fied; and his defign in particular in these words, is, by representing the strictness of the terms of the law, to pave the way for what he had to offer at large concerning the gofpel-method of juftification by the righteousness of Chrift, and the free grace of God in and through him. And as our own duties and works cannot justify us; So neither

2. Is there any thing in our sufferings, that can avail for this purpose. It is true, that immediately upon our failure in that debt of obedience, which we owe to the law of God, another debt takes place, a debt of fufferings. But who can bear the penalty of a broken law, and live? Will not that, where it lights for ever weigh down the finner, and overwhelm him in everlasting mifery? The damned in hell, who are paying this debt, well know they can never can be difcharged from the arrest of justice under which they are laid, because they can never come to the end of payment, Matt. v. 26. Juftice will still have farther and farther demands upon them; and when millions of years are rolled away in the moft exquifite torments, an eternity of fufferings will be ftill to come. And the reafon of this is plain, because as there is an infinite evil in fin, as being committed againft a God of infinite Majefty and Glory, the punishment to which it fubjects the finner, muft likewife be infinite: Moft certainly, in the future and eternal state, the punishment of fin will be exactly proportionate to the demerit of it. But because the fufferings of a finite creature cannot be infinite in degree or value, they muft be infinite in duration. Hence we read, and the folemn

folemn truth is fo often repeated, that their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. and the wicked are faid to go away into everlasting punishment, Matt. xxv. 46. and the fmoke of their torment afcendeth up for ever and ever, Rev. xiv. 11.

And let me farther obferve, that if the damned in hell cannot by their unconceivable torments fo fatisfy the law and juftice of God for fin, as to obtain a difcharge, what a fond imagination must it be that any of the afflictions and fufferings of the prefent life can be available for this purpofe? O! Surely, may fome foolish ig-. norant people be ready to fay, I am feeling fo much, and fuffering fo much here there will be nothing for me to fuffer hereafter. There is fo much gall and wormwood in my cup, and I am exercised with fo many afflictions and forrows, that furely the bitterness of death must be paft! But let me ask fuch vain dreamers, whether they fuffer more than they have deserved? or whether they imagine, their fufferings can do that for them, which the fufferings of the damned in hell cannot do for them? The fuffering of the damned cannot wipe out their debt, nor procure their discharge; what is there then in thine that they should be an atonement and fatisfaction for thy fins? And we know what estimate the Apostle made of his afflictions, that were fo many and heavy, Rom. viii. 18. He was far from efteeming them either fatisfactory to divine juftice, or meritorious of the divine favour. Indeed, if thy afflictions are fanctified, they will prove faving, but never fatisfactory to law and justice: If they fubdue thy pride, and humble

thee

thee down at the foot of God; if they divorce thy affections from a vain and empty world, mortify thy corruptions, and form thee into the divine image and likeness; if they drive thee out of the creature, and put of thyfelf, bring thee meekly to fubmit to God's correcting hand, and quicken thee in thy applications to the Lord Jefus Chrift, whose grace alone can fupport and comfort thee under all thy trials; in thefe and fuch like inftances afflictions work for good, and thou shalt have eternal reafon to blefs God for them, as the Apostle obferves, that' our light ' affliction which is but for a moment, worketh 'for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 'of glory,' 2 Cor. iv. 17. But ftill is all owing to what Chrift hath done and fuffered; whilst his righteoufnefs is our only protection from wrath, and his merit our only title to life and glory. But then,

3. And lastly, Faith, fome may think, is under the gofpel our justifying righteousness; what fucceeds in the new covenant in the room of that perfect obedience, which was required in the covenant of works, and is, according to the gracious and milder terms thereof, what we are now to plead and truft in for our justification in the fight of God: for what faith the fcripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted 'unto him for righteoufnefs-And the fcrip'ture forefaw, that God would juftify the Hea'then by faith and being juftified by faith 'we have peace with God,' &c. &c.

Indeed, the doctrine of justification by faith a great and glorious truth, and of utmost importance in the gospel scheme. The fcripture is

'more

more clear and exprefs in no one article than in this, and it is readily granted that there can be no juftification without faith. But I could never fee any reafon to depart from the old established doctrine of the reformation, that faith juftifies only inftrumentally, relatively, or objec. tively; that is, that it is not faith, itself which juftifies us, but the object of faith, that righteoufnefs which faith apprehends, to which faith relates, and which it always eyes and pleads for this purpose. Or elfe, that it is in believing that that righteoufnefs, in and for which we are juftified, terminates upon us, upon believing God imputes it, and in believing we receive it. Nor, indeed, can I fee, how it is poffible to exclude fuch relation and refpect of faith to the righteoufnefs of Chrift as our only justifying righteoufnefs, and fubftitute faith or any thing elfe in the room of it, fo that that shall be the matter and cause of our juftification, without bringing in a juftification by our own righteousness and works against which the Apoftle argues with fo much force and evidence in his epiftles to the Romans and Galatians. For if faith itself were the matter and cause of our juftification, it must be as one has well obferved, "either as it is an habit

or as it is an act. Not as an habit," or as being the great vital principle of holiness and new obedience," for fo it is an eminent branch of the " righteousness of fanctification, and to be juftified by faith, confidered in this view, would be to be juftified by our own inherent righteoufnefs. "Nor as it is an act, so that the act of believing is imputed to us for righteoufnefs.

nefs. For fo it is a work, that co-incides with doing, and is an effential and leading duty of the moral law, John vi. 29. 1 John iii. 23. and to be juftified by faith, confidered in this view, would be to be justified by works †. And indeed there needs no new law to make faith in Chrift a duty, to believe in God, which way foever he fhall reveal himself, being an everlasting duty of the moral law. Betides, Faith is plainly distinguished from that righteousnefs, by which we are juftified, Phil. iii. 9. Rom. iii. 22. and we are faid, to receive the gift of righteousness,

E

the

*The very act of faith, fays Dr. Whitby, and not the object of it, viz. Chrift's righteoufnefs, was imput ed to Abraham, and is imputed to us for righteoutness. See on Rom. iv, 23. and Gal. iii. 6.

† Dr. Goodwin, in anfwer to the queftion, whether it be the act of faith that juftifies, or that is accounted a man's righteoufnefs, fays, Surely no, for God might have took works as well; if he would have took it as an act, he might have took any act, love itfelt. That great man farther adds, "There is this reafon lies in the bottom of my fpirit against it, befides all that elie "the fcripture faith againft it: That if when I go to God to be juftified, I must prefent to him my believ"ing, as the matter of my righteoufaefs, and only "Chrift's death as the merit of it, what will follow? Two things plainly to me: First, that the heart is "taken off from looking upon the righteoufness of "Chrift wholly, and diverteth to its own righteoufnefs "in the very act of believing for righteoufnefs. Secondly, every man that will believe to be juftified,

and go to God, and say, Lord juftify me: He mult "have an evidence that he hath faith, for how elfe can he prefent that as the matter of his own righteouf"nefs? Now millions of fouls cannot do this, they were in a poor cafe, if they fhould be put to it." Vol. I. Part ii. Page 301.

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