Use 2: For Exhortation

1. In general, though more especially to Unbelievers: the counsel here is, that as we desire to stand justified before our great Judge, when we shall come to be judged by him, we labor to make sure of an undeceiving title to the righteousness of Christ by faith in him. This is the great concern of all the children of men that come within the sound of the Gospel, the main thing which all [illegible] Adam's posterity have to be [illegible] out after and yet alas, how few are there among all this company, who mind or have any regard to it? It is one of the principal artifices of Satan, that great adversary of souls, to lull men into a quiet sleep of carnal security and persuade them to live in the world altogether unconcerned about the hazardous estate of their souls, and if possible, he will prevent them from ever so much as considering how the case is like to go with them in the great day of accounts: from where it comes to pass, that the greatest part of this number do unhappily leave this great affair unprovided for. Or if at any time he sees men to be under some rousing and awakenings; if they begin to be a little troubled about their present state, and in fears of the issue of it; if some beams of light are darted into them, and they feel some tokens of divine displeasure, and think what they shall do to escape it, he will be sure to do what he can to gull them into some groundless hopes, whereby they may be cheated into a fool's paradise, and so go on quietly in the ways of destruction, like an ox to the slaughter, and know not that it is for their lives, till it be too late, and there be no recovery. Give me leave then to offer some rousing motives, to quicken you to this work.

1. Consider, the certainty of the great judgment. If it were so, that the children of men were never to come to a trial, it would then little concern them to enquire into their own case, or the estate of affairs between God and them, they might well enough, and with safety let all things run on without any concernedness upon their spirits. But since there will certainly [illegible] time come wherein every son and daughter of Adam shall be brought forth to the bar, and pass an exact trial, it must needs speak it a piece of the highest prudence in them to be most carefully providing for it, and the most manifest folly to be negligent about it. And if the Scriptures of Truth may be believed, they have given us undeniable assurance that there will be a time wherein all the world shall be judged, and all persons in particular shall be called forth to give up their account at the bar: see (Ecclesiastes 12, last verse) For God will bring every work to judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil, (2 Corinthians 5:10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things which he has done in the body, &c. and there are many other Scriptures of the like import. So that the thing itself is indubitable; and it is an argument of horrid atheism as well as unbelief for any to suspect the truth of this assertion, as all these practically do, who do wholly neglect all manner of care to be providing for it. Remember then, that it will be but a little while, and all that are in the graves shall arise, and be gathered together to the judgment when the thrones shall be set, and the books shall be opened, and all the children of men that ever have been shall be judged out of them: when you and I shall, whether we will or no, be brought forth and made to stand out and appear before that awful tribunal.

2. Consider, who shall then be Judge: the Scripture sometimes ascribes this judgment to God, sometimes to Jesus Christ. The Apostle reconciles these two together (Acts 17:31): He has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom he has ordained. So that God judges the world by Jesus Christ; and although it be a great comfort to Believers, that they shall be judged by Christ, because he who is their Judge, is also their Savior, and they could not be made partakers in the imputation of his righteousness without his knowledge, and therefore they must needs meet him in that day with great joy; yet this consideration will add no matter of comfort or hope to any other besides these, and least of all to that company that have enjoyed the Gospel, and the offers of Christ made to them in it, and have despised it, and disobeyed. Yes, his being to judge themselves does augment the terror of all such as these, because this great Savior has been specially and horribly affronted by them, and therefore he has a peculiar design of taking vengeance upon them (2 Thessalonians 1:8), in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But yet this may awaken all to consider that if he be the Judge, we may be sure that he will proceed in exact righteousness, and will do nothing in that affair for favor or affection, but just as men's case shall there be found to be, just so the sentence shall then undoubtedly pass upon them (Romans 2:6): Who will render to every man according to his deeds, (Psalm 96, last verse) He shall judge the world with righteousness, and his people with his truth. Know it then, that if you are to be judged by him, it greatly concerns you to see that your matters be good, and that more especially, as to the consideration of his exact justice, you are to remember that he is also the heart-searcher, from whom nothing can be hid, but all things are opened and manifest before him; and therefore you had need to search into your own case, and sift it to the bottom, and see that there be no fraud or fallacy in it, for if there be, it is impossible to cover it from him, or prevent his bringing of it to light, and judging accordingly.

Consider, what vast and infinite consequences depend upon this judgment: if it were a little matter, and a thing of small moment, it were too much to be solicitously engaged about it; that is beneath the wisdom of a man to be serious about trifles. But for him altogether to neglect, or to be flighty and careless in providing for such a cause depending, whose issues are everlasting, and in which his eternal weal or woe is concerned, is folly with a witness. And such is this: consider that when you shall come to be judged, in the last and great day, one of these two will undoubtedly be the conclusion of this affair, either your condemnation, or else your justification. There is no middle between these two to be expected, your case will be found and declared to be either good or bad, and that which will come in upon either of those will be unconceivable.

If it shall be your infelicity then to fall under a sentence of condemnation, it had been better for you that you had never been born. Everlasting punishment will be the certain fruit of it (Matthew 25, last verse): "These shall go into everlasting punishment," that is, those that shall then be found under guilt. And who can tell what that punishment contains in it? It put the Son of God into an agony, and made the man Christ to sweat clods of congealed blood to be called to enter into these lists, and made his soul sorrowful to the death; and shall sinners who shall be made to feel all this be better able to endure it? Those doleful shrieks, and everlasting lamentations of cursed sinners, condemned to the bottomless pit, and cast into that burning lake of fire and brimstone, are doubtless to be avoided with utmost care and solicitude, by all such as have the happy advantage put into their hands so to do. And what man is there, who is in his right mind, that would not be seriously careful to seek after an escape from the dint of such a sentence, as will bind him over, and expose him to an eternal separation from the glorious presence of God, and endless suffering the merciless impressions of his enflamed fury, in that place which is on purpose prepared for the triumphs of divine vengeance over the children of perdition. And this, and nothing short of this, is the inevitable consequence of the judgment upon all such whose case shall be found not to be good.

