18 THE SACRED AND BECULAR
2. “Death reigned from Adam to Moses.” That is,
death was able to cut down Adam, and to bear undis-
puted sway over all the human family during the whole
period of the patriarchal age; one man alone, Knoch,
being excepted. Jeb. 11:5.
‘What, therefore, does Paul mean when he says, ¢ Sin
is not imputed when there is no law”? One of two
answers must be returned. 1. Though sin was in the
world from Adam to Moses, yet God did not impute it
to those who committed it, because there was no law
which they transgressed in sinning; or, 2. The fact
that sin was in the world before the law entered by the
proclamation of the Lawgiver, shows that the law was
really present all the time, and taking cognizance of
human conduct; for sin cannot be imputed where there
is no law.
One of these two views must be true. And we can
determine which is true by one simple test. God cither
did, or did not, impute sin to men in the patriarchal
age. If he did not then impute it to the transgressor,
the first view is correct, and the law did not exist from
Adam to Moses. But if God did impute men’s trans-
gressions to them during that age of the world, then
the law did exist, and men were held guilty for trans-
gressing it.
But it is certain that God did impute sin to the world
of mankind during the patriarchal age. The guilt of
murder was certainly imputed to Cain. Gen. 4. Sin
lay at his door. The voice of his brother’s blood cried
to God from the ground. And the ground was cursed
because of Cain’s transgression. God did impute the
sins of the antediluvians to them, for he determined to
destroy the world of mankind by a flood of waters, and
he executed this determination (Gen. 7): an awful
proof, 1. That sin was imputed in that age; 2. And
that, therefore, God’s law did exist; for sin is not im-
puted where there is no law. Again, the case of Sodom
furnishes another proof that sin was imputed to men in
the patriarchal age. “The men of Sodom were wicked