The Reason of this may be seen, from what has been already said, to show that it is not meet that any Thing in us, should be accepted of God▪ as any Excellency of our Persons, until we are actually in Christ, and justified through him. The Loveliness of the Virtue of fallen Creatures, is nothing in the Sight of God, till he beholds them in Christ, and clothed with his ⟨p. 90⟩Righteousness. 1. Because till then we stand condemned before God, by his own holy Law, to his utter Rejection, and Abhorrence, And, 2. Because we are infinitely Guilty before him, and the Loveliness of our Virtue bears no Proportion to our Guilt; and must therefore pass for nothing before a strict Judge. And, 3 Because our good Deeds, and virtuous Acts themselves, are in a Sense corrupt, and the hatefulness of the Corruption of them, if we are beheld as we are in our selves, or separate from Christ, infinitely outweighs the Loveliness of the Good that is in them: So that if no other Sin was considered, but only that which attends the Act of Virtue itself, the Loveliness vanishes into nothing in Comparison of it: And therefore the Virtue must pass for nothing, out of Christ. Not only are our best Duties defiled, in being attended with the Exercises of Sin and Corruption, that precede them and follow them, and are intermingled with holy Acts; but even the holy Acts themselves, and the gracious Exercises of the godly, tho' the Act most simply considered is good, yet take the Acts in their Measure, and Dimensions, and the manner in which they are exerted, and they are corrupt Acts; that is, they are defectively corrupt, or sinfully defective; there is that defect in them, that may well be called the Corruption of them; that defect is properly Sin, an Expression of a vile Sinfulness of Heart, and what tends to provoke the just anger of God; not because the Exercise of Love and other Grace, is not equal to God's loveliness; for 'tis impossible the Love of Creatures (Men or Angels) should be so; but because the Act is so very disproportionate to the Occasion given for Love or other Grace, considering God's loveliness, and the Manifestation that is made of it, and the exercises of Kindness, and the capacity of human Nature, and our Advantages, (and the like) together. A negative Expression of Corruption may be as truly Sin, and as just Cause of Provocation, as a positive.
The Reason of this may be seen, from what has been already said, to shew that it is not meet that any Thing in us, should be accepted of God▪ as any Excellency of our Persons, until we are actually in Christ, and justified through him. The Loveliness of the Vertue of fallen Creatures, is nothing in the Sight of God, till he beholds them in Christ, and clothed with his ⟨p. 90⟩Righteousness. 1. Because till then we stand condemnned before God, by his own holy Law, to his utter Rejection, and Abhorrence, And, 2. Because we are infinitely Guilty before him, and the Loveliness of our Vertue bears no Proportion to our Guilt; and must therefore pass for nothing before a strict Judge. And, 3 Because our good Deeds, and vertuous Acts themselves, are in a Sense corrupt, and the hatefulness of the Corruption of them, if we are beheld as we are in our selves, or seperate from Christ, infinitely outweighs the Loveliness of the Good that is in them: So that if no other Sin was considered, but only that which attends the Act of Vertue itself, the Loveliness vanishes into nothing in Comparison of it: And therefore the Virtue must pass for nothing, out of Christ. Not only are our best Duties defiled, in being attended with the Exercises of Sin and Corruption, that precede them and follow them, and are intermingled with holy Acts; but even the holy Acts themselves, and the gracious Exercises of the godly, tho' the Act most simply considered is good, yet take the Acts in their Measure, and Dimensions, and the manner in which they are exerted, and they are corrupt Acts; that is, they are defectively corrupt, or sinfully defective; there is that defect in them, that may well be called the Corruption of them; that defect is properly Sin, an Expression of a vile Sinfulness of Heart, and what tends to provoke the just anger of God; not because the Exercise of Love and other Grace, is not equal to God's loveliness; for 'tis impossible the Love of Creatures (Men or Angels) should be so; but because the Act is so very disproportionate to the Occasion given for Love or other Grace, considering God's loveliness, and the Manifestation that is made of it, and the exercises of Kindness, and the capacity of human Nature, and our Advantages, (and the like) together. A negative Expression of Corruption may be as truly Sin, and as just Cause of Provocation, as a positive.
