SERMONS. 363 



tify to us all, both the sense of his present judg- 

 ment, and all our meditations and discourses 

 thereupon, that by all we may be promoted in 

 learning righteousness. 



The Inhabitants of the World will learn Righte- 

 ousness or Justice: What is that? Is there such a 

 thing in the world? Or is it a name only, and a 

 glorious pretence ? Is it not only another word for 

 interest or utility, and so nothing just but what is 

 profitable ; * Carneades's infamous assertion re- 

 trieved and owned with open face by Christians ? 

 Is it not the taking of a party, or the espousing 

 of a faction, and appearing for it with heat and 

 animosity; and a savage condemning and destroy- 

 ing all that are not of it? Is it not the profession 

 to believe such a system of opinions, what life so- 

 ever is consequent thereupon? An airy invisible 

 righteousness, that never embodies or appears in 

 our actions, but hovers in the clouds, in specula- 

 tions and fancies, where no man can find it? 



The truth is, there is no piece of unrighteous- 

 ness more common in the world than thus to 

 weigh justice itself in an unjust balance; while 

 every one contrives his hypothesis, so as to salve 

 the phoenomena, so declares his notion, as may best 

 suit and comport with his own unrighteous prac- 

 tices. But the righteousness we are to learn in 

 God's school, must not be a self-chosen righteous- 

 ness : we must not pay God our Sovereign the 

 tribute of our obedience in coin of our own stamp- 



* V. Lfictant. lib. v. 



