OF HUMAN NATURE. 281 frequent an intimation, that they made way for a successor worse than them- selves ? The answer is, that the truth of our universal lapse could only be proved by transmitting the record of those vices, from which even the holiest men were not exempt. And as these affecting details unan- swerably establish the truth of the doctrine, so they are not recorded for barren doctrinal information. They are recorded to furnish Christians of every age with salutary caution, with awful warning. Surely the best man among us will hardly venture to say that he is more holy than Abraham, Moses, David, or Peter. If, then, these saints exhibited such evidences of not having escaped the universal infection, will not every reflect- ing child of mortality yield to the con- viction, that this doctrine is as true as the history which has recorded it ? Will he not proceed further to say, " How then shall I be high-minded ? How shall I not
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