article, intitled " Original or Birth Sin," it is said, " Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the fault and corruption of eve?'i/ man that naturally is engen- dered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit ; and therefore in every person born into this xoorld it deserveth God's wrath and damnation." Then, in reference to the impotency of man to do any thing that is truly good, it is said in the next article, " The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God : wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ prevent- ing us that we may have a good will, and working vs^ith us when we have that good will."
We forbear to comment on these articles, because all of us can refer to them and examine them for ourselves : but there is an end of all certainty in lan- guage if these articles do not affirm all that we have expressed in the foregoing statement. The homilies of our Church speak in numberless passages to the same effect. In that for Whit-Sunday, it is said, " Man of his own nature is fleshly and carnal, corrupt and naught, sinful and disobedient to God, without any spark of goodness in him, (mark these words, " without any spark of goodness in him") without any virtuous or godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds." And in our Liturgy, our help- lessness is stated in terms equally strong ; in the Collect for the second Sunday in Lent, we address the Deity in the following words ; " Almighty God, who seest that we have ?io power of ourselves to help ourselves"
It would occupy too much time if we were to mul- tiply quotations on these subjects. The Articles, the Homilies, the Liturgy, all abound with expressions to the same effect ; so that no man can read them