And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
Ver. 5. The wickedness of man was great in the earth.] Which was now grown so foul, that God saw it but time to wash it with a flood; as he shall shortly do again with streams of fire. He destroyed the world then with water, for the heat of lust; he shall destroy it with fire, for the coldness of love, as saith Ludolfu. a
And that every imagination of the thoughts.] Omne figmentum cogitationum :The whole fiction or "every creature of the heart," as the apostle has it, Heb 4:13 speaking there of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There is a general disorderliness; the whole frame is out of frame. b The understanding dark as hell, and yet proud as the devil. The will cross and overthwart. The memory slippery and waterish to receive and retain good impressions; but of a marble firmness to hold fast that which is evil. The affections crooked and preposterous. The very tongue a world of wickedness, what then the heart? Si trabes in oculo, strues in corde. The operations thereof are evil, only evil; "every day evil," saith this text; and assigneth it for the source of the old world's wickedness. David also resolves his adultery and murder into this pravity of his nature, as the principle of it; Psa 51:5 so doth Job; Job 40:4 Paul; Rom 7:24 Isaiah Isa 6:5 The whole Church Isa 64:6 cries out, "Unclean, unclean," Lev 13:45 and, "All we like sheep have gone astray". Isa 53:6 Now, as no creature is more apt to wander, so none less able to return, than a sheep. "The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master's crib"; Isa 1:3 the very swine accustomed to the trough, if he go abroad, yet at night will find the way home again: not so the sheep. Lo! such is man. Quintilian, therefore, was quite out when he said, "It is more marvel that one man sinneth, than that all men should live honestly; sin is so against the nature of man." But he erred, not knowing the Scripture. For "do ye think," saith St James, alluding to this text, "that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" Jam 4:5 The civil man's nature is as bad as the worst, - not changed, but chained up. Truly said Cicero, Cum primum nascimur in omni continuo pravitate versamur. We are no sooner born than buried in a bog of wickedness.
a De Vita Christ ., lib. ii., cap. 7.
b All the thoughts extensively are intensively only evil, and protensively continually.