On the other hand, if your cause shall be right and it shall be your happiness to receive a sentence of justification at that bar, you are then happy indeed, and may bless God with all your souls that ever he gave you a being, wherein you were made capable of being the subjects of these infinite and indeterminable glories, which that blessed sentence shall invest you with. And your Judge shall upon the pronouncing of it, put you in possession of; who shall hereupon, not only deliver you for ever from the direful curse of the law, which contained all miseries in it, but also exalt you to a glorious throne, and set a massy crown of life upon your heads; entertain you in the everlasting embraces of his ravishing affection, and make you eternally to swim in bankless, boundless and bottomless ocean of pleasures, in the presence of God, and of the Lamb; where you shall be filled and run over with fulness of joys. And what do you now say to these things? Must these needs be the issues of this matter? And will you, notwithstanding you are told of it, and assured of the truth and certainty of the thing, still be secure and careless about it? Shall such a cause of so infinite moment, be slighted, and let run at uncertainty? Are salvation and damnation things so indifferent, that it is no great matter whether of them be your lot? However you may think of these things now, I am sure you will be of another persuasion ere it be long.

Consider, by what law or rule you shall then be judged: that there must be some rule upon which that affair shall proceed, is necessary, how else can there be any justice then administered: for justice in trials is nothing else but a proceeding with men according to that law or rule under which they lived. Where there is no law to command, there can be neither transgression nor righteousness; and if so, there can follow neither condemnation nor justification; for all these things have a necessary reference to some law. Now it is of great use for us to be well informed in this point, namely, what law it is that men must be tried by in the great day: it has been already hinted in the explication of the doctrine, that it was the Moral Law, or that law which was given to Adam in the first Covenant, with promises and threatenings, that shall be the highest rule of that day's proceedings, or that to which the judgment which shall then pass shall ultimately refer; that being the rule of proceedings between God and Man, which was at first fixed by God himself, and is of perpetual force and must never be baulked. But that I may prevent misunderstanding of this assertion, give me leave here a little more to explain it: my meaning then in this point is this (and it is none other but according to the Scriptures of God) that no man shall stand acquitted by the Judge in the day of Judgment, but only he who has answered all the demands of the law, either in himself or in his Surety. Now because the bringing in of a Surety to stand in the place of the man himself, is the proper foundation on which the Gospel Covenant is built; hence it is also a truth, that some men shall be judged by the Gospel, that is, according as they are found in Christ related to him, and entitled to his satisfaction, but still, the enquiry concerning such as these also will be, whether or no the law has been answered by them or for them; whether the command of it has been perfectly fulfilled, or whether the sin that has been committed against it, has been satisfied for, and the due deserved punishment has been born for it? And therefore Christ says, that he came not to destroy the law but fulfill it; and though heaven and earth shall pass, yet the law shall stand (Matthew 5:17, 18). Yes, when the heavens are past as a scroll, and folded up as a garment, this Word of God shall endure. There are too many that indulge themselves with a fond expectation, that there shall be some more remiss and easy rule of trial brought in at that day; because Jesus Christ is the Judge; but they wofully deceive themselves: God is of one mind, the rule given to Man and under which he covenanted, is an unchangeable rule. There is indeed a way which infinite wisdom has found out, and made the discovery of, whereby a sinful man may be made able to stand the dint of that trial, and be justified in it; and this indeed is the great glory of the Gospel, that it has made such a discovery as this is, even a way in which mercy may be agreed with justice, in and by Jesus Christ: but there is no way to avoid this trial. The law book is one of those books that must and will be opened in order to that solemn process which shall be made in the day of accounts, and there will be no waving of it.

Consider from hence, that you must have a righteousness, and not only so, but such an one as will fully answer the law too, if ever you hope to be justified at that day. It is a vain thing for any men to pretend to a hope, that they shall do well enough then, and yet never concern themselves about the getting of a righteousness that may then stand to answer for them. There are many that plead God is merciful, and they feed themselves up with fond hopes, that he will have pity upon and not reject the works of his hands, and this is all they have to comfort themselves with in the contemplation of the day of reckoning: but this is an empty plea; justice is one of his attributes as well as mercy, and he will not be merciful any farther than as he can be just too. And further, remember, it is a court of judgment where you must stand, and a bar of justice at which you must plead; and if you be not found to have a righteous cause then, all the pleas for mercy which you can make will be too late. For the present indeed it is a precious day of grace, and in it Jesus Christ is sitting upon a throne of grace, and the humble prostrate confessions of true penitents may avail for sinners, with him who now delights in mercy; and if men would be persuaded to embrace this opportunity, and improve it in making of their peace with him, it would be well for them. But when once he comes to sit upon the exalted throne of judgment, and shall put on righteousness for a garment, the case will then be altered, and if you shall upon examination be found too light, there will be no more room for repentance.

Consider, there is no other righteousness to be found, but only that of Christ, that can or will satisfy the demands of justice for you. This truth has been sufficiently evidenced in the opening of the doctrine; only be here persuaded to meditate and ponder seriously upon it. There will be no appearing then under a covering of your own making, it will be too short, and too narrow, and too dirty to stand you in any stead. If you should wash yourselves with Nitre, and take much Sope, and be at a great deal of pains, yet all will not cleanse you from your spots, or rinse off those blemishes which you have cleaving to you, which are like the Leopard's spots, and Ethiopian's blackness. There is no man [illegible] can make his heart clean; and if our own personal righteousness be too short to do this for us, it is certain that there is no relative righteousness to be heard of, which will suffice, but only that of Christ. There is none else which has such an intrinsical worth in it, as to be able so to merit for us; for that which so does, must be an everlasting righteousness. And if there were any other such, as in truth there is not, yet there is none other which God has declared his acceptance of, without which, we criminals can never plead justice for our acquittance and deliverance from condemnation upon another score. This therefore, and none but this will be of any worth to us, when we come to make our plea for our lives; and therefore it is of most momentous concern that we use utmost endeavours to get entitled to this.

