It would be impossible to over-estimate the importance of the doctrine of Justification, whether we regard it in relation to the salvation of man, or to the general scheme of Evangelical truth. The place which it holds in both is paramount. It involves the reply to a question which in every age has, with more or less intelligence, forced itself on mankind; a question fitly expressed in the words of the patriarch, "How should man be just with God?" Job ix. 2. This question in interest and importance to every man surpasses all other questions, and may on every account engage our most serious thought.

I am well aware that, in the brief discussion of this subject now intended, it will be only going over ground often travelled before; nevertheless, novelty on such a theme is not to be sought. It is most desirable that the subject should have a religious as well as a theological aspect, so that its importance may be spiritually felt as well as doctrinally accepted; for the truth of God regarding it lies at the very foundation of a healthy and happy Christian life.

What, then, is Justification? Various replies have, of course, been given to this question; but most of them may be classified under what may now be termed the Roman Catholic interpretation on the one side, or under the Protestant interpretation on the other. It was this doctrine of Justification which constituted the main ground of controversy between the Reformers and the Church of Rome, and which Luther was honoured to use with so much effect. The Romish view of the subject may be gathered from one or two brief extracts from the decrees of the Council of Trent:-" Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inner man through the willing reception of grace and gifts, when a man from being unjust becomes just, and a friend from being an enemy, so that he is an heir according to the hope of eternal life."-Coun. Trent, Sess. vi. chap. 7. And again, "For that which is called our righteousness, because

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through its being inherent in us we are justified, that same is the righteousness of God, because it is infused into us by God through the merit of Christ."-Sess. vi. chap. 16. According to these statements, and the teaching of such divines as Bellarmin, justification implies a change of character as well as of standing before God, and consists in an infusion of righteousness as well as an imputation of it to the soul. Thus justification is confounded with sanctification, and the acceptance of the soul with God confounded with its spiritual renovation. In opposition to this, the Reformers maintained that justification is an act of God by which He reckons the sinner righteous, and treats him as such on account of the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ; thus insisting, that it is not a real change in the sinner himself, although such a change accompanies it, but only a change in his standing with respect to God and the moral law. This may be regarded generally as the Protestant doctrine based upon the teaching of the New Testament, the simplicity and force of which the Reformers sought to restore. That this is the scriptural view is manifest from the apostolic use of the terms justify, justification, righteousness, δικαιοῦν, δικαιοσύνη, δικαίωσις. This may be tested by referring to Rom. iii. 20, to the end; Rom. iv. 5-9; 2 Cor. iii. 9; Gal. ii. 15-21; Philip. iii. 9. In these and other passages the words convey the ideas of the remission of sin, deliverance from punishment, and imputation of righteousness, without any definite allusion to the internal spiritual change which accompanies the change in the legal standing of the soul before God. Hence, although this has been designated the Protestant view, it is not to be supposed that it was unknown, or had not been received, prior to the Reformation. This is very far from being the case.

The definition of Dr. Pye Smith expresses fully what we hold to be the apostolical view of the subject: "The justification of a sinner in the sight of God consists of the bestowment of a full pardon of all his sins, and a legal title to the happiness of the world to come, as the meritorious result of the atoning sufferings and perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, conferred and received in the way which God has appointed, namely, by faith in the gospel." Accordingly, two things are included in justification, viz.: 1. Forgiveness-the remission of all the penalties incurred by sin; and, 2. Acceptance with God-the reception of the transgressor into the full enjoyment of God's favour, as righteous and entirely freed from guilt. These blessings indeed are inseparable, in the history of a Christian life, from renewal and sanctification, but regeneration and holiness are not to be confounded with justification. There is, however, perhaps some danger lest this forensic view of the truth-which we believe most fully meets the statements of Scripture on this great question-should be allowed to sink in our thoughts to the level of a mere artificial theory, a thing of legal parchments and

* First Lines of Christian Theology, p. 588.

schedules. Some tendency of this kind may have given rise to a reaction which begins to appear in certain quarters, so that in some ultra-Protestant writings justification is made to imply or include the infusion or inworking of righteousness. The forensic interpretation does not cover a legal fiction: it contains a momentous reality.

