Observations on Other Parts of the Holy Scriptures, Chiefly in the Old Testament, That Prove the Doctrine of Original Sin
Original depravity may well be argued, from wickedness being often spoken of in scripture, as a thing to the race of mankind, and as if it icre a firojiertij of the n/iccics. So in Psal. xiv. 2, 3. The Lord looked down from tsj ORIGINAL SIN.
Iicavcn upon the children ofmcn to see if iher vere any tJift did undcrsiaiul, and seek God. They are all gone aside; thty arc together become filthy: There is none that doeth good; no, not one.” TUe like ve have again, Psal. liii. 2, S. Dr. Tavlor says, p. J04, 105. The Holy Spirit does not jpean this of every individual; because in the very same psalm, he speaks of some that were righteous, ver. 5, Goi is in the generation of the rii’hteous.” But how little is this observation to the purpose? For who ever supposed, that no unrighteous men were ever cUanped .by divine grace, and afterwards made righteous? The Psalmist is speaking of what men are as they are the diildren of men, born of the corrupt human race; and not as born of God, whereby they come to be the children of God, and of the generation of the righteous. The Apostle Paul cites” this place in Rom. iii. 10, 11, 12, tb prove the universal corruption of mankind; but yet in tjie same chapter he supposes these same persons here spoken of as wicked, may become righteous, through the righteousness and grace of God,
So wickedness is spoken of in other places in the Book of Psalms, as a thing that belongs to men, as of the human race-, as so7isof7nen. Thus in Psal. iv. 2. “O ye sons ofmcn how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will yc love vanity?” &c. Psal. lvii. 4. “I lie among them that are set on fire, even the soils of men whose teeth are spears and arrovrs, and their tongue a sharp sword.*^’ Psal. lviii. 1,2. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye wdrk wickedness; ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.’* Our author, mentioning these places, says p. 105, Note, There was a strong party in Israel disaffected to David*s person and government, and sometimes he chooselh to denote them by the sons or children of men.” But it would have been worth his while to have inquired, Why the Psalmist fihould choose to denote the wickedest and worst men in Israel by this name? Why he should choose thus to disgrace the human race, us if the compellation of sons of men most properly belonged to such as were of the vilest character,
aUc! as if all the sons of men, even every one of them, were of such a character, and none of ihem did good; no, not one? Is it not strange, that the righteous should not be thought worthy to be called so7is ofjnen, and ranked with that noble race of beings, who are born into the world wholly right and innocent! It is a good, easy, and natural reason, why he chooscth to call the wicketl, so?is of men, as a proper name for them, that by being of the sons of men, or of the corrupt, ruined race of mankind, they come by their depravity. And the Psalmist himself leads us to this very reason, Psal. lviii, at the beginning.” Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons ofw.cn Yea, in heart ye work wickedness, ye weigh out the violence of your hands. The wicked are estranged from the womb,’* 3cc. of which I shall speak more by and by.
Agreeable to these places is Prov. xxi. S, “The way of manis froward and strange; but as for the pure, his work is right.” He that is perverse in his walk, is here called by the name of man, as distinguished from the pure: Which I think is absolutely unaccountable, if all mankind by nature are pure-, and perfectly innocent, and all such as are froward and strange in their ways, therein depart from the native purity of all mankind. The words naturally lead us to suppose the contrary; that depravity and perverseness properly belong t» mankind as they are naturally, and that a being made pure, is by an afterwork, by which some are delivered from nativ’e pollution, and distinguished from mankind in general; which is perfectly agreeable to the -ipresentation in Rev. xiv. 4, where we have an account of a number that iver-e riot clfjilrd, but were pure, and foUoived the Lamb; of whom it is said, These were redeemed from among men.