Consider, that it is not sufficient that there is such a righteousness of Christ, and that the report of it has been made to you, and you have heard of it, except you have also made it yours by believing on him. There are thousands in the world who have heard this report, and possibly have given a literal assent, and historical credit to the truth of it, who shall yet notwithstanding go for ever without the benefit of it; and that because they did not apprehend and close in with it by a living faith, they did not throw themselves upon it, and renouncing every other object of trust, place their whole confidence in [illegible]. It is not the righteousness of Christ talked of, or highly commended, but savingly believed in, that will stand men in any stead, and do them a kindness indeed. There is no doubt but the Devils do believe the truth of the Gospel, they confessed Christ when he was on Earth, to be the Son of God; but this profits them not. This general faith is the undoing of multitudes. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, he died to satisfy divine justice for such, and therefore they hope that they shall escape condemnation, and be admitted into his favor, and be justified upon this mere account, but yet they never had the impressions of a saving work of grace wrought upon their souls, whereby they were brought over to cast themselves upon him by a lively faith, or were enabled to betake themselves to him alone, in an utter renunciation of every other trust of their souls, they never embraced his righteousness, and that only to be their security against the thundering menaces of the law. And so all their hopes, how strong and satisfying soever they may seem to be, and whatever comfort and content they may take in them, do prove but as the spider's web; for God has firmly restrained Gospel salvation to believing (John 3:36). He that believes on the Son of God, has everlasting life; and he that believes not the Son, shall never see life.

Consider, this righteousness of Christ is freely held forth and offered to you in the Gospel; yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is earnestly soliciting and wooing of you to accept of it. It will therefore be your own fault if at last you shall go without it. God himself has provided it, Jesus Christ has wrought it out, and there now wants nothing else but your cordial accepting of it to make it yours. And if now after all this you shall be so foolish as carelessly to neglect it, or wilfully to reject it, and are thereupon found in the last day to be without it, how bitter and heart-piercing a reflection must it needs be for you to remember, that once there was a time when Jesus Christ offered himself to you, to be your security against the wrath of God, and the courses of his holy law, yes pressed you, and with great solicitousness entreated you to accept of him as such, and waited long upon you, as one loath to receive a denial at your hands, and yet you scorned him and made light of him. [illegible] now then and be assured, that this righteousness of Christ, is so presented in the Gospel-offer, that it is made sure for every one that comes within the reach of the publication of it, and feels in himself an absolute necessity of it, and is made willing to accept of it upon Gospel terms. And they are no other but an hearty forsaking of every other object of trust or affiance which men have ignorantly and foolishly chosen to themselves, and a casting themselves wholly upon Christ, for peace with God, and all his other concomitant benefits. And I am here once more in God's name solemnly to acquaint you with this message: that although you have many, and many a time despised, and set it at naught, though you have stopped your ears against it, and desperately refused to hearken to these fair terms but have chosen rather to go without it, than part with the least lust only for the sake of it; it yet may be made yours, there is a possibility still of obtaining it, if so be that you have any heart to it. And do therefore entreat you by the love which you bear to your immortal souls, and desires you have not to be cast in the judgment and so lost for ever, that you do no more put it away from you, lest for so doing you come to rue it eternally, and confess your madness, when there is no reparation; when every refuge of lies, and hiding place of deceit shall be laid level, as they certainly will in that day, when he shall lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.

Consider the daily danger you go in till you are justified: did sinners but know how many mischiefs they lie open to, what infinite hazards they run every moment, as long as they continue strangers to the righteousness of Christ, it would surely either drive them to doleful despair, or else forcibly put them upon it to make it their first work, to seek after the obtaining of it with the utmost diligence. And what says Christ himself (John 3:18): He that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The sentence of the Law is already past, that the soul that sins, that soul shall die: guilt and a curse are now upon you, and they hold you in such fetters as are indissoluble by any created power whatever, and keep you fast for that woeful execution which God will come [illegible] long to do upon all those who shall be found held under that condemnation. It is God's mere patience which presents you a present reprieve, but for which you had long ere this felt the weight of his hand; and remember that this also is only [illegible]: rich mercy has also exalted this day of patience into a day of grace, wherein there is offered an opportunity, together with the means of making your peace, and getting reconciled to God, but how long that shall last is only known to him, who has all our times in his hand, and if he does but once give the word, it ends in that very moment. And if you shall go down into the grave unjustified, being naked for want of Christ's righteousness to cover you, you will never more have an offer of it made to you throughout eternity. And you, when the powerful word of God shall awaken your drowsy dust, and reunite your separated souls and bodies, and the dreadful sound of the last trumpet shall alarm and hasten you to the terrible tribunal, how will you be able in that day to look this Christ in the face whom you have thus wilfully despised? How will you weary the mountains, and tire the hills with fruitless cries and entreaties to cover and hide you from the presence of the Lamb, in the great day of his indignation? With what pale faces, and ghastly countenances, and trembling joints, will you stand to hear yourselves examined, judged and condemned; and with what horrid roarings and shriekings will you drop down into the bottomless gulf, where you must receive double damnation, not only for being without, but also for refusing to accept of Christ and his righteousness? Now there is a precious price in your hands, and as fair opportunity for the preventing of all this, if a Savior may but find welcome, and you are but indeed willing to accept of him as he is offered in the Gospel. Oh, be persuaded to make haste, give all diligence to get in to him, before the doom that is past be put in execution.

If now there be any soul that is moved with those things, and does with seriousness make the enquiry, how shall a wretched condemned sinner come to make sure of an unfailing interest in the righteousness of Christ? Or how shall I obtain that justifying faith by which it is apprehended and received? To such an enquirer I would answer, that you can do nothing for yourselves by your own strength, but you are in sense of your utter impotency, to be looking to and waiting upon God in Christ, for his Spirit and grace, and that in a way of diligent attendance upon all the ways which are of his appointment and in the which he has been wont to come and bless; and in this way there are two things requisite to be found in you, if ever you hope to have a sure claim to this great privilege, namely:

