3. The Antinomian professor —
[There are, it must be confessed, some who abuse the doctrine of our text, and maintain, that, because Christ is our righteousness, we need no righteousness of our own. They acknowledge indeed that Christ is our sanctification : but they suppose that his sanctification is imputed to us in the same way as his righteousness. But this is contrary both to reason and Scripture ; for sanctification necessarily implies a change both of heart and life. We may easily conceive righteousness to be imputed, and that persons not righteous in themselves, may be dealt with as righteous on account of the righteousness of another : but it is not possible that a person ■ can be made inwardly holy by the holiness of another, any more than a dead tree can be made a fruitful one by having the fruit of another tree suspended on it. And the Scripture universally requires us to be daily putting off the old man and putting on the new. If real and radical holiness be not required of us, why is it so strongly and so continually inculcated throughout all the apostolic writings ? Of those who deny that the law is to the believer a rule of life, we would ask one question : What does the law require which the Gospel does not? The law requires us to love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves ; and what does the Gospel require less ? What part of our duty does it dis- pense with ? Alas ! it is a fatal error to imagine that holiness is not as necessary now as formerly. Were this true, Christ would actually be a minister of sin, in that he would be vacat- ing the obligations of God's law, which is as immutable as God himself. For our justification, it is true, we do not need any righteousness of our own ; and" if we were to attempt to unite our righteousness to that of Christ, we should make void the whole Gospel ; and Christ would have died in vain. But to attest the reality of our faith, and manifest our love to Christ ; to glorify our God on earth, and obtain a meetness for heaven, holiness is absolutely indispensable; and if we cultivate it not, even universal holiness of heart and life, we shall never see the kingdom of God.]
Having thus endeavoured to establish the doctrine of our text, we proceed,
III. To IMPROVE it —
1. Let no man despair of mercy —
[What can any person want in order to his reconciliation with God, which has not been already wrought ? There is a perfect atonement for your sins, and a perfect righteousness