other principles of action, in themselves sinful and depraved, and may dwell in a heart that is enmity against God. The depravity of man may be traced in the universal reluctance and opposition which are found in his heart against God and holiness. If the heart were not thus depraved, communion with God would be the natural and chief delight of our souls, and prayer and praise our constant language. But does this appear to be the case? Does it not, on the contrary, require force and violence to enable us to set our affections on God, and to delight in communion with him, and in keeping His commandments? Does not this show which is the inherent tendency of our minds, and in what direction the current would naturally flow, if it were not opposed? This love of God, this holiness which delights in him, far from maintaining a preponderating influence, is never found to exist at all in a heart that is unrenewed by grace. On the contrary, in every man in his natural state there is a root of bitterness, the radical element of depravity, from which every species of iniquity may spring, to the extinction of every innocent and virtuous propensity, if such have existed. The exhibitions of virtue that are to be found in the unrenewed man, are either the result of a peculiar organization of his frame; and in that case, no more deserve the name of virtue, than the possession of a handsome limb or feature; or else they may be accounted for on some of the principles and motives of policy or interest, or self-gratification, which are the ordinary springs of human conduct; and in that case, no more deserve the reward of Heaven, or the meed of praise, than the conduct of a courtier, who is noble and generous and honourable towards his peers, in the hope of obtaining their applause and their favour, at the same time that he is cherishing disloyalty and rebellion against his rightful and beneficent prince. Talk not of

noble and generous virtues in him who is ungrateful and rebellious towards God. "He that is ungrateful has but one fault, all other faults pass but for virtues in him." In the sight of God, neither amiable dispositions, nor brilliant exploits, avail any thing, but a new creature. It is the motive alone which stamps actions with value before him. "Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.b Until the heart is renewed, then, by the Holy Ghost, whatever may be the fair seeming in which the exterior man decks himself, he is but the whited sepulchre, having all uncleanness within. His motives and principles being earthly and corrupt, vitiate his whole character, and make his very virtues sins. To man, who sees not into these springs of action, these virtues are all worthy of applause but to that Being whose eye is on the heart, and who knows all its corrupt imaginations, they are but splendid sins, gilded over with the mere resemblance of virtue.c

2. It is farther made matter of objection against this doctrine, that it involves man in a moral catastrophe over which he has no control, from which he has no power to deliver himself, and which, therefore, renders existence itself a curse.

If man were under such a physical incapacity to exer

b Article XIII.

c Whoever wishes to see this important subject farther discussed, may be gratified by the display of masterly reasoning, adorned with the richest charms of eloquence, in Chalmers' Sermons to commercial men, and his subsequent series; in which the compatibility of whatever is lovely and of good report, with the native depravity of the human heart, is demonstrated.

cise his reason and affections, as that which attaches to a lunatic or an idiot, then, indeed, his case were as deplorable as the objection makes it, and it might seem unjust to punish him for a violation or omission of his duties. But the fact is, man labours only under a moral inability. He will not do good, because he loves evil. And this, surely, is not his excuse, but his fault. Though man is corrupt, an adequate remedy is provided for him, in the atonement of Christ, and the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost, which are offered to all. "As by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." This combined view of our fall and depravity, and of our redemption by Jesus Christ, completely dispels the gloom with which the objection would invest it, and shows the dispensations of Heaven to be merciful as well as just. No man, in the day of judgment, will be able to plead incapacity to comply with the terms of salvation; but every impenitent sinner will be obliged to confess that his perdition has been voluntary and self-procured, and in opposition to the most powerful proffered aids, and the most affecting motives.

It is infinitely important that we form right notions on this great doctrine, and that we understand and feel the deep interest we have in it. It lies at the foundation of all true religion. In proportion as we know God, we learn also to know ourselves; and while his image in us is daily acquiring new lustre, our own portraiture becomes more dark and gloomy. They who have made the greatest progress in holiness can best tell the native malignity of the human heart. Every day they gain deeper conviction of their own failures, and mourn with increasing humiliation over the corruptions dwelling in them. "I do not only betray the inbred venom of my heart," says the pious Bishop Beveridge, " by poisoning my

common actions, but even my most religious performances also, with sin. I cannot pray, but I sin; I cannot hear, or preach a sermon, but I sin; I cannot give an alms, or receive the sacrament, but I sin. Nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my very confessions are still aggravations to them. My repentance needs to be repented of; my tears want washing, and the very washing of my tears needs still to be washed over again with the blood of my Redeemer." And what shall they say who are but novitiates in religion? Will they dare to feel any complacency in their own merits and righteousness before Him in whose sight the very heavens are unclean? O no! If but a beam of mercy from the everlasting throne dawns upon our souls, are not our spirits ready to faint within us at the discovery of that light which should refresh and comfort us? If our hearts but for a few moments ascend in faith to heaven, are we not melted into tears at our thoughtless ingratitude, our coldness and wanderings, the fickleness of our hearts, the tyranny of our lusts, which alienate us so far from Him" who loved us and gave himself for us?" Happy are we, if we can thus lie low before the footstool of Omnipotence, and feel that we are miserable sinners. Then shall we learn to value the atonement made for us; then abandoning all hopes from ourselves, we fly for refuge to the Redeemer. Nor shall we fly in vain. "He hath been made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” "There is therefore no condemna. tion to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Their sins are not imputed to those who believe, who mourn over their corrup tions, who repent of their failures and imperfections, and are continually and ardently striving after holiness.

As to the origin of evil, philosophy and reason not only

fail to give us any information, but tend merely to bewilder us by their speculations. Whatever hypothesis we may adopt, great difficulties will be found to attend the subject; for it is one too deep and mysterious to be comprehended by our finite understanding. Every attempt of a priori reasoning only serves to illustrate the value of the simple account which we have of it in the Bible. Revelation does not indeed wholly clear up the moral mysteries by which we are surrounded; but she gives us the only solution of them that is at all satisfactory; and what is still better, she tells us how this great evil may be overruled to our ultimate and eternal happiness. She removes the mystery far enough to pour in upon us her immortal lessons of patience, calmness, and hope. We say, far enough; for the knowledge of finite beings must stop somewhere. It is now received as an incontrovertible principle, that gravitation is the great cause and rule of the various phenomena of the solar system. Yet what can be more incomprehensible than gravitation? In what manner the transgression of Adam disturbed and destroyed the adjustments and proportions of virtue and holiness in which he was created;-how it was that an offence apparently so slight, should have incurred such a penalty; or why it was that God permitted evil to enter into his creation and mar his fairest work ;-these ques tions we may be unable satisfactorily to solve: but this we know, that evil doth exist, that it must exist by the permission of God, and that its introduction by the sin of eating an apple contrary to the command and authority of God, is just as consonant with justice and reason, as the introduction of it in any other imaginable way whatever. Suffice it for us, that a state of discipline and probation has thereby supervened; and that a remedy has been provided by which we can educe from our fall an infinite