Who can listen to such petitions without pain? And what must be the principles from which they spring? Can superstition go much farther in absurdity?

2. Job knew how infinitely hateful sin is to this holy Lord God; and on this additional ground the question likewise was put: "How should man be just with God?" If you hold unworthy and low notions of the evil of sin, no difficulties will present themselves to you, as to the removal of its guilt, or of its power. You will unduly magnify the mercy of God, and the extent of your own performances, and will be tempted to indulge an unsound security of mind. But when sin is seen in all its heinousness and aggravations; when it is viewed, reflected in the mirror of the Divine attributes, and particularly when you consider that its penalty was expiated by the crucifixion of God manifest in the flesh, you will indeed be severe and jealous in scrutinizing into the method of your Justification. Great searchings of heart will be stirred within you. Painful convictions of danger will agitate the secret recesses of your breast. These feelings have invariably marked out all the faithful servants of God. Thus Job says, 66 I have sinned: what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men?" vii. 20. "If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me." ix. 30, 31. When David too

of Trent; published by the command of the Pope Pius V. Antwerp, A.D. 1577, Fer. IV. Quart. Temp. Advent. Fer. IV. Cinerum. Ord. Miss.

had fallen most disgracefully: nay, when he had even committed murder and adultery, still the dishonor which he had done to God affected him with the most pungent grief. "Against thee,

thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight."*

The views of the Church of Rome as to the enormity of sin are of a very different character indeed; and a living author has justly remarked in reference to that Church: the distinction of sins 'into mortal and venial is one 'tone of moral feeling against sin.

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which lowers the

The conscience

is seared by the practice of absolution, and the 'facility with which it may be obtained in the Church of Rome; the doctrine of the efficacy of 'extreme unction, at the last moment of life, and ' of masses to release souls from purgatory, directly 'tends to lesson, in the minds of those who have ' embraced those notions, the obligations to abstain 'from sin, and to live a life of holiness. To this may be added; the opposition of the Church of Rome to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures among her people, tends to perpetuate ignorance, ' and promote irreligion and infidelity. The state ' of morals in Roman Catholic countries, as con'trasted with that in Protestant countries, affords 'melancholy proof of the truth of these remarks.'+

3. The broken law and rejected government of God would also suggest to Job the inquiry in the text. For can the Almighty Lawgiver suffer his commands

*Psalm li. 4.

+ Meek on the Errors of the Church of Rome, page 382.

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to be violated, and express no displeasure? Can unfailing truth say, The soul that sinneth it shall die ;" and shall no punishment ensue? Or, shall the throne of the sovereign ruler of the world be attacked, and no impeachment of treason be preferred? When angels rose in proud rebellion against Jehovah, did no disgrace ensue? Was no vengeance inflicted? When Adam sinned in paradise, was his crime overlooked? Was the sentence of wrath repealed? When the ante-diluvians rioted in all manner of abominations, did they offend unchastised? How then should man, lying under the curse of the law, and a traitor to his God, be just with him?' Must he not bear that curse? "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself." * "God is not a man

Son of man that he

that he should lie, neither the should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" +

Such appears to be the meaning of the question made by Job in the text. The holiness of God, the nature of sin, his broken law, and his rejected government, all force upon us the inquiry, "How should man be just with God?"

It becomes us all, my brethren, to ask ourselves, Have we fairly weighed the depth of our ruin, and the means of our recovery? Have we ascertained our misery, and our danger? Like those perishing in the mighty waters, have we earnestly implored some helping hand, and waited anxiously for the arrival of a life-boat? Have we been

"pricked in the heart," and cried in bitterness of spirit, "Men and brethren what shall we do?" How pleasing in that case, is the office of proclaiming among you those glad tidings! "Be it known unto you, that through this man, even through Emanuel, God with us, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."*

Let us now proceed,

II. To state the scriptural answer to the question put by Job,

The question is, How shall man condemned in himself, become just, and be accounted a righteous person? A subject of deeper interest cannot engage our attention, and the Scriptures speak upon it with the utmost plainness. Nor has their language ever varied; but has, since the fall of Adam, been uniform.

When a promise was made to Abraham, that the Messiah should descend from him; that he should have a numerous posterity, and that in him should "all the families of the earth be blessed;" it is said, that "he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness." To guide us into a right understanding of these words, the Holy Spirit has himself explained them. The Jews were proud of their relation to this Patriarch, and thought that his obedience was so exemplary, as to be

meritorious in the sight of God. St. Paul meets and obviates the objection, on this ground. In treating on the subject in hand, he states in Romans iii. 28, "We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." But as he expected that his countrymen might specify the case of Abraham in contradiction of this truth, he adds in Romans iv. 1-5. "What shall we then say, that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

Even the Father of the faithful, then; he, who at the divine command left his country and his kindred, and was afterwards prepared to sacrifice his son, his only son, Isaac, had no righteousness of his own on which, through the mercy of his God, he could rely. He was saved, from first to last, by his faith, which gave him an interest in the merits of the promised seed. And where is the individual who can now safely depend, in any sense or in the least degree, on his most holy performances? Besides, the apposition is so strong between Abraham being justified by works, and having whereof to glory, and his faith being counted unto him for righteousness, and the reward being reckoned, not of debt, but of grace; that it should seem as if