Dr. Taylor, the successor of Dr. Dwight as head of the New Haven school of divines, teaches thus:
“Men are entirely depraved by nature. I do not mean that their nature is in itself sinful, nor that their nature is the physical or efficient cause of their sinning; but I mean that their nature is the occasion or reason of their sinning—that such is their nature, that in all the appropriate circumstances of their being they will sin and only sin.”
He further states:
“That sin is by nature owing to propensities to inferior good, with a difference between Adam's mind and ours (though we can not assert that in which this difference may consist); that our propensities are the same in kind, though different in degree, from those of Adam; that perhaps this distinction may consist in mental [pg 028]differences—or in superior tendencies, compared with Adam's, to natural good, and less tendency to the highest good.”
Thus, on account of the first sin of the first pair, God constituted such a state of things, that instead of perfect minds, such as God gave to the angels and to Adam, all men receive such “a nature” as insures “sin and only sin,” until regeneration takes place.
The next extracts will verify the statements made as to the mode adopted by Catholic theologians.
Catholic Mode.
The Catholic mode is that of mystery and sovereignty, and is based on the assumption that the mind of man, being utterly depraved, has no capacity to judge of what is right and wrong.
According to this, the most abominable and horrible crimes are to be considered virtues if God should commit them, or should teach us that they are so.
Among the most distinguished of the Catholic theologians is the learned Abelard, who teaches thus: