That any have so expressed the imputation pleaded for, " that every believer should be personally righteous in the very individual acts of Christ's righteousness," I know not ; I have neither read nor heard any of them who have so expressed their mind. It may be some have done so : but I shall not undertake the defence of what they have done; for it seems not only to suppose that Christ did every individual act which in any instance is required of us, but also that those acts are made our own inherently, — both which are false and impossible. That which indeed is pleaded for in this imputation is only this, that what the Lord Christ did and suifered as the media- tor and surety of the covenant, m answer unto the law, for them, and in their stead, is imputed unto every one of them unto the jus- tification of life. And sufficient this is unto that end, without any
220 ON JUSTIFICATION.
such supposals. (1.) From the dignity of the person who yielded this obedience, which rendered it both satisfactory and meritorious, and imputable unto many. (2.) From the nature of the obedience itself which was a perfect compliance with, a fulfilling of, and satisfaction unto, the whole law in all its demands. This, on the supposition of that act of God's sovereign authority, whereby a representative of the whole church was introduced to answer the law, is the ground of his righteousness being made theirs, and being every way sufficient unto their justification. (3.) From the constitution of God, that what was done and suffered by Christ as a public person, and our surety, should be reckoned unto us, as if done by ourselves. So the sin of Adam, whilst he was a public person, and represented his whole pos- terity, is imputed unto us all, as if we had committed that actual sin. This Bellarmine himself frequently acknowledgeth : " Pecca- vimus in primo homine quando ille peccavit, et ilia ejus prsevaricatio nostra etiam prgevaricatio fuit. Non enim vere per Adami inobedi- entiam constitueremur peccatores, nisi inobedientia illius nostra etiam inobedientia esset," De Amiss. Grat. et Stat. Peccat., lib. v. cap. 18. And elsewhere, that the actual sin of Adam is imputed unto us, as if we all had committed that actual sin ; that is, broken the whole law of God. And this is that whereby the apostle illustrates the imputa- tion of the righteousness of Christ unto believers ; and it may on as good grounds be charged with absurdities as the other. It is not, ^■j therefore, said that God judgeth that we have in our own 2)ersons done ^ those very acts, and endured that penalty of the laiu, which the Lord Christ did and endured ; for this would overthrow all imputation ; — but what Christ did and suffered, that God imputeth unto believers unto the justification of life, as if it had been done by themselves ; and his righteousness as a public person is made theirs by unputa- tion, even as the sin of Adam, whilst a public person, is made the sin of all his posterity by imputation.
Hereon none of the absurdities pretended, which are really such, do at all follow. It doth not so, that Christ in his own person per- formed every individual act that we in our circumstances are ob- liged unto in a way of duty; nor was there any need that so he should do. This imputation, as I have showed, stands on other foundations. Nor doth it follow, that every saved person's rigldeous- ness before God is the same identically and numerically with Christ's in his public capacity as mediator; for this objection destroys itself, by affirming that as it was his, it was the righteousness of God-man, and so it hath an especial nature as it respects or relates unto his person. It is the same that Christ in his public capacity did woik or effect. But there is a wide difference in the consideration of it as his absolutely, and as made ours. It was formally inherent in
FORMAL CAUSE OF JUSTIFICATION. 221
him, — is only materially imputed unto us ; was actively his, — is pas- sively ours; was lur ought in the person of God-man for the whole church, — is imputed unto each single believer, as unto his own con- cernment only. Adam's sin, as imputed unto us, is not the sin of a representative, though it be of him that was so, but is the particular sin of every one of us ; but this objection must be farther spoken unto, where it occurs afterward. Nor will it follow, that on this suppo- sition lue should he accounted to have done that which was done ^/ long before we luere in a capacity of doing any thing; for what is done for us and in our stead, before we are in any such capacity, may be imputed unto us, as is the sin of Adam. And yet there is a mani- fold sense wherein men may be said to have done what was done for them and in their name, before their actual existence ; so that therein is no absurdity. As unto what is added by the way, that Christ did not do nor suffer the " idem" that we were obliged unto; whereas he did what the law required, and suffered what the law threatened unto the disobedient, which is the whole of what we are obliged unto, it will not be so easily proved, nor the arguments very suddenly an- swered, whereby the contrary hath been confirmed. That Christ did sustain the place of a surety, or was the surety of the new covenant, the Scripture doth so expressly affirm that it cannot be denied. And that there may be sureties in cases criminal as well as civil and pe- cuniary, hath been proved before. What else occurs about the singu- larity of Christ's obedience, as he was mediator, proves only that his righteousness, as formally and inherently his, was peculiar unto him- self; and that the adjuncts of it, which arise from its relation unto his person, as it was inherent in him, are not communicable unto them to whom it is imputed.