is a belief of the Gospel which was confirmed by his death and believing that Christ is the Son of God the Messiah and Prophet whom God sent to reveil his will includes a general belief of the Gospel which he preached and believing that God raised him from the dead doth the same because his Resurrection was the last and great confirmation of the truth of the Gospel Hence the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper immediate office of the Gospel-Covenant because the Blood of Christ is the Blood of the Covenant and therefore all the blessings of the Gospel are owing to it because the Gospel-Covenant was procured and confirmed by it Thus the Gentiles who were a far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ and the Gentiles and Jews were reconciled unto God in one body by the cross Eph. 2.14 15 16. That is the Gentiles were received into the fellowship of God's Church and the Jews and Gentiles united in one body Now this union of Jews and Gentiles is owing to the Gospel which takes away all marks of distinction and separation and gives them both an equal right to the blessing of the New Covenant This New Covenant belongs to all mankind there is now no distinction of persons Neither Jew nor Greek Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all No man is acceptable to God because he is a Jew or Greek but the only thing of any value is Faith in Christ or a belief of the Gospel which is indifferently offered to all Now this is attributed to the Blood of Christ and to his death because thereby Christ put an end to the Mosaical Covenant and sealed this New Covenant of Grace with Mankind as the Apostle explains himself in the following verses 17.18 c. That Christ having abolished the Law of Commandments by his death he came and preached peace that is the Gospel of peace to them who were a far off to the Gentiles and to them who were nigh to the Jews he abrogated the Mosaical Law That Law of Commandments contained in ordinances which was peculiar to the Jews and separated them from the rest of the World And he broke down the middle wall of partition which kept the uncircumcised Gentiles though Proselites at a distance from God as confining their worship to the outward court of the Temple which the Apostle seems to refer to in that phrase Them that were a far off And now by the Gospel he admits the Gentiles to as near an approach to God as the Jews As he adds For through him we have an access by one Spirit to the Father vers 18. The Author enquiring Answer what influence the obedience and death of Christ have upon our acceptance with God resolves it thus All that I can find in Scripture is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace Christ's Blood is called the Blood of the Covenant because it did seal and confirm the Covenant I answer Christ's Blood did indeed seal and confirm the Covenant But is this the all of it Socinus will own as much as this comes to Sicuti alicujus animantis sanguine fuso foedera antiquitùs sanciebantur De servat l. 1. cap. 3. confirmabantur ita Christi silii sui sanguine foedus suum novum atque aeternum quod nobiscum per ipsum Christum pepigerat sancivit confirmavit Deus Thus he telling us too that it is therefore called Sanguis aeterni foederis To the same purpose speaks the Racovian Catechist with others of the same Tribe But the Scripture tells us more of the Blood of Christ That we are justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 But saith the Author we are said to be justified by his Blood that is by the Gospel-Covenant which was confirmed with his Blood This is a strange way of interpreting Scripture We are justified by his blood that is by the Gospel We may as well go on to verse 18. and say justification of life is by the righteousness of one that is by the Gospel And to verse 19. and say We are made righteous by the obedience of one that is by the Gospel And from thence we may go on at the same rate with other Scriptures as He hath washed us from our sins in his own blood Revel 1.5 that is in his own Gospel The blood of Jesus Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered up himself without spot to God shall purge your consciences from dead works Heb. 9.14 that is the Gospel shall do it This is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Matth. 26.28 that is this is my New Testament of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of fins Rather than make such work with Scripture we were as good let the Blood of our dear Lord stand there as it ought in its justifying Glory We are justified by Christ's blood that is by the Gospel And is Christ's Blood the Gospel Or where in all the Scripture is the Blood of Christ so taken The Scripture rarely if ever speaks of being justified by the Gospel but it speaks much and often of being justified by Christ's Blood It cleanses us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 It purges the conscience Heb. 9.19 It was shed for the remission of sins Eph. 1.7 It washes us from our sins Rev. 1.5 And yet all this contrary to the express words and genius of Scripture must be understood not of the Blood of Christ but of the Gospel and why of the Gospel Because his Blood confirmed the Gospel And is justifying and confirming the Gospel all one Christ's Blood according to the Author confirmed the Covenant with all Mankind but all men are not justified When the Scripture speaks of Christs Blood and Death as confirmative of the Covenant or Gospel it speaks sometimes in general of all men Thus he died for all men 2 Cor. 5.15 Hee gave himself a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 with many other places to the same purpose But when the Scripture speaks of Christ's Blood as justifying it speaks not in general of all but in particular of Believers only and yet if justify and confirming the Gospel were all one it might be as truly said that Christ justifies all as that he died for all The Gospel is the Charter of Justification but besides the Charter their must be a Righteousness to be the Matter of our Justification God never justifies any man without a Righteousness and what is it Is it the very Act of Faith Thus Socinus would have it De servat part 4. cap. 4. that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere is loco justitiae in the room of all Righteousness But I have before proved that Faith as an Act and absolutely in it self considered canot justifie us Or is it our inherent Graces This is the express Tenet of the Papists Thus Bellarmine would have
place Christ borrows not his Name from temporal blessings no that is too low The Salvation their spoken of is a spiritual and eternal one that Salvation is procured by the active and passive righteousness of Christ that righteousness is made ours by imputation Hence Christ is called the Lord our righteousness The Name of Christ must import somewhat peculiar to himself to do good to us is common to the whole Trinity but the active and passive righteousness of Christ is peculiar to himself that therefore is imported in this Name This Name seems to be attributed to the Church Jer. 33.16 because the Church is mystically united to Christ in whom this perfect righteousness is and this righteousness which is in Christ becomes the Churches by imputation Observe this name is not given to all men but to believers as pointing out not common favours but that righteousness of God which is upon those that believe The Kingdom of Christ is a spiritual Kingdom and the Salvation must be suitable to it And this great Name the Lord our righteousness is the foundation of both As to the places quoted out of Isaiah by the Author that Isai 54. may possibly speak of a vindication or justification against their enemies that Isai 45.24 25. In the Lord have I righteousness and strength in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory speaks of a justification by Faith in Christ that robe of righteousness Isai 61. may be taken for Christs Rrighteousness which is the foundation of Salvation but however these be taken that first quoted place Jer. 23.6 plainly imports imputed righteousness It is very observable Mr. Sherlock that in all the histories of the Gospel which gives us an account of our Saviours Sermons and parables whereby he instructed the people in all necessary truths he makes no mention at all of imputed righteousness but exacts from them a righteousness of their own if they would find mercy with God Now it is very strange if imputed righteousness be the great Gospel-mystery that our Saviour should not once mention it nor warn his hearers to beware of tructing in their own righteousness but that instead of this he should severely enjoyn them the practice of an universal righteousness as the only thing that pleases God and severely threaten those who continue in any sin who break the least of his commandments that they shall not enter heaven This to me is a very great prejudice against such notions as are set up for the fundamentals of Christianity when there is not the least foot-steps of them to be seen in the Gospel of our Saviour Did not our Saviour instruct his hearers in all things necessary to Salvation Or have the Evangelists given us an imperfect account of our Saviours doctrine and omitted so essential a part of it as imputation of his Righteousness Chuse which side you please and the consequence is bad if the first then Christ was not faithful in his prophetical Office If the latter you over-throw the credit of the Gospel and by both destroy the foundation of our Faith Our Saviours Sermons were to be the rule of the Apostles had the Apostles taught any thing as necessary to Salvation which our Saviour had not taught especially any thing that did so plainly contradict the Doctrine of our Saviour as this imputed righteousness doth it would very much have weakned their credit with me for this had been to preach another Gospel than our Saviour did and we have St. Paul 's command to reject all such Preachers though they were Apostles or an Angel from heaven Gal. 1.8 9. And is there no mention at all in the Gospel of imputed Righteousness Answer Are there no footsteps of it Yes surely our Saviour tells us Seek ye first the kingdom of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his righteousness that is Gods Matth. 6.33 Inherent Graces are in Scripture called our own but here we have Gods Righteousness which answers to Jehovah our righteousness in the Prophet and the righteousness of God in the Epistles Now the Righteousness of God that is of Christ as before hath been noted is made ours only by Imputation but where doth Christ speak of his own Righteousness See Math. 3.15 Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness saith he he fulfilled all righteousness but was it for himself or for us Not for himself his humane Nature was no sooner assumed into his divine Person but it had a Title to Heaven and might have asended up thither it was for us therefore Hence the Apostle saith expressly That he was made under the Law to redeem us Gal. 4.4 What he did as under the Law was for us and such was all his righteousness and therefore that was for us and what was for us must be applicable to us and this cannot be without an imputation It is said that Christ gave his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a price or ransome for or instead of many Math. 20.28 Now a Ransome or Satisfaction implies imputation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly imports a Subrogation or Substitution of one in the room of another Christ died in our room and satisfied for us this Satisfaction is made ours particularly by imputation Hear the French Divines Hanc satisfactionem loco nostro praestitam à Christo nobis imputari negari non potest quis neget solutam à Fidejussore pecuniam imputari Debitori exhibitam à Vade satifactionem imputari ei cujus nomine facta est Ea igitur Christi satisfactio nobis ex gratiâ Dei Patris imputata atque donata illa demum justitia est quâ justificamur in Dei judicio We see therefore in the Gospel Satisfaction owned and that necessarily infers Imputation Christs blood was shed for many for the remssion of Sins as himself tells us Matth. 26.28 Now it could not be shed for us without the first fundamentall Imputation neither can it be made ours to justifie us without an after particular Imputation For his Blood when it cleanses away our sins is not ours by Inhesion therefore if it be at all ours to doe that great Work it must be so by Imputation Remission of sins was to be preached in his name Luk. 24.47 and In his name shall the Gentiles trust Math. 12.21 This Name includes his Blood and Righteousness and these are made ours by Imputation If any reply plainer proof is desired I answer Several things are to be considered by us There is no one place in the Gospels to maintain Justification by our own Righteousness or if there were I shall be bold to say that all the Protestant Churches in the World are bound to yeild the Cause in this point to their Adversaries the Papists Obedience to Gods Commandements is indeed the way to heaven but it is no where made an ingredient into our Justification That place Math. 5.19 quoted by the Author that Whosoever shall break one of the Least
