Wesley Corpus

“The Septuagint translate the text, “Who shall be clean from filth? Not one; even though his life on earth be a single day.’ And this rendering, though not according to the Hebrew, is followed by all the Fathers; and shows what was the general belief of the Jews before Christ came into the world.” “‘But since the heavens and stars are represented as not clean, compared to God, may not man also be here termed unclean, only as compared with him?” I answer, (1.) The heavens are manifestly compared with God; but man is not in either of these texts. He is here described, not as he is in comparison of God, but as he is absolutely in himself. (2.) When ‘the heavens’ and man’ are mentioned in the same text, and man is set forth as ‘unclean,’ his ‘uncleanness’ is expressed by his being ‘unrighteous;’ and that always means guilty or sinful. Nor, indeed, is the innocent frailty of man kind ever in Scripture termed ‘uncleanness.’” (Pages 45,46.) “‘Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm li. 5.) The Psalmist here con fesses, bewails, and condemns himself for his natural corrup tion, as that which principally gave birth to the horrid sins with which he had been overtaken. ‘Behold !” He prefixes this to render his confession the more remarkable, and to show the importance of the truth here declared : ‘I was shapen; this passive verb denotes somewhat in which neither David nor his parents had any active concern: “In or with ‘iniquity, and in or with ‘sin did my mother conceive me.’ The word which we render ‘conceive, signifies properly, to warm, or to cherish by warmth. It does not, therefore, so directly refer to the act of conceiving as to the cherishing what is conceived till the time of its birth. But either way the proof is equally strong for the corruption of mankind from their first existence.” (Pages 47, 48.) “‘The wicked are estranged from the womb : They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.’ ‘They are estranged from the womb;’ (Psalm lviii. 3, 4;) strangers and averse to true, practical religion, from the birth. ‘They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.