Rom. iv. 1 — 8. What shall we then say that Abraham, our father as pertaining to the Jlesh, hath found ? For if Abra- ham were justified by works, he hath ivhereof to glory ; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture ? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that workelh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that vjo-rketh not, but believeth on him that just-ifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 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.
THE mind of man, however open to conviction from the plain deductions of reason, is susceptible of peculiarly strong impressions from that species of argument, which, at the same time that it addresses itself to his intellect, has a tendency to engage his feelings, and to enlist his prejudices in its favour. All the prejudices of the Jews were in favour of Abraham their father, and of David, the greatest of their monarchs, and one of the most distinguished of their prophets : and, if the conduct of these two could be adduced as precedents, there would need • but little further argument to convince a Jew, that the thing which was so recommended was right. Of this prejudice St. Paul availed himself in the passage before us. He had proved, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the justification of a sinner was, and must be, solely by faith in Christ : he had proved it from the guilty state of all, whether Jews or Gentiles, (which precluded a possibility of their being justified by any works of their owna;) and from the Lord Jesus Christ having been sent into the world to make an atonement for sin, and thereby to reconcile the de- mands of justice with the exercise of mercy. He had shewn, that this way of salvation cut off all occasion of boasting, and was equally suited both to Jews and
a Rom. iii. 20.