notion only, as a point of truth, discoursing wantonly about it, it is all one in God's sight whether men be sound or unsound about it; they are unsound in heart how sound soever they are in head about it. The great way to know the right mind of God about the justification of a poor sinner, is for all to try it with respect to themselves. Would the apostle say, "I know how I am justified, and all the world shall "never persuade me to join the righteousuess of the law with "the righteousness of Christ."

There are four points of doctrine that I would raise, and observe from the first part of these words:

1st, That the grace of God shines gloriously in the justifying of a sinner through the righteousness of Christ.

"2dly, It is a horrible sin to frustrate the grace of God. 3dly, All that scek righteousness by the law do frustrate the grace of God in the gospel.

4thly, That no sound believer can be guilty of this sin.

I would speak to the first of these at this time: "That the "grace of God shines gloriously in the justifying of a sinner "by the righteousness of Christ alone.", When the apostle speaks of it, how frequently is this term grace added? Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Rom. iii. 24. That being justified by his grace, que might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

There are four things to be explained here, that will make our way plain to the proof of this point. What is justification? Who is it that doth justify? Who are justified? And upon what account?

1st, What is justification? We read much of it in our Bible, and the doctrine of it is reckoned one of the fundamental points of the true Christian religion, and so indeed it is. This grand doctrine, the fountain of our peace, and comfort, and salvation, was wonderfully darkened in the Popish kingdom; and the first light of the reformation, that God was pleased to break up in our forefathers' days, was mainly about this great doctrine. Justification is not barely the pardon of sin; it is indeed always inseparable from it, the pardon of sin is a fruit of it, or a part of it. Justification is God's `acquitting a man, and freeing him from all attainder; it is God's VOL. IV.

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taking off the attainder that the broken law of God lays upon every sinner. Who is he that shall condemn? It is God that justifies, Rom. viii. 33. Justification and condemnation are opposites; every one is under condemnation that is not justified; and every justified man is freed from condemnation. Justification is not sanctification; it is an old Popish error, sown in the hearts of a great many Protestants, to think that justification and sanctification are the same: justification and sanctification are as far different as these two:-There is a man condemned for high treason against the king by the judge; and the same man is sick of a mortal disease, and if he dies not by the hands of the hangman to-day, he may die of his disease to-morrow it is the work of the physician to cure the disease, but it is an act of mercy from the king that must save him from the attainder. Justification is the acquitting and repealing the law-sentence of condemnation; sanctifica tion is the healing of the disease of sin, that will be our bane except Christ be our physician.

Justification and sanctification are always inseparable, but they are wonderfully distinct. Justification is an act of God's free grace; sanctification is a work of God's Spirit: sanctification is a work wrought within us, justification is some. thing done about us, and therefore justification is every where spoken of in the word in the terms of a court act.

2dly, Who is he that justifies? I answer God only: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies, who shall condemn? Rom, viii. 33. He only can justify that gives the law: he only can justify that condemns for sin he only can justify that is wronged by sin, Mark ii. 7. The Pharisees blasphemed, it was in their darkness; but yet the truth that they spake was good, though the application of it was quite naught: Why doth this man speak blasphemies ? who can forgive sin, but God only? In the case of the man sick of the palsy, whose sins Christ first forgave before he healed him of the palsy-so that the forgiveness of his sins was his justification, and the healing of his disease was as if it were the type of his sanctification-their application was wrong, in that they did not know that Christ was God, and

that he had power on earth to forgive sins: but the truth itself was sound—” none can forgive sins but God only."

Justification is an act of the judge; it is only the judge and law-giver that can pronounce it: and there is but one law. giver, saith James, that can both save and destroy, chap. iv. 12. "None properly offended by sin but God, and nothing vio"lated by sin so immediately as the law of God."

3dly, Who is justified? Every one is not justified. What sort of a man is he that is justified? Justification is the acquitting of a man from all attainder, and it is God's doing alone; but what sort of a man is it that is justified? Is it a holy man? a man newly come from heaven? Is it a new sort of a creature, rarely made and framed? No: it is a sinner: it is an ungodly man: "God justifies the ungodly."

The man is not made godly before he is justified, nor is he left ungodly after he is justified; he is not made godly a moment before he is justified, but he is justified from his ungodliness by the sentence of justification: when he is dead in sins and trespasses, quickening comes, and life comes, Eph. ii. 1.

