LETTER II. DEAR SIR, IN continuance of the subject of my former letter, I now propose to adduce a number of scripture passages in support of the doctrine of human depravity; and we will begin with that in Genesis v. 3. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image. It is very observable from the form of the expression that it is contrasted with that in Genesis i. 26. "And God said let us make man in our image after our likeness;—and therefore is equally expressive of moral character. It was Adam's image and likeness and not God's. If Adam became a sinner by his first transgression, and lost the moral image of God, such was the moral character of Adam's son by natural regeneration. It was not what he first acquired by the influence of evil example, and the habit of evil exercises, after he had arrived to the age of knowledge and understanding, but what he possessed and therefore exercised from his very birth. Adam begat him in his own likeness after his image. Genesis vi. 5. But God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil, continually. The doctrine cannot be more clearly, fully, or forcibly expressed. It is not in language, more perfectly to define it. You will observe, that the predicate is not restricted to a particular class of offenders, who by long and inveterate habits of wickedness had extinguished their inherent, natural principles of goodness, and become more vicious and hardened than the rest of their species; but it is applied in the universal sense, as extensively as the word man can reach. This, as a generic term includes all of every moral description. - But should it be suggested that though this wickedness was great in degree and universal in extent, yet it did not exclude those natural principles of virtue, which exist in all, from operating in some degree, although the opposite principles prevailed and were greatly predominant; the objector is at once met upon his own ground and the contrary affirmed;-" every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.” And again; lest this should not be sufficiently full and decisive-lest some self righteous theorist should still plead, that, though the principles of vice might at certain periods, so far prevail in men, as wholly to exclude all virtuous exercises, yet this was but at intervals-the natural goodness of the heart would awake and brighten at the first call of conscience, and again direct the conduct of the man ;-lest, I say, any should resort to this subterfuge, the last word of the sentence, cuts up the whole dispute, root and branch-" every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil, continually." Can words more definitely express the entire extinction of moral virtue ? Psalms xiv. 2, 3.-" The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God. They are altogether become filthy. They are all gone aside. There is none that doth good, no not one." These words need no comment. They are quoted by Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, to this same point. Job xiv. 4, and xxv. 5. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" The words clean, and unclean, in this passage, can respect nothing but moral purity, and moral pollution; and is a declaration that no man is, born pure, or free from sin. The native moral purity of children, therefore, cannot be supported by Scripture. Psalms li. 5. 66 'Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." This is a most penitential Psalm. David penned it in the deepest humiliation before God, for his wickedness in the case of Uriah. He makes the most perti nent acknowledgements of his sin. He is not confessing his father's or his mother's sins, but his own. He says, in the verse, next but one preceding, "For I acknowledge my wickedness and my sin is ever before me." And he does not alledge, that, I did not commence moral agency, till I arrived to the years of understanding-but "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." I began to be a sinner as soon as I began to exist-or as soon as I had any exercises at all; and my whole after life has been a continued course of sin. Psalms lviii. 3. "The wicked are estranged from the womb-they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." This is in perfect unison with the forecited passage declaring the same thing with still greater explicitness. If then, being estranged from God,-going astray and speaking lies, be consistent with the moral purity of children, let this passage be brought to prove, that they are incapable of moral exercises, until they are of an age to read and understand the ten commandments. To say here, as some do, that the passage is figurative, and not to be literally understood-but that the child will be a sinner if he lives to be a moral agent, and that his first moral exercises will be evil-is an unreasonable evasion perverting the true sense of the passage-and the argument to support their theory, from the expression, speaking lies-because young children have not the faculty of speech, is a mere quibble. Mankind can speak lies without the use of wordsand they thus do in every sinful exercise of the heart. Every sin is a practical falsehood-it denies the relation and fitness of things--the authority of God and the justice of his law.-Among other traits of moral character by which the Psalmist describes the righteous man, one, is, that, "he speaketh the truth in his heart"--Psalms xv. 2, because his moral disposition, and moral affections are in accordance with the truth: but the sinner's character is a contrast-He speaks falsehood in his heart-because it is enmity against God, and is not subject to his law.-Children, there fore, are not incapable of "going astray," and of "speaking lies," as soon as they are born. Romans viii. 7.-"The carnal mind is enmity against God-for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." The carnal mind is the same as the fleshly mind: and our Saviour tells us, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh-that is, by natural birth, every man is possessed of a carnal mind; and this Paul does not say is in a certain degree inimical, towards the divine character, but he puts it in the very abstract-the carnal mind is enmity against God. Matthew xii. 33 and Luke vi. 43, 44.--" Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit. For, a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit-for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramblebush gather they grapes. By this similitude the Saviour represents the character and state of mankind; and he evidently goes upon this ground, that mankind are universally corrupt, or there could be no occasion, or propriety in making the tree good. And that this is natural, the parable teaches, or it would be improperly applied, and lead us into an important error. Can any thing be more natural, to a tree than its own proper fruit, which it bears? Just as natural is the corrupt fruit of sin to the carnal heart; and, the same tree while possessing the same nature, will universally produce the same kind of fruit. It is impossible without an alteration of its nature, that it should produce, from its natural boughs, fruit of a different kind. And it is equally morally impossible, that mankind in their natural state, should bring forth any other than evil fruit, or have any other than evil exercises. May we not, hence infer that were mankind as orthodox in religion as they are in the science of husbandry and horticulture, there would be but one sentiment upon this subject? We may, at least, gather this from it, that sin being natural to us, as the fruit is to the tree, does not make us the less sinful;-but, on the contrary, the more natural it is to us, the more wicked and abominable we are. It is the taste of the fruit which determines its quality, and marks the char acter of the tree that produced it-and nothing extrinsic to it, as whether it grows in the sunshine, or in the shade--in a rich or barren soil-with much manuring, or none. So it is with the affections and exercises of mankind. If man be, naturally an evil tree, the moral quality of his exercises does not depend upon external circumstances, but upon their own proper intrinsic nature. The knowledge or ignorance of the man does not effect the being, but only the degree of his guilt. The apostle indeed says that "where there is no law, there is no transgression"--but we do not hear him say, that where there is no knowledge of the law, there is no transgression. He says too, that, " by the law is the knowledge of sin; but nowhere, that by the knowledge of the law, is the being of sin. The Saviour tells us that the ignorant servant who commits sin, shall be beaten with few stripés (not acquitted with impunity) while the servant who knew his duty and did it not, is worthy to be beaten with many stripes. This makes it evident that light and knowledge affect not the being but only the degree of guilt. There is in nature such things as right and wrong, virtue and vice independent of any revealed law. Neither is it the law, but their respective qualities, which constitutes their moral nature. Had there been no law revealed to men, yet sin and holiness would as really have been what they now are. Sin would still be sin, and a transgression of the law for the law of God has had an eternal existence in the divine nature. law entered that the offence might abound." can say, therefore, is, that the guilt of sin is greatly increased; and its evil clearly discovered by the knowledge of the law. This is expressly taught us" that sin, by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.' From this view of the subject we may reasonably conclude, that children are moral agents, and capable of committing sin, as well before, as after they have the knowledge of the law. "The All we Some, perhaps, will here say that the criminality of |