would overlook his transgression; and his crimes had been more inexcusable, for that God had before instructed him in the more hidden and secret mysteries of his wisdom. Two of the ancient versions read the latter part of the verse in this manner, the uncertain and hidden things of wisdom hast thou made known unto me. Hence it appears that he had sinned against his better knowledge and superior judgment. If we follow our translation according to the Hebrew Text, we learn, that God often teaches man wisdom by his secret providence; that he chastises the sinner in order to bring him to true repentance; that he loves and requires truth and sincerity in the inward part, in our affections and purposes; and that no outward forms and ceremonies can be pleasing in his sight, unless the heart be cleansed from all its pollutions.

The Psalmist having deeply bewailed the depravity of his nature, hopes in future to be preserved from every secret error and hidden corruption. Behold, thou delightest in truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part, or reins, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. The wisdom which cometh from above, which God teacheth, has its seat in the heart, as well as in the head, in well regulated affections and

pure desires; it consists in a right knowledge of God, and of ourselves, of our duties, our obligations, our infirmities, and our dangers, When we are thus effectually taught of God, we shall be unwilling, in future, to trust to our own prudence, to rely on our own strength.

Having taken this general view of these Verses, let us now consider the important doctrine which is set before us in the First of of them: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

The great Truth, or doctrine, asserted in these words, is that which is called the doctrine of original sin, or the natural corruption and depravity of mankind. It is called original sin, as implying the sinful nature which we derive from our forefathers, till it is traced up to its original fountain, in our first parents, Adam and Eve. It is evident from the Scriptures that God created them upright and pure, “after his own image," "in righteousness and holiness ;" and when he surveyed his works he pronounced them all very good. But when our First Parents were persuaded by the artful insinuations of Satan, in the disguise of the Serpent, or through his agency, to violate the express com

a Gen. i. 26, 27, 31.-Ephcs. iv. 24.-Coloss. iii. 10.

C

mand of their gracious Creator, they fell from their dignity, they lost the image of God, they became obnoxious to the sentence of death, they were banished from Paradise, and, as guilty criminals, were compelled to pass their days on earth in sorrow and pain. By this disobedience they became sinners, and they transmitted their sinful nature to all their posterity. Adam begat Sons in his own likeness; and his first-born Cain was quickly moved by the evil passions of envy and malice to imbrue his hands in the blood of Abel, his own brother.d

If we candidly examine the sacred records, or survey the history of mankind and the state of the world around us, we shall discover sufficient proofs of the innate depravity of the human heart. This inquiry will be found of the greatest moment as it will lay the foundation of proper self-knowledge and genuine repentance.

Our Church declares in her baptismal Office, that "all men are conceived and born in sin;" and in her Catechism, that "we are by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath." And in her Ninth Article she thus sets forth the d Gen. iv. v.

b Gen. iii. 1-6. e Gen. iii- 7-14.

doctrine of Original sin, “Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation."

Let us then attentively consider the Scriptural proofs and declarations on this subject. If we trace the history of mankind in the earliest and, as we may suppose, the purest age, we soon perceive the most affecting proofs of this tendency to evil. In the Sixth Chapter of the book of Genesis we meet with this declaration respecting mankind; "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." But we do not meet with the least appearance of any evil as existing in the world, either natural or moral, as affecting either the body or the mind, before man's fall, before our first parents

had eaten of the fruit which their bountiful Creator had expressly forbidden, as a trial of their obedience. From that period Moses plainly asserts, that mankind were exposed to troubles and afflictions, and were compelled to know evil by bitter experience, being brought under the sentence of God's righteous law, which they had presumptuously broken. And to the same cause he seems to trace the origin of that depravity in the heart of man, which afterwards, as a polluted fountain, poured forth such bitter streams, and produced so much disorder and confusion in the works of God, which were beautiful and good at their first formation. This was the reason why the earth was in a short time so "corrupt before God," and was so "full of violence in that all flesh had corrupted his way, that God determined to destroy them with the earth." Among the many thousands who then inhabited the earth, only one family was found faithful, perhaps we might say, only one man was found upright and pious, who adhered to the worship and service of God. We only read of Noah as being a righteous man in the midst of such degeneracy, who "being warned of God of things that were soon to come," of the univeral deluge, "prepared an ark, to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and