only to make the Apostle greatly to disagree with himself in the
Christ, and of death as the consequence of sin, and of life and restoration to life by Christ, as here; yet nowhere are any of these words used, but in a sense very remote from what is supposed here. However, in this place these terms must have distinguished singular sense found out for them, and annexed to 'em! A new language must be coined for the Apostle, which he is evidently quite unused to, and put into his mouth on this occasion, for the sake of evading this clear, precise and abundant testimony of his, to the doctrine of original sin.
3. The putting such a sense on the word "sin," in this place, is not only to make the Apostle greatly to disagree with himself in the language he uses everywhere else, but also to disagree with himself no less in the language he uses in this very passage. He often here uses the word "sin," and other words plainly of the same design and import, such as "transgression," "disobedience," "offense." Nothing can be more evident, than that these are here used as several names of the same thing; for they are used interchangeably, and put one for another; as will be manifest only on the cast of an eye on the place. And these words are used no less than seventeen times in this one paragraph. Perhaps we shall find no place in the whole Bible, in which the word "sin," and other words synonymous, are used so often in so little compass: and in all the instances, in the proper sense, as signifying "moral evil," and even so understood by Dr. Taylor himself (as appears by his own exposition) but only in these two places; where in the midst of all, to evade a clear evidence of the doctrine of original sin, another meaning must be found out, and it must be supposed that the Apostle uses the word in a sense entirely different, signifying something that neither implies nor supposes any moral evil at all in the subject.
Here 'tis very remarkable, the gentleman who so greatly insisted upon it, that the word "death" must needs be understood in the same
sense throughout this paragraph; yea, that it is evidently, clearly, and infallibly so, inasmuch as the Apostle is still discoursing on the same subject; yet can, without the least difficulty, suppose the word "sin," to be used so differently in the very same passage, wherein the Apostle is discoursing on the same thing. Let us take that one instance in v. 12. "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Here, by "sin," implied in the word, "sinned," in the end of the sentence, our author understands something perfectly and altogether diverse from what is meant by the word "sin," not only in the same discourse, on the same subject, but twice in the former part of the very same sentence, of which this latter part is not only the conclusion, but the explication: and also entirely different from the use of the word twice in the next sentence, wherein the Apostle is still most plainly discoursing on the same subject, as is not denied: and in the next sentence to that (v. 14) the Apostle uses the very same verb, "sinned," and as signifying the committing of moral evil, as our author himself understands it. Afterwards (v. 19) the Apostle uses the word "sinners," which our author supposes to be in somewhat of a different sense still. So that here is the utmost violence, of the kind, that can be conceived of, to make out a scheme, against the plainest evidence, in changing the meaning of a word, backward and forward, in one paragraph, all about one thing, and in different parts of the same sentences, coming over and over in quick repetitions, with a variety of other synonymous words to fix its signification; besides the continued use of the word in the former part of this chapter, and in all the preceding part of the epistle, and the continued use of it in the next chapter, and in the next to that, and the 8th chapter following that, and to the end of the epistle; in none of which places is it pretended, but that the word is used in the proper sense, by our author in his Paraphrase and Notes on the whole epistle.