Let us then stand a while, and see in what a deplorable condition each of us comes into the world, and still continues, till we are translated into a state of grace. For surely nothing can well be supposed more deplorable, than to be born under the curse of GOD; to be charged with _original guilt_; and not only so, but to be convicted as actual breakers of GOD’s law, the least breach of which justly deserves eternal damnation. Surely this can be but a melancholy prospect to view ourselves in, and must put us upon contriving some means whereby we may satisfy and appease our offended judge. But what must those means be? Shall we repent? Alas! there is not one word of repentance mentioned in the first covenant: “The day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” So that, if GOD be true, unless there be some way found out to satisfy divine justice, we must perish; and there is no room left for us to expect a change of mind in GOD, though we should seek it with tears. Well then, if repentance will not do, shall we plead the law of works? Alas! “By the law shall no man living be justified: for by the law comes the knowledge of Sin.” It is that which convicts and condemns, and therefore can by no means justify us; and “all our righteousnesses (says the prophet) are but as filthy rags.” Wherewith then shall we come before the LORD, and bow down before the most high GOD? Shall we come before Him with calves of a year old, with thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Alas! GOD has shewed thee, O man, that this will not avail: For he hath declared, “I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goat out of thy fold: for all the beasts of the forests are mine, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills.” Will the LORD then be pleased to accept our first-born for our transgression, the fruit of our bodies for the sin of our souls? Even this will not purchase our pardon: for he hath declared that “the children shall not bear the iniquities of their parents.” Besides, they are sinners, and therefore, being under the same condemnation, equally stand in need of forgiveness with ourselves. They are impure, and will the LORD accept the blind and lame for sacrifice? Shall some angel then, or archangel, undertake to fulfill the covenant which we have broken, and make atonement for us? Alas! they are only creatures, though creatures of the highest order; and therefore are obliged to obey GOD as well as we; and after they have done all, must say they have done no more than what was their duty to do. And supposing it was possible for them to die, yet how could the death of a finite creature satisfy an infinitely offended justice? O wretched men that we are! Who shall deliver us? I thank GOD, our LORD JESUS CHRIST. Which naturally leads me to the
_Third_ thing proposed, which was to endeavour to prove, that there is no possibility of obtaining this justification, which we so much want, but by the all-perfect obedience and precious death of JESUS CHRIST, “But ye are justified in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.”
But this having been in some measure proved by what has been said under the foregoing head, wherein I have shewn that neither our repentance, righteousness, nor sacrifice, no not the obedience and death of angels themselves, could possibly procure justification for us, nothing remains for me to do under this head, but to shew that JESUS CHRIST has procured it for us.
And here I shall still have recourse “to the law and to the testimony.” For after all the most subtle disputations on either side, nothing but the lively oracles of GOD can give us any satisfaction in this momentous point: it being such an inconceivable mystery, that the eternal only-begotten Son of GOD should die for sinful man, that we durst not have presumed so much as to have thought of it, had not GOD revealed it in his holy word. It is true, reason may shew us the wound, but revelation only can lead us to the means of our cure. And though the method GOD has been pleased to take to make us happy, may be to the infidel a stumbling-block, and to the wise opiniator and disputer of this world, foolishness; yet wisdom, that is, the dispensation of our redemption, will be justified, approved of, and submitted to, by all her truly wise and holy children, by every sincere and upright christian.
But to come more directly to the point before us. Two things, as was before observed, we wanted, in order to be at peace with GOD.
1. To be freed from the guilt of the sin of our nature.
2. From the sin of our lives.
And both these (thanks be to GOD for this unspeakable gift) are secured to believers by the obedience and death of JESUS CHRIST. For what says the scripture?