To these things agree Jer. xvii. 5, 9. In ver. 5, it is said, “Cursed is he that trusteth in man** And in ver. 9, this reason is given, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” What heart is this so wicked and deceitful? Why, evidently the heart of him whom, it nvas said before, nve must not trust; and that is man. It alters not the case, as to the present argument, whether the deceitfulness of the heart here spoken of, be its deceitfuiness
i ORIGINAL SI A
to the man himself, or to others. So Eccl. ix. 3. “Maclne^S IS in tljc heart of the .<^0725 ofvien while they live.” And those words of Christ to Peter, Malth. xvi. 23. “Get thee behind me» Satan, for thou savorest not the things that 1x5 of God, but the things that bcof?“e/z.” Signifying plainly, that to be carnal and vain, and opposite to what is spiritual and divine, is what properly belongs to mm in their present state. The same thing is supposed in that of the apostle, 1 Cor. iii. 3. «’ For ye are yet. carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men P” And that in Hos. li. 7. <’ But they like mcvy have transgressed the covenant.’* To these places may be added Matth. vii. 1 1, “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts.” Jam. iv. 5. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dnvelleth iv. ns Imtcth to C72vy?’^ 1 Pet. iv. 2. “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the lusts of men but to-the will of God.” Yet above all, that in Job xv. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is -majirjlio drinketh iniqid-^ ty like ti-ctcr? Of which more presently.
Now what account can be given of these things, on Dr. Taylor’s scheme? How strange is it, that we should have such descriptions, all over the Bible, of man and the sons of men ‘Why should man be so continually spoken of as evil, carnal, perverse, deceitful, and desperately wicked, if all men are by nature as perfectly innocent, and free from any propensity to evil, as Adam was the first moment of his creation, all made rit/it as our author would have us understand, Eccl. vii. 29? Why, on the contrary, is it not said, at least as often, and with equal reason, that the heart of man ts right and pure; that the way of man ist innocent and holy; and that lie nvho savors true virtue and nvisdom savor/i the things that be of men? Yea, and why might it not as well have been said, The Lord looked doii’nfrom I, raven on the stonn rf men to see if there were any that did vndrrstand, and did feek after God; and they were all right, altogether pure y there was jwne inclined to do ivickednessy no, not one?
Of the like import with the texts mentioned are those which represent wickedness as what properly belongs to tbc
W&rld; and that they who arc otherVisc, are ltaved frorh the fvorldy and callrd one of it. As John vii. 7. ‘* The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth; because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” Chap. viii. 23. Ye are of this world: I am not of this world.” Chap. xiv. 17. The spirit of truth, whom the ivoHd cannot receive; because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: But ye know him.” Chap.’ XV. 18, 19. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hatedyou. If ye were of the world, the vjorld would love its o^Vn: But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Rev. xiv. 3, 4. “These are they which were redeemed from the «°a7*/’A... .redeemed from amoni men.” Jolm xvii. 9. I pray not for the world, but for them which ihon hast given me.” Ver. 14. “I have piven them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the worldy even as I am not of the world.*’ I John iii. 13. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” Chap. iv. 5 “Thej’ are of the lOorld, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.” Chap. v. 19« “We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickednes-j.” It is evident, that in these places, by the world is meant the world of mankind; not the habitation, but the inhabitants: For it is the world spoken of as loving, hating, doing evil worksy afieaking, hearm inffj See.
It shews the same thin£»;» that wickedness is often spoken «f as heinp man’s own, in contradistinction from virtue and holiness So men’s lusts are ofien called their own heart’s lusts, and their practisinf wickedness is called walking in their own “ways, walking in their own counsels, in the imagination of their own heart, and in the sight of their own eyes, accordinij to their 07172 devices, &c. These things denote wickedness to be a quality belonging properly to the character and nature of mankind in their present state: As, when Christ would represent that lying is remarkably the character and the very nature of the devil in his present state, he expresses it thus, John viii. 44. “When lic speaketh rx lie, he speaketh of hift own: For he is a liar, and the father of it.”
