224 SERMON UPON GALATIANS V. 5.
[2.] For eternal life. Oh ! let it be your great hope to be translated into the glory and joys of heaven when you flit out of this world. This life will not always last ; you must die, but you do not wholly perish when you die. Now what shall become of you to all eternity ? Would it not be a blessed thing to be assured that, when you appear before the bar of your judge, you shall not come into condemnation, but obtain eternal life ? Surely happiness is desired by all. The young man that cheapened the pearl of the gospel, but was loath to go to the price, said, ' Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? ' Mark x. 17. Surely this is the question which all serious people should busy themselves about. The jailer did so : Acts xvi. 30, * Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? ' Alas ! other things do not touch us so near. Not, how shall I do to live in the world ? but, how shall I do to live with ' God for ever ? let your hearts be upon that : Ps. xxiv. 3, ' Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? who shall stand in his holy place ? '
Having spoke to your hope and scope, let me, secondly, now speak to your work, what you must seek after, and that is, ' The righteousness of faith.' To enforce this consider —
1. There is no appearing before God without some righteousness of one sort or another. Why ? Because it is an holy and just God be- fore whom we appear ; and 'shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? ' Gen. xviii. 25 ; and 1 Sam. vi. 20, ' Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God ? ' If not now in the time of his patience, how then in the time of his recompense ? His holiness inclineth him to hate sin, and his justice to punish it. Again, it is an holy law, according to which the process of that day shall be guided.' A law that is clean and pure, which alloweth not the least evil : ' Thy law is exceeding pure,' Ps. cxix. 140. The gospel abateth nothing of the purity of it. Now when we appear before an holy God, and must be judged by an holy law, surely we must have holiness and righteousness answerable, or how can we stand in the judgment ? It is an holy God before whose tribunal we must appear, and an holy law that we must be judged bj ; therefore, if we be destitute of all kind of righteousness, what shall we do ?
2. No other righteousness will serve the turn but the righteousness of faith ; and therefore, till we submit to the new covenant, we are in a woful case. Now the righteousness of the new covenant is supreme or subordinate; the supreme by way of merit and satisfaction, the subordinate by way of application and qualification on our parts.
[1.] The supreme is the righteousness or obedience of Christ, which can alone deliver us from hell : Job xxxiii. 24, ' Deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom.' There is no deliverance from eternal destruction, which our sins deserve, but only by the ransom which he hath paid. Till his justice be satisfied by Christ, no good can come unto us.
[2.] The subordinate righteousness, which qualifieth us, and giveth us an interest, is faith, repentance, and new obedience ; all which are hugely necessary, convenient, and gracious terms.
(1.) Faith, by which we own and acknowledge our Kedeemer, with love, thankfulness, dependence, and hearty subjection to him. Certainly
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love and thankfulness is due to him who hath endured so much, and procured such great benefits for us. Would we have the blessings instated on us. and not know from what hand they come ? And acceptance is due ; for should Christ save us without our wills and against our consent ? Dependence is due. Should they have benefit by Christ's merits who question the force and efficacy of them ? Therefore * God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,' Eom. iii. 25.
(2.) Kepentance is necessary. Would we have Grod to pardon us while we continue in our rebellion, without sorrow for it or purpose to leave it ? The case of the obstinate is not compassionable : Jer. iii. 13, ' Only acknowledge thine iniquity, and I am gracious,' and to acknowledge an offence and continue in it is to condemn ourselves.
(3.) New obedience. That was due before to our Creator, and our Redeemer strengtheneth the bond, and maketh it more comfortable ; for we have a new Lord by right of redemption : Rom. xiv. 9, ' For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.' A Lord that hath paid dear for our souls.
3. This righteousness is every way sufficient, that we may venture our eternal well-being upon it ; for what is appointed by God will be accepted by God. And though there be many defects in our faith, repentance, and obedience, yet there is an intrinsic value in the obed- ience and death of Christ besides the institution : Heb. ix. 14, ' How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered up himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ? ' And 1 Peter i. 18, 19, ' Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.'