produced a race frail and prone to guilt like himself. The corrupt tree could not but bear corrupt fruit. In like manner the next gene-, ration resembled in its nature that from which it fprang. Every individual of the human race who has fince been born, with the fingle exception of our Lord Jesus Christ when he affumed the form of man, has inevitably brought with him into the world the nature of fallen Adam. Every individual of the human race yet to be born, will inevitably bring with him the fame nature. "as in Adam all die, even fo in Chrift" only fhall any "be made alive (m.")'-" There is

cr

And

none other name under heaven given among "men, whereby we must be faved (n."

The radical corruption of human nature is one of those truths, which their very plainnefs renders it the lefs eafy to fupport by formal proofs. If a perfon be unmoved by the decifive arguments, which prefs upon him every moment at every turn; you fcarcely know in what manner to address him on the fubject. Happily the minds of youth are not thus hardened against fair reasoning and honeft conviction. The young have not been familiarised with fin fufficiently to have become blind to its inherent enormity. They

(m) 1 Cor. xv. 22.

(n) Acts, iv. 12.

have

have not yet been inured by long habits of guilt to" call evil good, and good evil (o)." They are not held in thraldom by those prepoffeffions, nor intoxicated with that felfconceit, fo common among perfons more advanced in life; who have formed to themfelves a favorite fyftem, and examine not at all, or without candour, any evidence against it. Let young perfons then fearch the Scriptures, to fee whether thefe things be fo or not and they will find the depravity of human nature inculcated in the strongest terms throughout the facred writings; and inculcated not only as an undeniable fact, but as the corner-ftone of Chriftianity. Let them look diligently into their own bofoms; and they will be convinced that the continual indisposition to righteousness and proneness to tranfgreffion, which they will discover there, can be afcribed to no other caufe. Let them behold what paffes in the world around them; and they will be fatisfied that the prevailing wickednefs of mankind can be traced to no other fource. They will perceive that in this as in every other inftance reafon and experience unite in bearing teftimony to the truth of the word of God.

The natural effects of the Fall were soon. felt most severely in the family of Adam. (a) Isaiah, v. 20.

Cain, his eldest fon, murdered his own brother Abel; murdered him because the holy faith of Abel (p) procured from Heaven the acceptance of his facrifice, while the guilt of Cain caufed his offering to be rejected by the Lord. The difference in their characters is pointedly marked by St. John. "Cain was

"of that wicked one (the Devil), and flew "his brother. And wherefore flew he him? "Because his own works were evil, and his "brother's righteous (q)." The avenging juftice of God immediately drove Cain from the land; and condemned him to be a wretched vagabond on the face of the earth. Adam had to deplore, in the lofs of two fons in one day, his original breach of the Divine command.

By our acquaintance with the laws and the transactions of the Jews, and also with the hiftory of different Pagan nations, we are made fo familiar with the practice of facrifices, that it does not ftrike our minds as fingular. Yet if we regard it as a human invention, fcarcely any thing can appear lefs capable of an eafy explanation. How could any man think that to take away the life of an unoffending animal, and to confume its flesh in the fire, would be a deed calculated to procure

(p) Hebr. xi. 4.

(9) John, iii. 12.

for

for him the favour of God? If it be difficult to answer this question in the case of a heathen, much more difficult is it in the cafe of Abel. For, as the use of flesh for food was not permitted before the deluge, to flaughter an harmless animal was an act to which Abel would be unaccustomed; and one which, unlefs it were commanded by the Almighty, he would probably estimate as a crime. These confiderations lead us to believe that facrifices were of divine inftitution; and that they were enjoined on the family of Adam and on his individual defcendents, as we know that they were afterwards made a part of the religious worship of the Jewish people, principally with a view to raise their thoughts and expectations habitually to that effectual atonement, which was to be accomplished in the fulness of time by the facrifice of Jefus Chrift on the crofs. The ufe of facrifices thus introduced would gradually extend itself among

heathen nations.

When the third generation of men had arifen upon earth, we may conclude that iniquity had spread far and wide: for then the family of Seth, joined in all probability by others of a fimilar difpofition, appear to have been distinguished from the reft of men, on account of their adherence to true religion,

by

by being called "by the name of the "Lord (r);" being ftyled according to the Hebrew idiom, the " fons," that is to fay, the followers and fervants, " of God (s).” In procefs of time, however, the general corruption overwhelmed them alfo. The fons of God took to themselves wives of "the daugh"ters of men ;" not improbably the daughters of the unrighteous offspring of Cain. In confequence of these intermarriages the contagion of iniquity became univerfal. Husband and wife, parent and child, rèlation, friend, acquaintance, became the victims of "evil "communication," which from those days to the days of St. Paul, and from the days of St. Paul to the prefent hour, has corrupted and "corrupts good manners (t);" and feldom more fatally than in the cafe of perfons, who unite themselves by marriage with others whofe hearts are devoid of true religion. The confequences of thefe moft rash and dangerous connections are emphatically ftated in few words by the facred hiftorian: "God "faw that the wickednefs of man was great "in the earth; and that every imagination

(r) Gen. iv. 25. "Then began men to call themselves "by the name of the Lord"—as the verse is rightly tranflated

in the margin of the Bible.

($) Gen, vi. z.

(r) 1 Cor. xv, 23.

"of