1. You must be wholly broken off from, and utterly reject all trust or confidence in your own righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is not provided for, or applied to righteous persons but sinners: his medicine is not prepared to be administered to those that are sound and whole, but such as are sick of sin (Luke 5:31). This is not spoken, as if we were to conceive that any of Adam's children are in themselves whole and righteous; no, the contagion of sin has fallen upon every one of the race, that is born into the world by natural generation: but it is to let us know, that there are a great many who have still a fond conceit of themselves, as vainly to think they are sound enough, righteous enough, sufficiently able to do for themselves, and as long as they are of this opinion, they are strangers to the righteousness of Christ. This is the great thing which the Spirit of God has to do with poor sinners, in order to the bringing of them to a Savior, to empty them of their self-conceitedness, and high opinions of their own abilities and worth. And it is a far easier thing to convince men of the error of their wickedness, and to drive them to their performance of legal duties, and their reformations, than (after they have taken up a course of these, and to their own apprehension much profited in them) to remove them from, and destroy their carnal confidence in them. This is the great stumbling block that lies between conviction of sin, and true conversion: there are very few (if any) of sinners that have been awakened with the Law, and so far wrought upon by it, as to think something must be done to get rid of the curse of it, but turn in here first, and try what is to be done by legal repentances, and endeavour to establish a righteousness of their own, and the misery is, the greatest number of sober professors take up and tarry here, and can be gotten no farther; and so they perish at last. For the destruction of them is equally unavoidable, either by being drowned in the wide sea of profaneness, or being swallowed up in the sands of a legal righteousness. Here therefore for your help in this case, let me speak to three things.

1. How far a man may be said to trust in his own righteousness.

2. What may be helpful to break a sinner off from this vain confidence?

3. By what discoveries we may be assured that it is broken?

How far a man may be said to trust in his own righteousness? This is well to be considered, for there be many who think that they are gotten off from this; when as indeed they are not; and so they please themselves with their own deceivings. It is hardly to be thought that any who have lived all their time under the clear light of the Gospel, should be so far deluded, as wholly to deny any dependance upon the grace of God, or to think that they can of themselves make satisfaction to a righteous law for the sin they are guilty of: and you shall find none but if it be asked to them, will readily acknowledge that they have some need of, and use for Christ; and this shallow acknowledgment makes them presently to conclude in themselves, that they are not the legallists, or self confident men that are here pointed at: but you must know that if there be any self reliance in this point, if in any respect you look upon your own doings serviceable to procure you the favor of God in Christ, this lies as a block in your way. Now besides there (if there be any such) who suppose themselves of themselves able to do so as to merit eternal life; there are others also who do really lean upon their legal righteousness for justification; and they are such as these:

All those that dare not come to Christ in their sins for his mercy; but they must have some reformations, and some specious duties of their own laid in, to bring with them, before they can come to him: and when they suppose themselves to have gotten something of this kind, now they can from them take heart, and by looking upon them take some confidence in their coming. This very thing manifestly discovers that men are not as yet fitted for the Gospel dispensation of grace; for that bids men to come in their unworthiness, and when they have nothing at all of theirs to commend them to God; but these must have some worthiness for which they may be received, or else they dare not to adventure: and though men here plead for evangelical works, as those which they only design; namely, they have a desire to be more humbled, they are not sufficiently abased in themselves; they would be more penitent, they have not suitably grieved for, nor enough mourned by reason of sin, and they would fain wait till they have gotten a little more of this, and they will come; this will not free them; for let the enquiry be made, what is all this for? Why do they not dare to come to Christ in the present state, but must wait for these dispositions? Why thus it is, they are afraid that Christ will not accept of them, such as they are, but if they were thus of so, could but find in themselves these desired frames, then they should have encouraging hopes, that he would bid them welcome; and here is a trusting in their own righteousness so far as to hope that they may without Christ get something that may commend them to him for his righteousness: and though it is certain that God in converting a sinner, does so far make discoveries of him to himself, as to let him see his absolute need of a Savior, else he would never believe in him for salvation; yet these are always not soul filling, but soul emptying discoveries, and till men can come plumply up to practice as the Publican, and say with him (Luke 18:13), Lord be merciful to me a sinner, finding nothing but sin in themselves, looking for all mercies to derive from his undeserved favor and good will, they are not gotten so clear of their own, as to be ready to rely on the righteousness of Christ alone.

They whose hopes and comforts are measured by their enlargements or straitnings in duty. I know it is the duty of every child of God to pray to him for enlargements, and to mourn under straitnings, his care to live to the glory of God, and desire to lay himself out to the utmost for the promoting of it, will engage him to this: but when these are made the measure of men's confidence and comfort: when they are carried forth, and find an apprehended fulness of spirit in their duties, they are now lifted up, and abundantly satisfied in their justified state, and God's favourable acceptance of them; but if at any time they find a flagging of these, and they drive heavily in duty, now their hopes also fail them, and they begin to call all in question, and doubt about it. Such men do evidently place too much upon their own righteousness, thinking that it is this which ingraciates them with God; and though there is too much of this frame in such as are justified, by reason of the remains of a legal spirit which are in them: yet it is too often an argument of a vain trust, and sign of one that has not been broken off from himself: and how much of this was to be observed in that unjustified Pharisee (Luke 18:17)? He does not thank God for Jesus Christ but only for his attainments and enlargements.

Such as acknowledge professedly all they have to be of grace, and yet do look upon it that they are through grace enabled to do that themselves which stand for their justification, at least in part. There are a great many who can speak high in the commendation of rich and free grace; but what grace is it that they make so much talk of? Not that which has provided us with a righteousness in another; but that which has provided us with a sanctification in ourselves; in the exerting whereof, through the renewing of the Spirit, we are enabled to merit the favor of God: and although Christ has made satisfaction for our sins, and born our hell for us, yet still we may earn heaven by what we do; though yet we would not rob God of the glory of this, but pay him this honourable acknowledgment, that we received it from him, (and so did Adam, his original righteousness with which he was to have earned his happiness) and that without him we can do nothing: but let it be made so fair and plausible as men will, and lickt up into the best shape they can put it into; still it is to trust in our own righteousness, that is, a righteousness inherent which is destructive to the way of Gospel justification, which calls us off to a righteousness without us, to one that must be imputed to us for our acceptance into God's favor.

