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simply states that not the man but the woman was deceived and first in the transgression . These are all the places in the New Tes - tamentj where even an allusion is made to the sin of Adam and its effects .
The following are the decisions of common sense arising from an examination of the New Testament on the doctrine of original sin . 1 . Neither Jesus Christ , ^ nor his Apostles taught this doctrine ; therefore it is no doctrine of
Christianity . 2 . As neither Jesus nor his Apostles taught it ^ its being contrary to reason , and all our natural ideas of justice , is sufficient to authorize' its rejection . 3 . As it is incompatible with what Jesus and his Apostles taught , it must be false and
erroneous . 4 . As only one passage in Paul ' s writings states the effects of Adam ' s sin , and the style of that is manifestly figurative- it must
be highly absurd to attempt to build upon that a doctiine contrary to reason and the general tenor of scripture , especially as the passage will easily bear a different construction .
5 . As Paul brings forward what he says about the sin of Adam merely to illustrate other subjects , he might , do it , as quoting the general opinion of the Jews on the subject , without giving an absolute sanction to that opinion .
One more Letter shall conclude what 1 have to say on this subject . I remain , your ' s , &c . RUST 1 CUS .
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which Paul refers to the sin of Adam are the following : Rom . v . 12 19 . Of which
passage common sense dictates the following to be the meaning . Adam was the first sinner ^; death commenced with him ; from him it passed to his posterity , human nature having ever since been mortal ; all men are placed under the sentence of condemnation pronounced on the first man , i . e . dint then art ^ and unto dust tkou shalt return . These things Paul brings forward to illustrate the deliverance brought to the world by Jesus Christ- In saying , By one mans disobedience many were made sinners , he uses a figurative
style , which common sense can discover in his writings and fully discern in the passage , and only means , by their connexion with Adam they were subjected to death , the wages of sin . He does not say that sin passed as mortality does , from one man upon all men , nor that by one man ' s disobedience many were made sinful , or had a sinful nature communicated to them though this is what , the doctrine of original sin requires he should have said . Common sense must ever revolt at the idea of any person ' s being rr * ade literally a sinner by any disobedience but his own ; figuratively he may , i . e . he may be adjudged to sufferings ; and that for wise and beneficent pur-Doses .
JL 1 Cor . xv . 21 , 22 . In this place the apostle simply mentions death coming by Adam to illustrate what he was stating of the communication of life by Jesrus Christ . —1 Tim . ii . 14 . Here he
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Decisions of Common Sense . Letter II . 259
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1809, page 259, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1736/page/13/
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