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<p>Both these proclamations, as I may call them, end alike with an assurance of the perpetuity of God’s righteousness and his salvation; and therefore we put them together, both being designed for the comfort of God’s people. Observe,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. Who they are to whom this comfort belongs: “<i>My people,</i> and <i>my nation,</i> that I have set apart for myself, that own me and are owned by me.” Those are God’s people and his nation who are subject to him as their King and their God, pay allegiance to him, and put themselves under his protection accordingly. They are a people who <i>know righteousness,</i> who not only have the means of knowledge, and to whom righteousness is made known, but who improve those means, and are able to form a right judgment of truth and falsehood, good and evil. And, as they have good heads, so they have good hearts, for they have the law of God in them, written and ruling there. Those God owns for his people <i>in whose hearts his law is.</i> Even those who know righteousness, and have the law of God in their hearts, may yet be in great distress and sorrow, and loaded with reproach and contempt; but their God will comfort them with the righteousness they know and the law they have in their hearts.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. What the comfort is that belongs to God’s people. 1. That the gospel of Christ shall be preached and published to the world: <i>A law shall proceed from me,</i> an evangelical law, the law of Christ, the law of faith, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.2.3" href="/passage/?search=Isa.2.3">Isa. 2:3</a>. This law is his judgment; for it is that law of liberty by which the world shall be governed and judged. This shall not only go forth, but shall continue and rest, it shall take firm footing and deep root in the world. It shall rest, not only for the benefit of the Jews, who had the first notice of it, but <i>for a light of the people</i> of other nations. It is this law, this judgment, that we are required to hearken and give ear to, at our peril; for how shall we escape if we neglect it and turn a deaf ear to it? When a law proceeds from God, <i>he that has ears to hear, let him hear.</i> 2. That this law and judgment shall bring with them righteousness and salvation, shall open a ready way to the children of men, that they may be justified and saved, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.51.5" href="/passage/?search=Isa.51.5">Isa. 51:5</a>. These are called <i>God’s righteousness</i> and <i>his</i> salvation, because of his contriving and bringing them about. The former is a righteousness which he will accept for us and accept us for, and a righteousness which he will work in us and graciously accept of. The latter is the <i>salvation of the Lord,</i> for it arises from him and terminates in him. Observe, There is no salvation without righteousness; and, wherever there is the <i>righteousness of God,</i> there shall be his salvation. All those, and those only, that are justified and sanctified shall be glorified. 3. That this righteousness and salvation shall very shortly appear: <i>My righteousness is near.</i> It is near in time; behold, all things are now ready. It is near in place, not far to seek, but the word is nigh us, and Christ in the word, righteousness in the word, <a class="bibleref" title="Rom.10.8" href="/passage/?search=Rom.10.8">Rom. 10:8</a>. <i>My salvation has gone forth.</i> The decree has gone forth concerning it; it shall as certainly be introduced as if it had gone forth already, and the time for it is at hand. 4. That this evangelical righteousness and salvation shall not be confined to the Jewish nation, but shall be extended to the Gentiles; <i>My arms shall judge the people.</i> Those that will not yield to the judgments of God’s mouth shall be crushed by the judgments of his hand. Some shall thus be judged by the gospel, for for <i>judgment Christ came into this world;</i> but others, and those of <i>the isles, shall wait upon him,</i> and bid his gospel, and the commands as well as the comforts of it, welcome. It was a comfort to God’s people, to his nation, that multitudes should be added to them, and the increase of their number should be the increase of their strength and beauty. It is added, <i>And on my arm shall they trust, that arm of the Lord</i> which is revealed in Christ, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.53.1" href="/passage/?search=Isa.53.1">Isa. 53:1</a>. Observe, God’s arm shall judge the people that are impenitent, and yet on his arm shall others trust and be saved by it; for it is to us as we make it, a savour of life or of death. 5. That this righteousness and salvation <i>shall be for ever,</i> and shall never be abolished, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.51.8" href="/passage/?search=Isa.51.8">Isa. 51:8</a>. It is an everlasting righteousness that the Messiah brings in (<a class="bibleref" title="Dan.9.24" href="/passage/?search=Dan.9.24">Dan. 9:24</a>), an eternal redemption that he is the author of, <a class="bibleref" title="Heb.5.9" href="/passage/?search=Heb.5.9">Heb. 5:9</a>. As it shall spread through all the nations of the earth, so it shall last through all the ages of the world. We must never expect any other way of salvation, any other covenant of peace or rule of righteousness, than what we have in the gospel, and what we have there shall cont
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<p class="tab-1">III. What use they are to make of this comfort. If God’s righteousness and salvation are near to them, then let them <i>not fear the reproach of men,</i> of mortal miserable men, nor be <i>afraid of their revilings</i> or spiteful taunts, theirs who bid you sing them the songs of Zion, or who ask you, in scorn, <i>Where is now your God?</i> Let not those who embrace the gospel righteousness be afraid of those who will call them <i>Beelzebub,</i> and will say all manner of evil against them falsely. Let them not be afraid of them; let them not be disturbed by these opprobrious speeches, nor made uneasy by them, as if they would be the ruin of their reputation and honour and they must for ever lie under the load of them. Let them not be afraid of their executing their menaces, nor be deterred thereby from their duty, nor frightened into any sinful compliances, nor driven to take any indirect courses for their own safety. Those can bear but little for Christ that cannot bear a hard word for him. Let us not fear the reproach of men; for, 1. They will be quickly silenced (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.51.8" href="/passage/?search=Isa.51.8">Isa. 51:8</a>): <i>The moth shall eat them up like a garment,</i> <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.50.9" href="/passage/?search=Isa.50.9">Isa. 50:9</a>. <i>The worm shall eat them like wool,</i> or woollen cloth. If we have the approbation of a living God, we may despise the censure of dying men; the matter is not great what those say of us who must shortly be food for worms. Or it intimates the judgments of God with which they shall be visited, with which they shall be consumed, for their malice against the people of God; they shall be slowly and silently, but effectually destroyed, when God shall come to reckon with them <i>for all their hard speeches,</i> <a class="bibleref" title="Jude.1.14,Jude.1.15" href="/passage/?search=Jude.1.14,Jude.1.15"><span class="bibleref" title="Jude.1.14">Jude 1:14</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Jude.1.15">15</span></a>. 2. The cause we suffer for cannot be run down. The falsehood of their reproaches will be detected, but truth shall triumph, and the righteousness of religion’s injured cause shall be for ever plain. Clouds darken the sun, but give no obstruction to his progress.</p>
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