YeR. 9.] SERMONS UPON PHLLIPPIAXS III. 45
Faith and repentance, or new obedience, is not the least part of it. But in the second, believing, repentiDg, and obeying is our righteous- ness in their several respective ways ; namely, that the righteousness of Christ may be ours, and continue ours.
Doct. It shall go well with those, and those only, who in the day of •exact search and trial shall be found in Christ, not having the right- eousness which is by the law, but the righteousness of God which is by faith in Christ Jesus.
I shall endeavour to make it good by these considerations —
1. That the day of judgment will be a day of exact search and trial. No man can lie hid in the throng and multitude of mankind, but the state of his person and all his works will be made manifest, whether they be wrought in God. God will not deal with us in the lump, by nations, or by any societies and communities of mankind with which we are bundled up, but by head and poll : Eom. xiv. 12, ' Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.' Every tub must stand upon its own bottom ; and every man must come before his supreme judge, and give an account of his own actions. The particular inquiry that shall be made is expressed by ' opening the books ; ' Rev. xx. 12, ' I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books were opened : and another book was opened, which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.' You see there none shall escape this judicature ; kings nor subjects, rich nor poor, powerful nor weak, old nor young ; all that have breathed and have life. And the judgment shall be accurate and particular, for all is upon record ; for nothing is missed and mistaken in its circumstances. The books that contain as it were a diary of our lives shall be opened ; they are sealed now, it is not known what is in them ; but then all actions and events, returns and receipts, mercies, rods, ordinances, providences, sins, graces shall then be produced. God's register is exact, and every man's doom and sentence shall be pronounced accordingly. According to your repent- ance and faith, or impenitence and disobedience, will Christ deal with you. One place more : Ps. 1. 21, ' I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thine eyes.' Alas ! most men's reckonings are in great confusion now, but then they shall be brought to remembrance with time and place. The sinner may then see the whole story of his life orderly repeated out of God's book of remembrance and the sinner's conscience, to his fearful astonishment and confusion. But to the comfort of the elect, the book of life shall be opened ; the graces vouch- safed to them, the services done, and sufferings undergone by them, remembered to their joy and honour.
2. That in this day of exact trial there is no appearing before God with safety and comfort without some righteousness of one sort or another. "Why ? Because it is a holy and just God before whom we appear : ' Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? ' Gen. xviii. 25 ; and 1 Sam. vi. 20, ' Who is able to stand before the holy God ? ' If not now in the time of patience, how then in the time of his recom- pense ? His holiness inclineth him to hate sin, and his justice to punish it. The holiness of God is at the bottom of the creatures' fears. "We fear his wrath, because it is armed with power, but awakened by his
46 SERMONS UPON THILIPPIANS IIL [SER. V.
justice, but rooted in his holiness ; that is the fundamental reason of our dread. Again, it is a holy law according to which the process of that day shall be guided, a law that is clean and pure, and alio we th not the least evil. When David looked upon the brightness of the sun, he admired God ; but when upon the purity of the law, he abaseth himself : Ps. xix. 12, ' Lord, who can understand his errors ? cleanse thou me from secret sins/ Well, then, there must be one righteous- ness or another, if we would speed well in that day.
3. The righteousness of the first sort by the law of works we cannot have ; for the covenant of works requireth of us perfect obedience upon pain of eternal death if we perform it not ; for the tenor of it is, ' Do and live ; sin and die/ The least sin, according to that covenant, merits eternal death : Gal. iii. 10, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.' By this covenant none can stand ; for we have all sinned, and are liable to that death : Horn. iii. 23, ' All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' Eom. v. 12, ' By sin death entered into the world ; and death came upon all, for that all have sinned.' By sin we are all under guilt and the curse, and so are become children of wrath, Eph. ii. 3, which is the wretched condition of all mankind. Therefore, if we stick to the old covenant, how shall we appear in the judgment, and what right- eousness have we to plead before God ? and that is the reason why the saints, who have awakening thoughts of this sin and misery, deprecate the rigour of the first covenant : Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, ' If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared ; ' Ps. cxliii. 3, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant, 0 Lord, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.' Woe unto us if God should deal with us according to his strict justice, and we had nothing to bring forth but our own personal righteousness and obedience. We were undone for ever if sentence should pass according to this law.