The Scriptures expressly Teach the Doctrine.
The Sci-iptures not only indirectly teach the doctrine of original sin, or of the hereditary, sinful corruption of our nature as de- rived from Adam, by teaching, as we have seen, the universal and total depravity of our race, but they directly assert the doctrine. They not only teach expressly that men sin universally and from the first dawn of their being, but they also assert that the heart of man is evil. It is declared to be " Deceitful above all things, and des))erately wicked : Who can know it ? " (Jer. xvii. 9.) " The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Eccl. viii. 11.) Every imagination of the thoughts of his (man's) heart is only evil." (Gen. vi. 5) ; or as it is in Gen. viii. 21, "• The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." By heart in' Scriptural language is meant the man himself; tlie soul ; that which is the seat and source of life. It is that which thinks, feels, desires, and wills. It is that out of which good or evil thoughts, desires, and pnr]ioses proceed. It never signifies a mere act, or a transient state of the soul. It is that which is abiding, which de- termines character. It bears the same relation to acts that the soil does to its productions. As a good soil brings forth herbs suited for man and beast, and an evil soil brings forth briars and thorns, so we are told that the human heart (liuman nature in its present state), is proved to be evil by the prolific crop of sins which it everywhere and always produces. Still more distinctly is this doctrine taught in Matt. vii. 16-19, where our Lord says that men are known by their fruits. " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or fiti-s of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
§ 13.] ORIGINAL Sm. 241
good fruit." And again, in Matt. xii. 33, " Eithei* make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." The very pith and point of these instructions is, that moral acts are a revelation of moral character. They do not constitute it, but simply manifest what it is. The fruit of a tree reveals the nature of the tree. It does not make that natui'e, but simply proves what it is. So in the case of man, his moral exercises, his thoughts and feelings, as well as his external acts, are determined by an internal cause. There is something in the nature of the man distinct from his acts and anterior to them, which determines his conduct (2. e., all his con- scious exercises), to be either good or evil. If men are universally sinful, it is, according to our Lord's doctrine, proof positive that their nature is evil ; as much so as corrupt fruit proves the tree to be corrupt. When therefore the Scriptures assert that the heart of man is " desperately wicked," they assert precisely what the Church means when she asserts our nature to be depraved. Neither the word, heart, nor nature, in such connections means substance or essence, but natural disposition. The words express a quality as distinguished from an essential attribute or property. Even when we speak of the nature of a tree, we do not mean its essence, but. its quality ; something which can be modified or changed without a change of substance. Thus our Lord speaks of making a tree good, or making it evil. The explanation of the Scriptural meaning of the word heart given above is confirmed by analogous and synonymous forms of expression used in the Bible. What is sometimes designated as an evil heart is called " the old man," " a law of sin in our members," " the flesh," "the carnal nn'nd," etc. And on the other hand, what is called "a new heart," is called "the new man," " a new creature" (or nature), "the law of the Spirit," " the spiritual mind," etc. All these terms and phrases designate what is inherent, immanent, and abiding, as opposed to what is transient and voluntary. The former class of terms is used to describe the nature of man before it is regenerated, and the other to describe the change consequent on regeneration. The Scriptures, therefore, in declaring the heart of man to be deceitful and desperately wicked, and its imaginations or exercises to be only evil continually, assert in direct terms the Church doctrine of orig- inal sin.
The Psalmist also directly asserts this doctrine when he says (Ps. li. 5), " Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." In the preceding verses he had confessed