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would have been liable to the curfe or penalty; how much lefs is the believer liable, who is adorned with the righteoufnefs of God by imputation? That word may ftrike terror into those who advance fuch doctrine, Rom. vii. 33. "It is God that juftifieth, who is he that condemneth?" It is God that acquits the believer from the curfe, who then dare to make him liable?

7thly, See the error and folly of thofe, who go about to "eftablish their own righteousness" as the ground of their juftification and acceptance, and "refufe to fubmit unto the righteoufnefs of God," like the Jews, Rom. x. 3. Oh how much do men difparage the law, and defpife the righteoufnefs of Chrift, who do fo! for in effect the felf-righteous perfon says, That he is more capable to magnify the law by his own obedience than Chrift.' For this flight the Jews put upon the righteousness of Chrift, God flighted and rejected the whole Jewish nation; and for this fin every felf-righteous perfon fhall be rejected of God.

8thly, This doctrine lets us fee the error of those, who, though they will not abfolutely reject the righteousness of Chrift, yet will adventure to mingle fomething of their own with it. Oh, fay fome, Chrift and my faith, Chrift and my good works, Chrift and my prayers, my repentance, my tears and good qualifications, will juftify me.' Why, this way, whatever you may think of it, is a difparaging of the righteousness of Chrift, as though it alone did not fully answer the law. Sirs, remember that faith is a refting on Chrift alone, and his righteoufnefs, to the exclufion of every thing in you, and about you, as the ground of your acceptance: it is Chrift's righteoufnefs alone, that magnifies the law; and therefore there is no need of any thing of ours: yea, if you seek righteousness but in part by the law, you are fallen from grace, and Chrift fhall profit you nothing; and therefore fay with the church, If. xlv. 24. "In the Lord alone have I righteoufnefs," and with David, Pfal. lxxi. 16. "I will go on in the ftrength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righ teousness, even of thine only."

9thly, See the error of thefe who deny Chrift's active obedience to the law to be any part of our juftifying righteousness; alledging, that it is only his paffive obedience, or his fuffering the penalty, that is imputed to us for juftification. Why, when it is faid here, that Chrift magnified the law, and made it honourable, it must needs be understood of his obedience to the precept, and that principally, because the precept or command only is the law; the penalty is not effential to it, but only a thing confequential in cafe of difobedience: fo that VOL. III.

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his magnifying the law must needs have a respect to the cept; and his obedience to the precept of the law, is properly his righteoufnefs, which is imputed to us, Rom. v. 19. By the obedience of one fhall many be made righteous;" and it is upon this that our title to life doth stand, as Adam's title in the covenant of works stood upon his own perfect and perfonal obedience to the command.

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Icthly, See hence how little reafon even believers, who are juftified before God, have to be proud of what they are come to. They are indeed accepted in the Beloved, and they are highly dignified and exalted; but then it is not in their own, but in their Surety's righteousness, that they are exalted; it was he, not they, that magnified the law, and made it honourable: Hence the faints in glory will caft their crowns at his feet, faying, "Thou haft loved us, and washed us-in thy blood;" and therefore, "worthy is the Lamb that was flain."

ISA. xlii. 21.—The Lord is well pleafed for his righteousness fake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

THE THIRD SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

SE fecond of this doctrine may be of Trial, whether the righteoufnefs of the law be fulfilled in us, through the imputation of his righteousness, who has magnified the law, and made it honourable.

For your Trial as to this matter, I offer the few following

marks.

ft, I afk, has the law flain you, and put you out of con ceit of your own righteoufnefs? Paul, before his conversion, was a mighty man for the law, and he thought himself alive becaufe of his obedience to the law, and his zeal for it, being "touching the law blameless:" But Oh! when the commandment came, in its fpirituality, fin revived, and he died; he faw that, notwithstanding all his pretended obedience to the law, and his zeal for it, he was but a dead man; and then, what things were gain to him, thefe he counted lofs, and particularly he faw that his own righteoufrefs was but dung and lofs. Ch! fays he, "I through the law am dead to the law,"

law," and to all righteoufnefs by the works of the law. Now, try yourselves by this; has the law come with fuch power upon thy confcience, as to break ail thefe rotten planks of the covenant of works to pieces, on which you was fwimming for your life?

2dly, I afk you, Where have you fet down your ftand for eternity, and for an awful tribunal? I am fure, if the righteoufnefs of the law be fulfilled in you through faith in Chrift, you have fet it down only upon the foundation of the lawmagnifying righteoufnefs of Chriit, fying with the church, "Surely in the Lord only have I righteoufnefs," and in this only will ye be confident, as the ground of your acceptance here, and of your through-bearing before the bar of the great God. When you look to the holy law, and your own perfonal obedience to it, you will be ready to cry, Away with it, it is but as filthy rags;' if " thou, Lord, fhouldit mark iniquities, O Lord, who fhall ftand ?" But when you look to the law, as magnified and made honourable by Chrift, you will be ready to fay, In this, and in this alone, will I be confident; in him will I be juftified, and in him alone will I glory, as the Lord my righteoufnef. And whenever the law or confcience charges you with the debt of obedience to it, as the condition of life, you will be ready to fay, I indeed own myself a debtor to thee in point of obedience, as a rule, but in point of righteousness and juftification, I owe thee nothing at all; no, I am dead to the law, through my better Husband, who has in my name magnified and made it honourable, and therefore to him thou must go for payment of that debt.'

