balance with this righteouſneſs, they would be all light a feather compared with it. Heaven is called a purchaſed inheritance, and this righteouſneſs is the price that bought it. There is ſuch merit in it, that it expiates ſins of the blakeſt hue, and redeems a whole elect world from wrath and ruin: Yea, ſuch is the intrinſic value of it, that had it been ſo deſigned, it was ſufficient to have redeemed the whole poſterity of Adam, yea, ten thouſand worlds of angels and men, upon a ſuppoſition of their exiſtence, and fall. O with what confidence then may a poor ſoul venture its eternal ſalvation upon this bottom.
3dly, It is an incomparable righteouſneſs: there is no righteousneſs, among the creatures that can be compared with it. Compare it with our own righteouſneſs by the law, and the apoſtle Paul will tell us, that he reckoned his phariſaical righteouſneſs before converſion, yea, his own obedience after converſion, but as dung, when laid in the balance with it. Phil. ili. 8. Compare it with Adam's righteouſneſs in a ſtate of innocence, or yet with the righteouſneſs of spotleſs angels, they are but like glow-worms, when compared with this Sun: The one is but the righteouſneſs of a creature, but here is the righteouſneſs of God.
4thly, it is a ſoul-beautifying and adorning righteouſneſs, Iſa. lxi. 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my ſoul ſhall be joyful in my God, who hath clothed me with the garments of ſalvation, and covered me with the robes of righteouſneſs; as a bridegroom decketh himſelf with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herſelf with
