Righteousness

“ And behold, that righteousness shines in its wondrous wisdom that has no end, and that will which emanates from His grace to perfect His creatures is set by what is in His mind and the concealed will, if so, how is it possible to reach His ultimate righteousness until He is justified in His righteousness, even more so that He is justified by Him? ”

“ I am thoroughly convinced that 'Right' ought to be adopted and maintained, on all occasions, without regard to consequences either probable or possible; for these (when we have done our own duty as honest men) must after all be left to the disposal of Divine Providence, which has declared a blessing in favor of right, 'Blessed are the keepers of judgment—and he that doeth righteousness at all times.'" Ps. ”

“ To acknowledge this, then, both with our heart and lips, that is, to disclaim our own righteousness, "the righteousness which is of the law," is to act according to the real nature of things, and, consequently, is an instance of true wisdom. ”

“ The fruits of righteousness are the evidences and effects of our sanctification, the duties of holiness springing from a renewed heart, the root of the matter in us. Being filled with them. Observe, Those who do much good should still endeavour to do more. The fruits of righteousness, brought forth for the glory of God and edification of his church, should really fill us, and wholly take us up. Fear not being emptied by bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, for you will be filled with them. These fruits are by Jesus Christ, by his strength and grace, for without him we can do nothing. ”

“ I place my sole dependence upon an imputed righteousness, that righteousness wrought out by thee as my surety, in thy holy, meritorious life and death; believing thy testimony, that 'the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Just so must I go on, trusting in, resting upon, rejoicing in the Lord my righteousness. By one man's offence many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many, and I among others, be made righteous. ”

“ My cause before Thy high tribunal try,
And let Thine eyes my Righteousness behold.
For impious men, and such as deadly hate
My guiltless soul, have compassed me about;
Who swell with pride, enclosed in their own fate,
And words of contumely thunder out.
Filled with Thy secret treasure, to Thy race,
They their accumulated riches leave!
But I with righteousness shall see Thy face;
And rising in Thy image, joy receive.
Sandys.
What is all righteousness that men devise? ”

“ I intend to persevere in the path of righteousness until I overcome; and, with the help of God and the Saints, I will out-general the wicked. And I declare to-day that every person endeavouring to do right shall have his rights in due time, and rejoice in the God of freedom ”

“ And the Holy Spirit will convince us of righteousness, by making us feel what the Lord Jesus’s righteousness consisted in; what was the root of all His goodness and holiness, namely His perfect obedience to His Father and our Father in heaven. That is the righteousness, which is not our own, but God’s; the righteousness which comes by faith; not to trust in ourselves, but in God; not to please ourselves, but God; not to do our own will, but God’s will. ”

“ To be sure it is revealed to thee only in thy consciousness of what righteousness is and of what truth is. Nowhere else hast thou a guide that can do more for thee than to help to quicken thy insight. But, then, thy religious comfort is to be, not that the moral law is thundered down from mountain-tops as if some vast town-crier were talking, but that when thou seekest to do right, the Infinite all-seeing One knows and approves thee. ”

“ The 18th, the first of the week, we attended the meeting at this place, which was large, composed of Friends and others. I was led to open the great advantages attendant on a life of righteousness, from that scripture passage, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people;” and showing the difference between a righteousness, founded on the laws, maxims, and precepts of men, and the righteousness that is witnessed by faith in the Son of God, as revealed to the hearts and souls of the children of men through the holy spirit. ”

“ Remember you are sons of men; mortal and dying, and that you stand upon the same level before God with the meanest of those you trample upon, and must yourselves be called to an account and judged. You are sons of men, and therefore we may appeal to yourselves, and to that law of nature which is written in every man's heart: Do you indeed speak righteousness? And will not your second thoughts correct what you have done?" Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon what we say with this serious question, Do we indeed speak righteousness? ”

“ Slowly then it dawned on men’s minds that righteousness was what Christ and His Apostles alone desired and sought to establish on earth. This new spectacle of men devoting their lives to the advancement of [221] righteousness, and confident they could establish a kingdom of righteousness and actually establishing it—this spectacle penetrated men’s minds, and gave them a new sense of the value of righteousness, and quite a new conviction of the possibility of attaining it. ”

“ I demand of you a righteousness that shall exceed the righteousness of those who seek to obtain the Father's favor by almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. If you would enter the kingdom, you must have a righteousness that consists in love, mercy, and truth—the sincere desire to do the will of my Father in heaven. ”

“ Let us preach righteousness, and practise it. I do not wish to preach what I do not practise. If I wish to preach to others wholesome doctrine, let me practise it myself—show that example to others I wish them to imitate. ”

“ And strengthened the spirits of the righteous,
In the name of His righteousness.
9. For no angel hinders and no power is able to hinder; for He appoints a judge for them all and He judges them all before Him. ”

“ He is made of God to us righteousness; he is the Lord our righteousness, and therefore is fitly called the Sun of righteousness. Through him we are justified and sanctified, and so are brought to see light. ”

“ Those God owns for his people in whose hearts his law is. 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. ”

“ he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous.' Christ is our righteousness, not that we should escape punishment, still less escape being righteous, but as the live potent creator of righteousness in us, so that we, with our wills receiving his spirit, shall like him resist unto blood, striving against sin; ”