Righteousness it suffices us that this Mystery is founded on the holy Scripture When the Romans would have no other Gods but what were approved of by the Senate Tertullian tells them Apud vos de humano arbitratu Divinitas pensitatur Apost cap. 5. nifi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit But as long as we find Imputed Righteousness in Scripture we need not seek a Probatū est from humane laws or reason Let us now try Mr. Sherlock whether the Notion of a Mediator can do any better service than the Notion of a Surety Dr. Owen saith That Christ fulfilled all Righteousness as he was Mediator and that whatever he did as Mediator he did it for them whose Mediator he was and in whose stead and for whose good he executed the Office of a Mediator before God and hence is it that his complete and perfect Obedience to the Law is reckoned to us But that Christ fulfilled all Righteousness as he was Mediator must have good proof the Notion of a Mediator includes no such thing A Mediator is one who interposes between two differing parties but was it ever heard of yet that it was the Office of a Mediator to perform the Terms and Conditions himself Moses was the Mediator of the first Covenant Gal. 3.9 and his Office was to receive the Law from God and to deliver it to the people and to command them to observe the Rites and Sacrifices and Expiations which God had ordained but he was not to fulfil the Righteousness of the Law for the whole Congregation Thus Christ is now the Mediator of a better Covenant and his Office required that he should preach the Gospel which contains the Terms of peace between God and men and since God would not enter into Covenant with sinners without the intervention of a Sacrifice he dies too as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for the sins of the World and confirms and seals this new Covenant with his own Blood and being risen from the dead he executes this Office of Mediator with power and glory that is he intercedes for us according to the Terms and Conditions of the new Covenant to obtain the pardon of our sins and the assistance of the divine Grace to do the Will of God and all those other blessings that are promised But the Office of Mediator doth not oblige him to fulfil the Righteousness of the Covenant for us Christ is a Mediator but in a supereminent way a Mediator Answer but above all Peers or Parallels Hence the Apostle tells us that there is one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 One Mediator Moses was a Mediator too but because Christ was a Mediator in a peculiar and superexcellent manner there is but one Mediator Moses was an internuncial Mediator but Christ was a satisfying and atoning one Hence it appears that the Mediatorship of Christ must not be measured by the Mediatorship of Moses or any other person in the world but must be construed according to those singular Excellencies and Preeminencies which the Scripture attributes to it The Apostle tells us what a Mediator he was He gave his life a ransom for all and as I noted before where his Passive Obedience is expressed there the active is implyed Christ was a Mediator in that which he did for us and on our behalf and for us and on our behalf he fulfilled all Righteousness This is evident that of Christs which is imputed and applyed to us to justifie and make us Righteous before God was done for us and and on our behalf and such was his fulfilling all Righteousness Hence the Apostle tells us That by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life and by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5.18 19. Moses was not to fulfill the righteousness of the Law for the people nor was he to dye as a propitiatory Sacrifice for them but Christ a more excellent Mediator did both for us Dr. Owen first tells of an habitual Righteousness of Christ Mr. Sherlock as Mediator in his humane Nature that this was the necessary effect of the Grace of Union that therby he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit to do all that he did for us So that this is not imputed to us but was his own proper Righteousness But Secondly There is the actual obedience of Christ which was his willing performance of every thing that God by any Law did require besides the particular Law of the Mediator Let us then first consider the peculiar Law of the Mediator which he tells us respected himself meerly so that we have nothing to do with this neither and it contains all those acts and duties of his which were not for our imitation he instances in his obedience which he shewed in dying though St. John tells us that we must imitate him in this also must lay down our lives for the brethren as Christ dyed for us Joh. 1.3.16 And St. Paul tells us that we must be conformed to the Death and Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. which sounds very like an imitation though in the next page he excepts the case of dying of his passive obedience and tells us that all the rest of his obedience to the Law of meditation is not imputed to us as though we had done it So that by the Law of meditation he understands whatever Christ was bound to do as our Mediator whatever was proper to his Mediatory office all this though sometimes when he better thinks of it he excepts dying is not imputed to us as though we had done it I hope we shall find something at last to be imputed to us and yet there is nothing left now But thirdly That which concerns him in a private capacity as a man subject to the Law And now whatever was required of us by virtue of any Law that he did and fulfilled And this is that actual obedience of Christ which he performed for us This is very strange that what he did as Mediator is not imputed to us But what he did not as our Mediator but as a man subject to Law that is imputed to us and reckoned as if we had done it by reason of his being our Mediator and it is as strange to the full that Christ should do whatever was required of us by virtue of any Law when he was neither Husband Wife Father Merchant Soldier Captain much less a Temporal Prince and how he should discharge the duties of those Relations for us when he was never in any of those Relations I leave to the subtilty of the School-men I know not of what moment this discourse is Answer only the Author would seem to wrap the Doctor up in obscurity but the Doctor hath expressed his mind in plain terms pag. 182. his words are these God sent Christ as a Mediator to do and suffer whatever the Law required at
justifying Grace to be donum in Animainhaerens Renovation and Regeneration Against this our Protestant Divines have sufficiently testified Indeed no man who understands either himself and his own Errata's or the necessary distinction which is to be made between Justification and Sanctification can assert it And now nothing remains to be our Righteousness in Justification but the Obedience and atoning Blood of Christ and these cannot be applied to us and become ours but by Imputation By this it appears that the Blood of Christ doth not only confirm the Covenant but that it justifies us also And this further appears by the place quoted by the Author Moses sprinkled the blood on the book and on all the people Heb. 9.19 He did not only confirm the Covenant but sprinkled the People too this was the Type or Figure but Christ who is the Substance not only confirms the Covenant but sprinkles the hearts of Believers by his Blood Hence their hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience Heb. 10.22 and they have the sprinkling of the blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.2 But to go on The Scripture saith the Author uses these phrases promiscuously to be justified by Faith by Christ by Grace nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God or risen from the dead To which I answer All these concurr to the same Justification but not in the same manner Grace which is the inward impulsive Cause of Justification is not Christ or his Blood the Blood of Christ which is the Matter of our Righteousness is not Faith Faith which is the Hand to receive Christ and Grace is not the Gospel the Charter of Justification which contains the Evangelical Axioms such as those touching Christ's being the Son of God or touching his Resurrection from the dead are These are distinct things and not to be confounded As for that place Eph. 2.14 15 16. the Apostle speaks indeed of reconciling Jews and Gentiles but that is not all he speaks too of reconciling both to God ver 16. and of making them one new man in himself ver 15. which notes a further reconciliation than that among themselves even a conjunction with God and Christ according to our Saviours Prayer That they maybe one in us Joh. 17.21 Christ saith the Author abrogated the Mosaical Law I answer He did so as to Types and Ceremonials but the Moral Law which is immortalized by its intrinsecal Sanctity stands to this day and the Grace which was under the Old Testament was not abrogated but made more illustrious than it was before The Gentiles saith the Author were at a distance from God But if they had natural Faith and could by it please God the distance was less and more tolerable though they were but in the outward Court of the Temple nay though they were a thousand miles off from it they would do well enough in the other world Mr. Sherlock Thus the Jews are said to be redeemed from the curse of the Law by the accursed death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3.13 Because the death of Christ put an end to that Legal dispensation and sealed a new and better Covenant between God and Man and the Gentiles were redeemed from their vain conversation received from their fathers that is from those idolatrous and impure practices they were guilty of not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1. Pet. 1.18 19. Now the Gentiles were delivered from their Idolatry by the preaching of the Gospel which is called their being redeemed by the blood of Christ because we owe this unspeakable blessing to his death Thus the Jews are redeemed from the curse of the Law by the accursed death of Christ Answer Gal. 3.13 so the Author and thus Socinus De Servat part 2. cap. 1. Ad Judaeos tantùm pertinet This belongs only to the Jews But the Curse which fell upon Christ was not a ceremonial one but a real such as put him into Agonies and a bloody Sweat neither were the Jews only redeemed from it but the Gentiles also what else was this to the Galatians who were Gentiles Were not the Gentiles also under the Curse and by nature children of wrath No doubt they were the Apostle saith That Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ver 14. And surely he would not argue from the Redemption of the Jews only to the Benediction of the Gentiles but from what was common to both of them The Gentiles were redeemed from their vain conversation that is from their idolatrous practices with the blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. that is they were delivered by the preaching of the Gospel So the Author But when they were redeemed from their vain Conversation they were redeemed from the guilt of it and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this was not the Gospel but the precious Blood of Christ who was a Lamb without blemish and without spot Those men are injurious to the Blood of Christ Mr. Sherlock who attribute no more to it than a non-imputation of sin That by his death Christ Dr. Owen Com. 193. bearing and undergoing the punishment due to us paying the ransom due for us delivered us from the wrath and curse of God And thus by Christ's death all cause of quarrel is taken away But then this will not complete our acceptation the old quarrel may be laid aside and yet no new friendship begun we may be not sinners and yet not so far righteous as to have a right to the Kingdom of heaven So that the Blood of Christ only makes us innocent delivers us from guilt and punishment but if we will take the Doctor 's word for it it can give us no title to Glory this is owing to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to the Obedience of his Life But you see the Scripture gives us a quite different account of it we are said to be justified and redeemed by the Blood of Christ nay We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus Heb. 10.19 which is an allusion to the high Priest's entring into the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Heaven with the blood of the Sacrifice Thus by the Blood of Christ we have admission into heaven it self though the Dr. says That the Blood of Christ makes us innocent but cannot give us a Title to Heaven The Scripture takes no notice of their artificial Methods That the guilt of sin is taken away by the death of Christ and that we are made righteous by his Righteousness But the Blood of Christ is said to justifie us and to give us admission into the holiest of all into heaven it self nay we are made righteous by the death of Christ too 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him That is Christ died as a Sacrifice for our sins that we might be reconciled to God So that our Righteousness as well as Innocence is owing to the death of Christ to that Sacrifice he offered for our sins his Blood had a great vertue in it to make us righteous to purge our consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God and our righteousness and accceptance with God is wholly owing to that Covenant which he purchased and sealed with his Blood I suppose the Author to be a very unfit man to put in this accusation Answer Who attributes most to that Blood the Author or these men is a very short issue and will soon he tried Christ's Blood sealed and confirmed the Covenant this is the all of it saith the Author These men though they do not stint it with an All yet they freely own That Christ's death did seal and confirm the Covenant evidently therefore they attribute as much to Christ's blood as the Author doth But do they stay here No they say with the Apostle That we are justified by Christ's blood Rom. 5.9 And doth the Author do so No surely We are justified by his blood that is by the Gospel-Covenant which was confirmed with his blood Thus the Author Now if justifying and confirming the Covenant be one thing then the Author allows justification by Christ's blood But justifying and confirming the Covenant are not one thing Christ's blood according to the Author confirmed the Covenant for all but it doth not justifie all Hence it appears that the Author allows not justification by Christ's Blood and yet he charges these men with being injurious to it to which they attribute remission or non-imputation of sin But for the matter it self I conceive that the Obedience and Blood of Christ are to be taken in conjunction both together are the completure of the Law both are imputed to us both justifie us unto life eternal Hence I conceive where one is expressed in Scripture the other is implyed when the Scripture saith That we are justified by Christ's blood Rom. 5.9 It doth include his Obedience and when it saith That we are made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 it doth include his Blood also Hence our Church takes in both into justification 1. Hom. of Salvation He paid the ransom for them by his death he fulfilled the Law for them in his life so that in and by him every true Christian man may be called a fulfiller of the Law But though our pardon and justifieation be attributed to the Blood of Christ Mr Sherlock yet I could never perswade my self that this wholly excludes the perfect Obedience and Righteousness of his life For the Apostle tells us That we are accepted in the beloved Eph. 1.6 Whatever rendred Christ beloved of God did contribute something to our acceptance For because he was beloved we are accepted for his sake No man will deny that God was highly pleased with his perfect Obedience We know how many blessings God bestowed upon the children of Israel for the sake of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob who were great examples of Faith and obedience which made them very dear to God and no doubt God was more pleased with the Obedience of Christ than with the Faith of Abraham and therefore we ought not to think that we receive no benefit by the Righteousness of Christ when Abraham 's posterity was so blessed for his sake But then Christ's Righteousness and Death serve not two such different ends as these men fancy but they both serve the same end to establish the Covenant God was so well pleased with what Christ did and suffered that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with man As Abraham 's Faith was not imputed to his Posterity as their act but for Abraham 's sake God entred into Covenant with them and chose them for his peculiar people Here we have the Author acknowledging Answer that the obedience of Christ did contributé something to our acceptance with God The children of Israel were blessed for Abraham 's obedience and why may not we for Christs The confequence is undeniable but there is a vast disproportion between Abraham's obedience and Christs Abraham's was but the obedience of a man and of an imperct man but Christs was the obedience of God His Blood is called the blood of God and for the very same reason his obedience may be stiled the obedience of God Abraham's had not a jot or tittle of merit in it he had nothing to glory in before God But Christ's was so richly meritorious as to purchase the Blessings of both Worlds Abraham's was not imputed to his Posterity it was little enough and without Christ's Righteousness to cover its defects too little for himself But Christ's is imputed to us and is long enough and broad enough to cover a multitude of Believers and to justifie them before God The Covenant made with Abraham was the very Covenant of Grace The Gospel was preached to Abraham Gal. 3.8 And Abraham saw Christ's day and rejoyced Joh. 8.56 And hence it appears that the Covenant with Abraham was not founded in Abraham's Righteousness but in Christ's and therefore the Apostle tells us expresly That it was confirmed before of God in Christ Gal. 3.