ABSTRACT
Whether human depravity can in any proper sense be called native, innate, natural, or hereditary, is a question, which seems to call for more particular discussion. There are many pretences against the common doctrine, which ought to be exposed, and some difficulties attending it which ought, if possible, to be cleared away. Dr. Ware allows that “all men are sinners,” but says, they are so by habit, not by nature. All the wickedness of man is, in his view, perfectly consistent with his coming into being, innocent and pure. With a view to what he and others have advanced in opposition to the doctrine of native depravity, and to present the doctrine to others precisely in the light in which it has presented itself to my own mind, I, shall allow myself in the free discussion which follows.
