THE LORD JESUS CHRIST THE LORD our RIGHTEOUSNESS. OR, CHRIST The Righteousness of a SINNER before God.  
Delivered in Several SERMONS Some Years since.  
By OBADIAH GREW, D.D.  
LONDON, Printed for John brook Book-Seller in Coventry, and are to be sold at the Rose and Crown in St Pauls Church-Yard, 1669.   

TO THE SERIOUS READERS.  
I Have for some years withstood the importunity of many for what I now yield to. The weight of the matter to other mens Consciences, as well as my own, hath prevailed over my plainness; and if your Christian Charity may yield an excuse for what weakness is found in the manner of Treaty, it is the Favour I ask of you.  
A Sinner made righteous before God by the Righteousness of Christ, is, as Renowned Luther used to say, Articulus stantis, aut cadentis Ecclesiae, The Crisis of a Churches standing or falling: For when the Galatians adulterated this Doctrine, they were reputed by the Apostle, as removed to another Gospel, Gal. 2.6.  
And on this point Luther himself pitched the field against the Pope, and Roman Church; divers of whose grand Advocates, though they strongly opposed this Doctrine in their lives, yet owned it for the best divinity at their death: and before, Bellarmine was not alone in his Tutissimum est, 'tis the safest way to rest upon the mercy of God in Christ alone for salvation.  
It may be thought by some, that that of the Preacher ( 2. Eccles. 12. What can the man do that cometh after the King? even that which hath been already done:) may be applied to this small Treatise, after so many large, by so many learned men. And such indeed have been my own thoughts: yet in regard some of them are in a strange Tongue to common Christians, others incorporated with other subjects, and many of themselves too large for every Readers purse, and time; and withall, that the more Witnesses, the stronger the Cause; yea, and that particular experiences in the point may add something to its evidence, as the Widows two mites did add to the rich Treasury, 12. Mar. 42. I let my Pen go on.  
Now before I close, let me commend to your notice and practise three or four things.  
1. In reading this and such Gospel-Mysteries, you must believe above your Reason natural; so you give God the more honour, Rom. 4.19, 20. The Object of Abrahams Faith, which was accounted to him for Righteousness, Gen. 15.6.& 18.12. was of that nature, as whereat Sarah laughed; who therein was an Image of Natural Reason.  
2. In your Reading and Reasoning of this and such points of eternal moment, ever think that part the safest, which doth least humour mans pride, and most exalt the Glory of God; since the scope of the Gospel is to shut out boasting, and bring in self-denial, which none can deny.  
3. In all your thought-debates about this Subject, seriously bethink yourselves what is like to be your opinion of it when you come to die; Bellarm. as you heard, professed new Divinity in it before his death.  
4. If you have the opportunity to Converse with wounded spirits, and troubled Consciences, with whom it is or hath been as a Specimen of the day of judgement; they will tell you whether any Righteousness but Jesus Christ made of God unto them Righteousness, could serve their turn in the presence of God, or satisfy their Conscience with a holding peace.  
And now if you meet in this Treatise any mistakes in words, I'll suppose the Press may take the blame off from me; and if any in matter, if you consider a mans hand is in it, it may be an excuse, remembering that you have this heavenly treasure in an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of man: And so you are commended to the good will of him that dwelled in the Bush, by  
A Servant of Jesus Christ, and of your Faith in him. O. G.   

THE Lord JESUS CHRIST THE LORD our RIGHTEOUSNESS:  JER. 23.6. 
And this is his Name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.  
JEremiah, by Interpretation, He shall exalt the Lord. And indeed in the Text, he highly exalts the free and rich Grace of God in Christ to Sinners. And it is observable, that in his Prophesies he intermixes frequent promises of the Jews blessed state to come under the messiah; as all, or most of, the other Prophets do. And indeed the Firmament of the Old Testament is as thick bespangled and beset with shining Promises of the messiah, and the blessed state of the Church under his Government, as the Heavens are with glistering Stars in a clear night.  
And these precious and glorious Promises of Christ, were the Churches Cordials in those times, in their troubles and fainting conditions. 
●●a. 7.14.  Thus we see, that when the Lord would give King Ahaz and his People the Jews an encouraging sign of their safety; notwithstanding the Kings of Israel and Syria were in a confederacy against them, this was the sign; Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his Name Immanuel: God with us.  
This Promise of Christ to come( though his coming at a great distance, yet) was sign enough to satisfy them in their present preservation. For herein he propounded to their view a greater salvation to come, as a help to their faith in a less salvation now.  
And truly this may be a standing rule for Gods People in all ages; to make promises of future great good things, to be Cordials to keep the heart from fainting under present evils. And so the assurance that the Scriptures give us of Christs coming again fully and eternally to save us, should help our unbelief, and encourage our faith in his care of us in all our interim troubles.  
But to come to the Text.  
In the Text and Context we have a famous Promise of Christ: wherein the Prophet hints at both his Natures, and expresses one of his gracious and glorious Titles or Names, and therein his Office betwixt his Father and us. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch: here he hints at Christs human Nature; he was to be the S●●● and Son of David, a Branch of that stock. And this is his Name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah; which imports his Divine Nature; Jehovah being the proper Name of God.  
And then he expresses one of his gracious and glorious Titles as to us; Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness.  
In Gen. 22.14. we red of Jehovah Jireh, The Lord will see, or provide. 
Exod. 15.26.  And of Jehovah Ropheka, The Lord healing thee. Of Jehovah Nissi, 
17.15.  The Lord my Banner: 
Judges 6.24.  Of Jehovah Shalom, The Lord sand peace: And Jehovah Shammah, 
Ezek. 48.35.  The Lord is there. Isa. 7.14. he is called Immanuel, God with us. And Chap. 9.6. He gives him five high and mighty Titles together; And his Name shall be called, Wonderful, counsellor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And in the Text, Jehovah Tsidkenu, The Lord our Righteousness. By all which we may see, and should see, how very much the Lord Jesus Christ is made unto us, in his undertaking for us. As he, who of God is made unto us, 
1 Cor. 1.30.  Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption. Christ is made every thing to us, that we should be to God.  
Now whereas this Name of Christ in the Text, 
Jer. 33.16.  is given also to the Church, in this prophesy; And this is the Name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. It's no wonder that the Wife or Spouse should be called by her Husbands Name. And we find the Church called Christ; 
1 Cor. 12.12. — So also is Christ, or, the Church in union with Christ.  
I know Expositors take much pains in sifting out the meaning of this Text, and meet not in one. But we may spare ourselves this pains, if we think it not too much to give the Church of Christ this Honour, to call her by her Husbands Name, The Lord our Righteousness. And this is the Name whereby she shall be called; not from her self, but from him, 
2 Cor. 5.21.  who is made of God unto her Righteousness; and as she is made the Righteousness of God in him. And so we find she is to profess, that she hath her Righteousness from him, 
Isa. 45.24, 25.  and glory in it also. Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I Righteousness, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory. Now the Doctrine from the words( which will be the Subject of the ensuing Discourse) is this, That,  
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord our Righteousness.  
The Righteousness of a Sinner is Christ made Righteousness to him: or, the Righteousness of Christ made his in Gods account, and his own; both must be agreed in it. For if God do not account it so, it is not so: 
1 Cor. 1.30.  Who is made of God unto us righteousness. And if we do not account it so, if we do not submit to this way of being righteous before God; this righteousness is nothing to us: which was the doleful case of the Jews: 
Rom. 9.31.  Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness, hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness. Wherefore? 
Phil. 3.9.  Because they sought it not by faith in Christ, as St. Paul did, but as it were by the works of the Law: they sought to be righteous in a Legal way, not a Gospel. St. Paul charges them with the same error, ch. 10.3. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. And here was fulfilled that Prophetical Prayer: 
Psal. 69.27.  And let them not come unto thy righteousness.  
And here we see sufficiently already, That this righteousness of ours, that is, whereby we are righteous, or made righteous before God; is not Legal, but Evangelical. Mans first righteousness was Legal, but that is a Non-ens now; there is no such thing in being now betwixt God and us, as Legal Righteousness: once it was, but now 'tis cast out, in the Bond-woman and her Son, Gal. 4.  
The Law is not able to justify a sinner; therefore the Apostle saith, If there had been a Law which could have given life, 
Gal. 3.21.  i.e. Justification unto life( as Rom. 5.18.) verily righteousness should have been by Law: but the Scripture, i.e. the Law hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 'tis true, Christs Righteousness, as in himself was legal, being the satisfaction of the Law, 
Matth. 3.15. Rom. 8.3.4.  and Justice of God in our behalf. But as this Righteousness is imputed to us, so it is Evangelical Righteousness; because it is not Righteousness in us, but Righteousness accounted to us: 
Rom. 4.3.  Abraham believed, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So that there is now another way to Justification, and so to life and glory, than once there was, 
Chap. 10.20.  which the Epistle to the Hebrews calls a New way; and this is the Righteousness of Christ made ours, or Christ, the Lord our Righteousness.  
Now in order to the opening and handling this great and grand Doctrine of the Gospel, we are, as a Prolegomenon, or by way of Preface, to consider, What it was, that made way for Christ to be made and called, The Lord our Righteousness; or us to be made Righteousness by him. And it was this, the holy Apostle tells us, that made the way; Christ was made sin for us, that he might be made Righteousness to us. 
2 Cor. 5.21.  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him.  
Quest. But if Christ knew no sin, i.e. had no sin, how could he be made sin for us? Its certain he had not the least taint of sin in himself; and therefore challenged his malicious Enemies in this case; 
John 8.46  Which of you convinceth me of sin? And defieth the Devil himself in this point also, as well as the Jews; The Prince of this World cometh, and hath nothing in me, 
John 14.30.  no sin to lay to my charge of my own. The Devil missed of finding that sin in Job, sc. hypocrisy, which he thought to have done: I, but he could find no sin at all in Christ, though reputedly, 
Isa. 53.12.  he was numbered with the transgressors; and by imputation the greatest sinner in the World; 
Isa. 53.12.  The Lord laying on him the iniquities of us all. So that here is the Answer to this Question; If Christ had no sin, how was he, or how could he be made sin for us?  
Answ. He was so, not by having any sin in him, but by having all sin imputed to him. As Christs Righteousness by which we are made righteous, is in himself; It is not in us, but imputed to us: so our sins are in ourselves, and were not in Christ, but imputed to him, and laid upon him; 
Lev. 16.21.  as the errors of the offenders upon the Sacrifices in the Law. 
1 Pet. 2.24.  Thus the Apostle St. Peter speaks expressly; Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the three; that is, he carried all our sins upon him to his across. 
Matth. 27.32.  He could not bear his across, therefore they compelled a man of Cyrene to carry it. It was a Custom of the Romans, as Plutarch observes, 
De Serâ Numinis vindictâ.  that the condemned person should bear that across, which anon should bear him. Now though Christ could not bear his across himself, Nature was so spent in him, yet he could bear all our sins: the Lord would not ease him of this, 
Isa. 53.6.  though the Jews did of his across; the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.  
Quest. But how did Christ bear our sins in his own body; or how did the Lord lay the iniquities of us all on him?  
Answ. There are three things to be considered in sin; the Pollution, the Guilt, and the Punishment.  
For the first; The Pollution and filth of sin, Christ meddled not with it; he could not meddle with sin this way, so that this way he knew no sin; he could not be an Idolater, or an Adult●rer, or a Blasphemer, or an Unbeliever, or whatever you can call a sinner, as such. Neither practically, nor seminally, he neither was such, neither was he inclined to be such: he was not, as the High-Priest under the Law, a sinner as well as other men; subject to the like passions as we are, as St. 
Jam. 9.17.  James saith Elias was. The High-Priest himself, in the Law, was compassed with infirmities, and so offered for his own sins as well as the Peoples. But of Christ, 
Heb. 5.2.3. Ch. 7.26.  the same Apostle saith, He was such an High-Priest as was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.  
For the second, the Guilt of sin; there are two things to be considered in it.  
1. The Merit and Desert of it; And,  
2. An Obligation to punishment for it. The former of these, Christ took not on him, neither was he capable of it, i.e. the Merit and Desert that is in sin. Christ, as to himself, did not deserve the punishment of sin which he suffered. Therefore St. Peter saith, He was just when he suffered; 
1 Pet. 3.18.  the just for the unjust.  
But 2. An Obligation to punishment for the sins of others; this he voluntarily took upon him, and this, with his own consent, the Lord laid upon him; and in this sense only was he made sin for us. He was willing to have our sins imputed to him; to be transmitted from us to him, so as to be obliged to bear the punishment of them; even that Wrath and Curse which otherwise we should have born.  
The sinfulness of our Natures, 
Gal. 3.13.  the sins of our Lives, our sins past, present, and to come; the sins of all that have, or do, or shall believe in him with a sufficient Faith; Christ was willing to have all this sin imputed to him, and put upon his account, to satisfy for us: As Paul would have Onesimus's wrongs to Philemon. 
v. 18, 19.  And in this sense Christ was the greatest sinner that ever was; sc. by Imputation, of God; and Reputation, 
Mark 15.28.  of men; For he was numbered with the Transgressors.  
And though he was but a reputed sinner, yet he was a real sufferer for sin: For he suffered penal hell, though not local; and the death he died for our sins who believe in him, was in nature, and proportion, the same which was due to us for our sins, and for the satisfaction of divine Justice.  
Yet we must distinguish betwixt the Essential, or Substantial; and the Circumstantial, or Accidental parts of punishment for sin. The Essential, or Substantial punishment for sin to satisfy the Justice of God, lieth in Poena Sensus,& Damni; in the punishment of Sense and Loss: And Christ suffered both these. 
Mat. 25.41  He suffered the punishment of Sense; this made him say, 
Mat. 26.38  My Soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: He suffered the punishment of Loss; this made him cry out, My God, 
Mat. 27.46  my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  
The Circumstantial or Accidental parts of the punishment of sin, are such as these; Total and Final separation from God; which the Apostle calls everlasting destruction from the presence of God: 
2 Thes. 1.9.  So total and final despair, 
Mark 9.4.  the worm that never death: the place of Hell, and duration there for ever. 
Psal. 9.17.  The wicked shall be turned into Hell, 
Mat. 25.41, 46.  &c. These shall go into everlasting punishment.  
Now these are or are not, according to the disposition of the patients under the punishment for sin. As in the imprisonment of Debtors, Imprisonment is of the Essence of the punishment; but duration in Prison is after the disposition of the debtor, according to his ability to pay, or not to pay in time.  
He that is able to pay the debt, may be quickly released, he that is not abides by it in Prison: so is the difference between Christs suffering for sin, and the damneds, as to duration under punishment. Christ was under the pains of Hell, as well as they; but he being able quickly to pay the debt, for which he was in, by reason of the transcendent and infinite worth of his person, therefore he had quick release; but the damned not being able to make such speedy pay and satisfaction, therefore do they abide for ever under the wrath of God; 
Matth. 5.26.  even till they have paid the uttermost farthing. The same may be said of all other accidental and circumstantial parts of punishment for sin: they are or are not necessary, according to the disposition of the patients suffering: Christ was not capable of blaspheming, or of total and final desperation in his Hell, as the damned are in theirs: nor was it needful that he should abide there for ever, as they shall, being a person of such worth, as that he was able to make quick payment of the debt he took upon him.  
Now these things show us, what great Mystery there is, both in the justice and mercy of God. In the justice of God, that he would and could punish the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins. In the mercy of God that he would transfer our sins, and sufferings for sin to Christ, who could bear that which we could not, and could satisfy for that in a little time, which we could not without Eternity. And also what great Mystery there is in the Love of Christ to us, that he would die for us, and be damned for us, in the sense we have mentioned; bear the substance of our Hell.  
2. And further, this should teach us to go to Christ in the terrors of our Souls and Consciences. He has had experience of Hell, what it is to be under the wrath of God, and Curse of the Law, for all our sins: and he made a present escape out of the same; and surely he is able to pull our Consciences from under wrath, as well as his own: As the Apostle saith of his being tempted, Heb. 2.18. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.  
And now having shewed what was previously requisite, to bring it about, that Christ should be, The Lord our Righteousness; sc. that he was made sin for us, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him; I shall open the Doctrine, That, the Righteousness of a sinner, is Christ made Righteousness to him.  
In the handling this Doctrine, two things must be opened and demonstrated.  
1. That Christ is our Righteousness.  
2. How the Righteousness of Christ becomes ours, and that we may comfortably so call it, and use it.  
1. That the Lord Jesus Christ is the Righteousness of a sinner, and that for which God reputes and accounts a sinner a righteous man. And as this Text is most clear for it; And this is his Name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness; so many other places of holy Scripture say the same; 
Acts 13.39.  And by him, i.e. by Christ, all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses. 
Rom. 10.4.  The Reason of a mans justification is now sixed in Christ; Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth.  
The primary end of the Law, was, to justify those that keep it: Now we ourselves cannot fulfil the Law; 
Rom. 8.3.  and therefore the Law cannot justify us: What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh; that is, through us, or by our means. But now Christ he doth that which we could not do; that is, fulfil the Law for us; and he also doth that which the Law could not do, i.e. justify us; and so by Christ the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us; as it follows, v. 4.  
Of this there is further proof; 
2 Cor. 1.30.  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Righteousness. And, 
2 Cor. 5. ult. Rom. 5.18.  That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. No man ever found any other way of justification, but by the righteousness of One, i.e. 
Zech. 13.2.  of Christ, the second Adam. Christ is that Fountain set open for sin and for uncleanness; 
Psal. 51.7.  and Christ is that hyssop that David would be purged with; and Christ is the substance of all the Sacrifices in the Law, which were for expiation of mens Legal sins, and for their acceptation with God; as the Apostle excellently and strenuously proves in his Epistle to the Hebrews, 
Chap 8.5.& 10.1.  in several places in that Book.  
But it may be objected, That the Scripture saith, 
Rom. 3.26  It is God that justifies; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he might he just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus: 
Rom. 8. ●3.  So, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? I● is God that justifies.  
Answ. This is true; but its true withal, that Christ finds that righteousness for which we are justified The matter of a sinners Righteousness is in him 
God finds Christ,& Christ finds righteousness for a sinner. : As in Debts and discharges from Debts among men; though 'tis the Creditor that free the Debtor, by acquitting him yet it is the Surety that discharge him by disbursing the money for him. 
2 Cor. 5.19.  So it is God that justifies a sinner, not imputing his sins to him; but it is Christ's Righteousness that is laid down for the sinner, and is, as it were disbursed to God, to gain his Acquittance and Discharge from Guilt and Damnation; therefore the Scripture saith, There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. 
Rom. 8.1.   
It is Christ that pays the Debt; be lays down his own Righteousnes● to satisfy it: as it is written, 
Rom. 4.25.  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. God acquits from no sin, but upon Christs discharging it, both by doing and suffering for us. 
Mat. 3. Isa. 53. Dan. 9. 2●.  He fulfilled all Righteousness; and the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all: that is, to make satisfaction, and so reconciliation for iniquity.  
Quest. But how then doth God pardon sin freely? and justify the sinner freely? of which St. Paul speaks much; and indeed being a point that runs through the veins of the Gospel.  
