JOB 25

1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

2 Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.

3 Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

4 How then can man be justified with El? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Mankind then have descended not from a righteous but a guilty pair. Had the first parents never sinned, the generations of mankind would have been born holy or clean, that is, without sin in the flesh; and there would have been no distinction in the world of "saint" and "sinner." But the reverse is the fact. The first parents were defiled by transgression, and so became unclean; hence, Job, speaking of "man that is born of woman," inquires, "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" and then answers the question, saying emphatically,

"Not one. Man dieth and wasteth away: yea, he giveth up the ghost and where is he? He lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep."

The uncleanness of all born of woman causes them to die and waste away; and this uncleanness is sin in the flesh. "By one man sin entered into the world, in which man all sinned;" for at that time the germ of the future race was in his loins. Hence the constitutional genealogy of mankind is, the serpent by his subtlety begat sin in the human nature, and sin in the flesh, or the will of man, begat Cain and all his brethren; so that all mankind by natural generation, "are-ek toon katoo-of things below," pertaining to the world, "servants of sin," children of the devil.

Hence, they were "made sinners" by a constitution founded on the disobedience of the first man. They were made or constituted sinners from the physical necessity of the case; and this elemental quality of man's nature, the devil within him, causes all the evil manifestations emanating from individuals and organizations of individuals, popularly styled societies, associations, governments, &c., such as the "all things created, the things in the heavens, and things upon the earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or powers;" and which, as a whole, constitute the-aioon tou kosmou toutou-the Age of this World-a system of things over which Sin presides, as "the prince of the power of the air," styled by Paul "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Aug 1853

5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

6 How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?