In referring to the primeval state, he suggests that we are a distant posterity; that we may not presume to know all that belonged to the early Eden and to man's primitive condition. He asks the question--What is sin? What is its origin? What are its effects? He says, that the definition given by St. John 3: 4, is the most definite that the whole Scripture yields, that, in 1 John 5: 17, there is a good general view of it in the statement that all unrighteousness is sin, and in James 4: 17, the same view is confirmed in the affirmation, that "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." "The first sin of every man," says Mr. Badger, "is the doing of wrong when he knows what is right. There must be a knowledge of wrong; there must be a law in the mind of the actor to render his action sin. Admitting this scriptural view, how can we consider infants, and children unborn, to be sinners? Are they acquainted with God's will? Do they know his law? We often hear people tell of the 'sins of our nature,' and of being 'sinners by nature,' and of the 'sins we bring into the world with us;' but such sins are unknown to the Scriptures, are unnamed in the word of God, and the idea was invented in the wilderness ages of Christianity." "Some, in speculating on the Garden of Eden, have so spiritualized the transaction as to please their own fancy; others have taken the garden, trees, and fruit in the most literal sense, and thereby have plunged themselves into darkness and difficulty. It is said that 'God planted a garden eastward,' but, as none are informed of its locality, its latitude and longitude on the globe, it is impossible for those who take it in a literal sense to add any discoveries to the scripture statements. It is evident that the sin of our first parents consisted in their doing a forbidden act, which was disloyalty to the true King. All that I will venture to say is this, that 'God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.'" "In regard to the question, who is the author of sin, I answer, the _actor_ is its author. Temptation is not sin. Sin consists in submitting to the influence of tempting objects. If, in the story of the garden, there are three distinct sentences of condemnation pronounced, there were also three distinct sinful actors. Sin originates in each lustful mind. Some say, Is not God the author of all things? did he not make all creatures? Yes. But sin is neither a thing nor a creature. It is the act of a creature who is enlightened and free. Many, failing to make God the author of their sins, labor to prove that the devil originates them, and thus lay to him that of which he is not guilty, and that which they had better take to themselves."