The fall perverted the whole of man’s nature ; not his sensual appetite only, nor his will, nor his under standing, but his whole being. In its outward act, it was rebellion against God. In its motive, it was pride and ambition ; “Ye shall be as gods.” In its effects it was a poison running through his whole physical nature, and rousing his passions into a phrenzied rebellion against himself. And henceforth sensual pleasurestupifies his judgment ; passion disturbs it ; pride and vain-glory distort it ; self-will blinds it. There is not one way only to blindness of spirit. Every thing blinds the mind of man, which is not according tothe Mind of God. It was then a poor and insufficient plea, when it has been said in behalf of this or that unbeliever, that he was, what is called “a moral man.” It was a short-sighted theory, which was anxious to point out this or that flagrant moral defect in the lives of unbelievers.

The fallen spirits have no sensual temptations. Our first parents’ sin was spiritual sin. Whatever may have been the inward life of the Pharisees in our Lord’s time, (and He Who “resisteth the proud ” often leaves them, so that they fall into disgraceful sensual sin) on the whole, they lived strict, obedient lives. ” After the straitest sect of our religion,” says S. Paul, ” I lived a Pharisee.” Our Lord Himself contrasts their lives, at one time with the Publican, at another with the Publicans and harlots ; yet, on both occasions, only to warn them, that the grosser sins of the Publicans and harlots did not keep them so hopelessly alien from the Kingdom of God, as the more subtle sins held back the Pharisee. The love of the praise of man made faith impossible. ” How ‘ can ye believe who receive glory one of another, and seek not the glory which cometh of God only ?” “They loved the praise of man, more than the praise of God.”