PART
CONTAINING
OBSERVATIONS ON PARTICULAR PARTS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE, WHICH PROVE THE DOCTRINE
OF ORIGINAL SIN.
CHAPTER II
OBSERVATIONS
ON OTHER PARTS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, CHIEFLY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, THAT PROVE
THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN.
ORIGINAL
depravity may well be argued, from wickedness being often spoken of in
Scripture, as a thing belonging to the race of mankind, and as if it were a
property of the species. So in Psa. 14:2, 3, “The Lord looked down from
heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did
understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside; they are altogether become
filthy: there is none that doeth good; no, not one.” The like we have again,
Psa. 53:2, 3. — Dr. T. says (p. 104, 105), “The Holy Spirit does not mean
this of every individual; because in the very same psalm, he speaks of some that
were righteous, verse 5. God is in the generation of the righteous.”
But how little is this observation to the purpose? For who ever supposed, that
no unrighteous men were ever changed by divine grace, and afterwards made
righteous? The psalmist is speaking of what men are as they are the children
of men, born of the corrupt human race; and not as born of God, whereby they
come to be the children of God, and of the generation of the righteous. The
apostle Paul cites this place in Rom. 3:10-12 to prove the universal corruption
of mankind; but yet in the same chapter he supposes the same persons spoken of
as wicked, may become righteous, through the righteousness and grace of God.
Wickedness is
spoken of in other places in the book of Psalms, as a thing that belongs to
men, as of the human race, as sons of men. Thus, in Psa. 4:2, “O ye sons
of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love
vanity?” etc. Psa. 57:4, “I lie among them that are set on fire, even the
sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp
sword.” Psa. 58:1, 2, “Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do
ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness;
ye weight out the violence of your hands in the earth.” Our author mentioning
these places, says (p. 105. note), “There was a strong party in Israel
disaffected to David’s person and government, and sometimes he chooseth to
denote them by the sons or children of men.” But it would have been worth his
while to have inquired, Why the psalmist should choose to denote the
worst men in Israel by this name? Why he should choose thus to disgrace mankind,
as if he compellation of sons of men most properly belonged to such as were of
the vilest character, and as if all the sons of men, even every one of them,
were of such a character, and none of them did good; no, not one? Is it not
strange, that the righteous should not be thought worthy to be called sons of
men, and ranked with that noble race of beings, who are born into the world
wholly right and innocent? It is a good, easy, and natural reason, why he
chooseth to call the wicked, sons of men, as a proper name for them, That
by being of the sons of men, or of the corrupt, ruined race of mankind, they
come by their depravity. And the psalmist himself leads us to this very reason,
Psa. 58, “Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? yea, in heart ye
work wickedness ye weigh out the violence of your hands. The wicked are estranged
from the womb,” etc. Of which I shall speak more by and by.
Agreeable to these
places is Pro. 21:8, “The way of man is froward and strange; but as for
the pure, his work is right.” He that is perverse in his walk, is here
called by the name of man, as distinguished from the pure: which I think
is absolutely unaccountable, if all mankind by nature are pure, and
perfectly innocent, and all such as are froward and strange in their ways,
therein depart from the native purity of all mankind. The words naturally lead
us to suppose the contrary; that depravity and perverseness properly belong to
mankind as they are naturally, and that a being made pure, is by an after-work,
by which some are delivered from native pollution, and distinguished from
mankind in general: which is perfectly agreeable to the representation in Rev.
14:4, where we have an account of a number that were not defiled, but
were pure, and followed the Lamb; of whom it is said, “These were redeemed
from among men.”
To these things
agree Jer. 17:5, 9. In verse 5, it is said, “Cursed is he that trusteth in man.”
And in verse 9, this reason is given, “The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” What heart is this so wicked
and deceitful? Why, evidently the heart of him, who, it was said before, we
must not trust; and that is MAN. It alters not the case as to the present
argument, whether the deceitfulness of the heart here spoken of, be its
deceitfulness to the man himself, or to others. So Ecc. 9:3, “Madness is in
the heart of the sons of men, while they live.” And those words of
Christ of Peter, Mat. 16:23, “Get thee behind me, Satan — for thou savourest
not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Signifying
plainly that to be carnal and vain, and opposite to what is spiritual and
divine, is what properly belongs to men in their present state. The same
thing is supposed in that of the apostle, 1 Cor. 3:3, “For ye are yet carnal.
