1. It is called a bias, propensity, or inclination to sin.
2. It is called an unbalanced state of the faculties.
3. It is called a habit of sinning formed in a pre-existent state.
4. It is called a wrong combination, or proportion, in the mental faculties.
5. It is called a state resulting from the deprivation of God's Spirit.
It will now be shown that each and all of these equally involve the idea of that malformation or wrong construction which proves its author depraved.
The first is the most common method. On this view, it is claimed that the minds of angels and of Adam were constructed with such a bias or tendency to good as secured their perfect action for a given period. The mind of man, on the contrary, begins existence here so constructed that it has a contrary bias to evil; so that it never, in a single instance, chooses right till regenerated.
The angels and Adam had a holy nature, meaning a bias, which God created. Mankind have a contrary bias, which is a depraved nature, and of this, man is the author, either in, or by, or before Adam. And they all allow, that if God had created this depraved bias, or depraved nature, he would be “the author of sin.”
The second mode is, the claim that man's depravity consists in an unbalanced state of his faculties or propensities. The angels and Adam were created by God with the proper balance, and this is the holy nature made by God. Man is born with an unbalanced state of the faculties, and this was created by man himself, either by, or in, or before Adam. Now the balance of the faculties is as much a part of the construction of mind as any thing else, and if God created this depraved, he is proved to be depraved.
The third mode is, the claim that the depravity of man's mind consists in a habit of sinning. On this view, God created man's mind aright, in all respects, in a preëxistent state. In this normal condition of mind, every propensity was toward not only good, but to the best good, while there was sufficient knowledge of right created also, to save from all mistakes of judgment as to what is best and right. In this perfect state some minds began to sin, and thus formed a habit of sinning, and were then sent into this world to be reformed.