His benevolence might prompt him to do it. But even that would be of no avail. Righteousness cannot in the nature of things be communicated. Pardon would not make them happy. For be it ever remembered that no man, even if God treats him as if he were good, and spreads around him all the means of happiness, can be happy unless he is good. No man can be any happier than he has prepared himself to be. A bad man could not be happy, even in heaven. The righteousness then, which is by Christ, is that from the very nature of things which he induces men to perform. His office is then, as the Scripture represents, "to purify a people from all iniquity, and make them zealous of good works."

We now turn to the Scriptural argument. And we say, the doctrine of justification by faith alone is contradicted by the whole current of Scripture from beginning to end. If there be one doctrine in the Bible more prominent than the rest, it is the doctrine of rewards and punishments, that man is to be rewarded for his good works and punished for his sins. Upon this principle hung the whole Jewish economy, and God's dealings with his chosen people for many centuries. Hear the fundamental law which God lays down by Moses for his treatment of the nation of Israel. "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God shall set thee on high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto

the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field." "Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." "Though a sinner," says Solomon, "do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him. But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not before God." It is written in Isaiah, "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him." "If a man," says Ezekiel, "be just, and do that which is lawful and right;" "hath walked in my statutes, and kept my judgments, to deal truly, he is just; he shall live, saith the Lord." "The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." Would it not appear by this, that works as well as faith are a ground of acceptance with God? Could there be a more explicit contradiction of the doctrine that man is justified by faith alone?

We now come to the New Testament. And there we find the first discourse of our Lord, in its whole drift, to run counter to it. It is often asserted that the law and the Gospel are essentially different in their fundamental principles. Nay, I have heard it explicitly stated that the language of the law is, "Do this and thou shalt live." But of the Gospel, "According to thy faith so

Whoso

be it unto thee." Now, as it appears to me, nothing can be more contrary to fact. The Gospel proposes a law still more rigorous and exacting than the law itself, and insists on an obedience still more minute and universal. It insists not only on all the law demands, but much more. "Think not," said Christ, "that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. ever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." What then is not only a man's acceptance, but his eminence in the kingdom of heaven, here made to depend upon? On his doing and teaching these commandments. And what is doing the commandments but good works? A man's greatness in the kingdom is to depend precisely upon the number and amount of his good works. What then becomes of justification by faith alone?

Exactly agreeable to this is Christ's close of what may be considered, by way of eminence, the preceptive part of the Gospel. At the end of the sermon on the Mount, which is the summary of the Christian code of laws, a very directory of good works, he concludes with this declaration: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." 66 Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings

of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock."

What is the doctrine of the parable of the talents? "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Is this the doctrine of justification by faith alone, or by imputed, borrowed righteousness, or is it justification by works as well as faith?

We now come to the great test, Christ's solemn and scenic representation of judgment, that very transaction, where faith is represented to be so omnipotent and works so worthless.

Is there one word, in all that imposing and impressive scene, said concerning faith as the one grand, sole requisite ?

Does that transaction look like the doctrine that the accepted are justified, "not on account of anything done by them, or any other evangelical obedience, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ," according to the Creeds and Catechism? Let us read the record: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these,

my brethren, ye have done it unto me." What then becomes of justification by faith alone? Is it not strange, is it not unaccountable, that it should have been passed over in most profound silence, in this very transaction where it is supposed by this theory to bear sway alone? Should not the Judge rather have said, "Inasmuch as ye have had faith, although I set aside and disregard as filthy rags, your own righteousness, your own good deeds, I impute to you the righteousness of another, and on that account bid you welcome to eternal joy?" Such should have been the language of this passage, had the doctrine of justification by faith alone been true. "They that have done good," says the Saviour, "shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."

I need not repeat to you the proposition with which we commenced this division of discourse, that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, is contradicted by the general current of Scripture, and explicitly in many of the most important passages.

Whence then came the doctrine of justification by faith alone? How could it have originated in the minds of men, and thence found its way into Creeds and Confessions in opposition to so much that is plain and unequivocal in the word of God? It claims to be founded on Scripture too. Many texts are quoted in support of it, among which are the following, from Paul's Epistle to the Romans: "Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." "Therefore we conclude that a man is justi