Page images
PDF
EPUB

to-1st, What is it to seek righteousness by the law?—2dly, How doth it appear that seeking righteousness by the works of the law is frustrating the grace of God?. For they that are guilty of this sin of seeking righteousness by the works of the law, they are very loth to take in this, that they frustrate the grace of God: they will say, that they give all respect to the grace of God; even the self-righteous Pharisee, could own the grace of God, Luke xviii. 11. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men. "I thank God, that I am so "good as I am;" when he was a poor, vain, self-conceited man all the while.

[1] What is it to seek righteousness by the works of the law? By law here I mean the holy spotless law of God. The law of man hath nothing to do in the point of righteousness before God, This seeking of righteousness by the law is righteousness in God's sight; the apostle states the matter so. No man is justified by the law in the sight of God. That a man is justified by the law in the sight of men, no body can deny.--We should be very careful to justify our selves in the sight of men by the law, and our conformity to it; but this righteousness here spoken of is righteousness in the sight of God, and righteousness by the law of God; and it stands in three things.

1st, Righteousness by the law is that which obtains a man's acceptance with God. That is righteousness by the law that procures a man's acceptance with God; upon the account of which he stands before God as a righteous man, and is dealt with accordingly. Now, he that seeks righteousness by the law in this sense, is one who dreams, that by doing, and obeying what the law requires, he may work out that for which he may stand righteous, and accepted in God's sight. And that is one way this sin is committed.

2dly, In this righteousness before God by the works of the law, there is an expectation of impunity for all that is past in transgressing the law. And we find that this must necessarily be the righteousness of a holy man, who stands in a state of acceptance with God; but the righteousness of a man who hath been once a sinner must be by having that which may bring him into a state of impunity and safety, or all the transgressions that he hath been guilty of before

Now, men are guilty of seeking righteousness by the works of the law this second way, when they do, or think to do, that for which God will forgive all their transgressions, and forget all that they have done; and of this the Pharisee made no question: though he was a sinner, yet he comes and prays, and expects acceptation in God's sight, and the forgiveness of his sins, upon the account of the good that he had done.

3dly, In this righteousness by the works of the law there is a title to eternal life.-He that, by what he doth, expects to have a right conferred upon him to eternal life, is a man that seeks righteousness by the law; Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? said the poor young legalist, Matt. xix. 16. "I would fain have eternal life, "and would faip have a righ: to it: Master, tell me what "good thing shall I do to get it." These are the three ways by which men seek righteousness by the law :-To do that whereby a man may obtain acceptance before God.-To do that for which he may obtain pardon and impunity from God.

To do that for which he may have a right conferred on him to eternal life.--But, you will say, this is so gross Popery that there is no Protestant guilty of it. Alas! alas! every

natural man is guilty of it-and it is only the almighty power of the Spirit of God that can erase it out of their hearts. I will offer you some plain proofs of this.

(1.) How many are there, when their hearts are examined, must own that their eyes are altogether on the precepts of the law, and not a thought on the promises of the gospel ?— How many poor creatures are there that begin to be thoughtful about their salvation, insomuch that they make people that are about them, who are ignorant and charitable, think that they are hopeful Christians; but try these people this way, and you will find that all the exercise of their religion is about the precepts of the law, and they have no exercise at all about the promises of the gospel. He that minds only the precept, is only a doer; and he that minds not the promise, he is no believer: for the precept is the rule of practice; but it is the promise that is the foundation of faith.Now, how can that man be reckoned a believer, that hath no heart-exercise about the promises?

(2) A great many people are mightily taken up about their

[ocr errors]

own works, and but very little about Christ's. Our rightepusness doth not stand in our own works; but stands in. Christ's works, what Christ did, and suffered for us in his life, and death, and resurrection; therein stands our righteousness.--Now, how many poor creatures are there that reckon it a great matter, and glory mightily in their own doings: if they pray, and hear, and read, and can but make any sort of refor mation in their conversation, how big do these things appear in their eyes? But Christ's life and death, and all his great performances for our salvation, are mean and low, and of small esteem with them. And do not these sort of people seek righteousness by the law? Aye surely.

