Z78 ON THE CORRUPTION Now, though it cannot be denied that many of his faults are owing to a defect in education, yet his prime evil lies deeper, is radical, and must be traced to a more remote and definite cause. Had the writer been as enlightened as he was ingenious, he would have seen that the principle of evil in man was antece- dent to his education ; that it is to be found in the inborn corruption of the human heart. If, then, from an infidel, we are willing to borrow an avowal of the goodness of God in the creation of man, we must look to higher authorities to account for his degeneracy, even to the sacred oracles of God himself. The subject of man's apostacy is so nearly connected with the subject of prayer, being indeed that which con- stitutes the necessity of this duty, that some mention of the one ought to pre- cede any discussion of the other. Let, then, the conviction, that we are fallen from our original state, and that this lapse furnishes the most powerful in-
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