40 Nuns AND RtECOVERV, c. eouspéss .in an eminent or illustrious manner, and he together with his posterity are dignified and rewarded on the account of that eu inent obedience, then- this obedience and righteousness of the father is imputed to the children, his righteousness is upon them; that is, they are dignified and dealt with as though they had been eminently righteous and obedient, upon the account of what their.father was and did. Now, if among the histories of the nations we have any transactions of this kind recorded by ancient writers, do we not easily understand what these writers say? Is not their meaning very plain and intelligible ? Should we stand debating with long eltichanery andcavilling, by rules -of grammar, logic and politics, whether such things were possible or no? Is not the sense easy to a common reader ? Then why should we think these same sort of things and phrases, in matters of religion, are so dark, and so difficult, as to need huge comments and quarrelsome folios to explain them ? Why should we not agree in the plain meaning of them, when we meet with any such phrases among the sacred writers ? And when we find such representations made to us in the things that relate to God and man, sin and righteousness, in the books that teach us the way to salvation, why should we not receive them in their plain common sense, without contending about them ? Thechief difficulty in adjusting our common ideas-in any of these cases seems to me to be this : How can the particularacts of the treason of the parent be imputed to achild, especially in its infancy, though it is granted that he suffers bánishtnent and poverty for the sake of his father's treason; I say, How can these particular criminal actions be imputed to him, since this infant was never capable of committing these acts of treason, they being quite out of the reach of a child, and impossible for him tocommit r . Or how can those eminent and illustrious acts of obedience or righteousness which were performed by a father, be imputed to'a child, if that child never stood either under a direct obligation, nor had any capacity to perform those very. actions and service*? 'I'o these enquiries, I make these two plain. answers : L'Those acts of treason, or acts of service, by very plain and common fortes and figures of speech, are said to be imputed to thechildren, or to be upon them, when they suffer or enjoy the obvious and legal consequences of their father's treasons, or of their eminent services taken in the gross and comprehensive view of them, as they are criminal or meritorious; though the parti - cular actions and circumstances of those treasons, or of those services, could never have been practised by the children, at least in their minority. This would give no difficultyat all to the reader, who should peruse these human histories, and read
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=