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he was made a partaker of. Moreover, what is here expressed, is elsewhere said of all men without any exception. It is to me very probable, that the Psalmist has reference to this very passage before us in Psalm xiv. 2, 3, which the apostle Paul, in Rom. iii. 9-12, without any restriction or limitation, applies to all men, Jews and Gentiles. Add to this, that the very same thing, in almost the same words, is said in Gen. viii. 21 of man after the flood, as is here said of him before it; yea, when there was only Noah and his family in being. But, on this last cited text, two things are observed.

1. That the words should not be translated, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for, but, although, or for this, or upon this account, that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. And it is said, that the usual way of reading that text, carries in it this absurdity, that the same reason which moved God to destroy the world before, now moves him to spare it. But let it be observed, that the reading pleaded for, is contrary to the common sense of the particle, as these men themselves own, to the Targums of Onkelos, and Jonathan Ben Uzziel, who render it by and ", to the versions of the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, Samaritan, and Vulgate Latin, and to many modern ones, which translate the particle for, and not though: nor is there any absurdity in the common reading; for as the phrase, in the other text, accounts for the justice of God, in his proceedings against the men of the other world, this here represents the inconvenience of the continuance, or frequency of such proceedings; since he must be always destroying the world, and the inhabitants of it, and consequently could have no church abiding; nor would there be any society of men subsisting, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Besides, should the reading contended for be admitted, for it will be owned that the particle may be sometimes so rendered, nothing will be got by it; should the words be read, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake, though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, or for this, or upon this account, that the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth; either reading both expresses and implies, that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, which is the only thing for which we produce it.

2. It is objected †, that "the word ", doth not signify from their birth, but only from their youth; for he speaks of the imaginations of their hearts, and so only of the time when they are able to entertain and prosecute the thoughts of their evil hearts; nor doth this phrase, it is said, signify an original, but only a long-contracted custom, or an habitual course of doing what is either good, or evil, or indifferent." To which I reply, that the Lord here speaks not of what man did, but what was the imagination of his heart, the substratum of his thoughts, and which is antecedent to the entertainment and prosecution of them, that this was evil; which Onkelos renders by, from his infancy; and agrees with the derivation of the word from, which signifies to shake out; and with the sense of the ancient, and some * Curcellæus, Limborch, aud Whitby, ubi supra. Whitby, p. 328; ed. 2. 320.

Vide Buxtorf and Schindler in Lexicis.

of the modern Jews *, who say that the 7, the evil figment, or corruption of nature, is in man from the time of his formation in the womb; or from his birth, as soon as he is shook out of his mother's bowels. Moreover, some of the texts brought to disprove this sense of the phrase serve to confirm it; particularly Job xxxi. 18, Psal. lxxi. 5, 6, where from my youth, and from my mother's womb, are mentioned as terms synonymous. Add to this, that such an interpretation well agrees with other scriptures; where men are represented as shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin, and as transgressors from the wombt. But to return to the consideration of what is further objected to our sense of the particular passage under consideration.

2dly. It is said, that "the wickedness the text speaks of was voluntary, and was the moving cause of God's destroying the world by the flood; which cannot be said of original corruption, since that being always the same, would always have been a reason why he should do so; and besides, if the corruption of nature is here intended, in vain did God invite men to repentance by the ministry of Noah, and wait for it one hundred and twenty years; since, without the almighty power of God, they could no more conquer this, than they could change their sex, or raise a dead man to life." In answer to which, let it be observed, that though the wickedness spoken of in the former part of the text designs personal, actual, and voluntary transgressions; yet the evil imagination, in the latter part of it, intends the corruption of nature, which is the fountain of actual transgressions; nor is this doing any violence to the text, or separating what the Scripture has joined together; but distinguishing between the cause and the effect, the fountain and its streams, the tree and its fruit. Nor do I see any reason why original sin, and the corruption of nature, may not be thought, with actual transgressions, to be the cause of the flood; since all actual transgressions flow from thence; and especially, since infants, who sinned not after the similitude of Adam's transgression, suffered in the universal deluge; which cannot be accounted for, but by supposing original sin, or the corruption of nature, in them. Nor is it any sufficient objection to its being a cause of this calamity, that it had always been, and so must always have been, a reason for it; seeing God might defer such a strict and severe observance of it; partly until his elect in this interval were gathered in; partly to show his patience, forbearance, and long-suffering, until iniquity was fully ripe, and this corruption had broken out, and showed itself to such a degree, that God must be, beyond all dispute, justified in his sharpest resentments against it. Nor was the long-suffering of God, which waited in the days of Noah, in vain since, though such was the rooted corruption of human nature, that none can conquer it without the unfrustrable grace of God; yet these men, under the advantages they had, might have attained to an external repentance and reformation; which would have secured them from temporal destruction, and therefore * R. Joden, in Bereshit Rabba, fol. 30, 1; Talmud Sanhed. fol. 91, 2; R. Sol. Jarchi, in Gen. viii. 21, and R. Aben Ezra, in Psalm li. 5.

