Internal righteousness

Thus, to do no harm, to do good, to attend the ordinances of God, the righteousness of a Pharisee, are all external. Whereas, on the contrary, poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6), the love of our neighbor, and purity of heart (Matthew 5:8), the righteousness of a Christian, are all internal. And even peacemaking, or doing good, and suffering for righteousness' sake (Matthew 5:10), stand entitled to the blessings attached to them only as they imply these inward dispositions, as they spring from them, exercise them, and confirm them. So that whereas the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was external only, it may be said in some sense that the righteousness of a Christian is internal only, all his actions and sufferings being as nothing in themselves, being judged before God only by the tempers from which they spring.