sanctification. And faith receives and rests on him alone for all these, 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

him, thereupon, in his fight. Vajjahh'sch' bheha, And he reckoned it. Of Hhafchab, to reckon. Accordingly Hhifchfcheb (Pih.) is fully to reckon, as Lev. xxv. 50 Pfal. cxliv. 3. Jon. i. 4. and Hithhhafchfcheb (Hithp.) only once occurring, doth manifeftly fignify to reckon one's felf, Num. xxiii. 9; Behold a people. . . . in (i. e. among) the nations fhall not reckon itself; i. e. a people which, &c. This word is ufed, (1.) For counting and reckoning, as in matters of money, 2 Kings xxii 7; It would not have been reckoned with them; the filver, Lev. xxv. 50; And he fhall fully reckon with his acquirer. (2.) For reputing or counting, as the Latin habeo, duco, as Neh. xiii. 13; They were reckoned faithful. (3.) For regarding, prizing, making a valuable account of a perfon or thing. So it is ufed, Ifa. ii. 22. xiii. 17. xxxiii. 8. and liii. 3; Thus, reckoners of his name, Mal. iii. 16; are those who valued and made a becoming account of it. (4.) For judging, thinking, or accounting fo and fo of a thing, as Ifa. x. 7; His heart will not fo reckon, viz. that he is the rod, ftaff, and fent, of God, ver, 5, 6; concluding concerning it, as Jon. i 4; It fully reckoned; for to be broken, i. e. fully laid its account therewith. All these agree in the common notion of reckoning, which speaks a view of a thing in feveral particulars, and a practical judgment formed thereupon. And hence, I think, it is that the word is ufed, (5.) For contriving or de vifing, as artists do a piece of work, as Amos vi. 5; They have reckoned (i e. devised) to them inftruments of fong. Tz'dakah, righteousness. Tzedek and Tz'dakah are both immediately derived from Tzadak (Kal), of which fee the note above, p. 183. and accordingly fignify righteousness : but with this difference, that Tz'dakah founds an acting, as if one might fay, righteoufing; Tzedek, a quality, the principle or refult of the former. Hence expound, Deut. xxiv. 13; To thee it fhall be righteousness, (Tz'dakah), i. e. a doing or acting righteously, a righteous action, a good work, a conforming to the law. An evidence of this difference is, that Tz'dakah is often used in the plural number; but Tzedek is never. For the former points at a thing, under the notion of a righteous action, or good work, of which kind there are many; but the latter, at a thing, under the notion of a quality, viz. righteoufnefs, which is but one, whatever be the cumber of the actions which it results from, or is productive of. Thus Judg. v. 11; The righteoufneffes of Jehovah, are his righteous acts or works, Ifa. lxiv 5; All our righteoufneffes are filthy rags, i. c. our good have been as filthy rags. So Ifa. xlv. 24; Only in Jehovah, to me he said, [are] righteoufneffes and ftrength, i. e. Only in Jefus Chrift are good works, that will answer the demands of the law. Howbeit, the word is thus taken objectively, acting for an action or work. On the other fide, balances of (Tzedek) righteousness, tones of righteoufnefs, Lev. xix. 36; are balances and weights conform to the ftandard. Thus these two words, frequently occurring, how beit their fignification may to come to one in effect, yet they do, in their formal notion, reprefent the thing

law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.' So it is a going out of one's self to Christ for all.

VII. I come now to consider the ground and warrant of faith. This is the gospel-offer. (1.) The sinner has his invitation, Isa. lv. 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and

