As in water face [answereth] to face, so the heart of man to man.
Ver. 19. As in water face answereth to face, &c.] Men's fancies differ as much as their faces: so the Chaldee interprets it. But they do better that give this sense, that in regard of natural corruption, all men look with one countenance, and have one visage; since "whole evil is in man, and whole man in evil," neither by nature is there ever a better of us. In the heart of the vilest person we may see, as in a mirror, our own evil hearts. For as there were many Marii in one Caesar, so are there many Cains and Judases in the best of us. And as that first chaos had the seed of all creatures, and wanted only the Spirit's motion to bring them forth, Gen 1:1-2 so there is a πανσπερμια, a common seed plot of sin in us all; there wants but the warmth and watering of Satan's temptations to make it bud. Eze 7:10 And though there were no devil, yet our naughty nature would act Satan's part against itself; it would have a supply of wickedness, as a serpent hath poison, from itself; it hath a spring to feed it. Hence our Saviour chargeth his own disciples to take heed of surfeiting, drunkenness, and distracting carefulness Luk 21:34 - who would ever have suspected such monsters to lurk in such holy bosoms? And St Paul saw cause to warn so pure a soul as young Timothy to "flee youthly lusts," 2Ti 2:22 and to exhort the younger women "with chastity"; thereby intimating, that while he was exhorting them to chastity, some impure motion might steal upon him unawares. Corruption in the best will have some flurts.