1. The doctrine of imputation is clearly taught in this passage. This doctrine does not include the idea of a mysterious identity of Adam and his race ; nor that of a transfer of the moral turpitude of his sin to his descendants. It does not teach that his offence was personally or pro- perly the sin of all men, or that his act was, in any mysterious sense, the act of his posterity. Neither does it imply, in reference to the right- eousness of Christ, that his righteousness becomes personally and inhe- rently ours, or that his moral excellence is in any way transferred from him to believers. The sin of Adam, therefore, is no ground to us of re- morse ; and the righteousness of Christ is no ground of self-complacency in those to whom it is imputed. This doctrine merely teaches that, in virtue of the union, representative and natural, between Adam and his posterity, his sin is the ground of their condemnation, that is, of their subjection to penal evils ; and that, in virtue of the union between Christ and his people, his righteousness is the ground of their justification. This doctrine is taught, almost in so many words, in vs. 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. It is so clearly stated, so often repeated or assumed, and so for- mally proved, that very few commentators, of any class, fail to acknow- ledge, in one form or another, that it is the doctrine of the apostle.
2. As the term death is used for any and every evil judicially inflicted as the punishment of sin, the amount and nature of the evil not being expressed by the word, it is no part of the apostle's doctrine that eternal misery is inflicted on any man for the sin of Adam, irrespective of inhe- rent depravity or actual transgression. It is enough for all the purposes