Isai. lix. 15. He that departethfrom evil maketh himself a prey.
IT may sometimes appear unreasonable to take portions of Scripture which describe the state and character of the Jews in former days, and to apply them to ourselves at this day. But it must be re- membered, that human nature is the same in all
ages ; and under the same circumstances will betray the same infirmities.
This will account for St. Paul's mode of proving the total depravity of our nature, and the consequent impossibility of our being ever justified by the works of the law. He cites from different parts of Scripture a great variety of passages, which describe the state of the wicked Jews at different periods of their his- tory : and those passages he adduces, to shew how fallen our nature is. Some of the most humiliating parts of his description are taken from this very chap- ter, which confessedly portrays the character of the most abandoned Jews at a period of extreme degene- racy3. An objector might say, This is not equitable: and I do not admit that the worst of the Jews in their most degenerate days are any just criterion for judging of human nature generally. But the Apostle might reply, that, if any persons so highly favoured as the Jews could attain to such heights of impiety as they assuredly did, the fault must be, not in the circumstances in which they were placed, but in human nature itself; which would betray the same dispositions in others, if they were subjected to the same trials. Hence, without hesitation, I take the words of our text as containing a general truth, and as asserting a fact which will be found to exist in all ages and countries of the world : " He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey."
It is my intention,
I. To establish this fact —
This will be found true in all former ages —
[Go back to the days of Cain and Abel ; and there you will find, that the very first man who was born of our fallen parents murdered his own brother, for no other reason than this, " because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteousV Proceed downward through all successive periods of the world, and behold Noah derided for his belief in God's word ; Lot menaced for refusing to concur in the most horrible abominations that human nature could commit; Elijah deemed the troubler of Israel, because he withstood idolatry ; and all
a Compare ver. 7, 8. with Rom. iii. 15 — 18. b 1 John iii. 12.