[4.] Then we are made heirs of eternal glory ; therefore it is called justification unto life. A pardoned person is made a favourite : Kom. viii. 30, ' Whom he justified, them he also glorified.' Christ doth not only prevent the execution, but we are also saved. It is much to be delivered from wrath to come : Eom. v. 9, ' Much more then, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him ; ' as if it were a lesser thing to glorify a saint than to justify a sinner. When God can accept of us out of his free grace, certainly he will give us heaven.
Ques. You will say, What shall I do ? Here is nothing to do but to receive and take Christ out of the hands of God. We are not exhorted to justify ourselves as we are to sanctify ourselves. Justifica- tion is God's act ; yet there must be something done to obtain it ; not by way of causality, but by way of order. God doth not justify stocks and stones, but men; neither doth he justify mules and horses, and those that will kick again, but those that will submit to his righteous- ness. A sick man must yield to take physic, and a poor man must hold out his hand to receive an alms.
There are two general means — (L) Disclaim your own righteous- ness ; (2.) Apply yourselves to the righteousness of Christ.
First, Disclaim your own righteousness. In the new covenant he Cometh most worthy that cometh most unworthy ; Christ speaks a ' par- able against those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous,' Luke xviii. 9. There one comes and pleads his works, as appealing to justice ; the other comes and pleads his sins, as waiting for mercy. What is the issue of all ? It is said, ver. 14, ' This man went away justified to his house rather than the other.' We must come sinner.'^
490 SER3I0NS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XVII.
into his presence ; the sinner is justified rather than the worker. We must come naked, that he might give us raiment. Take notice of Paul's solemn renunciation, Phil. iii. 7-9, ' AVhat things tvere gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ ; yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that 1 may win Christ.' He had more cause than any to have confidence in the flesh and glory in himself ; but all this was so far from being a gain, as they were a loss to him. He thought it was an advantage and a step to mercy, when it M'as a dangerous allurement to hypocrisy and self-confidence. He reckons up his moral excellences, his natural privileges, and his own righteousness ; but all this was so far a disadvantage to him as they kept him from being hungry and more earnest after the righteousness Grod offered to him in Christ.
Now because this is a hard matter, a man would fain maintain the dignity of works, and proud nature is loth to stoop and sue in formd, 2')au'peris ; and men would rather oblige God than come as beggars and be beholden to him : Rom. x. 3, ' Going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.' It is a matter of great difficulty to captivate the pride and pre- judices of reason ; therefore I shall lay down the more eftectual con- siderations that are likely to draw us off from our own righteousness, and bring us to submit and yield to God's terms. I shall lay down five considerations — The exact purity of the law, the holiness of God, our proneness to sin, the strictness of the last day's account, and the danger of resting upon anything in ourselves.
1. Consider the exact purity of the law. Usually men are alive in their own hopes and conceits, because they do not look as they should into the law of God : Eom. vii. 9, ' I was alive without the law once.' While Paul looked upon the law through pharisaical spectacles, he thought he was perfect and alive, — that is, in a good condition before God ; ' but when the commandment came,' — that is, with full light and conviction, — ' sin revived, and I died ; ' Paul was struck dead, then it revived the sentence of death in himself. A short exposition of the law begets a large opinion of our own righteousness. We are all Pharisees by nature, and in the private glosses of our own thoughts, we regard no more of the law than external obedience, ep^ov vo/mov, the mere work of the law, and therefore we are not driven to seek the righteousness of Christ. We see it plainly that common people hope to be saved by their good works and good meanings. The more ignorant men are, the greater confidence in themselves. That is the reason the apostle saith, Rom. x. 3, ' Being ignorant of the righteous- ness of God, and going about to establish a righteousness of their own.' Men do not consider what a righteousness becomes God's presence. Now when the law comes, it gives sin its due dimensions, and the sinner his due load and burden. Oh ! look then into the purity of the prohibition ; for the law condemns not only acts, but thoughts ; not only sins perfectly formed, but lusts ; it reacheth to the little foxes and Babylon's brats. And in duty it doth not only require the work wrought, but an exquisite frame of spirit, with the motions and opera-