thus treated by a righteous God. In this fenfe the original word is used and tranflated in the following pallage: They bated me without a caufet. Was the holy Jefus hated, by the malevolent Jews, without the lealt cause in himself? Certainly to af fert the contrary would be a contradiction of the facred text, and blafphemy against the Son of God. The perfon, therefore, that is juftified freely, by grace, is accepted without any caufe in himfelf, Nothing in him, or about him, is confidered by the fovereign Difpenfer of every favour, when he beitows the bleffing, as preparing or qualifying for it.

Hence it appears, that if we regard the perfons who are justified, and their state, prior to the enjoy ment of the immenfely glorious privilege; divine grace appears and reigns in all its glory. There being 1.0 conditions, or prerequifites; no terms to be fulfilled, or good qualities to be obtained, either with or without the divine affiftance, in order to a full difcharge before the eternal Judge. Juftifica tion is a bleffing of pure grace, as well as tranfcendently excellent. So the true believer efteems it, and as fuch rejoices in it. In this, as in every other part of his falvation, he is willing to be nothing, lefs than nothing; that grace may reign, that grace may be all in all.

The various facts and teftimonies produced from facred writ, when treating about the freenefs of pardon, equally prove the point under confideration: and might, with many others, be adduced and pleaded on this occafion. For he that is pardoned, is juf tified; and he that is juftified, is pardoned, as before

John xv. 25. Pfal. xxxv. 19. Ixix. 4. Septuag.

obferved.

obferved. Confequently, if our pardon be free, our juftification cannot be conditional. But, to avoid prolixity, I fhall not further enlarge in proof of the glorious truth; only would juft obferve-That fo great a blessing, yet abfolutely free; fo divine a favour, yet not fufpended on any condition to be performed by the finner, discovers aftonishing grace. 'This must filence the fears and raise the hopes of the guilty, the accurfed, the felf-condemned. And may their hopes be raised by fuch a confideration; and alfo by beholding the glory of that infinite Being, whofe honour and fovereign prerogative it is, to be inviolably just, yet the Juftifier of the ungodly.

Having confidered the antecedent state of the perfon whom God juftifies, and the freenefs with which the important bleffing is bestowed upon him; the way appointed in the eternal counfels and revealed in the everlasting gofpel, in which the condemned criminal may be honourably acquitted before the divine tribunal and acccepted as righteous, now demands our attentive regard. Here we behold immaculate holinefs and ftrict juftice, harmonizing with tendereft mercy and freeft favour. Nor can it be otherwise. The Judge of all the earth muft do right. He can acquit none without a complete righteoufnefs. For to juftify a perfon, and judicially to pronounce him righteous, are the fame thing. Juftification is evidently a forensic term, and the thing intended by it a judicial act. So that were a perfon to be juftified without a righteoufnefs, the judgment would not be according to truth; it would be a falfe and unrighteous fentence.

That

'That righteousness by which we are justified must be perfect; must be equal to the demands of that law, according to which the fovereign Judge proceeds in our juftification, Every judge, it is evident, must have some rule by which to proceed in his judicial capacity. This rule is the law. To talk of paffing judgment, without having any regard to a law, is abfurd, and involves a contradiction. For, to judge, is nothing else but to determine whether the object of judgment be according to rule. A judge firft confiders what is fact, and then, comparing the fact with the rule of action, he pronounces it right or wrong, and approves or condemns the performer of it. An imperfect obedience, therefore, before a judge, is not righteousness: For, in this cafe, righteoufnefs is no other than a complete conformity to that law which is the rule of our conduct. To accept of any obedience short of the rule, instead of that which perfectly answers it, is to act, not in the capacity of a righteous judge, but under the character of an abfolute fovereign. So Jehevah himself declares, that he will by no means clear the guilty in judgment; that he will not at all acquit the wicked; and, confequently, that he will justify . none without a perfect righteoufnefs. That obedience, therefore, which is available for this grandeft of all purposes, muft anfwer the demands of divine law. It must be fuch as will vindicate the honour of eternal justice, and of inviolable truth, in declaring the fubject of juftification completely righteous. Yes, reader, it must be fuch as you may venture to plead, without the leaft imputation of arrogance, at the throne of grace and the bar of judgment; fuch to which you may warrantably afcribe your happinefs in the heavenly world, and in which you may glory to all eternity. Many

Many perfons talk of, I know no what, conditions of justification; fome supposing one thing, and some another, to be the condition of it. But hence it appears, that the only condition of our acceptance with God, is a perfect righteousness. This the law requires; nor does the gospel fubftitute another. For as the divine law can have no more, fo it will admit of no lefs. Thofe perfons, therefore, who think of any thing fhort of complete obedience being fufficient; let them call the fuppofed condition by what name they pleafe; may do well to confider, how they can free themfelves from the charge of Antinomianifm. For the gofpel does not, in any degree, make 'void the law. So far from it, that the voice of the gospel and the death of Chrift, demonftrate Jehovah to be abfolutely inflexible, as to all that his holy law requires or forbids. The way in which finners are juftified, does not in the least infringe on its rights. For, confidered as moral, it is unalterable and eternal. Perfect obedience was demanded by it of man, while in a state of innocence, as the condition of life. Perfect obedience it ftill requires of man, though in a state of apoftafy. And perfect obedience it must have, either at our own, or a furety's hand, or we must fall eternally under its curfe.

Where then fhall we find, or how fhall we obtain a juftifying righteoufnefs? Shall we flee to the law for relief? Shall we apply, with diligence and zeal, to the performance of duty, in order to attain the defired end? Such a procedure, though it might flatter our pride, would betray our ignorance, difappoint our hopes, and iffue in eternal ruin. The apostle of the Gentiles, when profeffedly handling the doctrine of justification, pofsitively affirms and strongly

ftrongly proves, that there is no acceptance with God by the works of the law. Now the works of the law, are thofe duties of piety and of humanity which the law requires. Nor can any acceptable obedience be performed, which is not required by that law which demands perfect love to God, and perfect love to man. So that when the infallible teacher excludes the works of the law from having any concern in our juftification, he entirely rejects all our works, all our duties of every kind. But let us hear his words and consider their import.

By the deeds of the law, by our own obedience to it, however fincere; fhall no flesh be justified, accepted of God. and pronounced righteous in his fight. The reafon is evident; for by the law is the knowledge of fin, as an oppofition to the divine revealed will, and as deferving an everlasting curfe*. But if fo, it is abfolutely impoffible that we should be juftified by it; for a law which proves us guilty, is far from pronouncing us righteous in the eye of the lawgiver. The law entered, was promulgated. at Sinai, that the offence might abound; that the abundance of our iniquities might be manifested, and their exceeding finfulness appear §.-The law worketh wrath. It reveals the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. It faftens a charge of guilt on the criminal, and works a fenfe of deferved wrath in his confcience. Far from juftifying any offender, it denounces utter deftruftion against him, and unheaths the fword of vengeancet.As many as are of the works of the law; who do their beft endeavours to keep it, and are

Rom. iii. 20. Gal. ii. 16. § Rom. v. 20.

Rom. iv.

looking