if we were righteous, might justify, in the believer, the language of which Dr. Payne complains, as well as the doctrine of legal right objected to. David's language

the language of true faith-the language of the spirit of Christ in man-is, and ever must be, free from all legal taint, simply because it is the language of truth, expressing in him who is led by the spirit of truth, a confidence in harmony with the truth of things-a confidence in which confession of sin is combined with filial trust in the Father's heart.

No part of this system presents a more instructive development of the working of this conception of rectoral justice,—and of rectoral justice, not only as distinct from fatherly love, but also from absolute justice as contemplated by Edwards,—than the arbitrary character already noticed as ascribed by Dr. Payne to the relation of faith to justification. For while the relation of faith to sanctification is recognised as a relation in the nature of things, its relation to justification is held to be arbitrary; and, in connection with this distinction, Dr. Payne objects to Dr. Russell's saying that, "the whole efficacy of faith in the matter of justification arises from its object." To this Dr. Payne objects, as embodying "the error of forgetting that man needs a change of state as well as a change of character," i. e. justification as well as sanctification. I would quite object to regarding such a change of state as amounts only to the "being treated as if we were righteous," had such a thing been possible, as at all filling up the words "from being unjust becoming just." But the truth is, that the relation of faith to justification is as absolutely one in the nature of things as its relation to sanctification. The purpose of God that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Christ, has a far deeper and more perfect fulfilment than this scheme recognises and to understand that fulfilment, we must learn with Luther to conceive aright of that glory for Himself in man which God contemplated when He proposed to justify the ungodly by faith. We must discern the relation in which the human spirit has come to stand

to the Father of spirits, when man is apprehending and believing the testimony of God, that He has given to us eternal life in His Son, we must see the glory that God has in this faith-how, where it exists, God is in His true place in the heart of man, and man is in his true place in relation to God-how man has come to be nothing— how God is now all in all-how all trust in the flesh, all self-righteousness has ceased to be-how trust in the Father's heart has come into being, and is the commenced breathing of the breath of eternal life. Of this which in faith is accomplishing in the human spirit, of this which is the glory which God has in our having faith in His Son, we must have some discernment, that we may understand how God is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. If the weakness and scanty measure of this faith, as it is found in those that believe, render what Luther calls God's imputation necessary,if, in order that the righteousness of God in our acceptance may be fully discerned, the nature and development of faith, as these are seen in Christ, must be considered rather than the measure of our faith,-this we can understand. For we may say that the dawn of the life of Christ in us is to the heart of the Father but a hope and promise, as the infant is to the parent the promise of the future man. The illustration is indeed imperfect, because this dawning life is Christ in us, of whose fulness we are receiving. But, the important point is, that the joy of the heart of the Father over those who are alive to Him through faith in the Son, is simply and purely joy in the reality of the life of sonship quickened in them, and is not sustained by anything of the nature of fiction or imputation; and that it is in this view of what in faith is accomplished as to the real living relation of man to God, that we are to see the justification of God in man's justification by faith. For do we not feel that, if the Eternal Father is satisfied, then must the Judge of all the earth be satisfied, that the provision which secures the fulfilment of the longings of the Father's heart, must secure the highest ends of rectoral government? "My

son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found"-answers all things.

Dr. Payne teaches that "the judicial sentence is not revealed to the conscience, but contained in the Scriptures," that sentence being, "that all who believe in the Son of God are justified." And this he teaches both in opposition to the doctrine of the eternal justification of the elect, and to that of an act of God in reference to the individual taking place in time, according to the definition of the Assembly's Catechism. (p. 234-239.)