4. Such as think it hard and injurious to them that their own duties and performances are no more regarded and rewarded by God. Some there be who are very diligent, and take much pains in the attendance upon duties both ordinary and extraordinary; and they make a great deal of do in the formalities of Religion; and this notwithstanding though they read, hear, pray, follow their callings, abstain from the common sins of times and places, &c. yet God seems to take but a little notice of them; he does not in his providence gratifie them in all these things that they desire and ask of him, but they meet with many crosses, affliction, disappointment; and this angers and discontents them, and they fret at it, charge God with hard dealing, and think themselves not a little injured by his Providence; and hereupon they begin to murmure, and call him to an account; thus did they (Isaiah 58:3): Therefore have we fasted, and you see not? therefore have we afflicted our Souls, and you takest no knowledg? This also is the discovery of a legal spirit, and you art not broken off from self; it shews that men set a price, a value upon their own doings, when they think that God undervalues them if he do not for them & gratifie their desires in every point: now all these you must get off from, if ever you would be priviledged with a right and title to the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

2. For help to break this confidence, I shall only offer these two Directions:

1. Labor and pray hard for a right discovery of the Law of God, and be frequent in the comparing of yourselves by it. The most of men have entertained carnal conceptions about the Law, and that occasions their taking up of confiding thoughts in themselves: they have not made a discovery of the exceeding great latitude of it, and that makes them to think it an easie matter to pay all observance to it: and when men are thus perswaded, they can live very well satisfied in themselves: whereas a clear beam of this light darted into their Consciences, would be a Thunderbolt to them, and strike them down dead. What says Paul (Romans 7:9)? I was alive without the Law once: but when the Commandment came, sin revived, and I died. It killed his pride, and self-conceitedness. The right understanding, and impartial application of the Law of God to ourselves, will bring us to take up other kinds of thoughts about ourselves, and about our duties, than formerly we were wont to have: it will make known to us the great imperfection that there is in our best, that when we have done all we are unprofitable; and the sin that cleaves to them; yes and it will convince us of our personal impotency to the doing of that which is good; it will shew in the wandrings of our hearts, the deadness of our affections, the many stains and spots that are upon our clearest performances; his light rightly used will shew us all, and enforce us to confess the utter impossibility of our standing a Trial before the all-seeing Judge under this shelter; because we shall have the clearest evidence, that if the Law be that according to which we must be tried, it will certainly cast and condemn us.

2. Be perswaded and assured, that as long as you do either for the whole, or for any part of your Justification place your trust in your own righteousness, Christ will never offer you his to justifie you. There is no dividing or parting of stakes in this matter: Christ is resolved, that he will either be a whole Savior, or none at all; there shall no person or thing come in to share with him in the honor of this, but he will do the whole work, and he will have the whole glory of it: man must be utterly lost, before he will come to seek him up, he must be a bankrupt, a beggar, a prodigal that has spent all, and has not an husk to live upon, before he will entertain him. It is therefore one part of the work of the Spirit whom Christ sends, to convince the world of righteousness (John 16:9), that is, firstly of the righteousness of the Law in all its demands and sentences, that it requires nothing, and that it threatens nothing but what is according to the strictest equity, and there can be no fault found with it; and then of the only righteousness of Jesus Christ, that is able to answer both the commands and menaces of the Law: that, that and no other is fitted up to respond for man to the Law. They therefore who come to Jesus Christ must deny themselves, and abjure every thing of their own, or he will none of them: so that as long as men have in their apprehension a way of their own righteousness, they are too many to be saved by him: and the truth is, to believe in Christ alone for Justification, is altogether inconsistent with a mans having any confidence in the flesh. If then you account it a matter of any moment to be found having a righteous cause at that day; and when you have examined yourselves, and made proof of your own hearts and lives, and upon trial found by experience, that you are altogether defective of a personal righteousness to that end, you here see what it is that is incumbent on you to do, that is, you must trample upon all your own rags, throw them off as filthy and noisom things; let them be so to you, and then think how much more they are so to God, and now come as naked to Christ as ever you were born: and to the naked and destitute it is, that he makes the offers of these white robes of his own righteousness, which shall hide all their spots cover all their imperfections, and present them clear of all offence, so that Justice it self must needs acquit and justifie them.

But you may say, how shall I know whether I have thus utterly rejected mine own righteousness? And if there be so vast a dependance upon this matter, it is of infinite consequence to be rightly informed in the truth of this conclusion, and this brings me to the next, namely,

3. To give some discoveries whereby we may know when this trust is broken, in a few particulars.

1. When all our duties, even the very best that we do, help to make us more humble, and more vile on our own eyes: trust in, and conceitedness of duties go always together; and so much as we are lifted up in our own conceits by the review of what we have been doing, so far we confide in it. But when not only our sins serve to abuse us before God, and lay us in the dust before him, but those very duties wherein are most consciencious in obeying God, do by our looking upon them, help to make us see what worthless nothings we are: when we gather up out of every one of them something to make us see how little cause there is why God should look towards us, and to wonder at his rich condescendency to accept of any thing at our hands: and this is a good token of humiliation. Thus it was with David, after that large contribution was made towards the building of the Temple (2 Chronicles 29:13, 14): We thank you, and praise your glorious name, but who am I? and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? And the Church (Isaiah 64:6): we all are as an unclean thing, and our righteousness are as filthy rags, every prayer, every Sabbath, every ordinance in which we attend, do all help to let us see how unworthy we are of God's favor; how full of death, and of a body of death, we are; and that there is and can be nothing in us, that can commend in any wise to God.

2. When we do duty without any the least aim to procure our justification by it, but only as a practical testimony of our thankfulness to God for Jesus Christ and his righteousness which is given us for our justification; when we say after all according to our Savior's direction (Luke 17:10), we are unprofitable servants, and have done but our duty; resolving in our own hearts that this that we have done cannot be the procuring cause of God's favor, or of Christ's application of himself to us and therefore we lay all such thoughts aside. Nor is it our motive to drive us to duty, that so we may obtain it; vain men are ready to think that Christ has more reason to look towards them, and love them, better than others: because they do more for him, and are more careful in serving of him. But an humble soul, being fully satisfied that he can never do any thing that can oblige God to him, any further than he will mercifully accept of him, would fain order his life and conversation always after such a manner, as that he may give a clear testimony of his cordial gratitude to God, and therefore all his own obedience is only the sacrifice of praise.

