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no distant period we must meet death. But in what character? Either as the king of terrors; or as a conquered enemy, and the messenger of peace and joy. "And after death the judgment; for we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." All the generations that ever lived upon the earth will be summoned before that tribunal. There, my brethren, you and I must stand. There we must be tried, and numbered among one of the two classes, into which the Almighty and omniscient Judge will separate all the children of Adam one from another, "as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." There we must be found either among the righteous at the right hand, to whom the Judge will say, "Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:" or otherwise, among the wicked at the left hand, on whom he will denounce the tremendous sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Under this solemn conviction, let me appeal to your consciences, brethren, whether it be not a matter of infinite importance that we should know how we are to obtain confidence in the prospect of that great and awful day. And blessed be God, we are not left in uncertainty upon this infinitely momentous concern. For though in consequence of original and actual sin, we are in a state of condemnation, the scripture has pointed out a way in which we may be justified,

accepted, acquitted, and made partakers of eternal

life and glory.

But, alas! men in general are not disposed to find out this way, or to make any serious inquiries concerning it. And what is the reason? Our Lord gives an answer to this question: "they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." None will value a remedy until they know they are diseased. To apply this to men in the character of sinners, it may be remarked, that they must be acquainted with their condemnation and misery by sin, before they will welcome deliverance and salvation by Christ. The doctrine of man's condemnation, in consequence of original sin and actual transgression, is inculcated throughout the scriptures. This is the foundation on which the gospel stands. And the gospel is a dispensation which brings glad tidings of mercy to the miserable, of forgiveness to the guilty, of redemption to the captive, of justification and salvation to the ruined and lost. But it is one of the devices of Satan, the enemy of God and man, to corrupt the gospel; and this he has effected in a greater or less degree in all ages. In the churches of Galatia there were false teachers, under his influence, who distorted the doctrine of justification by Christ; and thus they perverted the whole gospel, and introduced, in the words of the apostle at the commencement of this epistle," another gospel.". His principal objects therefore, in writing to the Galatians, were to oppose these false teachers, to confute their error, and to establish the great and leading truths of the

gospel. This he accomplishes by shewing that the
works of the law are to be rejected as to the ground
of our acceptance with God; that all men are under
sin and the curse; and that justification and salvation
are to be procured only by Jesus Christ.—The text is
one of the many passages in the word of God which
clearly exhibits to us the nature of our justification.
"We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the
Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the
works of the law: for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified." These words will lead me
I. To shew what justification is.

II. To confirm the apostle's assertion that none can be justified by the law. And

III. To illustrate the position, that justification is to be obtained only by faith in Jesus Christ.

I. We are to consider what justification is, or wherein it consists.

Justification implies forgiveness of sin, and deliverance from its consequences. It is the means of our acceptance with God, as if we were perfectly righteous characters. It is not, however, making us righteous in our persons, but in our state. To be made personally righteous is the work of sanctification. To be considered, by God's grace, relatively righteous in Christ, is justification. Some persons, like the papists, confound these two graces; but the scripture keeps them perfectly distinct. Justification is not

opposed to our personal sin, either original or actual; but to our deliverance from its condemnation. It is said in the context, that "the scripture hath concluded all under sin." It hath shut up all (as the Greek literally signifies) under sin, in a state of condemnation. Justification is deliverance from this state: the term, therefore, is opposed to condemnation through sin, and not to the sin which has occasioned it. But justification will not be publicly and formally announced upon the subjects of it, before the great day of judgment, when the people of God will be acquitted and declared righteous, before angels and men, by the Judge of the whole earth. We must, however, enter a justified state in the present world, or we shall never be thus publicly justified in that day at the bar of God. Previous to death and judgment, every human being is either in a state of justification or of condemnation. There is no middle condition between these two-no neutral ground can be admitted; all who are not interested in God's method of justification are under condemnation. On the other hand, all who have acceded to God's plan of mercy are freed from the charge of sin, and delivered from its curse. For "there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus," and who, as the evidence of their union with him, "walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." When a sinner is justified, he receives a pardon and is accepted as righteous. But pardon and justification are, in reality, two different things, clearly distinguishable in common language. When a man is pardoned, it supposes that he has

broken the law, but that the law is dispensed with, and that the just and threatened punishment is not put in execution. But when he is justified, it supposes that he has a righteousness equal to the demands of the law, and, therefore, that he may be acquitted on the principles of justice. To be pardoned and to be justified, therefore, in strict and precise language, are two distinct conditions; although, in the scriptural justification, they are never separated, but always happily united. Justification, in the scriptural sense, includes pardon, and with it the imputation of righteousness. To exemplify this:-The sinner has broken the law, and therefore he cannot answer its demands; but being freed from the guilt and threatened punishment of sin, in this respect, he obtains a gracious and unmerited pardon. This, however, is not all; for, interested in the Redeemer by faith, he receives a righteousness, which is imputed to him as though it were his own, and this righteousness answers all the requisitions of the law, as if it had been completely and perfectly obeyed; so that the law has no charges against him in this view, therefore, he is justified or pronounced righteous in the sight of God's holy law. Hence arises the challenge of the apostle :— "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." The manner of our justification is described by the apostle

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