been speaking. To say that "he principally speaks of and to the Gentiles, to the end of the 6th chapter," (p. 117,) is another assertion which cannot be proved. It is therefore by no means true, that "he is in this verse speaking of the Gentiles, in contradistinction to the Jews."

You affirm, 2. "By the same argument, he here considers the Gentiles only in a body, as distinguished from the body of the Jews. For so he does all along in the four first chapters." No, not in one of them. If he had, the mouth of no one individual person had been stopped. On the contrary, he speaks both here and all along of every individual, that every one might believe in him, who died for every one of the ungodly.

You affirm, 3. "In this verse he describes the condition of the converted Gentiles when in their Heathen state, in which they were without strength, unable to recover themselves; they were ungodly, yea sinners, and enemies to God," (p. 118.) And were not the unconverted Jews also sinners, and enemies to God, ungodly, and without strength to recover themselves? These four characters therefore are no proof at all," that the Gentiles only are here spoken of."

"Their sin, and enmity, and ungodliness, consisted in their wicked works." Primarily in their wicked tempers. But how came all men, Jews and Gentiles, to have those wicked tempers, and to walk in those wicked works? How came they all, till converted, to be dead in sin, and without strength to recover from it? Unless in Adam all died, in a deeper sense than you are willing to allow.

You sum up your argument thus: "The apostle is not speaking here of all mankind's being corrupted in Adam, but of the Gentiles being corrupted by the idolatry and wickedness into which they had plunged themselves, and out of which they were unable to recover themselves, without the extraordinary interposal of divine grace," (p. 120.)

If this was the case of the Heathens only, then the Jews were not without strength, but were able to recover themselves from their wickedness, without any such interposal!

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But with regard to the Heathens I ask, I. Was this the state of all the Heathen nations, or of some only? 2. If of some only, which were they that were not corrupted? 3. If it was the state of all Heathen nations, how came it to be so? How was it, that there was not one uncorrupted nation on earth? 4. How could any Heathen nation be in this state? Without strength? Without strength? Unable to recover themselves from sin, without the extraordinary interposal of the divine grace? Since you are clear in this, that "all the Gentiles are endowed with light and power, sufficient to know God, and perform obedience to his will by their na tural powers of reason and understanding," (p. 121.) If you say, "They were once endowed with these powers, but now they had cast them away:" I am not satisfied still. What, did all nations cast away their natural powers of reason and understanding? Surely not! But if not, how came they all to plunge themselves into this dreadful corruption?

8. Another proof is, (Rom. viii. 7, 8.) The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.'

On this you observe, 1, "Here is not one word of Adam, or any consequence of his sin upon us.'

. The whole passage speaks of that corruption of our nature, which is the consequence of Adam's sin.

The plain and obvious sense of it is this, (ver. 3,) 'What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,' too weak to contend with our corrupt nature,) God hath done: sending his own Son, he hath condemned' that sin' which was in our flesh:' hath given sentence that it should be destroyed, (ver. 4,) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit:' who are guided in all our thoughts, words, and actions, not by corrupt nature, but by the Spirit of God, (ver. 5.) They that are after the flesh,' who are still guided by corrupt nature, mind the things of the flesh :' have their thoughts and affections.

fixed on such things as gratify corrupt nature: but they that are after the Spirit,' who are under his guidance, 'mind the things of the Spirit: think of, relish, love the things, which the Spirit hath revealed, which he moves ns to, and promises to give us. (ver. 6.) For to be carnally minded,' to mind the things of the flesh,' of our corrupt nature, is death :' the sure mark of spiritual death, and the way to death everlasting. But to be spiritually minded,' to mind the things of the Spirit, is life:' the sure mark of spiritual life, and the way to life everlasting; and attended with the peace of God, and peace with God, which otherwise can have no place: (ver. 7.) Because the carnal mind,' the mind, taste, inclination, the whole bias of our evil nature is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be:' being as opposite thereto as hell to heaven. (ver. 8.) So then they that are in the flesh,-still unrenewed by the Spirit, still following the bent of corrupt nature, 'cannot please God.' Every man now may see whether this passage does not strongly illustrate the depravity of our nature.

9. The last proof of this part of the proposition, is, (Gen. vi. 5.) '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.' And below, (ver. 11.) The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence,' (p. 122.)

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"Mankind," you say, "was universally debauched into lust and sensuality, rapine and violence." And how came, this universal wickedness, if all mankind were quite upright by nature? You answer, "They had corrupted themselves; so the text, (ver. 12,) All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."" This expression does not necessarily imply any more, than that all flesh, all men, were, corrupted. But taking it literally, I ask, How camę all flesh to corrupt themselves? Oh, "by Seth's posterity inter-. marrying with the Cainites." But how came all the. Cainites to corrupt themselves? And all the Sethites to, follow, not reform them? If the balance was even, if nas

ture leaned neither way, there ought to have been as many good as bad still: and the Sethites ought to have reformed as many of the children of Cain, as the Cainites corrupted of the children of Seth. How came it then, that only 'Noah was a just man?' And does one good man amidst a world of the ungodly, prove, that the "nature of mankind in general is not corrupted?" Or rather strongly prove, that it is? It does not prove, that Noah himself was not naturally inclined to evil; but it does, that the world was.

But if the corruption of nature was the reason why the old world was destroyed, it is a reason for the destruction of the world at any time," (p. 123.). This alone was never supposed to be the reason; but their actual wickedness added thereto..

You add, "It may be urged, that God said, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake: for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.' (Gen. viii. 21.) · But the Hebrew particle sometimes signifies although.” That does not prove, that it signifies so here. But what if it does? What if the texts be rendered, Though the imagi nation of man's heart is evil from his youth? Even thus rendered, it implies as strongly as it did before, that man's heart is naturally inclined to evil.

The Hebrew word, translated youth, (p. 124,) is always applied to childhood or tender age, (Isa. vii. 16,) ty signifies a little child. And none of the texts you have cited prove the contrary. Heman, the author of the 88th Psalm, was doubtless afflicted from his youth or childhood. The Babylonians (mentioned xlvii. 12.) may well be supposed to have been trained up in the way of their fathers, from their earliest childhood: and the plain meaning of Jeremiah, (ch. iii. 24, 25,) Shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth.' We lie down in our shame; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth,' is, Ever since we began to think or act, we have gone astray from God..

10. The preceding texts were brought to prove (and they do abundantly prove it) that our nature is deeply cor rupted, inclined to evil, and disinclined to all that is spiri tually good, so that without supernatural grace, we can neither will nor do what is pleasing to God. And this easily accounts for the wickedness and misery of mankind, in all ages and nations: whereby experience and reason do so strongly confirm this scriptural doctrine of Original Sin.

Yet it will not "follow, That men are not moral agents," (p. 125.) If you ask, "Why, how are they capable of performing duty?" I answer, By grace, though not by nature. And a measure of this is given to all men. Nor does it follow, "That we can by no means help or hinder that sin which is natural to us." Yes, we can. Anger, for instance, is natural to me: yea, irregular, unreasonable anger. I am naturally inclined to this, as I experience every day. Yet I can help it by the grace of God; and do so as long as I watch and pray.

Dr. Jennings answers this assertion more at large, "If sin be natural then it is necessary, (p. 125.) If by sin is meant the corrupt bias of our wills, that indeed is natural to us, as our nature is corrupted by the fall: but not as it came originally out of the hand of God. Therefore it is improperly compared to the appetites of hunger and thirst, which might be in our original nature. Now this bias of the will is certainly evil and sinful, and hateful to God; whether we have contracted it ourselves, or whether we derive it from Adam, makes no difference. A proud or passionate temper is evil, whether a man has contracted it himself, or derived it from his parents. Therefore the inference, If natural and (in some sense) necessary then no sin, does by no means hold.

"But if by sin be meant sinful actions, to which this corrupt bias of the will inclines us; it remains to be proved, that a corrupt bias of the will, makes the actions necessary ́and consequently not sinful. And, indeed, if a corrupt