For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk
as men?” And that in Hos. 6:7, “But they, like men, have
transgressed the covenant.” To these places may be added Mat. 7:11, “If ye
being evil, know how to give good gifts.” Jam. 4:5, “Do ye think that
the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us, lusteth to envy?”
— 1 Pet. 4:2, “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the
lusts of men, but to the will of God.” — Yet above all, that in Job
15:16, “How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity
like water?” Of which more presently.
Now what account
can be given of these things, on Dr. T.’s scheme? How strange is it, that we
should have such descriptions, all over the Bible, of MAN, and the SONS OF MEN!
Why should man be so continually spoken of as evil, carnal, perverse, deceitful,
and desperately wicked, if all men are by nature as perfectly innocent, and free
from any propensity to evil, as Adam was the first moment of his creation, all made
right, as our author would have us understand Ecc. 7:29? Why, on the
contrary, is it not said, at least as often, and with equal reason, that the
heart of man is right and pure; that the way of man is innocent and holy;
and that he who savors true virtue and wisdom, savors the things that be
of men? Yea, and why might it not as well have been said, the Lord looked
down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there were any that did
understand, and did seek after God; and they were all right, altogether pure,
there was none inclined to do wickedness, no, not one?
Of the like import
with the texts mentioned are those which represent wickedness as what properly
belongs to the WORLD; and that they who are otherwise, are saved from the
world, and called out of it. As John 7:7, “The world cannot
hate you; but me it hateth; because I testify of it, that the works thereof are
evil.” Chap. 8:23, “Ye are of this world: I am not of this world.”
John 14:17, “The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive;
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him.” Chap. 15:18,
19, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated
you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but
because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you.” Rev. 14:3, 4, “These are they which
were redeemed for the earth, — redeemed from among men.” John 17:9,
“I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.”
Verse 14, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
1 John 3:13, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” Chap.
4:5, “They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and
the world heareth them.” Chap. 5:19, “We are of God, and the whole world
lieth in wickedness.” It is evident, that in these places, by the world is
meant the world of mankind; not the habitation, by the inhabitants: for, it is
the world spoken of as loving, hating, doing evil works, speaking, hearing,
etc.
The same thing is
shown, when wickedness is often spoken of as being man’s OWN, in
contradistinction from virtue and holiness. So men’s lusts are often called
their OWN hearts’ lusts, and their practicing wickedness is called walking in
their OWN ways, walking in their OWN counsels, in the imagination of their OWN
heart, and in the sight of their OWN eyes, according to their OWN devices, etc.
These things denote wickedness to be a quality belonging properly to the
character and nature of mankind in their present state: as, when Christ would
represent that lying is remarkably the character and the very nature of the
devil in his present state, he expresses it thus, John 8:44, “When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
And that wickedness
belongs to the very nature of men in their present state, may be argued
from those places which speak of mankind as being wicked in their childhood, or
from their childhood. So Pro. 22:15, “Foolishness is bound in
the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”
Nothing is more manifest, than that the wise man in this book continually uses
the word folly, or foolishness, for wickedness; and that this is what he means
in this place, the words themselves explain. For the rod of correction is proper
to drive away no other foolishness, but that which is of a moral nature. The
word rendered bound, signifies (as observed in Pool’s Synopsis)
a close and firm union. The same word is used in Pro. 6:21, “Bind them
continually upon thine heart.” And chap. 7:3, “Bind them upon thy
fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.” [To the like purpose in
Pro. 3:3; and Deu. 11:18, where this word is used.] The same verb is used, 1
Sam. 18:1, “The soul of Jonathan was knit, or bound, to the soul of
David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” — But how comes wickedness
to be so firmly bound, and strongly fixed, in the hearts of children, if it be
not there naturally? They have had no time firmly to fix habits of sin, by long
custom in actual wickedness, as those who have lived many years in the world.
The same thing is
signified in that noted place, Gen. 8:21, “For the imagination of man’s
heart is evil, from his youth.” It alters not the case, whether it be
translated for or though the imagination of man’s heart is evil
from his youth, as Dr. T. would have it. The word translated youth,
signifies the whole of the former part of the age of man, which commences from
the beginning of life. The word in its derivation, has reference to the birth or
beginning of existence. It comes from a [Hebrew] word [meaning] to shake off,
as a tree shakes off its ripe fruit, or a plant its seed; the birth of children
being commonly represented by a tree yielding fruit, or a plant yielding seed.
