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tion, that labor was a punishment or curse on Adam for his sin, is utterly unfounded, positively contradicted; for long before, we know not how long before, his sin, before the woman was formed, at his creation, it is distinctly stated, he was placed in the garden to dress it and keep it. So that labor was with Adam, as it is with us, one of the ends of his existence, the condition of his support and improvement, not a curse, but a blessing.

And we also see, that natural death was not a curse or punishment on Adam for his sin, but, like labor, was one of the conditions of his being. In declaring that he should eat his bread by the sweat of his face, till he should return to the ground from. which he was taken, it is clearly implied, that he would under any circumstances have restored his body to the ground. The reason of his bodily death is explicitly given, "because dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." Moreover, had it been a curse, there is not a syllable to warrant the application to any other than Adam himself; for all that is said, is said to Adam alone, without reference to posterity, and without reference even to Eve, his wife. It is unnecessary, or I might furnish you a catalogue of names of the most eminent scientific clergymen of every denomination, Roman Catholic and Protestant, who now repudiate the idea of death being a curse on animals and men, because of Adam's sin. As these same men clearly show, the statements of the Bible agree perfectly with the volume of nature, in declaring by the strata of matter which compose the earth, that millions of animals lived and died ages before Adam had existence; that

the very dust composing Adam's body had probably undergone a thousand transformations, and composed the body of many an animal during the preceding ages; and that natural death, so far from being a curse, a king of terrors, is a blessing, a heavenly messenger, disenthralling the soul from its material tenement, from a decaying encumbrance, that the freed spirit may rise to a spiritual, ever progressing, immortal life.

Now, friends, I again urge you, with all the earnestness of my soul, to submit these questions to the most thorough examination. Prevailing systems of doctrines concerning the nature of God, and concerning human nature, are not founded on the explicit language of the Bible; but on old and barbarous traditions, which have been brought by Christians from the several religions to which they originally belonged, and from which they were converted to Christianity. On this unscriptural theory of the fall of all men, the guilt of all men, in and with Adam, are based the doctrines of total depravity, and of arbitrary election, and of vicarious atonement. It is the corner-stone of the prevailing theology. It is the fountain of evil from which have been flowing streams of error, for century after century, over the Christian world.

Certainly, if for a thousand years before the day of Luther the whole Christian Church was immersed in degrading superstition and vice scarcely superior to the darkest darkness of Paganism, — and he then brought truth and virtue and righteousness into a clearer light, surely it is time now that we all, in the determined spirit of Luther, should bring

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truth into a still clearer light, and decide on the authority or the groundlessness of this doctrine of the origin of sin, this doctrine of man's guilt before he is born, which is now deemed a fundamental doctrine. As much now as in the time of Luther is needed an effectual shaking among the dry bones of a theology, which has been framed and re-framed, by councils of violent and angry church disputants, to suit the times in which it was formed, but which is unsupported by any rational interpretation of the Bible, and refuted by the consciousness of every intelligent being. It is full time, that reason and science and history and experience should be considered in the interpretation of Scripture language, and that atheism and infidelity should not for ever be permitted to point the finger of scorn at the Bible, as a book which they allege controverts nature, and cannot therefore be from nature's God, for God never contradicts himself. Scripture and nature harmonize completely, when reasonably compared, and it is time this should be fully verified, and men delivered from the bondage of distrust and fear. But no, no, say churches and theologians; you sinned in Adam before you were born, sixty centuries ago; your nature is corrupt; your reason is depraved; history is false, and experience is fallacious.

Yes, this is the tyranny this revolting doctrine is practising on the world. It robs you of your divine dignity, deprives you of the exercise of reason, and then dooms you to woe for your misfortune. You seek for knowledge, and light, and truth; but it tells you that you are spiritually, naturally blind,

and could not know the truth if found by you; that your conscience cheats you, and your experience deceives you, and you are a helpless, miserable wretch, and you must submit yourself to the guidance of the church, and obey the preacher who has been illuminated by the special grace of God. Be men, worthy of your divine lineage, throw off the spiritual yoke, and stand forth in the unobstructed sunlight of divine love, communing freely with your Father and your God. Obey the injunction of Jesus himself, "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?"

DISCOURSE VI.

THE IMMORAL TENDENCIES OF THE COMMON DOCTRINE OF VICARIOUS ATONEMENT.

MEN Sometimes possess pictures, which they regard as correct likenesses and admirable specimens of art; but they are suspended in drawing-rooms, and are rarely looked at and seldom thought of, except when some guest presumes to criticise, and doubt their correctness and question the good taste of their possessors. Men possess books, which perhaps they once read, approve, and place upon their shelves, to rest quietly in their owner's library, unobserved and perhaps unremembered, till some visitor and reader presumes to call in question the philosophy of the book which has at one time received the approbation of its owner. It is the same with systems of religious doctrines. Some men receive a doctrine or a system of doctrines, perhaps submit it to a cursory examination, perhaps to no examination, but receive it implicitly on the authority of friends or teachers, approve it as no doubt logical and Scriptural, and, having thus decided on a religious faith, go undisturbed about their ordinary pur

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