3, Thirdly, The only matter of man's righteousness, since the fall of Adam, wherein he can appear with comfort before the justice of God, and consequently whereby alone he can be justified in his sight, is the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of the mediator. There is not any other way imaginable, how the justice of God may be satisfied, and we may have our sins pardoned in a way of justice, but by the righteousness of the Son of God ; and therefore this is his name, ' Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord our Kighteousness,' Jer. xxiii. 6, ' This is his name,' that is, this is the prerogative of the Lord Jesus, a matter that appertaineth to him alone, to be able to * bring in everlasting righteousness, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,' Dan, ix. 24. The costly cloak of Alcisthenes, which Dionysius sold to the Carthaginians for an hundred talents, was in- deed a mean and beggarly rag to that embroidered mantle of Christ's righteousness that he puts upon us : Isa. Ixi. 10, ' I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.' i Christ's righteousness is that garment of wrought gold, that we all need, to cover all our imper- fections, and to render us perfectly beautiful and glorious in the sight of God.2 In this robe of righteousness we are complete, we are with- out spot or wrinkle, we are without fault before the throne of God. Through the imputation of Christ's righteousness, we are made right- eous in the sight of God. God looking upon us, as invested with the righteousness of his Son, accounts us righteous. All believers have a righteousness in Christ as full and comi^lete as if they had fulfilled the law. ' Christ being the end of the law for righteousness to believers,' Rom. viii. 3, 4, invests believers with a righteousness every way as complete, as the personal obedience of the law would have invested them withal. When men had violated God's holy law, God in justice resolved that his law should be satisfied before man should be saved. Now this was done by Christ, who was the end of the law ; he fulfilled it actively and passively, and so the injury offered to the law is recom- pensed. God had rather that all men should be destroyed, than that his law should not be satisfied. No man can perfectly be justified in the sight of God without a perfect righteousness, every way commen- surable to God's holy law, which is the rule of righteousness, ' Do this and live : ' neither can any person have any choice, spiritual, lively com- munion with a righteous God, till he be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. All Christ's active and passive obedience was either for himself, or in our stead and behalf ; but it was not for himself, but
^ It is a sign of great favour from the Great Turk, when a rich garment is cast upon any that come into his presence. — Knolles Hist. The application is easy.
* Ps. xlv. 13 ; Rom. v. 19 ; Col. ii. 10 ; Eph. v. 27 ; Rev. xiv. 5 ; Eom . iii. 21, 22, 25, 26. VOL. V. P
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for US, that he suffered and obeyed. Whatsoever Christ did or suf- fered in the whole course of his life, he did it and suffered it as our surety, and in our steads : for as God would not dispense with the penalty of the law without satisfaction, so he would not dispense with the commands of the law without perfect obedience. Kemember, once for all, that the actions and sufferings of Christ make but up one entire and perfect obedience to the whole law ; nor had Christ been a perfect and complete Saviour, if he had not performed what the law required, as well as suffered the penalty which the law inflicted. The imputation of Christ's righteousness to us is a gracious act of God the Father, according to his good will and pleasure, whereby as a judge he accounts believers' sins unto the surety, as if he had committed the same ; and the righteousness of Christ unto the believer, as if he had performed the same, the same obedience that Christ did in his own person : so that Christ's imputed righteousness is as effectual to the full, for the acceptance of the believing sinner, as if he had yielded such obedience to the Lord himself. Hence his righteousness is called 'our righteousness,' Jer. xxiii. 6. Now without this righteousness there is no standing before the justice of God. But,
4. Fourthly, As this great design of Christ's redeeming sinners by his blood and sufferings, and by his being made a curse for them, doth sound aloud the glory of divine justice, and the glory of God's veracity, so it sounds forth the glory of his wisdom; for hereby he maintains the authority of his righteous laiaA When a law is solemnly enacted, with a penalty in case of transgression, all those whom it concerns may conclude for certain, that the lawgiver will proceed accordingly ; and it is a rule in policy, that laws once established and published, should be vigorously preserved. If the Lord should have wholly waived the execution of the law upon sinners or their surety, it might have tended greatly to the weakening of its authority, and the diminishing of the reverence of his sovereignty in the hearts of the sons of men. How often does God use that oath, ' As I live,' for the fulfilling of his threatenings as well as of his promises, Jer. xxii. 24, and Ezek. v. 9-11, The Lord Jehovah is as true, faithful, and constant in his threatenings as in his promises. What he hath threatened shall undoubtedly come to pass; he will be made known by his name Jehovah in the full execution of all his threatenings. The old world found it so, and Jerusalem found it so ; yea, the whole nation of the Jews have found it so to this very day, see Ezek. v. 13, 15. Look, as all the saints in heaven will readily put to their seals, that God is true and faithful in all his promises ; so all the damned in hell will readily put to their seals, that God is faithful in all his threatenings. Men frequently deride the laws and threatenings of great men, when they are not put into execution. It is the execution of laws that is the very life and soul of good laws, Eccles. viii. 11. Should God pardon sin, without exacting the penalty of the law, how would sinners be hardened, and emboldened to say, with those men, or rather monsters, in Malachi, 'Where is the God of judgment?' chap. ii. 17, i.e., nowhere; either
^ Solon, that wise lawmaker, could never find out a law to put all other good laws in execution ; but such as are living laws, will make the laws to live : and will not the wise and living God make his laws and threatenings to live ? Surely he will.
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