LETTER V.

ON THE GOSPEL DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION.

RESPECTED FRIENDS,

THE subject with which, in the close of my last letter, I proposed to open this, is one, as then stated, of paramount importance. All men are sinners: -that is, they are transgressors of the divine law; for "sin is the transgression of the law," and "where no law is, there is no transgression." As sinners, or transgressors of the law, all are under the law's sentence of condemnation-" Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them :"-" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." In these circumstances, there cannot be an inquiry of more momentous interest, than the inquiry how sinners may obtain forgiveness, and find acceptance with God?-To furnish a satisfactory answer to this inquiry is one of the first designs of the Gospel. Leaving for subsequent consideration the question, how far the views of Mr Gurney respecting the answer which the gospel does give to

it are in harmony with those of other Quaker writers, and of Friends in general, it is with his views that I have now, in the first instance, to do:-and it is with no ordinary satisfaction that I introduce them, as being, substantially, so coincident with what I conceive to be the doctrines of the inspired volume. It is with delight, indeed, that I enrich my pages with the following brief citations from the midst of much more that is equally excellent.

After quoting portions of that admirable exposition of the ceremonial law, the epistle to the Hebrews, he says:-" On a "fair examination of these luminous "passages, it seems impossible not to confess, on the

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one hand, that the sacrifices of the law were, in their "nature, weak and unprofitable; and, on the other "hand, that in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, "there was a real efficacy for the blotting out of all in"iquity. While, however, we heartily acknowledge "this blessed truth, and, under a sense of our own vileness, gratefully avail ourselves of the blood of "the everlasting covenant' as the only atonement for "our sins, we ought to exercise a holy caution, lest "our sentiments on this subject should degenerate into "unscriptural and merely heathenish notions of expi"atory sacrifice."*-Admirably does he guard against these, and at the same time, vindicate the doctrine of

Essays on the Evidences, Doctrines, and practical operation of Christianity, pages 414, 415, Essay XI.

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atonement from the false aspersions thrown upon it by its Socinian adversaries, as implying the vindictiveness and implacability of the divine nature"Christians have not unfrequently been accused of assuming, as the foundation of their doctrine of atonement, the natural implacability of God towards man; and of holding the notion that God was ren"dered placable by the involuntary sufferings of a "harmless, unoffending substitute. That such and "similar statements of the opinions of Christians are, "for the most part, gross misrepresentations, and that no such views have ever been entertained by any "reflecting or consistent theologian, I am fully per"suaded. Be that as it may, however, these unques

tionably are not the views of the atonement pre"sented to us in the Bible. There we plainly learn, "that the incarnation, humiliation, sufferings, and "propitiatory sacrifice, of Christ, were ordained by "the Father himself, as the means through which, "in his own infinite knowledge and wisdom, he saw "fit to provide for the satisfaction of his justice, and "at the same time for the pardon and restoration of 66 a lost and sinful race of his creatures. And these "eternal counsels were so far from being the effect of any essential implacability in the mind of God,"that the divine attribute to which they are uni

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formly ascribed in Scripture, is the very opposite "of such a quality. It is placability: it is mercy: it

"is love.

God so LOVED the world that he gave his

"only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him "should not perish but have everlasting life.' John "iii. 16. 'God is love.' 'In this was manifested "the love of God toward us, because that God sent "his only begotten Son into the world, that we might "live through him.' 1 John iv. 8, 9."*-Again : "Now, although a crucified Redeemer is thus clearly "revealed to us as the appointed channel of the "mercies of God to man, such is the perverseness "of our hearts that we are naturally prone to reject "him, and even to account the blood of the cove"nant an unholy thing.' As it was in the days of "the Apostle Paul, so it is now-Christ crucified "offends the pride of the Jew, and mortifies the false "wisdom of the Greek: 1 Cor. i. 23. How many "persons are there, whose self-righteousness is far "too little broken down to admit of their accepting "that divine plan of redemption which involves their 66 own total humiliation, inasmuch as it assumes that

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they are justly liable to the divine displeasure, ab"solutely devoid of merit, and destitute of all capa"city to be saved, except through the righteousness "of another!"+-And in the following passages, the imputation of this righteousness to the believing sinner, for his justification before God, is maintained

* Ibid. pages 415, 416.

+Ibid. pages 419, 420.

with unequivocal clearness :-" It is a position very

plainly laid down by the apostle Paul, that we are "justified by faith in Christ without the deeds of the law, "Rom. iii. 28. or in other words (elsewhere adopted "by him) that without works,' righteousness is "imputed to the believer in Jesus, Rom. iv. 6, 11. "Now, on a comparison of this position with other "scriptural declarations, of some of which the apostle "is himself the author, it is easy to perceive, that "the righteousness imputed to the Christian is no "imaginary innocence and virtue, but the righteous66 ness of the Lord Jesus Christ himself: for it is "Jesus who is described by the prophets as the "Lord our righteousness,' Jer. xxiii. 6. comp. Isa. "xlv. 24, 25. Christ Jesus is made unto us, of the "Father, righteousness and redemption, 1 Cor. i. 30. "God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew

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no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of "God IN HIM,' 2 Cor. v. 21."*-And, when he has explained wherein the righteousness of Christ consists, he thus proceeds-and this quotation must suffice:-"Such was the righteousness of the Lord "Jesus Christ; and such is the righteousness, there"fore, which, through faith, is imputed to the Chris"tian. A very slight degree of reflexion on the "divine nature and infinite dignity of the Son of

* Ibid. pages 423, 424.