If I justify myself
Seek for justification by his own righteousness, trust in himself
that he was righteous, say that he was so, and pronounce himself
a righteous man, what would it signify?
mine own mouth shall condemn me;
the words of it being sinful, vain, idle, and frothy; and if a
man is to be justified, and condemned by his words, he may be
sure of the latter: indeed, "if any man offend not in word, the
same is a perfect man", ( James 3:2 ) ; but let a
man be as careful as he can, and keep ever such a guard upon his
lips, such is the imperfection of human nature, that, though a
Moses, he will speak unadvisedly with his lips, at one time or
another, and in many things will offend; which would be his
condemnation, if there was no other way to secure from it; nay,
for a sinful man to justify himself, or to say that he is a
righteous man by his own righteousness, and insist upon this
before God, if he is tried upon it he must be condemned; yea,
saying he is so is a falsehood, abominable to God, and enough to
condemn him; and besides, a man that knows himself, as Job did,
must be conscious of much sin within him, however externally
righteous he may be before men; so that, should he say he was
righteous, his conscience would speak, or cause his mouth to
speak and contradict and condemn him:
[if I say], I [am] perfect;
not in an evangelical sense, as he was; but in a legal sense, so
as to be free from sin, which no man that is perfect in a Gospel
sense is; as Noah, Jacob, David, and others, who were so, yet not
without sin; if therefore a man should assert this, he would not
say that which was right, but what was perverse, as might be
proved:
it shall also prove me perverse;
to be a wicked man; either he, God, shall prove, or it, his
mouth, as in the preceding clause; for to say this is to tell a
lie, which to do is perverseness, see ( 1 John 1:8 ) .