But it is said, that if " the guilt of sin were imputed unto Christ, he is excluded from all possibility of merit, for he suffered but what was his due ; and so the whole work of Christ's satisfaction is sub- verted. This must be so, if God in judgment did reckon him guilty and a sinner." But there is an ambiguity in these expressions. If it be meant that God in judgment did reckon him guilty and a sinner inherently in his own person, no such thing is intended. But God laid all our sins on him, and in judgment spared him not, as unto what was due unto them. And so he suffered not what was his due
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upon his own account, but what was clue unto our sin : wliich it is impiety to deny ; for if it were not so, he died in vain, and we are still in our sins. And as his satisfaction consists herein, nor could be without it, so doth it not in the least derogate from his merit. For supposing the infinite dignity of his person, and his voluntary sus- ception of our sin to answer for it, which altered not his state and condition, his obedience therein was highly meritorious.
In answer hereunto, and by virtue hereof, we are made " the right- eousness of God in him/' This was the end of his being made sin for us. And by whom are we so made? It is by God himself: for " it is God that justifieth," Rom. viii. 33 ; it is God who " imputeth righteousness," chap. iv. 6. Wherefore it is the act of God in our justification that is intended; and to be made the righteousness of God is to be made righteous before God, though emphatically ex- pressed by the abstract for the concrete, to answer what was said before of Christ being made sin for us. To be made the righteous- ness of God is to be justified; and to be made so in him, as he was made sin for us, is to be justified by the imputation of his righteous- ness unto us, as our sin Avas imputed unto him.
No man can assign any other way whereby he was made sin, espe- cially his being made so by God, but by God's laying all our iniquities upon him, — that is, imputing our sin unto him. How, then, are we made the righteousness of God in him? " By the infusion of a habit of grace," say the Papists generally. Then, by the rule of antithesis, he must be made sin for us by the infusion of a habit of sin ; which would be a blasphemous imagination. " By his meriting, procuring, and purchasing righteousness for us," say others. So, possibly, we might be made righteous hy him ; but so we cannot be made righteous in him. This can only be by his righteousness as we are in him, or united unto him. To be righteous in him is to be righteous with his right- eousness, as we are one mystical person with him. Wherefore, —
To be made the righteousness of God in Christ, as he was made sin for us, and because he was so, can be no other but to be made right- eous by the imputation of his righteousness unto us, as we are in him or united unto him. All other expositions of these words are both jejune and forced, leading the mind from the first, plain, obvious sense of them.
Bellarmine excepts unto this interpretation, and it is his first argu- ment against the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, lib. ii. cap. 7, De Justificatione, " Quinto refellitur quoniam si vere nobis imputetur justitia Christi ut per eam justi habeamur ac censeremur, ac si proprie nostra esset intrinseca formalisque justitia, profecto non minus justi haberi et censeri deberemus quam ipse Christus: proinde deberemus dici atque liaberi redemptores, et salvatores mundi, quod
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est absurdissimum." So full an answer hatli been returned hereunto, and that so frequently, by Protestant divines, as that I would not have mentioned it, but that divers among ourselves are pleased to borrow it from him and make use of it. " For," say they, " if the righteousness of Christ be imputed unto us so as thereby to be made ours, then are we as righteous as Christ himself, because we are right- eous with his righteousness." Ans. 1. These things are plainly affirmed in the Scripture, that, as unto ourselves and in ourselves, " we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," Isa. Ixiv. 6, on the one hand ; and that " in the Lord we have righte- ousness and strength; in the LORD we are justified and do glory," Isa. xlv. 24, 25, on the other; — that " if we say we have no sin, we de- ceive ourselves:" and yet we are "the righteousness of God in Christ." Wherefore these things are consistent, whatever cavils the wit of men can raise against them ; and so they must be esteemed, unless we will comply with Sociniis's rule of interpretation, — namely, that where any thing seems repugnant unto our reason, though it be never so expressly affirmed in the Scripture, we are not to admit of it, but find out some interpretation, though never so forced, to bring the sense of the words unto our reason. Wherefore, — 2. Notwithstanding the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto us, and our being made righteous therewith, we are sinners in ourselves (the Lord knows greatly so, the best of us) ; and so cannot be said to be as right- eous as Christ, but only to be made righteous in him who are sinners in ourselves. 3. To say that tue are as righteous as Christ, is to make a comparison between the personal righteousness of Christ and our personal righteousness, — if the comparison be of things of the same kind. But this is foolish and impious: for, notwithstanding all our personal righteousness, we are sinful; he knew no sin. And if the comparison be between Christ's personal, inherent righteousness, and righteousness imputed unto us, inhesion and imputation be- ing things of diverse kinds, it is fond and of no consequence. Christ was actively righteous; we are passively so. When our sin was imputed unto him, he did not tliereby become a sinner as we are, actively and inherently a sinuer; but passively only, and in God's estimation. As he was made sin, yet knew no sin; so we are made righteous, yet are sinful in ourselves. 4. The righteousness of Christ, as it was his personally, was the righteousness of the Son of God, in which respect it had in itself an infinite perfection and value; but it is imputed unto us only with respect unto our personal want, — not as it was satisfactory for all, but as our souls stand in need of it, and are made partakers of it. There is, therefore, no ground for any such comparison. 5. As unto what is added by Bellarmine, that we may hereon be said to be redeemers and saviours of the world, the ab-