This being the constant doctrine of all the Reformed churches and divines, it is an open calumny whereby the contrary is ascribed unto them, or any of those who believe the imputation of the righteous- ness of Christ unto our justification before God. So Bellamiine affirms that no Protestant writers acknowledge an inherent righte- ousness but only Bucer and Chemnitius; when there is no one of them by whom either the thing itself or the necessity of it is de- nied But some excuse may be made for him, from the manner whereby they expressed themselves, wherein they always carefully dis- tinguished between inherent holiness and that righteousness where- by we are justified. But we are now told by one, that if we should affirm it a hundred times, he could scarce believe us. This is some- what severe ; for although he speaks but to one, yet the charge falls equally upon all who maintain that imputation of the righteousness of Christ which he denies, who being at least the generality of all Pro- testant divines, they are represented either as so foolish as not to know what they say, or so dishonest as to say one thing and believe another. But he endeavours to justify his censure by sundry rea- sons; and, first, he says, "That inherent righteousness can on no other account be said to be ours, than that by it we are made righteous; that is, that it is the condition of our justification re- quired in the new covenant. This being denied, all inherent righte- ousness is denied." But hoAV is this proved? What if one should say
232 ON JUSTIFICATION.
that every believer is inherently righteous, but yet that this inherent righteousness was not the condition of his justification, but rather the consequent of it, and that it is nowhere required in the new covenant as the condition of our justification? how sliall the contrary be made to appear? The Scripture plainly affirms that there is such an in- herent righteousness in all that believe ; and yet as plainly that we are justified before God by faith without works. Wherefore, that it is the condition of our justification, and so antecedent unto it, is expressly contrary unto that of the apostle, " Unto him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness," E,om. iv. 5. Nor is it the con- dition of the covenant itself, as that whereon the whole grace of the covenant is suspended ; for as it is habitual, wherein the denomina- tion of righteous is principally taken, it is a grace of the covenant it- self, and so not a condition of it, Jer. xxxi. 33, xxxii. 39 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27. If no more be intended but that it is, as unto its actual exercise, what is indispensably required of all that are taken into covenant, in order unto the complete ends of it, we are agreed; but hence it will not follow that it is the condition of our justification. It is added, " That all righteousness respects a law and a rule, by which it is to be tried; and he is righteous who hath done these things which that law requires by Avhose rule he is to be judged." But, First, This is not the way whereby the Scriptiire expresseth our justification before God, which alone is under consideration, — namely, that we bring unto it a personal righteousness of our own, answering the law whereby we are to be judged ; yea, an assertion to this purpose is foreign to the gospel, and destructive of the grace of God by J esus Clirist. Secondly, It is granted that all righteousness respects a law as the rule of it ; and so doth this whereof we speak, namely, the moral latu ; which being the sole, eternal, unchangeable rule of righte- ousness, if it do not in the substance of it answer thereunto, a righte- ousness it is not. But this it doth, inasmuch as that, so far as it is habitual, it consists in the renovation of the image of God, wherein that law is written in our hearts ; and all the actual duties of it are, as to the substance of them, what is required by that law. But as unto the manner of its communication unto us, and of its per- formance by us, from faith in God by Jesus Clirist, and love unto him, as the author and fountain of all the gTace and mercy procured and administered by him, it hath respect unto the gospel. What will follow from hence? Why, that he is just that doth those things which that law requires whereby he is to be judged. He is so cer- tainly; for "not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified," Rom. ii. 18. " So Moses de- scribeth the righteousness of the law, that the man which doeth those
IMPUTATION PEOVED. 233
tilings shall live in tliem," Rom. x. 5. But although the righteous- ness whereof we discourse be required by the law, — as certainly it is, for it is nothing but the law in our hearts, from whence we walk in the ways and keep the statutes or commandments of God, — yet doth it not so answer the law as that any man can be justified by it. But then it will be said, that if it doth not answer that law and rule whereby we are to be judged, then it is no righteousness; for all righteousness must answer the law whereby it is required. And I say it is most true, it is no perfect rigliteousness ; it doth not so answer the rule and law as that we can be justified by it, or safely judged on it. But, so far as it doth answer the law, it is a righte- ousness,— that is, imperfectly so, and therefore is an imperfect righte- ousness; which yet giveth the denomination of righteous unto them that have it, both absolutely and comparatively. It is said, there- fore, that it is " the law of grace or the gospel from whence we are denominated righteous with this righteousness;" but that we are by the gospel denominated righteous, from any righteousness that is not required by the moral law, will not be proved. Nor doth the law of grace or the gospel anj^vhere requhe of us or prescribe unto us this righteousness, as that whereon we are to be justified before God. It requires faith in Christ Jesus, or the receiving of him as he is pro- posed in the promises of it, in all that are to be justified. It requires, in like manner, "repentance from dead works" in all that believe; as also the fruits of faith, conversion unto God, and repentance, in the works of righteousness, which are to the praise of God by Jesus Christ, with perseverance therein unto the end ; and all this may, if you please, be called our evangelical righteousness, as being our obe- dience unto God accordmg to the gospel. But yet the graces and duties wherein it doth consist do no more perfectly answer the com- mands of the gospel than they do those of the moral law; for that the gosjiel abates from the holiness of the law, and makes that to be no sin which is sin by the law, or approves absolutely of less inten- sion or lower degrees in the love of God than the law doth, is an im- pious imagination.