Lastly , St. Austin summ'd up the difference between the Pharisaical and Evangelical righteousness , in two words ; Brevis differentia inter Legem & Evangelium ; timor & amor . They serv'd the God of their Fathers in the spirit of Fear , and we worship the Father of our Lord Jesus in the spirit of Love , and by the spirit of Adoption ; and as this Slavish principle of theirs was the cause of all their former Imperfections , so it finally and chiefly express'd it self in these two particulars . 1. They would do all that they thought they lawfully could do . 2. They would do nothing but what was expresly commanded .

This was the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , Sed Belzebulis callida Commenta Christus destruit . and their Disciples the Jews , which because our B. Saviour reproves , not only as imperfect then , but as criminal now , calling us on to a new Righteousness , the Righteousness of God , to the Law of the Spirit of Life , to the Kingdom of God and the proper Righteousness thereof , it concerns us in the next place to look after the measures of this , ever remembring that it is infinitely necessary that we should do so ; and men do not generally know , or not consider what it is to be a Christian ; they understand not what the Christian Law forbiddeth or commandeth . But as for this in my Text , it is indeed our great measure : but it is not a question of good and better , but of Good and Evil , Life and Death , Salvation and Damnation ; for unless our Righteousness be weighed by new weights , we shall be found too light , when God comes to weigh the actions of all the world : and unless we be more righteous than they , we shall in no wise , that is , upon no other terms in the world enter into the Kingdom of Heaven .

Now concerning this , we shall do very much amiss , if we take our measures by the manners and practises of the many who call themselves Christians ; for there are , as Nazianzen expresses it , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the old and the new Pharisees . I wish it were no worse amongst us ; and that all Christians were indeed Righteous as they were ; est aliquid prodire tenus ; it would not be just nothing . But I am sure that to bid defiance to the Laws of Christ , to laugh at Religion , to make a merriment at the debauchery and damnation of our Brother , is a state of evil worse than that of the Scribes and Pharisees : and yet even among such men how impatient would they be , and how unreasonable would they think you to be , if you should tell them , that there is no present hopes or possibility that in this state they are in they can be saved .

But the world is too full of Christians whose Righteousness is very little , and their Iniquities very great ; and now adays , a Christian is a man that comes to Church on Sundays , and on the week following will do shameful things ; Passim corvos sequitur , testâque lutoque Securus quo pes ferat , at que ex tempore vivit , being according to the Jewish proverbial reproof , as so many Mephibosheths : discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum ; their Master teaches them to go uprightly ; but they still show their lame leg , and shame their Master ; as if a man might be a Christian , and yet be the vilest person in the world , doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame , and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an unsufferable and never ending damnation . Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better , and as long as men live at the rate they do , it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees : but because it must be much better with us all , or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end , I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule , and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the righteousness Evangelical , without which we can never be saved .

1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees , let us first take notice by way of praecognition , that it must at least be so much : we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law ; we must do all that lies before us , all that is in our hand : and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to be religious , the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from reaching forth the hand : the outward work must be done ; and it is not enough to say , My heart is right , but my hand went aside . Prudentius saith , that St. Peter wept so bitterly , because he did not confess Christ openly , whom he lov'd secretly . Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas , Cum mens maneret innocens , Animusque servârit fidem . A right heart alone will not do it ; or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong . If a man strikes his Neighbor , and says , Am not I in jest ? It is folly and shame to him , said Solomon . For , once for all ; Let us remember this , that Christianity is the most profitable , the most useful , and the most bountiful institution in the whole world , and the best definition I can give of it is this ; It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men ; and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees , who did the outward work ; at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments . And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more . But so it is , upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind . Some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning . Iniquum perpol verbum est , bene vult , nisi qui bene facit . And because we must serve God in the Spirit , therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies ; and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness , they abominate all external works as mere forms ; and because the true fast is to abstain from Sin , therefore they will not abstain from meat and drink , even when they are commanded ; which is just as if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart should refuse to Circumcise his Flesh ; and as if a Christian , being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion , should wholly neglect the Sacramental ; that is , because the Soul is the life of man , therefore it is fitting to die in a humour , and lay aside the Body . * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question ; for our iniquiry is , How we should keep the Commandments ; how we are to do the work that lyes before us , by what Principles , with what Intention , in what Degrees , after what manner , ut bonum bene fiat , that the good thing be done well . This therefore must be presupposed ; we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services . Our voice and tongue , our hands and our Feet , and our very bowels must be servants of God , and do the work of the Commandments .

This being ever supposed , our Question is , how much more we must do ; and the first measure is this ; Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body , the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor . We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul , nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience ; and when we say our Prayers , we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire .

Desire is the life of prayer ; and if you indeed desire what you pray for , you will also labour for what you desire ; and if you find it otherwise with your selves , your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray . If your heart be not present , neither will God ; and then there is a found of men and women between a pair of dead walls , from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present , you must needs go home without a Blessing .