† Psalm li. 5; Isa. xlviii. 8.

Curcellæus and Limborch, in locis supra citatis.

were left inexcusable. Besides, God might, by these means, bring some of his elect to true repentance, whom he would not have perish, and whom he might take to himself, before the general calamity; as well as he saved Noah and his family in the midst of it.

SECTION IV.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh.—JOHN iii. 6.

THESE words are expressed by Christ to show that men, by their natural birth, are carnal, and stand in need of regeneration, in order to entrance into the kingdom of God; and the meaning of them is, that that which is born in a natural way, is not only corporeal, but corrupt and sinful; so the word flesh is often used, see Gen. vi. 3, Rom. viii. 1, 5—8, Gal. v. 17, 19. Hence man in his natural estate, can do nothing but what is carnal and sinful; and is wholly incapable of doing that which is spiritually good, until he is born of the Spirit. To which are excepted,

1. That this "exposition renders it impossible for a man to do any thing toward his own conversion; and so renders all God's commands of it, exhortations to it, promises of pardon for it, threats of death if neglected, and complaints against those who would not do it, vain and absurd." To which I answer, that it is, indeed, impossible, considering the state of men, and the nature of regeneration and conversion, that he should be able to do any thing more towards it, than to make use of means; such as prayer, hearing the word, &c. in which God oftentimes is pleased to effect it, by the mighty power of his Spirit and grace. And as for commands and exhortations to regeneration, or promises of pardon to such who regenerate themselves, or threats of death to those who neglect it, or complaints against those who would not do it, I know of none in the whole word of God; what is referred to, only regards an external reformation of life and manners, and not regeneration, or the first work of conversion.

2. It is said, "that to be born of the flesh, here only signifies, that natural generation, by which a man is born into the world, of the will of the flesh; and that this is the plain meaning of our Lord, that besides that natural birth, by which we receive only our flesh and body from our parents, there is need of a spiritual birth, to fit us for the kingdom of God." I reply, it will be allowed, that our Lord is speaking of natural generation by which a man is born into the world; though how that should be of the will of the flesh, if flesh stands only for body, is not very intelligible: but then he speaks of men's being born into the world as corrupt and sinful, which appears from the opposite part of the text, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, that is, that which is born of the Spirit of God is spiritual, as the new creature is; for by spirit, is not meant the soul, as is, when it is opposed to flesh, signifying the body, but that which is spiritual; and flesh being opposed to it, must signify that which is corrupt and *Whitby, p. 329, 281; ed. 2. 274. † Ibid. p. 330; ed. 2. 321.

sinful, as the nature of man is by his first birth: and therefore according to the plain meaning of our Lord, he must stand in need of a spiritual birth to fit him for the kingdom of God. And if man is not corrupt and sinful, what need would there be of regeneration? and since this is his case, though he does not lie under any force, or coactive necessity to do only that which is evil, to which his will is entirely free; yet he is in an utter incapacity to regenerate himself.

SECTION V.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is preent with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.-ROм. vii. 18, 19.

