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Christ (a); because that redemption was founded on a previous treaty, in which all the three persons were mutually concerned. For, what was the covenant of grace, but the concurring will and determination of Father, Son, and Spirit, to save sinners by the intervention of a mediator? "When the fulness of time was come, that is, says our church, the perfection and course of years appointed from the beginning, then God, according to his former covenant and promise, sent a Messiah (b)." She adds, that "Christ the Son of God did, by the appointment of his Father, come down from heaven to be wounded for our sakes (c):" and reminds us, elsewhere, that our "freedom is purchased with the price of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who was ordained to the same purpose before the world was made (d)." The covenant of redemption proceeded on a certain and infallible foresight of the fall of man. Hence we need not wonder,

VI. That Christ took care to inculcate the doctrine of original sin. He plainly alluded to the event of the temptation in paradise, when he termed the instrument of it a liar, and a murderer from the beginning (e). In declaring, that which is born of the flesh is flesh (f), he gives us to understand, that all mankind are, by nature, destitute of that moral image of God in which their first father was created. He represents this universal, hereditary corruption of the human race as the source from whence every actual sin proceeds: from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man (g). Well, therefore, might he observe to

(a) Communion Service. (c) Second Hom. on the Passion. (e) Jolm viii. 44. (ƒ) Ib. ii. 6.

(b) Homily on the Nativity. (d) Hom. on the Resurrection. (9) Mark vii. 21-23.

Nicodemus, Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again; for, except a man be born again, born from above, inwardly and outwardly renewed by the supernatural power of the blessed Spirit, whose purifying agency resembles that of water, he cannot see the kingdom of God (a); he can neither be a subject of the kingdom of grace here, nor have a part and lot in the kingdom of glory hereafter. Warranted by these express and solemn asseverations of Christ, the church affirms, that, "original, or birth-sin, is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man who naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is [quám longissimè] gone as far as possible from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil (b)." So in the first part of the homily for Whitsunday, she draws this double portrait of man in the state of nature, and of man in a state of grace: "Man of his own nature is fleshly and carnal, corrupt and naught, sinful and disobedient to God; without any spark of goodness in him, without any virtuous or godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds. As for the works of the Spirit, the fruits of faith, charitable and godly motions; if he have any at all in him, they proceed only of the Holy Ghost, who is the only worker of our sanctification, and maketh us new men in Christ Jesus. Such is the power of the Holy Ghost to regenerate men, and, as it were, to bring them forth anew; so that they shall be nothing like the men they were before."

VII. Pardon of sin by the sacrifice of himself, and by the atonement of his own propitiatory sufferings and death, was another of those truths which he taught and preached.

Prior to Adam's fall, the law insisted only on a sinless persevering obedience, as the term and condi

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tion of our ultimate salvation. But, man being fallen, the law steps in with another demand on us, a demand superadded to the former; namely, that we suffer that penalty, which the broken covenant of works denounces against every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. From this penalty, nothing could exempt us, but the substitution of Jesus Christ to bear it in our stead. And, blessed be the riches of his grace, he, who knew no sin, was made sin, a sin-bearer and a sin-offering for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, by his own blood, being made a curse for us. Hence, he averred, that his blood was shed for many, for the remission of sins (a); and that the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life, avrihurgov, a substitutionary ransom for many (b). In exactly the same point of view does the church consider the nature and efficacy of his atoning blood. "He came, says our fifteenth article, "to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should take away the sins of the world." She testifies, that God gave his "only Son to be unto us a sacrifice for sin," as well as "an example of godly life (c);" and, treating professedly of the "perfect redemption," accomplished by his most precious death, avers, that "there is no other satisfaction for sin, but that alone (d)."

VIII. The justification of sinners by his own imputed righteousness, is likewise, a doctrine which Jesus taught. Justification is that gracious act of God, by which he reckons and esteems a person perfectly righteous, and finally rewards him as such. Now, God, whose judgment is alway according to truth (e), can never deem any man perfectly righte

(a) Matth. xxvi. 28. second Sunday after Easter.

(b) Ib. xx. 28.
(d) Art. 31.

(c) Collect for the (e) Rom. ii. 2.

ous, who is not, in some way or other, possessed of a perfect righteousness. But, all mankind being tainted with original defilement, which, even the grace of regeneration does not fully exterminate during the present life; since, in our native state, we are totally sinful, and, in our renewed state, sanctified but in part; it follows, that no man is, in himself, completely righteous. As, therefore, forgiveness of sin can only flow to us through the channel of Christ's imputed sufferings; so, justification, or acceptance with God, can only flow to us through the channel of Christ's imputed obedience.

By imputation, I mean God's graciously placing that to our account, which we did not personally do. Whoever denies the imputation of Christ's sufferings to us men, is a Socinian, in the essential import of the word. And whoever denies the imputation of Christ's own personal obedience, must, to be consistent, deny the imputation of Christ's own personal sufferings. You must admit the imputation of both, or you virtually disallow the imputation of either; for, if it be deemed unreasonable, that God should justify sinners by a righteousness which they themselves did not perform; what will become of that doctrine, which affirms, that sinners are pardoned through a ransom which they themselves did not pay, and by a death which they themselves did not undergo? Explode, therefore, the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and we are that instant, in the very gall of Socinianism: for the atonement itself stands on one and the same basis with the other. The language of the moral law is inflexibly this: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Do this, and live: but, if thou sin, thou diest. Obey me perfectly, and I nounce thee justified: break me in any one point, and I pronounce you condemned as guilty of all."

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But where is the man (Christ only excepted), who ever did love God with all his heart and strength? where is the person who practically loves his neighbour as himself, and who has never broke the law so much as in one point? Consequently, not a single descendent from Adam can be justified by his own. obedience to the moral law. We must, if justified at all, be clothed by imputation, with the obedience of him who alone, strictly speaking, fulfilled all righteousness; or yielded such a conformity to the law, as was perfect in all its parts, and perfect in the highest degree. Hence he directs us to seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness (a): the kingdom of God the Son, as our portion, and an interest in the righteousness of God the Son, as the procuring cause of it. He showed the utter impossibility of being justified by human works, and the absolute necessity of our being clothed with a better righteousness than our own, in those parts of his sermon on the Mount, wherein he explained the spirituality and extent of the moral law. By declaring, that causeless and immoderate anger are mur. der (b), in the estimation of God; that mere concupiscence is adultery, in the eye of uncreated purity; and that even to speak a contemptuous word to our neighbour, brings us, according to the strict tenor of God's perfect law, in danger of hell-fire (c); he gives us to understand, that by the deeds of the law no flesh living can be justified. When our Lord speaks of that wedding garment (d), by which we have free access unto the Father; and of that best robe (e), in which his repenting people stand faultless before the throne; he means, I dare believe, that righteousness of God incarnate, which is to all and upon all them that believe (f). Very express is the decision of the church, concerning this essen

(a) Matth. vi. 33.
(d) Ib. xxii. 11, 12.

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(b) Ib. v. 21, 22. 27, 28. (c) Matth. v. 22.
(e) Luke xv. 22.
(f) Rom. iii. 22.

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