2. Three Acts of Imputation
sense. But the applications and relations
of the doctrine expressed by it
were thoroughly worked out only in
the discussions which accompanied and
succeeded the Reformation. In the developed
theology
thus brought into the possession of the
Church, three several acts of imputation were es
tablished and expounded. These are the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity; the imputation
of the sins of his people to the Redeemer; the im
putation of the righteousness of Christ to his people,
Though, of course, with more or less purity
of con
ception and precision of application, these three
great doctrines became the property of the whole
Church, and found a place in the classical theology
of the Roman, Lutheran, and Reformed alike. In
the proper understanding of the conception, it is
important to bear in mind that the divine act called
"imputation" is in itself precisely the same in
each of the three great transactions into which it
enters as a constituent part. The grounds on which
it proceeds may differ; the things imputed may
be
different; and the consequent treatment of the
person or persons to which the imputation is made
may and will differ as the things imputed to them
differ, But in each and every case alike imputation
itself is simply the act of setting to one's account;
and the act of setting to one's account is in itself
the same act whether the thing set to his account
stands on the credit or debit side of the account,
and whatever may be the ground in equity on which
it is set to his account. That the sin of Adam was
so set to the account of his descendants that they
have actually shared in the penalty which was
threatened to it; and that the sins of his people
were so set to the account of our Lord that he bore
them in his own body on the tree, and his merits
are so set to their account that by his stripes they
are healed, the entirety of historical orthodox
Christianity unites in affirming.
Opposition to these doctrines has, of course, not
been lacking in the history of Christian thought.
The first instance of important contradiction of the
fundamental
principle involved is presented by the
Pelagian movement (see
Pelagius, Pelagianism)
which arose at the beginning of the fifth century.
The Pelagians denied the equity and, therefore,
3. Pelagian Opposition to the Doctrine
that men either suffer harm from
Adam's sin or profit by Christ's
merits. By their examples only, they
said, can either Adam or Christ affect
us; and by free imitation of
them alone
can we share in their merits or demerits. It is not
apparent why Pelagius permitted himself such
extremity of
denial. What he had at heart to assert
was the inadmissibility by the-human, subject of plen
ary ability of will to do all righteousness. To safe
guard this he had necessarily to deny all subjective
injury to men from Adam's sin (and from their own
sins too, for that matter), and the need or actuality
of subjective grace for their perfecting. But there
was no reason growing out of this point of sight
why he might not allow that the guilt of Adam's
sin had been imputed to his posterity, end had
supplied the ground for the infliction upon them
of external penalties temporal or eternal; or that
the merits of Christ might be imputed to his people
as the meritorious ground of their relief from these
penalties, as well as of the forgiveness of their own
actual sins and of their reception into the favor of
God and the heavenly blessedness. Later Pelagian
izers found this out; and it became not uncommon
(especially after Duns Scotus' strong assertion of
the doctrine of " immediate imputation ") for the
imputation of Adam's sin to be exploited precisely
in the interest of denial or weakening of the idea
of the derivation of inherent corruption from Adam.
A very, good example of this tendency of thought
is supplied by the Roman Catholic theologian
Ambrosius Catharinus; whose admirable speech to
this effect at the Council of Trent is reported by
Father
Paul (
Hist.
of the Council of Trent,
Eng.
transl., London, 1676, p. 165). Even Zwingli was
not unaffected by it. He was indeed free from the
Pelagianizing attenuation of the corruption of nature
which is the subjective effect on his posterity of
Adam's sin. With him, "original sin" was both
extensively and intensively a total depravity, the
fertile source of all evil action. But he looked
upon it rather as a misfortune than a fault, a dis
ease than a sin; and he hung the whole weight of
our ruin on our direct participation in Adam's
guilt. As a slave can beget only a slave,- says he,
so all the progeny of man under the curse are
born under the curse.
