Good and Perfect Gifts. 185

1. To admit it fully, we must in the first place
acknowledge, that all the good we have and enjoy
proceeds from God. Let me mention in what way
this is sometimes practically denied. Some there
are who deny that man by nature has any inherent
good ; who deny that unregenerated man — that is,
uncovenanted man — is capable of thinking a good
thought, or doing a good action ; who consider that
the abilities, faculties, and dispositions of mind and
heart which belong to us by nature, are intrinsically
and radically evil. But what is inconsistent with
fact cannot be sound in theology. The records of
history supply a contradiction to this.
If it be true in fact to affirm that many great and
worthy deeds are recorded of the heroes and patriots
and sages of old time, it cannot be sound in theo-
logy to maintain that they were incapable of good.
But take we care to attribute their good to the right
source ; from Gon did they derive it, and from God
alone. He it was, aud He alone, who endued them
with patience; who inspired them with courage,
and with love of country, and love of kindred ; who
instilled in their hearts the sense of honour, of vir-
tue, and of purity; with respect of law, of justice,
nay, even of religion. To deny that these qualities
have been shown by the great men who have adorned
the annals of the past, is to confess an ignorance of
history.
