A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 30
XXX. Imputation.
IN those churches, which have adopted an erroneous faith in three divine persons existing from eternity, it is held, that justification and salvation are effected by God the Father through the imputation of the merits and righteousness of his Son Jesus Christ; and that such imputation is when and with whom he pleases, without any other respect to the objects of election, than what flows from an arbitrary, unconditional pre-determination, and sovereign pleasure. But as the faith, which gave birth to such a delirium of the mind, is itself opposed to the divine unity, and in it's consequences cannot be contemplated by any truly rational mind, without a kind of horror and justifiable indignation, it shall be no further noticed in this place, than as an occasion given, in the way of contrast, to state the true doctrine of the imputation of good and evil, according to the nature of every man's life.
The merit and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ consisted in the various acts of redemption, which he performed while on earth: and as the redemption wrought by him was a work purely divine, as already explained in a former article, any imputation of his merit to a mere creature, to an insignificant worm, must be a thing plainly impossible, and in itself to the last degree absurd. For if redemption cannot be applied or ascribed to any angel or man, any more than the creation and preservation of the universe can, redemption being a kind of second creation; it follows, that the merit of such a divine process can be imputed to none, but to him who actually accomplished it.
The imputation, which really takes place, is an imputation of good and evil, and at the same time of faith, but only so far as man by his life has appropriated to himself either the one or the other. Hence it is written, "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with the angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works," Matt, xvi. 27. "They that have done good, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation," John v. 29. And again, "Blessed is the man, unto whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity," Ps. xxxii. 2. The rewards and punishments here announced imply the imputation both of good and of evil: but still they are to be considered as the necessary and unavoidable result of the kind and quality of life, which a man chooses for himself. This is particularly true with respect to the imputation of evil, which, though permitted by the Lord, is not, properly speaking, imputed by him to man, but rather moderated and controlled by the divine mercy in it's superintendence over the general laws of divine order. But with respect to the imputation of good, and also of faith, it must always be regarded as the effect of divine mercy extended to, and received by, the regenerate man when become an angel, according to the quality of his past life.
