this before God, to the face of God, when he knew that thou wast vile, and a sinner from the womb, and from the conception, spoils all. It was spoken to put a check to thy arrogancy, when Christ said, "Ye are they, that justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts," Luke xvi. 15.

Hast thou taken notice of this, that God judgeth the fruit by the heart from whence it comes?"A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil," Luke vi. 45. Now can it be otherwise concluded, but that thou art an evil man, and so that all thy supposed good is naught but badness.* For that thou hast made it to stand in the room of Jesus, and hast dared to commend thyself to the living God thereby ; for thou hast trusted in thy shadow of righteousness, and committed iniquity. Thy sin hath melted away thy righteousness, and turned it to nothing but dross; or if you will to the early dew, like to which it goeth away, and so can by no means do the good, when thou shalt stand in need of salvation and eternal life of God.

But, further, thou sayest thou art righteous, but they are but vain words. Knowest thou not that thy zeal, which his the life of thy righteousness, is preposterous in many things. What else means thy madness, and the rage thereof, against men as good as thyself. True thy being ignorant that they are good, may save

thee

Worldly minded, base men may have strong conviction of the infinite power, wisdom, justice, and goodness of God; also of the judgment to come, the everlasting happiness of the godly, and the torments of the wicked; yea, they may with Herod, do many commendable actions gladly: yet they have no hearty liking to God or his service; they account him an hard master, and his commandments grievous, and they repine and fret inwardly at the burden of them. Therefore, the heart of such not being right towards God, he accepteth not their service, because their best performances are slavish, without any child-like affections towards him, and on that account no better than glittering sins..

thee from the commission of the sin that is unpardonable; but it will never keep the from spot in God's sight, but will make both thee and thy righteousness culpable.

Paul who was once as brave a Pharisee as thou canst be, calleth much of that zeal, which he in that estate was possessed with and lived in the exercise of, madness; yea, exceeding madness, Acts xx. 9, 10, 11. Phil. iii. 5, 6. and of the same sort is much of thine, and it must be so; for a lawyer, a man for the law, and that resteth in it, must be a persecutor; yea, a persecutor of righteous men, and of zeal to God: because by the law is begotten, through the weakness that it meeteth within thee, sourness, bitterness of spirit, and anger against him, that rightfully condemneth thee of folly, for chusing to trust to thy own righteousness, when a better is provided of God to save us, Gal. iv. 28, 29, 30, 31. Thy righteousness therefore is deficient; yea, thy zeal for the law, and the men of the law, has joined madness with thy moral virtues and made thy righteousness unrighteousness; how then canst thou be upright before the Lord?

Further, Has not the pride of thy spirit in this hotheaded zeal for thy Pharsaical notions run thee upon thinking, that thou art able to do more than God hath enjoined thee, and so able to make thyself more righteous than God requireth thou shouldst be? What else is the cause of thy adding laws to God's laws, precepts to God's precepts, and traditions to God's appointment? Mark vii. Nay, hast thou not, by thus doing, condemned the law of want of perfection, and so the God that gives it, of want of wisdom and faithfulness to himself and thee?

Nay, I say again, hath not thy thus doing charged God with being ignorant of knowing what rules there needed to be imposed on his creatures to make their obedience complete? And doth not this madness of thine intimate, moreover, that if thou hadst not stepped in with the bundle of thy traditions, righteousness had.

been

been imperfect, not through man's weakness, but through impediment in God, or in his ministering rules of righteousness unto us?

Now, when thou hast thought on these things, fairly answer thyself these few questions. Is not this arrogancy? Is not this blasphemy? Is not this to condemn God, that thou mighest be righteous? And dost thou think, this is indeed the way to be righteous?

But again, what means thy preferring of thine own rules, laws, statutes, ordinances, and appointments before the rules, laws, statutes, and appointments of God? Thinkest thou this to be right? Whither will thy zeal, thy pride, and thy folly carry thee? Is there more reason, more equity, more holiness in thy traditions, than in the holy, and just, and good commandments of God? Rom. vii. 12. Why then, I say, dost thou reject the commandment of God, to keep thine own tradition? Yea, why dost thou rage, and rail, and cry out, when men keep not thy law, or the rule of thine order, and tradition of thine elders; and yet shut thine eyes, or wink with them, when thou thyself shalt live in the breach of the law of God? Yea, why wilt thou condemn men, when they keep not thy law, but study for an excuse, yea, plead for them that live in the breach of God's? Mark. vii. 10-13. Will this go for righteousness in the day of God Almighty? Nay, rather, will not this, like a mill-stone about thy neck, drown thee in the deeps of hell? Oh, the blindness, the madness, the pride, that dwells in the hearts of these pretended righteous men !

