ftated between him and his friends, but between God and him the question was reduced to this-On what grounds he could be juftified before God. To prepare his mind for a right judgment in this cafe, God difplays his glory, and fhews him the greatnefs of his majesty and power. Here the holy man quickly acknowledged that the ftate of the cafe was totally altered. All his former pleas are abandoned. He cannot plead them at the divine tribunal; and therefore, with the deepest humiliation, he reforts to fovereign grace and mercy.— "Job anfwered the Lord, and faid, Behold, I am vile; what fhall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer; yea, twice; but I will proceed no farther. I have heard of thee, by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye feeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in duft and ashes *." Let the beft of men place themfelves in his condition, as in the immediate presence of God, and attend to what he fpeaks to them in his word, and they will find it will not be fafe for them to adventure further upon God than he did †. *Job xl. 3-5. and xlii. 4-6. 1 But The following direction for the vifitation of the fick, is faid to have been composed by Anjelm ;—" Doft thou believe that thou canst not "be faved but by the death of Chrift? The fick man anfwereth, Yes. "Then let it be faid to him, Go to then; and whilst thy foul abideth in thee, put all thy confidence in this death alone; place thy trust in no other thing; commit thyfelf wholly to this death; cover "thyfelf with this alone; caft thyfelf wholly on this death; wrap thyfelf wholly in this death. And if God would judge thee, fay, "Lord, I place the death of our Lord Jefus Chrift between me and thy 66 judgment; and otherwife I will not contend, or enter into judg"ment with thee. And if he fhall fay unto thee, that thou art a fin"ner, fay, I place the death of our Lord Jefus Chrift between me "and my fins. If he fhall fay unto thee, that thou haft deserved "damnation; fay, Lord, I put the death of our Lord Jefus Chrift be"tween thee and all my fins; and I offer his merits for my own, "which I should have, and have not. If he fay that he his angry "with thee, fay, Lord, I place the death of our Lord Jefus Chrift "between me and thy anger." Jerom, But if men will difregard the greatnefs, holinefs anit majefty of God, and the reverential confideration of what will become of them when they stand at his tribunal, they may, in the heat of difputation, adopt fuch notions, as they dare not abide by in their perfonal trial. Hence it has been obferved that the SchoolB 3 men Jerom, long before Anfelm, spake to the same purpose,—" When "the day of judgment, or of death, fhall come, all hands will fall "down, because no works fhall be found, which can answer the righ*teoufnefs of God; for no flesh shall be justified in his fight. Where"fore the Prophet fays in the Pfalms, If thou, Lord, shouldst mark "iniquity, who fhall ftand?", And Ambroje to the fame effect: "Let no man arrogate any thing unto himself; let no man glory in "his own merits or good deeds; let no man boast of his power; let "us all hope to find mercy by our Lord Jefus, for we shall all "ftand before his judgment-feat. Of him will I beg pardon; of him "will I defire indulgence: what other hope is there for finners ?" Those who gave these directions, seem to have been sensible of what it is to appear before the tribunal of God, and how unfafe it will be for us there to infist on any thing in ourselves. Far different, indeed, from thefe directions is the advice more lately given by fome of the Roman Church: for inftance; the prayer fuggested to a fick man by Johan. Polandus. lib. Method. in adjuv. morientibus. "Lord Jefu, join, I beseech thee, my righteousness with all that thou haft done and fuffered out of thy great love and obedience."-Few, I trust, will be satisfied to use that prayer which Pedagius taught the widow, as it was objected to him in the Diaspolitan fynod. "Thou knoweft, O Lord, how holy, how innocent, how " pure from all deceit and rapine are the hands which I ftretch forth "unto thee; how juft, how unfpotted with evil, how free from ly"ing are thofe lips, wherewith I pour forth prayers unto thee, that "thou wouldst have mercy on me." [The Editor begs leave to add a more modern prayer; the prayer of a French Philofopher; the prayer of a dying Deist. Mr. Roffeau, in his last moments, thus addressed his Maker: "Eternal Being! the "foul that I am now going to give thee back, is as pure, at this mo" ment, as it was when it proceeded from thee :-render it partaker of "thy felicity." And yet this very man, in fome of his writings, fpeaks of his vices and his unworthiness; and admits, that, in fome instances, he was guilty and vile: nevertheless, he fays, "how happy a thing it is to die, when one has no reafon for remorfe and felf*reproach!" Thefe grofs inconfiftences were referved for the Age of reafon, as fome call the prefent æra.] : men themselves, in their devotional writings, adopt a language entirely different from what they ufe in their controverfies and I had rather learn what men really think about their own Juftification from their prayers, than from their writings: Nor do I remember that ever I heard a good man in his prayers, ufe any expreffion about Juftification, wherein any plea of a self-righteous nature was introduced. The prayer of Daniel was the fubftance of their fupplications: "O Lord! righteoufnefs belongeth unto thee; but unto us confufion of faces: we do not prefent our fupplications before thee for our own righteoufnefs, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; for thine own fake, O my God *." Nor have I obferved that any public Liturgies (the Mafs-book excepted) guide men to plead any thing in their prayers, for acceptance with God, but grace, mercy, the blood and righteousness of Chrift alone. Wherefore I judge it beft (let others think as they pleafe) for those who would learn this doctrine aright, to place their confciences in the prefence of God, and their perfons before his tribunal; and then, upon a due confideration of his greatnefs, righteoufnefs and holinefs, to inquire what the Scripture directs them to as their refuge, and what plea it becomes them to make. Secret thoughts of God and themselves; retired meditations; death-bed preparations for an immediate appearance before the throne, fpeak other things than many contend for. III. A clear apprehenfion, and due fenfe, of the greatness of our apoftafy from God; of the depravity of our nature thereby of the power and guilt of fin, and of the holiness and feverity of the law, are necessary 10 a right understanding of the doctrine of Juflification. Hence the Apostle Paul, in his epiftle to the Romans, intending largely to difcourfe on this doctrine, Dan. ix. 7, 18, 19. So Pfalm cxliii. 2. and cxxx 2—4. : firft labours to convince all who would be justified, that they are in a state of fin and danger. Chap. i. 2, 3. Ignorance of this is the foundation of the Pelagian herefy, and of all other mistakes concerning the grace of God for not conceiving aright of our dreadful apoftafy from God, nor of its effects, in the univerfal depravity of our nature, perfons deny the neceffity both of the fatisfaction of Chrift, and the efficacy of divine grace in our recovery. Hence the principal ends of the miffion, both of Chrift and the Holy Spirit, are renounced; which iffues in the denial of the divinity of the one, and the perfonality of the other. The fall not being great, and the difeafe thereby contracted easily healed; and there being little or no harm in things now unavoidable to our nature; it is no great matter to be relieved from the whole, by a mere act of favour, on the use of our own endeavours: nor is the efficacious grace of God effential to our fantification and obedience as these men fuppofe. Hence, Juftification may be treated with pleasantry and subtilty as they fee occafion, and from hence arife the prefent differences about it. Hence, fome are fo far from defiring a perfect righteousness to be imputed to them, that they boast of a perfection in themselves. Thus the Pelagians of old gloried in their finless perfection in the fight of God, even when they were convinced of finful mifcarriages in the fight of men. While men have no fenfe of the spiritual disorder of their fouls; of the fecret actings of fin within them, obstructing all that is good, promoting all that is evil, and defiling all they do ; while they are not engaged in a conftant conflict with the first motions of fin, efteeming them the greateft burdens of their lives; but defpise those who confefs them to God, we are not to wonder that with an affured confidence, they reject the righteoufnefs of Chrift; for no man will be folicitous for the righteoufnefs of another, who hath one at home, that will ferve his turn. Where Wherefore, if we would either teach or learn the doctrine of Juftification in a due manner, a clear apprehenfion of the greatness of our apoftafy from God, a due fenfe of the guilt of fin, a deep experience of its power, are abfolutely neceffary. We have nothing to do with men, who, through the fever of pride, have loft the underftanding of their miferable condition. "The whole need not the phyfician, but the fick." Those who are pierced to the heart for fin, and cry out, "What shall we do to be faved?" will understand what we have to fay. Against others we must defend the truth as God fhall enable. And it is a certain fact, that, as men rife in their notions about the extenuation of fin, so they fall in their regard to the grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift. It is equally true, on the other hand, that as unbelief produces in men a difesteem of the person and righteoufnefs of Chrift, they are inevitably led to feek for countenance to their confciences, in the extenuation of fin; fo infenfibly are the minds of men diverted from Christ, and feduced to place confidence in themselves *. IV. The oppofition which the Scripture makes between grace and works, with the exclufion of the one, and the affertion of the other in our Juftification, deferves a previous confideration. The principal feat of this doctrine is, confeffedly, in the Epiftles of Paul to the Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews in the firft efpecially. Wherein he lays it down as a fundamental maxim, that, in the Gofpel, "The righte So they are instructed to do by the best of the Philofophers: . Unum bonum eft, quod beatæ vitæ caufa et firmamentum eft, tibi fidere." Senec. Epift. 31.-The fum of their faith is given by Tully. De Nat. Deor. "Virtutem nemo unquam Deo retulit; nimirum rectè ་་ propter virtutem enim jure laudamur, et in virtute recte gloriamur, quod non contingeret, fi donum a Deo, non a nobis haberemus.""No man ever thanked God for being virtuous; for virtue we are juftly praised; in virtue we rightly glory, which we could not.do "if it were from God, and not from ourselves." |