fore, to convince him of his wickedness, to alarm his confcia ence, to put him upon feeking help in the LORD JESUS, Paul preached not only of temperance, (for Felix had been a very intemperate man) but he preached to him of righteoulnefs, of the neceffity of doing justice, because he had been an unjust man; and he puts before him the judgment to come, in order to make him fly to JESUS CHRIST for deliverance from the bad confequences of that judgment; and there are other places of fcripture, where the word righteoufnefs may be understood in this fenfe,

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It likewife fignifies inward holiness, wrought in us by the bleffed Spirit of God. But, I believe, the word righteoufhefs in my text fignifies, what, I truft moft, I fhould be glad if I could fay, all who attend this night, will be glad to hear of: What is that? It is what all reformed divines, that have clear heads and clean hearts, call an imputed righteousness, or the righteoufnefs of the LORD JESUS CHRIST to be imputed to poor finners upon their believing; and, if you afk me, what I mean by an imputed righteousness; not to fhoot over your heads, but rather, if Gon fhall be pleafed to make me, to reach your hearts, I will tell you, by the word " righteoufnefs," I understand all that CHRIST hath done, and all that CHRIST hath fuffered: or, to make use of the term generally made ufe of by found divines, CHRIST's ac tive, and CHRIST's paffive obedience" put these two together, and they make up the righteoufness of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. My dear friends, thus ftood the cafe between GOD and man: at firft GOD made man upright. Mofes gives us a fhort, but never was fo full a defcription of the origin and nature of man given by any other but himself. "In the image of GOD made he man, fays that facred hifto rian, being infpired by the Spirit of GOD. GOD faid, and it was done; Gop commanded, and the world arofe before him "Let there.be light," and inftantaneously behold light ap peared but when that lovely, that divine, that blessed creature Man, the Lord of the creation, GoD's vicegerent, was to be made, GoD calls a council, and fays, "Let us make man after our own image." Now, this image is to be un derstood, no doubt, in respect of man's foul; for God being no corporeal.fubftance, man could not be made after his image that

that way. Well, in this condition GoD made man. Adam ftood as our reprefentative. Adam and Eve had but one name originally, "GOD made man, and called their name Adam. Gop left Adam to his own free will; he was pleased to enter into a covenant with him, which, indeed, is an amazing inftance of GoD's condefcenfion. GOD might have ordered man to do fo and fo, and not made him any promife of a reward but the great Creator was pleased to promise him, that if he performed an unfinning obedience, if he abstained from eating a particular tree, that he and his pofterity fhould live for ever; but if he broke that command, In the day that he ate thereof, he and all his pofterity were to die. Now, I Verily believe, had you and I been there prefent; however some people may object against God's feverity, in imputing Adam's fin to us; yet I believe, if you and I; and all the world had been prefent, we should have heartily come into this agreement. Suppofing God had called the whole creation together, and had faid, "Ye, my creatures, I have made here a man after my own image, I have breathed into him the breath of life, I have caufed him to become a living foul, I have filled him with righteoufnefs and true holiness; he has not the leaft propenfity to fin, only he is a fallible and mutable creature; all that I defire of this man is, that he abstain from yonder tree: I have given to him all the trees of the garden, I have made him; and planted for him a garden with mine own 'right hand, I desire he may abstain from plucking yonder fruit : Will ye ftand or fall by this man, will ye let him be your reprefentative, will ye be content that his obedience or difobedience be imputed to you?" If we had been all there; every one of us would have faid, "LORD GOD, we will let "him be our reprefentative;" the terms were so easy, the improbability of his falling was fo exceeding great, that I believe every one of us fhould have all put our hand to the covenant. And fuppofing us alive, and that we had agreed to that covenant, who is that man or woman that could find fault with God's imputing Adam's fin to us. Well, my friends; God made man in this condition; the devil envied his happiness; it is fuppofed by fome, that man was made to fupply the places of the fallen angels. But the devil envied man, and had leave to tempt him; Eve foon reached VOL. V.

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out her hand and plucked of the forbidden fruit, and afterwards Adam tranfgreffed alfo; and from that very moment, to make use of Mr. Bofton's words, " Man's name was Icha~ bod," the glory of the LORD departed from him. Adam and Eve then fell you, and I, and all their posterity (whom they represented) fell in them. Mankind had but one neck; and GOD might have ferved mankind, as Caligula would have ferved Rome, according to his own words, "I wish it had but ·་ one neck, and I would cut it off with one blow." GOD, if he pleafed, might have fent us all to hell. Here Calvin reprefents God's attributes as ftruggling one with another; Juftice faying to God, seeing Juftice had framed the fanction, "Is the law broken, damn the offender, and fend him to hell." The mercy of GoD, his darling attribute, cries out,

