it to him.4. The same way that Adam's sin, became the sin of his posterity, or they were made sinnets by it, the same way Christ's righteousness becomes his people's, or they are made righteous by it. Now the former is by imputation; and so the latter; As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; that is, by the imputation of it to them; so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous; that is, by placing it to their account, Rom. v. 195. The same way that the sins of Christ's people became his, his righteousness becomes their's. Now their sins became Christ's by imputation only; the Father laid' them on him, or made them to meet upon him, imputed them on him, placed them to his account; and he took them upon him, and looked upon himself as answerable to justice for them; and so, in the same way, his righteousness is made over to, and put upon his people; For he who knew no sin, was made sin for us, by imputation, that we might be made the righteousness of God in' him; accounted righteous in him, through his righteousness imputed, 2 Cor. v. 21. Now there are several things which are said of this imputed righteousness of Christ, which serve greatly to recommend it, and set forth the excellency of it; as, That it is called the righteousness of God, Rom. i. 17. and iii. 22. bèing wrought by Christ, who is God as well as man; approved and accepted of by God, and freely imputed by him to believers, as their justifying righteousness. — It is called, the righteousness of One, Rom. v. 18. of one of the Persons in the Trinity, the Son of God; of him, who, though he has two natures united in him, is but one Person, and who is the one common Head to all his seed; and though his obedience, or righteousness, serves for many, it is the obedience of One, Rom. v. 19. and therefore they are justified, not partly by their own obedience, and partly by Christ's, but by his only. It is called the righteousness of the law, Rom. viii. 3. being wrought by Christ in conformity to the law; so that this righteousness is a legal righteousness, as performed by Christ, being every way commensurate to the demands of it; though evangelical, as ntade over to his people, and revealed in the gospel; for it is manifested without' the law, though witnessed to by law and prophets. It is called, the righteousness of faith, Rom. iv. 13. not that faith is righteousness, or imputed for it, or is the matter of a justifying righteousness, or any part of it; but because the righteousness of Christ is revealed to faith, and that lays hold on it, receives it, rejoices in it, and boasts of it. It is called, the gift of righteousness, and the free gift, and the gift by grace, Rom. v. 15-17. because freely wrought out by Christ, and freely imputed by God the Father; and faith is freely given to receive and embrace it. It is called, a robe of righteousness, a garment down to the feet, which covers the whole mystical body of Christ, Isai. lxi. 10. Rev. i. 13. it is signified by gold of Ophir, clothing of wrought gold, and raiment of needle work; setting forth the preciousness of it, Psal. xlv. 9, &c. It is said to be change of raiment, and the wedding-garment, Zech. iii. 4. Matt. xxii. 12. yea, the best robe, Luke xv. 22. a better robe than Adam had in Eden, or the angels in heaven; theirs, at best, being but the righteousness of a creature, and

that loseable, as the event shewed; but Christ's righteousness is the righteousness of God, and an everlasting one; it may be rendered, the first robe," being first in designation, and in the provision of the covenant of grace; though Adam's robe of righteousness was first in wear and use.

VI. The effects of justification by the righteousness of Christ may be next considered, which are as follow.-1. An entire freedom from all penal evils, in this life and in that which is to come. Justified ones are not freed from all evils; they have their evil things now, as Lazarus had, but they are not brought upon them by way of punishment; afflictions are evils in themselves, being not joyous but grievous; but then they are not penal ones; they are fatherly chas tizements, they are fruits and evidences of the love of God to them, and not of his vindictive wrath, 1 Cor. xi. 32. death was threatened as a punishment for sin, and is the just demerit of it, and as such is inflicted on righteous ones, but is no penal evil to justified ones; it is their privilege and not their punishment, 1 Cor. ii. 22. and therefore their death is desirable, even by wicked men, as it

