If this reasoning be correct, we s importance and the necessity of relation which has ever subsisted be and his Church. In election, obs rowsmith, a definite number of sons were from eternity given to the Father had constituted Head to be his members:' and it is in lation that the members of his become interested in all the branch stitutionary work, and will finally into the possession of glory and of

To imagine therefore that wha Christ did for me as a surety, can the salvation of one for whom he that endearing character, appear lime of paradox. It might with priety be said, That when Aaron, day of atonement, laid both his h head of the live goat, and confesse the iniquities of the children of their transgressions in all their si upon the head of the goat, that

upon him all their iniquities-to make an atonement for the children of Israel in all their sins'that this atonement was equally available for the heathen nations which, in the righteous judgment of God, were devoted to destruction. But the fact was otherwise: the Israelites were chosen to be a special people to the Lord God, above all people that were upon the face of the earthHe showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel, He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.' As well may it be thought that the sap which circulates in one tree, can communicate its vital influence to another with which it never was in contact; as that the saving virtue of Christ's death either is or can be extended to those individuals who in the design of God, or by vital faith, were never branches in him the true vine.

In justification of this figurative allusion, I refer to what the Apostle Paul says when speaking of Adam and of Christ in their respective federal relations. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the

obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' In this passage, our first progenitor is exhibited as the representative head of his posterity; and, in this respect, as a striking figure of Christ, the second Adam. Some persons consider the federal relation as of equal extent in both cases; while others deny it in both: for it is supposed by the latter, that such a federal connection would involve the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, the imputation of sin to Christ, and, consequently, the salvation of all to whom he stood thus related. Those however who think that federal relation to Christ is of limited extent, but who, nevertheless, see no propriety in the figurative language adduced, would perhaps find considerable difficulty in showing how sinners, who were never federally related to Christ as a substitute, can become interested in his substitutionary work.

There is, says Mr. Staynoe, the same reason why the merit of our Saviour's obedience should be imputed to man, in order to man's obtaining eternal life; as there is that the merit of our Saviour's sufferings should be imputed to man

order to man's release from death-that imputation is as reasonable and justifiable in one case as in the other; for they both stand upon one and the same foot; and for this reason, he who throws down one, throws down both: and therefore, whoever rejects the doctrine of the imputation of our Saviour's righteousness to man, does, by so doing, reject the imputation of man's sin to our Saviour, and all the consequences of it: or, in other words, he who rejects the doctrine of imputation, does, by so doing, reject the doctrine of expiation likewise.'

The apostle Paul particularly alludes to this highly interesting subject in the fifth chapter of his epistle to the Romans; iu which, Mr. Peter Goodwin observes, the apostle illustrates the way in which we are made partakers of the righteousness of Christ. This is the professed design of the comparison made between Adam and Christ: it is as if he had said: As Adam transmits sin and death to all his natúral posterity, so Christ conveys righteousness and justification of life to all his spiritual seed-that as by one man's disobedience many

were made sinners, so by the obedience of one are many made righteous.

'Now, how are we made righteous by the obedience of Christ, but by the imputation of that obedience to us? and if so, when we are said to be made sinners by the disobedience of the first man, the antithesis requires that it should be meant of our being made sinners by the imputation of his disobedience to us. This is so necessary a consequence from the apostle's reasoning, that the deniers of the imputation of Adam's sin, of course deny the doctrine of justification by imputed righteousness: and, perhaps, it is from the pride of men in refusing to submit to the righteousness of Christ, and going about to establish a righteousness of their own, that they have set themselves so much to oppose the imputation of Adam's sin. This, in particular, seems to have been the case of Socinus, who confesses, that this discourse of the apostle gives great countenance to the doctrine of justification by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. But not relishing that, he sets himself, with all his cunning and artifice, to oppose the imputation