our righteousneffes, but for thy great mercies." And the other is, Luke xvii. 10. " When you have done all thefe things which are commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable fervants." And after confirming his refolution with feveral teftimonies of the Fathers, he concludes with this dilemma-" Either a man hath true merits, or he "hath not. If he hath not, he is perniciously deceived,

and feduceth himself, trufting in false merits; if he hath them, he loseth nothing while he looks not to them, but trufts in God alone." So that, whether a man have any good works or not, as to his Juftification before God, it is best and safeft for him not to place any dependence upon them. And if this be true, he might have fpared his pains in writing his fophiftical books to feduce men into a contrary opinion: For to what purpofe do we labour and ftrive with endless difputations, to prefer our obedience to fome office in Justification, if, after all, we find it the safest course, with Job, to abhor ourselves in the prefence of God; and, with the Publican, to fly to grace and mercy; placing all our confidence in them, through the obedience and blood of Chrift *.

V. The Scripture represents to us a Commutation betaveen Christ and believers, as to fin and righteousness; this alfo muft previously be confidered.

This

*So died that great Emperor, Charles the Pifth. Thus he reasoned with himfelf: "That in himself he was altogether unworthy to obtain the kingdom of heaven by his own works or merits; but that "his Lord God, who enjoyed it on a double right, by inheritance of the Father, and the merit of his own paffion, was contented with "the one himself, and freely granted unto him the other; on whose free grant be laid claim thereto, and in confidence thereof he should "not be confounded: for the oil of mercy is poured only into the "veffel of faith; that is, the truft of a man defpairing of himself, and “ refting in his Lord: otherwife to trust unto his own works or me"rits, is not faith, but treachery; that fins are blotted out by the mercy of God; and therefore we ought to believe that our fins can be pardoned by him alone, against whom alone we have finned; th whom there is no fin, and by whom alone fins are forgiven."

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This was taught in the church of old by the ordinance of the Scape Goat. "And Aaron fhall lay his hands on the head of the Goat, and confefs over him all the iniquities of the children of Ifrael, putting them on the head of the Goat; and the Goat fhall bear upon him all their iniquities," Lev. xvi. 21. Now it is generally acknowledged, that what was done to this animal, was only a representation of what was done really in the perfon of Christ. Aaron not only confeiled the fins of the people over the Goat, but he alfo put them on his head. It is therefore faid, he bare them all upon him. He did not transfufe fin from one subject into another, but transferred the guilt of it from one to another. Hence, the Jews fay, that "all Ifrael was "made as innocent on the day of expiation, as they were on the day of creation." The language of every facrifice is" Let the guilt be upon him.” Hence the facrifice itself was called SIN, and GUILT.

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to us.

So God laid on Chrift the iniquities of us all," that " by his ftripes we might be healed *." Our iniquity was laid on him," and "he bare it ;" and through his bearing it, we are freed from it. Our fin was his, imputed to him; his merit is ours, imputed "He was made fin for us, that we might be made the righteoufnefs of God in him." This is the Commutation I mentioned-He was made fin for us, we are made the righteousness of God in him; God not imputing fin to us, but imputing righteousness to us, doth it on this ground alone, That he was made fin for us.

This bleffed Permutation, as to fin and righteousness, is a principal object of our faith, and on this our peace with God is founded. And though these are the acts of God, and not ours; yet are we by faith to exemplify them in our own fouls, and really to perform what on our part is required to their application to us, whereby Chrift calls to him all thofe

we receive the atonement.

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* Ifa. liii. 5, 6, 11. ↑ 2 Cor. v. 21.

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who are weary and heavy laden *;" the weight that lies on the confciences of men, is the burden of fin. So the Pfalmift complains, that "his fins were a burden too heavy for him to bear t." This burden Chrift bore, when God" laid our iniquities upon him,”—“ made them to meet upon him" as a heavy burden ‡. In the appli- . cation of this to our own fouls, it is required that we be fenfible of the weight and burden of our fins; so the Lord Chrift calls us unto him with it, that he may eafe us. This he doth in the preaching of the Gospel, wherein he is " evidently crucified before our eyes ||." In the view which faith takes of him as crucified,. and under a fenfe of his invitation to come to him with our burden, the believer cordially approves and embraces the righteoufnefs and grace of God; gives. confent to what is thus done, as becoming the in-. finite wisdom and grace of God, and therein he refts. Such a perfon feeks no more to establish his own righteoufnefs, but fubmits to the righteousness of God. Herein by faith doth he leave that burden on Christ, which he called him to bring with him, and complies with the wisdom and righteoufnefs of God in laying it upon him and thus he receives that " everlasting righteoufnefs" which Chrift brought in, when he made an end of fin, and reconciliation for tranfgref fors §."

