they must be made to feel that they are the modern successors of those of whom St. Paul said that their "damnation is just." If the doctrine of the Atonement is so perverted as to lead to the conclusion that because a man believes in Christ as the Propitiation for the sins of the world, he will not have to be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that he "" may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad," the awful reality of judgment to come must be reasserted with the energy and sternness of apostolic times; and men must be reminded that to St. Paul himself-the great teacher of Justification by Faith-the final judgment was the terror of the Lord," and was one of the motives which constrained him to fidelity in his apostolic labours. 66 I We should not, however, transform the gospel of the grace of God into a mere system of ethics, because in our times, as in the days of the Apostles, men may turn the very "grace of God into lasciviousness." We should rather recognise in the analogy between the heresies which sometimes claim to be the legitimate results of the evangelical creed, and the heresies which claim to be the legitimate results of apostolic teaching, a fresh testimony and proof that we are the representatives and heirs of "the faith once delivered unto the saints." If there is any form of Christian doctrine which renders it impossible for men to suppose that they can be saved by faith without works—that 1 2 Cor. v. 10. the Death of Christ secures no objective blessing, and has for its solitary purpose the creation of a new moral and spiritual life - the Epistle of St. James is a conclusive demonstration that this is not the doctrine which was taught by the founders of the Christian Church. BODE LECTURE VI. THE FACT OF THE ATONEMENT: THE TESTIMONY OF ST. PAUL. I N examining the testimony of St. Peter, St. John, and St. James, to the fact of the Atonement, it was unnecessary to consider whether they had any supernatural illumination different in kind or degree from that which is common to all who have received the life and light of God. One of them was "the brother of our Lord;" the others were His personal friends, and had lived with Him for two, or perhaps for nearly three, years. After His resurrection He had appeared to them all, again and again, and had spoken to them of "the things pertaining to the kingdom of heaven." St. Peter and St. John He had elected and appointed to tell the story of His life, His sufferings, and His resurrection from the dead, and to preach repentance and remission of sins in His name among all nations. It was impossible that any of the three should have mistaken His mind. on a question of such capital importance as that of the ground on which God forgives sin. To establish their authority on other questions relating to the new 2 Luke xxiv. 46–48. 1 Acts i. 3. I 2 |