were cold and barren spirits without capacity, and destitute of invention, that others were unable to compare two ideas together and draw a rational conclusion; that some were as destitute of memory as others of invention, I had seen idiots and creditors with good memories, and poets and debtors with none at all; I had seen souls of fire and souls of ice. Seriously, I accounted for the poetic imagery of David in Psalm li. from the depth of his guilt, the strength of his feel ings, and the radical nature of his penitence, expressed in the figurative language of an highly wrought Eastern imagination.

I knew that there was nothing to be found in the sacred records which David possessed to justify the literal sense of his remark, a sense as contradictory to the tenor of his own writings as to reason. I could not therefore help rejecting that passage considered as a proof of the universal propagation of a radical and corrupt moral nature, derived from the first sinner or the imputation of his guilt to all his descendants. I turned over of revelation till I came the pages to Psalm lviii. 3. There I read that "the wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." This passage I had heard frequently quoted to prove the universal and original depravity of the heart of human beings. I could not accept this as a proof of it; I knew that new born infants had no power to do good or evil, that they were incapable of a moral choice, that they were destitute of the faculty of speech, that they were too helpless to go astray, and that so far from speaking lies, they could not speak at all. I was free to admit that the children of the wicked might be corrupted in early life by the bad example of their parents, that they might go astray from nature and virtue, and thus be estranged from the womb, and I had been often grieved to see the direful contagion of vice spreading itself, like a fatal plague, infecting the very souls of youth and childhood. I had seen with terror lying, deceit, dishonesty, debauchery, villainy, pride, illiberality and hypocrisy, propagated in the heart's core of the rising generation, by the wickedness and folly of parents. But I was directed also, (blessed be

God for his goodness) to “train up a child in the way he should go,” and was encouraged by the delightful hope that when he shall "come to be old, he will not depart from it.”

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I had seen that "a wise son useth his father's instruction and maketh a glad father," therefore I said "My son be wise and make my heart glad that I may answer hin that reproaches me:" I said to my neighbour rect thy son and he shall give thee rest, yea he shall give delight unto thy soul." I read Prov. x. 7, that the just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him,-that "even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right," ver. 11. I read Psalm cxxxvii. that "Children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward." I knew who had said, "Suffer liule children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

Except ye be converted, and be: come as little children, ye shall not see the kingdom of heaven." I there fore began to think that they did not

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as soon as they were born deserve God's wrath and eternal damnation."

I now looked around me with pleasure: I thought I had travelled through half my journey, that the prospect was clearing up, the clouds dispersing, light rising out of obscu rity, the heart-cheering sun began to spread around me its life-nourishing beams; but a Reverend Gentleman quoted a passage in Jer. xvii. 9, on the deceitfulness of the heart: he asserted indeed that all who did not believe his explanation must be bad men; he seemed to glory in the baseness of his nature; he told me that the will, the conscience, the understanding, all the powers of the mind, and all the propensities of the heart of every man under the sun were by nature deceit ful above all things, and desperately wicked; he added that whoever denied this fact, proved it by the very denial! I

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read the passage, and context. There I found, Jer. xvii. 1, that sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond, graven upon the table of their hearts, and upon the horns of the altar." I saw that the man whose heart departs from the Lord and trusts in man shall be like the heath of the desert, inhabiting the parched places of the wilder

ness, where falls no dew, no former nor latter rain, whose sandy plain yields no nourishment, produces no green thing, and no seed for the support of the famished traveller, no spring, no purling brook to quench his thirst, where only the dry and worthless sand moss, the heath of the desert," preserved the semblance of vegetation,-like that moss, he shall never partake of the gentle dew from heaven, nor of the blessings of the fertile earth, The shall not see when good cometh." I saw that sinners were ingenious to deceive themselves and others: I saw that the heart of Judah with sin engraved upon it thus must be deeply and desperately wicked, and that the altars upon which sin in its blackest colours was written (altars consecrated to idols) "whilst their children remembered them, and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills," where they worshipped Baal and Moloch and the Queen of heaven, must be an abomination in the sight of God, "who searches the heart, and tries the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." I might err, I was not infallible, my heart might deceive me, but I sought evidence, I think I was not influenced either by hope or fear to reject this passage, like the rest that went before it, as wholly inconclusive testimony when produced to witness the universal, radical, original and moral corruption of human nature.

I went on, I opened the New Testament, I read Christ's Sermon on the Mount: there I found every thing to prove that man was a frail, sinful mortal, but not a vessel filled by nature to the very brim with moral corruption, made under the wrath and curse of God. I read of the pure in heart, of the merciful, of inherent righteousness, of a righteousness that must be produced, very far beyond that of the Scribes and Pharisees, to fit a man for the kingdom of heaven. I read of attainable perfection, of a good tree producing good fruit, and a corrupt tree evil fruit: I read of doing the will of God, and hearing, and doing the sayings of Jesus Christ, that the wise man built his house upon this rock. I read John ix. of a blind man restored to sight by Jesus Christ, and was surprised to hear the disciples asking him "whether this man had

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sinned or his parents that he was born blind," but I wondered not at all, at Christ's answer, "Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents." I read of evil thoughts and evil deeds proceeding out of the heart of man, and I knew that nothing upon earth be sides could produce them.

I heard the human heart described, Matt. xii. 35, as a treasury. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things." I read in the parable of the sower, Luke xv, of seed "sown in the good ground of an honest and good heart." I saw the man Jesus, the son of Adam, Abraham, Judah, David, Manasseh, one of the wickedest tyrants that ever lived, and traced among his ancestors many great sinners, and I was sure that he derived his nature from his parents, yet I believed that he was "without sin," touched with a feeling of our infirmities, tempted in all points as we are, our brother, partaker of our flesh and blood. Here a good old lady interrupted me; she said that she was satisfied of the existence of cc rupt nature, because infants when they are born! Good old lady! If you could be literally born a second time, and have all your teeth to cut over again, you would cry too, but they evince passion before they can speak; yes, they are not blocks of marble, they have nerves and feel, they express their sense of uneasiness, hunger, cold and pain: blind puppies, too, whine from the same causes; but if you cannot distinguish between the natural expression of animal feeting, want, and passion, and original sin, neither probably do you see the difference between a sinner and a fool by nature, an unhappy circumstance, which will effectually prevent us from plunging together into this deep subject.

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I certainly found nothing in the Old Testament to support this doctrine; but I am again interrupted. philosophical Calvinist, one of the rational brethren, who accounts for every thing, came forward with his text, "He answered and said, verily, no one can bring a clean thing out of an unclean," Job xiv. 4, and context. "Certainly not, therefore God will not require more of such a creature, than he is capable of performing, nos

cause him to suffer more than is necessary and salutary." "His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass, turn from him that he may accomplish as an hireling his day." Corrupt nature, he replied, is produced by natural generation, for all men existed in Adam, and all fell in him. So then, may it please your reverence, moral evil is propagated, like the king's evil. I thought a flame nourished by fœtid oil, and glimmering in a dirty lamp, might kindle a thousand gems of light, as pure as the flame of an altar produced by the lightning of heaven. I had no conception before that moral qualities were animal secretions. I read the four Gospels, not a word nor a hint did I find in them to countenance this strange opinion of corrupt nature, but much, completely to destroy it. Man is addressed there as a free moral agent, and as an accountable being; his reason and conscience are addressed, his sins are laid at the door of his inclinations, "Why do ye not of yourselves judge that which is right;"-" men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil;" " ye will not come to me;" "every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." "The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of Jesus Christ, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Thus our Lord taught, nor could I reconcile these truths with the unaccountable doctrine of radical, total, universal, moral corruption. I examined the Book of Acts: there I saw nothing about the fall of man, nothing about corrupt nature, though I read much of the wickedness of the world, of the sin of idolatry, many exhortations to faith and repentance, and the practice of righteousness. I heard Paul addressing the reason and consciences of his hearers, at Lycaonia, at Athens, at Ephesus, at Jerusalem, and at Rome. Yes, he reasoned with them

