"[Application of the benefits of Justification]: Comfort to the justi-
fied. (1.) It is comfort in case of failings. Alas! how defective are the godly! they come short in every duty; but though believers should be humbled under their defects, they should not despond. They are not to be justified by their duties or graces, but by the righteousness of Christ. Their duties are mixed with sin, but that righteousness which justifies them is a perfect righteousness.
"(2.) Comfort in case of hard censures. The world censures the people of God as proud and hypocritical, and the troublers of Israel; but though men censure and condemn the godly, yet God has justified them, and as He has now justified them, so at the day of judgment He will openly justify them, and pronounce them righteous before men and angels. God is so just and holy a judge, that having once justified His people he will never condemn them. Pilate justified Christ, saying, 'I find no fault in Him'; yet after this he condemned Him; but God having publicly justified His saints, He will never con-
demn them; for 'whom He justified, them He also glorified.' "