So that the word here translated youth, comprehends not only what we in English
most commonly call the time of youth, but also childhood and infancy, and is
very often used to signify these latter. (A word of the same root is used to
signify a young child, or a little child, in the following places;
1 Sam. 1:24, 25, 27; 1 Kin. 3:7, and 11:17; 2 Kin. 2:23; Job 33:25; Pro. 22:6;
23:13, and 29:21; Isa. 10:19; 11:6, and 65:20; Hos. 11:1. The same word is used
to signify an infant, in Exo. 2:6, and 10:9; Jdg. 13:5, 7, 8, 24; 1 Sam.
1:22, and 4:21; 2 Kin. 5:14; Isa. 7:16, and 8:4.)
Dr. T. says (p.
124, note), that he “conceives, from the youth, is a phrase signifying
the greatness or long duration of a thing.” But if by long duration he means
anything else than what is literally expressed, viz. from the beginning
of life, he has no reason to conceive so, neither has what he offers so much as
the shadow of a reason for his conception. There is no appearance in the words
of the two or three texts he mentions, of their meaning anything else than what
is most literally signified. And it is certain, that what he suggests is not the
ordinary import of such a phrase among the Hebrews; but that thereby is
meant from the beginning, or the early time of life, or existence;
as may be seen in the places following, where the same word in the Hebrew is
used, as in the eighth of Genesis. 1 Sam. 12:2, “I am old and grey-headed —
and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.” Psa.
71:5, 6, “Thou are my trust from my youth: by thee have I been holden
up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels.” Verse
17, 18, “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; and hitherto have I
declared thy wondrous works: now also, when I am old and grey-headed, forsake me
not.” Psa. 129:1, 2, “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth,
may Israel now say: many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; yet
have they not prevailed against me.” Isa. 47:12, “Stand now with the
multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth”
(So also Isa. 47:15). 2 Sam. 19:7, “That will be worse unto thee, than all the
evil that befell thee from thy youth until now.” Jer. 3:24, 25,
“Shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers, from our youth. — We
have sinned against the Lord our God from our youth, even to this day.”
[So Gen. 46:34; Job 31:18; Jer. 32:30, and 48:11; Eze. 4:14; Zec. 13:5.]
And it is to be
observed, that according to the manner of the Hebrew language, when it is
said, such a thing has been from youth, or the first part of existence,
the phrase is to be understood as including that first time of existence.
So Jos. 6:21, “They utterly destroyed all, from the young to the old,” (so
in the Hebrew), i.e. including both. (So Gen. 19:4, and Est. 3:13.)
And as mankind are
represented in Scripture, as being of a wicked heart from their youth, so
in other places they are spoken of as being thus from the womb. Psa.
58:3, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon
as they be born, speaking lies.” It is observable, that the psalmist mentions
this as what belongs to the wicked, as the SONS OF MEN: for, these are the
preceding words; “Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye
work wickedness.” *12* Then it follows, the wicked are
estranged FROM THE WOMB, etc. The next verse is, their poison is like the
poison of a serpent. Serpents are poisonous as soon as they come into the
world; they derive a poisonous nature by their generation. Dr. T. (p. 134, 135)
says, “It is evident that this is a scriptural figurative way of aggravating
wickedness on the one hand, and of signifying early and settled habits of virtue
on the other, to speak of it as being from the womb.” And as a probable
instance of the latter, he cites that in Isa. 49:1, “The Lord hath called me
from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.”
But I apprehend, that in order to seeing this to be either evident or probable,
a man must have eyes peculiarly affected. I humbly conceive that such phrases as
that in the 49th of Isaiah, of God’s calling the prophet from the womb, are
evidently not of the import which he supposes; but mean truly from the
beginning of existence, and are manifestly of like signification with that which
is said of the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. 1:5, “Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee: before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained
thee a prophet unto the nations.” Which surely means something else besides a
high degree of virtue: it plainly signifies that he was, from his first
existence, set apart by God for a prophet. And it would be as unreasonable to
understand it otherwise, as to suppose the angel meant any other than that
Samson was set apart to be a Nazarite from the beginning of his life, when he
says to his mother, “Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son: and now drink
no wine, nor strong drink, etc. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God, from
the womb, to the day of his death.” By these instances it is plain, that
the phrase, from the womb, as the other, from the youth as used in
Scripture, properly signifies from the beginning of life.
