other plucked of his feathers, or degenerated from his primitive rectitude and glory. So again, MARCUS ANTONIUS Confessed that men were born mere slaves to their appetites and passions; and very many of the Heathen philosophers, guided only by the light of nature, affirmed that men are of themselves destitute of true knowledge, purity, and reason while in the Hebrew Scriptures, the word used for man as the son of Adam, is Enosh, indicating that he is "sorry, wretched, and incurably sick." Several modern philosophers, however, and some modern Divines, represent this doctrine as absurd and contemptible in the highest degree: on which account it will be proper to employ a little time in ascertaining its correctness, and evincing its conformity, as well with what may be observed in the world, as with the declarations of Scripture, According to every conception we can form of the wisdom and goodness of the Deity, as well as according to the most express and unequivocal language of the Bible," God formed man upright:" he was furnished with a clear and sagacious mind, with reason bright and strong, and possessed transcendent qualifications for the most elevated happiness. But, that he might be accountable, he was necessarily created free; and, that he might never forget that he was under the cognizance and dominion of a moral governor, a test of obedience was set before him. "God made thee perfect, not immutable; By nature free, not overrul'd by fate "Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how "By destiny, and can no other choose?"-MILTON. In this respect, God did not deal worse with man than with his other creatures; but man acted worse towards his Maker than any of them. He did not conform to the laws of his nature, but broke his allegiance to God by choosing evil instead of good. Thus he sunk from his original happy state, and, according to the constitution of things, "Brought death into the world, and all our woe; his whole nature and race becoming tainted, so that he was viler than the brutes that perish, forfeited his native blessings, and, with his progeny, became rebels, and obnoxious to their Maker's displeasure. Thus, it was the sin of man that filled the creature with vanity ; and it is the vanity of the creature that fills the soul of man with vexation: such is the circle of unrenewed nature. Without having regard to this original degeneracy, it is hard, nay, I believe impossible, to account satisfactorily for the poor, dark, stupid, and wretched circumstances, in which so great a part of mankind are brought into this world, in which they grow up age after age in gross ignorance and vice, thoughtless of their duty to the God that created them, and negligent of the true happiness which flows from the enjoyment of his favour. For, on looking upon man before he is turned unto God by the spirit of holiness, what do you find? The mind, full of vanity, ignorance, darkness, contradiction: the conscience full of insensibility or of false excuses: the heart, full of deceit, impenitence, and hardness; no sins, no judgments, no mercies, no allurements, no hopes, no fears, able to awake and shape it aright, without Divine energy: the will, full of disability, of aversion, of enmity, and opposition: the memory, unfaithful in retaining the good, tenacious in recollecting the evil : and thence is the whole man full of perturbation and disorder. The history of the Fall of Man is succinctly related, as you will doubtless remember, in the third chapter of the book of Genesis. Its effects are indelibly marked upon every individual, inasmuch as "in Adam "all die;" and even upon the earth itself, which, still groaning under the original malediction, brings forth "thorns, and thistles, and briars," and thus will continue to do till "the restitution of all things." These are not, as has been often insinuated, the notions of men of distempered minds, made imbecile by infirmity, or soured by disappointment; but of the wisest and best men in all ages. Consult the writings of the Christian Fathers, and you will find JUSTIN MARTyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, saying, "The "whole race of men descending from Adam, have "become liable to death and to the deception of the serpent, each of them by reason of the same thing 66 66 having fallen under the influence of sin." CLEMENS ROMANUS, and others, most fully express the same 66 66 sentiment. Attend also to the language of the Reformers, and especially to the founders of the English church. "Forasmuch (say they) as the true knowledge of ourselves is very necessary to come to the " right knowledge of God, ye have heard how humbly "all good men ought always to think of themselves.” "The Holy Ghost, in writing the holy Scriptures, " is in nothing more diligent than pulling down man's "vain-glory and pride, which of all vices is most uni"versally grafted in all mankind, even from the first infection of our first father Adam.' " Of our 66 "selves we be crab-trees that can bring forth no "apples. We be of ourselves of such earth, as can "but bring forth weeds, nettles, brambles, briars, "cockle, and darnel. Our fruits be declared in the "fifth chapter of Galatians. We have neither faith, charity, hope, patience, chastity, nor any thing else "that good is, but of God; and therefore these "virtues be called there the fruits of the Holy "Ghost, and not the fruits of man. "We are, "of ourselves, very sinful, wretched, and damnable. "Of ourselves, and by ourselves, we are not able "either to think a good thought, or work a good deed, $6 so that we can find in ourselves no hope of salvation, "but rather whatsoever maketh unto our destruction. "O Israel, thy destruction cometh of THYSELF, but in "ME only is thy help and comfort.” (w) 66 "Our very virtues (says Richard Hooker) may be snares unto us. The enemy that waiteth for all "occasions to work our ruin, hàth found it harder to (w) Homily on the Misery of all Mankind: see also Article the 9th.... overthrow an humble sinner, than a proud saint. “There is no man's case so dangerous as his whom "Satan hath persuaded that his own righteousness "shall present him blameless in the sight of God. "If we could say, we were not guilty of any thing at "all in our consciences (we know ourselves far from "this innocency; we cannot say, we know nothing by “ourselves; but if we could) should we therefore plead "not guilty before the presence of our Judge, who "sees farther into our hearts than we ourselves can do? "If our hands did never offer violence to our brethren, 66 a bloody thought doth prove us murderers before "him: if we had never opened our mouth to utter any "scandalous, offensive, or hurtful word, the cry of our "secret cogitations is heard in the ears of God. If "we did not commit the sins, which daily and hourly, "either in deed, word, or thoughts, we do commit; "yet in the good things which we do, how many "defects are intermingled! God, in that which is "done, respecteth the mind and intention of the doer. "Cut off, then, all those things wherein we have re66 garded our own glory, those things which men do to 66 please men, and to satisfy our own liking, those things which we do for any by-respect, not sincerely "and purely for the love of God; and a small score "will serve for the number of our righteous deeds. "Let the holiest and best things which we do, be con"sidered: we are never better affected unto God than "when we pray; yet when we pray how are our affec❝tions many times distracted! How little reverence "do we show unto the grand majesty of God, unto |