Gal. iv. 4. 5. " made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.”

Sixthly, It implies, that the holy law is no lofer by Chrift's fubftitution in our room; no, it has all that it demanded in order to its fatisfaction. Did the law demand holinefs, and perfect holiness, in our nature? Well, it hath its demand in Chrift, for he was originally holy; he is without the stain or defilement of original fin: "That holy thing which shall be born of thee fhall be called the Son of God," Luke i. 35. "He was holy, harmless, undefiled, feparate from finners." Did the law demand perfect obedience unto its commands? Well, that it hath in Chrift; for he fulfilled all righteousness. "He did no violence, neither was guile found in his mouth." Did the law demand fatisfaction to juftice, or the execution of its penalty? Well, it hath its demand in him: for "he was wounded for our tranfgreffions; the juft fuffered for the unjuft, that he might bring us to God." Thus the law lofes nothing by Chrift's fubftitution, but hath all that it required.

Seventhly, It implies, that the holy law, inftead of being a lofer, gains an additional honour and glory by the righteoufnefs of the Surety. Never had the law fuch a fubject before, as its own Lord who made it. Suppose the finless obedience of Adam and all his pofterity, and the obedience of all the angels in heaven, and of all creatures were put together, and this obedience continued through eternity, yet this could not magnify the law, or make it honourable; because the obedience of creatures is nothing but what they owe in justice to the law of their great Creator: But here we have the great Lord of angels and men, whofe will is a law to them all, yielding obedience to the law in our room: This furely adds a new luftre and an additional glory to the law, which it never had before. And thus you fee what is implied in Cbrift's magnifying the law, and making it honourable.

ISA.

ISA. xlii. 21.-The Lord is well pleafed for his righteousness fake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

THE SECOND SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

IV. THE fourth thing in the method was to inquire, How To is it that Chrift magnifies the law, and makes it

honourable?

Now, for clearing this matter, I would have you to confider, that the moral law comes under a twofold confideration; it may be confidered as a covenant, and as a rule of life. As a covenant, promifing the reward of life eternal to every one that yields a perfect obedience to its commandments, and threatening death eternal to every one that fails in the performance of this condition: or it may be confidered as a rule of obedience, fimply prefcribing the duty which the rational creature owes unto God, its great Creator, and Preferver, and Benefactor, without any promife of life or threatening of death annexed to it, which gives it its covenant form. Now, Chrift magnified the law, and made it honourable, under both thefe views and confiderations.

Firft, As a covenant, he magnifies it, and makes it honourable; and this he did, by fulfilling all its demands. As I hinted already, there were three things which the law infists upon from fallen man, by virtue of the covenant-tranfaction between God and Adam in a state of innocency. 1. Holiness of nature. 2. Righteoufnefs of life. 3. Satisfaction for fin and difobedience: None of which we are in the leaft capable to afford; but every one of them is completely afforded in Chrift.

1. I fay, the law, as a covenant, demands of us a perfe& holiness and rectitude in our very natures. This God gave unto Adam in innocency; for he made him upright after his own image. This uprightness and integrity of nature was quite loft by the fall; we are "conceived in fin, and shapen in iniquity: the whole head is fick, and the whole heart faint from the fole of the foot, even unto the head, there is nothing but wounds, and bruifes, and putrifying fores." Hence we are 66 by nature the children of wrath :" fo that the law cannot find a holy, pure, and innocent nature, among

any fprung of Adam by natural generation. But this demand of the law is fulfilled in Chrift, the fecond Adam, as the public head and reprefentative of his fpiritual feed; for "he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghoft, in the womb of the virgin, and born of her without fin :" Luke i. 35. "That holy thing which fhall be born of thee." That holy thing, that is, that innocent human nature which shall be born of thee. Heb. vii. 26. He is "holy, harmless, undefiled, feparate from finners." The law requires of every fon of Adam, that he should have a nature as upright and holy as that which he received from God, the great Lawgiver, at his creation. This is abfolutely impoffible for us to give, but it is found in Chrift; for in him the human nature is also restored unto its integrity and perfection; and every believer being in him, as their public head and representative, they are in the reckoning of the law born holy in Chrift, the fecond Adam, even as they were created holy in the first Adam. Hence believers are faid to be complete in him, Col. ii. 10. They have a complete holiness of nature in him. This, according to the demand of the law, is continued in Chrift for the law not only demands that our nature should be holy, but that we fhould perfevere and continue in this condition. Now, this demand of the law is fully answered in Chrift; for in him our nature continues to be perfectly holy for ever, however unholy it may be in us, perfonally cr abstractly confidered: and God looking upon our nature, as it is in him, not as it is in us, fees us altogether fair and perfect in holiness in him, not in the leaft marred: according to what we have, Cant. iv. 7. "Thou art all fair, my love, there is no fpot in thee." And thus, this firft demand of the law is fulfilled in Chrift, as to the perfect holiness of our nature.

