In view of the preceding, it is maintained that the word nature, as applied to mind, as settled by lexicographers, [pg 218] is always used to signify the same as its constitutional powers and faculties, and that this is the sense in which it is employed when we say “the nature of a construction or design is proof of the character and intention of the author.”
We are now prepared to show that theologians use the word nature in this same sense when they affirm that it is totally depraved, and when, at the same time, they teach that it is the image of God, and our only guide to his nature and character.
We shall first present the evidence that they use the word in this sense, when they teach that every human mind is so depraved in nature that from birth to regeneration every moral act is sin, and only sin.
The first item of evidence is the fact that all the other meanings of the word, in our dictionaries, except this, can be shown to be not the ones in which theologians use the word in reference to men as a race, so that this use is the only one remaining. They must use it in this sense, as the only one left, all others being necessarily excluded.
Again, the mode by which they attempt to prove that man has a depraved nature, shows that they use the word in this sense. For they exhibit the wrong action, or sinful feelings and conduct of the race, as the chief proof. Their argument is this: the nature of a thing is proved by its qualities, how it acts, and how it is acted upon. The human mind invariably acts depraved, therefore its nature is depraved. No one will deny that theologians always present the wicked feelings and conduct of children and of men as the proofs of a depraved nature.
It is true, that in doing this they misstate facts, and [pg 219] maintain that all the actions of men are sin, and only sin. This contradicts experience and common sense, which affirm that the human mind sometimes acts right and sometimes wrong, from the first; showing that the nature of mind is such that it naturally acts right as well as wrong. But this attempt proves that they used the word in the sense here stated.
Again: that theologians use the word in this sense, is manifest from their attempts to relieve the character of God from the charge of being “the author of sin.” They can not deny that the nature of a contrivance proves the character and intention of the author, and that, if God is the author of man's depravity by a wrong construction or nature of mind, it would be proof that he is the author of all the sin resulting from it, and thus a depraved character.
Instead of denying this use of the term, they allow it, and then try to make man himself the author of this depraved nature, either by, or in, or before Adam. That is, they allow that man's mind is wrong in construction, but claim that he himself is the author of this wrong.
Again: that theologians use the word nature in this sense, is proved by their description of the depravity intended by them. When they are urged to point out what the depraved nature of man consists in, they always state something which shows it to be wrong in construction, and which is exhibited in the wrong action of mind.
There are these following methods of describing this depravity, viz.: