1 1

LUTHER STILL SPEAKING.

THE CREATION: A COMMENTARY

ON

THE FIEST FIVE CHAPTERS OF

THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

BY

MAETIN LUTHEE.

IF THEY HEAR NOT MOSES AND THE PROPHETS, NEITHER WILL THEY BE PERSUADED THOTOH

ONE ROSE FUOlt THE DEAD." — Lllke 16. 31.

"by it, he BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKTH." — Ileb. 11. 4.

OUIGIXALLY PUBLISHED AT WITEXBERG IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1.544; AND NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH,

HENRY COLE, D. D.,

OF CLARE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

TnANBLATOR OF "SELECT WORRs" OF MARTIN LUTIIEIt, IN FOUR VOLUMES, AND OK

VARIOUS OTHER WORKS OF LUTHER AND CALVIN.

EDINBURGH: T, & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.

MDCCCLVIII.

■HliKRAY AND GllilS, PUINTEKS, EDlNBUIiGH.

PROPERTK

PKIKCJSTOIT '^^C. ju„ 1883

.V*^""

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

It is with inexpressible gratitude to God, and witli the sure ex- pectation of great delight and benefit to his own soul, (which pleasure and profit he doubts not the British Church of Christ will, as readers, also enjoy) ; that the writer again appears before the world, as the Translator of Martin Luther. This delightful "labour of love" had been planned and determined on, more than thirty years ago ; but the purposer having been hindered, ever since his original determination, by the double burden of education and the ministry of the Gospel, had despaired of ever being able to accomplish his fond design. The great and merciful, yet sovereign Disposer of all events, however, having now released him from his deep educational care and toil, by the inscrutable dispensation of a twofold affliction of the deepest kind, both domestic and personal ; and the weight and consequences of the same having quite disabled him from con- tinuing his exalted and delightful work of preaching the ever- lasting Gospel, he flies with a resigned, but willing, and glad, and wliole heart, to his translating pen and paper ; that he might spend in their efforts the feeble renniant of his bodily and mentai powers ; cherishing a fond hope, and breathing an earnest prayer, that the duration of his life and facidties may be divinely and mercifully prolonged, until his long-cherished design of translat- ing Martin Luther's unequalled " Commentary on the Book of Genesis," shall have been accomplished.

This invaluable and last production of the loved and revered Reformer is a rich and precious mine of sacred wisdom; — a vast treasury of deep research, of varied scriptural knowledge, and of extensive Christian experience ; — in a word, it is a })ro-

iv translator's preface.

found and compreliensive Body of biblical, sacred-historical, doctrinal, spiiitual, and experimental Divinity. So that a Chris- tian mail, ^\l\o shall procure for himself Luther " On the Gala- tians," and Luther " On tlic Book of Genesis," may consider himself to possess a com])lete treasury of rich, solid, and saving Theoloffy. The l)lcssed Reformer's hnperishable " Connnentary on the Ejiistle to tlie Galatians," will dcvelope the great cardinal and all-comprehending doctrine of a sinner's justification before God, by faitli in Christ ; and will richly and marvellously describe the eli'ccts of that justification, as felt and eujo3^ed in the hearts of the redeemed. While the j)resent " Commentary on the Book of Genesis" will not only deeply penetrate and brightly dis])lay tlie stu])endous glories of the cukation, and the terribly- sublime catastrophe of the deluge and its righteous horrors ; but will deliglitfully ex])lain, as reflected by the beautiful mirrors of the LIVES of the patriarchs, almost every incident that can occur in the hfeof a saint: and will furnish him with matured wisdom, striking instruction, and strong consolatioji, on the road of his heavenly ])ilgrim;ige.

Indeed, it is impossible to convey by any command of descrip- tion, an idea of the extent, depth, and richness of the mine of Christian knowledge and exjierience, Avhich Luther's long hid- den and unknown " Ex]wsition of the Book of Genesis" contains. The sins, trials, afflictions, faith, hope, deliverances, joys, and duties of Idngs, princes, magistrates, husbands, wives, parents, children, masters and servants, rich and poor, &c., are treated, as they occur in the lives of the patriarchs and promhient cha- racters of the Divine Record, with all that train of spiritual thought, that rich Avidth of heavenly meditation, and that sweet flow of affectionate expression, which characterise and gild the writhigs and the whole ministry of the noble and beloved Martin Luther. And proceeding, as all the divine matter of Luther's sweet and powerful ministration does, from a heart full of the fear, and love, and worship of the adorable God over all, it flows at once, grace for grace, into e-s'ery reader's heart, in which the same fear, love, and w^orship of God, are found.

This incredibl}' laborious and as marvellously successfiil Re- former and servant of the Most High, was as remarkable for the tenderness and devotedness of his love, in which he served the

TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. V

church of Christ, as for the inclomitableness and terribleness of his spirit, by which he defended her from all her foes. He was an affectionate brother, and a gentle pastor, but an invincible adversary and a terrible champion. He was himself a beaiTtiful illustration of ^Aa^ great and graphic truth, which so strikingly and suddenly flashes forth from his " Commentary on the 51st Psalm," and which we have lately ap])lied also to his true yoke-fellow, fellow-minister of Christ, and fellow-champion for the Truth, John Calvin ; — " A saint," (says this humble yet " terrible" man) " is a lion before men, but a lamb before God !" (Song 6. 4).

His " Commentary on the Book of Genesis" evidently rested with much weight and solemn and holy interest on the mind of Luther himself. He expresses himself as thus dee])ly interested, in many parts of the Avork. Indeed, a pro})hetic impression rested upon him, througliout the Exposition, — that this his great COMBIENTARY, aiid liis life, Avould tenninate together; which divine presentiment was, with sacred and beautiful singularity, actually realised. The holy servant of God concludes his expo- sition with these words ; — " This is nuio the dear Book of Genesis. May our Lord, God yrmd that others may do it better than I have done. I can no more : I am so ivealc. Pray to God for me., that He tnay grant me a good, holy last hourT

One of the holy man's friends and collectors of these his com- ments, from his written notes and from his lips, records these re- markable coincidences nt the foot of the Commentary, in the following observations : — " Tlie man of God, Doctor Martin Luther, finished his Commentaries on the Book of Genesis in the year of our Tjord 1545, on the 11th day of November : having commenced them iyi the year 1535. Li his opening remarks he had said. This expositio7i 1 shall pore over ami die over (immorabor et immoriar^ : according to -which propliecy concerning himself he died, at Islebery, in his own country, in the year of our Lord 1546, on the ISth day of the month of February, piously and continually calling upon the Son of GodP Luther's age, Avhen he died, was sixty-three: the great climacteric of human male life. He was born in the j^ear 1483, and died, as above testified by his friend, in tlie year 154G.

The great Reformer's death seems to have been the consequence of a premature old age, from exhausted bodily and mental ])owers :

VI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

induced, no doubt, not only by his excessive and incredible labours, as a minister of Christ and Professor of Divinity, in the Theological Collegiate School of Wertemberg, but more espe- cially by the destroying conflicts of body and mind, which his mighty antagonism with the Papal Chvirch brought upon him ; all which conflicts were heated by the malice of the multitudes of that Church's infuriated defenders ; who poured in like raging floods, upon this almost alone champion for God and His Truth, from every side. Under these " fiery trials," his ever over- wrought frame, but ever undaunted spirit, though of iron con- stitution, could not but eventually and prematurely sink.

The Translator's love and admiration of his revered and im- mortal author, and father in the faith, are greatly increased by the remarkable similarity of circumstances, under which Luther commentated, and his humble Translator translates. The simi- larity of these facts is so singularly striking, so circumstantially real, and so providentially complete, that the writer finds it impossible to resist his desire to pen a humble statement of them. Of this singular resemblance, the general substance has akeady been intimated at the commencement of these prefatory obser- vations : And its circumstantial particularity is unusually inter- esting, at least to the writer.

It is most remarkable that this precious and richly matured Commentary, — was the last public work of Luther's minis- try and life ; and it will, in all human and solemn proba- bility, be the last effort of the life and public services of his feeble Translator. Luther's bodily and mental powers had been worn down to the last thread, by a foriy years' dm'ation of professorial, ministerial, and antagonistic exertions ; when he breathed his last, under the pressure of that threefold weight. The Translator's frame and constitution have been borne down to a like extremity of disability by 47 f years of scholastic toil, trial, and trouble ; and bv a 40 years' labour of pj'eaching The Truth, and writing in its dissemination and defence.

Luther, by the sovereign will of God, died under the concen- trated constitutional struggle of his great climacteric ; for which solemn result, his previous forty years' unparalleled excess of bodily and mental exertion, had fatally ripened (as we have already intimated) his naturally iron constitution. The Translator, by

translator's preface. vii

the marvellously merciful and equally sovereign will of God, lias surmounted, thus far, two perilous paralytic shocks of Ids great climacteric ; (for which he also had been too surely ripening, by a half-century's threefold excessive labour of teaching, preaching, and writing), and he still lives to devote the feeble remnant of his powers to his long-cherished design of translating into English this glorious Commentary ; on which, by the necessary aid of an aman- uensis, he is now happily, delightfully, and gi-atifyingly engaged.

Luther, under God's great blessing to His Church, did live to finish his long-meditated and devotedly pursued design. But whether the Translator will be permitted from on high to live to realise his thirty years' cherished hope of completing this Trans- lation of the holy Reformer's favourite and immortal labour, God only knows ; and the divine will and pleasure therein, time alone can reveal. May his fond service to God, and His people, and His cause, be also finished before lie leaves this world of sin, and sweat, and sorrow, to join his great and beloved Luther, and all those also who have " gone before," in that eternal state where all shall be glory ! — and where ' there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, but where God Himself shall wipe away all tears fi.'om off all faces ; and where former things are passed away' (Rev. 20. 4).

The Translator hesitates not a moment to express his fullest persuasion, that the Church of Christ will consider Luther's " Commentary on the Book of Genesis " to be the deepest and most spiritual Exposition of any book or portion of the Holy Scrip- tures, in existence ; entering the most deeply and clearly into God's mind, and furnishing the most profound, varied, and blessed edification for the family of heaven ; and also the most useful, truthful, valuable, and divine instruction for the world at large.

As an expositor of the Holy Scriptures, Luther's comments contain a depth of investigation unpenetrated, a width of medi- tation unspanned, an extent of research unoccupied, a scriptural knowledge unpossessed, a variety of reflections unevinced, a mul- titude of wonders unrevealed, a number of beauties undiscovered, a value of instruction uncommunicated, a spirit of holiness un- breathed, a height of praise unascended, a depth of worship un- inspired, and a magnification and exaltation of the Scripture, as

VUl TR^ys^SLATORS PREFACE.

the Word of God, — unsurpassed and unequalled by any Com- mentator,— before, or since, himself.

Nor does Luther's comprehensiveness fall short of any other of his numberless excellencies, as an interpreter of the Bible. To the Hebrew proficiency of a learned Gill, the exegetical tact of a lucid Poole, and the Scriptural instruction of a useful Matthew Henry, the great Keforraer and Commentator adds a depth of personal experience in divine things, and a knowledge of " the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" — peculiarly his own.

The glorious excellencies of man and of woman, as male and female, at their original creation, their beauty and dignity, their transcendent superiority over all tlie other creatures, both as to their constituted natures and the end and object of their creation, — the concernment of the whole Three Divine Persons of the hoty, mysterious, blessed, and adorable Trinity in the creation of man, — and the plain, insubvertible, and undeniable 'proof thereby afforded of the Trinity in unity, in the eternal essence and majesty of the adorable God, is established with truthful, powerful, and commanding ability. Nor less so is the creation of the separate kinds of creatures, and the high and marvellous " dominion" over them all, which God committed unto man, Ilis (if we may use that term with reference to the adorable God) favourite creature ! In all this singularly grand development of the Creation, Luther is beautiful, majestic, entirely original, and surprisingly wonderful.

The omnipotent power, infinite wisdom, and infinitely provident goodness of God displayed in the Creation, are also presented to our reflections, by our incomparable expositor, in a manner cal- culated to excite the highest admiration, and to inspire the pro- foundest reverence and worship. Tlie spoken Word, by which God created all things "in the beginnijig," and by the enduring and unceasing efficacy of wliich He still upholds, preserves, and perpetuates all things, especially the ' increase' and ' multiplica- tion' of the human race (Gen. 1. 23), and of all creatures of every kind; is treated with a j)rofundity and dignity of meditation and thought that exceed (it is probable) all ideas Avliich haA-e ever existed before in the human mind, upon the stupendous subject ; and the vvhole is handled in a "line of things" (2 Cor. 10. 16) unoccupied by any previous or subsequent servant of God ; and

translator's preface. ix

all is gilded with the brightest spots of particularity and circum- stantialit}^ ; which are as holy and worshipful as they are original and astonishing.

A kindred marvellousness of exposition, and the same entirely new and peculiar line of things, pervade also the whole discussion of the original innocency and original sin of Adam and Eve. The profundity, magnitude, and malignity of original sin, — its irre- parable destruction of primeval innocency and happiness, — its awfiil loss of the knowledge and worship of God, and of com- munion and fellowship with Him, — its forfeiture of all the dignity of man, and of that "domhiion" over all the other creatures with which God had originally dignified him, — its awful and lament- able consequences, in all their terrible forms, of sin, sorrow, disease, pain, and helplessness, throughout tlie whole posterity of Adam, past, present, and to come, are opened with an appalling awe, a holy lamentation, and a solenni warning, which cannot fail to interest the saints of God, and to elicit their deep Ajviens to the horrible verities declared, and to bring them into a humbling fellowship with their revered father and great teacher in the faith, in all his holy fear, awe, grief, and lamentation ; while the whole Adam-lapsed world are taught the truth of their utter sin, de- pravity, and misery, and the loss, irrecoA^erable by them, of their primitive happiness, highness, and dignity. No man, it may with all safety be asserted, has ever opened up the deeps, nor laid bare the consequences of original sin, with an ability fi'om above, so profound, so astonishing, and so edifying, as Luther has done, in this his wonderful Commentary.

The hol}^, and skilful, and commanding Commentator, moreover keeps close to his eye, as he proceeds, the ignorant follies of the ancient philosopher, and the inimical o])jections of the rationalist, the sophist, the sceptic, and the infidel of his day. lie ploughs up the roots of their ignorance or tlieir eumily, answers their alignments, silences their noise, and laments their blindness; or condemns their wickedness, and puts their principles to exposure and shame, in the testimony of every honest conscience ; exalt- ing, high above all the o])inions and wisdom of men, the diWne testimony and authority of God's revealed Word.

The divine institution, end, object, and blessings of the S.vbbath are herein set forth by Luther, it is believed, with a holy rever-

X TKANSLATOR S PREFACE.

ence, a higlmess of value, and a gratitude for its multiform blessed- ness ; with a trueness of view and contemplation, and with an ac- curateness of description, as to its original glory and perpetual sanctity and importance, beyond the attempts of any other writer or speaker upon the subject. Nor will our beloved, profound, and astonishing expositor's views of the all-momentous transactions of the Jirst and only Sabbath (as Luther believes) spent by Adam and Eve in paradise, (which occurrences embrace, in his views, the awful catastrophes of their fall, their guilt, their shame, and their expulsion), fail of being read, both by the Church and by the world, with thrilling interest and admiration ; and with astonish- ment at the description given ; accompanied, of necessity, with horror, grief, and speechless awe, at the dreadful realities involved.

The equally divine institution of ^Marriage,— its highness and holiness, — its great but little thought-of mysteries, (both in mar- ried sinners and in married saints), — its original innocency, and its now sin-caused necessity, have never, we believe, been set forth so scripturally, nor so heavily laden with its due praises, as by Luther. He speaks of its divine and wonderful intent, — its primeval perfection and blessedness, — its great present mercy, — its felicity, and the solemnity of its mutual obligations, — its frequent depravation, pollution, and perversion, — and its trials and troubles in the flesh (1 Cor. 7. 28), — with a contem])lation so new, so deep, and so holy ; that it cannot fail to call forth the love, and praise, and wonder, and to excite the thankfulness, of the saints to God, for an institution so blessed, so holy, and so mysterious ; and to arm them with courage and resignation under its now inevitable trials, and solemn responsibilities and duties.

Heads of families will of course adopt due discretion and selec- tion in reading to their domestic circles some parts of our great Commentator's meditations on holy matrimony. The Translator has commanded the greatest delicacy and ch'cumspection in render- ing the various beautiful and wonderful passages upon this subject also : upon which Luther has given to the Church and to the world deep and holy tJioughts, which we believe the Most High never put in the mind of any previous minister of His Word. These thoughts are truthful and sublime ; and are all given in the present translation : for the glory of the Creator was so intimately wrapped up in many of them, on this sacred matter, that much of that glory

translator's preface. xi

would have been excluded and lost, had such passages been alto- gether omitted. They are therefore not withheld : but they are rendered with all the holy carefulness, which was consistent with fidelity.

Nor does our noble father expositor fall short of, but the rather exceed himself, in his opening up the deeps of the temptation. The form and depth of Satan's policy therein, and its fatal suc- cess, are astonishingly developed; nor less so the weakness, credulity, and fall of our first parents. No man ever entered into the sublety of Satan as a tempter, nor into the weakness, deceiv- ableness, and fleshly lusts and inclinations of man, as Luther has done, in his commentative explanations of this portion of the divine record. He has opened to view, with surprising information, what Satan's temptations and aims ever were ; — what they were then, and what they are still.

On the Flood also Luther is truly great : and equally deep and majestic. The causes of this awful visitation of the divine wrath, as arising from the sins of the antediluvian world, are marvellously disclosed and portrayed, and in vivid and terrible colours. The warnings also of the patriarchal Avitnesses for God — Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, &c., are described in all their solemn terror. While the consequences of that righteous execu- tion of God's overflowing vengeance are so depicted, as to over- awe the mind with the thoughts of the terribleness of their reality. Indeed, it may in all safety be affirmed, that there is not another description, either of the Creation or of the Flood, so great and so divine.

In investigating, marking, and exhibiting the cotemporary incidents in the lives of the predelugean patriarchs, our beloved commentator is also most instructive and edifj-ing. He sliows, in a surprising manner, what patriarchs were coeval: and what they must tlierefore have seen of, and learned from, each other. This before untrodden path of Bible contemplation, Luther jiur- sues with his characteristic depth of reflection ; exciting, as he goes, the liveliest interest and wonder, and conveying the most delightful instruction. He increases all this holy interest also, by showing, in the most striking points of view, liow long these coevalities of certain patriarchs, antecedent to the Flood, must have existed : thus casting much liglit and glory upon the history

xii TRiVNSLATOR's PREFACE.

of the primitive patriarchal ages. In a word, this portion of the great Commentary bears pecuhar traces of the greatness, holi- ness, depth, and worship of the sonl of the heavenly Commentator. It is all of a piece with this suLlime Exposition of the sublime Book of Genesis. Tln-oughont the w^hole work, Luther remark- ably fulfils in himself, as the servant and instrument of God, that remarkable word ; " He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and briiigeth out to light the shadow of death," Job 12. 22.

The LIVES also of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, and of Joseph, are opened up, and meditated on, Avith equal observation, pene- tration, and surprising disclosure of incident. And all is turned round to the instruction, edificatioji, and admiration of the saints in all ages, and in all offices and stations of the Christian pilgrim- age : nor less so to the whole world's life, office, and station.

