man doth his garden, while his other fields are exposed, Jer. xvii. 5, 6.

6. As a child in the mother's womb. My little children," says Paul," of whom I travail, as in birth again, until Christ be formed in you." "Christ is in them the hope of glory." This is another security. The mother cannot be executed in law, while she is with child, for that would be the death of two, whereas her life only is exposed.

Lastly, As the soul is in the body, Christ is their very life; he lives in them, Col. iii. 4; Gal. ii. 20; Acts ii. 25-27.

MOTIVE 2. If you be not found in Christ, you will be found in a bad case in time and eternity; in a trying time in this life, and in another world. You will be found as under the curse: laid open to the wrath of God, as the chaff to be driven away with the wind.

[Same subject continued.]

SERMON XX.

PHILIPPIANS, iii. 9,

Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ; the righteousness which is of God, by faith.

IN these words, the apostle describes the righteousness in which he desires to be found and to compear before God, and this is the righteousness of Christ. It is not our own, for to our own he opposeth it. It is not our faith, for it is through and by faith. But it is the righteousness of Christ, through the faith that hath him for its object. The righteousness received by faith.

DOCTRINE. Christ's righteousness, received by faith, is the sinner's only security to be depended upon before God. It is the sinner's only shield, shelter and defence, from the wrath of God. shall,

I. Shew what is meant by Christ's righteousness.

II. How it is received by faith.

III. Confirm the doctrine.

I am,

Here I

I. To shew what is meant by Christ's righteousness, which is the

sinner's only shield.

Righteousness is the result of obedience to the law. He who satisfies the law is righteous, and this shelters from wrath. The great thing that stands between God and a sinner is a broken law; and while God is, it will be an effectual bar to keep sinners out of heaven, to which the sinner can never come but with the good leave of the holy law, it being once satisfied. For this cause, seeing sinners could not satisfy the law for themselves, Christ undertook to do it for them. Accordingly, he fulfilled it, and by his fulfilling it, comes this righteousness which is the believer's security. Now Christ fulfilled the law in our room,

1. By his active obedience to its commands; perfect obedience to all the commands. This no mere man since the fall could do, yet it is that without which no man can be saved. It is a debt which must be paid for every one, either by themselves, or by their surety. The law saith to all the children of men, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments;" that is, keep them perfectly. Alas! then, must all perish? No. Christ answered for his own. What they could not do, he did. Now the law's demands of the sinner were very high.

DEMAND 1. Thy nature must be absolutely pure and spotless: for if the fountain be poisoned, how can the streams be wholesome. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." Alas! the sinner can never answer this. He hath a corrupted nature, and he cannot purify it. "Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin." He was born in sin; he cannot get into his mother's belly, and be born over again without sin. Well, Christ satisfies this demand for his people, the law shall have all its asking; therefore the Son of God takes to himself a true body and a soul, both sinless. The ancient of days becomes an infant of days; he is conceived without spot, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and in due time born without sin. For as he was in his life, so was he in his birth, "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separated from sinners." His nature was not in the least tainted, but absolutely free of the least seed of sin. Here is now such a birth, such a nature as the law sought, so that demand is answered, that bar in the sinner's way is taken out; but the law has other demands.

DEMAND 2. Thou must give obedience to every command. Thy obedience must be as broad as the law. One hair's breadth lacking, thou shalt never see heaven. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." Alas! what shall the sinner do with this; there are many of these commands which he doth not know, how shall he obey them. Many quite against his nature, as "love your enemies." Many

that, were his life a thousand times lying on them, and he would set himself to the utmost watchfulness, he will often break; such as vain thoughts, and impure desires.

Christ hath answered this demand. "He fulfilled all righteousness." "He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." He made the law, he could not then but know every part of it; and he fulfilled it in every iota. He gave external and internal obedience; obedience in heart and life. Its hardest commands he opposed not; loved his enemies and denied himself; not a vain word ever dropt from his mouth, nor a vain thought ever entered his heart.

DEMAND 3. Every part of thy obedience must be raised up to the highest degree and pitch the law requires. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." It is not enough that thou be sincere, and desire to do better, and be sorry thou canst not. Alas! the sinner can never answer this, he shall as soon reach the clouds. Let him do his best, corruption holds him down, so as he can never reach the top. If he be praying ever so fervently, there is always some coldrifeness in the heart. In his purest intentions, self-will insinuates itself.

Christ answered this demand. His love to his Father was more than seraphic. It was most ardent love. His love to men was incomparable, and went to the utmost bound of love. "For greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; but he laid down his life for his enemies." Every one of his actions was absolutely spotless and perfectly refined, without the least mixture of imperfection.

DEMAND 4. All this must be continued to the end, without the least failure in one iota, Gal. iii. 10. If thou shouldest all thy days live sinless, and at the hour of death a vain thought run through thy mind, all is gone. Alas! how impossible is this! The sinner cannot keep perfectly right one year, day, hour, minute, if a thousand hells were in it.

But Christ satisfied this demand. "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." The first Adam made a fair outset, but he soon halted. The second continued to the end. The law could never catch him in the least sin from his cradle to his grave, by day or night, alone or in company. His heart and life shone in holiness in its meridian brightness, without the least cloud or spot, while his day lasted. So all these bars are removed by his active obedience. He fulfilled the law also,

2. By his passive obedience. When all these demands are answered, the law has another word with the sinner, ere he can enter within the gates of the city, and that is, taking sure hold of him, it

says, “ Pay what thou owest.” Thou art in debt to the justice of God, for the sins already committed. Thou must satisfy the threatenings of the law, and bear the curse and vengeance thyself, or find a surety. O! then, "will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" No. These are all too mean to satisfy here. But, O! ye crowned heads, and mighty monarchs of the world, may not you be cautioners for the debt? No, they cannot, if they would sell their crowns, kingdoms, and dig up all the gold in the world, and lay it down, it would not pay their own debt; but they themselves must have a cautioner, or they are ruined. O ye mighty angels! may not you rather undertake for this debt, than that your fellow-creatures should perish? They cannot. They are not able. They would be bankrupt with the payment of the thousandth part, and ruined for ever; and it would never be paid for them. O high demands indeed! that no creature in heaven or earth can answer. Then said the Mediator, "Lo, I come," Psal. xl. 7. What are thy demands?

0!

DEMAND 1. Sinner, thou must suffer, thou must die the death, for the word is gone out of the Lord's mouth, "in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Alas! how shall this be answered? For if the sinner's life go for it, what hath he more? And if death once get him down, it will hold him down for ever. may not bearing crosses do it? No, the law must be satisfied with bearing curses, not crosses. O! may not tears for sin, bitter mourning, do it? No, it is shedding of blood, not pouring out of water, that the law must have. Without this, no remission of sin. But Christ satisfies this demand. It shall have all its asking. He puts himself to the sword of justice. Armed death falls upon him, sheds his precious blood, wounds him to the heart, separates soul and body, carries him away prisoner to the grave, and he is laid in the dust of death. Death gave him the first fall, but because he was God, be riseth again; and death having got his due, he brings away the keys of hell and death with him, that never one of his may be prisoner there.

DEMAND 2. Thy sufferings must be universal in the whole man, for so hath thy sinning been. That body of thine, the instrument of sin, must suffer. That head, that hath contrived so much mischief, must be wounded; that heart, that has been the spring of all, must be pierced; these feet, which have carried thee so often to sin, and these hands, that have wrought so much iniquity, must also be pierced. And that soul of thine must also suffer principally, as

being the chief actor of all thou hast done against God. Ah! how shall we bear it? Who can endure this, which is a thousand deaths in one? Christ satisfies this demand also. He suffers in his body. His head was crowned and pierced with thorns. "His heart was melted like wax in the midst of his bowels." "His feet and hands were pierced." "His tongue did cleave to his jaws." "His bones were all out of joint." His body had nothing to cover it but shame, and his strength was dried up like a potsherd. The wrath of God fell on his soul. It was troubled, sore amazed, and agonized. The arrows dipped in the curse were shot against it, till the law had no more to require.

DEMAND 3. Thy sufferings must be most exquisite; thou shalt have no pity, no sparing, but judgment without mercy, Deut. xxix. 20. Ah! who can satisfy this? "Who can dwell with devouring fire?" "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Christ satisfies this too. "God spares him not, but delivers him up to the death for us all." Though his body was of a most refined temperature, and so his senses most exquisite, his death was of the most tormenting kind. His eyes were denied the light of the sun, his ears heard their cruel mockings, and he got vinegar to drink. He was in travailing pangs, and soul travail. No help had he in it. Men nor angels did not help him, and he died in it.

DEMAND. 4. Thy sufferings must be infinite, for it is infinite justice that thou hast offended. Ah! who can bear this? This is killing; saddest of all, a thousand times. Universal, exquisite; yet infinite, ever to endure, never to end. "Who can abide with everlasting burnings?" This is the hell of hells, and beyond the reach of a creature, a finite being. But Christ answers this too. He is God, therefore an infinite one; so his sufferings, though not infinite in duration, yet infinite in value, fully answering the demands of the law.

Last DEMAND. Thy sufferings must be voluntary, for God hates robbery for burnt-offering. If thou murmur in the least, under all thy sufferings, it is new sin; a blemish in the sacrifice, which prevents its acceptance. Ah! who can do this? The weight of wrath makes the devils and the damned roar against God. A man can scarcely bear a fit of the gout or gravel, or even a sharp pain of any kind, but with some impatience. But Christ satisfies this too. "When he was oppressed and afflicted, he opened not his mouth." In all his sufferings, he never had the least wrong thought of God rising in his heart, Psal. xxii. 1-3. Never the least murmuring or fretting. He willingly underwent what he was to suffer. He did not flee when his hour came. He prayed for his enemies, his mur