On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
and I satv nothing there to induce me to think that a just God would impart &ny moral incapacity * or radical and inherent depravity to Adam ' s
descendants , much less the imputation of his sin . By a necessity of nature , 1 perceived , that the first man must produce creatures in his own image , by which I understood frail , fallible , and
peccable beings like himself , liable to sorrows and death s but possessed of equally high mental powers of reason and conscience , the image and superscription of God ; - and therefore accountable like their original parent for their moral actions , and in many instances more than he was , because
placed in different and more favourable circumstances . I therefore think , that to represent , as some have done , the venerable parent of the human race as the greatest of all sinners , is an instance 01 the folly of hypothesis , and of shameful disrespect to the first of men , nor is it at all calculated to
give glory to God his Creator . Josephus says well , that Moses spake philosophically concerning the fall of man , he meant 1 suppose figuratively Many truths historical and moral were thus according to the eastern wisdom , given to the world by the ancient sages . To take the story literally , is to receive a fable without its moral , the account would be very lame and absurd . It is indeed a
description of the triumph of passion over reason and conscience , and thus the birth of sin , misery , and death . Read the subject in this light , and it is intelligible , the imagery awfully
sublime , well adapted and beautiful , and the moral in the highest degree impressive . Let our sons con tern plate Adam , and our daughters their first mother , in their happy state of simple and satisfied nature , before the riotous
passions began their wild uproar , before irregular desire awoke in their bosoms , before reason quitted her throne , and sensation assumed the sceptre . Then let them consider these
parents of the world the victims of remorse , dissatisfaction , gililt and death . And let them fly with horror the pursuing and fascinating serpent , the 'first temptation to vice . Child of the &ust ! to taste is death . " Enter
not into the path of the wicked , and cq pot in the way . of evil men , avoid iti pass * not "b y it , ^ ura froin it , and pass away , "
Untitled Article
I then proceeded to the examination of such other passages of Scri pture as I knew were advanced with a view to establish this dioctrine of original sin The next I considered was that awfuj one recorded in Gen . iv . 8 , 9 , the murder of Abel , the fruit of envy and revenge ; but I hear the Creator
exhorting Cam to do well , and promising him acceptance on that condition ; and I read , Heb . xi . that Abel obtained witness that he was righteous : he believed and obeyed— < c God testifying of his gifts ; ' * yet both were the sons of
the same parents , consequentl y both partook of the same nature . I supposed that bo * h had the same moral capacity , and were therefore liable 10 the same degree of responsibility . I saw no difference in the brothers in
the eye of God , beside moral difference evinced by their conduct ; hence I concluded that not nature but habits made one brother a murderer and the other a righteous man . The next portion of Scripture I considered was the account of the moral state of the
¦ world before the flood—Gen . vi . 5 , II , &c . c < And God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth , and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . The earth was corrupt before God , and the earth was filled
with violence . " This passage I knew was advanced as a stock text , to prove the radical and inherent corruption of human nature , derived from the fallen Adam ; Vet , while I admitted all this strong language , as giving a just description of universal degeneracy of manners and corruption of hearts , tnc
I saw nothing in it to prove original and radical corruption of nature ; I knew that bad habits deprave the heart and imagination , and that / if partial corruption of princip les existed , universal corruption migM also prevail , that men mieht become desperately wicked , that the voice ot conscience might be stifled , ana a moral death ensue . I knew that when men " like not to retain God 1 B
their knowledge , " he might « ff ™ them over to a reprobate mind , knew that « what may be known oj God is nevertheless manifest 111 thetn , for " God hath shewed it to
them-I knew that " the invisible ™ l * & # him from the creation of the w ( before and after the ' fall of nnWU j ^ clearly seen being understood by
Untitled Article
ftrf ? Scriptural Examination of Original Sin .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 516, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/16/
-