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before confirmed The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us that the Gospel was in Abraham's time The obedience of Christ's life was one thing Mr Sherlock which made his Sacrifice so meritorious which was the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and spot And this is the most that can be made of Rom. 5.18 19. As by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation So by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all to justification of life For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous There is no necessity of expounding this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedience of the Righteousness of Christ's life for it may well signifie no more than the obedience of his death notwithstanding the Doctors distinction that doing is one thing and suffering another For the Apostle tells us That he became obedient unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2.8 And his offering himself in Sacrifice is called doing God's will Heb. 10.9 10. And whether this be properly said or not I will leave the Doctor to dispute with the Apostle It is plain that in this Chapter there is no express mention made of any act of obedience and righteousness whereby we are reconciled to God But only his dying for us in vers 8. the Apostle tells us That Christ dyed for us In vers 9. That we are justified by his blood In the 10. That we are reconciled by his death which makes it more than probable that by his Righteousness and Obedience here the Apostle understands
preservation in Jesus Christ But take away the Mystical Vnion he is a man out of Christ he stands upon his own bottom he subsists by himself alone he receives no influences from Christ the Head nor is acted by any higher Spirit than his own and in such a case the next news we hear of him must be an utter downfall But to say no more of the Mystical Vnion that other Point touching the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us hath also been ever owned in the Church he that denies it must I fear in the consequent overturn the Law the Gospel and the Satisfaction of Christ He must overturn the Law for he must own a Justification without a Righteousness answering thereunto inherent Righteousness being imperfect and imputed a Nullity there is nothing to answer the Law and yet we are justified which is as much as to say the Law is no Law If it be a Law none can be justified without a Righteousness adequate to it if we may be justified without such a Righteousness the Law is no Law which is what the Antinomians would have That a Law should be in force and a man should be justified without an adequate Righteousness and that before a most righteous Judge who judgeth according to truth is utterly impossible Again he must overturn the Gospel and that upon a double account The one is this He must subvert the Promises of Justification made in the Gospel the Promises run thus That we shall be justified by Christ's blood made righteous by his obedience that his blood shall cleanse away sin and purge our consciences from dead works and how can these be fulfilled without an Imputation To say that Christ's Blood founded the Covenant will not serve the turn these are Promises of a Covenant founded already and a founded Covenant doth not promise the founding of it self Christs blood as it founded the Covenant is precedent to the Promises and by it as such the Promises cannot be fulfilled for then they should be fulfilled before they were made or at least in the making of them It remains therefore that Christs righteousness must be made ours by imputation thereby the promises may be made good to us If the Promises mean as they speak then we must be justified by Christs blood obedience which infers Imputation if the Promises how plain how emphatical soever the words be mean not that we shall be justified by Christ's Blood or Righteousness then Christ shed his Blood for us that we might be justified without it he satisfied for us that we might be pardoned without a satisfaction which is an odd reflection on his satisfaction if not a total evacuation of it The other is this he must pervert the Conditions of the Gospel from their true end and scope These Conditions were in infinite Wisdom accommodated and attempered to the death of Christ which founded them they were made to be subordinate and subservient to Christ's satisfaction and the glory of it The Faith required in them was not intended to be the matter of our Justification and in that notion to discharge and justifie us the main scope and end of those conditions was to shew upon what terms Christ's righteosness and satisfaction should discharge and justifie us Now as long as these conditions are made but conditions as long as Faith keeps its proper station all is well and as it ought to be but if those conditions be advanced above their own station if our inherent righteousness be made the very matter of our Justification as indeed it must if imputed Righteousness be denied then the conditions of the Gospel are corrupted and perverted from their true end they are no longer subordinated to Christ's satisfaction but made to set up our inherent Righteousness in the room of it they shew no longer upon what terms Christs satisfaction shall discharge us but how our own Righteousness may do it which is plainly to pervert the conditions of the Gospel Moreover he must overturn the satisfaction of Christ Touching this three things are considerable viz. Christ's surrogation in our room Gods acceptation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on our behalf and the operation of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our discharge none of which can stand without an imputation The first thing is Christ's surrogation he suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20.28 in stead of many he was our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putting his Soul in the room of ours or else he could not have satisfied for us Now that Christ should suffer in our room and stead and his sufferings should not be accounted or imputed to us is a contradiction take away Imputation and you take away Surrogation take away Surrogation and you take away Satisfaction The second thing is Gods acceptation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on our behalf Christs Sacrifice was a sweet-smelling savour unto God Eph. 5.2 God accepted it on our behalf or else Christ could not have satisfied for us Now that Christs sufferings should be accepted by God as on our behalf and yet that they should not be accounted or imputed is utterly impossible so far as Christs Satisfaction was accepted by God for us so far it must be imputed to us if it was accepted only for a remissibility then it is imputed no further but then remission will be without satisfaction which is what the Socinians would have but if as the truth is it was accepted for Remission and Justification to be dispensed upon believing then it is imputed to that end actually to justifie and discharge us Take away Imputation and you take away Acceptation and with it Satisfaction The third thing is the operation of Christ's satisfaction in our discharge Satisfaction is destructio obligationis it doth really and properly discharge him for whom it is made accepted absolutely it discharges him immediately accepted on terms it discharges upon the performance and that as properly and really though not so soon as in the other case its vertue and efficacy which was suspended by the condition breaks forth into effect upon the performance this is the nature and property of Satisfaction A Satisfaction which doth not discharge doth not satisfie that is in plain terms it is no Satisfaction Now the satisfaction of Christ doth no discharge us immediatly but upon believing which is the Evangelical Condition and how doth it do it Surely one of these two ways either it discharges us meerly as it founded the Covenant or else as it is made ours by Imputation the former cannot be it founded the Covenant before our believing if it do no more after it discharges us not for it doth as much before believing before which it discharges not as after It founded the Covenant for those that perish at least so far that upon believing they might have been justified if it do no more for those that are saved it discharges us not for it doth operate as much and as far
the Mystical Union let Bishop Davenant say Exp. in Col. Quicquid de obtentâ Gratiâ sanctificatione de obtinendâ vitâ aeternâ homines sperant merum ludibrium insomnium est si non sint in Christo Christus in illis jam verò Christus in nobis nos in illo sumus cùm vinculo Spiritûs Fidei per Spiritum impressae in cordibus nostris unimur huic capiti nostro What in denying Imputed Righteousness the Church of England tells at large in the Homily touching the Salvation of Man I shall quote but one passage Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly believe in him he for them paid the Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now in him and by him every true Christian man may be called a fulfiller of the Law forasmuch as that which their infirmity lacked Christ's Justice hath supplied Which plainly implies a necessity of Imputed Righteousness What in bringing in internal Holiness into Justification the reverend Hooker saith The Church of Rome in teaching Justification by inherent Grace doth pervert the Truth of Christ There are other things but I leave them to the Reader 's observation in the After-discourse All Religion is founded on a belief of God's Goodness Mr. Sherlock Natural Religion was founded on those natural Evidences of the divine Bounty and Goodness in making and governing the World The Mosaick Religion on those miraculous Deliverances God wrought for Israel and that particular Providence which watched over them The Christian Religion on the Incarnation death and Resurrection of the Son of God The Christian Religion is founded so but dated much sooner than the Incarnation Answer it was in Essence though not in Name under the old Testament all along there hath been but one Faith one Mediator one Name under Heaven one Foundation of Salvation The Gospel was preached to us as well as unto them Heb. 4.2 Through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved even as they Act. 15.11 They all drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rook was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 He is that Petra vnde omnes credentes salutem hauriunt as one glosses on those words Salvation streams from him yesterday to day and for ever he that will seek any other Fountain of Life must be saved Platonicè or Catonicè which to say is to depreciate the Christian Religion and render it as cheap as any other He is our Saviour in no other sence than as he is our Mediator Mr. Sherlock and he mediates for us as our Priest that is in vertue of that Covenant which he sealed with his blood He sealed the Covenant with his Blood Answer but did not turn over his Mediatory Office to it he mediates in vertue of his Blood and Merits being not as Socinus would have it a meer Internuncial Mediator but a Redeeming atoning and Reconciling one He ratified the Covenant by his Blood but so that we have redemption through his blood Eph. 1.7 peace through his blood Col. 1.20 and cleansing from sin in his blood 1 Joh. 1.7 Hence as the learned Lubbertus hath observed the Blood of Christ differs from other in a way of transcendent excellency other blood hath been used in confirming Covenants but Christ's confirms the Covenant and besides expiates and purges away sin There is one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.5 and how he mediates the next Verse tells us Who gave himself a ransom for all The blood of Christ purges the Conscience saith the Apostle Heb. 9.14 and then adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that he might purge away our sins What the Author afterwards subjoyns These men trust in the person of Christ without any Promise nay in contradiction to it they quit his Promise and rely and roll upon his Person is utterly denied till proof be made of it The good men opposed are far from believing that they shall have any thing without a Promise neither do they quit his Promise when they rely upon his Person and Blood And yet that Reliance is as I have before shewed a Faith far higher than that dogmatical one which believes the Gospel and is distinct from Obedience When the Author summs up the Terms of the Gospel only in believing and obeying he falls short in omitting that Faith of Recumbency required therein under the Command of Faith which is more than a dogmatical Faith and distinct from Obedience which is the fruit but no part thereof CHAP. III. Sect. 1. WHen God chose Abraham 's Posterity Mr. Sherlock to be his peculiar People he did not design to exclude the rest of the World from his care and Providence and all possible means of Salvation as the Apostle argues in Rom. 3.29 Is he the God of the Jews only is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Which Argument if it have any force in it must prove Gods respect to the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since because it is founded on that Natural Relation God owns to all Mankind as their merciful Creator and Governour which gives the Gentiles as well as Jews an Interest in his Care and Providence This plainly evinces that all those particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People but the Design of all was to encourage the whole World to worship the God of Israel What the Author means by all possible Means of Salvation Answer I know not Surely God could have given as great Means to all other Nations as he did to Israel who was exalted above them all in Laws Revelations Miracles Protections Symbols of the Divine Presence in so signal a manner that the Jews doubt not to say That the seventy Souls that went down with Jacob into Egypt were worth as much as the seventy Nations of the World As for that of the Apostle Rom. 3.29 Is he the God of the Jews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also The Apostle in the precedent Verse concludes that the only way of Justification is Faith in this he shews that the one way of Justification was open to Gentiles as well as Jews in the next Verse he infers that it is one God who justifies both of them in a way of Faith He speaks not of being the Gentiles God in respect of Care and common Providence but in respect of extending this way of Justification to them upon their coming in to Christ who was that blessed Seed of Abraham in whom all Nations were to be blessed However till the Gospel came to them they sate in darkness and in the shadow of death aliens from Israel strangers from the Covenant without God without Christ without hope seeing no
