Short Notices [pp. 759-784]

Short Notices.
and every scriptural ground of salvation of sinners is renounced.
It is admitted among all the Lutherans and Reformed, at least,
that so far as imputation is concerned, it is the same in nature
and its essential foundation, in the case of the imputation of
Adam's sin to us, of our sins to Christ, and of his righteousness to the believer. We do not understand Dr. Baird to deny
this. But if the above-mentioned principles are true, if, as he
says, God must judge every one according to his real subjective
character and his conduct, then it not only follows that if condemned for Adam's sin, we must be personally criminal for
that offence, but also that Christ was personally criminal and
polluted if his sufferings were penal, and that the righteousness
which is the ground of justification must be our own inherent
moral or spiritual excellence. It must be from our own subjective
character, however, that they be induced or derived. This is
the fatal matter. If the sinner is referred to what is in himself as the ground of his confidence before God, he is sunk into
despair. No man can be saved who, whatever be his theory,
does not trust for pardon and acceptance on what is out of himself —on what Christ has done for him, as distinguished from
what he has wrought in him. In opposition to the teachings of
Dr. Baird, explicit or implied, we hold, in common with our own
standards and the faith of the Reformation, that Adam's sin as
the sin of our head and representative, was the ground of the
condemnation of his race, and inherent personal corruption its
penal consequence; that our sins and not Christ's own personal
criminality (God pardon the words) was the ground of the penal
character of his sufferings; and that his righteousness, and not
our own personal, subjective righteousness is the ground of our
justification. This is our heresy so far as imputation is concerned.
As to original sin, in the sense of inherent hereditary corruption, there are the following theories: 1. That it is not
properly of the nature of sin, but simply a proclivity to sin.
2. That it is truly of the nature of sin and guilt, but that it
does not consist in the corruption of the substance of the soul,
nor in the positive infusion of any corrupt principle; and that
it is the state of a rational and moral being, which is consequent on judicial abandonment and the withholding of the
Spirit of God. This we hold to be the common faith of Christians. 3. That the same numerical substance which became
corrupt in Adam, is propagated to us, so that the substance of
the soul is morally depraved. Conformity of the substance of
the soul to the law of God, says Dr. Baird, is holiness; the
reverse is sin. Our heresy on this point, according to Dr.
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