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

Phil. 3.8, 9. Yea, doubtless,¹ and I account all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and 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 my own Righteousness these men understand inherent Righteousness, whatever good St. Paul had done, either while he was a Jew, or after his Conversion to Christianity, this he rejects; and therefore the Righteousness, which is through the Faith of Christ, must needs be an imputed Righteousness, the personal Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith and imputed to us: This is fairly offered, but what proof have they of it? That, I confess, I cannot learn; only it is taken for granted, that my Righteousness, signifies inherent Righteousness, and the Righteousness of Faith, imputed. But they need not signify so; my own Righteousness, can signify no more than that in which he placed his Righteousness, whatever it was, and what necessity is there to understand this of inherent Holiness? An External Righteousness ⟨p. 358⟩serves most mens turn very well, and this is the Righteousness by which the Pharisees (and amongst the rest St. Paul while he was a Pharisee) expected to be justified: For what his Righteousness was he tells us, in ver. 6, 7. Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the Law a Pharisee (who were mighty strict and punctual in observing all external Ceremonies) and he expressed his zeal for the Law of Moses by persecuting the Christian Church; and touching the righteousness which is in Law he was blameless: which last phrase, touching the righteousness of the Law blameless, signifies only an external blamelessness of conversation, as Mr. Calvin acknowledges: For this was the Pharisees Notion of the Moral Law, that the obligation of it did reach no further than the outward man; and Trypho the Jew in Justin Martyr quarrels with the Gospel of our Saviour for this very reason, That it requires the government of our thoughts and passions, which, he says, is impossible for a man to do: Thus we must understand this blamelessness here; unless we will say, that St.