Objection. It may be said, If Christ both obeyed the law, and suffered its penalty in the behalf of his people, that they have nothing to do with it. For, as by his sufferings and death they are freed from condemnation, so, by his perfect obedience they are dismissed from obligation to obey it.

To which I reply-The sinner can be freed from the law only agreeably to the design and engagement of his surety: no farther than he engages for him can he be benefited. Now the scripture expressly declares, that the design of Christ in becoming a substitute, was to procure a deliverance from the law so far as it tended to condemnation. Christ hath redeemed us from the CURSE of the law. Agreeably to which it is said, he was made under it, that he might redeem them who were under it. This is the current language of the New Testament. Hence observe, that the intention of Jesus Christ was to deliver his people from the curse. Evil is ever involved in the idea of a deliverance. We do not say, that a man is delivered from that which is good, but only from something that is pernicious. Now as obedience to the law is no evil, or part of the curse, consequently it is what the sinner stood in no need of a salvation from. The language of the law, as has often been observed, is, Do thyself no harm. The deliverance, therefore, which the justified obtain by Christ from the law, consists in these two things;

(1.) A freedom from condemnation. The sinner having transgressed the law, was condemned by it to lie under the wrath of Jehovah, in an eternal exclusion from heaven. From this awful calamity

all the justified are delivered by the interposition of the Divine Redeemer: in accomplishing which, it was indispensably necessary that he should both obey the law and endure its penalty.

(2.) They are freed from the law as a cove nant of works: hence they do not expect eternal life upon the footing of their own obedience. Ac cordingly the apostle Paul says, Te are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Again-But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. They were dead to it, so as no longer to seek to be justified by the deeds of it; or to look upon their obedience as a condition or term of their acceptance with God; because by the deeds of the law could no flesh living be justified. Hence we observe, that as this was the extent of the design of Christ, even to deliver from the law only as it tended to condemnation, the justified are not delivered from it as a rule of life, any more than they are delivered from corporal death by his dying.

Could it once be made to appear that these sentiments are subversive of obedience, it would immediately characterize them, and prove that they ought to be rejected: but so far are they from this, that they establish it. St. Paul having discoursed at large on the doctrine of justification without the deeds of the law, asks the question, Do we then make void the law through faith? i. e. the doctrine of faith. And then answers it with an emphatic God forbid: yea, we establish the law. As to the threatening and precepts of the law, what has been said already proves that it is established with respect to them; seeing the

death of Christ was according to the sentence of the law, and his obedience to its precepts perfect. To which we add, that it is established, with respect to all who have been brought to believe in the Son of God: they look upon it as the rule of life, to which they are bound to pay a sacred regard, from love to God, whose law it is, and who gave his only begotten Son, that he might become the end of it for righteousness; from love to Jesus, who both obeyed its precepts, and suffered its penalty, and thus delivered the criminal; and from love to the law itself, as it is a transcript of the divine nature. Their obedience is truly evangelical, originating from that faith which is of the operation of God, and accompanied with that love which is a fruit of the Spirit.

3. There is one thing more to be considered before we proceed to the next head, viz. that this righteousness is imputed without works: i. e. without works in him who is the subject of justification; or to whom the righteousness spoken of is imputed. The obedience of the sinner is no cause why God justifies him. Neither is it any part of that righteousness by which he is justified. Justification is an act of the pure, sovereign grace of God, exercised toward sinners and the ungodly. The design of this phrase, without works, is to exclude every thing from the matter and cause of justification but the perfect righteousness of Christ. I proceed,

III. To consider the blessedness of such, to whom this righteousness is imputed. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will

not impute sin. The blessedness spoken of may be comprised in these three things,

1. A freedom from the wrath to come. If sin be pardoned, there is no condemnation. And this, my brethren, is the immensely rich blessing, which God bestows on all to whom righteousness is imputed. He pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage: he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. The exceeding greatness of this blessing may be more fully discovered, by a consideration of that misery to which sin has exposed us. Hell, damnation, everlasting torments, are words that convey most shocking ideas. And thus saith the Lord, The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God. They that have done evil shall come forth to the resurrection of damnation. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment. Thus you see that the wages of sin is death, yea, eternal death; consisting, not in a loss of being, but of happiness. It is nothing less than a banishment from God, and all the glories of his kingdom, into the bottomless pit; there to be confined with devils and damned spirits, without the least glimpse of hope! This wretchedness is inconceivable as to its degree; consequently is inexpressible. How great then must be their blessedness, whose iniquities are forgiven, seeing they obtain an abso lute deliverance from all this; and

2. Are entitled to the enjoyment of God in heaven. These are connected in one verse; That they may receive the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me. God pardons none but such as he intends to admit into his everlasting kingdom. The connexion

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between the several blessings of the well-ordered ~covenant is inseparable. Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. They are pardoned and sanctified, on purpose that they may be received into the presence of God and of the Lamb, where is fulness of joy. Oh infinite felicity! There is the absence of all evil, and the fruition of all good. Jesus Christ will there be beheld in all his dazzling glories, while all the hosts of angels bow before him; and the spirits of just men made perfect unite in one grand ascription of praise to him, who loved them, and washed them from their sins in his blood! Glory be to God, for this astonishing display of his grace; that these inestimable blessings may be conferred on guilty, hell-deserving men!

3. I would add, That God blesses those whom he justifies with a comfortable sense of their own interest in him, which the scriptures call good hope through grace, the full assurance of hope, &c. A privilege for which they are indebted to the Spirit of God, who is said to seal the believer unto the day of redemption; to witness with his spirit that he is a child of God; to abide in his heart as the earnest of his inheritance. In which places it is clearly taught us, that believers, at least some of them, are favoured with a sense of the pardon of their sins through the blood of Christ. The Holy Ghost witnesseth to their spirits that they are the children of God, and thus confirms the wavering, doubtful mind.

He is also said to be an earnest of their inheritance. The design of an earnest, which is a part in hand, is to ascertain the whole so the Spirit of God, at times, enables the believer, as he did St. Paul, to say, I know whom