, And that wickedness belongs to the nature of mankind jnF their present state, may be argued from those places which ftpak of mankind as being wicked in their childhood or from their childhood. So, that in Prov. xxii. 15. “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.’* Nothing is more manifest, than that the wise man in this book continually uses the word folly, or foolishness, for wickedness: And that this is what he means in this place, the words themselves do shew: For the rod of correction is proper to drive away no other foolishness, than that which is of a moral nature. The word rendered bounds •jignifics, as is observed in PooVs ^ynofisis a close and firm union. The’ same word is used in chap. vi. 21. “BindKlivs continually upon thy heart.” And chap. vii. S. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.*” To the like purpose is qhap. iii. 3, and Deut, xi. 18, where this word is used. The same verb is used, 1 Sam. xviii. 1. The soul al Jonathan was knit {pxhoTmd), to the soul oi Da* t/J, idwd Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” But how comes wickedness to be so firmly bound, and strongly fixed, in the hearts of children, if it be not there naturally? Thejr having had no time firmly to fix habits of sin, by long custom in actual wickedness, as those that have lived many years in the world. ’
The same thing is signified in that noted place, Gen. viih 1. «’ For the imagin’ation of man’s heart is evil, yrom Aep youth It alters not the case, whether it be translated ybr or thoufrh the imagination of man*s heart is evil from his youth, as Dr; Taylb would have it; Still the words suppose it to be so as is said. ‘The word translated youths signifies Ihe whole of the former part of the age of man, which com-Vncrccs from the beginning of life. The word, in its derivation, has reference to the birth or beginning of existence.. It coTPCs from J^’anar which signifies to shake off, as a tree shupve’.s off its ripe fruit, or a plant its seed: The birth of thi’drcn beino; commonly represented by a tree’s yielding 1tu!% or’fl pHmt’s yielding seed. So that the word here translated youth, comprehends not* dnlywhat we in English most
commonly call the lime of” youth, but also childhood and infancyj and is very often used to signify these latter. A word of the same root is used to signify a yoz:;/^ c////^, or a littk child in the following places; 1 Sam. i. 24, 25, 27; 1 Kings iii. 7, and xi. 17; 2 Kings ii. 23; Job xxxiii. 25; Prov. xxii. €, xxiii. 13, and xxix. 21; Isai. x. 19, xi. 6, and lxv.20; llos. xi. 1. The same word is used to signify an infant in Exod. ii. 6, and x. 9; Judg. xiii. 5, 7, 8, 24 ;. 1 Sam. i. 22, and iv. 21; 2 Kings v. 14; Isai. vii. 16, and viii. 4.
Dr. Taylor says, p. 124, Note, that he “conceives, from the youths is a phrase signifying the greatness or long duration of a thing.” But if by long duration he means any thing else than what is literally expressed, viz. from the beginning of life, he has no reason to conceive so; neither has what he offers, so much as the shadow of a reason for his conception. There is no appearance in the words of the two or three texts he mentions, of their meaning any thing else than what is most literally signified. And it is certain, that what he suggests is not the ordinary import of such a phrase among the Hebrews: But that thereby is meant from the beginning, or early time of life, or existence; as may be seen in the places following, where the same word in the Hebrew is used, as in this place in the 8th of Genesis. I vSam. xii. 2. ‘* I am old, and gray headed. ..and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day;’* where the original word is the same. Psal. lxxi. 5, 6. Thou art my trust /rom my youth: By thee have I been holden up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels.” Ver. 17, 18. “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works: Now also, when 1 am old and gray headed, forsake me not,” Psal. cxxix. 1, 2. ‘• Many a time have they afflicted me from my youchy may Israel now say: Many a time have they afflicted mcfrom my youth; yet have they not prevailed against me.” Isai. xlvii. 12. Stand now with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein, thou hast labored, /rom My yowr//.” So ver. 15, and 2 Sam. xix. 7. “That will be worse unto thee, than all the evil that bcfef ‘.YitC: from thy youth Mxli now.” Jer. iii. 24, 25, Shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers, /rom our youth, Wd have sinned against the- Lord our God/ro7n our zjouth, even to this day.” So Gen. xlvi. 34; Job xxxi. 18; Jer, xxxii. 30, and xlviii. 11; Ezek. iv. 14; Zech. xiii. 5.
And it is to be observed, that according to the manner of the Hebrew lantiiage, when it is said, such a thing has been
from youths or the first part of existence, the phrase is to be understood as including that first time of existence. So, Josh. vi. 21.” They utterly destroyed all, from the young to the old,** (so it is in the Hebrew) i. e. including both. So Gen. xix. 4, and Esther ill. 13.
