Fourthly, There is but one thing remaining in the text — ' in him : ' iv avTU) ; and that noteth the time when, and the manner how, we are actually interested in this benefit. When we are in him we are by faith grafted into Christ before this righteousness is made ours upon this union. This righteousness is adjudged to us : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' But of him, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' First in him by a lively faith, then it
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is imputed to us. And as wo abide in his love by a constant obedience, so it is continued to us. This righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, Kom. i. 17 ; and it is by faith unto all and upon all that believe, Eom. iii. 22. So that we must look to this also, how we come to be possessed of it, as well as how it is brought about on Christ's part ; as sin or sins could not be imputed to Christ, but by the common bond of the same nature, and unless he had been united to us by his voluntary suretyship and undertaking ; so neither could the righteousness of Christ have been imputed to us, unless we had become one with him in the same mystical body; so that we believing in Christ and abiding in him, are made partakers of his righteousness, and so are pleasing and accept- able to God. The price was paid when Christ died; our actual posses- sion and admission into the privilege is, when we are planted into Christ by a lively faith.
Doct. That Christ being made sin for us is the meritorious cause and way of our being the righteousness of God in him : Isa. liii. 11, ' By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.' So that his bearing of our iniquities is the cause of our being accepted as righteous through faith in him. So Rom. v. 18, 19, ' Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unLo justilication of life ; for as by one man's diso- bedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' On this foundation hath the Lord established for the saints an unchangeable rule of justification.
I shall give you the sum of this point in these propositions.
1. The first covenant requireth of us perfect obedience upon pain of eternal death if we perform it not ; for the tenor of it is, do and live, sin and die. The least sin according to that covenant merits eternal death : Gal. iii. 10, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'
2. All mankind have sinned, and so are liable to that death : Eom, iii. 23, ' For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God : ' and, Rom. V. 12, ' Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.'
3. Christ became the mediator, and stepped between us and the full execution of it, and took the penalties upon himself, and became a sacrifice to offended justice, and a ransom for the sinners. So that his sufferings were satisfactory to his Father's justice, and expiatory of our sins. The two solemn notions of Christ's death are ransom and sacrifice t 1 Tim. ii. 6, ' Who gave himself a ransom for all ; ' and Eph. v. 2, ' And hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour ; ' and this ransom and sacrifice was paid with respect to the curse of the law, to free us from the penalty of the old covenant.
4. Upon this death, Christ hath acquired a new right of dominion and empire over the world, to be their lord and saviour, to rule them and save them upon his own terms : Rom. xiv. 9, ' For this end Christ both died, and rose again, and revived, that he might be lord of dead and living;' so Phil. ii. 8-11, 'He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and
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given him a name above every name, tliat at the name of Jesus every knee shoukl bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue shoukl confess that Jesus Christ is lord, to the glory of God the Father.' God liatli made this God-man the supreme prince of his church, and given him all power in heaven and earth, that all rational creatures should pay him all manner of sub- jection and acknowledgment, and his doctrine and faith be embraced by all nations in the world.
5. Our Redeemer, being possessed of this lordship and dominion, hath made a new law of grace, which is propounded as a remedy for the recovering and restoring of the lapsed world of mankind, unto the grace and favour of God by offering, and granting them their free pardon, justification, adoption, and right to glory, to all that will sincerely repent and believe in him ; but sentencing them anew to death, that will not. That this is the sum of the gospel appeareth in many places of sci-ipture : Mark xvi. 16, 'He that believethand is baptized shall be saved, but he that belie veth not shall be damned ; ' and John iii. 16-19, ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life ; for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world : but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,' &c.