testimony of Isaiah and Jeremiah is altogether to the same effect '^; as is that also of Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes^ And, in the New Testament, our Lord himself teaches us to regard the heart as the proper womb, where every species of ini- quity is generated, and from whence it proceeds^: and St. Paul declares of himself, as well as all the rest of the human race, that they " are by nature children of wrath s." But how can we be in such a state by nature, if we are not corrupt ? Can God regard as objects of his wrath creatures that possess his perfect image ? No : it is as fallen in Adam that he views us, and as inheriting a depraved nature that he abhors us\]
2. From collateral evidence —
[Whence was it that God appointed the painful and bloody rite of circumcision to be administered to infants of eight days old, but to shew that they brought into the world with them a corrupt nature, which it was the bounden duty of all who were in covenant with him to mortify and subdue ? Whilst, on the one hand, it sealed to them the blessings of the covenant, it intimated to them, on the other hand, that they needed to have " their hearts circumcised, to love the Lord their God."
Again, how comes it that every child, from the first moment that he begins to act at all, viamfests corrupt tempers and dis- positions ? If only some, and those the children of wicked men, evinced such depravity, we might be led to account for it in some other way : but when, with the exception of one or two who were sanctified from the womb, this has been the state of every child that has been born into the world, we are constrained to acknowledge, that our very nature is corrupt, and that, as David tells us, " we are estranged from the womb, and go astray as soon as we are born^"
Further, How can we account for the sufferings and death of infants, but on the supposition, that they are partakers of Adam's guilt and corruption? Sufferings and death are the penalty of sin : and we cannot conceive that God would inflict that penalty on millions of infants, if they were not in some way or other obnoxious to his wrath. St. Paul notices this, as an irrefragable proof that all Adam's posterity fell in him, and through him are partakers of guilt and misery'^.
Once more ; Whence is it that all need a Saviour ? If chil- dren are not, in the eye of God, transgressors of his law, they cannot need to be redeemed from its curse. But Christ is as much the Saviour of infants as of adults. We find no
" Isai. vi. 5. Jer. xvii. 9. ^ Chap. ix. 3.
f Mark vii. 21. g Eph. ii. 3.
•i The subject does not lead us to notice Adam as a federal head ; and therefore we confine om-selves to what lies immediately before us i Ps. Iviii. 3. k Rom. v. 12, 14.