strain him to seek for the best in formation respecting it which his opportunities can command, or his capacity admit. We are happy to have it in our power to recommend Mr. Cormack's disquisition to our readers, as one in which they will find the article of original sin ably and successfully handled. The volume is of a very manageable bulk. Its statements are clear and concise. Its argument is skilfully conducted. Its spirit is that of candour united with decision. And its style is characterized by appropriateness and perspicuity. Our author gives proof of his having studied his subject with much care. He gives no quarter to the sophistry and misrepresentations of his opponents. He brings forward as much classical and biblical erudition as serves his purpose, or rather the purpose of truth, without falling into the error of overloading his pages with learn ed quotations. And pursuing his object with steady aim, and having the conclusiveness of his reasoning in support of the truth which he has undertaken to defend, only surpassed by his conviction of its importance, and his zeal for its maintenance, he has produced a most respectable work, on a difficult and important part of the Christian system. Instead of giving any dissertation of our own, we shall give a short view of what our author has done, and accompany it with such extracts as may afford a fair specimen of the manner in which the work is executed. After a short but suitable introduction, he endeavours to ascertain the information which we derive from the light of nature on the subject of original sin. This occupies the First Chapter. In the Second Chapter, he inquires into the reality and nature of the state of innocence, and the kind of obligation under which Adam was laid in that state. Chapter Third is employed in considering the fact and the manner of the fall; the import of the sentences pronounced upon the Serpent, Eve, and Adam; the consequences of the fall upon Adam; and the connexion between the threatening before the fall, the sentence pronounced after it, and the punishment which ensued. In Chapter Fourth, an an swer is given to these questions, Does analogy furnish any light on the subject? Does positive fact afford any evidence of the doctrine of original sin? And, if it does, what is that evidence? Chapter Fifth presents us with a statement of what the Scriptures teach concerning original sin; and, after examining the views of this truth, suggested by Jewish institutions, the general creed of early Christians, and the opinions most prevalent at the present day, we have these two propositions proved and illustrated,-1st, That Adam was constituted the federal head of all mankind; and, 2d, That, in the covenant made with Adam, all mankind were included; in him all sinned, and fell with him in his first transgression. This chapter also contains notices of hostility to the doctrine of original sin, since the days of Dr. Taylor, particularly in the case of Priestley and Belsham; reasons for conducting the argument in the manner adopted; an illustration of God's visiting the iniquities of the parents upon their children; and an inquiry whether eternal death be ever inflicted for Adam's sin alone. Chapter Sixth discusses the value of objections of a merely critical or metaphysical nature against the doctrine of original sin, or any other doctrine, The Seventh Chapter, which is the last, contains a recapitulation of what has been previously advanced, and an improvement of the doctrines defended. The whole concludes with a critical dissertation on the words "All,” « All Men,” "Many," in Rom. v. 12, &c. and 1 Cor. xv. 22, with a view to explain and fix the sense of them. Having given this analysis of the work, we shall now, quote a few passages from its pages, to afford the reader some idea of its merits. The first passage that we select is that in which our author combats the notion that the principle of imitation affords a satisfactory solution of the universal depravity of makind. "Now, if the depravity of mankind is resolvable into imitation, there must have been a period in the life of the individual when this principle began to operate upon him, and therefore there must have been a period when he was free from its influence. There must have been a time, accordingly, when he was perfectly virtuous; or at least exempt from any wrong bias. We might justly demand instances, therefore, in which the "divinæ particula auræ," was seen to animate humanity in all its unsullied loveliness. We might demand, why no solitary instance, at least, has been pointed out of an escape from the influence of this dread and universal destroyer. The power of conscience, too, being so mighty on the side of moral goodness, how is it that examples of untainted virtue may not be pointed out, since there are mighty reasons for imitating her example, while there is no reason that can bear examination for imitating the other? "But the attempt to account for the universality of human depravity by imi tation, has other difficulties to combat, which are, at least, as insuperable as these. Imitation implies an example to copy. But how will this coincide with the well known fact, of continually recurring in stances of iniquity, where no corresponding example was exhibited,-instances, indeed, which are distinguished by a measure of originality and genius coolly exercised, in giving a species of diabolical perfection to the infamous device? That surely cannot be called imitation, of which there existed no prior