Again, what kind of righteousness of thine is this that standeth in a misesteeming of God's commands? Some thou settest too high, and some too low; as in the text, thou hast set a ceremony above faith, above love, and above hope, in the mercy of God; when, as it is evident, the tidings last mentioned, are the things of the first rate, the weightier matters, Matth.

xxiii. 23.

Again, thou hast preferred the gold above the temple

that sanctifieth the gold; and the gift upon the altar, above the altar that sanctifies the gift, Matth. xxiii. 17.

I say again, What kind of righteousness shall this be called? What back will such a suit of appearl fit, that is set together to what it should be? Nor can other righteousness proceed, where a wrong judgment precedeth it.

This misplacing of God's laws cannot, I say, but produce misplaced obedience. It indeed produceth a monster, an ill-shaped thing, unclean, and an abomination to the Lord. For see, saith he, (if thou wilt be making,) that thou make all things according to the pattern shewn thee in the mount. Set faith, where faith should stand; a moral, where a moral should stand; and a ceremony, where a ceremony should stand: for his turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. And wilt thou call this thy righteousness? yea, wilt thou stand in this? wilt thou plead for this? and venture an eternal concern in such a piece of linsey-woolsey as this? O fools, and blind.

. But, further, let us come a little closer to the point. O blind Pharisee, thou standest to thy righteousness: what dost thou mean? Wouldst thou have mercy for thy righteousness, or justice for thy righteousness? . If mercy, what mercy? Temporal things God giveth to the unthankful and ungodly; nor doth he use to sell the world to man for righteousness. The earth hath he given to the children of men. But this is not the thing; thou wouldst have eternal mercy for thy righteousness; thou wouldst have God think upon what an holy, what a good, what a righteous man thou art and hast been. But Christ died not for the good and righteous, nor did he come to call such to the banquet that grace hath prepared for the world. "I came not, I am not come, (saith Christ) to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance," Mark ii. Rom. v. Yet this is thy plea; Lord God, I am a righteous man, therefore granti me mercy, and a share in thy heavenly kingdom. What else dost thou mean, when thou sayest,

"God

"God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are ?" Why dost thou rejoice, why art thou glad that thou art more righteous (if indeed thou art) than thy neighbour, if it is not because thou thinkest that thou hast got the start of thy neighbour, with reference to mercy; and that by thy righteousness thou hast insinuated thyself into God's affection, and procured an interest in his eternal favour? But,

What, what hast thou done by this righteousness? I say, What hast thou given to God thereby? And what hath he received of thy hand? Perhaps thou wilt say, righteousness pleaseth God: but I answer no, not thine, with respect to justification from the curse of the law, unless it be as perfect as the justice it is yielded to, and as the law that doth command it. But thine is not such a righteousness; no, thine is speckled, thine is spotted, thine makes thee to look like a speckled bird in his eye-sight.

Thy righteousness has added iniquity, because it has kept thee from a belief of thy need of repentance, and because it has emboldened thee to thurst thyself audaciously into the presence of God, and made thee, even before his holy eyes, which are so pure, that they cannot look on iniquity, Heb. i. 13. to vaunt, boast, and brag of thyself, and of thy tottering, ragged, stinking uncleanness; for all our righteousness are as menstruous rags, because they flow from a thing, a heart, a man, that is unclean. But,

Again, Wouldst thou have mercy for thy righteousness? For who wouldst thou have it; for another, or for thyself? If for another, (and it is most proper, that a righteous man should intercede for another by this righteousness, rather than for himself,) then thou thrustest Christ out of his place and office, and makest thyself to be a saviour in his stead; for a mediator there is already, even a mediator between God and man, and he is the man Christ Jesus.

But dost thou plead by thy righteousness, for mercy for thyself? Why, in doing so, thou impliest.

1. That thy righteousness can prevail with God,

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