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names, explained above, all that we can infer from this text is, that God will be our Righteousness, or receive us into his grace and favour by means of Chrift, or by the gospel of Chrift. That we must understand this text in fome fuch fenfe as this, is evident from the fame name being afterwards applied to Jerufalem. Jer. xxxiii. 16. This is the name wherewith fhe fhall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS: for certainly it cannot be thought that the merits of Jerufalem are imputed to mankind.

Many divines, finding themselves obliged to give up the notion of Christ's suffering in our stead, and our being juftified by his righteousness, as contrary to the genuine sense of the scriptures, alledge, how

that God forgives the fins of mankind on account of the merit of Chrift, and his intercession for us ; and this opinion, like the former, is favoured by the literal sense of a few paffages of fcripture: but it is contrary to the general and plain tenor of it, which reprefents all acts of mercy as proceeding from the effential placability and goodness of God the Father only. Befides, there are many paffages in the Old Teftament in which God is reprefented as forgiving the Ifraelites, and receiving them into his favour, on the account of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; and their pofterity plead the merit of thefe their religious ancestors in their prayers, God is also represented as ready to forgive the people of Sodom.

Q. 2.

Sodom at the interceffion of Abraham. Admitting, therefore, that God may grant favours to mankind at the interceffion of Chrift, this is not a privilege peculiar to Chrift, but is common to him. and other good men who went before him; so that the general fyftem, of the forgiveness of fin, can by no means depend upon the merit and interceffion of Christ only.

Because your fins

The following paffages feem to represent the divine being as dispensing mercy to mankind on the account of Chrift, 1 John ii. 12. are forgiven you for his name's fake. Rom. viii. 34. Who alfo maketh interceffion for us, 1 Cor. vi. 3. But ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. Heb. vii. 25. He ever liveth to make interceffion for them.

But let these paffages be compared with the following from the Old Teftament, Gen. xxvii. 24. Fear not, I am with thee, and will blefs thee, and multiply thy feed, for my fervant Abraham's fake. Mofes, pleading in behalf of the Ifraelites, fays, Exod. xxxii. 13. Remember Abraham, and Ifaac, and Ifrael, thy fervants. Deut. xix. 27. Remember thy Servants, Abraham and Ifaac and Jacob. Look not to the ftubbornness of this people, nor to their fin. There are many other paffages to the fame purpose with thefe.

It must also be observed, that in the name of Christ, which occurs in fome of the abovementioned paffages, means as Christ, or in the place of Christ. Thus our Lord fays, Many shall come in my name, that is, pretending

tending to be what I am, the Meffiah; and again, the comforter, whom the Father fhall fend in my name, that is, in my place, as it were, to fucceed me in his kind offices to you. Praying, therefore, in the name of Chrift may mean, in allufion to this fense of it, praying with the temper and disposition of Chrift, or as becomes chriftians, thofe who follow the directions of Chrift, both with refpect to prayer, and every other duty of the chriftian life.. So alfo being juftified in the name of Chrift may fignify ourbeing juftified, or approved of God, in confequence of our being chriftians, in deed and in truth, having the fame mind that was alfo in Chrift Jefus. Agreeably to this, the apoftle Paul exhorts us to put on Chrift, as if it were to appear like him, the very fame perfon.

If the pardon of fin had univerfally depended upon the advocateship of Chrift only, it can hardly be fuppofed that the spirit would have had that namẹ given to him, and especially by way of eminence, and diftinction; for the word which we render comforter is the fame that is rendered advocate in I. John ii. 1. IVe have an advocate with the Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous. The fpirit is also said to intercede for us, Rom. viii. 26. The spirit itfelf maketh interceffion for us.

Befides, the paflages in which any regard is fupposed to be had to the merit or interceffion of Chrift,. in difpenfing mercy to finners, are exceedingly few,

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in comparison with those which represent this free gift, as proceeding from God only; and in some of them we are mifled by our tranflation, as in Eph. iv. 39. And be ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Chrift's fake, has freely forgiven you. It ought to have been rendered as God in Chrift,

that is, in the gospel of Befides, the word which

Chrift, has forgiven you. is here rendered forgive fignifies conferring favours in general, and not the forgiveness of fin in particular; and the whole paffage was intended to inculcate a benevolent difpofition, in imitation of God, who had conferred the most valuable favours upon mankind, in the gospel of Christ.

Many paffages in which we are faid to be justified by faith, and not by the works of the law, were intended to oppofe the doctrine of the jews, who maintained that the obfervance of the law of Mofes

was abfolutely neceffary to falvation. Writing upon this fubject, the apostle Paul expreffes himfelf in the following manner, Rom. iii. 21, &c. But now the righteoufness of God, without the law, is manifefted, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jefus Chrift, unto all and upon all that believe, for there is no difference. difference. For all bave finned, and come fhort of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has fet forth to be a propitiation, through

faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remiffion of fins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I fay, at this time, his righteoufness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jefus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is juftified by faith, without the deeds of the law.

If we confider the whole of this paffage, and the connection in which it flands, we shall be fatisfied, that the apoftle is here afferting that, in the gospel of Chrift, which was confirmed by his death and refurrection, the divine being, as from a mercy-feat (which the word ought to be rendered, and not propitiation) declares his goodness and mercy to mankind; and fince the patriarchs, who believed and obeyed before the law, were justified without the works of the law, fo God, acting ftill upon the fame maxims, is juft, and the jews have no reason to complain of it, when he justifies finners who believe and obey, freely, and without the works of the law of Mofes, under the gofpel.

N. B. I do not pretend that this pamphlet contains an illustration of all the texts that have been urged in favour of the doctrines which are controverted in the Appeal; for then I must have written a commentary upon the whole bible, as there is hardly a text in which some perfons do not imagine that they fee their own peculiar fentiments; but I

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