The New Divinity Tried [pp. 278-304]

The New Divinity Tried.
the human race." The Polish Confession, Art. iii. "All
men, Christ only excepted, are conceived and born in sin,
even the most holy Virgin Mary. Original sin consists not
only in the entire want of original righteousness, but also in
depravity, or proneness to evil, propagated from Adam to all
men." The Augsburg Confession, Art. ii. "This disease or
original depravity is truly sin, condemning and bringing even
now eternal death to those who are not renewed by baptism
and the Holy Spirit." And the Forma Concordantie, "Not
only actual transgressions should be acknowledged as sins, but
especially this hereditary disease should be regarded as a horrible sin, and, indeed, as the principle and head of all sins,
whence, as from a root, all other transgressions grow."
We have referred to the leading confessions of the period of
the Reformation to show that they all represent as the constituent essential idea of original sin-a corrupted nature-or
hereditary taint derived from Adam, propagated by ordinary
generation, infecting the whole race, and the source or root
of all actual sin. This is not the doctrine therefore of Calvinists merely, but of the Reformed churches generally, as it was
of the Catholic church before the Reformation. It is the doctrine, too, of the great body of Arminians. It is unnecessary
to refer to individual writers after this reference to symbols
which express the united testimony of thousands as to what
original sin is. That the more modern Calvinists, (with the
exception of the advocates of the exercise scheme) unite in
this view, is as plain, and as generally acknowledged, as that
it was held Wy the Reformers. Thus President Edwards defines original sin to be, "an innate sinful depravity of heart."
He makes this depravity to consist, "in a corrupt and evil
disposition," prior to all sinful exercises. He infers from the
universality and certainty of the sinful conduct of men, first,
"that the natural state of the mind "of man is attended with
a propensity of nature to such an issue," and secondly, that
their'nature is corrupt and depraved with a moral depravity." He speaks of this propensity "as a very evil, pernicious
and depraved propensity;" "an infinitely (Ireatlful and pernicious tendency."' He undertakes to prove "that wickedness belongs to the very nature of men." He devotes a chapter to the consideration of the objection, "that to suppose men
born in sin without their choice, or any previous act of their
own, is to suppose what is inconsistent with the nature of sin;"
and another, to the objection, that "the doctrine of native
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