created, and that the latter being a state of perfect righte ousness, the former must necessarily be a state of perfect depravity. This conclusion is flatly contradicted, as well by the apostle James, as by Moses himself, and that within four short chapters of the very one we have just quoted. In the 9th chapter he is relating the precepts given by God to Noah after the Deluge, and one of them runs in the following terms, the words of God himself:-" Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man," or, he hath made man. ́ Now it is absolutely necessary, to give any force or consistency to the argument contained in this sentence, to suppose that men, not only after the Fall, but also after the Deluge, were still made in the image of God; for, if that were the case, it would afford a very cogent reason why murder should be an act highly criminal in all ages of the world, but it would afford no reason whatever for the prohibition of that crime in the age of Noah, or at any subsequent period, if man was totally divested of that image by the Fall; in short, it would then only prove that our first parents ought not to have been murdered in their state of innocence, that is, while there was yet no one to murder them.*-The same mode of reasoning is applicable to that passage of St. James,† in which he observes that "with the tongue we bless God even the Father, and therewith" he adds "curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God." Not only does the apostle here positively affirm that men even now are still made in the image of God, but the nature of his argument will admit of no other interpretation ; for our original resemblance to God would have formed no * It may be added that no such phrases, as those we have just considered, are applied by the sacred historian to the production of Cain and Abel, though both of them were conceived and born after the Fall no less than Seth, and though their conception and birth are the very next events which Moses mentious after the Fall.-Sea Gen. 4. i.-ii. + James 3. ix. aggravation whatever of the sin of employing contumelious language, if men, in that apostle's days, had entirely lost that divine image, to which, as he argues, such indignities ought not to be offered. In the next place we are told, in the history of events immediately preceding the deluge, that "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually ;"* and, a little farther on, that "the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." The argument for the total depravity of human nature, which is hence attempted to be deduced, is perfectly futile for various reasons. For, first, such a total depravity, occasioned as is supposed by the Fall of Adam, and here given as the cause of the flood, must manifestly be the same in all ages, and therefore could not have formed any reason for the destruction of the antediluvians in particular, but would hold with equal force for the destruction of the world at any other period whatever; whereas evidently the wickedness of that generation beyond any that was before it, is assigned by the sacred historian as the reason of the deluge. Secondly, If these texts imply that all mankind were totally depraved, (and unless they go this length they are nothing to the present purpose,) then Noah must have been involved in that depravity equally with the rest of the species, and would consequently have shared the same fate; whereas we know, on the contrary, that he was not only preserved alive, but pronounced to be "a just man, and perfect in his generations," and one that "walked with God." Thirdly, and principally, in the passages we are now considering, so far is the wickedness of the antidiluvians from being attributed to the total depravity of their nature, that it is expressly ascribed by Moses to their own actual and voluntary transgressions: "God, he tells us, looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt,"-and why-hear his own * Gea. 6. v. xi. + Gen. 6. ix. reason" for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."* Again, in the 8th chapter of Genesis are the following words, spoken by the Deity himself: "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is only evil from his youth." This sentence appears at first sight to have a great degree of singularity and awkwardness in its construction, and it is on this account-that we naturally expect the particle "for," in the latter clause of the sentence, is about to introduce a reason for the assertion contained in the first part, whereas in truth the reason it does alledge is rather a reason for an opposite mode of conduct in the Deity than for that which he here engages to pursue. The fact is, the sentence is incorrectly rendered; the word translated "for," signifies, among other senses," although;" so it is rendered by our translators in nine other passages of the Bible,+ and so it ought to have been rendered here, by which means we should obtain the following rational and consistent version of the text: "I will not curse the ground any more for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart should be evil from his youth," that is to say God declares that, however great may be the wickedness of men hereafter, he will never again treat them in a similar way, implying that he would use other means for their reformation or their punishment. A series of quotations from the book of Job, which are commonly produced on this subject, will next claim our attention: they are as follow" Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one."-" What is man that he should be clean, and he who is born of a woman that he should be righteous." And "How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity like water."-The first of these passages occurs in a discourse which relates, not to the *Gen. 6. xii. + Viz.-Exod. 13. xvii.-Jos. 17. xviii.-2 Sam. 23. v.-Prov. 6. xxxv.-Jer. 4. xxx. three times.-Hab. 3. xvii.-Zech. 9. ii. sinfulness, but the natural infirmities and mortality of man; it is of a proverbial kind, and intended to denote that "nothing can be more perfect than its original." The two last refer indeed to the moral nature of man, but they speak of it only in comparison with the infinite purity of God. Granting, however, that these texts suppose an inherent corruption in the human race, they would decide nothing as to the extent of it, the only point now in dispute; they certainly do recognize the moral frailty and imperfection of man, the strength of his passions, the multitude of his temptations, and the great probability of his falling into numerous sins; but this is the most they do imply, and the most that can be extracted from them. The last of them, morcover, by the nature of the mataphor which it employs, prohibits us from extending their meaning farther, for it informs us by what means it is that man becomes "abominable and filthy," namely, because he drinketh iniquity like water; that is, by his own wilful gratification of an inordinate appetite, he acquires and imbibes that which was at first extraneous to him. Two citations from the book of Psalms come now in order to be noticed. In the 14th Psalm it is said, "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one." Now, according to the notions entertained by the advocates of man's total depravity, he is of himself utterly incapable of seeking God, or even of understanding what true religion is; and how then could the Psalmist, with any shadow even of poetical propriety, have represented the Almighty as engaged in a search, which by the very nature of the case must have been utterly vain and fruitless. It is plain therefore that the Psalmist is speaking, not of inherent but acquired corruption; which interpretation may be further strengthened by a passage in the 10th Psalm, where the wickedness of the wicked is expressly said to consist in * Ep. Patrick's Paraphrase. this, that he will not seck after God, and that God is not in all his thoughts;" he might then seek after God, but he will not; he has a power to think upon God, but he will not use it. The remaining text is that which is to be found in the 51st Psalm: "Behold I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Some commentators have concluded, by critical arguments of great strength, that the words in question are only an hyperbolical and scriptural form of aggravating a man's actual and personal transgressions, by a bold and figurative description of their inveteracy. To treat the matter however more concisely, it is observable enough that there is not in the whole Psalm a word or hint about Adam, which forms a strong presumption that the author of it had principally in his contemplation some other sort of corruption than what may be derived from the Fall. The object and nature of the Psalm convert that probability into certainty; throughout the whole of this mournful composition the Psalmist endeavours, like every other sincere penitent, to paint his guilt in the blackest colours, and to aggravate it by all possible considerations. The mention, therefore, of his utter depravity by nature would have been directly opposite to his main intention and design, for it would at once have shifted the blame from himself upon another, and have furnished the best of all pleas, not to say a perfect apology, for his sin. Besides, the interpretation here contended for is utterly overthrown by the very next verse,* containing an address of the Psalmist to his offended Maker, of which we cannot do better than give the explanation in the paraphrase of Bishop Patrick : "I am amazed at my folly that I should be so careless, when I was not ignorant that thou requirest us not to entertain with the least kindness those first motions, which we find in our * In our translation it runs thus in the inward parts; and in the hidden Behold thou desirest truth part thou shalt make me to know wisdom :”—it should rather be“ It is thy will that we should have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thes hast made me to know wisdom.” |