SERMON IV.

THE LAW MAGNIFIED BY THE REDEEMER.*

"The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable."-ISAIAH xlii. 21.

WHEN we consider ourselves as God's creatures, and consequently as his subjects, it is plain there is nothing more becoming us than to have high and honourable thoughts of his law. In the meantime, there is scarce any thing more difficult for sinful corrupt creatures. It is the nature of transgressors and criminals to bear a grudge and prejudice against the law, because the law is against them. And one of the best means for curing these prejudices, by the grace of God, is certainly to consider the unspeakable honour done to the law in the work of redemption: so that we should love Christ for loving us, and his law, because Christ loved it, and honoured it so much; not that this is the only motive, but it ought surely to be a very great motive to us.

There are several things in this chapter that may satisfy us, that the words before us are to be understood of the work of redemption. All the preceding part of the chapter is concerning God's sending his

Preached in the North-West Church, Glasgow, Jan. 7, 1722.

Son to the world, and the things that were to happen at that time. It begins, "Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delights ;" and then gives an account of the design and consequences of his coming. In the verses immediately preceding the text, it tells us of a sort of enemies that Christ would have, and of the confusion they would bring on themselves; the heathen that would continue obstinate in their idolatry, and the Jews that would continue obstinate in their unbelief. What the prophet tells of the Jewish teachers, who are here called God's servants and messengers, (which name their office entitled them to, though their abuse of it made them unworthy of it,) is but in other words, what the Psalmist tells us at the end of the 118th Psalm, that those Jewish builders would reject that stone which God designed should be the chief stone of the corner.

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Now, when we consider this as spoken about the time of Christ's coming to the world, it is easy to reflect, that at the time it was chiefly by the work of redemption that God did magnify the law, and make it honourable. Otherwise, as to God's special covenant with the Jews, it cannot be said that God showed himself well pleased with them. At that time the ceremonial law was abolished. It was the moral law was magnified by the satisfaction Christ gave it. The Jewish builders rejected Christ, they dishonoured the law. The words before us show he put the greatest honour upon it. Besides, as the Scripture is its own best interpreter, this agrees perfectly well with what commendations are given of the work of redemption in other parts of Scripture.

Thus, at the end of Rom. iii. the apostle, proposing this objection, "Do we then make void the law?" to wit, by the doctrine of redemption, or of the gospel; replies, "God forbid; nay, we rather establish it," for the 25th verse of that chapter tells, that it is thereby that God declares or magnifies his right

eousness.

It is not needful to insist long in explaining the words, after having thus shown of whom they are to be understood. Only we shall briefly consider what is meant by God's righteousness, and what it is to magnify the law. God's righteousness is sometimes in Scripture taken for his mercy and goodness; but the most proper sense of it is, that justice by which he keeps up the authority of his law. It is also taken for the righteousness of Christ, which satisfied the law, called "the righteousness which is of God by faith." It is the same thing, whether we understand it here of God's essential justice, or of Christ's righteousness; because it comes to the same purpose, whether it be said, that God was well pleased upon the account of his essential natural justice, which Christ satisfied, or that he is well pleased for the sake of Christ's righteousness, which satisfied that justice.

As for magnifying or making the law honourable, God may be said to make the law honourable by every thing by which he shows his own great respect to it. In every government, the sovereign is the fountain of honour; in the divine government, God is the fountain of all honour. Whatever shows

God's respect to it, magnifies the law. The law is magnified when either the precepts or penalty of it

are fulfilled, when the commands or threatenings of it are satisfied.

What I design to insist on at present is the doctrine in the latter part of the words, That by the work of redemption there is unspeakable honour done to the law. This is a doctrine very useful to give us high and exalted thoughts both of the law, and also of the work of redemption. In prosecuting it, we shall chiefly consider how the work of redemption magnifies God's law; and at the same time consider of how great importance it is that the law should be magnified.

Now, the work of redemption magnifies God's law, I. By the perfect obedience that Christ gave to the commandments of it.

II. By the perfect satisfaction he gave to the threatenings of it.

III. The work of redemption magnifies the law, as it is a work of infinite love: for every thing that strengthens the motives to obey the law, magnifies the law by strengthening the force of it; and a manifestation of infinite love magnifies and strengthens the motives to obey a law, the substance of which is love, and the chief part of which is to love the Lawgiver himself.

IV. The work of redemption magnifies the law upon the account of the great reward of Christ's obedience: for the law is magnified, not only when obedience is performed, but also when obedience is rewarded and the more honour and glory, and greater gifts, Christ received for the sake of his obedience, it was not Christ only was honoured, but the law also.

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V. The application, as well as the execution, of the work of redemption, magnifies the law; the way and manner of the application, by faith. No sinner can obtain any favour from the Sovereign of the world, till he magnify the law, by joining with it, in condemning himself, and honouring that perfect obedience the Son of God gave it, and making it the ground of his hope; and by the fruit of that application, by bringing such innumerable wretches, that once despised and hated the law, to love, honour, and obey it.

I. I begin with the first of these, That Christ did unspeakable honour to the law by his perfect obedience to it. It is useful for us to consider, first, What is meant by his obedience. When we speak of ourselves, or of mere creatures, holiness, and obedience to the law, is but one and the same thing; but it is not so, it was not so always, as to Christ. Before he came to the world he was perfectly holy; but that holiness could not be called obedience. It could not be then so properly said, that Christ was conform to the law, as that the law was conform to him. It was then (as the apostle expresses it) he was made under the law, when he was made of a woman. His actions before were always holy; yet they could not be called duty; for he was not formally a member and subject of God's kingdom, but the head of it. His holiness before excited him to make that law, to rule the world by it; but afterwards he himself was governed by it. His holiness and righteousness before was the holiness of God; afterwards it was the obedience of a man. There is a resemblance between the holiness of God and that