of Edwards be true, the descendants of Adam
did not have their fate in their own hands. It did not depend on their own
choice. It was necessitated, even prior to their existence, by the divine
constitution which had indissolubly connected their awful destiny, their
temporal and eternal ruin, with an event already foreseen. And the
constitution binding such awful consequences to an event already foreseen,
is called an expression of the goodness of God!

Suppose, for example, that a great prince should promise his subjects that
on the happening of a certain event, over which they had no control, he
would confer unspeakable favours upon them. Suppose also, that at the same
time he should declare to them, that if the event should not happen, he
would load them with irons, cast them into prison, and inflict the
greatest imaginable punishments upon them during the remainder of their
lives. Suppose again, that at the very time he thus made known his
_gracious intentions_ to them, he knew perfectly well that the event on
which his favour was suspended would not happen. Then, according to his
certain foreknowledge, the event fails, and the penalty of the covenant or
appointment is inflicted upon his subjects:--they are cast into prison;
they are bound in chains, and perpetually tormented with the greatest of
all imaginable evils:--not because they had transgressed the appointment or
sovereign constitution, but because an event had taken place over which
they had no control. Now, who would call such a ruler a good prince? Who
could conceive, indeed, of a more cruel or deceitful tyrant? But we submit
it to the candid reader, if he be not more like the prince of
predestination, than the great God of heaven and earth?

This scheme of imputation, so far from being an expression of infinite
goodness, were indeed an exhibition of the most frightful cruelty and
injustice. It would be a useful, as well as a most curious inquiry, to
examine the various contrivances of ingenious men, in order to bring the
doctrine of imputation into harmony with the justice of God. We shall
briefly allude to only two of these wonderful inventions,--those of
Augustine and Edwards. Neither of these celebrated divines supposed that a
foreign sin, properly so called, is ever imputed to any one; but that the
sin of Adam, which is imputed to his descendants, is their own sin, as
well as his.(170) But here the question arises, How could they make Adam's
sin to be