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SERMON II.

ISAIAH xlv. former part of the 24th Verfe.

Surely, ball one fay, in the Lord have I righteousness.

WHA

HAT we have at present before us, to explain and fettle the nature of that righteoufnefs, which we have in the Lord Jefus Chrift for our juftification. And hav ing gone over three propofitions which were laid down for this purpose, we are now to proceed to a fourth, on which fome entrance has been already made, which is this,

Prop. IV. That we have no fuch righteoufnefs of our own, nor can any mere creature provide us with it. This propofition confifts of two parts, which I fhall diftinctly confider.

First, We have no righteousness of our own, that is fufficient for our juftification; neither any inherent in us, nor that is or can be performed by us.

That is all, as the

Not any inherent in us. church readily acknowledges, as an unclean thing

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and

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and as filthy rags, impure and imperfect; what therefore can never be pleaded at the bar of God for our juftification, Ifa. lxiv .6. Thofe that know the depravity and corruption of their own hearts, muft abhor the thoughts of having their dependance upon any righteousness inherent in them. Has not fin preyed upon all our beauty, and covered us with the moft loathfome deformity in the fight of God? And where the grace of God advances its work in truth, and in its higheft glory, ftil how far is the foul from being perfectly discharged from all thefe defilements and impurities? Job cries out as in agony, Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? Job xl. 4. And elsewhere, whom though I were righteous, much more holy and pure from fin than I am, yet would I not answer, but I would make fupplication to my judge, chap. ix. 15 *. And does not this posture, a pofture of confufion, and fhame, and filence in the prefence of God become us? Or, if we open our mouths, fhall it not be in a penitent acknowledgement of our guilt, and humble entreaties of grace for pardon? In the fpirit and language of the convinced publican, Luke xviii. 13. God be merciful to me a firner, "Lord, we confefs our fins, the "numberless charges that thy law has against us, and the imperfection of our own best righteoufnefs and holinefs; we readily plead "guilty, and are altogether as an unclean thing; nothing but fovereign mercy can relieve us, "and nothing but a better righteousness than

our

* Vid. Schultens in loc, ut & in ver, 20, 21, &c. qui infra citantur.

" our own can recommend us to thy accep"tance." Job's heart was fo impreffed with this fentiment, that in the chapter laft referred to, he brings it in over and over again, and still with fresh earnestnefs: See ver. 20, 21. If I juftify myself, mine own mouth fball condemn me; if Ifay I am perfect, much more improved in holinefs than I am, it alfo fball prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my foul: I would defpife my life. He had fuch debafing apprehenfions of himself, that if he were to truft in his own righteousness for pardon and acceptance with God, he should count his life little worth upon that foot. So again, ver. 30, 31. If I wash my felf with fnow-water and make my hands never fo clean; yet fhalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me; or, as the margin reads it, make me to be abhorred: His meaning is, that after his utmost endeavours after, and improvements in, holiness, if upon the foot thereof he was to be justified, he fhould be in the fight of God, no other, nor better, than one that had been rolled all over in the filth and mire of a ditch. And that he meant it of his own perfonal and inherent righteoufnefs being fo infufficient for his juftification, is evident from what follows, verfe 32. For he is not a man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. He could appeal, as he does in the next chapter, verfe 7. that he was not wicked, was not an habitual finner; but his mind was filled with fuch affecting apprehenfions of the majefty, holiness, and glory of God, that he faw it abfolutely impoffible, be his own perfonal and inherent righteousness

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teousness what it will, upon that bottom to ftand in judgment before him.

And were our minds filled with fuch views of God, how would it humble us in the duft? And what would our own beft righteoufnels appear for our juftification in the fight of his fpotlefs purity, and everlafting glory? Is there any number of his armies, and upon whom doth not his light arife? How then can man be juftified with God? or how can he be clean, that is born of a woman? I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye feeth thee. Wherefore I abhor my Jelf, and repent in duft and afbes. In fhort, were we acquainted more with our own hearts, did we converfe more with the pollution of fin, that cleaves to our bofoms, fpreads all over our nature, and infects all we have and are, we should foon fee our own righteoufnefs to be imperfect and defective and every way infufficient to bear us out in our dealings with an all-holy and righteous God. We have loft our original righteoufnefs, and in the room thereof the pollution of fin fpreads through all our powers, and mingles with every principle, and spring of

action.

And as nothing inherent in us can be our justifying righteoufnefs, fo neither can any thing performed by us. If any thing performed by us could be fuch righteoufnefs, or fupply the place of it, it must be either our doing, or our fuffering, or our believing. But,

1. Doing, or our active obedience, will not fuffice. For that, like our inherent righteoufnefs, is every way blemished and defective; and blemished and defective in the fame degree, in

which the other is fo. For our beft obedience can rife no higher than the spring from whence it flows. An imperfect principle of holiness in the heart (and fuch is the principle of holiness in the beft of men) cannot produce perfection of holiness in the life. Hence the Wife Man obferves, that there is not a juft man upon earth that doeth good and finneth not, Eccl. vii. 20. And the Apostle Paul, who was fo tall in every Chriftian grace and attainment, how does he whilst struggling with the remains of indwelling fin, mourn in the most touching manner, that to will was prefent with him, but how to perform that which is good he found not? For, fays he, the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do, Rom. vii. 18, 19. He was drawn as he complains, verfe 23. into a fort of unwilling captivity to fin, whilft he found in many and fad inftances the power of corrupt nature too ftrong for all the intereft of grace. And this made him cry out with fo much bitterness of foul, ver. 24. like a man that was fighting it out with an enemy, that he would be glad to get rid of upon any terms, 0 wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from the body of this death? And whilft the Chriftian is thus maintaining a doubtful conflict with his own corruptions, and often over-powered by them, either betrayed to the fad neglect of duty, or drawn into the frequent commiffion of fin, can he ever truft in his duties for his juftification?

To the fame purpose the Apofile James acknowledges, that in many things we offend all, James iii. 2. That fame Apostle, who, according to the mistakes of fome, is fo zealous for the doctrine

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