of Christ is the whole and sole foundation of all our hope. It is by faith that the Holy Ghost enables us to build upon this foundation. God gives this faith in that moment we are accepted of God; and yet, not for the sake of that faith, but of what Christ has done and suffered for us. You see each of these has its proper place, and neither clashes with the other; we believe, we love, we endeavour to walk in all the commandments of the Lord blameless; yet,

"While thus we bestow

Our moments below,
Ourselves we forsake,

And refuge in Jesus's righteousness take.

His passion alone,

The foundation we own;

And pardon we claim,

And eternal redemption, in Jesus's name."

I therefore no more deny the righteousness of Christ than I deny the Godhead of Christ; and a man may full as justly charge me with denying the one as the other. Neither do I deny imputed righteousness: this is another unkind and unjust accusation. I always did, and do still continually affirm, that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to every believer.-Sermons, vol. i, pp. 171-174.

SECTION V.

The Saviour of Men.

In this state we were, even all mankind, when "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end we might not perish, but have everlasting life." In the fulness of time he was made man, another common head of mankind, a second general parent and representative of the whole human race. And as such it was that "he bore our griefs," "the Lord laying upon him the ini

quities of us all." Then was he "wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." "He made his soul an offering for sin ;" he poured out his blood for the transgressors; he "bare our sins in his own body on the tree," that by his stripes we might be healed: and by that one oblation of himself, once offered, he hath redeemed me and all mankind; having thereby "made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world."

In consideration of this, that the Son of God hath "tasted death for every man," God hath now "reconciled the world to himself, not imputing to them their former trespasses." And thus, “as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification." So that for the sake of his well beloved Son, of what he hath done and suffered for us, God now vouchsafes, on one only condition, (which himself also enables us to perform,) both to remit the punishment due to our sins, to reinstate us in his favour, and to restore our dead souls to spiritual life, as the earnest of life eternal.

This is the general ground of the whole doctrine of justification. By the sin of the first Adam, who was not only the father, but likewise the representative of us all, we all fell short of the favour of God; we all became children of wrath; or, as the apostle expresses it, "judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Even so, by the sacrifice for sin made by the second Adam, as the representative of us all, God is so far reconciled to all the world that he hath given them a new covenant; the plain condition whereof being once fulfilled, "there is no more condemnation" for us, but "we are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ." Sermons, vol. i, p. 46.

SECTION VI.

The Author of eternal Life.

"HE is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." He is the purchaser of that "crown of life," which will be given to all that are "faithful unto death." And he will be the soul of all their joys to all the saints in glory.

"The flame of angelical love

Is kindled at Jesus's face;
And all the enjoyment above

Consists in the rapturous gaze."

The thing directly intended is not that he is the resurrection: although this also is true, according to his own declaration, "I am the resurrection and the life :" agreeably to which are St. Paul's words, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." So that we may well say, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who-hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away."

But waiving what he will be hereafter, we are here called to consider what he is now. He is now the life of every thing that lives, in any kind or degree. He is the source of the lowest species of life; that of vegetables; as being the source of all the motion on which vegetation depends. He is the fountain of the life of animals; the power by which the heart beats, and the circulating juices flow. He is the fountain of all the life which man possesses, in common with other animals. And if we distinguish the rational from the animal life, he is the source of this also.

But how infinitely short does all this fall of the life which is here directly intended, and of which the apostle

speaks so explicitly in the preceding verses, (ver. 11, 12:) "This is the testimony, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; [the eternal life here spoken of;] and he that hath not the Son [of God] hath not [this] life." As if he had said, This is the sum of the testimony which God hath testified of his Son, that God hath given us, not only a title to, but the real beginning of eternal life: and this life is purchased by, and treasured up in his Son: who has all the springs and the fulness of it in himself, to commucate to his body, the church.

This eternal life then commences when it pleases the Father to reveal his Son in our hearts; when we first know Christ, being enabled to "call him Lord by the Holy Ghost;" when we can testify, our conscience bearing us witness in the Holy Ghost, "The life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." And then it is that happiness begins; happiness real, solid, substantial. Then it is that heaven is opened in the soul, that the proper heavenly state commences, while the love of God, as loving us, is shed abroad in the heart, instantly producing love to all mankind; general pure benevolence, together with its genuine fruits, lowliness, meekness, patience, contentedness in every state; an entire, clear, full acquiescence in the whole will of God; enabling us to " rejoice evermore, and in every thing to give thanks."

As our knowledge and our love of him increase, by the same degrees, and in the same proportion, the kingdom of an inward heaven must necessarily increase also; while we "grow up in all things into Him who is our head." And when we are εν αυτῷ πεπληρωμενοι, complete in him, as our translators render it; but more properly, when we are filled with him; when "Christ is in us, the hope of glory," is our God and our all; when he has taken the full pos

session of our heart; when he reigns therein without a rival, the Lord of every motion there; when we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us, we are one with Christ, and Christ with us; then we are completely happy; and then we live "all the life that is hid with Christ in God." Then, and not till then, we properly experience what that word meaneth: "God is love: and whosoever dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him."-Sermons, vol. ii, pp. 180, 181.

THE person by whom God will judge the world is his only begotten Son, whose " goings forth are from everlasting;" ;" "who is God over all, blessed for ever." Unto Him, being "the outbeaming of his Father's glory, the express image of his person," Heb. i, 3, the Father "hath committed all judgment, because he is the Son of Man,” John v, 22, 27; because, though he was "in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he emptied himself, taking upon him the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men," Phil. ii, 6, 7: yea, because "being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, [yet further,] becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him," even in his human nature, and “ordained him," as man, to try the children of men, "to be the judge both of the quick and dead;" both of those who shall be found alive at his coming, and of those who were before gathered to their fathers.-Sermons, vol. i, pp. 127, 128.