the Prima Sapientia In the Sale of Joseph Man was cruel but God merciful In the Act of Judah and Tamar Man was unclean but God holy aiming at the Messiah in it In Rehoboam's rough Answer Man was foolish but God wise to accomplish his word In the Assyrian Tyranny Man was unjust but God righteous to correct his people In the strong Delusions sent to those that love not the Truth Man was weak but God strong in Spiritual Judgements and to name but one more In the Crucifixion of Christ there was Malice Blood and Wickedness on Man's part but Love Justice and Righteousness on God's one Attribute or other of his glitters in the Event with no more taint than is upon the pure Sun-beams by their converse in unclean places It 's true God needs not Sin to recommend his Glory no nor Virtue or Holiness in the Creature but sure he uses Sin that way and that so holily that it deserves a more reverent Expression than trucking with sin and the Devil As to the Event God preordains it I confess the Event of sinful Actions is evil in it self but in some respect it may be good to a third person Confess li. 9. cap. 8. A railing Servant wrought a cure upon Monica as St. Austin relates Nay in some case it may be good to the sinner De Civit. l. 14. c. 13. Audeo dicere superbis esse utile cadere in aliquod apertum manifestúmque peccatum unde sibi displiceant qui jam sibi placendo ceciderant saith the same Author And again on those words Omnia cooperantur in bonum Rom. 8. he adds Etiam si deviant exorbitent De Correp cap. 9. hoc ipsum eis faciat proficere in bonum quia humliores redeunt doctiores But however the Event be evil to the sinner it is not so to God as Ordinator The Event of Adam's Fall was evil to him but as it made way for the Redeemer was not so to God which made one cry out O foelix culpa quae tantum meruit Redemptorem The Event of the vile Affections in the Gentiles was evil to them but as it was punitive of their Idolatry was not so to God Hence St. Austin saith elegantly Tradit Deus in passiones ignominiae Contr. Jul. lib. 5. ut fiant quae non conveniunt sed ipse convenienter tradit even those inconvenient Affections were convenient for Gods Justice to inflict on them Is it not good that Sin should be punished with Sin The Scripture plainly affirms it and if the Event may be good as to God because of the Order of just penalty why may it not be such because of the Order of wise Conducibility God by his holy Ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion de Div. Nom. cap. 4 as far as that Ordination is Hence the Apostle puts a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Event of Heresies Dial. de Ver. cap. 8. and Anselm puts a Debet esse upon the Event of Sin and St. Austin lays it down clearly Euch. cap. 96. Vt sent mala bonum est aliter nullo modo esse sinerentur ab omnipotente bono every thing is good so far as ordinated by him In this sence the Medes are God's sanctified ones without sanctity in themselves and Events are good without goodness in themselves that which is evil in Specie may be good in Ordine and so far as it is good it is a fit Object for his Will especially seeing it is ordained to come to pass Deo permittente on the one hand and Creaturâ liberè agente on the other On such Terms as these I may say Deo ordinante pulchra sunt omnia But saith the Author The Creature cannot act freely for nothing can withstand the Decrees of God To which I answer Gods Providence is ever salvative of the Creatures Liberty inferring not a necessity of Coaction but Immutability Instances in Scripture are abundant Antiochus blasphemes according to his own will yet it was determined Dan. 11.36 The Chaldees march in violence and in the pomp of freedom insomuch that the Text saith That their judgment and dignity proceeded of themselves yet God had ordained them for judgment Hab. 1. The Kings in Revel 17. gave their Kingdom to the Beast and what freer than gift yet God put in their hearts to do so The Jews freely crucified Christ yet God's hand and counsel was in it After such pregnant Scriptures ought we not to acquiesce in this Truth That God's Decree and Man's Liberty may consist together Cajetan is an excellent Pattern for us who laying down the Common Opinion That Humane Acts are evitable as to us but inevitable as to Providence and then mentioning some distinctions to reconcile the matter piously concluded that he would captitivate his Uunderstanding in obsequium fidei and so we should all Having so prolixly spoken of the Ordination of such Events a very little may serve as to the End when God preordains such Events to be sure he doth it in great Wisdom and Reason some End there is in it If any will say it was done quià Voluit I am content his Will is never irrational if he will say further that it was for his Glory I am satisfied that is the supreme End if he will yet go on and say it was for the manifestation of his Justice and Mercy I cannot tell how to assign a better End if the after-use made of Sin may interpret God's meaning that shews forth the Illustration of both those Attributes The Apostle tells us That God is willing to shew his wrath and power in some and to make known the riches of his glory in others Rom. 9. Suppose there were no Ordination but only a nude Permission a man may ask Why did God permit such an Apollyon as Sin to enter the World Why suffered he so many glorious Angels to fall into sin and immediately without any place for Repentance to sink into Chains of Darkness for ever There is scarce any appearance but of meer Sovereignty Justice in it Why suffered he Man and all his Posterity with him to fall into sin and wrath It is plain that the work of Redemption in which Justice and Mercy were both shewed forth was ushered in upon it It 's true as the Scripture saith That God delights not in the death of a sinner not in death as it is the misery of the Creatute not in the death of a repenting sinner his Repentance which is there opposed to Death is more grateful However the sins of men fall under his Providence and without repentance their death as an act of Justice wil be grateful to him insomuch that he will laugh at it Prov. 1. There are behind yet two other Expressions the one puts the Doctor 's Opinion into odious colours after this manner It pleased God that Man should sin but when he had sinned he is exceedingly displeased at it But upon the very
Nature of it consists in the Vnion of things which in Rational Beings consists in mutual Relations and common Interests and the Foundation of it is a likeness of Nature and Harmony of Wills And therefore the Apostle explains our fellowship with God by our being the Temple of God and that God dwells in us and walks in us ver 17.18 As for that place 1 Joh. 1.3 Answer I have answered before As for the other 1 Cor. 1.9 Ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ it is to be considered that in the Epistles written to Visible Churches some things are common to all some proper only to Believers Those Churches are made up of Believers and Unbelievers and all things do not quadrate to all Thus in the quoted Chapter that touching schisms and divisions is an Item to all ver 10. but that fellowship of Christ ver 9. is proper to Believers such as shall be confirmed unto the end ver 8. This place evinces not that our Fellowship with Christ is founded on our Fellowship with the Visible Church all that are in it have not Communion with Christ those therefore who walk in darkness have it not and if they say that they have it the Apostle gives them the lye in plain terms 1 Joh. 1.6 Where by the way it appears that the fellowship with Christ mentioned ver 3. consists not in Fellowship with a Visible Church on the other hand all that are out of it want not Communion with Christ The unbaptized and unjustly excommunicate if Believers have it and yet are not in a Visible Church But saith the Author the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.10 argues from the nature of their Faith in Christ to the obligations of Peace and Vnity To which I answer that the Apostle argues from the precedent Commendations that the Grace of God was given to them ver 4. that in every thing they were inriched ver 5. that they came behind in no gift ver 7. that they had fellowship with Christ ver 9. which were only proper to the Believers among them and from thence exhorts all to Unity ver 10. Because the Believers among them were really such and the rest would seem to be such Afterwards the Author tells us That the Foundation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Communion is a likeness of Nature and harmony of Wills Now if we speak of Communion with a Visible Church made up of Believers and Unbelievers these have not a likeness of Nature the one having a divine Nature in them the other only an humane and that corrupt nor an harmony of wills the Will of the one being sanctified of the other carnal and vitious which shews that a Visible Church in the whole Complex of it hath only external Ligaments to tye the Members of it together If we speak of Communion with Christ which is proper to believers they are mystically united to Christ by the Spirit and Faith and withal have an heavenly Nature and Will suting to his Now because the Lord's Supper is the only Act which the Scripture mentions Mr. Sherlock whereby our Fellowship with God and Christ is expressed hence it is called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Communion 1 Cor. 10.16 The cup is the Communion of Christ's blood the bread of his body And he calls it the Communion 1. Because it signifies the Communion of Christians with each other that they are all Members of Christs body ver 17.2 Because it signifies our fellowship with God ver 18. Behold Israel after the flesh are not they that eat of the sacrifice partakers of the Altar The sacrifice on the Altar was reckoned as God's meat as the Temple was his House therefore those who eat of the Sacrifice were entertained at God's Table which was a signification of their Fellowship with him Thus the Lords Supper is a Feast upon a Sacrifice even that great stupendious one of the Body of Christ which was offered on the Cross Therfore to eat the Bread and drink the Wine which are Figures of his Body and Blood is to eat of that Sacrifice that spiritual food God hath provided for us Thus God entertains us at his Table as his own Children who are of his Family as Members of Christ who have a right to all the Blessings of the New Covenant which was sealed with his Blood This is the only Act of Religion which in Scripture signifies Communion with God But Prayer Meditation and such like Acts of Devotion are no where called Communion with God though a prevailing custom hath in our days almost wholly appropriated that name to them Fellowship with God doth not consist in transient acts but is a state of life that relation we stand in to God and Christ and no act of religion properly signifies this fellowship with God but only eating at his table You will not say that a poor man enjoyes communion with his Prince when he puts up his petition to pray to God is an act of homage which we owe him a Duty which results from our fellowship with God but it is not in its own nature an act of communion The Lords Supper is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Answer or Communion but Prayer Meditation and such like acts of Devotion are no where called so thus the Author But the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned 2 Cor. 13.12 cannot be spared out of Divine Ordinances unless we would strip them of their Divine excellency and write upon them that Ichabod which is proper to their departure And what if there were no such word as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture No more was the Nicene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor the Ephesine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thing it self being there will suffice all men but Chimers who only follow the sound of words True Believers as they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Partakers of the divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 moulded and formed into the Resemblance and beautiful Image of God so they have Communion with God in all holy Ordinances there God meets them and dispenses out spiritual Blessings to them there is a divine Converse and Entercourse between God and believing Souls the drawings of God are answered with the Soul 's running Cant. 1.4 God saith Seek ye my face and the Antiphon in the Soul is Thy face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 In Prayer the holy Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.26 lifts over against us to help up our devotions and the Great God above makes such sweet returns of Grace and Mercy as if he were present and vocally said Here I am Isai 58.9 While we are devoutly musing the holy Fire will perhaps drop down from Heaven and set the Heart as a spiritual Altar burning and aspiring upwards towards the great Origen of all Goodness and Perfections In the Dispensations of the Word oh what divine Influences and Spirations are there on Gods part What Compliances and Responses on the Believer's Justice
