" Imputare" is a word that the Latin tongue owns in the sense wherein it is used by divines. " Optime de pessimis meruisti, ad quos pervenerit incorrupta rerum fides, magno authori suo imputata," Senec. ad Mart. And Plin., lib. xviii. cap. 1, in his apologj'- for the earth, our common parent, " Nostris earn criminibus urgemus, cul- pamque nostram illi imputamus."
In their sense, to impute any thing unto another is, if it be evil, to charge it on him, to burden him with it : so saith Pliny, " We impute our own faults to the earth, or charge them upon it." If it be good, it is to ascribe it unto him as his own, whether originally it were so or no: " Magno authori imputata." Vasquez, in Thorn. 22, tom. ii. disp. 132, attempts the sense of the word, but confounds it Avith "reputare:" "Imputare aut reputare quidquam alicui, est idem atque inter ea quae sunt ipsius, et ad eum pertinent, connu- merare et recensere." This is "reputare" properly; "imputare" includes an act antecedent unto this accounting or esteeming a thing to belong unto any jDerson.
But whereas that may be imputed unto us which is really our own antecedently unto that imputation, the word must needs have a double sense, as it hath in the instances given out of Latin authors now mentioned. And, —
1. To impute unto us that which was really ours antecedently un- to that imputation, includes two things in it: — (1.) An acknowledg- ment or judgment that the thing so imputed is really and truly ours, or in us. He that imputes wisdom or learning unto any man doth, in the first place, acknowledge him to be wise or learned. (2.) A dealing with them according unto it, whether it be good or evil. So
' Aoyi^u is never used either in the LXX. or in purer Greek. We have allowed the passage to stand as written by Owen. — En.
IMPUTATION, AND THE NATURE OF IT. 167
when, upon a trial, a man is acquitted because he is found righteous; first, he is judged and esteemed righteous, and then dealt with as a righteous person, — his righteousness is imputed unto him. See this exemplified, Gen. xxx. 33.
2. To impute unto us that which is not our own antecedently unto that imputation, includes also in it two things: — (1.) A grant or donation of the thing itself unto us, to be ours, on some just ground and foundation; for a thing must be made ours before we can justly be dealt withal according unto what is required on the account of it. (2.) A luill of dealing with us, or an actual dealing Avith us, according unto that which is so made ours; for in this matter whereof we treat, the most holy and righteous God doth not justify/ any, — that is, absolve them from sin, pronounce them righteous, and thereon grant unto them right and title unto eternal life, — but upon the interveniency of a true and complete righteousness, truly and completely made the righteousness of them that are to be justified in order of nature antecedently unto their justification. But these things will be yet made more clear by instances ; and it is necessary they should be so.
(1.) There is an imputation unto us of that which is really our own, inherent in us, performed by us, antecedently unto that impu- tation, and this whether it be evil or good. The rule and nature hereof is given and expressed, Ezek. xviii. 20, " The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." Instances we have of both sorts. First, in the imputation of sin when the person guilty of it is so judged and reckoned a sinner as to be dealt withal accordingly. This imputa- tion Shimei deprecated, 2 Sam. xix. 19. He said unto the king, " Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me," — PV ''^"'^ V" ^S^^'H."''^, the word used in the expression of the imputation of righteousness, Gen. XV. 6, — " neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely: for thy servant doth know that I have sinned." He was guilty, and acknowledged his guilt; but deprecates the imputation of it in such a sentence concerning him as his sin deserved. So Stephen deprecated the imputation of sin unto them that stoned him, whereof they were really guilty, Acts vii. 60, " Lay not this sin to their charge;" — impute it not unto them: as, on the other side, Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who died in the same cause and the same kind of death with Stephen, prayed that the sin of those which slew him might be charged on them, 2 Chron. xxiv. 22. Wherefore, to impute sin is to lay it unto the charge of any, and to deal with them according unto its desert.
To impute that which is good unto any, is to judge and acknow- ledge it so to be theirs, and thereon to deal with them in whom it is according unto its respect unto the law of God. The " righteousness
1 CS ON JUSTIFICATION.
of the righteous shall be upon him." So Jacob provided that his "righteousness should answer for him," Gen. xxx. 33. And we have an instance of it in God's dealing with men, Ps. cvi. 30, 31, " Then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment ; and that was counted unto him for righteousness." Notwithstanding it seemed that he had not sufficient warrant for what he did, yet God, that knew his heart, and what guidance of his own Spirit he was under, approved his act as rigliteous, and gave him a reward testifying that approbation.