Concise Study of Basic Theology Vol XII

Five points of Calvinism Total Depravity explains What Presbyterians really mean by terms such as "Original Sin, " "Total Depravity, " and "Inability of the Will" is defined by our Confession of Faith, Chapter IX, Section iii: "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto."By original sin we mean the evil quality which characterizes man's natural disposition and will.
We call this sin of nature original, because each fallen man is born with it, and because it is the source or origin in each man of his actual transgressions. By calling it total, we do not mean that men are from their youth as bad as they can be. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, "deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13). Nor do we mean that they have no social virtues towards their fellowmen in which they are sincere.
We do not assert with extremists that because they are natural men, therefore all their friendship, honesty, truth, sympathy, patriotism, domestic love, are pretenses or hypocrisies. What our Confession says is, "That they have wholly lost ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation." The worst retain some, and the better much, ability of will for sundry moral goods accompanying social life.
The Great Theologian Arminius on Predestination the first and most important article in religion on which I have to offer my views, and which for many years past has engaged my attention, is the Predestination of God, that is, the Election of men to salvation, and the Reprobation of them to destruction. Commencing with this article, I will first explain what is taught concerning it, both in discourses and writings, by certain persons in our Churches, and in the University of Leyden.
I will afterwards declare my own views and thoughts on the same subject, while I shew my opinion on what they advance. On this article there is no uniform and simple opinion among the teachers of our Churches; but there is some variation in certain parts of it in which they differ from each other.1. The first opinion, which I reject, but which is espoused by those [Supralapsarians] who assume the very highest ground of this Predestination.
The opinion of those who take the highest ground on this point, as it is generally contained in their writings, is to this effect:"I. God by an eternal and immutable decree has predestinated, from among men, (whom he did not consider as being then created, much less as being fallen, ) certain individuals to everlasting life, and others to eternal destruction, without any regard whatever to righteousness or sin, to obedience or disobedience, but purely of his own good pleasure, to demonstrate the glory of his justice and mercy; or, (as others assert, ) to demonstrate his saving grace, wisdom and free uncontrollable power.