example. "Some hold that the mind may be correctly compared to a "tabula rasa," which we may translate a sheet of blank paper. It has no characters written on it, but it is ready to receive any. But whatever weight may be allowed to this notion in explaining our intellectual system, and in deciding on the doctrine of innate ideas, we must deny its applicability in a moral point of view. The moral part of man is not a "tabula rasa." When his faculties begin to open, they do not discover an equal tendency to good and evil. Who will deny that, in their early development, they exhibit marked propensities to cunning, deceit, and selfishness? But if the mind were thus evenly balanced, ought we not to have instances equally numerous and decided, of openness, candour, and generosity? "But besides that the tendency to evil is clearly, and by general acknowledgment at least, greater than the tendency to good for it is to be recollected that we are reasoning as if possessed of the light of na ture alone the exact reverse of this should be the case, when we take into view the agency of conscience. Supposing the affections equally disposed to good or evil, the power of conscience should throw the balance decidedly in favour of good. This is a power, whose existence is not hypothetical, and whose agency is not imaginary. Yet, according to the supposition we are considering, it is a force incessantly acting on the one side, without any antagonist force on the other, to preserve or to restore the equilibrium, which, by the agency of conscience, must have been lost. "The attempt to solve the appearances of human depravity, then, by the principle of imitation, influencing a mind equally disposed, or, which is the same thing, equally indifferent to virtue and vice, appears to be quite untenable. This appears still more decisively, when we take into view the powerful agency of conscience on the side of virtue, while the hypothesis of imitation exhibits no countervailing power to balance its force. Although, however, the argument seems to be complete, there is yet another consideration to be noticed, and that is, the influence of the whole of those tendencies in our nature, which may be classed under the head of the "desire of self-preservation." The love of life, and happiness, and therefore of all the means of securing and perpetuating both, constitutes one of the most marked characters of human nature. Yet such is the nature of man, that he cannot act virtuously without feeling that it is immediately followed by a certain portion of every pure enjoyment; nor can he act viciously, without experiencing something of an entirely opposite character. Now, without stopping to examine nicely how far this instance may be resolvable into the power of conscience itself, it is evident that the love of life and happiness must throw in much additional force, both into the admonitions and remonstrances of conscience. We surely cannot, therefore, be accused of precipitancy in now coming to the conclusion, that the hypothesis of accounting for human depravity on the principle of imitation is quite untenable, and ought to be rejected as "inadequate to solve the phenomena." "We must go beyond the range of imitation, then, to discover something that makes the moral tendencies of man preponderate to the side of evil as we clearly see they do in defiance of conscience, and self-interest, and self-love, and all the host of minor auxiliaries that range themselves under this mighty alliance. It would seem, then, that there must be some original and inborn propensity to evil interwoven with our very frame; for nothing else appears adequate to the solution of the phenomena." Our next quotation is the author's argument on eternal death, as forming a part of the penalty of the first transgression. "Now, upon reflection, this seems to imply nothing more than the continuance of that ruin, which sin had produced. And without the intervention of some mighty cause, and that cause extrinsic of the sinner himself, it would seem, that all his miseries must necessarily continue; or, in other words, that the death must be eternal. "There have been endless disputes about the essence, so to speak, of moral, or spiritual death. We may take, as the most unexceptionable statement of the matter, what has been shown above, which is, that the animal nature has the ascendant over the moral and spiritual nature. We have already ascertained, that spiritual death, to this extent, passed upon our first parents, when they sinned; and, to whatever precision, in regard of degree, we may be afterwards conducted, we shall at present go no farther than we are warranted by the general fact. The subject may be illustrated, in its first and simplest aspect, by a reference to physical science: not that physical demonstrations warrant moral conclusions; but that, when we have reached all the certainty that is attainable in the one science, we may exhibit its evidence, and reason upon it, by the more tangible representations of the other. "Now, we have admitted that moral, or spiritual death is that state of humanity, in which the animal nature has the ascendant over the moral and spiritual nature. Here, then, are two unequal forces acting in opposition to one another; and this be ing the case, we can have no doubt concerning the result. Two forces, equal and opposite, remain at rest. For, to suppose the one force to prevail over the other, is to suppose it superior to the other. By the smallest assignable superiority, however, of the