gainsayer, and to the satisfaction of every unprejudiced mind.
First, then, let it be remembered, That all our faculties are impaired by sin.
It is clear, that we are not noxo such as we were when we first came out of our Creator's hands. We were created, originally, "after God's own image6." Our mind was in perfect accordance with his mind, and our will with his will. There was not so much as a thought of our hearts which did not emanate from him, and had not respect to his glory. Our bodies were every way fitted to aid the soul in all its operations. Not an inclination, affection, or appetite, existed in us, but in perfect unison with the proper offices of the soul, and in subserviency to its dictates. Man's whole delight was in God alone. As far as his happiness was in any respect derived from the crea- ture, it was God in the creature, and not the creature itself, that was the real source of that happiness : the creature was only the medium of communication between him and his God. The goodness of God was seen and tasted by him in every thing: and every object around him afforded him an occasion of admi- ration, and gratitude, and love. To dwell in the presence of God, to commune with him, to receive and execute every intimation of his will ; in a word, to admire God in every thing, to adore him for every tiling, and to glorify him by every thing, this was the constant employment of man in his state of innocence, and the one uniform occupation both of his soul and body.
But what of all this is now left to us ? We are altogether departed from God. Every faculty of our souls, and every member of our bodies, is become depraved, so that there remains in us no part of the moral image of our God. As beings of a superior order, we still are the lords of this lower creation ; and, in the exercise of this authority, we, to a certain degree, resemble Him who is the governor of the universe f. But in righteousness and true holiness,
e Gen. i. 26. f 1 Cor. xi. 7.