Religious Studies Talk

Carl · Guest

This sermon is fourth in a series by Robert Traill examining Galatians 2:21.

May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/

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Examine Yourselves In The Light Of God's Grace
by Robert Traill

Sermon Four in a series of six on Galatians 2:21.

"I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law,
then is Christ dead in vain." - Gal. 2:21.

From this first argument of the apostle for the justifying of a sinner
through the righteousness of Christ, and not by the righteousness of the
law, I have raised, and opened, and spoke something to four doctrines-

1st, That the grace of God shines gloriously in the justifying of a sinner
through the righteousness of Christ.

2dly, That it is a dreadful sin to frustrate the grace of God.

3dly, That all who seek righteousness by the law, they do frustrate the
grace of God.

4thly, That no true sound believer can be guilty of this sin. Frustrating
the grace of God is a sin that no believer can commit.

I would now come to make some application of these, which I, mean to
prosecute from these two heads:-

I. To warn you to take heed and to try the spirits, as the apostle exhorts
(1 John 4:1), according to this doctrine.

II. Try your own state according to your heart-thoughts of this matter.

I. You are to try the spirits - you are to try the doctrines that you hear.
When the greatest measure of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the
churches, and when extraordinary officers were raised up amongst them, and
in a time when some of the apostles were living, by one of them was this
exhortation given, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God," (1 John 4:1). And it is very observable, that the
scope of that text that the apostle there lays down, leads us plainly to the
doctrine that I am upon, "Believe not every spirit, for there are many false
spirits, and antichrists, that are gone out into the world." But you will
say, How shall we know them? Saith the apostle, "Every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God: every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God"
(ver. 3). Now, by a very usual phrase that was well understood then, and it
is not hard to be known now, by "spirit," doctrine is meant. Every doctrine
that tends not this way is not of God. Aye, but, you will say, Where are
there any that say Christ is not come in the flesh, save the Jews? The
apostle seems to make this a grand mark of antichrist. Now, in antichrist's
kingdom (and that is a fitter name for them than that of the Church, for
with the church they have nothing to do) it is every where asserted that
Christ is come in the flesh; for they have made a great part of their
religion to consist in carnal, wicked representations of Jesus Christ; they
have made a goddess of his mother, and they have made a puppet-show of his
life and death, by their ridiculous representations. Aye, but the main thing
that Christ came into the flesh for, that is forgotten by them; and of this
the apostle speaks (ver. 10), "He hath sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins." Christ's business in this world was to be made a sacrifice
for sin; and they that do not hold him forth as a sacrifice for sin, do, in
effect, say he is not come in the flesh. Now, concerning these doctrines
that I would warn you against, I would branch them forth into a few heads.

1. There are doctrines darkening the grace of God, and the righteousness of
Christ, that you should beware of. The gospel is called by the apostle, "the
gospel of the grace of God," twice in one discourse to the church at Ephesus
(3:2,7); and the "word of his grace," (Acts 20:32). What judgment then
should Christians make of such men's spirits, that are called ministers, and
will be called so, and yet you may hear them preach from one end of the year
to another, and never hear a word of the grace of God, or the righteousness
of Christ? If they be sound in the faith, it is well; but the very
concealing of these things is a great sin, and a great snare to people; the
very name of the gospel is the gospel of the grace of God: it is miscalled
by the name of the gospel, if the grace of God runs not through every vein
of it.