In a word, the mind of the great and revered expositor is on its holy and powerful and devoted stretcli, for the statement of the truth, the making darkness light, and the instruction of the famil}^ of heaven, throughout the whole Commentary. Nor will he fail of the love and blessing of the saints, nor of the honour and reward of his God, while his Commentary and time shall last ; and it is believed, that it will be coeval and co-existent with time, in some language of the earth. JNIay it be so in the English, as well as in the Latin, or German, or other languages.

Upon considerate reflection, it becomes a matter of great sur- prise and marvel, how any man, situated as Luther Avas, could have attained to such an extent and depth of personal experience, in divine things, as those Avhich he possessed. He had been im- mured in a monk's cell until the age of 21 or 22. And during his ministry of 40 years and upAvards, his Christian associations, and fraternal fellowship in the faith of Christ, must have been very circumscribed. It could not have far exceeded the narrow bound of his OAvn church at Wertembei'g, and his few great and dear personal friends — INIelanchthon, Cruciger, Eorary, Theo- dore, &c. &c. ; while his comnnuncation and felloATshi[) Avith 'fel- low-labourers' in the vineyard of his Lord and jNIaster, must have been equally confined. These saints and fellow-labourers must have been comparatively fcAv in number, and those few, more or less widely distant, and difficult of access. Personal intercourse must have been rare, and generally impracticable. The principal

translator's preface.

xm

medium of communication must have been epistolaiy correspond- ence. The ahnost only soiu'ces of personal experience must have been the deep and varied exercise of his own soul ; — those unceasing and terrible straits, into which he was so fi'equently driven by his fui'ious enemies, ever ready to destroy and to devour, — and the Word of God. Yet these, as he himself testi- fies, in his own few but memorable words, are the very means used of the Most Hii^h, in cf(uipping His greatest servants for their appointed work. " Teni])tation, mecUtation, and prayer (says the immortal Luther himself), make a minister !"

Things are lamentably otherwise, in this our day, i]i the matter of religious communication. Experience fills every church, dwells on every tongue, and sounds from every pulpit. But the saving reality of it is, as rare now, as it ever has been since the world began ; and as it ever will be, until time and this world shall be no more. The pathway to heaven, in our days, is as religiousbf plain and broad, as that to hell. The " gate of life," however, is in reality as unalteredly and unalterahly " strait" and "narrow" as ever. The secret of the Almighty in the soul, the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdoni of heaven, and the " holding forth the Word of Life" in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, arc as rare and as "precious" now, as they were in the days of Samuel (1 Sam. 3. 1). True believers are no more nume- rous now, than when Isaiah comjjlained, " AVho hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed '?" (Is. 53. 1). There are, however, according to the predictive and promissory description of Jolm, in his divine visions of the time to come, "a few names even in Sardis ; though even the things that there remain, are ready to die" (Rev. 3. 2, 4.)

Luther was as Avonderful as he was great, in this all-essential respect also. His personal experience in divine things, as Ave have just shown, was as deep, as his mind was mighty, large, and unljounded. Tliough called by the ]\Iost High, and con- tinued by His appointment, in the midst of papal darkness, idolatry, and error, with no companions but the saints of the Bible, nor any other divine light bat the lamp of the A^''ord to guide his feet, his heaven-taught soul was ministerially fur- nished, out of the Holy Bible, with as rich pasture for the slieep of Christ, as awful ammunition for the terror and destruction of

XIV TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

the enemies, by which botli himself and they were perpetually encompassed.

Readers of the great and beloved Luther, however, may be wisely and affectionately admonished not to be surprised, or offended, or hindered, by the somewhat large amount of rqyeti- tions, &c., which may fall in their way, while travelling through this magnificent Commentary. The causes of these recapitula- tions, Avere both unavoidable and intended. — As our great Exposi- tor delivered his comments on this momxentous and extensive book of the Holy Scriptures daily, in morning and evening lectures or sermons, it was humanly impossible to guard against repeti- tion, entirely. On the other hand, however, Luther's method of digesting his exposition, and his admirable plan of arranging it, as a whole, was to keep up a threaded series of connected lec- tures or sermons, from the beginning to the end. To preserve this excellent plan uniformly throughout, various repetitions and recapitulations were indispensable, to maintain the divine thread unbroken : as well as to aid, strengthen, and impress, the more deeply and lastingly, the memories of his divinity students, who constituted the essential and ostensible portion of his auditory.

The prayerful perusal of far fewer than a hundred pages of this memorable production, will, by its profit and delight, effec- tually cure all sense or thought of ivearmess, in any godly reader of our wonderful Expositor. Svich rays of divine truth, unseen before, will beam forth upon the mind, ovit of the great depths of God's Word, and such sudden and unexpected flashes of the divine mind and purpose will burst upon the delighted and edified admiration, as will form a lasting remedy against all idea of weariness in the reader, and will redeem the great, blessed, and surprising Luther, for ever, from the imputation of being a heavy, wearisome, or uninteresting commentator ; even in those parts of his Commentary, which, as we have already said, were de- signed to be the more clogged with repetitive or recapitulatory observations ; form the causes which we have just stated. And these peculiar beams and flashes of divine truth, which break out upon the readers of Luther " on Genesis," will be found as impressive as they are astonishing, as instructive as they are unexpected, and as lasting as they are wonderful. They will be found, for years afterwards, as nails fastened in a sure place;

translator's preface. XV

as it is written, " The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies ; which are given from one shepherd" (Eccles. 12. 11). This has been the happy and saving experience of thousands, and is so of hundreds now living.

Hence the sphere of Luther's mighty ministry was not bounded by his defence of the truth against the great and the powerful. By no means ; as numberless broken-hearted sinners have testi- fied during the last three centuries ; being comforted, blessed, and saved, by various remaining portions of his ministerial testi- mony. No ! the great and beloved German Reformer (as we have just remarked) was as rich a pastor, as a terrible warrior. He fed the sheep of Christ in the fattest pastures (Ezek. 34. 14), while he destroyed the wolves, with a sure destruction, on every side. Nor were his pastoral qualifications and resoui^es confined to the fold of his own day and field. Through the provident mercy of the Great Shepherd, Luther has left, in his precious remains, pastures for the sheep of the universal Church of Christ, in all ages and places. Nor will those pastui'es be either dried up or lost, until time, nations, and the churches of God in their midst, shall be no more.

The present Translator has already enjoyed the delightful labour of supplying the English Church of Christ with many fields of pleasurable and profitable pastures from the noble Re- former's works : in which numbers of the sheep of the fold have sweetly fed, and lain down (Ezek. 34. 15), during the last thirty years ; and in which they still are feeding and laying down, here and there, where they are " scattered, in this dark and cloudy day," without fields, folds, or shepherds (Ezek. 34. 12).' And if his paralysed powers and imperilled life be spared for the holy purpose, the same Translator hopes to supply the sheep of the same fold with many rich meadows more, fi'om the same inex- haustible sources of the same great servant of God. The exten- sive production of the divinely and astonishingly gifted Luther, which is now under his feeble hand, and of which the pi'cscnt volume is tlie first instalment, will constitute by far the richest of all the fields, into which he has hitherto invited the sheep of

1 For an account of these translations of various remnants of the great and noble Luther's works, sec first page of Advertisements, at the end of the pre- sent Volume.

xvi translator's preface.

Christ to enter and feed : and in which they will find, not only " fat" pasturage (Ezek. 14. 15), but a "good fold" (Ezek. 34. 14), and a "green bed" (Song 1. 16) indeed.

Tliis magnificent work will be found to embrace not only all the essential doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, but also the whole " patli of tlie just" (Prov. 4. 18), in every station and relationship of life ; from tlie king u])on the tlu'one, to the maid-servant that is behind the mill (Exod. 11. 5), and to the beggar upon the dung- hill (1 Sam. 2. 8) ; setting forth, witli rich and edifying instruction, the trials, the faith, tlie pra^-ers, and the deliverances of God's people, personal, domestic, ministerial, congregational, national, and in every possible form of the Christian life and pilgrimage. — Wherefore, as we have before remarked, he who shall have fur- nished himself with Luther's " Commentary on the Galatians," which sets forth the great fundamental doctrine otjustiji cation by faith, and shall have added to it Luther's admirable production now in hand (should the Translator's powers be spared him so long as to complete it, and should the Almighty be pleased to open doors for its pul)lication), will possess a richly stored treasury, or con- densed hodi/ of doctrinal, experimental, and saviiig cHvinity.

The present English version of this colossal effort of the be- loved and admirable Luther's consecrated mind, is designed, by his revering Translator, not only for the ])ersonal edification of the saints, but for the worship of the family-altar, and even for that of the public congregation, in this day of darkness, dearth, and death : when the Word of the Lord is so " precious" (1 Sam. 3. 1) ; when the " poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst" (Is. 41. 7) ; and when a man may wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east, and may run to and fro, and seek, and find, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water — (blessed be the adorable God, whose temporal " mercies are over a^^ His Avorks!") — but of "hear- ing tlie Word of the Lord" (Ps. 114. D, and Amos 8. 11, 12). Li such a day as this, many a " little sanctuar}^" or worshipping knot of God's people (Ezek. 11. IG) may find the loved and deeply experienced Luther calculated, though dead, still to speak to their souls, through tliis his grand testhnony, more profitably than many, or perhaps any, ministers tliey maj- be able to procure in this dreary and dearthy last half of the nineteenth century.

TILiVNSLATOR S PREFACE. XV ii

The whole work, therefore, will be divided into portions or short sermons, for these various and important ends.^

This production of the pjrace and power of Martin Luther is unsurpassed and unequalled for depth, truth, and worship, by any exposition of the Hol}^ Scripture, of any expositor, either before or since Luther himself. It is the last, and thei'efore (as might naturally be concluded) the greatest work of the great Reformer ; the most matured, the most important, and the most precious testimony of his lips, or his pen. It is the concentrated essence of his personal and ministerial experience, extending over an eventful period of both, exceeding forty years ; and condensed into the last ten years of his valuable life ; the whole of which ten years, he solemnly devoted to this memorable Commentary, which, according to his own deep confession, was the favourite offspring, the greatest delight, and the peculiar glory, of his own soul.

These statements and observations are all verified from the lips of tlie revered Reformer himself, and from the pen of one of his faithful friends. At the very commencement of this stupen- dous work, Luther uttered, with devoted determination, and with prophetic presentiment, these remarkable words — " Over this Commentary on the Book of Genesis / shall pore (immorabor) ; and over it I shall die (imraoriar)." And after ten years' Herculean labour of body, exercise of mind, and devotedness of soul, in the preparation and delivery of lectui'es on this Holy Book ; he ended his last lecture with these equally remarkable words, so truly verifying the predictive presentiment, which he had uttered at the commencement of this last and greatest of his labours : " Thus have I finished the dear [!] Book of Genesis. May our Lord God grant that others may do it better than 1 have done. I can no more : I am so weak. Pray to God for me, that He may grant me a good, holy, happy, last liour." Besoldus, that one of his foiu* faithful friends, who took upon himself to collect

' Had this originally designed arrangement been carried out, the number of such Sermons or Lectures, or portions, would have been from 1500 to 2000. But it was ultimately deemed preferable to let the Commentary remain as a whole; and to leave each head of a family, or ' help' (1 Cor. 12. 28), or ' teacher' (Eph. 4. 11), of "a little sanctuary," to make the selection of the Sermon, or portion, according to his own judgment, as circumstances should direct or require.

b

XVIU TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

and arrange for the press the fourth volume of the Com- mentary, " The History of the Patriarch Joseph," pens at the foot of tlie whole Commentary the following record : — " Tltat man of God, Dr Martin Luther, finished his Commentary on Genesis in the year of our Lord 1545; having commenced it on the llth day of Noveviber in the year of our Lord 1535. Li his opening lecture he had said, ' Over my Commentary on this book I shall jwre, and over it I shall die.^ And according to this prophecy con- cerning himself, he died at Islehery, in his oum co^intry, on the ISth day of the month of February, in the year of our L^ord 1546."

The following is a synopsis of the subject-matter of this noble work ; by an inspection of which, any one hitherto unacquainted with it (and few there are who know its existence, for, like the two Treatises of Calvin, just published, under the title of " Calvin's Calvinism," it has lain unknown to the English Church of Christ for above 300 years), will be furnished with a summary view of its contents, and also of the form in which they are intended to appear, in the translation thus commenced —

Vol. I. — The Creation and the Flood, . 750 pages. Vol. II. — The History of Abraham, . '. 1000 „ Vol. hi. — The Histories of Isaac andof Jacob, 1000 „ Vol. IV. — The History of Joseph, . . 1000 „

(8ro, to match the present volume.)

It may perhaps interest those readers and lovers of Luther, who do not yet possess that knowledge, to inform them, that this great Commentary (like all his other Commentaries) was given to the world by its noble author in a series of sermons, or lec- tures, delivered (generally twice a day) in the Divinity School of Willemberg, and taken down at the time by his faithful, noble-minded, and God-fearing friends, Caspar Cruciger and George Horary, assisted by Vitus Theodore, and one or two others. These good and laborious men (furnished, perhaps, with the aid of Luther's own notes, &c.) collected the whole Commentary, formed it into these, originally four, folio volumes, superintended them through the press, and published them, accompanied with gracious and appropriate preface, to the Church and to the world.

TRANSLATOK » PIJEFACK. XIX

Vitus Tlieodore .su[)erintended the \\'HOLE WoRK, wrote its general preface, and collected and edited the first volume.

The same holy and faithful friend of Luther collected and edited the second volume ; prefixing to it a lucid, beautiful, and gracious preface, written by Michael Roting.

Jerome Besoldus of Norberg " diligently and faithfully" collected, from the resources of Cruciger, Rorary, and others, and edited the third volume ; introducing it with a mas- terly, descriptive, and edifying preface, from the pen of Me- lancthon.

Besoldus also edited the fourth volume ; prefacing it bv an appropriate introduction, written by himself.

Luther acknowledges these in^■aluable labours of his invaluable friends, and perpetuates the memory both of their immense labour and of their holy finendship in the following terms, in his oicii simjjle but sublime Preface to the whole AVork : — " These my lectures have happily fallen into the hands of two collectors, good and godly men ; Dr Caspar Cruciger, whose own works bear satisfactory witness of his abounding in the Spirit, and of devotedness to God ; and M. Geoi'ge Rorary, a presbyter of our own church : the example of whose great labours, herein, Vitus Theodore, the preacher of the Norberg church, following, has freely added his own services. All these, being faithful and de- voted ministers of the Word of God, have judged it altogether desirable that these my lectures should be published. I allow them, therefore, to follow (as the apostle saith) the ' full persuasion of their own mind' (Rom. 14. 5), because I see that they are moved by a holy desire to help the churches of God : and therefore I heartily approve their wishes in this matter ; and I as heartily pray for an abundant blessing of God upon them."

JNIark ! dear reader, the vastness and the continuousncss of the labours of this pre-eminent servant of the Most High ! — Tico lectures, of probably one or two hours long, evevi/ day ! with all the inevitable aniount of thought and research in their prepara- tion ! For, of course, lectures of such depth were not delivered oflp-hand, as our modern boasted extemporaneons sermons ai'e. They were not offered to the Church and to the world, and to posterity and to God, without the most profound i)renicditati(jn.

XX translator's treface.

Added to all wbicli engagement of mind and time, this wonder- ful minister and defender of the truth had perpetually to combat his unceasing enemies, and to keep up the inconceivable extent of his correspondence ; labours, of the weight and extent of which we can form no adequate idea, and of which this great and won- derful and holy man makes frequent mention in his various and invaluable remains.

What an ox-like labour (1 Cor. 9. 9 ; Kev. 4. 7), or (as the holy labourer himself expresses it in this his most wonderful labour, when commenting on Genesis 3. 19), what a ministemai " sweat !" Compared with the sweat of this laborious " man of God," what are we in this age — the good, yea, the best among us — whether as preachers of the Word, or writers of books ! — mere easy-lived, leisure-houred, little-to-do gentlemen !

It is scarcely necessary for us to intimate, that we are not here speaking against, or depreciating, extemporaneous preaching. It is the most desirable mode of ministering the Gospel, where God is pleased to bestow the required gifts. But the amount of pre- paratory waiting upon God, worship, meditation, and prayer, with which extemporaneous preachers enter the pulpit, is solemnly different in the several individuals. In the present case, how- ever, our great and revered Commentator came before an assem- bly of divinity students, to open to them, in his high office, as their divinity professor, the glory of the holy Book of Genesis. What a blessed ' college course' was that of Wittenberg, in the days of Luther, as a preparation of young men for the mini- stry of Christ, and for the ' preaching of the Word !'

Should the present Translator's aflPiicted hfe and powers be spared to complete the intended English version of this gigantic work, unparalleled for magnificence and worth (for which hap- piness he has not, as already stated, the least reasonable ground to hope), its laboiu^ will consume the lengthened time of about ten years, at about tico or three hours per day ; thus translating about ttco of the great and beloved Luther's lectures each day — as many as he delivered each day, and probably in about the same time which he occupied in their delivery.

Moreover, as this doubtless masterpiece of the gi*eatest of extra Bible saints and servants of the ]\iost High was the last (as has already been seen) of his immortal labours ; so its trans-

TRANSLATOR a PREFACE.

lation, or probably the first volume of it only, comprehend- ing " The Creation" and " The Flood," may be the last of its humble, but revering Translator's mental and bodily efforts. Hence the predictive and precious words of the great original (as above given) really breathe (as there also intimated) the pur- pose, and the prophetic presentiment of his humble Translator. " Over this Commentary I shall pore (immorabor), and over it I shall die (immoriar)^

Nor are the words of the great Commentator's concluding prayer less aj^plicable, than they are precious to his humble Trans- lator : for they are, and will be, he hopes, his last prayer, when he shall leave (as in all human probability he must do) his fond and devoted labour unfinished. " May our God grant that others may do it better than I have done. (The qualifications indis- pensable for his successor, the present Translator has already stated). I can no more : I am so weak. Pray God for me, that I may have a holy, happy, last hour."

This majestic and priceless work (as has been mentioned at the commencement of these prefatory observations) has never left its hold of deep interest on the mind of the present Translator, for more than thirty years. About thirty years ago (as also above intimated), he commenced the labour of its translation ; which undertaking, however, his translation of the four volumes of " Select Works of Martin Luther" (as likewise before stated), and of other productions of the great Reformer, and the pressure, at the same time, of his scholastic, loriting, and ministerial labours, compelled him to discontinue. Three years ago, however, the greatest of all domestic afflictions, attended with paralysis in himself, forced him to relinquish both his school and his ministiy. After a little recovery from these severe \isitations, and some- times even in the midst of them, his fond hope of yet translating his beloved and revered " Luther on Genesis" revived. Before he resumed Luther, however, his mind was led to give to the Church and to the world the two just published treatises of the also immortal Swiss Reformer, entitled, " Cahin's Calvinism." Having, through Divine mercy, and by means nobly supplied by many of the friends of the truth, completed Calvin's two powerful testimonies, the translator, finally, returned to his ori- ginal design of thirty-three years' standing, — a translation of this

A.U1 TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

last great work of Luther, his " Commentary on the Book of Genesis." But true it is indeed that —

" God moves in a mysterious way!" —

" How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past find- ing out!" (Rom. 11. 30). Yet, in His judgments, equally as in His mercies, " He is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in work- ing" (Is. 28. 29). In the midst of this his final attempt, the Translator was mysteriously, but righteously and wisely, overtaken by the visitation of a concussion of the brain, in a perilous rail- road collision. And though he is through great mercy recovered from its most dangerous features, he feels that his powers are too seriously injured and disabled, to leave him the least hope of accomplishing perhaps even the half of his original and whole design. He has however thus completed The Creation (which ^^^ll form a first 2?art of vol. i., and will consist of about 500 pages). He has also in hand The Flood (which will form, as seen in preceding synopsis, the second part of vol. i., and will make about 350 pages). These two parts will complete (if his life and powers be spared to complete them) the first of the originally FOUR roLio volumes. The Creation will appear, as soon as it shall please God to set ' before it an open door' (Rev. 3. 8), upon the praiseful hinges of "ways," Avhich He is able to make (Is. 43. 19), and of means which are all His own (Psalm 50. 10).

