66 they may keep the way of the LORD." Was not Abraham feparated from the world around him, feparated from his own kindred? Yet there was an Ishmael in his family, a fcoffer, a perfecutor a. Was not Ifaac the father of that" profane 'perfon Efau, who for one morfel of meat fold "his birthright!" So wicked were fome of the fons of Jacob, that they "troubled him, to make "him to ftink among the inhabitants of the "land." Two of them were guilty of inceft ; two of them were perfidious murderers; and they almost all confpired against Jofeph, and fold him as a flave. II. It is evident that this depravity is natural to man, because it is afcribed to him, and actually appears in his conduct, from his earliest years. Here we might appeal to univerfal experience. Where is the parent, who, unless wonderfully blinded by felf-love or prejudice, has not remarked in his children the mournful dawnings of peevishness, wilfulness, difobedience, envy and refentment, almoft from the womb? Who has not feen, that falsehood is their natural language, as foon as they begin to speak? But we appeal to the obfervation of that Witnefs who cannot err. It is his teftimony, that "the imagination of "man's heart is evil from his youth," or " in"fancy." It is not faid that man's ways are evil, but the affertion refpects his heart. Nor is it fimply declared that his heart is evil; but this z Gen. xviii. 19. c Gen. xxxiv. 30. a Gen. xxi. 9.; Gal. iv. 29. depravity b Heb. xii. 16. e Gen. viii. 22. 66 depravity is afcribed to the imagination of his heart; that is, to the very firft figment of thought there. For in us, that is, " in our flesh," in our nature as children of Adam, " dwelleth no good thing ;" and we are not " fufficient of ourselves "to think any thing as of ourfelves." This corruption is not confined to years of maturity. Man is thus depraved from his very infancy. For the original word, as it is fometimes rendered childhood, properly denotes the whole age of man from his conception, till he arrive at the state of manhood. It is a derivative from the word which is used to fignify a mere infant, and even an embryo in the womb h. Do we read of fome, who in their early years have manifefted a different propenfity? We are at the fame time affured that this was entirely the effect of divine grace. Thus John the Baptist was "filled with the Holy Ghoft, even from his "mother's womb i." III. Original depravity is evidently afcribed to that Patriarch, who was to be the progenitor of the Meffiah, as well as of the Church. It has been often obferved, that the language employed by the Spirit of God, concerning the generation of Seth, deferves particular attention. "Adam -begat a fon in his own likenefs, after his 66 66 image; and called his name Seth." He muft be wilfully blind, who, in this phrafeology, obferves not an obvious reference to the language ufed f Rom. vii. 18.; 2 Cor. iii. 5. h Exod. ii. 6.; Judg. xiii. 7. g 1 Sam. xii. 2. i Luke i. 15. ufed with refpect to the creation of Adam, and at the same time a striking antithefis. "God faid, "Let us make man in our image, after our like"nefs k." But left the reader fhould overlook the contrast, because of the paffage referred to being at fome little diftance in the hiftory, the fame language is repeated immediately before this declaration with refpect to Seth: "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God "made he him.-And Adam lived an hundred "and thirty years, and begat a fon in his own "likenefs, after his image." A very important difference is undoubtedly marked between the likeness of God and that of Adam. The likeness of Adam was that of a fallen mortal creature. Adam was now a believer, but he was a finful man. The image of God, which he had loft by the fall, was indeed partially reftored. But this was not properly his image: and as it was reftored only by grace, it could not be communicated according to the courfe of nature. Adam could beget no fon in his likcnefs, even as partially renewed. For moral rectitude can only be the effect of a new creation and we are thus created, not in the firft, but in the fecond Adam m. Although it had been poffible, that our firft parent could have communicated his image as a renewed man, ftill there would have been a communication of his remaining corruption; and Seth would have inherited original fin. The k Gen. i. 26. 1 Gen. V. I. 3. m Eph. ii. ro; Col. iii. 10. The language of the Spirit of God, in this pafsage, forms fo remarkable an antithefis to that employed concerning the creation of Adam, that the mind inftantaneously and irrefiftibly recurs to it: and how repugnant foever to the pride of the heart, feels a fecret conviction that this means. fomething very different from being "created in "God's image, after his likeness." This account is not given with respect to Cain, although there can be no doubt that it is equally applicable to him. But fome might have indulged the vain imagination, that, when Cain received existence, fin retained more of its virulence in our first parents, than afterwards. Or, it might have been fuppofed, that this was peculiar to Cain, of whom it is faid that he "was of that "wicked one;" and that although fimilar depravity had been communicated to his pofterity, this had perished with them in the univerfal deluge. Nor is this faid of Abel, who, as far as appears, left no iffue. But this account is referved for the hiftory of that other feed, whom God appointed instead of righteous Abel. As, after the deluge, the earth was to be peopled folely by the defcendants of Seth; as the feed of the Church, nay, that feed, in which all the families of the earth fhould be bleffed, was to fpring from him; we are taught, by the Spirit of infpiration, what judgment we ought to form with respect to the natural state of mankind in general, and even of those who are the heirs of glory." VOL. II. U IV. The IV. The very names of fome of the patriarchs convey this important leffon. Among the Hebrews and other eastern nations, the names impofed on perfons, either at their birth or afterwards, were always fignificant. They were monuments, of the most fimple and familiar kind. They either denoted fomething fingular in regard to their birth, or refpected fome bleffing from God. Thus they were a fort of compendious hiftory. For we must fuppofe, that parents were at pains to explain them to their children; and they could not be pronounced, without the recollection of the reafon of their being impofed ". But most of the names given by the antediluvian patriarchs are confined to one affecting subject. They exprefs the guilt and mifery of our nature; as if these good men had ftill looked back to the entrance of fin, and kept in their eye its deserved punishment. The name of Abel, as it fignifies vanity, or "a vapour that foon vanish"eth away," emphatically denoted, not merely the brevity of his life, but that of the life of man in general, who " at his best state is altogether vanity." Seth, the fubftitute for Abel, gave a name to his fon, which exhibits man in the fame melancholy point of view. "He called his name "Enos." This fignifies forrowful, grievously fick, miferable. Nor was this name confined to him. Like that of Abel, it is extended to all men; who are often called Enos, or fons of Enos, be n Fleury, Mœurs des Ifraelites, Chap. i. caufe |
