So that if a just man falls seven times in his life, it is as much as is affirmed here. Secondly, here is no mention of falling into sin at all; what is here mentioned is, falling into temporal affliction. this plainly appears from the verse before, the words of which are these: Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting-place. It follows, For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. As if he had said, "God will deliver him out of his trouble. But when thou fallest, there shall be none to deliver thee."
10. But however in other places, continue the objectors, Solomon does assert plainly, There is no man that sinneth not (1 Kings viii. 46. 2 Chron. vi. 36.) yea, there is not a just man upon earth that doth good, and sinneth not (Eccles. vii. 20.) I answer, without doubt, thus it was, in the days of Solomon. Yea, thus it was, from Adam to Moses, from Moses to Solomon, and from Solomon to Christ. There was then no man that sinned not. Even from the day that sin entered into the world, there was not a just man upon earth that did good, and sinned not, until the Son of God was manifested to take away our sins. It is unquestionably true, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant. And that even so they (all the holy men of old. who were under the Jewish dispensation) were during that infant-state of the church, in bondage
