"teousness by the law, your frustrate the grace of God, and "what a wretched creature is that !-If you seek righteous"ness by the law, you make Christ's death in vain; and can "you do any thing worse, than to kick against the grace of "God, and to make the death of Christ in vain ?" These sins are very great. But you will say, Can any man make Christ's death in vain? No. No man, nor any devil neither, nor all the devils together, can frustrate the virtue of Christ's death; it is above the reach of hell and earth. The devil, and the wicked world, thought to make Christ's life in vain, by putting him to death; to put an end to his doctrine, and life, and disciples, by killing him; and to put an end to all, by keeping him in the grave; but to make Christ's death in vain, is utterly impossible: it is so certain, so reverend a transaction of Divine Providence, contrived in so much wisdom, that its end must necessarily be reached. But, though no man can make Christ's death to be in vain really-yet,

[1.] A man may make it in vain to himself; he may reduce himself into the same case as if Christ had never died. Behold, I Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing, Gal. v. 2. A strange word! Christ shall profit you nothing!--Was the apostle Paul a man that preached an unprofitable Christ? No: but You render him vain, if you seek righteousness by the law. Ver. 4. Christ is become of no effect to you; whosoever is justified by the law, is fallen from grace. A justified man by the law, there never was in this world: but the apostle speaks of it here as supposing the best; supposing they had got all that they could have devised, for their justification by the law; supposing that they had obeyed the law more perfectly than any sinner ever had done, saith the apostle, "This is all the benefit you would reap by it, Christ's righteousness would be of no effect to "you."--A man makes Christ's death to be in vain to himself, when he doth not lay hold of its power, and virtue by faith.

[2.] A man makes Christ's death to be in vain, by doing all that he can to make it so; though he doth not do so in fact. And you will find this the rule of God's dealing; he measures men's wickedness, and judges of their actions, by

the native design of them; though they never reach it. In all acts of dishonouring God, and rebellion against him, God deals with men according to their sinful intentions, in these sins, though they fall far short of taking effect. A sinner, by his self-righteousness, cannot make Christ's death to be in vain; but he doth all that he can to make it so: and this is what the apostle means here when he saith, If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. "You do all

"that you can to make Christ's death in vain."

I should now come to speak something of the greatness of this sin, of making Christ's death in vain; of entertaining any principles or practices, that have a tendency that way. But I cannot enter upon this now.

SERMON VI.

GAL. ii. 21.

[Latter Clause.]

If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

I DO not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come

by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. The most sacred things revealed to us in the word of God, are these two-the grace of God-and the death of Christ; and they are joined close together; they are two things that all who have a mind to be saved must constantly have in their eye;-the grace of God-and the death of Christ: and yet there are not a few that despise both; that frustrate the one, and make the other in vain and this charge the apostle lays upon an error, that he is reproving the Galatian churches for, and that was their seeking righteousness by the law, and the works of it. I have spoken unto these words, as containing two strong arguments against seeking of righteousness by the works of the

law.

1st, That thereby the grace of God is frustrated.

2dly, That thereby Christ's death is made to be in vain ;as far as the wickedness of man can do the one or the other.

Upon this second argument I was the last time, and spoke something to four notes that I drew from it; two of them negatives, and two of them positives.

1st, That there is no righteousness, for the justifying a sinner, that can come by the law. Never man got to heaven by the law: never a man got to heaven by his own good doings. All go to hell for their own evil doings; but no man, since sin came into the world, ever went to heaven by his own good doings. That I proved.

2dly, The other negative contained here is, That Christ hath not died in vain :-for the apostle doth certainly imply that he did not die in vain, when he aggravates the sin of seeking righteousness by the law, as inferring so horrible an absurdity; for he is pointing forth the heinousness of this sin in very dreadful colours, on purpose to make it hated.

The two positive truths contained here are these :

(1.) If there was any righteousness could come by the law, Christ's death would be in vain. Christ had died in vain, if any man could have stood accepted before God, without the virtue of his death. The virtue of Christ's death, was of efficacy for the rendering men accepted before God, even before he came into the world. The fathers, that died before Christ came, were saved by the same faith, that believers on Christ were saved by, after he came. So saith the apostle, Acts xv. 11. But we believe, that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they; comparing the Old Testament and the New Testament dispensation together.

