one : there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lip s: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes."* Now, were it not an injustice to the uninspired intellect of St. Paul, to say nothing of his apostolical endowments, to suppose that, in order to demonstrate the guilt and punishableness of every human being, he would have adduced the conduct of men whose "throat" had been "an open sepulchre ;" whose "mouth" had been

full of cursing and bitterness ;" and whose "feet" had been "swift to shed blood;"-the inveterate liar-the daring blasphemer-the trained assassin? Or can we suppose that he would have included under such a description of wickedness every individual of the human species: those ancient servants of God, for example, whose piety, notwithstanding its im

Rom. iii, 9—18.

perfections, is recorded and held up to our imitation in the Scriptures; and whose virtues," springing from a steadfast faith in the divine promises, he himself has eulogised in the Epistle to the Hebrews; describing them as men" of whom the world was not worthy?"* To prove the guilt and corruption of every individual, he would rather have subjected to examination the better portion of mankind, and have applied the divine law as a test of the boasted virtues of our species. He would have laid open the germs, the incipiency of actual and flagrant sins in the hearts of those who had never in reality committed them, and have shown a taint of the worst crimes

in the least guilty amongst us. He would have exposed an essential deficiency in the fairest patterns of human rectitude, and have made it manifest that no claim to be accounted righteous by the divine law, could be made out for those who had professed an exact observance of its statutes, and who, in the judgment of their fellow-creatures, and in their own esteem, had entirely or substantially fulfilled them: as, indeed, he wholly renounced such a claim on his own part, though, before his conversion, he had judged *Heb. xi. 38.

X

himself, "touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."* Such, we may be sure, would have been the nature of his proof, had it been his only or his specific purpose to establish the guilt and condemnation of every human being, in the judgment of the law. But the Jewish opponents of St. Paul had arrogated a personal righteousness on national and exclusive grounds, as Israelites, or in virtue of their descent from Abraham. Accordingly, we perceive, in an instant, the aptitude and propriety of that particular citation which he made from the Psalmist; for what was so calculated to confound their national pride, and to demolish the presumption of their sanctity as a people, as such a description, in their own sacred writings, of a multitude of Israelites children of Abraham - contemporaries of the Psalmist their own forefathers?

Apart, however, from St. Paul's design to confute this error of the Jewish people, his doctrine undoubtedly is, as we have already stated,

* Phil. iii. 6. He must here evidently refer to the opinion which he had entertained of his own obedience to the law previous to his conversion; unless—which, indeed, is most probable-he speaks of the external ordinances only which were prescribed in the law.

that by the law, or on the ground of his own desert, no man can be justified: that justification is held out to us, and must be received, as the gift of God through Jesus Christ. But does this invalidate or clash in the slightest degree with the doctrine of St. James, that God demands a holiness of character as preliminary or conditional to our justification, and will not account our faith as righteousness, if it be "alone" and "without works?" What! have the uses-the worth-the necessity of all that we understand by piety and virtue by moral rectitude in its largest acceptation, ceased with our merit and perfection? and is no reason left why God should concern Himself in its support and promotion amongst his creatures? True, we must confess with the patriarch,* that "we are not worthy of the least of all his mercies;" but is it therefore less certain that the law which He originally imposed upon us, and which we have so grievously violated, is founded in justice, and agreeable to our reason?-that obedience to it is essential to the well-being of the world? that it is supremely worthy of the Deity to uphold its authority, as well as to vindicate its rectitude ?-to uphold it by the

* Gen. xxxii. 10.

most powerful motive that can be applied to a rational being; even by making our practical regard to it a condition of our receiving that inestimable gift, which the sacrifice of His own Son was demanded to vindicate him in bestowing the justification of the guilty? Or has the sufficiency of our Redeemer's atonement forestalled Him in the communication of its expiatory virtue, and interfered with his absolute right to open the life-giving fountain to whomsoever, and on whatever terms, he may deem fit? Has the amplitude of God's own provision for the pardon of a guilty world, debarred him from demanding the reformation of his creatures? Has it superseded the universal dictate of reason and natural religion, that the forgiveness of sin presupposes the contrition and amendment of the sinner? Has it abolished our accountability, and put a period to our probation before God?

But, indeed, the Almighty has actually and confessedly demanded, in order to our justification, a sincere acknowledgment of our guilt and unworthiness, and a reliance on the mediation of Christ, as the meritorious ground of our acquittal at His tribunal. Is it then inconsistent to conclude that he has demanded something more; that he has made it equally