Fourthly, our own righteousness. Before Conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own fig-leaves, Phil. 3. 6, 7. and to lick himself whole with his own duties. Mic. 6. 6, 7. He is apt to trust in himself, Luke 16. 15. and 18. 9. and set up his own righteousness, and to reckon his counters for Gold, and not submit to the righteousness of God; Rom. 10. 3. But Conversion changes his mind; now he casts away his filthy rags, and counts his own righteousness, but a menstruous cloth: he casts it off, as a man would the verminous tatters of a nasty beggar: Isaiah 64. 6. Now he is brought to poverty of spirit, Matth. 5. 3. complains of and condemns himself, Rom. 7. and all his inventory is, poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked. Rev. 3. 17. He sees a world of iniquity in his holy things, & calls his once idolized righteousness, but flesh, and loss, and dogs meat, and would not for a thousand worlds be found in himself; Phil. 3. 4, 7, 8• 9. His finger is ever upon his sores, Psal. 51. 3. his sins, his wants. Now he begins to set a high price upon Christs righteousness: he sees the need of a Christ in every duty, to justify his person, and justify his performances; he cannot live without him, he cannot pray without him; Christ must go with him, or else he cannot come into the presence of God; he leans upon the hand ⟨p. 47⟩of Christ and so he bows himself in the house of his God. He sets himself down for a lost undone man without him. His life is hid in Christ, as the life of man in the heart. He is fixed in Christ, as the roots of the tree spread in the earth for stability and nutriment. Before, the news of a Christ was a stale and sapless thing: but now, how sweet is a Christ? Augustine could not relish his before so much admired Cicero, because he could not find the name of Christ. How pathetically cries he? Dulcissime, amantis. benignis. claris. &c. quando te videbo? quando satiabor de pulchritudine tuâ? Medit. c. 37. O most sweet, most loving, most kind, most dear, most precious, most desired, most lovely, most fair, &c. all in a breath, when he speaks of and to his Christ. In a word, the voice of the Convert is, with the Martyr, None but Christ.
Fourthly, our own righteousness. Before Conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own fig-leaves, Phil. 3. 6, 7. and to lick himself whole with his own duties. Mic. 6. 6, 7. He is apt to trust in himself, Luke 16. 15. and 18. 9. and set up his own righteousness, and to reckon his counters for Gold, and not submit to the righteousness of God; Rom. 10. 3. But Conversion changes his mind; now he casts away his filthy rags, and counts his own righteousness, but a menstruous cloth: he casts it off, as a man would the verminous tatters of a nasty beggar: Esay 64. 6. Now he is brought to poverty of spirit, Matth. 5. 3. complains of and condemns himself, Rom. 7. and all his inventory is, poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked. Rev. 3. 17. He sees a world of iniquity in his holy things, & calls his once idolized righteousness, but flesh, and loss, and dogs meat, and would not for a thousand worlds be found in himself; Phil. 3. 4, 7, 8• 9. His finger is ever upon his sores, Psal. 51. 3. his sins, his wants. Now he begins to set a high price upon Christs righteousness: he sees the need of a Christ in every duty, to justifie his person, and justifie his performances; he cannot live without him, he cannot pray without him; Christ must go with him, or else he cannot come into the presence of God; he leans upon the hand ⟨p. 47⟩of Christ and so he bows himself in the house of his God. He sets himself down for a lost undone man without him. His life is hid in Christ, as the life of man in the heart. He is fixed in Christ, as the roots of the tree spread in the earth for stability and nutriment. Before, the news of a Christ was a stale and sapless thing: but now, how sweet is a Christ? Augustine could not relish his before so much admired Cicero, because he could not find the name of Christ. How pathetically cries he? Dulcissime, amantis. benignis. claris. &c. quando te videbo? quando satiabor de pulchritudine tuâ? Medit. c. 37. O most sweet, most loving, most kind, most dear, most precious, most desired, most lovely, most fair, &c. all in a breath, when he speaks of and to his Christ. In a word, the voice of the Convert is, with the Martyr, None but Christ.
