sidering our ways. The so much altered state of the case, quite alters the nature of the things. It was a consulting to do evil before; now to do good. And hence also, choosing the Lord to be our God, Josh. 24. 15. becomes a necessary duty. Which is to make choice of this very blessedness, that consists in the knowledge, likeness, and enjoyment. And now, inasmuch as the blessedness is not fully attained by the longing soul, till time expire and its eternity commence; here is a great discovery of that wisdom which guides this happy choice. This is great wisdom in prospection; in taking care of the future; and at how much the further distance one can provide, so much the greater reputation of wisdom is justly acquired to him; yea, we seem to place the sum of practical wisdom in this one thing, while we agree to call it providence, under the contracted name of prudence. The wise man makes it at least an evidence or part of wisdom, when he tells us, the prudent foreseeth, &c. Prov. 22. 3. The righteous man so far excels in this faculty, as that his eye looks through all the periods of time, and penetrates into eternity, recommends to the soul a blessedness of that same stamp and alloy, that will endure and last for ever. It will not content him

to be happy for an hour, or for any space that can have an end; after which it shall be possible to him to look back and recount with himself how happy he was once: nor is he so much solicitous what his present state be, if he can but find he is upon safe terms as to his future and eternal state. As for me, saith the psalmist, (he herein sorts and severs himself from them whose portion was in this life,) I shall behold—I shall be satisfied, when I awake; Est bene non potuit dicere, dicit erit, he could not say it was well with him, but shall be, as though he had said, Let the purblind, shortsighted sensualist embrace this present world, who can see no further: let me have my portion in the world to come; may my soul always lie open to the impression of the powers of the coming world; and in this, so use every thing as to be under the power of nothing. What are the pleasures of sin, that are but for a season; or what the sufferings of this now, this moment of affliction, to the glory that shall be revealed, to the exceeding and eternal glory? He considers, patient afflicted godliness will triumph at last, when riotous, raging wickedness shall lament for ever. He may for a time weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; he may be sorrowful, but his sorrow shall be turned into joy, and his joy, none shall take from him. (John 16. 20, 22.) Surely here is wisdom; this is the wisdom that is from above, and tends thither. This is to be wise unto salvation. The righteous man is a judicious man; he hath in a measure that judgment (wherein the apostle prays the Philippians might abound, Phil. 1. 6, 10.) to approve things that are excellent, and accordingly to make his choice. This is a sense (little thought of by the author) wherein that sober speech of the voluptuous philosopher

though in this matter, you have no reason to suspect error or corruption in your Judge, (through which many honest causes may miscarry in a human judicature) yet have you no reason to suspect yourself? If the Holy Spirit hath assured you, he hath not stupified you; but as you have then the less to fear, you have the more of love and joy. Therefore you will not thence mind such a concernment the less, but with the more delight; and therefore also, most probably, with the more frequency and intension. What a pleasure will it be to review evidences, and say, Lo! here are the mediums by which I make out my title to the eternal inheritance. Such and such characters give me the confidence to number myself among God's righteous ones. And do you lead that heavenly raised life? do you live in those sweet and ravishing comforts of the Holy Ghost, that may bespeak you one whom he hath sealed up to the day of redemption? If you pretend not to any such certainty, but rely upon your own judgment of your case; are you sure you are neither mistaken in the notion of the righteousness required, nor in the application of it to your own soul? Possibly, you may think yourself, because in your ordinary dealing you wrong no man (yourself being judge,) a very righteous person. But evident it is, when the Scripture uses this term as descriptive of God's own people, and to distinguish between them that shall be saved and perish, it takes it in that comprehensive sense before explained. And however, it requires at least much more of thee, under other expressions, as thou canst hardly be so ignorant but to know. And do but use thy reason here a little, and demand of thyself; is he to be accounted a righteous person, that thinks it fit to avoid wronging a man, but makes no conscience at all of wronging God? More particularly: Is it righteous, to live all thy days in a willing ignorance of the Author of thy being, never once to inquire, Where is God my Maker? Job. 35. 10. Is it righteous to forget him days without number, not to have him from day to day in all thy thoughts? Is it righteous to estrange thyself from Him, and live as without Him in the world, while thou livest, movest and hast thy being in Him; not to glorify Him in whose hands thy breath is? to be a lover of pleasure more than God? a worshipper, in thy very soul, of the creature more than the Creator! Is it righteous to harden thy heart against his fear and love? to live under his power, and never reverence it; his goodness and never acknowledge it? to affront his authority, to belie his truth, abuse his mercy, impose upon his patience, defy his justice; to exalt thy own interest against his; the trifling petite interest of a silly worm, against the great allcomprehending interest of the common Lord of all the world? to cross his will, to do thy own? to please thyself, to the displeasing of Him? whence hadst thou thy measures of justice, if this be just?

