sequel of our discourse, we shall proceed to notice how St. Paul answers his own question.]
2. By arguments founded upon it —
[He justly observes, that, when the Scripture thus repre- sents Abraham as justified by faith, all works are of necessity excluded from any participation in the office of justifying : for if it be supposed that a man is justified, either in whole or in part, by his works, his reward would come to him as a debt, and not as a gift. However great the distance may be between the work and the reward, it will make no difference with respect to this point: if the work be proposed as the ground of the reward, and be performed in order to merit that reward, then is the reward a debt which may be justly claimed, and cannot with justice be withheld. Moreover, if works be thus admitted as purchasing or procuring the reward, then may the person who performs them have a ground of glorying in himself: he may say with truth, This I earned ; this I merited; this could not justly have been ivithheld from me. But had Abraham any such ground of glorying ? No : the Scripture denies that he had, in that it ascribes his salvation, not to any righteousness of his own, but to a righteousness imputed to him, and apprehended by faith only.
But whilst the Apostle argues thus strongly and incontro- vertibly on the passage he has cited, we must not overlook the peculiarly forcible language which he uses, and which, if it had not been used by him, we should scarcely have dared to use. In declaring who the person is that is thus justified, he tells us, that it is the person "who worketh not'" (with a view to obtain justification by his works), but " believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly" Of course the Apostle is not to be understood as saying, that the justified person will continue " ungodly," or that he will " not work," after he has been justified ; but only as saying, that he does not work with a vieiv to obtain justifica- tion, or come as a godly person to receive a recompence : in coming to the Saviour, he will bring nothing but his sins with him, in order that he may be delivered from them, and obtain an interest in the Redeemer's righteousness, in which he may be clothed and stand before God without spot or blemish. But still the terms are such as to mark with the utmost force and precision, that, from the office of justifying, works must be for ever excluded ; and that we must, like Abraham, be justi- fied by a righteousness not our own ; a righteousness which cuts off all occasion of glorying, and which makes our salvation to be altogether of grace.]
But, as to the Apostle's arguments several objec- tions may be made, we will endeavour to state and answer them.