Before we take leave of President Edwards, we would remark, that he proceeds on the same supposition with Calvin,(176) Bates,(177) Dwight,(178) Dick, and a host of others, that suffering is always a punishment of sin, and of “sin in them who suffer.”(179) “The light of nature,” says Edwards, “or tradition from ancient revelation, led the heathen to conceive of death as in a peculiar manner an evidence of divine vengeance. Thus we have an account, that when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on Paul’s hand, they said among themselves, ‘No doubt, this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the seas, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.’ ”(180) We think that the barbarians concluded rashly: it is certain that St. Paul was neither a murderer nor a god. Nor, indeed, if the venomous beast had taken his life, would this have proved him to be a murderer, any more than its falling off into the fire proved him to be a god, according to the rash judgment of the barbarians. There is a better source of philosophy, if we mistake not, than the rash, hasty, foolish judgments of barbarians. Section III. The imputation of sin not consistent with human, much less with the divine goodness. There are few persons whose feelings will allow them to be consistent advocates of the doctrine of the imputation of Adam’s sin. “To many other divines,” says Bishop Burnet, “this seems a harsh and inconceivable opinion: it seems repugnant to the justice and goodness of God to reckon men guilty of sin which they never committed, and to punish them in their souls eternally for that which is no act of theirs.”(181) It certainly “seems very hard,” as the author says, “to apprehend how persons who have never sinned, but are only unhappily descended, should be, in consequence of that, under so great a misery.” But how to escape the pressure of this stupendous difficulty is the question. There are many who cannot endure it; or rather, there are very few who can endure it; but, as Bishop Burnet says, they find no difficulty in the idea of temporal punishment on account of Adam’s sin. “This, they think, is easily enough reconcilable with the notions of justice and goodness, since this is only a temporary _punishment_ relating to men’s persons.”(182) But do they not sacrifice their logic to their feelings? Let us see.