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    rhinos that are made , even his eternal ooWcr and Godhead , so they are withut excuse . " I was convinced therefore thai the Antediluvians could not lay their sins to the door of Adam , or their Creator , by pleading the original and radical corruption of their nature as the cause why " their foolish hearts were darkened , and every imagination evil continually . " I found also that Noah was a preacher of righteousness , and a just man before God even in

    these bad times . I read in Gen . viii . 2 , that " the imagination of man ' s heart is evil from his ° youth , " ( not from his birth or nature , ) a sad proof this of human frailty and the proneness of man to degenerate , like Adam , from that nature , at an early period of his

    existence . Accordingly this is assigned as a reason not for judgment * but for mercy , < c I will not again curse the ground any more for man ' s sake , neither will 1 again smite any more , every living thing as 1 have done . " I suppose the most ancient portion of the Bible except Genesis is the Book of

    Job . Some have quoted a passage in . the fifteenth chapter of that poem , to prove the doctrine of the total depravity of nature . " What is man that he should be clean , or he who is born of a woman that he should be righteous , behold he ( God ) putteth no trust in his saints , yea , the heavens are not clean in his sight , how much more

    abominable and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water . " Thus speaks Eliphaz , and the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite , " my wrath is kindled against thee , and against thy two friends , for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as iuy sen-ant Job hath / ' Job xlii . 7 . It would be therefore highly improper to exalt the reveries and dogmas of this man into the language of unerring revelatoonj but suppose his assertion to be strictl y true , we are not attempting to disprove that all men are sinners , but to know whether all men are so by d necessi ty of nature , whether they are born one entire mass of moral

    corruption derived from Adam . If a ™* " drink iniquity like water , " £ poisoned beverage is no part of ^ Wure , and to drink is a voluntary tritl * ms * aqce we have an old m Proverb verified . tead'l p i Pf ^ age I turned to , is •? "* Psalm 1 l 5 . « Behold I was

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    shapen in iniquity , and in sin did my mother conceive me . " I always thought that " sin was any transgression of or want of conformity to the law of God / ' I knew that this definition was totally inapplicable to the condition of a new born infant , or to the conception of a human being . I knew that God " made us and not we

    ourselves . " I read Job x . 8 , 12 , that c < God ' s hands had made and fashioned him , granted him life and favour , and that his visitation had preserved his spirit . ' * I heard the same man asking ( Job xxxi . 15 , ) concerning the poor slave , " did not he that made me in

    the womb , make him , and did not one fashion us in the womb ? " I shuddered at the idea that God was the author o £ sin , I considered the situation of the man who used the language quoted in Psalm li . I supposed it to be David , an adulterer , a

    murderer , but an humble penitent , and I could not think that he was seeking to palliate the enormity of his crimes * I knew nothing of the character of his parents , but I supposed that all he , derived from them , with his animal

    nature , were a human soul subject to constitutional frailty and strong passions , peculiarly prone to excess , peculiarly susceptible of certain impress sions * which if not restrained by reason and conscience , were liable to

    carry him away from the path of rectitude . I read his history ; I saw this man a potent and ambitious monarch , with a great soul , but £ never saw him so great as when he humbled himself before God , and confessed , and forsook his sin . I was sure that he knew better than to

    excuse it by condemning the nature of his parents , much less the nature of man formed by that God " who fashioneth the hearts of men alike , " who hath done whatsoever he pleased , " and whose tender mercies are over all his works . "

    In the strong , and figurative language of Eastern poetry , the Psalmist describes the constitutional weakness which plunged him into guilt , and he justly censures himself , but not his parents nor his God . I had not lived

    6 O long in the world , without observ * ing that human beings constitutionally differed , that one man was heavy , phlegmatic , and stupid , a second sanguine , a third irritable , a fourth a mean , poor and timid animal , some

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    Scriptural Examination of Original Sin * % >*?

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    fOl 3 X

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 517, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/17/