A Treatise on Justification. ཡར་་རར་་་་་ ISAIAH xlv. 26. In the Lord fhall the feed of Ifrael be justified. INTRODUCTION. TH HE fcriptures of truth are the great treasury of divine knowledge; for therein, among many other precious truths, the righteousness of Chrift is not only revealed, but brought near to guilty finners. The bleffed gofpel brings the moft joyful-tidings to the children of men : and as there is no other robe in which fallen men can ftand accepted, before God, but the Redeemer's juftifying righteousness, this is therein faid to be unto, and upon all that believe. This garment of Chrift's everlafting righteousness, the gospel prefents as the alone ground of that fir eternal falvation we enjoy by him; and finis every way fufficient for us both to live on, and to die in. I 'N the juftification of a finner, in the fight of God, I fhall confider four things. principally. As, 1. The Matter of it. 2. The Manner of it. 3. The Time of it. And, 4. The Effect of it, with respect to the foul. And then, 5. In the last place fhall add fomething by way of Ufe. I fhall confider each of thefe in the order laid down. SECT. I. Of the MATTER of Juftification. JER. xxiii. 6. This is the name whereby he fhall be called, THE matter of juftification, or the by a finner is made Righteous in the fight of God, is first to be confidered: and this, according to the fcriptures of truth, is the complete obedience of Jefus Chrift, exclufive of all the creature's works, whether before, or after its regeneration by the Spirit of God. The complete obedience of Jefus Chrift, to the divine law, hath two branches, which are commonly ftyled, his active and paffive obedience; which consist, in his fulfilling all the law's requirements, and enduring all its penalties. The righteousness which God's law requires, hath two parts, viz. a negative part, and a pofitive part. The negative part of righteousness, confifts, in abftaining from, or the not doing of those things which the law forbids. And the pofitive part of righteousness, confifts, in the doing of those things which the law requires. And Sin is the tranfgreffion of the law, in both these respects; on which account, the law's penalty, becomes righteously due to every tranfgreffor. And these two parts of the law's righteousness, though they may be distinguished, yet cannot be divided. For, whoever wants that conformity to the law, which it requires, is likewise a tranfgreffor of it, in doing what it for bids; and whoever doth what the law forbids, wants that conformity to its precepts, which the law requires, fo that they cannot be divided; but yet they may be diftinguished. And the tranfgreffor of the law, is an unrighteous perfon, in the eye of the law, in both these respects. And anfwerably, it was neceffary that the righteousness of Chrift fhould confift of two parts. As, 1. His active obedience, to answer to the positive part of the law's righteousness. And this confifts, in that perfect, univerfal, and perpetual obedience, which he yielded to the requirements of God's holy law, both internally and externally, in heart, in lip, and in life, from his birth to his death. Whereby he gave the law its due, even all that obedience, which its extenfive precepts demanded; and fo fulfilled it, as to the pofitive part of its righteousnefs. For being made of a woman, he was made under the law, Gal. iv. 4. And what things foever the law faith, it faith to them who are under the law, Rom. iii. 19. Chrift was under the law, and what things foever it faith, in its requirements, it faid to him; and he yielded a perfect obedience thereto, on purpose to fulfil it. Thus he fays of himself, Mat. v. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to deftroy, but to fulfil. And chap. iii. ver. 15. Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. And he that fent me is with me, (fays our Lord;) the Father hath not left me alone: for I do always thofe things that please him, John viii. 29. He did all the things which God's law required; he did them perfectly; he did them conftantly, or always did them, in fuch a manner, that God the Father was well pleafed with his obedience. By this, he fatisfied the law's requirements, and gave it all that it demanded: Yea, let me fay, he gave it more than it could demand. All that the law demanded, as it was given out to Adam, and in him, to all his posterity, was no more than the perfect obedience of the creature that was under it. And this Christ yielded in his human nature; not for all Adam's race, but for all his own, whom he represented. And the obedience Chrift yielded in his human nature, that nature being perfonally united to his divine, was the obedience of his perfon; |