But this measure of Evangelical righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion ; and intends to say this , that Christian Religion is something that is not seen , it is the hidden man of the heart ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is God that dwels within ; and true Christians are men , who , as the Chaldee Oracle said , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clothed with a great deal of mind . And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea , Et loquar ad cor ejus , Hos. 2.14 . I will speak unto their heart ; is a proverbial expression , signifying to speak spiritual comforts , and in the mystical sense signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to preach the Gospel ; where the Spirit is the Preacher , and the Heart is the Disciple , and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace , and Joy in the Holy Ghost . Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion , it must be something by which we become like to God ; the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man ; nay , even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices ; the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem , and mollify all our secret pride , and ingenerate in us a true humility , and a Christian meekness of Spirit , and a Divine Charity . For in the Gospel , when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony , the outward work is alwayes the less principal . For there is a bodily and a carnal part , an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self . When we are baptized , the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit , and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clean all over . And when we communicate , the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ , and should live on him , believing his Word , praying for his Spirit , supported with his Hope , refreshed by his promises , recreated by his Comforts , and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life ; that is the true Communion . The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent ; they are the food of our Souls , but our Souls must be alive unto God , or else they cannot eat ; It is good to confess our sins , as St. James sayes , and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion , but they absolve none but such as are truly penitent .

Solemn Prayers , and the Sacraments , and the Assemblies of the Faithful , and fasting dayes , and acts of external worship , are the solemnities and rites of Religion ; but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit . And this is that by which Clemens Alexand●inus defined the Righteousness of a Christian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : all the parts & faculties that make up a man , must make up our Religion ; but the heart is Domus principalis , it is the Court of the great King ; and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues , with a humble and a good mind , with a bountiful heart , and a willing Soul , and these will command the eye , and give laws to the hand , and make the shoulders stoop , but anima cujusque est quisque ; a mans soul is the man , and so is his Religion ; and so you are bound to understand it .

True it is , God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament ; but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments . The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must work together with God , and the body works together with the soul : But no external action can purifie the soul , because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual , it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity , than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats , or a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations . The sum is this : No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart : And although it becomes comes us to fulfil all righteousnes , even the external also ; yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external , it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit ; that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical .

2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification ; De legibus l. scire . Leges non ex verbis , sed ex mente intelligendas , sayes the Law . There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ . We must understand all Gods meaning ; we must secure his service , we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure . And therefore our Rigteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit . So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery , unless our Eyes and Hands be chast , and the desires be clean . A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her . He must hate Sin in all dimensions , and in all distance , and in every angle of its reception . A Christian must not sin , and he must not be willing to sin if he durst . He must not be lustful , and therefore he must not feed high , nor drink deep , for these make provisions for lust : and amongst Christians , great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance , and whatever ministers to sin , and is the way of it ; it partakes of its nature and its curse .

For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different . Mortification ( e. g. ) is a duty of Christianity ; but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it . We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns , as St. Benedict did ; or to burn our flesh , like St. Martinian ; or to tumble in Snows with S. Francis ; or in pools of water with S Bernard . A man may chew Aloes , or ly upon the ground , or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it , and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification ; but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love ; and so the thing be done , no special Instrument is under a command . * But although the Instruments of vertue are free , yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not . Not only the sin is forbidden , but all the wayes that lead to it . The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent , that is , not naturally , but good only for their relation sake , and in order to their end . But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious ; they are part of the sin , they have a share in the phantastick pleasure , and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God , and are directly in the prohibition . For we are commanded to fly from temptation , to pray against it , to abstain from all appearances of evil , to make a covenant with our eyes , to pluck them out if there be need . And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification , they will be innocent only by the measures of humane laws , but not by the righteousness of God .

