After this doctrine, which is obviously identical with that of the New England view above stated, had been ventilated a number of years, the French National Synod, meeting at Charenton (Dec. 26, 1644; Jan. 26, 1645), passed with reference to it the following decree: “There was a report made in Synod of a certain writing, both printed and manuscript, holding forth this doctrine, that the whole nature of original sin consisted only in that corruption which is hereditary to all Adam’s pos- terity, and residing originally in all men, and denying the imputation of '.is first sin. This Synod condemneth the said doctrine_as far as it restraineth the doctrine of original sin to the sole hereditary corruption of Adam’s posterity, to the excluding of the imputation of that first sin by which he fell; and interdicteth, on pain of all church censure, all pastors, professors and others, who shall treat of this question, to depart from the common received opinion of the Protestant Churches, who (over and besides that corruption) have all acknowledged the imputation of Adam’s first sin to his posterity.” *
After this, in order to reconcile his doctrine in appear- ance with the requirements of the Synod, Placzeus in- vented the distinction between ammediate and antecedent imputation on the one hand, and mediate and consequent imputation on the other. By the immediate and ante- mmme- cedent imputation of Adam’s sin to his posterity, he G2™* 4 meant to express the established doctrine of the Reformed ae Churches, to wit, that Adam was in such a sense the covenant head and representative of his descendants, that
* Quick’s Synodicon, vol. ii., p. 478.
CHAPTER Wait!
Mediate and con- sequent imputa- tion.
86 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
their probation was merged into his, and that his action was made the condition upon which their confirmation in holiness or rejection and punishment was made to depend ; and hence that the guilt or punishableness of his sin was charged to their account immediately upon their birth, and antecedently to their own action; and that consequently the entire corruption of nature with which they are born is the first consequence and most awful part of the punishment of that sin charged to them and punished in them. By the mediate and consequent imputation of Adam’s sin to his posterity, Placeeus meant to deny the above doctrine of antenatal forfeiture alto- gether, and to teach that the descendants of Adam, de- riving from him corrupt natures by/ordinary generation, begin to sin after his example as spon as they become moral agents, and are consequently, like him, punished for their own sin. It is as plain as n»on-day that there © is no real imputation here at all, no charging of the punishableness of Adam’s first apostatizing act to his de- scendants in any honest sense. The application of the term “imputation” to this theory by Placzeus was uncandid and sophistical. His cavil was that he also held that Adam’s sin was imputed to and punished in his posterity mediately through and consequently to their own sin in compliance with his example. Thus Adam sinned, and was punished for his own sin. For his sin his posterity are In no way responsible, nor are they punished on account of it, but only cursed, by means of the natural law of generation, with corrupt natures. They conse- quently sin, and are all severally punished for their own sins. Hence, Adam’s sin is charged to them mediately and consequently. This is neither more nor less than the New England Root Theory above stated, with this difference, that the New England theory honourably discards the sophistical and deluding use of the theologi-
FEDERAL HEADSHIP OF ADAM. 87
eal term “imputation” in a sense not only modified, but so cuarrmr perverted as to signalize the express denial of that which from time immemorial all men had used it to affirm.
The objections to this theory are fatal.
(1.) It fails entirely and obviously to quadrate with Refuta- the plain sense of those scriptures (Rom. v. 12—19) of "™ which, as I shall show below, the orthodox doctrine is the dogmatic expression. The evidence of this allega- tion I will present when I come to exhibit the evidence establishing the truth of the old doctrine.