have

by Balaam: nor will any penal evil befal the justified ones after death; for being now justified by his (Christ's) blood, they shall be saved from wrath through him; from wrath to come, the vengeance of eternal fire: should any penal evil be inflicted on them here or hereafter, it would highly reflect upon the justice of God, in punishing twice for the same offences, once in their surety, and again in themselves; since the chastizement, or punishment of their sins has been laid on Christ, and he has endured it; and therefore it would be a lessening of the value of Christ's satisfaction, as if it was not made to full content, should punishment be inflicted in any degree upon those for whom it is made: and it would be contrary to the gospel-declaration, that they that believe in Christ are justified, and shall not enter into condemnation. 2. Peace with God is another fruit and effect of justification; being justified by faith, we peace with God, Rom. v. 1. peace with God is made by the blood of Christ, and reconciliaion by his death; and besides that, there is a peace of conscience which is had in a way of believing, and through a comfortable sense and perception of an interest in the righteousness of Christ, the effect of which peace and quietness. 3. Access to God through Christ; for having a comfortable view by faith of interest in the righteousness of Christ unto justification, it follows, we have boldness and access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, access to God as the God of grace, to him as on a throne of grace, to all the blessings of grace which come from God through Christ; and through the blood and righteousness of Christ justified ones have great freedom, boldness and confidence, to go to God, and present their supplication to him for what they want; not for their righteousness sake, but in their requests making mention of the righteousness of Christ, and only pleading the worth and virtue of that. 4. Accceptance with God through Christ follows upon justification by his righteousness; there can be no acceptance with God upon the foot TAY MY TAY HOWTV, stolam primam, Vulg. Lat. Arias Montanus.

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VOL. II.

of a man's own righteousness, which cannot render hin acceptable to God; bu through the righteousness of Christ there is an acceptance both of persons and services; first of persons and then services; as God had respect to Abel, and so to his offering, and accepted it; so he has respect to the persons of his justified ones, as considered in Christ; he has respect to him, and is well pleased with him, and with all that are in him; they are accepted of God in the beloved, being clothed with the robe of his righteousness, and the garments of his salvation; and their services being done in the strength of Christ, and through faith in him, and to the glory of God by him,, and their spiritual sacrifices being offered up by him their great high-priest, they become acceptable to God through him. 5. The well-being of God's people here and hereafter depends upon their justification, and is a consequent of it; Say ye to the righteous, one that is justified by the righteousness of Christ, that it shall be well with him, Isai. iii. 10. it is well with the justified ones in life; be it with them as it may, all is well with them and for the best; all things work together for their good, adversity and prosperity; what they have of worldly things, though perhaps but little, are blessings to them: it is well with such an one at death, he has hope in it, and rejoices in hope of the glory of God; peace is the end of the perfect and upright man, who is perfectly righteous through the righteousness of Christ imputed to him; and it is well with him at judgment, he has a righteousness that will answer for him in that time to come: and he shall have an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; and it will be well with him to all eternity; he that is righteous will then be righteous still, and ever continue so, and shall go into everlasting life. - 6. Glorying, or boasting, is another effect of justification; not in a man's self, in his own righteousness; not of his duties, services, and performances; nor of blessings of goodness enjoyed thorough his own merit; nor of heaven and happiness, as his own acquisition; all such boasting is excluded, by the doctrine of justification by faith in the righteousness of Christ; but such as are justified in Christ glory of him, in whom they are justified; and glory in this, that he is of God, made to them righteousness, 1 Cor. i. 30.-7. Justified ones have an undoubted title to eternal life; hence justification by Christ's righteousness is called, justification of life, because it entitles to it; and such are made heirs, according to the hope of eternal life; are heirs of the inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and reserved in the heavens, and shall be possessed of it, Rom. v. 18. Tit. iii. 7. For, 8. Certainty of salvation may be concluded from justification; such as are justified, shall most assuredly be saved from wrath; there is an inseparable con nection between justification and glorification; Whom he justified, them he also glorified, Rom, viii. 30.

Vil. The properties of justification. 1. It is an act of God's grace, of pure grace, without any consideration of merit, worthiness, and works of men; grace is the moving cause of it, as has been already observed; it was according

