sequently, every production of this adorable Being must, in its primary state, correspond with the sanctity, equity, and benefi cence of his nature, so as to justify the sentiment of our Poet, a sentiment borrowed from the Scriptures;

"Here finish'd HE, and all that He had made
View'd, and behold! all was entirely good."

But let us apply this reasoning to the present state of man, and we shall be obliged to conclude, either, that man was not formed by the immaculate hand of DITY, cr, that he is awfully fallen from his pristine excellence. For we find human nature clearly manifesting dispositions, which are unequivocally and decidedly opposed to holiness, and the very reverse of any thing which we could expect to proceed from a Being of infinite purity.

This disposition to evil appears not only in the horrid and detestable actions of the blood-thirsty assasin, and the midnight plunderer, but also in that love of sensual pleasure, and that rooted aversion to things spiritual and divine, which so uniformly associate themselves with the human character. And while the depth of this depravity is seen in the palpable transgres'sions of the adult, its hereditary descent is lamentably evinced in that spirit of pride and revenge, which is connected with the first dawning of reason in the months of infancy, and is a very prolific source of painful feeling to those pious parents, who consider their children to be candidates for immortality, and are deeply convinced of their duty

"To rear the tender thought,

And teach the young idea how to shoot."

2. The universal prevalency of the pravity of human nature furnishes another argument in proof of this lamentable doctrine. If sin were only an accidental evil, then we might very justly expect to find (at least) some of the powers of many souls wholly uninfected, and shining forth in their native strength and pristine beauty. Yea, we should reasonably expect to find many, very many, exalted individuals who had happily escaped this dreadful moral contagion, and were blooming in all their original purity. But, alas! instead of these interesting remains of paradisiacal glory, we find that every faculty of every soul is materially impaired and disordered. And the natural bent of every mind is decidedly in opposition to that moral image of JEHOVAH, which primarily pointed out the grand origin and design of man's being. Now, the whole of human kind are naturally enveloped in thick Egyptian gloom; "darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people." "There is not a just man upon earth, one that doeth good and sinneth not." Yea, such is the depth of the depravity of the human heart, that it is only

known to Him who "searcheth the heart and trieth the reins" of the children of men.

"Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings, but himself,

That hideous sight, a naked human heart."

And the general testimony of Historians, (differing widely in their dispositions, their habits, and their theories,) furnishes ample proof that this has been the case in every age of time since our first parents listened to the delusive voice of the tempter. Whether we fix on the present, or on any anterior era, we shall find sufficient reason to believe, that every child of man is very far from being, in point of moral resemblance to himself, the unpolluted production of a pure and holy Gon.

What inference can we deduce from these humbling facts, but that man has, by transgression, spoiled the work of Gon, is dreadfully fallen, and has the principles of moral (as well as physical) evil incorporated with the very stamina of his being?

3. The perpetuity of evil, or its unsuspended continuance in all ages, is a consideration which tends to establish the same lamentable truth. If sin were not the natural offspring of a depraved heart, and associated with the very principles of human existence, we might reasonably expect that the pages of history would, in the wide space of six thousand years, furnish us with some intervening happy ages of moral rectitude, and of paradisiacal perfection. But ah! we search in vain for such delightful lucid intervals. One dismal blot overspreads the mouldy records through each succeeding age of time. Hence we infer, that man is the unhappy subject of radical depravity, and "prone to evil as the sparks fly upward; "-that the deadly fountain, opened at the foot of the tree of knowledge" in the garden of Eden, has sent forth its muddy and baneful streams through every branch of human kind, in every age, down to the present period.

What mortal power from things unclean

Can pure production■ bring?

Who can command a vital stream

From an infected spring?

4. The contumacious nature of moral evil furnishes a further proof of its originality. If sin were only an accidental evil, superinduced by example, and confirmed by habit, it might justly be expected, that antidotal means of comparatively small power would be sufficient, not only to check its progress, but also to annihilate its being. But alas! instead of this being the case, the fact is, it sets at nought laws both human and divine, though supported by the most vigorous penal sanctions, and breaks

through every opposition like a tremendous torrent. The laws of GOD form the basis, or furnish the standard, for human enactments, in every well-organized state, in reference to murder, fornication, theft, perjury, and the profanation of the name and day of the LORD, &c; yet (confining our observations to our own country) how shamefully are the authority of JEHOVAH, and the laws of our land, trampled upon by multitudes of our countrymen! As to profane swearing, sabbath-breaking, &c. the different circles of society too generally unite in rebellion, and scem joined in awful combinations to insult their MAKER, and defy their country's wholesome laws. Yea, the torments of hell, the groans of the damned, the pleasures of religion, the joys of heaven, the love of GoD, the groans of Calvary, and the Divine SPIRIT himself, are set at nought by this "foul monster sin greatest and first of ills." The herald of the Cross unfurls the blood-stained banner, and cries, "Behold the LAMB of GOD, that taketh away the sin of the world," or envelopes himself in the awful gloom of Sinai, and thunders forth the anathema of heaven, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them." But, alas! how few seriously notice either the herald or his message. The great mass of mankind are equally proof against the soft whispers of mercy, and the dreadful peals of Horeb's mount.-Upon what principle can we account for this infatuation, if we deny the doctrine of Original Sin?

