sing evil upon his subjects, then
there can be no reason for such a dispensation for imposing the tremendous
evil of the imputation of sin. The advocates of it themselves have laid
down a principle, which shows it to be without a reason. Hence they may
well say, "We cannot tell." Thus suffering is justified by the imputation
of guilt; the imputation of guilt by the divine constitution; and the
divine constitution, by nothing! If this is all that can be done, would it
not have been just as well to have begun, as well as ended, in the divine
constitution of things? But, no! even the most humble of men must have
some explanation, some little mitigation of their difficulties, if it be
only to place the world upon the back of an elephant, the elephant upon
the back of a tortoise, and the tortoise upon nothing.

It seems to be inconceivably horrible to Dr. Dick, and others of his
school, that the innocent should ever be made to suffer under the
providence of God; but yet they earnestly insist that the same good
providence plunges the whole human race--infants and all--into unavoidable
guilt, and then punishes them for it! To say that the innocent may be made
to suffer is monstrous injustice--is horrible; but to say that they are
made sinners, and then punished, is all right and proper! To say that the
innocent can suffer under the administration of God, is to shock our sense
of justice, and put out the light of the divine goodness; but it is all
well if we only say that the punishment due to Adam's sin is made, by the
same good administration, to fall upon all his posterity _in the form of
moral evil, and that then they are justly punished for this punishment_!
Alas, that the minds of the great and the good, born to reflect the light
of the glorious gospel of God upon a darkened world, should be so sadly
warped, so awfully distorted, by the inexorable necessities of a despotic
system!

Section II.

The imputation of sin not consistent with the goodness of God.

This point has been already indirectly considered, but it is worthy of a
more direct and complete examination. It is very remarkable that although
Dr. Dick admits he cannot reconcile the scheme of imputation with the
character of God, or remove its seeming hardships, not to say cruelty, he
yet positively affirms that "it is a proof of the goodness of God."(168)
Surely, if the covenant of works, involving the imputation of sin, a