cuarter and covenant representative of that race, during a limited ae period and under the most favourable conditions, in the Garden of Eden. Adam sinned; and, as a matter of unquestionable fact, the penalty of that sin has been executed in common upon him and on each of his descendants from birth. The penalty denounced and actually executed upon him included spiritual death, mortality of body, the earth cursed with briers and thorns, the necessity of winning bread by the sweat of the brow, and of bringing forth children in pain. Each one of these elements of evil has been executed upon his descendants universally, and literally in the same manner in which they were executed on him. They are not the mere natural consequences of his sin. If they were penal evils in his case, they are penal consequences of his sin in our case. This the apostle explicitly declares, Rom. v. 19: “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so [that is, upon the same principle] by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” As a matter of daily experience, also, we find the penal consequences of many sins passing over upon those who are providentially bound up with the sinful agents (Ex, xx. 5). God does actually, as he says, “visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him.”
Now we propose to prove—l. That the Scriptures plainly teach that God has established between Christ and his people a union swi generis, transcending all earthly analogies in its intimacy of fellowship and reciprocal copartnership, both federal and vital ; and hence called by theologians, ‘‘ mystical” in the sense of being mysterious, in perfection and completeness trans- cending all analogy. And, 2. That the fact of this union being established, it goes far to explain his community with us in the guilt of our sins, and our
THE MYSTICAL UNION. 189
community with him'in the rewards of his righteous- cnarrer XII. ness. I. The Scriptures teach that such a union exists as a the fact that matter of fact. ae
As might be supposed, the Scriptures present this and ae union to us simply as a matter of fact, to be credited atte solely on the ground of divine testimony. They attempt #0" no rational explanations of its nature. We can under- Scripture. stand its essential nature no more than we can the co- existence from eternity of the three Divine Persons in the unity of the one essence ; or the union of the two natures in the one person of the God-man ; or the union of the whole race in the person of Adam, As it transcends all natural analogies, the Scriptures set forth its variety and fulness, element by element, by means of many partial analogies. Thus they liken it to the relation the foundation of a buildimg sustains to the superstructure erected upon it, configured to it, and sup- ported by it (1 Pet. 11. 4-6); to a tree and its branches (John xv. 4, 5)—“‘ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing.” It is also likened to the organic union of the different members of one body : “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office ; so we, being many, are one body in Christ” (Rom. xu. 4, 5). ‘For as the body is one, and hath many members,..... . so also is Christ....... Now ye are the body of Christ, and mem- bers in particular” (1 Cor. xii, 12, 27). “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. ... . This is a great mystery ; but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. v. 30, 32, and iv. 15, 16).
190 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
crear Also, to. a husband in his relation to his wife (Eph. v. — 31, 32; Rom. vii. 4; Rev. xix. 7-9, and xxi. 9); and more particularly to the relation sustained by Adam to his descendants (Rom. v. 12-19; and 1 Cor. xv. 22). He is called “the last Adam,” and ‘the second man” (1 Cor. xv. 45-49). It is a simple matter of fact, as we have seen, whatever philosophical explanation we may give it, that
“In Adam’s fall we sinned all.”