of God in this place Thus 2 Cor. 5.21 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him The Apostle doth not speak of a Righteousness in our selves but in him not of a Righteousness inherent but imputed Christ's Righteousness is made ours as our sins were made his and that is only by Imputation St. Austin pithily expresses it Ipse ergo peccatum Enchirid cap. 41. ut nos justitia nec nostra sed Dei simus nec in nobis sed in ipso sicut ipse peccatum non suum sed nostrum nec in se sed in nobis constitutum similitudine carnis peccati in qua crucifixus est demonstravit Thus Phil. 3.9 That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith By the Righteousness which is of God cannot here be meant inherent Graces those words that I may be found in him have a tacit relation to the Judgment of God and before that Tribunal no Saint on earth can can stand in his own Righteousness Job could not If I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemn me Job 9.20 David could not Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143.2 Danicl could not O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces The Righteousness which is of God is not the same with inherent Graces which because inherent are our own and so stiled in Scripture neither is it the same with Faith it self The Apostle saith not that it is Faith but that it is a Righteousness through the Faith of Christ a righteousness of God by faith It is therefore no other than Christ's Righteousness which Faith receives and God imputes But there is one place behind which in terminis calls the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ 2 Pet. 1.1 To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Observe it is not through the Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God and of our Saviour Christ as noting two Persons but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God and our Saviour as betokening one as Reverend Bishop Downham hath observed like that Tit. 2.13 The glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour where one Person is intended Hence it appears that the Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of Christ who is God Neither can inherent Graces be here meant for Faith the first Radical Grace of all is said to to be obtained through this Righteousness Thus far it appears that the Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of Christ Now it is evident that this Righteousness is imputed to us or else it could never arrive at those glorious Effects which are ascribed to it how should it profit us unless it were applied and become ours Or how should it become ours but by Imputation Being the Righteousness of another it cannot be ours subjectively and inherently and if it at all become ours it must be so by Imputation Without the first fundamental Imputation it could not render us justisiable or savable any more than it doth render Devils so without the after particular Imputation it cannot justifie or save us Unless this Righteousness be imputed it cannot save or avert God's wrath Rom. 1. It cannot be upon the Believer to justifie him Rom. 3. It cannot be the end of the Law for Righteousness to him Rom. 10. We cannot be made the Righteousness of God in Christ 2 Cor. 5. We cannot have the Righteousness of God to make us stand before God's Tribunal Phil. 3. The virtue of all depends upon Imputation Thus much touching that excellent Phrase The Righteousness of God so often mentioned in Scripture I now proceed to other Scriptures To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Rom. 4.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is reckoned or imputed for Righteousness Now is Faith taken here properly absolutely in it self or is it taken relatively with respect to its Object the Righteousness of Christ Properly absolutely in it self it is a Work the Apostle opposes believing to working ver 5. and speaks of a Righteousness without Works ver 6. Faith therefore is not here taken absolutely for so Faith is a Work and believing working Faith absolutely taken is our own hence we meet with those Phrases Thy faith and My faith Jam. 2.18 But that which justifies us is not our own but the Righteousness of God the Righteousness which justifies is through Faith Phil. 3.9 and not Faith it self Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 but the justifying Righteousness is not the hypostasis but the very thing hoped for We by faith wait for the hope of righteousness Gal. 5.5 That Righteousness which justifies us is the Righteousness which is imputed to us but we are justified by Christ's blood Rom. 5.9 we are made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 these therefore are imputed to us for Righteousness It is not Faith in it self is our Righteousness but its Object the Blood and Obedience of Christ Another famous place we have Rom. 5. there Adam and Christ are set forth as two Roots Adam conveying to the Branches naturally in him Sin and Death and Christ conveying to the Branches spiritually in him Righteousness and Life As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous ver 18 19. Here the Apostle speaks of Justification Justification of Life is opposed to condemnation Christ's Righteousness is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it hath a virtue in it to justifie others and is opposed to Adam's Transgression which had a power to involve others in condemnation By the obedience of Christ we are made or as the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies constituted righteous And how can Christ's Obedience being not inherent in us make us righteous This I confess is above Philosophy but the Apostle clears it Adam's Transgression was not inherently ours yet was it imputed to us to Condemnation in the same manner Christ's Obedience is not inherently ours yet was it imputed to us to Justification of Life Hence St. Bernard expostulates thus Cur non aliunde justitia Epist 190. cùm aliunde reatus Alius qui peccatorem constituit alius qui justificat à peccato An peccatum in semine peccatoris non justitia in Christi sanguine And indeed it would be very strange that Adam's Sin should be imputed to us as the Church hath ever acknowledged against Pelagians and yet Christs
this Righteousness with this Name we may without fear appear before the King executing Justice If any here reply we are Christians the Moral Law delivered by Moses obliges not us I answer I conceive it obliges all Christians the Scripture urges it upon them St. Paul presses the Romans though no Jews to love as the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.8 9. and the Ephesians though no Jews to honour their parents because it is a commandment with promise Eph. 6.2 St. James in his Epistle which is general to Gentiles as well as Jews would have them fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scriptures Jam. 2.8 The Matter of the Moral Law is perpetual and why should God put a temporary obligation upon it If the Moral Law bind us not then all the excellent Morals in the Prophets which are but as so many Commentaries on the Moral Law do not belong unto us and what a door will this open to overthrow the Old Testament I conceive therefore the Moral Law delivered by Moses obliges us Christians and I take it that our Church is of the same mind for I am sure she is too wise to command us to Eccho to an abrogated Law in such a devotional Prayer as that Lord have mercy upon us encline our hearts to keep this Law But however this opinion be touching the Moral Law as Mosaical without doubt whatsoever is Moral Naturall in it whatsoever is the pure Primitive Law of Nature must reach unto all and bind all all must answer to it and because it calls for finless Perfection nothing can answer it but the perfect righteousness of Christ and that made ours by Imputation 4. It is evident that the Passive Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us In Scripture the blood of Christ justifies us Rom. 5.9 purges the corjcience Heb. 9.14 cleanses us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 washes us from our sins Revel 1.5 And how can it doe these great things for us unless it be applied and made ours in particularâ— or how can it be made ours but by a particular Imputation sanguis Christi non haeret in nobis it is not subjectively in us but what ever it doth for us in Justification it doth as imputed to us Hence Christ is called a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 2.25 Faith receives the atoning Blood and God imputes it If there had been no first fundamentall Imputation of that Blood to us it could not have been said that Christ dyed for us more than for Devils That Blood shed could not have rendered us pardonable or justifiable upon Gospell-terms And if there be not an after particular Imputation of that Blood to us upon believing it cannot be said actually to justifie and wash us from our sins As shed for us it makes us pardonable and justifiable but no more till there be a particular imputation Without this it doth not actually justifie and wash us because it is not particularly applied and made ours Should we be justified or pardoned without this Imputation we should be justified or pardoned without that Blood made ours and by consequence without a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Satisfaction made ours in particular that Satisfaction without this Imputation being only in common to all pardoned or unpardoned and particularly applied to none Bellarmine himself confesses the Imputation of Christ's Passive Obedience Solus Christus saith he pro peccatis nostris satisfecit D. Justifiâ—◠〈…〉 illa satisfactio nobis donatur applicatur nostra reputatur cum Deo reconciliamur justificamur And why he might not as well have allowed the Imputation of the Active Obedience I see not save only because he would leave for our inherent Graces a room in Justification But because he allows not the Imputation of the Active Obedience Bishop Andrews is bold to tell him Sermon of Jâ—stisie That he spoils Christ of one half of his Name that is of that Name Jehovah our Righteousness And withal the Bishop urges thus against the Papists By what proportion do they proceed They cannot counterpoise an infinite sin but with an infinite Satisfaction and think they can weigh down a reward every way as infinite with a Merit to say the least surely not infinite Why should there be a recessary use of Christs death for the one and not an use fâ—â—â— as necessary for the Oblation of his Life for the other And again he saith This nipping at the Name of Christ is for no other reason but that we may have some honour our selves out of our Righteousness Hence Bellarmine saith Magìs honorificum est habere aliquid ex merito Rather than they will lose their honour Christ must part with a piece of his Name Thus that Reverend Man Let us therefore confess that all Christ's Righteousness Active as well as Passive is made ours by Imputation His Obedience like his seamless Coat all woven together of Love and Philanthropy from his first breath of Holiness on Earth to the last gasp upon the Cross should not be rent or divided but preserved entire for our Justification and Salvation 5. When we are justified before God it must be by a Righteousness either that of inherent Grace or that of Christ imputed to us We are not justified by the first our inherent Graces have all their spots and wrinkles of imperfection how faultring is our Faith How fluctuating our Hope How cold our Charity How much is there wanting of what ought to be in every one of them All of them are but in part and as it were in their first Lineaments none of them in plenitude or full measure answering to the Law they dwell not alone but alas there is a sad Inmate of Corruption a body of Sin dwelling under the same roof so that the purest actions of the Saints on earth come forth ex laeso Principio out of an Heart sanctified but in part and in their egress from thence gather a taint and tincture from the indwelling sin Quotidie stillamus super telam justitiae nostrae saniem concupiscentiae nostrae saith one Our concupscence like putrid matter is ever dropping upon the web of our weak little holiness If we walk not post concupiscentias it is very well Non concupisces which is a greater thing we cannot reach in this Vale of sins and sorrowes still the Flesh will be lusting and Corruption bubling up in the heart and can we think that such imperfect Graces should be the Matter of our Justification Again we have contracted many Guilts and every even the Least of them have a kind of Infinity in them because against an infinite Majesty and can our inherent Graces which are but finite things ever expiate or blot out those guilts No surely they cannot cover their own spots and blemishes but must pray in aid from the Grace and Righteousness of Christ to have them done away and is it imaginable that those Graces which want a pardon and
