SIN. 



afTeftions are fo depraved, that they are iBclined only to 

 evil, and that all mankind are by nature fubjeft to the 

 wrath of God, fuch kind of corruption is confiltent nei- 

 ther with fcripture nor with right reafon. The fcripture, 

 he fays, teaches no fuch doftrine, as tliat which charges in- 

 fants with a moral corruption, that is truly and properly fin. 

 (See Deut. i. 39. Jonah, iv. 11. Romans, ix. II.) Our 

 Saviour recommends it to his difciples to be as little children. 

 (See alfo i Cor. xiv. 20.) This notion, fays Limborch, is 

 contrary to the jaltice of God, who would not punilh men 

 with this moral corruption, from which all aftual fins pro- 

 ceed, and which leads to future perdition and miiery. God 

 cannot be the author of fin. Befides, it cannot be con- 

 ceived, how this fin can be propagated ; it cannot belong 

 to the mind, which proceeds immediately from God, nor 

 can it exift in the body, which is incapable of fin. But as 

 difeafes may be propngatcd, fo may a peculiar tempera- 

 ment or conltitution, and together with this an inclina- 

 tion to certain objefts, which, immoderately indulged, may 

 become finful, but is not finful in itfelf. Moreover, no 

 fin is liable to punifiiment, which is involuntary ; but ori- 

 ginal corruption is involuntary. Limborch explains many 

 texts, and refutes many arguments urged by the advocates 

 of original fin. Another writer, (Dr. Taylor,) who has 

 taken a lead in this controverfy, on the fame fide of the 

 quedion, proceeds, in the examination of the doftrine of 

 original fin, upon the fame plan with Dr. Clarke, in his 

 " Scripture Doftriiie of the Trinity," by citing and explain- 

 ing all thofe paflages of fcripture which exprefsly fpeak of 

 the confequences of the firit tranfgreffion. He obferves, 

 that the confequences of the firft tranfgreffion are fpoken of 

 certainly and plainly but five times in the whole bible, twice 

 in the Old, and thrice in the New Tellament. The firit 

 pailage is Gen. ii. 17. In this paflage, he fays, death is op- 

 pofed to hfe, and muft be fo underilood. But not one w«rd 

 occurs in this text relating to Adam's pofterity. 2. The con- 

 fequences of the tranfgreffion of Adam and Eve are related 

 in Gen. iii. from the 7th verfe to the end of the chapter. 

 The natural confequences were fhame and fear, the common 

 effefts of guilt, which was perfonal, and could belong only 

 to themfelves. The judicial confequences pertained either 

 to the ferpent, the woman, or the man. As far as they 

 relate to the man, Adam became obnoxious 10 death, 

 which, as our author conceives, was death in law, or eternal 

 death ; and if the law had been immediately executed, his 

 pofterity then included in his loins mull have been extinft. 

 But it is alleged, that there is not a word of a curfe upon 

 the fouls of our firft parents, ;. e. upon the powers of their 

 minds ; nor do^s the leaft intimation occur with refpeA 

 to any other death, befides that difiolution which all man- 

 kind undergo, when they ceafe to live in this world. It is 

 alfo obferved, that we, their pofterity, arc in faft fubjeft to 

 the fame affliftions and mortality here inflifted by fentence 

 upon our firft parents ; but they are not inflifted as punifh- 

 mcnts for their fin, becaufe punifliment includes guilt ; but 

 we neither are, nor in the nature of things could be, guilty 

 of their fin. We may fufler by their fin, and aftually do 

 fuffer by it ; but we are iiot pnnilhed for their fin, bccaufe 

 we are not guilty of it ; and this fuffering is eventually a 

 good. Accordingly it appears evident in our world, that 

 the increafe of natural evil (at leaft in fome degree) is the 

 lellening of moral evil. 



