The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

Those who believe the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Believers, for the Justification of Life, do also unanimously profess, that the sins of all Believers were imputed unto Christ. And this they do on many Testimonies of the Scripture directly witnessing thereunto, some whereof shall be pleaded and vindicated afterwards. At present we are only on the consideration of the general notion of these things, and the Declaration of the nature of what shall be proved afterwards. And in the first place we shall enquire into the foundation of this Dispensation of God, and the Equity of it, or the Grounds whereinto it is resolved, without an understanding whereof, the thing it self cannot be well apprehended.

THose who believe the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Believers, for the Justification of Life, do also unanimously profess, that the sins of all Believers were imputed unto Christ. And this they do on many Testimonies of the Scripture directly witnessing thereunto, some whereof shall be pleaded and vindicated afterwards. At present we are only on the consideration of the general notion of these things, and the Declaration of the nature of what shall be proved afterwards. And in the first place we shall enquire into the foundation of this Dispensation of God, and the Equity of it, or the Grounds whereinto it is resolved, without an understanding whereof, the thing it self cannot be well apprehended.

The principal Foundation hereof is, that Christ and the Church, in this Design, were one mystical Person, which state they do actually coalesce in, through the uniting Efficacy of the Holy Spirit. He is the Head, and Believers are the members of that one Person, as the Apostle declares, 1 Cor. 12.12, 13. Hence as what he did is imputed unto them, as if done by them, so what they deserved on the Account of sin was charged upon him. So is it expressed by a Learned Prelate; Nostram causam sustinebat, qui nostram sibi Carnem aduniverat, ⟨p. 247⟩& ita nobis arctissimo vinculo conjunctus, & [Greek or Hebrew], quae erant nostra fecit sua. And again; Quid mirum si in nostra persona constitutus, nostram carnem indutus, &c. Môntacut. Origin. Ecclesiast. The Ancients speak to the same purpose. Leo. Serm. 17. Ideo see humanae infirmitati virtus divina conseruit, ut dum Deus sua facit esse quae nostra sunt, nostra faceret esse quae sua sunt. And also Sermo. 16. Caput nostrum Dominus Jesus Christus omnia in se corporis sui membra transformans, quod olim in Psalmo eructaverat, id in supplicio crucis sub Redemptorum suorum voce clamavit. And so speaks Augustine to the same purpose; Epist. 120. ad Honoratum; Audimus vocem corporis, ex ore capitis; Ecclesia in illo patiebatur, quando pro Ecclesia patiebatur, &c. We hear the voice of the Body from the mouth of the Head. The Church suffered in him, when he suffered for the Church; as he suffers in the Church, when the Church suffereth for him. For as we have heard the voice of the Church in Christ-suffering, my God, my Lord, why hast thou forsaken me; look upon me; so we have heard the voice of Christ in the Church-suffering, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me. But we may yet look a little backward and farther into the sense of the ancient Church herein. Christus, saith Irenaeus, omnes Gentes exinde ab Adam disper sas, & Generationem hominum in semet ipso recapitulatus est; unde a Paulo Typus futuri dictus est ipse Adam; lib. 3. cap. 33. And again; Recapitulans universum hominum genus in se ab initio usque ad finem, recapitulatus est & mortem ejus. In this of Recapitulation there is no doubt but he had respect unto the [Greek or Hebrew], mentioned,