(1) _The works produced_.
There is a constant activity to be seen amongst the people of God; they
delight to do his will; they labour, and labour diligently, to relieve
distress, to comfort sorrow, to spread the glad tidings of the kingdom of
our Lord. Such works are the fruits of the Spirit, and they are
gladdening both to God and man. To witness them in the flock is the
highest joy of the Christian minister, and never do we know such true
pleasure, as when we see you, dear brethren, thus striving to labour
stedfastly for Christ. Ay! and they are the joy of one higher far than
we. They are the fruits of the Spirit, the delight of Christ himself,
the sacrifice well pleasing, acceptable unto God. St. Paul desires such
results as these, when he prays, {25c} “That ye might walk worthy of the
Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God.” And Christ himself has put his seal and stamp
upon them, saying, {26a} “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear
much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” But how vain it is to suppose
that they can justify! they may please the Father, but they cannot
satisfy the law. They may seem fair before men, but who is bold enough
to pronounce them perfect before God? For remember that motives must be
considered as well as acts. See how St. Paul argues this, 1st Cor. xiii.
3, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
What could be a nobler thing than martyrdom? What liberality equal to
the consecration of all his goods to feed the poor? Yet if there be one
secret, hidden defect of motive perceived by God alone, the Apostle
becomes nothing, “it profiteth me nothing.” {26b} “Cut off then those
things wherein we have regarded our own glory, those things which men do
to please men, and to satisfy our own likings, those things we do for any
by respect, not sincerely and purely for the love of God, and a small
score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds.” It is with them
as with the drop of water. To the naked eye it seems clear and
sparkling, but when you see it under the searching light of the solar
microscope, you find it full of all uncleanness. So it is with the best
of human actions. To the naked eye they may appear pure and even
brilliant, but let the light of divine truth beam on their inward
character and motive, and there is so much defect, so much defilement,
that we are filled with wonder, not because they fail to justify, but
because God is so gracious as to condescend to say they please. Yea,
verily! if the whole church of Christ were to select from all its
multitudes the very holiest of all living men, and if that holiest of men
were to select the holiest action that he ever wrought in the holiest
period of his most holy life, that one act when referred to the heart
searching, motive judging, law of God, would be found so tainted with
defiling sin, that if his justification were to depend on its
righteousness alone, he must abandon for ever all hope of life with God.
“There is none that doeth good, no not one.” {27}
(2) We have here referred to outward actions, let us now trace the
stream up to its source, and look at the inward state of heart, or as it
is sometimes called “habitual righteousness.” Can this justify? We all
know what an inward change is wrought by the Holy Ghost in those who are
truly born of God. Their whole heart and mind and will are changed.
They love that they once despised, they long for that which they once
scorned, they walk with Jesus, whereas before they were the slaves of
sin. To recur to the simile employed before, as heat is diffused through
iron, so a new love, a new righteousness is spread through the soul. But
yet it cannot justify, for it is not perfect. It is sufficient to
please, but it is defective still. There may be great heat spread
through the iron, while still the metal retains its substance. The ice
may be melted, and the water retain the winter’s chill. Just so it is
with the righteousness planted in us by the Holy Ghost. There is a new
warmth, but the nature retains too much of its iron hardness: there is a
melting of the soul, but the winter’s chill is still found in the melted
spirit. This is the meaning of our article when it says “The infection
of nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerate,” and this
remaining corruption destroys at once all hope of justification through
the righteousness of the heart. Take one or two examples from the
Scriptures. There can be no doubt of the inward righteousness of David.
He was “the sweet psalmist of Israel,” “the man after God’s own heart.”
If the Holy Ghost ever gave the new life to any man it was to David. But
was David’s inward righteousness such that he was justified? Listen to
his own prayer, Ps. cxliii. 2, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant;
for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” There can be no
doubt of the change of heart in Peter. The ardour of his noble mind was
nobly consecrated to Christ. But was Peter justified by his inward
righteousness? See how it failed. One wave of strong temptation broke
down his faith, and for the time chilled his love: so that on one evening
even Peter was thrice guilty of the denial of his Lord. Could Peter then
be justified by his inward love? There can be no doubt of the inward
righteousness of Paul. He was God’s chosen vessel to bear his name among
the Gentiles. His whole life bore witness to the constraining power of
the love of Jesus. But was he justified by that inward love? Listen to
his own affecting language, Rom. vii. 22–24, “For I delight in the law of
God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of
sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver
me from the body of this death?”
Or refer the matter to your own personal experience. It is a case that
requires no farfetched arguments. There are multitudes amongst you, I am
well persuaded, in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought this sanctifying
change. It is your joy, your delight, your chief desire to walk with
God. And now we would appeal to you. Are you walking with God so
perfectly that by that righteousness you can be justified? Has there
been no neglect, no languor, no forgetfulness, no sloth in his service?
Has the whole life been like the vigorous, active, cheerful, service of
the angels around the throne? Or, to go farther: is there any one hour
that you have passed from the moment of your new birth till now, upon the
perfect holiness of which you would dare to stake your salvation
throughout eternity? Select the time of greatest spiritual enjoyment,
the happy season when your soul glowed most fervently with the love of
Jesus; when Heaven seemed the nearest, and God rose before you as the
loveliest of the lovely; and decide whether you can truly say “For that
time at least I did fully, completely, and without defect, rise to the
measure of the perfect will of God.” How then can Rome declare that we
are justified by the righteousness within us? How can she presume to
curse those who differ from her sentence? How can she say “If any man
say, that we are justified by the sole imputation of Christ’s
righteousness, or by the sole remission of our sins, and not by an
inherent grace diffused in our hearts by the Holy Ghost; let him be
anathema?” Who is there either in Rome or England that can have any
hope, but in free, simple, unfettered mercy—that can have any plea before
the throne of God but that of the poor publican, who said “Lord be
merciful to me a sinner?” {30}