out of the Scriptures, he told them that "forasmuch as we are the offspring of God in whom we live, move, and have our being, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver, or stone graven by art, and men's device, that God overlooked the times of ignorance but now commandeth all men every where to repent." I thought that if some had preached to these Heathen they would have begun with the total depravity of human nature, as the cause of all their idolatry and vices; that they would have shewn them the need of a Saviour by teaching their utter helplessness as dead sinners; that they would have taught them that they had no hearts to understand and obey the gospel; and that therefore it was in vain to preach it to them, that such sinners have no business with it, and that in consequence (the consistency of these people is complete) they have no Christ to offer them.

Others more inconsistently would teach them the universal corruption of nature by the fall, and yet spur on these dead sinners to faith, repentance, and all the moral duties enjoined by Jesus Christ; that, instead of God's

winking at" (overlooking) the ignorance of these idolaters in times past, they were all born so ignorant and sottishly opposed to the true God, as to be by nature not the objects of his forbearance but of his abhorrence! that it was yet their duty to love this God, and to serve him perfectly, which as they neither could, nor would do, they must perish everlastingly; yet if they believed and did what they by nature could not believe and do, they might be saved; that somehow or other there is a natural ability, and a moral inability, both arising out of nature as it now is, but that his moral inability is total, and universal, completely preventing all men from taking a step in the narrow road that leads to life; that even the will and choice are by nature wholly blind, and corrupt, so that no man can choose what is good, though his judgment may perceive it. I thought if Paul had believed all this he would not have preached as he is recorded to have done.

I now proceeded to examine the apostolic writings: I read in Paul's Epistles an awful description of the state of the world, at the time of our

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God and righteousness. I thought of that passage in Jer. xiii. 23-" Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do well that are accustomed to do evil." I knew that the first man was the first sinner, and that death entered by sin. I doubted not that many became or were made sinners by this man's disobedience, that his posterity were exposed to a thousand natural evils, and consequently temptations to the commission of moral evil, which would never have existed had Adam never transgressed. I saw that men were naturally prone to wander from God; the conduct of our first parents proved that they were; therefore I was the less astonished at the abounding wickedness and folly of mankind. "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Eccles, vii. 29. I read through the Epistles, but I could find nothing in them to countenance the doctrine of a nature universally, totally, and radically corrupt. Nothing in Paul, nothing in Peter, James and John, not omitting Jude.

Lord's appearance, but I did not see that he complained of nature but of the abuse of it. He tells us that when men knew God, they glorified him not as God neither were thankful. He taught that all had sinned, and all needed mercy: he shews to what an extent vice prevailed among the idolatrous Gentiles, and superstitious and bigoted Jews. He says nevertheless, that "man is the image and glory of God." 1 Cor. xi. 7. He tells us that glory, honour and peace shall be to every man that worketh good, that when the Gentiles who have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one anothe:: and I thought that these facts were wholly subversive of the doctrine of original, universal and total depravity. I read of the reconciliation of sinners to God, of the carnal mind, of the works of the flesh, and of men dead in trespasses and sins, and that in this state the people at Ephesus, and the Jews among the rest, were by nature the children of wrath even as others in similar circumstances: I was certain that a man destitute of revealed religion, and one whose morals had been neglected, would grow up a savage, a victim to numberless evil passions, and I was not surprised to hear Paul describing the condition of the Jews as not being much better than that of the Gentiles "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind," for I had read their history, and did not doubt that a state of uncultivated nature would produce this evil fruit: I saw an instance of it in Adam, I read of sin entering into the world by one man and death by sin, and that by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. I knew that the carnal mind was enmity against God: I had seen and felt it to be so; I had suffered by it, and I thought that if men were less carnally minded, they would not be so ready to find excuses for their sins, be more humble before God, and not plead their nature as an hardened criminal pleads an alibi. I thought that this would be but a poor excuse at the day of judgment: I knew that where bad habits and the love of sin governed the heart, men were dead to

