course that morality possesses, in their eyes, superior dignity and more winning attractions. The causes of this general partiality are not difficult to be traced. It is not merely nor principally that piety may be counterfeited by the hypocrite, while morality shews itself by its fruits. Morality may be counterfeit and hypocritical no less than piety. And piety, no less than morality, has her fruits to shew: and, if justice be rendered to her claims, will vindicate as exclusively her own productions the very fruits with which morality is adorned. The main source of the preference is this: Men imagine their own interests to be more immediately involved in the general observance of morality than of piety. The duties of piety are considered as articles in a private account between the individual and his God: an account in which the world does not suppose itself specifically interested, and in the state of which it consequently takes little concern, But on the influence of the moral rules of justice, sincerity, veracity, on the discharge of relative duties, on the exercise of liberality and kindness, on the observance, at least on the partial observance, of some of the precepts of temperance and purity, the world perceives

ent.

perceives that in domestic life, in public transactions, in every matter of private business, its security and its comfort are dependHence it is that morality is elevated to pre-eminence. Hence also it is that an unsound morality, a morality resting on selfish motives, a morality not referring to God, is allowed to usurp the honours due to Christian morals, and to them only. Deriving from the selfish motives on which it rests, inducements sufficient to keep itself tolerably correct in customary cases open to inspection; it passes current with a world which looks to present effects, troubles not itself to investigate motives, nor reflects that in morality not founded on the genuine corner-stone there will ultimately prove to be neither consistency nor strength.

Actions which, independently of considerations of religious duty, recommend themselves to men by tried and constant utility, speedily assume a character of merit. We begin to value ourselves upon the performance of them. We proceed to infer that they must appear to God, who has commanded the performance of them, in the colours in which they appear to others and to ourselves; and that, being pronounced meritorious by men, they entitle us to pre

tensions

tensions of positive merit before Him; constitute, if not entirely, yet in part, the ground-work of our justification; and are authorised to claim from the Most High not merely acceptance through grace, but reward as of debt (a).

From this prevailing view of the nature of works of morality, and from the inherent reluctance of the unhumbled heart to admit that, if we are to be received as righteous before God, it must be altogether by means of other righteousness than our own, has arisen an opinion, the existence of which among persons whose thoughts have been turned to scriptural inquiries may well be deemed surprising; namely, that when St. Paul affirms that men are justified by faith without the deeds of the law, the law which the Apostle intends is simply the Ceremonial Law promulgated to the Jews by Moses, "Faith," it is vaguely said, "is the gospel:

"the law is the Mosaic ritual, with which "we have no concern. The Gospel, in the

belief of which we are to be saved, requires "morality; and by the moral law, which includes moral actions towards men, "though certainly without the deeds of the

"abrogated ceremonial law, we are to be justified."

An opinion replete with confusion and error, and at the same time relating to a subject so important as the place and office of Christian morality in the plan of salvation, deserves serious discussion.

The conclusion which, whatever be its import, St. Paul affirms in the text, is not an insulated proposition averred in that single passage. In other parts of his Epistle to the Romans, and in the Epistle to the Galatians, it is again and again re-affirmed by him in various equivalent expressions; and is connected with laboured and diversified trains of argument and illustration designed to establish its truth, and also to evince the importance which the Apostle attached to the conclusion in question, and his solicitude that its validity should be acknowledged and deeply felt. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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

I

works of the law shall no flesh be justified. That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident: for the just shall live by faith. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace: for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith (b).

What is the Law, concerning which the Apostle in these passages has spoken?

Unquestionably the Ceremonial Law has been comprehended in them. That the Jews in the days of our Lord and of St. Paul looked for justification, some perhaps altogether, some chiefly, others in lower and different degrees, to the observances of that law, is certain. And it is equally certain, that by the Ceremonial Law justification was neither wholly nor in part attainable. The declarations of the word of God concerning its nature, and concerning the inherent inefficacy of its sacrifices, prove that, had it been obeyed punctually and perfectly, it could not have justified. In the word of God it is pronounced to have been a system of types and figures, intended to shadow

(b) Rom. iii. 20. v. i. Gal. ii. 16. iii, 11, 24. V. 4, 5.

forth,