divine Life. Are no more able to perform any fpiritual and holy Duty, than a pale Corpse in the Coffin, or dry Bones in the Charnel-house, are qualified to tranfact any fecular Business.

St. Paul fets the Seal of Heaven to this momentous Truth, in various Paffages of his Epiftles. From a Multitude let me select one, and recommend it to your serious Confideration. You, that were fometime alienated and Enemies: the Goloffians, and all Mankind were alienated from the living GOD; had no true Knowledge of Him; and, what is worse, had no fincere Defire after Him. Nay; they were not only Strangers, but Enemies; in a State of Hoftility to his holy Nature and heavenly Will.—What can exprefs a greater Degeneracy? Nothing, unless it be the following Claufe: by a Mind intent upon wicked Works *. A Mind, not only averse from all Good, but paffionately prone to all Evil.

Ther. A few picked Paffages, of a figurative Import, and artfully cogged by fome dextrous Interpretation, may seem to support your Cause.

Afp. Ah! Theron, there is no need to use Sleight of Hand. He that runs, may read this Doctrine in the facred Authors. It is interwoven with the whole Series of their historical, and makes a professed Part of their practical Writings.

Coloff. i. 21. Τη διάνοια εν τοις ερίοις τοῖς πονηροις, Mente malis Operibus intenta. A very difcerning Critic would thus point, and thus tranflate the Words. For which Alteration, He affigns the following Reafon; Mens enim dicitur effe in ea Re, quam femper cogitat, ad quam Cupidine fertur & inclinatur. DAVENANT in loc.-Let the Words be pointed and tranflated, either in this or the received Manner, they fpeak the Language, and confirm the Sentiments, of this whole Dialogue.

What is more common with the inspired Penmen, than to express a profligate Courfe of Life, by following our own Imaginations, and walking in our own Ways? When Immorality and Licentioufnefs were predominant in Ifrael; knew no Restraints, and kept no Bounds; how does the unerring Hiftorian defcribe this horrible State of Things? Every One did that which was right in his own Eyes*. Nothing can more ftrongly imply the extreme Depravity of Mankind, than fuch a Phrafeology. Which makes it one and the fame Thing, to pursue our natural Inclinations, and to act the abandoned Sinner.

St. Jude cannot write a few Lines, but He must touch upon this Subject; must teach this humbling Leffon. Senfual +, He fays, not having the SPIRIT. According to his Eftimate, not to be actuated by the Power of Grace, is to remain under the Dominion of Senfuality. If We máy credit this Ambaffador of CHRIST, every Man, while unrenewed by the Divine SPIRIT, is governed by Flesh and Senfe. Can any Man then pretend to be originally free from the ignoble Influence of Corruption?

St. Paul exempts not Himself, no, nor any of the highest Saints, from the opprobrious Charge: We all walked according to the Defires of the Flesh and of the Mind. Which Defires in Us, as well as in the idolatrous Heathens, were bafe, fordid, and contaminating.

Judg. xvii. 6.-See alfo Pfal. lxxxi. 12. Eccl. xi. 9. Acts xiv. 16.

Jude 19. The original Expreffion is not Capixos, but Luxo. Which denotes, what fome People reckon the Glory of our Nature, the rational Soul. Yet thofe Perfons, who have no higher a Principle, are, with all their Accomplishments and Improvements, the very Reverfe of πνευματικοι, fpiritual.

taminating. Infomuch that We, who are Jews by Birth; who are Sons of GOD, by our new Birth; even We were, by Nature, the Children of Wrath *; Creatures, in whom GOD could take no Pleafure, and against whom his Wrath was revealed from Heaven. If fo, then, doubtlefs, fubject to Depravity, and chargeable with Sin.

Ther. What fays St. James? You have fuppreffed, and I had almost forgot, his Teftimony; though it is so very pertinent to my Purpose, and fo very explicit in my Favour. Men, who are made after the Similitude of GOD.-The Similitude of GODfignifies, in the facred Books, thofe moral Endowments, which distinguish the Poffeffor both from the Brute and the Devil. And if Men are made after this Image; if they are created with thefe Endowments; where is your Doctrine of original Sin ?