Answ. It's certain, that notwithstanding Christ paid our debts, yet God pardons freely, and justifies us freely. You find them united; Being justified freely by his grace, 
Rom. 3.24  through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: we see, that these two ●re not {αβγδ}, inconsistent, but well agreed. For,  
1. To us it's free pardon, and free justification; we paid nothing for Come, 
Isa. 55.1.  buy Wine and Milk with●● money, and without price. We o● selves neither did, nor suffered 〈◇〉 it; for Christ did both. The ●●tisfaction that is given to God, by the surety, and nor the princip●●  
2. This surety and this satisfac●on given by him, is 〈◇〉 Gods findi●● and of his own procurement●& u●on the matter, the money paid h● was his own: as if I should pay n● debt to another man with his o● money.  
And therefore this righteousn● of Christ, by which we are justifi● and made righteous, is called, 〈◇〉 Righteousness of God; 
Rom. 3.21, 22.  But now 〈◇〉 Righteousness of God without the L● is manifested; even the righteousn●●● of God, that is by faith of Jesus Chri●● unto all, and upon all them that ●●lieve. And Rom. 10.3. For th● being ignorant of God's righteousne● and going about to establish their o● righteousness, have not submitt●● themselves to the righteousness of God. And its called both the Righteousness of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ: 
2 Pet. 1.1.  So that though it be Christs Righteousness that justifies us, yet this is a Righteousness of Gods own finding and providing; who therefore doth, as it were, pay himself our debt with his own money. Oh the Mystery that is in the pardon of sin, and justifying of the sinner! There is height, and depth, 
Eph. 3.  and ●ength, and breadth in these things. There is as much mercy as justice, and as much wisdom, and power, as either.  
It's a depth admired, and poured ●nto not only by Saints, but Angels; Which things the Angels desire to look into. 
1 Pet. 1.12.  And Ephes. 3.10. to the in●ent, that unto Principalities, and Powers in heavenly places, might and known by the Church, the ma●●fold wisdom of God. A Mystery admired, and will be admired in Heaven, as well as on Earth. Rev. 5. ●1, 12, 13.  
But for the further clearing up o● this Doctrine, these things must b● made out.  
1. What necessity there is that sinner should be made a Righteo● man.  
2. That the Righteousness of sinner, is not in, nor of himself.  
3. That it is in Christ; and wh●● it is in Christ that makes a Sinne● righteous.  
4. There cannot be any other way of making a man righteous but this, as the case stands now betwixt God and him.  
1. What necessity there is that 〈◇〉 sinner should be made a righteo● man.  
Ans. The necessity lies in this, th● God saves none but justified persons; 
Rom. 8.30 1 Cor. 6.9.  Whom he justified, them he a● glorified: And, know ye not that th● unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God: 
Rom. 3.10  and because there a●● none righteous by nature, no, not one● therefore men must be righteous, of grace& favour, before God can save them, if he follow his own rule, which most surely he must; whom he justified, them he also glorified, and none else.  
Obj. But the Apostle saith, 
Rom. 4.5.  God justifieth the ungodly.— To him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly.  
Answ. God doth not justify them for their ungodliness, or in it; but from it. Though he find no righteousness in them when he justifieth them, yet he puts righteousness upon them; neither doth this way of justification leave any man ungodly, though it find him so. For what saith the Scripture in the case; 
1 Cor. 6.9.  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? And, there shall in no wise enter into it, i.e. into heaven, any thing that defileth, &c. called Heavenly Jerusalem, Gal. 4. Jerusalem which is above.  
The Ark may have clean and unclean clean Creatures in it, 
2 Chron. 23.19.  but not so the Temple. There were Porters appointed to keep out all that were unclean. So the Church here is a Field which hath Corn and Chaffe● together; but the Church in Heaven hath only Corn, no chaff, not an ungodly person, not one Hypocrite, all are made righteous that are there; according to that of the Apostle, 
Tit. 3.7.  That being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And, They are they that receive abundance of Grace, 
Rom. 5.17  and of the gift of righteousness, which shall reign in life, by one Jesus Christ. But this needs no further proof.  
2. The Righteousness that justifieth a sinner, is not in, nor of himself; it is neither in any gracious dispositions in him, nor by any righteous acts 〈…〉 him. Where there is inherent sin, there cannot be inherent righteousness, able to justify; because its evident, that it is imperfect righteousness; and what good is in him, and what good is done by him, is now but in part, 
1 Cor. 13.9, 10.  and that which is perfect is not yet come.  
That righteousness then for which a sinner is justified, is a righteousness without him; it is the righteousness of another, yet by Grace and Favour reputed and accounted his. So that it is by a foreign righteousness that a man is now justified; yet is it made his own when it justifies him: But how? not by inh●sion, as a personal righteousness, but by imputation, as a public righteousness, or the righteousness of a public person, another Adam; and so serves to justify many, even as many as believe in this new Adam, or as many as believe in Jesus. 
Rom. 3.26  For as Adams unrighteousness brought many under condemnation, so the righteousness of Christ brings many under justification of life. 
Rom. 5.18.   
When therefore the Question is, How God makes a man righteous; why it is not by putting inheren● righteousness into him; for so me● Popishly confounded Justification and Sanctification; but God doth it by putting a sinner into a new state o● righteousness, not of his own, bu● that of Christ's. And this Poin● St. Paul understood well, when h● wished thus— And be found in him, 
Phil. 3.9  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.  
Yet this must be granted and understood in this case; that as there was sin, and still is imputed to men from Adam; so there is also sin propagated from him to us; and we do not sin only by imitation of Adam, and our immediate Parents, as the Pelagians hold; but we have sin from him by communication of Natures: A Truth, but a 
Nihil ad praedicandum notius nihil ad intelligendum severius. Whitak. de Orig. peccat.  Mystery. Why so it is betwixt Christ and us; as we have an imputed righteousness from him, for which God doth justify us; so with this we have a derived and communicated righteousness, which is within us by communication of the divine nature to us: for that the Children of the Promise are made partakers of the Divine Nature, is affirmed by St. Peter. 
2 Pet. 1.4.  But this is our Sanctification, not our Justification; neither can be, because at present it is imperfect; and comes up to perfection and fullness by degrees: as the water of Ezekiel's Sanctuary, Chap. 47.3. &c. which rose first but to the Ankles, then to the knees, then to the loins, then to a full River. But we shall more illustrate this second Point by some Particulars: sc. that the righteousness which justifies a man, is neither in, nor of himself.  
1. The best Works of Nature cannot justify, because they are not spiritually good. It is said indeed, that, 
Rom. 2.14.  the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law; do many things which the Law requires, and forbear many things that the Law forbids. A● Cato was said to be Homo virtuti simillimua; a man very free from human Vices. Moral Virtues arise from the soil of Nature. There have been eminent Moralists among the Heathen. Some parts of the earth bring forth not only Weeds, but Veins and Mines; and so the nature of man may bring forth, with Vices, Virtues too. There are some Sparkles, since Adam, of the Law in the Conscience of natural men about Aequum& Bonum: 
Rom. 2.14  they have a Natural Divinity: And moral virtues are good, and very good in their kind; but not so good, as to have any place in the reason of a mans justification before God.  
Neither is this a disparagement to Mo●ality, to say it cannot justify; no more than it is to Brass, to say, it is not current Goin, and can pay no Debts: for though it be not good for this, 〈◇〉 it is good in its kind: Moral 〈◇〉 are lovely in their Sphere, 
Mar. 10.27  〈◇〉 Messed Saviour loved that your 〈◇〉 for him Ingenuity. But ye● Justification is not the Orb where Moral Virtues move.  
And therefore know, that good Works done by the Light of Nature, or Common Grace, though good in their matter, they may be very bad in their manner and ends. So were the best of the Heathens moral virtues. For,  
1. They did not their good works in Faith, or through Faith in Christ; and so did not please God: they had not that testimony in their actions, as Enoch had in his: 
Heb, 11.5& 6.  That he pleased God. Whatever men do without Faith in Christ, it is impossible it should please God; 
Mat. 3.17.  Christ being the person in whom God is well pleased; and with none else but upon his account.  
And further, 2. They did not refer the good they did to Gods glory, but their own. As Christ tol● the Jews; They sought honour on● of another: 
John 5.44  and the Scribes and Pharisees sought the praise of men What they did was merely theatrical, 
{αβγδ}.  and histrionical; like the Nightingale, which, as Pliny says, singeth the longer and better when men stand by to see and hear. 
Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. p. 19.   
But now when mens actions that are eminently good materially, do not terminate in God as their supreme end; he valves them not. As the Jews Fasts in the fifth and seventh month for seventy years; Did ye at all fast unto me, 
Zech. 7.5.  even unto me?  
And moreover, Thirdly, Their consciences were not washed with the blood of Christ, and therefore were themselves defiled; as the Apostle to Titus saith; 
1 Tit. 15.  and so all things they did were defiled. Their works were but dead works, 
Heb. 9.14.  because their consciences were not purged by blood. The Levitical Law taught us this, wherein all things and persons were unclean, that were not sprinkled with blood. Now dead works can no more justify a man before God, than a Will writ with a dead mans hand, can hold in Law.  
2. Mens repentings and sorrowings for sin, make them not righteous before God. Esaus tears washed not off one spot of his profaneness; 
Heb. 12.16, 17.  he was profane Esau for all his repenting tears. Oh take heed of setting sorrow for sin in Christs room; you may this way cheat yourselves, as Laban did Jacob, with Leah for Rachel.  
Sorrow and repentance for sin hath a place in mens conversion, but none in their justification. Nor doth that of the Publican break this rule: where Christ said, upon his penitent deportment in the sense of sin: 
Luke 18.14.  This man went away justified rather than the other: for there is neither more nor less in justificat● on: but our Saviour useth a popu● lar kind of expression, which importeth only this, that the humbl● Publicans estate was better than the proud Pharisees: The Pharisees po● strives were not taking with God, a● the Publicans.  
The Pharisee and ●ublican put into the b●llance together, the Publican was the 〈◇〉 we 〈◇〉 in righteousness of the two; yet if the Publican had been 〈◇〉 the balance with the just and ●●ly Law of God, 
Rom. 7.12  as 〈…〉 then it would have been 〈…〉, as in the hand-writing to 〈◇〉, ●elkel, 
Dan. 5. ●7.  Thou art weighed in th● b●llances and art found wanting. You shall observe, that,  
Under the Law sorrow for sin did not serve the sinners turn, though he was never so sorrowful for his offence; but he must also being his Offering, his Sin-offering, and lay his hand on it, and by that ceremony he laid his sin on it, and so was cleared; i.e. by transferring his sin from himself, to the Sacrifice for sin, And without blood of that Offering, which was a figure and Type of Christ, his sin was not expiated; 
Heb. ●. 22.  without blood there was no remission. Indeed sorrow for sin may help to bring a sinner to Christs righteousness, but you must lay your hands on Christ your Sacrifice, for there is your expiration of Sin, and there is your righteousness.  
3. The inherent graces which are in the regenerate, do not acquit them of their sins and guilt before God; no, nor their gracious works, nor their humblest prayers, nor their holiest lives: Abraham was not justified by any of his holy works before God, but by his saith: his faith in the Promise; which Promise as all other, 
2 Cor. 1.20.  was in Christ But what saith the Scripture, 
Rom. 4. ●.  Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.  
And the Apostle tells us, v. 2 that if Abraham had, or could b● justified by his best works that eve● he did, and he did many, then h● had whereof to glory, even in hi● justification: but he could not glory before God, he might before man, as Job, and David, and Paul lawfully did, being necessitated to it as they were: 
2 Cor. 12.11.  Ye have compelled me to glory of myself. But before God, Abraham himself must say, as the godly amongst the Jews: All our righteousness are as filthy rags, Isa. 64.6.  
As for that justification of Abraham by works, in St. James, it was the justification of his faith, and not of his person: It being the scope of the Apostle in that place, and discourse, to distinguish of faith, and to give the Characteristical note of the with that is saving: so that it was Abrahams faith that was justified by works; but his person by faith: for you see the Apostle Paul saith, 
Rom. 4.3.  that Abraham in his best works had not wherein to glory before God.  
Yea, and if our best works were perfect they could but stand for themselves, they could not expiate the infirmities and evils that are in the rest of our works, which are imperfect. Abraham had his spots as well as beauty in his life; after called by God his faith was sometimes weak, 
Rom. 4.11  though the Father of all them that believe. As when he went down into Egypt because of the Famine: 
Gen. 12.13.— 20.2.  And so his dissembling with Abimelech.  
And he drew Sarah also to sin at the same time, even so as to endanger her chastity. And besides, he had two Wives; and whether a sin of knowledge or ignorance, yet it was a sin. 
Mal. 2.15.  As the Prophet Malachi shows; Did not he make one? he had the residue, or excellency of spirit, and he could have made Adam more Wives; yet he made but one. Upon which our Saviour doth admirably comment, Matth. 19.4, 5, 6.  
Now if Abrahams good works had been perfect, yet their perfection could nor have expiated those that were imperfect and evil. And upon all the premises, it must be concluded, therefore, As Christ was made sin, 
Isa. 53.  by the Lords laying out iniquities on him, so we are mad● righteous, by Gods laying his righteousness upon us; according to that, Thy beauty was perfect through my comeliness put upon thee, 
Ezek. 16.14.  saith the Lord God.  
4. Faith itself, as an inherent quality, justifieth not. A man is not justified for faith, but by it: not for it, as a Cause of, but by it, as an Instrument in justification. Wherever faith is spoken of in reference to justification; it is said we are justified {αβγδ}, by faith, or through faith; never {αβγδ}, for faith.  
Faith doth not justify as it is a grace, but as it hath an office which no other grace hath; scil. to apprehended and apply that righteousness which does justify us: And therefore, whereas it is said, 
Rom. ●.  That Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness; you must understand it relatively, i.e. in respect of the object of his believing the promise in Christ; or else exclusively, as that faith only is that in us, that God makes use of in our Justification, not as meritorious of it, but as instrumental in it. And this also is to be understood, not of the habit of faith, but the act, as it acts on Christ.  
And indeed, if the {αβγδ} of faith itself, were our righteousness, as some think, but mistakingly, then we should be justified by an imperfect righteousness; for faith is imperfect in us, as well as other graces: we may often cry, and say with the Father of that Child, with tears; I believe, 
Mark. 9.24. Mat. 8.26.  help thou mine unbelief. Christ's own domestic Disciples were but of little faith: Why are ye fearful, oh ye of little faith? and they prayed to Christ, 
Luke 17.5 Rom. 1.17  Lord, increase our Faith: And the Apostle saith, The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So that, though we are justified by faith, yet we cannot be justified for it. Thus much for the second thing to be proved, seil. That the righteousness of a sinner is not in, nor of himself. The  
3. Point to be cleared, is, What this Righteousness is, that makes a sinner righteous before God, and for which God discharges a sinner from the guilt of sin, and damnation for it.  
And certainly, this must needs be some rare and admirable thing, a thing of infinite value and worth, that a poor sinner, yea, a great sinner, may with boldness and confidence bring to Gods Bar, and judgement-seat, and there oppose to Gods sentence of death and damnation for his sins, and upon the account whereof, the sinner can demand a discharge, and release from a just and holy God.  
According to that high challenge of St. Paul; 
Rom. 8.33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that dyed; not the sinner, but Christ for him: yea rather, that is risen again, and herein showing forth a full discharge, and full satisfaction given, so that the Law could demand no more, nor yet the Justice of God.  
And truly nothing but this satisfaction of Christ himself could possibly have been of this value and efficacy. Adam's righteousness in innocency was swallowed up by his fall, so that henceforth it had no being; 
Ezek. 18.24.  God will not so much as mention it. And the Angels righteousness will but serve their own turn: so that the righteousness that satisfies God for sinners, must needs be a greater and a more excellent righteousness than that of the holy and elect Angels. And therefore the Author to the Hebrews speaks of Christ; Being made so much better than the Angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they; 
Heb. 1.4.  and so a more excellent office, i.e. to interpose and mediate between God and sinners.  
Now this satisfaction which Christ gave to God for us; and which is by God imputed to us, unto justification, because given for us, was his obedience, which swalloweth up into victory our disobedience in Adam, 
Rom. 5.19.  and in our persons: For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous.  
And this satisfying Obedience of Christ for us, and our justification, was active and passive: 
Phil. 2.8.  It began in his lice, but did not end till his death; And became obedient unto death. And this distinction of Christs active and passive obedience, need not be quarreled with; though it is by some: for we must look unto Christs sufferings not in abstracto, merely as sufferings, but as suffering or passion in obedience: and became obedient to death.  
Now there are two things, say Divines in justification. 1. Remission of sin; 
Rom. 3.25& 5.9.  and this is from Christs passive obedience: Remission of sins through his blood: and much more then, being now justified by his blood, i.e. from our sins, we shall be saved from wrath.  
The other is, the imputation of Righteousness; and this is from Christs active obedience: and here he is called, The Lord our Righteousness, and we, the Righteousness of God in him.  
And again, Christs active obedience was necessary to qualify him for his passive. For had he not been holy and obedient in his life; he must in his death have offered for his own sins, as well as the peoples, which must not be imagined. For the Apostle makes this one of the great disparities between Christ and the High-Priests in the Law, 
Heb. 5.3.& 7.27.  his Shadows.  
And one reason may be, because Christ was to be our Sacrifice as well as our Priest. 
Heb. 9.14.  And the Sacrifice which was offered for sins under the Law, 
Lev. 1.3.& 4.3. with other places.  was to be clean and without blemish: so Christ, as our Sacrifice, as well as our Priest, was to be without blemish in his Nature, and in his life: and so he was, he knew no sin. 
1 Pet. 2.22.  He was to be holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. 
Heb. 7.26.  So that his obedience in his life for us, which was his active obedience, had great influence on his death for us, which was his passive. And so our righteousness whereby we are both reputed and made righteous before God, results from both: from his Obedience, to the Preceptive part of the Law, which was his fulfilling the Righteousness of the Law; and to the Vindictive part of the Law, which was, bearing the Curse of it.  
And this transcendent Righteousness by which we become Righteous, we that believe, thus, 
Dan. 9 24. Rom. 1 17.3.26.10.3. 1 Cor. 1.30. 2 Cor. 5.21. Phil. 3.9.  as it were, constituted of this double Obedience of Christ, Active and Passive; is, for the infinite and eternal virtue of it, called Everlasting Righteousness: And frequently the Righteousness of God, in the New Testament. And it's called the Righteousness of God, not as though it were Christ's essential Righteousness, as he is God; as some, though few, have thought 
Osiander condemned for this sharply by Beza, Ep. prima. By Calvin, Ep. 141. Melancthoni,& Ep. 355. contra Osiandrum. Rom. 5.19 . For, 1. That is incommunicable to us. And, 2. If that had been a Righteousness convenient to our Justification, Christ needed not to have been incarnate. And, 3. The Holy Ghost calls it the Righteousness of one man; and so its called both, the righteousness of God and of man; because it is the righteousness of Christ our mediator, in both natures, God-man.  
Now from this third point thus stated, there flow these inferences.  
1. That absolution from sin, Rom. 3.25. and exemption from condemnation, Rom. 8.1. is not the whole righteousness of a sinner, that Christ is made to him, or that he has by the righteousness of Christ reputed his; though some have had such thoughts.  
