Fourthly, Solomon, as they suppose, calls it sw, an “enemy” or “hater,” Prov. xxv. 21. How properly they gather this name from that place “ipsi viderint.” This I know, that to the same purpose it is called in the New Testament dpa, “enmity,” or hatred, Rom. vil. 7; and all the effects of enmity, or actings of an enemy, Nv”, are ascribed unto it, 1 Pet. ii. 11.
Fifthly, Isaiah calls it swan, “ the offence” or “ stumbling-block,” Isa. lvii. 14; raupérrwua, Rom. v. 18. See James i 14, 15, the cause of our stumbling and falling.
Sixthly, Ezekiel calls it jax, “a stone,” chap. xxxvi. 26. The reason of this appellation is commonly known, neither doth any allu- sion better set out the nature of it from its éffects. Kapd/a oxrnpa nod ameravonros, a “ hard and impenitent heart,” Rom. i. 5.
Seventhly, Joel calls it, as they say, ‘¥, that “hidden thing,” chap. ii. 20; for so they interpret °2'287 in that place: whereby they seem to intend that darkness and deceitfulness which are often ascribed unto it in the New Testament. And these names they largely comment upon. Now, though I shall not justify their deduc- tion of them from the places mentioned,—which yet, some of them, are proper enough unto their purpose,—yet, as was said, the names themselves seem not unsuitable unto that description of it which we have in the New Testament. Besides, they speak elsewhere to the same purpose. In Neve Shalom, lib. x.cap. ix., they term it Yn) NNDID, the “defilement of the serpent,” see-2 Cor. xi. 3; and Say ypr bn, from Eccles. iv. 13, “ An old and foolish king.” So is that place in- terpreted in Midrash Coheleth. And this, as we observed before, answers what we are taught in the New Testament concerning the “reion” and “dominion” of sin, as also the name given it by the apostle of Mauss évdpwros, “ The old man;” both being comprised in that expression, “ An old and foolish king,” though the text be wrested by them in their usual manner. And they give a tole- rable reason in the same place of this appellation of “The old
154 MESSIAH, THE DELIVERER FROM EVIL, [EXERC. VIII.
man;” because, say they, it is jommed unto a man im his infancy, continuing with him unto his old age; but the nn 4y’, that is “the new man, or good concupiscence, comes not on our nature until the age of thirteen years.”- So the Midrash, feeling in the dark after that supply of grace which is so clearly revealed in the gospel. And in Tractat. Sanhedrim, fol. 91, they ask this question, ois. bbw sn ox yn qy’;—“ From what time doth the evil concu- piscence bear rule in a man? from the time of his birth, or from the time of his forming in the womb?” Rabbi answers, “ From the time of his conception and forming in the womb.” And this Kim- chi, on Ps. li, illustrates by a similitude not altogether impertinent; as saith he, “ He that sows a bitter berry, that bitterness becomes natural unto the tree and fruit that grows thereon.” And this con- cupiscence, which is in the heart of man from his conception, they acknowledge to have proceeded originally from the sin of our first parents; for if it were implanted in him at his creation, it cannot be avoided but that God himself must be assigned as the principal effi- cient cause of all moral evil.
Unto this purpose speaks their late master in the preface to his book De Fragilitate. “Heec vitiositas,” saith he, “ex primorum parentum profecta crimine, contagioque, invasit utramque anime rationalis facultatem, mentem qua apprehendimus, et voluntatem qua appetimus;”—“ This vitiosity and contagion, proceeding from the sin of our first parents, hath invaded both the faculties of our rational souls, both the understanding and the will.” And as for the continuance of this evil, or its abode in us, they express it in Bere- shith Rabba; py’ ovonds on oYn oYpyyny jr $3;—“<So long as the righteous live, they wage war with their concupiscence.’ And they variously set forth the growth of it, where it is not corrected by grace. At first they say it is like a “spider’s thread,” but at last like a “cart rope:” from Isa. lix. 5, v.18. And again, in the beginning it is like a stranger, then as a guest, but lastly as the master of the house: see Jamesi. 14,15. And according to their wonted manner, on Gen. iv. 7, where 729, of the masculine gender, is joined with NN, of the feminine, they observe, in Bereshith Rabba, sect. 22, syn ndnna 9213 13ND) NT 7D INN) 7Ap32_ &;—“ At first it is like a woman, but afterwards it waxeth strong like a man.”
12. More testimonies of this nature, from the writings that are of authority amongst them, might be produced, but that these are sufti- cient unto our purpose. What we aim at is, to evidence their convic- tion of that manifold misery which came upon mankind on the en- trance of sin into the world; and two things we have produced their suffrage and consent unto :—
First, The change of the primitive condition of man, by his defec- tion from the law of his creation. This made him obnoxious, in his