eous, 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." These things he quotes out of their own Scriptures, whose authority they acknowledged, and affirms they are applied to them; "because," says he, "we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, or rather so that every mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God," or rather the terms of acceptance with God, "are manifested, being witnessed," or their principle recognized by the law and the prophets. Even the terms of Divine acceptance "which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe;" that is, both Jew and Gentile. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his terms of pardon for the sins that are past through the forbearance of God." As under the old dispensation, so under the new, no man can hope to be saved on the ground of absolute innocence alone,

a perfect compliance with the law. God must exercise mercy in both cases. As under the old dispensation, the sacrifices and the mercy seat sprinkled with the blood of the victim, symbolized the penitence of man and the forgiveness of God, so under the new, the death of Christ on the cross, as he died to bring man to faith, repentance, and reconciliation, may be considered as the perpetual symbol of man's penitence and God's mercy. Man's salvation must ultimately come from the mercy of God under all dispensations, and both Jew and Gentile must be saved in that way, or not saved at all.

But still that the Gentiles should be brought into as near and advantageous relation to God, by mere belief in Jesus as the Messiah, or a teacher sent from God, as they were by submitting to circumcision and the cumbersome and laborious ceremonies of Moses, was to the Jews a hard saying; and Paul goes on to reconcile them to it by arguments not indeed logically conclusive in themselves, but adapted to impress truths upon their minds which were certain by other modes of proof than logical deduction. This he does most ingeniously by quoting a passage from their Scriptures. The point to be shown was, that the Jewish converts ought to admit the converts from Paganism to all the privileges of Christians, upon the mere condition of believing in Jesus as the Messiah, or a messenger from God, without submit

ting to circumcision and the ritual of Moses. It is written in your Scriptures: "And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." Now, says he, if you will observe the history, you will perceive, that this is said of him before he received the rite of circumcision. Moreover, the tradition was universal with the Jews, that Abraham, before his call by God, had been an idolater, but repented of his idolatry and worshipped the true God. This fact, out of reverence for their great ancestor, is merely hinted at in the expression; "believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly." God forgave him because he immediately believed in him, and trusted his promises as soon as he made himself known. Here then was Abraham, the great founder of their nation, when God first made himself known to him, precisely in the condition of the Pagan converts to Christianity. They had been idolaters, so had he. They believed God speaking to them through Christ, and he believed God speaking to him by direct communication. Abraham was received immediately into Divine favor on account of his faith, and so ought these converts to be received into the Christian church. He received circumcision afterwards, so that ordinance was not the cause of the Divine favor, but the consequence of it. So far from being the cause of Divine acceptance, it was only the seal of the Divine favor bestowed on account of faith. Faith

and repentance then, lay as much at the foundation of the old dispensation as the 'new. Nothing more therefore, ought to be required of the converts from Paganism. "Even as David," says he, "also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works;" that is, on the ground of repentance and forgiveness. "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute sin." "Cometh this blessing then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also, for we say that faith was reckoned unto Abraham for righteousness," that is counted by God as the ground of Divine favor. "How then was it reckoned, when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, being yet uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness may be imputed to them also, and he become the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but also, who walk in the steps of that faith of Abraham which he had, being yet uncircumcised."

Such is the ingenuity of Paul's argumentation to commend to the Jews from their own Scriptures the truth which he knew to be certain from Divine

authority, that the Gentiles were to be admitted into the Christian church on the ground of their belief in Jesus as the Christ alone, without submitting to the laws of Moses.

Faith in Christ then, we perceive to have been the only bond by which the Christian church were bound to God, and to each other. The seal of that faith was baptism, and its standing pledge, participation in the Lord's supper.

It is of considerable importance to us to settle in our minds what that faith in Christ, which was the bond of the early church and which was the instrument of salvation, included. In order to ascertain this, it will be necessary to go back to the Apostolic testimony, and that of Christ himself. That we saw, in a preceding lecture, bore only on the office of Christ. It had nothing to do with his nature at all. The ground upon which he claimed the faith and obedience of the world was, that God had sent him; "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me." "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou