government might be magnified; and that a righteousness inAnitely worthy, and perfectly adequate to all the demands and penalties of the law, might be provided for a lost world.

Sixthly, That God has an independent and sovereign right to fix the terms or conditions, to devise and reveal the way in which fallen man shall become a partaker of this righteousness. And this is every where declared in the gospel to be by faith alone. Therefore, all who are united to Christ by faith, become one with him in the covenant of grace. They are one body; he is the head, and they are the members. Hence Christ is theirs, his righteousness and all his benefits are theirs, and they are Christ's.

These propositions are all plainly founded on the scriptures, tend to the explication of the doctrine of justification, and to the illustration of our text, "For Christ is the end of the law "for righteousness to every one that believeth." Christ, by his obedience and sufferings, by his perfect conformity to the precept, and enduring the penal sanction of the law, established a righteousness which is the end, fulfillment or accomplishment of the law. But this righteousness is only to them that believe. Final unbelievers will receive no more benefit from it, than if it never had an existence.

Justification is a gracious act of God, whereby he pardons and accepts of sinners only on account of the righteousness of Christ, which is received by faith. "Christ was delivered for our offen"ces and raised again for our justification. The free gift is of "many offences unto justification. By the righteousness of one "the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

The word justify, is used to express various and different ideas in the sacred oracles. It is used to designate a proud, boasting and self-glorious spirit. This was peculiarly characteristic of the Pharisees. Hence our Lord says to them, "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts.

"for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in "the sight of God." It is employed to declare a legal or self righteous temper. The Jews went about to establish their owns righteousness. They sought righteousness and justification by the law. But it is abundantly taken in an evangelical sense, to express the mode of the sinner's acquittal from guilt and acceptance to divine favour. This is exhibited by a variety of phrases. Believers are said to be justified by Christ, by faith, by grace freely, &c. Thus St. Paul declares, "Knowing, that a man is "not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus "Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might "be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the "law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that "is in Jesus Christ." We are said to be saved and justified by the righteousness of God. "But now the righteousness of God "without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and "the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith "of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe."

What shall be further said upon this subject to illustrate to us, "that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one "that believeth," shall be reduced to the few following observations.

First, We observe that a righteousness answerable to the nature and all the requisitions of the just and holy law of God, is absolutely and indispensably necessary for justification. The moral or divine law requires perfect innocence, perfect and perpetual obedience. Any person compleatly conformed to the law in the temper of his heart, and never deviated from it in his life, is justified upon the footing of his own innocence and personal righteousness. "If, saith God, thou dost well, shalt thou not "be accepted?" Thus speaks the Apostle in the verse succeeding our text. "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is "of the law, that the man which doeth these things shall live by

them." Thus the innocent and the perfect personally righte cus, shall surely be justified by the law. The nature, justice, and truth of God declare this. No danger of an innocent person, if such an one can be found; he will never suffer pain, sorrow, disease or death in this world, much less will he be liable to perish in a future. But this is not the case of any mere child of Adam." "There is none of them innocent or righteous, no not so much "as one; all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Where the government of God has been assaulted, and his laws transgressed, then there must not only be innocence, but a suffering of the penalty, in order to form a righteousness requisite to justification.

Secondly, Observe the righteousness of Christ Jesus is the only righteousness in this world, to which the preceding description can be applied. He was perfectly innocent, and compleatly suffered all that penalty which the justice and law of God requir ed. Never was his life stained with the least blemish. Guile was never found in his mouth. He drunk up the full cup of divine wrath against sin; trod the winepress of his Father's indignation, and there were none with him.

He was God as well as man; in his human nature, he obeyed and suffered; but being only one person, that which was performed in one nature was attributed to the other, and derived value and importance from it. Hence the obedience and sufferings of the Mediator, the Godman Christ Jesus, were of infinite worth and merit. All that the Saviour did in this important business, were mere acts of grace. His whole humiliation was an act of grace. His assumption of human nature, subjection to the moral law, his obedience, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession in heaven were and are the most free and sovereign acts of giace. He was under no natural obligation for the performance of any of these things. Therefore, all that Christ did, must necessarily have been on some other account, and not on his own.

Christ, in his original character, was God, and placed above all obligation; yet, in wonderful compassion, grace and love, condescended to a state of existence, that from the nature of it, subjected him to this obligation. If Jesus Christ had been originally subject to the law, and owed it obedience on his own account, then he could not have rendered it for others. But all the obedience and sufferings to which he submitted, he actually rendered for others. Hence it is declared, he was made under the law for this very purpose. "When the fullness of the time was

come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under "the law, to redeem those that were under the law, that we "might receive the adoption of sons." Thus saith God by the prophet Isaiah, "The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness "sake; he will magnify the law and make it honorable." And by Daniel it is said, "He shall bring in everlasting righteous"ness." Now all that righteousness which Christ wrought out upon earth, in his obedience to the preceptive and penal requirements of the law, was not for himself or on his own account, but in the room and place, and on the account of sinners of mankind.

The obedience of Christ was of infinite moment and value; because it was of infinite dignity. The Godhead did not obey or suffer, but he who was very God did both. The iniquities of us all were laid upon him. He was made an offering for sin; made a curse. He was stricken, smitten and afflicted of God, despised and rejected of men, and became obedient unto death, even the painful and ignominious death of the cross- He died the just for the unjust. He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed —It is with regard to the whole of his satisfaction in all the branches of it, he is affirmed to be the end of the law for righteousness. Thus Christ's fulfillment of the law formed an infinite fund of righteousness; whereby the whole debt due to the law by the sins of men, might have been cancelled, paid off,

or sunk at once, had the divine constitution authorised it, or the covenant of grace admitted of such a method of discharge.Therefore, the sinner remains as much a debtor to the law, and as liable to punishment as ever, until he has a right and interest in this fund, and all the benefits of it are made his, agreeably to the constition of the gospel.

Thirdly, It must be observed, that the divine and constitutional method by which a sinner becomes entitled to the advantages and blessings of this fund, or interested in and partaker of this righteousness for justification before God, is by faith in the gospel or by faith in Christ. Saving of justifying faith, according to the covenant of grace, is the uniting act of the soul to Christ Jesus. This faith makes the believer and Christ one by the constitution of this precious covenant. The sins of the former are laid upon the latter, and the righteousness of the latter is attributed, accounted or imputed to the former.

A world of controversy has been raised about the word imputation, imputed sin and imputed righteousness. But one thing is certain, after all the modern theological wrangling about it, it was always in use among the best reformers, and still is where vital and evangelical religion prevails. Where true religion has failed and only the shadow of christianity left, there this term is discarded, together with the righteousness of Christ, justification by faith, and all that is dependant upon free and sovereign grace in the salvation of men. But where it is believed we must be saved by the atonement of Christ, interested in his righteousRess, and be dependant upon, and beholden to him for the forgivness of sin and eternal life, there is no word in our language so adapted to express the mode of the participation of the benefits of his righteousness as this. Moreover, it is a term we frequently meet with in the sacred oracles, and it is used in two senses; the one to express the ascription of actions both good and evil to the doer of them. "Blood shall be imputed to that man, he hath "shed blood. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not