under different schefes. Accordingly the righteousness of Chrift imputed to believers, is expreffed by each of them. His righteousness (Tizidkatho) is declared and preached, Pfal. xxii. ult.: and he is Jehovah (Tziakenu) our righteoufnefs, Jer. xxiii. 6: the former propofing his righteoufnefs, as the fulfilling of the law; the latter, as conformity to the law, arifing therefrom. As the word Hhafchabh is used for devifing, chap. vi. 5. it is fometimes conftructed, as here, with L' to or for, denoting the party for whom the thing is devised, as Amos vi. 5; or the end for which, as Gen. 1. 20. But fince faith cannot be faid to be devifed righteousness, that fense of the word, which at beft is but fecondary, can have no place here. But for clearing the import of this weighty expreffion, used in the text, according to the fcripture-phrafeology, it will be worth the while to inquire into the feveral phrafes, formed with the word Hhafchabh, in the notion of reckoning which is the formal notion of it. I. A perfon is faid to be reckoned with others, i. e. claffed with them, and the fame account made of him as of them. Thus, Pfal. lxxxviii. 5. the Pfalmift was reckoned with them that go down to the pit, his cafe accounted hopeless, even as theirs. II. To reckon one perfon or thing as another, is to make a like account of them as of the other, and fo to treat them after the like manner. Thus Job's friends thought they were reckoned as beafts, Job xviii. 3; and he himself thought, he was reckoned as an enemy of God, chap. xix. 11. and darts are reckoned as ftubble by the leviathan, chap. xli. 21-29ths. So Num. xviii. 27. Pfal. xliv. 23. If v. 28. & xl. 15. Hof. viii. 12. III. To reckon one thing for another, is to account it to be that thing: Job xxxv. 2. Haft thou reckoned this for judgment, i. e. reckoned this to be judgment. So Judah reckoned Tamar for an harlot, Gen. xxxviii. 15. Eli, Hannah for a drunken woman, 1 Sam. i. 13. Job, according to Elihu, reckoned God for his enemy, i. e. to be his enemy, Job xxxiii. 10. Thus to be reckoned for righteousness, Pfal. cvi. 31. is to be reckoned to be righteousness. So this third phrase falls in with, and is equivalent to the IV. here used by Mofes. That is, two terms being proposed, the one is faid to be reckoned the other, as faith reckoned righteoufnefs. Concerning this phrafeology, Obf 1. It is ufed of reckoning a thing, what in reality and in very deed it is, antecedently to the reckoning. Thus the treasurers were reckoned faithful, Neh. xiii. 13. as indeed they were; and for that cause Nehemiah put them into that office: the houfes in unwalled villages were to be reckoned upon the field of the land, Lev. xxv. 31. as they were indeed, not being feparated from the field by a town-wall: a fool holding his peace is reckoned wife, Prov. xvii. 28. and fo he is in that point; the fruitful field fhall be reckoned for a forest, If. xxjx 17. and fo it really is now, and is truly fo reckoned; namely, the Jews, fometime God's people, but now rejected. The land of the Ammonites, faith the text, Deut. ii. 20. would have been reckoned a land of giants, i. e formerly it used to be

eat, yea come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.' (2.) The declaration of God's good pleasure in their so doing, John vi. 29. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' And, lastly, his peremptory command, 1 John. iij. 23. And this is his com

