Psalm 51:5-7 Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.… The end of the Gospel is to bring sinners unto Christ; for this they must feel their misery without Christ. And this misery consists in our sin, original and actual. I. NATURAL CORRUPTION IS A SIN (Romans 7.), where you may find near twenty aggravations of this sin. And it is not a valid objection that this sin is not voluntary, for what is involuntary may be sin. But original sin is voluntary both in respect of Adam who represented us all, and in respect of us by our after consent. II. WE ARE TAINTED WITH IT FROM OUR BIRTH (Isaiah 48:8). Stay not to inquire how sin is conveyed to us in the womb, but consider how to be set free from it. III. IT SHOULD BE THE GROUND OF OUR HUMILIATION. 1. It is a privation of all good (Romans 7:18). 2. There is an antipathy to God and the things of God (Romans 8:7). The carnal mind is not only an enemy, but "enmity." Naturalists write of a beast that will tear and rend the picture of a man if it come in his way; whence they argue his great antipathy to man. And so we may argue antipathy to God when men will tear and despise His image. What cause, then, for humiliation. IV. PRESS HOME THIS DOCTRINE. Consider, therefore — 1. The unnaturalness of this sin. We hate vermin that are naturally poisonous more than any other. 2. The sinfulness of it; for it violates not one of, but all, God's commands, and that always without interruption; there is no cessation from it. 3. The causality of it. All actual sin springs from it. 4. Its habitualness both in respect of permanency — see leprosy (Lviticus 14:41, 42) — and facility in acting (Romans 7:21; Jeremiah 8:6). 5. Its pregnancy; it is all sin virtually, for all sin is wrapped up in it. 6. Its extent. It has overspread the whole man (Isaiah 1:6). 7. Its monstrousness; see the deformity it has brought upon the soul by defect, impotency, dislocation. 8. Its irresistibleness and strength. 9. Its devilishness, brutishness and incorrigibleness. (D. Clarkson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.WEB: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. |
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