(3.) They look for eternal life, but they look for it as a reward of works, and not as an inheritance given by gift and grace; and all servants and slaves must do so; and all natu ral men are slaves, they are children of the bond-woman, Gal. iv. 31. they work for fear of punishment, and in hopes of the crown: they work for wages; the wages they love, and would have; but the work they hate. Whereas the believer acts just the contrary; he loves the work, and he expects the wages as the gift of grace from the blessed Father he serves. The apostle makes a great distinction between these two, Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ, Gal. iv. 7. Every man that is for righteousness by the works of the law is a servant; he looks upon God as his master, and the law as his master's will, and he sets about obeying with all his might. Now, is not this a good servant? Yes. But all such servants go to hell you must be children; for none but children are saved. And, indeed, there are none true servants to him, but they that are children; they are but slaves, and are cast out, that do not serve with their love, and expect the inheritance only as a gift of grace.--So much for that first thing, What it is to seek righteousness by the works of the law.

[2.] I am now to shew you, that seeking righteousness by the works of the law, is to frustrate the grace of God and I would shew it--first in point of doctrine--and then in point of practice.

1st, As to point of doctrine.-In the matter of righteous

The gospel

thought of; The law

ness before God, the law and the gospel are perfectly opposite, and they are only so in this point. The law and the gospel agree sweetly together in all things else; but in this point of the righteousness of a man before God, the law and the gospel are quite opposite one to another. comes to bring in another salvation than the law and the law destroys the salvation of the gospel. and gospel, in point of righteousness b fore God, are exactly opposite; And if by grace, then it is no more by works, otherwise grace is no more grace; but if it be of works, then it is no more of grace, for otherwise works were no more works, Rom. xi. 6. Grace and works, in the point of righteousness before God, are perfectly opposite: You are saved by grace, saith the apostle, not of works, lest any man should boast, Eph. ii. 8, 9.

2dly, Let us bring this matter into practice, and you will find that all men express this in their frame; both the selfrighteous man, and he that is not so not only is it asserted in point of doctrine, that works and grace are thus inconsistent, but we always find it, even in the spirit and temper both of the one and of the other.

(1.) He that seeks righteousness by the law, is a man that never saw his need of grace and you may be well assured that that man will frustrate the grace of God, who never saw his utter need of it. He was never so far emptied, but he expects and imagines that he shall be able to work out a righteousness for himself, and so is not brought under any conviction of his utter need of the grace of God--whereas he that is for the grace of God in Christ alone, is a man that hath a great need of the grace of God, and sees himself undone without it.

(2.) This self-righteous man sees no glory in the grace of God shining through the righteousness of Christ, there is no excellency in it to him. Every natural man is in this mind; he sees a great deal of glory in his own doings: in a beautiful conversation, in brave gifts, and in a shining walk before men; he sees a great deal of beauty and glory here. Every natural man thinks there is a great deal of glory in his own performances. The self-righteous Pharisee came boasting in his own performances; God, I thank thee that I am not as other

men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican: I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I possess, Luke xviii. 11, 12. These were great things in the man's esteem, and so they are in the eyes of every natural man. But for that righteousness that is lodged in Christ, that is wrought out by a man without him, by one that came down from heaven, and is gone up thither again; that hath all this righteousness seated in him, and gives it forth to us by mere grace; no natural man thinks any thing of this. But the believer is a man that hath an high esteem of the righteousness of Christ. How doth the apostle Paul speak of this? I count all things but dung, that I may win Christ; and be found in him, not having on mine own righteousness, Phil. iii. 8, 9.

(3.) Every natural man is averse from the grace of God, and therefore he must needs frustrate the grace of God. He is averse from it: but every believer is just of another mind.— Sirs, if all men's hearts were known to us, as they are to God, here is one thing that would determine every man's state. What way do you best like to go to heaven in?" I would

fain be very holy, saith the poor man, that I may be very "happy when I die."-Saith the believer, "I would fain be "clothed with Christ's righteousness, and get eternal life as "the gift of his grace; and I know that by being in Christ I "shall be sanctified." But no believer seeks sanctification as his righteousness, and title to glory: it is a preparation for glory, and the way that leads to glory, to all them that are saved according to that blessed method, Rom. viii. 30. Whom he justified, them he also glorified; and by glorification there, both sanctification and eternal life are well understood by most. So much for the third doctrine, That seeking righteousness by the works of the law frustrates the grace of God. I would now speak a few words to the fourth doctrine, and then make some application of both together.

Doctrine 4th. No true believer in Jesus Christ can frustrate the grace of God. The apostle is here speaking of it in the account that he is giving of the grace of God working in him; I through the law, saith he, am dead to the law, that I might live to God; and "I live by Christ, and by faith in him, "and, therefore, I do not frustrate the grace of God." He VOL. IV.

N

« PreviousContinue »