one force over the other, the equilibrium is destroyed; and as decidedly, though not so violently, controls the weaker force, as if the superiority were double, triple, or quadruple. "Let us apply this reasoning. It is not necessary to a man's being in the state of moral death, that he have not a single good quality in him. We are not at present called to say, what is the fact in regard of human nature. This is not necessary to the argument. We merely admit, that there is an ascendancy of the animal over the spi ritual and moral nature. Now, according to the premises, if there be in men, a single particle, so to speak, of evil more than of good, they are as certainly in a state of spiritual death, as if there were not a single particle of good in them. For the smallest superiority, as has been shown, will as surely, though not so evidently and violently, control the weaker, as any superiority, however great. "This general theorem, as it may be called, furnishes us with distinct ideas on the subject; and by the recollection of it, as we go along, as well as of the illustra tions of it in the case of Adam, which have been already exhibited, many objec tions will be avoided, which might other. wise encumber our inquiry. "Now, if the argument be tenable, it authorizes the farther conclusion, that moral death is, in its own nature, eternal. "1. Of the truth and tenableness of this conclusion, we may be convinced, by attending to the illustration, already given, of what may be called the essence of moral death. For it is impossible to conceive a weaker force to prevail over a superior one. For, to render this possible, the weaker must become the stronger force; and that this again may become possible, something must be added to the weaker, or taken from the stronger force. But if this diminution, or addition take place, it must be effected by some cause, extrinsic of the forces themselves. For it is not natural to them; as, in their own nature, they must for ever retain their original relation to one another. Hence, the superiority of the animal over the rational nature, (that is, moral death,) is naturally eternal. "2. The conclusion, that moral death is, in its own nature, eternal, is farther confirmed by the nature of moral qualities or habits. We have as yet supposed the bent of the animal nature to have retained its first power only, without any increase of degree. This, however, is less than the truth. It is well known, and universally acknowledged, that all moral habits are continually acquiring new accessions of strength; and that, even in indifferent cases, where they are begun, without any violent impulse or excitement, they at last become quite irresistible and ungovernable. Hence the proverbial expression that habil is a second nature; and the Latin one, • Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem "Moral habits, then, may be compar. "In accordance, then, with the dictates of sound philosophy, applied to certain facts in human nature, and the sanction of Scripture, which might be extended to all that is said of the necessity of divine agency to restore the moral and spiritual life of man, we may now be permitted perhaps to say, that it has been proved, that moral death is, in its own nature, eternal." We also give the following extract on the subject of imputed guilt. "It may be proper, however, to make a remark upon the hard saying," so difficult to be received in this doctrine, and against which many of the keenest objec.. tions are pointed; and that is, the imputation to men of the guilt of a sin, in which they were not personal agents. Considerable light, however, will be thrown upon the doubts of those, who are sincerely in quiring after the truth, by attending to some of the facts of the divine administration. For it will be found, that God acts upon the very principle alluded to, in the government of human affairs; and that, in the legislation of men, also, its adoption is found necessary. God has declared, that he will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. The enemy of divine revelation may find this declaration incompatible with his views of justice, and may found upon this assumption an ob jection to the divine origin of the book, in which the declaration is made. But what shall be said of the validity of this objection, when we find the fact itself broadly and prominently meeting us, in the administration of the divine government? To follow out the objection consistently now, it will be necessary to conclude, that the world is not governed by a Being of infinite perfection-nay, that the Ruler and the Judge of all the earth, if such there be, is deficient in justice, and does not do that which is right. But this is a conclusion at which Deism itself would shudder, and which can find admittance only into the cold and the dark bosom of Atheism. "Where then does the fact meet us? Every where: in the history of nations and individuals, and in our own daily observation. In the history of the Jewish monarchy, we find the guilt visited apparently less sometimes upon the actual transgressor, than upon his descendants; so that, in his day, were "peace and truth," while captivity and its worst evils awaited them, 2 Kings xx. 19. And, without going remotely into antiquity, who knows not of whole nations suffering, in various respects, for successive generations, on account of crimes and profligacy, committed before they were born? Take next individual human beings, and mark the effects of the good or evil of their