sense that the phrases "to account for righteousness" and "to impute righteousness" can be applied in Rom. 4: 5, 6, where "an ungodly person," a "righteousness without works" is the subject of discourse.-4. The proposition “ God graciously regards and treats us as morally good persons," embraces more than the sentence "we obtain salvation through the grace of God." The latter is comprehended in the former, but the former also includes the idea that the moral excellence [the obedience] of Christ is the ground of our salvation. Rom. 5: 19.

IX. That we are treated as though we were righteous, is evident from the fact that we are not only liberated from punishment just as if we were innocent, but that, notwithstanding. our unworthiness, (Rom. 3: 23), that salvation, Son, which the righteous alone (εhris dixαioovvns) are authorized to expect, is graciously bestowed on us, just as if we had merited it by obedience to the law. Rom. 2: 13. But before we could be treated as righteous and as worthy of the heavenly happiness, it was necessary that all obstacles should be removed, by the death of our Redeemer (§ 88. Ill. 4). For, on the principles of justice, we were so far from being entitled to admission into heaven, that we even deserved to be excluded from it: we had not only not merited reception into the heavenly kingdom by any obedience, but on the contrary, our forefather Adam, and we ourselves had actually deserved to be excluded from it by our sins. It was necessary therefore that the general punishment of banishment from the kingdom of God should be removed, as well as the particular punishment of exclusion from future salvation which every one had individually merited by his own personal guilt. And not until all this was accomplished, were the demands of the law perfectly satisfied.1

Gal. 5: 5, "we expect from faith that which righteousness

1 See the work on the Design of the death of Christ, p. 667.

alone is entitled to expect-that which is the object of her (righteousness') hope. Compare Rom. 8: 24, where end is equivalent to to anendeɣeodai, v. 24, but immediately afterwards ελπις designates the object of hope ὁ ελπίζει τις.” The scheme of salvation through Christ suspends the fulfilment of those promises which the law makes to righteousness (i. e. the observance of all the requisitions of the law), not on our works, but on our reliance on the merits of the Son of God.1 But that ελπις δικαιοσυνης hope of righteousness, is nothing else than Son or "life," is evident from a comparison of Gal. 3: 12. ζωη Rom. 10: 5.

X. "To justify," dinaiovv, signifies to pronounce a person free from punishment, and therefore also indicates the consequence of this acquittal, viz. actual liberation from punishment. For this liberation from punishment the children of God are indebted to the death of Christ, inasmuch as he thereby suffered the punishment for us, and thus gave a display of the justice of God. Rom. 3: 24-26. § 89, 91.

XI. Rom. 8: 33. 10: 4, Christ is the end of the law, in order that all who believe might obtain righteousness, compared with 2 Cor. 3: 9, where dixaloovvn righteousness, is contrasted with the “condemnation" threatened by the Mosaic law. Rom. 5: 1, 9.

XII. Rom. 4: 5-8. Acts 13: 38. In both these passages the phrases “ remission of sins,” αφεσις ἁμαρτιων-ανομί wv, and "to justify," dixanovv, are used synonymously.

XIII. In the Dissert. de sensu vocis dixalos, xxv, it is proved that "justification," dixαwors, includes "life," Conv. For this salvation which is enjoyed in part at present, but which

is chiefly reserved for the future world (Rom. 8: 24), we are indebted to the obedience of Christ (§ 88); and particularly to his death, as that was the most illustrious display of his obedience (88). Hence, as we are indebted for our justification, δικαιωσιν, or for the righteousness, δικαιοσύνη, imputed to us, to that obedience in consequence of which Christ was pronounced just (Rom. 5: 18); there is nothing reprehensible in the common phrase, “the righteousness [obedience] of Christ is imputed to "us." In consequence of the obedience of Christ, or by virtue of the reward granted to the obedience of Christ, we are treated as if we had yielded a perfect obedience, and had thereby made ourselves worthy of so great a salvation.

The solemn acknowledgment of the righteousness of Christ, includes the right which he acquired to treat us as if we were righteous, and to bestow salvation upon us.1

XIV. The believer has the hope of an exalted salvation.— Rom. 5: 1, 2, being justified—we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 8: 30, them whom he justified he also glorified. Tit. 3: 7, that being justified we should be made heirs-of eternal life. Gal. 3: 11, the just shall live by faith. Rom, 5: 17, they shall reign in life. Gal. 3: 9, so then, they which be (justified by) of faith, are blessed.