The Translator cannot refrain from here recording, to the great glory of God, a signal instance of that eye and hand of His Divine providence which have presided over the translation of the " Creation" from first to last. To miderstand the record of the Divine interposition, to which allusion is thus made, the reader must be informed that the greater part of the matter which forms the present Preface, to the work, was written twehe months ago, in the form of a Notice, that the translation of the "Creation" was nearly completed : and expressing an entire ignorance of the loay and the means by which it could possibly be printed and published.

They are Divine facts, in the providence of God therefore, as full of marvel as of mercy, and worthy of being here recorded to His praise, and the ad- miration of His people ; — that, even while the Translator was converting this part of the original Notice into the Preface, for the now completed volume, it came, in a most remarkable and wholly imexpected way, to the knowledge

of a noble Lady in Scotland, Lady M ,that the "Creation," the first

I'ART of Tjuther's great Commentary on the Book of Genesis (comprehend- ing the frrst fire rhap(rrs), urns translated ; and that the Translator was at a

TRANSLATORS ritEFACE. XXli)

loss for wai/s and means whereby to print and publisli it ; and, ai'ter two letters of favoured communication and explanation between the Translator and her Ladyship, this "noble'" disciple of the Redeemer (1 Cor. 1. 26), in her second letter, at once, with Divine vohlciiess of mind, purchased the manuscript, at its full fixed price, without one word about abatement ; and she also as nobly undertook to j)rmt and pubUah it, at her own expense ; requesting the thus favoured and honoured Translator to make arrangements for that purpose forthwith, which w^as accordingly done.

Nor is this all. The glory of the Divine matter is vnder still. For, from her Ladyship's same communication, it appeared also, that she was herself "brought to the knowledge of the truth" (to use her own simple but solid words), some years ago, by reading the translations of Luther's " Select Works," contained in the four volumes mentioned in the advertisements, at the end of the present A'olume; and by reading also the same great and blessed Reformer's " Commentary on the Galatians." Having therefore been herself so blessed by the God-honoured testimony of the great and beloved Luther, her present holy acts of service to the cause of truth, were those of gratitude to God, of love and honour to the name of Luther, and of encour- agement to his humble Translator, by whose previous translating labours she had been so greatly and savingly benefitted.

Nor must another circumstance be left unmentioned; which adds so much to the lustre of this golden footstep of the Divine providence ; and tends so remarkably to fulfil llis own Word, where He says, " I will make the place of My feet glorious" I (Is. GO. 13). Her Ladyship, it appears, had set her heart upon seeing this great " Commentary on the Book of Genesis" translated ; even from the time of her receiving so great a blessing, as that to which Ave have just alluded, by reading the four volumes of Luther's " Select Works :" in the last of which volumes, the present translator had stated it, as his solemn intent (if his life should be spared), to translate " Luther on Genesis" also. And her Ladyship once wrote a letter, long since the time of the publication of the four vols, in question, to inquire of the writer respect- ing his intended translation of the Commentary. To this letter, as far as he can now recollect, he replied, that his scholastic and ministerial labours had, up to that time, precluded the possibility of his entering on that great under- taking ; but that he had not given up the hope of doing so, at some future time. And during the year 1857, her Ladyship with the same " intense desire" of seeing Luther on Genesis translated ; and concluding, perhaps, that the present writer might have long ago "gone the way of all the earth;" had actually set herself to the work of getting the great " Commentary" trans- lated. For this, she had procured a copy of the original, and had diligently sought a person competent to undertake the translation ; and had also made inquiries concerning the cost of the work; but she found, by connnunication with her bookseller, that the expenses of the translation and printing of so great a work (comprising at least from eight to ten volumes of the same extent as the present) would be so vast, that she was compelled (o re- linquish all further thoughts of HCCom]>lishing the noble oliject of lier wirdirs.

xxiv translator's preface.

Just at this juncture, the present writer made his first communication with her Ladyship, as above recorded ; to inform her, that the " Creation" was just now completed ; and, to her astonishment, she found it to be by the Translator of the four vols, of the " Select Works." This communication, as may be naturally imagined, filled her Ladyship with surprise and delight ; under which feelings she commenced her reply to the writer's first letter, in these words : —

" Mt dear Sir, — Your letter was the cause of much interest and surprise to me; for about the time that you completed your translation of "the Creation" by Luther, I was anxiously inquiring from every one I could think of, to know if there was any one who could and would translate it ; and I bought the work on Genesis in the original, in hopes to find some one to trans- late it ; but upon inquiring of Messrs and others, I found that the

translation and publication would be so expensive, that I was obliged to aban- don the thought of it."

******

In a manner thus marvellous and merciful, were the Translator's purposes, expectations, and aspirations, of thirty years' standing, all answered and ful- filled : and especially those very particulars of hope and expectation, which the original Notice just mentioned had more immediately expressed : which NOTICE had formed a " Concluding Address," inserted at the end of the second volume of his lately published translations of Two Treatises of Calvin, entitled, " Calvin's Calvinism ;" the concluding words of which " Address," were these : — "We want, in God's great and righteous cause, in our time, a few ■wealthy and good Josephs of Arimathea(Matt. 27. 57), to supply the poverty of God's poor (James 2. 5), and the covetousness of the world's rich (Ps. 119. 36). God is able to find such, for the present [these expressions referred to the Avays and means needed of the then not quite completed translation of the " Creation," now thus marvellously published], or for any exigency of His Church, in any age or day ; whenever He is pleased to diffuse the Word of His truth, and to broaden the width of His glory ; and at the same time both to edify His chosen people, and to bear His own testimony to an ungodly and gainsaying world! May He be pleased so to work in this our day.

" Thus have you, dear brethren and friends, presented to your sight and thoughts the greatness and the preciousness of Martin Luther's ' Comment- ary ON THE Book of Genesis ! ' together with the state of its translation, and the prospect of the means requisite for its publication. The result is now left to the good pleasure of the God of Luther, and of his humble

Translator.

" 3, Upper Islington Terrace, London, February 2, 1857."

Should the present Translator not be so favoured and honoured of God as to live to see " The Creation" and " The Flood" launched in the bosom of the English Church ; the publication of even this one of them, will leave him the satisfaction, that he has afforded the British disciples of Christ a partial insight into

translator's preface. XXV

the greatness of this last work, and these " last words" of Martin Luther (2 Sam. 23. 1) ; and that he has given them some brief taste of the depth and richness of the knowledge of that great and bright servant of God, in Divine things. And he will at least have pointed out to some succeeding competent transla- tor a woi'k of years to accomplish, for the glory of God, and the edification of His people. Such a successor, however, to be suc- cessful, must not only possess classical and lingual competency ; but he must be one of the 'children of the Kedeemer, taught of the Lord' (Is. 54. 3). With the endowment of a somewhat wide and elevated mind, he must be a partaker of the faith, and spirit, and love, and religion, and worship of his great Commentator. No one without the possession of these qualifications, in an adequate degree, can do the work of a translator of Luther. He may trans-vert the testimony of the Keformer fi*om one language into another; but he can never trans-convey the mind nor trans-fuse the spirit of his author. He can never do justice to Luther, nor bring glory to God, nor profit His people. He can rise no higher, and can go no farther, in his usefulness, than the line drawn round the number of all such unqualified doers of His work by the Great Teacher Himself: " They shall not profit tliis people (God's people) at all." Nor can a labour of such magnitude and weight be sustained, even by a duly qualified translator, without corresponding encourage- ment from the Church of Christ, unless he have am])le time and ample means at his command. The fewness of the present Trans- lator's remaining days, and the circumscribed nature of his pecu- niary abilities, deprive him of both these indispensables.

Nor have the exercise of due prudent care and consideration of price been wanting in the present case ; nor will they be so {D. V.) in the publication of any future translations or PART-translations of this great Commentary, should they, under the like Divine blessing, be published. For it is a matter of earnest desire with the Translator (as far as his influence and control shall be able to reach, and prudence shall justify), to bring the purchase and possession of this last and greatest work of the great Luther within the means of " the poor of this world, rich in faith," who form, for the most part, the members of Christ's Church on earth, and are the heirs of His kingdom (James 2. 5).

This is a matter, however, which requires the greatest caution,

XXVI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

consideration, and judgment. Two things are to be duly pro- vided for. Not only facility of purchase for God's poor ; but also, the preservation of His great servant's greatest effort, as a work of standard divinity in the English language, in the midst of the Church and nation. To have brought out this magnificent Com- mentaiy, therefore, in 6d. or Is. numbers or pamphlets, and in corresponding paper and print, would have been a mode of pub- lication wholly injudicious, and utterly unworthy its greatness. It would have been as improper as impracticable. It could not have been done in the present, nor could be so in any future in- stance, with any right consideration, either of money, or length of years ; even if the immense labour of the translation were handed to a printer and publisher gratuitously. And after all, the preservatio7i of such an important work to future generations, must, by such a system of publication, be imperilled, and surely frustrated.

Yes ! This splendid production of its immortal author, doubt- less the masterpiece of his memorable ministry and might, is a WORK, the worth and dignity of which demand, at our hands, as much the honour and respect of its most careful preservation and perpetuity, as the facilitation of its cheap purchase and use. And had this honour and foresight not been exercised by the great Luther's wise, laborious, devoted, and provident friends, whose names and memory he immortalizes with his own (as we have above seen) in his own Preface to this greatest of all Commen- taries, it would have perished long ago in the desolations and ashes of time. All possible considerateness for the poor of the flock, therefore, which can stand in due consistency with public reverence for, and public duty towards, the great and immortal Commentator, shall {D. V.) always be thoroughly exercised, as far as the present Translator shall have life and influence to com- mand its exercise.

The present day of the professing Gospel Church, however, is one in which both wealth and influence considerably abound. But it is a day in which The Truth, in its life, and grace, and power, meets with little heart and soul reception and encourage- ment. It is a Sardian state, characterised by the name of life in the midst of death. " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead" (Tvev. 3. 1). All is "the form of godliness without

TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XXVU

the power' (2 Tim. o. 5). The inquiries concerning a Gospel minister (so-called) are not, Is he a saved man ? (2 Tim. 1. 9), Does he know the truth for himself? (John 8. 32), Is he sent of God to preach? (Kom. 10. 15), — but. Is he a man of talent? Does he discover particular abilities ? Is he eloquent ? Is he a popular preacher? The anxieties a Gospel hook are, Is it pleasingly and judiciously/ written ? — (that is, so that the Gospel may give no "offence!" Gal. 5. 11). Is it relieved by remarkable anecdotes ? Does it interest by striking incidents ? Does it delight and astonish by the introduction of charming and splendid scenery ? Is its author a popular writer?

Such is the Gospel, and such are the Gospel preachers, the Gospel hearers, and the Gospel readers, of this our day. There is no room now-a-days for an independent, holy, truthful, power- ful, piercing, and convincing Calvin. Nor is there a more glad- ding hope, that the majestic, mighty, deep, surprising, sujq^assing, and edifying Luther will be hailed with a welcome as wide as his worth deserves. No ! We want, in God's great and righteous cause, in ovir time, a few wealthy, and good, and holy Josephs of Arimathea (IMatt. 27. 57), to supply the poverty of God's poor (James 2. 5) and the covetousness of the professing Church's rich (Ps. 119. 36, and Ps. 10. 3). God is able to find such for any exigency of His Church, in any age or day, whenever Tie is pleased to diffuse the Word of His Truth and to broaden the width of His glory, and at the same time both to edify His chosen people and bear His own testimony to an ungodly and gainsaying world !^ May He be pleased so to work in this our day.'

^ The preceding note, pages 22, 23, 24, will gratify the reader, by show- ing him the manner in which all these the Translator's hopes and aspirations, which had been entertained in entire dependence on God ten months before, were realised in the matter of the present volume to the very letter. Such is, indeed, ' the wonderful counsel' and ' excellent working' of our God (Is. 28. 29). Though it pleased Ilim to choose, in this instance, not a rich son of His, but a daughter! to do His holy work and to execute His heavenly will.

^ The last ten lines of this paragraph, from the words " No ! We want," &c., are given in the \owg foot-note, Yiage 22, &c., alluded to in the preceding note, but they are repeated in the text, in continuation, to show the parti- cular state of the mind of the Translator while writing the " Concluding Address" to the second volume of " Calvin's Calvinism," in which " Address"

XXVIU TRANSLATORS PREFACE.

" The Flood" is now under the same translator's hand ; and will be completed, he hopes (if God shall be mercifully pleased to vouchsafe health and strength for the purpose), by the end of the present, or the beginning of the next, year. The printing and publication of this {D. V.) forthcoming precious volume, are necessarily left by him in the same hand in which he left its present sister-volume, " The Creation." The writer, however, of these prefatory observations is constrained, ere he close them, here again to offer his high praises unto God, for the wonderful and altogether unexpected and unthought-of way in which He has thus, of His own infinite wisdom and resources, brought forth the volume now in the reader's hands. Nor is he aware that such comprehensive favour and marked honour have been bestowed by the Most High on any other volume, during the last century. Nay, it does not rest on his memory that any one, even of the original works of the great Luther, were so owned and honoured from above, as to be purchased by any wealthy individual, or by any prince or potentate of the great Keformer's days, and printed also at the expense of the purchaser. But such favourers of God's righteous cause will by no means lose their reward (Mark 9. 41, and particularly Matt. 10. 40-42). Nor can the writer withhold his inexpressible gratitude to God for having thus used, and owned, and honoured his " last days," in permitting him thus to serve his great and glorious Master with the feeble efforts of his pen (which Divine favour he has also above acknowledged), when he could no longer " stand up" to " speak in His name." Nor is it by any means the lightest part of this weight of pecu- liar favour under which he bows, as the bending corn to the sickle, that the adorable Bestower of it chose, as his patroness, a noble daughter in the faith, of whom Luther himself had been the spiritual and revered father. Though even that noble off- spring of the holy Reformer is not the only one who has been instructed in righteousness, comforted, encouraged, raised to hope, and saved, by his j)owerful testimony, when speaking through the medium of the British language, by the pen of the present, or

lie was committing the then just finished " Creation" of Luther, which constitutes the present volume, entirely to the hands and will of God ; pos- sessing himself no means for the purpose; and perceiving no possible way (as fully stated above) in which it could be printed and published.

TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXIX

by the labours of other translators of his God-honoured remains. His Commentaries " On the Galatians, and on the Psalms," his Sermons, &c., have been thus made of eternal profit to hundreds. May the same gracious and wonder-working God work in tlie same marvellous way in the (Z). V.) forthcoming Commentar}^ on the " Flood ;" that it may call forth the same high praises of the Churches of Christ in Britain, to whom its circumstances may become known, as the present volume has done, and will doubtless hereafter do ; and may it create the same holy amazement, and gratitude, and gratification, to the end of his days, in the heart of

The Translator.

LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTICES.

LITERARY.

First — The principle upon which the following translation has been made, is that to which the Translator strictly adhered through- out his English version of the four vokunes of Luther's " Select Works" (to which allusion has already been made), and in his versions of other volumes of the great Reformer's remains. That principle has been to give faithfully the mind of Luther, convey- ing, as far as in him lay, the Reformer's faith, and spirit, and religion ; and retaining also as much of his peculiar mode and cast of expression, as could possibly be transferred from the idiom of one language into that of another. The present version is made from the edition of Luther's works, in seven volumes FOLIO, of which the seventh volume contains Luther's majinificent " Commentary on the Book of Genesis ;" edited by Besoldus, under the supei*vision of Melancthon, though the whole edition is generally called ' Melancthon's Edition,' and ^vas published at

XXX TRANSLATORS PREFACE.

Wirteiibui'g in 1544 (see preceding page xix. of Preface). That edition is in Latin : and it contains also many pieces of Luther, translated by various of his most intimate friends, from the German into Latin. But most of Luther's " Commentaries," as was the great " Exposition of Genesis" also, now before us, were delivered in lectures, in Latin, before his pupils and friends in the Divinity School of Wirtenburg (see Luther's own Preface, pages 2 and 4).

Second — The original Hebrew is represented, throughout this translation, in Roman characters, for the following reasons : —

1st, Because the great Luther himself so represented the Holy Language throughout his Commentary ; and consequently the three devoted collectors and editors of the four volumes of the Com- mentary, Theodore, Besoldus, and Melancthon, (as stated pages xviii. and xix. o^our Preface,) retained also, with the greatest pro- priety, in their editions, the Roman character, according to the usage adopted by their great teacher and commentator himself. — 2d, Because very few of the English family of heaven are acquainted with the original Hebrew : and consequently its representation, in its own characters, would have been, to them, utterly useless. — 3d, Because those few of God's children who possess the advan- tage and privilege of an acquaintance with the Sacred tongue, can in a moment refer to their Hebrew Bibles for all satisfaction ; as to the exact expressions of the holy text itself, and for the fuller comprehension and enjoyment of the great Luther's criti- cal and exegetical remarks, in each or any particular passage in the Book of Genesis. — 4th, By adopting, as Luther himself wisely and usefully did, the Roman character, the illiterate Ger- man or English reader could always, and can still, get possession of the pronunciation or expression, in his own tongue, of each Hebrew word, or term, or phrase, to which the great Commen- tator devotes his invaluable remarks and explanations ; which im- portant advantage, had the characters of the original Hebrew been used, either by Luther himself, or by his primitive editors, or by his present English Translator, must have been, to all but Hebraists, wholly lost.

Tliirdly — All the quotations by Luther from the ancient Latin and Greek authors — Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, Xenophon, Plato, Pindar, &c. — have been translated also, as a necessary duty, witli

TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XXXI

tlie text of the holy Commentator, for the greater service and profit of the unlearned Christian reader.

Fourthly — Luther, like another Apollos, was so mighty in the Scriptures, and had every portion of them so present to his mind and memory, when thinking, or writing, or speaking on any one Divine subject ; that when, in commenting, he cited or referred to any sacred passage for confirmation of his statements, he scarcely ever mentioned the verse or verses of the sacred text which he quoted, or to Avhich he pointed as proofs, but indicated the chap- ter only. For the greater facility of reference, therefore, to the English reader, the present Translator has added, in each case, to the chapter, the verse or verses referred to by Luther, as his in- tended proof, or confirmation, or illustration.

THEOLOGICAL.

