19. In the mean time, what we are afraid of is this; lest any should use the phrase, “The righteousness of Christ,” or, “The righteousness of Christ is _imputed to me_,” as a cover for his unrighteousness. We have known this done a thousand times. A man has been reproved, suppose, for drunkenness. “O, said he, I pretend to no righteousness of _my own_: Christ is _my righteousness_.” Another has been told, that the extortioner, the unjust, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He replies with all assurance, “I am unjust in myself, but I have a spotless righteousness in Christ.” And thus though a man be as far from the practice as from the tempers of a Christian, though he neither has the mind which was in Christ, nor in any respect walks as he walked, yet he has armour of proof against all conviction, in what he calls the _righteousness of Christ_.
20. It is the seeing so many deplorable instances of this kind, which makes us sparing in the use of these expressions. And I cannot but call upon all of you, who use them frequently, and beseech you in the name of God our Saviour, whose you are and whom you serve, earnestly to guard all that hear you, against this accursed abuse of them. O warn them (it may be they will hear _your_ voice) against _continuing in sin that grace may abound_! Warn them against making _Christ the minister of sin_! Against making void that solemn decree of God, _Without holiness no man shall see the Lord_, by a vain imagination of being _holy in Christ_. O warn them, that if they remain unrighteous, the righteousness of Christ will profit them nothing! Cry aloud, (Is there not a cause?) that for this very end the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, that _the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us_, and that we may _live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world_.
It remains only, to make a short and plain application. And first I would address myself to you, who violently oppose these expressions, and are ready to condemn all that use them as Antinomians. But is not this bending the bow too much the other way? Why should you condemn all who do not speak just as you do? Why should you quarrel with _them_, for using the phrases they like, any more than they with _you_, for taking the same liberty? Or if they do quarrel with you upon that account, do not imitate the bigotry which you blame. At least allow _them_ the liberty, which they ought to allow _you_. And why should you be angry at an _expression_? “O, it has been abused.” And what expression has not? However the abuse may be removed, and at the same time the use remain. Above all, be sure to retain the important sense which is couched under that expression. All the blessings I enjoy, all I hope for, in time and in eternity, are given wholly and solely for the sake of what Christ has done and suffered for me.