But doubtless, all things pertaining to spiritual and eternal life, come in to us by the righteousness of Christ: Therefore the Apostle calls it, 
Rom. 5.19  Righteousness to life. To life to God here, and with God hereafter. It's impossible a man should be discharged of condemnation, and not entitled to salvation. For Christs Righteousness leaves no man out of Heaven, which he delivers out of Hell: 
Rom. 8.30  Whom he justifies, them he glorifies: and remission of sins, 
Act. 26.18  and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified, are joined together.  
2. Hence it most certainly appears, that there is nothing of that infinite value and merit, to interest us in both these, a discharge from Condemnation, and a title to a new Salvation, but this Righteousness of Christ imputed, and passed over to us: For that inherent righteousness which he imparteth to us, and which his Spirit worketh in us, cannot possibly do it.  
1. That a regenerate man hath inherent righteousness, is confessed; the Scripture calls such men righteous: 
Gen. 7.1.  Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation, said God to Noah. And, 
Ps. 14.5.  God is in the generation of the righteous. And the Scripture calls these so in respect of their inherent righteousness. And,  
2. It's not to be doubted, but that this righteousness in the Saint pleaseth God. It's said of Enoch, that in his walking with God, 
Heb. 11.5.  he had this testimony, that he pleased God. And St. Paul prayed for the Colossians, 
Col. 1.10.  that they might walk worthy of the Lord, to all pleasing. The word {αβγδ} translated, worthy, mean● not, merit; but conveniency and decency; That ye walk suitably to the holy calling, to which the Lord hath called you, 
Math. 3.8.  as Ephes. 4.1. and so the word is translated sometimes. But now, I say, this is a secondary pleasing of God: 
Math. 3.17.  he is first well pleased with us in Christ, as we are found in him and his righteousness; and then he is pleased with the righteousness that is in us. 
Phil. 3.9.  The Lord hath first respect to the person, 
Gen. 4.4.  and then to his works: as we see in Abels case.  
So that though the inherent righteousness of the Saints please God, yet it doth not justify them before God; this is done by a more perfect righteousness, not in us, but upon us. And indeed as to the point of justification, our inherent righteousness must be denied and rejected, 
Isa. 64.6.  as well as our sins: All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: and this holy Paul knew well, 
Phil. 3.9.  when he sought to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness.  
The meat that Jacob provided for his Father Isaac was good, 
Gen. 27.  and pleased him well; yet he got not the blessing by this, 
v. 27.  but by being found in his elder Brothers Garment; He smelled the smell of his garment, and blessed him. So, though the precious graces, and holy dutys, and holy lives of believers and holy men, are well pleasing to God: 
Ps. 32.1.  yet it is not for these that God doth bless them with forgiveness of sin; but because they are in their elder Brothers Garment, in the righteousness of Christ put upon them: 
Ezek. 16.14.  Thou wast perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.  
I shall add, to what hath been said in this second Branch of the Doctrine, some Guides, or Asterisques to led you directly to that Righteousness which must needs justify a sinner before God. Men are Seekers in this Point; but few there be that find it: Israel sought it, but found it not, 
Rom. 9.31 32.  because they missed their way; Israel, which followed after the Law of Righteousness, hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness; Wherefore? Because they sought it not by Faith, i.e. in Christ; but as it were by the works of the Law. 
judge. 14.18.  The Philistines could not find out Samsons Riddle, if they had not ploughed with his Heifer. And truly as Elihu said to Job, 
Chap. 33. v. 23.  there must be an Interpreter, one of a thousand, to show man his Uprightness; so doubtless, it's the Spirit of Christ that must help a Sinner to find out his Justifying Righteousness, and show him where it is: 
Joh. 16.14  So our Blessed Saviour saith, He will convince the world of Righteousness, 
Joh. 16.8.  as well as of Sin; yet he does it by means. The Hebrews say, the Jews had hands set up in the way, 
Godwin out of Maimon.  to point the offenders to the Cities of Refuge, that they might not miss in their hasty flight from the Revenger of blood: So to this famous City of Refuge, these Considerations, under the command and power of the Spirit of Christ, may be the poor guilty sinners guides.  
1. Consider what that is which God hath assigned to be Righteousness to a Sinner; and this we shall find to be the Lord Jesus Christ, 
1 Cor. 1.30.  who is made of God unto us Righteousness. Nothing else hath Gods Superscription on it for currant Justifying Righteousness in his eyes. Therefore men are much out of their way to the City of Refuge, when they think to find their Righteousness in any good in them, or done by them.  
A piece of Silver uncoyn'd, may be good Silver, but not current in pay; because it has not the Kings Coin: so a man may have much good in him, and done by him, and yet God will not take it for pay and satisfaction, because not assigned by him, for that use; and this will guide us to the Obedience of Christ, which hath this assignment on it.  
2. Consider what that Righteousness is wherein God shows both his Justice and Mercy. Now wherein do these meet, but in Christ's obediential Life and Death? Who ever fulfilled all Righteousness, but he? And who was ever made a Curse for us but he? 
Isa. 63.3.  I have trodden the Winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me.  
The translation of our sins to, and upon Christ, was held out evidently in the Sacrifices in the Law; where by laying on of hands on the Sacrifices head, 
Exod. 29.10. Lev. 4.24.  the offendor passed over his offence before he could be discharged. And this leads us to Christ for our justification; 
Jer. 53.6. 2 Cor. 5.2.  because our sins are translated from us to him, before we can be righteous.  
3. Consider, that all that are justified and made righteous before God, are so made by one common righteousness, not every man by his own, but by a common stock of Righteousness, that lies in one public person. 
Rom 5.  As many were made sinners by the offence of one Adam, so many are made righteous by another; and this leads us unto Christ for righteousness.  
4. Let a man work his thoughts upon the infinite justice and holiness in God: that he is a holy God, 
Hab. 1.13.  and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, but hates it: 
Heb. 12. ult.  and that he is a consuming fire.  
And now let him think seriously and rationally, who it is that can bear the hand of this infinite Justice, and the eye of this infinite Holiness, and there must be a sinners Righteousness; and certainly he will find no such person, but Christ, nor any such righteousness, but his. He put no trust in his servants, 
Job. 4.18.& 15.  nor in his Saints; And his Angels he charged with folly, and the Heavens are not clean in his sight; the Heavens where the Saints and Angels are; so that Saints and Angels in Heaven cannot be the righteousness of a sinner: they have but for themselves, and borrowed too; as much as the Moon her light from the Sun; so is their righteousness from Christ, confirming their estate there. And this still leads us to Christ for righteousness.  
I shall make some brief Application of that account I have given of the first of the two Branches, to be opened in clearing the Doctrine, sc. That Christ is the Righteousness of a sinner. Now,  
1. This informs us of what exceeding great weight this Doctrine is: It is a great Mystery, so it is of great moment. I may say of it, as Moses to Israel, of the word of the Lord in his days: 
Deut. 32.47.  It is not a vain thing, for it is our life. There is no point in Religion of greater concernment than this; The way of a sinners justification, and standing righteous before God: for David says, 
Ps. 143.2. Rom. 3.20  In thy sight shall no man living be justified: i.e. by the Law, as St. Paul expounds it. And so David preys; David, 
Ps. 143.2.  a man after Gods own heart, yet he preys, Lord go not to Law with me; so the word may be red.  
So that this point of our being righteous by the righteousness of Christ, is the great vein of the Gospel, and here lieth the vein of life. The Law cannot give life: 
Gal. 3. ●●.  If the sinner had but the guilt of one sin upon him, yet the Law could not justify from this one sin: I, but the righteousness of Christ made ours, justifies from all sins; sins from which the Law of Moses could not justify us. 
Act. 13.39 Rom. 4.5.  Yea, and this righteousness is provided only for sinners. The Angels have not the use of it, he was not made sin for them, nor are they made the righteousness of God in him, as we are.  
Except therefore that we will mingle Law and Gospel; Grace and Works; and bring confusion into our state now with God; we must keep up, and keep in view this righteousness of Christ made ours; and both in the doctrine and experience of it. The Jews ignorance, willful● ignorance, of this righteousness( for such was theirs) undid them, 
Rom. 9.31, 32.& 10.3.  and damned many of them.  
In the experience of this righteousness stands, 1. The comfort of perplexed consciences. As is ou● righteousness we trust to, such is, or will be our peace of conscience; when sin grates there, it's this righteousness of Christ made over to us, that is the Mother whose womb conceives and bears that true quie● of conscience that sinners have; Being justified by faith, 
Rom. 5.1.  we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; 
Heb. 7.2.  therefore was Christ first King of Righteousness, and then King of Peace.  
Again, Secondly, As this righteousness conduceth to the comfort of our consciences; so also very much to the exalting and glorifying of Gods free grace. As the Apostle saith, 
Eph. 1.6.  even to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.  
It's by this Doctrine by which God has designed to hid pride from man; 
Job. 33.17 Isa. 41.8. Rom. 4.11 16, 17. v. 2  from the best and holiest of men, even from Abraham, the friend of God, and the Father of many Nations, even of us all who believe: yet he had not whereof to glory before God.  
Yea, and Paul challenges all other men in this point; when he had spoken of this righteousness; 
Rom. 3.27& 4.16.  Where is boasting then? it is excluded: by what Law? of Works? nay, but by the Law of Faith; i.e. by faith in the Righteousness of Christ: therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. We must cry Grace, Grace to our righteousness of justification, or for which we are justified; 
Zach. 4.7.  as the Jews were to do at the laying of the head ston of the second Temple.  
And, Thirdly, Besides what hath been said, This Doctrine of the Righteousness of Christ made ours, is the greatest quickener of love and obedience to God, 
Rom. 6.11. 1 Cor. 15.45.  as can be. Alive to God( saith the holy Apostle) through Jesus Christ. It's the second Adam that is a quickening Spirit.  
And, Fourthly, By this Doctrine the whole or main fabric and Building of Popery and Popish Antichristianism falls down. It was on this ground that Luther pitched the field against the Pope. A sinner made righteous by the righteousness of Christ, is, as that blessed servant of God used to say, Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae, The crisis of a Churches standing and falling. It's the foundation point of the glorious Gospel. When the Galatians impured this Doctrine, St. Paul  told them, 
Gal. 1.6.  they were removed to another Gospel; and so to another Christ, and another Faith, and another Salvation.  
So that certainly, a sweet state of peace in our consciences, the promotion of the free Grace of God, a life of godliness in the Saints, and the death of the man of sin, do all hang upon this hinge; Christ the Lord our Righteousness.  
2. This Doctrine thus stated and asserted, may serve for exhortation, to get greater acquaintance in it, and to make a fuller use of it. Oh get into the clefts of this Rock, while God passeth by thee with his holy and pure eyes. Here it is that thou mayst behold God; and hear his voice, 
Gen. 3.10.  without that fear of Adam, and that terror of the Children of Israel, and that quaking exceedingly in Moses, 
Deut. 5.24  mentioned by St. Paul, Heb. 12.21.  
Oh fly hither for sanctuary when conscience complains in thee, and charges thee with imperfections, 
Isa. 64.6.  yea filthiness in thine own righteousness. And when Satan charges thee with thy filthy rags, as he did Joshua the Jews High-Priest: 
Zach. 3.13  yea, when the holy Law of God charges thee, answer the Law with this righteousness. Oh fly into the bosom of this righteousness, as into the Philosophers did the poor hunted bide.  
Remember, that there is no righteousness will serve a sinners state now, but this of Christ; no such obedience as his, of men or Angels; nor is there any righteousness but this now communicable: Adam communicates sin to us, but not righteousness: Christ doth. It's true, that God is pleased to take pleasure in his peoples inherent graces; 
2 Cor. 1.12. Heb. 12.14.  and so may they that there is such a thing in them, as grace and inherent holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.  
I, but if this should be offered God for satisfaction for sin, he would refuse it, and us, and make us a terror to ourselves in the midst of all our own goodness.  
As Levi had Father, and Mother, and Children, and affections for them; yet Levi knew them not, 
Deut. 33.9. Exod. 32.28.  when in competition with God: so though the people of God have righteousness and holiness in them, yet they may not know it, neither will God, in the point of justification. Here Paul disclaimed his own righteousness. 
Phil. 3.9.  Therefore let us seriously give ourselves to the study, knowledge, and experience of this point, which is as much as our life, and that for ever, Christ the Lord our Righteousness.  
We are come to the second main Case to be opened in the Doctrine, scil. How the Righteousness of Christ becomes a sinners. And here are two things to be explained.  
1. The motus ad rem, or the grand impulsive Cause, why this is so. And,  
2. The Modus rei, or the way how this is done: and this will admit of some particular branches.  
1. The great motive to this way of justifying a sinner, and making him righteous by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ: It's the free grace and favour of God, it is an act of Grace and a famous one.  
And the truth is, the Scripture doth not only hold it forth, that there is such a thing, but also acquaints us with the rise and reason of it, and leads us to the fountain and spring of this pleasant stream.  
And surely, as there is nothing that more endears us to God, than the motives of our love and obedience; i.e. when we love him for himself; and for what he is, as well as for what he is to us: And when we obey him upon choice, 
Ps. 119.30  as David did; I have chosen the way of truth: and when God himself is our motive in our obedience to him: Why so nothing does more endear God to us, than when we think of his motives in justifying us, and saving us, in such wonderful ways as he does: for these motives are his mere love and free grace and good pleasure. As it's said, 
Isa. 63.9. Deut. 7.7, 8.  In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. And, the Lord loved you, because he loved you, says Moses to Israel. And, Behold, 
1 Joh. 3.24.  what manner of love the Father hath shewed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God.  
We shall seldom red of Gods choosing his people and justifying his people in holy Scripture, but the rise and spring of them is also spoken of; sc. his free grace, his {αβγδ}, the good pleasure of his will.  
Being justified freely by his grace, Rom. 3.24. Having predestinated us according to the good pleasure of his will, Ephes. 1.5. But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared towards man, Tit. 3.4. Hence we see, not only the hand of God open to bestow such rich privileges on us, but his bosom also opened, to show us that they come from that place; and there they have their reason. And doubtless this doth much endear God to an ingenuous heart, when he sees, he hath leave to drink not only at the streams, but fountain also: How that as he is justified by the righteousness of Christ, so freely by grace, as the motive of this way of justification. 
Rom. 3.24   
God is not moved, by any thing out of himself, in our justification: As Moses said to the Children of Israel, 
Deut. 7.  The Lord set his love upon you, because he loved you: And as our blessed Saviour said to his Father, I thank thee oh Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, 
Math. 25, 26  because thou hast hide these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Why so God justifies a sinner by the righteousness of another, and yet made ours, because it is his good pleasure so to do. We must cry, Grace, grace, to our justification, as they did at the head ston of the Temple. For we were justified when ungodly, Rom. 4.5. and reconciled when we were sinners, Rom. 5.10. and loved when we were in our blood, Ezek. 16. and Christ dyed for us when we were without strength, Rom. 5.8.  
Grace in the stream flows from grace in the fount 〈◇〉: our justification, adoption, calling, and glory, all flow from the good will and pleasure of God: 
James 1.18.  of his own good will hath he begotten us. Predestinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. 
Eph. 1.11.  And St. Paul saith, our justification is reckoned of favour, 
Rom. 4.  and not of debt. And he calls it a free gift; The free gift is of many offences unto justification: And, 
Rom. 5.17  they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness.  
Yet for a right understanding of this point, we must know; That this motive of our justification, scil. The free grace of God, doth not exclude, but take in the ransom of Christ: Being justified freely by his grace, 
Rom. 3.24  through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And though it be never said, that by our own obedience we are made righteous, yet it's said, that by Christs obedience we are: By the bedience of one shall many be made righteous. 
Rom. 5.19   
There is a sweet accord between these two; God's free grace, and Christs ransom, in the justification of a sinner. The Socinians yield the one, i.e. Free grace, but ungraciously graciously exclude the other, i.e. 
Vid. Grot. de Christi satisfactione. Et. Paget de Haeres.  Christs ransom: making Jesus Christ in his life and death, only an exemplary good man, and Martyr, but not a Propitiator or a Meritor for us.  
But if this be so, how much of the Scripture must we blot out. Nay, it subverts the whole fabric and design of God in mans recovery from his lost estate: and as the Apostle said in the case of the Resurrection, we may say in this, 
1 Cor. 15.  then is our preaching in vain, and your faith in vain.  
2. If any think that God's free grace is eclipsed by receiving a price for us in our justification; I answer no, in no wise, but rather the free grace of God more abundantly shines forth in Christs ransom. As the Apostle said, 
Rom. 3. 3●  Do we then make voided the Law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the Law: so we say, do we make voided the free grace of God, through Christ's Ransom? no, but we rather establish it.  
1. In his setting Christ apart for us,( as the Pascal Lamb) to be a Sacrifice for our sins, to make him capable of being the Lord our Righteousness, this was of Gods free grace. Nothing doth more set out God's love to us to be wonderful, than our justification and salvation by Christ: 
Joh. 3.16.  God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. Our ransom by Christ was of Gods contriving: 
Heb. 10.5.  A body hast thou prepared me. So that upon the matter, God satisfies God for the sinner, and in our justification pays himself, as it were, with his own money.  
2. What Christ did for our justification, comes to us through free grace; for how else have we to do with it? There is the free grace of God in giving Jesus Christ to us, as well as for us: In giving us the fruit of Christ's death, as well as in giving Christ to die. The necessity of both is in us; but the motive of neither.  
Our being in Christ is only of Gods grace: 
1 Cor. 1.30.  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. And whatever Christ is to us, he is it of God, or through his grace; Who of God is made unto us, Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption. And indeed there is as much free grace discovered in our justification by Christ, as if God had justified us without him: yea, the discovery of free grace is greater the former way than the latter.  
It is true, there is a paying of a price transacted betwixt God and Christ; but betwixt God and us, and Christ and us, all is free: It is a free gift. All that we do in our justification, is, 
Rom. 5.16  to receive what he gives; To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God. 
Joh. 1.12.  Our pardon is bought by Christ, but comes freely to us.  
There is a sweet consort betwixt justice and free grace, in this way of a sinners justification. The justice of God is fully satisfied, and yet we are freely justified. And that Christ  shed blood for our pardon, this advances free grace; in that our pardon is sealed with such precious blood. Herein did God commend his love to us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 
Rom. 5.8. Heb. 6.17.  God's Oath doth not more confirm his promise to us, than the blood of Christ advances his free grace in our pardon.  
2. As this advances the grace of God, so his justice, which had and must have satisfaction by such blood as Christs. The active obedience of Christ was not enough to expiate our sins without his passive also his death as well as his life must go for our price.  
So that when the whole sum is cast up, what doth the sinner contribute unto his justification? nothing but receiving it, which i● called faith: 
Joh. 1.12, ( And that's not hi● own neither, but a gift too. 
Phil. 1.29. ) Our faith hath no more to do in it, but to receive what is given. And our works, even our best works, have nothing to do at all: Who hath saved us, 
2 Tim. 1.9  and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus. And Titus 3.5. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.  
Though Christ's works, and God's free grace will well consist together, yet our works and Gods free grace will not. If it be of grace, then is it not of works, saith St. Paul, 
Rom. 11.6  otherwise grace is no more grace. They can no more mingle together, 
Dan. 2.  than that Iron and day in that great Image.  
