said to cleanse from all sin. The imposition of hands on the beast, with large confession of sin, carried in it the doctrine of imputation, or the transferring of guilt to Christ; agreeably to the words of the prophet Isaiah, The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The design of these sacrifices was to make atonement.* These beasts were substituted in the room of the people, and their blood shed for the expiation of sin. So Jesus Christ put himself in the place of the heirs of promise; and though he knew no sin, God made him to be sin for them, that they might be made the righteousness of God in him.

And now should we turn to the New Testament, we shall imediately observe it written as with capitals, He died the JUST for the UNJUST, that he might bring us to God. He is the PROPITIATION for our sins. By which we are not only taught that he died, but that he died as a substitute. Guilt was laid upon him. He was wounded for our transgressions: he was bruised for our iniqiuties: the chastisement of our peace was upon him. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. on the tree. It is evident, from these and many other passages of scripture, that Christ did not only die as a martyr, to confirm the doctrines he had taught, but as a substitute in the stead of others; and that his sufferings were primarily intended for the expiation of the guilt of sin.

That he was perfectly innocent, is allowed by all; yet we behold him dying, as one of the worst of malefactors, the cursed and painful death of the cross. Suffer on his own account he could not, because he knew no sin, neither was guile

* See Exod. xxix. 36. Levit. xvi. 27, &c.

found in his mouth. Nor could he have suffered at all, if he had not been charged with guilt; it being incompatible with the justice of God, that the perfectly innocent should suffer. It will therefore follow, that guilt was laid upon him, that he was made sin for others: or, as an apostle expresses it in the strongest terms, He was made a CURSE for us.

To sum up this head-I apprehend we are to understand, by the righteousness which is spoken of in the text, nothing less than the perfect obedience of Christ to the precepts of the law, together with his sufferings and death. With it the Father is well pleased. It is perfect, spotless, and everlasting. It has infinite dignity, being the righteousness of God. It may be so called, because finished by him who is God as well as man; who thought it no robbery to be equal with God; and who, notwithstanding he appeared in the form of a servant, was possessed of infinite glory and perfection. Many striking circumstances proclaimed his glory, when he was crucified, and extorted from an enemy this frank confession, Truly this was the Son of God; and which was afterward declared, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead. By this event his deity was proved, and the truth of his important doctrines sealed: so that now it appears infinitely safe to make this glorious righteousness the ground of hope. I pass to consider,

II. That God is said to impute this righteous. ness without works.

The use of this phrase has given great offence to some, who, it is probable, were desirous of rejecting the doctrine with it. But why we should

reject the word imputed, rather than the word righteousness, is not easily accounted for; unless it may be thought that mankind know there must be a righteousness in order to acceptance with God, but are unwilling that it should be an imputed righteousness, because that necessarily cuts off all boasting. Men are fond of personal, and therefore try to obscure imputed righteousness. It is however sufficient to countenance the use of this phrase, that we have it in our text, and find it several times repeated in this chapter and in other passages of holy scripture. We observe,

1. The person to whom this act of imputation is ascribed, God. On which we may remark, that there is a concurrence of the sacred persons of the Trinity in the work of redemption. The righteousness was finished by the Son of God: it is imputed by the Father; and a discovery of it to the soul, as the reason of divine acceptance, is made by the Holy Ghost, who takes of the things of Jesus and shews them unto us. The act of justifying is elsewhere ascribed to the Father. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. (Rom. viii. 33, 34.) Here is a manifest distinction between God that justifieth, and Christ that died. The sinner, by the violation of the law, became obnoxious to divine wrath : Christ undertook for him, and satisfied divine justice. God the Father being well pleased with his righteousness, pronounces the sinner justified: he acquits him from every charge, because Christ died. And at the same time that the sinner is acquitted the Saviour is approved; because the sinner is discharged on the foot of the Saviour's merits.

2. The manner in which the sinner is justified is expressed, viz. By imputation." God imputeth righteousness." The sense in which we are to understand the phrase may be learnt in the context. The apostle assures us, verse 5, that God justifieth the ungodly. This is their character at the very time when God justifies: if so, they have no personal righteousness, and consequently cannot be accepted by him for any thing that is properly their own: it follows that it must be on acount of the righteousness of another. By imputation here, therefore, we are to understand the placing that to one which properly belongs to another; e. g. Jesus Christ was perfectly innocent he had no sin either of nature, or of practice; yet guilt was so laid upon him, or imputed to him, that he became responsible to the justice of God; and it is said that he bore it in his own body on the tree. Though he was the Lamb without blemish and without spot, he was crucified on Calvary between two thieves. His sufferings could not be on his own account, because he was innocent, and therefore they must be on the account of others. In the same way is a sinner discharged by his righteousness.

Though no transactions among men can fully illustrate the doctrine before us, the following instance may be admitted as bearing some resemblance. A bondsman is frequently accepted in the behalf of a debtor. Now the debt that was contracted was not his personal debt; nevertheless, it becomes his by voluntarily putting himself in the debtor's place, and the creditor accordingly looks to him for payment. So it is in this case. The sins for which Christ died were not his own

personal acts; but became his by a voluntary substitution of himself in the sinner's stead, and by the act of the Father, his laying them on him. On the other hand, the payment made by the bondsman was not the personal act of the debtor; yet it is so viewed by the creditor that the debtor is released. So the righteousness of Jesus is not the personal obedience and suffering of the sinner; yet it is so accounted his that he is discharged from condemnation, and shall be finally admitted to glory. This illustration, which has often been introduced by the lovers of this doctrine, tends in a degree to explain it; and seeing Christ is called the SURETY of a better testament, there appears a propriety in this use of it. A surety is one who appears in the behalf of another.

I shall only subjoin, in order to prove the doctrine of imputation, the following ever memorable passage; For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall • many be made righteous. It has been quoted before, but not with the same design. Now the sense of the apostle, in these words, is plainly this, that the righteousness of Christ becomes the sinner's, in the same way that Adam's sin becomes chargeable to his posterity; and that is, by being derived, or reckoned to them. It at least deserves a serious answer-How many could be made righteous by the obedience of one, if that obedience is not placed to them? or, how Christ's obedience should avail a sinner, especially in so high a sense as that he shall be discharged from guilt, and accepted as righteous in the sight of God, if it is not imputed to him?