our cafe at all; for it is not the measure or quantity of holiness contained in the law, that the carnal mind maligns and oppofes; but the quality thereof, holiness, which being wholly the reverfe of fuch mind, "it is not fubject to that law, "neither indeed can be. Rom. viii. 7. But we have here fuppofed what can never be granted by any means; what shall the juft, the righteous, the holy and fin-hating God iffue a law which neither difcovers the odioufnefs of fin, nor the immaculate purity the legiflator is effentially poffeit of! Heaven and earth fhall fooner pafs away, men and devils fhall all be eternally damned, rather than any thing fo difhonourable to our God, or repugnant to his holiness fhall take place. Think not, faith Chrift, (probably to fome of those who wanted a more gentle law) that I am come to destroy the law, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill, and untill this be done, not one jot, or one tittle fhall be abolished. Math. v. 17, 18.

It appears from the enquiry thus far purfued, that the righteoufnefs which the law requires, and which alone can give a title to glory, is not to be found in man; feeing the law is perfect, and cannot difpenfe with imperfect obedience, not even though it could be fuppofed to be fincere, which in the state juft defcribed, can never be produced; fincerity being as much a fruit of the spirit budding in the regenerate foil, and the effect of a work of grace upon the heart, as holy hungring or thirsting after God. These things confidered, we are now led more directly to fhew, that a righteoufnefs all perfect, and all complete every way adequate and commenfurate to the law, was wrought out,

and

and finished by Chrift, and is imputed to the believer.

By the righteousness finished by Chrift, it may not be amifs to obferve in this place, that I include all that he fuffered, and all that he performed; his active and paffive obedience not disjoined, but connected, conftitute that righteoufnefs I am preaching to you. For the substance of the law was, do and live, difobey and die; man difobeyed, and therefore became obnoxious to the penalty, and fell directly under the curfe. Now let the offender fuffer the infliction of the penalty, death, or let another able and willing (as a proper substitute) die in his room and place; yet it is. evident the offender is far enough from any rightful claim to life, which was to have been the refult and reward of obedience; but no obedience has been paid, therefore his dying for the offence (may the expreffion be allowed,) is but half way to life.

From hence is appears that the affertion of a great writer had in it more plausibility than accuracy, when he affirmed, "the law required only the alternative, do and live, or disobey " and die." Since therefore, to reftore fallen man, and give him a title to glory, it was neceffary to fuffer the punishment due to disobedience, and to perform what the law had enjoined, and to which, the promise of life was given. Our blessed redeemer undertook the completion of this arduous task, and died to deliver man from death, and lived to fecure to him a rightful claim to heaHence as one evangelically fings,

ven.

Jesus thou art my righteousness,

For all my fins were thine;

Thy death, hath bought of God my peace,
Thy life, hath made him mine.

Now as the law had a twofold claim upon man e'er it could give him a right to life, let us enquire whether our bleffed Lord has answered this twofold claim fully and fatisfactorily. Respecting

the fufferings of our Saviour we are to attend to the following things, 1. That he fuffered even unto death. 2d. That his fufferings were the effects of fin, and what the violated law required. 3d. That he fuffered not for his own fins, but for the fins of others.

ift. I shall not tarry here to obferve any thing concerning the dignity of our Saviour's perfon, fave, that when he who thought it no robbery to be equal with God, undertook for poor finners, he affumed a nature capable of fuffering, and that nature too which had offended. As the fuffer

ings of our Lord, were the most exquifite, fo were they also the moft extenfive and lafting; for no fooner is the man-child born, but the great red dragon ftands ready to devour him; he was almost no fooner born than he must be banished, arise and flee into Egypt, for Herod will feek the young child to destroy him. So great was the antipathy conceived against the holy child, and fo early did the enmity of the carnal mind begin to manifeft itfelf against him; hence fays the evangelift, be came to his own, and his own received him not. This cold reception he met with at his firft entrance into the world, and the evil treatment from the cruel and blood-thirsty Herod, were but a fpe

cimen of what he was to undergo, and a fhort prelude to thofe fufferings that fhould terminate in a fhameful and painful death upon the cross.

To speak particularly of the fufferings of our Lord would fill large volumes, "for he was a

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man of forrows, and acquainted with grief," his whole life was one continued fcene of forrow, nor did his forrows ceafe untill he emptied all his facred veins, and poured out his foul a facrifice on the accurfed wood. How awful is the reprefentation of this great catastrophe! The heavens are hung with mourning, while Jefus is hung upon the tree; the fun refufed to fee the fhocking fight! rocks of flint are rent, the graves of faints are opened, and the fleeping duft arifes at the cry, the awful and expiring cry of Jefus," My God, my

God, why haft thou forfaken me?" The vengeful fword awoke in wrathful indignation against the man, that was a fellow to the Lord of Hofts, and bathed itself in the heart's blood of the fon of God.

2d. All his fufferings were the effects of fin, and what the law of God required. Sin and fuffering are so connected together, that the antient Jews were wont to fignify both by the fame word; for as fin feparates from God and cuts of the ftreams of communication between God and the foul, it must follow that fin is accompanied with that prefent pain and difquietude, that the light of God's countenance, and his comfortable prefence never fails to scatter and diffipate when enjoyed. It is probable, had there been no fin, there would have been no fuffering, fince all our fufferings have respect to our bodies, or our minds; but the former fuffer as they are mortal; all our aches, and

pains, and fickneffes, growing from the feeds of mortality fown in our natures, and are no other than the harbingers, or advanced guards of approaching death; fo fpeak the oracles of God, Rom. v. 12. Sin entered into the world, and death by fin. And the latter are oppreffed with griefs and cares, partly arifing from an union with the corruptible body, and partly by reason of the ignorance, doubts and fears arifing from, and being the confequence of, the feparation between God and the foul occafioned by fin. Such fuffering as must iffue in death, was what the almighty threatened in cafe of difobedience; fuch was the fanction of the law, and fuch was the penalty due to difobedience; therefore the law which manifefts no mixture of mercy to the finner, nor encourages the offender to difobey with any hopes of impunity, makes no abatement when it exacts, nor deducts from the number of ftripes when it inAlicts. If God's own fon therefore, his only be. gotten fon, his well beloved and co-equal fon, is found in fashion as a man, and charged as a finner, God's own law fhews him no favour or refpect; if he seems to faint at the approaching hour and prays that the cup may pass from him, it cannot be granted; he muft drink the very dregs of the divine indignation against fin; he must bleed at every pore of his facred body, and feel the vengeful dagger pierce his very foul, and be offered up as a whole burnt offering upon the wood of his crofs.

3dly. When we fee the fuffering Saviour bathed in blood, and wading through a fea of forrow, we may well be led to afk with fome in his time, was he a finner greater than all because these things

fell