(2.) There is an imputation of sin unto others, " ex justitia
170 ON JUSTIFICATION.
propter relationem naturalem/' — on the account oi d^ natural relation between them and those who had actually contracted the guilt of it. But this is so only with respect unto some outward, temporary effects of it. So God speaks concerning the children of the rebellious Israel- ites in the wilderness, " Your children shall wander in the wilder- ness forty years, and bear your whoredoms," Numb. xiv. 33 ; — " Your sin shall be so far imputed unto your children, because of their rela- tion unto you, and your interest in them, as that they shall suffer for them in an afflictive condition in the wilderness." And this was just because of the relation between them; as the same procedure of divine justice is frequently declared in other places of the Scripture. So, where there is a due foundation of it, imputation is an act of justice.
2. Imputation may justly ensue " ex voluntaria sponsione," — when one freely and willingly undertakes to answer for another. An illustrious instance hereof we have in that passage of the apostle unto Philemon in the behalf of Onesimus, verse 18, " If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought" {rovro sf/,oi sXXoysi), " impute it unto me, — put it on my account." He supposeth that Philemon might have a double action against Onesimus. (1.) " Injuriarum," of wrongs : E/ ds n :n^ix,yi6B as' — " If he hath dealt unjustly with thee, or by thee, if he hath so wronged thee as to render himself obnoxious unto punishment." (2.) " Damni," or of loss: "H oplXsr — "If he oweth thee ought, be a debtor unto thee ;" which made him liable to pay- ment or restitution. In this state the apostle interposeth himself by a voluntary sponsion, to undertake for Onesimus : " I Paul have written it with my own hand," 'Eyw affor/Vw" — "I Paul will answer for the whole." And this he did by the transcription of both the debts of Onesimus unto himself ; for the crime was of that nature as might be taken away by compurgation, being not capital. And the impu- tation of them unto him was made just by his voluntai^y undertaking of them. "Account me," saith he, " the person that hath done these things ; and I will make satisfaction, so that nothing be charged on Onesimus." So Judah voluntarily undertook unto Jacob for the safety of Benjamin, and obliged himself unto pierpetual guilt in case of failure. Gen. xliii. 9, " I will be surety for him ; of my hand shalt thou require him : if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee," Q"'P*!^"^|i "^^ ''^1^90'':, — " I will sin," or " be a sinner before thee always," — be guilty, and, as we say, hear the blame. So he expresseth himself again unto Joseph, chap. xliv. 32. It seems this is the nature and office of a surety ; what he undertaketh for is justly to be required at his hand, as if he had been originally and personally concerned in it. And this vohmtai'y sponsion was one ground of the imputation of our sin unto Christ. /He took on him the person
IMPUTATION, A.ND THE NATURE OF IT. 171
of the whole church that had sinned, to answer for what they had done against God and the law. Hence that imputation was " fuiida- mentaliter ex compacto, ex voluntaria sponsione ;" — it had its founda- tion in his voluntary undertaking./ But, on supposition hereof, it was actually " ex justitia;" it being righteous that he should answer for it, and make good what he had so undertaken, the glory of God's righteousness and holiness being greatly concerned herein. . '3. There is an imputation "ex injuria," — when that is laid unto the charge of any whereof he is not g"uilty : so Bathsheba says unto David, " It shall come to pass that when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be ^''^^n/' (sinners), 1 Kings i. 21 ; — " shall be dealt with as offenders, as guilty persons ; have sin imputed unto us, on one pretence or other, unto our destruction. We shall be sinners, — be esteemed so, and be dealt withal accordingly." And we may see that, in the phrase of the Scripture, the denomination of sinners folio weth the imputation as well as the inhesion of sin; which will give light unto that place of the apostle, " He was made sin for us," 2 Cor. v. 21. This kind of imputation hath no place in the judgment of God. It is far from him that the righteous should be as the wicked.
4. There is an imputation " ex mera gratia," — of mere grace and favour. And this is, when that which antecedently unto this imputation was no way ours, not inherent in us, not performed by us, which we had no right nor title unto, is gi'anted unto us, made ours, so as that we are judged of and dealt with according unto it. This is that imputation, in both branches of it, — negative in the non- imputation of sin, and positive in the imputation of righteousness, — which the apostle so vehemently pleads for, and so frequently assert- eth, Rom. iv. ; for he both affirms the thing itself, and declares that it is of mere grace, without respect unto any thing within ourselves. And if this kind of imputation cannot be fully exemplified in any other instance but this alone whereof we treat, it is because the foundation of it, in the mediation of Christ, is singular, and that which there is nothing to parallel in any other case among men.