prayer and in duty; and they are received graciously by him, as recti in curia, upright and clear at his tribunal, and justified entirely from all the things, which his law and justice could require of them, and for which his law and justice have received ample satisfaction from the hands of their surety.

While this righteousness justifies the sinner, it proves the divinity of the SAVIOUR, who is therefore styled, in behalf of his people, with equal love and consistency, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. But, as this hath been copiously insisted upon in another place, it is the less needful to dwell upon it here; and especially as, upon the data of the Bible, it will not easily be refuted. Our English church, and all the other Protestant

churches, have insisted upon this great truth, in their holy services, in their confessions of faith, and in their public homilies or declarations. It is the grand basis

it is (as Luther said)

of the reformation. It is more; articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesia, that very article, on which the church of God itself will either stand or fall; or, if I may use the words of a learned Bishop

* Hora Solit. Vol. i. p. 50. &c. 2d. edit.

now

+ Syntagma Confess. Fidei. English Homilies. Hooker's Eccl. Pol. B. v. Beveridge's Serm. Vol. v. p. 99. cum multis aliis.

Among others, it may not be unwelcome to the reader, if a remarkable opinion on this subject be offered, even from an antient Romish Cardinal. This was the famous Cantarini, a noble Venėtian, one of the most pious and learned men of that church, and esteemed such by the Protestants themselves, as Sleidan relates in his Com. lib. xiv. Whatever errors he might hold as a Papist, he was certainly a Protestant in the docrine of justification, and, for this his suspected inclination towards the reformation, was said to have been poisoned by some emissaries of Rome in the year 1542. Very

L. 4

now living, "it is the very corner-stone of the whole system of redemption."*

Very different indeed was his principle upon this head from the double justification, which his brother Cardinal Bellarmine since invented, and which the Papists, and some called Protestants too, have adopted after him; as may appear from the following quotation. Quoniam ad DUPLICEM JUSTITIAM pervenimus per fidem, justitiam inhærentem nobis, et charitatem, ac gratiam, qua efficimur consortes divinæ naturæ ; et justitiam Christi, nobis donatam et imputatam, quoniam inserti sumus Christo et induimus Christum, restat inquirere utranam debeamus niti, et existimare, nos justificari coram Deo, i.e. sanctos et justos haberi? Ergo prorsus existimo, pie et Christiane dici quod debeamus niti, niti inquam, tanquam re stabili, quæ certo nos sustentat, JUSTITIA CHRISTI NOBIS DONata, non autem sanctitate et gratia nobis inhærente. Hæc etenim nostra justitia est inchoata et imperfecta, quæ tueri nos non potest, quin in multis offendamus, quin assidue peccemus. Idcirco in conspectu Dei non possumus ob hanc justitiam nostram haberi justi et boni, quemadmodum deceret filios Dei esse bonos et sanctos. Sed justitia Christi nobis donata est vera et perfecta justitia, quæ omnino placet oculis Dei, in qua nihil est quod Deum offendat, quod Deo non summopere placeat. HAC ergo SOLA, certa, et stabili nobis nitendum est, et ob eam solam credere, nos justificari coram Deo, id est, justos haberi et dici justos. De Justif. apud AMESII Bell. enerv. Tom. iv. 1. vi. Thus a Papist himself could dare to write before the existence of the council of Trent, which increased and established the errors of the Romish church, as fatally as Laud, and his associates and followers, have poisoned our English church with the dregs of Arminianism, and with some other opinions, not very dissimilar to those of Rome, as stated by the council of Trent.

*See Bishop HORSLEY'S charge to the Diocese of St. David's, p. 7. In this excellent piece, which demands, as well for its author as for its own weight, the most attentive and general perusal, are admirably stated, the true distinction between religion and mere morality, and the necessity of insisting upon the doctrine of justification, in order to root out some common errors, and to promote real Christianity and godliness of life.

