A faculty of discernment between good and evil, for the moral government of man, is evidently vouchsafed to his unrenewed nature; and a power, in dependence upon the divine teaching, to accept or reject the proposals of mercy and grace, does surely remain to us, or else the numberless exhortations of God to the sinner appear to be of no benefit and no meaning: and who can reasonably suppose, that sinners would have been so frequently and severely condemned, for refusing that grace, which they were positively incapable of accepting. The language of our ninth Article on this point appears to be most temperate and unobjectionable: “Man is very _far gone_ from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit.” With this statement we may rest content.
One of the many bitter fruits of the fall is, that man no longer seeks his happiness in God, where alone it can be found, but in ways of his own devising, in the crooked ways opened to his view and imagination by the destructive enemy of his soul; no longer in innocence and holiness and obedience, but in vicious inclinations and pursuits, “in the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;” { 317} in those very principles and means, which brought “death into the world and all our woe:” it is no wonder, therefore, that happiness, from a search like this, should not be found. They, who search in this manner, are like the wicked spirit, “walking through dry places, seeking rest and finding none;” like the dove of Noah, in the overwhelming of the waters, roving about on weary wing, and finding no resting place for the sole of her foot. Nor is it possible for man to be blessed again with perfect peace, peace without any interruption or alloy, until he be altogether restored to “the image of Him that created him:” the nearer he approaches to that restoration, the more he will assuredly possess of true satisfaction and delight; but the blessing can never be complete, till the original defilement be utterly purged away, till his understanding is enlarged for a full knowledge of the good and great and glorious Creator; till he can be brought to love and serve Him without any mixture of infirmity; till he returns not only to His favour, but into His immediate presence, in the second Eden, of eternal bliss.