fo reckoned and juftly, for the giants, adds the text, dwelt therein in old time; however, it neither was fo, nor was it so reckoned in Mofes' time. The Emims would have been reckoned giants, ver. 11: and justly fo; for they were tall as the Anakims, ver. 10; The fcope of the two laft paffages is, to confirm the Ifraelites in the faith of their conqueft of Canaan, not. withstanding of the Anakims there. For this caufe Mofes fhews them, that the Zamzummims were driven out before the Ammonites, and the Emims before the Moabites, though both the one and the other were reckoned giants. But if they were not really what they were reckoned to be, thefe iuftances were nothing to the purpose they are adduced for. And thus the fact of Phinehas was reckoned for righteoufnefs, Pfal. cvi. 31; i. e. reckoned a righteous action, pleafing to God; which it really was, hereby done in faith and hereby it is declared to be fo, for an obvious reafon, viz. that otherwife men would have been apt to have condemned it. It is without caufe alleged, that the text fays, It was reckoned, righ. teousness for generation and generation; which it was not, being his own perfonal deed, and not the deed of any of his pofterity. For the text ftands thus; And it was reckoned to him for righteousness: for generation and generation; even to perpetuity; i. e, it was reckoned to him righteoufnefs: [it was reckoned fo] for generation and generation; even to perpetuity: A token of which was, the priesthood's being continued in his family, from generation to generation, Olf. 2. This phrafe is ufed of reckoning a thing, what in very deed it is not, neither prior to the reckon. ing, nor pofterior to it. And in this cafe, it either, 1. Bears a mistake, which takes place only where the reckoner is capable to form a judgment, but withal is fallible. Thus did Judah's reckoning of Tamar bear a mistaken judgment, Gen. xxxviii. 15; Eli's of Hannah, I Sam. i. 13; the Jews of Chrift, while they reckoned him ftricken, fmitten of God, Ifa. liii. 4; i. e. an object of God's peculiar hatred, while he was indeed his beloved Son. And fuch would be the judgment of one, who would reckon the deep hoar hairs, Job xli. 24-32ds. which without queftion it is not. Or elfe, 2. The meaning is no more, but that the reckoner treats the thing as if it were that other thing. And thus it is always in three cafes. (1). In the cafe of agents incapable of forming a judgment. So the leviathan reckons iron for Straw, Job xli. 19-27ths, which doubtlefs it is not; but he treats it as if it were ftraw. (2.) In the case of fallible judges, in points not liable to miftake. Thus Laban's own daughters were by him reckoned ftrangers, Gen. xxxi. 15; and Job a ftranger, by his own domeftics, Job xix. 15; and Zion's fon's, earthen pitchers, by the enemies, Lam. iv. 2; in all which cafes, there could be no mistaking of the perfons reckoned for fuch perfons and things; but these persons were fo treated as if they had been taken for fuch perfons and things. (3.) In the cafe of the infallible Judge. So Ifa. xl. 17; the nations are reckoned of him lefs than (Tohu, Gen. i. 2.) emptiness: not that they are so in very deed; for they are creatures made the fixth day,

mandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.'

I shall conclude with a very few inferences.

Inf. 1. Faith is a precious thing, 2 Pet. i. 1. Not to be

after (Tohu) emptinefs was no more: but that he can so treat them, and annihilate them as eafily. Thus Job fays, God reckoned him for his enemy, Job xiii. 24: not that he thought God judged him to be his enemy indeed; on the contrary, he was refolved to maintain his way, as to the main of it, before the Lord, ver. 15; and fays exprefsly, chap. x. 7. Thou knoweft that I am not wicked; but his meaning is, that God treated him as if he had been an enemy; and Elihu found fault with him, even for that, chap. xxxiii. 10. Obf. 3. This phrafe is used of reckoning a thing what it is not indeed confidered in its own nature, but yet in effect is; which laft bears the ground of the reckoning. Thus he who gives a flattering bleffing to his neighbour, hath a curfe reckoned to him, Prov. xxvii. 14. The bleffing is not in itself a curfe; yet it is a curfe in effect, as having the fame effect as if he had cursed his neighbour: and fe, on that ground it is reckoned to the flatterer a curfe. V. and lastly, To reckon a thing to a person, is to fet it down on his fcore, to put it on his account, as really his, antecedent to the reckoning; if ill, to anfwer for it; if good, that he may claim, or have the benefit of it. Examples of the former: Lev. xvii. 4. Blood shall be reckoned to that man; i. e. the guilt of blood fhall be put on that man's account, as really his, and he fhall anfwer for it: he hath fhed blood, faith the text, and that man fhall be cut off. Pfal. xli. 8 7ths. Upon me they would reckon, evil to me, i. e. charge it on me as my fact and deed, and make me answer for it. So a curfe is reckoned to the flatterer, Prov. xxvii. 14. Thus Shimei fays to David, Let not my lord reckon iniquity to me, 2 Sam. xix. 20-19ths; he owns his crime, and do not remember that which thy fervant did perversely, ibid. but he begs that the king would not put it on his account, and make him anfwer for it. And thus David describes the bleffeduefs of the justified man, that the Lord will not reckon iniquity to him, Pfal. xxxii. 2. i. e. that he will not put his iniquity on his own account, and make him answer for it; the putting it on the Surety, and his anfwering already for it, being already futtained at God's bar. Examples of the latter: 2 Sam. iv. 2. Beeroth: it would have been reckoned upon Benjamin; viz. as truly theirs, to have the benefit of it, for indeed did belong to Benjamin, Joh. xviii. 25; though the Philiftines violently poffeffed it, 1 Sam. xxxi. 7. So it is faid of another plot of ground, It would have been reckoned to the Canaanites, Josh. xiii. 3. namely, as really theirs; and therefore it remained to be poffeffed by Ifrael, ver. 1. And thus, Num. xviii. 27. Your heave offerings fhall be reckoned to you; i. e. put on your account, as your own offerings, and you to receive the benefit of the fame. On the other hand, He that offereth a peace-offering, and eateth of it on the third day, it was not to be reckoned to him, Lev. vii. 18. i. e. put on the account of his fervice to God. Pfal. xl. 18-17ths. I [am] poor and needy, my LORD will reckon to me; i. e. The Father would put the poverty of the Mediator on his account, and reward him for it. And thus the deed of Phinehas was reckoned to him, put on his account of acceptable fervice, and graciously rewarded, for the fake of the Mediator.

