Vi.

VI.

“The doctrine, therefore, of original sin is not only a truth agreeable to Scripture and reason, but a truth of the utmost importance. And it is a truth to which the Churches of Christ, from the beginning, have born a clear testimony.

“Few truths, if any, are more necessary to be known, believed, and thoroughly considered. For if we are not acquainted with this, we do not know ourselves; and if we do not know ourselves, we cannot rightly know Christ and the grace of God. And on this knowledge of Christ and the grace of God depends the whole of our salvation. St. Augustine, therefore, well remarks, ‘Christianity lies properly in the knowledge of what concerns Adam and Christ.’ For, certainly, if we do not know Christ, we know nothing to any purpose; and we cannot know Christ, without some knowledge of what relates to Adam, who was ‘the figure of Him that was to come.’

“‘But if this doctrine is so important, why is so little said of it in Scripture, and in the writings of the ancients?’

“This is a grand mistake. We totally deny that the Scripture says little of it. Dr. Taylor, indeed, affirms, ‘There are but five passages of Scripture that plainly relate to the effects of Adam’s fall.’ Not so: Many Scriptures, as has been shown, plainly and directly teach us this doctrine; and many others deliver that from which it may be rationally and easily deduced. Indeed, the whole doctrine of salvation by Christ, and divine grace, implies this; and each of its main branches — justification and regeneration — directly leads to it. So does the doctrine of man’s original righteousness, than which nothing is more clearly revealed.” (Page 88.)

“And if the writers before St. Augustine say little concerning it, is not the reason plain? The occasions of their writing did not lead them to enlarge on what none had ever opposed or denied. For none had ever opposed or denied this doctrine. ‘Who,’ says Vincentius Lirinensis, ‘before Celestius, denied all mankind to be involved in the guilt of Adam’s transgression? ‘Yet they are not silent concerning it. Justin Martyr speaks of ‘mankind as fallen under death and the deceit of the serpent;’ of ‘all Adam’s descendants, as condemned for his sin; and all that are Christ’s, as justified by him.’ (Dial. with Trypho.) In Irenaeus there are numerous, strong, express testimonies, both to original righteousness and original sin in the full extent: ‘What we lost in Adam, that is, a being after the image and likeness of God, this we recover by Christ.’ (Irenmus, 1. 3. c. 20.) Again, ‘They who receive the ingrafted word return to the ancient nature of man, that by which he was made after the image and likeness of God.’ (Ibid.

1. 5, c. 10.) He likewise speaks of our ‘sinning in Adam:’ ‘In the first Adam,’ says he, ‘we offended God; in the Second Adam, we are reconciled:’ And frequently of ‘man’s losing the image of God by the fall, and recovering it by Christ.’ Tertullian says, ‘Man was in the beginning, deceived, and, therefore, condemned to death; upon which his whole race became infected and partaker of his condemnation.’ (De Testimony Animae.) Cyprian is express in his Epistle to Fidus. Origin says, ‘The curse of Adam is common to all.’ Again: ‘Man, by sinning, lost the image and likeness of God.’ And again: ‘No one is clean from the filth of sin, even though he is not above a day old.’” (Page 93.)

“‘The whole of me,’ says Nazianzen, ‘has need of being saved, since the whole of me fell, and was condemned for the disobedience of my first father.’ Many more are the testimonies of Athanasius, Basil, Hillary; all prior to St. Augustine. And how generally since St. Augustine this important truth has been asserted is well known. Plain it is, therefore, that the Churches of Christ, from the beginning, have born clear testimony to it.

“To conclude,

“1. This is a scriptural doctrine: Many plain texts directly teach it. “2. It is a rational doctrine, thoroughly consistent with the dictates of sound reason; and this, notwithstanding there may be some circumstances relating thereto which human reason cannot fathom.” (Page 91.)

“3. It is a practical doctrine. It has the closest connection with the life, power, and practice of religion. It leads man to the foundation of all Christian practice, the knowledge of himself; and hereby, to the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of Christ crucified. It prepares him for, and confirms him in, just conceptions of the dependence of his salvation, on the merits of Christ for justification, and the power of his Spirit for inward and outward holiness. It humbles the natural pride of man; it excludes self-applause and boasting; and points out the true and only way whereby we may fulfill all righteousness. “4. It is an experimental doctrine. The sincere Christian, day by day, carries the proof of it in his own bosom; experiencing that in himself, which is abundantly sufficient to convince him, that ‘in him,’ by nature, ‘dwelleth no good thing; but that it is God alone who worketh in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’”

LEWISHAM, March 23, 1757.

I HAVE now gone through, as my leisure would permit, this whole complicated question; and I have spoken on each branch of it with plainness and openness, according to the best light I have at present. I have only a few words more to add, and that with the same openness and simplicity.

What I have often acknowledged, I now repeat. Were it not on a point of so deep importance, I would no more enter the lists with Dr. Taylor, than I would lift my hand against a giant. I acknowledge your abilities of every kind; your natural and acquired endowments; your strong understanding; your lively and fruitful imagination; your plain and easy, yet nervous style. I make no doubt of your having studied the original Scriptures for many years. And I believe you have moral endowments which are infinitely more valuable and more amiable than all these. For (if I am not greatly deceived) you bear “goodwill to all men.” And may not I add, you fear God?

O what might not you do with these abilities! What would be too great for you to attempt and effect! Of what service might you be, not only to your own countrymen, but to all that bear the Christian name! How might you advance the cause of true, primitive, scriptural Christianity; of solid, rational virtue; of the deep, holy, happy, spiritual religion, which is brought to light by the gospel! How capable are you of recommending, not barely morality, (the duty of man to man,) but piety, the duty of man to God, even the “worshipping him in spirit and in truth!” How well qualified are you to explain, enforce, defend, even “the deep things of God,” the nature of the kingdom of God “within us;” yea, the interiora regni Dei! f42 (I speak on supposition of your having the “unction of the Holy One,” added to your other qualifications.) And are you, whom God has so highly favored, among those who serve the opposite cause? If one might transfer the words of a man to him, might not one conceive Him to say, Kai su ei ekeinwn< kai su, teknon; f43 Are you disserving the cause of inward religion, laboring to destroy the inward kingdom of God, sapping the foundations of all true, spiritual worship, advancing morality on the ruins of piety? Are you among those who are overthrowing the very foundations of primitive, scriptural Christianity? which certainly can have no ground to stand upon, if the scheme lately advanced be true. What room is there for it, till men repent? know themselves? Without this can they know or love God? O why should you block up the way to repentance, and, consequently, to the whole religion of the heart? “Let a man be a fool,” says the Apostle, “that he may be wise.” But you tell him, he is wise already; that every man is by nature as wise as Adam was in paradise. He gladly drinks in the soothing sound, and sleeps on and takes his rest. We beseech those who are mad after earthly things, to take knowledge of the dreadful state they are in; to return to their Father, and beg of him “the spirit of love and of a sound mind.” You tell them, they are of a “sound mind” already. They believe, and turn to their husks again. Jesus comes to “seek and save that which is lost.” You tell the men of form, (though as dead to God as a stone,) that they are not lost; that (inasmuch as they are free from gross sins,) they are in a good way, and will undoubtedly be saved. So they live and die, without the knowledge, love, or image of God; and die eternally!”

“They will be saved.” But are they saved already? We know all real Christians are. If they are, if these are possessed of the present salvation which the Scripture speaks of, what is that salvation? How poor, dry, dull, shallow, superficial a thing! Wherein does it excel what the wiser Heathens taught, nay, and perhaps experienced? What poor pitiable