On the Augustinian theory, mind is so totally depraved as to be incapable of interpreting correctly, either the natural teachings of reason and experience, or the recorded revelations from God. Owing to this, _authorized interpreters_ of God’s will are indispensable. This makes the whole human race dependent on a class of men authorized by God to interpret his natural laws and revealed will. On the contrary, the common‐sense theory claims that every mind, in proportion as its powers are cultivated and developed, has the means of discovering the end for which all things are created, and of interpreting the teachings of reason and experience, and also of interpreting any revealed records of God’s will. It thus appears that theologians and creeds that adopt the Augustinian theory contradict themselves mainly in these two points: First, they teach that man’s nature _is_ depraved and that it is _not_ depraved. Next, that previous to regeneration, men do not perform any truly virtuous acts, and yet that while unregenerated they do perform such acts. The quotation from creeds and theologians, in preceding chapters, is proof that they teach that man’s nature is thus depraved, and that previous to regeneration he never performs a single truly virtuous act. This and the preceding chapter present some of the evidence that they teach the opposite. The following is submitted as still further evidence of such contradictions. In the first place, it is allowed by all, that the Augustinian creeds and theologians teach that man, as _a race_, including every individual, has a depraved _nature_. The question, then, all turns on the meaning of the word _nature_, and whether they affirm its depravity _in the same sense_ as they affirm that in nature man is the living image of the living God and our only guide to a knowledge of him. It is claimed that they do use the word _nature_ in one and the same sense when they affirm that man’s nature _is_ and _is not_ depraved. In proof of this we must resort to our lexicographers who have collected the various senses in which mankind use the word _nature_. And here we must again recognize the fact that the true meaning of every word is settled simply by ascertaining _what meaning men attach to it when they use it_. In examining our dictionaries, we shall find that the word _nature_ is used sometimes to signify every thing that God has created; as when it is said, “all nature speaks its Maker’s praise.” Sometimes, by a figurative use, the Author of all things is called Nature, as when it is said that “Nature paints the flowers and spreads her repasts.” No one will claim that either of these is the sense in which the word is used in reference to the nature of the mind of man as a race.