The sound believer. A treatise of evangelical conversion. Discovering the work of Christ's spirit,…

2. He accepts and accounts us perfectly Righteous, Rom. 4.3. Faith is accounted for Righteousness, not the Act of Faith; as the Arminians would, but the Object of it apprehended by Faith, Rom. 5.17. The Lord accounts us as Righteous through' Christ's Righteousness, as if we had kept all the Law, suffered all the Punishments for the Breach of it; Who can lay any Thing to the Charge of God's Elect, whom God hath justified? saith the Apostle, Rom. 8. Satan may answer, Yes I can, for the Law saith, The Soul that sins must die: Christ answers, but I have died for him, and satisfied the utmost Farthing to Justice in that Point: True, my Satan say, here is Satisfaction for the Offence, but the Law must be kept also; the Lord Christ answers, I am the End of the Law for Righteousness, I am perfectly holy and righteous, not for my self, (for I am a common Person) but for this poor Sinner who in himself is exceedingly and wholly polluted; and hence the Lord covers Sins, as well as pardons Sins; clothes us with Christ, as well as remits Sin for Christ's Sake; and as we are accounted Sinners by Imputation of Adam's legal Unrighteousness, ⟨p. 199⟩so are we accounted Righteous by the second Adam's legal Righteousness, and that unto eternal Life, Rom. 5.17, 18. Thus you see the Nature, now the Lord opens your Eyes to see the Glory of this Privilege; you that never felt the heavy Load of Sin, the Terrors of a distressed Conscience arising from the Sense of an angry God, cannot prize this Privilege; but if you have, you cannot but say as he did, O blessed are they whose Iniquities are forgiven, and whose Sin is covered; and again, Blessed is the Man to whom the Lord imputes no Sin, Psal. 32.12. The Lord pity us; how many be there in these Times, that know there is no Justification but by Christ's Righteousness, and yet esteem it not? Let me therefore give you one Glimpse of the Glory of it in these Particulars,

2. He accepts and accounts us perfectly Righteous, Rom. 4.3