Outworkings of the Natural Life

Men who are ruled solely by the natural life exhibit a range of personalities and behaviors. Scougal looks to providence to explain this, observing that it is felicitous that natural men are so very different or else self-love might prove ruinous to society. Indeed, in some such persons self-love expresses itself as great interest in matters of religion--"The glorious things that are spoken of heaven may make even a carnal heart be in love with it," although such love is restricted to the trappings of glory and not to the spiritual realities at the center. In this way, Scougal tries to account for the "splendid sins" of mankind.

I am not convinced. I think Scougal bends over backwards to credit relative good found within natural men. From a strictly human perspective this might be desirable--even the most depraved sinner contains the image of God within him; that "divine spark" sometimes works itself out in surprising ways. But it is this marred yet resident image of God that should get the credit for the relative good that the natural man does, not the natural man himself.