaves the whole undivided honour and merit of our justification and salvation.

My dear youth, in concluding this lecture, in which I have endeavoured shortly to explain a fundamental doctrine of the revealed will of God, let me entreat you

1. Not to indulge in speculations on this article of our faith, beyond what is plainly laid down in the sacred oracles. The most serious practical evils have often resulted from a licentious indulgence of human reason in regard to this, as well as to some other doctrines, which are clearly revealed in the word of God. We doubt not that every doctrine, and every declaration, which we find in the Bible, is perfectly reasonable; because we believe that the whole has proceeded from a Being whose understanding is infinite, and whose equity and truth are immaculate and inviolable. But it is one thing for a doctrine to be reasonable, and another for us to see that it is so, and to be able to explain all the grounds or principles on which it rests. There are many undeniable truths, or facts, in the natural world, the principles or reasons of which we cannot understand and explain, and perhaps shall never discover, in the present life. If we believe revelation to be the work of God, we ought to expect that it will contain truths and facts of the same character with those of his other works. Such

truths and facts revelation certainly does contain; and this is so far from forming a just objection to the sacred writings, that it is a strong presumption of their Divine original. I know that I have said this in substance heretofore, but it is important to remind you of it on the present occasion.

The method of a sinner's justification before God, is a matter of pure revelation. Reason never could have discovered it, if left to itself; and the most that reason has to do with it is, to examine the evidence and import of what God has revealed concerning it. To God alone it belonged to determine on what terms and in what manner, a guilty creature might be restored to his favour: and when he has told us this, we ought most thankfully and humbly to receive the information, and promptly to comply with the terms prescribed. The grounds and reasons of the procedure may not, in all respects, quadrate with what an imperfect and erring reason may seem to dictate; nor run entirely parallel with transactions which take place between one creature and another. This I am persuaded is in reality the case, in regard to the doctrine of justification, as we find it taught in the New Testament. But what better evidence do we want that a doctrine is reasonable, although our feeble intellect cannot fully measure it, than that He whose understanding, equity and goodness are infinite, has sanctioned it, and required us to receive it? What more should a sinner ask, than that his offended Maker should tell him in what way he may be pardoned, and be rendered eternally happy? For the guilty party to stand questioning, and insist on knowing to the bottom how, why, and wherefore, the Creator has adopted this plan, and on what principles of reason he can show it to be right, is, in my apprehension, a gross and impious presumption. I seriously

warn you against it. I feel bound solemnly to caution you against all those speculations-and I am sorry to say that they are becoming fashionable-which really go to set aside the scripture doctrine of our justification solely by the imputation to us of the perfect righteousness of a Saviour; of a Saviour taking the sinner's place, and obeying and suffering in his behalf. Cleave to this scriptural doctrine, I entreat and charge you-cleave to it as the sheet anchor of that hope toward God, which alone will stand the test in the trying hour of death, and when the dread realities of eternity shall sweep away the sandy foundation of all those refuges of lies, to which thousands betake themselves to their eternal undoing.

2. Above all, let me exhort you not to content yourselves with a mere rational assent to this doctrine, although you should hold it in the most unexceptionable form in which the human mind can receive it. Remember that it is a dreadful thing, to "hold the truth in unrighteousness." It is not enough that you believe that nothing can justify you but the righteousness of Christ; you must personally, practically, and individually, so believe in Christ, that you may be clothed with his righteousness, may stand before God in this heavenly robe, and be able to plead it truly, as the sole meritorious cause of your acceptance. With out this, you will at last be undone and perish forever. If there is one doctrine in the book of God more practical than another, it is this one. Each of us is a sinner by nature and by practice; and till we have, under a due sense and conviction of guilt been driven away from every other reliance, to rely in the exercise of a living faith, solely and unreservedly on the finished righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath and curse of God abide upon us. Till then the whole weight and burden of all our nu

merous and aggravated sins rest on our own guilty heads. Hasten then, as for the life of your souls, to embrace that Saviour, whose blood can fully atone for your transgressions, can cleanse away all the guilt of their crimson and scarlet stains; and by union with whom, all the benefits of his purchase shall become your own, and he "be made of God unto you wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification. and redemption." Amen.

THE DUTY OF SOCIAL WORSHIP.

Essay I.

The social worship of the Dei. ty has been considered as a duty by Heathens, Mahomedans, Jews, and Christians; a duty connected alike with the welfare of society, and the happiness of individuals. It is, nevertheless, a duty which many, who would regard it as an insult if the appellation of Christians were denied them, habitually neglect. While they admit its im portance generally, they find some plea of exemption for themselves. There is also another description of nominal Christians, who occasionally attend on social worship, but who show by their practice that they feel no obligation to a regular and stated attendance: And there is yet a third class, who make it a point, in ordinary circumstances, to visit the sanctuary, at least once on the Sabbath; but are rarely seen in worshipping assemblies on any other occasion. It is clear that all these parties are pointedly rebuked, by the inspired oracle which we find in Heb. x. 25."Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is." But it is believed that without violating charity, we may go still farther, and say, that even pious practical Christians, seem to need both exhortation and instruction, in regard to the duty now in contemplation. It is therefore proposed, taking the passage of sacred

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