was all the Righteousness he had while he was a Pharisee and this he accounts dung and loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ our Lord i. e. for the sake of the Gospel which is the knowledge of Christ as you hear'd above which contains a more excellent and perfect Righteousness than the Law did and that he might win Christ i. e. that he might attain to an Evangelical Righteousness such as Christ was the Preacher and example of and that he might be found in him not having his own Righteousness which is of the law that at the last day he might appear to be a sound and sincere Christian whose righteousness does not consist only in some external observances or an external Conformity to Gods Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that inward and vital principle of holiness that new nature which the Gospel of Christ requires of us and which this Christian Faith will work in us which is a Righteousness of Gods own chusing which he commands and which he will reward To confirm all this we must observe a double Antithesis in the words the Righteousness of the law is opposed to the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ and my own Righteousness opposed to the Righteousness of God now the surest way to understand the meaning of this is to consider how these phrases are used in Scripture The Righteousness of the law as you have already hear'd is an external Righteousness which consists in washings and purifications and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the moral Law the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ is an Internal Righteousness which consists in the renovation of our minds and Spirits in the government of our thoughts and passions which is therefore called being born again and becoming new Creatures and rising again with Christ and putting off the old man and being renewed in the spirit of our minds and putting on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness The meaning of all which phrases is that that Righteousness which God requires of us under the Gospel must be an inward principle of love and obedience which changes our natures and transforms us into the image of God as much as if we were born again and made new Creatures Hence St. Paul tells us that the reason why God sent Christ into the World in our nature to die as a Sacrifice for our sins and to confirm and seal the new Covenant with his blood was that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of the law that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom expounds it that which the law was designed to work in them but was found too weak to effect it by reason of the greater power and prevalency of sin i. e. the inward holiness and purity of mind which was represented and signified by those external Ceremonies of Circumcision washing purifications and Sacrifices this was the design of the Gospel to work in us that internal holiness and purity which is the perfection and accomplishment of the Typical and Figurative Righteousness of the Law I know very well that this place is expounded of the imputation of Christs Righteousness that we fulfil the Righteousness of the Law not personally but imputatively but what reason can there be assigned for this besides that they will expound Scripture so which no man can help for is there any mention here of the Righteousness of Christ that he fulfilled all Righteousness for us and that his Righteousness is imputed to us and so we fulfil the Righteousness of the law in him And we ought to consider how consistent such an interpretation is with the Apostles design which is to show the great vertue and efficacy of the Gospel in delivering us from the power of sin which the law could not effect The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus that divine and spiritual law which Christ hath given us which governs our minds and spirits and is the principal of a new spiritual life makes us free from the law of sin and death from the power and dominion of sin which is called a law and the law in our members warring against the law of our minds Rom. 7. 21 23. for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh what the law could not do i. e. govern our minds and passions deliver us from the law of sin and death from the Power and Dominion of our lusts this God effected by sending Christ into the World to publish the Gospel to us and to confirm all those great promises and threatnings contained in it with his own blood That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit how can imputation come in here What pretty sense would this make of the Apostles Argument The Law was too weak to make men throughly good to conquer their love to sin and to reform their hearts and lives and therefore God sent his Son into the World What for To give them better laws and more excellent promises and more powerful assistances to do good No by no means but to fulfil all righteousness for them that they may fulfil the righteousness of the law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having this perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed to them there was no reason surely to abrogate the law of Moses for this end it might have continued in full force still and have been as available to Salvation as the Gospel is with the supplemental Righteousness of Christ But the weakness of the law which the Apostle complains of was not the want of an imputed Righteousness which might have been had as well under the Law as under the Gospel if God had pleased but a want of strength and power to subdue the sinful appetites of men it was weak through the flesh by reason of the greater prevalency of sensual lusts which the law could not conquer and therefore the Gospel of our Saviour must supply this defect not by an imputed Righteousness but by an addition of greater power to enable men to do that which is good to fulfil the external righteousness of the law by a sincere and spiritual obedience Much to the same purpose the Apostle discourses in Rom. 7. Ver. 4 5 6. Wherefore my Brethren you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ who put an end to that imperfect dispensation by his death that you should be marryed to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God for when we were in the flesh under that carnal and fleshly dispensation of the
