4t4 EUMN AND RECOVERY, &C. blasphemed : Sometimes it denotes his his demerit or desert of the punishment threatened, and at other times it means only the legal subjection of a person to punishment thereby ; as when we say, the blasphemer is guilty of death, we mean he has deserved it, or at least he is liable to it. III. Observe also, that by using this word in. these three 'distinct senses, we are led sometimes tomingle and unite all these senses in one and so in the word guilt we sometimes include some idea of the actual fault or crime, and the personal demerit of the sinner, as well as its Iegal subjection of him to punish- ment ; yet it is not always used in all these senses, but always in one or other of them. IV. Observe further, that we never say a man is guilty of the fault, but when he; is the actual personal sinner, and has deserved the punishment : But he may be said to bear the guilt of sin, or have the guilt laid on him, when he is made liable or subject to the punishment by the imputation of sin to him,.accord- ing to any righteous compact or constitution, though he be not the personal or actual sinner, nor has merited punishment himself. V. When -we speak of the guilt of conscience, or a guilty conscience, it means that sensible grief, or anguish of soul, which arises from a painful consciousness, or remembrance of our having committed sip against God and hislaw and so it includes in it not only the fear and terror of the punishing justice of God which is a legal consequent of sin, but also the shame that arises from our having done amiss, and from our unfitness to appear before a God of holiness under that sinful disorder, which is ana- tural consequent or effect of sin. This guilt of conscience belongs only to the personal offender, and cannever be transferred by im- putation, to another. But in the main, I think we may determine, that this word, the guilt of sin, or of a sinful action, as it was originally designed, so is much more frequently, and more obvi- ously used and understood concerning the legal consequent of that sin, or its just subjection of the sinner to punishment, which is its relative evil, than it is concerning the disorder of the sinful action, or the real evil of it. And indeed this is the only thing in sin which can be transferred and imputed to any other person, that is, the obligation to suffer the penalty, or to make amends for the violation of the law. In the following part of this discourse therefore, when I use the word guilt, I desire to be understood chiefly, or only, concerning that liableness, obligation, or subjec- tion to punishment under which sin may bring any man, whether it be actually and personally committed by himself, or whether it be transferred to him only by imputation. The use of words iu dilThrent senses, and as including different ideas, has been often an unhappy spring of confusion and mistake, which we
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