me as I am in Christ, not having any
righteousness of my own, but Christ's righteousness, which comes by
the inspiration of His own Holy Spirit.'

Thus, my friends, we may answer the Devil, when he stands up to
accuse us, and confound us in the Day of Judgment. Thus we may
answer him now, when, in melancholy moments, he sets our sins before
our face, and begins taunting us, and crying, 'See what a wretch you
are, what a hypocrite, too. What would all the world think of you,
if they knew as much against you as I do? What would the world
think of you, if they saw into that dirty heart of yours?' For we
can answer him--'Whatever the world would think, I know what God
Himself thinks: He thinks of me as of a son who, after wasting his
substance, and feeding on husks with the swine, has come home to his
Father's house, and cried, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and
before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son; and I know
that that same good Heavenly Father, instead of shaming me,
reproaching me, shutting His doors against me, has seen me afar off,
and taken me home again without one harsh word, and called to all
the angels in heaven, saying, "It is meet that we rejoice and be
glad, for this My son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and
is found." And while Almighty God, who made heaven and earth, is
saying that of me, it matters little what the lying Devil may say.'

Only, only, if you be wandering from your Father's house, come home;
if you be wrong, entreat to be made right. If you are in your
Father's house, stay there; if you are right, pray and struggle to
keep right; if the old account is blotted out, then, for your soul's
sake, run up no fresh account to stand against you after all in the
Day of Judgment; if you have the hope in you of not coming to shame,
you must purify yourselves, even as God is pure; if you believe
really with your heart, you must believe unto righteousness; that
is, you must trust God to make you righteous and good: there is no
use trusting Him to make you anything else, for He will make you
nothing else; being good Himself, He will only make you good: but
as for trusting in Him to leave you bad, to leave you quiet in your
sins, and then to save you after all, that is trusting that God will
do a most unjust, and what is more, a most cruel thing to you; that
is trusting God to do the Devil's work; that is a blasphemous false
trust, which will be utterly confounded