and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Again, he says, "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous:" for, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." That God does impute the sins of the parents to the children, may be proved from his dealings with the children of Israel; for he said he would "visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation."

Lastly. I think these views are confirmed, by observing the actual condition of mankind in the world around us. See how much misery there is, resulting from depravity and sin; what raging passions desolate the moral world; what horrid crimes pollute the characters of men! Surely the destroyer has been here, and has left only a wreck behind, of all that once was so fair and beautiful. Nor is the corruption that reigns around us confined to the adult and the aged; even children seem to partake of it, and the first developments of character are marked with anger and impa tience.

Father. I shall endeavour to answer these objections in the order in which they have been stated. And first I agree that man, being in the Divine image, must have been immortal; but what part of him was made in the image of God? Surely it was not his earthly body; for "God is a Spirit," and "no man hath seen his shape at any time." I consider the body as the tabernacle or house in which the immortal soul dwells, during its state of probation, and I believe it was so considered by the inspired penmen; for Paul speaks of "our earthly house of this tabernacle being dissolved." 2 Cor. v. 1. To say that the sentence of death was passed upon Adam when he was driven from Paradise, but the execution of the seņtence was postponed for about nine hundred years, seems to me to be a very imperfect fulfilment of the Divine prediction, "In the day thou eatest thereof

thou shalt surely die." Let us suppose that Adam, and all his posterity, had continued in the body until the present period, and that they had gone on to "multiply and replenish the earth," without any being removed by death; where would the countless myriads have found room for existence? I have no idea that the human body was ever intended to be immortal; for it was made of earthly materials, which are subject to decay; and we know that our bodies are continually changing by absorption and secretion, so that the particles which composed them at one period of life, are entirely removed at another. I do not think the mortality of our bodies is any proof of our being born in a state of sin; for even the holy body of the Messiah was liable to death, or else he could not have been slain. He called his body his temple, saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." When I say that "the wages of sin is death" to the soul, I do not mean that the soul of the sinner ceases to exist, but that it ceases to be actuated by the Spirit of God, who is the life of the righteous soul: for it is said in the Scriptures, that "they who are living in pleasures, are dead while they live." They have lost the influences of Divine life, and are like withered branches, ready to be cut off.

The second objection, is founded on the children being born in the image of their parents. Now it is not said in Genesis, that Adam's children were all born in his image; for Seth is the only one mentioned as being born in his father's likeness. It is not an unusual thing, in the present day, for a child to bear the image of his father stamped on his person; but who among us would be so unjust as to impute to children the guilt of their parents, from a circumstance like this? It is said in the apocryphal book of the wisdom of Solomon, that by Divine Wisdom "the first formed father of the world was brought out of his fall;" and if any of his children were born after he was thus restored to the Divine image, can we

suppose that these would be purer than the rest? I do not think they would, for we find no such effects in the present day.

I believe that every soul is the immediate gift and creation of God, agreeably to Scripture testimony, "The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Ecc. xii. 7. If, therefore, the soul or spirit of man be the gift of God, it must come pure out of his hands.

The third objection rests upon passages of Scripture, all of which admit of a different interpretation, and one that is far more consistent with the character of a wise and benevolent Creator. A number of these passages speak in general terms of the whole human race, as being in a corrupt or fallen state, which I readily grant was true; but the Scriptures themselves mention a number of exceptions. For instance, it is said of man before the flood, that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually;" and that "God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Yet it is said in the same chapter, that Noah, who was then living, was "a just man, and perfect in his generation," and that "Noah walked with God."

It is very common, even now, to speak of cities and nations, in general terms, and to give to a whole people the character which we think generally prevails among them; but no one supposes, that in such cases, there are not many exceptions. For my own part, I believe that there always have been good people in every age of the world, and that many who have passed through life unnoticed in the vale of obscurity, are now enjoying their reward in heaven.— There are a great many excellent characters mentioned in the Bible, and some who are represented as perfect. "Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and he was not, for God took him." "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generation." Job

was "perfect and upright," and one that "feared God and eschewed evil." It is said of Abraham, that he "obeyed the voice of God, and kept his commandments, and his statutes, and his laws." Gen. xxyi. 5. And he obtained the dignified title of "the friend of God." James ii. 23. The character of Joseph appears to have been without blemish, and it is said, "The Lord was with him." The prophet Samuel was called in childhood to the service of God, and served him all his days.

It appears that there were good men in the days of king David, for he says, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." There is reason to believe that Elijah was a perfect man, for he was translated; and Daniel, and some others of the prophets, appear to have lived in great favour with God. If such a state of perfection was attained by some before the Christian dispensation, may we not conclude that there have been a still greater number of such characters since?

There is not a single passage in the Scriptures, which says that the guilt of Adam is imputed to his offspring;-they do not even prove that there is any inherent depravity in man. The expressions of David, where he says, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me," (Ps. li. 5,) were uttered at a time when he was under deep conviction for actual transgression; but if they must be taken literally, they only prove that his mother was a sinner.

What is sin? Is it not "the transgression of the law?" and "where there is no law, there is no transgression." Jesus said of the Jews, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin." John xv. 22. The spirit of Christ still makes known to every man his duty; and until we disobey him, we have no sin. It is true that it is said, "By the disobedience of one man many have been made sinners;" but this

expression may be applied to others besides Adam. It is said of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he "made Israel to sin;" and that "the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them." Wherefore it is said, that Josiah "made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God; and all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers." Now, when we consider the relation in which Adam stood to the human family, it is not surprising that many of them should follow his early example; and that these, again, should influence others to swerve from the path of rectitude. Such a result is perfectly consistent with what we know of the character of man.

The apostle Paul, after speaking of "the children of disobedience," Eph. ii. 3, says, "Among whom we also had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." But in another place, the same apostle says, "The gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law; these having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show forth the works of the law written in their hearts." Rom. ii. 14.

Now, if the first of these texts proves that some men have been sinners "by nature," the second one proves that others have been righteous "by nature." I understand the apostle's doctrine to be, that when we "fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind," we come into the nature of the children of wrath, who are the children of disobedience: but when we show forth the works of the Divine law written in our hearts, we become "partakers of the Divine nature.”. "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Here the reason is assigned. why spiritual death hath passed upon all men; it is