"and in sin did my mother conceive me!" * Before the flood, "every imagination of the "thoughts of man's heart was only evil conti nually." After the flood, things remained in the same state: "the imagination of man's "heart is evil from his youth." "The wicked "are estranged from the womb: they go astray "as soon as they be born, speaking lies. § All "have sinned, and come short of the glory of "God. In me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth "no good thing." In perfect harmony with ¶¶ these declarations of Scripture our church expresses herself in her articles, liturgy, and homilies. In the introduction to the baptismal service, the congregation is reminded, that "all "men are conceived and born in sin:" and this is made the ground of the baptismal institution. In the ninth article, already referred to, she speaks still more fully; "Original sin standeth "not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians "do vainly talk); but it is the fault and corrup“tion of the nature of every man, that naturally "is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far ** from original gone righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined "to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and therefore, in every person born into the world, it deserveth God's "wrath and damnation." I shall only add two quotations from the homilies, which will fully shew what the doctrine of our church is, and may serve as a comment on that part of the confession which we are considering. " As 66 Ps. li. 5. § Ps. lviii. 3. + Gen. vi. 5. Gen. viii. 21. Rom. viii. 18. **In the Latin copy it is, " quam longissime." 66 "before he (Adam) was most beautiful and precious, so now he was most vile and "wretched in the sight of his Lord and Master. "Instead of the image of God, he was now "become the image of the devil; instead of the "citizen of heaven, he was now become the "bond-slave of hell; having in himself no one "part of his former purity and cleanness, but being altogether spotted and defiled; insomuch "that he now seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin, and therefore, by the just judg"ment of God, was condemned to everlasting "death. This so great and miserable a plague, "if it had only rested on Adam, who first offended, it had been so much the easier, and might the better have been borne. But it fell "not only on him, but also on his posterity, so "that the whole brood of Adam's flesh should "sustain the self-same fall and punishment, "which their forefather by his offence most "justly had sustained." In the first part of the homily for Whitsunday our reformers say, "Man, of his own nature, is fleshly and carnal, "corrupt, naught, sinful, and disobedient to "God, without any spark of goodness in him, "without any virtuous or Godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds. As "for the marks of the Spirit, the fruits of faith, "charitable and Godly motions, if he have any "at all in him, they proceed only of the Holy "Ghost, who is the only worker of our sancti"fication, and maketh us new men in Christ "Jesus." It would be easy to multiply quotations on this subject: but the state of the case is so evident, that it seems unnecessary. Our natural condition is one of ignorance in the understanding, and rebellion in the heart. The universal corruption of manners, both in countries that enjoy the blessings of civilization and in those that are destitute of it, proves the cause that produces it to be universal also. It requires a large measure of credulity to believe that effects so general can spring from temptation or example. Were not the whole mass corrupted, assuredly some part of it would be found, in some age or country, free from the effects of the general contagion. The necessity of education, and of restraint from human laws, affords no mean argument in proof of our position. Were man an innocent creature, much of the labour of legislators might have been spared, and the buildings allotted to the recep-· tion of criminals be converted to purposes more honourable to human nature. Heathen philosophers of modern times, who are favoured with the light of revelation, unreasonably argue against matters of fact, principally, perhaps, because those matters of fact confirm the doctrines of the Bible. But their elder brethren, who had no such advantages, plainly perceived the melancholy state of man. They justly concluded that man, in his present condition, could not proceed from the hands of a wise and good God. And, endeavouring to explain what was evident to their senses as to the fact, though itwas inexplicable by reason as to its cause, they invented the strange but ingenious fable of the metempsychosis; which shews that they considered man as a degraded spirit, shut up in the body as in a prison, for some crime committed in a former state of existence, from the guilt and pollution of which purification was to be effected by its transmigration through several successive states of penance in the bodies of inferior animals. It is strange to conceive how any reasoning being can cast his eye over a list of the diseases to which the body of a man is subject, read a page of history, or look into a hospital, without joining with our church in her confession that "we have followed too much "the devices and desires of our own hearts." A wise and holy Being could not have made us what we are some cause must be assigned, posterior to the creation, for all the misery we see and feel. The universality of natural evil proves the unlimited extent of moral evil. And all moral evil originates in the heart; for "out "of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, "adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, "blasphemies."* Have any of us been hitherto preserved from these enormous acts of sin? Let us not pride ourselves on a supposed superiority of nature, in which we differ from others. Were the ancient heathens "filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, co"vetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, mur"der, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, "backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, "boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient "to parents; without understanding, covenant"breakers, without natural affection, implaca"ble, unmerciful?" And do we, in our thoral conduct, differ from them? It is the effect of education, civilization, and restraint; not of nature. For the latent seeds of all these evils are in our hearts. If the branches have been lopt, and the fruit prevented from coming to the horrible perfection mentioned by the Apostle, we have nothing whereof to glory on this † Rom. i. 29-31. 66 * Matt. xv. 19. account. Our thanks are due to Him who appointed the time and bounds of our habitation, in consequence of which we were not born under the same disadvantageous circumstances. The difference is not internal but extrinsical. Let it not be supposed that these awful truths are matters of doubtful disputation; for the belief of them is essential to our character as real Christians. Unless we have within us a Divinely-wrought conviction of the natural corruption of our hearts, our humiliation will be imperfect, and our confessions the language of hypocrisy; and we cannot feel our need, either of the atoning Saviour or the sanctifying Spirit. Like one who has slightly injured his skin, we shall apply a plaster of our own contrivance; instead of going, with a mortal wound, to the only Physician who has power to heal it. From this fatal fountain of original sin, streams of actual iniquity continually proceed: and therefore it becomes us to add, "We have "offended against Thy holy laws." Here it might be supposed, that no difficulty would arise in bringing home the charge to every conscience; that no man, who has the ten commandments in his hand, and has ever read them with attention, especially if he has considered them in connection with our Lord's exposition of them, would hesitate to acknowledge, that either in thought, word, or deed, and in respect of omission or commission, he hath broken them all. "Who can tell how oft he offendeth ?" Who will deny that he hath "left undone those things which he ought to have done?" Our * Matth. v. |