we are not guilty, we must also be actually righteous; — not only all sin is to be answered for, but all righteousness is to be fulfilled. By taking away the gTiilt of sin, we are as persons innocent ; but some- thing more is required to make us to be considered as persons obe- dient. I know nothing to teach me that an innocent person shall go to heaven, be rewarded, if he be no more but so. Adam was innocent at his first creation, but he was to " do this," to " keep the commandments," before he entered into " life : " he had no title to life by innocency. This, then, moreover, is required, that the v/hole law be fulfilled, and all the obedience performed that God requires at our hands. This is the soul's second inquiry ; and it finds a resolution only in the Lord Christ : " For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being recon- ciled, we shall be saved by his life," Rom v. 10. His death recon- ciled us ; then are we saved by his life. The actual obedience which he yielded to the whole law of God, is that righteousness whereby we are saved ; if so be we are found in him, not having on our own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith, Phil. iii. 9. This I shall have occasion to handle more at large hereafter.
To return, then : It is not, I suppose, any difficult task to persuade men, convinced of immortality and judgment to come, that the main of their wisdom lies in this, even to find out such a righteousness as will accompany them for ever, and abide the severe trial of God him- self Now, all the wisdom of the world is but folly, as to the dis- covery of this thing. The utmost that man's wisdom can do, is but to find out most wretched, burdensome, and vexatious ways of perish- ing eternally. All the treasures of this wisdom are hid in Christ ; he " of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness," 1 Cor. i. SO.
3. Come we to the last thing, which I shall but touch upon ; and that \B judgment. The true wisdom of this also is hid in the Lord Christ; I mean, in particular, that judgment that is for to come : so at present I take the word in that place, [John xvi. 8.] Of what concernment this is to us to know, I shall not speak; — it is that whose influence upon the sons of men is the principle of their discriminating themselves from the beasts that perish. Neither shall I insist on the ^obscure intimations of it which are given by the present proceedings of Pro- vidence in governing the world; nor that greater light of it which shines in the threats and promises of the law. The wisdom of it is
' " Bene et composite C. Cossar de vita et morte disseruit, falsa, credo,
existimans, ea quae de inferis memorantur; diverse itinere malos a bonis loca tetra, inculta, fojda atqne forniidolosa habere." — Cato. apnd. Salhist. Bell. Catil. Iii.
AXX' i(TTi Kui Tu ovTi TO avx^i&icrxKrfai, nui Ik tZv TiiiiuTiov roh; Z,cavTa; yty^ifffai, xai Tag T»v riSviuiToit ■^u^a.i livcci' x.u) toui fiiv a.ya.Sa.7s afAittov lU'C.i, Ta7; ol naxccis, Kaxiov. —
Plat, in rhaed. 17.
2 " Devenere locos IfEtos, et anirona vireta
Furtunatorum nemoruin, sedesque beatas," etc. — Virg., 2En. \i. G38.
lOG OF COMMUNION Vt'ITH THE SON JESUS CIIllIST.
in two regards liid in the Lord Jesus: — (1.) As to the truth of it. (2.) As to the manner of it: —
(1.) For the truth of it; and so in and by him it is confirmed, and that two ways: — [1.] By his death. [2.] By his resurrection : —
[1.] By his death. God, in the death of Christ, punishing and condemning sin in the flesh of his own Son, in the sight of men, angels, and devils, hath given an abundant assurance of a righteous and universal judgment to come; wherefore, or upon what account imaginable, could he be induced to lay such a load on him, but that he will certainly reckon one day with the sons of men for all their works, ways, and walkings before him. The death of Christ is a most so- lemn exemplar of the last judgment. Those who OAvn him to be the Son of God, will not deny a judgment to come.
[2.] By his resurrection. Acts xvii. SI, Uiffnv Tapaa^cbv rruffiv, — lie hath given faith and assurance of this thing to all, by raising Christ from the dead, having appointed him to be the judge of all; in whom and by whom he will judge the world in righteousness. And then, — (2.) And, lastly, for the manner of it : that it shall be by him who hath loved us, and given himself for us, — who is himself the righteous- ness that he requires at our hands; and on the other side, by him who hath been, in his person, grace, ways, worship, servants, reviled, despised, contemned by the men of the world ; — which holds out un- speakable consolation on the one hand, and terror on the other: so that the wisdom of this also is hid in Christ.