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than convince, to amuse than instruct, those metaphysical reasoners were equally distinguished by the boldness as by the futility of their researches. Vain of a talent, which they conceived adequate to every species of investigation, they believed nothing in created or uncreated being to be above their comprehension; they laboured even to scrutinize the perfections of Him, who dwells in light inaccessible. No wonder then that, thus ambitious, they should think themselves competent to delineate man both in his primæval and fallen state; proudly to dogmatize upon the faculties of the creature, when they affected with precision to philosophize upon the nature of the Creator.

But although a more rational as well as more practical system has long superseded their once applauded but now forgotten labours, we ought not to withhold from them merit of every kind, esteeming their mental powers scarcely above contempt. If in their voluminous productions little elegance is to be found, and much perhaps of what is usually termed barbarism, yet even prejudice must confess, that they were gifted with a wonderful facility in exploring the most intricate labyrinths of

metaphysical disquisition. And, although it cannot be denied, that they consumed the greatest portion of their time in frivolous dissertations, it is nevertheless impossible not to allow them considerable ability, how ill soever it was directed, and not to regret, that so much sagacity and perseverance were generally wasted upon useless objects. Amidst the thorns, with which their compositions are abundantly surrounded, no vulgar display of argument may sometimes be discerned; but the modern Student in Theology seldom thinks, that the toil of the search is repaid by the value of the discovery. In the Church of Rome, however, they have always ranked. high; for principally to the aid of their sophisms was that Church indebted for the absolute dominion, which she acquired over the consciences of her devotees; their acute and penetrating Logic was the flaming sword, which turned on every side to guard the Papal Paradise.

Previously to the Reformation, whatsoever discredit may have since attached to them, they were deemed all but infallible. Hence Luther, who justly imputed much of the corruption, which had overspread Christianity, to the blind admiration with

which their writings were every where regarded, perpetually attacked and exposed their fallacies; persuaded, that, in the same proportion as he depressed their reputation, he exalted the word of God above the perverted wisdom of vain man, restoring simplicity to Truth, rectitude to Reason, and purity to Religion (2).

Upon Original Sin, the subject of our present consideration, their doctrine was no less fanciful, and remote from every Scriptural idea, than flattering to human pride. This they assumed as the groundwork of a system, which wholly concealed from view what they professed to enshrine, the Glory of the Lord, the bright manifestation of Deity displayed in the Gospel Covenant. They contended, that the infection of our nature is not a mental, but a mere corporeal taint; that the body alone receives and transmits the contagion, while the soul in all instances proceeds immaculate from the hands of her Creator. This disposition to disease, such as they allowed it to be, was considered by some of them as the effect of a peculiar quality in the forbidden fruit; by others, as having been contracted from the poisonous breath of the infernal Spirit, which inha

bited the serpent's body (3). On one point they were all united; by preserving to the soul the bright traces of her divine origin unimpaired, they founded on a deceitful basis an arrogant creed, which, in declaring peace and pardon to the sinner, rested more upon personal merit, than the satisfaction of a Saviour.

In commenting upon the celebrated Book of Sentences, a work once regarded as a stupendous effort of human ingenuity, and an invaluable production of rational piety, more studied and not much less revered than the sacred Scriptures themselves, the disciples of Lombard never failed to improve every hint, which tended to degrade the grace of God, and exalt the pride of man. Interweaving with the uncultivated speculations of their master the refined conceits of a fond philosophy, they flattered themselves, that they were forming a wreath for his brow, which no future age could tear away. Yet while with more than his confidence and precision they affected on every occasion to define the powers and capacities of man, sometimes apparently at variance with him, and often professedly with each other, they proceeded from disquisition to disquisition, and from

distinction to distinction, until they seemed lost in a wilderness of investigation. Nor unfrequently were arguments advanced and conclusions adopted in order to gratify the vanity of human reason, which reason itself, had it not been infatuated, while it smiled, would have blushed to contemplate.

But, if these writers, who perverted the divinity as well as literature of the ages in which they lived, maintained, that the body alone and not the soul became vitiated by the fall, in what, it may be asked, did they suppose the guilt of Original Sin to consist, and what to be the necessity of remitting it? The answer to this question will be found to contain the principal scope of the controversy. Original Sin they directly opposed to original Righteousness; and this they considered not as something connatural with man, but as a superinduced habit or adventitious ornament, the removal of which, according to the philosophical principles of the Stagirite, could not prove detrimental to the native powers of his mind. Hence they stated the former simply to be the loss or want of the latter; of an accomplishment unessential to his nature, of which it might be deprived, yet still re