3. When our best duties drive us to Christ for his righteousness; those very things wherein we give the clearest evidence to the world of our being the servants of God, yes and wherein we have the fullest witness in our own consciences to our sincerity, yet these tell us, and we read in and from them, that except Christ spread his skirt over us, and sprinkle our sacrifices with the blood, they will condemn us. There are many who when their sins stare them in the face, and the apprehension of the wrath of God which is denounced against them, puts them into a fright, and they are afraid lest vengeance should overtake them, are now driven with great amazement to call upon Christ, and implore his pardon; but if they can keep clear of notoriously scandalous and conscience wasting sins, they are little apprehensive of their need of the blood of sprinkling to be applied to them, and their duties. But when a man is truly broken off from his own righteousness, his duties will drive him as fast to Christ, for the imputation of his righteousness, as the other man's sins will do, so it was with Paul in our text: and thus of the first direction.

If you would close in with Christ by such a faith as shall indeed justify you, you must in it embrace and accept of whole Christ in all his offices. If you would him to be your righteousness, you must take him also to be your wisdom and your sanctification: there are multitudes that make a great pretence to have closed in with Christ in his priestly office; they have been convinced of the breach of peace that has been made between God and them, and the wrath that is out against them, which they are afraid of, and earnestly desirous that they may be delivered from it, and hereupon they would have him to be their atonement or reconciler to God, to satisfy the demands of justice upon their accounts, and procure them pardon and peace with God, and are mightily taken with the notion they have entertained about him as such an one, and highly commend him for this great work of redemption, in procuring a rescue from condemnation, and delivery from hell and eternal miseries which otherwise the sinful children of men must needs have undergone. And they would fain persuade themselves to rely upon this, and take him [illegible] such a consideration, and finding something like a consent to it, which they take for faith, they are hereupon ready to think that it is theirs; and now they are delivered from their great fears, the bitterness of death is past, they have a High Priest who has entered into the Holy of Holies for them. And for all this, if these men would but look a little closer into their own hearts, they shall find that they have not as yet been brought to a willing consent to part with their own ways and courses, or to submit themselves to his Prophetical and Kingly office: they lean to their own wisdom, and will follow their own directions, his commands, at least all of them, do not please them; they cannot yield a full compliance with his preceptive will, and they rise up against his providential will: and allow themselves a liberty of following the edicts and advice of their own hearts. But be assured, that these two always go together, and they that will not have him to reign over them, shall never enjoy him as a Savior to them, they both go hand in hand (Acts 5:31): Him has God exalted with [illegible] right hand to be a Prince and a Savior. There are two things which obstruct man's happiness, and till they are both of them removed from him, he remains altogether hopeless of it, namely his guilt and his pollution: the former has armed the law against him to his condemnation, and the latter has made him actually and habitually miserable. The taking away of any one of these singly is not enough to make him happy, if the other do not remain behind: for upon the supposition of his being pardoned, if still he be detained under the defilement and dominion of sin, he is under the greatest evil, and by reason thereof is extremely miserable, and cannot get to heaven that place of blessedness (Revelation 21:27): into it there shall enter nothing that defiles or works abomination. And likewise if he be sanctified, and not pardoned, he must still be unhappy, if a curse of death can [illegible] him so. Christ therefore, that he might be a complete Savior, and able to save to the uttermost, had all his offices put upon him; and all such as hope to be found saved by him, must accept of him in them all. And hence it follows, that whoever he be that truly believes in him for pardon, does also lay hold upon him for his sanctifying grace, and together with his taking shelter under his priestly office, for the obtaining of God's favor to be extended to him does also put himself under his Prophetical and Kingly office, that he may be savingly enlightened in the way of truth, and have his sin mortified, his soul and body cleansed throughout, according to (Isaiah 25:24): In the Lord we shall have righteousness and strength. And till you are come thus far, you do but in vain expect to be the better for his righteousness: but as for those who have made Christ their all, they shall find him to be all to them.

The exhortation is in the next place to all such in particular as have believed in Jesus Christ; that have indeed taken him for their Savior, and whose whole hope is placed upon him. Here are two words of counsel to these.

Let the consideration of this doctrine direct and teach you the right way how to answer all the [illegible] and satisfactions of Satan and your own misgiving hearts, that at any time do offer to give you disquietment; and that is, be sure to keep the eye of your faith always firmly fixed upon the true and proper ground of your justification. Satan is often making his assaults upon the people of God, and endeavouring to disrest them, and that by endeavouring to puzzle them with doubts about their state of reconciliation to God. Yes, and our own relenting hearts are exceeding ready to be hurried into the temptation, and be exceedingly molested with fears and jealousies about it: and that which usually is the main reason of our being in such perplexity is, because we look off from that which is the true and only bottom of all our hope upon some other thing which has not strength enough in it to bear it up. Whereas if the people of God could keep their eyes firmly fixed upon Jesus Christ, and his righteousness, and keep open a clear discovery of their particular interest in it, this would afford them at all times argument enough to confute, and put all that they can say to silence. What is it that he can alledge to overthrow our consolation, but may with this be beaten back? He will be ready to tell us that we are sinners, and for that reason are righteously condemned according to the tenor of a just law, but from this ground we have that to answer that we are without sin in Christ, and are made righteous in God's account, by virtue of his perfect obedience, believed in by us, and reputed to be ours by our Judge. It may be he will clamour against us, and say that we never did fulfil the law of God, and so are altogether incapable of making any fair and rational plea to the being possessed of the good and blessedness therein promised, only to such as do fully do all that is there commanded, but contrarily must needs fall under the sentence of eternal death which is out against all law-breakers, because by our transgression we have certainly brought ourselves under it, and how shall we think to escape it? But we have here also to reply for ourselves, that although to us personally all this is true, yet as we are considered in our surety, who never was chargeable with any failure either in point of performance of what the law enjoined us, or of satisfaction by suffering whatever it threatened in way of penalty, so we have fully and in all points answered the law: that in him we have never transgressed it, neither in thought word nor deed, because he never did, and that there can be nothing due from us to the law in way of satisfaction, except it can be made to appear (as it never can) that the great sufferings of the Son of God in our nature, were insufficient to make reparation to the wrath of God; for what we poor sinners were to have suffered from it. He will urge us with the consideration of the rigor and severity of God's justice, and how impossible it is for us to answer it, who are able to do nothing at all, but what justice must needs find a flaw in, and condemns us for; and how can we take any comfort in such things as these are? But we have still to reply that Christ in our name and stead stood at the bar of justice, and there he answered for us, to all the demands that it was able to make of him; that he delivered himself freely up into its hands, and let it do its pleasure upon him, he continued under it, and bare all the impressions of the rigor of it, until such time as justice itself said it had full satisfaction, and could make no further demands of him, but set him at full liberty, and gave him an honourable discharge in his resurrection. He will be often fearing us with calling us to consider the holiness of God, and his truth, and from there also picking up something which may weaken this our hope in respect of our justification by Christ, how is it possible that he who hates sin with so perfect a hatred, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; should yet let such a wretched sinner go out of his hands, and yet be unspotted? Yes, and how can he be a true God, and yet declare us to be righteous who are unrighteous, or say that he finds no iniquity or perverseness in us, when we are full of it, and there is hardly any thing else in us? But the answer is yet ready at hand; that although God's holiness forbids that he should baulk his justice, or lose the honor of that so precious an attribute, yet notwithstanding he can accept of another in exchange for the sinner; provided he who is received in exchange be of sufficiency to answer what is required, and there be no loss in that respect: and he can receive satisfaction at the hands of a surety; and when he has executed his justice upon him, and taken all the revenges upon him which the law was to have done upon the principal; now what rational argument can possibly be alledged, why he may not without any the least wound to his holiness, pass a pardon upon him, for whom all this has been done to procure him one? But there needs no disputing here, about the right of the thing, for it tends only to bring us to atheism, and possess us with such thoughts about God, which carry in them a denying of him to be God, namely, that he is not holy nor just, nor true; for it is certain that God has done all this already, and you may silence all from your own experience, he has declared it to you, he has given you the witness of it, as in his Word, so also in your own soul; and therefore let him vindicate his own name from such imputations, and he both can and will. Thus may a child of God find the righteousness of Christ to be a refuge from the tempest.

