An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

Inherent Graces are not upon us, but in us; but Christ's Righteousness, as that in the Text, is not in us, but upon us: Inherent Graces are not the matter of our Justification, of which the Apostle there treats, but of Sanctification; Christ's Righteousness is not the matter of our Sanctification, ⟨p. 292⟩but of our Justification, which is the very thing there treated of: Hence it appears, that the Righteousness of God in this place is that of Christ. Thus Rom. 10.3. They submitted not themselves to the Righteousness of God; and what was that? The next Verse tells us, For Christ is the and of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth; and which way was Christ the End of the Law, by imparting inherent Graces to the believer, or by his own perfect Righteousness imputed to him? Not by the inherent Graces, alas! these are so far from reaching the perfection of the Law, that they are full of defects, and every defect is no less than [Greek or Hebrew], a falling short of the Law: Profectò illud quod minus est quàm debet, ex vitio est, saith St. Austin, That which is less than it ought to be, is so far sinful, as it is less than it ought to be: Nothing less than the pure Righteousness of Christ, which answers the Law in every point, can be the Righteousness of God in this place. Thus 2 Cor. 5.21. He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; The Apostle doth not speak of a Righteousness in ⟨p. 293⟩our selves, but in him; not of a Righteousness inherent, but imputed: Christ's Righteousness is made ours, as our sins were made his, and that is only by Imputation. St. Austin pithily expresses it, Ipse ergo peccatum, ¹ut nos justitia, nec nostra, sed Dei simus, nec in nobis, sed in ipso; sicut ipse peccatum, non suum, sed nostrum, nec in se, sed in nobis constitutum; similitudine carnis peccati, in qua crucifixus est, demonstravit. Thus Phil. 3.9. That I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: By the Righteousness which is of God cannot here be meant inherent Graces; those words (that I may be found in him) have a tacit relation to the Judgment of God, and before that Tribunal no Saint on earth can can stand in his own Righteousness: Job could not;