The

The holy garments, prescribed for the priests under the law, eminently figured that robe of righteousness, which believers assume by faith from the Lord their righteousness. As the legal priests could not minister before God without them; so the faithful, who are the true priests, cannot appear or act acceptably, but as clothed and justified by their Redeemer. He is emphatically and universally their righteousness in this view; and so they are said to be found in him, to put him on, to live in him, &c. In this view also it is, that the outward sign of the prophecy is spiritually accomplished; they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. The sinners who crucified him, i. e. those sinners, for whom he died, and but for whom he had never been crucified at all, parted his garments among them, and obtained each his share in him who is the covering of his people; and they obtained by lot, or according to God's disposal (as Canaan itself was allotted) that interest in the indivisible vesture, by which they are clothed upon, as comprizing in itself life immortal. They were to be many sons brought into one possession. Hence their Saviour was to be stripped and made naked as a slave and a sinner, to be broken and divided as a man, in order to clothe them with himself and his righteousness, and thus to unite them through himself, (as his own human nature was united) unto God. They receive him distributively, as the bread broken and the blood sprinkled or distributed for righteousness and atonement; and they enjoy him collectively, as one respecting his divinity with God, and one respecting his humanity with them to bring them to God, according to special purpose

and

and appointment; unknown at first to man, as the falling of a lot is, but from the beginning well known to him, who solely disposes all things, according to the counsel of his own will. Hence the triumph of the church: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, or of the Saviour, HE hath covered me with the robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom in decketh, or clothes himself as a priest, with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.*

As garments clothe the body; so the body itself is said to clothe the soul.† Alluding to this, righteousness is called a garment; because without it, in God's sight, a man is esteemed naked; that is, unseemly and unclean. And this garment of righteousness is sometimes represented under the image of white linen, as an emblem of spotless purity, which will be kept undefiled in heaven, and which ought to be preserved in all possible cleanness here below. The same idea is conveyed by covering the ark, and many of the utensils of the tabernacle and temple, with gold, as a substance the most precious and pure of all others. The clothing of the church is, in this symbolical sense, of wrought gold,‡ bright and beautiful; or, according to the thing signified, all-glorious within. The wedding garment, and the arraying of the Lamb's wife in fine linen, clean and white, exhibit

* Isa. Ixi. 10.

† 2 Cor. v. 4. et al. So Christ's garments are said to be rolled in blood; i. e. his body was wounded to death, and became unclean for the sins of his people.

Ps. xlv. 13.

the

the same image of the righteousness of Christ, which is granted to his church and people, and which, because it is given to them and put upon them, is made their own virtually, and therefore denominated the righteousness of saints. This is the matter of their justification before Jehovah; not their own doings, either before or after the reception of grace; not their holiest frames, or desires; not, in whole or in part, their ownselves. Christ, the victim or sacrifice for his people, clothes with his own garment of righteousness all that belong to him.t

This garment, like that of the priest's under the law, can only be worn by those in Christ the true tabernacle which God hath pitched and not man, and must not be profaned by persons not anointed as spiritual priests, or used to purposes not sanctified by his Holy Spirit. The word of God treats with abhorrence the very mention of the garment spotted by the flesh; that is, whatever proceeds from the carnal mind, which is filthy and unclean in the

*Rev. xix. 8.

+ This is intimated by Gen. iii. 21. Exod. xxv. 11. 21. xxvi. 4 and many other places.

Possibly, according to the emblematic and allegorical style of the Old Testament, whose histories, though of private persons, are not of private interpretation, the circumstances of the birth of Esau and Jacob are to be understood as descriptive prophecies of their different characters. The one was born red, 8 of the earth earthy, and covered as with an hairy garment, a clothing derived from fallen animal nature; and so he became, like Nimrod, a man of the field, a man of the earth, a mere rebel or worldling: the other was born without such a covering (as all God's children are new born without trust in themselves) and became pr perfect man, (See Ps. xxxvii. 37,) a dweller in tents, a real pilgrim upon earth, and a worshipper of the Lord.

sight