N06399:339
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.
I proceed now to take Notice of an Additional Proof of the Doctrine we are upon, from another Part of the holy Scripture. A very clear Text for original Righteousness is that in Eccles. vii. 29. Lo, this only have I found, that God made Man upright; but they have sought out many Inventions.
It is an Observation of no Weight, which Dr. T. makes on this Text, that the Word Man is commonly used to signify Mankind in general, or Mankind collectively taken. It is true, it often signifies the Species of Mankind: but then it is used to signify the Species with regard to it's Duration and Succession from it's Beginning, as well as with regard to it's Extent. The English Word Mankind is used to signify the Species: but what if it be so? Would it be an improper or unintelligible way of Speaking, to say, that when God first made Mankind, he placed them in a pleasant Paradise (meaning in […] first Parents) but now they live in the midst of Briars […] Thorns? And 'tis certain, that to speak of God's […] Mankind in such a Meaning, viz. his giving the Species an Existence in their first Parents, at the Creation of the World, is agreeable to the Scripture-Use of such an Expression. As in Deut. iv. 32. Since the Day that God CREATED MAN upon the Earth. Job xx. 4. Knowest thou not this of old, since MAN was placed upon the Earth. Isai. X•v. 12. I have made the Earth, and CREATED MAN upon it: I, even my Hands, have stretched out the Heavens. Jer. xxvii. 5. I HAVE MADE the Earth, the MAN and the Beast that are upon the Ground, by my great Power. All these Texts speak of ⟨p. 153⟩God's making Man, by the Word, Man, signifying the Species of Mankind; and yet they all plainly have Respect to God's making Man at first, when God made the Earth, and stretched out the Heavens, and created the first Parents of Mankind. In all these Places the same Word Adam is used, as here in Ecclesiastes; and in the last of them, used with HE emphaticum, as it is here; tho' Dr.T. omits it, when he tells us, he gives us a Catalogue of all the Places of Scripture, where the Word is used. And it argues Nothing to the Doctor's Purpose, that the Pronoun, They, is used. THEY have sought out many Inventions. Which is properly applied to the Species, which God made at first upright: God having begun the Species with more than one, and it being continued in a Multitude. As Christ speaks of the two Sexes, in the Relation of Man & Wife, as continued in successive Generations.