Angels. — It is not our intention (as we have observed in our foot-note on the subject of "Angels," page 51 of the following Commentary) to enter in these notices, at au}^ length, on theo- logical discussions ; which would be iitterly superfluous and use- less in themselves, and could have no other tendency than to entangle the mind of the Christian reader in the w^ebs of unpro- fitable mazes, to divert it from its admiration of the great glories of the Commentary itself, and to rob it of its great edification thereby. Indeed, the observations which we have offered the reader in i\\e foot-note in question, page 51, embrace substantially all that we design to say on this deep and oi\\j part{ally-XQ\eQ\Q([, but plainly revealed, subject of " the angels." That Avhich is re- vealed concerning those once high and heavenly, and still emi- nent and mighty beings, who are " all" important " ministers" of God, both in His salvation and in His destruction of men, is con- tained in the following portions of the Holy Scripture : — Gen. 2. 1, Exod. 20. 11, Job 38. 6, 7, Ps. Q^. 17,' Col. 1. 16, Ileb. 1. 21, &c. The war or rebellion of these excellent creatures in heaven, and the fall or ejection of the non-elect angels from that their original happy state, is contained, Rev. 12. 2-9, Luke 10. 18, 2 Pet. 2. 4. With these portions of the Holy Scrijiture, therefore, to Avliich innumerable others might be added, the Christian reader is k-ft to read and behold for himself the exist-

XXXll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

ence of angels, both elect and reprobate ; and to meditate on their war in heaven, on the fall and everlasting punishment of the non-elect angels, and on the sovereign use which God makes, both of these elect and iion-elect superior and mighty beings, for ministering to the salvation of His own people, and for the furthering, hastening, and sealing, by his rule and overrule and command, the destruction of the wicked.

Paradise. — When the reader enters on his reference to the present prefatory notice, as directed by foot-note at page 131 of Commentary, he will, it is feared, be met by much confusion and difficulty : the whole of which, however, will be removed, it is hoped, by a brief word of caution. He is, in the first place, kindly requested by the Translator to observe, that there has been committed in this matter, by a grievous oversight, a threefold error. In the first place, there is altogether omitted to be in- serted the " corrected translation" on the paragraph on Paradise, at page 122 of Commentary. And, in the next place, there has been omitted, in the directive foot-note, page 131, to state the number of the page (122) of Commentary, in which the original and uncorrected paragraph on Paradise stands ; and also, con- sequently, in the third place, there has been omitted the note ap- pended to (or to have been appended to) the corrected paragraph, page 122 of Commentary.

The corrected passage itself should have been inserted, and should have stood thus : — After the words " iii jMradise, free from sin, and safe from death," the remaining substance of the para- graph should have continued on thus — " a place where thou shalt only have to loait for the last day, Avhen these things shall be fully revealed : just as Adam in paradise was free from all sin, and all death, and all curse ; and yet there waited in hope of the future, and spiritual, and ' eternal life.' So that paradise, in each of the above cases, means an allegorical paradise, or a paradise state : in the same manner as the Scripture, when speaking of the ' bosom of Abraham,' does not mean the very folds of the robe which covered the bosom of Abraham, but, allegorically or descriptively, that life, or state of life, in which the souls of those who die in faith enjoy a heavenly life. They do really enjoy peace and rest ; and yet in that peace and rest wait for the future and eternal life and glory."

translator's preface. xxxiii

With reference to the doctrine of an intermediate state, involved in the above paragraph, it is not our intention (as we have ob- served above, under the article " Angels") to entangle the thoughts of our readers in the net of endless and unprofitable theological discussion. Such folly could have no other tendency (as also above observed) than to divert the mind of the Christian from its contemplation of the peculiar beauties and glories of this great Commentary, and thus to rob his heart of its edification by their striking instruction. Our own faith is, that the doctrines olP an intermediate state, whether of purgatory or of paradise, are " lying wonders" and " strong delusions" of the great harlot of the world (2 Thess. 2. 9 and 11) ; and that the design of the devil, by those lying wonders, was to give a gleam of hope to the Avicked, who had no hope ; by inducing them into a false hope of some hundreds or thousands of years of intermediate and purify- ing respite from their appointed and expected misery, before the eternity of that misery began ; and, on the other hand, the aim of the great deceiver was to tarnish the brightness of the hope of the just, b}^ leading them to expect some intermediate space of rest (ivithout the presence of Christ !), before they should enter into the hoped-for and longed-for glorious presence of their ador- able Lord and Redeemer. Therefore our object will be, having thus briefly stated our own humble views and faith on this " sandy" and delusive subject; simply to set before our readers some of those portions of the Holy Scriptures, which (as we believe) plainly teach the immediate state of heaven or hell, after death ; or by \\hich the entrance, immediately after death, of the wicked into their dreaded misery, and of the saints into their hoped-for feli- city, are clearly revealed.

" Then shall the dust (says Solomon) return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Eccles. 12. 7). — Are we, then, to suppose, that after we have seen the body committed to the earth, the spirit goes into some intermediate state of thousands of years' duration, or unto the end of all things, before it returns to God who gave it, for the enjoyment of His presence, or for His consignment to misery ?

Again, "Verily I say unto thee (saith our Lord to the penitent), To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23. 43). — Ai-e we here again to suppose, that neither the repentant and entreat-

c

XXXIV TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

ing thief was taken up into his appointed bhss in heaven with Christ, nor the hardened and raiHng thief cast into his appointed misery in hell, until after hundreds and thousands of years' exist- ence in an intermediate state, or until the end of all things !

Again, " And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee" (John 17. 11). — Was, then, the Father of our adorable Redeemer (and owr Father !) not in the heaven of heavens above, but in the intermediate regions of paradise, when Christ went to Him, after His atoning " cross and passion"?" or, did He not go to His Father until after His "precious death and burial ?" nor until the day of His "glorious resiirrection and ascension ?" And was the saved thief, together with the millions of millions of his fellow-redeemed spirits, who had de- parted from their bodies, since the world began, destined to re- main (without God and without Christ among them !) in an inter- mediate state of paradise ? and are they all confined in that God- less and Christless solitude still ? and must they there remain until the end of all things, befoi'e they can enter into the heaven of heavens of their Saviour and Kedeemer, and of their God in Him !

But enough ! It is vain and unprofitable, and entering too near the confines of danger and delusion, to pursue the subject farther. Kindred portions of the Holy Scripture might be pro- duced without number, and meditated upon, in the same awe- striking manner, even unto pain and dread of thought. Here, then, we leave the solemn subject; requesting the Christian reader to reflect further on the Scripture records of Dives and Lazarus, and of the glorified spirits of Moses and Elias, who descended from heaven icith their Lord, and appeared to the disciples, on the Mount of Transfiguration. And we entreat every such reader to meditate upon those portions of the Word, with heavenly reasoning, in the same manner as we have done, on the Scriptures now adduced. And after such meditation, with their Bibles in their hands, and breathed prayers ; we ask all brothers and sisters in Christ, what are their thoughts and con\T.ctions respecting an intermediate state of purgatory or paradise !

What marvel, however, that no larger a portion of this attractive patch, wdiich is worn so conspicuously on the cheek of the GREAT HARLOT OF THE WORLD, clave to the "beau- tiful garments !" (Is. 52. 1), with which God Himself clothed

translator's preface. XXXV

His mighty servant Luther ! nurtured as he had been, from a child, in the inmost cells of her "ABOMINATIONS" (Kev. 17. 5). What wonder, that the volumes of smoke arising from the smouldering ruins of ' MYSTIC BABYLON,' which the fire of God's Word, proceeding out of the mouth of this great destroyer, had caused, did not leave a wider stain of this baseless and unscriptural delusion on his "white robes" of righteovisness by faith (Rev. 19.8), in which he himself was arrayed of his God, and in which he was sent by his Divine Master to array other lost sinners, by hundreds, and in which he still arrays them, by His blessed testimony, to this hour ! — (See, as before, note, p. 51.)

No ! Neither did these few insignificant spots of rust on this two-edged sword, sharpened and pointed of God Himself; nor did the above immaterial blemishes on the blade of this polished shaft, held m the hollow of God's hand (Is. 49. 2), prevent him from ' always triumphing in Christ,' or from making manifest the savour of His knowledge in every place where he came. No ! Luther ever was unto God ' a sweet savour of Christ, both in them that were saved and in them that perished.' To the one he was " a savour of death unto death, and to the other of life unto life." And who but one taught, and sent, and upheld, and owned and honoured of God, and well pleasing, as this His eminent servant was unto Him, even with these his immaterial defects, could have been sufiicient for these things ?" (2 Cor. 2. 14, 15, 16) ; yet such Luther was, and such he is still !

We have been thus careful and faithftil to represent Luther, attended with all his imperfections, just as he appears in his " Commentary," and in his character. And our objects, in so doing, have been, not to burnish up his defects to the brightness of perfections, nor to clothe his immaterial errors with the robes of truth, — not to justify or encourage the same imperfections in others, — but our reasons have been the following : —

1. To glorify God; by esteeming his servant, Martin Luther, very highly in love for his work's sake (1 Thess. 5. 13).

2. To instruct the reflective family of heaven; by shewing them what peculiarities, branded by the impressions of education, cither religious or civil, in which they might have been cradled, may cleave unto the greatest and best of men, even unto their dying hour. — (See note, page 51).

XXXvi TRANSLATOll 8 PREFACE.

3. To comfort the saints and servants of the Most High ; by- causing them to see, that no immaterial defects or pecuharities, nor even miimportant views or errors, will either prevent their own final entrance into heaven, or hinder their ministerial usefulness on earth; provided that theivheartshe " right with God" (Ps. 78. 8 and 37) ; that they " stand not in any evil thing" (Eccles. 8. 3) ; that they draw not back from God's righteous ways, nor deal falsely in His covenants (Ps. 44. 17).

4. To annoy and defy the devil ; (thus to use Luther's own frequent manner and terms of expression), by defying him to do his best and his worst, to disparage the character of Luther, or to depreciate his worth in the affections of God's people ; or to diminish the force of his testimony, either in the consciences of the wicked, or in the hearts of the just.

But here we desire to close our weak introductory observations ; being far more happy that we should " decrease," and that our beloved Author should " increase." Here, therefore, we retire from the reader's presence ; leaving him to talk and hold com- munion with Martin Luther himself, on the following page, in his own humbly sublime and meekly majestic Preface.

A

COMMENTARY

BOOK OF GENESIS

MARTIN LUTHER, TO THE GODLY READER.

I DID not undertake my Lectures on the Book of Genesis with the intent, or e^-en with the thought, of their being pubHshed and made known to the world; but that I might, for a time, serve the present school of learners who heard me, and exercise myself, and my auditory, in tlie Word of God ; and also, that I might not finish the death of this body, in an old age altogether indolent and useless ; but that I might listen to the awakening voice of Psalm 104. 32. "I will sing unto the Lord, as long as I live ;" and especially, that I might be found, at my departure, among that " little flock," and in the number of those " babes," out of whose mouths ' God perfects praise,' and thereby destroys the enemy and avenger. For the world has always enough of monsters and devils, who blaspheme the Word of God, and cor- rupt and pervert it ; that God might not be clothed in his glory ; but that the devil might be adored, in his stead.

The collection of these Lectures of mine, however, has fallen upon two persons, good and godly men ; — Doctor Caspar Cru- ciger, of whose worth his works bear an ample testimony, and show the greatness of his zeal, and his peculiar direction by the Spirit of God ; and M. George Rorary, a presbyter of oiir church ; the labours of which two collectors were seconded by those of Vitus Theodorus, minister of the church of Norberg ; all of them faithful and zealous ministers of the Word of God ; who judged it altogether right, that these my Commentative Lectures should be published to the world. Therefore I leave them to act according to their own judgment and inclination. I see that they are moved by a holy desire to help and ])rofit the churches of God ; and therefore I highly approve tlicir intentions ; and

4 MARTIN LUTHER, TO THE GODLY READER.

I pray that the blessing of God may crown their labours with abundant success.

I could wish however that such holy services and laudable endeavours, were spent upon an Author better deserving them. For as to myself, I am not one of whom it can be said ' lie did a good work ;' nor of whom you can say ' He tried to do a good work ;' I belong to the last order of authors, being one of whom it can be no more than said ' He desired to do a good vi'ork;' and truly happy shall I consider myself, if I shall be found worthy of being the last, in this last order. For all these my Comments were delivered extemporaneously, and in common and popular language ; just as the expressions came into my mouth, in a very homely way, and even mixed with German; and they are certainly more verbose than I could have wished.

Not however that I am conscious to myself that I have spoken any thing contrary to the truth. But my one grand aim has been, to avoid obscurity, as much as possible ; and to deliver those things whicli I wished to be understood, in a manner and language as perspicuous as my abilities would allow me to adopt. For I very sensibly feel, that the great things on which I have here spoken, have been treated on by me in a style and method far beneath their dignity and importance. Biit I comfort myself by the proverb of old ' Let that man fail of success, who attempts to do a thing better than his abilities will permit;' and by this well-known holy saying also, ' God will have nothing required of a man, that is beyond the ability which lie hath given him/ (2 Cor. 8, 12.)

But why do I multiply words ? That on which we here treat, is the Scripture ; — is the . Scripture, I say, of the Holy Ghost ; and, 'for these things (as Paul saitli) who is sufficient'? It is a river (says Gregory) in which the lamb may paddle, and the elephant, swim. It is the wisdom of God ! which makes ' the wise ones of this world,' fools, and " the prince" of it himself, also ; which makes babes eloquent, and eloquent men, babes. — In a word, he is not the best here who iinderstands all things, and who never fails ; (though such an one there never has been, is not now, nor ever will be) ; but he is the best here who loves the most : as it is written Psalm 1 ' Blessed is the man that loveth the law of the Lord, and meditateth therein.' It is abun-

MARTIN LUTHER, TO THE GODLY READER. 5

dantly enough for us, if we delight in this Wisdom, love it, and meditate in it, day and night.

We ^see what the Commentaries of the Fathers are. They certainly were not destitute of the desire to do well, hut they found not the way to do it. . And how ridiculously absurd are all those of this day, who have attempted an exposition of the great things of the Scriptures by a beautiful, (or as they term it, a pure), latinitrj, or by paraphrases ? being, all the while, men utterly destitute cf the Spirit and of spiritual understanding, and, as the proverb goes, ' Asses playing upon a harp' !

Jerome has rightly said, ' Every one brings to the tabernacle of the Lord what he can. One brings gold, another silver, another precious stones, and another the skins or the hair of goats. For of all these things the Lord has need : and the dif- ferent wills of those who offer their different gifts, all please him alike. Therefore it is that I permit these few 'goat's hairs' of mine to be published to the world, as my offering and sacrifice unto God : whom I beseech, in Jesus Christ our Lord, that he would, by means of me, give occasion to others to do more than I have done ; or, at least, to do it in a better manner. For as to my adversaries, and their God, (the devil ;) I believe, with holy pride and exultation in the Lord, that I have given occa- sions enough unto them, (for this I have ever done from the beginning of my ministry : and that willingly,) to cavil and calumniate ; which is the only kind of service they are worthy to perform ; for they neither can do, nor desire to do, any one thing that is good ; being, as Paul saith, " Men of corrupt minds; and, to every good work, reprobate" !

May our Lord Jesus Christ go on to perfect the work which he hath begun in us ; and hasten the day of our redemption ; at the drawing nigh of which, by the grace of God, we now lift up our heads ; for which we sigh and groan ; and for which we wait, in pure faith and a good conscience ; in which also we have served an ungrateful world ; — a world, which is the incorrigible enemy even of its own, to say nothing about our, salvation. — " Come Lord Jesus" ! And let every one that loves thee, say — " Come Lord Jesus" ! Amen.

In the year 1544 from the Nativity of Christ.

PEEFACE OF VITUS THEODOEUS.

To the most illustrious Prince and Lord, John Ernest, Duke of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringa, and Marshall of Misnia, Vitus Theodoeus, sendeth greeting.

These all-beautiful bodies of the world, — the heavens, the stars, the elements, the plants, and the living creatures, were created, and stationed, and disposed, with wonderful skill and wisdom, that we might acknowledge God to be their eternal Maker ; and might understand, that there was implanted in us a law of life ; by our obedience to which, it was his will that he should be worshipped. And this light would have shined into the minds of all men, "\^dthout doubting and without errors, if the nature of man had not procured to itself, by its rebellious contumacy, the most miserable darkness, and the most awful calamities.

For how great, under the infinnity of our nature, this darkness of mind is, concerning the nature and the ynM of God, and con- cerning his providence and government of things, is abundantly manifest from the doubts which continually cling to the minds of all men : concerning which doubts, even Plato truly and wisely said, — ' that our minds are so overpowered with convic- tion, from the laws of the heavenly motions, and other evidences and testimonies, that we are compelled to confess, that this world had, for its ^laker, an eternal Mind ! bvit yet, that this convic- tion and persuasion are overcast and deranged with clouds and storms, when we look at the confusion in all human things, and

PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. 7

when we see ourselves plunged into, and left in the midst of, so many miseries.'

It is from these doubts, that all those mad-brained opinions of philosophers have arisen. Of these, some, as the Epicureans, have denied the existence of God altogether : others, as Aristotle and the Stoics, though they believed that God was an eternal mind, yet bound and confined him to second causes ; just in the same way as the poets fable that Saturn was bound by Jupiter. Thus they ascribe to him no action, but that which the general concurrence of second causes produces. Hence, having their minds infotuated with this delirium^ they can neither ask any good thing of God, nor expect any good thing from him : be- cause, with them, events are necessarily only consequents which responsively follow upon their natural Jii^st causes.

While therefore these men thus reasoned, they did not bring forth their own private and personal opinions only, but the connnon errors which lie concealed, naturally, in the minds of the whole human race. The greatest part of mankind fix their eyes upon second causes ; but these never raise them so high as the Great Over-ruler of all ; so as to wait for the government, or pressing forth, of second causes from and hy Him ! as Elijah did, when he prayed for rain in the midst of a drought ; and as Isaiah did, when he di'ove back an army of the enemy, by prayer.

When this darkness, in the mind of man, had followed upon the fall of our first parents, God came forth aneio out of his secret habitation, and immediately made himself known again, with a distinct voice, and with fresh testimonies ; that the human race might not appear to be made in vain, nor Avithout a mighty pm'pose ; nor to destruction only. The creation indeed was a great benefit and blessing from God. But much more so was his revealing and making himself known to the human race, from the very " beginning," by certain testimonies and evidences ; delivering, with a distinct voice, the niOMiSE of eternal life and sahation ; and making a declaration concerning a judgment to come ; in which, after this life, he would separate the righteous from the wicked. — The Law also, though known to nature at first, he renewed ; and showed what was his true worship. He caused it moreover to be attended with signs, wliich could be

8 PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS.

wrought by no power, less than infinite. He recalled the dead to life ; he stopped the motions of the heavens, and the course of the sun ; and he even turned the sun back in his course, to refute a liuman delirium ; wliicli pretended to suspend God, by second causes, as by the golden chain of Homer. — And lastly, the Son of God himself assumed human nature, and lived openly with us ; taught us, and became a sacrifice and oftering for our sins ; and, after having overcome death, rose and lived again, and discoursed with many, in an open and familiar manner ; and moreover preached to a great niultitu.de of hearers. And although these things, on account of their greatness, seem, to human judgment, to be mere fictions ; yet they are attested and sealed by sure and certain evidences and miracles ; so that they are as surely true as that it is mid-day when the sun has mounted, in his course, to the mid-heaven.

To these blessings we are also to add this, — that God was pleased that there should be a History of the human race, fi'om the very "beginning;" and a Record of all those testimonies, by which he revealed himself, committed to writing, and engraven on Biblical monuments, which should remain for ever. Nor will God be known in any other way, than by these testimonies ; nor will he consider any assembly of men, who are ignorant of these testimonies, to be his church : nor will he receive the prayers of those, wdio do not call upon him, as that same God, who does thus make himself knoion, by these his testimonies.

