these objecters seem, either
inadvertently, or willingly, to have forgot, (1.) _That man in honour
abideth not_, Psal. xlix. 12, (or as the Rabbins read, and some
translate it, as Cartwright, Ainsworth, Leigh and Broughton) _Adam in
honour abideth not one night_. Adam, by his disobedience, not only
introduced a jarr into the whole creation, rendered his posterity
decrepit and lame, but also lost all power to any spiritual good, the
whole of his intellectual parts concreated with him being either
corrupted, darkened, obliterated or lost. Indeed Dr Taylor would have us
believe, that what Adam lost, and more, was restored to Noah, Gen. ix.
and that man's mental capacities are now the same as Adam's in
innocence, saving so far as God sees fit to set any man above or below
his standard, some are below Adam in rational endowments and some are
above him, of the latter he thinks Sir Isaac Newton was one (doctrine of
original sin, page 235. supplement, page 85.) The fallacy of which is so
obvious and absurd that it deserves no observation, for every man to his
dear bought experience may know, that man now unassisted by all the dark
remains of original, natural, moral and political knowledge he is master
of, can acquire no certain knowledge of any part of his duty, as to
moral good or evil, but by a gradation of labour, slow and multiplied
deductions, and much less is he able to bind the strong man and cast him
out. And yet all this is no way dishonouring to the great author of
nature as to the works of his hands, for although he made man at first,
he made him not originally a sinful man, so that it is our sin that is
dishonouring to him. _Lo, this have I found out_, says the wisest of
men, _that God at first made man upright, but he sought out many
inventions_. (2.) That in a proper sense God neither made man to save
nor to damn him, but only for his pleasure and the manifestation of his
own power and glory, Rev. iv. 11. Conf. chap. ii. Sec. 3. (3.) Although
we have lost power to obey, yet he still retains his right to demand
obedience, and nothing can be more suitable to the justice, wisdom and
sovereignty of God, than to maintain his right to perfect obedience from
man whom he originally endued with all power and abilities for what he
commanded; neither is he any wise bound to restore that power again to
man, which he by his disobedience lost. (4.) All mankind by the fall
stand condemned by God's judicial act, _In the day that t