thing That the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin There must be such a gross error in modo a misprision so horrible that it is not imaginable that any one among all the millions of Sacrifices under the Law could be rightly offered up or accepted by God Such hard intolerable consequences follow this opinion that the Ancients had no knowledge of or Faith in the Messiah On the other hand that they had such a Knowledg and Faith may be gathered as from other things so from this consideration that they offered up their Sacrifices in Faith as Abel did that they were graciously accepted of by God in their offering up those Sacrifices Hence it is said that God had respect to Abel and his offering consuming it as is thought by fire from Heaven and so giving a divine Testimony to it Hence also we find that when Noah offered burnt offerings the Lord did smell a sweet savour Gen. 8.21 because those Sacrifices had an aspect upon the sweet Sacrifice of Christ in which God is ever well-pleased Moreover if the justification of the ancients were as it must be built upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the death and satisfaction of Christ then unless it were by a Faith in Christ the death of Christ one in it self must found three ways of justification one by natural Faith another by a Faith of particular promises and a third by Faith in Christ which seems very strange and incongruous Thus much touching the Ancients Faith in Christ unto which I shall only add the Testimony of our Church Abraham Isaac and Jacob believed and it was imputed to them for righteousness 2. Hom. of the Passion was it imputed to them only And shall it not be imputed to us also Yes if we have the same Faith as they had it shall be as truly imputed to us as it was to them for it is one Faith that must save both us and them even a sure and stedfast Faith in Christ Jesus From hence we learn Thirdly Mr. Sherlock what Faith in Christ is which is now imputed to us for righteousness as Abraham 's Faith was to him for to make our Faith in Christ answer to the Faith of Abraham and all good men in former ages without which the Apostles argument from Abraham's being justified by Faith is of no force our Faith in Christ must signifie such a stedfast belief of all those Revelations which Christ hath made to the world as governs our lives and actions Abraham was justified by believing the Revelations which God made to him and we are justified by believing those Revelations which Christ hath made of God's Will to us for if by the righteousness of Faith you understand the righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith and imputed to us you utterly destroy the Apostles argument for our justification by Faith for Abraham and all the good men of old were not justified by such a Faith as this they never heard of the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us Noah was made heir of Righteousness because he believed the deluge and prepared an Ark at Gods command Abraham 's Faith was imputed to him for righteousness because he left his own Country followed God into a strange Land believed that God would give him a son and offered this son at God's command Now what hath all this to do with an imputation of Christ's Righteousness How does it follow that because Abraham was justified by such noble and generous acts of Faith therefore we should be justified by imputed Righteousness by rowling our souls on Christ These two Faiths are of as different kinds as can be imagined we cannot reason from the one to the other The difference between the Faith of Abraham and the Faith of Christans is this Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness we believe in Christ and this is counted to us for righteousness Abraham believed the Revelations God made to him we believe the Revelations God hath made to to us by his Son Heb. 1.1 So that the first notion of Faith in Christ is a firm belief of his divine Authority which necessarily draws after it a belief of the whole doctrine of the Gospel Thus Joh. 20.31 The Christian Faith is described by believing that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God And 1 Joh. 5.5 Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God That is that he came from God with full Power and Authority to declare his Will and confirm the Covenant Abraham 's faith was founded on the immediate Inspirations of God or the Revelations of Angels But a Faith in Christ is founded on the Authority of Christ which is the first Object of the Christian Faith and the reason and foundation of all other acts of Faith Abraham had only some particular Revelations as the Object of his Faith but Christ hath made a perfect Revelation of the whole Will of God which is the Object of our Faith Thus the Christian Faith excels all other kinds of Faith as much as the Gospel excels all other revelations made to Abraham and other good men but still the end of all Faith is the same to govern our lives and make us obedient in all things to God as Abraham 's was without which no Faith can justifie The stress of this discourse lyes upon two or three supposals Answer One is this that the very act of Faith is properly and in it self our Righteousness or the matter of our Justification Another is this that the whole nature of Faith consists in an assent to Divine Revelation A third is this that Abraham had only a Faith of particular Revelations but no Faith in Christ Now not to repeat things over and over I have before proved that Faith as it is an Act and absolutely in it self considered is not our Righteousness or the matter of our Justification that there is in the nature of Faith over and above a meer assent a fiducial recumbency also and that the Faith of Abraham was not only a Faith of particular promises but a Faith in the Messiah These things being before asserted the answer is very easie Our Faith in Christ very well answers to the Faith of Abraham Abraham trusted in Christ and so do we These Faiths answer one another and that much more harmoniously than if we say Abraham believed particular Promises and we believe in Christ for there the Objects are variant Indeed our Faith as having more of Evangelical Light in it is more explicit than Abraham's was but this being but a gradual difference still they are one Faith in substance and center in the same Object in the Messiah But saith the Author Abraham and the rest never heard of imputed Righteousness no he and Noah believed particular Revelations and what hath this to do with imputed Righteousness Doth it follow because Abraham was justified by such generous acts that we
blameless ver 5 6. But then after all he casts away all this Jewish and Pharisaical glory What things were gain to me those I have counted loss for Christ ver 7. he would not be justified by any of those things but doth he go no further Doth he only exclude his external Pharisaical Righteousness No surely his discourse goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ vers 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Particles of amplification as if the Apostle had said Nay more than that even now do I count all things loss In the 7. Verse he casts off his Jewish and Pharisaical gains but in the 8. he puts by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things his inherent Graces not being admitted to be the Matter of our Justification In the 7. Vers we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in tempore praeterito I have counted but in the 8. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in praesenti now I do count all things loss Hence the excellent Beza saith Notandum praesens tempus sic enim crescit oratio ut jam Apostolus quod ad justificationem coram Deo attinet omnia opera excludat tum praecedentia tum etiam consequentia fidem Exam. ' de Justif pag. 135. And Learned Chemnicius saith Paulum non tantùm uti praeterito tempore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de operibus praecedentibus conversionem sed praesenti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut ostendai quòd operibus suis etiam post renovationem fact is non tribuat Justificationem coram Deo Even our inherent Graces how precious soever they be in Sanctification must not assume the Royal seat of Christ and his Righteousness they must not be our very Righteousness in Justification Bellarmine indeed here cries out Quanta quaeso blasphemia est How great is this blasphemy to call good works done out of the Faith and Grace of Christ no better than dung But Paraeus answers him very well That they are not so called absolutely in themselves but comparatively to the Righteousness of Christ nefas enim ducit in ullis operibus fiduciam Justificationis ponere coram Deo In the Matter of Justification the whole Church calls her Righteousness a filthy Rag St. Paul will not there own his own inherent Graces no more than holy Job would know his own Soul But this is yet more clear ver 9. The Apostle would be found in Christ not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law he excludes his own Righteousness that is his inherent Graces in the point of Justification I say his inherent Graces for he had before shut out his external Pharisaical Righteousness ver 7. and his after-speech being not a Battology or vain repetition but progressive or expressive of more than went before he doth in the 9. Verse put by his inherent Graces under the name of his own Righteousness and which further confirms this Sence inherent Graces are in Scripture said to be our own Hence we find my faith and thy faith Jam. 2.18 and our Saviour saith Except your righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of heaven Matth. 5.20 See here a Righteousness and that exceeding a Pharisaical one called theirs The Apostle excludes the righteousness which is of the Law In the 7. Verse he had shut out the Righteousness of the Law taken in the Pharisaical sence but in the 9. Verse he goes on and puts by the Righteousness of the Law taken in its own spiritual Nature the Righteousness which the Law in its holy Commands prescribes and surely the Law calls for internal Holiness as well as external Conformity In another place the Apostle tells us That by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2.16 No flesh not the holiest Saint on earth whose Righteousness is as much above the Pharisees as Life is above pictures and shadows shall be justified by his own Righteousness or conformity to the Law But if the Apostle would not have his own Righteousness which is of the Law in Justification what would he have He would have the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith He doth not say a Righteousness which is Faith or other Graces but a righteousness which is through the faith of Christ a righteousness which is of God by faith Now inherent Graces are never in Scripture called the Righteousness of God The righteousness of God is upon those that believe Rom. 3.22 not in them as inherent Graces are The righteousness of God is in Christ 2 Cor. 5.21 not in our selves as our Graces are The righteousness of God is one and the same with the righteousness of Christ 2 Pet. 1.1 not the same with our Graces The Apostle therefore would have the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith that is the perfect Righteousness of Christ which Faith receives and God accepts on our behalf By these things it appears that the Apostle in this place doth not only exclude external Pharisaical Righteousness but even inherent Graces in the matter of Justification There is a double Antithesis in the words Mr. Sherlock the righteousness of the Law is opposed to the righteousness which is by the faith of Christ and my own righteousness to the righteousness of God Now the surest way to understand the meaning of this is to consider how these phrases are used in Scripture The righteousness of the Law as you have already heard is an external Righteousness which consists in washings and purifications and sacrifices or an external conformity to the Moral Law The righteousness which is by the faith of Christ is an internal Righteousness which consists in the renovation of our Minds and Spirits in the government of our thoughts and passions which is therefore called being born again becoming new creatures rising with Christ putting off the old man and putting on the new which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness That Righteousness which God requires of us under the Gospel must be an inward Principle of Love and Obedience which transforms us into the image of God as if we were born again or made new creatures The reason why Godsent Christ into the world to die as a Sacrifice for our sins and to confirm and seal the new Covenant with his Blood was that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom 8.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostome expounds it that which the Law was designed to work in them but was found too weak to effect it by reason of the greater power of sin that is the inward holiness and purity of mind which was represented and signified by
those external Ceremonies of Circumcision Washing Purifications and Sacrifices This was the design of the Gospel to work in us that inward Holiness and Purity which is the perfection and accomplishment of the typical and figurative Righteousness of the Law I know very well that this place is expounded of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness but is there any mention here of the Righteousness of Christ That he fulfilled all Righteousness for us that his Righteousness is imputed to us and so we fulfil the Righteousness of the Law in him The Apostle's design is to shew the great Virtue of the Gospel in delivering from the power of sin which the Law could not effect The Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that divine and spiritual Law which Christ hath given us which governs our Minds and is a Principle of Spiritual Life makes us free from the Law of sin and death from the power and dominion of sin which is called a Law and the Law in our Members warring against the Law of our Minds For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh what the Law could not do to deliver us from the power and dominion of sin this God effected by sending Christ into the world to publish the Gospel to us and confirm the Promises and Threatnings conteined in it with his Blood that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit How can Imputation come in here What pretty sence would this make of the Apostle's Argument The Law was too weak to make men throughly good to conquer their sin reform their hearts and lives therefore God sent his Son into the world What for to give them better Laws more excellent Promises and more powerful assistances to do good No by no means but to fulfil all Righteousness for them that they may fulfil the Righteousness of the Law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having Christ's Righteousness imputed to them There was no reason to abrogate the Law of Moses for this end it might have continued in force still and have been as available to Salvation as the Gospel is with the supplemental Righteousness of Christ but the weakness of the Law the Apostle complains of was not the want of an imputed Righteousness which might have been had as well under the Law as under the Gospel if God had pleased but a want of strength and power to subdue the sinful appetites of men It was weak through the flesh by the prevalency of lusts which the Law could not conquer therefore the Gospel must supply this defect not by imputed Righteousness but by an addition of power to enable men to do that which is good to fulfil the Righteousness of the Law by a sincere and Spiritual Obedience The Righteousness of the Law as you have already heard is an external Righteousness Answer Thus the Author We have heard so from the false Glosses of the Pharisees we have had such a rumour from the