fiah's prophetic office. 2. A ftate of peace and favour with God, including remiffion, reconciliation, and juftification before God, accefs to him, and acceptance with him; which things may be more peculiarly afcribed to the Meffiah's prieftly office, If. liii. and xlv. at the end. 3. A ftate of holiness and purity, fubjection to the law of God, and conformity to his will, in which true liberty confifts, and which, together with the most defirable fafety and protection, is the effect of the kingly office of a fovereign of fo great power and glory, joined with fo great kindness and mercy to his people, If. iv. Concerning thefe comprehenfive benefits it is proper to obferve, first, That as the above-cited prophecies affirm the Meffiah to be in a peculiar manner the cause and author of the bleflings of God's covenant, fo when the prophets explain more particularly what these bleffings of God's covenant are, it is not temporal advantages, but the fpiritual comprehensive benefits just now mentioned, that they infift on; as will be evident to any who will confider If. lv. 2. 3. 7. &c. lix. 21. Jer. xxxi. 31. Ezek. xxxvi. 25. 26. &c. and other paffages to the fame purpose. It is not worldly wealth, honour, or conqueft, that thefe paffages infift on as the bleffings of God's covenant; but God's caufing his people to know him, from the least to the greatest; his bestowing abundant pardon; his being merciful to our iniquities, and remembering our fins no more; his putting his law in our inward parts, and writing it on our hearts; his fprinkling clean water on us, to cleanfe us from our filthiness and our idols; his giving us new hearts and new fpirits; his taking away the ftony heart, and giving a heart of flesh; his putting his fpirit within us, and caufing us to walk in his ftatutes; his giving us his word and fpirit, fo as thofe ineftimable bleffings fhall never depart from us, nor we ever depart from God, If. lix. 21. As all the things fignified by that ufeful useful variety of expreffions are evidently included in the three comprehenfive benefits above mentioned, namely, the true knowledge of God, the favour of God, and the image of God; fo it is by these things that the Old Testament, as well as the New, explains the nature of true bleffedness or happiness *: while, on the other hand, it teaches, that it is in the Meffiah that finners shall be blessed; which is evidently contained, not only in the paffages where it is more exprefsly affirmed, but in the various paffages which affert the above-explained doctrine of the Meffiah's offices, and particularly his prieftly office. And it is proper to observe, that though the fcripture had not exprefsly affirmed, that true bleffednefs confifts in the things in view; yet it might be proved from the chief principles of natural religion itself; it being evident, that nothing can give full and folid fatisfaction to the chief defires of the foul, without joyful contemplation of God's infinite glory, joined with well-founded hope of his favour, (which, when beftowed on a finner, neceffarily implies remiffion of fin), together with conformity to him in holiness. When the Apostle Paul speaks of the righteoufnefs which is of God by faith in Jefus Chrift, he tells us, that the law and the prophets bear witness to it but at the fame time he diftinguishes betwixt the gospel manifeftation, or more clear difcovery of that righteoufnefs, and the prophetic teftimony given to it. After mentioning what he calls the righteousness of God, Rom. iii. 21. 22. he explains it by what he adds afterwards about juftification freely by God's grace, through the redemption that is in his Son. In order to fee the harmony between the prophets and the apoftles in the doctrine of justification, it is proper to observe, that in the Old Teftament, as well as in the New, juftification * Pfal. xxxii. 1. xxvii. 4. cxix. 1. & lxv. 4. 5. is taken in what is called the forenfic fenfe; or, that it fignifies, acquitting or affoilzieing a man by an act of the authority of a judge; and that it is oppofed to condemnation, as will be evident to any who duly confiders the paffages cited at the bottom of the page *. These paffages fhew, that juftifying a wicked perfon, which is faid to be an abomination to the Lord, cannot be the fame thing with fanctifying him, or making him really good and holy; but paffing a sentence of abfolution in his favour: so that in the Old Teftament, as well as the New, juftification and fanctification, though infeparable, are diftinguished from one another. The harmony between the doctrine of the prophets and the apoftles as to the ground of justification, is evident, partly from the account which the prophets give of the evil deferving of fin †, and of