That much evil prevails in the world, no one, who has the faculty of observation and reflection, can doubt. Every situation presents the strongest proofs of it. In the most retired village, as well as in the thickly peopled town, disobedience of the laws of God is so common, that we almost cease to remark it. The untutored savage, and the civilized man, are for ever displaying in their conduct an awful inclination to sin and rebellion against God. Which of us can say, that he is not conscious of this strong disposition to sin, or that the imaginations of his heart are not to evil? Who can read the commandments of God, and not be struck with the frequency of their violation? When we behold debauchery, falsehood and profaneness, so common in the world, how can we doubt but that man's heart must be very corrupt? Even the Sabbath, intended especially for man's benefit, is by numbers profaned altogether, and by others observed in a very imperfect manner; and the sacred name of God, which he has expressly forbidden us to use with levity or irreverence, is hourly taken in vain in cursing, swearing, and blaspheming. So great, indeed, is the preva lence of vice and wickedness, that neither prudence, conscience, nor the severest laws of man, are equal to the prevention of the deepest crimes. Accordingly we find that the fact has seldom been doubted, that there

is in man an inherent disposition to evil; and the great difficulty has always been how to account for it. I mean that the difficulty of accounting for it has always been great amongst those who have not had it in their power to avail themselves of the light of revelation; or who, having the means of knowing the truth, have been too vain and proud to avail themselves of it. Many indeed have been the musings of men upon this very melancholy subject; and many fanciful opinions have at various periods been given to the world, which have never been able to satisfy the minds of serious inquirers. There is, in fact, but one way of accounting for it, and that is to be found in the Bible. What, then, does the Bible tell us on this subject? It informs us, that God created man in his own image, free from all impurity, and capable of approaching his Maker in a pure and spiritual worship; that he created him the heir of immortality, and that he was not originally subject to the woes which now afflict his posterity. God placed him in paradise, and provided him with every thing that could make his life delightful. One restraint only he imposed upon him; he forbade him to eat of a particular tree. But he broke through this restraint; he did not observe the condition which God had prescribed to him; and to that fatal act of disobedience on the part of our first parent, is to be traced all the evil

have inherited from Adam a strong inclination to disobedience; and that corruption of man's nature which took place in Eden, has been continued in his descendants to the present day. By his first parents' fall, man lost his birth-right, immortality; that is to say, he became subject to death; and his soul, which was originally intended to live for ever in the presence of God, was at once shut out from this happy prospect, and exposed to eternal banishment from the vision of the Almighty.

Such is the account which the Bible gives us of the fall of Adam, and its consequences. As to the extent of these consequences, indeed, there has always been considerable difference of opinion. Whilst some have held that such a total depravation of man's nature ensued, as not even to leave a vestige of the image of God within him; others have maintained, that, though much mutilated and defaced, that image has been always: visible; and that though much inclined to evil, the human soul is not utterly destitute of good dispositions. It is not my intention. to enter upon so wide a field of discussion; out of which I should not bring you home with any great degree of satisfaction.On this we are almost all agreed, whatever shades of difference may exist, that man is certainly very far gone from original righ

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Art. IX.

teousness, and "that the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth". And this agreement we found upon the general language of Scripture, and more especially on the discourses of our Lord, and the epistles of his apostle St. Paul. "Out of the heart," says our Saviour," proceed evil thoughts;" and a long catalogue of sinful actions, such as "murder, adultery, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." And this corruption of the heart, from which such dreadful mischiefs proceed, is ascribed by the apostle of the gentiles to the disobedience of Adam. By one man," says he, "sin entered into the world """ by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." These declarations are but too well illustrated by the history of man, as handed down to us by the sacred writers, by whom we are informed that Adam was soon obliged to witness the sad effects of his faithless disobedience in the conduct of his first-born son. Nor did it stop there. The wickedness of the human race continued to increase, until at last it reached so great a height, that God destroyed them all, except the family of one righteous man. So deeply seated, nevertheless, was this "infection of nature," that even that awful visitation left not sufficient

dread to prevent the perpetration of wickedness. Would we could say, that it was not too frequent at this moment! There can, then, my brethren, be no question as to the reality of this evil consequence of our first parents' fall.

But this was not the only evil; it was one part only of the sad effects of eating the fruit of the forbidden tree: the other part of the entail was our liability to death. For

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when by one man sin entered into the world" death followed in its train. Nothing can be more plainly or more fully declared than this. Take the following passages as authority for the assertion. By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation":"-" through the offence of one, many are dead":"-" in Adam all die ":" from which, and many other texts of Scripture, it appears that Adam not only became subject to death himself, but that all his posterity were involved in the same calamity. I cannot, I think, better sum up the doctrine of original sin, than by reciting the words of the Ninth Article of our Church, which is in strict conformity with the Scriptures. "Original sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that is engendered of the offspring of Ådam, whereby man is very far gone from original