And as mankind are represented in scripture, as being of a wicked heart from their youths so in other places they are spoken of as being thusy7*om the womb. Psal. lviii. 3. “The wicked are estranged yro77z the nvomb: They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” It is observable, that the Psalmist mentions this as what belongs to the wicked, as the iions of men: For, these are the preceding M’ords: “Do ye judge uprightly, O t/e” 50«6” o/“7/2en.? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness.” (A phrase of the like import wiih that in Gen. viii. 21. The imagination, or operation, as it might have been rendered, of his heart is evil.) Then it follows, The nvicked are estranied from the womb, kc. The next verse is, Their
jioison is like the poisoji of a serficnt. It is so remarkably, as
-the very nature of a serpent is poison: Serpents are poison ous as soon as they come into the world: They derive a poisonous nature by their generation. Dr. Taylor, p. 134, 135, says, “It is evident that this is a scriptural figurative way of aggravating wickedness on the one hand, and of signifying early and settled habits of virtue on the other, to speak of it as beingyVowi the nvomh** And as a probable instance of the latter, he cites that in Isai. xlix. I.” The Lord hath called me
from the tvomb; from the bowels of my mother he made mention of my name.’* But I apprehend, that in order to
. seeing thib to be either evident or probable, a man must have eyes peculiuriy affected. I humbly conceive that such phra-
•bes as that in the 49th of Isaiah, of God’s calling the prophet
/rD?n the vj.ombf are evidently not of the import, which he sup
ses; but mean truly from the bcginninp; of existence, and are manifestly of like siinification with that which is said of the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. i. 5. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee: Before thou earnest out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Which surely means something else besides a high degree of virtue: It plainly signifies that he was, from his first existence, set apart by God for a prophet. And it would be as unreasonable to understand it otherwise, as to suppose the angel meant any other than that Samson was set apart to be a Nazarite from the beginning of his life, when he says to his mother, “Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son: And now drink no wine, nor strong drink, &c. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God,./7-om the luomb to the day of his death.” By these instances it is plain, that the phrase, frovt the ivomby as the other, frc7n the youths as used in scripture, properly signifies from the beginning of iife.
Very remarkable is that place, Job xv. 14, 15, 16. “What js man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a ttDoman that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight? How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinkelh iniquity like water i” And no less remarkable is our author’s method of managing it. The sixteenth verse expresses an exceeding degree of wickedness, in as plain and emphalical terms, almost, as can be invented; every word representing this in the strongest manner: ‘» How much more abominable and filthy is man, that drinketh iniquity like water?” I cannot now rec oliect where we have a sentence equal to it in the whole Bible, for an emphatical, lively and strong representation of great wickedness of heart. Any one of the words, as such words are used in scripture, would represent great wickedness: If it had been only said, “* How much more abominable is man?” Or, “How much more filthy is man?” Or, “Man that drinketh iniqljity.” But all these are accumulated with the addition o{..,.Uke water .,.JLht further to represent the boldness or greediness of men men in wickedness; though iniquity be the most deaclly poiy on, yet men drink it c’s boldly as the’ drink water, are as familiar with it as with their common drink, and djink it with like greediness, as he that is thirsty drinks water. That boldness and eagerness in persecuting the saints, by which the gi-eal degree of the depravity of man’s heart often appears, is represented thus, Psal. xiv. 4.” Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread?** And the greatest eagerness of thirst is represented by thirsting as an animal thirsts after water, Psalm xlii. 1.
Now let us see the soft, easy, light manner, in which Dr« Taylor treats this place, p. 143. How much more abominable and filthy is man, in coniiarison of the divine /lurity, who drinketh iniquity like water? Who is attended with so many sensual appetites, and so apt to indulge them. You see the argument, man, in his present weak and fleshly state, cannot be clean before God. Why so? Because he is conceived and born in sin, by reason of Adam’s sin: No such thing. But because, if the purest creatures are not pure, in compart” son of God, much less a being subject to so many 17ir?miie&^ as a mortal man. Which is a demonstration to me, not only that Job and his friends did not intend to establish the doctrine we are now examining, but that they were wholly strangers to it.” Thus this author endeavors to reconcile ’ this text with his doctrine of the perfect, native innocence of man- ‘liinU; in which we have a notable specimen of his demonstrations, as well as of that great impartiality and, fairness in examining and expounding the scripture, which he makes so often a profession of.
