CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Thirdly, God will not take us presently out of the world, but leave us here combating with the relics of corruption, that so being humbled therein, we may the more esteem Christ and his righteousness. When we read Rom. 7. of a Paul captivated by his lusts, and miserably crying out, What shall he do? See how powerfully this driveth him to Christ, I thank God through Jesus Christ. It's true, in Heaven we shall give all glory and honour to Christ as that Mediator, who hath brought us thither: So that Christ shall never be forgotten, no not to all eternity by the godly, yet in Heaven that particular manner of Justification we have here on earth shall cease; for now Rom 4. Justification is of the believer, but a sinner, and one that is not able to stand upon his own terms before God. Therefore Christ is his righteousness, and he desireth with Paul to be found in him (Phil. 3.) not having his own righteousness; so then Gospel-righteousness, and our evangelical Justification differs from that in Heaven, which will be for inherent righteousness, but it hath pleased God in this life to exalt imputed righteousness, and to place the cause of all hope and joy without us: Therefore that we might for a season be sensible of our unworthiness, and be groaning under our corruptions, thereby to be longing after Christ, to magnify his love, and all that he hath done for us, it's necessary we should be kept in this conflict here below, for we are much affected by sense and experience; when therefore every thing within us crieth out for a Christ, and the grace of God through him, when we feel our selves sinking, and even dropping into hell; This will make us importune for the favour of God, as Christ was experimentally tempted, that he might know how to have compassion on us, so God will have us experimentally find the bitterness and weight of sin, that so we may the more love Christ, who did bear Gods wrath for us.

Thirdly, God will not take us presently out of the world, but leave us here com•ating with the reliques of corruption, that so being humbled therein, we may the more esteem Christ and his righteousnesse. When we reade Rom. 7. of a Paul captivated by his lusts, and miserably crying out, What shall he do? See how powerfully this driveth him to Christ, I thank God through Jesus Christ. It's true, in Heaven we shall give all glory and honour to Christ as that Mediator, who hath brought us thither: So that Christ shall never be forgotten, no not to all eternity by the godly, yet in Heaven that particular manner of Justification we have here on earth shall cease; for now Rom 4. Justification is of the believer, but a sinner, and one that is not able to stand upon his own terms before God. Therefore Christ is his righteousness, and he desireth with Paul to be found in him (