the Lord say to this generation, I command you to
pray, to repent and mourn for sin, to come and hear the word; but withal
you must deny all these, and count yourselves unprofitable servants; you
must singly cast your soul's burden on Christ Jesus. But now, saith the
Lord, who commanded your repentance? For when you sit down to pray, or
come in public to confess sin before the congregation, you think you are
washen. When you have said, you have sinned, and if you come to the length
of tears and sorrow, O then, sure you are pardoned, though in the meantime
you have no thought of Jesus Christ, and know no use of him! Therefore,
saith the Lord, who commanded you to do these things? You think you have
satisfied for your sin, when you pay a penalty; but who requireth this? I
will reckon with you for these, as well as the sins you pray and mourn
for, because you do not singly look to Christ Jesus. Now, if he had never
come to the world, your ground of confidence would not fail you; for you
might have prayed as much, mourned and confessed, and promised amendment;
and so you pass by the Son of God, in whom only the Father is
well-pleased. Think, then, upon this,--whatever you make your
righteousness, there needeth no other thing to make it filthy, but to make
it your righteousness. Your confidence in your good heart to God, prayer
day and night, and such like, is the most loathsome thing in God's eyes.
Except you come to this, to count your prayers, as God doth, among your
oaths; to count your solemn duties among profane scandalous actions, as
the Lord doth, Isa. i. and lxvi. 3, then certainly, you do adorn
yourselves with them, and cover your nakedness of other faults with such
leaves as Adam did, but you shall be more discovered. Your garment is as
filthy as that it hideth, even because you make that use of it to hide
your sin and cover it.

_Next_, The Lord's children have no ground of boasting either, from their
own righteousness; the holiest saint on earth must abhor himself in dust
and ashes, and holy Isaiah joineth himself in with a profane people. When
he cometh to God to be justified, he cometh among the ungodly,--he bringeth
no righteousness with him, he cometh in among them that work not. Now, you
shall find good ground why it must be so:

I. There are ordinarily many blemishes in our holiest actions, spots upon
our cleanest garments; often formality eateth up the life of duties, and
representeth a body without a sou