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    cause him to suffer more than is necessary * and salutary . " " His days are determined , the number of his months are -with thee , thou hast a ]^ pointed his bounds that he cannot pass , turn from him that he may accomplish as an hireling his day . ' * Corrupt nature , he replied , is produced by natural generation , for all men existed in Adam , and all fell in him .

    So then , may it please your reverence , moral evil is propagated , like the king ' s evil . I thought a flame nourished by foetid oil , and glimmering in a dirty lamp , might kindle a thousand gems

    of light , as pure as the flame of an altar produced by the lightning of heaven . I had no conception before that moral qualities were animal secretions . I read the four Gospels , not a word nor a hint did I find in them to

    countenance this strange opinion of corrupt nature , but much , completely to destroy it . Man is addressed there as a free moral agent , and as an accountable being ; his reason and

    conscience are addressed , his sins are laid at the door of his inclinations , * Why do ye not of yourselves judge that which is right ; " — " men love darkness rather than light , because their deeds are evil ; " *• ye will not come to me ; " s < every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light , lest his deeds should be reproved , but he that doeth truth Cometh to the light , that his deeds may he made manifest that they are wrought in God . " " The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of Jesus Christ , and shall come forth , they that have done good unto the resurrection of life , and they that have done evil to the resurrection of

    damnation . " " If thou wilt enter into life , keep the commandments . " Thus our Lord taught , nor could I reconcile these truths with the unaccountable doctrine of radical , total , universal ,

    jiioral corruption , I examined the 3 ook of Acts : there I saw nothing ^ bout the fal l of man , nothing about corrupt nature , though I read much of the wickedness of the world , of the sin of idolatry , many exhortations to faith and repentance , and the practice of righteousness . I heard Paul address mg the reason and consciences of Ifiis hearers , at Lycaonia , at Athens , # t Ephesus , at Jerusalem , and at Borne . Yes , he reasoned with them

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    out of the Scriptures , he told them that " forasmuch as we are the off spring of God in whom we live , mJ ; and have our being , we ought not / think that the Godhead is like um gold or silver , or stone graven by art ° and men ' s device , that God overlooked

    the times of ignorance but now com mandeth all men every where t <> repent . " I thought that if some had preached to these Heathen they would have begun with the total depravity of human nature the

    , as cause of all their idolatry and vices ; that they would have shewn them the need of a Saviour by teaching their utter helplessness as dead sinners ; that they would have taught them that they had no hearts to understand and obev the

    gospel ; and that therefore it was in vain to preach it to them , that such sinners nave no business with it , and that in consequence ( the consistency of these people is complete ) they have no Christ to offer them . Others more inconsistentl y would teach them the universal corruption of

    nature by the fall , and yet spur on these dead sinners to faith , repentance , and all the moral duties enjoined by Jesus Christ ; that , instead of Gods * ' winking at" ( overlooking ) the ignorance of these idolaters in times

    past , they were all born so ignorant and sottishly opposed to the true God . as to be by nature not the objects ot his forbearance but of his abhorrence ! that it was yet their duty to love this God , and 10 serve him perfectly ,

    which as they neither could , nor would do , they must perish everlast < ingly ; yet if they believed and did what they by nature could not believe and do , they might be saved ; that somehow or other there is a natural

    ability , and a moral inability , both arising out of nature as it now is , but that his moral inability is total , and unnersal , completely preventing all men from taking a step in the narrow road that leads to life ; that even the will ar \ d choice are by nature wholly blind , and coirupt , so that no man can choose what is good , thoug h n » judgment may perceive it . 1 tnou & , j if Paul had believed all this he * odj not have preached as he is recorded have done . . L I now proceeded to ex amine w apostolic writings : I read " »/ . kpistles an awiul descri ption of . state of the world , at the time ot w

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    520 Scriptural Examination of Original Sin .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 520, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/20/