argument, viz. that there was no law of God in being, by which men
Adam's posterity took place many ages before the law was given; therefore death could not be by any law threatening death for personal sins, and consequently could be by nothing but Adam's sin. On this I would observe,
1. That which he supposes the Apostle to take for truth in this argument, viz. that there was no law of God in being, by which men were exposed to death for personal sin, during the time from Adam to Moses, is neither true, nor agreeable to this Apostle's own doctrine.
First, it is not true. For the law of nature, written in men's hearts, was then in being, and was a law by which men were exposed to death for personal sin. That there was a divine establishment, fixing the death and destruction of the sinner as the consequence of personal sin, which was well known before the giving of Moses' law, is plain by many passages in the book of Job; as fully and clearly implying a connection between such sin and such a punishment, as any passage in the law of Moses: such as that in Job 24:19, "Drought and heat consume the snow-waters; so doth the grave them that have sinned." (cf. vv. 20 and 24, also ch. 36:6), "He preserveth not the life of the wicked." (ch. 21:29–32), "Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens? That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." (v. 31), "He shall be brought to the grave."
Secondly, to suppose that there is no law in being, by which men are exposed to death for personal sins, where or when the revealed law of God in or after Moses' time is not in being, is contrary to this Apostle's own doctrine in this epistle. (Rom. 2:12, 14, 15), "For as many as have sinned without law" (i.e. revealed law) "shall perish without law." But how they can be exposed to die and perish, who
have not the law of Moses, nor any revealed law, the Apostle shews us in the 14th and 15th verses; viz. in that they have the law of nature, by which they fall under sentence to this punishment. "For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law to themselves; which shew the work of the law written in their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness." Their conscience not only bore witness to the duty prescribed by this law, but also to the punishment before spoken of, as that which they who sinned without law, were liable to suffer, viz. that they should perish. In which the Apostle is yet more express (ch. 1:32), speaking more especially of the heathen "who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death." Dr. Taylor often calls the law the rule of right: and this rule of right sentenced those sinners to death, who were not under the law of Moses, according to this author's own paraphrase of this verse, in these words, "The heathen were not ignorant of the rule of right, which God has implanted in the human nature; and which shews that they which commit such things, are deserving of death." And he himself supposes Abraham, who lived between Adam and Moses, to be under law, by which he would have been exposed to punishment without hope, were it not for the promise of grace, in his Paraphrase on Rom. 4:15.
So that in our author's way of explaining the passage before us, the grand argument, which the Apostle insists upon here, to prove his main point, viz. that death don't come by men's personal sins, but by Adam's sin, because it came before the law was given, that threatened death for personal sin; I say, this argument which Dr. Taylor supposes so clear and strong, is brought to nothing more than a mere shadow without substance; the very foundation of the argument having no truth. To say, there was no such law actually expressed in any standing revelation would be mere trifling: for it no