-- CHAPTER V: The exposition of verse 29
taking notice of this reason of the difference. Besides that place quoted in the last marginal note, that also in 1 Peter 3:7, 'Let the men dwell according to knowledge,' namely, as becometh men, by which the Holy Ghost attributeth wisdom and knowledge to the man, and wisdom is the governor of virtue, but then terms the woman 'the weaker vessel,' which even in innocency she was, and therefore noticed to have been first set upon by Satan, and first in the transgression. And now, in this fallen estate, weakness of sin being added to weakness of constitution, it makes the weakness comparatively greater. And Solomon here is not far off from this whilst he thus expresses himself, 'One man (in the original it is an Adam) have I found,' &c. For an high paragon of virtue, wisdom, constancy, &c., is the nearest shadow (which some term the relics) of that image of uprightness (of which in the next verse) which Adam was created in; even as temporary enlightenings, &c., which are in men not attaining regeneration, are the shadow and counterfeit of saving evangelical grace.
Having thus cleared the way, I come now to the exposition of verse 29.
CHAPTER V:
The exposition of verse 29 The exposition of verse 29, and that the multitude of sinnings is the centre of Solomon's discourse: 'Lo (or behold) this only have I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions,' &c.—Shewing, in general, that this verse contains, 1. In the latter clause, a summary repetition of what in the former verses; 2. In the whole of it, a demonstration of man's corruption, and wherein that demonstration lies The whole of my design upon these words is accomplished in two things.
I. An exposition of the words.
II. The third evidence aforementioned, which the word many, as it stands in this verse, gives, that the multitude of sins had been in his eye in the former verses also, unto which that epithet hath an aspect.
The first in this fifth chapter, the other in the sixth chapter.
First, The exposition.
I. These words are the grand and final issue and conclusion, as generally all interpreters do acknowledge, discovering the source, spring, and wellhead of all the corruption which is in us all, whether himself or others, he had been discoursing of; which became him thus at last to add and set down as the coronis of the whole. And he magnifies the finding of it above all those other discoveries forementioned, and that upon a treble account. 1. As that which had humbled him through comparing his corrupt estate with that uprightness God had created us all in; and, 2, which alone had satisfied him, it arriving at the bottom ground upon which the follies of himself and all men do come to be sin and wickedness, even because God made man upright at the first, their sin in that regard lying in their having deviated and swerved from that uprightness; as also, 3, laying open the true rise of all that variety and multitude of wickedness men run into, even by being fallen from that integrity, which whilst they retained, they sought and enjoyed in that one thing, which was the true and their sole happiness, viz. in God; but having lost, and ceasing to do so, they go astray, and wander in a thousand ways of error, and seek out new inventions to be happy by.
And that Solomon was thus highly affected at the discovery of it, as rising up to a perfect demonstration thereof, his words shew: 'This only have I found,' that is, this alone as satisfactory to my mind; and to see things in their true causes and originals satisfies the mind of any wise and intelligent inquirer, as he was. He had descried afore that this wickedness was infinite for number, and universal for extent in all men, but that sight left him confounded rather than
satisfied: 'This I find, that I find it not,' and in that strain he speaks of that; but this was it he acquiesced and rested in, 'Behold, this only have I found,' &c.
And that this verse should be a demonstration, giving the reason of the former, the current and series of his whole discourse, whereof this is the close, doth further shew; for having at the beginning, ver.
23, professed to search the reason and account (using on purpose a word that signifies both) in the process of it, he first declares what he had by experience found as touching that account, that is, 1, the numerical account, ver. 25; and then, 2, in this 29th verse, at the end of all, he proclaims with a behold the rational account of what had gone before.
And in course of speech we know it is usual, when one hath made a bare narrative of a matter, then to come in at the close with the bottom causes or grounds of what he had related before. And so hath
Solomon done here, and it is as if he had said, As touching what I have hitherto spoken of, either mine or of others' sinfulness, I find this to be the source and rise of all, and specially of the multitude of sins in me and them, 'That man was made upright, but they have sought out,' &c. This, in general, that the whole verse contains a demonstration.
II. More particularly, this last clause of the verse, that is, these words, 'They sought out many inventions,' may be considered two ways.
First, Singly and abstractly, from those immediate foregoing in the same verse, and so they are the summary of the drift, yea, of the matter of what Solomon had been discoursing of in all the verses afore, gathered up and contracted in other words. To demonstrate which, the chief matter of the former may be reduced to two heads: 1.
Concerning persons; 2. Concerning things.
1. The persons spoken of had been himself, women, men, and so the universality of mankind.
2. The things were the folly, wickedness, &c., which he had descried in himself, and observed in them. And now, the total about both persons and things, he folds up in this final clause, 'They have sought out many inventions.' 1. The they comprehendeth the persons
(himself included, as I shall shew); 2. Their seeking out many inventions, that comprehends the things which had been spoken of, and concerning those persons, under new words, but to the same effect.
As, 1, what afore he had termed folly, wickedness, &c., in the general, or particularly had aimed at, in calling them nets, snares, &c., or whatever actual evil in any kind he had insinuated to be in men, women, or himself, these he, by a new-found name (and a word invented on purpose suitable to the thing), terms inventions, and a seeking out for them. And what are all actual sins, other than newfound inventions and turnings aside to wicked ways, digressions from that sole, single, upright way unto blessedness, which God at first instituted, directed, commanded, made and estated mankind in, and under?
2. What he had insinuated of the abounding plurality of them, either under the similitude and expression of snares, bands (as hath been shewn), or in his I find, I find not, that here he more plainly declares by inserting the word many. This, for the first consideration of these words, abstractly considered from the other immediately foregoing in the same verse.
