kind are generally its advocates; while the humble, the serious, and the godly, as generally acknowledge, with the Apostle, that, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, they were by nature Children of wrath even as others.

Crispus. I have several more inquiries to make on this interesting subject, which I must defer till another opportunity.

DIALOGUE IX.

ON THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF HUMAN NATURE.

Gaius. I think you said, Crispus, at the close of our last conversation, on the depravity of Human Nature, that you had several questions to ask upon the subject.

Crispus. I did so. No subject has appeared to me more interesting, or more pregnant with important consequences. The doctrine of total depravity, according to your own explication of it, seems to imply, that all that which is called in virtue in unregenerate men, is not virtue in reality, and contains nothing in it pleasing to God ; is no part of their duty towards him; but, on the contrary, is of the very nature of sin.

Gaius. And what if these consequences were admitted ?

Crispus. I have not been used to consider things in so strong a light. I have generally thought that men are universally depraved; that is, that all their powers, thoughts, volitions, and actions, are tainted with sin; but it never struck me before, that this depravity was total, so total as that all their actions are of the very nature of sin.

Gaius. You must admit that this was the doctrine embraced by the English Reformers. They tell us that "Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his spirit, are not pleasing to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school authors say,) deserve grace of congruity: Yea, rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin."* Crispus. True; but I should have suspected that they had carried things rather to an extreme. There is something so awful in the thought of a human life being one unmixed course of

* Article XIII of the Church of England.

DIALOGUE IX.

ON THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF HUMAN NATURE.

Gaius. I think you said, Crispus, at the close of our last conversation, on the depravity of Human Nature, that you had several questions to ask upon the subject.

Crispus. I did so. No subject has appeared to me more interesting, or more pregnant with important consequences. The doctrine of total depravity, according to your own explication of it, seems to imply, that all that which is called in virtue in unregenerate men, is not virtue in reality, and contains nothing in it pleasing to God; is no part of their duty towards him; but, on the contrary, is of the very nature of sin.

Gaius. And what if these consequences were admitted ?

Crispus. I have not been used to consider things in so strong a light. I have generally thought that men are universally depraved; that is, that all their powers, thoughts, volitions, and actions, are tainted with sin; but it never struck me before, that this depravity was total, so total as that all their actions are of the very nature of sin.

Gaius. You must admit that this was the doctrine embraced by the English Reformers. They tell us that "Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his spirit, are not pleasing to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school authors say,) deserve grace of congruity: Yea, rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin."* Crispus. True; but I should have suspected that they had carried things rather to an extreme. There is something so awful in the thought of a human life being one unmixed course of

* Article XIII of the Church of England.