3dly, If you be under the covering of that righteoufnefs which magnifies the law, I am fure you will put all the honour you can upon the law as a rule of obedience; and your gratitude to him who fulfilled the law for you as a covenant, will be as oil to your chariot wheels in running the ways of his commandments. Your hearts will be fo enlarged in love and gratitude, that his commandments will not be grievous to you; no, but you will" delight in the law of the Lord, after the inward man." His yoke will be eafy, and his burden will be light to you.

You to whom the way of holy obedience is a burden, and who are never in your element but when you are "fulfilling the lufts of the flesh," by lying, fwearing, drinking, Sabbathbreaking, do not imagine that ever you have come in under this law-magnifying righteoufnefs: Why? because the law, as a rule, is none of your delight.

4thly, You will be concerned to magnify him, who mag

nified the law as your Surety. The high praises of the Redeemer will be much in your mouth; you will think and fpeak honourably of him, upon all occafions, like these who are clad with the white livery of his righteousness. In Mount Zion they cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was flain. Salvation to our God, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever." Oh, men are blessed in him with a perfect righteousness, and therefore let all nations and generations call him blessed, Pfal. lxxii. at the close.

5thly, You will be on all occafions improving the righteoufnefs of Chrift by faith, for all the ends and uses of it which I mentioned, when difcourfing of the excellency of this righteousness. You will improve it as a ransom unto justice, to deliver you from going down to the pit; you will improve it as a laver, to wash you from fin and from uncleannefs; as a fpiritual banquet, on which you will feed your hungry fouls, for it is meat indeed and drink indeed; as a robe to cover your nakedness, and the best robe whereby to appear in the prefence of God; as a fhade to defend you from the Scorching heat of the fiery law, or an awakened confcience; as a refuge to shelter you when pursued by avenging justice; as a ladder by which you will afcend unto communion with God, here and hereafter; and as the only title and foundation of your claim to eternal. life. Thus, I fay, you will be conftantly improving the righteousness of Christ by faith, for fome of these ends and uses; and in this sense we may understand that word of the apostle, Rom. i. "The righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith." It is that which faith faftens upon at first for juftification, and it is that which faith is continually afterwards applying for fome good ufe or other, in the foul's progrefs in the way to glory.

6thly, If the righteoufnefs of the law be fulfilled in you, through the righteoufnefs brought in by the Meffiah, you will have many an inward battle with finful and legal felf. The apostle Paul, who gloried in the righteousness of Christ, and preached the mystery of justification to others, more than ever any mere man did, yet we find he has many an intestine combat with felf, Rom. vii. 23. "But I fee another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin which is in my members: O wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me?" You, who fay that ye fubmit and truft to the righteousness of Chrift, as the only ground of your juftification and acceptance, and yet have no ftruggle with this homebred enemy, and are not laid in the duft before the Lord because of its prevalency,

prevalency, I dread, whatever orthodox heads you may have, yet your hearts are not foundly fettled upon the foundation of the law-magnifying righteousness of Chrift; and my reafon for it is, becaufe in every believer there is, through the remains of indwelling corruption, fuch a ftrong bias towards the law as a covenant, and towards fin, as gives him continual matter of exercise, infomuch that his heart is just like a field of battle, where two armies meet, and contend for the victory one against another? "What will you fee in the Shulamite? as it were the company of two armies? the flesh lufting against the spirit, and the fpirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other. The motions of fin which a man finds in his members are continual matter of humiliation to him, and fet him a-work to mortify the deeds of the body, to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lufts thereof; and the ftrong bias that he finds in his foul towards the law as a covenant fills him with fears and jealoufies, left he never yet in reality fubmitted to the righteoufnefs of Chrift, which fets him a-work to examine and prove himself, whether he has ever yet won Christ, and is found in him, having that " righteousness which is through the faith of Jefus Chrift." You that never knew any thing of this, and the like exercise of spirit in your fouls, I dread that you are yet ftrangers to a real clofing with the righteoufnefs which is brought in by the great Meffiah.

7thly, When confcienee is bleeding through fome wound that you have got from an arrow of law-terror, or when the guilt of fin is ftaring you in the face, and an angry and frowning God, "whither do you fly, or run for eafe and relief?" As for the defperate finner, he drowns the voice of confcience with diverfions and recreations. They will, like Saul, fometimes take up the timbrel and harp; or, like Cain, when God and confcience were crying for vengeance against him for the blood of his brother Abel, he goes into the land of Nod, and diverts himself with building cities and houfes. As for the hypocrite, he wraps himfelf up in his profeflion, and feigned graces, and there he finds eafe. As for the legalift, when he is wounded with the terrors of God, being married to the law, he runs to the duties and works of the law, and studies to pleafe God, and fatisfy the cries of his confcience with theft. But as for the believer, the whole creation cannot give him eafe, till, by a renewed act of faith, he get in under the fhadow of that everlafting righteoufnefs, by which the law is magnified and made honourable, and till he fee God well pleafed for this righteoufnefs fake, and fenfibly failing on his foul

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