2. There are doctrines perplexing the grace of God; they make it dark, and
they make it intricate: they perplex the doctrine with methods, and they
perplex people's consciences with their doctrine. There is no church canon
in all the world that is much worth regarding, but that which we have in
Acts 15; for those that were called by the name of General Councils, for the
first three hundred years after Christ, have many weaknesses and follies in
them; and they began to savour of a degeneracy already begun, though in the
main points of the truths of the gospel they remained sound. In Acts 15:1,
certain men that came down from Judea had taken up this conceit, and "taught
the brethren, that except they were circumcised after the law of Moses, they
could not be saved." Observe where they laid the stress of this thing,
"except ye be circumcised after the law of Moses, ye cannot be saved." You
know very well, that the apostle Paul looked upon circumcision as a very
indifferent thing: sometimes, in his travels, he ordered some to be
circumcised, but at other times he would not; he looked upon it as a matter
of indifference, for the avoiding of scandals, and so the apostle reckoned
it no great matter: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is
nothing." Aye, but when once it came to be broached into a doctrine, and a
necessity laid upon it, "Except ye be circumcised after the law of Moses, ye
cannot be saved," - let us see what this awful reverend assembly at
Jerusalem say to it; the apostles, and elders, and brethren, a blessed
company they were, a blessed church, worth all the churches in England,
without any reflection: "Forasmuch as we have heard that certain which went
out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying you
must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment,"
(Ver. 24): they trouble you, and they pervert your soul. Sirs, There are
four questions, that must always be preserved plain; plainly delivered, and
plainly known by all good men: - 1st, What is that righteousness in which a
sinner can stand safe before God? The plain answer to it is, That it is the
righteousness of Christ only. 2dly, How come we by this righteousness? The
gospel answer is, By grace alone; it is given us as a free gift, we do not
buy it. 3dly, How are we possessed of this righteousness? By faith alone;
there is no putting on this raiment but by faith alone. 4thly, What warrant
hath a man to believe on Jesus Christ? The plain gospel answer is, Only the
promise of the gospel. And here are two things I would caution you about,
and the most part of people's mistakes lie about them. 1st, The law is no
gospel but as it leads to Christ; the law not leading to Christ is against
the gospel, and the gospel against the law; but the law leading to Christ
serves the gospel, and the gospel serves the law by fulfilling it. 2dly, The
doctrine of holiness, as it flows from Christ, is gospel; but the doctrine
of holiness, without Christ, is no gospel. To make this plain: Whosoever
they be that teach people to be holy, and tell them how they may be holy,
and urge them very hard that they must be very holy, for this end, that when
they are holy they may believe on Jesus Christ; these people pervert and
distort the gospel: but if people be persuaded of the necessity of holiness
for salvation, and that they must believe on Jesus Christ that they may be
holy, this is gospel. That is the second thing: Have a care of those
doctrines that distort and confound the truths of the gospel.

3. There are mixing doctrines: they that would mix something with the grace
of God. The grace of God they will not disown, the righteousness of Christ
they will not deny; but they will put something in with them in the matter
of justification. Take heed of this matter; it is a shame that this should
be talked on as a matter of controversy; it is a point that every one's
conscience should be fully satisfied in, as they expect salvation from the
hand of God. Indeed, good men may jar and jangle about terms that neither of
them well understand; but when the matter comes to a particular person's own
case, there should be a full satisfaction in this point - that the
righteousness of Christ for our justification must stand pure and unmixed.
It is a corrupt thing to mix any of the works of the law with the grace of
God; and herein lay the error of the Galatians: the grace of God, and the
righteousness of Christ, they liked very well; but they would join the law
of Moses therewith. Let the law of Moses keep its own place, and be the rule
of our sanctification; but in our justification, it hath no place at all.
God never gave it any place there, and all they are fools that do: it never
served any man that way.

4. There are blaspheming doctrines, opposing and blaspheming the grace of
God; and the land is full of them. You may have heard of a sort of people,
the Socinians, and they are gross enemies to the grace of God. These strike
at the very root of the grace of God, and the righteousness of Christ. If
Christ be not the true God, how can he save a sinner? It is impossible that
the righteousness of a creature can atone for the unrighteousness of a
creature. It is the Godhead of Christ that adds that infinite virtue to his
sacrifice that we are saved by. So much for this first exhortation, "Try the
spirits."

