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

Christ's Righteousness is called [Greek or Hebrew], because it hath a virtue in it to justify others, and is opposed to Adam's Transgression, which had a power to involve others in condemnation: By the obedience of Christ we are made, or (as the Greek word [Greek or Hebrew] implies) constituted righteous: And how can Christ's Obedience being ⟨p. 298⟩not inherent in us, make us righteous? This, I confess, is above Philosophy, but the Apostle clears it: Adam's Transgression was not inherently ours, yet was it imputed to us to Condemnation; in the same manner Christ's Obedience is not inherently ours, yet was it imputed to us to Justification of Life: Hence St. Bernard expostulates thus; Cur non aliunde justitia, ¹cùm aliunde reatus? Alius qui peccatorem constituit, alius qui justificat à peccato: An peccatum in semine peccatoris, & non justitia in Christi sanguine? And indeed it would be very strange, that Adam's Sin should be imputed to us, as the Church hath ever acknowledged against Pelagians, and yet Christs Righteousness should not be imputed to us. Another place I shall instance in, is that, Rom. 8.3, 4. What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us: Unto which I shall also add that other, Rom. 10.4. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. The [Greek or Hebrew], the Righteousness of the Law, ⟨p. 299⟩is a pure and spotless Perfection, the least defect makes a breach upon it, and ushers in a Curse: The chief and primary End of the Law was absolute Obedience, and how is the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled or its great End attained? Our inherent Graces can no more reach it, than defect can reach perfection, or a spotted Face, absolute Beauty: Neither doth the Apostle say, that the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled, [Greek or Hebrew], by us, but [Greek or Hebrew], in us, it is not our own work; but in the Righteousness of Christ the Law hath its end and completion, and when that Righteousness is made over to us by Imputation, then the Law may be said to be fulfilled in us. The Apostle,