EXPLICATION.

All who are effectually called, are justified: Rom, viii. 30, "Whom he called, them he also justified." The justifying of a person doth never, in the Scripture sense of the word, signify, to make one righteous with inherent righteousness or holiness: but commonly and ordinarily it signifies, to declare one righteous: Exod. xxiii. 7, "Keep thee far from a false matter: and the innocent and the righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked." Compared with Rom. iv. 5, " To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Prov. xvii. 15, "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.” Isa. v. 23, "Wo unto them which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him." The justifying of a person sometimes signifies, to shew one righteous: Job xxxiii. 32, "If thou hast any thing to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee." Chap. xxxii. 2, "Against Job was Elihu's wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God." Gen. xliv. 16, "And Judah said, How shall we clear ourselves?" &c. Luke xvi. 15, "And he said unto the Pharisees, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts." Rev. xxii. 11, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still-and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still." Now, since God justifying a sinner cannot be shewing him righteous in his sight, it must be declaring him righteous in his sight. Wherefore our justification is not a change of our nature, but of our state. The state a sinner is brought out of, in his justification, is the state of condemnation: Rom. viii. 33, 34, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth?" Compared with ver. 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." All men, before they are justified, are in a state of condemnation: John iii. 18, "He that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Compared with Rom. v. 1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." And they are so, in virtue of the curse of the law still lying on them: Gal. iii. 10," Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Compared with Rom. iii. 19, "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." But sinners are, in their justification, delivered from the curse: Gal. iii.

13,"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." Compared with Rom. viii. 33, 34, forecited. And the curse never returns upon them thereafter, Rom. viii. 1, forecited. Isa. liv. 9, "As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth: so bave I sworn, that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee."

Justification is not a work carried on by degrees, but an act perfected in an instant: John v. 24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Compared with Rom. i. 17, "The just shall live by faith." A sinner is justified in the first instant of his believing on Christ, and not before, Rom. v. 1, forecited. Chap. iii. 22,"The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe." John iii. 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."

Justification is the act of God himself: and in it he acts in the character of a judge: Rom. viii. 33, 34, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? it is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth: Compared with Deut. xxv. 1, "If there be a controversy between men, and they come into judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked." The throne of judgment on which God justifies a sinner, is his throne of grace: Heb. iv. 16, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." And he is to be found on that throne only in Christ: 2 Cor. v. 19, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." The sinner is brought, for justification, unto the throne of grace, by the Spirit in effectual calling: 1 Cor. vi. 11, “And such were some of you :-but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." The poor sinner comes unto the throne of grace, on that occasion, a guilty, self-condemned, and law-condemned creature: Ezra ix. 15, "O Lord God of Israel, behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee, because of this." Rom. iii. 19, forecited., vers. 23, 24, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ." A law-condemned sinner can be justified by a holy God there, by an act of free grace.

Our justification is an act of God's free grace: And by God's free

grace is meant, his free favour and good-will. Howbeit, it is an act of free grace, not in respect of Christ, but in respect of us, Rom. iii. 23, 14, above cited. It is purely an act of free grace to us, insomuch that we are justified before we have done any good work at all: Rom. iv. 5, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

The parts of the act of our justification, passed by God the righteous judge, are two; namely, his pardoning all our sins, and his accepting us as righteous in his sight.

Pardon of sin is the freeing of the sinner from the guilt of his sin : Matth. vi. 12," And forgive us cur debts, as we forgive our debtors." The guilt of sin that lies upon us, till such time as we are justified, is the guilt of revenging wrath, John iii. 18, forecited, ver. 36, "He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." The pardon, then given to a sinner in justification, is the freeing him from the guilt of the revenging wrath of God, formerly lying on him: Job. xxxiii. 22, " Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers." Ver. 24, "Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom." John v. 24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." And the sinner once justified, can never fall under the guilt of revenging wrath again: Rom. viii. 1, 33, 34; John v. 24; Isa. liv. 9, forecited. Now, in our justification God pardons us all our sins, past and present: Mic. vii. 19, "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Col. ii. 13, "And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Rom. iv. 7, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." And the state we are put into, with respect to after sins, is, that God will not impute them, as to the guilt of revenging wrath: Rom. iv. 6, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works." Ver. 8, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." The procuring cause of the direct pardon of the one, and of the not imputing of the other, is the righteousness of Christ upon us: Rom. iii. 22,"The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." Compared with Gal. iii. 13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." The guilt which the justified do incur by their after sins, is the guilt of fatherly anger: Psalm lxxxix. 30, 31, 32, 33, "If his children forsake my law, and walk

not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." Acceptance with God in justification, is not the acceptance of our works, but of our persons: Eph. i. 6, “He hath made us accepted in the beloved." Compared with Rom. iii. 28, "Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." No work of ours can ever be accepted of God, in point of justification: Gal. ii. 16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ: Even we have believed in Jesus Christ; that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Nor can any work of ours be accepted in any case, till once we are justified: Heb. xi. 6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Gen. iv. 4, 5, "And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect." Compared with Heb. xi. 4, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts." God's acceptance of our persons in justification, is his accepting us unto eternal life, adjudging it to us: Rom. v. 17, "They which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." Ver. 18, "By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Tit. iii. 7, "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Hab. ii. 4, "The just shall live by his faith." He accepteth us unto eternal life, as persons righteous in his sight, Rom. v. 17, 18, above cited. Ver. 19, 66 "By the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous." Ver. 21, "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." Gal. iii. 11, "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, "The just shall live by faith." Compared with verse 12, "And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doth them, shall live in them." By the righteous in God's sight, is meant persons truly righteous in law, in the view of his piercing eye: Gen. vii. 1, "And the Lord said unto Noah,-Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." 2 Cor. v. 21, "God hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." And they are persons truly righteous in law, who have a righteousness fully

answering the demands of the law for righteousness: Phil. iii. 9, "And be found in him, 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." Rom. viii. 3, 4, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

As to what we are justified for; we are justified "only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone." One coming unto the throne of grace, a law-condemned sinner, is capable of being justified there, pardoned and accepted, as truly righteous, inasmuch as uniting us with Christ there, Christ's righteousness is his, and upon him that moment: Phil. iii. 9, forecited. Rom. iii. 22, "The righteousness of God is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference."

That for which God justifies us, is not any thing wrought in us, or done by us: Tit. iii. 5, "Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Eph. i. 7, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." But it is "the righteousness of Christ imputed to us :" Phil. iii. 9, "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." Compared with Rom. iv. 6, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works." And it is his righteousness only, without any mixture of righteousness inherent in us: Rom. v. 18, 19, forecited. The righteousness of Christ for which we are justified, is not his essential righteousness, which he had from eternity; but his mediatory righteousness which he fulfilled in his state of humiliation: Matth. iii. 15, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." The parts whereof that righteousness of Christ consists, are, the complete holiness of nature, righteousness of his life, and satisfaction of his sufferings: Heb. vii. 26, "For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners." Rom. v. 19, "By the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous." Phil. ii. 7, 8, "Christ Jesus made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion