we are informed by Pliny, that, among the Ro mans, trees were formerly the temples of the deities and he adds, that, even in his time, according to the ancient rites, the simple peasantry yet dediçated to some god every tree, which surpassed the rest in beauty or magnitude. Nor have the Hindoos in all ages been less addicted to the sacred grove. In the ancient drama of Sacontala, the emperor Dushmanta styles one of these holy woods an awful sanctuary; confesses, that it must not be violated; declares, that groves devoted to religion must be entered in humbler habiliments than those of a prince; and on that account, ere he ventures to penetrate the recesses of such an asylum, he studiously divests himself of his regal ornaments. The same superstition was equally familiar to the Egyptians. Quintus Curtius has handed down to us a very interesting description of the sacred grove of Jupiter Hammon, which was planted round his temple in one of the Oases. His language is singularly beautiful; and almost presents to the imagination the delicious climate, the deep shades, and the crystal streams, of Eden. At length, says he, they arrived at the consecrated habitation of the deity; which, incredible as it may seem, is situated in the midst of a vast desert, and is shaded from the sun by so luxuriant a vegetation that its beams can scarcely penetrate through the thickness of the foliage. The groves are watered by the 2 Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xii. c. 1. Sacont. Act. i. translated by Sir W. Jones. D 2 meandering streams of numerous fountains; and a wonderful temperature of climate, resembling most of all the delightful season of spring, prevails through the whole year with an equal degree of salubrity.' Very similar is the description, which Virgil gives of the Elysian fields or the fortunate islands. Nor was this done accidentally: for the real prototype of Elysium was Paradise. From the same source we may deduce the practice, which so generally prevails among ourselves. We rarely behold a country church unattended by a sacred grove, at once its shelter and its most appropriate ornament. Thus, even long after the time that Paradise was forfeited, sweet was its remembrance to the sons of Adam, and delightful was every image which could recal it to their recollection. The grove formed a part equally in their pleasures, and in their religious rites: the sage delighted to muse beneath its cooling shades and the most solemn offices of a splendid, though perverted, worship were performed within its gloomy recesses. II. The duration of man's happiness in the garden of Eden is not specified. We only know, that he transgressed the commandment of God, and that by this fatal transgression he introduced into the world sin and misery. I 2 Mysterious as may be the doctrine of hereditary Quint. Curt. lib. iv. c. 7. Æneid. lib. vi. ver. 637-681. See the subject of groveworship discussed at large in my Orig. of Pagan Idol. book v. c. 7. § I. 5. II. 10, 11. depravation, and utterly impossible as I believe it to adduce any satisfactory hypothesis as to the mode of its transmission; still the doctrine itself rests upon the sure basis both of Scripture and of experience. 2 We are taught, that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually ;' that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; that man is shapen in iniquity, and that in sin does his mother conceive him.3 To the same conclusion also we are inevitably brought by the circumstance of infants being liable to death, no less than adults. The argument of the apostle runs As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now from this argument the conclusion is sufficiently obvious. Death, in every instance, is declared to be the penalty of sin. But it is a fact, that mere infants, before the commission of any actual sin, are often cut off by the hand of death. Infants however would not die at all, unless they were sinners in some mode or other for we are expressly assured, that death is invariably the penalty of sin. Therefore, as infants are liable to this penalty before the commission of actual sin, they can only be liable to it on account of the taint of hereditary pravity. I may add, that the doctrine in question is supposed and required by the doctrine of regeneration, as taught by our Lord himself. A change of heart could not be necessary in all, unless the hearts of all had been previously corrupted. But the language of Christ is express, both as to this universal necessity, and as to this universal corruption. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That, which is born of the flesh, is flesh and that, which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." With the decision of Scripture our actual experience perfectly accords. A mere corrupt imitation of Adam, or a mere erroneous view of right and wrong produced by early false impressions, is not, I think, sufficient to account for what we feel and see. If we be all born with souls in the same condition as those of our first parents before the fall, it is passing strange, that out of so many milTions there should not have been one who preferred good to evil; it is passing strange, that all should have chosen to imitate what is bad. Or, if the whole mass of depravity which exists in the world is to be resolved into an erroneous view of right and wrong produced by early false impressions: how happens it, that infants, who as yet can have taken no such erroneous view, are nevertheless (according to St. Paul's reasoning) convicted of being sinful creatures by the very circumstance of their frequent death; how happens it, when this erroneous view of things has been rectified and when the judgment has been fully convinced of its falsehood, that the will and the affections remain as stubbornly bent upon evil as ever? It is sufficiently evident, that both these theories mainly, if not altogether, respect outward actions. But outward actions are, in truth, mere ramifications of an inward principle: and this inward principle, which constitutes at once the proof and the essence of original sin, still continues to exist and to manifest itself in an aversation from good and in a strong bias to evil; even when, so far as the bare intellect is concerned, our view of right and wrong is strictly accurate. Now, if hereditary depravation consisted entirely in an erroneous view of these matters influencing our conduct through the deception of our judgment; I should conceive, that, when once our judgment was rectified by dissolving that false association of ideas which has misled it, our hereditary depravation would be at an end: for remove the cause, and the effect must cease. But experience teaches us, that nothing of the sort really takes place. Though the intellect may be fully convinced, the wil! and the affections are still unreclaimed: and, even when a man has been born again of the Holy Spirit implanting in him a new will and new desires, the ancient taint, though corrected, is by no means eradicated. He still perceives the inward workings of his mind to be precisely those so graphically described by the great apostle. I find a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law |