[3.J Upon what terms do you constantly maintain your life and peace with God ; upon the foundation of works, or through the merits oi Christ ? I confess works are a good encouragement, by way of evidence and assurance; but still the foundation must be Christ: 1 Cor. iii. 11, ' For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' The believing soul wull never be diverted and taken off from Christ, but will still cry, What would become of me were it not for free grace ? Neh, ix. 31, ' Nevertheless, for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them and forsake them, for thou art a gracious and merciful God;' 1 Cor. iv. 4, ' For I know nothing by myself, yetam I not thereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord.' Christ must still lie as a bundle of myrrh with us : Cant. i.
VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 9
13, 'A bundle cf myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.'
Use 3. Information ; to direct us how to understand this great truth. For your better information, and because I will not perplex these discourses with disputes, I shall lay down several propositions ; take them all together —
1. That to justify is to account or accept as righteous.
2. None are accounted or accepted as righteous but those that indeed are so.
3. Every righteousness will not serve the turn, but such as will satisfy God's justice,
4. God's justice will never be satisfied till the law be satisfied.
5. The law will never be satisfied but by active and passive obedience.
6. This satisfaction is only to be had in Christ.
7. There is no having this righteousness in Christ but by imputation.
8. There is no imputation but by union.
9. There is no union but by faith.
[1.] To justify is not to make righteous, but to account or accept as- righteous. This is the use and force of the word in scripture : Eom. ii. 13, 'Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.' It cannot be taken for the infusion of righteousness, because the doers of the law are therefore righteous in themselves because they do the law ; but the meaning is, are accounted just. It is opposed to condemnation and accusation, therefore it must be taken for accounting righteous ; as Rom. viii. 33, ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth, w^ho is he that condemneth?' That which is opposed to accusation is justification ; and that it is meant of an accepting in court is clear by Ps. cxliii. 2, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant, 0 Lord, for in thy sight no man living shall be justified ; ' that is, in thy righteous and strict judgment none can be accepted as righteous.
[2.] None is accounted righteous before God but he that indeed is so ; for otherwise the rule standeth good : Exodus xxxiv. 7, ' He will by no means clear the guilty.' It is part of God's name that he pro- claimed before Moses : it must be such a righteousness as will endure God's sight ; so that when God casts his eye upon it, he cannot choose but account you righteous, which cannot be by a fiction or an imaginary righteousness — ' For the judgment of God is according to truth,' Eom. ii. 2, be it in mercy or in judgment. And it is a thing God hates in iaan: Prov. xvii. 15, 'To condemn the just, and justify the wicked, are both an abomination to the Lord.' Therefore there must be such a righteousness as, God looking upon it, he must needs account you righteous.
[3.] Every righteousness will not serve the turn, but such only as will satisfy God's justice, because by the work of redemption the Lord is to sufi'er no loss ; the repute of his justice is still to be kept up, otherwise the notions of the deity would be violated. In the work of redemption he is not unrighteous ; therefore the apostle is very zealous : Piom. iii. 4, ' Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar ; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged,' &c ; God is necessarily just as well
10 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. XVIII.
as necessarily merciful. Now both attributes must shine with equal glory. If he did altogether spare, where were his justice? and if he did accept men upon ordinary terms, and did altogether save, where were his mercy ? God's infinite wisdom hath determined the con- troversy, and the apostle gives us an account of it : Kora. iii. 24, 25, ' Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins ;' and it is again repeated — 'To declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he moy be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.' God would not only glorify grace, but he would be just in justification ; therefore, 1 John i. 9, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ; ' and again, chap. ii. 1, 'We have an advocate with the Father, even Jef>us Christ the righteous.' God would not forgive sins, but so as that it miglit stand with his justice ; for mercy and justice are to shine with an equal glory.