376 THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. CDTSC. Il. shall many be made righteous. They have seen them- selves all guilty and exposed to the wrath of God, they bave fled to lay hold on the hope set before them, they have mourned before God,. and been weary of sin, they have received the great atonement, they have committed their case by a living faith to Jesus the righteous, the surety and the Saviour of perishing sinners ; and that God hath received them into his favour, and has imputed righteousness. to them, even that God who is just, and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus.. Now this sense cannot reasonably be excluded from the character ofa saint, though the word righteous is more frequently taken in the following senses.' II. Their natures are made righteous and sanctified by the Spirit of grace., They have a principal of grape and holiness 'wrought in them ; so the word signifies ; Eph. iv. _" The new man which is created after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness." They were once sinners, disobedient and unholy, as they were born into this world ; but they. are born again, and made new creatures by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Their :understandings are enlightened to see the ,dreadful evil of sin, and the divine beauty of holiness. Their wills are turned from follyand vanity, from the love of earth, and sense,. and sin,. to a holy contempt of the world, and a hatred of all that is sinful ; from a neglect of religion to desires after God, and a delight in him ; from a mere formal profession of the gospel, to the faith and love of Christ, and a zealous pursuit of holiness; and they place théir highest hopes and their joys in things divine, spi- ritual, and eternal. III. Their lives are righteous and conformable to the will of God revealed in his word. Sá the term righteous signifies, 1 John iii. 7. - He`that doeth righteousness is . righteous. The just man makes it the business of his life to dó works of righteousness, taken in the largest sense ; to worship God, to seek his glory, to obey his will, which is the 'rule of righteousness; to do him all the service on earth that his station and: circumstances ,,ádnait of, and to deal faithfully and justly among men, and do them all the good that lies in his power. These are thejust men whosespirits are spoken of in rrly text.
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