XV. Faith is the condition.-Phil. 3: 9, "The righteousness, dixαioovvn, which is graciously bestowed by God, is suspended on the condition of faith," En notε. Gal. 2: 16. Rom. 3:22, 26. 4: 11, 24. 10: 4.2

XVI. Faith the condition.-Rom. 10: 4. comp. 6-10. 1: 16, for therein (in the Gospel) is the righteousness of God

1 See the work on the Design of the atonement, p. 591.

2 For this signification of εл, see Opusc. Academ. Vol. I. p. Vol. III. p. 93.

213.

revealed from faith to faith, ex лILOTEWS EIS TIOTI, i. e. revealed in order that we should believe in it. 3: 21.

XVII. Rom. 10:4, 10. Here, "to believe unto righteousness" is equivalent to the phrase, "to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God" in v. 3, or to the expression, "to believe as the righteousness of faith says" in v. 6; or to the phrases : v. 14, πιστευειν οὗ τις ηκουσε. ν. 8, δια του ῥηματος της πιστεως. ν. 16, ὑπακουειν ευαγγελιῳ.

XVIII. Nature of faith.-According to John 3: 14 &c, faith in Christ consists in a confident reception of the promise which is connected with the death of Christ, a looking unto him who was lifted on the cross, with the hope of eternal life. As this faith is a reliance on Christ, or on God and the promises which he gave in reference to Christ (Rom. 4: 17--24) we find these expressions: 1 Tim. 1: 16. Rom. 10: 11. αυτῳ, Heb. 10: 19, παρρησια εις την εισοδον &c.

πιστευειν επ'

XIX. This faith must be in Christ.-Rom. 3: 26, riotεws Inoov, comp. 22. Gal. 2: 16. Phil. 3: 8 &c. 1 Tim. 1:16. Acts 13: 38. 10: 43. 26: 18. comp. with v. 15.

XX. This faith must embrace his death.-John 3:14--16. Rom. 3: 25, faith in his blood. Gal. 2: 20. Heb. 10: 19.

XXI. We must believe in God.-Rom. 4: 5, believing in him who justifies the ungodly (in God). v. 24, in him who raised Jesus-who was delivered for our offences and raised for our justification. 5: 11, we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. comp. v. 6 &c. 1 Pet. 1: 21.

XXII. We must be impressed with a deep sense of God's love to us. -1 John 4: 16, we have known and believed the love

that God hath to us.

&c. See 115. Ill. 7.

comp. v. 9 &c. Rom. 5: 1. comp. v. 5

1 On the Object of the Death of Christ, p. 557.

2 Ibid. p. 430, 394.

§ 118.

Faith is most perfectly adapted to the scheme of mercy, as the condition of salvation.

This condition of our actual attainment of salvation accords in the most perfect manner with the nature and circumstances of the scheme by which it was provided. For, those who are actually justified [pardoned], owe their salvation, not to their own merits, but to the grace of God who provided a Redeemer for us, and to the merits of Christ our Redeemer (Rom. 3: 24. §73). Justification [pardon] by faith, therefore, signifies nothing else than this, that a christian is treated as if he were righteous, not, in any sense, on account of his works (1), but on account of the free grace of God (2), who gave us a Redeemer (3), or for Christ's sake (4)— that he is justified, not because he is entitled to salvation as a reward, or because he has done any thing which would give him a claim to salvation [not as ποιησας εν οἷς ανθρωπος ζησεται, Gal. 3: 12], not as an εgyaouevos, as one that worketh (Rom. 4: 4); but he is justified in directly the opposite manner (5), that is, as a person whose works give him no title to salvation. (Not by the law, Gal. 3: 11. Rom. 10: 4. 3: 21. Gal. 3: 12. Rom. 10: 5. 4: 5, un εgyaloμεvos.) Having, therefore, no claim to any reward, having no works of which he can boast (6) or on which he can depend, he has no other refuge left than to repose his confidence in another (7). He must put his trust in him, who has devised a scheme, by which he can justify those who not only deserve no reward, but who are even actually guilty creatures, by which he can accept their con