the neceffity and efficacy of the Meffiah's facrifice; and partly from their expreffions concerning that righteoufnefs of God which was to be revealed, or more clearly difcovered, in the days of Meffiah ; which expreffions are neither applicable to that infinite eternal juftice which is an effential attribute of the divine nature, nor to that inherent holiness, which is fo abfolutely neceffary, and is the chief perfection of our natures; but are very applicable to what the Meffiah was to do and fuffer for the redemption and juftification of finners. That it is not the effential righteoufnefs of God that is meant in the paffages in view, is evident; because these paffages fpeak of a righteoufnefs, which is indeed from God, but at the fame time is fuppofed, in fome refpect, to become ours; as when the Meffiah is called, "The Lord our righteoufnefs," Jer. xxiii. 6. and it is declared, that "furely fhall one "fay, In the Lord have I righteoufnefs, and in * Prov. xvii. 5.; Deut. xxv. I.; 1 Kings viii. 31. "him fhall the feed of Ifrael be juftified," If. xlv. 24. 25; and in If. Ixi. 10. God's people are faid to be clothed by him with the robes of righteoufnefs, and garments of falvation. Nor can it be faid of God's effential justice, that it was not revealed, or clearly discovered, under the Old Teftament; which is fuppofed to be the cafe as to the righteousness meant in the paffages in view; of which it is faid, that it would be revealed and brought in, in the times of the Meffiah, If. lvi. 1. Dan. ix. 24. If. lxii. 1. Several of these reasons fhew, that it is not mens own inherent holiness, though abfolutely neceffary, that is meant in thofe paffages; feeing the nature and neceffity of that holiness is clearly revealed in the Old Teftament, as well as in the New. In order to fhew, that the juftification taught by the prophets, includes not only freedom from condemnation and mifery, but also a right to true happinefs from God, and in the enjoyment of God himtelf, it is proper to obferve, what is fo oft mentioned by the prophets, as the fum of all the divine promifes to thofe who take hold of the divine covenant, namely, that he will be their God, and that they fhall be his people, Jer. xxxi. 33. Hof. ii. 23.; and that, fuitably to this, his people are reprefented as his adopted children, or as ftanding in fuch a relation to him as children are in to a father. Not only do the prophets teach, that God should be honoured by his people, as parents are honoured by their children, but also that God delights in them, loves, pities, and fpares them, as parents do their children; particularly, that finners employed in the exercife of true repentance are pleasant children in his fight *: yea, that God's love to his people far tranfcends the most tender parental affection; fuch as that of a mother to her fucking child, If. xlix. 15.; See Pf. ciii. 13. Mal. iii. 17. Jer. xxxi. 20. that that the happiness of his people is the object of his complacency, that he rejoices over them to do them good, Jer. xxxii. 40. &c. The titles given them are, HEPHZIBAH, BEULAH, or Delighted in, Married, Sought out, Not forfaken, I. Ixii. 4. The usefulness of these things, for proving, that the prophecies contain the doctrine of immortality, or that God will not annihilate his people, but bestow the most lafting happiness on them, will be confidered more fully afterwards. As to fanctification, it was proved already, that the prophets speak of holiness, not only as our duty, made neceffary by God's precepts, but alfo as a bleffing promised in his covenant; feeing it is a chief thing in the prophetic defcription of that cove❤ nant, that God promifes to put his law in our inward parts, to write it on our hearts, and to cause us to walk in his ftatutes. But of this more afterwards, in speaking of the fuperior advantages of the New-Teftament church state. The various concomitants and fruits of the benefits already mentioned, fuch as affurance of God's love*, peace of confcience, accefs to God, acceptance with him, divine joy flowing both from the hope of God's favour, contemplation of his glory, and conformity to his will, perfeverance and growth in grace, and the like fpiritual bleffings, are mentioned in the Old Teftament as well as the New, as the bleffings of God's covenant, and the fruits of the Meffiah's undertaking and offices. All these things abundantly refute the notion of a mere temporal Meffiah; the enjoyments that have been mentioned as the Meffiah's benefits being evidently of a spiritual nature, whether we confider the object, the caufes, the means, or the effects of them: They give us the idea of a happiness, of which the objective caufe is the manifeftation of the * If. xlv. lvi. xxxv. xliv. glory |