Spare him, fpare him." The wisdom of GOD contrives a way, that juftice might be fatisfied, and yet mercy be triumphant ftill. How was that? The LORD JESUS interpofes, the days-man, the dear Redeemer! he faw God wielding his flaming fword, and his hand taking hold of vengeance; the LORD JESUS CHRIST faw the fword ready to be fheathed in the blood of the offender; when no eye could pity, when no angel or archangel could refcue, juft as GoD was, as it were, about to give the fatal blow, juft as the knife was put to the throat of the offender, the Son of GOD, the eternal Logos, fays, "Father, fpare the finner; let him not die; Father, Father, O hold thy hand, withdraw thy fword, for I come to do thy will; man has broken thy law, and violated thy covenant: I do not deny but man deferves to be damned for ever; but, Father, what Adam could not do, if thou wilt prepare me a body, I in the fulness of time will go, and die for him; he has broken thy law, but I will go and keep it, that thy law may be honoured; I will give a perfect unfinning obedience to all thy commandments; and that thou mayst justify ungodly creatures, I will not only go down and obey thy law, but I will go down and bleed; I will go down and die: here I am; I will will ftep in between thee and finners, and be glad to have thy fword fheathed in my heart's blood for them."

In the fulness of time defcends the eternal Logos, In the fulness of time GOD fent forth his Son made of a woman,

made

made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law from the curfe of it, being made a curfe for us." The LORD JESUS CHRIST being cloathed in human nature, fulfilled all righteousness; he fubmitted to every inftitution of God, and was pleased to obey the whole moral law; and afterwards, O can we think of it, O can you hear of it, without a heart leaping with joy, at laft the LORD JESU's bled and died! and when he was just expiring, just as he was about to bow down his head, and give up the ghoff, what do ye think he faid? He faid, "It is finished !" As much as to fay, "Now the arduous work, the difficult task I had undertaken, blessed be GOD, is now completely over; all the demands of the law are finished; now God's juftice is fatisfied; now a new and living way is opened by my blood to the holiest of all for poor finners."

So that when CHRIST's righteoufnefs is here fpoken of we are to understand "CHRIST's obedience and death," all that CHRIST has done, and all that CHRIST has fuffered for an elect world, for all that will believe on him. And bleffed be GOD for this righteousness! bleffed be God for the epithet which in the text is put to this righteoufnefs; it might be called a bleed righteoufnefs, it might be called a glorious righteousness, it might be called an invaluable righteousness; but the angel calls it an everlasting righteousness: Gon give you to take the comfort of it!

Secondly, I am now to fhew, on what account, this righte bufness is here called an everlasting righteoufnefs; and pray why do you think is CHRIST's righteoufnefs, called an ever lafting righteousness ?

I fuppofe it is called an everlafting righteousness,

First, Because CHRIST's righteoufnefs was intended by the great God to extend to mankind even from eternity. All of you know, that old love is the best love. When we have an old acquaintance, a friend, that has loved us for many years, indeed that love is fweet: though we may love new friends, yet when an old friend and a new friend meet together, we may fay, that the old is better. Now this fhould endear God to us, to think that from all the ages of eternity GOD had thoughts of you; GoD intended the LORD JESUS CHRIST to fave your fouls and mine: hence it is, that GOD, to endear Jeremiah to him, tells him, I have loved thee

with an everlasting love. Hence it is, that the LORD JESUS, when he calls his elect people up to heaven, fays, "Come, ye bleffed of my Father;" what follows?" receive the kingdom prepared for you;" how long?" from the foundation of the world." All that we receive in time; all the streams that come to our fouls, are but fo many freams flowing from that inexhaustible fountain, GoD's electing, GoD's fovereign, Gop's diftinguishing, GoD's everlasting love; and, therefore, the righteoufnefs of JESUS CHRIST may properly be called an Everlasting righteoufnefs, because GOD intended it from everlafting.

Secondly, It is called an everlasting righteoufnefs, because the efficacy of CHRIST's death took place immediately upon Adam's fall. Christianity, in one fenfe, is as old as the creation. Great Profeffor Franck, of Germany, fays, "That

CHRIST is the fum and fubftance of all righteoufnefs." Mr. Henry obferves, "That the LORD JESUS CHRIST is the "treasure hid in the field of the Old Teftament, under the

types and fhadows of the Mofaic difpenfation.". We have the Sun of Righteoufnels fhining in his full meridian in the New Teftament difpenfation. Now the righteoufnefs of JESUS CHRIST, may be called an everlasting righteoufnefs, because all the faints that have been faved, or that ever will be faved, are all faved by the righteousness of CHRIST. A great many cenforious people are mighty inquifitive to know, what will become of the heathens, that never heard of Jesus CHRIST. I would fay to fuch perfons, as the LORD JESUS CHRIST did to another curious enquirer, "What is that to thee? follow thou me." Pray, for what fhould you and I trouble ourselves about the heathens? Are not we heathens? It is too true, that we have too much of the heathens temper and practice with us. But why fhould we lofe our time in enquiring about what will become of the heathen, and not rather enquire what will become of our own fouls? We may be fure GoD will deal with heathens according to their light: if he has given them no revelation, they will not be judged by a revelation; if they have not had a law, they will be judged without law. But as for the Jews and Gentiles, who have the gofpel revealed to them, however Deifts may argue contrary to it; however they may fet up reafon in oppofition to