Very remarkable is
that place, Job 15:14-16, “What is man, that he should be clean? And he that
is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no
trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight: how much more
abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water!” And no less
remarkable is our author’s method of managing it. The 16th verse expresses an
exceeding degree of wickedness, in as plain and emphatical terms, almost, as can
be invented; every word representing this in the strongest manner: “How much
more abominable and filthy is man, that drinketh iniquity like water!” I
cannot now recollect, where we have a sentence equal to it in the whole Bible,
for an emphatical, lively, and strong representation of great wickedness of
heart. Any one of the words, as such words are used in Scripture, would
represent great wickedness: if it had been only said, “How much more
abominable is man! Or, how much more filthy is man! Or, man that drinketh
iniquity.” But all these are accumulated with the addition of — like
water, — the further to represent the boldness or greediness of men in
wickedness. Though iniquity be the most deadly poison, yet men drink it as
boldly as they drink water, are as familiar with it as with their common drink,
and drink it with like greediness, as he that is thirsty drinks water. That
boldness and eagerness in persecuting the saints, by which the great degree of
the depravity of man’s heart often appears, as thus represented, Psa. 14:4,
“Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat
bread?” And the greatest eagerness of thirst is represented by thirsting as an
animal thirsts after water, Psa. 42:1.
Now let us see the
soft, easy, light manner, in which Dr. T. treats this place. (p. 143), “How
much more abominable and filthy is man, IN COMPARISON OF THE DIVINE PURITY,
who drinketh iniquity like water! who is attended with so many sensual
appetites, and so apt to indulge them. You see the argument, man in his present
weak and fleshly state, cannot be clean before God. Why so? Because he is
conceived and born in sin, by reason of Adam’s sin? No such thing. But
because, if the purest creatures are not pure, in comparison of God, much
less a being subject to so many INFIRMITIES as a MORTAL man. Which is a
demonstration to me, not only that Job and his friends did not intend to
establish the doctrine we are now examining, but that they were wholly strangers
to it.” Thus he endeavors to reconcile this text with his doctrine of the
perfect native innocence of mankind; in which we have a notable specimen of his demonstrations,
as well as of that great impartiality and fairness in examining and
expounding the Scripture, of which he so often makes a profession!
In this place we
are not only told, how wicked man’s heart is, but also how men come by such
wickedness; even by being of the race of mankind, by ordinary genetion: What
is man, that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should
be righteous? Our author (p. 141, 142) represents man being born of a woman,
as a periphrasis, to signify man; and that there is no design in the
words to give a reason, why man is not clean and righteous. But the case is most
evidently otherwise, if we may interpret the book of Job by itself. It is most
plain, that man’s being born of a woman is given as a reason of his not
being clean; Job 14:4, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” Job
is speaking there expressly of man’s being born of a woman, as appears in
verse 1. And here how plain is it, that this is given as a reason of man’s not
being clean! Concerning this Dr. T. says, That this has no respect to any
moral uncleanness, but only common frailty, etc. But how evidently is this
also otherwise! when that uncleanness, which a man has by being born of a woman,
is expressly explained of unrighteousness, in the next chapter at the
14th verse, “What is man that he should be clean? and he that is born of a
woman, that he should be righteous?” Also in Job 25:4, “How then can man be
justified with God? And how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” It is a
moral cleanness Bildad is speaking of, which a man needs in order to his being justified.
His design is, to convince Job of his moral impurity, and from thence
of God’s righteousness in his severe judgments upon him; and not of his natural
frailty.
And, without doubt,
David has respect to this way of derived wickedness of heart, when he says, Psa.
