and a pattern to all that enquire the way to hap-. pinefs. Let us attend to his words, and a little more particularly confider their import. Yea doubtless; I affirm it with the utmoft confidence, and am determined to abide by it: that I count all things; my birth-privileges, and pharifaical zeal; my fubmillion to ceremonial rites, and performance of moral duties; thefe, all these I efteem but lofs. Nor do I only reject all my duties before converfion; but alfo whatever I now have, and all that I now perform, I count of no worth in the grand article of divine acceptance. Thefe, though highly ornamental, ufeful,and excellent, when standing in their proper places and referred to fuitable ends; are little, are nothing, are lofs itself, compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Chrift Jefus my Lord. Yea, fuch is the love that I have for my Saviour, and fuch the dependence I place on his righteoufaefs, that for his fake I have cheerfully fuffered the lofs of all things which once I fo highly valued. And I do with the greatest deliberation again declare, in the prefence of Him who fearches the heart, that I count them, vile as the offals which are thrown to the dogs, and loathsome as dung which is caft out of fight. Such is the worth of my own performances, and fuch my estimate of them, if fet in competition with the work of Jefus, or prefuming to tand in the place of his righteoufnefs. Now therefore it is my chief defire and fupreme concern that I may win Christ, who is able to fupply every want, and to render me completely happy, That, when the Judge afcends the throne, at the last tremendous audit; when all nations fhall appear before Him, and when none but the perfectly rights ous ous are able to stand, I may be found in Him the Beloved, as the Lord my righteoufnefs. Then impartial juftice muft entirely acquit, and immaculate holiness completely approve. Would you know more particularly what I mean by being found in Him? It is, my not having, not depending up on, or so much as once mentioning mine own righteoufnefs, which is of the law; the holy qualities I now poffefs, and the righteous deeds I have performed in obedience to the law, as a rule of conduct, and by the influence of grace, as the principle of fpiritual life. But, being adorned with and relying upon that righteousness which is through the faith of Chrift; which was finished by him, is revealed in the gofpel, and received by faith-Even that obedience which, being performed by the incarnate Son, is dignified with every excellence, and bears that exalted character, The righteousness of God by faith. On this instructive and very important paffage I would further obferve, that the manifeft defign of the facred penman is to show, What that is in which a finner may safely confide, and what is a warrantable ground of rejoicing. He intimates, that there can be no confidence toward God, no acceptance with him, and confequently no cause of spiritual joy, without a righteoufnefs: for condemnation and wrath must be our portion, if we appear in our fins before the righteous Judge. He further fuggefts, that there is a twofold righteousness. The one, he calls our own; and informs us it is of the law. The other, he describes as through the faith of Chrift; and this he characterizes, the righteousness of God. Thefe, he fignifies, are entirely diftinct, and far from having a united influence in procuring our justification juftification: fo far from it, that they are oppofite and abfolutely inconfiftent, as to any fuch purpose. In referrence therefore to acceptance with the Most High, he who embraces the one, must reject the other; and on the one or the other all mankind depend. He alfo informs us, with all the fervor of holy zeal, and in the moft emphatical manner, which of thefe obtained his regard and fupported his hope; was the ground of his confidence and the fource of his joy. How much foever the judaizing teachers, of whom he speaks in the beginning of the chapter, might confide in the flesh, or depend on their own duties; he was determined to adopt a very different method, and to seek for acceptance in a contrary way. Having warned them of their danger, and guarded the Phillippians against their deftructive mistakes; he declares that the rightcoufness which he esteemed fufficient was not his bwn; was not of the law; but a gift of grace, and through the faith of Chrift. Even that obedience which our Lord performed in the capacity of a furety; which is without works, and without the law; was the object of his dependence, and in that only he gloried. But as to all that is included under the phrase, his own righteousness, when he confidered the purity of divine law, the majefty of the eternal Judge, and that he must soon stand before him, he accounted it of no avail. Under fuch a confideration, he rejected it with disdain. and poured the utmost contempt upon it, calling it lofs and dung. Such was the experience, and fuch was the hope of that worderful man, whofe apoftolic gifts and chriftian graces, whofe minifterial usefulness and exemplary conduct, rendered him an eminent blefling to the world, and an honour to the great Redeemer's caufe. Many Many are the arguments which might be adduced from the unerring word, in proof of this capital doctrine and comfortable truth; but I fhall only prefent my reader with the few that follow. It has been before proved, that the fubject of justification is an ungodly perfon. His pardon and acceptance, therefore, cannot be the refult of his own. obedience and it is equally clear, that as ungodly he cannot be juftified. He must ftand right in the eye of the law, and unreprovable before his Judge, before he can be acquitted in judgment. It muft, confequently, be by the rightcoufnefs of another. But, what, or whofe, righteoufnefs can it be? Not the obedience of our fellow mortals who are alrea dy justified; that would be to adopt the exploded doctrine of fupererogation. Not the fanctity of angels; becaufe they never became refponfible for us. Not the effential re&titude of the divine nature; for that is abfolutely incommunicable. It must therefore be the righteoufnefs of Chrift; or his complete conformity to the holy law, as a voluntary fubftitute for the ungodly. Now, in what way can his obedience be applied to us, except by imputation? This argument, I am perfuaded, will remain conclufive till it be proved; either, that the subject of juftification is not in himself ungodly; or, that the Judge of all the earth can justify without a righteoufnefs. The former is exprefsly contrary to the divine teftimony, and the latter involves a palpable contradiction. Paul, when treating about our awful ruin by fin, and our wonderful recovery by grace, and when profeffedly handling this capital doctrine; informs us, That Adam was a type of Him that was to come, even of the Lord Meffiah. He forms a ftriking com comparison between the firft and the fecond Adam; between the difobedience of the one, and the obedience of the other, together with the effects of each. He reprefents Adam as a public perfon, as conftituted the federal head of all his pofterity; and Chrift, as the reprefentative of all the chofen feed. The first offence of the former, he fignifies, was imputed to all his natural offspring; the complete obedience of the latter, is imputed to all his fpiritual feed. By the imputation of that offence, all mankind were made finners; came under a charge of guilt, and the awful fentence of condemnation to eternal death by the imputation of this obedience, all that believe are made righteous; are acquitted from every legal charge, and adjudged to eternal life. And as it was one offence, of one man, that brought death and mifery on all the human race: fo it is by one righteousness, of one man, even of the Lord from heaven and Jehovah's Fellow, that fpiritual life and eternal happiness are introduced. According to that faying, As by one offence, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even fo, by one righteousness, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made finners. fo by the obedience of One fall many be made righteous t-That the one offence, and the difcbedience of one, are to be understood of Adam's actual tranfgreffion of the divine law, none can difpute. By his first iniquitous act and bold offence many were made finners, before they were guilty of actual tranfgreffion; fo made finners as to be, on principles of Justice, liable to condemnation and death. Nor is it conceivable how this could be, ex *Dienos dicaiomatas. cept |