learnt before from nature and Revelation just as his Resurrection which is an ocular demonstration of another life confirms us in the belief of that blessed Immortality he had promised and yet we could not have learnt this neither from the Person of Christ had he not told us for what ends he came into the World as will appear more anon And is not this a confident man to tell us that the love of God to Sinners and his pardoning mercy could never have entred into the heart of man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him for whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our recovery did believe God to be gracious and merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jews that he was a gracious and merciful God pardoning iniquitiy transgressions and sins And those natural notions the Heathens had of God and all those discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and it is not possible to understand what goodness is without pardoning Grace But yet the truth is considering what these men mean by the love and pardoning Grace and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering of God I must acknowledge that these properties could never have been discovered but by a too familiar acquaintance with Christ's Person for Nature and Revelation say nothing of them As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his death and sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. vindictive justice in punishing sin unto him in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a propitiation That is that God is so just and righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his justice now this indeed is such a notion of justice as is perfectly new which neither Scripture nor nature acquaints us with for all mankind have accounted it an Act of goodness without the least suspition of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment And that he is so far from being just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his revenge That part of justice which consists in punishing offenders was always lookt on as an Instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting punishment was referred to the wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw reason for it without being unjust in either and therefore had not one who pretends to so great and personal an Acquaintance with Christ said so I should rather have thought that God's requiring such a Sacrifice as the death of Christ for the expiation of our sins was not because he could not do otherwise but because his Infinite Wisdom judged this the best and most effectual way of dispencing his Grace But though this be a very terrible discovery of the naturalness of Gods righteousness or vindictive justice yet he makes some amends for it in that comfortable discovery of his patience and long-suffering towards Sinners for now in Christ the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness a happy change this from all justice to all love but how comes this to pass why the account of that is very plain because the justice of God hath glutted its self with revenge on sin in the death of Christ and so hence forward we may be sure he will be very kind as a revengful man is when his passion is over for so he speaks very honourably of God whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and lenity of God unto us yet if it were not withal revealed that the other properties of God as his Iustice and Revenge for sin had their actings also assigned them to the full there could be little consolation gathered from the former That is he would not believe God himself though he should make never so many promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure that he had first satisfied his revenge which indeed is such a Character of the Love and Patience of God as we could never have understood but from an intimate acquaintance with the Person of Christ. The sum of which is that God is all love and Patience when he hath taken his fill of revenge as others use to say that the Devil is very good when he is pleased But however sinners have great reason to rejoice in it when they consider the nature and end of God's Patience and forbearance towards them viz. That it is Gods taking a course in his infinite wisdom and goodness that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins That as before the least sin could not escape without a just punishment justice being so natural to God that he cannot forgive without punishing so the justice of God being now satisfied by the death of Christ the greatest sins can do us no hurt but we shall escape with a Notwithstanding our sins This it seems we learn from an acquaintance with the Person of Christ though his Gospel instructs us otherwise that without holiness no man shall see God As for the Wisdom of God which is another property he instanceth in no doubt but the Gospel of Christ makes great and glorious discoveries of it but then this is not very consistent with those other discoveries of the nature of God for if justice be so natural to God that nothing could satisfie him but the death of his own Son the redemption of the World by Christ may discover his justice or his goodness but not his Wisdom for Wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it But it requires no great Wisdom to chuse when there is but one possible way and whatever Wisdom there is in Gods redeeming the World by his own Son the knowledge of it is wholly owing to the Revelations of the Gospel not to such a fanciful acquaintance with Christ as these men talk of Thus you see what excellent discoveries of the Nature of God are owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ And the second thing we learn from hence is the knowledge of our selves and that in respect of Sin and in respect of Righteousness As for sin the Gospel assures us that God is an irreconcileable Enemy to all wickedness it being so contrary to his own most holy Nature that if he have any love for himself and any esteem and value for his own perfections and works he must hate sin which is so unlike himself and which destroys the beauty and perfection of his Workmanship For this end he sent his Son into the World to destroy the works of the Devil and to reduce Mankind to
