2. The want of original righteousness, which cometh upon us thus. As poor and ignoble ])arents convey their poverty and want to their children, and none can give what he hath not. A bankrupt father must needs leave his family ])oor ; so Adam, having lost his righteous- ness, he could not bequeath it as a legacy to his children.
3. As to the corruption and pollution of nature, that is conveyed as a leprosy is propagated to the children of lepers : 2 Kings v. 27, ' The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and to thy seed for ever ; ' so that every child born of that line was born a leper. Thus men be- get children like themselves, corru})t and sinful ; the copy answereth the original— the blood resembleth the kind. Of vipers there cometh nothing but vipers, and sinners produce siiuiers after their kind. If the immediate parent be sanctified, yet, that being not natural, doth
298 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 6.
not alter the case ; from a circumcised father there doth not come a circumcised child, — threshed corn doth not produce threshed corn. But let us consider these branches a little more particularly.
1. All men are sinners as they partake of Adam's guilt in being descended of him. As they sprang from him, they were in him as in a common person, and sinned in him ; as Levi paid tithes in Abra- ham, as aforesaid, Heb. vii. 9. To be sure, sin and death came upon him and upon all : Rom. v. 12, ' Wherefore as by one man sin en- tered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.' If death, as is visible, then sin, even upon children : ver. 14, ' Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitu<le of Adam's trans- gression.' Otherwise the apostle's reason would not be good and cogent, and there would be a punishment without a guilt : but ubi poena, ibi culpa. Yea, Rom. v. 19, ' For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' Made sinners is meant sensu forensi, in a law or court sense, by the imputation of Adam's guilt, as appeareth by the opposition. In short, those things are said to be imputed to us which are reckoned ours to all intents and jiurposes, as much as if they were our own. As another man's debt, taken on upon my score and account, is really and truly mine : so Adam's disobe- dience, and Christ's righteousness are imputed to all those whom they represented. '
2. They are sinners as they want original righteousness: Rom. iii. 23, ' For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of Grod,' By ' the glory of God ' may be meant his glorious recompenses, or his glorious image. The latter, questionless, is meant : 1 Cor. xi. 7, ' A man ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God ; but the woman is the glory of man.' See also 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.' This necessarily maketh them sinners : for the soul being destitute of a principle to incline it to God, wholly accommodateth itself to the in- terests of the flesh, and is only employed to cater for the body and the bodily life; for, though it be created by God, yet being created destitute of grace and original righteousness, and put into the body, it soon forgets its divine original, and that region of spirits from wlienee it came, and conformeth itself to the body ; as water put into a round or square vessel, taketh form from the vessel into which it is put. The soul doth only affect things present and known, having no otiier principle to guide it. Now things present and known are the delights of the body and bodily life, such as meat, drink, natural generation, sports, wealth, honour, and pomp of living. And the soul is turned from the love and study of better things. That self-love that carrieth us to these things is naturally good but morally evil, as it destroys the love of God, and the care of pleasing and enjoying him. There is a conversion from God to the creature, a falling otf from our last end.
3. There is pollution or corniption of nature, the stock of sin which we have inbred in us, consisting in a blind mind, perverse will, die-
ISA. LIII. 6.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 299
orderly affections, an unruly appetite, and evil inclinations to sensual things. This corruption is often spoken of in scripture : Ps. li. 5, ' Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me ; ' John iii. 6, ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh.' We all partake of the same carnal nature, the dunghill of corruption, which wreaketh out in the mind by vain thoughts, in the heart by carnal de- sires, and constantly discovereth itself by a pioneness to all evil : Gen. vi. 5, the imaginations and 'the thoughts of his heart are evil, and that continually.' An aversion from and enmity to all that is good : Rom. viii. 7, 'The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be.' Man, in respect to that which is good, is described not only by terms that imply weakness, but hostility and opposition, as unfit for every good work, and so opposite to it : Col. i. -21, 'Alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works.' If a man were indifferent to good and evil, a neuter and not a rebel, the case were the less ; but the bent of his heart is against it, as ap- peareth not only by scripture but experience. There is a proneness, and a greater inclination to evil than to good. Now, from whence should it come? Not by example, for then this inclination would not discover itself so early, and children would be as capable of good as evil. We catch a disease from the sick, but not health from the sound. We find a manifest disproportion in all our faculties. In the under- standing, a sharpness of apprehension in carnal things, but a dulness and slowness to conceive of what is spiritual — the will is backward and slow to what is good, but there is a strong bent and urging in it to what is evil. We need a bridle to curb and restrain us from evil, and a spur to excite and quicken us to good. Evil things perse- vere and continue with us. Oh, but how fickle and changeable are we in any holy matter ! The memory is slippery in what is good, firm and strong in what is evil, the affections quick, and easily stirred; like fire in tinder, they catch presently what is evil, but are cold and dead, like fire in wet or green wood, to anything that is good. The body is unwieldy for any holy use, but ready to execute any carnal pur- pose. In short, there is the seed of all actual transgressions before it break forth ; so that we are gone astray and out of the way indeed. This should be minded by us. Nothing inferreth so much a contra- diction to God as our being sinners by natui-e. This is a standing enmity ; actual sin is a blow and away, a fit of anger, this a state of malice. Surely, we had need look to a redeemer and a change by re- generation, that are so corrupt and fleshly in all the powers and faculties both of soul and body. This secludeth us from any possi- bility of attaining heaven and true happiness.