2. Righteousness is a second thing whereof the Spirit of Christ convinces the world, and the main thing that it is our wisdom to be acquainted withal. This all men are persuaded of, that God is a most righteous God; (that is a natural notion of God which Abraham insisted on, Gen. xviii. 25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”) they “know that this is the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death,” Rom. i. 32; that “it is a righteous thing with him to recompense tribulation unto offenders,” 2 Thess. i. 6. He is “a God of purer eyes than to behold evil,” Hab. i. 13; and therefore, “the ungodly cannot stand in judgment,” Ps. i. 5. Hence the great inquiry of every one (who lies in any measure under the power of it), convinced of immortality and the judgment to come, is concerning the righteousness wherewith to appear in the presence of this righteous God. This more or less they are solicitous about all their days; and so, as the apostle speaks, Heb. ii. 15, “through the fear of death they are all their lifetime subject to bondage,” — they are perplexed with fears about the issue of their righteousness, lest it should end in death and destruction.