It's true, we must have works, holy works, and yet we must be justified without them: 
Rom. 3.28  we conclude therefore, that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law. Though justifying faith be not without works, yet it justifies without them: Works before faith cannot justify, 
Heb. 11.6.  for without faith it's impossible to please God. And works after faith do not justify, but proceed from a man already justified.  
So that turn every ston you can, and you'l find, that the justification of a sinner is of free grace; and must be so; if we consider,  
1. That all other links of that golden Chain in Rom. 8.30. are acts of free grace; our predestination, our adoption, our calling, our glory, and why not then our justification? 
Eph. 1.5. Phil. 2.13.  The Apostle to the Ephesians says, Election, and Adoption have their original in the good pleasure of his will. In sanctification God gives us both to will and to do, and that of his good pleasure; and why should not his own good pleasure have as much to do in our justifying righteousness? certainly this is to the praise of the glory of his grace in Christ Jesus Christ, 
Eph. 1.6.  as well as the other.  
2. If we consider upon what terms poor sinners are invited to Christ for righteousness and rest; this shows all freeness in God and in Christ, in the Case. We must come to Christ for righteousness and life, weary and oppressed with the sense of sin; 
Math. 11.28.  and we must come poor and empty-handed, 
Isa. 55.1.  without price and without money: and this shows that we have all of free grace.  
3. If we consider, how that God has purposely and carefully excluded all boasting on our part in our justification; 
Rom. 3.27  he hath left no place for self-glorying: Where is boasting then? it is excluded. 
Rom. 10.3.  And the reason why the Jew missed of righteousness, was because he went about to establish his own righteousness. God hath so laid his plot and design, in making sinners righteous, as that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord. 
1 Cor. 1.31.  All a man's own, even the best of all, must in this point be as ciphers: Though grace and holiness, and holy dutys, and holy works, are of great price in the sight of God, in their due place; as St. Paul saith of a meek and quiet Spirit in Christian Women; 
1 Pet. 3.5.  yet in this place, scil. in the point of justification before God, they are but as ciphers; 
Phil. 3.  here we must deny our best self, as well as our worst.  
Now the Uses of this particular, The great motive of a sinners being made righteous by the Righteousness of Christ; scil. The free grace of God; I say, the Uses hereof may be these,  
1. This may be persuasive to us, to get in timely acquaintance with this righteousness of Christ made ours, in its fountain and great motive, The free grace of God. Let's remember that here is its orignation. Christians are strange spirited Christians, till they be knowing in this. And acquaint yourselves well with free grace upon this account.  
You'l never sit fast, nor be in a settled state till then. It's true, there is comfort and rejoicing comes in upon the view of your inherent grace and holy walking: This is our rejoicing, 
2 Cor. 1.12.  the testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in this world: And you may not only refresh yourselves by your sincere and holy walking, but, to speak with reverence, you refresh God himself: as its said by Moses, 
Exod. 31.17.  God restend on the seventh day, and was refreshed: the phrase is fitted to our condition, as that in the next verse is, and many more of the like kind. Now as God is refreshed with his own holy day, so is he with the holy conversations of his own people. Their humble and sincere walking, cheereth both God and man, both him and their own consciences: 
judge. 9.  as the Vine said in that parabolical discourse. 
Heb. 11.5.  Enoch pleased God, in walking with him, and knew he did so.  
I but though you may please God with this; yet you may not think to satisfy God with all this; he must have a bigger price for you than you yourselves can give: He could abate nothing of the life and death of Jesus Christ.  
And then further, there are such imperfections in your own grace, and holiness, that you know you are put by the comfort of them many times, by a temptation or two. I, but were you well acquainted with, and verst in this righteousness of Christ reputed yours by favour and free grace; you'l now feel yourselves upon a ston that lies fast, and upon a firmer Rock than Mount Sion, 
Ps. 125.  which cannot be moved. Moved you may be, but not removed: your dependence is on an everlasting Righteousness. Whereas, 
Dan. 9.24.  while your eyes fix on yourselves, and your own Righteousness within doors, you'l be, as in a leaking Vessel, at Sea, or as in those Disciples Ship, 
Mat. 8.25.  who cried, Lord save us, we perish. Christ must have the honour of justifying you, as well as of saving them: and therefore you must count all your own but loss for him, as St. 
Phil. 3.  Paul did.  
Oh give me that to justify me before God, that I can boast of, 
1 Cor. 15.  and with which I may out-brave Death and Hell, as blessed Paul did. And oh, do you spend your deep Meditations on what is written, Isaiah 45. ult. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.  
St. Paul durst not settle upon his own Righteousness, when at best: 
1 Cor. 4.4  I know nothing of myself, yet am I not hereby justified. God can see that in you, which you cannot see in yourselves. David owned this when he put himself upon the search of God; 
Ps. 139.23.  and begged that God would cleanse him from secret sins.  
What is the reason that many Christians are so unfixed in their thoughts of themselves and their own conditions; 
Ps. 19.  and are at such ebbs and flows in their opinion of their estates: but because their eye is more upon what is in them, and what is done by them; then what is in Christ, and what he did for them? It's good to look at home, but not to rest here. Many men would be in Commission with Christs Righteousness, and Gods free-grace, for their peace and comfort: but this is to have one foot on the firm ground, and another in a boat: but here's bad standing.  
This spirit is too much like that mongrel Righteousness of the Galatians, which they learnt of false Apostles. There is a natural tendency in us all to self Righteousness; but its prejudicial to solid comfort. Christs Righteousness founded on free-grace, is the Rock whereon we must build that peace which the Rain and the Winds cannot overturn. Free-grace is the Primum Mobile that carries about all the degrees of our eternal Salvation from first to last  
Some of the Papists themselves will own this when they come to die. Witness Bellarmines, Tutissimum est, &c. It is the safest way to trust only to the merits of Christ for life and Salvation. And that 
Precor, ut me, Deus inter Sanctos& Electos suos, non aestimator meritised veniae largitor, admittat. Fuliga tus in vitâ Bellar.  clause in his Will. And so Cardinal pools rigorous contending, in the council of Trent, though in vain; for Justification to be determined by faith alone. Divinity in these mens Consciences, was purer then that in their Heads.  
2. Be well versed in Christs Righteousness as founded on free-grace, and you'l find it a good nurse to Obedience, and a godly life. 
2 Cor. 5.73, 14. and 1 Pet. 2.2, 3.  The taste of free-grace, makes a man of a free Spirit in serving Christ and suffering for him.  
If you would enlarge a straightened heart, get a taste of free-grace. This brings all into tune in a Christians spiritual motion: 
1 Sam. 14.  As Jonathans tasting of that hony, quickened his sight: so quickening will the taste of the free-grace of God in Christ, be to your minds in duties incumbent on you.  
3. This gives great Sinners an Invitation to come to Christ for his Righteousness. There is no price or money to be payed for it; It's of free-grace. 
Isa. 75.1.  It's a free-gift. Rom. 5. And when such Sinners have entertained it; the greater Sinners they once were, the greater Saints now they'll be, as St. Paul was: And where Sin hath abounded, grace will much more: as it hath abounded to them; so it will abound in them.  
4. This tells us what generation of men they are, that drink in this Divinity the worst. Those men that are self depending, and self ascribing: like him Math. 19. All these have I kept from my youth; and whose question to Christ was, What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life. Like those Theologi gloriae, those self-boasting Preachers in the Church of Corinth, as Luther usually calls them. And like him that thus answered St. Pauls Question, 1 Cor 4.7. Who maketh thee to differ from another: I myself make myself to differ.  
This Doctrine of Christ's Righteousness laid on free grace, is a Doctrine that galls proud Christians, and well partend men, to the heart; such as trade for their own reputation, with their parts and duties. To count all loss for Christ is as hard to them, as it was to that rich man, to lose all for him.  
But till a man can be content to be justified by a righteousness that is of Free-grace, he is not humbled enough in the sense of sin. To close this particular, Remember, when you are to treat with God in the point of righteousness& justification; thou must leave all thine own righteousness and duties, and works, and worth, at the foot of the mount, as Abraham did his servants when he went up to offer his Son Isaac. 
Gen. 22.   
Thus we have seen the great moving cause in Christ's Righteousness made ours, The free grace of God. And indeed we may say, oh what glorious grace is this! Were our justification put to sale upon our doing, then should we be in the tune of those desperate Jews, whose cry was, There is no hope. Happy are we, that Free-grace is the Alpha and Omega of all steps we take to eternal life. Election, Redemption, justification, &c. are all pure donatives.  
2. The Modus rei; how or in what manner, the righteousness of Christ becomes ours, which we see is anothers righteousness; how then anothers can be ours: This is the great Case that remains to be discussed.  
Now the {αβγδ} of the thing is plain enough: 
Rom. 5.18, 19.  By the righteousness of one the free-gift came upon all to justificaon of life. By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.  
This righteousness is not a sinners own, ab origine, it is first the righteousness of another, and then made his; and must be so, before it can justify him before God. As the Garments which made Jacob of so sweet a savour to his old Father Isaac, were not his own, they were his elder Brothers, 
Gen. 27.  yet he had them on him; and this made his Father say, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.  
But then for the {αβγδ}, how this comes about, is the great enquiry. And here three things must be demonstrated.  
1. The capacity of a sinner to have this Righteousness of Christ made his.  
2. What God does in making it ours.  
3. What the sinner must do, that this righteousness of Christ may be his.  
1. A mans capacity for such propriety in Christs righteousness, is this union with him. Christ's taking our Nature into union, was his capacity to take our sins and condemnation on him; and his taking our persons into union, is our capacity to have that interest in his righteousness, as to be made the righteousness of God in him.  
The first Union was for the second, and the second is for our capacity to receive the virtues and benefits of the first. Christ first espoused our Natures, and then our Persons: and hence comes in the wonderful sympathys that are betwixt Christ and us. That he suffers with us, Act. 9.4. Math. 25.45. and that he cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. 
Heb. 4.15.   
So we this way suffer with him, and are justified in him; 
Rom. 8 17 Isa. 45.25. Eph. 2.6.  and are raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in him. Union is the ground of all our comfort, and privilege we have by the Lord Jesus Christ: Our communion springs from our Union with him. Had we not been in the first Adam, we had not sinned with him, nor derived sinfulness from him; 
Rom. 5 ( the Apostle speaks of this as an evident case) so if we be not in the second Adam, his righteousness and life canont be communicated to us.  
As by marriage-union the Wife is honourable by her Husbands honour; her debts become his, and his estate and qualities hers: Thus comes it to pass by our union of espousals to Christ; 
Cant. 2.16.  My beloved is mine, and I am his: that we have an interest& propriety in his merit and spirit, in his righteousness and life. By the former espousals, viz. of our natures, he took our sins upon him; by these espousals of our persons, we take his righteousness upon us, we have it in marriage jointure in our espousals to him, 
1 Cor. 3.22.  All are yours, and you are Christs.  
So that Christ is to us not only a head of eminency, as he is to the Angels, but a head of influence and communication, as the Bridegroom is to the Bride. It's by this union of espousals, 
Cant. 4.10.& 5.2.  that we are his love, and his undefiled. And here is the reason why the Father loves Believers as he does Christ: That the love wherewith thou hast loved me, 
John. 17.26.  may be in them, and I in them.  
2. The manner how this righteousness of Christ is made ours on Gods part: and surely it is done by imputation: God doth count it unto us for righteousness, and it is so; as the scripture saith, Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness.  
The Roman catholics have made a great disturbance and insurrection against this blessed and sweet Evangelical Doctrine, by as violent as subtle reasonings for an infused and an inherent righteousness in us, and not an imputed righteousness to us, in the point of justification.  
But it's a wonder that they should raise this dust in their own faces, and maintain argument where their own consciences oftentimes give them a rebuk, especially when they are upon the borders of the next world. I say they might be wondered at, were it not that they are blinded, as well as the Jews in this case, 
Rom. 11.7, 8. 2 Thes. 2.10, 11.  and that the smoke from the bottonles pit disturbs their sight, and were it not that that judgement is upon them, Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved: for this cause God shall sand them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie. Yea, and no marvel that they so much contend for self exalting Divinity, whose Head exalts himself above all that is called God. 
v. 4.   
But let us consider, and weigh the case rationally; and then look how Christ was made sin for us, the same way are we made righteousness by him. Now Christ was made sin for us by imputation, and not by inhesion of sin in him; Christ had no sin in him; 
Joh. 14.30 1 Pet. 2.22. 2 Cor. 5.21.  nor did he sin; these ways he knew no sin, as saith the Apostle to the Corinthians: But our sins were laid upon him, Isa. 53.6.  
Why thus, The righteousness of Christ that justifies us before God, is not a righteousness of his in us, but a righteousness put upon us; Thy beauty was perfect through my comeliness put upon thee, 
Ezek. 16.  saith the Lord. And surely, as the one part of our justification, scil. discharge from condemnation, is done, by Gods not imputing sin to us: 
Ps. 32.2.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin; not by having no sin in him, but by having no sin imputed to him. So the other part of justification, scil. A mans being made righteous in the sight of God, 
Rom. 4.6.  is not by putting righteousness in him, but imputing righteousness to him: even as David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom the Lord imputeth Righteousness.  
The Papists will not deny all imputed righteousness; but then they say, the righteousness which God imputeth to us is inherent righteousness, grace within us. But how then doth he justify the ungodly? 
Rom. 4.5.  the sinner who hath no grace? so as I have before proved: Justification finds men ungodly, though it do not leave them so.  
And besides herein they confounded justification and sanctification; faith and works, the Law and Gospel, the first and second Covenant: as bad, if not worse than those Galatians whom the Apostle charges for that very reason, 
Gal. 1.  to have turned aside to another Gospel.  
Doubtless therefore, this Doctrine, that makes our justification before God, to consist in inherent grace, deserves to be exploded and blotted out for ever from the Church of God; as one of those Doctrines of men, Col. 2.22. Of that Leaven and Doctrine of the Pharisees, our blessed Saviour cautioned his Disciples to beware of; 
Math. 16.12. Rom. 9.30.& 10.3.  and as the same with the Doctrine of those perishing Jews; who stumbled at that stumbling ston, scil. a seeking after righteousness by something in themselves: which St. Paul calls, Going about to establish their own righteousness.  
And this Leaven, or Doctrine of the Papists deserves to be exploded the Church of God for ever, upon these, amongst many more, reasons.  
1. Because it derogates much from the glory of Christ; for it makes not his righteousness, but our own, the immediate reason of our justification. Christ, say they, merited that grace for us, that is in us; and then this grace in us merits our justification, and for this doth God justify us.  
But is it not a wonder, how that in us, should merit of God, which is imperfect in us, and needs forgiveness? so do our imperfections in grace, as well as our sins: Why else hath God ordained an Office, even an High-Priest, and such an one as Jesus Christ, to bear the iniquities of our holy things: as is evident in his Type in this very case. 
Exod. 28.38.  Why now if we have such grace and righteousness within us, as may justify us, and make us stand upon our own account in the pure sight of God; what needs this Office of Christ? This Generation of men pretend to give much to Christ, but sift the matter, and they take infinitely more from him, as otherways, so this. They take from Christ, to give to grace in man.  
We have owned, and do, That inherent grace in the Saints is a precious thing; one grain of it is worth a world; and is of great power and efficacy, as our Saviour said of a grain of Faith. 
Math. 17.20.  But yet grace is set too high, when we make a Christ of it, which we do, when we make it our righteousness. It's grace that is our righteousness before God, according to their Doctrine, and not Christ; he loses this name, The Lord our righteousness, if God justify us for inherent grace, and so the order and platform of the whole Gospel is spoiled and inverted. For as a natural man may be said to be, Inversus Decalogus, the Decalogue turned upside down: so this point of the Papists justification by inherent grace, may as well be called, Inversum Evangelium, or another Gospel, Gal. 1.  
For it is most certain, that as we have imputed sin from the first Adam, as well as inherent, and it was the imputed sin that first brought all men under condemnation: so have we imputed righteousness from the second Adam as well as inherent; and it is the imputed righteousness of the second Adam's that bring us under justification of life: 
Rom. 5.18 ibid.  So that to take away Christ's imputed righteousness, is to take away much of his glory, as Mediator.  
2. As it derogates much from the glory of Christ, so it takes much from the comfort of a Christian, who is often as much troubled and perplexed for the weakness of his grace, as the strength of his sin, and so is fain to fly to Christ for sanctuary; not only from his sins, but from the imperfection of his graces: so did Gods people in the Old Testament: 
Isa. 64.6. Phil. 3.9.  and so did they in the New; Not having mine own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ.  
And truly for all the dust the Papists make to make our justification to lie in inherent grace, as the matter of it, yet their consciences confute their Doctrine, when they come into trouble there: you shall find purer divinity in mens consciences, when under the rebuk of God, than in their heads. When their Champion Bellarmine came to his ultimus naturae conatus, to the point of death, then in a few words he refuted and unsaid all that he had said and writ in his life, in this point of mans justification before God by his inherent grace; as you saw before in his Tutissimum est, &c. and his Precor, ut me, &c. And show us the trembling conscience that ever fled to any other City of Resuge than Christs Righteousness. It was Christ only that said, and could say, 
Math. 9.2.  Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee; and, Woman, go in peace, thy faith, thy faith in me, hath saved thee.  
Such a man as St. Paul, for all his inherent grace, 
Rom. 7.2.  called himself a wretched man: and here was his ultimum refugium, 
v. 25.  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord: 
Rom. 8.1. & therefore there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. You see he glorys not in his own grace, but in Christs.  
Obj. But did not St. Paul glory in his inherent grace, and the influence of it in his life, as the ground of rejoicing? 
2 Cor. 1.12.  But our rejoicing is this, The testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversation in the world.  
Answ. This passage of St. Pauls concerns his justification against the reproach of men, and not before God. False Apostles, and false Brethren aspersed and disparaged him much, and charged him with things that he knew not, 
Ps. 35.11.  as Davids adversaries did by him: why now Paul's good conscience he had lived in, did wipe off all this, their dirt would not stick on Paul; their foul breath slided off him, as a mans from the Blade of a new Knife or Sword. This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience. This was his comfort, though their mouths reproached him, yet his own heart did not.  
But now, though the conscience of a godly man's sincerity, will justify him to himself, against the charge of man, yet he must have something else to satisfy his own conscience, and to justify him before God. Observe therefore the reason of that famous challenge of Paul's, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? 
Rom. 8.33.  It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that dyed, &c. He saith not, that they have inherent grace and gracious lives to answer for them; but they have Christ that dyed, and Christ that rose again, and Christ who maketh intercession for us, to answer the charge: This is their bar against any charge to condemnation, and a screen betwixt them and the wrath to come.  
3. The Doctrine of the Papists in this case, deserves expunging, because it makes such a confusion in the Scripture, and in the privileges of the Saints. It confounds justification and sanctification, which the Scriptures make distinct and different things and privileges: 
1 Cor. 1.30.  Who of God is made unto us righteousness and sanctification: and 1 Cor. 6.11. But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. And sanctification is a thing that is inherent in us, but justification a thing that is counted to us. Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness, Rom. 4.  
And moreover, they that are justified, are equally so; not so they that are sanctified. Adam's imputed sin was alike to all, and the guilt alike to all, Rom. 5. but not so his derived and propagated sin; for this admits of magis and minus in men, some have more sin than others, as some have more grace than others.  
For sanctification is an inherent quality, and admits of degrees, as heat in Water does; but justification is an act of relation, and admitteth not of degrees. For a Child is no more a Child at seven, or seventeen years of age, than he was the first day he was born. So that all these things laid together, the opinion of the Papists, for justification by inherent grace, must needs be rejected, as spurious and exotique, or foreign from Scripture; and justification by imputed righteousness is the Truth to be received and adhered to.  
Q. But what is this imputing of righteousness to us?  
A. As is God's not imputing sin to us, such is his imputing of righteousness. Now God's not imputing sin to us; 
Ps. 32. 2 Cor. 5.19.& Rom. 4.  which is spoken of by David and Paul; is not because we have no sin; for that is not so, saith St. John, 1 Joh. 2.8. but because he charges us with none. According to that, 
Jer. 50.20  The iniquities of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; none laid to their charge; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve. And this may be the sense of those so much wrested words, 
Numb. 23.21.  He hath not beholded iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel, i.e. he will impute none, but cover and pardon all: and so there is no hope that they should be cursed: The Lord blessed them in covering and not imputing their sins, and so Balaam could not curse them.  
Thus God is said in Scripture, to impute righteousness to them that believe, not because they have this righteousness in them, but because he reckons it as theirs, and reckons them righteous by it: that we might be made the righteousness of God in him: He sin for us by imputation, not inhesion; we righteousness through him, not by inhesion but imputation.  
Nor is this a fancy or fiction, but a real thing. For as our sins which deserved damnation were really laid on Christ by God, i.e. in a juridical interpretation, as a debt is on a Surety, 
1 Pet. 2.24.  though he had none of the money: so in the same way is his righteousness laid on us, so as truly made ours.  
The Scripture saith, that God is the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, and that to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.  
So then, we see, that it is not to mens grace that he gives the reason of their justification, but to a righteousness in Christ that is believed on. Put case, 
Phil. 3.9.  that God covers thy sins as he did Davids, Ps. 32. with what does he this? with thy inherent grace? no, in no wise: this is too narrow to do it, thine own righteousness will not cover thy nakedness, no better than Adam's Leaves did his: Adam and Eve's nakedness was covered with a covering of God's providing. 
Gen. 3.21.  And saith the Lord to his people the Jews, I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness, Ezek. 16.8. As the Law in the Ark was covered over by the Mercy-seat: 
Exod. 40.20, 21.  This was a Figure of Christ, for so our fins against the Law are covered by Christ from the judging eye of God.  
But here we are to consider by way of caution,  
1. That though we are to distinguish between justification and sanctification, yet do we not, nor may we separate or dis-join them; but they go together in the same person, as heat and light do in the Sun. None are justified but they are also sanctified; 
1 Cor. 6.11. Rom. 8.30.  But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified; and, whom he called, them he justified. There is a conjunction of them, but no confusion.  
2. Neither do we deny, but that sanctification is called righteousness in Scripture. It's said of Zachary and Elizabeth, 
Luke 1.6.  That they were both righteous before God. But how? with a righteousness of well-pleasing, such as Enoch's was, Heb. 11.5. not with a meritorious righteousness, which that must be which justifies a sinner; because none but such a righteousness can stop the mouth of the Law, and expiate the curse of it: which no righteousness can do, but that righteousness of Christ, which by imputation is made ours. I shall add three confirmations of it, that this righteousness of Christ is made ours by imputation.  
1. From the Figures and Types that were of this thing in the Ceremonial Law. For consider how the sin of the offeder of that Law was transferred to the Sacrifice or sin-offering; and how the sins of all Israel were passed over to the Goat: were those legal offences put into the Goat? and were they inherent in him? it's an absurd thing to think so. But the Offences of the people were laid upon the Sacrifice: Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat, 
Lev. 16, 21.  and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the Goat, and so sand him away into the wilderness. The same we find of the Bullock, Levit. 4.14, 15. Observe, That the iniquities of the people were put upon the Sacrifice, not in it: which was, in a Figure, this imputation, and so was a juridical act, whereby the offenders were discharged.  
Now this is exactly answered in Christ: Our sins are transferred to him; how? not into him, but upon him: 
Isa. 53.  The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all. And so is his righteousness transferred to us; how? not by inhesion but imputation; and so by a juridical act: It is not put into us, but upon us. And surely it would amount to blasphemy to say otherwise: That either our sins, for which he was condemned were in him, or his righteousness for which we are justified, is in us. The Scripture speaks expressly upon both, as to the Type and Antitype. 
The Papists impute the supererrogating works of a Monk to another man, and yet will not allow the imputation of Christs.   
2. From the Parallel between the two Adams. The first Adam's sin was ours, but how? not inherently, but imputedly: Now, as the first Adam's sin is ours, after the like manner is the second Adam's righteousness. Imputed sin is taken away by imputed righteousness.  
Obj. But we have inherent sin, both from Adam, and of our own also; and by what righteousness are these done away?  
Answ. By the same righteousness, for so the Apostle says plainly: 
Rom. 5.16.  The free gift, that is, of righteousness, as in v. 17. is of many offences unto justification.  
3. If we consider, that no other grace is said in Scripture to justify us, but only Faith: not Repentance, nor Patience, nor any grace else: yet these are inherent graces in us. But is not Faith an inherent grace also? Yes, but Faith doth not justify as it is a grace in us, but as it goes out of us, and carries us out of ourselves, and as it lays hold on another righteousness than our own within us; scil. Christ's obedience and blood in their merit. It's this way that Faith justifies, which is not said of any other grace.  
Q. But if the blood and obedience of Christ justify, how doth Faith justify? Why, Faith is said to justify, because of all graces, it alone is used in our justification: Faith applys that which justifies, i.e. the righteousness of Christ.  
The eye of an Israelite did not heal the place stung with Serpents, as it was one of the five senses, but as it looked up to the Brazen Serpent. 
Humb. 21.  So Faith, it justifies a man, not as it is one of the graces of the Spirit in him, but as it looks on Christ for justification, who is the Antitype of that healing Serpent: As the Serpent in the wilderness, 
J●h. 3.14, 15.  even so the Son of man, &c.  
Thus we see, That the righteousness which justifies us, is not our own, and yet is made ours, not by inhesion in us, but imputation to us. It is counted ours by our union with Christ; our spousals to him, give us a title to his righteousness: and as Sarah called Abraham Lord, so may we Christ, the Lord our righteousness. God was not in our graces, but in Christ, 
2 Cor. 5.19.  reconciling us to himself, not imputing our trespasses to us. 
Phil. 3.  Therefore did holy Paul abase his own righteousness even as dung, as to any justifying power. And therefore did the Scripture debase Abraham's works of grace in this point; though otherwise it makes them of high value. The Holy Ghost did thus by both those eminent Saints, to exclude boasting from both: and if from them, then from us much more. The Papists object against this, thus, That if I am righteous by the righteousness of Christ made mine, then am I as righteous as Christ himself.  
To this I answer, That I and you are as righteous hereby, as the righteousness of Christ need to make us before God: The righteousness of Christ makes a Believer as righteous as God would have him: and this may suffice, and be enough to him, without querying whether he be as righteous as Christ himself.  
Thus we have seen how Christ's righteousness becomes ours on Gods part: it's by his imputing it to us that believe: it's by imputed righteousness that we are justified. Now before I show what we do that this righteousness may be ours, I shall make some Application of the former.  
And here we are informed where our basis and foundation of comfort and glorying in God lies; even out of ourselves, and in what Christ is made unto us. When a poor soul is amazed by the charge of the Law of God, and by the charge of his own conscience against him; and that not only for sin, but for weakness of grace, and imperfections in his most gracious works: what is it now that brings him out of this maze? what settles his disturbed conscience, and quiets his troubled Spirit within him? doth his inherent grace? no: he complains of his graces as well as his sins, therefore this cannot do it.  
It must be something else that is better than his own grace, and righteousness in him: and what can that be, but the obedience and righteousness of Christ imputed to him? St. Paul had as little sin, and as much grace as any man, when in a state of grace: 
Rom. 7.  and yet he complains in both cases, of the strength of sin, and weakness of grace: he bewails it, 
v. 19.  that he did the evil which he would not do, and that he did not the good he would. And notwithstanding all his grace, he crys out of himself, 
v. 21.  O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me? my grace? no: but, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here was his Sanctuary and City of refuge; here his conscience had peace and rest.  
Remember this then in your perplexities within, and when you cannot but esteem your own righteousness as filthy rags, that Christ hath righteousness enough, and that he hath it for you; as he said to his Disciples, 
Joh. 14.9.  Because I live, ye shall live also: so, Because I have righteousness, 
Isa. 45.24.  ye shall have righteousness also. Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.  
And it is such righteousness as satisfies all the demands of God's justice, and puts a sufficient bar betwixt you and wrath, and Hell: There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus: 
Rom. 8.1. 1 Thes. 1. ult.  Even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come.  
Here is a righteousness too hard for thy sins: 
Rom. 5.20  Where sin abounded grace did much more abound. For if by the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, 
v. 15.  and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Oh then let the troubled conscience fly from the sins that pursue it, to this securing righteousness. Yea, and if thou art an experimental Christian, thy experience tells thee often that thou art fain to fly from thy grace, because of its imperfection, for sanctuary hither. It's only this righteousness made thine, that can scatter thy fears, and answer thy scruples; here, thy own experience tells thee, is thy safest and sweetest place of repose.  
And, my Brethren, take this advice; carry this cordial about you in wearisome times, this Name of Christ, The Lord our Righteousness. When the Lord would give Judah a sign of their rescue in their great straits, this was the sign; Behold, 
Is. 7.14.  a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emanuel, i.e. God with us.  
And this was to be a blessed sign to the same people in after troubles, of their coming out; as in the Text and context: In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; And, or for, this is his Name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth which brought up the Children of Israel out of egypt; but, The Lord liveth which brought up the House of Israel out of the North-Country. The meaning is, that the latter deliverance should be more signal and famous than the former.  
So when we can call the Lord Jesus, 
Exod. 15.26. Ezek. 48.35. Exod. 17.15. Gen. 22.14.  Jehovah Tsidkenu, The Lord our Righteousness; we may also call him, Jehovah Ropheka, The Lord that healeth thee; and Jehovah Shammah, The Lord is there; and Jehovah Nissi, The Lord is my Banner; and Jehovah Jireh, The Lord will provide, or, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. The mountain of slaughter, shall turn the mountain of deliverance; where Isaac should have been sacrificed, there Isaac was miraculously saved.  
You must know, That the righteousness that Christ is to us was from the merit and value of his blood. By this he overcame our sins, 
Eph. 2.13.  and death and wrath due to them. And it is by this blood that the Saints shall overcome the wrath of the Devil. 
Rev. 12.10, 11.  And by this the Church shall be secured from all her flesh and blood Enemies. That which hath born the wrath of God, and overcome the wrath of the Devil, will overcome with ease the wrath of man.  
That Righteousness that Christ is to us, is a Breast-plate indeed 
Eph. 6, 14. ; the words are quoted from Is. 59.16, 17. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him; for he put on righteousness as a breast-plate. You know the heart is in the breast, therefore this Breast-plate can secure the heart from trouble. Let not your heart be troubled, 
Joh. 14.1.  ye believe in God, believe also in me. This was spoken to them when they were upon the confines of suffering for Christ.  
And doubtless, faith in Christ, as the Lord our righteousness, is a refuge and place of retreat from any storms. And observe this, that Faith in Christ then, when he was at lowest, and ready to be cut off, and descending into Hell, was able to do this: how much more may faith in Christ do it now, now he is in Heaven, and now all power in Heaven and Earth is in his hands; well may we receive this charge now; Let not your heart be troubled, believe in me. And,  
Lastly, Here is place for glorying when we come to die. There are two special seasons wherein this name of Christ the Lord our righteousness will be of great value to us, In trouble of Conscience, and on our Death-bed. In trouble of Conscience, this if improved, 
Math. 9.2.  will bid us be of good cheer our sins are forgiven us. Upon a Death-bed this righteousness will make a Believer able to make those two brave challenges; that in Rom. 8.31. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? it is God that justifieth: who shall condemn? it is Christ that dyed, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And that, O Death, where is thy sting? 
1 Cor. 15.55.  Oh Grave, where is thy victory? the sting of Death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  
3. I am to show what the poor sinner must do, that this righteousness of Christ may be made his, and that he may call it his own; and use it as a bar against wrath and condemnation for sin, and as his title to life and glory.  
We find when sinners have been smitten in conscience, and had wounds or pricks there, they have asked the question, and this hath been their great query, 
Act. 2.37. Act. 16.30.  Men and brethren what shall we do? and, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And the answer hath been this, Believe in the Lord Jesus.  
So that it's believing in Christ that makes a sinner righteous. To him that believeth, 
Rom. 4.5.  his faith is counted for righteousness. Faith is the great and only instrument in man, that God is pleased to use in translating Christ's righteousness to him, Rom. 4. v. 11. it is called the righteousness of Faith. And Phil. 3.9. Righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, and righteousness which is of God by faith.  
Observe, it's called the faith of Christ, and the faith of God. The Faith of Christ, because Christ and his righteousness is the object of it. The Faith of God, because he and his power only is the Author of it; no power but that of God, yea, that exceeding great and mighty power of God which raised Christ from the dead, can work faith in us, Eph. 1.19, 20.  
Q. But we find different Answers given in Scripture to the Question, 
Math. 19.16, 17.  What shall I do to be saved? For when that rich man asked Jesus the question, he sent him to the Law; If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments: 
Act. 2.37, 38.  And the Apostle Peter answered to this question put by the Jews pricked in their hearts; Repent. And St. 
Act. 16.  Paul bids the Jaylor, upon the question, Believe in the Lord Jesus.  
A. You must know, that these different Answers to this self same Question, were suited to the different tempers of the Questionists.  
1. Jesus sent the rich man to the Law, because his heart was high and proud; he was an unhumbled man, and so fit to be sent to the Law, there to be schooled first. The Law is a Schoolmaster to led men to Christ: 
Gal. 3.24.  The Moral Law as well as Ceremonial: This points men to Christ, as the shadow to the substance: and that drives men to Christ by the perfect obedience it requires, and the great curse it denounces upon default. A man must come out of himself, before he can come to Christ; and the Law hath a hand in this.  
2. St. Peter bids the Jews upon the Question, Repent; because they had had their hands so lately in Christ's blood, and so their sin needed very deep humiliation before they could believe in Christ for pardon: and he does not bid them rest in Repentance, but then sends them to Faith in Christ.  
3. And St Paul and Silas sand the poor trembling jailor, they sand this convert immediately to Christ: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
Act. 16.30, 31.  and thou shalt be saved. And they did thus, because they saw, that he was indeed a melted and a kindly humbled sinner. The two former are sent to Christ mediately, but this immediately. The question being answered, I proceed to the point under consideration; scil. That 'tis faith on the sinners part, which brings home Christ's righteousness to him, as his own. Christ himself taught this point implicitly in his constant calling for faith of them whom he healed of bodily distempers.  
For if faith in Christ be necessary in the healing of the body, much more in the cure of the soul. It's useful to note, how that all those various phrases in Scripture; as of mens looking upon Christ, receiving of Christ, coming to Christ, eating and drinking of Christ, do all mean and intend their believing in him.  
And it is further to be noted, that the Gospel command is, 
1 Joh. 3.23.  To believe in Christ: And this is his Commandment, that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ. 
Gal. 3.14.  And moreover the promises of the Gospel are to believing: Therefore it is of Faith, that the promise might be sure to all the seed: 
Rom. 4.16  even that that is of the faith of Abraham. And then your comforts of the Gospel come into the soul by believing; In whom, 
1 Pet. 1.8.  though you see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.  
And yet further; In our justification the Scripture cries down works, and sets up believing: To him that worketh not, 
Rom. 4.5.  but believeth, is righteousness counted. Yea, this believing in Christ, silemces all other graces in this point of our justifying righteousness. It is not Repentance, nor Patience, nor Love, nor Prayer, nor Obedience, that justifies us, but Faith in Christ.  
And as the Ordinances of the Ceremonial Law, when compared with their Gospel substances, are called by the Apostle, 
Gal. 4.9.  but beggarly things: Weak and beggarly Elements, and carnal Ordinances: 
Heb. 9.10.  though they were the holy Ordinances of God in their time: So are the best works and highest actings of grace, when compared with the righteousness of Christ: Thus comparatively, 
Phil. 3.  did Paul count the best of his own righteousness but dross.  
It's for certain, that in sanctification, though not justification, the Saints other graces and good works bear their part, and keep their place, and are of great price in the sight of God: 
1 Pet. 3.4.  as Peter saith of a meek and quiet spirit. And indeed the lowest gracious action is of greater value, than the most specious works of all ungracious men in the world. Even a cup of could water given to a Disciple, in the name of a Disciple, 
Math. 10.42.  is more than a mans giving all his goods to the poor, 
1 Cor. 13.  that hath not charity. We know how that Jesus Christ set a higher rate on the Widows two mites, than on all the other Treasure which was cast in, Mark 12.42.  
And yet though our graces and gracious works be of so great price in the sight of God, in their station and sphere; as we are sanctified persons, 
Ps. 4.3.  set apart for God himself, to be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures, 
Jam. 1.18.  to be holiness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase: 
Jer. 2.3.  yet in the matter of our justification, they are all ciphers: Faith is the only thing in us, and of ours, that justifies. Not that Faith is better grace than other graces, but because it hath a better Office. As a Constable in a Town, or Justice of Peace in a County, may do that which another man, though as good as himself, saying his Office, cannot do. It's the Office that makes the difference in this particular case.  
So is it with Faith and other graces: Look on Faith only as a grace, and so other graces equalize it, yea, the grace of Love exceeds it in a double respect: first in breadth, and secondly Length.  
1. In breadth; for Faith is a personal grace, it's for a man's own use: a man cannot believe to life for another: But Love is a public grace and communicative. The Love of one Christian may extend to a thousand more, 
1 Cor. 13.  and upon this reason it hath the pre-eminency given it of Faith.  
2. In Length; the grace of Love exceeds the grace of Faith, in that Love abides for ever; it is the grace of the Saints in Heaven: Now abideth Faith, Hope, 
1 Cor. 13.13.  and Charity, these three, but the greatest of these is Charity. Faith and Hope end with this life, as to their employment: but Love is the working grace in the life to come. Faith and Hope will be swallowed up there of glorified sense, whereas Love, which did shine but as a Star here, will be as a Sun in Heaven.  
But then consider Faith in its Office, betwixt Christ and a poor sinner, in his reconciliation to God, and justification before him, and so Faith hath the pre-eminency of all other graces, and none have an office here but faith.  
Now to show the office and worth of Faith, in bringing home the righteousness of Christ to us, for our righteousness before God; these two things must be opened.  
1. What Object it is that Faith acts on in our justification.  
2. What act of Faith it is that doth justify us.  
1. The Object of Faith, in general, is the whole Scripture, or revealed written will of God. The Authority of God is the reason of our believing. Our Faith is, or must be, as large as God's mouth. 
