Note E.
This mode of explaining the depravity of mind is to be found in the Conflict of Ages. On page 90 the following passage exhibits the author's idea, both of a perfectly constructed mind, and of a depraved mind:
“So there is a life of the mind. It involves an original and designed correlation to God, and such a state of the affections, passions, emotions, intellect and will, that communion with God shall be natural, habitual, and the life of the soul. He who has been so far healed by divine grace as to reach this state, has a true idea of the normal and healthy state of the soul. And if he finds that there is that in the state of his moral constitution and emotions which seems to lie beneath his will and undermine its energy to follow the convictions of reason and conscience, and that by divine grace this has been changed, and an energy not only to will but to do good is supplied, is it to be wondered at that, in some way, he should come to the conclusion that there is in his nature or moral constitution, depravity or pollution, anterior to the action of the will?”
The theory which this author adopts is, that the “normal” state of man's “nature or moral constitution” was created in man by God in a preëxistent state, and that man's “depravity or pollution anterior to the action of the will” consists in “a habit of sinning,” generated in this preëxistent state.
This habit of sinning was not a part of the perfectly-constructed nature made by God. Man himself introduced it into his own mind, thus rendering it so depraved that every moral act is sin, and only sin.
Regeneration, according to this theory, consists in a change of the “state of the moral constitution,” whereby “an energy not only to will but to do good is supplied.” That is to say, the “habit of sinning” can be lessened or removed by some supernatural change of the “moral constitution” by God. And yet all men are born with this depravity which God can remedy, and will not, except for a select few.
It is manifest, therefore, that this writer holds to a depravity of nature in the true and proper sense of the term, signifying constitution or construction.
This being so, his theory puts it out of his power to prove the benevolence of the Creator, or to establish any revelation from him as a reliable guide to truth and happiness.
For it is the nature of any created thing which proves the character and intentions of its creator. If then all human minds are depraved in nature or “constitution,” the Creator of these minds is thus proved to be depraved, and no revelations from him can be reliable. He prefers sin and evil to virtue and happiness, and of course his teachings can be no guide to truth, virtue and happiness. Thus, by his own theory, this author is debarred from any proof of a preëxistent state by revelation.
On page 20 it is further stated that “inasmuch as the mind of man is depraved, and there may be danger in trusting its unrevised, uncorrected decisions as to these principles [of honor and right], it is of great importance, for purposes of revision, carefully to study those developments of benevolent, honorable and just feelings, towards which the human mind, after regeneration, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is found most directly to tend.”
This passage shows that this depravity of the “moral constitution,” generated in a preëxistent state, in the view of this author, is such that there is danger in trusting our mental decisions as to the principles of honor and right at first implanted by God, but vitiated and impaired by the “habit of sinning.” This danger, it is suggested, is lessened “after regeneration,” so that regenerated persons are thus entitled to guide their unregenerate fellow-men in matters of truth and duty. This lays the foundation for the claims of a regenerate church and clergy to superior authority in deciding on the interpretations of the Bible. The tendencies of such claims to pride, dogmatism and persecution, are pointed out in chapter 41.