VI. We

* Matt. xi. 28. † Pfal. xxxviii. 4. ‡ Ifa. liii. 6. Gal. iii. 1.

The early Fathers of the Chriftian Church expreffed themselves in the fame manner. The excellent words of Juftin Martyr deferve the first place:"He gave his Son a ranfom for us; the Holy "for tranfgreffors; the Innocent for the nocent; the Juft for the "unjuft; the Incorruptible for the corrupt; the Immortal for mor❝tals. For what else could hide or cover our fins but this righteous"nefs? In whom elfe could we wicked and ungodly ones be justified, "or esteemed righteous, but in the Son of God alone? O fweet pere "mutation! O unfearchable operation! O bleffed beneficence, exceeding all expectation!" Epift. ad Diognet.

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Gregory

VI. We can never ftate our thoughts aright in this matter, unless we have a clear apprehenfion of the Introduction of Grace, by Jefus Chrift, into the whole of our relation to

God.

By the law of creation, we were in a state of immediate relation to God in our own perfons, as our creator, preferver, and rewarder." Do this and live" was the fole rule of that relation; and nothing was required to the confummation of that state but what was given us in our creation, enabling us to perform rewardable obedience. Confequently, there was nothing like that which the Gospel celebrates under the name of the grace, kindness, and love of God; nothing of the interpofition of a Mediator, which is now the life and foul of religion. The introduction of these things renders our religion a mystery, a great mystery, 1 Tim. iii. 16. which men, for the most part, are very unwilling to receive : nor can it be otherwife, for there are no notions of this kind in the natural conceptions of our minds, nor are

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they

Gregory Nylon fpeaks to the fame purpose, Orat. 2. in Cant. "He "hath transferred unto himself the filth of my fins; communicated "to me his purity, and made me partaker of his beauty."

So Auguftine." He was fin, that we might be made righteousness; "not our own, but the righteousnefs of God; not in ourselves, but "in him; as he was fin, not his own, but ours; not in himself, but He made our fins to be his, that he might make his righ"teoufnefs to be ours. O fweet commutation and change!" Enchirid. ad Laurent. cap. 41.

❝ in us.

Chryfoftome on the fame words-That we might be made the righteousnefs of God in him. "What word, what fpeech is this? what mind "can comprehend or exprefs it? for he faith, He made him, who was " righteous, to be made a finner, that he might make finners righte"ous; nor doth he yet fay fo neither, but that which is far more "fublime and excellent: for he speaks not of an inclination or af "fection, but expreffeth the quality itself. For he fays not he made

"him a finner, but fin; that we might be made not merely righteous, "but righteousness; and that, the righteoufnefs of God!" Hom. 11. on 2 Eph. to Corinth.

they discoverable by reafon in its beft exercife: for before our reafon was debafed by the fall, nothing of this kind was revealed to us; it would have been inconfiftent with the ftate in which we were to live to God, and must suppose the entrance of fin. It is not, therefore, probable, that our reason, as now corrupted, fhould embrace that which it knew nothing of in its beft condition, and which was inconfiftent with the way of attaining happiness which was fuited to it. Our reason, therefore, which was given to us as a guide in the first conftitution of our nature, is unapt to receive what is above it; and, as corrupt, hath an enmity to it.

Hence, in the first public propofal of the mystery of grace, and the introduction of a Mediator and his righteousness into our relation to God, the whole was accounted mere folly by the wife and rational men of the world: nor has the faith of them been ever truly received but by an act of the Holy Spirit on the human mind in its renovation. Hence it is very difficult to keep up, doctrinally and practically, the minds of men to the reality and fpiritual height of this mystery; for natural men neither understand nor like it. They look on it as difficult, perplexed, and unintelligible; and therefore every attempt to accommodate religion to the principles of corrupt reafon is generally acceptable. Men approve of what may be attained without the exercife of faith, prayer, or fupernatural illumination; but the myfteries of the Gofpel, which can gain no admisfion into the mind, but by the effectual working of the Spirit of God, are opposed and despised, as enthusiasin and fanaticism.

This oppofition to the mystery of grace arifes, either from a defire to reduce the whole to the private reason of man, or, from not comprehending the harmony which fubfifts between all the parts of it.

1. The Socinians, and others, would reduce the whole to reafon, and their own weak imperfect management

* 1 Cor. i. 18

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