Again, is it righteous to deny the Lord that bought thee, to neglect that great salvation which He is the author of? And whereas He came to bless thee in turning thee from thine iniquities, wilfully to remain still in an accursed servitude to sin? when He was made manifest to destroy the works of the devil, still to yield thyself a captive at his will? whereas He died that thou mightest not any longer live to thyself, but to Him that died. for thee, and rose again; and that He might redeem thee from thy vain conversation, and that thou art so expressly told, that such as still lead sensual lives, mind earthly things, have not their conversation in heaven, are enemies to the cross of Christ. Is it no unrighteousness, that in these respects thy whole life should be nothing else but a constant contradiction to the very design of his dying? a perpetual hostility, a very tilting at his cross? Is there no unrighteousness in thy obstinate infidelity, that wickedly denies belief to his glorious truths, acceptance of his gracious offers, subjection to his holy laws? No unrighteousness in thy obstinate, remorseless impenitency? thy heart that connot repent? that melts not, while a crucified Jesus, amidst his agonies and dying pangs, cries to thee from the cross, O sinner, enough, thy hard heart breaks mine! yield at last, and turn to God. Is it righteous, to live as no way under law to Christ? to persist in actual rebellion against his just government, which he died, and revived, aud rose again, to establish over the living and the dead? yea, and that while thou pretendest thyself a christian? In a word: Is it righteous to tread under foot the Son of God, to vilify his blood, and despise his Spirit; Is this the righteousness that thou talkest of? Are these thy qualifications for the everlasting blessedness? If thou say, thou confessest thou art in thyself, in these several respects, altogether unrighteous: but thou hopest the righteousness of Christ will be sufficient to answer for all; no doubt Christ's righteousness is abundantly available to all the ends for which it was intended by the Father and Him; but it shall never answer all the ends that a foolish wicked heart will fondly imagine to itself. In short, it serves to excuse thy non-performance of, and stands instead of thy perfect sinless obedience to, the law of works; but it serves not instead of thy performance of what is required of thee, as the condition of the gospel-covenant. That is, It shall never supply the room of faith, repentance, regeneration, holiness, the loving of Christ above all, and God in Him; so as to render these unnecessary, or salvation possible without them. There is not one iota, or tiltle in the Bible, that so much as intimates an unregenerate person, an unbeliever, an impenitent or unholy person, shall be saved by Christ's righteousness; but enough to the contrary, every one knows that hath the least acquaintance with the Scriptures. Vain man! what, is Christ divided and divided against Himself;

Christ without, against Christ within! His sufferings on the cross and foregoing obedience, against his Spirit and government in the soul? Did Christ die to take away the necessity of our being christians? And must his death serve not to destroy sin out of the world, but Christianity? Who hath taught thee so wickedly to misunderstand the design of Christ's dying? And when the Scripture so plainly tells thee, that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John. 3. 16. And that he became the author of eternal salvation to them that obey Him; (Heb. 5. 9.) yea, and that He will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know and obey Him not. What should induce thee to think thou mayest be saved by Him, whether thou believest and obeyest or not? No, if ever thou think to see God, and be happy in Him, thou must have a righteousness in thee resembling his; the very product, the thing wrought in the work of regeneration. If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him. Whereupon follows the description of the blessedness of such righteous ones, in the beginning of the next chapter,-They are sons-they shall be like, &c. So that in a word, without some sight of God here, there is no seeing Him hereafter; without some likeness to Him now, none hereafter. And such as are destitute of that heartconformity to the gospel, wherein the evangelical righteousness stands, are so far from it, that we may say to them as our Saviour to the Jews, Ye have neither heard his voice, nor seen his shape, (John. 5. 37.) that is, you have never had a right notion, or any the least true glimpse of him; your hearts are wholly destitute of all divine impressions whatsoever.

8. We may further infer, from this qualification of the subject of blessedness, that righteousness is no vain thing. That is not in vain, that ends so well, and hath so happy an issue at last. Scripture tells us, that the labor of the righteous tendeth to life: (Prov. 10. 16.) and that we may understand it of their labor as they are righteous, we are more plainly told, that righteousness tendeth to life; (ch. 11. 19.) and that to them that sow righteousness shall be a sure reward. (ver. 18.) that the righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. (Matt. 13. 43.) the righteous into eternal life. Ch. 25. 46. And we here see that righteousness ends in the blessed sight of God's glorious face, in being satisfied with the divine likeness. Foolish sinners are justly upbraided that they spend their labor for that which satisfies not; (Isa. 55. 2.) take much pains to no purpose; such are all the works, of sin, toilsome, fruitless; what fruit had ye of those things (namely, which ye wrought when you were free from righteousness) whereof ye are now ashamed; for the end of those things is death. But

(it follows) being now made free from sin, and become servants to God (which is paraphased above by servants to righteousness) ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Rom. 6. 20-22. The fruit is a continual increase of holiness, a growing more and more like God; till at last everlasting life, satisfaction with his likeness, do crown and consummate all.

You have now what to answer to the atheist's profane query, What profit is it to serve God? to what purpose to lead so strict and precise a life? You may now see to what purpose it is; and whereunto godliness (which righteousness here includes) is profitable as having, besides what it entitles to here, the promise of that life which is to come. There needs no more to discover any thing not to be vain (inasmuch as nothing can be said to be so, but in reference to an end, as being good for nothing) than the eviction of these two things:-that it aims at a truly worthy and valuable end; and that its tendency thereto is direct and certain. In the present case, both these are obvious enough at the first view. For as to the former of them: all the world will agree, without disputing the matter, that the last end of man (that is, which he ultimately propounds to himself) is his best good: and that he can design no further good to himself than satisfaction; nothing after or beyond that: and what can afford it, if the vision and participation of the divine glory do not? As to the latter: besides all that assurance given by Scripture-constitution to the righteous man, concerning his future reward, let the consciences be consulted of the most besotted sinners, in any lucid interval, and they will give their suffrage (Balaam, that so earnestly followed the reward of unrighteousness, not excepted,) that the way of righteousness is that only likely way to happiness; and would therefore desire to die, at least the righteous man's death, and that their latter end should be like his. So is wisdom (I might call it righteousness too; the wicked man is the Scripture fool, and the righteous the wise man) justified not by her children only, but by her enemies also. And sure, it is meet that she should be more openly justified by her children, and that they learn to silence and repress those mis-giving thoughts; Surely I have washed my hands in vain, &c. Psal. 73. 13. And be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as they know their labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15.

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