9. Ninthly and lastly. Know for your comfort, that imputed right- eousness will give you the greatest boldness be/ore God's judgment-seat. There is an absolute and indispensable necessity of a perfect righteous- ness wherewith to appear before God. The holiness of God's nature, the righteousness of his government, the severity of his law, and the terror of wrath, calls aloud upon the sinner for a complete righteous- ness, without which there is no standing in judgment, Ps. i. 5. That righteousness only is able to justify us before God which is perfect, and that hath no defect nor blemish in it, such as may abide the trial before his judgment-seat, such as may fitly satisfy his justice, and make our peace with him ; and consequently, such as whereby the law of God is fulfilled. Therefore it is called the righteousness of God ; such a right- eousness as he requires, as will stand before him, and satisfy his justice, Rom. X. 3. So the apostle saith, ' The righteousness of the law must be fulfilled in us,' Rom. viil 4. Now there is no other righteousness under heaven whereby the law of God was ever perfectly fulfilled, but by the righteousness of Christ alone. No righteousness below the right- eousness of Christ was ever able to abide the trial at God's judgment- seat, and fully to satisfy his justice, and pacify his wrath. A gracious soul triumphs more in the righteousness of Christ imputed, than he would have done if he could have stood in the righteousness in which he was created. This is the crowning comfort to a sensible and un- derstanding soul, that he stands righteous before a judgment-seat, in that full, exact, perfect, complete, matchless, spotless, peerless, and most acceptable righteousness of Christ imputed to him. The right- eousness of Christ is therefore called the righteousness of God, because it is it wliich God hath assigned, and which God doth accej)t for us in our justification, and for and in which he doth acquit and pro- nounce us righteous before his seat of justice, Rom. iii. 21, 22, and x. 3 ; Phil. iii. 9. There is an indispensable necessity that lies upon the sinner to have such a righteousness to his justification as may render his appearance safe and comfortable in the day of judg- ment. Now there is no righteousness that can abide that day of fiery trial, but the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. Paul, that great apostle, had as fair and as full a certificate to shew for a legal justifica- tion as any person under heaven had, Phil. iii. 4-6 ; Acts xxiii. 6 ; 2 Cor. xi. 22 ; but yet he durst not stand by that righteousness, he durst not plead that righteousness, he durst not appear in that righteousness be- fore the dreadful judgment-seat. But oh, how earnest, how importu- nate is he, that he may be found, in that great day of the Lord, in the mediatory righteousness of Christ, and not in his own personal righteous-
250 NINE STRONG CONSOLATIONS THAT FLOW FROM
ness, which he looked upon as filthy rags, as dross, dung, dogs' meat, Phil, iii. 9, 10. The great thing that he most strongly insists upon is, that he might be clothed with the robe of Christ's righteousness ; for then he knew that the law could not say black was his eye, and that the judge upon the bench would pronounce him righteous, and bid him enter into the joy of his Lord, Mat. xxv. 21, 23, 24 ; a joy too great to enter into him, and therefore he must enter into that. When the match is made up between Christ and the soul, that soul bears her sovereign's name. The spouse of the first Adam and her husband had both one name, ' God called their name Adam, in the day that he made them,' Gen. v. 2 ; so the spouse of the second Adam, in the change of her condition, from a single to a married estate with Christ the Lamb, had a change of her name. The head is called, ' the Lord our righteousness,' Jer. xxiii. 6 ; and so is the church : Jer. xxxiii. 16, 'In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely : and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness.' Here is a sameness of name.^ As Christ is called, ' the Lord our righteousness,' so his spouse is called, ' the Lord our righteousness.' Oh, happy transnomination ! Christ's bride being one with himself, and having his righteousness imputed to her, is called, ' the Lord our righteousness ; ' and therefore they may, with the greatest cheerfulness and boldness, bear up, in the great day of account, who have the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them, especially if you consider, (1.) That this righteousness is of infinite value and worth ; (2.) That it is an everlasting righteousness, a righteousness that can never be lost, Dan. ix. 24 ; (3.) That it is an unchangeable righteousness. Though times change, and men change, and friends change, and providences change, and the moon change, yet the Sun of Righteousness never changes, ' in him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,' Mai. iv. 2; James i. 17; (4.) That it is a complete and unspotted righteousness, an unblamable righteousness, and unblemished righteousness ; and therefore God can neither in justice except or object against it. In this righteousness the believer lives, in this righteousness the believer dies, and in this righteousness believers shall arise, and appear before the judgment- seat of Christ, to the deep admiration of all the elect angels, and to the transcendent terror and horror of all reprobates, and to the match- less joy and triumph of all on Christ's right hand, who shall then shout and sing, Isa. Ixi. 10, ' I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels.' Oh, how will Christ, in this great day, be admired and glorified in all his saints, 2 Thes. i. 10, when every saint, wrapped up in this fine linen, in this white robe of Christ's lighteousness, shall shine more gloriously than ten thousand suns ! In the great day of the Lord, when the saints shall stand bofore the
^ Christ and Christians are namesakes. Caput et corpuff, units est Chrlstus. — Aug. The head is called Christ, and the members are called Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 12. Christ is called .Solomon, Cant. i. 1, and iii. 11, in Hebrew, Shelomnh of peace, and the church is called Shulamite, by her bridegroom's name, Cant. vi. 13.
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