Moral depravity is depravity of choice. It is a choice at variance with moral law, moral right. It is synonymous with sin or sinfulness. It is moral depravity, because it consists in a violation of moral law, and because it has moral character. It is the government of free will by motives as distinguished from the government of substance by force.
Moral government is indispensable to the highest well-being of the universe of moral agents.
The universe is dependent upon this as a means of securing the highest good. This dependence is a good and sufficient reason for the existence of moral government. It is a simple, rational conception, and, strictly speaking, does not admit of a definition, since there are no terms more simple by which it may be defined. See Sinless Perfection. When physical depravity is predicated of mind, it is intended that the powers of the mind, either in substance, or in consequence of their connection with, and dependence upon, the body, are in a diseased, lapsed, fallen, degenerate state, so that the healthy action of those powers is not sustained.