LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

The Four and Twentieth SERMON. (Book 24)

PART I.

MATTH. VI. 33.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

THE Decalogue is an abridgment of Morality, and of those precepts which direct us in the govern∣ment of our selves, and in our converse with o∣thers: And this Sermon of our Saviour is an im∣provement of the Decalogue. Herein you may discover Honesty of conversation, Trust in God, and the Love of his kingdom and his righteousness mutually depending on each other, and linked to∣gether in one golden chain, which reacheth from earth to heaven, from the footstool to the throne of God. Our conversation will be honest, if we trust in God; and we shall trust in God, if we seek his kingdom and his righteousness. For why is not our Yea Yea, and our Nay Nay? Why are not we so ready to resist evil? Why do we not love our neighbour? Why do we not love our enemy? Why do we arm our selves with craft and violence? Why do we first deceive our selves, and then deceive others? The reason is, Because we love the world. Why do we love the world? Because we are unwilling to depend on the providence of God. Why do we not trust in God? Because we love not his kingdom and his righteousness. He that loveth and seeketh this, needeth no lie to make him rich; feareth no enemy that can obstruct his way; knoweth no man that is not his neighbour, nor no neighbour that is not his friend; layeth up no treasure for the moth or rust; serveth not Mammon; nor needeth to be sent to school to learn the providence of God from the fouls of the aire or the lilies of the field. This is the summe and con∣clusion of the whole matter: The kindgdom of God and his righteous∣ness is all, comprehendeth all, is the sole and adequate object of our desires: And therefore our Saviour calleth back our thoughts from wandring after false riches, taketh off our care and solicitude from that vanity which is not worth a thought, and levelleth them on that which hath not this deputative and borrowed title of Riches, even that king∣dom and righteousness which is riches and honour and pleasure and what∣soever is desirable: For even these are of her retinue and train, and she bringeth them along with her as a supplement or overplus. Do you fear

injury; This shall protect you. Do you fear disgrace? This shall exalt you. Do you fear nakedness and poverty? This shall cloth and enrich you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. In these words our Saviour setteth up an Object for his Disciples and all Christians to look on? first, the kingdom of God; the price and prize of our high calling: Which we need not speak of: we cannot conceive it; the tongue of men and Angels cannot express the glory of it. Secondly, his righteousness: this is the way to God's Kingdom. Next, you have the Dignity of the Object; it must be sought: then, the Preeminence of it; it must be sought first: and last of all, the Motive, or Promise, or Encouragement to make us seek it; which answereth all objections which the flesh or the world can put in: All these other things shall be added to you. These be the parts of the Text: and of these in order.

The Kingdom of God is the end; and we must look on the glory of that, to encourage us in the way. Righteousness is the way; and we must first know what it is before we can seek it. And it is not at such a distance that we cannot easily approch it. It is not in heaven, that we should ask what wings we should take to flie unto it: neither is it beyond the sea, that we should travel for it. Non nos per difficiles ad beatam vitam quaestiones vo∣cat Deus, saith Hilary. God doth not hide himself, and bid us seek him: he doth not make darkness a pavilion about that Righteousness which he biddeth us seek; but he hath brought it near unto us, and put it into our very mouths and hearts: and as he brought immortality and eternal life to light, so he hath also made the way unto it plain and easie; so that no mist can take it from our eyes but that which we cast our selves, no night can hide it from us but that which our lusts and affections make. It is a good observation of Seneca the Philosopher; Nullius rei difficilis inventio, nisi cujus hic unus inventae fructus est, invenisse; God hath so settled and or∣dered the course of things, that there is nothing very hard to find out but that of which after all our labour we can reap no other fruit but this, that we can say we have found it out. Quod supra nos, nihil ad nos, as Socrates was wont to say; Those curious speculations which are above us and out of our reach, commonly pay us back nothing for that study and weariness of the flesh which we undergo in the pursuit of them, but a bare sight and view of them, which may bring some delight perhaps, but no advantage, to our minds. As Favorinus in Gellius well replied to a busie and talkative Critick, Abundè multa docuisti, quae quidem igno∣rabamus, & scire haud sanè postulabamus; Sir, you have taught us too too many things, which in truth we are ignorant of, but of that nature that we did not desire to know them, because they were of no use at all: So many questions there have been started in Divinity which have no rela∣tion to righteousness, or to the kingdom of God, which we study without profit, and may be ignorant of without danger. And when men stand so long upon these, they grow faint and weak in the pursuit of Righte∣ousness; lose the sight of that which they should seek, whilest they seek that which profitteth not; as the painter, who had spent his best skill in painting of Neptune, failed in the setting forth of the majesty of Jupiter. In hoc studio multa delectant, pauca vincunt, as the Philosopher speaketh: In the study of Divinity we may meet with many things which may touch our thoughts with some delight; but the number of those is not great which will forward and promote us to our end. Righteousness is the ob∣ject here, the way; and who understandeth it not? whose mouth is not full of it? The very enemies of Righteousness know it well enough, and bear witness to it; but through the corruption of mens hearts it cometh to