It accords with his conception of the relation between faith and justification as being arbitrary, that the justified should have no other knowledge of their being justified than as an inference from their having complied with the arbitrary condition revealed. But if the faith that justifies be the faith that apprehends the gift of sonship, and cries, Abba, Father, then must justification be revealed in the conscience-even there where condemnation had been revealed, and where need of justification had been revealed. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His." "As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God," and, "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." This is equally remote from the assumption of a special personal revelation of the fact of justification, and from, resting in an inference from the declarations of Scripture, that those who believe are justified; for what it amounts to is simply this,—that in "counting faith for righteousness" God recognises it as what it truly is,and therefore, that He not only in His own mind pronounces this condition of faith our right condition, but also by His Spirit utters this judgment in our own hearts.

Let us trace one step further the different developments of the faith of an atonement which merely meets the demands of divine justice, either absolute, or rectoral; and of the faith of an atonement through which we have the adoption of sons.

The faith that apprehends the gift of eternal life, is eternal life commenced.

The faith that apprehends the

gift of the Son, utters itself in the cry, Abba, Father. Therefore, in the deepest sense, the Son of God has left us an example that we should walk in His steps. In the highest path that our spirits are called to tread, that is to say, in our intercourse with the Father of spirits, the foot-prints of Jesus are to guide us; our confidence is to be the fellowship of His confidence; our worship, the fellowship of His worship:-for sonship is that worship, in spirit and in truth, which the Father seeketh.

But if, according to the system of the earlier Calvinists, we draw near to God in the confidence of the legal standing given to us in Christ, and not as drawn to God and emboldened by the Fatherliness of the Father's heart revealed by the Son; or if, according to the system of the later Calvinists, we draw near, having mental reference to an atonement which has furnished a ground on which God may shew us mercy, and not in the light of an atonement by which we see ourselves redeemed from the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, then is our walk with God,-if such it can be called,—no longer a being led by the spirit of Christ, neither are our spiritual steps in His foot-prints;-for our experience is no repetition of, no fellowship in His experience, nor the breathing of our new life the free breathing of the life of sonship.

I have given to this modified Calvinism a large space, but not larger than the acceptance which it has met with may justify. It has necessarily arisen from the purpose with which I have noticed it, that I have dwelt on that in it to which I object, rather than on that in it with which I agree; but I cannot pass on without bearing testimony to the clearness and power with which its teachers expose much of that which is untenable in the earlier Calvinism, especially on the subject of the extent of the atonement. But, as I have endeavoured to shew, what is negative is more satisfactory than what is positive— their breaking down, than their building up. They have shed no light on the nature of the atonement that ren ders their faith in the universality of the atonement more con

sistent than that of the Arminians, with whom Dr. Owen contended; still less have they done anything towards freeing the doctrine of the atonement from its exclusively legal character, or that has connected it more intelligently with the purpose of God in redeeming us who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So that whatever foundation for a trust in God's mercy this system may offer, it may be said as truly of it as of the earlier Calvinism, that strictly adhered to, and all conciousness that does not exactly accord with it being rejected, our walking in the footsteps of the Son in His intercourse with the Father, in other words, our participation in the life of sonship, and all direct dealing on our part with the Father's heart as the Father's heart,in other words, all experimental knowledge of God, would become impossible.

I say "strictly adhered to." But in truth, in men's actual, living dealing with God, neither form of Calvinism, however it may have possession of the intellect, affects the spirit of Christ; whose identity as in the head and in the members abide,-whose cry, Abba, Father, is one and the same as to the nature of the confidence which that cry expresses, being alike faith in the heart of the Father, whether as that is perfect in the eternal Son who ever dwells in the bosom of the Father, or as it is quickened by Him in those to whom He reveals the Father, giving them power to be the sons of God.

But a true conception of the work of Christ must be in perfect harmony with the nature of that eternal life-the life of sonship-which is given to us in Christ. The atonement by which the way into the holiest is opened to us, must accord with what that living way is and with what it is to draw near to God in that way. The sacrifice for sin by which the worshippers are sanctified, must accord with the nature of the worship—that worship which is the response of the Spirit of the Son to the Father ;God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth,-the Father seeketh such to worship Him.