Wesley Corpus

The first you mention is Genesis ii. 17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” On this you observe: “Death was to be the consequence of his disobedience. And the death here threatened can be opposed only to that life God gave Adam when he created him.” (Page 7.) True; but how are you assured that God, when he created him, did not give him spiritual as well as animal life? Now, spiritual death is opposed to spiritual life. And this is more than the death of the body. “But this is pure conjecture, without a solid foundation; for no other life is spoken of before.” Yes, there is; “the image of God” is spoken of before. This is not, therefore, pure conjecture; but is grounded upon a solid foundation, upon the plain word of God. Allowing then that “Adam could understand it of no other life than that which he had newly received;” yet would he naturally understand it of the life of God in his soul, as well as of the life of his body. “In this light, therefore, the sense of the threatening will stand thus: ‘Thou shalt surely die; as if he had said, I have “formed thee of the dust of the ground, and breathed into thy nostrils the breath of lives;’” (Third Edition, p. 8;) both of * Dr. Taylor’s “Doctrine of Original Sin,” Part I., to whom I address myself in what follows. What is quoted 'rom him, generally in his own words, is inclosed in cummas. animal life, and of spiritual life; and in both respects thou “art become a living soul.” “But if thou eatest of the for bidden tree, thou shalt cease to be a living soul. For I will take from thee” the lives I have given, and thou shalt die spiritually, temporally, eternally. But “here is not one word relating to Adam's posterity. Though it be true, if he had died immediately upon his trans. gression, all hisposterity must have been extinct with him.” It is true; yet “not one word” of it is expressed. There fore, other consequences of his sin may be equally implied, though they are no more expressed than this. 4. The second scripture you cite is Gen.