Equally plain and decisive is the testimony of Christian experience on this momentous subject; for even a true believer, while yet only "a babe in CHRIST," although in a justified state, frequently proves that he has the corruptions of his heart, as well as the suggestions of his "adversary the devil," to contend with; and hence he is induced to pray with David, "Create in me a clean heart, O GOD, and renew a right spirit within me," or with the Established Church, " Cleanse the thoughts of my heart, by the inspiration of thy HOLY SPIRIT, that I may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name."

"He wants the spirit of power within,

Of love, and of a healthful mind;

Of power, to conquer inbred sin;
Of love, to GoD and all mankind;
Of health, that pain and death defies,
Most vigorous when the body dies"

And it is presumed that this existing corruption can be fairly resolved into no principle but that of innate depravity: consequently, the contumacious nature of moral evil, both in the converted and the unconverted man, furnishes a striking proof of the lamentable existence of "Original Sin."

5. If from these considerations, we turn to the Volume of In

spiration, we shall find the sacred penmen unanimous in their testimony on this humbling topic. If we ask the opinion of the antediluvian sages on the subject, they will answer us by quoting the affecting estimate of JEHOVAH, "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," Gen. vi. 5. If we wish for the opinions of the hoary patriarchs, they point us to Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, with only a solitary Lot, the nephew of pious Abraham, who feared the Lord. If we enquire of David, he says, "I was shapen in iniquity; Psalm 1; or if of his wise son Solomon, he declares, "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child," Prov. xxii. 15. If we make our appeal to the pious Jewish prophets, Isaiah says, (speaking of the then most moral part of human kind,) "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know; my people doth not consider." "The whole head is sick, and the heart is faint," &c. Isaiah i. 3, 5. And weeping Jeremiah assures us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," Jer. xvii. 9. If we consult the Redeemer of mankind, ("who is over all, God blessed for ever,") he answers, "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies," Matt, xv. 19. And the apostolical sentiment on this subject standsupon record, Rom. i. 18-32.

In fine, almost every page of the heaven-inspired book abounds either with the doctrinal assertion of this depravity, or with lamentable instances of its baneful influence. The natural conclusion to which these enquiries lead us, is, that original depravity is the common portion of man.

"Fear, pride, and anger from our cradle fly,

We start, and swell, and rage, we know not why!
Nor shall we find, search all her fav'rites round,
One holy plant in nature's fertile ground."

Launceston, Jan. 1821.

G. B.

THE WORD OF GOD ILLUSTRATED.

FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON ECCLESIASTES XII. 5To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine.

I will not occupy pages which should be better filled, by a protracted vindication of my remarks on Ecclesiastes xii. 5; but I may ask leave to mention, that it was the Prayer-Book, and not the Bible translation of the Psalms, which I quoted for Psalm cix. 22. On inspection, however, I do not find it answerable to the Original, nor to my purpose, for it was the grasshopper, and not. the locust, I had in view, which are different species of Gryllus.

The proper word for grashopper is an, whereas, for the locust, it is na, except for that species which may be called the hooded or grasshopper locust; (Lev. xi. 22.) Since the grasshopper is evidently meant in Eccles. xii. 5. (as also in Numb. xiii. 33,*) Taxon in the Septuagint, and impinguabitur in the Vulgate, may not be taken to mean literally to grow fat, (which can never be said of the grasshopper,) but, as in our Version, to become or be made heavy, or "a burden," which I still think admirably expresses the timidity of age, and its tendency (mentally) to sink under small pressures.

I will only add, I had no suspicion that MR. Welborne wished either to countenance or to introduce a caricature. I knew well that several Commentators understand the metaphor as he does, and for the same reason; but I took the opportunity of suggesting a caution, which I hoped might be read by some religious persons in London of my acquaintance, to whom I had no channel equally unexceptionable of conveying it.

Metaphor and caricature differ essentially in their design and effect; but metaphors and analogies are, to us, the needful mediums of heavenly things, and therefore they abound in the Sacred Scriptures, and bear the characters of divine condescension and wisdom; they also serve to impress and illustrate truths which we are either dull or backward to understand, and for that reason, our Saviour spoke in parables. C. L.

*Where insignificance is the idea meant to be conveyed.

THE WORKS OF

GOD DISPLAYED.
GOD

SIR,

ON VEGETABLE MILK.

To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine.

The

The ready insertion which you gave to a paper of mine on the Upas, or Poison-Tree of Java,* in a former volume,+ has induced me to transmit the following paper, On the Milk extracted from the Cow-Tree, (l'Arbre de la Vache,) and on Vegetable Milk in general. It is taken from the Annales de Chimie. Editors of that work extracted it from a memoir read by M. Humboldt, at one of the sittings of the French Academy of Sciences. That part of the paper which is purely chemical (although highly interesting) I have omitted, fearing that it would not suit the generality of your readers.

Believe me to remain, with great respect,

AMICUS LONDINENSIS. "We had (says M. Humboldt) for several weeks past heard

* I have been perusing Mr. WooD's 2d edition of his Mosaic Creation with interest, but am surprised to find that he hould have inserted FOERSCA's account of the Upas, after the direct negation it has received from such a respectable quarter as DR. HORSEFIeld.

+ See Methodist Magazine for Dec. 1817.