SERMON XXXIX.

April 18, 1830.

THE LAW ESTABLISHED BY FAITH.

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.-ROMANS III. 31.

THE Apostle Paul was an eminent lawyer, or he would not have been so good a divine: he was also a good logician, though he does not adopt the form of the Syllogism, he was nevertheless an admirable reasoner. The first two chapters of this epistle, and the first nineteen verses of the third, are occupied in proving that all men are condemned by the law, Jew as well as Gentile. "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth

is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." 1 There is an end for ever of justification by the works of the law: it is an absolute impossibility in the nature of things; no transgressor ever can be justified by the law by which he is once condemned. The subsequent obedience of a guilty individual has never acquitted that individual. The principle whence the spirit of self-justification proceeds is atheistical. Before those who would justify themselves by their works can succeed, they must undeify God, and alter the nature of things. Who would have imagined that the Apostle Paul would have taken so much time in proving man's guilt, if afterwards he meant to assert that man could justify himself by his works. Has there ever been a thief, or a murderer, who could justify himself by the law which condemned him? If thus, in human tribunals, there is a parallel in the courts of heaven: a

1 Romans iii. 10-19,

parallel equally easy and intelligible. About a century ago, our clergy were leading the people into hell, in opposing those few who had the courage to preach justification by faith. Blessed be God, we have now some of our bishops who maintain and preach that doctrine. We must have bishops, we must have clergy who will preach this truth, or popery will overspread the land. The Apostle having proved man guilty, presents the reader with the Saviour, and that everlasting righteousness which is necessary to the sinner's justification. This doctrine has been cavilled at, as a licentious doctrine; but the cavil only proves the awful ignorance of the opposer. The Apostle James is thought by some to have established a contrary doctrine, that the believer is justified by his works. The person of the believer must be justified before God, with the righteousness of Christ; but it is equally true that his principles, his profession, and his conduct must be justified by his works. The faith that is necessary is very comprehensive,-it embraces the whole revelation of God, and it compels the believer to seek the righteousness of Christ. The believer is not only justified, but sanctified by faith in him who is our glory and our head, "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repent

ance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." "Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." The Apostle then adds, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."

I. Consider in the first place, WHAT THE LAW OF GOD IS. The eye of faith must ever be fixed upon it, that the believer's hopes from it may be averted for ever. The law of God has not a particle of good to confer upon us. The law is a transcript of the divine perfections. Its perfection is as perfect as God's. The law of God emanates from all the perfections of Jehovah. Its dimensions! the dimensions of its command-of its curse-are the dimensions of Deity. The law requires of fallen man more now than if he had remained in a perfect state. The law of God requires the obedience of angels, and they render that obedience; but the law of God not only requires of man obedience, but requires the sufferings of its curse. The law, instead of relaxing in its demands, because of man's inability to obey, perpetually increases in those demands. Our Saviour, when asked by a lawyer which was

1 Acts v. 31.

1

the greatest commandment, answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The words which follow are very remarkable "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets," proving that he intended to die to establish the whole law, to preserve it alive for ever in all its royal authority, and in the hearts of all his family above. The law says, "cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."2 Suppose it otherwise, God would give the sinner license to hate him with impunity; and if so, God must himself be a sinner, and the greatest monster in existOn the hypothesis of the redemption and salvation of ruined man, as revealed in the Scriptures, there are many things that could not be otherwise than they are. The law could not be otherwise, in the nature of things, than it is; hence the necessity of a divine person to atone. It is not from the sovereignty of God that the law proceeds-we must ascend to a higher source,-it could not be otherwise

ence.

1 Matt. xxii. 37-39.

2 Gal. iii. 10.