II. I would exhort you to try your own state by this doctrine, "I do not
frustrate the grace of God;" and as this hath been handled, it calls you to
try yourselves about three things:- lst, What are your real thoughts of God's
law? 2dly, What are your real thoughts of Christ's righteousness? 3dly, What
are your real thoughts of the grace of God? A little to each of these.

First, What are your real thoughts of God's law? - And although you may
think this a far-fetched concern, yet it, is not so far-fetched but it comes
near to the point: judgment will be made of a man's state before God,
according to his real thoughts of the law of God. Good men have always great
and high thoughts of God's law, and they have low thoughts of themselves: "I
esteem all thy precepts concerning every thing to be right, and I hate every
false way," (Psalm 119:128). "The law is holy; the commandment is holy,
just, and good: the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin, (Rom,
7:12, 14). But you will say, "Does not everybody think so of the law of
God?" I answer, No. No natural man hath a good thought of the law of God.
Every corrupt, unrenewed man hath one of these three thoughts concerning the
law of God:-

1. The natural man thinks the law of God easy to be kept. It is a graceless
proverb that some people have in their mouths sometimes, and it flows from
the corruption of their hearts, "That it is an easier thing to please God
than it is to please man." Indeed, if they would take God's way, it is an
easy thing to get his favour; but, according to the sense that it is
commonly spoken in, it is a wicked saying and flows from this wicked
meaning, - that the natural man thinks the law of God easy to be kept, and
thereupon the Scribes and Pharisees (and so do all that seek righteousness
by the law), they expound the law of God so largely that one would think any
body might keep it. Therefore, when our Lord hath a mind to break down this
fortress of self-righteousness, he explains the law of God in its true
strictness. The Pharisees' doctrine was, that nobody broke the sixth
commandment but he that murdered a man; that no man broke the seventh
commandment, but he that committed adultery with his neighbour's wife; that
nobody broke the ninth but he that fore-swore himself: and, indeed, if this
had been all the interpretation of the law of God, that part of it that
concerns our duty towards man had been no hard thing. Blessed be God, a
great many good people, and bad people too, have not been guilty of these
gross transgressions; but when the spiritual meaning of the law comes to be
considered, who is innocent? "I had not known lust," saith the apostle,
"unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet," (Rom. 7:7). "The
commandment came to me in another sense, with that brightness that soon
convinced me of sin." This is the first thought that people have of the law
of God - that it is easy to be kept.

2. When they are forced to retreat from this, and they find the law of God
to be so strict a rule that it reaches to the word, and thoughts, and heart,
to the least motion either from within or without, then they begin to hope
that the threatening will not be fulfilled: if God gives so severe a law,
that reaches to all, even to the least sins, then they hope God will not
punish every sin with the curse of the law. The Lord, by Moses, warns the
people of this, "And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse,
that he shall bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though
I walk in the imagination of my own heart, to add drunkenness to thirst,"
(Deut. 29:19). The secure man is very unwilling to take up the holiness and
the strictness of the law of God as forbidding every sin; but he is far more
unwilling to believe that God means to execute the threatened vengeance for
these sins. And what sorry pleas have they? "God is merciful." Aye, so he
is, but not to them that despise his law. God is not merciful to any
law-breaker; but God is merciful in providing a law-keeper to save us; but
he hath no mercy for the law-breaker. If a man expects life by the law, he
must die by it. "Aye, but Christ hath died for sinners;" and so he hath; but
Christ was sent to fulfil the law, and not to take it away. Christ came not
to make the law of God less strict in commanding than it was, nor less
severe in threatening; but Christ came to take both upon his own back, and
all that believe in him shall be saved from both. Christ took not away the
law, but fulfilled it; and it is the reckoning of that fulfilling of the law
by Christ to us, that is our salvation; and thus "the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled in us." The righteousness of the law was fulfilled by
Christ, and this is reckoned to a believer; and so the righteousness of the
law of God is fulfilled in him; fulfilled by Christ, and so fulfilled in the
believer in him.

