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The late Dr . Rees on the Moral State of Man by Nature . [ Amongst Dr . Kees ' s MSS ., his executors have found the following paper which they have kindly put into our hands . It was evidently drawn up for the Monthly Repository , but probably withheld from the writer ' s well-known disinclination to theological controversy . Being designed and preserved as an explanation of his opinion on an important subject , there is now , we conceive , no impropriety in its publication . The Reviewer of Dr . Rees ' s
Sermons in our XVIth Vol . pp . 610 , 61 1 , had pointed out a passage wliich he thought objectionable as savouring of the doctrine of hereditary depravity , which he was persuaded the
enlightened author did not intend to inculcate . This gave occasion to these " Queries . " E » . ] candid
Queries addressed to the lieviewer of Rees ' s Practical Sermons . I . 1 VfD man suffer any injury either JL-P in his mental or corporeal frame by the introduction of sin , and , as I conceive , of death , into the world ? Have we not reason to believe , that if man had not sinned , he would not have known death ? Does one evil , converted ultimately indeed into a benefit , follow the other ; and is it not reasonable to imagine , that it would have been prevented in a state of innocence ? By one man sin entered into the world , and death by sin .
II . Was not the constitution of man , or human nature , as far at least as it depends upon the material part , vitiated or impaired by the influence of sin and death ? III . Arc not the senses and passions and instincts of the frame of man , depending upon the connexion of mind with matter , in a more disordered state and more susceptible of impressions and biasses unfavourable to rectitude of judgment , volition , and conduct , than they would have been , it' man had retained his innocence and his corporeal health , if I may so call it , soundness and vigour ? IV . Was not sin a kind of disease of the human frame > and did not the seeds of this disease live , and a degree of tendency to disorder , if not disorder itself , remain ? And was it not transmitted from one generation
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to another ? Upon this supposition f am able to understand ana explain the language of Scripture in many passages , which would be otherwise of difficult interpretation . If this be the state of man , a certain degree of infelicity attends it ( but no demerit
or guilt ) , which is amply compensated and repaired by the dispensations of Providence and the grace of the gospel , of which intimations were given soon after the evilcommenced , V . Have we not observed , that
certain dispositions are connected with and result from certain constitutions ? What is the sin that easily besets us , the well-circumstanced sin , the sin to which some persons are naturally inclined , or the master-j > a $ sion in the mortal frame of man ? This
constitutional propensity disposes some persons to one sin more than to others , and all more or less to some gratification which , though not at first culpable , soon becomes criminal and guilty , and needs correction and restraint .
VI . Would not inclinations so unfavourable and even hostile to virtue spring up more readily , and be more cherished and indulged , in such a state of body and mind , than in a constitution unimpaired , or not vitiated , by sin and death ?
VII . Although in these inclinations , or yet their first rise , there is nothing criminal or culpable , yet are they not more likely to become impediments to virtue and injurious to it , than if man had been introduced into the world in
a different state ? As the instruments of virtue by which it acts , and by means of which it is maintained or obstructed in its exercise , are they not more or less favourable to a right conduct than if the human frame were differently constituted ? This state of human nature I denominate the
degeneracy of mankind , using that term rather than depravity , to which , however , 1 have no objection , because it has been technically abused and misapplied 3 but sinfulncss or guilt has
been unjustly charged upon it . Imputation of sin and culpable depravity are terms I never use , because they express opinions which 1 have-not entertained for more than half a
century . VIII . Appealing to fact and experience , do we not find that at a very early period instincts arid passions
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398 Tlte Icte Dr . Rees on the Moral State of Man by Nature .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 398, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/14/
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