4thly, Upon what account is all this done? And this is the hardest of all. You have heard that justification is the freeing of a man from all charge, and that it is done by God alone, and given to a man before he can do any thing of good —for no man can do any thing that is good till he be sanctified, and no man is sanctified till he is justified-but the grand question is, How can God justly do this? saith the apostle, Rom. iii. 26. That he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. How can God be just, and yet justify an ungodly man? "To justify the wicked, and to con"demn the righteous, are both an abomination in the sight "of God," when practised by man, Prov. xvii. 15. How then can God justify the ungodly? The grand account of this is, God justifies the ungodly for the sake of nothing in himself, but solely upon the account of this righteousness of Christ, that the apostle is here arguing upon: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, Rom. iii. 24, 25. When God justifies a man, the righ

teousness of Christ is reckoned to him, and God deals with him as a man in Christ; and therefore his transgressions are covered, and the man is made the righteousness of God in Christ, because Christ is made of God unto him righteousness, 1 Cor. i. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness. Where is the poor man's righte ousness that is justified? It is in Christ Jesus. For, 2 Cor. v. 21. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And to be made the righteousness of God, is nothing else but to be made righteous before God in and through Jesus Christ.

These things considered, the proof of this point is very easy --That the grace of God shines gloriously in the way of justifying a sinner by the righteousness of Jesus Christ: I shall therefore add but a few things more in the proof of it.

First, In this way all is of God, and nothing of the creature's procuring, and therefore it is of grace. Grace always shines most brightly where man appears least; every thing that tends to advance the power and efficacy of man's working, always hinders the shining forth of the glory of the grace of God; but in this way of justifying us through the righte ousness of Christ, grace shines forth most gloriously, because it is all of God: we do nothing in it. To instance in a few thing here,

1st, The Anding out of this righteousness by which we are justified is of God alone. If the question had been put to all the angels in heaven, and to many worlds of men, if this one question had been put, How can a just and holy God justify a sinner? no created understanding could ever have been able to find out how it could be done; it was the infinite wisdom of God alone that found out this way. He will send his own Son to be a sinless man, that shall sustain the persons, and bear the sins, and take away the sins of all that shall be justified. The native sense of all mankind is this: when we know any thing of God, we know that it stands with his nature to condemn sin, and hate the sinner; but how it can stand with his justice to acquit a sinner; it is God only that could find out that.

Odly, As the finding out of the way of our justification is

of God alone, so the working out of it is Christ's alone. There was no creature of God's counsel in finding out the way, so there was no creature Christ's helper in making the

way. All the great work of fulfilling the righteousness of the law was done by Christ alone; none could offer to help in the great work of bearing the weight of his Father's wrath, and bearing the burden of the justice of God, for the sins of his church. Our Lord was the alone bearer of this, he alone brought in everlasting righteousness, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Heb. ix. 26.

3dly, The applying of this righteousness is only of God also. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring it close unto the sinner by faith: and here we have as little to do as in the former. There was none of God's everlasting council in the finding out this way, nor had Christ any helper in the work of redemption; and we help the Spirit of God as little in his work of applying this: for till the grace of God prevails upon the heart, there is a constant struggling against it. There are many poor sinners that have struggled with the Spirit of God, seeking to save them, more than many believers have ever strove with Satan, seeking to destroy them. All unbelievers are led more tamely to hell by the devil, than believers are led quietly to heaven by the Spirit of God.

4thly, The securing all this by the everlasting covenant is of God only. We seal God's covenant by our faith for the benefit of it; but it is Christ's great seal that is its security, even the seal of his own blood. This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins, Matt. xxvi. 28. And so much for this first thing: The grace of God shines gloriously in the way of justifying a sinner by the righteousness of Christ; because it is altogether of God, the sinner hath no hand in it.

Secondly, This will further appear, if we consider what vile creatures the receivers of it are; they have nothing to procure it, nothing to deserve it, but a great deal to deserve the contrary. In, that Rom. v. they have three names; ver. 6. we are called ungodly; In due time Christ died for the ungodly. Ver. 8. we are called sinners; Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Ver. 10. we are called enemies; When we