fixes its throne in our souls, it will not fail to exhibit its benign and heavenly fruits in our lives; and prepare us for that blessed world, where in God's light we shall see light.

SERMON VI.

HUMAN NATURE.

GENESIS ii. 7.

THE LORD GOD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE; AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL.

THIS simple statement announces the most important fact to which the mind can revert; or which is comprehended in all history; I mean of course to us. The creation of the material universe, the formation of this earth, a small but an integral part of this magnificent and immense system; the countless formations which constitute and adorn the vegetable creation; the innumerable tribes of living existences, which people the earth, the air, the sea, acting and congregating wherever there is space to move and air to respire, and every where in their own proper sphere and with their own proper capacities, rioting in the gratuitous and rich bounty of nature; the origin of all this life, the fountain, whence all this bounty flows; the mighty power, which, though unseen, sustains all this being,

kindles all this happiness, pours out from its inexhaustible fulness all these riches; the infinite agent, which creates and sustains all things; measures the ocean in the hollow of his hand; weighs the mountains in scales; counts the atoms which form the universe, spreads through all extent, endures through all time, controls and directs every power in nature; all these are subjects of contemplation, which absorb the highest faculties of the human soul; and in their unfathomable vastness are destined to occupy its contemplations and inquiries to the utmost, as long as the power of inquiring and thinking remains; and the human mind remains at a point short of absolute infinitude.

But the creation of the human race is the fact, which most concerns ourselves. We belong to this class of existences. We are descended in the uninterrupted line of succession from the first human pair, whom God planted upon the earth. We share in their nature, capacities, condition, destiny, and in all their attributes; and we trace back our origin to the events of that hour, whose history is detailed in the text. This is the hour, when God saw fit to give life to man; to people the earth, which he had formed with this new tribe of animals; differing from all others, to whom he has given existence; endued with extraordinary capacities, occupying peculiar relations to the earth itself, and to other beings, who inhabit it; having peculiar powers, and therefore peculiar duties; destined to labor, to enjoy, to suffer, to endure, as we have seen, a long period of time; and how much longer than the race has already existed we have no means even of conjecture; but like other animals, though individuals and generations pass rapidly away, endued with the power of continuing and multiplying the species to an indefinite extent and period.

As the text details a fact, of all others the most important to man, so every thing connected with it, every fact involved in it, every inquiry suggested by it, becomes important. Man in his nature, relations, duties, history, and destiny, is the proper study of man; and while other subjects are interesting and useful as matters of philosophical investigation, while every subject deserves attention and knowledge of every kind is valuable, this which so mainly concerns ourselves, demands our most inquisitive regard. Man, however, is a vast subject, which a hundred discourses would not exhaust; all that I shall attempt in a single discourse must be very little; and will be much rather to furnish to reflecting minds hints for thinking and inquiry, than to give even the rude outlines of what may be termed a system of human nature.

What then is man, thus springing into existence from the hands of the great Creator; and animated by the breath of his mouth? What is man, as a moral being? To this question, which involves the most important considerations, I shall give the best answer I am able. All agree that man is a moral being; by which we mean, without entering into any subtle distinctions, that he is capable of perceiving a difference in actions, of discerning right and wrong, and endued with the power of choosing and performing the one and disliking and avoiding the other. This however is the only point in which there is a universal agreement. Men from this immediately begin to differ, and start off in opposite and diverging directions.

As I understand it, for in stating the sentiments of others this is a just and necessary qualification, the opinion of a large part of mankind is, that in consequence of the defection or sin of the progenitors of

the human race, an alteration immediately took place in the nature of their posterity, a corrupt entailment was fixed upon them, and their moral constitution became totally depraved, bent wholly upon evil, and indisposed to any good. Such notions are an insult to the Creator; a libel upon human nature; and have no just foundation either in observation or the scriptures. The only basis, upon which such opinions rest, is some perverted passages of the scriptures, which the ingenuity or subtlety of some men, well intentioned, we have no doubt, but mere mystifiers and scheme-makers in theology, have wrested from their proper connexion to support the ill-formed progeny of their own imaginations. Of this perversion I will give one example; and that shall be of a passage, which is often triumphantly quoted in defence of this doctrine of total depravity.

In the sixth chapter of Genesis it is said, that God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the .earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually; and it repented the Lord that he made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart; and he said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. This is one passage on which theologians confidently rest their doctrine of a corrupt nature and of total depravity. But what can be more absurd!

We admit that the language is strong and bold; but every one must see that it is the language of hyperbole, and not to be received as literally exact; for at the time that it spoke of every man as utterly corrupt, and God as determined to destroy the human race by