PRACTICAL LEGALISTS

Practical legalists? This generation is full of them. I know not a more reigning sin among professors ; a gospel-strain is almost lost, and a gospel-method is almost forgotten. A hellish unholy, legal spirit reigns in the world. I would show here some evidences of a legal spirit, and the danger of it.

It may be evidenced in these four degrees of legal pride, that those who have no new nature, have no gospel-spirit at all.

1. While a man is in the dead sleep of natural security, having no sight nor sense of his sin, no conviction of, nor contrition for sin; even then, (which is strange) he may imagine many times that he never broke all the commandments of God. The young Pharisee in the gospel is an eminent instance thereof; our Lord gives him an account of the commands of the law, and he has the insolent boldness to say to Christ, “All these things have I kept from my youth up.” Wonderful arrogance and ignorance, to imagine that a man in his fallen state can have a perfection and keep the whole law! And yet the elect of God, before their conversion, have found that they have been filled with such proud and insolent thought, as you see in Paul, Phil. 3:6. Yea, and many think little less; though they say they are sinners, yet they see not sin, and fancy they are conformable to the law: they wrong nobody, they are just in their dealings; and here is their righteousness, being alive to the law.

2. When men come to be convinced of sin and rebellion, and of their lost state, by reason of having trampled the divine authority under foot, offended His Majesty, violated His law, provoked His anger; then, as if Christ were the most needless and useless thing in heaven or earth, they run to their repentance for an atonement, as the Papists to their penances, and Pagans to their sacrifices, to atone their offended deities. Christ, the Propitiation, the only Mediator between God and man, is altogether slighted:—they hope to pacify God by repenting seriously and lamenting bitterly; and so they fall to work, praying, fasting, mourning, confessing, with an absolute neglect of Christ; and, upon the back of their legal fears, confessions and lamentations, their awakened consciences are pleased and satisfied. The storm that was raised there, is turned to a calm; a false peace takes place, not a peace founded upon Christ or His atoning blood, but upon their confessions, tears, and prayers, whereby they think to save themselves from the wrath that follows them. To this purpose was that saying of Augustine, “Repentance damns more than sins do.”

When people are under any fearful apprehension of the wrath to come upon them for their sins, they flee to their repentance instead of fleeing to Christ; and that effectually destroys and ruins them.

3. A man may not only repent, but also amend; he not only takes up resolutions of amendment of life, but actually studies obedience, reforms his way; he is at pains to get his life changed, but not to get his state changed; he is not taken up to get a new heart, but he would have the old heart made a little better; he thinks a little mends will do the business; — and what is all this but like the gilding of a rotten post: the post is rotten within, but is finely gilded over without? The man is dead in sins and trespasses, not withstanding all this.

4. The fourth degree is beyond all this. Gospel light has shined objectively upon them, and they are more illuminated than to be pleased with this. Why? They hear of Christ that there is no salvation, no justification without Him; and therefore they act faith upon Him in a legal way; they believe in Him, not by a saving faith, but a temporary faith. As believers perform gospel obedience to the law, so unbelievers may have legal faith of the gospel, a legal faith upon Christ; believing in their own strength, believing before he sees his inability to believe; believing before he is humbled under a sense of his absolute need of Christ, and before he sees what right and warrant he has from the Word.

However, he fancies he has closed with Christ, he has laid hold on His covenant; and this is the most subtle part of self-righteousness. Yet, after all, he is the old man, still wedded to the law; and hence he has no sanctifcation; no new nature, no new principle of spiritual life, no living unto God; no gospel obedience, but a legal obedience.

I would here show you the evil and danger of such a legal obedience.

a. It is a wearisome work. The legal soul is a miserable creature! The law drags him to duties, conscience presses him to work, saying, Pray, pray, man! work for your life; repent, reform, if you would not be damned. But, behold, he cannot, though the duties to which he is called are good, the legal covenant, the legal minister, and his legal conscience cry, Make bricks, make bricks; but behold he has no straw, no straw, no straw, nothing to make it of. He has no strength, no grace, no communication; and so he tugs, he works, he sweats, but it is a heartless and unpleasant work.

b. Legal obedience is also unprofitable work. The self-righteous fasts twice a week, gives also of all he has; he may make many prayers; he may both preach and pray fervently and frequently; yes, the poor legalist may work at his own devotion and family devotion; he waits on ordinances, and frequent communions, and run the whole routine of duties, and when he has done them thirty, forty, fifty years, he goes to hell for his pains.

c. Legal obedience crosses the glorious designs of heaven, particularly God’s design in giving Christ, Christ’s design in coming to the world.

1. It crosses God’s great design. What is that? It is even the exalting of free grace. What is the design of all the great works of God, viz. election, redemption, regeneration, providence. Why does He choose one and reject others? Why does He choose a wicked publican, and cast a righteous Pharisee to hell? Why does He redeem a poor ignorant, ill-natured man or woman from their miserable state, and let the rich and learned go to hell? Why does He regenerate an elect soul after he has been twenty, thirty years in the devils service? And, after they are regenerated why does He, in providence, let them fall into straits, wants, sins, manifold temptations, troubles, affliction, desertion, and heavy complaints on these accounts? Why? All is te exalt free grace in the issue. But now the legalist crosses this design of God; he would have self exalted, his works exalted, instead of Christ, and so takes the dung of his own righeousness, as Paul call it, and casts it upon the face of free, rich and sovereign grace, to cover, and hide, and darken it. Oh, what a devilish design is this, in opposition to God’s glorious design of making grace shine brightly!

2. It crosses Christ’s great design in coming to the world: the grand intention of the Son of God, in coming from heaven, was “to bring in an everlasting righteousness.” (Dan. 9:24.) But behold, the legalist’s design in establishing his own righteousness, is to make all Christ’s labor to be lost labor; he endeavors to frustrate the very end of Christ’s death, and makes it vain. “If righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain.” (Gal. 2:21.) Instead of Christ’s everlasting righteousness, he sets up a righteousness that cannot last half a day, nor half an hour, no, not a moment.

d. Legal obedience issues in a terrible disappointment; for the poor deluded man thinks his prayers and duties he has been performing for so many years will make an excellent robe to cover him. I hope, says the man, I have something to make me stand in judgment that others have not; many a prayer have I made these twenty or thirty years, and many times I prayed with much warmth of affection and feeling; therfore I have a good hope-that all will be well with me. But oh, what a fearful disappointment does the man meet with! Death comes, and if he die in the same legal dream, he goes down to the grave with a lie in his right hand:

“The hypocrite’s hope is like the spider’s web.” Why! What comes of it? The spider works it out of her own bowels; it is her house, her food, her fence; there she dwells, there she feeds, there she shelters herself for a while; but at the close of the day, or the end of the week, the broom comes along, and sweeps her and her lodging and all to the ground. Even so the legalist. He works a web out of his own bowels; he wraps himself in his garment of his own spinning, here he dwells, here he works, here he feeds, here he shelters himself from all challenges and apprehensions of danger, but behold, death and destruction come and sweep him and his refuge of lies down to the bottomless pit.

If his eyes are opened on a death-bed to see hell, to see the justice of God, to see the spirituality of the law, the imperfection of his duties, the emptiness of his performances, and the sandy foundation he has been building his faith upon, then his conscience roars, his heart despairs: he has no peace, no comfort, but finds himself miserably disappointed.

If his eyes are not opened, what then? Why, he dies in a delusion as he lived, sinks into the lake of fire, and in hell he opens his eyes and finds himself eternally disappointed. See then, what ground there is to lament over this legal temper, which is indeed a damnable temper, where it has full reign.

I exhort all that are alive to the law: Sirs, consider what you are doing so long as you are not dead to the law. Perhaps you think you are a good Christian, you perform good duties, you have partaken of good ordinances, what evil should you fear? But consider, it is not your little endeavors that will satisfy the law. If you will do anything in obedience to the law that you may thereby be saved and justified, you are under bondage to the whole law, and bound to do everything perfectly, that you may be justified. (Gal. 5:3.)

But there are others who seem to go to another extreme. They say the law is now abrogated, and we are not to seek justification or salvation that way; and therefore we are careless about the law, or about any duty of obedience. Yes, but let me tell you your doom out of the law also; you are desperate sinners; because you cannot satisfy the curse of the law, therefore you run away from the commands of the law, and run away to the devil, instead of running to Christ. But though the law cannot justify or save you, yet it can condemn you; and it will condemn you and does condemn you, and all that are out of Christ.

If you will not get out of your legal righteousness, and get under the gospel convert of the blood of Jesus, nothing but terror belongs to you. O sirs, for the Lord’s sake, take no rest till you get out of that damnable state.

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