Leviticus 13:2-46 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot… It is not necessary to split hairs over the doctrine of "original sin," nor to trip against stumblingblocks labelled "transmitted iniquity," in order to arrive at the conclusion that man as he is in this world needs moral helps. It was forcibly said, by way of illustration, that a wolf cub has probably never killed a sheep, but it undoubtedly will if it lives and has a chance — because it has the wolf nature. Man does not need to look outside of his own heart, if he be honest, to know that he has in his nature a tendency to sin-that he needs constraints around him and a new spirit within him to keep him true to the higher life. Sin progressive: — Amongst many other diseases that the body is incident unto, there is one that is called by the name of gangrena, which doth altogether affect the joints, against which there is no remedy but to cut off that joint where it settled, otherwise it will pass from joint to joint, till the whole body is endangered. Such is the nature of sin, which unless it be cut off in the first motion, it proceedeth unto action, from action to delectation, from delight unto custom, and from that unto habit, which being as it were, a second nature, is never, or very hardly removed without much prayer and fasting. (J. Spencer.) Parallel Verses KJV: When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests: |
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