The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

No man can assign any other way whereby he was made sin, especially his being made so by God, but by Gods 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 an habit of Grace say the Papists generally; Then by the Rule of the Antithesis, he must be made sin for us, by the infusion of an 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 by 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 Righteousness, 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 Righteous 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 argument against the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. lib. 2. cap. 7. de justificatione. Quinto refellitur, quoniam si vere nobis imputetur justitia Christi ut per eam justi habeamur ⟨p. 509⟩ac censeremur, ac si proprie nostra esset intrinseca formalisque justitia, profecto non minus justi haberi & censeri deberemus quam ipse Christus: proinde deberemus dici atque haberi Redemptores, & salvatores mundi quod est absurdissimum. So full an answer hath been returned hereunto, and that so frequently, by Protestant Divines, as that I would not have mentioned it, but that diverse among our selves 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 Righteous with his Righteousness. Answ. 1. These things are plainly affirmed in the Scripture, that as unto our selves, and in our selves, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our Righteousness is as filthy Rags,