And this conclusion corresponds with the experience of mankind in every age: happiness has always been their object; philosophers have laid down rules for its acquirement, and every variety of expedient has been tried; but all in vain; there is no permanent pleasure or satisfaction upon earth: independently of the crosses and vexations from without, by which it is so continually disturbed, there is something in the constitution of man, in the present state of his mind and heart and affections, by which the attainment of happiness, from temporal means alone, is positively forbidden. The royal preacher, thus convinced of this truth, turns his thoughts to a solution of the case, and sums up his observations, on the conduct and condition of man, in the words of the text. Instead of arraigning, like some bold and impious cavillers of our day, the wisdom or goodness of the Creator in the introduction of evil into the world, he gives the true account of the matter; and lays the blame where alone it is due, upon the disobedience and degeneracy of man. And in so doing, he bears testimony to the truth of one of the most important communications made to us in the revealed word of God—the original innocence and the fall of our first parents. This fact has been daringly called in question by certain professed believers of divine revelation, by some who boast themselves peculiarly entitled to the christian name. Anxious to exalt the moral excellency of human nature, and to disprove the doctrine and necessity of the atonement, through the prevailing efficacy of the Saviour’s incarnation and sufferings, such vain disputers absolutely deny, in the very face of God’s word, that any such total and dreadful change has ever taken place in the state of mankind; they contend, that our understandings and affections are now the same, as when we came originally from the hands of our Creator. It appears, however, that the _wisest_ of men took a different view of this momentous subject; that he received the Mosaic account, recorded in the opening of the book of Genesis, according to its plain and natural interpretation; and he has delivered to us his judgment, by the inspiration of that Holy Spirit, under whose guidance it was impossible for him to err.