51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me.” It alters not the case, as to the argument we are upon, whether the word conceive
me, signifies to conceive, or to nurse; which latter, our
author takes so much pains to prove: for, when he has done all, he speaks of it
as a just translation of the words to render them thus, I was BORN in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother nurse me. (p. 135) If it is owned that
man is born in sin, it is not worth the while to dispute, whether it is
expressly asserted, that he is conceived in sin. But Dr. T. after his
manner, insists, that such expressions, as being born in sin, being transgressors
from the womb, and the like, are only phrases figuratively to denote
aggravation, and a high degree of wickedness. But the contrary has been already
demonstrated, from many plain scripture instances. Nor is one instance produced,
in which there is any evidence that such a phrase is used in such a manner. A
poetical sentence out of Virgil’s AEneid, has here been produced, and
made much of by some, as parallel with this, in what Dido says to AEneas, in
these lines:
Nec tibi diva parens, generis nec
dardanus auctor,
Perfide: Sed duris
genuit te cautibus horrens
Caucasus,
hyrcanaeque admorunt ubera tygres.
In which she tells
AEneas, that not a goddess was his mother, nor Anchises his father; but that he
had been brought forth by a horrid rocky mountain, and nursed at the dugs of
tigers, to represent the greatness of his cruelty to her. But how unlike and
unparalleled is this! Nothing could be more natural, than for a woman
overpowered with the passion of love, and distracted with raging jealousy and
disappointment, thinking herself treated with brutish perfidy and cruelty, by a
lover whose highest fame had been his being the son of a goddess, to aggravate
his inhumanity and hard-heartedness with this, that his behavior was not worthy
the son of a goddess, nor becoming one whose father was an illustrious prince:
and that he acted more as if he had been brought forth by hard unrelenting
rocks, and had sucked the dugs of tigers. But what is there in the case of David
parallel, or at all in like manner leading him to speak of himself as born in
sin, in any such figurative sense? He is not speaking himself, nor anyone
speaking to him, of any excellent and divine father and mother, of whom he was
born: nor is there any appearance of his aggravating his sin, by its being
unworthy of his high birth. There is nothing else visible in David’s case to
lead him to take notice of his being born in sin, but only his having
such experience of the continuance and power of indwelling sin, after so long a
time, and so many and great means to engage him to holiness; which showed that
sin was inbred, and in his very nature.
Dr. T. often
objects to these and other texts, brought by divines to prove original sin, that
there is no mention made in them of Adam, nor of his sin. He cries out, Here
is not the least mention, or intimation of Adam, or any ill effects of
his sin upon us. — Here is not one word, nor the least hint of Adam,
or any consequences of his sin, etc. etc. He says (p. 142), “If Job
and his friends had known and believed the doctrine of a corrupt nature,
derived from Adam’s sin only, they ought in reason and truth to have given
this as the true and only reason of the human imperfection and uncleanness they
mention.” But these objections and exclamations are made no less
impertinently, than frequently. It is no more a proof, that corruption of
nature did not come by Adam’s sin, because many times when it is
mentioned, his sin is not expressly mentioned as the cause of it; than that death
did not come by Adam’s sin, as Dr. T. says it did. For though death, as
incident to mankind, is mentioned so often in the Old Testament, and by our
Savior in his discourses, yet Adam’s sin is not once expressly mentioned,
after the three first chapters of Genesis, anywhere in all the Old
Testament, or the four Evangelists, as the occasion of it.
What Christian has
there ever been, that believed the moral corruption of human nature, who ever
doubted that it came in the way, of which the apostle speaks, when he says, “By
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin?” Nor indeed have
they any more reason to doubt of it, than to doubt of the whole history of our
first parents, because Adam’s name is so rarely mentioned, on any occasion in
Scripture, after that first account of him, and Eve’s never at all; and
because we have no more any express mention of the particular manner, in which
mankind were first brought into being, either with respect to the creation of
Adam or Eve. It is sufficient, that the abiding, most visible effects of these
things, remain in the view of mankind in all ages, and are often spoken of in
Scripture; and that the particular manner of their being introduced, is once
plainly set forth in the beginning of the Bible, in that history which gives us
an account of the origin of all things. And doubtless it was expected, by the
great author of the Bible, that the account in the three first chapters of
Genesis should be taken as a plain account of the introduction of both natural
and moral evil into the world. The history of Adam’s sin, with its
circumstances, God’s threatening, the sentence pronounced upon him after his
transgression and the immediate consequences, consisting in so vast an
alteration in his state — and the state of the world, with respect to all his
posterity — most directly and sufficiently lead us to understand the rise of
calamity, sin, and death, in this sinful, miserable world.
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