View source for The soul's natural element',

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<p>Before the soul can know anything about salvation,<br />
  it must learn deeply and experimentally the nature<br />
  of sin, and of itself, as stained and polluted by sin.<br />
  <br />
  It is proud, and needs to be humbled.<br />
  <br />
  It is careless, and needs to be awakened.<br />
  <br />
  It is alive, and needs to be killed.<br />
  <br />
  It is full, and requires to be emptied.<br />
  <br />
  It is whole, and needs to be wounded.<br />
  <br />
  It is clothed, and requires to be stripped. <br />
  <br />
  <strong>The soul is, by nature . . .</strong><br />
  self-righteous;<br />
  self-seeking; <br />
  buried deep in worldliness and carnality; <br />
  utterly blind and ignorant; <br />
  filled with . . .<br />
  presumption, <br />
  arrogance, <br />
  conceit <br />
  and enmity;<br />
  hateful to all that is heavenly and spiritual. <br />
  <br />
  <strong>Sin, in all its various forms, is <br />
    the soul's natural element. </strong><br />
  <br />
  Some of the features of the unregenerate <br />
  nature of man are . . .<br />
  covetousness, <br />
  lust, <br />
  worldly pleasure, <br />
  desire of the praise of men, <br />
  an insatiable thirst after self-advancement, <br />
  a complete abandonment to all that can please <br />
  and gratify every new desire of the heart, <br />
  an utter contempt and abhorrence of everything that <br />
  restrains or defeats its mad pursuit of what it loves.<br />
  <br />
  Education, <br />
  moral restraints, <br />
  or the force of habit, <br />
  may restrain the outbreaking of inward corruption, <br />
  and dam back the mighty stream of indwelling sin, <br />
  so that it shall not burst all its bounds, and desolate <br />
  the land. But no moral check can alter human nature. <br />
  <br />
  A chained tiger is a tiger still. <br />
  <br />
  &quot;The Ethiopian cannot change his <br />
  skin, nor the leopard his spots.&quot; <br />
  <br />
  To make man the direct contrary of what<br />
  he originally is;<strong> to make him . . .</strong><br />
  love God instead of hating Him;<br />
  fear God, instead of mocking Him;<br />
  obey God, instead of rebelling against Him;<br />
  to do this mighty work, and to effect this wonderful <br />
  change, requires the implantation of a new nature <br />
  by the immediate hand of God Himself. <br />
  <br />
  Natural light, <br />
  natural love, <br />
  natural faith, <br />
  natural obedience, <br />
  in a word, <strong>all natural religion, <br />
    is here useless and ineffectual. </strong>
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