Joh. 2.  Whatever he bids you do, do it, saith our Saviours Mother to the Waiters at the Feast: so whatever God speaks, we must believe it. It's impossible that God should lie, Heb. 6.18.  
But though this be the Object of Faith, yet it is not that Object of Faith that justifies: that is a particular and peculiar Object. A man hath sense and motion, as well as reason, yet it's only reason that makes him a man. Thus justifying Faith believes all truths in Scripture; yet it justifies not, but as it believes some particular truth or promise; scil. The Promise of Christ. What was the Object of Abraham's faith, as it justified him? why, the Promise: and what Promise? the Promise of a seed: and what seed? 
Gen. 15.5, 6.  Christ, Gal. 3.16. And to thy seed, which is Christ.  
Abraham was not justified by his faith, as he believed the temporal seed promised him, but the spiritual; 
Math. 1.1.  scil. Jesus Christ, who was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. And therefore it's observable, that the Apostle in that place to the Galatians, distinguisheth subtly and punctually in this point, even upon one letter: Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made; he saith not, 
Gal. 3.16.  and to seeds, as to many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So that there is a single proper and peculiar Object of faith, as it justifies a sinner, and makes him righteous; and that is Christ held forth by God, in his obedience active and passive; in his life and death, to be the justification of a sinner. Christ held forth to us in the Promise, as made sin for us, and righteousness to us, is the Diamond of the Ring, and the Centre of all parts of Scripture. To this the Law pointed, Moral and Ceremonial, to this the Prophets and Apostles refer a sinner as his Sanctuary and City of refuge.  
Though an I●raelite that was stung had looked on the Tabernacle, and holy things of God there, yet this would not have cured him; only his looking up to the Brazen Serpent could do it; because that only was assigned for a remedy by God. So, though a sinner believe all other passages and points in the Scripture, yet it is not this faith that will justify him, but his looking on Christ, and believing on him, as he was lifted up on the C●oss, 
1 Pet. 2.24  there bearing our sins, and transmitting the merit of his death to us; this is the faith that justifies.  
Suppose a man of a troubled spirit and an afflicted conscience should believe all the Commandments, and believe them to be holy, and just, and good, as the Apostle saith, Rom. 7. surely this would not settle his disturbed conscience, settle a peace there. 
Rom. 5.1  A poor souls peace with God, is, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and faith in him. This therefore may end all controversy in this case, as to what object of faith it is that justifies a sinner; it is only faith in Christ for righteousness that does it.  
2. What act of faith it is that doth justify: It must be faith acted upon its proper and designed Object, for this end. For faith being an Instrument, must as an instrument be acted, else it is not useful to its end: as a Knife, or Axe, or plaster, are all useless, unless they be actuated.  
A Jew might have an eye, and yet not be cured of his wound by the fiery Serpent, unless he looked up with his eye to the Brazen Serpent. And that Woman diseased with an Issue of blood, 
Math. 9.  was not healed till she touched Christ's Garments. So faith must act, if it do a man good. Faith justifies a sinner by its acts, and not its habit. It's not the habit, but the act of faith that justifies.  
Q. But are we not justified in God's Decree before we believe?  
A. We were elected to be justified, but to be justified by faith, and not before: We were redeemed before we believe; our faith gives nothing to the value of Christ's ransom with God, but yet it's faith that makes this ransom of Christ to be mine.  
God's acts of grace to sinners, must be looked on in their order: As it's said of the Resurrection, 
1 Cor. 15.23.  All shall be made alive in Christ, but every man in his own order: first Christ, then they that are Christ's. So in this case; first we are to look upon Christ's paying our ransom, and God's accepting of it, and this is done before faith; and then God's imputing this ransom to us, and this he doth not till we believe. So that if we consider justification in its contract betwixt God and Christ, this is done before faith, for faith itself is in the ransom and purchase. But if we consider God's actual justifying of us, this is not done before faith: 
Rom. 5.  Being justified by faith we have peace with God. We must be in Christ, and Christ in us, by faith, before we be discharged of the sentence of condemnation. 
Rom. 8.1.   
Though Christ took our infirmities, 
Math. 8.16.  and bare our st●knesses; yet he cured none without faith. As in the Centurion's S●rvant's sickness; As thou hast believed, 
Math. 8.17.  so be it done unto thee. And so when the man brought his Son to Christ for cure, Christ pressed upon faith: If thou canst believe, Mark 9.23. So Christ b●re our sins; 
1 Pet. 2.  yet we must believe in him before our sins are pardoned. Thy sins are forgiven thee, and thy faith hath saved thee, are j●ined together, Luke 7.48, 50. v.  
So that though redemption was before faith, yet justification, which is God's imputing or applying this redemption to us, is not till faith. As the Apostle saith, 
Gal. 3.23.24.  Before faith came we were kept under the Law, being shut up unto the Faith, which should afterwards be revealed.  
Nor doth this make faith to be a meritorious condition, in our justification; for God Covenanted with Christ to give us that faith whereby we are justified; but faith is only an instrument which God is pleased to use in applying the Plaster to the sore. But,  
2. Faith that thus justifieth, is not a bare assent to the Promise of Christ, it's more than this. It is an act of the will and affections, as well as of the understanding; an act of the heart as well as the head: 
Rom. 10.10.  With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. So that that act of faith which justifieth, is an embracing act of faith: 
Joh. 1.12.  To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God, even to as many as believed on his Name.  
3. It is not the justifying act of faith, to be assured that our sins are pardonned, and that we shall be saved: This is the comforting act of faith, but not the justifying act. It is not the reflex, but direct act of faith that justifieth us. The reflex act, which is assurance of our justification, is the effect of the other. A man may be justified by believing, though he have not the sense of his justification.  
And so that act of faith in Paul, Who loved me, 
Gal. 2.20.  and gave himself for me, was a reflex act of faith: an effect and fruit of that act of faith whereby he was justified. But that act of faith, 
Gal. 3.16.  We have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ: And that, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
Act. 16.30  and thou shalt be saved; These were acts of Faith, but what acts? Acts of adherence to Christ for justification, and not acts of evidence that they were already justified.  
4. Neither doth faith justify, as it acts and works by love. 
Gal. 5.6.  Justifying faith doth act by love, but it doth not justify as it acts thus; nor as it acts and works in obedience: Faith doth act thus, and therefore's called, The obedience of faith: 
Rom. 16.26. Gen. 5.24. Heb. 11.5.  And it was by faith that Enoch walked with God: And it was by faith that Abraham obeied the Commandment of God, in going out of his own Country, not knowing whither he went: 
v. 8.  and it was by faith that he offered up Isaac when he was commanded by God: 
v. 17.  but yet this is not the justifying act of faith. These are indeed the natural and necessary effects of justifying faith: 
Jam. 2.17.  Faith if it have not works is dead. I will show you my faith by my works, v. 18. but yet these are not the act of faith that justifies.  
5. But the act of justifying faith, or the act of faith that doth justify, is an act of recumbance and reliance on Christ, as he was made sin for us, and as he is made righteousness to us, and thus offered by the Scripture to our faith. The phrase of Scripture, 1 Pet. 2.6. doth clear this; Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner ston, elect and precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded: what, believe on a ston? The meaning is, he tha● rests upon this ston with all his weight, that layeth his whole stress of salvation here.  
And this indeed is the justifying act of faith; when the wounded sinner and perplexed conscience sees Christ tendered to him, in the promise of God's free grace, to be his only and whole redemption and righteousness, and lays hold on him thus tendered, clasps and embraces Christ thus offered, 
Math. 28.9.  as the good woman did his feet. This, and this only, is the act of faith that justifies. And here the weary soul rests itself, and experienceth the truth of that Scripture, and those words of Christ; Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Math. 11.28.  This is the Horn of the Altar, a poor humbled sinner, in the sense of his own lost condition, flieth to, and holds by, 
1 King. 2.  and says as Joab did; If I die, I'll die here.  
Yet this you must note, That this act of faith which lies in a recumbence and resting on Christ alone for righteousness, is in the New Testament set out by the phrase of believing into Christ, which we translate, believing in Christ. For it signifies such an act or work of faith, and affiance in Christ, as whereby the soul is engrafted in him, and united to him; so as that by this union it hath communion in this righteousness. And thus we see, the Gospel hath brought the justifying act of faith into a little room, within this compass.  
A convinced and humbled sinners recumbing and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ, as tendered in the promise of free grace, for his righteousness. Here is the ground of comfort, and of a believers boasting over all charges, when he thus believeth: he can or may now say with the Apostle, 
Rom. 8.33.  Who shall lay any thing to my charge? It is God that justifieth: who shall condemn? it is Christ that dyed, yea rather that is risen again; 
Rom. 4.25  and he was raised again for our Justification.  
In this believing, 
Joh. 3.33.  we set to our seal that God is true: and God will in due time, if he hath not already, set to his seal, i.e. work assurance in you, 
1 Joh. 5.11.  to second your reliance. But if you believe not thus you make God a liar.  
Though you do assent to the truth of the Promise of Christ, yet if you draw back affiance and recumbence, as if the promise were not to you, you give God the lie. Oh then, in the sense of your own nakedness, come out of yourselves and cast yourselves on Christ for righteousness, and this is that faith that saves you.  
How do many men deceive themselves in this saving act of faith. If they know the promise of Christ our righteousness, and assent to it, they think it is enough: But, alas, it is not; for there must be a stripping of a man's self naked of his own righteousness, and a resting on this of Christ's alone. As David strip'd himself of his armor, 
1 Sam. 17.  and so went out against goliath, in the Name of the Lord. Take notice, 
Gen. 3.10.  that Adam was naked, and saw it, before God made the promise of Christ.  
Q. But is a man justified by this act of faith only? the Papists ask us, where this( only) is in Scripture; and tell us it is an adding to the Scripture.  
A. It is the sense, though not the letter of Scripture. And this was a rule of the Ancients, that the sense, and not the letter, is Scripture. I shall give an express instance; our Blessed Saviour added not to that Scripture, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, 
Deut. 6.13  and shalt serve him, when he said, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
Math. 4.10  and him only shalt thou serve: for though( only) be not in the letter of the Text quoted, yet it is in the sense, therefore did Christ use it; nor did the Devil tax him for adding to the Scripture herein, because it was the meaning. We shall therefore here open these two things.  
1. The true meaning of this, when we say, This act of faith, this act of recumbance and reliance only justifies.  
2. The ground and reason of it, why this act of faith is counted, by God, to a man for righteousness.  
1. For the meaning, when we say, That faith only justifies, it is this, That all, even the best of all, in a man, or which is done by a man, is hereby excluded from his justification; yea, every act of faith, besides this of recumbance on Christ for righteousness, is excluded.  
So that this( only) excludes all inherent grace, though in the highest measure; and all actual holiness in a man's life or duties, which have the greatest spirituality in them; even every fruit of the spirit, but this of faith, and every act of faith besides this of recumbence, are excluded from his justification before God; and this act of faith admits of nothing but the righteousness of Christ, and God's imputing of it to a man.  
It's true, we must yield, that there are other acts of a justifying Faith, besides that which doth justify. There is an act of faith that doth purify the heart, 
Act. 15.9. Gal. 5.6. 1 Joh. 5.4.  and an act of faith that works by love, and an act of faith that resists temptation, 
Heb. 11.24, 25.  and Moses by faith refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; and of other believers it's said, that by faith they accepted not deliverance, 
v. 35.  when tortured, i.e. upon unbecoming terms: These acts of faith are not excluded from the justified believer, but from the act of faith in justification they are.  
It is not intended, when we say, Faith only justifieth, that faith hath no other act or operation but to justify; but that nothing hath the office to justify a sinner, but faith, and this act of faith, of reliance on the righteousness of Christ.  
The eye of an Israelite could, and did do other things besides looking up to the Brazen-Serpent, yet the eye healed not by any thing else it did but this: So Faith, saving Faith, hath other business and work than this of looking to Christ for righteousness, but it makes a man righteous no way but this.  
Therefore Secondly, we say, that there are other graces coexistent with faith in the person justified. A solitary Faith, is not a saving and justifying Faith: Faith, 
Jam. 2.17.  if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Faith that is alone saves not, though Faith alone save. As the act of seeing is by the eye only, without the ear, or other senses; the eye only sees, the ear sees not, nor the taste, nor the smell, nor the feeling, yet the eye could not see, if you should take away the other senses from the body.  
So it's faith only that justifieth without other graces, or good works; yet Faith without them, or separated from them, cannot justify: because indeed it cannot be without them, in the person or subject where it is. So that faith is without other graces, and works, in its office, but not in its existence. And you may as soon part light and heat in the Sun, as sanctification from justification, in a believer. For Faith is not only a fruit of the spirit, with other graces, but also the seed and nursery of other graces; 
Gal. 5.  because faith in Christ is the Root-grace.  
It was by faith that Enoch walked with God, and that Paul did so dearly love Jesus Christ, and that the Saints in both Testaments prayed so much; We believe, therefore do we speak, 2 Cor. 4.13.  
It would be a strange soul, that should give a faculty of seeing, and no other faculty or sense: As strange a state of grace would that be, that should give an act of saving and justifying faith, and give no other grace besides.  
3. What we say of other Graces, we also say of gracious works, these cannot be severed from a justified person, or from a justifying faith, though they have no office in his justification. For these justify Faith, as Faith justifies the person.  
And this is the exposition of that in St. James, where he says, ch. 2. v. 21. Was not Abraham our Father justified by works when he had offered Isaac? and v. 22. Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, 
Gen. 15.6. Rom. 4.3. Gal. 3.6.  and by works was faith made perfect: and the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And v. 24. Ye see then, how that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.  
But how is that? and how do St. Paul and James agree, or St. James with himself? Why the sense is, that a man is not justified by a faith that is without works. Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness: but then Abraham's believing, was a working believing; it made him go out of his own Country he knew not whither, upon God's call; and to offer up his Son Isaac at God's command. Which latter work of his St. James speaks of: and you must understand, that this excellent work of Abraham's was above thirty years after his justification; as appears by Scripture Chronology. For Gen. 15.6. we red, his believing was counted to him for righteousness; and his offering Isaac, chap. 22. was 30 years, or 40 saith Bishop Usher, 
Annal.  after that.  
So that this must needs be the Apostle James his meaning, when he says, Abraham was justified by works, this, and no other can be the meaning, without admitting of contradictions, and strange inconsistences, That Abraham's faith was not without works, but was justified by his works, to be a true faith, and a living faith, and a saving faith. 
Gen. 15.6.  Abraham's personw as justified by faith, and his faith was justified by works, 
Gen. 22.  and signally by offering up Isaac at God's command; which is that St. James speaks of. Thus much for the meaning of the expression, when we say, that Faith only justifieth us, or maketh Christ's righteousness ours.  
But now here we must be cautioned not to make or imagine, the {αβγδ} credere, the act of believing, to be the matter of our righteousness, as some have held. For this is to make our Faith our Christ; and thrust out his righteousness from being the reason and matter of our justification. But faith is the only instrument of our righteousness, and this is honour enough: To make it more, is to make the virtue that healed the Woman, Matth. 9. to come out of the hand that touched Christ's Garments, and not out of Christ that was touched; and the healing virtue to be in the eye of an Israelite, and not in the Brazen Serpent that the eye beholded. These men would make us eat our money, and not to buy bread with it to eat. They make faith our righteousness, which is but instrumental to make Christ, The Lord our righteousness. And this is sufficient honour to faith; it need claim no more, nor we give any more.  
2. For the ground or reason, why faith alone justifies a sinner. Being justified by faith, Rom. 5. And the reason why God hath dignified faith with this high Office, and the reason why faith alone justifies, is, To exclude boasting, Rom. 3.27. Where is boasting then? it is excluded: by what Law? of works? nay, but by the Law of Faith. The Scripture speaks this, We are justified by faith, and not by works: Not by works of the Law, 
Tit. 3.  saith the Apostle; Not by my own righteousness, 
Phil. 3.  but that of Christ made mine by faith.  
And again, nothing is said in Scripture to be imputed for righteousness, but faith: Abraham believed, 
Gen. 15.& Jam. 2.23.  and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Not Abraham's going out of his own Country, nor Abraham's offering his Son, but Abraham's faith was it, 
Rom. 3.26  that was imputed to him for righteousness. To declare his righteousness, and that he is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.  
Faith and Unbelief are the two casting points of every man's present and final estate. 
Joh. 3.18.  He that believeth on him, is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. So, 
v. 36.  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Faith is the only grace that actually saves, and Unbelief the only sin that actually damns.  
But, Secondly, because there is a suitableness in this grace of Faith, to God's plot and design in his way of justifying man.  
1. God having made a different covenant with his people from that of Works; a Covenant of grace; it is convenient, that whatever is required of us, in this Covenant, be consistent with a Covenant of Free-grace. Now Faith is a grace of this conveniency, because it takes all of Free-grace that God gives in order to salvation.  
God's Free-grace and our Faith are sweetly agreed: 
Eph. 2.8.  By grace are ye saved through faith. Free grace and our Works do not accord: Therefore it is of Faith, 
Rom. 4.16  that it might be of grace; and if of grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. And, as I said before, 
Rom. 11.6  it is of grace, because God was resolved to exclude boasting from man; which could not be, but by taking Faith, 
Rom. 3.27  and excluding Works in justification.  
God found the disposition of man to incline to self-will, and self-righteousness in his breach of the first Covenant; and this is in man's nature still: 
Rom. 10.3  They going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.  
And therefore God has made another kind of Covenant with us, a Covenant of free-grace, and we must have, what we have, of free-grace: 
Rom. 4.16.  and that it may be by grace, it must be by faith. Faith and works are always set at variance by S. Paul, in our justification before God: Faith is the sympathising grace in us, with the free grace of God. It is of faith, that it may be of grace. 
1 Cor. 1.31.  This way of boasting is cut off from man, and he that glorieth, must glory in the Lord.  
2. God's intention of honouring the Lord Jesus Christ, and making him a glorious Adam, in wondefully excelling the first, is another reason, why the justification of a sinner is only by faith in Christ. If we consider the scope of much of the 5. to the Romans, from the 15. v. to the end; and of some part of 1 Cor. 15.45. &c. we find a design of God highly to exalt the second Adam above the first.  
Now faith is the grace that honours Christ most. It fetcheth all from Christ, and gives all the blessedness of a restored sinner to Christ: It's faith that makes Christ so precious: 
1 Pet. 2.7.  To you that believe he is precious. Faith makes the worst of Christ to be better, and more eligible than the best of this world. It was by faith that Moses esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. 
Heb. 11.26  And because faith doth so honour Christ, therefore it is exalted above other graces to this high office, which no other grace has in the justification& righteousness of a sinner. It's faith that puts Christ's worth and merit into the balance against all thy sins and wretchedness, and against the curse of the Law, and against, and to swallow up Hell and Death into victory.  
And faith makes a man to cast away not only his sins, 
Thil 3.9.  but his own righteousness too, to exalt the righteousness of Christ. It makes a mans best duties, and best works, and highest measures of inherent grace, to be, in comparison of Christ's obedience, and righteousness, but as Stars to the Sun, those disappear at the appearing of this.  
3. The Lord hath thus honoured faith, and set it in so high an office, for his peoples sake; that they may be at a certainty for their spiritual and eternal condition, and not in a tottering state, as they were in the first Adam.  
