Gospel, as having by his own obedience unto death ob- tained eternal redemption for us. To him we are com- manded to look as to the propitiation offered for the sins of the whole world : and we are assured, that, on our doing this with penitence and faith, "we shall be justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses." With this command we comply : we look to God as reconciled to us in the Son of his love ; and in the exercise of this faith we become interested in all that Christ has done and suffered for us. Our iniquities are blotted out as a morning cloud ; the righteousness of Christ is given to us, and put upon us ; and, arrayed in that spotless robe, we stand before God without spot or blemish. Thus are we accepted in the beloved, or, in other words, are justified by faith.
We will also add a few words, to declare what we mean when we say, that we are justified by faith without works. We do not mean that a justified per- son is at liberty to neglect good works ; but that the person who seeks for acceptance through Christ must not bring with him any works whatever, either cere- monial or moral, as a joint ground of his hope, or as a price which he is to pay for an interest in Christ. He must, in 'point of dependence, renounce his best works as much as the greatest sins he ever committed : his trust must be altogether in the blood and right- eousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here it will be proper just to mention a mistake which some have fallen into, respecting the works which are so carefully excluded by St. Paul from the office of justifying : It is said, that wherever works are mentioned as not justifying the sinner, the expression used is, " The works of the law :" and that therefore w^e may conclude, that not works in general are ex- cluded from this office, but only the works of the ceremonial lazv. But the truth is, that *' works" are often mentioned in this view, without any notice of the law; and the inference drawn from this unfounded assertion only shews, how hard the adversaries of the doctrine we are insisting upon find it to reconcile