Fourthly, If the way of making our sins Christ's by imputation, be thus rejected and derided ; and Christ asserted by some other way to become as completely sinful as we ; then I cannot see which way to avoid it, but that the very same acts and habits of sin must inhere both in Christ and in believers also. For I suppose our ad- versaries will not deny, that notwithstanding God's laying the sins of believers upon Christ, there remain in all believers after their justification, sinful inclinations and aversations; a law of sin in their members, a body of sin and death. Did these things pass from them to Christ, and yet do they still inhere in them ? Why do they complain and groan of indwelling sin.? as Rom. vii. If sin itself be so transfen'ed from them to Christ ? Sure, unless men will dare to say, the same acts and habits of sin which they feel in themselves, are as truly in Christ as in themselves, they have no ground to sa]^', that by God's laying their iniquities upon Christ, he became as completely sinful as they are ; and if they should so affirm, that affirmation would undermine the very foundation of their own salvation.
I therefore heartily subscribe to that sound and holy sentence, of a clear and learned divine, * Nothing" is more absolutely true, no- thing more sacredly and assuredly believed by us, than that nothing which Christ did or suffered, nothing that he undertooTi, or undcr^ went, did, or co^dd co7istitute him subjectively, inherently, and there- upon perso7ially a sinner, or guilty of any sin of his own. To bear the guilt or blame of other meris faults, to be alienae culpas rcu<?, makes no raan a sinner, unless he did unwisely and irregularly un- dertake it. So then this proposition, that by God's layuig our sins
Oweji of Justrfication, p. ISJ.
582 THE SECOND APPENDIX
upon Christ (in some other way, than by imputation of guilt and punishment) he became as completely sinful as we, will not, ought not to be received as the sound doctrine of the gospel. Nor yet this
Second proposition. That we are as completely righteous as Qhrist is ; or, that Christ is not 7nore righteous than a believer.
I cannot imagine what should induce any man so to express him- self, unless it be a groundless conceit and fancy, that there is an essential transfusion of Christ's justifying righteousness into believ- ers, whereby it becomes theirs by way of subjective inhesion, and is in them in the very same manner it is in him : and so every indivi- dual believer becomes as completely righteous as Christ. And this conceit they would fain establish upon that text, 1 John iii. 7. " He that doth righteousness, is righteous, even as he is righ- " teous.''
But neither this expression, nor any other like it in the scriptures gives the least countenance to such a general and unwary position. It is far from the mind of this scripture, . That the righteousness of Christ is formally and inherently ours, as it is his. Indeed it is ours relativel}^, not formally and inherently ; not the same with his for quantity, though it be the same for verity. His righteousness is not ours in its universal value, though it be ours as to our parti- cular use and necessity. Nor is it made ours to make us so many causes of salvation to otli^rs ; but it is imputed to us as to the sub- jects, that are to be saved by it ourselves.
It is true, we are justified and saved by the very righteousness of Christ, and no othei- ; but that righteousness is formally inherent in him only, and is only materially imputed to us. It was actively his, but passively ours. He wrought it, though we wear it. It was wrought in the person of God-man for the whole church, and is imputed (not transfused) to every single believer fof his own con- cernment only. For,
(1.) It is most absurd to imagine that the righteousness of Christ should formally inhere in the person of every, or any believer, as it doth in the person of the mediator. The impossibility hereof appears plainly from the incapacity of the subject. The righteous- ness of Christ is an infinite righteousness, because it is the righte- ousness of God-man, and can therefore be subjected in no other person beside him. It is capable of being imputed to a finite crea- ture, and therefore, in the way of imputation we are said to be made the righteousness of God in him ; but though it may be imputed to a finite creature, it inheres only in the person of the Son of God, as in its proper subject. And indeed,
(2.) If it should be inherent in us, it could not be imputed to us, as it is, Rom. iv. 6, 23. Nor need we go out of ourselves for
OF AXTIX0?^rTAN13^f. 583
justification, as now we must, Phil. iii. 9. but may justify our- selves by our own inherent righteousness. And,
(3.) What should hinder, iF this infinite righteousness of Christ were infused into us, and should make us as completely righteous as Christ; but that we might justify others also as Christ doth, and so we might be the saviours of the elect, as Christ is .? Which is most absurd to imagine. And,
(4.) According to Antinomian principles. What need was there that we should be justified at all.? or, What place is left for the justification of any sinner in the world ? For, according to their opinion, the justification of the elect is an immanent act of God before the world was ; and that eternal act of justification, making the elect as completely righteous as Christ himself, there could not possibly be any the least guilt in the elect to be pardoned ; and conse- quently no place or room could be left for any justification in time. And then it must follow, that seeing Christ died in time, for sin, ac- cording to the scriptures ; it must be for his own sins that he died, and not for the sins of the elect ; diametrically opposite to Rom. iv. 25. and the whole current of scripture, and faith of Christians.
It is therefore very unbecoming and unworthy of a justified per- son, after Christ hath taken all his guilt upon himself, and suffered all the punishment due thereunto in his place and room ; instead of an humble and thankful admiration of his unparalleled grace therein, to throw more than the guilt and punishment of his sins upon Christ, even the transgression itself: and comparing his own righteousness with Christ's, to say he is as completely righteous as Christ himself. This is, as if a company of bankrupt debtors, ar- rested for their own debts, ready to be cast into prison, and not having one farthing to satisfy, after their debts have been freely and fully discharged by another, out of his immense treasure, should now compare with hiiri, yea, and think they honour him, by telling him, that now they are as completely rich as himself