ESSAY II, 435 First, Hew can the guilt of sin or the condemnation for it be justly imputed or transferred from one man to another, with- out the imputation of the sinful actions themselves ; Or how can the legal rectitude, that is, the right to impunity and life, or the righteousness of one be imputed to another, without the righte- ous actions themselves being imputed ; To this I answer, The very same just constitution or law, whether human or divine, by Which the actions themselves, whether good or evil, could be supposed to be imputed, is sufficient for the imputation of the legal result of those actions, and that with as much justice. Nay, I might add, with much more justice in many cases, may the legal result or punishment of sinful actions be imputed to others, or transferred to them than the actions themselves : For the imputation of the evil actions to an innocent person, if it could be done, would carrymore ofcrime and blame, and shame, and of personal defilement and demerit in it, than the mere im- putation of their guilt, that is, a liableness to condemnation and punishment. And indeed when the punishment is transferred to others, then the sin or guilt is said to be imputed to them, as I have shewn before. Secondly, It will be objected, may not the very same sinful actions of the father be imputed to the posterity, since the child- ren were in the father .naturally when he committed those sins ? Is not Levi said to pay tithes in 2lbraham, Heb. vii. 9. because lie was yet in the loins áf his great grandfather, when he paid tithes to Melchisedec ? Answer I. The apostle expresses it not as a matter of strict reasoning, because he adds the words, as I may say so, to inti- mate, it is rather an allusion or emblem, than strict reasoning. II. If there could be supposed any advantage by this natural in-being of all men in Adam to support the imputation of his sin to them, yet there can be no necessityof it, for Christ was not naturally in us, 'though our sins were imputed to him. This im- putation of sin therefore to the one or theother signifies only the transferring the guilt, condemnation or punishment, and not the imputation of the same evil actions, or the transferring them from Adam to us, or from us to our blessed Saviour. Thirdly, A third argument to prove the good or evil actions themselves imputed, as some suppose, may arise from the strong expressions of scripture, especially in Rom. v. 19. where there is so particular a comparison between our being made or " con- stituted sinners by the disobedience of Adam, and our being, made or constituted righteous by the obedience of Christ." To this I answer, that the Jewish and all the Eastern writers deal in very strong figures and expressions to signify plain and obvious timings ; and therefore there is some allowance to be made in the explication of them, or when we reduce them to plain language. E e
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