The very word justification suggests one or two points of great importance which must never be overlooked. It manifestly implies the existence of a law, Justice and injustice, justification and condemnation, have respect to law. Without this, the word could have no meaning. Yet the presence and obligation of law seem to be loosely held by many when they write or speak of justification. It is admitted that law pervades the material universe, and is necessary to the order, harmony, and welfare of creation; but some who strenuously enough maintain this seem to think that, if there is law in the moral and spiritual creation, it is somehow here of less importance or less stringent in its obligations and sanctions. This is a great and dangerous fallacy. Man, as a moral being, is under law to God. This law was originally written on the fleshly tables of the human heart, when man was created. Through sin this transcript of it was soon effaced; and in mercy and wisdom God renewed it on the tables of stone given to Moses on Mount Sinai, amidst the most resplendent tokens of authority and glory. This was the law of the Ten Commandments, "holy, just, and good;" and, as expounded by our Lord in his Sermon on the Mount, it extends to all the thoughts of the mind, and to all the desires of the heart. Every man is under this law in his relation to God. There is no exception to its application, and no exemption from its claims. The justification of the soul before God has respect to the authority and obligations of this law.

Further, the term justification implies the need of righteousness on the part of man. Righteousness must be upheld, and must be found somewhere "magnifying the law," otherwise how can there be justification? There might be pardon without righteousness, while the guilt of the transgressor remains; but the primary idea of justification involves the removal of guilt and the presence of righteousness. Men generally feel this: hence the constant tendency to find or frame a righteousness for themselves, by which they may be justified. No amount of reasoning or speculation will convince men generally that God is indifferent about His law, and that they need not trouble themselves about righteousness in order to acceptance with Him. The hecatombs which have been slain, the penances which have been performed, and the pilgrimages which have been made in every age, with the view of atoning for sin, clearly prove that man's moral sense, as well as God's law, prescribes the need of righteousness. Where shall this righteousness be found?

The question then arises,-How is the sinner justified? The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans is especially occupied with the unfolding and enforcement of the reply to this question, so that we cannot do better

than briefly examine the statements of the Apostle. He gives what may be termed a threefold answer to the inquiry-places the subject in three aspects. He says, "Being justified freely by his grace," Rom. iii. 24. "Being now justified by his blood," Rom. v. 9. "Being justified by faith," Rom. v. 1. In these statements we have this great doctrine fully brought before us.

1. Justification is "by GRACE." This truth denotes the source from which the blessing comes. It is from the free and sovereign favour of God. Where could it originate but there? Whence could it come but from this source? Man has nothing, can do nothing, and can bring nothing which can secure his acceptance with God. He has destroyed himself by his iniquity, and in the Lord alone is his help. The thought, the plan, and the accomplishment of justification are entirely, in their source, with God. "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." Sin must have worked out on our fallen race its own terrible consequences, and issued in our eternal ruin, had it not been for the grace of God. We can never think too highly or adoringly of this rich, infinite, unmerited favour; and we do not receive the scriptural idea of justification without remembering, that this is its only Foundation or Source.

2. Justification is "by BLOOD." This fact denotes the channel in which the blessing comes. The blood spoken of is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, shed upon the cross. This term must be regarded as including all that is ordinarily understood by the righteousness of Christ. It is not meant that the blood by itself as a carnal and perishable element is the channel of our justification; but the blood shed was the expression of life surrendered, and of the great fact that His "soul" was made "an offering for sin," so that it is put before us as the sole meritorious ground of our acceptance with God. How often is this insisted on in the New Testament. "Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ," Eph. ii. 13. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins," Eph. i. 7. "Having made peace through the blood of his cross," Col. i. 20. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 7. "Ye were redeemed. . . . with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," 1 Peter i. 18, 19. The blood of Jesus, therefore, expresses His "obedience unto death "-the whole of His doing and suffering as a sacrifice for sin-and is the only channel of our justification. All the relations which the death of Christ bears to our acceptance with the Father we are not in a position to know; yet some of these relations can be seen.

(1). It yielded satisfaction to all the claims of righteousness, and to all the requirements of law. There is no other explanation of the Saviour's sufferings which fulfils the necessities of the case. Some, indeed, speak of sympathy with man as the great principle exhibited in the death of