pass that, as sometimes we mistake one object for another, set up Pleasure for an Idol, and Mammon for a God, so we do many times not so much mis∣take as wilfully misinterpret that which is proposed unto us as most fit and worthy of our desires. When the duty is hard, and frighteth us with the presentment of some difficulty, proposeth something which our flesh and sensual appetite distasteth and flyeth from, then malumus interpretari quàm exsequi, we had rather descant and make a commentary upon it then fully express it in the actions of our life and conversation. As the Etru∣rian in the Poet bound living and dead bodies together, so do we joyn that Righteousness which is indeed the way to the Kingdom of God, to our dead and putrified conceits, to our lukewarmness, to our acedy and sloth, nay to our sacriledge and impiety, to our disobedience and want of natu∣ral affection, to our high contempt of God's Majesty: Or, as Procrustes delt with his guests upon his bed of iron, we either violently stretch it out, or cut it shorter in some part or other, that if our actions cannot apply themselves to it, it may be brought down and racked and forced to apply it self to our actions. If Righteousness excludeth Superstition, yet it com∣mendeth Reverence; and even Idolatry it self shall go under that name. It forbiddeth the love of the world, but it biddeth us labour with our hands; and this labour shall commend our tormenting care and solicitude, and make Covetousness it self a vertue. It dulleth the edge of revenge, and maketh my anger set before the Sun; but it kindleth my zeal, and that fire shall consume the adversary. Thus we can be righteous, and I∣dolaters; we can be righteous, and Covetous; we can be righteous, and yet wash our feet in the bloud, not of our enemies, but our Brethren: we can be what we will, and yet be righteous; and that is Righteousness, not which the wisdom of God hath laid before us as our way, but that which flesh and bloud shall set up with this false inscription, Holiness to the Lord. And our weakest, nay our worst, endeavours, though they stretch beyond the line, or though they will not reach home, but come far too short, yet we call them by this name, and they must go for Righteousness. Not the way we should, but the way we do walk in, though it be out of the way, though it lead to death, that is the way. We can take God's honour from him, and do it with reverence; we can be covetous, and not love the world; we can breathe forth the very gall of bitterness, and spit it in our brother's face, and yet be meek. So what Hilary speaketh, in another but the like case, is most true, Multi fidem ipsi potiùs constituunt quàm accipiunt; Many there be, even too many, even the most, who rather frame a religi∣on to themselves, and call it Righteousness, then receive one. What they will, is Righteousness; and what is Righteousness, they will not: cùm sa∣pientiae haec veritas sit, interdum sapere quae nolis; when this is the great∣est part of true wisdom, to be wise against our selves, against the wisdom of our flesh, to condemn our appetite and our phansie of extreme folly, when they put in for their share, and would divide with righteousness. To be wise against this wisdom, is to be wise unto salvation; to make haste to that object, not which flattereth our sense, but which is most proporti∣oned to our reason; to seek that which we would not have, the streight and narrow and rugged way, which leadeth to this Kingdom; to seek the Truth, though it imprison us, and bind us to a stake; Temperance, though it wage war with our appetite; Chastity, though it shut up our eyes; Self-denial, though it take us from our selves, and in a manner cut us off from the land of the living, and divide us from those pleasures and contents without which life it self to most men is as terrible as death. The sum of all is; Many call that Righteousness which is not worth the seeking, which we should run and fly from. Nec tamen mutatur vocabulis vis rerum, as the

Father well speaketh; yet the name will not change or alter the nature of things, no more then Socrates can be another man if we should call him Plato. Since then Righteousness, as it is us'd, is an ambiguous term, we will distinguish it, that so by the many counterfeits we may at last discover the true coyn, even that Righteousness which hath the stamp and image of Christ upon it, and so may seek it, and sell all that we have, and buy it.

First, there is justitia Philosophorum, the Righteousness of the Philoso∣phers; which is nothing else but uprightness and honesty of conversation; ut forìs ita & domi, ut in magnis ita in parvis, ut in alienis ita in suis agitare justitiam, as the Orator speaketh, to do that which is just in great matters and in small, at home and abroad, in that which concerneth our selves and in that which concerneth others. Without this Common-wealths are nothing else but magna latrocinia, but as the mountains of prey, where the stronger man bindeth and spoileth him who is not so strong as himself. This Righteousness the very heathen by the light of Nature attained to. Our Saviour telleth us that even the Publicans (whom Tertullian ranketh a∣mongst the heathen, though many of them were Jews) did love those that loved them. They who made use onely of that light which they brought with them into the world, did walk near unto the Truth. Planè non negabimus, saith the Father, philosophos juxta nostra sensisse; We cannot deny but that the heathen Philosophers did many things which Christ commanded. And though upon an uncertain adventure, and in a storm, yet they did touch upon the haven, which, having no further light, they could not arrive at. Yea, they did love many times Vertue for it self, & studium potiùs quàm fructum, the study of it rather then the fruit and reputation and honour which they reaped. Cato was so famous that his name became a name of Vertue rather then of a man. Aristides was not just onely, but Justice it self. And what temperance, what chastity, what natural conscience of justice and honesty did adorn and beautifie not onely the writings but the lives of many of the Philosophers? Yet TE∣KEL, weigh them in the balance, and they are found too light; nor did all these adde one hair to their stature, to bring them nearer to life and immortality. If we number up all the wise precepts they have delivered, all the glorious examples they have shewn and transmitted to posterity, we may peradventure find enough to shame many who profess Christia∣nity, but not that Righteousness which is required of Christians, and which would have raised them to the Kingdom of heaven. They not being built upon the true Foundation, all their Righteousness was to them but as the Rainbow before the Floud, for shew, and for no saving use at all. For these vertues may be in those men qui justitiam nesciunt, saith Lactan∣tius, who know not what true Righteousness is; as they have been at all times, by the help and concurrence of nature and careful education. Yet this Righteousness, though it come short, is commended to us in Scripture. Having your conversation honest amongst the Gentiles,* 1.1 that whereas they speak against you, for your profession of Christianity, as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, and which themselves ap∣prove by the light of nature, be drawn to the love of Christianity it self, and so glorifie God in the day of visitation. This Righteousness is not e∣nough; but this is required. Absit ut sic, saith S. Augustine; sed utinam vel sic! God forbid a Christian should stay here; but would to God ma∣ny Christians had attained so far! God forbid it should be so; but, if we look upon the Many, we may wish it were but so. And what a sad wish is this we are put to, that Christians were but as good and Righteous as Heathens!

Secondly, there is justitia Judaeorum, the Righteousness of the Jews: A

great part whereof I may almost say God did rather indulge then com∣mand. Had they been able to bear it, he had laid a far heavier burthen upon them then he did: and had not their eye been so weak, he had shewed them a more excellent way: But, as a tender Father, he had regard to their persons and condition when he prescribed them that form of Righteous∣ness: and the weakness and unqualifiedness of the persons was the occasi∣on of that defect which was in their Law. Many things were permitted to them, both in respect of outward impurity and inward purity of mind, which afterwards God would not make lawful to those which were to fulfil all righteousness. And yet between that Righteousness which he then commended, and that which he after under the Gospel exacted, there is no repugnancy and contrariety, but diversity onely. For he that did omit that which he was permitted to do, did not take an eye for an eye, nor a tooth for a tooth, was so far from doing any thing against the Law, that he did that which the Law especially intended, which was not fomes but limes furoris, did not nourish or provoke, but set bounds to their malice. Quod permittitur, suspectam habet permissionis suae causam; That which is permitted is to be suspected for that very cause for which it is permitted. Possum dicere, saith the Father, Quod permittitur, non est bonum; I may say, That which is permitted is not good. For that which is good commend∣eth it self by its proper and native goodness, as Justice, Temperance, Self denial, and the like. These are good in themselves and for them∣selves, these tend to good, these will end in good, and will bring us thither through all the troups and armies of evils which may assault us in the way. But that which is permitted onely, supposeth some defect in those for whose sakes it is indulged. Usury, Revenge, Divorce, and the like, were permitted; but the reason why they were indulged is a plain reproof and accusation of them to whom they were indulged: The words are plain; it was for the hardness of their hearts.* 1.2 Sunt aliqua quae non oportet fieri, etiamsi licet, could the Heathen say; There be some things which we may with more commendations omit then do, though they be lawful to be done. This Righteousness then of the Jew will not reach home: unless we can imagine that the business of a Christian is to seek after sha∣dows and ceremonies, and to rest in that which nothing but weakness and imperfection, nay nothing but hardness of heart, can make lawful for us; unless we will conclude that the Law can make us perfect, and that which is so weak and unprofitable, bring us to the kingdom of God.* 1.3

There is a third kind of Righteousness mentioned in Sc ipture, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, the learnedest amongst the Jews, and those who were most famous for sanctity and strictness of life. Christ himself speaketh of their Righte∣ousness; and the Righteousness of some of them was true according to the Law.* 1.4 For where our Saviour telleth us that except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, he meaneth not hypocritical; but real righteous∣ness, saith Chrysostom. Otherwise he had compared not Righteous∣ness with Righteousness, but Righteousness with Hypocrisie, which is the greatest unrighteousness. And yet all this will not reach home, nor make up that which the Christian is to seek. For even these wise and righteous persons did come short of true wisdom and righteousness. The sons of Levi, who did purifie others, were to be purified them∣selves, that they might offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.* 1.5 S. Paul himself, who was a Pharisee, and had sate at the feet of G••ma∣liel, where he learned the Law, telleth us, That he was unblameable,* 1.6 but touching the righteousness which is by the Law. And what Seneca

speaketh is true in this case also, Angusta est innocentia, ad legem bonum esse; That righteousness is but of a narrow compass which looketh no further then the Laws, which restraineth no more then the outward man. Therefore the Apostle in many places calleth the Law the Law of works, not onely in opposition to the Law of faith, but to that better and more perfect Law, which doth not onely bind the hand, but the thought. The Righteousness which was by the Law was indeed justifia∣ble, but before men; and had no other reward but of the Basket, of tem∣poral blessings: And, in plain terms, we read of none else. But the Righteousness which hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come, whose reward is eternity of bliss, is more spiritual, and offereth up no other sacrifice then the man himself is busie in purging and cleansing the soul; in rooting out those evils which are visible and naked to God, though the eye of flesh cannot behold them; in curing those diseases which nei∣ther Jew nor Gentile were sensible of, but rejoyced in them as in health it self. For this is it with which Christ, and his blessed servant S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, upbraid the Jews, that they would not yield their necks to Christ's yoke, though it were easie, nor put their shoulders to his burthen, though it were light; that they would not be obedient to the righteousness of God, which is spiritual, but set up and established and gloried in one of their own. The Righteousness then neither of the Hea∣then, nor of the Jew in general, nor of the strictest Sect of them, the Scribes and Pharisees, is meant here in this place; nor indeed doth it de∣serve that name.

There is then a fourth kind, justitia Christianorum, the Righteousness of Christians: Which was revealed by the most exact Master that ever was, and commanded by that Majesty which pierceth the very heart and reins, and which cannot be contemned. Now even Christians themselves do not agree about this Righteousness, but have made and left the word am∣biguous. Some stand much upon an Imputed Righteousness; and it is true which they say, if they understood themselves: and upon Christ's righte∣ousness imputed to us; which might be true also, if they did not interpret what they say. For this in a pleasing phrase they call to appear in our el∣der Brother's robes and apparel, that, as Jacob did, we may steal away the blessing. Thus the adulterer may say, I am chast with Christ's chastity; the intemperate, I am sober with Christ's temperance; the covetous, I am poor with Christ's poverty; the revenger, I am quiet with Christ's meekness: And if he please, every wicked person may say that with Christ he is crucified, dead and buried; and that, though he did nothing, yet he did it; though he did ill, yet he did well, because Christ did it. For no better use can be drawn out of such doctrines as do not offer themselves unto us, but are forced out of the word of God. We have a story in Seneca of one Calvisius Sa∣binus, who thought he did himself what any servant of his did: Putabat se scire quod quisquam in domo suâ sciret; Such an opinion possest him, that he thought himself skilled in that which any of his family knew: If his ser∣vant were a good Poet, he was so too; if his servant were well limbed, he could wrastle; if his servant were a good Grammarian, he could play the Critick. Now Christ, we know, took upon him the form of a servant; he came not to be served, but to serve: and some men are we I content to be of Sabinus his mind, to think that whatsoever Christ did they do also, or at least that they may be said to do it. If he fasted forty dayes and forty nights, they fast as long, though they never abstained from a meal: If he overcame the Devil when he tempted him, they are also victorious, though they never resist him: If Christ was as a sheep which opened not his mouth, they also are sheep, though they open theirs as a sepulchre. Therefore

what the Stoick speaketh of that man, Nunquam vidi hominem beatum indecentiùs. I never saw man whose happiness did less become him, will fit and apply it self to these men; This Righteousness, if they have no other, doth but ill become them, because it had no artificer but the phansie to make it. For that Christ's Righteousness is thus imputed to any, we do not read; no, not so much as that it is imputed; though in some sense the phrase may be admitted. For what is done cannot be un∣done, no, not by Omnipotency it self: for it implyeth a contradiction. Deo qui omnia potest, hoc impossibile, saith Hierom: God, who can do all things, cannot restore a lost virginity, or make that to be no sin which was a sin. He may forgive it, blot it out, bury it, not impute it, account of it as if it had never been; but a sin it was. We read indeed,* 1.7 that Faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness. And the Apostle interpreteth him∣self out of the 32. Psalm, Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righ∣teousness without works; that is, as followeth, whose sins are forgiven, to whom the Lord imputeth no sin. And Abraham believed God,* 1.8 and it was imputed to him for righteousness. And We are made the righteousness of God in him, that is, we are counted righteous for his sake. And it is more then evident, that it is one thing to say that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us; another, that faith is imputed for righteousness, or, which is the very same, our sins are not imputed unto us: Which two, Imputati∣on of faith for righteousness, and Not-imputation of sin, make up that which we call the Justification of a sinner. For therefore are our sins blotted out by the hand of God, because we believe in Christ, and Christ in God.* 1.9 That place where we are told that Christ of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification, is not such a pillar of Christ's Imputed righteousness, in that sense which they take it, as they phansied when they first set it up. For the sense of the Apostle is plain, and can be no more then this, That Christ by the will of God was the onely cause of our righteousness and justification, and that for his sake God will justifie and absolve us from all our sins, and will reckon or account us holy and just and wise; not that he who hath loved the er∣ror of his life is wise, or he that hath been unjust, is righteous in that where∣in he was unjust, or he that was impure, in that he was impure, is holy, be∣cause Christ was so; but because God will for Christ's sake accept & receive and embrace us as if we were so: Unless we shall say that as we are wise with Christ, and holy, and righteous, so with Christ also we do redeem our selves: For he who is said to be our righteousness, is said also to be our redemption in the next words. I would not once have thought this worth so much as a salute by the way, but because I see many un∣derstand not what they speak so confidently; and many more, and those the worst, are too ready to misapply it; are, will be every thing in Christ, when they are not in him; and well content he should fight it out in his own gore, then they, though they fall under the enemy, in him may be styled conquerours. Why should not we content our selves with the language of the Holy Ghost? That certainly is enough to quiet any troubled conscience; unless you will say it is not enough for a sinner to be forgiven, not enough to be justified, not enough to be made heir of the kingdom of heaven. But yet I am not so out of love with the phrase as utterly to cast it out; but wish rather that it might either be laid aside, or not so grosly misapplied as it is many times by those presumptuous sin∣ners who die in their sins. If any eye can pierce further into the letter, and find more then Imputation of faith for righteousness, and Not imputa∣tion of sins for Christ's righteousness sake, let him follow it as he please to the glory, but not to the dishonour of Christ: let him attribute what he will un∣to

Christ, so that by his unseasonable piety he lose not his Saviour; so that he neglect not his own soul, because Christ was innocent; nor take no care to bring so much as a mite into the Treasury, because Christ hath flung in that talent which at the great day of accounts shall be reckoned as his. So that men be wary of those dangerous consequences which may issue from such a conceit, quis{que} abundet sensu suo, let every man think and speak as he please, and add this Imputation of Christ's righteousness to this, which I am sure is enough, and which is all we find in Scripture, Forgive∣ness and Not-imputation of sins, and the Imputation of faith for righteousness.

I pass then to this Righteousness, the Righteousness of Faith, which in∣deed is properly called Evangelical Righteousness, because Christ, who was the publisher of the Gospel, was also authour and finisher of our Faith. And here we may sit down, and not move any further, and call all eyes to behold it, and say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, This is it. Nec curiositate opus est post Jesum Christum; When Christ hath spoken, and told us what it is, our curiosi∣ty need not make any further search. The Righteousness of faith is that which justifieth a sinner:* 1.10 For the just shall live by faith or, as some render it, the just by faith shall live.* 1.11 If thou canst believe, saith our Saviour: and Be∣lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ,* 1.12 and thou shalt be saved and thy houshould, saith S. Paul to the Gaoler.* 1.13 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to these waters; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money or money-worth. I doubt not but every man is ready to come; every man is ready to say, I believe; Lord, help my unbelief. But here it fareth with many men as it doth with those who first hear of some great place fallen unto them, but afterwards find it is as painful as great: The later part of the news sowreth and deadeth the joy of the former, and the trouble taketh off the glory and dignity. Believe, and be saved, is a messuage of joy; but, Believe, and repent, or, Repent, and believe, is a bitter pill. But we must joyn them to∣gether; nor is it possible to separate them: they both must meet and kiss each other in that Righteousness which is the way to the Kingdom of God. It is true, Faith is imputed for righteousness; but it is imputed to those who forsake all unrighteousness. Faith justifieth a sinner; but a repentant sinner. It must be vera fides, quae hoc quod verbis dicit, moribus non contradicit; a faith which leaveth not our manners and actions as so many contradictions to that which we profess. Faith is the cause and original of good actions, and naturally will produce them: and if we hinder not its casuality, in this respect it will have its proper effect, which is to Justifie a sinner. This effect, I say, is proper to Faith alone; and it hath this royal prerogative by the ordinance of God: but it hath not this operation but in subjecto capaci, in a subject which is capable of it, In a word, it is the Righteousness of a sinner, but not of a sinner who con∣tinueth in his sin. It is a soveraign medicine, but will not cure his wounds who resolveth to bleed to death. For to conceive otherwise were to entitle God to all the uncleanness and sins of our life past, to make him a lover of iniquity, and the justifier, not of the sinner, but of our sins. Christ was the Lamb of God which took away our sins.* 1.14 And he took them away, not onely by a plaister, but also by a purge; not onely by for∣giveness, but also by restraint of sin. He suffered those unknown pains that we should be forgiven, and sin no more; not that we should sin again, and be forgiven. He fulfilled the Law, but not to the end that we should take the more heart, break it at pleasure, and adde reb••••li∣on to rebellion, because he hath put a pardon into our hands. We must therefore seek out another Righteousness. And we may well say we must seek it; for it is well near lost in this. Imputed Righte∣ousness is that we hold by; and Inherent righteousness is Popery or P••∣lagianism.

