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formed it, whatever the dispensations of thy future Will cofcerning us may be, Why dost thou deal with us thus ? Behold, we put ourselves as blanks in thine hands, deal with us as feemeth good in thy fight, only let every crols, every affliction, every temptation, be overruled to the ftamping thy bleffed image in more lively characters on our hearts; that fo paffing from glory to glory, by the powerful operations of thy bleffed Spirit, we may be made thereby more and more meet for, and at last be tranflated to a full, perfect, endless, and uninterrupted enjoyment of glory hereafter, with thee O Father, thee O Son, and thee O bleffed Spirit; to whom, three perfons but one GOD, be afcribed, as is most due, all honour, power, might, majefty and dominion, now and to all eternity. Amen and Amen.

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SERMON XIV.

The LORD our Righteousness.

JEREMIAH Xxiii. 6.

The LORD our Righteoufnefs.

HOEVER is acquainted with the nature of man

WH

kind in general, or the propenfity of his own heart in particular, muft acknowledge, that self-righteousness is the laft idol that is rooted out of the heart: being once born under a covenant of works, it is natural for us all to have recourse to a covenant of works, for our everlasting salvation. And we have contracted fuch a devilish pride, by our fall from GOD, that we would, if not wholly, yet in part at least, glory in being the cause of our own falvation. We cry out against popery, and that very justly; but we are all Papists, at leaft, I am fure, we are all Arminians by nature; and therefore no wonder fo many natural men embrace that fcheme. It is true, we difclaim the doctrine of merit, are afhamed directly to fay we deserve any good at the hands of Gon; therefore, as the Apoftle excellently well observes, "we go about," we fetch a circuit, "to establish a righteousness of our own, and," like the Pharifees of old, “will not wholly fubmit to that righteoufnefs which is of GOD through JESUS CHRIST Our LORD."

This is the foreft, though, alas! the most common evil that was ever yet feen under the fun. An evil, that in any age, especially in thefe dregs of time wherein we live, cannot fufficiently be inveighed againft. For as it is with the people, fo it is with the priests; and it is to be feared, even in those places, where once the truth as it is in JESUS was eminently

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preached, many minifters are fo fadly degenerated from their pious ancestors, that the doctrines of grace, especially the perfonal, all-fufficient righteousness of JESUS, is but too seldom, too flightly mentioned. Hence the love of many waxeth cold; and I have often thought, was it poffible, that this fingle confideration would be fufficient to raise our venerable forefathers again from their graves; who would thunder in their ears their fatal error.

The righteoufnefs of JESUS CHRIST is one of those great myfteries, which the angels defire to look into, and feems to be one of the first lessons that GOD taught men after the fall. For, what were the coats that GOD made to put on our first parents, but types of the application of the merits or righteoufnels of JESUS CHRIST to believers hearts? We are told, that those coats were made of skins of beasts; and, as beafts were not then food for men, we may fairly infer, that those beafts were flain in facrifice, in commemoration of the great facrifice, JESUS CHRIST, thereafter to be offered. And the skins of the beafts thus flain, being put on Adam and Eve, they were hereby taught how their nakednefs was to be covered with the righteousness of the Lamb of GOD.

This is it which is meant, when we are told, “Abraham believed on the LORD, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." In fhort, this is it of which both the law and the prophets have spoken, especially Jeremiah in the words. of the text, "The LORD our righteousness."

I propose, through divine grace,

I. To confider who we are to understand by the word LORD.

II. How the LORD is man's righteousness.

III. I will confider fome of the chief objections that are generally urged against this doctrine.

IV. I fhall fhew fome very ill confequences that flow naturally from denying this doctrine.

V. Shall conclude with an exhortation to all to come to CHRIST by faith, that they may be enabled to fay with the Prophet in the text, "The LORD our righteoufnels."

I.' I am

I. I am to confider who we are to understand by the word LORD. The LORD our righteousness.

If any Arians or Socinians are drawn by curiofity to hear what the babler has to fay, let them be ashamed of denying the divinity of that LORD, who has bought poor finners with his precious blood. For the perfon mentioned in the text, under the character of the LORD, is JESUS Christ. Ver. 5. "Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, a king shall reign and profper, and shall execute judgment and juftice in the carth. In his days (ver. 6.) Judah shall be saved, and Ifrael fhall dwell fafely; and this is his name whereby he fhall be called, The LORD our righteousness." By the righteous branch, all agree, that we are to understand JESUS CHRIST. He it is that is called the LORD in our text. If fo, if there were no other text in the Bible to prove the divinity of CHRIST, this is fufficient: for if the word Lord may pro perly belong to JESUS CHRIST, he must be God. And, as you have it in the margin of your Bibles, the word Lord is in the original Jehovah, which is the effential title of God himself. Come then, ye Arians, kifs the Son of GOD, bow down before him, and honour him, even as ye honour the Father. Learn of the angels, thofe morning-ftars, and worfhip him as truly GoD: for otherwife you are as much idolators, as those that worship the Virgin Mary. And as for you Socinians, who say CHRIST was a mere man; and yet profefs that he was your Saviour, according to your own principles you are accurfed: for, if CHRIST, be a mere man, then he is only an arm of flesh and it is written, "Curfed is he that trusteth on an arm of flesh." But I would hope, there are no fuch monfters here; at least, that, after these confiderations, they would be afhamed of broaching fuch monftrous abfurdities any more. For it is plain, that, by the word Lord, we are to understand the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who here takes to himself the title of Jehovah, and therefore must be very Gop of very GOD; or, as the Apoftle devoutly expreffes it, GOD bleffed for evermore."

II. How the LORD is to be man's righteousness, comes next to be confidered.

And

And that is, in one word, by imputation. For it pleased GOD, after he had made all things by the word of his power, to create man after his own image. And fo infinite was the condefcenfion of the high and lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity, that, although he might have infifted on the everlafting obedience of him and his pofterity; yet he was pleased to oblige himself, by a covenant or agreement made with his own creatures, upon condition of an unfinning obedience, to give them immortality and eternal life. For when it is faid, "The day thou eatest thereof, thou fhalt furely die;" we may fairly infer, fo long as he continued obedient, and did not eat thereof, he fhould furely live. The 3d of Genefis gives us a full, but mournful account, how our first parents broke this covenant, and thereby ftood in need of a better righteousness than their own, in order to procure their future acceptance with GOD. For what muft they do? They were as much under a covenant of works as ever. And though, after their difobedience, they were without ftrength; yet they were obliged not only to do, but continue to do all things, and that too in the most perfect manner, which the LORD had required of them and not only fo, but to make fatisfaction to God's infinitely offended juftice, for the breach they had already been guilty of. Here then opens the amazing fcene of divine philanthropy; I mean, God's love to mán: For behold, what man could not do, JESUS CHRIST, the son of his Father's love, undertakes to do for him. And that GOD might be juft in justifying the ungodly, though "he was in the form of GOD, and therefore thought it no robbery to be equal with God; yet he took upon him the form of a fervant," even human nature. In that nature he obeyed, and thereby fulfilled the whole moral law in our stead; and also died a painful death upon the cross, and thereby became a curfe for, or instead of, those whom the Father had given to him. As GOD, he fatisfied, at the fame time that he obeyed and fuffered as man; and, being GoD and man in one perfan, he wrought out a full, perfect, and fufficient righteoufnefs for all to whom it was to be imputed.

Here then we fee the meaning of the word righteousness. It implies the active as well as paffive obedience of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. We generally, when talking of the merits

of

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