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moveth; not as in the term wherein it resteth: his grace finds us sinful; it doth not leave us so. Far be it from the righteous Judge of the world to absolve a wicked soul continuing such; "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord," Prov. xvii. 15. No, but he kills sin in us, whilst he remits it; and at once cleanseth and accepts our persons. Repentance and remission do not lag one after another; both of them meet at once in the penitent soul; at once doth the hand of our faith lay hold on Christ, and the hand of Christ lay hold on the soul to justification; so as the sins that are done away can be no bar to our happiness.-And what but sins can pretend to a hinderance? All our other weaknesses are no eye-sore to God; no hinderance in our way to heaven. What matters it, then, how unworthy we are of ourselves? It is Christ's obedience that is our righteousness, and that obedience cannot but be exquisitely perfect; cannot but be both justly accepted as his, and mercifully accepted as for us. There is a great deal of difference betwixt being righteous and being made righteousness. Every regenerate soul hath an inherent justice or righteousness in itself: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still," saith the angel, Rev. xxii. 11. But, at the best, this righteousness of ours is, like ourselves, full of imperfection; "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" Psa. cxxx. 3. "Behold, we are before thee in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this," Ezra ix. 15. “How should a man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand," Job ix. 2, 3. So, then, "he

that doeth righteousness is righteous," 1 John iii. 7; but by pardon and indulgence, because the righteousness he doth is weak and imperfect. He that is made righteousness is perfectly righteous by a gracious acceptation, by a free imputation of absolute obedience. Woe were us, if we were put over to our own accomplishments; for, "Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them," Gal. iii. 10; Deut. xxvii. 26. And, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," 1 John i. 8. Lo, if there be truth in us, we must confess we have sin in us; and if we have sin, we violate the law; and if we violate the law, we lie open to a curse. But here is our comfort, that our Surety hath paid our debt. It is true, we lay forfeited to death. Justice had said, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," Ezek. xviii. 4. Mercy interposeth, and satisfies. The Son of God (whose every drop of blood was worth a world) pays this debt for us; and now, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," Rom. viii. 33, 34. Our sin, our debt, is laid upon him, and undertaken by him: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed," Isa. liii. 5. His death, his obedience, is made over to us. So, then, the sin that we have committed, and the death that we have deserved, is not ours; but the death which he hath endured, and the obedience which he hath per

formed, is so ours as he is ours, who is thereupon made of God our righteousness. Where now are those enemies of grace who scoff at imputation, making it a ridiculous paradox, that a man should become just by another man's righteousness? How dare they stand out against the word of truth, which tells us expressly, that Christ is made our righteousness? What strangers are they to that grace they oppose! How little do they consider that Christ is ours! His righteousness, therefore, by which we are justified, is, in him, our own. He that hath "borne the iniquity of us all," Isa. liii. 6, hath taught us to call our sins our debts, Matt. vi. 12. Those debts can be but once paid. If the bounty of our Redeemer hath staked down the sums required, and cancelled the bonds, and this payment is (through mercy) fully accepted as from our own hands, what danger, what scruple can remain? What do we then, weak souls, tremble to think of appearing before the dreadful tribunal of the Almighty! We know him, indeed, to be infinitely and inflexibly just; we know his most pure eyes cannot abide to behold sin; we know we have nothing else but sin for him to behold in us. Certainly, were we to appear before him in the mere shape of our own sinful selves, we had reason to shake and shiver at the apprehension of that terrible appearance; but now that our faith assures us, we shall no otherwise be presented to that awful Judge, than as clothed with the robes of Christ's righteousness, how confident should we be, thus decked with the garments of our elder Brother, to carry away a blessing! Whilst, therefore, we are dejected with the consciousness of our own vileness, we have reason to lift up our heads in the

confidence of that perfect righteousness which Christ is made unto us, and we are made in him. SECT. XV. Christ made our sanctification.

At the bar of men many a one is pronounced just, who remains inwardly foul and guilty; for the best of men can but judge of things as they appear, not as they are; but the righteous Arbiter of the world declares none just whom he makes not holy. The same mercy, therefore, that makes Christ our righteousness, makes him also our sanctification. Of ourselves, wretched men, what are we other, at our best, than unholy creatures, full of pollution and spiritual uncleanness? It is his most holy Spirit that must cleanse us from all the filthiness of our flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. vii. 1, and work us daily to further degrees of sanctification. "He that is holy, let him be holy still," Rev. xxii. 11. Neither can there be any thing more abhorrent to his infinite justice and holiness, than to justify those souls which lie still in the loathsome ordure of their corruptions. Certainly, they never truly learnt Christ, who would draw over Christ's righteousness as a case of their close wickednesses; that sever holiness from justice, and give no place to sanctification, in the evidence of their justifying. Never man was justified without faith; and wheresoever faith is, there it purifieth and cleanseth, Acts xv. 9. But besides that, the Spirit of Christ works thus powerfully (though gradually) within us, "that he may sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word." His holiness is mercifully imputed to us, "that he may present us to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but

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that we should be holy, and without blemish," Eph. v. 26, 27. So as that inchoate holiness, which, by his gracious inoperation, grows up daily in us towards a full perfection, as abundantly supplied by his absolute holiness, made no less by imputation ours, than it is personally his. When, therefore, we look into our bosoms, we find just cause to be ashamed of our impurity, and to loathe those dregs of corruption that yet remain in our sinful nature; but when we cast our eyes to heaven, and behold the infinite holiness of that Christ to whom we are united, which by faith is made ours, we have reason to bear up against all the discouragements that may arise from the consciousness of our own vileness; and to look God in the face with an awful boldness, as those whom he is pleased to present "holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight," Col. i. 22; as knowing that "he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one," Heb. ii. 11.

SECT. XVI. Christ made our redemption.

Redemption was the great errand for which the Son of God came down into the world; and the work which he did whilst he was in the world, and that which (in way of application of it) he shall be ever accomplishing, till he shall deliver up his mediatorial kingdom into the hands of his Father. In this he begins, in this he finishes, the great business of our salvation. For those who in this life are enlivened by his wisdom, justified by his merits, sanctified by his grace, are yet conflicting with manifold temptations, and struggling with varieties of miseries and dangers, till, upon their happy death, and glorious resurrection, they shall be fully

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