The Mahomedans call upon God as the Creator of universal nature ; but they set themselves against his Son, and his Son's doctrine. They sa}^, that he who can approve such doctrine, cannot be God. And as to his Son, in whom God more especially reveals himself, and concerning whom he says himself, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him," — on him they spit, with enfuriated madness !

And what says Plato here 1 — Although Plato does raise his mind, above the common opinions of the vulgar, and does not ascribe divinity to statues of wood and stone, but really does en- quire after God, with the most wuse reasoning; and although he defines Him to be, ' an eternal mind,' and the Great Cause of all good, in nature ; yet, he still errs very widely from the true God. ■ — But how is that ? (some one may say.) What description of

PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. 9

God will you find more appropriate than Plato's 1 — I acknow- ledge, that he thought most learnedly and wisely concerning the nature of God ; but concerning his ivill, he hangs in doubt him- self, and leaves all his readers and disciples in doubt also ; and, to use his own expression, ')(^eLfjLa^ofX6vov<i iv Xojq) ' bestormed and shipwrecked, in their reasoning.' Neither Plato nor Mahomet knew ivheiher God heard and received the unworthy ; nor how, nor lohi/, he received them.

Plato ought, however, to have enquired, not only how God manifested himself in the creation of things ; and wliat traces of himself he impressed upon the face of nature ; but also, whether or not he had uttered any voice by any certain signs or testi- monies ; and how that voice was spread abroad and made known. He miifht have heard tliese tliin2:s when studyino- the mathe- matics, in -ZEgypt ; and might easily have learned all particulars from their neighbours, the Jews. But the greater part of men always despise the voice and the church of God.

But to vvhat purpose, (say you,) is all this far-fetched Intro- duction ? — It is for this end ; — that we may know, that the true"^ Church of God is no where but among those, vv^ho have, and who embrace, the writings of tlie prophets, and the apostles ; that God is no v»diere rightly called upon, but where the doctrine, \ contained in these Books, shines truly forth. And here again . we have to consider another singular blessing of God ; — that he was pleased to cause a whole connected History of all ages, from " the beginning," to be recorded in these Books ; and has pre- served them by his own peculiar care. Nay, the whole Mosaic CEconomy was ordained for this very preservation of them. For what was the Avhole of that Q3co]iomy, but a certain school and library of these Books '?

And the fountain of all is, the First Book of Moses, which is called Genesis : which profjine men may perhaps laugh at ; and consider that it differs nothing from the " Timon" of Plato ; in which also the creation of the woi'ld is described. But the godly reader knows, that there is a wide difference between pro- fane descriptions, and this description which was given us from above. For the latter, not only informs us of the beginnings and nature of created bodies, but gives us a description of God himself. And it contains also an account of the beginnings of "

10 PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS.

THE CHURCH : for tile sake of which, all other things were created and made : all which things we must know, before we can understand whence the doctrine of the church proceeded, and how the knowledge of it was spread abroad in the world.

All heathen superstitions crept into the assemblies of men wdthout any certain authors ; and were afterwards accumulated by fanatical persons, on various occasions. But from " the Book OF GEiSrESis" we learn, that the doctrine of the church was de- livered to our first parents, by the voice of God; and that thence, the knowledge of it was preserved and spread abroad, in the world, by a continued series of persons and events ; and not without manifest evidences and testimonies. Enoch was taken up into heaven : Noah truly preached of the Flood, and was afterwards preserved in the Flood : Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, &c,, (for there are many signs and evidences that they were teachers and priests, truly called of God,) were most certain witnesses, that the doctrine which they embraced and preached, was from heaven.

Symmachus objects against Christians, that it must be agreed upon, by all, that the oldest doctrine must be the most true ; but that the apostolic doctrine is a recent fiction. But Symmachus is here in a very great error; for it can be most manifestly proved, that the doctrine now held by the church, is the first doctrine that ever was delivered to the world. And that is plainly shown, in this " Book of Genesis ;" where both the doctrine is re- corded as having been delivered of God ; and also, the increas- ing nations are described, which departed from the pui'ity of that doctrine, and formed out to themselves new opinions concerning God, and set up idols, instead of worshipping Him. Therefore, we must come to this Book for a description of the beginnings of the Church, and for testimonies of its propagation ; and it is to this Book that all doctrines must be referred, in order to our discovering their origin or antiquity.

Philosophers knew nothing of the cause of sin, of the cause of death, nor of the cause of the great calamities to which the hu- man race are subject ; nor did they know any thing of the restitution of all things, nor of eternal life. They were continu- ally enquiring, how it is that there is so much misery in the nature of the human race, which is so exalted and excellent.

PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. 11

How often do they exclaim against, and lament, man's violent and impetuous inclinations to vice ! They see that his virtues are weak, and that they are only faint attempts which soon vanish, and end in nothing : as we see in Pausanius, who was the great general of the Greeks against Mardonius ; and in Alexander ; and also in Themistocles, and many others. Aris- totle seeks after the cause of the death of the human race, and of all other living creatures, in their material nature ; and to make good his hypotheses, he enumerates privation, among the principles of natural things ; that he might, in some way or other, make out a continual lapse of matter, decaying and perish- ing, in order to assume other forms.

But the Book, now under our consideration, sets before us a 1 far different cause of the death of the human race, and of the corruptions which defile it ; — it shows, that the cause was a turn- ing away from God, in our human nature, at " the beginning;" which human nature, casting away the light and knowledge of God and of life, prociu'ed to itself a confusion in its powers, and a subjection to the tyranny of the de\al, and of death. The great- ness and enormity of these evils were seen in our first parents, in the murder of Cain, and in the other horrible wickednesses, which are seen in those first flowers of the human race, which excelled all others in purity and excellence.

And then again, we have a beautiful view and proof of this, in the propagation and continual renewing of the Church : Avherein it appears manifest, that the Church is not a kingdom or body politic, belonging to this world, enclosed and guarded by armed garrisons ; but a body formed of widely dispersed as- semblies, though not hidden and obscure ; bearing about Avith them the divine voice and Word, and dispensing it, in public congregations of honest men, to kings, rulers, and cities ; and calling and drawing many every where to prayer, and to the true worship of God; though they are all the while derided, cast out, and driven awa}', by tyrants, and by the great part of mankind.

Melchisedech, (whom the old divines have supposed was Shem, the Son of Noah), surpassed all the men of that time, in wisdom, righteousness, and age ; and he preaclied for a long time to the people of Sodom and the neighbouring places : for his dwelling

12 PREFACE QfF VITUS THEODORUS.

was not more than eight of our miles from Sodom. Therefore there is no doubt that he had a congregation, by no means in- considerable, which contained the families of Abraham, Lot, and many others. For although the Churcli was small, yet there was always some Church existing ; and that no obscure nor in- considerable assemblage, altogether. And these little schools or congregations of hearers were protected and defended from on high. For the neighbouring cities, (of which Sodom was the chief, in power,) all, with infuriated madness, despised the heavenly doctrine, and railed at, and hated, its preachers.

In meditating on this Book of Genesis therefore, the picture which Moses gives us of the churcli, at that time, is to be con- tinually and diligently considered. And indeed, in reading these histories, the following Six particulars are to be care- fully borne in mind.

1. The doctrine of our primitive fathers is to be considered: and that the prophets and apostles drew many things from these fountains. For our forefathers, and the prophets, learned the benefits of Christ, both out of the promise given to Abraham, and from the other parts of those histories. How eruditely and learnedly does Paul draw up the article of righteousness by faith, out of that word of Genesis, " Abraham believed in God, and it was comited unto him for righteovisness." And David ascribes unto Christ a priesthood like that of Llelchisedeck ; marking particularly his office of blessing ; when he blessed Abraham, and promised him, in the sweetest words, the favour and help of God; which was different from the office of the Levitical priesthood.

This is a most rich part of the Scriptm'e of Genesis, as the following Commentary frequently points out, and as the godly Reader at once perceives, in this very history itself: for he knows, that these histories are to be read in a far different spirit, and with a widely different intent, from all profane and heathen histories. Ile'athen histories merely set before us examples of civil manners ; and show, that the events attending honest de- signs are, for the most part, good, and 2:)leasant, and successftil ; but that the most fatal calamities await atrocious wickednesses. And this is nearly the whole that we learn from profane and heathen histories. But these prophetic Writings, contain

I

PREFACE OP VITUS THEODORUS. 13

tilings of much higher moment; — the doctrine of God; the divine testimonies concerning eternal things, and concerning the go- vernment of the Church.

2. Secondly, therefore, we must observe and consider these miracles. Not merely to feast our wondering curiosity on their singularity or novelty ; but that we may hold them fast as testi- monies and evidences; intended to show, what kind of doctrine, and what kind of teachers God approves. All those marvellous and signal acts of God are above natiu'e, and wrought as (T(f)paycBe^ ' seals' of the doctrine. For we are not to imagine that God was in jest, when he forewarned the antediluvian world of the Flood, and when he saved the family of Noah alone, from that mighty Deluge. All these his mighty acts, were testimojiies of his provi- dence, and of his doctrine, which the aged Noah preached.

3. Let the government and defence and protection of the Church be diligently observed : which, although it seems, as to aj^pear- ance, to be neglected of God, yet exhibits most illustrious proofs of the presence of God, and of his providence. The Emperor Augustus ruled the world by certain and established laws : he had his armies : to whose care he entrusted the safety of his provinces : and he had also his wealth and other resources, where- with to support his armies. Thus a political government of that kind is fortified and protected by human laws, counsels, and power. But the government of the Church is far different from this. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, wander about like pri- vate men, and strangers in the land without any human re- sources for protection ; and they collect together a church by the Word, or voice, of God, and by the Holy Ghost. And though they are unceasingly exercised with various sorrows, and dis- tresses ; they still find themselves delivered from all evils, and protected and defended, from above ! So also Jacob, when about to take his journey with all his family through the territories of his angry and embittered brother, is filled with fears and hesita- tions, and the difficulties seem insurmountable by all human counsel, but in the night he wrestles with the Lord, and is en- couraged, confirmed, and protected.

And many such examples are contained in this little but mo- mentous Book of Record ; which show us, that God is ever with his church ; and which command and encourage us also to seek

^

14 PREFACE or VITUS THEOBORUS.

and hope for help and defence fi'om Him ! For these things were recorded, and handed down to posterity, that we might be encouraged by such examples, and might know, that God, in the same manner, is ever willing to protect and defend us.

4. We must bear in mind the continual successioti of the CHURCH. — Men magnify the ordinary succession of all human things : and the titles and honours and decorations of parents and the magnificence of houses and of places. Cain, Ishmael, and Esau, arrogated to themselves dominion, and superiority, in the church ; because they had the advantage of their brethren, in age. The antient Babylonians maintained, that their opinions concerning God were the most true, because that was the most antient dwelling place of our fathers ; and because it was the capital and citadel of their empire : just as bishops and colleges now, on account of an ordinary succession, assume to themselves this peculiar honour, — that they cannot err ; and that they are the habitation and the pillars of the Truth.

But Paul shows us, in the 9 Chap, of his Epistle to the Romans, that all such judgment and opinion as this is refuted in the Book of Genesis : where the apostle shows, in the most forci- ble manner, that the church is not propagated and continued by any prerogatives or pri\dleges, of birth or place, but by the call- ing and Word of God. The family of Jacob was the church ; because it retained the doctrine of the Word from heaven ; but Esau did not retain it.

Thus, the Church which fell away and declined, in Palestine, was restored by the calling of the great Teacher, Abraham ; and by the renewal of the promise to him, with additional evidences and testimonies : which histoiy shows, that the church is the care of God, and is regenerated and revived by Him : as Paul saitli, " And he gave gifts unto men ; prophets, and apostles, and pastors, and teachers." — Let us not then be moved by honours of dignity, or places, or an orderly succession ; so as to be made to believe, that the church is that assembly of men, who oppose the Gospel, and who would kill and exterminate all honest men, on account of their profession of the doctrine of God- liness ; as Cain did.

5. We must bear in mind, in reading this Book of Genesis, the lives manners and actions of the persons therein recorded. We

I

PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. 15

have before been speaking of the doctrine and government of the CHURCH ; which, they who despise, will never tnily value or prize this Book. For such men seek, in these histories, as in all others, and are interested only in, the various commotions and changes of states and kingdoms, and the examples and lives of the leaders of armies, and the wonderful events of wars. But here, they read also the conversations and lives of shepherds ; which are like, as it were, mere pastorals. And they here read also the marriages and quarrels of women; which they despise, as altogether without interest. All such readers and proud men, err ; and do not understand, that it is the church which is here pourtrayed by Moses : which, although it is poor and humble, in external appearance, and unlike mighty empires ; yet, as the members of that Church lived a civil life, its history consists in domestic and political actions ; according to the vocation of those members of the Church of God, and the various occurrences which took place, in their lives.

Thus, Abraham taught his guests concerning God ; and with such effect, that they themselves said, that he was an angel from God : (and it is indeed a great work, and the greatest and chiefest of all works, to teach rightly concerning God.) This same man carries on war when circumstances require it, and defeats a huge army of the Chaldeans, Avith a very small number ; shoAving thereby, that true courage is a divine motion in the soul, from God. This same man is also a master of a family, and is full of pure affection, and loves his Avives and his children. He is also a diligent man in all his domestic affairs. He defends his fountains and his cattle. In buying, he CA-inces peculiar care, justice, and equity : tilings Avhich he knows God requires in all the deal- ings of men Avith each other. And, in all this tenor of domestic and political life, Abraham's great aim is this ; — that thereby, his co^jfession and profession might be made manifest, by his actions. In all the common calamities, moreover, Avhich attend this life of trouble, he exercises the fear of God, patience, and calling upon God, in prayer ; and he experiences, at the hand of God, many and great deliverances.

All these things, in the lives of the holy patriarchs, are com- mitted to letters, and recorded in this Holy Book : to the end

16 PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS.

that, superstitions of every kind might be refuted. For, in all ages, superstitious men have imagined and sought out vainous ceremonies and modes of religious action ; which are not con- sistent, even with common life, and cannot stand with it : and these superstitious ceremonies they have pompously commended to the people, under the title of great acts of religion. — All the laws of celibacy, of particular meats and drinks, of afflicting and torturing the body, to make a feigned outside show of religion, are as antient as the world itself. But let a man oppose to all these mad inventions, the domestic and political lives and con- versations of the patriarchal fathers ; which were full of examples of faith ; full of the most honourable and kind duties towards their fellow men ; and full of the tenderest affection. Neverthe- less, these holy characters were not without ceremonies. There were sacrifices : there were certain explanations of the Word and will of God : there were certain holy exercises. The pos- session of letters, and of learning also, rested with these men, especially. Fro]u them it is, that we received theology, historj'-, and medicine. Therefore they must doubtlessly have been engaged in various domestic duties and exercises : that by them, those of the less experienced ages, might be instructed, and trained up to virtue.

6. Even the faults and falls of the great men, recorded in this Book, must be particularly considered. They took the greatest care not to rush into any thing against their consciences. But some offences will arise : and even against their wills, in the best of men. And sometimes, those offences will occur, of which men are v^^holly ignorant, before they take place. Lot, when, in the great grief of his mind, he had drunk to excess, was defiled by an incestuous commerce with his own daughters.

But in these slips and falls we are to observe a distinctive dif- ference. These holy men wdio feared God, (as I said,) were on their guard not to rush into any thing, against their con- sciences ; and when they happened to fall, they deplored the weakness of human nature, and learned to see the value of the PROMISE of deliverance, through the Savior, who was to come. And they at length knew, that God had received them again, of mere mercy, for the sake of the great Deliverer, who was pro- mised ; and by that confidence and trust in the promised

PREFACE OF VITUS THEODOKU8. 17

mercy, they returned to God : and therefore, they obtained par- don, and were dehvered from their sins, and the punishment of them. Hence Jacob preaches and proclaims the angel ; that is, the Son of God; by whom he said he was "delivered from all evil ;" that is, from sin and eternal punishment. But the wicked, as Cain, the " giants," and the people of Sodom, defiled them- selves with various sins and iniquities, in an open contempt of God ; and rushed into eternal destruction. — Therefore, the wide difference between the falls and punishments of these two charac- ters, is to be diligently observed, in reading this Book of Genesis.

These observations I have made, by way of Introduction, for the benefit of the inexperienced : that being thus premonished, they might know, that the doctrine contained in these sacred histories, is concerning the most momentous of things ; and is most copious and extensive ; which, indeed, the following Coivr- MENTARY Will most learnedly and blessedly open up and explain. Let those therefore, 'who read it, bear in mind the Six admoni- tory particulars which I have here mentioned ; and let their aim, in reading, be this, that by meditating on the lives of the holy men here recorded, they may come accustomed to the fear of God, and to faith in him ; and to call upon him, in prayer and supplication.

And as there is no old Commentary on the Book of Genesis existing ; and as it Is well known to all, that this Book is cal- culated to be of the utmost benefit and profit, thanks are due to the Reverend Doctor Luther our teacher, both from my- self and from all those who fear God, for his having undertaken this Exposition : by doing which, he has rendered a most essen- tial service ; not only to us, but to all posterity ; because he has therein opened up and explained the most important things ; and has also so commented upon those most excellent men, and lights of the Church, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph ; that their virtues, by this his Commentary, shine forth, with much renewed brightness.

Before this, when the people heard the names of these lumin- aries of the church, they had no particular thoughts upon their spiritual excellencies, or upon their heroism : nor did they consi- der them to be any thing above the common rank of shepherds : but now, they learn to acknowledge the peculiar ])resencG of

B

18 PREFACE OF VITUS THEODOllUS.

God with them ; and to reiider thanks unto God, for their having been called of Him, and for their having so wonderfully governed and revived the church. From these also they have boiTowed eminent examples of the fear of God, of faith, of con- fession, of patience, and of many other holy virtues. On these they fix their eyes as on leaders and lights of the church ; and enquire after their doctrine, for the confirmation of their faith. I In a word, they venerate them as their fathers; that is, as I teachers of all who call upon Jesus Christ; and they understand also that these same patriarchs are the fathers, in the flesh, of those murderers, the Jews, and of others who, like the Jews of old, hold up Christ for a laughing-stock and ' crucify him afresh,' day by day.

Indeed, it is no small step towards godliness, to know the doctrine of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph ; and to exalt these eminent men in our esteem. And that this Commentary might be a benefit to more, and might be handed down to pos- terity;— as Doctor Luther had not leisure enough to commit it to writing, I, with the help of my friends Caspar Crucigevj and George Rorar^, collected it, with the greatest diligence and speed, as we received it from our venerable teacher Luther's mouth ; and faithfully committed it to paper ; and I ho])e our services will be acceptable to all our readers, who fear the Lord. This useful and valuable monument of divine knowledge and experience, therefore, I dedicate to you, most Illustrious Prince, John Ernest ; which, I doubt not, you will prize more than any monuments of marble or of brass. For I know it is your desire that this noble Work of Martin Luther should be preserved, for the church's sake ; and I am equally assured, that you love and cherish it, with a pious regard, and after the example of your father ; and I am also persuaded, that you love the Author of it; which also you do, after the example of your revered father, that most upright prince, Elector John, Duke of Saxony, whose worth w^e thus deservedly record: avIio, although he was far inferior to those our most eminent leaders, whom I have before mentioned, — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph; yet I may justly rank him with that Pharaoh, King of Egypt, whom Joseph in- structed in the true knowledge of God ; and who gave a quiet dweUincr to the familv of Jacob. For thus your father also learned

PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. 19

the Gospel; with a holy desire that he might worship God. And he cherished and adorned the churches ; and devoted all his counsels, with the greatest moderation, to the common peace and tranquillity of Germany. — Receive therefore. Illustrious Prince, this gi-eat Work, which is now dedicated to you ; that by reading these wonderful histories of the government, the perils, and the defence of the Church of God, you may learn to govern and strengthen your own exalted mind.

The reason why this Commentary did not come out whole, at once, but in separate volumes, was because the labour of collect- ing, and committing to paper, Avas very great ; and loe have not so much idle time upon our hands, from the duties of our calling, as many dream we have ; nor as those have, who only vaunt and talk of their great and numerous good works. I hope however that this my candid confession, will be accepted by the Reader, if I shall put into his hands, a part of our labours, first ; though it is not a small part ; and I promise, that the remainder shall be added to it, in a short time. For as one of old says, ' A godly mind surmounts the hardest toil ' ! And indeed, we who are engaged in the church, have not only to go through the labour of commenting and teaching, but we have also to endure many other difficulties; and tliat too, with much courage and firm determination of mind.

Nor am I deterred from my purpose, even by the opinions of those, who say, that nothing which our adversaries advance, who reproach this kind of doctrine, (which, through the goodness and mercy of God, sounds forth in our church,) ought to be pub- lished to the world. For God's will is, that He should be pro- claimed aloud ; both by the living voice, and by the writings of his church. Hence it is said, concerning the chm'ch's living voice, " Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou per- fected praise." And, concerning her tvritings, " These things shall be icritten, for the generation to come." God's will is, that the doctrine revealed by Him should be delivered faithfully and purely to posterity. And His will also is that Ave shoidd incul- cate it by speaking, by discoursing, by connnenting, and by writing ; that it might become familiarly known to us. And this continual meditation, and application of the pen, is of essential service to the promotion of godliness.

20 PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS.

In a word ; — on what subjects can we meditate, and what things can we commit to paper, more useful and important than these 1 I approve of the labours of all, who devote themselves to the useful arts. I praise those who describe the nature and proper- ties of plants, and who adorn any of the arts, which were given us from above. But it is not more the duty of men to philoso- phize upon plants, or upon the anatomy of the human body, than to collect, with a godly intent, those things which were delivered to us of God ; attended with sure and certain testimonies. And as to our adversaries, who reproach the doctrine of oirr church, — all such are refuted, in this very Book of Genesis, by those sure witnesses, — ^Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Since, there- fore, we have such eminent men as these, as witnesses on our side ; nay, as our teachers too ; let us be nothing moved by the calumnies and reproaches of the wicked. — Reader, farewell !

From the Birth of Christ, 1544.

COMMENTARY

BOOK OF GENESIS,

EAETIN LUTHEK,

DELIVERED IN THE SCHOOL OF WITTEMBEEG.

COMMENTARY

*y;>vv.

BOOK or GENESIS.

CHAP. I.

This first chapter of the divine Book before us, is written in words, indeed, the most simple ; but it contains things the most important, and at the same time the most obscure. Hence, it was forbidden among the Jew^s (according to the authority of Jerome) that any one should read these things himself, or speak of them to others, until he had attained his thirtieth year. The Jews would have the whole Scripture to be first well known by every one, before they came to this first chapter of " the Book of Genesis." The Jewish Rabbins, however, did no good what- ever by all this care : for many of the Rabbins themselves, wdio had attained unto an age of more than twice thirty years, dis- course most childishly and foolishly upon the important things of this Book, in their Commentaries.

Nor was any one ever yet found in the church itself, who could explain all these momentous things, with sufficient appropriate- ness and success : For interpreters and commentators have con- fused and entangled them with such a variety, diversity, and infinity of questions, that it is sufficiently plain, that God has reserved the majesty of this wisdom, and the full and sound understanding of this chapter, to himself alone ; having left to us these general ideas only, — that the world began, and was made of God, out of nothing. This general knowledge may be clearly

derived from the text.

But, with respect to particulars,

then

24 CHAPTER I.

are many things which still remain involved in doubt and ob- scurity; and whence have arisen all those various and numberless questions which have filled the pages of our commentators.

We know, however, from Moses, that the world did not exist 6000 years ago ; but of this no philosophizing man can in any way be persuaded ; because, according to Aristotle, the first and last man cannot be at all detennined. Although, however, Aristotle leaves it as a doubtful problem, whether or not, the world be eternal, he nevertheless is more inclined to think that it is eternal. For human reason can ascend no higher than to believe that the world is eternal, and that an infinite generation of men preceded us, and will follow after us. But here, reason is compelled to come to a stand. From this belief however follows as a consequence, a most perilous opinion, — that the soul is mortal ; because philosophy knows not many infinities. Hence, it cannot be, but that human reason must be overwhelmed and ship- wrecked, in the sea of the majesty of these things.

Plato collected, (perhaps in Eg>"pt, which is most unlikely) some traditional sparks from the discourses of the patriarchs and the prophets ; and therefore he came nearer to the truth than the others. He maintains, indeed, the existence of matter, and an eternal mind ; but he says, that the world had a beginning, and that it was made from matter. But, I cease to adduce farther the opinions of philosophers ; for Lyra largely cites these, though he does not explain them.

Therefore, neither among the Jews, nor among the Latins, nor among the Greeks, is there one leading teacher to be found whom I can therein in any way follow. I shall be pardoned therefore if 1 also shall try and see what I shall be able to say upon the subject. For, (excepting this general opinion, that the world had its beginning from nothing,) there is scarcely any one other thing upon the subject on which all theologians are en- tirely agreed.

Hilary and Augustine, who are as it were two great lights in the church, believe, that the world was made on a sudden, and all at once, and not successively, during the space of six clays. And Augustine plays upon these six days, in a marvellous manner, in treating of them. He considers them to be inj'stical days of knowledge, in the angels, and not natural days. ' Hence

CREATION. 25

have arisen those continual disputations, in the schools and in churches, concerning the evening and morning knowledge ; which Augustine was the cause of beino; introduced. These are all diligently collected and particularly mentioned by Lyra : Let those therefore who wish to know more about them, consult him.

But all these disputations, though subtle, and clever, are nothing whatever to the point in question. For what need is there to make a two-fold knowledge. And equally useless is it to consider Moses, in this beginning of his history, to speak mystically or allegorically. For, as he is not instructing us concerning allegorical creatm'es, and an allegorical world, but concerning essential creatures, and a world visible and apprehen- sible by the senses ; he calls (as we say in our trite proverb) ' a post, a post ;' that is, when he says morning, or day, or evening, his meaning is the same as ours, when we use those terms ; without any allegory whatever. Thus the Evangelist Matthew, in his last chapter, uses the same manner of expression when he says that Christ arose on the evening of the Sabbath ; that is, at that time of one of the Sabbath days which was formed by the evening light._7 But if we cannot fully comprehend the days here mentioned, nor understand why God chose to use these intervals of time, let us rather confess our ignorance in the matter, than w^est the words of Moses away from the circum- stances which he is recording, to a meaning, which has nothing to do with those circumstances.

With respect, therefore, to this opinion of Augustine, we con- clude, that Moses spoke properly and plainly, and neither alle- gorically nor figuratively : that is, he means, that the world, with all creatures, was created in sLv days, as he himself expresses it. And if we cannot attain unto a comprehension of the reason lohy it was so, let us still remain scholars, and leave all the preceptorship to the Holy Spirit !

These days also, we read, were distinguished thus. — On the first day, was created the unformed mass of heaven and earth ; to which light was then added. On the second day, was created the firmament. On the third day, the earth was produced from out of the waters, and its fruits created. On the fourth day the heavens were adorned by the creation of the sun, moon, and

2Q CHAPTER I. 1.

stars. On the jifth day, the fishes of the sea and the fbA\'ls of the ail' were created. On the sixth day, the beasts of the earth were created, and Man was made. I say nothing of those farther views, which many commentators take ; who divide these sacred matters into the work of creation, the woi'k of distinction, and the work of ornation ; because I do not think that such divisions of the subject can be made to harmonize appropriately with each other. If any one admire such views, let him consult Lyra.

As to Lyra's thinking, that a knowledge of the opinion of philosophers concerning matter, is necessary ; and that, on such knowledge must depend a man's understanding the six cJays^ work of creation ; — I question whether Lyra really understood himself what Aristotle calls matter. For Aristotle does not, like Ovid, call the original unformed chaotic mass, matter. — Where- fore, omitting these unnecessary subjects altogether, le.t us come, at once, to Moses, as a far better teacher ; whom we may much more safely follow, than we can philosophers, disputing, without the Word, about tilings which they do not understand.

CHAPTER L

THE WORK OF THE FIRST DAY.

Ver. 1. — In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Here arises a necessary, and a veiy obscure, question. — Moses mentions the creation of the heaven and the earth ; and yet makes no mention of the day on which, nor the Word by which, they were created. For one naturally enquires why Moses did not rather use the same form of words here, as he has done in the subsequent cases, where mention is made of the Word? That is, why he did speak in this manner *? — ' In the beginning, God said, Let there be heaven and earth V For Moses mentions " the heaven and the earth" before God had spoken any thing :

CREATION. 27

wliereas, both the Decalogue, and the whole Scripture, testify, that God made the heaven and the earth, and all things that are in them, " in six dai/sJ^ But, as I said before, we enter on this path, without a guide. We leave therefore to others to follow their own judgment herein ; while we will expound the matter, according to ouj' views.

Moses calls " the heaven and earth," not those elements which now are ; but the original rude and unformed substances. The water was dark ; and because it was by natui'e the lighter ele- ment, it surrounded the earth, itself also, as yet unformed, as a kind of mud. God formed this first material (if I may so call it) of his future work, not before, or apaH from the six days, but, (according to the express words of the Decalogue) in the " beginning" of the fii'st daj/.

As I view the matter, therefore, Moses mentions not, here, the first day ; because, these confused substances of the hitherto rude heaven and earth were afterwards formed, and, as it were, fully adorned and distinguished. For what he immediately calls the " deep," and the "waters ;" that is, the rude and unformed water, which was not yet distributed, nor adorned with its proper form, he here calls " the heaven :" whereas, had Moses spoken otherwise, and had said, " In the beginning God said Let there be heaven and earth ;" there would have been no need of after- wards saying, ' God said;' seeing that these unformed waters would have been already illuminated, and the light would have been already created.

The meaning of Moses therefore, in all simplicity, is this, — That all things which now exist were created of God ; and that " in the beginning" of the frst day, were created the mass of mud, or of earth ; and of dark mist, or, of water ; on which, afterwards, (in the after part of the frst day,) God shed the light, and caused the day to appear, which might discover this rude mass of "the heaven and the earth;" which was in all things like unto undeveloped seed ; and yet adapted to produce any thing which God should require.

Vor. 2.~Xow ilie earth was empty and. void. There is a greater signification in the Hebrew words ToHU

28 CHAPTER I. 2.

and BoHU, than can be expressed in any other language : yet these terms are frequently used in the sacred Scriptures. ToHU means "nothing;" so that, a ToHU exirth^ means, in its simple reality, that which is, in itself, 'empty' or 'destitute;' — where there is no way, no distinction of places, no hill, no vale, no grass, no herbs, no animals, no men. And such was the first appear- ance of the waste and untilled earth ; for while the water was mixed with the earth, no distinctions of those various objects could be discerned, which, since the earth's formation and culti- vation, are clearly seen.

Thus Isaiah when threatening destruction to the whole earth (34. 11.) says " There shall be stretched upon it the hue of Tohu (nothingness) ; and the plummet of BoHU (emptiness) :" that is, it shall be so made desolate, that neither men nor beasts shall be left upon it ; all houses shall be devastated, and all things hurled into chaos and confusion. Just as Jerusalem was after- wards laid waste by the Romans, and Rome by the Goths ; so that no vestiges of the ancient city, as it once was, could be pointed out, — you now behold the earth standing out of the waters, the heavens adorned with stars, the fields with trees, and cities with houses ; but should all these things be taken away and hurled into confusion, and into one chaotic heap; the state of things thus produced would be what Moses calls Tohu and Bohu.

And as the earth was surrounded with darkness, or with waters over which darkness brooded ; so also the heaven was unformed. And it was not only ToHU, because it was destitute of the gar- nishing of the stars ; and BoHU, because it was not yet separated and distinguished from the earth ; but because it was as yet, altogether destitute of light, and was a dark and deep abyss which, like a most dense cloud, enveloped the earth, or that mass of mud ; for the Division of the waters is yet to follow.

Here then we have the first thing which Moses teacheth, — that the heaven and the earth were created, on the first day ; but, that the heaven was as yet, unformed, not separated from the waters, destitute of its luminaries, and not elevated to its position : and the earth, in like manner, was as yet without its animals, its rivers, and its mountains.

As to Lyra's argument, — that this original matter was mere power, and was afterward rendered substance, by its own power ;

CREATION. 29

or, as to what Augustine says, in his Book of " Confessions ;" — that matter is as it were, nothing ; and that no medium matter can be thought of, between the Creator and the thing created ; such subtle disquisitions I by no means approve. For how could that be a mere nothing, which was already of such material and substance, that Moses calls it "the heaven and the earth""? Unless indeed you would call it, artificially, the same kind of matter which you call wood, which is not yet wrought into a chest, or a bench. But this latter substance, is what true phi- losophers would call matter, in a secondary state.

We should rather consider the whole sacred subject, as Peter considers it (2 Pet. 3. 5) : Avhere, speaking of the wicked, he says, " For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old ; and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." For. Peter seems to intimate this, — that the earth consists of water ; and was made out of water ; and that, after it was produced out of water, and placed, as it were, in the light ; it swam, as it now seems to do, in the water. This, says he, the wicked hieio ; and therefore being confident of this condition of things, they feared no peril from water, which they knew to be the fundamental substance of the earth. Yet the water destroyed that earth which it preserved, and buoyed up, and bore ; just as, at the last, it shall be destroyed by fire. From this intimation of Peter, it would appear, that the earth was made to stand in the water, and out of the water. — But let this suffice concerning the original matter or material. And if any one should discuss .the subject with greater subtlety of argument, I do not think he would do so, with any profit.

And darkness was upon the face of the deep.

The " water," the " deep," and the " heaven," are, in this place, put for the same thing ; namely, for that dark unformed sub- stance, which afterwards was divided by the Word. For this was the office of the other or Second Person ; namely, of Christ the Son of God ; — To divide, and to adorn, that chaotic mass w hich was })roduced from nothing. And this may have been the

30 CHAPTER I. 2.

very design of Moses, in not mentioning the Word, in the first place ; that is, not putting, at the first, " And God said." For some maintain, that this was done by !Moses, purposely.

And the Spirit of the Lord teas home iipon the waters.

Some consider " the Spirit of the Lord," in this place, to mean merely the wind. But if tiny thing material is here to be under- stood by " Spirit," I should rather refer it to the first moving of the original unformed mass of heaven and earth, which is called "the deep;" which is always in motion to this day: for water is never still : its surface is always in motion.

But I, above all other senses, here understand the Holy Spirit. For the wind is a creature which did not exist, while as yet the heaven and the earth lay in that confused chaotic mass. There is moreover an universal agreement of the church concerning a revelation of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, in this first crea- tion loorh. — The Father, through the Son, whom Moses here calls the Word, creates " the heaven and the earth," out of nothing. Over these the Holy Spirit broods. And as a hen sits upon her eggs, that she may hatch her yoimg, thus warming her eggs, and as it were, infusing into them animation ; so, the Scripture says, the Holy Ghost brooded as it were on the waters ; that He might infuse life into these elementary substances Avhich were afterwards to be animated and garnished. For the office of the Holy Spirit is, to give life !

These explanations, as far as I can see, are sufficient for our present purpose.. Wherefore, casting away all other divers opinions, let us set down this as the truth ; — that God created " the heaven and the earth," as yet a rude mass, out of nothing ; so that the earth, as an unformed chaotic mass, enveloped the heaven, as yet also an unformed mass, like a dark, circumfluent nebulous cloud.

It is necessary, however, that we should, to a certain extent, discuss the terms, here used. And at our first entrance on this discussion, we are met by the expression " In the beginning." Some have expounded the words " In the beginning," as mean- ing " In the Son ;" on account of the passage Jno. 1. 1 ; seeing that Christ also gives to the Jews, when they enquired ^ who He

CREATION. 31

was?' this answer, "The beginning; who also now speaks" (John 8. 25). This same exposition is given also, on account of the passage Psalm 110. 3, "With thee is the Beginning, in the day of thy power;" which passage nearly all commentators exjDound as meaning, " With thee is the Son, in divine power." — But it is well known to those acquainted with the Greek lan- guage, that the expression rrp dp'^rjv, should be rendered by an adverbial phraseology, ' at first,' or ' in the beginning,' etc. It is a figure of speech, with wddch Ave frequently meet, in the Greek. — Wherefore let them who will, amuse themselves by thus interpreting the expression " In the beginning." I prefer that explanation which is the most plain and simple ; and which can be at once understood by the less learned.

My belief is, therefore, that the design of Moses was to signify the heginning of time ; so that, " In the beginning," has the same meaning as if he had said, ' At that time, before which, there was no time.' Or he means, that when the world began, it so began, that the heaven and the earth were created of God out of nothing; but created in a rude shapeless mass ; not formed and beautified as they now are. Though they lay not long thus unformed and unbeautified; but began, immediately, on the first day, to be garnished with the light.

The Arians have imagined that angels and the Son of God were made before " the beginning." But let us pass by this blasphemy. We will omit another question also — What was God doing before the beginning of the world ? was He i]i a state of entire inaction, or not ? To this question Augustine introduces one replying, ' He was making a hell for all searchers into Plis secrets.' This reply saith Augustine was made, to elude the violent and audacious blasphemy of the question.

The modesty, therefore, of Augiistine sweetly accords with my own mind ; who elsewhere candidly says, that in all such cases he draws in the sails of his thoughts. For if we speculate and dispvite, to infinity, these things still remain incomprehensible. Even of those things which we see, we can understand but little. How much less . then shall we grasp, in our knowledge, such things as these. For what will j'^ou determine concerning things that were before and beyond time ? Or what can be your thoughts of the things which God did before time was ? Where-

32 CHAPTER I. 2.

fore let us away with all such thoughts as these; aud let us determuie that God, before the creation of the W'Orld, was incomprehensible in his essential rest : but that now, since the creation, he is within and without and above all creatures : that is, that he is still incomprehensible. This is all that can be said : because, of that which was beyond time, our intellect can comprehend nothing.

Wherefore God manifests not Himself in any thing, but in His works, and in His Word : because these can in some measure be comprehended : all other things which properly belong to His divmity, cannot be comprehended or understood, as they really are : such as, those things which were beyond time, and before the world's creation, etc. Perhaps God appeared to Adam un- veiled : but, after Ms sin, He may have shewn himself to him in " a noise," (Gen. 3, 8.) under which He was covered, as with a veil. So also, afterwards, in the tabernacle, God was veiled by the sanctuary ; and in the desert, by the pillar of a cloud, and by the pillar of fire. Wherefore, Moses also calls these things 'appearances' or ' shadowings' of God; by which he then mani- fested himself. And Cain calls that the ' face,' and the ' pre- sence' of God where he had before offered his sacrifices. (Gen. 4. 14.) For this nature of ours is so deformed by sin, yea corrupted, and lost, that it cannot understand God naked, and unveiled, nor comprehend what he really is. And therefore it is that these covering veils are absolutely necessary.

