Two hundred years ago, long before the science of Geology called for the
belief that mortality had been stamped on creation, and had manifested
its proofs in the animal races previously to Adam’s appearance, Jeremy
Taylor could write as follows regarding Adam himself before the Fall. He
considers him to have been created mortal; not merely liable to become
mortal, but actually mortal.
“For ‘flesh and blood,’ that is, whatsoever is born of Adam, ‘cannot
inherit the kingdom of God.’ And they are injurious to Christ who think
that from Adam we might have inherited immortality. Christ was the giver
and preacher of it; ‘he brought life and immortality to light through
the Gospel.’”
Again: “For that Adam was made mortal in his nature is infinitely
certain, and proved by his very eating and drinking, his sleep and
recreation, &c.”
And in another passage, quoted by Professor Hitchcock: “That death which
God threatened to Adam, and which passed upon his posterity, is not the
going out of this world, but the manner of going. If he had stayed in
innocence, he should have gone placidly and fairly, without vexatious
and affective circumstances; he should not have died by sickness,
defect, misfortune, or unwillingness.” These sentiments Archdeacon
Pratt[68] quotes, not as necessarily approving them, but to show that so
good and learned a man as Jeremy Taylor had a view regarding death and
mortality no less unusual than that which Geology demands.
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Footnote 68:
_Science and Scripture not at Variance_, 2d ed. 1858.
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