sworn by, but sought of the Lord. It saves the precious soul, and wraps it up in precious promises.

2. It is a most necessary grace; for it is that which brings Christ and the soul together. And without it, it is impossible to please God, Heb. xi. 6.

Thus far of the phrafes formed with Hhafchabh to reckon. Now, the Scope and defign of Mofes in the text, is to fhew to all, and particularly to the Jews, the way how a finner is juftified before the Lord, namely, by faith in the Meffias without the works of the law. Having given an account, how Abram entertained the promise, viz. that he trufted in Jehovah, he discovers on that occafion, how he became righteous before God, namely, by that truft: that every one may fee in him, as in an exampler, how a finner is juftified in God's fight. That this is the fcope of the words, is put beyond queftion by the apoltle, Rom. iv. From what is faid, it appears, that, according to the phrafeology of the Holy Ghoft, and the scope of this pas. fage, the following pofitions are established. Pof. I. The only righteousness wherein a man can taud before the Lord, is the fulfilling of the law, or a conformity to the law, refuging therefrom. For fuch is the fcripture-notion of righteousness in the cafe of men. Pof. II. The fenfe of this paffage is not, That God reckoned Abram's trufting, or believing, for a righteous and worthy action, as he did the fact of Phinehas, Pfal. cvi. 31. For it is the righteoufnefs of Abram's perfon, not the righteousness of an action, of his that is here aimed at. The deed of Phinehas was what could not have miffed, by fome at leaft, to have been reckoned a rash and finful action, if God himself had not declared his approbation of it: but Abram's trufting in Jehovah, was what could never be liable to any fuch mifconstruction, among those who believe Jehovah to be God. But the fenfe is, His faith was accounted righteousness for his perfon in the fight of God. Pof. III. Faith's being reckoned or accounted for righteoufnefs, which is the phrafe of the Septuagint, retained by the apostle Paul. Rom. iv. 3. is equivalent to, and of the fame fense with, Mofes' phrase in the text, viz. faith's being reckoned righteoufnefs. This is clear from what is faid on the third and fourth phrafes compared, Pof. IV. The righteousness of Chrift, though righteoufnefs in the ftricteft propriety, greateft reality and perfection, antecedently to the imputation or reckoning of it, may, according to the fcripture, be imputed for righteoufnefs to us: for, in the phrafeology of the Holy Ghoft, a thing is faid to be reckoned or imputed for what it is really, as well as for what it is not; as appears from the inftances adduced, obf. 1. on the fourth phrafe. Pof. V. Since faith, or the act of believing, is not in itself righteoufnefs for a perfon, before God, antecedently to the imputation of it, for that righteoufnefs: which is manifeft from that it doth not, in itfelf, exactly answer or fulfil the law, the eternal rule of righteoufnefs: and fince God, the infallible Judge, whofe judgment is always according to truth, is the party imputing it for righteoufnefs: therefore faith, or the act of believing, imputed to finners for righteousness, neither is at any time, nor is made by the imputation, nor by any gratuitous acceptation, the very formal righteousness for which a finner is juftified in the fight of GOD, It is no more fo than Laban's daughters were really ftrangers to him, Gen. xxxi. 15;