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corruption. They also frequently occur in the most pathetic language, and in the most apt and striking figures of speech. "O Ephraim !" saith the Lord, by the mouth of one inspired, "what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud; and as the early dew, it goeth away."* "I planted thee a noble vine, wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes."+

The confessions, also, of the servants of God, who lived under the old covenant, and whose eyes were opened by His special grace, confirm this argument: "O Lord," says Daniel, “ righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces." "We are all as an unclean thing," laments Isaiah, "and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." We have rebelled against Him," again says Daniel. "The crown is fallen from our head," writes Jeremiah, "woe unto us that we have sinned." "Behold," cried Job in his deep humility, "I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." 'T

But the language of the inspired writers, who lived under the dispensation of the Gospel, both

* Hos. vi. 4.
‡ Dan. ix. 7.

+ Is. v. 4.
§ Is. lxiv. 6.

|| Lam. v. 6.

¶ Job. xl. 4.

charges mankind with utter depravity of life, and deduces such depravity from that natural corruption of the heart, which is the consequence of original sin. "Both Jews and Gentiles," writes St. Paul," are all under sin," "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."* Again he writes, in strong and decided language, The scripture hath concluded all under sint ;" that "there is none righteous, no not one;"" there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God: they are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one :" "there is no fear of God before their eyes." The personal confession of the Apostles, is also in accordance with this universal condemnation; they themselves, before they were called in Christ, "were also foolish, disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." "We were by nature," they say, "the children of wrath, even as others, having no hope, and without God in the world."||

It remains only in my argument, to connect

* Rom. iii.
§ Tit. iii. 3.

+ Gal. iii. 22.

+ Rom. iii.

|| Eph. ii. 12.

this universal depravity of the heart, with the disobedience of Adam. St. Paul says, "the

doers of the law shall be justified* ;” whence it follows, that if a man keep the law without religion, religion is an useless encumbrance. But the same apostle says, "A man is not justified by the works of the law . . . for by the works of the law shall no man be justified." Whence as there is none righteous, no, not one, as all have sinned, we must conclude, that no man is able (of himself) to perform the law, and thus to justify himself in the sight of God. Thus, those who lived under the law, were said to be in the

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bondage of corruption‡," and upon them it worked wrath§, and all manner of concupiscence ||; being itself the ministration of death¶; and giving strength to "the sting of death."** The cause of this inability in man to justify himself before God was sin, and sin entered the world, through the transgression of Adam, and passed upon all men. The words of St. Paul are, "As by one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;" "as by

*Rom. iii. 13. Vide Matt. vii. 21. & James i. 22., et seq.

+ Gal. ii. 16.

§ Rom. iv. 15.
¶2 Cor. iii. 7.

Gal. iv. 3. & Rom. viii. 21. || Ib. vii. 8.

* 1 Ib. xv. 56.

the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation."*

This subject cannot be presented to the mind in a more forcible manner than in the language of the apostle, when he classes all men who strive to keep, or boast of keeping the law of God in their own strength, as "under the curse;" "for it is written," he adds, quoting the words of Moses, Deut. xxvii. 26., "cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do themt;" especially as this language is used to connect the two covenants of the law and the gospel, by showing that Christ became a curse for us ‡, and redeemed us from both the guilt and the power of sin.

By the testimony of the Scriptures, therefore, I am supported in my argument, that man cannot, of his own strength and power, obey the commands of God. I will briefly examine, in my next letter, how this conclusion is sanctioned by the fact of his natural life.

I am, &c.

*Rom. v. 12 & 18. Vide 1 Cor. xv. 21. & Rom. vii. 11.

+ Gal. iii. 10.

‡ Gal. iii. 13.

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