Afp. I began to flatter myself, that your Objections were exhausted. But, fince I am mistaken in this Particular, furely it must be as great a Mistake to imagine, that our Apostle would maintain an Opinion, fo repugnant to the aforementioned Texts, and fo contrary to univerfal Observation.-Do not You perceive the very Reverse true, with regard to your own Children? Why do You addrefs them with fuch tender Entreaties; with fuch warm Exhortations; fuch repeated Arguments? Why do You allure them to Duty by Promifes, and deter them from Tranfgreffion by Threatenings? Is all this Regimen, all this Discipline, neceffary for Creatures, that bear the holy Image of GOD?

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Eph. ii. 3. Hoc uno Loco, fays BEZA, quafi Fulmine, totus Homo, quantus quantus eft, profternitur. Neque enim Naturam dicit læfam, fed mortuam, jer Peccatum; ideoque Iræ obnoxiam.

They made after the Similitude of GOD!—Then they have no need of the renewing Influences of the HOLY GHOST, in case they live; and no need of the Atonement of CHRIST's Blood, in cafe they die. Would James, the LORD's Brother, affert fuch an egregious Error; as not only oppofes a fingle Article, but undermines the whole Conftitulon of Chriftianity? Sets afide the Sanctification of the Divin SPIRIT, and the Propitiation of the REDEEMER's Death?-Impoffible for Him to affert Impoffible, I should think, for Us to fuppofe!

St. James fpeaks of a Fact that is past: speaks of Men collectively, as they were all included in their first Parent. The Paffage, I apprehend, fhould be tranflated, not, Men that are; but, Men that were * created; whofe human Nature was formed:-The Scripture confiders Adam, as the common Parent of Us all: nay more, confiders Us all as exifting in our great Progenitor. Which is fo far from overthrowing, that it establishes, the Point in Debate. For, if We were all created after the Similitude of GOD, in and with Adam; it muft follow, that We all fell from our Conformity to GOD, in and with Adam. If fo-let me for once retort my Friend's

*

Jam. iii. 9. That this is the precife Signification of the Participle yefolas, may be gathered from 1 Tim. v. 9. Where yefowa is tranflated having been; and muft neceffarily refer, not to the prefent, but to the paft Condition of the Widow.-We have a fimilar Manner of Expreffion and Reprefentation, 1 Cor. xi. 8. Which Paffage moft evidently defcribes, not the fucceffive Production, but the first Creation of the human Species.All this exactly accords with the divine Declaration, In the Image of GOD made He Man. nwy not my; emonta fays the Septuagint, not wow; did make, not does make.

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Friend's Interrogatory-Where, or in whom, is not original Sin?

I am very fure, this Doctrine runs through our Liturgy; is an effential Part of our Articles; and moft ftrongly delineated in our Homilies. Shall I produce fome of thofe Teftimonies; which are as clear, as they are copious?

Ther. No more of your Teftimonies, good Afpafio. Inform me rather, what Advantage can accrue from your inculcating, or my adopting fuch a Doctrine. Suppofe, it were undeniably true; difagreeable Truths, like difagreeable Objects, fhould be configned over to Obfcurity, not obtruded upon our View. On fuch an Occafion, the Reply of Themif tocles fhould be mine. One of the Literati of Greece, offered to communicate an elaborate and curious Invention. By means of which, his Memory should be fo wonderfully ftrengthened, as to retain whatever He read or heard. "My Friend, replied the "Hero, You quite mistake the Way to serve me. "I want to learn the Art, not of remembering, but " of forgetting."

Afp. If to forget our Disease, were a likely Method to restore our Health, I fhould readily concur in your Hero's Way of Thinking. As this will hardly be allowed, I cannot but judge it more advifeable, to give fome Attention to our Difeafe, that We may enquire after a Remedy.

Ther. Where is this Remedy to be had?

Afp. Not on Earth, but from Heaven.-The. Schools of Science cannot difcover it. The Courts of Kings are unable to procure it. The College of Phyficians know not how to prescribe it. But the