of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God: to ascertain if there was an individual among the numerous offspring of Adam who retained his integrity and sought after God his Creator; and what was the result of this enquiry? It was equally mournful and humiliating. They are all gone aside, is the divine testimony, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. But this general apostacy was not peculiar to the age of the patriarchs or the prophets; the same charge is renewed hundreds of years afterwards, although men had enjoyed all the advantages of civilized life, and a written revelation from God. An inspired apostle declares, We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. This passage is peculiarly forcible for establishing the doctrine of universal corruption, and is entitled to some examination. The Jews were the posterity of Abraham; a people in covenant with Jehovah and the peculiar favorites of heaven; exalted above all others by the adoption, and the glory, and the service of God and the promises; the Gentiles were the rest of the nations; all not immediately included within the pale of the Jewish church: The apostle boldly maintains that no nation was exempted from the general charge; that whether they were Jews, a people who had been favored with such frequent and clear manifestations of the divine will, who

had received a system of worship prescribed by God himself; or whether they were Gentiles, given up to the dictates of their own blinded understandings and involved in the absurdities of a gross idolatry, "they were all under sin, and guilty before God." He afterwards brings home the indictment to the conscience of every individual, in the words of an Old Testament prophet, "There is none righteous, no, not one; they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one; their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes; now we know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."Was it thought necessary, innumerable other passages of scripture might be adduced for the confirmation of this doctrine. One asserts, "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not: Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions:" Another acknowledges, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand: in thy sight shall no man living be justified."

2. The doctrine that all have sinned is e

E

vident from the experience of all. No one who impartially examines his own heart will dare to assert, I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity with me. Have we upon all occasions followed the dictates of our own consciences; performing whatever the light of nature proclaimed to be right? Have we conducted towards others amidst all circumstances as we thought they should have conducted towards us amidst the same circumstances? Have we upon all occasions performed our duty to our great Creator, giving him that share of our affections, and our services to which he is most reasonably entitled? Have we really loved him with all our heart, our soul, our mind and strength, as he has required in the first commandment? Have we cordially received and observed such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word agreeably to the second commandment? Have we entertained a becoming reverence of his name and perfections, sanctifying him in our hearts, making him our fear and our dread, as he has required in the third commandment? Have we always thought of God and spoken of him with that solemnity of spirit which is due to a being infinitely great?— Have we sanctified his holy sabbath as he has solemnly required in his fourth commandment, ceasing from the ordinary employments of life, and stirring up our souls

to a becoming contemplation of the divine perfections as displayed in creation and redemption? Have we not fallen infinitely short of those duties which we owe to each other in the various relations of life; our obligations as parents to children, and children to parents; as masters to servants, and servants to masters; as magistrates to citizens, and citizens to magistrates? Have we never indulged malignant thoughts against our neighbor, contrary to the sixth commandment? Have we not been shamefully unchaste in our thoughts, and words, and actions, contrary to what God requires in the seventh commandment? Have we not upon some occasions injured the property of our neighbor either by taking the advantage of his ignorance or necessity, in opposition to the eighth commandment? Have we not been guilty of slandering the name, of coveting the property, and envying the prosperity of others, contrary to the duties required in the ninth and tenth commandments? Thus he who impartially examines his own heart, its secret motives and operations, must be conscious to himself of daily imperfections; he who compares his own life with the law of God, that unerring, eternal standard of righteousness, must be constrained to the humiliating confession, that "in many things we have all offended; we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God."

3. This doctrine is equally plain from observation on the conduct of others. Behold man in every period of life, from infancy to old age; view him in all his diversified relations, whether as a superior or inferior; contemplate him in every situation, whether prosperous or adverse, and you discern plain, undeniable proofs of imperfection; you may behold the corruption of all in their conduct and conversation. Do not the sighs and tears of the new born babe express, in such language as it is capable of using, its discontentment with its situation, and consequently the secret enmity of its heart against the author of its existence ?Do not children, gradually as they ripen to capacity for action, discover strong, incorrigible propensities to evil? Are they not incomparably more inclined to imitate the example of the vicious than of the virtuous around them? With what ease can they retain an idle, trifling little tale, any wanton impure conversation which they hear; but in whatever relates to God, to their souls and future concerns, line upon line; line upon line; precept upon precept; precept upon precept, are found insufficient. The aged again are usually peevish, fretful, discontented; they are ready to ask, Wherefore hath God made all men in vain? They loath life, and become in some measure dissatisfied with themselves and all around them. Contemplate the conduct of man in the different