In t])is place we are not only told how wicked man’s heart is, but also how men come by such wickedness; even by being of the race of mankind, by ordinary generation* “What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be rii;hteous:” Our author, pages 141, .42, represents man’s being born of a woman, as a periphrasis, to signify man; and that there is no design in the words to give a reason, why man is not clean and righteous. But the case is most evidently otherwise, if we may interpret
the Book of Job by itself: It is most plain, that man’s being born of a woman is given as a reason of his not being clean, chap. xiv. 14. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?’* Job is speaking there expressly of man’s being born of a woman, as appears in verse 1. And here how plain is it, that this is given as a reason of man’s not being clean? Concerning this Dr. Taylor says, That this has no respect to any moral uncleanness, but only common frailty,’* Sec. But how evidently is this also otherwise? When that uncleanness, which a man has by being born of a woman, is expressly explained of unrighteousness, in the next chapter at verse 14. “What is man that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?’* And also in chap. xxv. 4. <’ How then can man be justified with God? And how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” It is a moral cleanness Bildad is speaking of, which a man needs in order to being justified. His design is, to convince Job of his moral impurity, and from thence of God’s righteousness in his severe judgments upon him; and not of his natural frailty.
And without doubt, David has respect to this same way of derivation of wiclujdness of heart, when he says, Psalm li. 5. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” It alters net the case as to the argument we are upon, whether the word translated conceive, signifies conceive, or nurse; which latter our author takes so much pains to prove: For when he has done all, he speaks of it as a just translation of the words to render them thus: “I was born in iniquity, and in sin did my mother nurse me,” page 135. If it is owned that man is born in sin, it is not worth the while to dispute whether it is expressly asserted that he is conceived in sin. But Dr. Taylor after his manner insists, that such expressions, as being born in sin, being transgressors from the ‘ufomb, and the like, are only phrases figuratively to denote aggravation and high degree of wickedness. But the contrary has been already demonstrated, from many plain scripture instances. Nor is one instance produced, in which there is any evidence that such a phrase is used in such a manner. A poetical seh tence out of Virgil’s iEneids, has here been produced, and made much of by some, as parallel with this, in what Dido fcays to uEneas in these lines:
Nee tlbi diva parens, generis nee Dardanus auetor,
Perfide: Sed duris genuit te cauubus horrens
Caueasus, hyrcanaeque admorunt ubera tygres.
In which she tells JEneas, that not a goddess was his mother:* Dor Anchises his father; but that he had been brought forth by a horrid, rocky mountain, and nursed at the dugs of tygers, to represent the greatness of his cruelty to her. But how unlike and unparallel is this? Nothing could be more natural than for a woman, overpowered with the passion of love, and distracted with raging jealousy and disappointment, ihinking herself treated with brutish perfidy and cruelly, by a lover, whose highest fame had been his being the son of a p;oddess, to aggravate his inhumanity and hardheartedness with this, that his behavior was not worthy the son of a goddess, nor becoming one v.hose father was an illustrious prince; and that he acted more as if he had been brought forth by hard, unrelenting rocks, and had sucked the dugs of tygers. But what is there in the case of David parallel, or at all in like njanner leading him to speak of himself as born in sin, in any such sense? He is not speaking himself, nor anjjr one else speaking to him, of any excellent and divine father and mother, that he was born of; nor is there any appear- ;ince of his aggravating his sin by its being unworthy of his high birth. There is nothing else visible in David’s case, to lead him to take notice of his being born in sin, but only his having such experience of the continuance and power of indwelling sin, after so long a lime, and so many great means to engage him to holiness; which shewed that sin was inbred, and in his very nature.