But now suppose the light of the word drives a man from both these vain
imaginations, and he sees the law to be so holy that no man can escape its
threatenings; When the natural man is thus forced to retreat from these two,
then,

3. He rises up in rebellion against the law, and blasphemes the law of God.
Sirs, there are a great many poor creatures that complain grievously that
many blasphemous thoughts follow them: I do believe that next unto the
advantage that Satan may have over some bad-tempered minds, and ill-disposed
bodies, I am apt to believe that the main root of all these blasphemies, is
this point of doctrine that I am upon. When the poor creature was secure, he
thought he could easily fulfil the law of God, or avoid the curse of it; but
when he comes to see both these to be in vain, then, unless grace subdues
the man's heart, it naturally rises in rebellion against the law of God.
"Why did God give such a strict law, that nobody can keep, but every one
must be destroyed by it?" These very thoughts arose in Paul's mind: "Was
then that which was good made death to me? God forbid," (Rom. 7:13). The
apostle Paul never knew himself to be a sinner till the law came; and the
more close the law came, it slew him the more, and quickened sin in him
more. Now, how can any one think well of that law that slays the sinner, and
enlivens the sin? "God forbid," saith the apostle, "that I should say this
was the end for which the law was made; but this was a blessed end in Christ's
hand:" "By the commandment, sin appeared to be exceeding sinful," that Paul
might see his exceeding need of a Saviour. And there are two things that
raise these rebellious thoughts against the law of God.

1. When clear light about the law shines upon the man's conscience, then all
the Babel-building of their own works are thrown unto the ground: their
praying, reading, hearing, holiness, it is all thrown to the ground by the
law of God;- the law condemns them utterly in point of righteousness. The
law indeed commands them in point of practice, and it commends them as
things pleasing to God; but in point of righteousness before God, the law
condemns them utterly; the only language of the law is this, "Do all, and
live; fail in the least, and die:" - and thus the man sees all his own
righteousness is gone. And how unwilling are people to yield to this? What a
great matter is it for a man to be able to do so? When a poor awakened
sinner, that never knew the grace of God, or the righteousness of Christ,
when he hath by the force of good education, or the power of the word, been
brought under some conviction of sin and duty, he then sets about praying,
and reading, and hearing, and reforming, and, it may be, hath been doing
something at this for several years; but in the mean time was an utter
stranger to Jesus Christ. Now what a great matter is it for a man to forego
all this, as if it had no worth in it? But why should not a man be willing
to part with it? "I count it all but dross and dung," saith the apostle,
"that I may win Christ," (Phil. 3: Cool

. This blasphemous frame is expressed in
Ezek. 33:10, and it hath reference to the point that I am upon: "Therefore,
O thou Son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, Thus ye speak, saying, If
our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how
should we live?" The meaning is this: "The Lord is here, by his severe
prophet, plaguing us with reproofs from the word of God for our sins, and
the execution of God's threatenings are upon us in his judgments; now if we
be sinners, and God deals thus severely with us, what shall come on us?"
Saith the Lord, (ver. 11), "There is a way of escape, 'Turn and live;' but
have a care you do not trust to your own righteousness: for if you do, you
are gone for good and all." Ver. 13, "When I say to the righteous, he shall
surely live, if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all
his righteous, ness shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he
hath committed he shall die for it."

2. When the sinner once finds that he is forced to forego all that he hath
got already, he then also sees that there are no hopes for the time to come;
that he hath no hopes at all of a righteousness by the law; and this the
poor sinner reckons like the putting him into hell: he is as sorry to part
with the rotten props of his own righteousness, as if the taking it away was
the casting him into hell; when it is the only way to save him from it. No
man can be a believer on Jesus Christ, but he that despairs of righteousness
by his own doings. This is the first thing I would have you examine
yourselves about, What are your secret thoughts of the law of God? There is
no righteousness can come by it; and that is the excellency of the law; it
is none of the law's fault, but its glory, that no righteousness can come by
it: it is a rule of righteousness, but it is no means to confer
righteousness upon a sinner. The law can give eternal life to a sinless man;
but it can give no life to a sinner: "If there had been a law that could
have given life, verily," saith the apostle, "righteousness should have been
by the law," (Gal. 3:21); righteousness should certainly have come that way.

