hold, that some who die in infancy are lost. You may often hear it given, as one prominent article of their belief, that "there are children in hell not a span long." Many is the good old orthodox preacher, to whom this charitable saying has been imputed by an offended hearer. And yet we have some doubts, whether it was ever really uttered by any one individual to express his own convictions on the subject. The fact is, not that any Calvinistic divine, so far as we know, positively believes in the damnation of infants, but that some-we trust not manyregard the question as a doubtful one, in respect to which a confident opinion ought not to be formed. We leave such cautious inquirers to the free possession and full enjoyment of their doubts; happy to adopt for ourselves a view of this matter less calculated to dishonour God, and to do violence to our own sensibilities. We do not scruple to say, as our mature impression, that to suppose any being not guilty of actual sin can be finally miserable, is utterly-nay, dreadfully inconsistent with rational and scriptural conceptions relative to the divine character and government. This is our most deliberate conviction. We are just as certain, that every dying infant shall be saved, as we are, that there is a God. And yet we firmly believe in the native depravity of man. We are persuaded, that the infant, with all its apparent and its real innocence, inherits a corrupt nature, though one which almighty grace may renew and sanctify. The young lion is as harmless as the new-born babe. And so is the young viper. But they both have, in their physical constitution, principles, which, when developed by time, must render them as terrible, and as noxious, as any of their species. In like manner, the infant, guiltless and lovely as it appears to every eye, possesses a moral constitution, which unless prevented by the occurrence of death, must infallibly and speedily evolve the baneful elements of transgression. There is a third circumstance to illustrate the native depravity of our race, which we shall merely mention in this place, as we have not time to dwell upon it. Do we not habitually associate with all our conceptions of virtue in man, the idea of effort, of restraint, of self-denial? Is it not unquestionable, that, in all our views on this subject —in all our plans for promoting our own moral improvement, and that of others-we proceed, unconsciously as it were, on the supposition, that the human being is not by nature inclined to be virtuous? When he becomes so, it is in consequence of some check voluntarily imposed on his passions and his conduct. But no effort, no restraint, no self-denial are wanted to render a person vicious. The argument flowing from this fact is a cogent one. Not less cogent is the argument which we would derive, in the next place, from the little effect that moral suasion has had in meliorating the general character and condition of our unhappy race. Look, for example, at the renowned teachers of pagan antiquity. We know with what elegance and eloquence they illustrated the science, and enforced the duties of ethics. And yet they had almost no success whatever in promoting, on an extended scale, the cause of virtue. The world manifestly grew worse in their hands. Again, contemplate the impotency of moral writing, and even of evangelical preaching, in our own day. The ablest productions that issue from the press-the most energetic addresses that are delivered from the pulpit-utterly fail to produce impressions such as might be expected from them. The author is read-the orator is heard. But the reader-the hearer -is unamended. There is one fact connected with this point, to which we must not omit distinctly to refer, be cause we regard it as the strongest that can be adduced or conceived. We allude to the comparatively little effect that resulted immediately from the personal ministry of our divine Lord himself. He delivered the lessons of wisdom and of virtue, with a perspicuity and a majesty such as had never been witnessed in the synagogues of Judea, in the forum of Rome, or in the porticos of Greece. And yet how powerless an engine was moral suasion, even in the hands of him who spake as never man spake, when arrayed against the corruption of the human heart! His professed converts, after three years' labour, were few in number and humble in circumstances; and the same populace that had hung with rapture on his eloquence, thronged the judgment-hall of Pilate, exclaiming, Crucify him, crucify him! An additional argument, and the last to which we shall appeal, in behalf of the native depravity of man, arises from the circumstance, that the temporal judgments of God contribute so feebly to the moral improvement of those by whom they are experienced. We might, did time permit, refer, in support of this position, to various scriptural facts; and particularly to the universal deluge -that greatest of all temporal judgments. But, brethren, instead of going back to ages long past, let us look at our own personal experience. Have we never been visited with temporal judgments from God? Has he never laid upon us his chastising rod? Has he not caused us to feel, in our own persons, a portion of his displeasure against sin? Has he not occasionally sent upon us sickness and pain, and terrified us with the prospect of a speedy summons to his dread tribunal? Or, if he has not done this, has he not removed from us some object on which our hopes and our affections were fixed? Has he not torn from our embrace some relative or friend, to whom we were ardently attached? And what effect of a salutary kind, have these dispensations of his providence produced? Have they benefited our hearts? Have they altered the general complexion and prevailing tendency of our moral exercises? Have they diverted the current of our inclinations from their old channel? In one word, have they rendered us any better than we were before?Alas! in too many instances they have not. And even where we cannot say that they have been wholly ineffectual, we must ascribe their beneficial results solely to the grace of God. We are, therefore, fully borne out in our position, that no temporal judgments, however overwhelming their nature, however long their duration, or however frequent their occurrence, do, of themselves, (independently of a sanctifying influence from on high,) meliorate, in any considerable degree, the moral condition of man. Now we apprehend that this circumstance, duly weighed, proves that the scriptural representations of human depravity are not overcharged. We have not time, on this occasion, to examine the common objection to the doctrine of man's native depravity, that this doctrine is inconsistent with the divine purity and benevolence. It must suffice to remark, that it is precisely as difficult to reconcile the moral character of Deity, with the actual existence of sin in the world, as with the truth for which we are contending. And the same may be said of the objection to our doctrine, drawn from its supposed inconsistency with the moral agency of man. Besides, we recur to the position already laid down, that, if the native depravity of our race be a fact asserted by Scripture, and abundantly confirmed by reason and experience, (and we have shown that it is,) then we cannot, without rejecting the Bible, and trampling on the soundest maxims of science, refuse our credence, not withstanding that there may be difficulties connected with this truth, which baffle our efforts fully to explain them. We have thus attempted to demonstrate the universal, total, and native corruption of our race. In doing this, we have realized the correctness of a remark made at the commencement of our discourse, that the subject is a humiliating one. It is mortifying to think, that we who possess faculties which raise us far above the irrational animals that surround us-we who are capable of ranging with a thirst for knowledge that is never saturated, the universe of matter, and the nobler universe of mind-we who were originally fashioned in our Maker's image, and endued with every qualification for his acceptable service, O! it is mortifying to think, that we should all have become so "abominable and filthy," as to "drink iniquity like water." Yet such is the melancholy truth. We have all, without a solitary exception, rebelled against the authority, and violated the laws, of the Lord our God. This, beyond controversy, is the character and condition of man Sinful and weak, in ev'ry sense a wretch; An instrument, whose chords upon the stretch, Many are the practical reflections which must arise on a review of this subject. But as so large a demand has already been made on your patience, we must confine our closing remarks to a single point. Is it so, that every human being is by nature totally depraved? Then there is surely nothing very extravagant or unreasonable in that evangelical doctrine, which asserts the necessity of a fundamental alteration in our moral frame, before we can be qualified to perform the will, and enjoy the smiles of our Maker. This doctrine perfectly accords with the |