Christ is called The Lord our righteousness, and said to be made of God unto believers, righteousness. The reason of which expression is, that Christ is the author of a complete and spotless righteou ness, by which all who believe are justified. It follows that if Christ is the sinner's righteousness, faith is not. I add but one passage more: For as by one man's disobedience many were made (or constituted) sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. If a sinner is made righteous in the sight of God, which is St. Paul's sense here, by the obedience of Christ, then he cannot be said to be accepted as righteous on account of his faith. Which leads me to observe,

5. That when the apostle says we are justified by faith, he does not mean the act of believing, as proved above, but probably the object believed in ; even Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. May not the expression be metonymical? We find in the sacred writings, that sin is put for the punishment of it; Christ is put for his own doctrine; hope is put for the God of hope.* By the same figure faith may be put for its object. Or his meaning may be, that the sinner is justified by faith, as faith apprehends that righteousness, which is revealed in the gospel, and is the only matter of justification. By faith he understands that there is an infinitely excellent and suitable righteousness, finished by Jesus Christ, and which God will accept. It consists,

1. Of obedience to the precepts of the law. That Christ was made under the law, and perfectly obeyed it, is admitted. The present inquiry is,

* See Levit. xxiv. 15. 2 Cor. xi. 4. Pfalm lxxi. 5.

whether his obedience to the law is any part of that righteousness which is imputed for justification; or whether sin is pardoned, and the sinner accepted by God, on the account of Christ alone, exclusive of his obedience to the precepts of the law? In answer to which, I would observe,

(1.) That it appears that the obedience of Christ through his life is a part, and a very essential part of the sinner's justifying righteousness; seeing he undertook as a surety or in his behalf, to magnify the law and make it honourable, agreeably to Isaiah's prophecy concerning him. For this purpose he was made under the law, even that be might redeem them that were under it, and that they might receive the adoption of sons. In this passage the apostle first declares his incarnation, then the condition in which he was, viz. under or subject to the law; and subjoins the reason of this subjection to the law, or the end he had in view; that he might redeem them that were under it. Every person, while unregenerate, is under the law, both as to the obedience that it requireth, and the punishment that it threateneth. He who appears as a surety for such, or undertakes to deliver them, must fully answer these demands; that is, he must perfectly obey its precepts, as well as fully endure its penalty. Without such full satisfaction to the law, it cannot be said to be magnified and made honourable; and upon this it is that the sinner to whom it is imputed is accounted righteous in the sight of God.

(2.) "The reward of life is promised not to suffering, but to doing. The law says, Do this and live it promises life not to him that suffers the penalty, but to him that obeys the precept.

"There never was a law,' as an excellent divine* observes, even among men, either promising or declaring a reward due to the criminal, because he had undergone the punishment of his crimes.' Christ's sufferings and death being satisfactory to the comminatory or threatening part of the law, are imputed to us for justification, that so we may be freed and discharged from the curse, and hell, and wrath. But these, as they do not constitute us righteous, do not, properly speaking, entitle us to eternal life; but that active obedience, or righteousness of Christ, being imputed to us, is our justification of life, or what gives us the title to eternal life."†

The distinction made by this author between Christ's obedience to the precepts of the law and his sufferings and death, with their different influ ence, is countenanced by the holy scriptures, and that too in several places. Paul, writing to the Galatians, ascribes our redemption from the curse to the death of Christ. (Gal. iii. 13.) Peter corroborates the sentiment, by saying that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ. (1 Pet. i. 18, 19.) But when the apostle speaks of our being made righteous, he ascribes it to righteousness imputed, and to obedience; which is the particular next to be considered.

(3.) St. Paul assures us, in the plainest terms, that we are made righteous by the obedience of Christ. By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Rom. v. 19.) The apostle speaks, in

* Dr. Goodwin,

+ Dr. Gill's Doctrine of Justification, p. 25, 26; to whom the writer acknowledges himself indebted for two or three hints enlarged on in this part of the subject,

eous.

this chapter, of Adam and Christ, as two public heads. Adam, by actual disobedience, involved himself, and all his posterity, whom he repre sented, in an awful scene of guilt and wretchedness. Jesus Christ, who was another public head, has made many righteous by his actual obedience, even all those who were given to him by the Father. The latter sentence is in opposition to the former, and gives us its true meaning: for as Adam's disobedience to the law constituted him and his posterity sinners, so the obedience of Christ to it is that by which many are constituted rightThat the apostle in this place does not mean one act, but a course of obedience, may be learned by comparing it with the following words, (Philip. ii. 8.) And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death; or, until death: meaning, that he was obedient to the precepts of the law through all his life; from which he was not diverted until he became a sacrifice for sin. The obedience of Christ is the subject of the apostle's discourse in both places: in one he assures us, that it was the business of his whole life; in the other, that by that uninterrupted course of obedience many are made righteous.

2. I pass now to observe, that this law, having been violated by man, became a ministration of death. He thereby fell under its curse; from which there was no way of deliverance, but by an adequate satisfaction, offered to the divine Lawgiver. Hence it came to pass, that a law, which in its original state required obedience only, now called for suffering. He who broke it contracted guilt, for which neither men nor angels could atone. If he could, from this time forward to

the end of life, perfectly keep the law, as it would be no more than mere necessary duty, it could not expiate the guilt of one sin, any more than the punctual payment of debts that shall be contracted for the future will satisfy the creditor for those that have been contracted in time past. The guilt of sin is infinite, rising in malignity in proportion to the dignity of him against whom it is committed: consequently the atonement must be infinite. It is so: for God hath laid help on one mighty to save. Through him is preached unto us the forgiveness of sins. We have redemption through his BLOOD-that BLOOD that was shed for the priesthood and for the congregation, and without the shedding of which there could be no remission.

That the guilt of sin was to be expiated by blood, is a doctrine of the old testament; from whence it is no less evident, that Jesus Christ was to be the sacrifice. We are abundantly taught the doctrine of atonement, by the numerous sacrifices of the law; some of which were very significant; and which St. Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews accommodates to the great Antitype. That qualification of the victim, that it should be without blemish, is typical of the spotless purity of Jesus, the LAMB without blemish and without spot. His death with its circumstances and design, are all expressive of Christ our passover who was sacrificed for us. The death was violent: so was the death of Christ. The blood was received into a bason, to denote a value in it, not real but typical. This blood was to be applied either by sprinkling, or a touch to the person to be cleansed; in allusion to the all-atoning efficacy of the blood of Christ, called the blood of sprinkling, and