It is moreover madness to enter into much disputation con- cerning God, as to what He was beyond and before time : for that is to desire to comprehend naked divinity, or the naked divine essence. And it is for this very reason that God has enwrapt himself in the veils of his works, and under certain visible appearances : just as at this day. He veils himself under baptism etc. If you depart from these veiling signs, you at once run away, beyond measiu'e, beyond place, and beyond time, into the most absolute nothing : concerning which, as philosophers justly say, there can be no knowledge. Therefore it is, that we, with solemn propriety, enter not into this question : but rest content with this simple meaning of the expression, " In the beginning."

But there is somethina; here, still more worthv of our obser^■a-

CREATION. 33

tion ; — That Moses does not here say "In the beginning, Adoni [the Lord] created the heaven and the eaiih ;" but he uses a noun of the pkiral number Elohim : by which name, in the Books of ISIoses, and in otlier parts of the Scriptures, both angels and magistrates are sometimes called. As in Psalm 82. fi ; "I have said ye are gods." It is certain, however, that, in this place, it signifies the One True God ; by whom all things were made. Why, therefore, does Moses here use a 2:>lural noun or name t

The Jews cavil at Moses, in various ways. To us, however, it is clear, that the intent of Moses is to set forth, directly, the Trinity; orthejo/??m/% of Persons in the One Divine Nature. For as he is s])eaking of the work of the creation, it manifestly follows, that he excludes angels, (who are creatures,) from the creative work. There remains, therefore, this sacred conclu- sion of the whole matter; — that GoD is One ; and that this most perfect Unity, is also a most perfect Trinity. For how, other- wise, does Moses use the plural number.

The cold cavilling of the Jews, therefore, is to be altogether exploded ; when they say, that Moses used the plural number for reverence sake. For what place is there here for the exer- cise of reverence ? Especially when that peculiarity which is usual among us Germans, is not comm^on to all languages ; — that it should be considered a point of reverence, to use the plural number, when we are speaking of one person.

And although the Jews make so much noise about this term Eloim being applied to angels and to men ; be it remembered, that, it is in the plural number, in this place ; where it cannot possibly be applied to any but the One True God ! because, Moses is treating of the Creation. There were moreover many other singular nouns which Moses might have used, had he not purposely intended to show unto the spiritual, that, in the divine nature, there is, before, and independently of, all creation and all creatures, a phi7riliti/ of Persons. He does not indeed say, in plain terms, that there is the Father, that there is the Son, and that there is the Holy Ghost ; and that they are the One True God ; because that was reserved for the doctrine of the Gospel. It was enough for him, by the use of a plural noun, though afterwards applied to men also, to set forth this pluralitii of the Divine Persons.

c

34 CHAPTER I. 2

Nor ought it to offend us, that this same term is afterwards applied to creatures. For why should not God communicate His NAME unto us, seeing that He communicates to us His power, and His office 2 For to remit sins, to retain sins, to quicken to spiritual life, &c., are the works of the Divine Majesty alone ; and yet these same works are a sign to men, and they are wrought by the Word which men teach. Thus Paul saith ' that I may save many of them that are of my flesh.' And again, ' I am become all things to all men that I might save some.' (Rom. 11. 14. 1. Cor. 9. 22.) As, therefore, these works are truly the works of God, although they are assigned also unto men, and are wrought by means of men ; so the name of God truly represents God, though it is applied also to men.

Arius could not deny that Christ existed before the world was created ; because Christ Himself says, " Before Abraham was, I am." It is written in the Proverbs also, " Before the heavens were, I am." (John 8. 58. Prov. 8.) Arius is obliged tliere- fore to bring himself to confess, that Christ, or the Word, was created before all things, and that He afterwards created all things, and that He was the most perfect of all creatures though He did not exist from everlasting. But to this fanatical and impious opinion, we ought to oppose that which Moses so briefly expresses by the term " In the beginning." Nor does Moses place any thing before " the beginning," but God Himself; and Him he here represents by a plural noun.

Into these absurd opinions do minds fall, when they would speculate on such mighty things without the Word. Whereas, as Lucretius says. We know not ourselves. We feel that we can judge, enumerate, distinguish quantities, and (if I may so call them) spiritual creatures ; such as truth and falsehood, and yet we cannot to this day define what the soul is. How much less then shall we be able to understand the Divine Nature ! We know not, for instance, what is the motion of oiu' will ; for it is not a motion of quality or of quantity ; and yet it is some motion. What then can we know of things divine ?

It is fanatical therefore to dispute concerning God and the divine nature, without the Word, and without some veiling representation. Yet thus do all heretics : and they think and dispute respecting God with the same unconcern as they would

CREATION. 35

respecting a hog, or a cow. And therefore they receive a reward worthy their temerity ; for by these means they are dashed on the rocks of every perih Hence he who would contemplate such mighty things in safety, and without danger, must confine him- self, with all simplicity, within those representations, signs, and veils, of the divine Majesty, — His Word, and His works. For it is in His Word, and His works, that He discovers Himself unto us : and such as attain unto the knowledge of these, are like the woman labouring under the issue of blood, — healed, by touching these hems of His garment.

Those, on the other hand, who strive to reach God without these veils and coverings, attempt to scale heaven without a ladder, that is, without the Word ; and in so doing, are over- whelmed by the Majesty of God, which they vainly endeavour to comprehend, and fall and perish. Aiid so it befel Arius. He conceived the imagination, that there was some medium between the Creator and the creature ; and that, by that medium, all things were created. Into this error he necessarily fell, the moment he denied, contrary to the Scriptures, a plurality of Persons, in tlie Divine Nature. But as he discussed these things without the Word of God, and depended solely on his own cogitations, he could not but be thus dashed to pieces.

Thus the monk of the Papists, becaiise he follows not the Word, imagines such a God to be sitting in heaven, as will save any one who is covered with a cowl, and who observes a certain strict rule of life. Such an one also attempts to ascend into heaven by his own cogitations, without God, as revealed in His Word, or, without the revealed face of God, for his guide. Thus also the Jews had their idols and their groves. The Ml and the destruction of all are alike. They are precipitated and dashed to pieces ; because, each one, leaving the Word, follows his own imaginations.

If therefore we would walk safely, we must embrace those thino-s which the Word teaches, and which God Himself has willed us to know ; and all other things which ai'e not re- vealed in the Word, we must leave. For what are those things to me, or how can I comprehend them, which God did before the world was made? This is indulging in thoughts upon the naked Divinity. And these are the kinds of thoughts

36 CHAPTER I. 2,

by which the Jews suffer themselves to be led away from this text ; and wliich thus prevent them from believing in a jyhirality of Persons in the Deity : whereas it is evident, that Moses emj^loys a plural noun.

The papal decree condemned the Anthropomorphetce \inan- likeners] because they spoke of God as they would of a man, and attributed to Him eyes, ears, arms, &c. A just condemna- tion truly ! For how, otherwise, can man talk with man con- cerning God ? If to think thus of God be heresy ; then, to a certainty, is the salvation of all children, who can only think and speak thus, as children, concerning God, at an end for ever. But to say nothing about children, give me the most learned doctor in all the world ; — how, otherwise, will even he speak and teach, concerning God?

An injuiy therefore w^as thereby done to good men; w^ho, though they believed God to be Omnipotent and the only Saviour ; yet were condemned, merely because they said God has eyes by which He looks upon the poor and needy, and ears by which He listens to their prayers. For how otherwise can this our nature understand the spiritual reality of God. More- over the Scripture uses this form of speech. Wherefore such were undeservedly condemned. They should rather have been lauded for the simplicity which they studied ; which is so requisite in all teaching. It is absolutely necessar}^ that when God reveals Himself unto us. He should do so under some veil of representation ; some shadowing manifestation ; and should say, ' Behold under this veil thou shalt surely discover Me.' Aiid when we embrace God under this veil or shadow ; when we thus adore Him, call upon Him, and offer to Him our sacrifices ; we are rightly said to offer our sacrifices unto God !

It was thus, doubtless, that our first parents worshipped God. In the morning, when the sun arose, they adored the Creator, in the creature ; or, to speak more plainly, they Avere, by the creature, reminded of the Creator. Their posterity retained the custom, but without the knowledge : and hence, the custom lapsed into idolatry. The cause of this idolatry was not the sun ; for he is a good creature of God ; but the knowledge and the doctrine became, by degrees, extinct : which true doctrine Satan

CREATION. 87

cannot endure. Thus when Satan had drawn Eve away from the Word ; she fell immediately, into sin.

To retiuni, then, to the AntliropomorphetoB. I consider that they were condemned unjustly, and without cause. For the prophets represent God as sitting on a throne. When foolish persons hear this, their thoughts are immediately picturing a golden throne, marvellously decorated, &c. ; though they must all the while know, that there can be no such material throne in heaven. — Hence Isaiah says ' that he saw God sitting on a throne ; and that His train filled the temple' (Is. G. 1.); Whereas God can- not, absolutely, or by real vision, appear to be thus represented or seen. But such figures and representations are well-pleasing to the Holy Spirit ; and such w^orks of God are set before us ; by the means of which we may apprehend God, in our under- standing. Such also are those figures, when it is said that ' He made the heavens and the earth ;' that He sent His Son ; that He speaks by His Son ; that He baptizes ; that He remits sins by the Word. He that does not understand these things, will never understand God. But I say no more here : since these things have been frequently and abundantly discussed by me, elsewhere : yet it was necessary to touch upon them, on the present occasion, for Moses' sake ; whom the Jews so severely attack, in this place ; in the exposition of which, we are proving the plurality of the divine Persons in the Deity. — Now let us proceed with the text.

Ver. 3. And God said Let there he light and there toas light.

Moses has already said that the rude mass of heaven and earth (which he also calls " darlviiess," and " the deep," was made by the Word ; and that, that work ought to be considered the work of the ^Jirst dai/.^ Yet, it is now for the first time that Moses uses the expression " God said, Let there be light &c." A marvellous phraseology this indeed ; unknown to any writer of any other language under heaven, — that God, by speaMng, causes that to exist, which had no existence before. Here therefore Moses sets before us the medium, and instrument, which God used in performing His works ; namely, the Word. But we must here carefully mark the distinction which exists.

38 CHAPTER I. 3.

in the Hebrew lanomaffe, between the words Amae and Dabar. We render each by the terms to say or to speak. But, in the Hebrew, tliere is this difference ; — Amar only, and properly, signifies the loord uttered. But Dabar means also the thing or substance uttered. As when the prophets say ' This is the Word of the Lord;' they use the term Dabar not Amar. Even at this day, the new Arians blind the eyes of those unacquainted with the Hebrew language, by saying that the term in question implies, and is, ' a thing created ;' and that in this way it is, that Christ is called the Word. Against this impious, and at the same time ignorant, corruption of the term Word, the Reader is here duly warned, and exhorted to remember, that Moses here uses the word Amar, which simply and properly signifies the loord uttered ; so that the word uttered, is something distinct fi'om Him who utters it : as there is also a distinction between the person speaking, and the thing spoken.

As therefore we have before proved, from this text, a plurality of Persons ; so here is also an evident distinction of Persons : for it affirms, that it is God the speaker (if I may so express myself) who creates : and yet He uses no material ; but creates the heavens and the earth out of nothing, by the sole Word which He utters.

Apply here the Gospel of St. John " In the beginning was the Word." He exactly agrees wath Moses. He says that there was no creature whatever, before the world was made. Yet God possessed the Word. And wdiat is this Word and what does it ? Hear Moses. The light (saith he) as yet was not : but the darkness, out of its nothing state, is changed into that most excellent creature, light. — By what ? — By the Word. Therefore, " in the beginning" and before every creature, is the Word : and it is so powerful, that out of nothing it makes all things. Hence that irrcfragably follows, which John eloquently adds, — that the Word was, and is, God ! And yet, — that the Word is a Person different fi'om God the Father ; even as the Word, and He who utters the Word, are things absolutely distinct from each other. But at the same time this distinction is of that nature, that the most perfect oneness (if I may so speak) of unity, remains.

These are lofty mysteries : nor is it safe to go farther into

CREATION. 39

them than the Holy Spirit is pleased to lead us. Wherefore, here let us stop ; content with the knowledge, that, when the unformed heaven and unformed earth, each enveloped in mist and darkness, had stood forth created out of nothing, by the Word ; the light also shone forth out of nothing ; and even out of darkness itself, by the Wokd. This first work of the Creator Paul speaks of as a marvellous work ; " God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, &c." The command of God (saith he) made that light. This therefore is enough for us, and sufficient to confirm our faith ; — that Christ is truly God ; who existed with the Father from all eternity, before the world was made ; and that by Him, who is the wisdom and Word of the Father, the Father made all things. It is remarkable also that Paul, in this passage, makes the conversion of the Avicked the work of a new creation ; and a work wrought also by the Word.

But here reason impiously busies itself with foolish questions. If (it argues) the Word ever existed, why did not God create the heavens and the earth before, by that Word ? And again, Since the heavens and the earth were then first made, when God began to speak, it seems to follow that the Word then first had existence, when the creatures began to exist, etc. But these impious cogitations are to be cast away from us : for concerning these things we can determine, or think aright, nothing. For beyond that " beginning" of the creation, is nothing but naked and divine essence ; — naked Deity ! And since God is incom- prehensible, that also is incomprehensible which was before the world ; because it is nothing less than naked God !

We believe it right, therefore, to speak only of " the begin- ning ;" because we cannot advance beyond the beginning. But since John and Moses affirm that the Word was " in the begin- ning," and before every creature ; it of necessity follows that the Word was ever in the Creator, and in the naked essence of God. Therefore, He is the true God : yet so, that the Father begets, and the Son is begotten. For Moses establishes this difference when he names God, who spoke, and the Word which loas spoken. And this was enough for Moses to do : for the clearer explanation of this mystery, ])roperly belongs to the New Testa^ ment, and to the Son, who is in. the bosom of the Father. In

40 CHAPTER 1. 3.

the New Testament, therefore, we hear the certain names of the sacred Persons, — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These indeed are indicated in certain Psahiis, and in the Pro- phets, but not so distinctly expressed.

Augustine explains the Word somewhat otherwise. For he interprets the expression "said," in this manner. "Said;" that is, it was so defined, from all eternity, by the Word of the Father ; it was so appointed of God. Because the Son is the " mind, the image, and the wisdom of God. But the true and simple meaning is to be retained. "God said;" that is, God, by the Word, made and created all things. Which meaning the Apostle also confirms, when he says, " By whom also He made the worlds" (Heb. 1. 2.) And again, "All things were made by Him and for Mim" (Col. 1. 16.) And within these limits ought to be confined every thought of the creation ; our duty is to proceed no further : if we do, we fall headlong into certain darkness and destruction.

Let these facts, therefore, suffice us, in any question concern- ing the world and its creation. — With respect to the ■material of the world, that it was made out of nothing ; that, as the light was made out of that which was not light, so the whole heaven and the whole earth was made out of nothing ; as the Apostle saith, " He calleth those things that are not, as though they were" (Kom. 4. 17.)

With respect to the instrument or medium which God used, it was His omnipotent Word : which w^as with God from the beginning, and (as Paul speaks) " before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1.) Therefore when Paul says, "All things were made by Him" (for he uses the 2jreposition, after the Hebrew manner, for per ; for the Hebrews use thus their letter Beth). This, and all similar passages, are taken from this place of Moses, who is here speaking of the Word uttered, by which any thing is commanded or demanded.

This Word was God : and was an omnipotent Word, spoken in the divine essence. No one heard this Word uttered, but God Himself; that is, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. While it was uttered, the light was generated ; not out of the material of the Word, nor out of the material of the speaker, but out of darkness itself. The Father spoke

CREATION. 41

within ; the work was immediately wrought without ; and the light existed. In the same manner also, were all things after- \vards created. These facts (I say) concerning the manner of the creation are amply sufficient for us.

But here again a well known question is perpetually agitated, — of what kind that light was, by which the original unformed mass of heaven and earth was illumined ; seeing that neither the sun, nor the stars, were then created ; and yet the text shows that this light was real and material. — This fact has given occasion to some, to have recourse to an allegory ; who would explain the matter thus. — " Let there be light ;" that is, the antrelic nature. And again " God divided the lio'lit from the darkness ;" that is. He separated the holy angels from the wicked angels. But this is to trifle with allegories, utterly out of place, and not to interpret Scriptui'e. Moses is here historically re- cording facts. He is moreover writing and penning a Record for unlettered men ; that they may have the plainest possible testimonies concerning the great creation. Such absurcUties, therefore, are not here to be admitted.

A second question is here also agitated. — Whether this light moved itself v\dth a circular motion. — I confess that I, for my part, Iviiow not the truth of the matter. But if any one desires to know what I consider to be the nearest to the truth, my opinion is, that this light was moveable ; so that its motion ft'om east to west, or from its rising to its setting, formed the natural day. — Of what kind the light was, although it is difficult to say, yet I am by no means inclined to think that we should depart, without cause, from the plain grammar of the subject ; or that we should use any violence, by wresting, fi*om their common meaning, the plainest terms. For Moses distinctly affirms that " there was light ;" and he reckons this as the ^'' first day''^ of the creation.

My opinion is, therefore, that this was true and real light ; and that it revolved, with a circular motion, as the light of the sun revolves. I believe, however, that this light was not so clear and splendent as it afterwards was, when augmented, ornamented, and beautified, by the light of the sun. Even as the sacred Scriptures testify, that in the last day, God will niake the present light of the sun, now unclean, in comparison

42 CHAPTER I. 5.

with its future brightness, far more splendid and glorious. As therefore the present light is, as it were, a thick and imperfect mass of light, when compared with that light which shall be ; so that original light was imperfect when compared with the light that now shines. — Such are my sentiments concerning these two questions. Moses then proceeds to say

Ver. 5. And hy the evening and the moryiing was made one day.

We must here first observe, that the Jews begin their day differently from us. With them the day commences from the evening and the setting sun, and terminates on the evening fol- lowing. We begin our day with the rising sun. And it is very remarkable, that the Jews derive their term evening, which they call Aref, from Araf ; which signifies ' to mingle or confound.' In the same manner from the term aref they form their expres- sion AROFF ; which our countryman renders by Cynomia ' dog- fly' which may signify ' a confvised fly.' Because, in the evening, the appearances of things are confused and indistinct, and, when the light is removed, cannot be clearly discerned.

These are the things which Moses has taught us, concerning the Jirst day. We shall see, however, that Moses retains this same expression " God sai'c?" In the creation of fill the other creatures ; — And God said " Let there be a firmament," &c. This very repetition of this same expression ought to be most delightful to us ; because, as I before said, it brings to us a mighty testimony for the confirmation of our faith ; — that the Son, in these eternal matters, is very God ; and that, in the unity of the divinity, there is a plurality of Persons : because the speaker is one Person, and the Word spoken, another Person.

In this same manner also the Psalm speaks, " By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made" &c. (Psalm 33. 6.) And Solomon implies the force of this wonderful phrase of ]\ioses, when he writes that the divine Wisdom was, as it were, the handmaid of the Creation. " I was set vip from everlasting, fi'om the beginning, or ever He had made any thing, &c., when He prepared the heavens, I was there : when He set a compass upon the face of the deep" (Prov. 8. 23 and 27). Here Solomon shows that he fully understood this doctrine of our religion, as

CREATION. 43

plainly set forth by Moses ; and that he understood it, in a man- ner beyond the knowledge of the ignorant multitude ; who heard these things, and read them, but understood them not. For, had not Solomon fully understood this mystery, he could not thus have spoken. But he drew all these things from this same place of Moses, as from a deep and holy fountain. Another proof of this his divine knowledge is that passage Prov. 30. 3, " What is His name, and Avhat His Son's name, if thou canst tell."