Secondly, This clause is yet penned in such words, as if we take into them (as we must) those anteceding words, 'Man was made upright, but they,' &c., then they do as clearly contribute, together with the former, to the demonstration forementioned; that is, do express the true and proper principles and original causes, how or from whence it comes to pass, or unto what and whom it is to be attributed, that
such an overflow of wickedness hath invaded all, and each of mankind, unto the production of an infinity for number of wickednesses. And this multitude of them is made the more eminent thing or matter demonstrated thereby. And as to this purpose,
1. The word they is not to be understood subjective only, but causally also (it serves to both senses), and notes out not only that the persons of all mankind are the subjects of this corruption, but further pointeth to them, as the causes thereof, as the opposition to God made, &c., shews. He lays it upon the they, that is, themselves, to be the authors of those inventions, and the multitudes of them, even as the prophet elsewhere, 'Thy destruction is of thyself.' In like manner,
2. Also the word inventions, as likewise that phrase, that they seek out, are as aptly chosen forth by him, both to import the nature or quality of actual sinnings, what they are, seekings out, &c., as also most significantly to denote, in part, the bottom-ground or cause of all actual sinnings, and of their multitude.
Thirdly, And thus considered, the demonstration or reduction of man's corruption into its right principles, is exactly set out both ways by Solomon here, negatively and positively, that so it might be full.
1. Negatively: Removendo non-causam pro causâ, by removing what guilty man, to excuse himself, is prone to cast all upon, and ascribe it unto, as the cause, even God himself, and God his making me such and such. No, says Solomon, it is the perfect contrary, 'God made man (even all men, the they) upright.' He thus first thrusts the imagination thereof away with both hands. Then,
2. Positively: resolveth it into the true cause, 'But they,' &c. And the explication of that consists of three particulars:
(1.) That they having been thus originally made upright in Adam, but fallen from that state of uprightness, were now degenerated; for in saying they were made upright; that is, at first indeed such, he withal insinuates, that alas, now they are not so! as in that speech, Fuimus
Troes, so we were once upright,—made so, but now become otherwise. And in saying made, he points to God's first creation of man, shewing what we were then made. And that word referreth not to what we are when born, as by generation since. He could not intend that making of us, when by generation each of mankind comes personally to exist, as if that then we were made upright; for Solomon had learned otherwise of his father David, 'Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin conceived,' Ps. 51. He here therefore sends us to their creation in Adam, of whom we read, 'In the image of God created he him;' yea, and therefore he did designedly make choice of the word Adam; for what is translated, 'God made man upright,' in the original is, 'God made Adam upright;' and yet not Adam singly, but the woman also. For in the same Gen. 1:27, it immediately follows, 'male and female created he them,' namely, in that image he had afore spoken of. And thus, as in him, all those who were to come by generation, were first by creation made upright; so likewise in him they are degenerated, he being the first man that represented all both in his creation and fall, 1 Cor. 15. And thus
Solomon full well, we see, understood to be intended in the story of Adam's creation and fall, and had found it (as his word is here) in the first and third chapters of Genesis. And unto this he points whilst he says, 'Behold, this I found,' which the apostle doth more clearly both understand and express: Rom. 5:12, 'By one man sin entered into the world, in whom all have sinned.' Yea, accordingly, many interpreters* have understood by that clause that follows, 'But they sought out,' &c., to be intended, in order, first of our first parents
Adam and Eve, and their first sinning: they began the round. 'Thy first father hath sinned,' as Isa. 43:27, and withal thereby both our first parents became the fathers of these inventions (as the first inventors of arts are styled, Gen. 4:20–22), as well as of us their children. Yea, and a learned critic is bold to translate from the original these words, thus, 'They sought the inventions of the great or mighty,' that is, of the angels, 'great in power and might,' 2 Peter
2:11. So running up the original cause in Solomon's drift yet higher, even to intimate that influence the old serpent had in this matter, whose inventions they were, cast in by him, which they, our first
parents, so greedily ran after and pursued. This, for the first part, or the demonstration fetched from the original originans, which I do intend no more at all to touch upon in this treatise.
(2.) Hereupon the whole they, the gang of all mankind, their posterity, being deprived of this uprightness through the forfeiture of these their first parents, they, out of their depraved wills and affections, seek out for happiness in all other things where they can get it, or imagine they may find it, even in anything but God, from whom they are 'estranged from the womb,' Ps. 58:3. And all this the word seek out doth aptly and fully hold forth; and this is a second cause goes to make up the demonstration of this general corruption.
(3.) They also set their corrupted understandings or wits a-work to find out inventions for the supply of these desires of their wills, &c.
And this, that word invention notes out as fitly, even that part or hand which the understanding hath in sinnings; and is answerably translated by divers, ratiocinia, reasonings; by others, cogitationes, thoughts; all denoting what in the intellectual part of the mind is the cause of sinning. And this is the third part of the demonstration here intended.
All which put together do make up as complete a demonstration as perhaps will elsewhere be found in any Scripture about any subject whatever, in so few words.
I may illustrate this by the condition of a vicious young spendthrift, that had sprung from parents of high and noble spirits, raised and elevated answerably to a mighty great estate and dignity, which having been, by a forfeiture of his parents, or otherwise, made away and gone, he yet retaining an inbred greatness of mind and height of spirit natural to his breeding and ancestry. Concerning this man it may be said that the former fulness and height, though accidentally, and his present beggarliness directly, meeting and joined with an elevation of spirit continuing in the foundation of it for largeness of capacity and aspirings, the same, though now corrupted; that all