Christ was set up from everlasting to be the covenant head and representative, he was made of God unto us both wisdom and righteousness; and on which account he is to be called by this name, The Lord our Righteousness. For, when he consented to become future man and mediator, and agreed to take a human nature on him, and to appear in a human body, which God in his eternal purpose had appointed, and in his purpose prepared; that is, he decreed that it should be prepared by the Spirit of God, and be preserved in its formation from every stain of human defilement; on which account it is called a body prepared; and these things having all passed in the eternal mind, are therefore said to be done. Hence the body is said to be prepared, as the persons John was to make ready are said to be a people prepared for the Lord, Luke i. 17. And when Christ had agreed to the assumption of human nature, and in it to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin, according as it is written, "Burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," Heb. x. 5. In which words you have the Saviour's hearty assent, agreement, and acquiescence, both with respect to his assumption of the body prepared, and in the offering himself as a sacrifice for sin; for he says, "Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart." When the Saviour thus undertook we were let go; when he agreed to be made

sin for us, who knew no sin himself; by the same agreement we were made the righteousness of God in him. This was promised to the Saviour in the councils of old, and agreed to in the covenant, which is called a covenant of promise; and this is one of the promises, "Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified," Isa. lx. 21. Let us take a little survey of this work of God's hands, and what we are to understand by the branch of God's planting. I have proved, that in the secret councils of old, when Christ undertook to become our surety, and to make his soul an offering for sin, that we were made the righteousness of God in him, he being made wisdom and righteousness to us; and therefore he is to be called the Lord our Righteousness. But no man can come to Christ except God the Father draw him; and when it pleases God, by a lawwork, to root us up out of the soil of corrupt nature, and from all self-righteousness, and to cut us off from the old stock, and bring us out of old Adam's family, and to lead us to Christ, and to acceptus in the beloved, then he enables us to say, "In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." This is called transplanting of us, or transplanting us into a better soil; a noble vine, wholly a right seed; being then called branches in the true vine, or wild olive branches grafted into the good olive tree, to partake of the goodness and fatness of the good olive tree; that in him we may have righteousness

and strength, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Righteousness may be considered as perfect obedience to some law, or rule of righteousness; in which obedience a person stands upright before it, and doth not fall under it, so as to be cast and condemned by it when they come to be tried or judged. Hence that saying, "The wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." But there are some that will stand, and that with intrepidity, even in that day when all God's books will be opened, and the secrets of every heart made manifest, and every work brought into judgment; for so it is written, "Watch ye therefore and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." Paul tells us, that we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, Gal. v. 5; that is, he hoped in that great day to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Phil. iii. 9; and this Paul calls the obedience of one, that is, of Christ, Rom. v. 19. This day will try all sorts of righteousness; and the highest touchstone of all righteousness will be that of the glorious revelation of that most tremendous attribute or perfection in God called justice, or righteousness; for the great day will bring this to light; "He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness; for God is judge himself," Psalm 1. 4—6.

As it has been a custom in some countries for

persons, after taking a trial, when they have been found innocent, and have been honourably acquitted and justified, to be crowned with a garland of leaves and flowers, prepared by their friends, which was done to make their innocence or righteousness appear conspicuous to all; so the apostle, having embraced the abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, expected to reign in life by Jesus Christ, Rom. v. 17. And he was so effectually assured of this, that, in the prospect of a violent death, and in full view of an immediate appearance before God, and in expectation of a more remote standing before the judgment-seat of Christ, he could say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is a crown of righteousness laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing," 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. The apostle had embraced this gift of righteousness at the beginning of his profession: and he had preached it, and abode by it, throughout the whole course of his ministry; and he expected to receive it as his wedding garment, at the consummation of the marriage of the Lamb, and to be crowned with it at the general doom, and to appear in it as his royal

purple in the kingdom of glory. And this he expected as a free-grace gift, and therefore says, "Which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day." And this he knew would come in a way of strict justice; for God is as just to his promises made in Christ as he is to his threatenings out of him, and as righteous in the distribution of his favours as he is in the execution of his sentences. Righteous souls, and a righteous God, shall both meet together in Christ Jesus; he will accept them in the righteousness that he has prepared for them and given to them, and they shall see him, even the righteous judge, with joy. God ever did, and he ever will, appear just in every justification of them which do believe, or have believed, in Jesus as well as their justifier. I must now hasten on to my next head, which is,

3. To consider the next, or third, glorious feature in this divine image of the Son of God, to which we were predestinated to be conformed; and this particular is holiness. Upon this our great apostle is plain: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love," Eph. i. 3, 4. Here our apostle says that we were blessed in Christ with all spiritual blessings, according as he hath chosen us in him; and three of these spiritual blessings are named: the first is holiness, which is