FROM these words the following things may be fairly concluded, namely, If no good thing dwells in a regenerate man, that is, in his flesh, much less in an unregenerate one, who is wholly flesh, carnal, and corrupt; and if in a renewed man, where there is a will, there is not a power to do that which is spiritually good, much less able is an unrenewed man to do that which is so, who has neither power nor will; and if such is the strength of corrupt nature in one that is born again, as often to hinder him from doing that good he would, and to put him on doing that evil he would not, how much greater must its strength be in unsanctified persons? These conclusions will appear to be just, if it is but allowed, that the apostle is here speaking of himself, and of himself as regenerate. But to this, the following things are excepted.

1st. "The scope of the place *; which is to show the necessity of the abrogation of the law, from the inefficacy of it to deliver men from sin; since it rather increased it: to prove which, an unregenerate person, in whom sin reigns, was the most proper instance the apostle could pitch upon." But to this may be replied, that though the apostle, in the beginning of the chapter, is speaking of the abrogation of the law to believers by the body of Christ, yet, nearer the discourse in controversy, his obvious scope and design is to show the spirituality and perfection of the law; that it was holy, just, and good, and that it was owing to the weakness of man that it was not fulfilled. This he could not better illustrate and exemplify than in a regenerate person; for if such an one does not come up to the spirituality of the law, and is not able to keep it perfectly, it cannot be thought that an unregenerate man should.

2dly. The coherence of the words+; It is observed, "that the apostle speaks of an unregenerate man from ver. 7 to the 14th, and therefore, why should it be thought that he discontinues his discourse concerning him?" In answer to this it should be observed, that the apostle, even within the limited period, is not speaking of a man in a pure, natural estate, but of himself, under great convictions of sin, Vorstius, in loc.; Limborch, p. 458, 459.

+ Ibid.

under the powerful work of the law upon his conscience, showing him the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Besides, the apostle changes the tense; for whereas, within the mentioned compass, he speaks in the past tense; from ver. 14, to the end of the chapter, he uses the present tense. And therefore supposing, that in the former part of the chapter, he considers himself as unregenerate; there is good reason to conclude, he does not continue his discourse of himself as such, or of any unregenerate man. And whereas it is urged *, that he says in ver. 9, I was alive without the law once, or I lived without the law once; which it is observed cannot be true of him in his own person, seeing he was born a Jew, and brought up under the law all his days: it may be replied, that though he never lived without the letter of the law, yet without the knowledge of the spirituality and perfection of it; or that he was alive, that is, in a fair way for heaven and eternal life, in his own apprehensions, before the law came with power, and entered into his conscience; but then sin, which lay before as dead, revived, and he died to all his hopes of obtaining life by his obedience to it.

3dly. The most considerable objection is taken from the description and character of the person spoken of; as,

1. "He is said to be carnal, ver. 14, whereas regenerate ones have crucified the flesh with the lusts, and are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh, Gal. v. 24, Rom. viii. 12." I answer, though regenerate persons have crucified the flesh, and are not debtors to it to live after it, yet from some considerations may be denominated carnal; as partly from their first birth, and the corruption of nature they bring into the world with them; partly from the continuance of the flesh, in which dwells no good thing, and with which they serve the law of sin; and partly from the lusts of the flesh, which remain in them, and war against them; and on account of which the Corinthians, though babes in Christ, and so regenerate ones, are styled and treated as carnal. Add to this, that the apostle here says of himself, I am carnal, in comparison of the law, which was spiritual. And, indeed, when compared with this, the holiest man in the world must be reckoned carnal; for if the holy angels, when compared with the Divine Being, are chargeable with folly, much more must the saints, in this state of imperfection, be accounted carnal in comparison of the spiritual law of God, which is a transcript of the divine nature.

2. "He is said‡ to be sold under sin, ver. 14, which is a character of the greatest sinners; as of Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 20, and others, Isaiah 1. 1, and even of revolters from the true religion, 1 Mac. i. 16, and signifies, that he was a servant and slave to sin; whereas regenerate persons are free from sin, and become the servants of righteousness." I reply, that though the person spoken of is said to be sold under sin, yet not to sell himself to work wickedness, as Ahab and others did; between these there is a wide difference; in the one, man is passive, in the other, active; the one is against his will, the other with it. So, though the apostle was sold under sin, it was not his own act, and

*Vorstius and Hammond in loc.

+ Vorstius and Limborch, ibid. Whitby, p. 332; ed. 2. 323; Vorstius and Limborch, ibid.

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