23 2 Imputation, and the Nature of it. tion, or it is a miftake, and not a right Judgment ; as a man may be reputed to be wife, who is a fool, or reputed to be rich, who is a beggar. Wherefore he that is reputed Righ- teous, mutt either have a Righteoutnefs of his own, or ano- ther antecedently imputed unto him, as the foundation of that Reputation. Wherefore to impute Righteoujnef unto one that bath none of his own, is not to repute him to be Righteous, who is indeed Unrighteous, but it is to commu- nicate a Righteoufnefs unto him, that he may rightly and juftly be efteemed, judged, or reputed Righteous. Imputare, is a word that the Latine Tongue owns in the fence wherein it is ufed by Divines. Optime de pemis meru- ifli, ad quoi pervenerit incorrupta rerum fides, magno Authori f {o imputata. Senec. ad Mart. And Plin. lib. 18. cap. t. In his Apology for the Earth our common Parent, nofiris earn criminibus urgemus, culpamq; nofirain i/li imputamus. In their fence, to impute any thing unto another, is if it be evil, to charge it on him, to burden him with it; fo faith Pliny, we impute our own faults to the Earth, or charge them upon it. If it be Good, it is to afèribe it unto him as his own, whether originally it were fo or no ; magno Authori imputata. Vafquez, in Thom. 22. Tom. 2. Di]],. 13 2. attempts the fenfè of the word, but confounds it with reputare. Im- putare ant reputare quidquam afield, efl idem atq; inter ea que fant ip us, & ad eum pertinent, connumerare recenfere. This is reputare properly, imputare includes an Aft antecedent unto this accounting or efteeming a thing to belong unto any Perfón. But whereas that may be imputed unto us which is really our own antecedently unto that Imputation, the word muff needs have a double fènfe, as it bath in the Inftances given out of Latino, Authors now mentioned. And, z. To Impute unto us that which was really ours, antece- dently unto that Imputation, includes two things in it. (I) An Acknow-
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