2dly, Try what your thoughts are of the righteousness of Christ. By the
righteousness of Christ, I do not mean his divine excellency, as he is the
Son of God, equal with the Father; nor the excellency of the man Christ
Jesus, on whom the Spirit was poured forth without measure: but I mean, that
righteousness that this God-man wrought out for us, as our Redeemer, for our
justification, by his life and death; this is called the righteousness of
God, (Rom. 10:3). And every one may know his state towards God by his
thoughts of this:- every despiser of it is a stranger to God, and every
spiritual admirer of it is a man acquainted with God.

1. The believer hath high and esteeming thoughts of it, as an only
righteousness, and as a very glorious one. Let us compare a little what
righteousness there is, has been, or can be. The first righteousness lasted
but a little while; that of the first Adam and Eve; it may be, it was not a
day old; however, it was a very short one. Now, there is no comparison
between Christ's righteousness and this: it is true that this comes the
nearest to it; and the apostle Paul takes notice of this parallel, (Rom. 5.)
The first Adam stood in the place of all his posterity, and they all stood
in him, and with him as long as he stood; and this was a pretty glorious
obedience that the first man performed, and if he had continued in it the
time of his trial, it was to have been reckoned for the benefit of all his
posterity; but it was but the righteousness of a man; it was but the
righteousness of a creature; it was a righteousness that would have
continued happiness, but it could bring no happiness to them that had once
lost it. If such a thing could have been imaginable, that the first Adam had
stood, and one of his posterity had fallen, the first original righteousness
would never have been able to have obtained pardon for that sinning
offspring of Adam. But the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ is that
which brings in a pardon, and a title to eternal life, to them that had
forfeited all. There is another righteousness, a little one, hardly worth
that name, that is performed by believers, in obedience to the holy law of
God; but this comes no way near to it. If we may speak of the righteousness
of the law, that is in hell. There are some poor creatures that do not
imagine what hell is; they think it is the place that in all God's creation
may be best spared; but let me tell you, hell is as useful a place as any:-
it is there where the righteousness of the law is proclaimed; every lash
that is there given by the justice of God to the damned, proclaims aloud the
righteousness and the holiness of the law. But I hope none will make any
comparison between that righteousness that the law squeezes from the damned
by their punishment, and that righteousness that the law found in Christ
when it bruised him for our iniquities. Every believer hath high thoughts of
this righteousness of Christ.

2. And not only so, but every believer hath venturing thoughts on this
righteousness of Christ: the man not only thinks highly of it, but he builds
upon it, and betakes himself to it. The righteousness of Christ is like a
curious ark or ship, whereby all that are embarked in it, shall be safely
landed in heaven. Now it signifies nothing for a poor man to stand upon the
shore, and to commend the ship, and say it is a splendid vessel; he must get
into it; if ever he hath a mind to escape the destruction of the world, he
must get into the ark, Christ. The apostle hath an elegant similitude, "By
faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark, to the saving of his house! by which he condemned the
world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith," (Heb. 11:7).
Pray observe, the state of Noah and every man's state by nature are alike.
God tells Noah, "An hundred and twenty years hence I will drown this whole
world; and not a man, nor beast, nor fowl of heaven shall escape." Sirs, it
is not so long, by one half almost, to that time when we shall all be in
eternity! An hundred and twenty years was but a small time to them, who
lived seven or eight hundred years. We are just in the same case: warning is
given us by the course of nature, and by the word, that in a few years more
we may be all turned out of this world; and our dying is of equal
importance, as to our eternal state, with Christ's coming: what difference
is there if thou shouldst die this week, or if Christ should come to judge
the world this week? Thy eternal state is equally concerned in both. Now,
God tells Noah, "I have provided an ark for thee: I will drown the whole
world; but I will provide an ark for thee." But after the man had builded
it, he must get into it, or he could not be saved by it. Now, here comes in
the tidings of the gospel; we are not bid to prepare an ark, but we are told
that God hath already prepared an ark, his own Son, who was hewed and framed
by the justice of God, that he might be made a fit lodging for poor sinners.
Now, the work of all them that would be saved, is to get into Jesus Christ,
and to betake themselves to this righteousness, and when they have done so,
to rest quietly there. But yet this righteousness of Christ, as much as it
is, and should be, spoken of in the preaching of the word, yet multitudes of
professors never once thought of it; they often think we must be holy, and
that Turks understand as well as you; but pray, how do you think to come by
your boldness? Without righteousness? Never man shall be holy without the
reckoning of Christ's righteousness to him; without which you can never
partake of Christ's Spirit to sanctify you. This seeking, and studying, and
framing a holiness, without employing Christ, doth these two things:- it
dishonours Christ utterly;- and it renders holiness altogether impossible.
It is utterly impossible there should be a spark of true holiness in that
heart that is a stranger to faith in Christ Jesus. Morality and Pagan
civility there may be; but true gospel holiness is a blessed consequence of
faith in Jesus Christ.

3dly, Try your state by your thoughts of the grace of God; what your
thoughts of God's holy law are, and what your thoughts of your own
righteousness are:- and then what your thoughts of the grace of God are. And
wheresoever the grace of God is, there will be right thoughts of it framed
in the heart; and they will be many, and serious, and very deep, and
reverent; for the matter is very great. What greater thing can a man be
exercised about than the grace of God towards great sinners? Oh, what a
weighty subject is this for meditation! and this I dare say, that he that
hath but few and small thoughts about the grace of God, never had one
spoonful of the grace of God in himself: for all the grace that is in
believers is but as a little drop from this great fountain; and wherever it
is really communicated, the fountain from which it flows will be greatly
admired. There are a few things concerning these thoughts that I would speak
a little to.

1. See that your thoughts of the law, and of the grace of God, and of the
righteousness of Christ, be such as are squared with the word of God:- we
must think of these things as God hath spoken of them in his word: and not
frame thoughts to ourselves, from our own imagination. What saith the word
of God concerning the law, and the righteousness of Christ, and the grace of
God appearing therein?

2. Let your thoughts of these things be such as you have when you are
nearest to God. Pray take heed to this: all that are Christians, understand
a little of this, what it is to be nearer to God one time than another. If
you are true Christians you will know what this means; if you are not, this
direction belongs not to you. There are some times when believers are nearer
to God than at other times; and always, when a man is nearest to God, his
thoughts of the things of God are best:- He would be a happy Christian that
could always retain the same sentiments and sense of the things of God that
he some times hath. When a person is near to God, and he hath lifted up upon
him the light of his countenance; when the glory of God appears before the
eyes of a man, what doth the man then think of the holy law of God, of the
righteousness of Christ, and of the grace of God? Oh, there is nothing else
that makes any considerable appearance in the eyes of a man at that time! I
am very well persuaded that the most confident pleaders of the cause of
self-righteousness, the men that plead most for being justified by the
righteousness of the law, if God would but speak to them, and bring them
near to himself, they would lay their hands upon their mouths and speak no
more. "Behold I am vile," saith Job, "what shall I answer thee? I will lay
my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea,
twice, but I will proceed no further. I have heard of thee by the hearing of
the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, therefore I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes," (Job 40:4,5, and 42:5, 6). - Labour I say to retain the
same impressions of these great things of God that you had when you were
nearest to God.

3. Labour to have such thoughts of the law of God, and the righteousness of
Christ, and the grace of God, as you find exercised souls have. Labour to
entertain the same thoughts of these things, as you find the generality of
exercised souls have. What a learned scholar saith of these things, is not
so much to the purpose; for they may mistake in many things: but what is the
current, general sense of all them on whose consciences God ever wrought; in
whose consciences there is any light. What is the general sense that they
all have of these things? Labour for that. Was there ever any Christian
under the hand of the Spirit of God, that had any difference in this point?
Never one in this world: they all forsake the law, and despair of life by
it: they all commend the righteousness of Christ, and betake themselves to
it: they all admire the grace of God, and venture their all upon it.
Whatsoever difference there may be about this or the other ordinance, or in
other lesser things, yet as to those things, in which the very nature and
heart of the new creature lies, there is no scruple at all about them.

4. Labour for such thoughts of these things as you know you must have, and
will have when you come to die. Labour for such thoughts of the law of God,
and of the righteousness of Christ, and of the grace of God, as you will
have when you come to die. Dying thoughts are commonly the truest. When a
man is launching into eternity; when the man hath, as it were, put one foot
off from the shore of time, and is leaving this world - what a poor mean
thing is this little cottage of self-righteousness? It is as nothing in the
man's eyes; but that great palace of the righteousness of Christ, and the
great tenor of free grace, in bestowing it on the unworthy - what a glorious
thing doth it appear to be? Dying people do not usually brag of their lives
and their great attainments: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," saith dying
Stephen, (Acts 7:59), "I am waiting for one good turn more from Christ. Now,
I am dying, Lord, take my soul." "Although my house be not so with God,"
saith dying David, "yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure: this is all my salvation, and all my
desire," (2 Sam. 23:5).

5. Labour to have such thoughts of these things as all men will have, both
good and bad, both on the right hand and on the left hand of the Judge, at
that great day. The world will once be all of a mind, that is questionless:
in the main things all believers are of one mind now; and in the main things
all unbelievers are in one mind; and unbelievers reckon Christ crucified
weakness and foolishness; and all believers reckon him the wisdom and the
power of God: but when the last day comes, they will be all of one mind
exactly, both good and bad; they on the right hand, and they on the left
hand too. If this question were to go round to all the miserable assembly at
the Judge's left hand, What think you of the law of God? - "Oh! it is a
holy, powerful, dreadful law," would they say; "we lie under it for
evermore, and feel the lashes of it." What think you of the righteousness of
Christ? "It is a safe garment, happy they that are clothed with it; we have
refused it, and therefore we are destroyed." The despised grace of God is
there precious to them. We use to say, "Truth is the daughter of time:" if I
may reflect upon the words, "Truth is the daughter of eternity;" and this
day of eternity will bring forth truth to all men, as to these three
points:- The Holiness of the law of God - The Virtue of the righteousness of
Christ - and, The Dominion of the grace of God. These are points that all
the damned in hell, and all the glorified in heaven, will eternally have the
same sentiments of; but with wonderful difference as to their share therein.
The damned hear nothing but the curse of the law: but it is the happiness of
the glorified in being delivered from it: "That as sin hath reigned unto
death, so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus
Christ our Lord," (Rom. 5:21). The words just going before are, (ver. 20),
"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." There are two great things
that have filled this world:- there were but two men in it that are worth
talking of the first Adam and the second; and if you know these well, it is
no great matter what you are ignorant of. The first Adam is the law; the
second Adam is the gospel: to the former belongs hell, and to the latter
heaven. Now, these two great men brought in two great things:- the first man
brought in that woful thing we call sin; and the second man brought in that
brave thing we call grace: and both these are great principles. Sin reigns,
and all that it reigns over it destroys; it reigns unto death: and grace
reigns, and all it reigns over it saves; "Grace reigns unto eternal life,
through righteousness, by Jesus Christ our Lord."