none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 2. The eruptions of this wickedness in every possible way. "Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways; the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes," Rom. iii, 9-16.

Thus" have the Scriptures concluded all under sin;" for "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," insomuch that, "if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us." This is the melancholy fact. But how is this fact to be accounted for? According to the scriptural account of the origin of man, he was at first created in the image of God. How is it then that mankind resemble evil demons more than the holy God?

To set aside the scriptural method of solving this problem the universal and glaring wickedness of mankind has been attributed to every cause that could be invented.

1. It is said that "sin is the abuse of free agency; and that every man is a sinner merely by his own unbiased choice."

true.

That all actual sin is the abuse of free agency may be But the abuse of free agency, though it may appear sufficiently to account for any one sin, or for the sinfulness of one-half of mankind, can never account for universal wickedness. Again : "If men were never drawn into sin any other way than as Adam was, namely, by temptations offered from without, the case would be somewhat different. But there are numberless instances of men sinning, though no temptation is offered from without. It is necessary therefore some other account should be given of their sinning than of Adam's." (Wesley on Original Sin, p. 188.) In fact, this is only giving back the same question in another form. "What is the reason that all men have abused their free agency!"

2. It is said that "mankind have contracted evil habits, which render wickedness natural to them."

That evil habits have added very much to some other cause, and have increased the difficulty of our cure, is readily granted. It is not easy for those "to do good, that are accustomed to do evil," Jer. xiii, 23. But evil habits are the effect as well as the cause of evil practices. The evil practices which induce evil habits are, therefore, still to be accounted for.

3. It is said that "the prevalence of bad example is the true cause of universal sinfulness."

To this it is answered: (1.) That the first sinner can have had no bad example before him. Cain, for instance, had no example of persecution and murder, by which he was led astray. Wickedness therefore existed before bad example. (2.) There must have been a general prevalence of bad conduct, before bad examples could prevail. (3.) There have been good examples set before mankind, as well as bad ones. If example, therefore, be the only thing which governs the conduct of mankind, especially as it is so much more reasonable to copy a good than a bad example, the good and the bad must have divided the world pretty equally between them. We have still to inquire, therefore, what is the source of bad examples, and what is the reason that mankind so readily follow them. 4. It is said that "a defective education is the cause of universal wickedness."

Education is undoubtedly Oɛpañɛla Yvxns, the medicine of a diseased soul. "Ye shall know the truth," said our Lord," and the truth shall make you free," John viii, 32. The want of it may therefore be one important cause of the continuance of the malady: but it cannot be the original cause of its existence. The want of medicine may leave men the unresisting prey of disease; but we are not wont to attribute the existence of a disease to the want of medicine. Where there is no disease, there is no need of medicine; for "they that are whole have no need of a physician." The cause of the spiritual sickness of mankind is, therefore, yet to be sought. And beside this: Why have mankind neglected the education of their offspring? And why do the souls of men resist the healing influence of education? Still we are at a loss!

5. "But if one of these do not account for the universal wickedness of mankind, may not the occurrence of them

all produce this phenomenon? Suppose the first sin to have been occasioned by mere abuse of free agency. This first sin may have corrupted the heart of the individual, and so opened a flood gate of iniquity. From this source many sins have sprung forth. Sinful practices have grown into sinful habits; and sinful habits have been fruitful of farther sinful practices. The sinful habits and practices of the individual have prevented the religious education of his offspring, and have been the cause of bad example, which, not being counteracted by proper instruction, has been productive of universal sinfulness."

This is putting the case in its strongest light. But let us examine it. (1.) This hypothesis embraces all the consequences which will follow from the common one, and therefore makes but little difference in the result. (2.) It deserves all the praise of human invention; for it cannot be proved from revelation. The inventor of it was, therefore, undoubtedly a man of genius. (3.) There is, however, a lameness in it which does not belong to truth. It accounts tolerably well for the defection of an individual; but not at all for that of all his offspring. It supposes his offspring to be naturally upright, and yet supposes them to fall without an adequate cause. It supposes them to want medicine (education) before they are diseased, and to be so disordered as universally to follow a bad example, while yet it supposes them to be in perfect health.

