• The works of Dan. Brenius will be found in one of the two supplementary volumes to the " Bibliotheca Fratrum Poloiioruni." — Ed.
TESTIMONIES FROM THE PROPHETS. 2.07
be said to be our satisfaction and righteousness. And in this sense it would not be absurd if any one should say that the righteousness of Christ and his merits are imputed unto us, as if we ourselves had satisfied God," In this sense we say that Christ is " The Lord our Righteousness;" nor is there any thing of importance in the whole doctrine of justification that we own, which is not here granted by the cardinal, and that in terms which some among ourselves scruple at and oppose. I shall therefore look a little farther into this testimony, which hath wrested so eminent a confession of the truth from so great an adversary. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch ; and this is his name where- by he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness," Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. It is confessed among Christians that this is an illustrious renovation of the first promise concerning the incarnation of the Son of God, and our salvation by him. This promise was first given when we had lost our original righteousness, and were considered only as those who had sinned and come short of the glory of God. In this estate a righteousness was absolutely necessary, that we might be again ac- cepted with God; for without a righteousness, yea, that which is perfect and complete, we never were so, nor ever can be so. In this estate it is promised that he shall be our " righteousness ;" or, as the apostle expresseth it, " the end of the law for righteousness to them that do believe." That he is so, there can be no question ; the whole inquiry is, hoAV he is so? This [is], say the most sober and modest of our adversaries, because he is the efficient cause of our righteousness ; that is, of our personal, inherent righteousness. But this righteous- ness may be considered either in itself, as it is an effect of God's grace, and so it is good and holy, although it be not perfect and complete; or it may be considered as it is ours, inherent in us, ac- companied with the remaining defilements of our nature. In that respect, as this righteousness is ours, the prophet affirms that, in the sight of God, " we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteous- nesses are as filthy rags," Isa. Ixiv. 6. I^'T'P'IV"''? compriseth our whole personal, inherent righteousness; and the Lord Christ cannot from hence be denominated iJi?.']V ^"^j^], — " The Lord our Righteousness," seeing it is all as filthy rags. It must therefore be a righteousness of another sort whence this denomination is taken, and on the account whereof this name is given him : wherefore he is our righteousness, as all our righteousnesses are in him. So the church, which confesseth all her own righteousnesses to be as filthy rags, says, "In the Lord have I righteousness," chap. xlv. 24, (which is expounded of Christ by the apostle, Rom. xiv. 11 ;) ^ip"]^' Y '^1'^"'3 "H^, — " Only in the Lord are my righteousnesses:" which two places the apostle expresseth, Phil. iii. 8, 9, " That I may win Christ, and be found m him, not having mine
298 ON JUSTIFICATION.
own righteousness, which is of the law" (in this case as filthy rags), " but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Hence it is added, " In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified," Isa. xlv. 25, — namely, because he is, in what he is, in what he was, and did, as given unto and for us, " our righteousness," and our righteousness is all in him; which totally excludes our own personal, inherent righteousness from any interest in our justification, and ascribes it wholly unto the righteousness of Christ. And thus is that emphatical expression of the psalmist, " I will go m the strength of the Lord God" (for as unto holiness and obedience, all our spiritual strength is from him alone) ; " and I will make mention" T^.?? "ir^i^l-^, Ps. Ixxi. 16, "of thy righteousness, of thine only." The redoubling of the affix excludes all confidence and trusting in any thing but the righteousness of God alone. For tins the apostle affirms to be the design of God in making Christ to be righteousness unto us, — namely, " that no flesh should glory in his presence ; but that he that glorieth, should glory in the Lord," 1 Cor. i. 29, 3L For it is by faith alone making mention, as unto our justi- fication, of the righteousness of God, of his righteousness only, that excludes all boasting, Rom. iii. 27. And, besides what shall be farther pleaded from particular testimonies, the Scripture doth emi- nently declare how he is " The Lord our Righteousness," — namely, in that he " makes an end of sin and reconciliation for iniquity, and brings in everlasting righteousness," Dan. ix. 24. For by these things is our justification completed, — namely, in satisfaction made for sin, the pardon of it in our reconciliation unto God, and the providing for us an everlastino: rifjhteousness. Therefore is he " The Lord our Righteousness," and so rightly called. Wherefore, seeing lue had lost original righteousness, and had none of our own remaining, and stood in need of a perfect, complete righteousness to procure our ac- ceptance with God, and such a one as might exclude all occasion of boasting of any thing in ourselves, the Lord Christ being given and made unto us "The Lord our Righteousness," in whom we have all our righteousness (our own, as it is ours, being as filthy rags in the sight of God) ; and this by making an end of sin, and reconciliation for ini- quity, and bringing in everlasting righteousness: it is by his right- eousness, hy his only, that we are justified in the sight of God, and do glory. This is the substance of what in this case we plead for; and thus it is delivered in Scripture, in a way bringing more light and spiritual sense into the minds of believers than those philoso- phical expressions and distinctions which vaunt themselves with a pretence of propriety and accuracy.