Testament in his blood; and, therefore, laying aside the imputation of his righteousness is a spunge to the whole institution, and leaves us in all our worship to be walking in a vain shew.

Nor do I ever expect to see the Bible defended in the hands of those by whom it is thus defeated. It is in vain to set out Jesus, unless it be as "a propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood," Rom. iii. 25. without this our preaching is in vain, and your faith in vain. To say, that he did not bear our sins, is to make the cross of Christ of none effect, Gal. v. 4.

(3.) This alone can answer the cries of an awakened conscience. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the Most High God?" Mic. vi. 6. Not with thousands of rams; but with the precious blood of Christ, 1 Pet. i. 19, as of that one Lamb, who is without blemish and without spot: Not with ten thousand rivers of oil; but in and through him, whose name is as ointment poured forth, Cant. i. 3. and who offered himself as a "sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour," Eph. v. 2. and it may be said of hea ven itself, that the whole house is filled with the odour of the ointment, John xii. 3. This speaks peace for us, and speaks peace to us. It is the blood of Christ that sprinkles the mercy-seat above, and the conscience here below, that we may serve the living and true God.

It is not duties that will do it; for when a person is made to abhor himself, which is always the case in a thorough conviction, he will see there is no bringing a clean thing out of an unclean, Job xiv. 4. that if ourselves are an unclean thing, our righteousness is as filthy rags, Isa. lxiv. 6.

To say that the doctrine of justification by Christ is an enemy to holiness, is one falsehood; and to say that the opposite opinion does promote it, I am afraid, is another; if we may judge of the case by men's lives. But this we know to be true, that in all the floatings, heavings, and tossings of an uneasy conscience, the blood of Christ is our only hope, our only anchor, sure and steadfast.

(4.) The providence of God made this doctrine to be the glory of our Reformation. It was in a gradual opposition to the righteousness of Christ that Popery began to live; and in the noble revival of the truth it began to die. When they set up justification by works, their monks and masses, their penances and pilgrimages, their fasts and fopperies, their confessions and absolutions, their crosses and cringes, their tyranny and trumpery, were the generation of vipers that issued from this womb: And therefore when God poured out a spirit of reformation upon the land, it was not only in scouring the churches of imagery, and rumbling among their idols, but the axe was laid to the root of the tree; Christ alone was exalted in that day, Isa. ii. 17. and the wicked one consumed away by the brightness of his coming, 2 Thess. ii. 8. Then were "our priests clothed with righteousness, and all the saints shouted for joy," Psal. cxxii. 16.

And when this doctrine is denied, the Protestant cause is a-going. There is the substance of Popery; such people have got the stump of Dagon, they want only the palms of his hands to be set on again.

Go into Poland, as the Jews were ordered to Shiloh, Jer. vii. 22. and see what an angry God has done there for the iniquity of his people. Socinianism made a gap for Popery: Their Racovian vanities were the Roman vehicle. Wherever the righteousness of Christ goes out, the man of sin comes in. The Arians, who denied his Deity, prepared the way for Mahomet; and they who denied his satisfaction, made room for Antichrist. Thus, as they went a-whoring from their God, they fell to the mother of harlots and abominations.

2. As he was delivered up for us, so remember it was for us all. Not the whole human race, as has been thoroughly argued in this lecture; but the word is to be taken in the same compass that our Saviour gives it, when he says to the Father, "All mine are thine, and all thine are mine," John xvii. 10. The meaning is, that,

(1.) The greatest believer will need it. The chiefest of all the Apostles desires to be "found in him, having on the righteousness that is of God by faith," Phil. iii. 9. And,

(2.) The meanest shall have it. He gathers the lambs in his arms, Isa. xl. 11. From hence he has his praises above; To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be glory and dominion, Rev. i. 5. When we come to see the king in his beauty, and behold the land that is afar off, we shall find indeed, the sword upon his thigh; but however, his garment is dipt in blood, Rev. xix. 13. It is the doctrine we now admire, and we shall hear it rung through the palace of the King. There will be a confluence of persons and praises from the whole compass of time, and the whole circle of nature; all of them together pouring in their eternal melody in those words.

Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue, and people and nation.

A

PLAIN SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT

OF A

SINNER'S JUSTIFICATION BEFORE GOD.

IN FOUR

SERMONS,

By Mr. ROBERT BRAGGE, Minister of the Gospel.

SERMON L

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.

THESE words are like an alabaster box of precious ointment, which, if rightly opened, and applied, will, under the influences of the Spirit, fill every believer's soul with the perfume thereof. In them the Spirit of truth, as he is Christ's glorifier, both lifts up a standard against errors of all sorts, in the doctrine of a sinner's justification before God; and holds out a lamp of Gospel light, to direct awakened souls into the true way of Gospel justification: For they tell us how the Apostles and primitive saints were all of them justified, and that negatively; "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law." taught of God in primitive times learned this great lesson, that man, in his low and lost estate, is not jus

All

tified by the works of the law: What the law is, and what the works are, of which the apostle here speaks, is placed in the clearest light, by the twenty-first verse of the following chapter; "For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righ. teousness should have been by the law," Gal. iii. 21. which plainly intimates, that no such law was given in the apostle's days; and may we not be assured, that no such law has been given since? So that these words bar a sinner's being justified before God, by the works of any law whatever, whether old or new, moral or ceremonial, perfect or remedial.

Then follows another lesson, which all who were in Christ's school learned, in those days; without which the former would have driven awakened sinners to despair, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, that is, which has Christ for its object: as is evident from what follows; Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. Awakened sinners, in that day, were not left to sink under their load of guilt at mount Sinai, but were directed to mount Zion, and brought to Christ, as he is revealed thereon; for so it follows, "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:" Then is added a farther confirmation of the foregoing assertion: For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

In speaking threfore to this great scripture, so expressive of the faith and actings of primitive saints, I shall observe the following easy method.

I. I shall shew what it is for a guilty sinner to be justified before God, the Judge of all.

II. I shall enquire whence it is that any of Adam's fallen posterity are justified.

III. I shall shew how it is that sinners are justified. IV. I shall endeavour to guard you against errors of all sorts, relating to a sinner's justification before God.

I. I shall shew what it is for a sinner to be justified