3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty , not only to what is named , and what is not named of the same nature and design ; but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins . * Of this nature there are many . All violences of Passion , Irregularities in Gaming , Prodigality of our time , Undecency of action , doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession , aptness to go to Law , Ambitus , or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments ; misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother ; easiness to believe evil of others , willingness to report the evil which we hear ; curiosity of Dyet , peevishness toward servants , indiscreet and importune standing for place , and all excess in ornaments ; for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and royal Law of Charity . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith St. Paul ; the word is a word hard to be understood ; we render it well enough ; Charity vaunteth not it self ; and upon this Saint Basil says , that an Ecclesiastick person ( and so every Christian in his proportion ) ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian , but ministers only to vanity , is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a vaunting , which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian , does not well endure . * These things are like to sins , they are of a suspicious nature , and not easily to be reconcil'd to the righteousness Evangelical . It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious ; it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul , and Christ intends to present his Church to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without spot or wrinkle , or any such thing . N. B. or any such thing . If there be any irregularity that is less than a wrinkle , the Evangelical righteousness does not allow it . * These are such things which if men will stand to defend , possibly a modest Reprover will be more ashamed than an impudent Offender . * If I see a person apt to quarrel , to take every thing in an ill sense , to resent an error deeply , to reprove it bitterly , to remember it tenaciously , to repeat it frequently , to upbraid it unhandsomly , I think I have great reason to say , that this person does not do what becomes the sweetness of a Christian Spirit . If it be replied , It is no where forbidden to chide an offending person , and that it cannot be a fault to understand when a thing is said or done amiss . I cannot return an answer , but by saying , That suppose nothing of it were a sin , yet that every thing of it is so like a sin , that it is the worse for it ; and that it were better not to do so ; at least I think so , and so ought you too , if you be curious of your eternal interest : a little more tenderness here would do well , I cannot say that this dress , or this garment , or this standing for place is the direct sin of pride ; but I am sure it looks like it in some persons ; at least the letting it alone is much better , and is very like humility . And certain it is , that he is dull of hearing who understands not the voice of God , unless it be clamorous in an express and a loud Commandment , proclaimed with Trumpets and Clarions upon mount Sinai ; but a willing and an obedient ear understands the still voice of Christ , and is ready to obey his meaning at half a word ; and that is the righteousness Evangelical . It not only abstains from Sins named , and sins implied , but from the beginnings and instruments of sin ; and from whatsoever is like it . The Jews were so great haters of Swine upon pretensions of the Mosaick rites , that they would not so much as name a Swine , but called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daber Acher another thing . And thus the Romans in their Auguries us'd alterum for non bonum . The simile of this St. Paul translates to a Christian duty . Let not fornication be so much as named amongst you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as is comely amongst Christians , that is , come not near a foul thing ; speak not of it , let it be wholly banished from all your conversation ; for this niceness and curiosity of duty becometh Saints , and is an instance of the righteousness Evangelical .

I have now done with the first sort of measures of the Christian righteousness ; these which are the matter of our negative duty ; these are the measures of our caution and our first innocence . But there are greater things behind , which although I must croud up into a narrow room , yet I must not wholly omit them : therefore

4. The fourth thing I shall note to you is , that whereas the righteousness of the Pharisees was but a fragment of the broken Tables of Moses ; the pursuance of some one Grace , lacinia sanctitatis , a piece of the robe of righteousness ; the righteousness Evangelical must be like Christs seamless Coat , all of a piece from the top to the bottom ; it must invest the whole Soul : Misma , Dumah , Massah , said the Proverb of the Rabbins , It is this , and it is the other , & it must be all , it must be an universal righteousness ; not a little knot of holy actions scattered in our lives , and drawn into a sum at the day of Judgement , but it must be a state of holiness . It was said of the Paphlagonian Pigeons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every one of them had two hearts ; but that in our mystical Theologie signifies a wicked man . Prov. 28.14 . So said Solomon , The perverse or wicked man derachaim he is a man of two ways ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. James expresses an unbeliever ; a man that will and will not ; something he does for God , and something for the world ; he hath two mindes , and in a good fit , in his well days he is full of Repentance , and overflows in piety ; but the paroxysm will return in the day of temptation , and then he is gone infallibly . But know this , that in the righteousness Evangelical , one duty cannot be exchang'd for another , and three vertues will not make amends for one remaining vice . He that oppresses the poor cannot make amends by giving good counsel ; and if a Priest be Simonaical , he cannot be esteemed righteous before God by preaching well , and taking care of his charge . To be zealous for God and for Religion is good , but that will not legitimate cruelty to our Brother . It is not enough for a man to be a good Citizen , unless he be also a good man . But some men build their houses with half a dozen cross sticks , and turfe is the foundation , and straw is the covering , and they think they dwell securely ; their Religion is made up but of two or three vertues , and they think to commute with God , some good for some bad , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if one deadly wound were not enough to destroy the most healthful constitution in the world . Deceive not your selves . It is all one on which hand we fall : Vnum operantur Et calor & frigus , sic hoc , sic illud adurit ; Sic tenebrae visum , sic sol contrarius aufert . The Moon may burn us by night as well as the Sun by day : and a man may be made blind by the light of the Sun as well as by the darkness of the evening , and any one great mischief is enough to destroy one man . Some men are very meek and gentle naturally , and that they serve God withal ; they pursue the vertue of their nature : that is , they tye a stone at the bottom of the well , and that 's more than needs ; the stone will stay there without that trouble ; and this good inclination will of it self easily proceed to issue ; and therefore our care and caution should be more carefully imployed in mortification of our natures , and acquist of such vertues to which we are more refractory , and then cherish the other too , even as much as we please : but at the same time we are busie in this , it may be we are secret Adulterers , and that will spoil our confidences in the goodness of the other instance : others are greatly bountiful to the poor , and love all mankind , and hurt no body but themselves ; but it is a thousand pities to see such loving good natured persons to perish infinitely by one crime , and to see such excellent good things thrown away to please an uncontrolled and a stubborn lust ; but so do some escape out of a pit , and are taken in a trap at their going forth ; and stepping aside to avoid the hoar frost , fall into a valley full of Snow . The Righteousness Evangelical is another kind of thing : it is a holy conversation , a God-like life , an universal obedience , a keeping nothing back from God , a Sanctification of the whole man , and keeps not the body only , but the soul and the spirit unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus .