*Our Lord said to a leper, whom he had cleansed, _Go, shew thyself to the priest_, &c. But if instead of _cleansing_ him, he had bid him go to the priest, to be _accounted_ as a clean man, had he not still been under all the evil of his own leprosy? Now this is strictly the case of the righteousness of Christ, only outwardly imputed to us. A fiction, that runs counter to all that Christ and his apostles, have said of the nature of our salvation. We want Christ’s righteousness, because by our natural birth, we are inwardly full of evil; therefore saith Christ, _except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. I am the vine_, saith Christ, _ye are the branches_. Now if this be a true representation of the matter, then these two plain doctrines of Christ, affirming, 1. The absolute necessity of a new birth, and 2. That this birth is as really brought forth in us, as the life of the vine is really in the branches, entirely reject the notion of a righteousness imputed from without. If Christ’s holy nature, be not formed in us, but only outwardly imputed to us, then no virtue, or power of an holy life, can have any more real existence in us, than in the devils, but are only called ours, and not theirs, though we have no more of them within us, than they have. Thus, be ye _holy, for I am holy; be ye perfect, as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect; thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart_, &c. all these are but vain exhortations. For these virtues are, in their whole nature, nothing else but the very righteousness of Christ, therefore if that can be only outwardly imputed to us, the same must be said of all these virtues. And indeed, unless Christ be truly born in us, we can have no more of any Christian virtue, but the empty name. For neither man, nor angel ever did, or can thus love God with all his heart, be holy because God is holy, be perfect as he is perfect, but because there is a spirit living in them, which is of God, from God, and partakes of the divine nature. Further say, that the holy Spirit is not living in us, that his operation is not inwardly in us, but only outwardly imputed to us, as if he was in us, though he be not: what a blasphemy would this be! And yet full as well, as to say the same of Christ, and his righteousness. For if Christ was only outwardly imputed to us, the same must, of all necessity be said of the holy Spirit; for where Christ is, there is the holy Spirit. Take notice, Sir, that if Christ’s righteousness, is only imputed to Christians, then all of them, whether they are called good, or bad, are without any difference as to their inward man, and all under the same unaltered fallen nature, as much after, as they were before Christ’s righteousness was imputed.