such a Being an outward homage, under the constraint of fear, but it will be mere hypocrisy. Our hearts will not be in it. This very fact proves the intrinsic integrity of our natures. If it could be demonstrated that God was an Infinite Tyrant, with our present moral constitution we should be for ever absolved from all allegiance to his throne. It is not that God is infinitely great which constitutes our obligation to venerate him, but that he is infinitely good, and "his tender mercies are over all his works."

The doctrine of the constitutional corruption of human nature is calculated to work serious injury to the piety of those who honestly entertain it; and I have no doubt that it is the real cause, in a great measure, of the cold, mechanical, and metaphysical prayers to which we so often listen from the lips of those who entertain these sentiments, and still profess to believe that God is good, and elaborate the most extravagant phrases of laudation in their devotions. But they cannot hinder one dark thought from spreading a pall over the universe, and clouding the benignity of the Infinite Father, that, in this world and the next, evil predominates. Mankind, by the very elements of their nature, belong to Satan, and not to God. With this conviction in the mind, it cannot be otherwise than that the universe should seem to be written all over, like the prophet's roll, with lamentation, and mourning, and woe. It is no answer to this objection to the Divine goodness to say, that mankind, meaning Adam and Eve, brought this evil upon themselves and their posterity. It cannot but occur to the mind, that, after the Fall, the first pair were no longer fit progenitors of the human race. There was no necessity of their being made so. He who made them could, with infinite

Men

ease, have substituted another pair in their place. Wise men do not breed animals from a vicious stock. do not use machinery after it has become so impaired that it produces a bad article of manufacture. It would. be cruelty to propagate a species of animals which were defective in their organization, and in consequence were subjected to perpetual pain and misery. Better that a thousand successive pairs should have been annihilated, than that one of them should have been suffered to produce a race so defective in their structure as to be incapable of virtue and holiness, and only capable of sin and suffering, and, in consequence, destined to people to eternity the gloomy abodes of hell!

Quite as decisive, in my judgment, is the influence of the doctrine of the constitutional corruption of human nature upon the other main branch of religious duty, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," the duty of benevolent feeling and beneficent action towards our fellow-men. The possibility of performing this duty aright will depend, in no small degree, on our opinion of human nature itself. It makes the greatest difference in our feelings towards any individual, whether we believe him to be thoroughly malignant, or only occasionally weak, whether we suppose his prevailing disposition to be good, and only accidentally led astray, or suppose him to do wrong by settled purpose and deliberate design. The emotion excited by one is pity; the feeling created by the other is simple indignation. Pity and indignation lead to very different courses of conduct. If mankind are essentially bad and malignant, then they are restrained within those bounds of decency and morality which they now observe solely by fear, the lowest of all motives which lead to good. But if their

prevailing disposition is towards kindness, justice, truth, and temperance, then they transgress this general law only when they are overcome by passion and appetite, and are objects of commiseration as well as displeasure. That this last is the case, and that the prevailing disposition is to do right, is proved by the fact, that all evil acts are felt by the person who is guilty of them to be aberrations, that is, departures from that way which his own nature, as a whole, points out; and are afterwards looked upon with sincere regret. It is unjust to consider the sin only as the indication of nature, and leave out of the account the regret which succeeds.

That the doctrine of the total constitutional corruption of the nature of man tends to make men harsh, severe, and inexorable to each other, is proved, I think, by what has been seen in the movement that has lately taken place for the relief and improvement of criminals. That movement has risen mainly from the different view which has of late been taken of criminals themselves. The abhorrence which was once felt for them, the neglect with which they were treated, and the despair that was felt concerning them, were based upon the assumption, that human nature in their case was intrinsically bad, and therefore incorrigible. The case was considered hopeless. All that was to be done, then, was to punish them as a terror to others, and to restrain them from injuring society.

Societies

But of late, another feeling has sprung up. have been formed for the reformation of prisoners, and for their restoration to virtue and to society. On what conviction were those societies founded? On the conviction, that in them human nature was not fairly acted out, but perverted. Sin is a transgression of the law.

Independently of revelation, man is a law to himself; that is, human nature is a law to itself. Human nature,

then, must be, on the whole, good, if it constitutes a law which it is sin to violate. It is felt that sin is a disordered action, not the normal action of the human system taken as a whole. If it did not transgress some law in the nature of man, it would not be sin. If it were in accordance with human nature, as a whole, it would be no transgression. Sin is felt to be disease; and not only so, it is not an organic, it is only a functional derangement. If it were organic, it would have been incurable. As it appears in the worst of men, it is usually the exception, and not the rule, of their conduct. Many of those who are suffering the hard, yet necessary, retribution of the laws, were faithful and praiseworthy in many of the relations of life. In a majority of the acts of their lives, they were good sons, good brothers, fathers, neighbours, and friends. But in some unfortunate hour they were overcome by temptation, and did that, in one unguarded moment, perhaps, which cost them the punishment of years. All mankind have sinned, and the difference between one and another is only in degree.

Attempts are made to reform and reclaim such. But what is the nature of those attempts? Means are adopted to awaken conscience. But this would be vain, if there were no such thing in them as conscience. Endeavours are made to convince them that they have done wrong. But this would be useless, unless there were within them a sense of right and justice, which no wrong-doing can extinguish. Efforts are made to rekindle their good affections, and to direct them to their proper objects. But this would be absurd, if they had no good

affections. Religious services are established among them, to call into action their devotional feelings. But this would be all superfluous, were there no devotional feelings within them, or no capacity for devotion to be called into exercise. In short, the whole discipline is directed to call forth and strengthen what is good in them, and to enable it to struggle with the evil and overcome it. All these enterprises are flat contradictions to the common hypothesis of the constitutional corruption of human nature. They proceed, and are based upon, precisely the opposite view of things,— that a bad man is human nature perverted, instead of human nature developed. They show, too, that the dogma of total native depravity chills all philanthropy, hardens our hearts towards our fellow-beings, paralyzes all effort to reclaim the erring, and renders us less disposed to obey the requisitions of the second table of human duty, summarily comprehended in the commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

The doctrine concerning human nature is fundamental to Theology, because it determines the capacity of the human mind for discovering and ascertaining the truth, in Theology as well as other subjects. It settles the value and reliableness of religious faith. In the application of mathematical science to physics and the arts of life, every thing depends on the accuracy of the instruments. If the mariner were to sail by a needle which varied two or three points from the magnetic pole, his course would soon be so far wrong, and his reckoning so false, that he would be dashed on the rocks, or buried in the sands. If an astronomer were to use a telescope whose lenses were warped and untrue, he would see the planets wholly distorted and out of place.