3. The third text occurs in the New Teftament, vi%. 

 I Cor. XV. 21, 22. Here it is faid, the death from which 

 all mankind Ihall be relealed at the refurreftion, is the 

 only death that came upon all men in confequence of Adam's 

 /in > that as all men die, all men are mortal ; all lofc their 



life in Adam, and from him our mortality commences ; and 

 it is equally undeniable, that by Chrift came the refurreftion 

 of the dead. From this place we cannot conclude, fays 

 our author, that any other evil or death came upon man- 

 kind in confequence of Adam's firft tranfgreffion, befides 

 that death from which all mankind ftiall be dehvered at the 

 refurreftion, whatever that death be. 



4. The moft difficult padage is that which occurs in 

 Rom. v. 12— 19. A popular advocate of the doftrine of 

 original fin (Dr. Watts) thinks, that Adam's being a federal 

 head, and our deriving a finful nature from him, may be col- 

 lefted from this text. In this pailage our author apprehends 

 that the apoftle is fpeaking of that death wliich takes place 

 with regard to all mankind, when the prefent life is extin- 

 guilhed ; and that by judgment to condemnation, or a judi- 

 cial aft of condemnation, the apoftle means the being ad- 

 judged to the fore-mentioned death. The words " as by 

 one man's dilobedience many were made finuers," are (fays 

 Dr. Taylor) of the fame fignification witli thofe in the fore- 

 going verfe, " as by the offence of one judgment came upon 

 all men to condemnation ;" and therefore they mean nothing 

 more nor lefsthan that by one man's difobedience, the many, 

 that is, mankind, were made fubjeft to death by the judi- 

 cial aft of God. The apoftle, being a Jew, was well ac- 

 quainted with the idiom of the Hebrew language ; and ac- 

 cording to that language, "being made finners"may very well 

 fignify being adjudged or condemned to death. (See Exod. 

 xxii. 9. Deut. XXV. i. i Kings, viii. 32. Job,ix.20. x. 2. 

 xxxii. 3. xxxiv. 17. xl. 8. Pf. xxxvii. 33. xciv. 21. Prov. 

 xvii. 15. H. 1. 9. liv. 17.) In the Greek text it is not 

 tysvovTO, became finners, but ^al!-a6r;<rxv, were confliluted 

 finners ; viz. by the will and appointment of the judge. 

 Befidef, it is here exprefsly faid, that the many, i. r. man- 

 kind, are made finners, not by their own difobedience, but 

 by the difobedience of another man ; and therefore they 

 can be finners in no other way than as they are fufferers. 

 Upon the whole our author thinks it plain, that " by one 

 man's difobedience many were made finners," means that by 

 Adam's offence, the many, /. c. mankind, were made fub- 

 jeft to death by the judgment of God. In this pafljge there 

 is an etident contraft or comparifon between lomething 

 which Adam did and its confequences, and fomething 

 which Chrift did and the confequences of that : by the 

 former the many, /". e. all men, are brought into condemna- 

 tion ; and by the latter, all men arejuftified unto life. The 

 whole of the apoftle's argument and aftcrtion are fnppofed 

 by our author to reft upon two principles ; vi-i. that it is 

 by the one offence of Adam that death pafled upon all men, 

 and not by their own perfonal fins ; and again, that it i« by 

 the obedience of one, or the one aft of Chrift'a obedience, 

 (in his fuflerings and death upon thecrofs,) that all men are 

 juftified unto life, and not by their own perfonal rightoouf- 

 ncfs. He adds, that throughout the whole paragraph, the 

 apoftle fays nothing of any federal relations or traniaftion* 

 either on the part of Adam or Chrift, nor of our deriving a 

 finful nature from Adam. 



5. The text I Tim. ii. 14. declares a faft, with regard t» 

 Eve, which needs no explanation. 



Dr. T;ivl<ir, in the leconii part of his book, proceed* to 

 examine other pafl.iges of fcripture, which fome divim s have 

 applied to original fin. We ftiall here feleft two or three of 

 the principal, that our readers may be able to torm a ludg- 

 meiit for themlelves ; one is Ephef. ii. y. " and were by na- 

 ture the children of wrath even as others." Tlie apollle, our 

 author apprehends cannot mean that they were liable to di- 

 vine wrath or punifhment by that nature which they 

 brought into the world at their birth. I'or tliiii nature, 

 J E 2 whatever 