This may also direct you to the right way to keep up and maintain peace in your own consciences: God's people are oftentimes much put out of order, and find abundance of trouble in the reflexions of their minds within them; and the usual reason of it is because they do not make that use of Christ's righteousness which they ought to do, they do not improve their justification up to the height. Peace within a man's self is a wonderful blessing, and happy is that man who enjoys it, and can live upon it: and this peace, if it be of the right kind, and that which will hold out, has its foundation in our justification by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the proper ground of all inward solid peace (Romans 5:1): Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is in the first place peace with God, and then consequent upon that, is peace in a man's conscience, which is an inward quietness settled in the soul of a true believer, arising from a saving reliance upon the righteousness of Christ, as that which shall answer the law for us, shall deliver us from the curse and condemnation of it, and also bestow on us all the felicity which is revealed in the new Covenant, and treasured up in all these precious promises which are therein revealed. A believer's peace of conscience has not its dependance upon any worth or worthiness of his own, but upon God's promise, Christ's merit, and his assured interest in it. How much then does it concern every serious soul to labor after this? Considering that just so much as we attain to of it, just so much of freedom we enjoy from a spirit of bondage; and so much of liberty, and spiritual freedom in the cheerful serving of God: this is it which helps us with a quiet and sedate spirit pursue the business we have to do in our generation, and which affords us holy boldness to make our near approaches to the Throne of Grace, to ask the help of God in all our concerns, and to leave all our requests before him with the greatest confidence. Yes, and it also greatly helps to sweeten all both mercies and afflictions that we meet with in our whole pilgrimage; and that because he that knows that the one are the tokens of a Father's kindness, and the other the discoveries of his fidelity, and bottomed with love, from where it follows of necessity that they shall in the working of them be made serviceable to our best good; and what can give more help to the satisfying and settling our minds in all the changes and conditions which pass over our heads in this life? Now if we would be sure to keep and uphold this peace within, in the midst of all the various disquietments which we may encounter both from without and within, but from sin, and Satan, and the world; we must be always getting and keeping clear the evidence of our interest in Jesus Christ and his righteousness; and not that only but also the apprehension and confidence of the sufficiency which there is in it, and our relation to it, to answer fully all those ends of it, for which we have embraced it. We must therefore labor for a distinct discovery of the fulness and perfection of it in itself: that it is that which has enough in it to answer justice for all those who do rely upon it. The acceptableness also of it to God, how well pleased he is with it, and has thereupon given all his chosen ones credit for it, and on that account has already in their surety given them a discharge. And being satisfied in these points, and having also a witness in our souls, that it is indeed ours; now we have relief enough against the soul-sinking discouragement offered from the reflexion upon, and consideration of our daily infirmities, and sometimes greater transgressions, which in an hour of temptation we are too forcibly hurried into, and for which conscience is disturbed, and oftentimes ready to fly in our faces, and draw up not only heavy accusations against us, but pass a sentence of condemnation upon us. Here only can we at such a time find relief and settlement. It is not all our confessions, repentances, satisfactions, hanging down of our heads, and going softly, that will of themselves give us the least ground of true confidence, (though there must be repentance too, or else there is not true faith, these graces being inseparable) but still when we fail never so much, and every thing we do is far short of the command of the law; this righteousness abides, and the virtue of our being in Christ by faith still keeps up our justified estate, though we may be liable to many rebukes in God's Providence.

USE 3. For everlasting consolation to all such as have truly laid hold upon the righteousness of Christ by faith in him; for such as have fled from the law to the Gospel, have utterly renounced themselves, and repaired to Jesus Christ; who having found themselves to be guilty condemned sinners, have betaken themselves to, and harboured in Christ as a powerful and sufficient Savior, and have reposed the whole trust and confidence of their souls in him; let all such happy souls rejoice, and be right glad. The Apostle tells us that there is strong consolation for such as have fled to this refuge, and cast anchor here (Hebrews 6:18, 19), and the Psalmist with a full mouth declares all such to be blessed ones (Psalm 32:1, 2): Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity. I might here expatiate in setting forth the great happiness of such men: but let me say in one word, they are in a most safe condition. If you have thus believed, you are then in Christ Jesus, and you shall be found in him, and being so, you are delivered from all grounded fear of evil, and have reason to expect to partake in all needful good: briefly, that you are every way as safe as can be desired, for [illegible].

