N06399:289
The great Christian doctrine of original sin defended
The great Christian doctrine of original sin defended; evidences of it's [sic] truth produced, and arguments to the contrary answered. Containing, in particular, a reply to the objections and arguings of Dr. John Taylor, in his book, entitled, "The Scripture-doctrine of original sin proposed to free and candid examination, &c. / By the late Reverend and learned Jonathan Edwards, president of the College of New-Jersey. ; [Thirteen lines of quotations]The great Christian doctrine of original sin defended; evidences of it's [sic] truth produced, and arguments to the contrary answered. Containing, in particular, a reply to the objections and arguings of Dr. John Taylor, in his book, intitled, "The Scripture-doctrine of original sin proposed to free and candid examination, &c. / By the late Reverend and learned Jonathan Edwards, president of the College of New-Jersey. ; [Thirteen lines of quotations]
printed by S. Kneeland, 1758
The great Christian Doctrine of ORIGINAL SIN defended. › Part 1 › Chapter 2
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Calamities that are very small in Comparison of the universal temporal Destruction of the whole World of Mankind by Death, are spoken of as manifest Indications of God's great Displeasure for the Sinfulness of the Subject; such as the Destruction of particular Cities, Countries or Numbers of Men, by War or Pestilence. Deut. xxix. 24. All Nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this Land? what meaneth the Heat of this great Anger? Here compare Deut. xxxii. 30. 1 Kings. ix. 8. and Jer. xxii. 8, 9. These Calamities, thus spoken of as plain Testimonies of God's great Anger, consisted only in hastening on that Death, which otherwise, by God's Disposal, would most certainly come in a short Time. Now the taking off of 30 or 40 Years from 70 or 80 (if we should suppose it to be so much, one with another, in the Time of these extraordinary Judgments) is but a small Matter, in Comparison of God's first making Man mortal, cutting off his hoped for Immortality, subjecting him to inevitable Death, which his Nature so exceedingly dreads; and afterwards shortening his Life further, by cutting off more than 800 Years of it: So bringing it to be less than a twelfth Part of what it was in the first Ages of the World. Besides that innumerable Multitudes in the common Course of Things, without any extraordinary Judgment, die in Youth, in Childhood and Infancy. Therefore how inconsiderable a Thing is the additional or hastened Destruction, that is sometimes brought on a particular City or Country by War, compared with that universal Havoc which Death makes of the whole Race of Mankind, from Generation to Generation, without Distinction of Sex, Age, Quality or Condition, with all the infinitely various dismal Circumstances, Torments and Agonies which attend the Death of old and young, adult Persons and little Infants? If those particular and comparatively trivial Calamities, extending perhaps not to more than the thousandth Part of the Men of one Generation, are clear Evidences of God's great Anger; certainly this universal vast Destruction, by which the whole World in all Generations ⟨p. 125⟩is swallowed up, as by a Flood, that Nothing can resist, must be a most glaring Manifestation of God's Anger for the Sinfulness of Mankind. Yea, the Scripture is express in it, that it is so.