"ther, that in Chrift all fulness fhould dwell, Col. "i. 19. So it was his pleafure, that from that ful"nefs there fhould be derived to all believers "grace anfwerable to the grace that is in Chrift "Jefus, and that every grace that is in Chrift, "fhall be reckoned to be ours, and efteemed as "fuch. For the prepofition avli which is here "tranflated for, is a word of imputation, and of "commutation. It is used in the facred writings, "and in other good authors, when one is rec"koned in the place of another, and one thing "is fubftituted and changed for another. Give "unto them the tribute money for me and thee, Matth. xvii. 27. that is, in thine and my ❝ftead. For one morfel of meat he fold his « birth-right, Heb. xii. 16. that is, he changed «his birth-right for it. From which acceptation "of the word we learn how to understand and "apply it in the text before us, when it is faid, that of Chrift's fulness we receive grace for "grace, the genuine fenfe is, that every grace in "Chrift is made over to us, and is reckoned as "ours. There is a change made between him and all true believers. As he takes upon him their fins, fo his righteoufnefs is imputed to them. This is fitly expreffed by the prepofition av for; and to receive grace for grace, is as if it had been, all that grace and righte ❝oufnefs, which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord, is "transferred to us by God, and accepted as "our own, when he justifies us." * learned man, and who has deferved well of the church by his many writings in defence of the doctrines of the Reformation, offers as what This a feemed * Dr. Edward's Doctrine of faith, page 297. feemed to him to be the genuine import of these words. I would only crave leave to add that poffibly we may, with a small alteration, exprefs the fenfe of them in a fomewhat more eafy and natural manner thus: that of that fulnefs of merit and righteoufnefs, which is in Chrift, believers receive grace for grace, that is; grace for the free and gratuitous remiffion of their fins, and their juftification and acceptance unto life. The fame with what the Apostle has told us, Rom. iii. 24. that we are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Chrift Jefus and Rom. v. 21. that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jefus Christ our Lord. : From what hath been faid, I hope, it fufficiently appears, what that righteousness is, which we have in Chrift for our justification. It is not his effential righteousness as God *. He will not give the glory of this righteousness to another, nor, indeed, can he veft the finner with it, but man will thereby be made God. Befides, the righteoufnefs, by which we are juftified, must be a righteousness that is wrought out in conformity to the law, that is the rule and standard of it: and though it is moft certain, that the effential righteoufnefs of Chrift as God carries in it a full and everlafting conformity to the law, yet the effential righteoufnefs of God is not to be adjusted and modelled by the law, *This was the opinion of Ofiander a learned man, who appeared in Germany, in the beginning of the Reformation. He gave Luther and Melanchton a great deal of trouble with his notions. Vid. Sleid. Com. de Statu relig. Lib. 22. law, but rather the law must be adjusted and modelled by that: The law is a tranfcript of the divine rectitude, not the divine rectitude a tranfcript of the law Finally, this righteousness can in no fense be transferred to us: it is eternally inherent in God, and his other perfections of wifdom, power, goodness, and the like, may as well be transferred to us as his righteoufnefs. But the righteousness which we have in Chrift for our juftification, is the righteoufnefs which was wrought out by him as God man Mediator; his Mediatorial or Surety-fhip righteousness, confifting in that perfect obedience which he performed to the law in the room and ftead of his people; in his active obedience doing all that the law required to be done; in his paffive obe dience fuffering all that the law threatned to in flict; in both fulfilling and perfecting that righ teousness, which anfwers the law in its utmost extent, and which we may plead and truft in for our juftification. Let this then stand as the refult of the whole debate, that it is only the righteousness of Christ, that righteousness which he wrought out in the perfect obedience which he performed to the law in the room and stead of his people, and as their furety, which is the righteoufnefs in and for which finners are juftified. What then remains, but that we own before God the infufficiency of our own, and of every other righteousness for our juftification, and with humble joyful faith accept of that better and fu perior righteoufnefs, which is provided in Chrift for this purpofe? And were our minds filled with a due fenfe of that authority of God which is impreffed upon the law, of that holiness which breathes through it, and of that awful justice which is the great guardian of its honour, how would this fhew us in the ftrongeft light the neceffity of this righteousness, and teach us to blefs God for it? withdraw our dependance from every other righteoufnefs, and engage us in the way of the gospel to feek after an intereft in this? That, in the language of the Apostle, Phil. iii. 9. We may be found in him, not having our own righteousness, which of the law, but that which is through the faith of Chrift, the righteouf nefs which is of God by faith. Where, but in the Lord Jefus Chrift alone, is that righteoufnefs to be had, that fully answers to the purity and perfection of the law, and in which the law and the law-giver can with so much honour acquiefce? SERMON [64] SERMON HI ISAIAH xlv. former part of the 24th Verse. Surely, fhall one fay, in the Lord have I righteoufnefs. 7E have hitherto been stating and explain ing the nature of that righteousness, which we have in the Lord Jefus Chrift for our juftification. Righteoufnefs in the general nature of it speaks a conformity to fome law, which is confidered as the measure and standard of it. The law in the prefent cafe is the pure and perfect law of God, the moral law: a. law that calls for perfect and finlefs obedience as the neceffary condition of our acceptance with God, and that threatens death in the cafe of the failure of fuch obedience. This law we hav ing broken by fin, and being no ways able either to fulfil the obedience it requires, or to fustain the punishment it inflicts; nor any creature fufficient to go through either of these for us, Chrift hath been appointed and substituted to perform the one, and fuffer the other in our room and ftead; and this he hath accomplished in the most perfect manner; in the obedience of |