and it is in vain to find out ingenious reasons to prove it a blessing to mankind. They prove nothing against the directly opposite character which has been stamped upon death and the suffering of moral disease, by the testimony of GOD. On the hypothesis of man's natural innocence, the death of the innocent is not to be reconciled to any known attribute of God, to any manifested principle of his moral government; but on that of his natural corruptness and federal relation to Adam it is explained: it is a declaration of God's hatred of sin; a proclamation of the purity and inflexibility of his law; while the connection of this state, with the provisions of the covenant of grace, present mercy and truth meeting together, righteousness and peace kissing each other.'

V. We argue the doctrine of hereditary depravity from the express testimony of sacred writ.

"It is probable, though great stress need not be laid upon it, that when it is said, Gen. v. 3, that Adam begat a son in his own likeness,' that there is an implied opposition between the likeness of God, in which Adam was made, and the likeness of Adam, in which his son was begotten. It is not said that he begat a son in the likeness of God; a very appropriate expression, if Adam had not fallen, and if human nature had sustained, in consequence, no injury; and such a declaration was apparently called for, had this been the case, to show what would have been a very important fact, that notwithstanding the personal delinquency of Adam, yet human nature itself had sustained no deterioration, but was propagated without corruption. On the contrary, it is said that he begat a son in his own likeness; which, probably, was mentioned on purpose to exclude the idea, that the image of God was hereditary in man.

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"In Gen. vi. 5, it is stated, as the cause of the flood, that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts

of his heart was only evil continually.' Here, it is true, that the actual moral state of the antediluvians may only be spoken of, and that the text does not directly prove the doctrine of hereditary depravity: yet is the actual wickedness of man traced up to the heart, as its natural source, in a manner which seems to intimate that the doctrine of the natural corruption of man was held by the writer, and by that his mode of expression was influenced. The heart of man is here put for his soul, This God had formed with a marvellous thinking power. But so is his soul debased, that every imagination, figment, formation of the thoughts of it, is evil, only evil, continually evil. Whatever it forms. within itself as a thinking power, is an evil formation. Therefore all men's actual wickedness springs from the evil formation of their corrupt heart, consequently, they are sinners from birth, or naturally depraved.

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"That this was the theological sentiment held and taught by Moses, and implied even in this passage, is made very clear by Gen. viii. 21: 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake: for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing. The sense of which plainly is, that, notwithstanding the wickedness of mankind, though they sin from their childhood, yet would he not, on that account, again destroy every living thing.' Here it is to be observed, 1. That the words were spoken as soon as Noah came forth from the ark, and, therefore, after the antediluvian race of actual and flagrant transgressors had perished, and before the family of Noah had begun to multiply upon the earth; when, in fact, there were no human beings upon earth but righteous Noah and his family. 2. That they are spoken of man' as man; that is, of human nature, and, consequently, of Noah himself and the persons saved with him in the ark. 3. That it is affirmed of MAN, that is, of mankind, that the imagination of the heart is evil from his youth.' Now the

term imagination' includes the thoughts, affections, and inclinations; and the word 'youth' the whole time from the birth, the earliest age of man. This passage, therefore, affirms the natural and hereditary tendency of man to evil,

"The book of Job, which embodies the patriarchal theology, gives ample testimony to this as the faith of those ancient times. Job xi. 12: Vain, man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass' colt;" fierce, untractable, and scarcely to be subjected. This is the case from his birth; it is affirmed of man, and is equally applicable to every age; it is his natural condition, he is born,' literally, the colt of a wild ass.'

"Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward,' Job v. 7; that is, he is inevitably subjected to trouble; this is the law of his state in this world, as fixed and certain as one of the laws of nature. The proof from this passage is inferential, but very decisive. Unless man is born a sinner, it is not to be accounted for, that he should be born to trouble. Pain and death are the consequences only of sin, and absolutely innocent beings must be exempt from them.

"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?' Job xiv. 4. The word thing is supplied by our translators, but person is evidently understood. Cleanness and uncleanness, in the language of Scripture, signify holiness and sin; and the text clearly asserts the natur al impossibility of any man being born sinless, because he is produced by guilty and defiled parents.

"What is man, that he should be clean; and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?' Job xv. 14. The same doctrine is here affirmed as in the preceding text, only more fully, and it may be taken as an explanation of the former, which was, perhaps, a proverbial expression. The rendering of the LXX is here worthy of notice, for, though it does not agree with the present Hebrew text, it strongly marks the sentiments of the ancient Jews on the point in question,

Who shall be clean from filth? Not one; even though his life on earth be a single day.

Ps. li. 5: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." What possible sense can be given to this passage on the hypothesis of man's natural innocence? It is in vain to render the first clause I was brought forth in iniquity;' for nothing is gained by it. David charges nothing upon his mother, of whom he is not speaking, but of himself; he was conceived, or, if it please better, was born a sinner. And if the rendering of the latter clause were allowed, which yet has no authority, 'in sin did my mother nurse me;' still no progress is made in getting quit of its testimony to the moral corruption of children, for it is the child only which is nursed, and, if that be allowed, natural depravity is allowed, depravity before reasonable choice, which is the point in question.

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"Ps. lviii. 3, 4: The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.' They are alienated from the womb, alienated from the life of God, from the time of their coming into the world. Speaking lies:' they show a tendency to speak lies as soon as they are capable of it, which shows the existence of a natural principle of falsehood. "Prov. xxii. 15, and xxix. 15: Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.' The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.' These passages put together are a plain testimony of the inbred corruption of young children. Foolishness in the former is not barely appetite or a want of the knowledge attainable by instruction, as some have said. Neitheir of these deserve that sharp correction recommended. But it is indisposedness to what is good, and a strong propensity to evil. This foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; it is rooted in his inmost nature. It is, as it were, fastened to him by strong cords; so the original word signifies.

From this corruption of the heart in every child, it is that the rod of correction is necessary to give him wisdom; hence it is that a child left to himself, without correction, brings his mother to shame. If a child were born equally inclined to virtue and vice, why should the wise man speak of foolishness or wickedness as fastened so closely to his heart? And why should the rod and reproof be so necessary for him? These texts, therefore, are another clear proof of the corruption of human nature."

"The quotation of Psalm xiv. 2, 3, by the Apostle Paul, in Romans iii. 10, &c., is also an important Scriptural proof of the universal moral corruption of mankind. 'The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. When the Psalmist affirms this of the children of men, it is fair to conclude that he is speaking of all men, and of human nature as originating actual depravity; and it is, indeed, obvious, from the context, that he is thus accounting for atheism and other evils, the prevalence of which he laments. But as the Apostle quotes this passage and the parallel one in the 53d Psalm as Scriptural proofs of the universal corruption of mankind, the sense of the Psalmist is fixed by his authority, and cannot be questioned. All, indeed, that the opponents of this interpretation can say, is, that, in the same psalm the Psalmist speaks also of righteous persons, God is in the generation of the righteous; but that is nothing to the purpose, seeing that those who contend for the universal corruption of mankind allow also that a remedy has been provided for the evil; and that by its application some, in every age, have been made righteous, who were originally and naturally sinful. In fact, it could not be said, with respect to men's actual moral conduct in that, or, probably, in any age, that not one' was righteous; but in every