And, in truth, this is the opinion of the most of our adversaries in this cause: for they do contend, that over and above the remission of sin, which some of them say is absolute, without any respect unto the merit or satisfaction of Christ, others refer it unto them ; they all contend that there is, moreover, a righteousness of works required unto our justification; — only they say this is our own incomplete, im- perfect righteousness imputed unto us as if it were perfect; that is, for what it is not, and not the righteousness of Christ imputed unto us for what it is.
270 ON JUSTIFICATION-.
From what liatli been discoursed, it is evident that unto our jus- tification before God is required, not only that we be freed from the damnatory sentence of the law, which we are by the pardon of sin, but, moreover, " that the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in us," or, that we have a righteousness answering the obedience that the law requires; whereon our acceptance with God, through the riches of his gTace, and our title unto the heavenly inheritance, do depend. This we have not in and of ourselves, nor can attain unto ; as hath been proved. Wherefore the perfect obedience and righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us, or in the sight of God Ave can never be justified.
Nor are the cavilling objections of the Socinians, and those that follow them, of any force against the tnith herein. They tell us, " That the righteousness of Christ can be imputed but unto one, if unto any ; for who can suppose that the same righteousness of one should become the righteousness of man 3^, even of all that believe? Besides, he performed not all the duties that are required of us in all our relations, he being never placed in them." These things, I say, are both foolish and impious, destructive unto the whole gospel ; for all things here depend on the ordination of God. It is his ordinance, that as "through the offence of one many are dead," so "his grace, and the gift of grace, through one man, Christ Jesus, hath abounded unto many;" and " as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation, so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all unto the righteousness of life;" and "by the obedience of one many are made righteous;" as the apostle argues, Eom. v. For " God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us," chap. viii. 3, 4 ; for he was " the end of the law" (the whole end of it), " for righteous- ness unto them that do believe," chap. x. 4. This is the appointment of the wisdom, righteousness, and grace of God, that the whole right- eousness and obedience of Christ should be accepted as our complete righteousness before him, imputed unto us by his grace, and applied unto us or made ours through believing ; and, consequently, unto all that believe. And if the actual sin of Adam be imputed unto us all, who derive our nature from him, unto condemnation, though he sinned not in our circumstances and relations, is it strange that the actual obedience of Christ should be imputed unto them who derive a spiritual nature from him, unto the justification of life? Besides, both the satisfaction and obedience of Christ, as relating unto his person, were, in some sense, infinite, — that is, of an infinite value, — and so cannot be considered in parts, as tliough one part of it were imputed unto one, and anotlier unto another, but the whole is im- puted unto every one that doth believe; and if the Israelites could
THE IMPUTATION OF CHRIST'S OBEDIENCE, 271
say that David was " worth ten thousand of them," 2 Sam. xviii. 3, we may well allow the Lord Christ, and so what he did and suffered, to be more than us all, and all that we can do and suffer.
There are also sundry other mistakes that concur unto that part of the charge against the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto us, which w^e have now considered. I say of his righteousness; for the apostle in this case useth those two words, dixalu/xa and vtutio^, " righteousness" and " obedience," as teohuvaiMovvra, — of the same sig- nification, Rom. V. 18, 19. Such are these : — that remission of sin and justification are the same, or that justification consisteth only in the remission of sin; — that faith itself, as our act and duty, seeing it is the condition of the covenant, is imputed unto us for righteousness ; — or that we have a personal, inherent righteousness of our own, that one way or other is our righteousness before God unto justification ; either a condition it is, or a disposition unto it, or hath a congruity in de- serving the grace of justification, or a downright merit of condignity thereof: for all these are but various expressions of the same thing, according unto the variety of the conceptions of the minds of men about it. But they have been all considered and removed in our precedent discourses.
To close this argument, and our vindication of it, and therewithal to obviate an objection, I do acknowledge that our blessedness and life eternal is, in the Scripture, ofttimes ascribed unto the death of Christ. But, — 1. It is so xar s^o-xj^v, — as the 'principal cause of the whole, and as that without which no imputation of obedience could have justified us; for the penalty of the law was indispensably to be undergone. 2. It is so xara evyyiveictv, — not exclusively unto all obe- dience, whereof mention is made in other places, but as that where- unto it is inseparably conjoined. " Christus in vita passivam habuit actionem; in morte passionem activam sustinuit; dum salutem ope- raretur in medio terroe," Bernard. And so it is also ascribed unto his resuri'ection xar hhit,iv, with respect unto evidence and manifes- tation; but the death of Christ exclusively, as unto his obedience, is nowhere asserted as the cause of eternal life, comprising that ex- ceeding weight of glory wherewith it is accompanied.