“ And you know, lastly, that the observance of this common law of righteousness, commending itself to all the pure instincts of men, and fruitful in their temporal good, is by the religious writers of every nation, and chiefly in this venerated Scripture of ours, connected with some distinct hope of better life, and righteousness, to come. ”

“ The fact is attested by Scripture. By His own words: 'My meat is to do the will of My Father'; 'For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness'; 'I came down from heaven not to do My own will.' By His servant's words: 'Obedient unto death'; 'Made under the law'; 'He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.' It is involved in the belief of His righteous manhood. It is essential to true manhood. The highest ideal for humanity is conscious dependence on God, and the very definition of righteousness is conscious conformity to the Will of God. ”

“ A righteousness of obedience to the commands of the law is fulfilled in us, when by the Spirit the law of love is written upon the heart, and that love is the fulfilling of the law, ch. xiii. 10. Though the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled by us, yet, blessed be God, it is fulfilled in us; there is that to be found upon and in all true believers which answers the intention of the law. Us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ”

“ Before long each of you shall also come up before the Eternal. Then and there it will not avail you to have compromised truth, justice, love, but to have kept them. Righteousness only is the salvation of a State ”

“ F. how ought this to excite our zeal and love for the holy Jesus. Why should we desire to plead for a righteousness of our own, and cry up freewill, when we have an infinitely better righteousness than our own to appear in, and a God that will crown us with eternal glory for working in us both to will and to do after his good pleasure? ”

“ For when Thy judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 10Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
11Lord, Thy hand was lifted up, yet they see not; They shall see with shame Thy zeal for the people; Yea, fire shall devour Thine adversaries. 12Lord, Thou wilt establish peace for us; For Thou hast indeed wrought all our works for us. 13O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us ”

“ We believe that the rewards of righteousness [Pg 66] are promised to all; and that the practice of righteousness is not limited to any kindred, tongue, or people, or essentially connected with any religious belief. ”

“ To this new life in the affections, duty becomes a pleasure. The conscience, no longer perplexed and overborne by evil desires, becomes able to assert its rightful authority. The will attains its rightful freedom and power to control efficiently in the domain of righteousness, and to hold the life in the harmonies of right and duty. ”

“ He follows after righteousness for its own sake—out of the pure love of holiness and purity, and not for any reward that it may bring either now or hereafter, and he finds as he follows it that many things are added unto it. ”

“ Having laid down the rules of the righteousness toward men, which is really a branch off true religion, he comes next to give some directions for their religion towards God, which is a branch of universal righteousness. ”

“ And do you seek first God’s righteousness? There can be no mistake as to what God’s righteousness is; for God’s righteousness must be Christ’s righteousness, seeing that He is the express image of His Father. Now do you ask yourselves, ‘How am I to be righteous in my station, as Christ was in His? ”

“ This teaches us that the righteousness of the godly is the power which averts the destruction of the wicked, and keeps the world in existence. In this sense, therefore, the righteous are a foundation. ”

“ If any of our people are found mixed up with these iniquities, let them be dealt with as the law of God directs, and let them be purged from our midst. Let righteousness, truth and integrity be maintained, and let God be honored and let the Gospel be sustained and the law of God upheld, and He will stand by the righteous. ”

“ We make nothing of our religion, if we do not make heaven of it. And with the happiness of this kingdom, seek the righteousness of it; God's righteousness, the righteousness which he requires to be wrought in us, and wrought by us, such as exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees; we must follow peace and holiness, Heb. ”

“ Let them sow to themselves in righteousness; let them return to the practice of good works, according to the law of God, which is the rule of righteousness; let them abound in works of piety towards God, and of justice and charity towards one another, and herein let them sow to the Spirit, as the apostle speaks, Gal. ”

“ In all ages, in all religions, men have turned away from this simple righteousness of God, which is created in justice and truth, and have sought some righteousness of their own, founded upon anything and everything save common morality and honesty. ”

“ But there remains the question: what righteousness really is. The method and secret and sweet reasonableness of Jesus. ”

“ For that which is called our righteousness, because, through it being inherent in us, we are justified; that same is the righteousness of God, because it is infused into us by God through the merit of Christ.
“Far, however, be it from a Christian man, that he should either trust or glory in himself and not in the Lord; whose goodness to all men is so great, that, what are truly his gifts, he willeth to be estimated as their merits.” ”

“ Standing, therefore, between these, and being neither good nor bad nor unjust, he can be called righteous in a sense proper to him, as the judge of the righteousness that corresponds to him, and that god will be lower than the perfect God, and his righteousness lower than His, because he is begotten and not unbegotten. ”

“ He that makes conscience of speaking truth, and representing every thing fairly, to the best of his knowledge, whether in judgment or in common conversation, whether he be upon his oath or no, he shows forth righteousness; he makes it to appear that he is governed and actuated by the principles and laws of righteousness, and he promotes justice by doing honour to it and serving the administration of it. ”

“ They wrought righteousness, both in their public and personal capacities; they turned many from idolatry to the ways of righteousness; they believed God, and it was imputed to them for righteousness; they walked and acted righteously towards God and man. It is a greater honour and happiness to work righteousness than to work miracles; faith is an active principle of universal righteousness. ”