4th. There remains no recuperative element in the soul. Man can only and for ever become worse without a miraculous recre- ation.
9. What proof of the doctrine of original sin may be derived from the history of the Fall ?
God created man in his own image, and pronounced him as a moral agent to be very good. He threatened him with death in the very day that he should eat the forbidden fruit, and only in the sense of spiritual death was that threat literally fulfilled. The spiritual life of man depends upon communion with God ; but God drove him at once forth in anger from his presence. Consequently the present spiritual state of man is declared to be " death," the very penalty threatened. — Eph. ii., 1 ; 1 John iii., 14.
10. What is the account which the Scriptures give of human nature, and how can the existence of an innate hereditary deprav- ity be thence inferred ?
The Scriptures represent all men as totally alienated from God, and morally depraved in their understandings, hearts, wills, consciences, bodies and actions. — Eom. iii., 10-23 ; viii., 7 ; Job xiv., 4 ; xv., 14; Gen. vi., 5; viii., 21 ; Matt, xv., 19 ; Jer. xvii., 9 ; Is. i., 5, 6. This depravity of man is declared to be, 1st, of the act, 2d, of the heart, 3d, from birth and by nature, 4th, of all men without exception. — Ps. Ii., 5 ; John iii., 6 ; Eph. ii., 3 ; Ps. Iviii., 3.
11. State the evidence for the truth of this doctrine afforded by Eom. v., 12-21.
Paul here proves that the guilt, legal obligation to suffer the penalty, of Adam's sin is imputed to us, by the unquestionable fact that the penalty of the law which Adam broke has been in- flicted upon all. But that penalty was all penal evil, death phy- sical, spiritual, eternal. Original sin, therefore, together with
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natural death, is in this passage assumed as an undeniable fact, upon which the apostle constructs his argument for the imputa- tion of Adam's sin.
12. Hoiv is the truth of this doctrine established by the fact of the general prevalence of sin ?
All men, under all circumstances, in every age of the world, and under whatever educational influences they may be brought up, begin to sin uniformly as soon as they enter upon moral agency. A universal effect must have a universal cause. Just as we judge that man is by nature an intelligence, because the actions of all men involve an element of intelligence, so we as certainly judge that man is by nature depraved, because all men act sinfully.
13. If Adam sinned, though free from any corruption of nature, how does the fact that his posterity sin prove that their nature is corrupt ?
The fact that Adam sinned proves that a moral agent may be at once sinless and fallible, and that such a being, left to himself, may sin, but with respect to his posterity the question is, what is the universal and uniform cause that every individual always certainly begins to sin as soon as he begins to act as a moral agent ? The question in the one case is, How could such an one sin ? but in the other, Why do all certainly sin from the begin-
14. By what other objections do Pelagians and others attempt to avoid the force of the argument from the universality of sin ?
1st. Those who maintain that the liberty of indifference is essential to responsible agency, and that volitions are not deter- mined by the precedent moral state of the mind, attribute all sin- ful actions to the fact that the will of man is unconditioned, and insist that his acting as he acts is an ultimate fact.
In answer, we acknowledge that a man always wills as he pleases, but the question is, Why does he always certainly please to will wrong ? An indifferent cause can not account for a uni- form fact. The doctrine of original sin merely assigns the de-
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praved character of the will itself as the uniform cause of the uni- form fact.
2d. Others attempt to explain the facts by the universal influ- ence of sinful example.
We answer : (1.) Children uniformly manifest depraved dis- positions at too early a period to admit of that sin being ration- ally attributed to the influence of example. (2.) Children mani- fest depraved dispositions who have been brought up from birth in contact with such influences only as would incline them to holiness.
3d. Others, again, attempt to explain the facts by referring to the natural order in the development of our faculties, e. g., first the animal, then the intellectual, then the moral : thus the lower, by anticipating, subverts the higher.
For answer, see above, question 4. Besides, while this is an imperfect explanation, it is yet a virtual admission of the fact of innate hereditary depravity. Such an order of development, leading to such uniform consequences, is itself a total corruption of nature.
15. What argument for the doctrine of original sin may be derived from the universality of death ?