history? Besides, if the fall of man be allegorical, does it not follow as a necessary consequence, that the redemption of man is allegorical also? for "as in “Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made “alive.” (b) Yet every well-regulated mind revolts from so strange an inference. Again, if the fall of man be allegorical, it follows, by parity of reason, that its effects are allegorical, and the effects of the curse denounced in consequence of that fall are allegorical likewise. How has it happened, then, that moral turpitude has been traced every where, and in all ages? for we have seen that the hypothesis which imputes it to imitation is untenable. And how can it be that the eurse should have been always so astonishingly fulfilled, as I showed in the first letter I wrote to you? What, besides the female human species, has "sorrow" during pregnancy,—has, as Aristotle long ago remarked, headachs, vertigos, faintings, loathings, and a sad train of concomitants? What animal besides man is compelled to "labour" for necessaries, and even for knowledge. Quadrupeds graze the turf untilled, drink at an unbrewed stream, sleep on a bed prepared for them by their Creator, are clothed with a garment as durable as themselves, find a paradise in every field, and possess by instinct a knowledge perfect in its kind, needing no cultivation while man, the "Lord" of these animals, can neither eat, drink, sleep, nor be clothed, but in consequence of labour; obtains his knowledge by an effort, greater and more continuous, than all others; and, after all, does not reach the wine in the goblet, : (b) 1 Cor. xv. 22. but sips merely the dew from the outside-refreshing, it is true, but never filling. Call all this, as Moses authorizes you to do, the result of just punishment, and every thing is plain and easy: deny the fall of man, its permanent effects upon mankind in the tendency to sin, the maladies attending pregnancy, and the necessity for labour, and you must then be precipitated into the conclusion, that because "Man is unhappy, “God is unjust.” There are those, I am aware, who not only refuse their assent to the doctrine of the fall of man, but who advance still farther in the same train of sentiment, and affirm most positively that the notion of the universal depravity of human nature is incompatible with the general tenour and language of the Bible. Let us see how far an unstrained abstract of the sentiments of the principal Scripture-writers, as to this particular, will tend to confirm their assertion. Moses gives us the result of the observation of Deity, and not of a fallible man, when he says, "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 again, after the Deluge, "The Lord said, The imagina❝tion of man's heart is evil from his youth." (bb) The language of the PSALMIST, descriptive of himself and of all men in his time, is not less decisive. "Men are corrupt; they have done abominable "works; there is none that doeth good. They are "all gone aside; they are altogether become filthy: (bb) Gen. vi. 5. viii. 21. 66 "there is none that doeth good, no not one.” “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother con"ceive me." “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniqui"ties, O Lord, who shall stand ?” "In thy sight "shall no man living be justified." (c) Job's reprover, ELIPHAZ, inquires, "What is man "that he should be clean; and one born of a woman "that he should be righteous ? How abominable "and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like "water!" (d) SOLOMON says, "the way of man is froward and "strange." "There is not a just man upon earth, "that doeth good and sinneth not." "God made man upright but they have sought out many inven"tions." "The heart of the sons of men is fully set in "them to do evil." "The heart is full of evil, and "madness is in their heart while they live." (e) The language used by ISAIAH, when influenced by the Spirit of prophecy, is, "Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed. All we, "like sheep, have gone astray: the Lord hath laid on. "him the iniquity of us all." "We are all as a 66 66 polluted thing, and all our righteous deeds are as a rejected garment, and our sins, like the wind, have "borne us away." (ƒ) 66 JEREMIAH says, "We have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even "unto this day." "The heart is deceitful above all (c) Ps. xiv. 1, 3. li. 5. cxxx. 3. cxliii. 2. (d) Job, xv. 14, 16. (e) Prov. xxi. 8. Eccles. vii. 20, 29. viii. 11. ix. 3. "things and desperately wicked: who can know ❝ it?" (g) MICAH, in like manner, affirms, "There is none "upright among men;" (h) and similar language might be quoted from other of the minor prophets. The New Testament abounds with declarations equally express and decisive. Thus JESUS CHRIST himself, in his conference with Nicodemus, assumes the fact, that the whole world has sinned, (i) and soon after affirms, that "Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” 66 The apostle PETER, on the day of Pentecost, after he had received the Spirit which should "lead him "into all truth," said, not to a select party of great sinners, but to a promiscuous multitude of "Par"thians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Cappa"docians, Phrygians, Egyptians, Cyreneans, Romans, "Cretes, Arabians, Jews, and Proselytes,"-" Repent, "and let every one of you be baptized in the name of "Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." (k) A plain proof that, in the estimation of this inspired apostle, every one of them had sins to be remitted. The epistles of PAUL are full of passages of the same import. I select the following. When reason (k) Acts, ii. 38. I have here quoted from the translation of the New Testament, published in 1808, under the patronage and authority of the Socinians, and I shall continue to do thus, whenever the quotation is intended to establish any doctrinal point which they dispute; unless I conceive their translation erroneous, aud in such cases shall specify my reasons for not adopting that version. ing upon the general subject, but speaking of himself as if to avoid giving offence, he says: "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Again: "Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.” “All "have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." "Death hath passed upon all men, inasmuch as all "have sinned." "By the disobedience of one, the 66 many were made sinners." "The Scripture hath "included all together under sin, that the promise, "by faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those "who believe." All of us likewise lived "formerly "in the desires of our flesh, &c.; and were by nature "children of anger, even as others." "If one died "for all, then were all in a state of death." (1) JAMES, who is generally imagined to dwell less upon the peculiarities of the Christian system, than the other apostles, says, "In many things we all of"fend." (m) The apostle JOHN says, "If we say that we have "no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in "" us." "Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins; “and not for ours only, but for the whole world.” "The whole world lieth (in wickedness, or lieth) in "subjection to the evil one." (n) Now, my friend, examine the passages here cited attentively, compare them with their respective con (1) Rom. vii. 17. iii. 9. 23. v. 12. 19. Gal. iii. 22. Ephes. ii. 3. 2 Cor. v. 14. Tit. iii. 3. (m) James, iii. 2. (η) 1 John, i. 8. ii. 2. v. 19 : ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονερῷ κεῖται Mundus totus in maligno positus est. LEUSD. |