Dr. Taylor r)ften objects to these and other texts, brought by divines to pi ove Oiginal Sin, tj-iat xhc.vc is no mention made in them of Adam, nor of his sin. He cries out,” Here
ORIGINAL sin; ls
Js not the least tncntlon or intimation of Adam, or any ill eC«
iccts of his sin upon us Here is not one word, nor the least
hint of Adam, or any consequences of his sin, Sec. Sec.* He saysjt “If -Tob apd his fiiends had known and believed the. doctrine of a corrupt nature, derived from Adam’s sin only, tlley oup;ht ifi reason and truth to have given this as the true and only reason of the human imperfection and unclcanncss they mention.” But these ol)jeclions and exclamations arc made no less impertinently, than they are frequently. It is ijo.more a proof, that corruption of nature did not come by Adam’s sin, because many limejs when it is mentioned, Adam’s sin is not expr&ssly mentioned as the cause of it, than that death did not come by Adam’s sin (as Dr. Taylor says ic did) because though death, as incident to mankind, is mentioned so often in the Old Testament, and by our Saviour in his discnurses, yet Adam’s sin is not once expressly nlenlioned, after the three first chapters of Genesis, any where in all the Old Testament, or the four evanijelists, as the occasion of it.
What Christian has there ever been, that believed the moral corruption of the nature of mankind, whoever doubted that it carae tha» way, which the apostle speaks of, when he says, Bij one wan sin entered into the world, and death by sin”? Nor indeed have they any more reason to doubt of it, than to doubt of the whole history of our first parents, because Adam’s name is so rarely mentioned, on any occasiort in scripture, after that first account of him, and Eve’s never at jftU; ai d because we have no more any express mention of the particular manner, in which mankind were first brought into beinp”, either with respect to the creation of Adam or Eve. It is sufficient, that the abiding, most visible effects of these thine, remain in the view of mankind in all ages, and ire often spoken of in scripture; and that the particular manner of iheir being introduced, is once plainly set forth in the beginning of the Bible, in that history which gives us an ac-
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CGunt of the origin oT all things. And doubtless it was expected, by the great author of the Bible, that the account in the three first chapters of Genesis should be taken as a plain ncceunt of the introduction of both natural and moral evil into the world, as it has been shewn to be so indeed. The history of Adam’s sin, with its circumstances, God’s threatening, and the sentence pronounced upon him after his transgression, and the iirimediate consequences, consisting in so vast an alteration in his state, and the state of the world, which abides still, with respect to all his posterity, do most directly and sufficiently lead to an understanding of the rise of calamity, sin and death, in this sinful, miserable world.
It is fit we all should know, that it does not became us t6 tell the Most High, how often he shall particularly explain and give the reason of any doctrine which he teaches, in order to our believing what he says. If he has at all given us evidence that it is a doctrine agreeable to his mind, it be* comes us to receive it with full credit and submission; and not sullenly to reject it, because our notions and humors are not suited in the manner, and number of times, of his particuln;ly explainin?]^ it to us. How often is pardon of sins prom* ised in the Old Testament to repenting and returning’ sinners? How many hundred times is God’s special favor there promised to the sincerely righteous, without any express mention of these benefits being through Christ? Would it thererorc be becoming us to say, that, inasmuch as our dependence on Christ: for these benefits, is a doctrin*, which, if true, is of such importance, God ought expressly to have mentioned Christ’s merits as the reason and ground of the benefits, if he knew they were the ground of them, and should have plainly declared it sooner, and more frequently, if ever he expected we should believe him, when he did tell us of it t How often is vengeance and misery threatened in the Old Testament to the wicked, without any clear and express signification of any such thing intended, as that everlasting fire, where there is v.ailintj and gnashing of teeth, in another world, which C’hrist so often speaks of as the punishment ap- .pointed for all the wicked? Would it now become a Christ-ORIGINAL SIN. 19j»
■Jan, to object and say, that if God really meant any such thing, he ought in reason and truth lo have declared it plainly and fully; and not to have been so silent about a matter of such vast importance to all mankind, lor four thousand years together.