Thee mortal Voice nor Form here visit none; But the bright Sun shall parch that would enchant, And his glad radiance change thy beauty's bloom; And for night's starry mantle thou shalt pant, To hide the glare; nor less that he the gloom This rock thy sleepless station, fixed in bond, STRENGTH. Strike in the penetrating fetters. Know, VULCAN. Thy speech is with thy rugged form at one. STRENGTH. Be tender as thou mayst; but rate not me, Of sterner mould, for fierce. VULCAN. Let us be gone; The toils are on his limbs STRENGTH. So much for thee, Prometheus! Triumph now; or curse; or steal, To give to men, the gifts of Deity Can they now help thee? Surely, thou must feel How falsely thou wert named the Provident, Who needest now to Providence appeal From wiser craft to save, thou insolent! O, boundless Air! PROMETHEUS (alone). O, ye swift-winged Breezes! Ye River-fountains fair! Ye countless Billows, whose mirth pleases Mother of all things that have birth! Also to thee, all-seeing Orb, O, Sun! I call that ye may look on One, A God, and what he here From Gods is doomed to bear! Lo, with what agonies of insult prest, Unending periods of unchanging pains! I here must wrestle, in unseemly chains, With him, the new-raised Monarch of the Blest! Alone I groan: what is the coming wo? And when shall end? But what say I? Nought comes unwares to me, who all things know. Befits me, then, to endure with tranquil soul What Fate appoints, since none may Fate control. But, to be silent, or with reverence speak, I may not, of the ills that he would wreak- J. A. H. THE MERITS OF JESUS CHRIST, MAN'S ONLY JUSTIFICATION BEFORE GOD. No. I. THE expression, "The Justification of Man before God,"-that is, the act of rendering man just or righteous in the eyes of God, at once implies the necessity of a Justifier, some one possessing the power and the will totally to alter the natural relation in which man stands to God; for, by nature, man, so far from being just in the eye of God, is essentially sinful, impure, and in a state of condemnation before God; for* "all we have gone astray;" +"there is none that doeth good;" "there is none righteous, no, not one;" § "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin," and we are all "by nature children of wrath." This position being granted, (and who would wish to deny it?) we may with equal safety take a second step, and assert that the required justifier must either be found in man himself, on in some one else external to man-in other words, man, in order to be freed from the curse passed on all the children of Adam, and to become just in the eyes of God, must either justify himself, or be justified by some one else. I. We will first consider, therefore, (and we pray that the Spirit of God may direct our meditations throughout,) we will first consider, whether it is possible for man so to justify himself, as that he may be able to approach the All-holy God, and claim at His hands the reward of Eternal Life. Now, we can conceive but two methods by which such an end could be supposed attainable. These are, either, 1st, That man should be able, by paying the full penalty affixed to sin, to cancel that sin, and thus render himself guiltless before God; or, 2dly, That he should be able to live such a life on earth, as that he may at last present himself actually righteous and blameless to the inspection of the All-righteous Judge. 1st, then, Is it possible for man, by paying the full penalty of sin, so to cancel sin that he may become guiltless before God? In order to answer this question, we must ascertain what the penalty of sin is: "The wages of sin is death." And again: "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Since, therefore, the natural death of man is the sentence passed on sin, does not that death fulfil the sentence, pay the penalty, and satisfy the justice of God? Assuredly not; for in that case the necessity of justification is altogether an idle tale, and there would be no difference between the prospects of the good *Isaiah liii. 6. + Psalm xiv. 3. Romans iii. 12. man and the wicked man; for both by their natural death would equally have cancelled the sins of their former lives; both would be equally guiltless in the eye of God. But supposing this, then, to be only part of the penalty, might not man by performing certain sacrifices, whether actual or moral, or both, or by certain acts of penance and self-mortification, make the sum of penalty complete, and so counterbalance all his iniquity? No; for we deny that such acts would make up the full sum of the penalty; for, to come at once to the point, what is the whole sentence pronounced on sin? It is one that man can never fulfil, one which involves a payment which can never be finished, since it must extend through limitless eternity; for the sentence is this:* "The SOUL that sinneth, it shall die." And again :+ "The wicked shall be turned into Hell." We need not say how such a death would cancel sin. So that thus we prove, by what we may call a mathematical demonstration, that man can never pay the full penalty of sin; for, as that penalty involves eternity, and as eternity is endless, so is the penalty infinite, and its final payment impossible. Man cannot, therefore, by this method justify himself: but, 2dly, Cannot man live such a life on earth, as that he may at last present himself actually righteous and blameless to the inspection of an All-righteous God? Now, there is only one method by which it might be supposed that man should be able to attain such a state as this; and that method is, by his so fulfilling every commandment of God, and so living up to the standard required by the Law, as that, when he comes to be weighed in the balance of judgement, he may not be found wanting in any one particular; for, as Christ saith, "If thou wilt enter into Life, keep the commandments." Now, that man should so keep these commandments as to satisfy God, we assert to be impossible, and we shall prove this in two ways: 1st, By considering what the sum of these commandments is; 2dly, By citing the decree of Holy Scripture on the subject. 1st, then, The sum of these commandments is contained in this sentence:¶"Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is * Ezekiel xviii. 4. Matt. xix. 17. + Psalm ix. 17. Matt. v. 48. I am aware that it may be objected to this, that such a commandment is given in a qualified sense, and with due regard to man's weakness; and that God is a merciful God, who will not be "extreme to mark what is done amiss ;" and that, on repentance, sin is forgiven; for that, if * "the wicked man shall turn away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and shall do that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." Now, this is very true; but it proves nothing against our position; for those who would urge forgiveness of sin on repentance, forget to tell us why sin is forgiven on repentance. Repentance is the condition on which God will Wipe away sin, but it is not the actual cause of sin being wiped away-it is not in itself the thing which wipes away sin; for repentance from sin cannot make it be, that those sins were not committed-they still remain recorded against the committer. * Ezekiel xviii. 27. |