in the 7th and 8th Chapters; and that the gift of the Spirit, together with the adoption of Sons, and right of inheritance, of which it is the Seal and Earnest, appertains to the Gentiles through the faith of Christ, he proves by an appeal to their own experience of his sanctifying influence upon their hearts and lives: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." (VIII. 9. 14, 15, 16, 17. Compare Acts x. 45; xI. 17.)

Now this being no fancied or precarious order, but the very order observed by the Apostle in drawing up his Epistle; and that of necessity, for the establishment of his position; for if the Gospel of Christ had failed in any one of these, it could not have been, what he affirmed it to be,

:

"the power of God unto salvation ;"-the consequence that follows is clear and inevitable: If the Justification spoken of by St. Paul in the text had been final justification, it is evident that his argument could not have proceeded in this order. For none of these can come after final justification: not Peace with God, not the Hope of glory, not future Salvation, not the Sanctification of the Spirit, not the mortifying of the deeds of the body, not the grounded hope of a glorious resurrection-all these must precede final justification, for they must all take place in the faithful in this life but they all follow the justification spoken of by St. Paul; that is the necessary introduction to them all, without that we are incapable of all the rest :-We conclude, therefore, without fear of mistake, and almost without fear of contradiction, that the justification spoken of by St. Paul cannot possibly be our final justification; but, in correspondence both with the scope of the argument in the three first Chapters, and with the general course and order of the Epistle, is our first justification, received in baptism, which places us in a state of favour with God, rendering us vessels of mercy, (1x. 23.) and capable of the succeeding grace of the Gospel.

3. OUR interpretation of St. Paul's sense of the term justified being thus settled upon the most solid grounds, it must be further satisfactory to find it confirmed by the third proposed ground of judgment; and that the language of the Apostle corresponds perfectly to the first, but not in any manner to our final justification.

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FOR, in the first place, he plainly uses "the remission of sins" as an expression equivalent to justification: Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood; to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past." (III. 24, 25. Compare Acts xiii. 38, 39.)

AND more plainly still: "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works; saying, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." (IV. 6, 7, 8.)

* Rather, "to whom the Lord doth not impute sin:" ψ ε μη λογίσηται κύριος ἁμαρτιαν.

L

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SECONDLY, this justification, or remission of sins, the Apostle speaks of as an act already past, in favour of those converts whom he addresses in his Epistle: Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." (v. 1.) And more plainly still; "Much more then being now justified † by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." (v. 9. Comp. Tit. iii. 7.)‡

THIRDLY, the state of favour with God, which is consequent upon this act of justification, he speaks of as a state then existing: "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." (v. 2.)

LASTLY, the particular time, when this grace of Justification was received by the Christian converts, is sufficiently expressed by St. Paul to have been at their Baptism: "and such were some of you," says he to the Corinthians, "but

* δικαιωθέντες εν εκ πίςεως, ειρηνην εχομεν προς τον θεον.

† πολλῳ εν μαλλον, δικαιωθεντες νυν εν τῳ αιματι αυτε, σωθησόμεθα δί αυτε απο της οργής.

See Note (D).

ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God:" (1 Cor. vi. 11.) and more plainly still, in the Epistle to Titus; “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Tit. iii. 5—7.)

AND now, from all the three grounds of judgment proposed, we think the decision most plain and certain, that the justification spoken of by St. Paul, when he says, "that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law," is our first justification*, which consists in the free remission of all sins past; in children, original; in others, both original and actual sin; and the effect of which is, to translate the believer from under the frown of God's wrath, and to place him as a righteous person in his sight; an object of his favour, and capable of the riches of his mercy in Christ Jesus.

* See Note (E.)