Again, If they are made righteous by this righteousness, then also they are passive as to their first privilege by it; for they are made righteous by it; they do not make themselves righteous by it. Imputation is also the act of God. “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness.” The righteousness then is a work of Christ, his own obedience to his Father’s law; the making of it ours is the act of the Father, and of his infinite grace: “For of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness.” “For God hath made Jim to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” And both these things God shewed to our first parents, when he acted in grace towards them after the fall. There it is said, the Lord God made unto Adam, and unto his wife, coats of skins, and clothed them; Gen. iii. 21. Whence note, (1.) That Adam and his wife were naked, both in God’s eye and in their own, verses 10, 11. (2.) That the Lord God made coats of skins. (3.) That in his making of them, he had respect to Adam and to his wife, that is, he made them. (4.) That when he had made them, he also clothed them therewith. They made not the coats, nor did God bid them make them; but God did make them himself to cover their nakedness with. Yea, when he had made them, he did not bid them put them on, but he himself did clothe them with them: for thus runs the text; “Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” O it was the Lord God that made this coat with which a poor sinner is made righteous! And it is also the Lord God that putteth it upon us. But this our Pharisee understandeth not. But now, if a man is not righteous before he is made so, before the Lord God has by the righteousness of another made him so; then whether this righteousness comes first or last, the man is not righteous until it cometh; and if he be not righteous until it cometh, then what works soever are done before it comes, they are not the works of a righteous man, nor the fruits of a good tree, but of a bad. And so again, this righteousness must first come before a man be righteous, and before a man does righteousness. Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good. Now, since a man must be made righteous before he can do righteousness, it is manifest his works of righteousness do not make him righteous, no more than the fig makes its own tree a fig-tree, or than the grape doth make its own vine a vine. Hence those acts of righteousness that Christian men do perform, are called the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God; Phil. i. 11.