If men are prone to mistake their selfish feelings for benevolent affections; then we may easily see wliy they so generally disbelieve the doctrine of total de - pravity, which is plainly taught in the word of God. ❋ Unknown (1812)
For it is not sin which he derives from his parents; at least, not sin in any sense which imports blame, but only some prejudice to the perfect harmony of this mold, some kind of pravity or obliquity which inclines him to evil. ❋ 1802-1876 (1876)
Of these moral rules or laws, to which men generally refer, and by which they judge of the rectitude or pravity of their actions, there seem to me to be three sorts, with their three different enforcements, or rewards and punishments. ❋ Unknown (2007)
He that, with Archelaus, shall lay it down as a principle, that right and wrong, honest and dishonest, are defined only by laws, and not by nature, will have other measures of moral rectitude and pravity, than those who take it for granted that we are under obligations antecedent to all human constitutions. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Lastly, they are to be taught that not only the unjust facts, but the designs and intentions to do them, though by accident hindered, are injustice; which consisteth in the pravity of the will, as well as in the irregularity of the act. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Thus, the taking from another what is his, without his knowledge or allowance, is properly called stealing: but that name, being commonly understood to signify also the moral pravity of the action, and to denote its contrariety to the law, men are apt to condemn whatever they hear called stealing, as an ill action, disagreeing with the rule of right. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Mean while the sudden affluence occasioned by trade, forced open all the sluices of luxury and overflowed the land with every species of profligacy and corruption; a total pravity of manners would ensue, and this must be attended with bankruptcy and ruin. ❋ Unknown (2004)
And if God be pleased but to give this spirit among you, I have nothing to fear but the mere weakness and pravity of my own heart and spirit. ❋ 1616-1683 (1968)
That this defilement and pollution of sin is that pravity, disorder, and shameful crookedness that is in it, with respect unto the holiness of God as expressed in the law. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
Sanctification, so far as it relates to the removal of spiritual defilement, is illustrated; and that man cannot purge himself from his natural pravity is proved, iv. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
They have no inward shame for any thing between God and their souls, especially not for the pravity and defilement of their natures, no, although they hear the doctrine of it never so frequently. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
And in the use of the means before prescribed, considering his own darkness and the treacheries of his heart, he is to pray fervently that God by his Spirit would guide and assist him in his search after the pravity and defilement of his nature. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
And although this disposition, so far as it is the result of our especial constitutions and complexion, is not sin in itself, yet it dwells at the next door unto it, and, as it is excited by the moral pravity of our natures, a continual occasion of it. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
Unto these heads, then, do I refer the mortification aimed at; that is, of any one perplexing distemper, whereby the general pravity and corruption of our nature attempts to exert and put forth itself: -- ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
In such instances doth original pravity exert itself in youth or childhood, and thereby both increase its own power and fortify the mind and the affections against the light and efficacy of conviction. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
How few, indeed, do inquire into the pravity of their natures, that vileness which is come upon them by the loss of the image of God, or do take themselves to be much concerned therein! ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
Again; we have declared not only that there is in our natural frame and spiritual constitution a discrepancy to the holiness of God, and consequently a universal defilement, but that there is, from its pravity and disorder, a pollution attending every actual sin, whether internal of the heart and mind only, or external in sin perpetrated, averse to holiness, and contrary to the carrying on of the work of sanctification in us. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
So far as any thing of this pravity or disorder mixeth itself with the best of our duties, it renders both us and them unclean: Isa. lxiv. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
This pravity or spiritual disorder with respect unto the holiness of ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
It remains, therefore, only that we inquire a little into the reasons and causes why this pravity of sin and discrepancy from the holiness of God is such a defilement of our natures, and so inseparably attended with shame; for without the consideration hereof we can never understand the true nature of sanctification and holiness. ❋ 1616-1683 (1967)
