Second, we will now come to the present state and condition of those that are justified, with respect to their own qualifications, and so prove the truth of this great position. And this I will do, by giving you plain texts that discover it and consequently prove our point. And after that, by giving you reasons drawn from the texts,.
First. ‘Speak not thou in thine heart,’ no, not in thine heart, ‘after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out [thine enemies] before thee, saying, For my righteousness—do I possess this land.—Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land.—Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people’ (Deut 9:4-6).
In these words, for our purpose, two things are worthy of our consideration. 1. The people here spoken to were the people of God; and so by God himself are they here twice acknowledged to be—’ The Lord thy God, the Lord thy God.’ So then, the righteousness here intended is not the righteousness that is in the world, but that which the people of God perform. 2. The righteousness here intended is not some, but all, and every whit of that the church performs to God: Say not in thine heart after the Lord hath brought thee in, It was for my righteousness. No, all thy righteousness, from Egypt to Canaan, will not purchase Canaan for thee.
That this is true is evident, because it is thrice rejected: Not for thy righteousness—not for thy righteousness—not for thy righteousness, dost thou possess the land. Now, if the righteousness of the people of God of old could not merit for them Canaan, which was but a type of heaven, how can the righteousness of the world now obtain heaven itself? I say again, if godly men, as these were, could not by their works purchase the type of heaven, then must the ungodly be justified, if ever they are justified by the curse and sentence of the law, while sinners in themselves. The argument is clear: if good men, by what they do, cannot merit less, bad men, cannot merit more.
Second. ‘Remember me, O my God, concerning this; and wipe not out the good deeds that I have done’ (Neh 13:14).
These words were spoken by holy Nehemiah, and at the end of all the good that we read, he did in the world. Also, the deeds here spoken of were deeds done for God, for his people, for his house, and for the offices thereof. Yet godly Nehemiah does not stand before God in these, nor yet suffer them to stand to his judgment by the law, but prays to God to be merciful both to him and them and to spare him ‘according to the greatness of his mercy’ (v 22).
God blots out no good but for the sake of sin, and forasmuch as this man prays God would not blot out his, it is evident that he was conscious to himself that his good works were sin. Now, I say, if a good man’s works are in danger of being overthrown because there is in them a tang of sin, how can bad men think to stand just before God in their works, which are in all parts full of sin? Yea, if the works of a sanctified man are blameworthy, how shall the works of a bad man set him clear in the eyes of Divine justice?
Third. ‘But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away’ (Isa 64:6).
In other words, we have a relationship with both people and things. 1. Of persons. And they are a righteous people, a righteous people put all together—’ We, we all are,’ &c. 2. The condition of this people, even of ALL of them, takes them at best, and that, by their own confession, ‘as an unclean thing.’ 3. Again; the things here attending this people are their good things, put down under this large character, ‘Righteousnesses, ALL our righteousnesses.
These expressions therefore comprehend all their religious duties, both before and after faith. But what are all these righteousness? Why, they are all as ‘filthy rags’ when set before the justice of the law; yea, it is also confessed, and that by these people, that their iniquities, notwithstanding all their righteousness, like the wind, if grace prevents not, would ‘carry them away.’ This being so, how is it possible for one who is in his sins, to work himself into a spotless condition by works done before faith, by works done by natural abilities? or to perform righteousness, which can look God in the face and his law in the face, and to demand and obtain the forgiveness of sins, and eternal life? It cannot be: ‘Men must therefore be justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in themselves,’ or not at all.