All that God has for us in order to our eternal happiness, he hath put into Christ: 
Col. 1.19.  It pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell. And it's from his fullness that we receive all grace, 1 Joh. 16. And what we have from the fullness of Christ, we fetch it by faith, 
Math. 9.  as the Woman did virtue to heal her sore distemper: and all this is that we may be at a certainty. Therefore it is of faith, 
Rom. 4.16  to the end the promise might be sure. Faith leans upon Christ as it's special object; 
Is. 28.16.  and Christ is a sure foundation. And all the promises of God, in him are yea, and in him Amen: there they have both their existence and performance, 2 Cor. 1.20.  
If life and Heaven did hang upon such hinges as our own graces and and works, and righteousness, we should be but in a tottering case: we are so uncertain in these, as to their actings, and withal so imperfect: But in Christ's obedience and righteousness there is the greatest assurance that can be; we may rest and repose here safely; he is a sure foundation, where the conscience of a sinner rests quietly, and no where else.  
And thus you have seen it proved, and cleared, That the Lord Jesus Christ is a sinners righteousness in the sight of God; and that God imputes this righteousness to a sinner, to make it his; and that faith alone has the office to fetch it home and apply it.  
The Application of the Doctrine. And,  
1. If these things be so as you have seen, then( to use the Prophet Ezek words) This is a lamentation, and sahll be for a lamentation, 
Ezek. 19.14.  that so much of the world are so ignorant of and enemies to this foundation truth.  
For, First, As to the Gentiles, they knew nothing of this righteousness till they were taught it by the grace of God, in their calling. And not only the common people, but their Sophoi, their learned and wisemen, their Seers, such as Cato, Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, livy, Suetonius, &c. men of high parts, and all about Christs time, a little before and after; yet all these were strangers, yea enemies to this righteousness. 
1 Cor. 1.23.  Christ crucified was foolishness to them. It was a jeering speech of Cato's, Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem. The wisest of the Gentiles did no more understand the mystery of this righteousness, which maketh a sinner righteous before God, or any of the mysteries of Christ, 
Gen. 41.15.  than the Magi of Egypt did Pharaoh's dreams, or the Wisemen of Caldea, 
Dan. 2.& 5.  Nebuchadnezzar's, or Belshazzar's Hand-writing. This master-piece of wisdom in God, was but foolishness to them.  
And Secondly, As for the Jews, the Apostle says, they were ignorant of this righteousness: 
Rom. 10.3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Yea, this righteousness was a stumbling block to them, an occasion of their fall, and casting off, i.e. through their ignorance of it, and malice against it: 
Rom. 9.31, 33.  They stumbled at this stumbling ston.  
And this was the Plague-sore, not only of the Common-people among the Jews, but of their Rabbys, their Scribes and Teachers; they were ignorant and willingly ignorant of this way to life: Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? John 7.48.  
And Thirdly, As for Christians, multitudes of them are ignorant of, and bitter enemies to this righteousness. The generality of the Roman Church have drunk this poison: and few of their Champions are behind the Scribes and Pharisees in contending for righteousness by the works of the Law: They are rich enough to buy pardon of sins, and Heaven to. What said Vega? 
Coelum gratis non accipiam. Math. 19.16.  He would have Heaven for his money. And indeed all men by nature have this Popery in their belly. And there are two reasons why men naturally and generally miss this way to life; this way to this City of refuge set up for lost sinners by the Gospel.  
1. The mysterious nature of this righteousness, as it is the matter and reason of a sinners justification before God. It is a revelation; The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: 
1 Rom. 17.  It is not a thing in the view of natural reason. The world must be convinced of it by the spirit. 
Joh. 16.8.  It is a new way, Heb. 10.20. an uncouth, untrodden and unbeaten way to the light of nature: nay, there was no such thing known of in the state of innocence. Those Philosophers, the Epicureans and stoics that encountered Paul, 
Act. 17.18, 19.  called it, New-Doctrine. Its News indeed; so is the whole Gospel; for that is the sense of {αβγδ}, bringing good News. Man being made righteous by the righteousness of another, is a new way, and unknown to the generality of the World, as America was to other parts, till of late.  
That a righteous person should be made sin for us, as Christ was, and that we should be made, the righteousness of God in him; 
2 Cor. 5.21 1 Tim. 3.16.  this is {αβγδ}, a great Mystery: And in preaching this point to men, we may say as the Apostle about the Resurrection; Behold, 
1 Cor. 19.51.  I show you a Mystery. This is one of the deep things of God, which no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God, and they to whom the Spirit reveals it, 
1 Cor. 2.7, 8, 9.  Which none of the Princes of the world( i.e. in Paul's time) have known. Princes then were the choicest men i'th' world for natural or acquired parts, but were ignorant in this.  
2. Reason why this new way to life is so commonly missed, is from the nature of man; it's a way that goes against the grains with proud Nature, to tread it. The natural spirit of man makes stop here, as Balaam's Ass did in that way of his. 
Num. 22.  There is an innate and hereditary pride in men, so as to own no righteousness that shall eclipse theirs: Men are naturally for self shifts; Adam's poor contrivance to cover his nakedness tells us this. 
Gen. 3.  When men think of going to Heaven, they fasten upon somewhat of their own: Master, 
Math. 19.  what good thing shall I do? and, All these have I kept. He had self righteousness at his fingers ends, as Paul himself had, while a Pharisee; 
Phil. 3.  As concerning the Law, blameless. Self in man, is like the heart in man, which is ultimum moriens. The Fort that holds out longest against submission to this righteousness of Christ: like the Fort of the Jebusites, 
2 Sam. 5.  which would not yield till David stormed it. Man's good opinion of his own righteousness, is amongst those {αβγδ}, those imaginations or proud reasonings in men, that exalt themselves, and are not with ease brought under, and subdued to the obedience of Christ, 2 Cor. 10.5. Now natural men do divers ways exalt their own Righteousness in opposition to God's.  
1. It's too usual with some amongst us, to think to recompense God, and stop the mouth of his justice, by some good works of their own. This Popery is in many who disdain the very name. Something or other of their own, that seems lovely in their eye, 
Luke 18.  as that Pharisees Fasting did, stands in the room of Christ: upon the matter, something of their own doing must do the dead. Master, 
Math. 19.  what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? Here they hang their hopes, and Christ made but as a hang-by and blind.  
2. Some make a mixture and composition of their own righteousness and Christs together in their justification; as some of the Galatians did. It's the fancy of some men, they dare not venture their souls on Christ alone: they'l have two strings to their Bow, something of their own at least for a reserve and dead lift; as those many that believed on Jesus, Joh. 2.23, 24. their faith was a halting and divided faith; and therefore he did not commit himself to them. These men, like the Harlot, would have the living child divided: 
1 King. 3.  So would they have their justification before God to be partend between Christ's righteousness and their own.  
3. Some there are, who though they mix not Christ's and their own, yet they make their own a bridge and passage to his. Such are those who would have Christ, but would have him for their money; as Vega said, Coelum gratis non accipiam, He would purchase heaven, and not have it as the gift of God. According to the Apostles Doctrine, Rom. 6.23. Nor will they buy without money and without price, according to the free invitation. Isa. 55.2.  
Some goodness of their own must usher them into Christ: They are shie to go to him only with their sins and nothingness, and nakedness, which men should do, so they go with these as their sores and grievances. Some men would be worthy that Christ should receive and own them. Their divinity is such like as the Jews, when they urged Christ to go to the Centurions House, with this argument, 
Luk. 7.4.  For he is worthy. These men would commend themselves to Christ by something that's lovely in them; but this is not Christ's way; He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, and they are not the whole, but sick, that need the Physician. When men are naked, then he casts his skirts over them; and when they are in their blood, this is his time of love, and now he says unto them, Live, Ezek. 16.  
4. There are some men who would think much of it, not to be esteemed Christians, and yet look after justification and salvation, neither by Christ's righteousness, nor any of their own, but think that God will forgive and save them on course, without any more ado. Any way is their way to Heaven, and think their profaneness will no more put them by Heaven, than by their inheritances on earth. They can be rich and wicked, and honourable and wicked, and wise and wicked, and therefore can be wicked and go to Heaven.  
These are the Generation of men that Moses speaks of, That bless themselves in their heart, 
Deut. 29.19.  and say, we shall have peace though we walk in the imagination of our hearts, and add drunkenness to thirst. Like desperate Riders, that leave the high-way, and venture their bones and necks over hedge and ditch. Or as some say of Eels, that they are bread, from putrefaction rather than generation: So this generation of men conceit to get as near a passage to Heaven by profaneness as holiness: Tell not them either of imputed righteousness or inherent, they'l venture their own way. But it is as sure as the word of God is sure, that God will both keep these men out of Heaven; 
Rev. 21.27  There shall by no means enter any that work abominations; and will also blot out their names from under Heaven: no place but Hell is fit for them. The very ox and ass have better names on earth than they have, Isa. 1. and thus much for the use of Lamentation.  
2. This Doctrine is useful to exhortation, and that to two sorts of men: 
Ps. 69.27.  To those that have not come into this righteousness, as some such there are: And, To those that have attained to it, and know it, and would know it.  
To the first, I say two things.  
1. Seek this righteousness and none other, for your justification, and seek it till you get into such experimental acquaintance with it, as to know what you say when you speak of it: Seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof. No other righteousness can expiate thy sins, but Christ's; nor present thee without spot to God, but his. This is God's righteousness, therefore let it be thine: it's God's, because it is a righteousness of Gods ordaining, and because it is a righteousness of God's imputing, and because it is a righteousness of God's accepting. It's a sufficient righteousness to God, and it's a sufficient righteousness to the distressed case of a sinner: therefore seek this only; Oh get to speak that language, In the Lord have I righteousness, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. 
Isa. 45.24.   
There are many false righteousnesses, as there were many false Gods, even in the Church of God in the Old Testament, 
Math. 24.  and as there are many false Christs in the New. Then take heed of deceiving yourselves, or being deceived with a false righteousness.  
Men are exceeding apt to sit down in a self-righteousness, to warm themselves at the sparks of their own fire. 
Isa. 50. 1●.  It's as hard to bring men into a better opinion of anothers righteousness than of their own, 
2 King. 5.  as it was for Elisha to persuade Naaman into higher thoughts of the waters of Jordan, than of Abana and Pharphar in his own Country. It's hard for men to count those things which were, or, are gain to them, to be loss for Christ, as Paul did, Phil. 3. Men may be brought to give themselves lost, with their sins, but hardly with their righteousness.  
And therefore the Holy Ghost tells us, That it is the exceeding greatness of God's power, even the working of his mighty power, that power which raised Christ from the dead, when such a weight as the sins of the world, and the curse of the Law was upon him, to keep him under the power of death: I say, yea, the Spirit of God saith, it is such a power, 
Eph. 1.19.20.  and no less, that must make a sinner to believe in Christ for righteousness and life.  
How many set their tears, and sighs, and groans for sin, in Christ's stead, and in his righteousness its stead? and how many set their desires of grace, and their much praying and much hearing, and their dislike of evil ways, in this righteousness its stead? that do it, and think not that they do it. As the Assyrian had his Commission and Charge from the Lord, to make the great spoils he did; 
Isa. 10.5, 6, 7.  Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so.  
Indeed, these above-mentioned good and holy things, as sighs for sin, desires of grace, &c. are signs that follow them that believe in Christ for righteousness, but they are not the grounds of a man's expecting righteousness by Christ. These must be thine own nothingness and lost condition in thyself, and God's free-grace, and Jesus Christ in a free Promise. The justifying act of faith is laid on such ground-work as this; A man must be convinced of sin, and of his own unrighteousness: and now is the season for him to cast himself on Christ's righteousness, as it is freely offered him of God in his Gospel: as the season for diseased people to go into that pool, for healing, was when the Angel moved the water; 
Joh. 5.  so it is the proper season to fly to Christ for Sanctuary, when a sinner sees himself undone, in and by himself: And here is the justifying act of faith.  
Men have reason to suspect their faith, that is drawn out to Christ because of some self-worth: For true saving faith hath no footing to stand on, but free-grace, and Christ of free-gift. And look to it, for all other faith in Christ will fail you when it comes to the pinch, and when conscience does indeed want satisfaction. The greater confidence men have by a false, or though true, yet an insufficient faith, the greater will be their despair when the fallacy is seen. Oh take heed of this fallacy, beware of embracing blear-eyed Leah for beautiful Rachel.  
It's a dangerous thing to set up our own righteousness, and graces, and dutys, and works, as a qualification for our faith in Christ; this is but clarified poison. As God hangs the Earth upon nothing; 
Job 26.7.  so must we the righteousness of Christ upon our own nothingness. Grace and good works are not the way to our justification by Christ, though they are the way to Heaven.  
I cannot easily exceed in caution in this case; men may make other things besides Christ their righteousness, interpretatively on God's part, when they do it not intentionally on their own. As an eager man after riches, or honour, &c. he thinks not that he makes these his God, it is not his intention, and yet it is so in God's account, who calls covetousness, Idolatry 
Col. 3.5.  And many make their belly their God, that think not so. 
Phil. 3.19.  And so we may intend not to make any thing our righteousness but Christ, and yet may warp in practise. A man may be an Atheist in practise, that is not so in judgement, 
Tit. 1.16.  and so may he be a self-righteous man. Therefore let us take heed to our spirits in this point.  
2. Seek this righteousness of Christ in God's way of giving it, that is, by imputation; as he imputes it to him that believeth in Jesus, not to him that worketh: To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted, by God, for righteousness.  
We must look after this righteousness of Christ to be made ours, as it is offered of free-grace, and in a free-promise. Is it not a strange thing that a man should more easily believe in Christ when he can see some good in himself, than when he can see nothing but Christ in a free promise? yet it is so: as if something in himself, were better footing for faith in Christ, than God's free-grace, and free-offer of Christ and his righteousness to him, under the notion of a lost sinner.  
Oh how fast does this self stick to a man! but certainly the less we see in ourselves, the greater inducement it should be to cast ourselves on Jesus Christ. For what is it that can answer the Law, or our own accusing troubled conscience, or the Devils charge against us; but the righteousness of Christ made ours by free-grace? It was Christ that took off Satans Charge against Joshuah the Jews High-Priest. 
Zach. 3.2.  And Jesus Christ the righteous, 
1 Joh. 2.1.  is our advocate with the Father  
The righteousness of Christ is fitted to the sinners condition; it's open to Adam and his seed fallen, not standing. The Serpent was for the stung Israelites, and not the whole. A sinner as a sinner must take this righteousness, let his sins be as the sands, or Stars, or Crimson, or Scarlet; Christ's righteousness is fitted for such sinners when convinced and humbled: for that woman who has no other name given her by the Evangelist, 
Luke 7.  but a sinner.  
The Brazen Serpent was not lifted up for gnats, but the stinging of fiery Serpents. And Christ came to save, not only the less, 
1 Tim. 1.15.  but the chief of sinners. Christ did no petty cures, but such as Physicians could not do; as we see in the woman with the Issue of blood: 
Mam. 9. Math. 17.16. Rom. 5.20  and in the man's son whom the Disciples could not cure. Where sin abounds, Christ's righteousness is ordained to superabound. The way is opened to Christ for all sinners that come weary and burdened to him: 
Math. 11.28.  he bids none of them stand back: Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 
Joh. 6.37.  There is more danger of their missing this righteousness, that have something of their own to trust to, than of theirs who have nothing. 
Rom. 9.31, 32.  Christ sends the rich empty away. Fewer Scribes and Pharisees believed on Christ, 
Luke 1.  than Publicans and sinners.  
Remember then, that this is the Righteousness which ends all controversy betwixt God and a sinner, and between the Law and a sinner; and which also ends all quarrels in a poor sinners conscience. God says he is satisfied with this Righteousness, 
Isa. 42.21.  The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. And the Law is satisfied with this righteousness, 
Rom. 10.4  Christ is the end of the Law, for righteousness, to every one that believeth. And conscience saith, I am satisfied with this righteousness; Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, 
Rom. 5.1.  through our Lord Jesus Christ.  
A sleepy Conscience may be satisfied with self-Righteousness, but a waking conscience cannot. Therefore seek this righteousness of Christ, and seek it alone, in the case of justification, and seek it in God's way of giving it, scil. in the way of imputation, in the way of free-grace, and in a free-promise, without respect to any thing in yourselves. 
Rom. 3.24  We are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The  
2. Branch of Exhortation, is, to such as have the Righteousness of Christ made theirs, and know it, or would do so. And to such I say these things,  
1. Be sure to keep a distinction between Christ's imputed righteousness, and your own inherent, when you think of your discharge from sin, and being righteous before God. Remember, that Jacob put on his elder Brother's Garments, when he went to his Father for the blessing. 
Gen. 27.  And let me tell you, that, For a man to depend on his own Righteousness, is a greater sin than his unrighteousness is; for this is a sin against the Law, that against the Gospel. 
Heb. 2.3.  It is true, a godly man may and ought to approve himself to God, in the sincerity of his inherent grace and righteousness, and take much comfort when he can do so: So did St. Paul, This is our rejoicing, 
2 Cor. 1.12.  the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversation in this world: and he advised Timothy to study to approve himself to God. 
2 Tim. 2.15. Heb. 11.5.  And Enoch had this testimony, that he pleased God, in his walking.  
But then, though we please God, as our Father, with our graces, and the sincerity of our lives; yet we cannot satisfy his Justice with these as a Judge: We cannot bring these to God in the point of our justification. Bring Benjamin, 
Gen. 4●.  or else ye see not my face: So is it with us; if we bring not Christ and his righteousness made ours.  
God stands upon it, That we expect justification merely by his grace, and not our own. As in Naaman's free cure of his leprosy. Naaman would have given the Prophet gifts for his cure; but says he, As the Lord liveth, 
2 King. 5.16.  before whom I stand, I shall receive none. Men should therefore shun that patched righteousness and way of justification invented by the false Apostles in the holy Apostles days: as we see in St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, and Galatians. The Jews trusted to their own righteousness, and many mongrel Christians mixed Christ's and their own, jumbled the two Covenants together, half Christ, and half works, in the point of a sinners justification: Like those children of the Jews that married Wives of Ashdod; 
Nehem. 13.24.  they spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and half in the speech of the Jews. And thus do they of the Church of Rome, though many of them can speak purer Gospel when they come to die.  
We find in the Levitical Law, God would have no Honey used in Sacrifice to him: 
Lev. 2.11.  for though it be sweet, yet it breeds choler in the stomach. Thus God will have man's righteousness to have nothing to do in his justification; because though it be sweet and pleasant in its place, yet here it would swell and puff up.  
That was a brave speech of Luther's on the Galat. in this case, being rightly interpnted; Let Moses be dead and butted, and his Sepulchre never be found. His meaning I take to be, The exclusion of the works of Moses's Law, from the justification of a man, and from being his righteousness before God: according to that, Act. 13.39. And by him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the Law of Moses. But whether God did hint this to us in burying Moses's body himself, and concealing the place of his burial, I know not.  
Yet must we still be urged upon it, to keep up a distinction betwixt Christ's righteousness and our own, so as to see a need of his, when our own is nearest to perfection; and to see his as necessary when we are at the Achme of grace, as when we first came out of a state of nature. For surely we may expect it, That when we come to die we shall find we must have a stronger supporter to our hearts and hopes than inherent righteousness. If then we will ease our troubled minds, we must lean and lay our weight on the free-grace of God in Christ.  
