the correctness of the account I have given of the state itself as here described.

The following passage is from Calvin's "Short Formula of a Confession of Faith":

"I confess that in Original Sin are comprehended blindness of mind and perversity of heart; so that we are entirely despoiled and destitute of every thing connected with eternal life; so that even our very natural faculties are all depraved and contaminated. Whence it is that we are moved from within by no thought to do well. Wherefore I detest those who ascribe to us any freedom of will, by which we may prepare ourselves to receive the grace of God; or by which we may of ourselves coöperate with the Holy Spirit, which may be given us."- Tractatus Theologici. Opp. VIII. 90, 91. Ed. Amst. 1667 – 71.

The words immediately preceding this confession are these:

"We are every one of us born infected with Original Sin, and from ourmother's womb are under the curse of God, and a sentence of damnation; and this not on account of another's sin only, but on account of the wickedness which is within us even when it does not show itself."

The following account of Original Sin was given by the famous Synod of Dort:

"All men are conceived in sin, and born children of wrath, without ability for any good tending to salvation, inclined to evil, dead in sins, and slaves of sin; and, without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, have neither will nor power to return to God, to correct their depraved

nature, or to dispose themselves to its correction." Acta Synodi Dordrechti habita (Lugd. Batav. 1620), p. 256.

The first article of their "Canons" of Christian faith is this:

"As all men have sinned in Adam and become obnoxious to a curse and eternal death, God would have done injustice to no one, if he had willed to leave the whole human race in sin, and under a curse, and to damn them on account of sin ; ac propter peccatum damnare.” — Ibid. p. 241.

The following is the account in the "Confession of the Belgic Churches," finally approved and adopted by the Synod.

"We believe that, by the disobedience of Adam, Original Sin was diffused through the whole race of man; which is the corruption of the whole nature and an hereditary depravity, by which even infants are polluted in their nother's womb, and from which as a root every kind of sin is produced in man; and thus it is so vile and execrable in the sight of God, that it is sufficient for the condemnation of the human race. Ibid. p. 305.

President Edwards has the reputation of being the most able expositor and defender of Calvinism in modern times. His views respecting the nature with which men are born appear in the following passages.

"I now proceed to say, that mankind are all naturally in such a state, as is attended, without fail, with this consequence or issue, that they universally run themselves into that, which is, in effect, their own utter, eternal perdition, as

being finally accursed of God, and the subjects of his remediless wrath through sin." On Original Sin. Works (Worcester ed., 1808-9), VI. 137.

"If by flesh and spirit, when spoken of in the New Testament, and opposed to each other, in discourses on the necessary qualifications for salvation, we are to understand what has been now supposed, it will not only follow that men are corrupt by nature, but wholly corrupt, without any good thing. If by flesh is meant man's nature, as he receives it in his first birth, then therein dwelleth no good thing; as appears by Rom. vii. 18. It is wholly opposite to God and to subjection to his law; as appears by Rom. viii. 7, 8. It is directly contrary to true holiness, and wholly opposes it, and holiness is opposite to that; as appears by Gal. v. 17. So long as men are in their natural state, they not only have no good thing, but it is impossible they should have or do any good thing.” — Ibid. p. 322.

"So that, on the whole, there is sufficient reason to understand the Apostle, when he speaks of the natural man in that 1 Cor. ii. 14, as meaning man in his native, corrupt state. And his words represent him as totally corrupt, wholly a stranger and enemy to true virtue or holiness, and things appertaining to it, which it appears are commonly intended in the New Testament by things spiritual, and are doubtless here meant by things of the Spirit of God. These words also represent that it is impossible man should be otherwise while in his natural state." . Ibid. p. 324.

"If the Scriptures represent all mankind as wicked in their first state, before they are made partakers of the benefits of Christ's redemption, then they are wicked by nature; for doubtless men's first state is their native state, or the state they come into the world thus represent all mankind."

in. But the Scriptures do lbid. p. 325.

"If it be so with all mankind, that as soon as ever they are capable of reflecting and knowing their own moral state, they find themselves wicked, this proves that they are wicked by nature; either born wicked, or born with an infallible disposition to be wicked as soon as possible, if there be any difference between these, and either of them will prove men to be born exceedingly depraved.” — Ibid. pp. 325, 326.

It is unnecessary to adduce a larger number of passages to the present point, especially as most of those to be quoted under the heads which immediately follow bear directly upon it.

THE next proposition which is to be proved a doctrine of Calvinism is this:- That, in consequence of the nature which has been described as common to all men, God inflicts on those who retain the nature with which he formed them the most terrible punishments; that he will be their eternal enemy and infinite tormentor; that, having hated them from their birth, he will continue to exercise upon them for ever his unrelenting and omnipotent hatred. This doctrine is thus stated by the Westminster Divines in their Larger Catechism:

"The Fall brought upon mankind the loss of communion with God, his displeasure and curse, so as we are by nature children of wrath, bond-slaves to Satan, and justly liable to all punishments in this world, and that which is to come.

"The punishments of sin in this world are either inward, as blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of conscience, and vile affections; or outward, as the curse of God upon the creatures for our sakes, and all other evils that befall us in our bodies, names, estates, relations, and employments, together with death itself.

"The punishments of sin in the world to come are everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell-fire for ever."- Anss. 27-29.

To all these punishments we are, it is to be observed, justly liable for what we are by nature.

Calvin, in the second book of his Institutes, Ch. I. § 8, defines Original Sin to be "the hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, extending to every part of the mind, which, in the first place, makes us justly liable to the wrath of God (quæ primum facit reos ira Dei); and next produces those works in us, which the Scripture calls the works of the flesh."

Whether Calvin was likely to shrink from the doctrine which I have stated, as too horrible to make a part of his system, may be judged from the following passage, where he is treating of predestination.

"With regard to those whom God created for contumely in life and for eternal death, that they might be vessels of