(2.) The second positive was this, That making Christ's death to be in vain, was a great and horrible sin. I told you, it was impossible to make it vain really, or to hinder any of its excellent fruits. As no man could hinder the solid causes of it, so no man can hinder the strong fruit of it :—the fruit of the death of Christ is quite out of the reach of men or devils. When our Lord was in his humbled state, the devil could, upon permission, carry his body up to the pinnacle of the temple but he had no power to hurt him. When he in this world, one wicked disciple betrayed him, and the

was

rest cowardly forsook him; his enemies prevailed against him in the hour and power of darkness, and took away his life; but for the fruit and virtue of his death, that is lodged higher than man can reach: yet men may make Christ's death to be

in vain.

1st, To themselves.A poor creature, that hath not faith in Christ, gets no more good of him, than if Christ had never died, or if Christ's death had been in vain; than if he had never died, or had died to no purpose.

2dly, God will always reckon with men according to their design in sinning. All sin is a breaking of God's law; but yet God's law will not be broken, but will break all the breakers of it sin is counted, and charged as a dishonouring of God; and yet the Lord's honour is advanced in the ruin of the sinner.

I proceed now to shew you the dreadfulness of this sin, of doing any thing that hath a tendency to the making Christ's death to be in vain. I would, 1st, aggravate this sin in its just measures; and, 2dly, come to the Application, and shew how common a sin this is.It is a great sin to make Christ's death in vain, in the way wherein it is practicable; and in that sense that the apostle here means.

1st, Let us consider God; whensoever we are to take the just measure of any sin, we are to take it with respect to God. This is the grand aggravation of all sin, that it is against God. When David is confessing, with deep remorse, his vile sins of adultery and murder, which were sins against his neighbour; Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, saith he, and done this evil in thy sight, Psal. li. 4. Now let us consider what this sin doth with respect to God ;-and here we must take up some account of God, according to the gospel revelation of him for as Jesus Christ is not revealed by the law, so neither is the sin of rendering his death to be in vain, ag gravated by the law, as it is by the discoveries made of God in the gospel. It is a sin against God the Father, and against God the Son, and against God the Holy Ghost.

(1.) To make this sin appear in its greatness, first, it is against God the Father woefully. The greatest contrivance that ever the infinitely wise God had, for the glory of his

name, was the working out of eternal redemption, by the death of his own Son, for a company of lost sinners. This is the chief of the ways of God: all things revealed of him, and of his counsel, and of his purpose, and of his actions, are all but low, in regard of this; all others are subservient to this act of Divine Providence: this is the chief of the ways of God. Let us see what treasures of his glory are concerned therein.

[1] There is infinite wisdom in contriving a way, that the understanding of angels and men could not find out, and when it is revealed, it cannot be fully known. It is said concerning the angels, that they desire to pry into those things; into those things that the Spirit reveals, concerning the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, 1 Pet. i. 11, 12. Now, if the glorified angels in heaven be students of Jesus Christ, and of the glory of his sufferings, and of the glory that was the fruit thereof, how much more should men do so! There is a manifold wisdom of God that shines therein, and is perceived by, and made known to them. Eph. iii. 10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be made known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to his eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, where the wisdom of God is so much concerned, judge you what a provocation it must needs be, when foolish man does all that may be to defeat this wisdom. Christ as crucified, is called the wisdom of God, and power of God: but unto poor ignorant man he is foolishness and weakness, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24.

[2.] In this way of saving us by the death of Christ, there is the great grace, and mercy of God, that he would magnify. Now, what a great sin must it be to count all this in vain? God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but should have everlasting life, John iii. 16. God commendeth his love to us, in that whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Rom. v. 8. And shall this love be so far despised, as that a man shall endeavour to make it be in vain ?

[3.] This is a contrivance, also, for the magnifying the holy law of God. The Lord is so zealous for his law, that