You are out of the danger of condemnation (Romans 8:1). There is therefore no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The Son of God in your nature, and standing in the place of a Surety for you, has been arraigned, tried, condemned and slain; Justice has done all to him which it had threatened you withal, so that you are now out of the danger of all the menaces of the law, the accusations of Satan and whatever charge there may be brought in against you (Romans 8:33, 34). Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's [illegible] it is God that justifies, who is he that [illegible] it is Christ that died. Your condemnation is over, the punishment threatened you is past, and there now remains nothing but a glorious acquittance, and open declaration of the righteousness of your cause.

The world can do you no harm, nor all the changes that you lie liable to in it; they may give you a great deal of outward molestation; they may pervert justice, and condemn you as wicked persons, they may rifle your houses, imprison your persons, take away your lives, and remove you from off the face of the earth, yes and make you the scorn of men, and expose your names to slanders and obloquy; but here lies your comfort in the midst of all this, when they have done their worst, and vented their spleen with the greatest bitterness, yet they can never take away your righteousness, but that shall abide for ever, being laid out of the reach of their malice, nor can they overturn you in your great cause, or ever separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus: Principalities and Powers have not any power so far to reach you to your harm (Romans 8:38, 29).

Your many weaknesses and infirmities cannot undermine or subvert your safety: they cannot destroy or break the peace that is made in Christ between God and you. They may, if fallen into through neglect of duty, and remissness in your spiritual watch, procure you the displeasure of a father, discovering itself in his chastening of you with affliction: but can never alienate his heart from you, though your grace be faint, and your corruptions strong, though your strength be made weak in the way, and there be many temptations which do assault and wound you; though you can offer to God nothing in any duty that is worth his acceptance and favor, but you falter and stagger at every step you take, and sometimes also fall down and break your bones, which puts you to a great deal of pain and sorrow, and may make you to lie in of it for a great while, before you recover either your former strength or comfort; yet still all shall be well at the last. Jesus Christ your advocate is pleading for you, and presenting the merit of his righteousness on your account, though you sin through frailty, and the prevalency of the law in your members, that carries you captive, you may yet humbly go to him, and that with great confidence, for the renewed seal of your pardon, and this Advocate is ready to sue them out for you, and to bestow the witness and comfort of them upon you when you come to him for it.

Neither need the greatness or numerousness of your former sins distract or affright you: these need not to make you afraid that God will reject you, if you have Christ's righteousness engaged for you, that is as big as your unrighteousness, look upon it with all the aggravations you can: and what need you then be terrified? God has imputed it to you, and in so doing, he has made all your sins to be as if they had never been, they are concealed, they are sunk into the depths, they are lost, and quite out of sight for ever doing you a displeasure any more. See how fully the Lord declares himself in his word, concerning all those that have betaken themselves to, and sought shelter under the righteousness of Christ (Isaiah 1:18): though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Chapter 43, verse 25: I, even I am he who blots out your transgressions for mine own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Chapter 44, verse 22: I have blotted out as a thick cloud your transgressions, and as a cloud your sins. Jeremiah 50:10: In those days and at that time says the Lord the iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I restore. And what can be said more full to your comfort? They had great sins, and many sins; but they are all obliterated, the remembrance of them is lost; they stand as clear in God's account as if they had never done any thing to his just provocation.

This also is your security for the great day of judgement: and they that are sufficiently provided for that day are in a happy condition indeed. What makes it matter how things go with you in this world, if you are but sure that all shall go well then? Here is the great and main concern of all the children of men, that they may be able to stand upright then, and have nothing to appal them. I know it is a solemn and serious thought which sensible souls are often chewing upon, and lay out many retired meditation in the enquiry after, to get some good assurance how their cause shall then go, when they shall come to stand before him that judges the quick and the dead; and truly it is worth the while to be much and frequent in the consideration of, and endeavour to get satisfaction in this great question. And if you are such as have gotten Christ's righteousness to be yours, you have here a comfortable resolution of it: and let me assure you, that whatever you have formerly been or done, how much sin soever you are conscious of to yourselves, yet if you have but made one thing sure, that you are indeed gotten under Christ's shadow, and have his perfect righteousness to stand up and plead for you, it is abundantly safe to appear before God in that righteousness. If you had all the personal righteousness imaginable, were habitually as holy and righteous as our first parents were, that hour wherein they came out of God's hands, and had lived in the exercise of that grace, so as to have perfectly kept all God's commandments, not come short in one point of moral obedience, nor chargeable with the least defect in your whole conversation, it could not stand you in greater stead, or afford you any more consolation. For there can be nothing at all alleged against you, how true soever the accusation may be in itself, but this righteousness of Christ will fully answer to it all. For why? It is the righteousness of God: God himself found it out, prepared it, and appointed it for the help of poor sinners that believe in it: he who is God as well as man performed it in his own person, and thereby he gave infinite virtue to it, so that as its worth can never be with any reason called in question or suspected; and God has also given his approbation to it, testifying that he is well-pleased in it, and has accepted it for all those that Jesus Christ has redeemed by it, and these are all those that do believe in his [illegible]. For as he has promised it to all who so do, so this faith is a certain evidence that this righteousness was fulfilled for them, and they shall have the benefit of it. Either therefore Christ must be condemned, or else you must be justified in the great day. If he was perfectly righteous here when he was upon earth, then you shall be acknowledged and declared so to be, when you shall come to judgement. And if this be the case with all those that have truly believed in the Son of God; then it will follow, that all the good which is laid up in the Covenant, and has been purchased by his righteousness and perfect obedience, even that glorious inheritance, and eternal kingdom, the felicities whereof are here unutterable, shall all be assuredly yours. Let then the redeemed ones of Jesus Christ rejoice, and again I say rejoice, and be exceeding glad; let nothing damp your spiritual rejoicing, or hinder your holy melody; let not any temporary changes make you to think yourselves miserable, but looking over them all, account yourselves to be everlasting happy in him who is, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

FINIS.