fallen creature, guilty, polluted, helpless. The know- ledge of this lies at the root of all true religion. In proportion as this is seen and felt, will the provision made for our recovery by Jesus Christ be valued : and in proportion as persons either overlook, or maintain in theory only, this truth, the whole plan of salvation by Christ will be disregarded and despised.
But the views and sentiments of those who main- tain the depravity of our fallen nature are frequently and greatly misrepresented. Injudicious persons, it is true, may speak unguardedly and unadvisedly on this subject, as they may well be expected to do on every subject ; but as the crudities of an ill-informed and violent partisan could not properly be stated as exhibing a just view of the principles of any govern- ment ; so neither can the rash unqualified assertions of the inexperienced be justly imputed to those who promulgate truth in its more sober and measured forms. It were to be wished, indeed, that our oppo- nents would content themselves with statements that may be found : but they far exceed the wildest reve- ries that have ever issued from any ignorant enthu- siast, and represent those who maintain the total depravity of our nature as reducing men to the condition of stocks and stones.
We beg leave therefore to state with some measure of precision what we mean, when we say that man is altogether polluted in every faculty of his soul, and destitute of all true goodness.
We do not mean to say that men may not be comparatively good by nature. There is as great a difference between men's natural dispositions as be- tween their intellectual powers. As some children are quick and lively in their apprehension, whilst others are dull and stupid ; so some are mild, affec- tionate, and generous in their tempers, whilst others are fierce, vindictive, and selfish. The children of the same parents, who have seen only the same examples set before them, are often as different in their dispositions, as if no ground of resemblance had existed between them.