Again, it is said, in Job xiv. 4. _Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? no not one_. It is no strain upon the sense of this text, to suppose, that by _unclean_, he means guilty; and by _cleanness_, innocency, as opposed to it; for, in most places of this book, it is so taken, that is, in a forensick sense; and therefore, why not in this? And, if so, then it is not at all inconsistent with the above-mentioned explication of this doctrine. See chap. xi. 4. _I am clean in thine eyes_, that is, guiltless; otherwise Zophar’s reply to him would not have been so just, when he saith, _God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth_; and, in chap. xv. 14. _What is man, that he should be clean? and he, that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?_ where, to be _righteous_, seems to be exegetical of being _clean_; and both of them, being taken in a forensick sense, it agrees well with what Job is often reproved for, by his friends, namely, boasting too much of his righteousness, or cleanness: thus he says, in chap. xxxiii. 9. _I am clean without transgression, neither is there iniquity in me_; that is, I am not so guilty, as to deserve such a punishment, as he inflicts: _He findeth occasions against me_, &c. Surely, _cleanness_ here is the same with innocence, as opposed to guilt; and, in chap. ix. 30. _If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean_; this plainly implies, that if he should pretend himself guiltless, yet he could not answer the charge which God would bring against him, neither could they _come together in judgment_, ver. 32. Now, if this be so frequently, if not always, the sense of _clean_, in other places of this book, why may not we take the sense of these words, _Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean_, to be this; that a guilty child is born of a guilty parent, which will be accompanied with uncleanness, and it will be prone to sin, as soon as it is capable thereof? Another scripture, which we bring to prove original sin, is in Gen. vi. 5. _Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man, is only evil continually_. Why may not we understand it thus? The imagination of the thoughts are evil, as soon as there are imaginations, or thoughts, though not before. And this rather respects the corruption of nature, than the first rise of it; and so does that parallel scripture; in Gen. viii. 21. _The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth_; q. d. Sin increases with the exercise of reason. And, in Psal. lviii. 3. _The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies_. This agrees well enough with what we have said concerning their separation from God, from the womb, from whence arises actual sin; so that they _speak lies_, as soon as they are capable of it.