[2.] None ever dreamed of a transfusion or propagation of sin from us unto Christ, such as there was from Adam unto us. For Adam was a common person unto us, — we are not so to Christ : yea, he is so to us ; and the imputation of our sins unto him is a singular act of divine dispensation, which no evil consequence can ensue upon.
[3.] To imagine such an imputation of our sins unto Christ as that thereon they should cease to be our sins, and become his absolutely, is to overthrow that which is affirmed ; for, on that supposition, Christ could not suffer for our sins, for they ceased to be ours ante- cedently unto his suffering. But the guilt of them Avas so trans- ferred unto him, that through his suffering for it, it might be par- doned unto us.
202 ON JUSTIFICATION.
These things being premised, I say, —
First, There is in sin a transgression of the preceptive part of the law ; and there is an obnoxiousness unto the punishment from the sanction of it. It is the first that gives sin its formal nature; and where that is not subjectively, no person can be constituted /orma% a sinner. However any one may be so denominated, as unto some certain end or purpose, yet, without this, formally a sinner none can be, whatever be imputed unto them. And where that is, no non-imputation of sin, as unto punishment, can free the person in whom it is from being formally a sinner. When Bathsheba told David that she and her son Solomon should be ^''^'^^ (sinners), by having crimes laid unto their charge; and when Judah told Jacob that he would be a sinner before liim always on the account of any evil that befell Benjamin (it should be imputed unto him); yet neither of them could thereby be constituted a sinner formally. And, on the other hand, when Shimei desired David not to impute sin unto him, whereby he escaped present punishment, yet did not that non-imputation free him formally from being a sinner. Where- fore sin, under this consideration, as a transgression of the precep- tive part of the law, cannot be communicated from one imto another, unless it be by the propagation of a vitiated principle or habit. But yet neither so will the personal sin of one, as inherent in him, ever come to be the personal sin of another. Adam hath upon his per- sonal sin communicated a vicious, depraved, and corrupted nature imto all his posterity ; and, besides, the guilt of his actual sin is im- puted unto them, as if it had been committed by every one of them: but yet his particular personal sin neither ever did, nor ever could, become the personal sin of any one of them any otherwise than by the imputation of its guilt unto them. Wherefore our sins neither are, nor can be, so imputed unto Christ, as that they should become subjectively Ids, as they are a transgression of the preceptive part of the law. A physical translation or transfusion of sin is, in this case, naturally and spmtually impossible; and yet, on a supposition thereof alone do the horrid consequences mentioned depend. But the guilt of sin is an external respect of it, with regard unto the sanction of the law only. This is separable from sin ; and if it were not so, no one sinner could either be pardoned or saved. It may, therefore, be made another's by imputation, and yet that other not rendered formally a sinner thereby. This was that which was imputed unto Christ, whereby he was rendered obnoxious unto the curse of the law ; for it was impossible that the law should pronounce any accursed but the guilty, nor would do so, Deut. xxvii. 26.
Secondly, There is a great difference between the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto us and the imputation of our sins
SURETISHIP, 203
^lnto Christ; so as that he cannot in the same manner be said to he made a sinner by the one as we are made righteous by the other. For our sin was imputed unto Christ only as he was our surety for a time, — to this end, that he might take it away, destroy it, and abohsh it. It was never imputed unto him, so as to make any alteration absolutely in his personal state and condition. But his righteousness is imputed unto us to abide with us, to be ours always, and to make a total change in our state and condition, as unto our relation unto God. Our sin was imputed unto him only for a season, not abso- lutely, but as he was a surety, and unto the special end of destroying it ; and taken on him on this condition, that his righteousness should be made ours for ever. All things are otherwise in the imputation of his righteousness unto us, which respects us absolutely, and not under a temporary capacity, abides with us for ever, changeth our state and relation unto God, and is an effect of superabounding grace.
But it will be said that if our sins, as to the guilt of them, were imputed unto Christ, then God must hate Christ; for he hateth the guilty, I know not well how I come to mention these things, which indeed I look upon as cavils, such as men may multiply if they please against any part of the mysteries of the gospel. But seeing it is mentioned, it may be spoken unto; and, —