in question is strictly moral. The intellect, the natural affections, the sympathies, have in themselves no moral quality, and are therefore neither sinful nor holy. Brutes have some degree of intellect, and very high degrees of natural affection and sympathy, but they have neither sin nor holiness. Morality, in the strict religious sense, relates to the divine law. When a man is wholly wanting in obedience to that law, he is wholly depraved. Hence men may be totally depraved, and yet be depraved in different degrees. With one man, the effects of depravity are very much restrained within its original seat-his moral nature. With another, sin has reached such a pass as nearly to have destroyed his intellectual and social nature, and to reduce him, in respect to natural affection, below the brute. Rarely is the brute found, who treats his own companion and offspring, as men in certain stages of depravity treat theirs. The young man who came to Christ to inquire what good thing he must do to inherit eternal life, retained much in his social nature which was truly lovely ;-while Herod and Nero seemed little else than incarnate fiends. In the latter cases, depravity had become much stronger, and had extended its disastrous effects much wider, than in the former; but the heart of the young man, as truly as those of Herod and Nero, was entirely at variance with the divine law. That law required him to love God supremely, and he did not do it. How clearly did Christ demonstrate this, when he applied the test. He teaches the entire depravity of the heart, also, when he describes it as the fountain of every thing evil, and of

nothing good. "For out of the heart," he says, " proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false-witnesses, blasphemies." Here is unmingled evil; and it is described by Christ as the natural fruit of the human heart. It is the fruit that the heart always bears, except as it is restrained by education, circumstancial influences, or renewing grace. How perfectly does the condition of the pagan world

prove this.

Men are in the Scriptures declared to be "dead in trespasses and in sins." The figure is too plain to be mistaken. When the body is dead, it is without any natural life; so when the soul is dead in sin, it is without any spiritual life.

indeed can be."

St. Paul says "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither That this carnal or flesh-serving mind is ascribed to all unrenewed men, and implies the entire absence of holiness, is certain from what follows," But ye"-addressing Christians-" are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of Christ dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." To the unbelieving and impenitent, Christ says, "I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you."||

The necessity of regeneration, as taught by Christ, is proof also of the entireness of human depravity ;— for if there were even a spark of holiness in the heart, man would not need to be born again, but only to

*Matt. xv. 19. † Eph. ii. 1.

Rom. viii. 7. || John v. 42.

nurse and educate the infant good already possessed. Instead of telling him that he must be born again, Christ would have told him that he must grow in holi

ness.

Not

5. This depravity is by human means INVINCIBLE. In vain are exhausted the strongest arguments and most subduing motives to subdue it;—in vain does truth convince, and the providential dealings of God lift up their voices;-in vain do mercies, afflictions, trials, and even the terrors of the death-bed pleadunless the Holy Spirit grant renewing grace. that means may be dispensed with; for it is through these that the Holy Spirit operates. Although in their most faithful application we have the most hope of the Spirit, yet however faithfully they are applied, unless the Spirit be given, the sinner will remain in his sins and perish.

Hence Christ says, "Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.""Marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again.”* St. Paul expressly asserts that God is the author of regeneration, and that he accomplishes it by the instrumentality of truth. "Of his own will begat he us, by the word of truth."+ The same authority says "Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.”‡ St. John says that regenerate persons "were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."|| Christ declares it to be the

*John iii. † James i. 18. ‡ 1 Cor. iii. 7. || John i. 13.

special office-work of the Holy Spirit to do what no other agency can accomplish-"convince the world of sin, righteousness, and a judgment to come." In the parable of the supper, he describes the utter aversion of man to his gospel, in these words-" all with one consent began to make excuse ;”*— -nor was a single guest obtained, excepting as he was compelled to come in. Christ even says, "No man can come unto me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him."t So great is his aversion that, morally speaking, he cannot come; just as the far-gone vicious man cannot come to virtue, nor the miser to benevolence. That is, he is desperately unwilling; and this, so far from excusing him, is the exact measure of his guilt. The more unwilling to do his duty, the more sinful. The plain and obvious truth here taught by Christ, is, that such is the strength of human depravity that nothing short of the power of Almighty God can overcome it.

Numerous Scriptures assert or imply, that there is no hope for the sinner but in the Spirit of God. Take such as the following-"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." That is to say, it is so wicked, that its renovation by mere human agencies is a desperate attempt.

We have thus shown that mankind are natively, morally, universally, totally, and desperately depraved. Let us conclude the chapter with a few concluding remarks respecting the importance of right views on this subject. The subject is one of a very painful and

*Luke xiv. 18. ↑ John vi. 44.

‡ Jer. xvii. 9.

humiliating nature, and therefore very unpopular. On this account, its importance is much overlooked. It lies at the very foundation of all gospel religion ;— unless we are right in this, we are wrong in all. Let us explain.

The man who is not convinced of the innateness of human depravity, will entertain feeble and imperfect views of regeneration. If he imagine the sins of men to result merely from bad education or other unpropitious circumstances, he will infer that it is only to change these, and they who before chose the wrong will choose the right. This leaves out of view the necessity for the gracious renewal of the Holy Ghost. If on the other hand a man supposes his depravity to be of a nature to render it physically impossible to avoid sinning, thus creating a necessity for the Spirit to give him the natural power, instead of the disposition, to serve God, he is drawn into the fearful vortex of fatality. His sin is only a harsh name for misfortune. His conscience is relieved ;-the cold slumbers of an iron stoicism are on his soul, to be disturbed only by the flaming morning of eternity. But if he take the right view of his depravity, so far from regarding its innateness as an excuse, he will see it to be a cause for humiliation. Such was the feeling of penitent David-"Behold," he said, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."* This he said, not in extenuation of his guilt, but as calling for deeper self-abasement. Such are the feelings with

* Psalm li.