BOOK I. THE EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE. CHAPTER I. The Scriptural Distinction between Justification and Sanctification. It was anciently observed that the doctrine of Justification distinguishes Christians from all other men, whether Heathens, Jews, Mahomedans, or Deists; as Augustine says, "The church distinguishes the just from the unjust, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith." Who that reads the New Testament can deny this? Opposing parties have virtually proclaimed the same truth; Luther calling this doctrine, the article by which a church stands or falls; and the Council of Trent bending all its energies to overthrow his doctrine, which it anathematises in the severest terms. It is, therefore, not to be expected that one battle will settle this question; but the foe though defeated, will again return to the attack, and it will be to the infamy of the friends of truth, if they are found unprepared to renew the victory, which their forefathers, with inferior advantages, formerly gained. Since the Founder of our religion warned us, that B he came, not to bring peace, but a sword; what else can we expect, but that the doctrine of our accepance with God, which is the vital part of Christianity, should require to be constantly defended, against attacks that will never cease to be renewed? The truth of Christ's warning was displayed, by the first doctrinal controversy that arose in the Christian church. Who can read the Acts of the Apostles, or the Epistle to the Galatians, without seeing that Justification by faith, in opposition to works, was the object of the primary attack of the spirit of error, and of the most vigorous defence of the apostles of truth? Thus we are at once apprised of the battle which Christians will have to fight, and furnished with the weapons which are to secure our triumph in the holy war. In proportion as religion has declined, the doctrine of Justification has been neglected, forgotten, adulterated, or denied; and never has the Church been visited with "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord," without a revival of the ancient faith, concerning our gratuitous acceptance with God through Christ. That the Reformation, emphatically so called, was mainly effected by a contest on this point, is acknowledged, both by its friends and its foes. They who complain that the unity of the church was then destroyed, cannot deny that there was a remarkable harmony of the newly formed communions, in agreement with Luther, and in condemnation of Rome, on Justification. But it is now proclaimed that the battle of the Reformation is to be fought over again. Who, then, will wonder that its distinguishing tenet should be attacked, or that Protestants should be called to buckle on the armour by which the Reformers so totally routed the Church of Rome that she retreated from arguments, to persecution, that Aceldama, the field of blood? It may, however, excite as much surprise as regret, that we have now to contend, not with the avowed vassals of the Vatican, but with ministers of a church which had been pronounced the bulwark of the Reformation. It may be questioned whether the poison of Rome has ever been so dangerously disseminated as it now is at Oxford. Dr. Newman's first care has been to destroy the credit of Luther as a divine; and his second, to devise arguments in support of the Roman doctrine of Justification. Our first and last object is to show what is the doctrine of Scripture, which will thus be proved to be substantially that of the Protestant churches, almost without exception. Let not any turn from this discussion, under the indolent pretence that it is one of the intricate questions of theologians, with which ordinary Christians have no concern,-for it is in theology what gravitation is in natural philosophy, the all-pervading principle which imparts its character to the whole system. According as we adopt the principle of grace, or of works, in Justification, every part of our religion is true or false. By this one doctrine are modified our views of the attributes of Deity, and the design of creation; the nature of man, and his relation to the moral Governor; our original creation, and our fall; the law of God, and the essence of sin and of holiness; the person of Christ, and the design of his life and death; the influence of the Spirit, and the revelation of the Scriptures; the nature of faith, and of works; the privileges of the believer, and his hope of heaven; Christian experience, and the joys and sorrows of religion; the ancient orthodoxy, and the modern heresies; real or unreal differences among religious professors, and the consequences of the creeds that have borne the Christian name. studying this subject, therefore, we are reviewing the whole body of divinity. In A theme so important and influential must require careful study, which it will richly repay. But it is not logical or metaphysical acuteness that the subject demands; for the grand requisite is that anxious inquiring mind which prompted an ancient to say, "How can man be just with God?" This, springing from a humiliating sense of our own want of righteousness, will lead to the study of the sacred writings, in the spirit of prayer for that great Teacher who was promised to lead us into all the truth, and to glorify Christ by convincing the world of his righteousness. Whoever comes to this subject in the spirit of profane speculation, will probably end with the same conviction with which he began, that his own righteousness alone must justify him before God. Or if he end with the opposite conclusion, it will be a barren theory; for God never proposed the grandest pro |