SERMON IV.

On Justification by Faith.

PREACHED on SUNDAY, APRIL 21.

TITUS iii. 8.

This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works.

WITH that class of the ministers of our Church, which we call evangelical, (and we trust we may do so without offence, as it is a title they have given themselves,) there are certain doctrines of the Gospel, which appear to be peculiar favourites. These they perpetually bring forward, we will not say to the utter exclusion of all others, but certainly with the effect of throwing all others considerably into the back ground. One of these constantly-recurring topics is that of Justification by Faith, and the manner, in which it is treated on those occasions, may be well sufficient to excite surprize; it is not, generally speaking, explained, and illustrated, and drawn out into its practical consequences, but it is strongly insisted on, and vehemently defended; all other modes and means of Justification than faith, are consigned to utter reprobation, and against good works more especially, considered in that relation, the utmost efforts of their arguments and eloquence are

directed. We are desired,* in terms, which in our estimation at least are neither elegant nor decent, to take the best work we ever performed in our lives, and to go to God with it, and say "here is a work, a perfectly good work, and one, for which we ask no favour nor mercy, but we claim salvation as our due and wages for performing it." Of course the futility, (we might also add the gross absurdity,) of such an application is easily demonstrated, and then the conclusion is, that the original hypothesis is triumphantly established.

Having stated, (and really with some difficulty,) a supposition and an address, which to our taste savours strongly of impiety, let us now ask ourselves, with all the coolness we can, what these things mean; what is the immediate impression they make; and the inference naturally drawn from them. Is it not this, or can it be any other than this?—that the doctrine of Justification by faith, according to its Scriptural import, that is, by faith as the medium, and Christ as the meritorious cause, is singularly neglected to be enforced by the generality of the established clergy; or rather, that they disbelieve it; that they have laid some other foundation than that, which is laid" in the Lord Jesus, and that they teach their hearers to expect salvation on the ground of their own merits. That this is the imputation intended to be conveyed by such discourses as we have just described, with the utmost desire to be candid and charitable, we are yet compelled to believe; for where is the utility of labouring to establish what is never denied, of defending what it not attacked, and of contending without an antagonist? But whether this charge be designed or not by those, from whose language it may and will be inferred, we are anxious to vindicate our brethren from the odium attending it, and very deservedly if it were substantially true.

We must acknowledge, however, that we do not preach the doctrine in question so frequently and so directly as our

* By Mr. Simeon, as above.

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opponents, nor do we state it precisely in the same language as they; and the cause why we decline imitating their practice in this instance, is, that we think it, on some accounts, both useless and dangerous.

The reasons, by which we are induced to think that laboured and frequent disquisitions on the doctrine of Justification by faith, are comparatively useless, come first in order to be mentioned.

First, then, it is one of the most obvious doctrines to be met with in the charter of man's salvation, that book with which all Christians must be supposed to have a general acquaintance, that Justification, with all its attendant blessings, of Sanctification here, and Salvation hereafter, can be attained no otherwise than by faith in Christ. This is a doctrine, which beams upon the eye from every page of Scripture, and shines throughout the New Testament particularly, in the full effu!gence of glory. Open the Law, and read the first of its promises to mankind; it is, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head :* proceed farther, and you behold the lawgiver himself raising up an instrument of life and health as the type and emblem of the Saviour:+ turn to the Psalms, and you hear the true David declaring, "burnt offering and sacrifice for sin hast thou not required, then said 1, Lo I come:"+consult the prophets, and they will tell you, how that he was bruised for our iniquities," that "with his stripes we are healed," and that "the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." It would be an useless waste of time and trouble to produce passages from the New Testament inculcating the same great truth, that to them, who would be saved by his name, Christ must be all in all as the meritorious cause of their salvation, since it is he alone "who of God is made unto us, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

Gen. 3. xv.

+ Num. 21. ix. compared with John 3. xiv. Ps. 40. vi-vii. § Isaiah 53. v-vi. || I Cor. 1. xxx.

And farther, this doctrine is formally acknowledged by all Christians in that very profession of faith which first constitutes them Christians; in our own Church, at least, the child, who is educated according to her institutes, is taught, as soon as he is able to learn the privileges and obligations attending Baptism, that God hath called him to that state of salvation, 66 through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”*

On these grounds we consider the doctrine of Justification by faith as one of the "first principles of the oracles of God," and one, therefore, which must be known even by those who are but "babes in Christ;" and it is also one, which is constantly recognized under a great variety of forms, contained in the service of the Church, by every congregation which we have occasion to address. Now we have the authority of an apostle for leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ," in order to "go on unto perfection," and not to employ ourselves continually in laying again the foundation of repentance, and of faith towards God." We do not mean that these subjects should be systematically neglected; far from it; like all others of a religious kind, even the plainest truths of natural religion, they are to be occasionally and specifically introduced to the notice of our auditors, "lest at any time they should let them slip;" these topics are to take their turn with others, but they are not to occupy a disproportionate share of our attention, Agreeable to these maxims, we are well persuaded, is really the practice of the great majority of our ministerial brethren; sometimes they confine themselves to a particular explanation of the doctrine before us, sometimes they dwell upon its practical tendency, and at all times, whether expressly mentioned or not, it forms the general ground-work of their exhortations to Christian holiness,

Farther-the doctrines of the Gospel, inestimably precions as they are, are yet, after all, only preparatory to its precepts; a man must certainly believe as a Christian, before he

can possibly act as a Christian; but then the fundamental articles of the Christian faith are easily stated, readily understood, and, for the most part, willingly received; the great difficulty is this-to convert them into practical principles for the regulation of the conduct; and hence it becomes a most important and necessary part of the ministerial office, not only to exhort the faithful in general terms "to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," but also to shew them specifically, and according to Christian principles, the nature and extent of the relative and personal duties of life; how temptations are to be avoided, afflictions sustained, and advantages improved; and what is the path, which religion prescribes, amidst a concurrence of apparently opposite obligations. Discourses, intended to answer these salutary purposes, are too often, we fear, unduly appreciated by a certain class of our brethren, (for a reason perhaps which we may be able to assign hereafter,) and sometimes very contumeliously treated under the name of moral essays. It must be acknowledged indeed, that moral essays, when they are merely such, that is, when they are destitute of the animating spirit of the Gospel, are greatly out of character in a Christian pulpit, and will produce comparatively but a faint and feeble impression; when, however, the same denomination is extended to discourses, whose object is to illustrate, recommend, and enforce moral duties on Christian principles, and such compositions are at once set down as unevangelical, because they do not happen to inculcate, expressly and minutely, the peculiar and fundamental doctrines of the Gospel-here we may defend ourselves on very high authority, for certainly, if this be a proper application of terms, then was our blessed Saviour's sermon on the mount, the most unevangelical discourse that was ever written.

We think then that a Christian minister does not employ himself in a way the most advantageous to his people, by

* Tit. 2. x.