by newness of life : and then they hope that he will accept them, and present them faultless before his heavenly Father. And if they cannot see in themselves such a measure of peni- tence and reformation as they think necessary to recommend them to him, they dare not go to him : they think it would be presumption in them to trust in him : they cannot conceive how his mercy should extend to such wretches as they see themselves to be. On the other hand, if by much prayer and diligence they have attained some measure of the goodness which they are striving after, then, I say, they can go to him with courage, and feel a comfortable persuasion that he will accept them. Thus they found their hopes, not simply on his merits, but on some measure of goodness in themselves, which they carry with them as a price to purchase his favour. But the Scriptures tell us, that we must go to receive salvation at Christ's hands, "without money and without price" :" that salvation must be wholly of grace, from first to lastx : that we must go without any ivork whatever, to be "justified by him as ungodly? :" and that, if we attempt to carry to him any thing of our own, either as a joint ground of our hope, or as a war- rant for our hope, in him, " he shall profit us nothing2."]
But we must be made partakers of Christ's right- eousness solely and entirely by faith —
[This is asserted so strongly, and so frequently, that one can scarcely conceive how any one who has ever read the Scriptures should entertain a doubt of it. Nor is it asserted only, but maintained frequently, in a long course of argument in direct opposition to the Jewish notion of salvation by works'"1. The reasons for it also are stated again and again. Salvation " is by faith, that it may be by grace V It is " by faith, lest any man should boast c." It is by faith, that the whole universe may glory in Christ alone d. But the reproof which Paul gave to Peter at Antioch puts this matter in the clearest light. Peter had preached to the Gentiles, salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some Judaizing teachers, who, whilst they professed to believe in Christ, were zealous for the observance of the Mosaic law, coming thither, he feared to offend them ; and, to ingratiate himself with them, he required the Gentiles to conform to some Mosaic rites to which they had never before been subjected, and from which the Jews themselves, had they known their liberty, were free. We are not told that Peter promised them salvation by these works: but he evidently taught them, that, though Christ was
u Isai. lv. 1. x Rom. xi. 6. y Rom. iv. 5.
z Gal. v. 2,4. a Rom. iv. 1 — 14. ll Rom. iv. 16.
c Eph. ii. 8, 9. <> 1 Cor. i. 31.