Jonathan Edwards on Original Sin (Part 3)

From The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended 1.1.2.

• Edwards asserts that proof of universal sinfulness and universal guilt provide evidence for a universal natural tendency to sin.
• Several arguments by analogy are given; for example, if a person were to cast dice repeatedly and always get the same number, then it would be reasonable to assume that there was something in the nature of the dice that caused them to tend toward that number.
• Those who seek to argue against the idea of a universal natural tendency to sin end up using language that assumes such a tendency anyway.
• It is not sufficient to argue that people sin due to external circumstances rather than a natural tendency; the circumstances of this world may be so corrupt that people everywhere, who would otherwise be naturally good if they were not in this corrupt world, fall into sin. But sinfulness is characterized by a wrong relationship of people to the world in which God placed them, and if they consistently fall into sin, then they must be thought of as having a naturally tendency to sin.