This subject may possibly be better understood when viewed in the light of an apt illustration. Suppose then that God made man with a taste for wholesome food, and a dislike to poison. Now the phenomenon to be accounted for is, that all the human race have preferred deadly poison to wholesome food. To solve this problem, you say that the first man perversely ate of the poison, and thereby vitiated his taste. From thenceforth he ate poison only, and rejected food. His offspring, though born, as their parent was created, with an appetite for food and an antipathy to poison, witnessing continually the example of their father, and not being properly informed how the poison may be expelled by antidotes, or how a vitiated taste may be rectified,* copied the bad example which they

* In allusion to that kind of instruction of which mankind stand in need, and which God has given us by revelation, which is “the gospel of our salvation."

non.

witnessed, vitiated their taste, and, from that time, severally rejected their proper nourishment and ate only poison. You think you have perfectly accounted for the phenomeBut review the whole affair, and you will perceive that you have left the grand difficulty as you found it, viz., how a whole race of beings were led to act contrary to the law of their nature, to overcome the bias of an unvitiated taste, to resist their appetite for food, and their antipathy to poison? How is it that not one of them has preserved his taste unvitiated, and overcome the influence of a bad example, to which their very constitution was repugnant?

The scriptural method is the only one in which we can account for this melancholy fact, the universal wickedness of mankind.

1. According to the sacred writers, the external wickedness of human conduct flows from an internal depravity of heart. They inform us that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," Jer. xvii, 9: that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually," Gen. vi, 5: that "the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live," Eccles. ix, 3: that "out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies," Matt. xv, 19: that as "a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit,—an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil :" that "of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," Luke vi, 43, 45: and that it is" an evil heart of unbelief" which causes them to " depart from the living God," Heb. iii, 12.

Thus far Mr. G. goes with us hand in hand. At least, till he vindicate himself against the charge, we may venture to accuse him of consistency. "The word devil,"

he says, "seems in general acceptation to signify nothing more than that propensity to ill observable in the human mind." (Vol. i, p. 76.) Mr. G. will undoubtedly abide by this observation, that there is "in the human mind" a "propensity to ill."

2. This depravity of heart, however it may be increased by our voluntary indulgence of it, is traced back to our infancy: "The imagination of man's heart is evil

from his youth," Gen. viii, 21. "The word we render youth includes childhood and infancy, the earliest age of man-the whole time from his birth." "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child," Prov. xxii, 15. "The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies," Psa. lviii, 3.

3. It is, therefore, imputed to our birth as a hereditary disorder: "Man that is born of a woman is of a few days, and full of trouble. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one,” Job xiv, 1, 4. "What is man, that he should be clean? and (he that is) born of a woman, that he should be righteous?" Job xv, 14.— "Man is born like a wild ass's colt," Job xi, 12. "How keenly is the comparison pointed! Like the ass, an animal stupid even to a proverb: like the ass's colt, which must be still more egregiously stupid than its dam: like the wild ass's colt, which is not only blockish, but stubborn and refractory; neither has valuable qualities by nature, nor will easily receive them by discipline. The image in the original is yet more strongly touched. The particle like is not in the Hebrew. Born a wild ass's colt; or, as we should say in English, a mere wild ass's colt." (Theron and Aspasio, dial. 13.) “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me," Psa. li, 5.

Hence our Lord, insisting on the necessity of a new birth, says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," John iii, 6.— The plain meaning of which words is, that every one born of a woman needs to be born again, and to be born of the Spirit before he can enter the kingdom of heaven; and that his being born of the flesh is what renders it necessary that he should be born of the Spirit. It is commonly objected to this interpretation, that by flesh our Lord means "infirm humanity." He himself, however, was a partaker of the infirmities of human nature. In that sense he was born of the flesh, and was flesh. But did he need to be born again of the Spirit? If the passage be compared with other parts of Scripture, it will be found to mean, that which is born of sinful human nature is sinful human nature, and needs to be born of the Holy Spirit, that it may be holy. "If to walk after the flesh, as