I wondered with great astonishment! Where could this doctrine originate? I thought it began in the synagogue, that it was a refinement upon the Braminical doctrine of the metempsychosis: I suspected that the apostles were tainted with this error till better taught by Jesus Christ, or why did they ask that strange question-John ix. 2. I traced it to Africa, to Europe, to the Vatican, to Lambeth Palace, to the convocation, to the synod;-I saw original sin approaching me in the habit of the holy office, an inquisitor of the order of St. Dominic, I bowed not, but I thought it high time to retire. SIGMA.

of the Repository, I experienced the genuine pleasure which results from the contemplation of the noble and dignified character of Dr. Priestley, and the probability that by this additional means the world would become still better acquainted with his excelJencies, and still more enlightened by his serious and sagacious investigation into true religion. From that period to the present I have had little opportunity of learning what progress might be made towards the accomplishment of the design, except by the occasional hints which have been given in the Repository. Confiding in the high sense which is so generally and deservedly maintained among us of Dr. Priestley's religious and theological character, I had continued to cherish the expectation that the plan would ere long be in actual preparation, and had on various occasions contributed, I venture to say, to excite the interest I felt myself in the minds of others. Let it not be supposed that I am induced to occupy your present attention by the selfish feeling of disappointment in my individual and anxious hope. I have no doubt whatever that the information which your last Number contained has produced similar regret in the breasts of many of your readers; and whether they adopt the same plan as myself, are ready to pronounce sentence upon that indifference to which alone the possible failure of such an object among us can be owing. Happy should I be if by any thing which I can offer, in conjunction with the appropriate suggestions of your worthy Correspondent in your last Number, such feelings may be inspired into the breasts of our young laymen, as may place the projected plan beyond the probability of failure.

There are four classes of persons to whom we might appeal for assistance in the publication of the new edition of Dr. Priestley's Works.-The respectable laymen in our connexion, who duly prize the importance of rational information on religious subjects; the ministers of some standing, who have had much experience in the prevalent opinion, and have learned duly to estimate these Works, which have been so great a means in the hands of Providence of contributing to the reformation which is going on; the young ministers, who have been taught indeed to make the Bible their chief book of

theology, but are aware how much they are indebted to Dr. Priestley for the present improved principles of theolo gical education; and lastly, the sons of our respectable laymen, many of whom, I doubt not, have the cause of rationaf religion at heart, and who are from time to time collecting those books by which they will store their minds with the most valuable materials for future reflection and meditation.

With respect to the first class, many have Dr. Priestley's Works already in their possession; and though probably a fair proportion of the hundred subscribers which have hitherto been procured, are from this class, yet it is not perhaps from them that the prosecution of the object may be expected. The second class have probably nearly all the Theological and Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Priestley in their present collection; and as a superfluity of money can seldom fall to their lot, their per sonal contribution would hardly secure the plan under consideration. The third class, or young ministers, no doubt feel peculiar interest in the object under consideration; but of these, the greater proportion, having it may be but recently surmounted the difficulties of an expensive education, however they could wish it, are not in a condition to spare the ten or eleven guineas out of their scanty salaries. The object de volves then pretty much upon the fourth class, consisting of the sons of respectable and wealthy laymen, to whom the expense, divided probably into two or three years, can be no hinderance whatever, and who would by their assistance, have a most excellent oppor tunity of testifying their concern for the religious welfare of their fellow men. This appeal is not made to those young men, who, attracted by the false glare of fashion, are, to the unspeakable regret of their families, in danger of forsaking those principles and that cause, which their fathers after much patient investigation, and severe sacrifices of family consideration, have nobly supported: such can hardly be expected to lend their helping hand to the cause of virtue and truth-the appeal is more to the truly interesting (and it is hoped numerous) class of young persons, who, blessed with the ineans of benevolent exertion and with the inestimable blessing of a liberal education, have conceived a deep inte rest in the religion of Jesus, soberly and