As an example of this, is presented the following extract from the writings of Dr. Bennet Tyler, the president of a theological seminary established to sustain the New England theology of the President Edwards’ type, in opposition to the supposed Pelagian innovations of the New Haven theologians: “God has endowed you with understanding to perceive the rule of duty, with conscience to feel obligation, and with _will_ to choose between good and evil. Possessing these powers, you are complete moral agents, and have _all_ the ability to obey the commands of God that you ever will have, or ever _can_ have—we do not mean that all the powers and faculties of his (man’s) soul are so impaired that he _could not_ do his duty if he would, but that he _will_ not do his duty when he can.” In reading the above, one would suppose that there was nothing wrong at all in the construction of the human mind, and that the whole difficulty consisted in _not willing_ aright—that is, that the depravity is not in a wrong _nature_, but in the wrong _action_ of a perfect nature. And yet, at the time of this writing, the author was the leader of an effort to oppose this very doctrine, which was supposed to be taught by the New Haven divines. In a recent work by the chief theological teacher of the leading Baptist Seminary,(17) we find similar contradictory statements. He thus writes: “_Regeneration_ is not only characterized by the sacred writers as a _creative act_, by which the subject of it becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus, and a generation from above, by which the soul is brought into new spiritual life; but also a washing, a bathing, effected by the Holy Ghost, by which the polluted soul is cleansed; as an illumination, by which it is filled with the knowledge of God, and qualified to appreciate spiritual things. The eye of conscience is cleared, the desires and affections are renewed and flow into new channels, and the selfish views, prejudices and motives, which formerly reigned in the soul, are superseded by faith, love and hope, resting in Christ, and leading to every good work. The _entire spirit_ is readjusted morally, its aspirations, tendencies and relations to God are rectified, and it enters, so to speak, upon a new life.” In this passage, regeneration is called “a creative act” changing the _conscience_, the _desires_, the _views_, the _prejudices_ and the _motives_—so that “_the entire spirit_ is _readjusted_,” and all its “aspirations, tendencies and relations to God are rectified.” It is not in the power of language to express _a change_ in the _faculties_ and _constitutional elements of mind_ more entirely than this; and yet the very next paragraph reads thus: