BY REV. CHARLES BRIGGS, LEXINGTON, MASS. ON HEREDITARY AND TOTAL DEPRAVITY, EZEKIEL, XVI. 20. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iuiquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. CHRISTIANITY, as taught by our Saviour and his Apostles, is most happily adapted to the capacities of men. Its doctrines and precepts, as they came from the pen of inspiration, were so plain as to be intelligible to the humblest minds. But, in process of time, the dogmas of false philosophy were mingled with the truths of revelation, and Christians received" for doctrines the commandments of men." And thus our holy religion became obscure, and comparatively unintelligible. For many a long dark century it slumbered; nay, worse than slumbered. It was debased by monkish ignorance and papal wickedness ; loaded with superstitious rites and worthless ceremonies; made to breathe an impure and earthly spirit; was used as a cloak for almost every species of vice and crime; and its enlightening, purifying, and heavenly influences were almost banished from the world. From a state of such degradation and gross corruption, centuries, we should think, would be required to bring back this religion to its primitive purity and simplicity. And centuries have been required; and the work is not yet accomplished. Much was, indeed, done by the Reformation, by Luther, Zuinglius, Melancthon, and others, to purify it from its errors and absurdities: but they left the great and glorious work unfinished. The age, in which they lived, would not admit of a radical reform. We rejoice, we bless God, that our lot has been cast at a period, when enlightened views of religion are fast taking the place of long established and deep rooted errors. Α corrupted religion cannot but exert an unfavorable influence upon the minds and hearts of its votaries. Errors in faith are calculated to lead to errors in practice; and he, who purifies our religion from any of its corruptions, does infinite service to his fellow men. And we feel it to be a most sacred duty; a duty we owe to the God of truth and the Saviour of men; to our fellow creatures, to future ages, the unborn millions, who will come after us on the stage of life, and to whom, in a certain sense, we are responsible, to do all in our power to bring back our holy faith to its original purity, to disseminate far and wide pure and undefiled religion, the truth as it is in Jesus. Ages have been heaping up rubbish about the fair temple of Christian truth; which has marred its beauty, and obscured its more than earthly grandeur and sublimity; and we would fain use our humble efforts to tear away some of its unsightly encumbrances, that it may stand forth to the eye of man in all its beautiful proportions, and attract universal admiration. And, in removing this rubbish, and these encumbrances, God forbid that we should remove so much as a pebble from its sacred foundation. My object, in this discourse, is to speak of some of the objections which obviously arise against the doctrine of hereditary and total depravity. This doctrine teaches that all men are born sinners: that they sinned in Adam, who was the representative of the human race: that his sin was imputed to his posterity; and that thereby they are made opposed to all good, and inclined to all evil. It asserts, that before we are capable of thought or reflection, before we can distinguish between right and wrong, or know good from evil, even in infancy, we are so corrupt and sinful as to be subjects of divine wrath ; that as we enter upon life, as we come from the hands of our Maker, we bring with us a load of sin and guilt sufficient to sink us to endless perdition. But lest I may be thought by some to give an exaggerated account of this doctrine, I will express it in the language of some of the Calvinistic creeds and confessions of faith, which are of undoubted authority, and particularly in the words of the Assembly's Catechism. As this confession of faith is recommended by the Orthodox clergy, and is in general use in their societies, it must, we should think, afford a just criterion of judging in what sense the doctrine of human depravity is commonly understood and believed by Orthodox Christians. I would not, however, assert that all of that denomination, at the present day, believe in it, as it is taught in that Catechism, although they thus instil it into the minds of their children; but I do assert, that this is the Calvinistic sense of the doctrine; and that all, who do not believe in it in this sense, are not, strictly speaking, Calvinists. It is thus stated. "Our first parents being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God. "The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in the first transgression. “The fall did bring man into a state of sin and misery. "The sinfulness of that state whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all the actual transgressions which proceed from it.* It is thus expressed in the Assembly's Larger Catechism. "The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in "All mankind, by the fall, lost communion with God; are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever." In the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, in the ninth article, it is thus asserted. "Original siu standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world it deserveth God's wrath and damnation.” In the creed of one of the principal Theological institutions of our country, the subject is expressed in the following language. "That in consequence of his [Adam's] disobedience, all his descendants were constituted sinners: that by nature every man is personally depraved, destitute of holiness, unlike and opposed to God, and that previously to the renewing agency of the Divine Spirit, all his moral actions are adverse to the character and glory of God; that being morally incapable of recovering the image of his creator, which was lost in Adam, every man is justly exposed to eternal damnation.”* "I confess," says Calvin, "that in original sin are comprehended blindness of mind, and perversity of heart; so that we are entirely despoiled and destitute of every thing connected with eternal life; so that even our very natural faculties are all depraved and contaminated. Whence it is that we are moved from within by no thought to do well. Wherefore I dethe guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually." * From the Creed of the Theolog. Institution, at Andover. test those who ascribe to us any freedom of will, by which we may prepare ourselves to receive the grace of God; or by which we may of ourselves cooperate with the Holy Spirit, which may be given us. "By nature, says he, we are heirs of eternal damnation, because all the human race was cursed in Adam.”† Quotations of this kind might be multiplied almost indefinitely. But I have already quoted enough to convince you of the nature of the doctrine under consideration. We are astonished that such a doctrine, even in ages of darkness, should have been regarded as a Scripture doctrine; and we are still more astonished that, at the present day, when new light is shed upon the holy scriptures, and men are beginning to reason and think for themselves on the subject of religion, it should, even in a modified sense, be believed by so many Christians; and regarded by them, too, as a peculiarly fundamental truth of revelation. Is it possible that God has created men thus, and has revealed to them their moral helplessness and their awful doom! Enlightened as we are by reason, and having in our hands the volume of revelation, and seeing the constant manifestations of God's goodness written on his works, how can we regard sentiments like those I have just quoted as of divine authority, as coming from the Author of all good? Are these the sentiments which the merciful Father of men has sent from heaven, to enlighten, to console, and to bless his children? Was it to proclaim truths like these, that he raised up holy prophets and apostles, and sent the Son of his love? Are such truths the fruits of that heavenly message, which was announced to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem, a message" of great joy," "which should be to all people"? And do they harmonize with those angelic strains, which announced the advent of the Saviour,-"Glory to * Calvini Tractatus Theologici, p 90 † Adversus Franciscanum. Tractatus Theologici, p. 403.-See "Views of Calvinism," by Prof. Norton. Christian Disciple, No. 4, Vol. 4, New Series. |