Socinians as if the Law were but a lame imperfect thing Socinus as I have him quoted by Calovius was not afraid to say That Praecepta Veteris Testamenti were levia vana parùm Deo digna but surely this will not down with Christians The Law is Sanctio sancta the Image of the divine Sanctity the Summary of all Duties The Psalmist in the 19. Psalm having set forth how the Glory of God breaks forth from the Sun and Heavens elevates his discourse to the pure Law which as it enlightens the inner Man is a brighter Luminary than the Sun which shines to Sense and as it comprizes all Duties within it self is a nobler Circle in Morality than the Heavens which environ all other Bodies are in Nature The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is pure making wise the simple saith the Psalmist in that place So perfect it is that nothing is to be added to it or diminished from it Deut. 4.3 so spiritual that even the Saints under the Gospel are but carnal in respect of it Rom. 7.14 It calls upon us to love the Lord with all our heart with all our soul and with all our might Deut. 6.5 to love him in such a divine degree as to love nothing else suprà aequè or contrà and is this external Righteousness Or what is inner purity if this be not so It tells us Non concupisces and so meets with the very first risings of corrupt Nature with the very motions and titillations of the flesh it would have an heart all of purity and holiness without any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reliques of corruption in it and what can be more divine St. Paul therefore saith that in his Pharisaism he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Law because without a sense of its spiritual Nature Rom. 7.9 Unless we own its divine Spiritualty we are as it were without it In a word whatsoever it be that makes up the just posture of Man towards God or his Fellow-creatures is there delineated in such accuracy and full perfection as no man in this life but Jehovah our righteousness only ever arrived at But to go on with the Author The Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ is internal This God requires of us under the Gospel Thus the Author To which I answer The Author pag. 259. makes the Righteousness of Faith in those under the Old Testament distinct from the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ and here he makes the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ to consist in internal holiness and renovation But surely there were New Creatures under the Old Testament as well as there are under the New Job was a perfect an upright man and therefore a New Creature David a man after Gods own heart and therefore a New Creature without this internal renovation there could not have been that circumcision of the heart Deut. 30.6 nor the law in the heart which is made the Character of a righteous man Psal 37.31 That Covenant of writing the Law in the heart Jer. 31.33 was in substance one and the same in both Testaments Those under the Old Testament unless regenerate could never have entred so holy a place as Heaven that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or general Assembly which takes in all the Saints of the Old Testament is the Church of the first born Heb. 12.23 There are none else but New Creatures in it However the Racovian Catechist appropriates the New Creation to the New Testament yet I must assert that it was under both Testaments but under neither was it the justifying Righteousness But the Author goes on God sent his son into the world that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.3 4. that we might have inward holiness and purity that we might be delivered from
Christ's Righteousness and Satisfaction to us he now in a legal notion looks upon both but as one person Now I have two things to say to this First I wonder why this should be called the union of Saints to Christ Or why Christ should be called only the Saints Surety The Apostle tells us that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.22 The Surety of a Testament or Covenant Now there is a vast difference between Christ's being the Saints surety and the surety of the Covenant for the Covenant respects both Saints and Sinners therefore is antecedent to our union to Christ as Saints and to be surety of the Covenant signifies no more but to confirm this Covenant and to undertake for the performance of it that all the promises of it shall be made good upon such terms as are annexed to them But to be a Surety for Saints as the Doctor explains it is to strike hands with God to put himself in their stead to do and suffer for them Now this notion is different from the notion of a Surety of a Covenant and so it wants some better proof But secondly suppose Christ had been called the Saints surety I doubt they are as much out in the Law of suretiship as they were before in the Laws of Marriage For first the prime end of suretiship among men is not that the Surety shall without more ado pay the debt but to give security to the Creditor that the debt shall be paid that is the Surety doth not make himself immediate Debtor but the Debtor is Debtor still and bound to pay the Debt and the Surety is liable only in case of his default It is a strange definition of suretiship That it is an absolute taking the debt upon our selves and an actual discharging the Debtor No man in his wits ever became surety for another when he knew before hand that if he did he must pay the debt but men become sureties upon reasonable assurance that they shall suffer no injury by it Therefore when Christ died for us he did not dye as our Surety but as our Sacrifice substituted in our room which is the Scripture notion of it and differs as much from the notion of a surety as paying the debt doth from being bound with another that it shall be paid Suppose secondly That Christ dyed for us as our Surety yet did Christ fulfill all Righteousness for us as our surety too Doth this also exactly answer the case of suretiship among men so as that there needs no illustration of it The Doctor was so wise that he would not assert this in the premisses but very craftily thrusts it into the conclusion That therefore God makes over our sins to Christ and Christ's Righteousness and satisfaction to us But was there ever such a surety heard of among men that one man should discharge all offices of piety virtue justice temperance instead of another If such a thing had ever been such a man ought not to have been called a surety but a proxy But humane Laws as many defects as there are in them never admitted of such proxies for these are personal duties which none can perform for us you may as well say that a man may live and be a man by proxy as discharge those duties which are necessarily entailed on his person by a proxy Proxies are allowable only in such cases where the material enquiry is whether the thing be done not who doth it but where the consideration of the person that doth it is essential to the action there is no place for a surety or proxy because it doth not satisfie the Law that the thing is done unless it be done by such a person Thus it is in all the duties of Piety and Religion every individual person is bound to do them Though there were never so many righteous men in the World there righteousness can avail none but themselves Nay the righteousness of God which is more than all the righteousness of men cannot make an unrighteous man righteous no external Relation can make the righteousness of another ours because it is personal righteousness that is required of us and the righteousness of another can never be our personal righteousness unless we become one person with him There is no other way to make the personal righteousness which is the Righteousness required of us but by a personal union to Christ by being christed with Christ as some speak how boldly soever yet very agreeable to these principles Christ is the Surety of the Covenant Heb. 7.22 Answer And he is our Surety also he undertook the satisfaction of our debts and therefore must be such Lo I come to do thy will O God saith he Heb. 10.7 Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices could not pay our debts The blood of Bulls and Goats could not take away sin as the Apostle there tells us Christ therefore undertook the doing of it he was substituted in our stead or room he gave his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20.28 A price in the room or stead of many he gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 2.6 A counterprice or vicarious price for all he was our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Soul was in our Souls stead which could never have been unless as our Surety he had undertaken to satisfie for us The sins of us all met upon that holy immaculate one Isai 53.6 He was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 Sin by imputation who had not the least spot by inhesion and this could by no means have been unless he had undertaken satisfaction as our Surety St. Paul could never have been charged with the debt of Onesimus unless as his Surety neither could Christ have been charged with our sins unless he had been ours he was nor only charged with our sins but made actual satisfaction for them he paid that he never took he was wounded for our transgressions Isai 53.5 He gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 He made such satisfaction that he blotted the bond or hand-writing that was against us Col. 2.14 And these things he would never have done unless he had taken them upon himself as our Surety he saith of himself that he came to give his life a ransom for many Matth. 20.28 He came for that end as being bound by his suretiship so to do He was therefore our Surety as well as the Surety of the Covenant Nay it being plainly the divine pleasure that there should be no remission without shedding of blood that all pardoning mercy should issue out to us through a satisfaction unless he had been our Surety unless he had undertaken to satisfie for us he could not have been Surety of the Covenant he could not have secured the least Grace or Mercy to us more than to Devils for whom he would not be surety or make any satisfaction Now being our Surety he is one with us Conjunctione legali and so he is with all those for
absurdius aut iniquius dici potuerit quà mjure alicui posse aliena peccata imputari I see nothing saith he more absurd or unequal than that the sins of one man should be imputed to another Yet for all this our Divines do maintain that our sins were imputed to Christ and indeed there can be no Satisfaction without it The Author here complains that Christ should be a Surety to fulfil all Righteousness for us and so that Righteousness should be imputed to us but if the sin of one man may be imputed to another why not his Righteousness The Apostle argues from the Imputation of Adam's Sin to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5.18 19. What can be more express if our Reason would submit to it Bishop Davenant tells us that De justit habit cap. 28. Christus Sponsor pro nobis factus nostro nomine non modò subivit perpessionem Crucis sed impletionem Legis Christ not as our Proxy but as our Surety did in our name not only undergo the sufferings of the Cross but took on him the impletion of the Law But saith the Author Righteousness is a personal thing to be performed by our selves I answer What Christ performed for us was not performable by our selves in our lapsed estate he fulfilled all Righteousness for us to the very highest pitch of the Law in order to our Justification and that we could not reach in our own persons and that sincere Obedience which we pay in our own persons doth not fully answer the Law and so appertains not to our Justification but Sanctification And this I take to be the Method of Salvation which God hath chalked out to us It 's true the Author urges That the Righteousness of another can never be our personal Righteousness But though it cannot be ours by Inhesion yet it may by Imputation it was only in Christ's Person yet may be reckoned or accounted to us in Justification or else I cannot tell how the Blood of Christ which cleanses away all sin should ever be ours that was not inherent in us and if it become ours it must be by Imputation If we own not the Imputation of Christs Passive Obedience we cannot own that Christ gave himself for us as a Ransom or a Sacrifice and if we own the Imputation of his Passive Obedience we must also own the Imputation of his Active for there was not to say a tincture but a great and high measure of Active Obedience in his Passion and if his Passion in its entirety and complete perfection be imputed to us his Active Obedience must be imputed to us also But now let us consider Mr. Sherlock whether in Law the Debtor and Surety are one person no considering man can think it indifferent who pays the debt the Surety or the Debtor or that they are both equally obliged to it the Debtor is the immediate Debtor still and the Surety only obliged in case of default the Law doth not account it indifferent which of them pay it For though it permit the payment to be exacted from the Surety in case the Debtor refuse yet it will look back again and allow the surety an action against the debtor for such a refusal which is an Argument that the Law doth not judge them one person Thus it is in bail the Law doth not judge them one person for if the prisoner escape the bail or surety shall be punished according to the nature of the fact and yet the prisoner is not quitted by this means but liable either to the arrest of the Surety or in Criminal Causes to the Sentence of the Law if ever he be retaken Thus in Sureties for good behaviour which sounds as if it were nearest a kin to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as our Surety though the Surety be never so innocent and virtuous this will not serve him for whom he is Surety but if he prove a Villain they shall be both punish'd So that humane Laws are strangers to this Mystery of imputing the Righteousness of a Surety to a bad man Suretiship doth not so unite their Persons that whatever one doth is always and to all purposes imputed to the other And if this will not hold good among men it is a very sorry foundation for this bargain and exchange betwixt Christ and Believers that he should take their sins upon himself and impute his Righteousness to them All this runs upon a mistake Answer that Christ cannot be a Surety unless he be such after the manner of men the Suretyship of Christ is not to be measured by humane Laws unto which because variant among themselves no less I suppose in points of Suretyship than in other things it cannot possibly correspond but it is to be measured by the holy Scriptures which set forth his undertaking and satisfying our debts in a way of superlative Excellency above all the Sureties in the world Among men notwithstanding the Surety the Debtor is Debtor still But Christ hath as our Surety made such a plenary Satisfaction on our behalf that if we receive him by Faith we are Debtors no longer all our debts are crossed and blotted out of Gods Book Among men the Surety having made payment may have his Action against the Debtor and ordinarily he seeks to reimburse himself But our heavenly Surety seeks no such matter he knows that all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth are not able to repay him what he hath laid down for us neither if they could doth he desire it but on the contrary he woes and beseechs men to come in to him that their Debts may not be charged on them by the Law for want of imbracing the Gospel If upon the escape of the Prisoner the Bail be punished yet is not the Prisoner quitted But our Surety Christ did not suffer as a Bail doth upon escape upon accident or contingency but upon absolute and irrevocable certainty such as could not be avoided and he suffered so in our room and stead and his Satisfaction is so far reckoned or imputed to us that upon our believing there is not there cannot be any condemnation to us or satisfaction required of us for ever In Suretiship for the Behaviour the Virtues of the Surety are not accounted to him for whom he is Surety But the Payment and Satisfaction of Christ our Surety is upon Gospel-terms so imputed and made over to us that the Law or Justice of God cannot demand a second Payment and Satisfaction from us Hence it appears that Christ and we are one person in Law that his Payment and Satisfaction is reckoned as ours And what matters it if humane Laws are strangers to imputed