clefts of the rocks where this believing Soul Christs Dove hides it self And besides this a Rock is a Screne to shade off the heat so Christ is called Isai. 32. 2. a shadow from the heat he shades a poor Sinner from the scorchings of Gods wrath And then We must fetch comfort too from Christ as honey came out of the Rock Deut. 32. 13. he made him suck honey out of the Rock and oyl out of the stinty Rock the honey of the Promise and the oyl of gladness comes out of this blessed Rock But this is not enough yet for we must be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ as appears from that expression that we must put-on Christ Rom. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 27. which can signifie nothing else but putting on Jesus Christ that is his righteousness as men put on a Garment to cover their nakedness and to adorn them And therefore Christ is resembled to a beautiful Robe Isai. 61. 10. He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness His righteousness is a lovely Robe no Robe of Gold or Ermin wherewith Kings are invested is so honourable as this In this Robe we shine as Angels in Gods Eye The High Priests glorious Vestments Exod. 28. 2. The Mytre the Robe the Ephod of gold and the Breast plate of precious stones did all but serve to set out the beautiful Robes of Christs righteousness wherewith a Believer is adorned thus if we would get the blessing we must go to God as Iacob did in the Robes of our Elder Brother though I confess this resemblance doth not very well please me for though Iacob was a good man yet this looks like a cunning trick to rob his elder Brother of the blessing and to cheat his blind Father and men must not think that God is thus to be impos'd upon But however that be this is plain that when we are thus united to Christ and made one with him then all Christ is ours as the Apostle tells us All is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods The merit of his Death is ours to free us from the guilt and punishment of our sins and his Active obedience to the will of God his Righteousness is ours for our justification as is plain in that he is called the Lord our Righteousness and is said to be made unto us of God Righteousness And as I. O. well observes we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son and saved by his life that is by the Righteousness of his life which is made ours Rom. 5. 10. And now what better proof can you desire for all this if you will be contented with express words Though I am very much of the Doctors mind that we could never have discovered these mysteries clearly and savingly had it not been for an acquaintance with Christs Person No man would ever have dream't of such interpretations of Scripture who had not been prepossest with the mysterious notion of a fanciful Union to Christ and application of Christ to us for here is no other proof of this but words and phrases separated from the body of the Text and the design of the discourse and like straglers pickt up and listed into the service of their Hypothesis For indeed the whole mystery of this and a great deal more stuff of this nature consists in wresting metaphorical and allusive expressions to a proper sense When the Scripture describes the profession of Christianity a sincere belief and obedience to the Gospel by having Christ and being in Christ and coming to him and receiving him these men expound these phrases to a proper and natural sense to signifie I know not what unintelligible Union and spiritual progress and closure of the Soul with him An Union of Persons instead of an agreement in faith and manners As will appear more hereafter Thus when they talk of our spiritual impotency and inability to do any good thing for after all the noise they make about our coming to Christ they mean being carryed thither with an Omnipotent and irresistible power they prove it wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion which is true of natural Death but will be hard to prove of a moral Death which consists in the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long custom which was the case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of which do so enslave the will that it is very difficult though not impossible for such persons to return to the love and practice of vertue another argument of the like nature is that we are said to be created to good works and to become new Creatures and therefore can contribute no more to it than we did to our first Creation and that we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it which were true indeed if our being created to good works did signifie the manner and method of our Conversion and not the nature of the new Creature which is the true meaning of it that as in the first Creation we were created after the image of God so we are renewed after his image in the second which is therefore expresly called in other places the renewing and renovation of our minds When this way fails they take another course with metaphors and similitudes to make them serve their purpose and that is by considering all the properties and qualifications of those things Christ is compared to and applying all that will serve their turn to Christ without any regard to the end for which they are used Thus the Kingdom of Heaven that is the Gospel is compared to a pearl of great price Mathew 13. 46. This Pearl in some mens Divinity signifies Christ and the excellency of Christ appears plainly in this comparison For other Pearls add no real worth to them that wear them but Christ this Illustrious Pearl doth he makes us worthy with his worthiness Excellently turned to serve their purpose though all that the Parable means is that we should be as ready to part with all for the belief and profession of the Gospel as other men are to sell all they have to purchase a pearl of great value Thus Christ was prefigured by Mannah and this Mannah was of a circular figure and this Circle was a figure of Christs perfection this was meat cooked and drest in Heaven God himself prepared it and then served it in thus Iesus Christ was prepared and set apart of his Father to the blessed work of Mediatorship And Mannah suited it self to every ones Palate thus Iesus Christ suits himself to every Christians condition he is full of quickning strengthening comforting vertue That is he is what every man fancies him to be relishes according to the gusto of their own palates what precious discoveries are here of Christ and what irrefragable proofs