Imputation of sin unto Christ — Testimonies of the ancients unto that purpose — Christ and the church one mystical person — Mistakes about that state and relation — Grounds and reasons of the union that is the foundation of this imputation — Christ the surety of the new covenant; in what sense, unto what ends — Heb. vii. 22, opened — Mistakes about the causes and ends of the death of Christ — The new covenant, in what sense alone procured and purchased thereby — Inquiry whether the guilt of our sins was imputed unto Christ — The meaning of the words, “guilt,” and “guilty” — The distinction of “reatus culpæ,” and “reatus pœnæ,” examined — Act of God in the imputation of the guilt of our sins unto Christ — Objections against it answered — The truth confirmed
Those who believe the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto believers, for the justification of life, do also unanimously profess that the sins of all believers were imputed unto Christ. And this they do on many testimonies of the Scripture directly witnessing thereunto; some whereof shall be pleaded and vindicated afterwards. At present we are only on the consideration of the general notion of these things, and the declaration of the nature of what shall be proved afterwards. And, in the first place, we shall inquire into the foundation of this dispensation of God, and the equity of it, or the grounds whereinto it is resolved; without an understanding whereof the thing itself cannot be well apprehended.
The principal foundation hereof is, — that Christ and the church, in this design, were one mystical person; which state they do actually coalesce into, through the uniting efficacy of the Holy Spirit. He is the head, and believers are the members of that one person, as the apostle declares, 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. Hence, as what he did is imputed unto them, as if done by them; so what they deserved on the account of sin was charged upon him. So is it expressed by a learned prelate, “Nostram causam sustinebat, qui nostram sibi carnem aduniverat, et ita nobis arctissimo vinculo conjunctus, et ἑνωθεὶς, quæ erant nostra fecit sua.” And again, “Quit mirum si in nostra persona constitutus, nostram carnem indutus,” etc., Montacut. Origin. Ecclesiast. The ancients speak to the same purpose. Leo. Serm. xvii. “Ideo se humanæ imfirmitati virtus divina conseruit, ut dum Deus sua facit esse quæ nostra sunt, nostra faceret esse quæ sua sunt;” and also Serm. xvi. “Caput nostrum Dominus Jesus Christus omnia in se corporis sui membra transformans, quod olim in psalmo eructaverit, id in supplicio crucis sub redemptorum suorum voce clamavit.” And so speaks Augustine to the same purpose, Epist. cxx., ad Honoratum, “Audimus vocem corporis ex ore capitis. Ecclesia in illo patiebatur, quando pro ecclesia patiebatur,” etc.; — “We hear the voice of the body from the mouth of the head. The church suffered in him when he suffered for the church; as he suffers in the church when the church suffers for him. For as we have heard the voice of the church in Christ suffering, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? look upon me;’ so we have heard the voice of Christ in the church suffering, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou me?’ ” But we may yet look a little backwards and farther into the sense of the ancient church herein. “Christus,” says Irenæus, “omnes gentes exinde ab Adam dispersas, et generationem hominum in semet ipso recapitulatus est; unde a Paulo typus futuri dictus est ipse Adam,” lib. iii. cap. 33. And again, “Recapitulans universum hominum genus in se ab initio usque ad finem, recapitulatus est et mortem ejus.” In this of recapitulation, there is no doubt but he had respect unto the ἀνακεφαλαίωσις, mentioned Eph. i. 10; and it may be this was that which Origen intended enigmatically, by saying, “The soul of the first Adam was the soul of Christ, as it is charged on him.” And Cyprian, Epist. lxii., on bearing about the administration of the sacrament of the eucharist, “Nos omnes portabat Christus; qui et peccata nostra portabet;” — “He bare us,” or suffered in our person, “when he bare our sins.” Whence Athanasius affirms of the voice he used on the cross, Οὐκ αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος· ἀλλὰ ἡμεῖς ἐν ἐκείνῳ πάσχοντες ἦμεν· — “We suffered in him.” Eusebius speaks many things to this purpose, Demonstrat. Evangel. lib. x. cap. 1. Expounding those words of the psalmist, “Heal my soul, for” (or, as he would read them, if) “I have sinned against thee,” and applying them unto our Saviour in his sufferings, he says thus, Ἐπειδὰν τὰς ἡμετέρας κοινοποιεῖ εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἁμαρτίας· — “Because he took of our sins to himself;” communicated our sins to himself, making them his own: for so he adds, Ὅτι τὰς ἡμέτερας ἁμαρτίας ἐξοικειούμενος· — “Making our sins his own.” And because in his following words he fully expresses what I design to prove, I shall transcribe them at large: Πῶς δὲ τὰς ἡμετέρας ἁμαρτίας ἐξοικειοῦται; καὶ πῶς φέρειν λέγεται τὰς ἀνομίας ἡμῶν, ἢ καθ’ ὁ σῶμα αὐτοῦ εἶναι λεγόμεθα; κατὰ τὸν ἀπόστολον φήσαντα, ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ σῶμα Χριστοῦ, καὶ μέλη ἐκ μέρους· καὶ καθ’ ὃ πάσχοντος ἑνὸς μέλους, συμπάσχει πάντα τὰ μέλη, οὕτω τῶν πολλῶν μελῶν πασχόντων καὶ ἁμαρτανόντων, καὶ αὐτὸς κατὰ τοὺς τῆς συμπαθείας λόγους, ἐπειδήπερ εὐδόκησε Θεοῦ Λόγος ὢν, μορφὴν δούλου λαβεῖν, καὶ τῷ κοινῷ πάντων ἡμῶν σκηνώματι συναφθῆναι· τοὺς τῶν πασχόντων μελῶν πόνους εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀναλαμβάνει, καὶ τὰς ἡμετέρας νόσους ἰδιοποιεῖται, καὶ πάντων ἡμῶν ὑπεραλγεῖ καὶ ὑπερπονεῖ κατὰ τοὺς τῆς φιλανθρωπίας νόμους· οὐ μόνον δὲ ταῦτα πράξας ὁ Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κολασθεὶς καὶ τιμωρίαν ὑποσχών, ἣν αὐτὸς μὲν οὐκ ὤφειλεν, ἀλλ’ ἡμεις τοῦ πλήθους ἕνεκεν πεπλημμελημένων, ἡμῖν αἴτιος τῆς τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀφέσεως κατέστη, ἅτε τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀναδεξάμενος θανάτον, μάστιγάς τε καὶ ὕβρεις καὶ ἀτιμίας ἡμῖν ἐποφειλομένας εἰς αὐτὸν μεταθεὶς, καὶ τὴν ἡμῖν προστετιμημένην κατάραν ἐφ’ ἑαυτὸν ἑλκύσας, γενόμενος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κατάρα· καὶ τί γὰρ ἄλλο ἣ ἀντίψυχος; διό φησιν ἐξ ἡμετέρου προσώπου τὸ λόγιον — ὥστε εἰκότως ἑνῶν ἑαυτὸν ἡμῖν, ἡμᾶς τε αὑτῶ καὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα πάθη ἰδιοποιούμενός φησιν, ἐγὼ εἶπα, Κύριε ἐλέησόν με, ἰάσαι τὴν ψυχήν μου, ὅτι ἥμαρτόν σοι.