in which prophecy is introduced in Scripture, and the purposes it is made answer in sacred history. It has been noticed before now, as a characteristic of Scripture prophecy, that it precedes and introduces into the world the great providences of God's mercy. When He would set apart a family or people for some extraordinary end, He reveals His purposes in the case of the first father of the line. He puts His word upon it in its origin, and seals up for it its destinies in that word, which, like some potent charm, works secretly towards the proposed end. Thus when the chosen people were to be formed, Almighty God not only chose Abraham, but spoke over Him the promises which in due time were to be accomplished. The twelve tribes had each its own character and history stamped on it from the first. When the royal line of the Messiah was to be begun in Judah and renewed in David, on each patriarch in turn did Providence inscribe a prediction of what was to be. Such as this is justification as regards an individual. It is a sort of prophecy, recognizing God's hidden election, announcing His purposes before the event, and mysteriously working towards their fulfilment; even "the oath which He sware" to us, "more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel," "that we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay

1 Vid. Davison on Prophecy.

hold upon the hope set before us." And in thus openly setting forth what is secretly in course of operation, it is an appointment especially characteristic of that supernatural system which we call revealed religion. As God conducts His Scripture Dispensations by Prophecy, and anticipates Nature by Miracle, so does He in a parallel way operate upon our hearts through justification.

From what has been said, then, it appears that justification is an announcement or fiat of Almighty God breaking upon the gloom of our natural state as the Creative Word upon chaos; that it declares the soul righteous, and in that declaration, on the one hand, conveys pardon for its past sins, and on the other makes it actually righteous1. That it is a declaration, has been made evident from its including, as all allow, an amnesty for the past; for past sins are removable only by an imputation of righteousness. And that it involves an actual creation in righteousness, has been argued from the analogy of Almighty God's doings in Scripture, in which we

1 What is here called a declaration, Calvin calls an acceptation; with this verbal difference, the following passage from him, as far as it goes, expresses what is stated in the text;"Tota nostra disceptatio est de causa justificationis. Hanc Tridentini patres duplicem esse fingunt; ac si partim remissione peccatorum, partim spirituali regeneratione justi essemus. . Ego autem unicam et simplicem esse assero, quæ tota continetur in gratuita acceptione." Antid. p. 324.

find His words were represented as effective. And its text, most abundantly, establishes both conclusions; the former, from its use of the word justification; the latter, from its use of the word just or righteous; showing, that in matter of fact, he who is justified, becomes just, or he who is declared righteous, is thereby actually made righteous'. Lastly, both doctrines are laid down in our Articles; the former in the 11th Article, the latter in the 13th.

2 Davenant's statement on the subject may be entirely received, though he was a Calvinist :- "Ex usu quotidiani sermonis, qualitas inhærens, præsertim si prædominans sit, denominat subjectum, licet simul inhæreat aliquid contrariæ qualitatis. Dicimus enim non modo nivem album, aut cygnum candidum esse, sed candida tecta vocamus et vestimenta candida, quibus tamen sæpissime maculæ aliquæ offusæ sunt, et aspersiones nigredinis. Sic etiam aquam calidam vocamus, non modo eam quæ ebullit præ fervore, sed etiam quæ acquisivit gradus aliquot caloris, frigore nondum totaliter expulso. Ex quibus patet, eadem ratione renatos omnes ab inhærente justitia vere nominari et censeri justos, quamvis ea inchoata adhuc sit et imperfecta. Justos dico non justificatos, quia justi vocabulum, ut nunc loquimur de justo, nihil aliud designat quam præditum infuso habitu seu inhærente qualitate justitiæ, et justificati vocabulum includit absolutionem ab omni peccato et acceptationem ad vitam æternam." De Habit. Just. c. 3. fin. It must be carefully kept in view, that the object proposed in these citations from divines of very various sentiments, is that of showing how they one and all converge and approximate to one main clear and consistent doctrine, if they could forget the language of their respective schools.

LECTURE IV.

DERIVED SENSES OF THE WORD JUSTIFICATION.

1 COR. iv. 20.

"The Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power."

IF justification be God's glorious act declaring us righteous, and thereby as its direct and necessary result making us righteous,-if it be an act external to us, continued on into an act within us,—if it be a divine Voice issuing in a divine work, acceptance on the one part leading to acceptableness on the other, imputation to participation,-it requires very few words to explain how it comes to have been taken for what it involves; in other words, how justification has been said to be renewal, or to follow on or consist in renewal, or renewal said to be justification. And yet not a few words may be necessary to make familiar to our thoughts what is so obvious to the reason,-nay, to allay the feelings of distrust with which the very notion of such an attempt is commonly received at this day. Little indeed can any

how be effected in the course of a single Lecture, yet suggestions on the subject may not be without their profit in the case of inquiring minds.

I say, then, if the direct result of justification be actual righteousness, it is not at all unnatural or strange, that righteousness or renewal should be called our justification; (as little as saying, as we do without scruple, that a man has no "life" in him, when we mean no "activity" or no "heat,"-heat and activity being effects of life, or in using “animation" first for life, then for liveliness ;) nor is it at all justifiable, after the fashion of the day, to set down such a mode of speech to spiritual blindness, and to stigmatize it as perilous to its maintainers. My reasons are as follow:

1. Justification renews, therefore it may fitly be called renewal. Is not this an allowable variety of expression which is exemplified every day? For instance, to tempt is to solicit or assail with temptation, to invite towards evil; yet it not unfrequently means to overcome by temptation, or to seduce. To persuade means either to use persuasives or to succeed in persuading. To cure a patient is properly to take care of him. To gain a battle is to gain a victory, conquest being the intended object of engaging. A commander is one who is obeyed as well as commands. To call spirits from the deep is not merely to call, but so to call that they come, or to evoke. In such cases we anticipate the result of an action from the beginning, and contemplate it in