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CHAPTER II.

Universal Mortality proves Original Sin; par ticularly the Death of Infants, with its various circumstances.

THE universal reign of death, over persons of all ages indiscriminately, with the awful circumstances and attendants of death, proves that men come sinful into the world.

It is needless here particularly to inquire, whether God has not a sovereign right to set bounds to the lives of his own creatures, be they sinful or not; and as he gives life, so to take it away when he pleases? Or how far God has a right to bring extreme suffering and calamity on an innocent moral agent? For death, with the pains and agonies with which it is usually brought on, is not merely a limiting of existence, but is a most terrible calamity; and to such a creature as man, capable of conceiving of immortality, and made with so earnest a desire after it, and capable of foresight and of reflection on approaching death, and that has such an extreme dread of it, is a calamity above all others terrible, to such as are able to reflect upon it. I say, it is needless, elaborately to consider, whether God may not, consistent with his perfections, by absolute sovereignty, bring so great a calamity on mankind when perfectly innocent. It is sufficient, if we have good evidence from scripture, that it is not agreeable to God's manner of dealing with mankind so to do.

It is manifest, that mankind were not originally subjected to this calamity: God brought it on them afterwards, on occasion of manʼs sin, at a time of the manifestation of God's great displeasure for sin, and by a denunciation and sentence pronounced by him, as acting the part of a judge, as Dr. Tay VOL. VI. 2 G

lor often confesses.

Sin entered into the world, and death by sin, as the apostle says. Which certainly leads us to suppose, that this affair was ordered of God, not merely by the sovereignty of a Creator, but by the righteousness of a judge. And the scripture every where speaks of all great afflictions and calamities, which God in his providence brings on mankind, as testimonies of his displeasure for sin, in the subject of those calamities; excepting those sufferings which are to atone for the sins of others. He ever taught his people to look on such calamities as his rod, the rod of his anger, his frowns, the hidings of his face in displeasure. Hence such calamities are in scripture so often called by the name of judgments, being what God brings on men as a judge, executing a righteous sentence for transgression: Yea, they are often called by the name of wrath, especially calamities consisting or issuing in death. And hence also is that which Dr. Taylor would have us take so much notice of, that sometimes, in the scripture, calamity and suffering is called by such names as sin, iniquity, being guilty, &c. which is evident, ly by a metonymy of the cause for the effect. It is not like ly, that in the language in use of old among God's people, calamity or suffering would have been called even by the names of sin and guilt, if it had been so far from having any connexion with sin, that even death itself, which is always spoken of as the most terrible of calamities, is not so much as any sign of the sinfulness of the subject, or any testimony of God's displeasure for any guilt of his, as Dr. Taylor sup poses.

Death is spoken of in scripture as the chief of calamities, the most extreme and terrible of all those natural evils, which come on mankind in this world. Deadly destruction is spoken of as the most terrible destruction. 1 Sam. v. 11. Dead ly sorrow, as the most extreme sorrow. Isa. xvii. 11. Matth. xxvi. 38, and deadly enemies, as the most bitter and terrible

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* See Levit. x. 6. Numb. i. 53, and xviii, 5. Josh, ix. 20. 2 Chron. xxiv. 18, and xix, 2, 10, and xxviii, 13, and xxxii, 25. Ezra vii. 23. Neh. xiii. 18. Zech. vii. 12, and many other places.

enemies. Psal. xvii. 9. The extremity of Christ's sufferings is represented by his suffering unto death. Philip. ii. 8, and other places. Hence the greatest testimonies of God's anger for the sins of men in this world, have been by inflicting death: As on the sinners of the old world, on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, on Onan, Pharaoh, and the Egyptians, Nadab and Abihu, Korah and his company, and the rest of the rebels in the wilderness, on the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, on Hophni and Phinehas, Ananias and Sapphira, the unbelieving Jews, upon whom wrath came to the uttermost, in the time of the last destruction of Jerusalem. This calamity is often spoken of as in a peculiar manner the fruit of the guilt of sin. Exod. xxviii. 43. "That they bear not iniquity and die." Levit. xxii. 9. "Lest they bear sin for it and die." So Numb. xviii. 22, compared with Levit. x. 1, 2. The very light of nature, or tradition from ancient revelation, led the heathen to conceive of death as in a peculiar manner an evidence of divine vengeance, Thus we have an account, Acts xxviii. 4. That when the Barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on Paul's hand, they said among them, selves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the seas, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

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 des truction 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 ans ger, consisted only in hastening on that death, which otherwise, by God's disposal, would most certainly have come in a short time. Now the taking off of thirty or forty years from seventy or eighty, (if we should suppose it to be so much, one with another, in the time of these extraordinary judg ments) 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 eight hundred 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. There fore 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 is swallowed up, as by a food, 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 ît, that it is so. Psal. xc. 3, &c. "Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, return, ye children of men....Thou carriest them away as with a flood: They are as a sleep: In the morning they are like grass, which groweth up; in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? According to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days that we may apply

our hearts unto wisdom."

How plain and full is this testimony, that the general mortality of mankind is an evidence of God's anger for the sin of those who are the subjects of such a dispensation?

Abimelech speaks of it as a thing which he had reason to conclude from God's nature and perfection, that he would not slay a righteous nation. Gen. xx. 4. By righteous evidently meaning innocent. And if so, much less will God slay a righteous world, (consisting of so many nations....repeating the great slaughter in every generation) or subject the whole world of mankind to death, when they are considered as innocent, as Dr. Taylor supposes. We have from time to time in scripture such phrases as worthy of death, and guilty of death; but certainly the righteous Judge of all the earth will not bring death on thousands of millions, not only that are not worthy of death, but are worthy of no punishment.

Dr. Taylor from time to time speaks of affliction and death as a great benefit, as they increase the vanity of all earthly things, and tend to excite sober reflections, and to in duce us to be moderate in gratifying the appetites of the body, and to mortify pride and ambition, &c.* To this I would say,

1. It is not denied but God may see it needful for mankind in their present state, that they should be mortal, and subject to outward afflictions, to restrain their lusts, and mortify their pride and ambition, &c. But then is it not an evidence of man's depravity, that it is so? Is it not an evidence of distemper of mind, yea, strong disease, when man stands in need of such sharp medicines, such severe and terrible means to restrain his lusts, keep down his pride, and make him willing to be obedient to God? It must be because of a corrupt and ungrateful heart, if the riches of God's bounty, in bestowing life and prosperity, and things comfortable and pleasant, will not engage the heart to God, and to virtue, and childlike love and obedience, but that he must always have the rod held over him, and be often chastised, and held under

* Pages 21, 67, and other places. :

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