We will not be what we ought, because Christ will make us what we would be: We will not be just, that he may justifie us; and we will rebell, because he hath made our peace: As men commonly never more forfeit their obedience then under a mild Prince. But if the love of the world would suffer us to open our eyes, we might then see a Law even in the Gospel, and the Gospel more binding then ever the Law was. Nor did Christ bring in that Righteousness by faith, to thrust out this, that we may do nothing, that we may do any thing, because Faith can work such a miracle. No, saith S. Paul, he establisheth the Law. He added to it, he reformed it, he enlarged it, made it reach from the act to the look, from the look to the thought. Nor is it enough for the Christian to walk a turn with the Philosopher, or to go a Sabbath-day's journey with the Jew, or make such a progress in Righteousness as the Law of Moses mea∣sured out. No, Christ taught us a new kind of Righteousness; and our burthen is not onely reserved, but increased, that this Righteousness may abound; a Righteousness which striketh us dumb, when the slanderer's mouth is open and loud against us; which boundeth our desires, when va∣nity wooeth us; setteth a knife to our throat, when the fruit is pleasant to the eye; giveth laws to our understanding, chaineth up our will, when Kingdoms are laid at our feet; shutteth up our eyes, that we may not look upon a second woman, which a Jew might have embraced; calleth us out of the world, whilest we are in the world; and maketh us spiritual, whilest we are in the flesh: Justitia sincera, a sincere Righteousness without mix∣ture or sophistication; and justitia integra, an entire and perfect Righte∣ousness, Righteousness like to the love of our Saviour, integros tradens in∣tegrum se danti, a Righteousness delivering up the whole man, both body and soul, unto him who offered up himself a full, perfect and sufficient sacri∣fice for the sins of the whole world.

For conclusion of this point, and to make some use of it; Beloved, this is the Object we must look on; And we must use diligence, and be very wary, that we mistake it not, that we take not that to be our Juno which is but a cloud, that to be Righteousness which flesh and bloud, our present occasions, our present necessities, our unruly lusts and desires may set up, and call by that name. This is the great and dangerous errour in which many Christians are swallowed up, and perish, not to take Righteousness in its full extent and compass, in that form and shape in which it is tender∣ed, and so fulfil all righteousness; but to contract and shrink it up, to leave it in its fairest parts and offices, and to vvork all unrighteousness, and then make boast of its name. And thus the number of the Righteous may be great, the Goats more then the Sheep, the gate vvide and open that lead∣eth unto the Kingdom of God. Thus the Hypocrite, vvho doth but act a part, is righteous; the Zelote, vvho setteth all on fire, is righteous; the Schismatick, vvho teareth the seamless coat of Christ, is righteous; he whose hands yet reek vvith the bloud of his brethren, is righteous; righteous Pharisees, righteous Incendiaries, righteous Schismaticks, righteous Traitours and Murtherers; not Abel, but Cain the righteous: All are righteous. For this hath been the custom of vvicked men, to bid defiance to Righteous∣ness, and then comfort themselves with her name. We vvill not mention the Righteousness of the heathen: For they being utterly devoid of the true knowledge of Christ, it might perhaps diminish the number of their stripes, but could not adde one hair to their stature, or raise them nearer to the Kingdom of God. Nor will we speak of the Righteousness of the Jew: For they vvere in bondage under the Elements of the world; nor could the Lavv make any of them perfect. We Christians, on vvhom the Sun of Righteousness hath clearly shined, depend too much upon an Imputed

Righteousness. An imputed Righteousness? why, that is all. It is so, and will lift us up unto happiness, if we adde our own, not as a supplement, but as a necessary requisite: not to seal our pardon; for that it cannot do, but to further our admittance. For we never read that the Spirit did seal an unrighteous person, that continued in his sin, to the day of his re∣demption. No; Imputed Righteousness must be the motive to work in us inherent Righteousness: and, God will pardon us in Christ, is a strong argument to infer this conclusion, Therefore we must do his will in Christ. For Pardon bringeth greater obligation then a law. Christ dyed for us, is enough to win Judas himself, those that betray him, and those that cru∣cifie him, to repentance. The death of Christ is verbum visibile, saith Cle∣ment, a visible word. For in the death of Christ are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Righteousness. If you look upon his Cross, and see the inscription, JESUS OF NAZERETH KING OF THE JEWS, you cannot miss of another, HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE LORD. There hung his sacred body, and there hung all those bracelets and ornaments, as Solomon calleth them, those glorious exam∣ples of all vertues: There hung the most true and most exact pictures of Patience and Obedience and unparallel'd Love; And if we take them not out, and draw them in our selves, imputed Righteousness will not help us, or rather it will not be imputed. What? Righteousness impu∣ted to a man of Belial? Christ's Love imputed to him that hateth him? his Patience to a revenger? his Truth to the fraudulent? his Obedience to the traitour? his Mercy to the cruel? his Innocency to the murtherer? his Purity to the unclean? his Doing all things well to those who do all things ill? God forbid. No: let us not deceive our selves. Let us not sleep in sin, and then please our selves with a pleasant dream of Righte∣ousness, which is but a suggestion of the enemy, whose art it is to settle that in the phansie which should be rooted in the heart, and to lead us to the pit of destruction full of those thoughts which lift us up as high as heaven. Assumed names, false pretences, forced thoughts, these are the pillars which uphold his kingdom, and subvert all Righteousness. Vera justitia hoc habet, omnia in se vertit; True Righteousness complieth with nothing that is contrary or diverse from it. It will not comply with the Pharisee, and make his seeming a reality; it will not comply with the Schismatick, and make his pride humility; it will not comply with the prosperous Trai∣tour; and make him a Father of his countrey; it will not fit our Ambition in the eager pursuit of honour, nor our Covetousness in grasping of wealth, nor our Luxury in doting on pleasures. Righteousness treadeth all these imaginations under her feet, and will at last rise up against those Impostors which work these lying wonders in her name. She changeth and transele∣menteth all into her self, the love of the World, the love of Honour, the love of Pleasure into the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. To con∣clude, This is the Object we are to look on; and if we receive and em∣brace it, if we seek it, and seek it first, it will supply us with all things necessa∣ry for us in the way, and at last bring us to the Kingdom of God.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1 Pet. 2.12.
• * 1.2

  Matth. 19.8.
• * 1.3

  Hebr. 7.18.
• * 1.4

  Matth. 5.20.
• * 1.5

  Mal. 3.3.
• * 1.6

  Phil. 3.6.
• * 1.7

  Rom. 4.3.
• * 1.8

  Gal. 3.6. 2 Cor. 5.21.
• * 1.9

  1 Cor. 1.30.
• * 1.10

  Rom. 1.17.
• * 1.11

  Mar. 9.23.
• * 1.12

  Acts 16.31.
• * 1.13

  Isa. 55.1.
• * 1.14

  John 1.29.