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Christ Jesus." iv. 12. "that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." James i. 4. "that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

Hence the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit in the regenerate. Gal. v. 16. "walk in the Spirit, and shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." 1 Tim. ye vi. 12. "fight the good fight of faith." 2 Tim. iv. 7. "I have fought a good fight." A similar struggle is maintained against the world and Satan. John vii. 7. "the world hateth me, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” XV. 18, 19. "if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." See also xvii. 14. Rom. xii. 2. " be not conformed to this world." Gal. vi. 14. "by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." James iv. 4. "ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." 1 John iii. 13. "marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

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There is also a victory to be gained. Rev. ii. 7. "to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life." v. 26. "he that overcometh......to him will

I give power over the nations." iii. 5. he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment." v. 12. "him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God." v. 21. "to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne." xxi. 7. "he that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." Over the world; 1 John ii. 15. and v. 4. "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the

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world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." Over death; Prov. xii. 28. "in the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death." xiv. 32. "the righteous hath hope in his death." John viii. 51. “if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Rev. ii. 11. "he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." xiv. 13. "blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth." Over Satan; Eph. vi. 10, &c. "be strong in the Lord.......that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil:" being clothed with "the whole armour of God" to oppose him. James iv. 7. "resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 1 John ii. 14. " ye have overcome the wicked one " Rev. xii. 11. "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony."

Hence such as are strenuous in this conflict, and earnestly and unceasingly labour to attain perfection in Christ, though they be really imperfect, are yet, by imputation and through the divine mercy, frequently called in Scripture perfect, and blameless, and without sin; inasmuch as sin, though still dwelling in them, does not reign over them." Gen. vi. 9. "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations." xvii. 1. "walk before me, and be thou perfect." 1 Kings xv. 14. "the high places were not removed; nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with Jehovah all his days." See also 2 Chron. xv. 17. Philipp. iii. 15. "let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded." Heb. x. 14. "by one offering he hath per

Heb. x. 14. "

fected for ever them that are sanctified."

6. "whosoever abideth in him sinneth not."

1 John iii.

See also

v. 18. Coloss. ii. 2. " that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father, and of Christ." Eph. iii. 18, 19. "that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

CHAPTER XXII.

OF JUSTIFICATION.

HAVING Considered the absolute or internal increase of the regenerate, I proceed to speak of that which is relative or external.

This increase has reference either to the Father exclusively, or to the Father and Son conjointly.

That which has reference to the Father exclusively is termed justification and adoption. Rom. viii. 30. "whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified—.”

Justification is the gratuitous purpose of God, whereby those who are regenerate are planted in Christ are absolved from sin and death through his most perfect satisfaction, and accounted just in the sight of God, not by the works of the law, but through faith.

The gratuitous purpose. Rom. iii. 24. "being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." v. 16, 17. "not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification: for if by one man's offence

death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." Tit. iii. 7. "being justified by his grace."

Of God, that is, the Father. Rom. iii. 25, 26. "whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." viii. 33. "it is God

that justifieth." In the Son through the Spirit. 1 Cor. vi. 11. "but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

Through the satisfaction of Christ. Isai. liii. 11. "by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." Rom. v. 9. "much more then being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." v. 19. "by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." x. 4. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

As therefore our sins are imputed to Christ, so the merits or righteousness of Christ are imputed to us through faith.* 1 Cor. i. 30. "of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 2 Cor. v. 21. "he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Rom. iv. 6. "even as

His obedience

Imputed becomes theirs by faith.

Paradise Lost, XII. 408.

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