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DISCOURSE LIV.

The abfolute Neceffity of Religious Obedience, and unavoidable Perdition of the Disobedient.

ROM. i. 17, 18,

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just fhall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men, that hold the truth in unrighteousness.

Ihr he had declared in the foregoing verfe ;

IN these words the apoftle doth further confirm

where he had told us, that the gospel of Chrift is the power of God to falvation.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed (Į would have you fupply it) toward them that believe, from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

These two verfes contain all contraries: and contraries are the best comments one upon another. The righteousness of God revealed toward them that believe the wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness. That that is oppofite to the believer, is

the

the ungodly man and disobedient, and holding truth in unrighteoufnefs. So that the apoftle holds him to be an unbeliever, let him profefs what he will, who lives contrary to what he profeffes.

From these two verfes we have these propofitions.

1. That God hath engaged himself, refolved în himfelf, and declared to man, fo that he will not go back, that all they that do believe, and obey; God hath engaged himself to them all for recovery, life, and falvation, and restoration to their former condition and happiness, to all that give themselves up to the gospel, and live accordingly. And on the other fide, which is a perfect oppofition, the wrath of God is declared to all men that hold the truth in unrighteousness.

2. Again, these men that do believe and obey in the sense of the text, are just men, and they have true and real righteousness; that is evangelical rightcoufnefs; and these shall have eternal life: and the righteoufness of these, through the candid construc tion of the gospel, and gracious interpretation of God, is righteousness without spot or blemish: it is fo through divine candor. God accepts it fo, as loving parents accept of the good difpofition of their children, though it is little that they do.

These

men in the sense of the fcripture are just and their righteousness is not rotten rags, If. lxiv. 6. as is faidof ritual obfervations in conjunction with immorality; but is true and real righteousness, without spot or blemish. There are two degrees of innocence: the first degree is never to have offended; fo Adam before his fall: the fecond degree is to have repent

ed.

ed. The former doth belong to the whiteness of fnow: the laft to the having our garments washed white in the blood of the lamb, Rev. vii. 14. Now we have not the first, but we may have the second: for then we may fay, upon a moral confideration, that the fins that we have committed are as if they never were committed; when the finner hath repented, afked God forgiveness; returned to duty, and God hath pardoned him.

On the clean contrary: God hath declared his anger and displeasure against all unbelievers and impenitent finners; pretenders to faith, who do not in the honefty of their hearts, give themselves up to practife according to the doctrine of the gospel. They are so far from being true believers, that they offer violence to truth, and in the fenfe of the fcripture, are really unbelievers. It is plain in the text; for men are faid to believe, as they practise; for notwithstanding what a man hath faid, we conclude he believes contrary, if he do not as he faith, and unbelievers, and disobedient, are convertibly used in several places in scripture. The way to believe to salvation, is such a faith, such a receiving the Lord Jefus by voluntary confent of the will, as to have regard to all his precepts, and obey them in the practice of our lives: if we do not this, we are to be reckoned among the unbelievers, and ungodly. And this for a general account of these two verses; wherein you have three oppofitions which comment one upon another.

1. In contradiftinction to the righteousness of God in the 17th verfe, you have the wrath of God in the 18th verfe.

2. To

2. To faith, and every one that believes ; you have in the 18th verfe ungodly, unrighteous, and a holding truth in unrighteonfnefs. Wherefore the believer, must not be a man that is described by an act of naked and fingle apprehenfion, but such a person as in state and spirit, is separate from unrighteousness, and ungodliness; and no way guilty of holding truth in unrighteousness. And then

3. Against things confequent upon the wrath of God, in the 18th verfe, you have things confequent upon the goodness of God to believers.

Now for particulars. For therein is the righteoufnefs of God revealed, &c.

The righteoufnefs of God. I understand this not so as it is every where meant, or most commonly meant. But confidering the oppofition of the two verfes, righteousness of God in the 17th verse, and wrath of God in the 18th verfe, as contrary principles, producing contrary effects; I therefore underftand by the righteousness of God here, his goodnefs, his mercy, compaffion, kindness, and benignity, his equal confideration, and fairness toward man, in his state of guilt. That difpofition in God that moves him to forgive, to pity and compaffionate man in his mifery, and in his ruined eftate. This I understand by God's righteoufnefs here: and so it is beft diftinguished from the wrath of God in the 18th verfe, by which I understand God's displeasure upon offence: and this concurs with that of the apostle, Rom. xi. 22. Behold therefore the goodness and The goodness of God toward

the feverity of God.

all thofe that repent and believe ; the severity of

God

God toward those that are contumacious and impenitent. It is fo understood in fome other fcriptures, Dan. ix. 7, 9. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but to us confufion of faces. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him. So in the Rom. iii. 25. to declare his righteousness for remission of fins through the forbearance of God. If you will take righteousness as strict justice, it is but a small principle for remiffion of fins but you must take it for God's goodness, kindness, and benignity. Such is the tenour of the gofpel, that through Jefus Christ, there is declared in the way of faith and obedience, that God is very willing of his goodness, clemency, and benignity to pardon fin to all such as repent, believe, and obey.

From faith to faith. That is in its feveral degrees, from one measure of faith to another; that is, from faith as a grain of mustard feed, to faith as a mountain as the pfalmift in Pfal. lxxxiv. 7. They go from ftrength to ftrength.

As it is written, the just shall live by faith. These words you have four times in the bible; and we have them in two different fenfes, confiftent, but different. We find it originally, Hab. ii. 4. And you have it here in the text, and you have it, Gal. iii. 11. And you have it, Heb. x. 38. In the words you have three things..

1. A man is evangelically righteous, in the way of faith and obedience, notwithstanding imperfections. Faith in the Lord Jefus, purfued by obedience, doth amount to real righteousness; and through the

grace