let us inquire how Chrift did this? He did it in the following way he was the furety of his people, put himself in their law-place, room, and ftead; and, as their prieft, he prefented himfelf before the Lord, and the Father laid their iniquities, tranfgreffions, and fins upon him. He, the Lord Jefus Chrift, bore them in his body upon the tree. And, as on the great day of atonement, obferved by the Lord's command among the Jews once a year, the high prieft laid both his hands on the head of the fcape goat, and confeffed over him all the iniquities of the children of Ifrael, and all their tranfgreffions in all their fins, putting them upon the head of the goat: (see Levit. xvi. ver. 21.) fo God the Father laid help upon one that is mighty to bear the fins of his people; and upon our Lord Jefus Chrift, he laid the fins, iniquities, and tranfgreffions of his people. He took off from their perfons all their original guilt and actual tranfgreffions, and laid them upon Christ, the antitype of the scape goat. And as the goat carried away their fins into a land not inhabited, fo Chrift, by his death, removed the fins of his people, and bore them away by his facrifice out of the fight of God. He has, fays the apoftle, Hebrews ix. ver. 26. put away fin by the facrifice of himself; and, in confequence of Chrift's bearing the tranfgreffion of his people, and finishing it by his life and death, the Pfalmift, in the 103d Pfalm, faith, As far as the Eaft is from the Weft, fo far bath be removed our tranfgreffions from us. Jefus Chrift himself alone upon the cross finished tranfgreffion. He made a full fatisfaction unto divine justice for it. He endured the curfe and

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wrath of God due unto it; and he faid, It is finished. The whole will of his Divine Father was fulfilled and finifhed by him. All the types and prophecies received their perfe&t accomplishment in him. The tranfgreffion of his people was finished in him, he bearing it, and enduring the curfe due unto it; fo that hereby he for ever delivered his people from condemnation. He was likewise to make an end of fins. This he did, and how he did it, the apoftle tells us, it was by the facrifice of himself. Chrift, says he, once in the end of the world hath appeared to put away fin by the facrifice of himself. His eternal Godhead was the altarhis human nature was the facrifice, and his Deity gave an in.inite and everlasting virtue and efficacy to the facrifice, fo that it was a facrifice of a sweet smelling favour. The perfume of it filled all heaven with its divine odour. It refreshed the heart of God the Father. It gave infinite and everlasting fatisfaction; and upon the account of it, JEHOVAH, the Father, fays, to all that flee to Jefus for refuge, I will be merciful to your unrighteoufnefs, and your fins and your iniquities will I remember no more. He hath made him to be fin for us, who knew no fin, that we might be made the righteonfness of God in him. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Chrift died for our fins. He fuffered once for fin, the just for the unjust. He was wounded for our tranfgreffionshe was bruifed for our iniquities: the chaflifement of our peace was upon him. He hath washed us from our fins in his own blood. And by his one offering of himself, he hath perfectly put away the fins of his people, and made an end of them; for Chrift's obedience and

blood hide all our tranfgreffions from view. He was likewife to make reconciliation for iniquity; and this he did by the fhedding of his own most precious blood. The apostle tells us, that Chrift is our peace: and how our Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, did this, we are informed in the first chapter of the Coloffians, and at the 20th verfe. It was, through the blood of his cross. By means of his blood fhed upon the crofs; by his blood-shedding, sufferings, and death, the juftice of God was perfectly fatisfied, and peace was made between God and man by the blood of the everlafting covenant. A paffage way is hereby made into the holy of holies. God is pleased to take to himself the high style and title of the God of peace: and the Holy Spirit, by bringing the poor finner to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to rest upon his finished work, gives the foul hereby to enjoy peace with God, through faith in Jefus Christ our Lord. Chrift was likewife to bring in everlasting righteoufnefs, and this he did in his holy life, and which he finished in his death. The holy law of God, broken by the fin of man, Chrift perfectly obeyed. When he came into the world, he faid, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; thy law is within my heart. And the God-man was in heart perfe&ly * holy-in life, perfectly fpotlefs. He, by his obedi ence, magnified the law, and made it everlastingly honourable; and by his obedience, he brought more glory to the law, than though all the angels of God, and all mankind had perfectly kept it. He brought more glory to divine juftice, by his fufferings and death, than though fin had never entered into the

world. For he that obeyed, and he that fuffered, was God in our nature, God over all bleed for ever; he, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Here was JEHOVAH's fellow, whofe name is the Lord of hofts, obeying, and fuffering in our nature, and making his foul an offering for fin. And Christ's righteoufnefs, being the righteoufnefs of him who is God, is hence called the righteousness of God, Rom. x. ver. 3. And it is the righteousness of God; forafmuch as God the Father appointed it, and required it-God the Son fulfilled it, and God the Holy Ghoft reveals it, and fhews the believer the glory thereof, and helps him to truft in Chrift as JEHOVAH his righteousness. It is faid to be an everlasting righteousness; and it is the only garment of falvation, the only robe that can adorn our fouls, juftify our perfons, and present us faultlefs before the throne of God. It has been thus exhibited by the Lord in the revelation he has been pleased to make of himself ever fince the fall. And as it is the only righteousness of the faints, and continues to be the fame throughout all ages, it may be justly called an everlasting righteoufnefs; and it may well be called everlasting righteousness, as it was from everlasting prepared and provided in the covenant of the trinity; and as it will continue to the days of eternity. It is a righteoufnefs great and glorious, in which the faints fhine, and will for ever fhine, with glory, luftre, and brilliancy, before the throne. This is the believer's wedding drefs. In this most perfect obedience he is juftified from all things. In this robe the Father views him all glorious, all complete, without fpot, or wrinkle, or any fuch thing.

Here is, as the great Dr. Goodwin expreffes it, “a 66 greater and a more tranfcendent righteoufnefs, than "ever appeared either in the law, or is inherent in the "angels. For if all their righteousnesses were put into 66 one, it could but justify themselves, it could not "fatisfy for the leaft breach of the law in another. "But in Chrift, as fet forth in the gospel, we see a "righteoufnefs of breadth, that it is able to cover the "fins of millions of worlds-of that length that it "reacheth to eternity; and no fin in God's people "can wear it out, or nullify the virtue of it." This righteoufnefs frees the believer from condemnation, and lays a bleffed foundation for hope in God. Christ was likewife to feal up the vision and prophecy. All that God had spoken in vifion to his prophets, concerning the incarnation, life, and death of his coequal and coeternal Son, was to receive in Chrift its utmost accomplishment. Now the bright and morning ftar appearing in him, and by him, all God's mind. and will was to be uttered and made known, and Chrift was to be, as it were, the feal of God's truth and gracious declarations; and the promifes of God in him would be found faithful and true, yea and amen, which are fome of the great words of God. When he speaks of his love to his people, he says, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; and when he promises, he fets his amen unto them. And all the promises of God in him, that is in Christ, are yea and amen; and Chrift is God's amen. All his love and mercy to his people are treafured up for them in Chrift; all his promises are