N06399:337
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 2 › Chapter 1 › Section 1
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.
And yet this, with all the innumerable Calamities, which God in great Favour to Mankind has brought on the World, whereby their Temptations are so vastly cut short, and the Means and Inducements to Virtue heaped one upon another, to so great a Degree, all have proved insufficient, now for so many Thousand Years together, to restrain from Wickedness in any considerable Degree; innocent human Nature, all along, coming into the World with the same Purity and harmless Dispositions, that our first Parents had in Paradise. What vast Disadvantages indeed then must Adam and Eve be in, ⟨p. 159⟩that had no more in their Nature to keep them from Sin, or incline 'em to Virtue, than their Posterity, and yet were without all these additional & extraordinary Means! Not only without such exceeding great Means as we now have, when our Lives are made so very short, but having vastly less Advantages than their Antediluvian Posterity, who to prevent their being wicked, and to make 'em good, had so much Labour and Toil, Sweat and Sorrow, Briars and Thorns, with a Body gradually decaying and returning to the Dust; when our first Parents had the extreme Disadvantage of being placed in the midst of so many and exceeding great Temptations; not only without Toil or Sorrow, Pain or Disease, to humble and mortify 'em, and a Sentence of Death to wean 'em from the World, but in the midst of the most exquisite & alluring sensitive Delights, the Reverse in every respect, and to the highest Degree of that most gracious State of requisite Means, and great Advantages, which Mankind now enjoy! If Mankind now under these vast Restraints, and great Advantages, are not restrained from general, and as it were universal Wickedness, how could it be expected that Adam & Eve, created with no better Hearts than Men bring into the World now, and destitute of all these Advantages, and in the midst of all contrary Disadvantages, should escape it?
These Things are not agreeable to Moses's Account; which represents an happy State of peculiar Favours and Blessings before the Fall, and the Curse coming afterwards: but according to this Scheme, the Curse was before the Fall, and the great Favours and Testimonies of Love followed the Apostasy. And the Curse before the Fall must be a Curse with a Witness, being to so high a Degree the Reverse of such Means, Means so necessary for such a Creature as innocent Man, and in all their Multitude and Fullness proving too little. Paradise therefore must be a mere Delusion! There was indeed a great Show of Favour, in placing Man in the midst of such Delights. But this delightful Garden, it seems, with all it's Beauty and Sweetness, was in it's real Tendency worse than the Apples