Moses under which they never were God sent forth his Son made of a woman Answer made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons Thus the Apostle Gal. 4. 4 5. The Son of God was made of a woman in his Incarnation made under the Law under the rule of it in his active obedience under the curse of it in his passive and the end of all was that he might redeem us that we who were captives under the wrath of God might be redeemed ones And further that we might receive the adoption of sons that we who were children of wrath might be sons of God and so heirs of eternal life and that it may be thus indeed that Christ's being under the Law his active and passive obedience may procure such a redemption and adoption such an exemption from wrath and title to heaven for us His obedience must be applyed to us and become ours which cannot be but by imputation But saith the Author This us is not in the Text it is not to redeem us but to redeem them that were under the Law that is the Jews But was not Christ a Redeemer of the Gentiles also Or is he not their Redeemer within this Text Yes surely observe the words of the Apostle To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons The Apostle alters his phrase and turns them into we which takes in the Galatians into the adoption and by consequence into the redemption too and to make it more clear he alters his phrase again and turns we into ye in the next verse which hangs upon the former And because ye are sons vers 6. ye Galatians ye Gentiles are sons and ye Galatians ye Gentiles are redeemed ones within the Text Otherwise which is very strange the Apostle should argue from the Redemption of the Jews only to the Adoption of the Gentiles But to go on Christ saith the Author redeemed the Jews from the bondage of the Mosaical Law that is I suppose the Ceremonial Law and introduced a better Covenant the adoption of sons To which I answer Christ did indeed redeem from the bondage of Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies But is this all the Redemption within the Text If we stop here we fall in with the gloss of Socinus who understands only a freedom A jugo legis De servat part 2. cap. 24. ut Spiritûs servilis loeo filialem spiritum adipiscerentur The Redemption here is not to be restrained to a freedom from Mosaical Ceremonies only Christ was made under the whole Law and the Redemption which must be parallel to his being under the Law must not only be a Redemption from the Bondage of the Ceremonial Law but a Redemption from the curse of the Moral of which the Apostle had discoursed but a little before Gal. 3.13 Our Saviour was never made under the whole Law to redeem from a part of it only Again Redemption from the Ceremonial Law was peculiar to the Jews But the Redemption here spoken of reaches as far as the Gentiles also who as I before noted have a share in the Adoption of Sons as well as the Jews The Redemption here spoken of is not a part or piece of Redemption but Redemption in its fulness and excellency Christ by coming into the flesh introduceth a better Covenant that is the beams of Evangelical Light were purer and the effusions of the holy Spirit larger than before But still we must remember that the Covenant of Grace was for substance one and the same under both Testaments Under the Old Testament true Believers had the Law in their heart the Adoption of Sons the free Spirit and a true title to eternal Life And on the other hand under the New Testament unbelievers have the Law and Gospel too but in the Letter their bondage is far greater than that of beggarly Elements The unclean spirit dwells and works in them and the dreadful wrath of God abideth on them Christ's being under the Law saith the Author is his being such a person as should exactly answer all the Types and Figures of the Law Unto which I add His being under the Law is his being such a person as should exactly answer all the demands of the Moral Law in its mandatory and minatory parts I shall now examine what influence the Sacrifice of Christ's Death Mr. Sherlock and the Righteousness of his life have upon our acceptance with God And all that I can find in Scripture about this is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that God being well pleased with the obedience of Christ's Life and the sacrifice of his Death for his sake entred into a new Covenant with mankind wherein he promses pardon of sin and eternal life to those who believe and obey the Gospel This is very plain with reference to Christ's death Hence the Blood of Christ is called the blood of the covenant Heb. 10.29 And Christ is called the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls through the blood of the everlasting covenant Heb. 13.20 And the Blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 which is an allusion to Moses his sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifice whereby he confirmed the Covenant between God and the children of Israel Heb. 9.19 20 21. For when Moses had spoken every Precept to all the people according to the Law when he had declared the terms of this Covenant to them he took the Blood of Calves and Goats with Water and scarlet Wool and Hysop and sprinkled both the Book and all the People saying This is the blood of the testament which God hath ordained to you Thus the Blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling Because by his Blood God did seal and confirm the Covenant of Grace as the sprinkling of the blood of beasts did confirm the Mosaical Covenant Hence we are said to be justified by the blood of Christ Rom. 5.9 that is by the Gospel-Covenant which was confirmed with his Blood Christ is called a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 that is by a belief of his Gospel Hence the Scripture uses these phrases promiscuously To be justified by Faith and to be justified by the faith of Christ and to be justified by Christ and to be justified through Faith in his blood to be justified and saved by grace Nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God Joh. 20.31 And that God raised him from the dead Rom. 10.9 All which signifie the same thing that we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel for faith or faith in Christ signifies such a firm belief of the Gospel as brings forth all fruits of obedience and the Grace of God is the Gospel of Christ expresly so called Tit. 2.11 As being the effect of Gods Grace and Faith in the Blood of Christ
Grace is consistent with taking all fair opportunities of sinning so we do not design it before hand Secondly When the temptation easily prevails then it is the Law of sin in the unregenerate This is an Argument indeed that a Man is a willing Slave but when a Man is conquered by a temptation though he make some resistance it is an Argument that sin is his Master which rules and governs especially if this be often such a Man surely is none of Christs freemen and therefore not to fail Thirdly When sin carries it in spite of all opposition against all external discouragements threatnings of the Law the Scepter of the Gospel the Love of God and his Wrath the Death and Wounds of Christ Reproofs Resolutions Vowes Promises c. then it is the Law of sin So that it seems when sin carries it in despite of all external oppositions only it is the mark of an unregenerate Man but when it carries it against internal and external oppositions that is a sign of a regenerate Man for a regenerate Man has the same external oppositions to preserve him from sin that an unregenerate Man hath and besides these he hath internal oppositions the checks of his own conscience which he says the unregenerate Man has not And Fourthly When it is sinning and no sense of sin no after Repentance for it then it is the Law of sin Now what bad Man is there who does not at one time or other repent of his sins complain of them And how many are there that repent of their sins and make large Confessions of them and return to them again There are no Men but do at one time or other express some sorrow for their sins which he calls Repentance and there are a great many who pretend thus to be sorry for their sins who it is to be feared are never the better Men for it and yet were there any such who sin without any sense of it they would be much better then those regenerate Men who feel the gripes of conscience for sin and yet return to it This working of the Law of sin in Gods People is an ill thing Answer Oh! that we had perfection But while we are here sin will be in us and whilest it is in us it will work in some measure Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith St. Austin De Temp. Serm. 45. The first mark in the Doctor is sinning industriously and designedly and this is a sure one and found in all the unregenerate although all of them are not alike cunning and Artists at the Trade of sin all more or less make provision for the Flesh the frame of their Heart stream of their Thoughts run this way The Flesh as the Doctor speaks hath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the projecting and forecasting ability at command in them thus it is not with the regenerate The Second is The temptation easily prevails in the unregenerate and what more certain The old heart is as dry tinder ready to take fire upon every little spark thus it is not with the regenerate who hath a higher and a better Spirit than his own to guard him against the temptatation If he be overcome in a particular Act of sin sin is not yet his Master because it cannot gain the bent of his heart and the course of his life The third is When sin carries it against all external Discouragements against the threatnings of the Law the Scepter of the Gospel the Love and Wrath of God the Wounds of Christ Reproofs Resolutions Vowes c. then it is the Law of sin Upon which the Author inferrs thus It seems when sin carries it against external oppositions only it is a mark of an unregenerate Man but when it carries it against internal and external oppositions that is a sign of a regenerate Man To which I answer It is true when sin carries it in a regenerate Man it carries it against such internal helps and principles of Grace as are not in the unregenerate but then it carries it only in a single Act But in the unregenerate it carries it in a course of life too against Law Gospel Wrath Love the Blood of Christ the smitings of Conscience Reproofs Promises Judgments still he will sin on whilest he is unregenerate thus the regenerate doth not The Fourth is When 't is sinning and no sense of sin no after Repentance for it then it is the Law of sin But saith the Author What bad Man is there who does not at one time or other repent of his sins and yet were there any such they would be better than those regenerate Men who feel the gripes of conscience for sin and yet return to it Unto which I answer Surely all bad Men do not repent of their sins such as God gives up to a reprobate mind to a fat heart to a spirit of slumber to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a brawny hardness which feels nothing do not do so and yet I suppose these are the worst of Men Sinning against gripes of Conscience is a great aggravation but an hard senseless heart is the worst state imaginable on Earth But suppose bad Men have some kind of Repentance is it such as the regenerate have after their falls No surely the regenerate as the Doctor hath it are greatly humbled they recover again by true Repentance they rise after their falls thus unregenerate Men do not It is wonderful to consider Mr. Sherlock how little a matter will serve for an evidence of Grace after all their talk of Sanctification when they come to administer comfort to distressed consciences Oh saith the Soul I find sin prevail Sheph. Sts Jewel and how can I be comforted not by Sanctification sure Answ I will subdue your iniquities and cast your sins into the midst of the Sea Obj. But the Devil will be busie with me Ans God will tread him down Obj. But I cannot go to God by Prayer to fetch comfort Comfort what hast thou to do with comfort get quit of thy sins first and then it is time enough for comfort Ans Though it be so yet believe and thou shall have thy desire But I doubt the Soul that cannot pray cannot believe neither Obj. But I am afraid I shall fall away from God Afraid of it thou art fallen from God already if sin prevail so much for sin is the great Apostacy from God Answer None can pluck thee out of Christs hands neither sin nor the Devil But how if they be not in Christs hands yet sin I doubt may keep them out if God cut off barren Branches there is some danger of putrid ones God hath said I have made an everlasting Covenant with thee I will not turn away from thee Obj. This is good news had I a right to the promise but alas I cannot believe and take a naked promise Ans Doest thou desire to believe and to have Christ and say thus If it