2. The law not only demands a perfect holiness of nature, but also a perfect and finlefs obedience of life. The language of the law, as a covenant, unto all the fons of Adam, is, "He that doth these things fhall live by them. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." We must "continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." But now this demand of the law cannot be answered or fulfilled by us; for no mere man, fince the fall, is able perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed: Our nature, as you were hearing, being wholly corrupted, every thought and imaë gination is evil only and continually. Now, although this active, perfect obedience by the law, cannot be yielded by any of mankind, defcending from Adam by natural generation; VOL. III.

Cc

yet

yet it hath its demand from Christ, our glorious Surety, Head, and Representative. The law required of us, that our obedience fhould be univerfal, perfect, and conftant: thefe are all to be found in the obedience our Surety yielded unto it. For,

(1.) His obedience to the law as our Surety is univerfal; all things written in the book of the law must be obeyed: if there be the leaft failure of obedience as to any one jot, or any the leaft of its commandments, it lays the man under the curfe. Now, I fay, Chrift did every thing that the law required; he fulfilled all righteoufnefs; he did "no violence, neither was guile found in his mouth."

(2.) His obedience to the law was every way perfect as to the manner. The law required that we not only do every thing that it requires, but that we "love the Lord, and ferve him, with all the heart, and with all the foul, and with all the ftrength, and with all the mind, and our neighbour as ourfelves." Oh! who among all Adam's race can obey and love the Lord after this manner? Well, but this is done in Chrift: love to God and man fhined to its perfection in him, and in the whole course of his obedience.

(3.) His obedience was conftant, and continued unto the very end. Thus the law required that we fhould not only do all things, but " continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Man "being in honour continueth not ;" and in the best state, in his best frames, cannot continue in fuch an univerfal and perfect obedience, as the law requires, for one moment; but Chrift, our glorious Surety, continued in an univerfal and perfect obedience to the very end; from his birth to the grave; from his womb to the tomb. Hence we are told, Philip. ii. S. That he was obedient to death; and John xvii. That he finished the work which the Father gave him to do. Thus you fee the law is magnified and made honourable, as to this demand of righteoufnefs of life, in Chrift our glorious Surety: and this is what divines commonly call his active obedience.

3. Another thing that the law demands of fallen man, is a complete fatisfaction unto justice, in confequence of the penalty or fentence of the law; "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou fhalt furely die." The veracity and faithfulness of God. was engaged in this threatening, and juftice ftood upon its execution, infomuch that without death, or fhedding of blood, there could be no remiffion of fin. Now, fuppofing that the threatening of death temporal, fpiritual, and eternal, had been executed upon Adam and his pofterity for ever, the law and juftice of God would have been glerified in our ruin; but yet it could never have been faid, that the law and justice of

God

God were fatisfied, far lefs could they have been magnified and made honourable: but by the death and fufferings of the Son of God in our room and ftead, the penalty of the law is fo fulfilled, and the justice of God fo fully fatisfied, that the Lord Jehovah declares himself well pleased for his righteousness fake, the law being thereby magnified and made honourable. It was the man who is God's fellow, and who thinks "it not robbery to be equal with God," who became a curfe and a facrifice for us. The best blood of the whole creation goes for the fatisfaction of law and justice. And thus you

fee how all the demands of the law are fatisfied to the full in Chrift and thus he magnifies the law to the full as a co

venant.

Secondly, Chrift magnifies the law, not only as a covenant, but likewife as a rule of life, and this he doth feveral ways.

i. By writing a fair copy of obedience to it, in his own example, for the imitation of all his followers. Chrift calls the law, as a rule of obedience, his yoke, "Take my yoke upon you;" and to make the yoke eafy to his friends, he firft wears it, and fmoothes it himself, that it might not gall their necks; hence we are told, that he has left "us an example that we fhould follow his steps ;" and we are fo to walk even as he walked, to follow him, and to run our race looking unto him, as our glorious Pattern of obedience. We must be holy, "as he that hath called us is holy."

2. By explaining it in its utmost extent, for as David tells us," it is exceeding broad." The Jewith doctors, in order to establish a righteoufnefs of their own, they pared off the fpirituality of the law, and confined the meaning of it to the bare letter; but Chrift, in his fermon upon the mount, vindicates the law from thefe narrow and corrupt gloffes, and lays it open in its extent and fpirituality, fhewing, that the law of God not only concerned the external man, or overt acts of the life, but reached the heart, and the innermoft receffes of the foul, as you fee, Matth. v. where he tells them, that rafh anger was murder in the eye of the holy law, and that a lafcivious look towards a woman was heart-adultery, and the like.

3. By establishing the obligation of it as a rule of obedience unto all his followers. Although indeed he diffolves the obligation of it as a covenant to all believers, fo as they are neither to be justified nor condemned by it, yet he establishes it, I fay, as a rule of duty even to believers, as well as others, "Think not that I am come to deftroy the law or the prophets, nay, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil it," Matth. v. 17.

Rom: