ESSAY II. 431 Ouch-narratives in them; and why should it give us any difficulty when we read this divine account of things in the holy writings, or in human discourses on divine subjects? I answer also in the secondplane, The words sin and right- eousness may be taken in common authors, as I shall shew pre- sently they are often taken in scripture, in these two senses: in or iniquity signifies either the particular acts of disobedience to a law,, orit signifies the legal result of those disobedient acts, that is, the guilt or the liableness to condemnation, and obligation to bear punishment which arises from those acts of disobedience according to the law. And thus when we say the sin or iniquity of the father is imputed to the children of a traitor, who never were nor couldbe precisely in their father's situation or circum- stances, we do not mean that every single evil act of the father is charged upon the child, as if the child had done it; but that the guilt or liableness to punishment which arises from those acta of the father is so far transferred or imputed to the child, that the child suffers banishment or poverty for the sake of it : and this according to the law and custom of nations is esteemed just and righteous. In like manner righteousness has two senses: It either signifies the particular acts of obedience to any law or command of a superior, or it signifies the result of those actions, that is, a right to impunity, a freedom from punishment, and a right to life, or liberty, or honour, or any reward which be- longed by the law to such acts of obedience. And so when we say the righteousness of thefather is im- puted to the child of a person who has performed some eminent act of service or obedience, we do not mean that all those special acts and circumstances of the father's service or obedience are minutely and particularly imputed to the child; but the general result of those acts, that is, the rectitude in court, or the right to impunity and reward, which is the result of the father's per formances, is imputed to the child. Now if we would but try to explain every text of scripture wherein either imputed sin or im. puted righteousness are mentioned in the word of God, eitherin express words, or in the plain sense and meaning of them, I ampersuaded we should find them all easy and intelligible, and free from cavils and controversies. Ifwe meet with suchnarratives in commonhistory as I hive suggested, surely we should not expect that the writer should express himself in such a nice accuracy of learned and scholastic language, as men of modern controversy are ahnost constrained to use, in order to guard their expressions against all possible cavil andobjection. Nor should weenter such a detail of critical and perplexing debates about every punctilio both of word and sense in this history, as is too often done when we read these things in scripture, as relating to Adam, and Christ. And since
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