thing in obedience like this which deserves high and distinguished approbation, performed as it was by God manifest in the flesh, in subjection to a law to which it was infinite condescension to be subjected, and not for his own sake, but for guilty men. There is merit in such a righteousness, and it deserves reward. From beginning to end it was a work of supererogation, and has claims which are available, not to the sufferer alone, but to all those whom he condescends to make "bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh."

There is nothing far-fetched in this. If ten imperfectly righteous men would have saved Sodom, what shall not such a righteousness as this accomplish? If it is a principle of the divine government to reward perfect obedience, what shall be the reward of him with whom the Eternal Father is so "well pleased," and so "delighteth to honor?" What is there unreasonable-what is there unscriptural-in the supposition, that in carrying out the principle of representation of which the first. Adam was "a figure," the Supreme Lawgiver should constitute the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven, the representative of all who should believe in him? What if he should award to the obedient Sufferer of Calvary the boon which his benevolent mind so ardently desired, the "joy that was set before him" when he endured the Cross, despising the shame? What if, for the sake of testifying his high regard for a perfect righteousness, that rare pearl in our fallen world-a righteousness thus complete, thus perfected by all the glory of the Divine Nature added to the sinless obedience of the man Christ Jesus he should allow others of his race, and purely for his sake, to have the full benefits of his own solitary obedience? What if he should become " THE LORD THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS;" and since, by one man's offence,

death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness "should reign in life by One, Jesus Christ." It is even so. This, as I read the Scriptures, is the substance of their instructions on the subject of the believer's justification. Such is the ground and meritorious cause of his being accepted as a righteous man. This is his sole title to eternal life. He has nothing else, seek it where he will. It is not his own righteousness, but the righteousness of another. It is not what he has done, but what Christ has done. It is not anything within himself, but something out of himself, and a "transaction in which he had no share.” It is not a reward for services which he has rendered, but a reward gratuitously provided and bestowed on him, for services which Christ has rendered. It is not his merit, but the merit of One into whose completed work is thrown the redundant merit of his humanity and Deity combined. "I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." The Apostle Paul "counted all things but loss," that he might "be found in him, not having his own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." How sure the title! How much more full the reward than if the believer himself had been sinless, or had been clad in the most spotless robe of the purest seraph before the throne! Well did the great Mediator say, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly !”

While speaking on this part of our subject, it may be desirable for us to have some definite impression of what is meant by the righteousness of Christ, or of that in which this righteousness consists. The phrase is obviously used in the New Testament to denote different

shades of thought. Christ, because it is truly and properly his, and performed by him. It is called the righteousness of God, because it is the method of justification of God's providing. It is called the righteousness of faith in distinction from the righteousness which is of the law, and because it is received by faith. Nor is it unfrequently represented as the believer's righteousness. "Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." The Apostle speaks of "putting on Christ," and the Prophet represents the Church as saying, "He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness." These and similar representations express the thought, that it is righteousness which is made over to the believer, and put, as it were, upon him, and that he enjoys the full benefit of it just as though it were his own. I do not find in the Scriptures any ground for the distinction between what is called the active and the passive obedience of the Mediator; or between his obedience to the precept, and his obedience to the penalty, of the law. His righteousness consists in both. It is his "obedience unto death." It is "his will to serve, and his will to suffer." The one may not be separated from the other. It was obedience for him to suffer, and it was suffering for him to obey." His righteousness may be said to consist of his suffering obedience and his obedient suffering, both qualified and receiving their high character from his two distinct natures as God and man in one person, and as the appointed, voluntary and accepted Mediator.

It is called the righteousness of

"

The inquiry is a very natural one, How do the benefits of the Redeemer's righteousness become ours? The answer is easy and easily understood. The righteousness of Christ is not infused into us, imparted to us, as the

Romanists affirm; nor is it in any way transferred to us, as has been incautiously taught by some loose writers among Protestants. As has already been intimated, according to God's gracious method of reckoning in the Gospel, believers are treated as righteous, because Christ himself, their covenant head and representative, is righteòus. His righteousness is imputed to them, or set down to their account. Though it does not properly and personally belong to them, it is reckoned to them as if it were their own. They are "made the righteousness of God in him.” "Blessed is the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works"-or in other words, a righteousness which he himself does not work out. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness." But there is another idea in relation to the way in which the righteousness of Christ becomes ours, in addition to the fact that it is made so by God, and by his gracious act of imputing it. It becomes so by the faith of those who receive it. All mankind are not among the justified. It is not every one who is born in Christian lands, nor every descendant from a long line of pious ancestry, nor every one who recieves the ordinance of baptism, to whom "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness:" it is not the bold infidel, nor the thoughtless sinner, nor he whose god is mammon: it is not the Sabbath breaker, the intemperate, the liar, the licentious no, nor yet every moral man, nor every serious man, nor every awakened sinner, nor every man who unites himself with the visible Church of God. Though the righteousness of Christ is the sole ground of justification, that justification belongs only to a particular and well-defined class of men. The great principle of the Gospel on this point is, that no man is justified, or has any part in the righteousness of the Son of God, who remains

dead in trespasses and sins. It is but a compendious expression of this equitable principle, that this righteousness be received by faith, as well as imputed by God. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God;"-" All that believe are justified;"-" The justifier of him that believeth in Jesus ;"-" He that believeth shall be saved;" -"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth!" To all believers the righteousness of Christ stands in the place of their own, and answers the same ends. All others are under the curse. The law demands the imputed righteousness of another on its own account; while the Gospel demands faith in those who are justified on their account. The former is

demanded by the Lawgiver in order to vindicate him in justifying those who have violated his law; the latter is demanded by the moral character and condition of apostate men, which disqualifies and forbids them from enjoying the benefits of this salvation without becoming "the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." Both are equally necessary, though for different reasons; the former to answer the claims of the divine law, the latter to answer the restoring and purifying ends of a Gospel which saves not in sin, but from sin.

The previous thoughts will assist us in determining the question, When does justification take place? There are two errors in relation to the time of justification—the one referring it to an eternity that is past, the other referring it to the judgment that is to come. The idea that it does not take place until the final judgment has arisen from the impression, that as it is a judicial act, it is properly performed only by the Judge as seated on his throne, and from the fact that not till then are the full benefits of it realized. But this latter idea overlooks the thought so abundantly taught in the sacred volume, that a justified