and purpose grace of God, that he resolved upon the justification of any

of

the sons of men; The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, Gal. iii. 8. the scripture foresaw, or predicted, the justification of them; because God, of his sovereign grace and good-will, determined on it; grace set wisdom at work to find out a proper way and method of making men just with God, which could never have been found out by men or angels; and having found out a way to impute their sins, not to themselves, but to Christ, and to impute his righteousness to them; he was gracious, and said, Deliver them from going down to the pit. Grace put him on calling Christ to be their surety, to bring in an everlasting righteousness for them; and it was grace in Christ to accept the call, and say, Lo, I come to do thy will! one part of which was, to work out a righteousness for his people; and it was grace in God to send his Son to obey, suffer, and die for them, in their nature, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in them; and it was grace in him to accept of that righteousness as if done by them, and to impute it to them freely without works, and to give them faith to lay hold upon it for themselves; and it appears the more to be an act of grace, in that they are ungodly whom God justifies, sinners, even some, the chief of sinners, Rom, iv. 5.—2. It is an act of justice, as well as of grace: God is righteous in all his ways and works, and so in this; the law being perfectly fulfilled by Christ, the surety, both with respect to precept and penalty; justice is fully satisfied, and so God is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, Rom. iii. 26. Jesus, Rom. iii. 26.3. It is universal, as to persons, sins and punishment: as to persons, all the seed of Israel are justified; that is, all the elect of God and seed of Christ; as there was an all on whom judgment came to condemnation, through the offence of the first Adam, even all his natural posterity; so there is an all on whom the free gift by the righteousness of Christ comes, to the justification of life; even all the children of God, and offspring of Christ, the second Adam, whose righteousness is unto all, and upon all them that believe, Isai. xlv. 25. Rom. v. 18. And with respect to sins, they that are justified, are justified from all sins whatever; Christ has redeemed his people from all their iniquities; all are forgiven for his sake; his blood cleanse › from all, and his righteousness clears and acquits them of all: and as to punish” ment, they are entirely secure from it, even to the least degree; they are saved from wrath; they are secure from all condemnation; they are delivered from the curse of the law; nor shall they be hurt by the second death, the wages of sin; it shall not have any power at all over them: the whole righ.cousness of Christ is imputed to them; a whole Christ is made to them righteousness; and in such a manner, that they are made the righteousness of God in him; and they are complete in him, are perfectly comely through his coeless put upon them, a perfection of beauty, all fair, and without spot. 4. It is an individual act, done at once, and admits of no degrees; the sins of God's elect were all together and at once laid on Christ, and satisfaction for them was made by him at once; he removed the iniquity of his people in one day, and by one sacrifice

put away sin for ever; all sins were pardoned at once, upon this sacrifice offered, and satisfaction made; and the righteousness of Christ was accepted of, and imputed to his people at once. The sense of justification, indeed, admits of degrees; The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; from one degree of faith to another; from a lesser, and lower degree of it, to an higher; it is gradually that faith rises to a full assurance of interest in it, so that a man knows with certainty, that he is and shall be justified: the manifestations of it are various and different, at different times; but the act itself, as in God, is always the same, perfect and complete. Indeed, there are fresh declarations and repetitions of it; the sentence of it was first conceived in the divine mind from all eternity; it was virtually pronounced on the elect in Christ, their representative, at his resurrection from the dead; and it is afresh pronounced in the conscience of a believer, by the Spirit, and he bearing testimony to it; and it will be again no tified at the general judgment, before angels and men; but justification, as an act of God, is but one, and done at once, and admits of no degrees; and is not carried on in a gradual, progressive way, as sanctification is. 5. It is equal to all, or all are alike justified, that are justified, the price of redemption, on which justification proceeds, is the same, the precious blood of Christ; even as the ransom-price, and atonement-money paid for the children of Israel, was the same, an half-shekel for the rich and for the poor: and it is the same righteousness of Christ that is imputed to one as to another; it is a garment down to the feet, and covers the whole mystical body, the lowest and meanest members of it, as well as the more principal; it is unto all, and upon all them that believe; there is no difference, they have all the same righteousness, and the same precious faith, though not to the same degree; yet the weakest believer is as much justified, as the strongest believer; and so the greatest, as well as the smallest sinner, though one may be justified from more sins than another, having committed more; yet one is not more justified than the other; though one man may have more faith, and more sanctifying grace than another, yet no man has more righteousness, or a more justifying righteousness than another. - 6. It is irreversible, and an unalterable act; it is according to the immutable purpose and grace of God, which can never be frustrated; it is part of that grace given, and one of those spiritual blessings wherewith the elect were blessed in Christ before the world began; it is one of those things which God does, and are for ever. Neither the righteousness by which they are justified, nor the faith by which they receive the justifying righteousness from the Lord, ever fail. The righteousness is an everlasting righteousness; and faith fails not; Christ is the author and finisher of it. Though a righteous man falls, he never falls from his righteousness: a man that is only seemingly and outwardly righteous, may turn away from his own righteousness, and go into a course of sin, and die; but one that is truly righteous, through the righteousness of Christ, can never turn and fall from that, nor shall ever enter into condemnation; but shall be eternally saved and glorified.-7. Though by the act of justification, persons are freed