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

It cleanses us from all sin, 1 Joh. 1.7. It purges the conscience, Heb. 9.19. It was shed for the remission of sins, Eph. 1.7. It washes us from our sins, Rev. 1.5. And yet all this contrary to the express words and genius of Scripture, must be understood not of the Blood of Christ, but of the Gospel; and why of the Gospel? Because his Blood confirmed the Gospel: And is justifying and confirming the Gospel all one? Christ's Blood, according to the Author, confirmed the Covenant with all Mankind; but all men are not justified: When the Scripture speaks of Christs Blood and Death as confirmative of the Covenant or Gospel, it speaks sometimes in general of all men: Thus he died for all men, 2 Cor. 5.15. He gave himself a ransom for all, 1 Tim. 2.6. with many other places to the same purpose: But when the Scripture speaks of Christ's Blood as justifying, it speaks not in general of all, but in particular of Believers only; and yet if justify- and confirming the Gospel were all one, it might be as truly said, that Christ justifies all as that he died for ⟨p. 462⟩all The Gospel is the Charter of Justification; but besides the Charter their must be a Righteousness to be the Matter of our Justification: God never justifies any man without a Righteousness, and what is it? Is it the very Act of Faith? Thus Socinus would have it,¹ that the [Greek or Hebrew] Credere is loco justitiae, in the room of all Righteousness: But I have before proved that Faith as an Act and absolutely in it self considered cannot justify us; Or is it our inherent Graces? This is the express Tenet of the Papists: Thus Bellarmine would have justifying Grace to be donum in Animainhaerens, Renovation and Regeneration: Against this our Protestant Divines have sufficiently testified. Indeed no man, who understands, either himself and his own Errata's, or the necessary distinction which is to be made between Justification and Sanctification, can assert it: And now nothing remains to be our Righteousness in Justification but the Obedience and atoning Blood of Christ, and these cannot be applied to us, and become ours but by Imputation: By this it appears, that the Blood of Christ doth not only confirm the Covenant, but that it justifies us also.