conduct and character upon their children. Take, first of all, a dissolute parent, and let him be one that moves in the lower ranks of life. The first form, in which his children suffer for his misconduct, is that of hunger and cold; while they are obnoxious to the diseases, and not seldom fall their victims. Again, which often accompany these privations, they are exposed to the two-fold evil, which arises from misgovernment, on the one hand, and the contagious example of vice, on the other. Another consequence of the dissolute father's conduct is, that there is withheld from his children the education necessary to their acting a useful and respectable part in life; as well as the yet more needful and important instruction in religious faith and duty. Then, with what peculiar disadvantage does the child of an immoral and dissolute parent, compared with that of the virtuous, enter upon the business of life? Do we want a servant ? -There are few situations, and these the very lowest, which his neglected education enables him to fill; and, even for these, we are desirous, if possible, to obtain the child of religious and virtuous parents, who has never been familiar with vice, and has been taught at least a sacred regard to truth and the rights of his neighbour. Thus it appears, that God has, in point of fact, so connected the fortunes (if the word be allowed) of children with their parents, that they must suffer for their iniquities. In human governments the same prin ciple is adopted. The nobleman, who has been convicted of treason, is deprived of his estates and honours, as well as of his life; and his children are driven, orphans, in poverty and shame, for their parents' home. As we have discovered the same principle pervading the divine and human governments, we may perhaps find little difficulty in discovering the reason of its adoption in both cases; although, strictly speaking, we have to do at present only with the fact. The reason appears to be this: that, as children are the dearest objects on which a parent's affections can rest, by the knowledge that their happiness and respectability are indissolubly connected with the faithful and upright discharge of his own duty, the parent is naturally deterred from the vices, which would ruin them, and powerfully stimulated to the virtues, which promote their good. And, notwithstanding the comparatively few instances of brutalized vice, with which we sometimes meet, there seems to be no rea son to doubt, that one of the most powerfully successful principles, which operate to the prevention of the world becoming worse than it is, is that which it has now been attempted shortly to illustrate, and of which the distinct enunciation is, that God punishes the children for the iniquities of their parents. The same beneficial result may be traced in the operation of this principle in human governments. A man may have so far made up his mind to the execution of a treasonable purpose, as to embark his own individual life, and property, and honour in the enterprise; but yet he is instantly deterred from it, upon reflecting, that his failure must involve his children in the same ruin with himself." The last extract we give is, from the chapter in which our author improves the doctrine he had been discussing; and we earnestly re commend it to the attention of our readers. "There is just one topic more, to which the author of this treatise would solicit the attention of the reader, whose views are in unison with his own; and that is, the cultivation of Christian charity. He who sees himself to be, by nature, depraved, guilty, and under the curse of God's righteous law, and indebted to free, sovereign grace and compassion for his salvation from first to last, is acting entirely out of character, if he be not anxious, that "the same mind be in him, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be made rich." Hearken to the great Apostle, while he urges upon our cultivation, as being the appropriate fruits of a free salvation through the cross of Christ, the following lowly, yet lofty graces of the renewed soul. 66 Put on, therefore," says It must he, "as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." Col. iii. 12-14. We are required to "put on charity," above all the other graces of the Spirit, in which we are arrayed. not only exist, but exist in such large measure as to cover us, and be distinctly visible by all who behold us. And, if the writer might lay aside the formality, which his present duty, in some measure, imposes upon him, and address the congenial reader with the familiarity and affection, which are so suitable and seemly in children of the same family, he would add, “Now, my brother, see that you not only possess, and constantly wear this fair robe of charity, but that you wear it with a noble, yet lowly gracefulness, appropriate to the dignity of your character, as a child of God. It is worn by the redeemed immortals above, and it is one of the very few things you at present possess, that shall accompany you to your heavenly home, and be with you there for evermore. Prophecy shall soon be fulfilled, and tongues shall cease to be needed, and when faith has conducted us to the realities, with the prospect of which she has so often comforted our hearts, her task is done, and she leaves us in the land of enjoyment. Even hope, that cheerer of our earthly pilgrimage, having conducted us to the portals of hea ven, leaves us there, entering into the joy of our Lord;' but charity never fail ་ |