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

They cannot counterpoise an infinite sin but with an infinite Satisfaction, and think they can weigh down a reward every way as infinite, with a Merit (to say the least) surely not infinite: Why should there be a recessary use of Christs death for the one, and not an use f••• as necessary for the Oblation of his Life for the other? And again he saith, This nipping at the Name of Christ is for no other reason, but that we may have some honour ⟨p. 308⟩our selves out of our Righteousness: Hence Bellarmine saith, Magìs honorificum est habere aliquid ex merito: Rather than they will lose their honour, Christ must part with a piece of his Name. Thus that Reverend Man. Let us therefore confess that all Christ's Righteousness Active as well as Passive is made ours by Imputation: His Obedience, like his seamless Coat, all woven together of Love and Philanthropy, from his first breath of Holiness on Earth to the last gasp upon the Cross, should not be rent or divided, but preserved entire for our Justification and Salvation.

5. When we are justified before God, it must be by a Righteousness, either that of inherent Grace, or that of Christ imputed to us; We are not justified by the first, our inherent Graces have all their spots and wrinkles of imperfection; how faltering is our Faith! How fluctuating our Hope! How cold our Charity! How much is there wanting of what ought to be in every one of them! All of them are but in part, and as it were in their first Lineaments, none of them in plenitude or full measure answering to the Law; they dwell ⟨p. 309⟩not alone; but alas! there is a sad Inmate of Corruption, a body of Sin dwelling under the same roof, so that the purest actions of the Saints on earth come forth ex laeso Principio, out of an Heart sanctified but in part, and in their egress from thence gather a taint and tincture from the indwelling sin: Quotidie stillamus super telam justitiae nostrae saniem concupiscentiae nostrae, saith one, Our concupiscence like putrid matter is ever dropping upon the web of our weak little holiness; If we walk not post concupiscentias, it is very well; Non concupisces, which is a greater thing, we cannot reach in this Vale of sins and sorrows; still the Flesh will be lusting, and Corruption bubbling up in the heart; and can we think that such imperfect Graces should be the Matter of our Justification? Again, we have contracted many Guilts, and every even the Least of them, have a kind of Infinity in them, because against an infinite Majesty; and can our inherent Graces; which are but finite things, ever expiate or blot out those guilts? No surely, they cannot cover their own spots and blemishes, but must pray in aid from the Grace and Righteousness of Christ to have them done away;