cloathed himself with rags, that we might be cloathed in royal robes. But will this righteoufneis be fufficient, will it gain us favour and acceptance? Yes faith the evangelical prophet, the Lord is well pleafed for his righteoufnefs fake, If, xlii. 21. for it is, every way commenfurate to the large and extenfive precepts of the holy law, it is a garment long and large, spotless as the fun, and whiter than the new fallen frow; arrayed in this, the vileft prostitute will find acceptance, and without this, the greateft profeffor will be rejected; when the bride, the church appears in this ornamental robe, the king is delighted with her beauty, accefs is given her into his prefence, and he declares his approbation of her, faying, thou art all fair my love, and there is no spot in thee, Pf. xlv. 11, 14. Cant iv. 7. This is the wedding * garment which all the accepted guefts are cloathed with, and whoever shall be found without it, tho' he may have obtruded himself into the fellowship and fociety of the bridegrooms friends, will be detected and cast into outer darkness, for no righteoufnefs will be admitted that is not perfect as the precept, and holy as him that gave it; but fuch righteoufnefs is only to be found in the holy and obedient life of Chrift. Every true believer puts on Chrift, not only by a par *The wedding-garment which alone can render us pleafing and acceptable to the heavenly king, who appoints the marriage, even to the father of our Lord Jefus Christ, the fpiritual bridegroom, and in which we may ftand before him in judgment, is the righteoufnefs of Chrift imputed to us by faith; for the fcripture knows of no other thing, for the fake of which, we may be accepted of God, obtain pardon of fin, and a right to eternal life. Chemnit. าว .d a participation of his nature and fpirit, and a conformity to his laws and life; but defires above all things that Chrift's righteousness may be his uppermost garment. Thus prayed the great preacher to the gentiles, that I may be found in bim,* in the great and folemn day when God shall make up his jewels, let me be found in him, incorporated into him by faith, that I may be sheltered from the ftorm and tempeft which naked fouls muft feel, and, which my own righteousness which is of the law, can in no wife fcreen me from; let me therefore be found in that righteousnefs, which is through the faith of Chrift, imputed, through faith to every believer, even the righte aufness which is of God by faith, which God imputes, to them that believe, and in which he cannot but acquiefce. It does not appear that Paul expected to appear as accepted, for his inherent righteoufnefs, the very thought of which he earnestly deprecates; nor does it seem that Paul expected his faith to be his acceptable righteoufnefs; but that which faith lays hold upon, and applies in the act of justification, and ever after has refpect unto; now that righteoufnefs which is though faith, or which faith *To be found in Chrift, tacitly respects the judgment of God. For the father hath declared himself well pleafed in Christ; therefore to them who are made one with him by faith, there is no condemnation, feeing that fuch are adorned with a righteoufrefs fuch as he requireth, and cannot but be pleased with, even the perfect and compleat righteoufnefs of Chrift imputed to them by faith. Whereas on the contrary, whofoever are not found in Chrift cannot escape condemnation, feeing they can produce no righteoufnefs but their own. Bez. on the paffage. To way faith refpects, cannot be faith itself; but the righteoufnefs of Chrift is that which faith always has refpect unto, and must therefore be something different from itself. 12th, It is prefumed, it was no more needful that Christ should perform in the obedience of his life, the duties peculiar to the several states and conditions of his people, in order that his active obedience might be imputed to them as their title to heaven, than it was needful for him to fuffer all the peculiar aches, pains, diseases, and difquietudes common to the various states, conditions, and circumftances which an all-wife providence had fubjected them to, in order to procure their deliverance from hell. In respect to the latter, what concerned him for the deliverance of his people, was to fatisfy the injured law in whatever its pure precepts were violated; by fuffering all it could poffibly inflict on the offenders, fo that in confequence thereof, they might with one voice triumph in the cause of their ab folution, who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ that died. And hence in fcripture Chrift is faid to be given to lutron.* Math. xx. 28, and an antilutron. 1 Tim. ii. 69 by which his people are delivered from the curfe due to their fins. And as he was the head and reprefentative of his chofen feed, all that was ned ceffary in the latter, in order to their acceptance, adoption, &c. was, the fulfilling the precepts of the law agreeable to that, he that does these things Bhall * Tó lutron ipfam redemptionem non declarat. fed ejus; pretium, i. e. quicquid datur ad eos redimendos qui captivi tenentur. Eraf. fhall live in them. Nor doth that objection feem to have any weight, "that if we are juftified by "his life, his death was not neceffary; but his "death appears to have been neceffary from the "concurrent teftimony of fcripture; therefore 66 we are not juftified by his life." For to have made this argument folid and conclufive, it should have been faid, if we are juftified by his life only and abstractedly, then his death was not neceffary; but I do not know that this is any where affirmed. The active and paffive obedience of Chrift, as they are the fole meritorious caufe of a finner's juftification, are and ought to be confidered as one great aggregate, infeparably connected, uniting their influence, and joining their agency to lay a firm foundation for reconciliation with God, pardon, peace, acceptance, adoption, heaven, and glory for believing finners. Yet fhould any man speak of the fatisfaction of Christ's death, and the merit of his life distinctly and feparate, afcribing to each a diftinct part in the falvation of a finner, I fee not wherein the practice could juftly be blamed; for remiffion of fin, and imputation of righteousness, stand related to each other as the cause and it's effect. For we are not to conceive of the procedure, as if God first pardon'd our fin, and afterwards imputed righteousness to us; but rather, ifthe imputes righteousness and for the false of that righteoufnefs imputed, he pardons our fin. For it seems neceffary that the (lutron,) and fatisfaction fhould fo intervene that remiffion of fins may be obtained without infringing justice, and that there may be a lawful foundation laid for the abfolutory fentence. The imputation of the righteousness of Chrift, is the fole foundation ས༡ and and meritorious caufe of a finner's juftification, which as it confifts of two parts, viz. abfolution and adeption, infeparably connected with each other; the former may well be fuppofed to refpect the death, the latter the life of Chrift, which confidered jointly, prefents us with a righteoufnefs having at once a fatisfactory, and a meritorious power. It is certain, the benefit refulting from the whole obedience of Chrift is twofold, ift, a deliverance from death. 2d, a title to life. For it is one thing to be loofed out of prifon, another to be feated on a throne. Adam in his perfect state, deferved not the penalty of death, neither did he deserve the reward of life, his obedience yet being untried. Paul himself feems to have confidered the bleffings refulting from Chrift's finished work diftinctly, Gal. iv. 4. 5, Chrift was made under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, i. e. from under the curfe, that we might receive the adoption of fons, i. e. a right and title to life, which floweth from adoption. Again, Acts xxvi. 18, that they may receive remifion of fins, and a lot among them that that are fanctified. So Chrift is faid, not only to have washed us, but alfo to have made us kings and priests unto God, &c. Rev. i. 5, 6. But to lay the whole ftrefs of our falvation in fuch fort on the Redeemer's death, as to difregard and difparage his holy and obedient life, as it is unfcriptural, fo it is a practice unfufferable, feeing we are hereby led to conceive of Chrift as our furety and reprefentative, in one part of his grand undertaking, but intirely to overlook him as acting in that character in another. As Chrift engaged in behalf of his people, to deliver them from hell, |