210 PART n. ch. viil — sin.
Objections to the Doctrine of Mediate Imputation. Tlie leading, objections against the doctrine of mediate imputa- tion are, —
1. That it denies what the Scriptures assert. The Scriptures assert that the sentence of condemnation has passed upon all men for the sin of one man. This the doctrine of mediate imputation denies, and affirms that the ground of that condemnation is inhe- rent depravity. We are accounted partakers of Adam's sin only because we derive a corrupt nature from him. According to the Scriptures, however, the reason why we are depraved is, that we are regarded as partakers of his sin, or because the guilt of that sin is imputed to us. The guilt in the order of nature and fact precedes the spiritual death which is its penal consequent.
2. This doctrine denies the penal character of the hereditary cor- ruption in which all men are born. According to tiie Scriptures and to the faith of the church universal, mortality, the loss of origi- nal righteousness, and hereditary corruption are inflicted upon man- kind in execution of the threatening made against Adam, and are included in the comprehensive word, death, by which the threatened penalty was expressed. This is as emphatically taught by Presi- dent Edwards as by any other of the Reformed theologians. He devotes a section of his work to prove that the death mentioned in Genesis, and of which the Apostle speaks in Rom. v. 12, included spiritual death, and that the posterity of Adam were included in that penalty. He says : " The calamities which come upon them in consequence of his sin, are brought on them as punishments."^ He moreover says, it destroys the whole scope of the Aj)ostIe'8 argument " to suppose that the death of which he here speaks as coming on mankind by Adam's sin, conies not as a punishment."^ And again : "• I do not suppose the natural depravity of the poster- ity of Adam is owing to the course of nature only ; it is also owing to the just judgment of God." ^ But punishment supposes guilt ; if the loss of righteousness and the consequent corruption of nature are ])unishments, they suppose the antecedent imputation of guilt ; and therefore imjjutation is immediate and not mediate ; it is ante- cedent and not consequent to or upon inherent depravity. The view which the Reformed theologians uniformly present on this subject is, that God constituted Adam the head and re])resentative of his race. The penalty attached to the covenant made with him,
1 Original Siri, ii. i.; IVorks, vol. ii. p. 432. 2 j^iJ, h. iy. «< supra, p. 481.
• Ibid. IV. ii. ut supra, p. 540.