and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The word love is here put as in the present, or future tense, whereas the word in the original language is have loved.

Gal. v. 4. "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."

Surely, after this quotation, it must be unnecessary to pursue the subject further to establish the principle or fact contended for, that the tense the verb is in cannot be in any way relied upon, but have such construction as the subject matter requires. Here we find St. Paul saying, whosoever of you are justified (or who justify yourselves) by the law. If these words have a literal and strict grammatical construction put upon them, what a contradiction does it make, according to his own words, who has repeatedly said that "no man is justified by the law "?" It would be a perfect absurdity to understand the words as they are written, when compared with the texts last referred to, unless the sentence is altered, and some word or words is or are added, such as hope, seek, or expect to be justified. Add whatever word or words you may, the verb must be put in the future tense, to avoid the

h Rom. iii. 20. Gal. ii. 16. iii. 11.

absurdity and palpable contradiction; the words, as they stand, upon an accurate and literal construction of their meaning must produce.

The change of the tenses is so common and numerous, in the translation of the Bible, that it must be admitted to determine this point, and to say more at present would be superfluous; but when the particular texts are quoted, which have been relied upon to prove remission of sins takes place in this life, it may then be necessary to make some further observations in confirmation of what has been stated above.

CHAPTER VIII.

TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE IN FAVOUR OF JUSTIFICATION IN THIS LIFE QUOTED AND ANSWERED.

Rom. v. 9. "MUCH more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

1 Cor. vi. 11. "And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

Col. ii. 13. " And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses."

1 John ii. 12. "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake."

Gen. xv. 6. “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."

James ii. 21. "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?"

These texts with others, where justification is the subject, and the verbs are in the present or past tenses, it must be admitted, would be very strong in favour of the opinion that justification takes place in this life, did they stand uncontradicted by other texts, and were supported by, or in consonance with, other general principles or doctrines of the Christian religion; but when we find they are contradictory to many texts of Scripture, and cause the greatest inconsistencies, no reliance is to be placed upon the tenses in which we find the verbs are; and by a change of the tenses only, many apparent and irreconcilable contradictions are removed, we shall be greatly relieved from many difficulties, and enabled to put such a reasonable construction upon these texts, that Scripture may be said to be reconciled by Scripture.

In considering the above texts, we will begin with the sentence, 66 being now justified by his blood," in the 9th verse of the vth Romans, which has been generally brought forward to show, that the justification mentioned in this verse took place in this life, which, it is conceived, will not upon a reasonable construction support that conclusion, nor was it meant to have such an effect, but was intended to show at the time St. Paul was writing, justification had been obtained by the blood of Christ, and

that he was speaking of the fact as a cause, and not of the time of the effect taking place. It may be remarked, that the writers in the New Testament, and St. Paul in particular, have very frequently used verbs as concrete terms, and not substantives and verbs, called abstract terms, probably for the sake of brevity. Should we change the word justified' into the word 'saved,' what would be the reasonable construction of these words being now saved by his blood? Would it not be, that we now have salvation through his blood?' No other construction could be put upon them, and salvation being a future blessing, it must mean the cause was obtained, but the effect not received. In 1 Peter iii. 21, we find these words, even baptism doth now save us." It would be absurd to say these words mean, that the sentence of salvation is passed at the time upon every baptized person; the plain meaning of them must be, that we shall have salvation, or be saved through baptism. Supposing this to be a reasonable ground of argument, the proper construction to be put upon St. Paul's words would be this, 'much more then, now having justification through his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.' We will see how far such a construction is borne out by the preceding verses. In the same chapter St. Paul, at the time he wrote,