And truly this is the way to avoid both Rocks and Sands, to escape the snare that is in our perfectest graces and dutys, and also to have comfort in our weakest. Their completed graces will not infect them with pride, and exalt them above measure, nor their lowest measures perplex them. For now, when they see themselves in themselves wretched, as Paul did, they can say with him, 
Rom. 7.24, 25.  We thank God for Jesus Christ, and here take Sanctuary. I close this first branch of Exhortation, with the words of David, and the Prophet Isaiah, as well becoming us; 
Ps. 71.16.  I will make mention of thy righteousness, of thine only: and, surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness, 
Isa. 45.24.  in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified.  
2. Let Christians who have attained to this righteousness, learn how to raise and extract strong consolation from it: and to take this as a Cordial in the droopings of their Souls by the remainders of sin; Christ the Lord our righteousness.  
Who are there among the Saints of God on Earth, but have experience more or less, what trouble of conscience is, and how weak a Cordial the best of their own is to their hearts at such a season. This made blessed Paul say, Not mine own righteousness, but that of God by faith in Christ. This is that that will raise up the most sinking spirits, and consciences most in despair. 
Rom. 4.5.  Its by this righteousness that God justifieth the ungodly.  
And God expresses two reasons why he justifies man by this righteousness, 
Rom. 3.27.  To exclude boasting; and to prevent terrors of conscience in his people, from their often sense of little grace, and much sin in themselves.  
Its this Righteousness that is the foundation of peace with God, 
Rom. 5.1.  and of peace in our own conscience: The terrors of conscience for sin are removed and abolished by the coming in of this righteousness, 
Heb. 10.2.  when applied and improved.  
It's true, that the sanctification of our natures and holiness of our lives, are a good Second; a secondary supporter of peace in our consciences; This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in this world. The Saints own righteousness and graces are amongst David's 30 Worthies, but none of the 3. They have not that sovereign power to pacify the disturbed conscience, as the Righteousness of Christ has.  
Saul had many Worthies in his Army, yet only David could encounter goliath: so there is worth and excellency in the inherent graces of Believers, and their personal righteousness; yet it is this imputed righteousness only that can encounter the charge of the Law, and of Satan, and of our own consciences. 
Rom. 8.33   
And truly this righteousness of Christ imputed to a Believer, and applied by him, makes his conscience like the Land of Canaan, a place of sweet rest and repose, the rest of God, as it is called. Now there is nothing but amicable carriage between God and the Soul. 
Heb. 3.  When Abraham was righteous by believing the promised seed, then he was called the friend of God: 
Jam. 2.23.  Abraham believed, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Yea, he was his bosom friend: Shall I hid from Abraham the thing that I do? 
Gen. 18.17.  Indeed the very scope of this imputed righteousness, is to remove all difference betwixt God and us. It is true, there is, Amor beneplaciti, A Love of good-will, which God bore to us before our actual justification; 
Ezek. 16.8.  even when we were in our blood. But his love of complacency and delight appears not till we have this righteousness on us: then it is, that we are beautiful in his eyes, even through his comeliness put upon us. 
Ezek. 16.14.  Now it is Christ speaks such language to his Spouse, Behold thou art fair, my Love, behold thou art fair; 
Cant. 4.1, 9.  Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.  
Now it is that there is that nearness to God; 
Ps. 148. 1●  A people near unto him. And now there is that mysterious Oneness between the Father, and Christ, and Believers: 
Joh. 14.20.  In that day ye shall kn●●●; that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. And now there may be as blessed interviews betwixt these, as was betwixt the Angel and Jacob, 
Gen. 32. Exod. 33.11.  and betwixt the Lord and Moses, and as will be between God and the Children of Israel in the latter days, mentioned by the Prophet, Hos. 3.3. I will be for thee, and thou shalt be for me. And now there may be the enjoyment of that communion and fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, 
1 Joh. 1.3.  that fills the heart with joy: And now a man may have that {αβγδ}, that boldness and liberty with God; In whom we have boldness and access with confidence, by the faith of him. 
Eph. 3.12.   
Remember then, that this righteousness of Christ imputed to the humble sinner, is a cure for all extremities of conscience. When a a poor soul says to itself, Shall such a wretch as I be justified before God? why, why not I? by this righteousness God justifieth the ungodly, i.e. objectively, when they are such, though they are not such after they are justified. And here's the Magazine of comfort for all Believers: The weak Believer has the same beauty and loveliness in him, in God's eye, by this righteousness, as the strongest: St. John's little Children, as much as his young Men and Fathers. And when once a man hath attained to this righteousness, it matters not whether he was a lesser or a greater sinner before. For how great a sinner soever a man hath been before his believing in Christ, for this righteousness of his, yet now he does believe, all his sins and unrighteousness is swallowed up into victory by it, even though he had been the chiefest of sinners: It was St. Paul's case.  
Now there are two things in this imputed righteousness which make it the spring of such strong consolation.  
1. It's everlasting righteousness, 
Dan. 9.24.  and so is a covering for sins to come. as well as past, 
Zach. 13.1  and therefore set out by a fountain.  
1. Adam's righteousness in innocency, and of the Angels too, was but Cisterns, apt to dry up; but Christs is Fountain-righteousness, and so everlasting righteousness; to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, in that place in the Prophet Daniel.  
That was a great miracle which the Lord did for the Children of Israel in the Wilderness, when their clothes waxed not old, in forty years space. 
Deut. 29.5.  But yet that was nothing to this everlasting righteousness which God imputes to Believers; this will never wax old: The Heavens will, Ps. 102.26. but this righteousness is as fresh as ever, and so will be for ever. 
Ps. 119.142.  Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. 
1 Joh. 2.1, 2. Heb. 9.24.  Though Christ was but once offered on earth, yet he is a continual sweet odour offered to God for us in Heaven.  
2. It's infinite righteousness, and this suits with the sinners state which needs infinite righteousness. The greatest sinner needs no more than this righteousness to justify him in the sight of God; and the least sinner needs as much: As, he that gathered much Manna had nothing over, 
Exod. 16.18.  and he that gathered little had no lack: The least sin is unpardonable without this righteousness, and the greatest sins are pardonable by it; except one, that against the Holy Ghost.  
Indeed, to think any sin is little, is a great sin, because the least sin must have this righteousness, this everlasting and infinite righteousness for a covering: And yet not to believe Christs righteousness is above all sin, is a greater sin: 
Rom. 5.20  For disobedience is the disobedience of man, but the obedience of Christ is the obedience of God-man. The sin of man is in finite only improperly, i.e. in respect of its object against whom it is committed, scil. God: but the obedience and righteousness of Christ is properly infinite, in respect of its subject, where it is, and by whom it was acted, even he that was God as well as man. The transgressor of the Law, was but man, but the satisfier of the Law was God also. And hereupon we are to make these three observations.  
1. The great honour done to the Law by this righteousness, that the Law should be so abundantly satisfied, as by the righteousness of such a person, as the Lord Jesus Christ.  
2. The great security of the humbled and believing sinner, who has such righteousness and obedience made over to him, as the righteousness of God; for so is this righteousness of Christ often called, and it is so indeed. Yea,  
3. God and Christ, and the Believer, and the Gospel, as well as the Law, 
Eph. 1.6.  gains by this way of a sinners being made righteous. As to God, it is to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein we are accepted in the beloved. And as to Christ, he is upon this account highly exalted, even in his human Nature, Phil. 
2 Cor. 3.8.& v. 9.  2.8, 9. And the Gospel is hereby made a glorious Gospel, and the ministration of the Spirit, and the ministration of righteousness which exceeds in glory. And as to the Believer, his condition is, and his comfort is wonderfully secured; besides his honour, in this point, above the Angels, to whom Christ is not made righteousness, as he is to men that believe.  
For as Christ took not on him the nature of Angels, 
Heb. 2.16.  but the seed of Abraham: so he puts not his righteousness on the Angels, but on the spiritual seed of Abraham. These are they that have white robes, 
Rev. 19.8.  which is the righteousness of the Saints.  
And then further consider, That the righteousness of Christ does not only cover the sins of Believers, but their righteousness too, that is, the imperfections of their graces, and duties, and works, and procures them acceptance with God. It does for them, what the sweet Frankincense in the Law did for the Sacrifices then, 
Lev. 2.  make them a sweet savour to Jehovah.  
We have cause indeed to mourn over our holy duties, and best works, as in themselves,& as from us, yet reason to rejoice in them, as veiled with this righteousness, which is for our duties, as well as our persons. 
Exod. 28.38.  This was shadowed by the plate of pure Gold, having engraven on it, Holiness to the Lord; and put upon the fore-head of Aaron, that he might bear the iniquity of the holy things of the Children of Israel, and that they might be accepted before the Lord. And that was the Antitype of this, the Apostle shows: 
Heb. 13.20, 21.  Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ. And it is by this righteousness that the Duties, and Works, and Graces of Believers shall appear to honour, 
1 Pet. 1.7.  and praise, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 
Math. 25.34, 35.  And upon the account of this imputed righteousness, the obedience of one Believer is more acceptable with God, than the obedience of all mankind in the first Covenant.  
Oh the wonderful satisfaction which a Believer may take in this righteousness! God doth: 
Isa. 42.21.  The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake: and well may we then. But how few do! and some of these few because they cannot; though they have attained to this righteousness, yet not to sense of it. All Believers have the same state of peace, because in the same state of justification; but yet not the same sense of peace. Though there be the same reason for it in respect of this righteousness, for it is a covering to the weakest, as well as the strongest believer: But all have not the assuring act of faith; for there may be faith where there is not sight: 
Heb. 11.1. 2 Cor. 5.7.  Faith is the evidence of things not seen, or felt.  
And the reason of this uncertainty in some of God's people, is, their listening to unjust Judges. Satan is a malicious judge, and he has influence sometimes upon poor souls to dazzle their evidence; and carnal reasoning, and self-imagination, and suppositions are erroneous Judges; and like ignes fatui, do make men they know not their way.  
Your appeals therefore must be to God in the case: 
Ps. 85.8.  I will harken what the Lord God shall speak. The Spirit must convince men of righteousness as well as of sin. 
Joh. 16.8.  It is not easy for a godly man to take in the comfort of a justified state. Presumers indeed take comfort easily, they catch at it before their time, as Saul would sacrifice before Samuel came, 
1 Sam. 13.  contrary to order. These are as bold in their claim of what is not yet theirs, 
1 King. 3.  as the Harlot was of the living Child. But true believers come hardly many times by their comfort and assurance, 
Act. 22.28  as that chief Captain did by his Roman freedom.  
They are sometimes in Jobs dissatisfaction, when he said, If I had called, and he had answered me, yet would I not believe that he had harkened to my voice. And David, though Nathan had  told him, that the Lord had put away his sin; 
2 Sam. 12.13.  yet he felt not the comfort of it; and therefore how did he pray and cry for pardon, 
Ps. 51.  and for the restoring of the joy of God's salvation.  
God will have his people know, that not only justification, 
2 Cor. 1.2, 3.  but the comfort of a justified state, is the free gift of God.  
Q. How may the evidence of the righteousness of Christ to be ours be come by?  
A. 1. By conviction of the Spirit.  
2. By the exercise of Faith.  
1. 
Joh. 16.8  By the conviction of the Spirit. And there is a twofold conviction of the Spirit in this case: First, that Christ hath such a righteousness for sinners, 
Joh. 16, 10.  which he proves by this, Because Christ is gone to the Father. Secondly, that this righteousness is imputed to us that believe. 
Rom. 4.5.  Though it be there written, yet the Spirit must convince us of it by a reflex act of Faith; and the Spirit has such an office as this: 
Joh. 16.14  He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you: and so that, 
1 Cor. 2.12.  We have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God.  
And this the Spirit doth in giving us the reflex act of faith; which is that assurance of faith, 2 Tim. 1.12. I know whom I have believed; 
1 Joh. 5.20.  and that, And hath given us an understanding to know him, and that we are in him. And thus the Spirit puts to silence all anxious disputes in the case. 
Luk. 11.13.& 24.49. Act. 1.4.  Oh pray, and wait for this conviction of the Spirit, if yet you have it not.  
2. The exercise of faith is necessary to our evidence of this righteousness to be ours. Faith is of necessary use to make it ours, and the exercise of faith is of necessary use to discover it to be ours. The use of faith is not only to bring us into a justified state, but also to give us the evidence and comfort of that state, which it must do by its much exercise. The Apostle saith, The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. 
Rom. 1.17  Justification requires faith, and the assurance of it, faith upon faith, and the full assurance of it, Heb. 10.20. the highest use of faith.  
Surely it's a thing to be lamented, that ancient and experienced Christians, who haply have been long in the possession of their justification, and yet are often questioning their title; this is by remitting the acts of Faith. Christ did not much for men and places, 
Math. 13.  where he found not faith. And he gives his Disciples this for the reason, why they could not heal the man's child, Because of their unbelief: 
Math. 17.20.  their faith was too low. And his words to them, 
Luk. 24.25.  may be often applied to us; Oh fools, and slow of heart to believe.  
Therefore when we fathom this depth, of our being made righteous by the righteousness of Christ made ours, and find our evidence shallow, as they found the Sea, Act. 27. we must do as they did, cast Anchor, and set faith a work hard on this righteousness of Christ offered a believing sinner in a free-promise.  
Q. But how may I know that I have this righteousness?  
A. Why, consider what are the concomitants and consequences of it; and if you have these, you have that.  
1. This righteousness ever throws down self-righteousness: 
Rom. 10.3 Phil. 3.6, 7  as where this righteousness is not attained, there self-righteousness is set up; 
1 Tim. 1.13.  so where it is, self-righteousness is cast out. 
Eph. 3.8.  It's plain in St. Paul, Phil. 3.8. Persons justified by free-grace lie low in themselves. 
Ezek. 16.63.  Poverty of spirit and habitual self-abasement, is very discernible in them.  
2. Imputed righteousness is ever accompanied with inherent, in capable subjects, Rom. 8.4. That the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us, 
1 Joh. 3.7.  who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit; and, he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is. No such friend to holiness, as this righteousness of freegrace. Where was there a holier man, in his days, than St. Paul, who was so much, and so experimentally versed in the imputed righteousness of Christ? Inherent holiness faces imputed righteousness, and receives life from it, as the Moon does light from the Sun.  
It's evident in the holy Scripture, that that faith that justifieth, makes pure work in men that have it; 
Act. 15.9.  Purifying their hearts by faith. St. Peter call● it precious faith: 
2 Pet. 1.1.  and it makes precious works where it is: and what precious work is there in a loose, carnal, drunken, worldly, mere formal Believer? Where this precious faith is, there will be precious things; a precious heart, a precious life, precious duties, a precious conversation, precious experiences, and precious enjoyments.  
And truly faith separated from these is but a larva or Ghost of faith: Like Saul's fulfilling the commandment of the Lord, though he had spared Agag, 
1 Sam. 15.  and the fat of the cattle. Loose believers bring up an ill report of this Doctrine of imputed righteousness, 
Num. 13.26.  as the spies did of the Land of Canaan, and make it of an ill savour with Antichristian unbelievers; as Simeon and Levi did their Father and his Family amongst the Inhabitants of the Land; 
Gen. 34.30.  and as the wickedness of the Sons of Eli made the Offering of the Lord abhorred of the people. 
1 Sam. 2.17.   
The 2. of St. James, and other parallel places of the Word of God, may gripe the consciences of such believers, whose faith is without works, unless dead works, 
Eph. 4.19.  and works of darkness, and unless their consciences be dead also.  
Faith and good works are like Saul and Jonathan, 
2 Sam. 1.  as David said of them, Lovely and not divided, i.e. in their existence, though they be in their office. Therefore those Christians that divide justifying faith and holiness of life, do as Jeroboam did in dividing the ten Tribes from the two. Christs righteousness on us hath a righteousness in us, wrought by his Spirit to attend it.  
This righteousness of Christ imputed to men, 
Rev. 22.2.  is like that three of Life, which bare divers manners of fruit, and that every Month, and whose leaves were for the healing of the Nations. This three of Life is the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his merit and spirit converts Heathens into Saints, and makes Saints bring forth the saving fruits of righteousness, Phil. 1.11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, which are unto the glory and praise of God. The Woman that is joined to a man, is one flesh, 
1 Cor. 6.16, 17. Phil. 2.5.  and the man that is joined to Christ, is one spirit; The same mind is in him which was in Christ Jesus: And he is in his desire and endeavour of the same manner of life, 
1 Joh. 2.6.  for obedience to the will of God.  
3. Use. Let this new and strange way of Gods justifying us, even when we were ungodly, teach and move us to justify God in the strangest of his providences to ourselves, or towards his Church. Christ justified us when we were at worst; and why then should not we justify the worst of Christ, even his across and Sufferings from offence and scandal? His righteousness makes our persons and performances, 
Rev. 8.3, 4  though full of imperfections, sweet and lovely unto God. And let the thoughts of this make our sufferings for him, with all their bitterness, lovely to us: so they were to blessed Paul; I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, 
2 Cor. 12.10.  in persecutions, in distresses for Christ. I say it again, Let God's justifying of us by this righteousness of Christ, make us so ingenuous, as in our hardest conditions to justify him.  
And, lastly, This Doctrine is a reason of a Believer's everlasting thankfulness to God and Christ, both on Earth and in Heaven: That when we were in our blood, and cast out to the loathing of our persons, that then he should spread his skirts over us, 
Ezek. 16.8. Rom. 4.5.  to cover our nakedness: That he should justify us when ungodly. Let us therefore consider, that God hath ordained our justification by a righteousness of his own, and out of us, that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord: 
1 Cor. 1.31  For of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness, that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord: and, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, 
Isa. 45.25.  and shall glory. And that new song the Saints sing to the Lamb is on this account. 
Rev. 5.9.   
The riches of God's free-graces are transparent through this righteousness of Christ made ours. As David's Royal Spirit was seen, when he said to Araunah, 
2 Sam. 24.  I will not offer of that which cost me nothing: So is God's royal love to Believers transparent in this, That he would not save us in a way that cost him nothing: Our justification is the price of his own blood; 
Act. 20.28  so Christ's blood is called. And now if we love not God and Christ for this righteousness, what will we love them for? because of this righteousness let us glory in the Lord, and glorify his free and rich grace for ever and ever.  
Oh let this Doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness feed us with admiration. That the Lord should give his dear and only Son, this Name, The Lord our righteousness, for our sakes: and that we should have such near relation to him, by espousals and union with him, that we should also be called by this his Name, The Lord our righteousness. 
Jer. 33.16  That this righteousness should justify us when we were ungodly, 
Rom. 4.5.  and cover our nakedness when we were in our blood: That it should be appointed to make our weak graces and duties, 
Ezek. 16.8  even full of imperfections, a sweet savour unto God: 
Eph. 1.6.  That it should be a strong guard to our consciences from despair: 
Heb. 10.2.  That it should exalt our natures above the nature of Angels: That it should be such a Magazine of comfort to us: Oh let these things fill us with admiration, and let every soul that hath attained to this righteousness, say of it those exalting words, Psal. 87.7. All my springs are in thee.  
FINIS.