I believe also that there were similar writings of other holy men, such as of Enoch, Elijah, &c. ; in which there existed many testi- monies of this same kind. But as, even at this present day, these things though plainly revealed in the New Testament, yet remain hidden ; and are, by numbers of persons, not only not received, but fiercely fovight against ; so, to a much greater extent did it happen among the generality of the Jewish people : while the holy fathers set these mysteries, not openly revealed, before the wise in divine things, with the greatest wisdom of teaching.

To us, it is the greatest consolation to know, that these divine mysteries were thus shadowed forth by Moses, from the begin- ning of the world ; — that, in these di^Hlne matters, there is a pluraliti/ of persons, and yet a imifi/ of the divine Essence. And if there are some who do not believe, but fiercely oppose this doctrine ; what is that to us ! Abraham saw three, and adored ONE ! And the Holy Spirit saith (Gen. 19. and 24) " And the Lord rained fire from heaven from the Lord." And although fanatics miderstand not, nor regard, these words ; yet ive know that they are the words, not of a drunken man, — but of God !

Many such testimonies as these exist throughout the Old Tes- tament; which that excellent man, Hilary, has diligently collected. If these testimonies are obscure, and, to the wicked and unbe- lieving, seem to be unfounded ; yet to the godly, all things which are revealed and handed down to us in the Holy Scriptures, are firmly founded and sufficiently clear. Thei/ know, that the Person speaking, is one Person, and that the Word spoken, is another Person ; not in nature, but in Person ; and is that Word by wdiich all things were made "in the beginning;" and by which they are all upheld to this day ; as saith Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, " Upholding all things ])y the Word of His power." (Heb. L 3.)

44 CHAPTER I. 6.

But the meditater is here to be admonished, that the words, " Let there be light," are the words of God, not of Moses ; that is, that they are, reahties, — facts, — works! For God " ealleth those things that be not as though they were ;" and God speaks, not grammatical words, but very and substantial things. So that what, with us, is sounding voice, is, with God a substantial tiling, — a reality ! Thus, the sun, the moon, the heaven, the earth, Peter, Paul, you, and I, are all and each, loords of God ! Yea, we are single syllables, or single letters as it were of the whole creation, and in comparison thereof.

We also speak : but we can only speak grammatically, or in letters. That is, we give names to created things, &c. But divine grammar, is quite another thing ! When God says, ' Shine thou sun,' the sun immediately exists and shines forth. Thus the words of God are tilings, not mere words !

Here therefore there has been rightly made a distinction be- tween tlie ivord created, and the Word uncreated. The word created is a thing, or fact, or work done, by means of the Word UNCREATED. For what is the whole creation but the w^ord of God spoken forth or uttered ? But the Word uncreated, is the divine mind or thought : the internal command of God, flow- ing from God, and the same as God: and yet, it is a distinct Person. And thus God reveals Himself unto us as the speaker, having with, or in. Himself, the Word increate : by which He created the world and all things, with the utmost facility of operation : namely, by merely speaking ! So that there was no more difficulty with God, in creating, than with us in speaking. — It was in such meditations as these that the pious fathers Augus- tine, and Hilary, found their delight.

THE WOEK OF THE SECOND DAY.

Ver. 6. And God said Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the toaters from the waters.

Moses may here seem to have forgotten himself: in that he treats not at all of two most important matters : — the creation.

CREATION. 45

and the fall, of angels : but confines his sacred narrative to the creation of corporeal things alone. And though there exists no doubt that angels were created ; yet, not one word is found in the whole di^dne Scripture, concerning their creation, their battle, or their fall ; excepting that which Christ briefly utters (John 8. 44) in reference to the devil ; — that he " abode not in the truth ;" excepting also that woful account of the Serpent, which the sacred historian hereafter gives us, in the third chapter of his Record. It is wonderful, therefore, that Moses is wholly silent on things so great, and of such high interest.

From this fact it has arisen, that men, having nothing certain recorded upon the deep subject, have naturally fallen into various fictions and fabrications : — that there were nine legions of angels ; and that so vast was their multitude, that they were nine whole days falling from heaven. Others have indulged imaginations concerning the mighty battle between these superior beings : — in what manner the good, resisted the evil, angels. My belief is, that these ideas of the particulars of this battle, were taken ft'om the fight which exists in the church ; where godly ministers, are ever contending against evil and fanatical teachers ; and that, on this ground, they have formed their ideas of the battle of the good angels against the evil ones, who wished to usurp Deity. But so it ever is. Where no plain testimonies exist, rash men consider themselves at liberty to imagine and invent what they please. In this same manner men form their various opinions concerning the danger and the fear of angels, and of the evils they may work : all which opinions are founded on Isaiah 14. 12, 13: where Lucifer is represented as having said I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. But the prophet is there predicting the greatness of the pride of the King of the Babylonians. Bernard, again, has the idea, that Lucifer foresaw in God that His purpose was to exalt man above the nature of angels : that his proud sjiirit envied man this felicity and that he fell in consequence. But let the christian man take these things at their own value and at no more. For myself I would by no means urge any one to give his assent to any such opinions. The things that are certain are, — that the angels fell; and that the devil, from having been an angel of light, was made an angel of darkness.

46 CHAPTER I. 6.

Perhaps there was also a conflict between the good angels and the evil.

As Moses however was writing to a new and iniinformed peo- ple, his object was to write those things only which were useful and necessary to be known. The nature of angels, therefore, and other kindred subjects, which were not necessary to be known, he passed by. Wherefore, nothing on the whole of this obscure subject, beyond what Moses has plainly recorded, ought to be expected from me. The more especially so, as the New Testament itself treats very sparingly on this deep matter. It says nothing more concerning the angels, than that they were condemned, and that they are still held, as it were, in prison and in chains, until the judgment of the last day. Let it suffice us therefore, to know, that there are good angels and bad angels ; but that God created them all good, alike. T\nience it follows, of necessity, that the evil angels fell and stood not in the truth. But how they fell, and stood not in the truth, is unknown. It is nevertheless probable that they fell by pride; because they despised the Word, or Son of God, and wished to exalt themselves above Him. This is all I have to say. Now let us return to Moses.

We have heard that the work of the First Day was the rude unformed " heaven and earth :" both which, God illu- mined with a certain impure and imperfect light. — We now come to the work of the second day, wherein we shall see, in what manner God produced, out of this original rough undigested mist, or nebulosity, which He called " heaven," that glorious and beauteous " heaven" loMch now is, and as it now is ; if you ex- cept the stars, and the greater luminaries. And the Hebrews very appropriately derive the term sc ham aim the name of the heaven, from the word Maim, which signifies ' waters.' For the letter ScHiN is often used, in composition, for a relative : so that ScHAMAiM signifies ' watery;' or 'that which has a watery nature.' And this indeed so appears from the colour of the " heavens." And experience teaches, that the air is humid by nature. Phi- losophers also say, that if there were no sun, the air would be a perpetual humidity. But they assert, that the air is both humid and warm ; but that it is humid from its own nature ; because the heaven was made out of waters : and that therefore it is, that it rains, and contains a fructifying moisture ; but that, because

CREATION. 47

the light and heat of the sun are added to it, the humid nature of the air is so tempered, that it is also warm.

This unformed body of mist, or nebulosity, created out of nothing, on the first dai/, God grasps, by His Word ; and com- mands it to extend itself into the form, and with the motion, of a sphere. For in the Hebrew, the word Rakta, signifies ' a some- thing extended ;' from the verb Raka ; which signifies ' to unfold or expand.' And the heaven was formed by an extension of that original rude body of mist : just as the bladder of a hog is ex- tended into a circular form, when it is inflated. I use thus a rustic similitude, that the sacred matter may be the more plainly understood. When therefore Job says, ' that the heavens are strengthened wdth iron ; ' his mind is not dealing with that material, but with the Word of God ; wdiich can make a thing, the softest by nature, the hardest and the most firm. For what is softer than water ? What is thinner or more subtile than air ? And yet these things, which were the most subtile and the softest by nature ; from their being created by the Word, preserve their form and their motion with the greatest perfection and the greatest firmness. Whereas, had the heaven been formed of adamant, or of any material infinitely harder still ; it would, by its rapid, long existing, and continuous motion, have been broken in pieces, or melted, long ago. In the same manner, the sun, by his rapid motion, would melt in one day, even if formed of the hardest material ; were it not for the Word of God, by which it was created. For motion is, of itself, very creative of heat. Hence, Ai'istotle asserts, that the lead of the arrow is sometimes melted by the velocity of its motion.

These facts of nature, therefore, are miracles of God ; in which the omnipotence of His Word is clearly discerned : — exhibiting the wonder, that the heaven, though being more soft and subtile than water, and performing continuously the most rapid revolu- tion, and that too, with so vast a variety of bodies and their motions, should have existed and revolved so many thovisands of years, uninjured and un weakened! It was this that caused Job. to say, ' that the heavens were molten, as it were, of brass;' though they are by nature the most soft of substances. How great the subtilety of the air is, in which we li^'e, we ourselves know perfectly well ; for it is not only not tangible, but not dis-

48 CHAPTER T. C.

cernible. And the lieaven, or nBtlier, is still more subtile and thinner than the air, or atmosphere. For its blue or sea-colour, or water-colour, appearance, is not a proof of its density, but rather of its distance, and its thinness : to which its rarified state, if you compare the thicker substances of the clouds, the latter Avill appear, in the comparison, like the smoke of wet wood, when first ignited. It is to this extreme subtilety, yet unaltered dura- bility, that Job alludes, as above mentioned. So, philosophers have among them this celebrated maxim, — " That which is humid, is terminated by no boundary of its own."

Wherefore, the heaven which cannot consist by any boundary of its own, as being aqueous, consists by the Word of God ; as we have it spoken in the present di\nne Record of Moses — "Let there be a firmament !" (Gen. 1. 6.) Hence it is, that those among the philosophers who were the more diligent in their inquiries, formed theii' conclusion, and that by no means a light one for nature to form, — that all things were ruled and governed, not by chance nor at random, but by a divine providence : seeing that the motions of the heavens, and of the superior bodies, are so certain, and so peculiar to themselves. And who, indeed, could possibly say, that all these things proceeded by chance, or by their own mere undirected nature ; when even those bodies which are the workmanship of men, proceed not fi'om chance, but from skilful art, and certain design ? Such as pillars, formed round, triangular, hexagonal, &c. &c. ?

All these things, therefore, are the works of the Divine Majesty ! By Him it is, that the sun holds on his course, so accurately, and with so certain a law ; that he deviates not a hair's breadth from his all-certain path, in any one part of heaven. And this coiurse he holds on, in the most subtile aether, supported by no substances or bodies whatsoever ; but is borne along, as a leaf in the air. Though this comparison is neither strictly correct, nor appropriate : because the motion of a leaf, is iiTCgular and uncertain : but the course of the sun is ever certain ; and that too, in an sether, far more subtile than this atmosphere in which we move and live.^

^ It is scarcely necessary to observe, tliat Luther here speaks as the Scrip- tures themselves do, in popular, not scientific, language; to meet the ideas and comprehension of the multitude, in general.

CREATION. 49

This marvellous extension of the original rude and dense nebulosity, or cloud, or mist, is here called by Moses " a firma- ment :" in which, the smi, with all the planets, have their motion round the earth, in that most subtile material. But who is it that gives such firmness to this most volatile and fluctuating substance ? Most certainly it is not nature that gives it : which, in far less important things than these, can exert no such power. It follows therefore, that it is the work of Him, who, " in the beginning," said unto the heaven, and unto this volatile substance, " Let there be a firmament;" or ' Be thou a firmament ;' and who establishes and preserves all these things, by His omnipotent power, put forth through His Word. This Word makes the air, with all its thinness and lightness, to be harder and firmer than adamant, and to preserve its own boundary ; and which Word could, on the contrary, make adamant to be softer than water : in order that, from such works as these, we might know what kind of a God our God is : namely, the God omnipotent ; who made out of the rude mass of an unformed heaven, the present all-beauteous all-glorious heaven ; and who did all these things, according to His will, as well as according to His power.

But I have said, that with the Hebrews, the "firmament," derives its name from a verb, in their language, signifying ' to extend.' It is to this signification of the Hebrew verb, that David beautifully alludes, in his similitude of military hide- coverings and tents, which he iises in the 104 Psalm; when he says of God "Who stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain" (verse 2). For as the rolled-up hide-covering of the military tent is unrolled and then stretched out as a canopy to the stakes which are fixed in the earth : so Thou O God, (says David,) unrolledst, as it were, and stretchedst out the first formed, but as yet unformed, rude heaven, into the present glorious " firma- ment :" where Thovi sittest invisibly as on a sphere, over the whole creation ; in the midst of all things, and yet, out of, and above, all things.

It is a circumstance naturally exciting our particular wonder, that Moses evidently makes three distinct parts, or divisions, of this portion of the creation. He describes " a firmament in the midst of the waters," which " divides the waters from the waters."

D

50 CHAPTER I. 6.

— For myself, I am inclined to think, that the firmament here mentioned is the highest body of all ; and that the waters (not those "above" the firmament, but those which hang and fly about " imder" the firmament) are the clouds, which we behold with our natural eyes : so that, by the waters which are ' diA ided fi^-om the waters,' we may undei'stand the clouds, which are divided from our waters which are in the earth. Moses, how- ever, speaks, in the plainest possible terms, both of waters " above" and of waters " under" the firmament. Wherefore I here hold my own mind and judgment in captivity, and bow to the Word ; although I cannot comprehend it.

Bvit a question here arises ; — what those waters are, and how those bodies of water which are " above" the firmament are dis- tinguished from those which are " under" the firmament. The division and distinction here made by philosophers is well known. They make the elements to be fortr : and they distinguish and place them according to their qualities. They assign the lowest place to the earth ; a second place to the water ; a third to the air ; and the last and highest place to the Jire. Other philoso- phers add to these four elements cether, as Si fifth essence. After this division and number of the elements, there are enumerated seven spheres or orbs of the planets, and an eighth sphere of the fixed stars. And on these subjects it is agreed between all philosophers that there are four sjyheres of generating and cor- ruptible principles ; and also eight others of non-generating and incorruptible principles. Aristotle, in discussing the nature of the heaven, affirms that it is not composed of any elements at all, but has its own peculiar nature. He argues, that if it were composed of elements, it w^ould be corruptible ; because these bodies, being mingled together, would mutually produce and suffer corruption.

Such are the general opinions of philosophers ; to which, the more recent divines for the most part accede. And they add to these eight spheres, an additional two ; the crystalline, or icy, or aqueous, heaven ; and the empyreal or fiery heaven. They call the tenth heaven, the empyreal ; not because it is fiery or burning, but from the light of fire ; because it is lucid and splendid. This heaven they consider to be the habitation of God and of the blessed ; because it was filled, immediately after the creation,

CKEATION. 51

with angels ; and because Lucifer, as they affirm, fell from this heaven. These are ideas which divines have added to the opinions of philosophers.^

' For a few condensed and brief observations upon the remarkable views of the great and greatly loved Luther, concerning the creation of angels and their war in heaven, &c., as contained in the present and preceding pages (44 to 51 ) the reader is referred to a Section, headed " Literaky and Theological Notices ; " which it is our design to give, in a separate form, at the end of our Preface. As feeble translators however of this mightiest effort of the mightiest post-apostolic " Master in Israel;" and feeling the weight of the responsibility laid upon us, as such, we have given the defective sentiments of our great and revered Author, as they stand on the pages of his majestic Commentary before us; and as they were collected, arranged, and published by his four great friends mentioned in our Prefatory remarks, and immor- talised, by name, in the sublime Preface of Luther himself. And where any kindred peculiarities occur, in the following pages, (of which there exist one or two isolated instances only,) we shall refer the reader, by a short foot note at the bottom of such page, to the same source of summary infor- mation; not pursuing the subject, ourselves, beyond that point ; but there leaving our revered father in the faith, to stand, wliere the greatest of God's servants to the least, and the highest of His children to the lowest, must ever stand, and where the chief of the apostles left his apostle-son Timothy himself to stand, — in the midst of the judgment, as well as the love, of the church of Christ, " The pillar and ground of the truth " (as to its. confession and defence^ on earth), 1 Tim 3. 15. And fully assured Ave are, that no one would stand there, with the spirit, at the same time, of a babe and of a giant, more willingly and happily, than the mighty Luther himself.

These peculiarities almost invariably adhere to great minds ; and the greater the mind, the more certain their existence; and, for the most part, the greater the mind, the greater their magnitude, even in God's most eminent servants, and it may be also, in an unscripturcd form, as in the present signal and striking instance. Such atomic-defects however, when their nature and causes are simply explained, obscure no more the brightness of the blazing sun of Luther's ministry, or hinder its divine effects on the souls and highest interests of men, than the atomic-dregs of earth, which intervene, obscure the brightness, or diminish the heat, of the glorious sun, in the midst of the heavens, or hinder their vivifying, florifying, and fructifying effects, on the plants of the vegetable world. And indeed there cannot be found perhaps a more appropriate similitude, whereby to ilkistrate the sacred case before us : and pursue we the comparison to what extent we may, the more complete is its perfection, in all possible respects. Witness the 'overturned' 'over- turned' ' overturned' churches, and thrones, and kingdoms of Europe (Ezek. 21. 27), and their continuous shaking from the days of Worms ! until the present hour (Heb. 12. 2G); the hundreds of souls destroyed or saved by the mmistry of that millennially only appearing servant of God the Most High,

52 CHAPTER I. G,

Moses however proceeds with his narrative of the creation, in all simplicity and plainness ; making here three divisions of things ; waters " above" the firmament, waters " under" the fir- mament, and " the firmament" in the middle. And in the term heaven, Moses comprehends all that body which philosophers represent by their eight spheres, by fire and by air. For the sacred historian makes no mention of the flowing of the waters, until the third day. And it is manifest that the air in which we live is called, in the Holy Scripture, the heaven ; because the Scripture speaks of the " fowls of heaven" (Job 28. 21). It also speaks of the heavens being shut, when it does not rain. And again it speaks of the heavens raining : all which things, take place in the air, not in the spheres of the moon or of the other planets. This distinction of the spheres therefore is not Mosaic nor Scriptm-al, but is an invention of men, as an aid to in- struction on these astronomical subjects ; and which ought not to be despised, as such an assistance.

But we Christians ought to meditate and think on these things, and their causes, differently from philosophers. And although there are some things which are beyond our comprehension ; as for instance these waters that are " above" the firmament ; all such thinfrs are rather to be believed, with a confession of our ignorance, than profanely denied, or arrogantly interpreted ac- cording to our shallow comprehensions. It behoves us ever to adhere to the phraseology of the Holy Scripture, and to stand by the very words of the Holy Spirit : whom it pleased, in this sacred narrative by his servant Moses, so to arrange the different

Martin Luther, ' The monk that shook the world,' when bearing his testimony to the mind, and Truth, and will of God, in His Word.

How far these atomic-defects obscure the brightness of the sun of Luther's ministry as an Expositor of the Holy Scripture, or hinder its rays from flashing forth out of the pages of this his wonderful " Commentary on the Book of Genesis" now before us, let the depth of the penetration into the divine mind which those pages evince, (the extent of which we believe, as we have already testified in our Prefatory observations, God never granted to any other man, before or since Martin Luther) ; let the irresistibleness of their hold on the minds and conscience of men, and the worship and praise of the great Creator which they unfailingly inspire, bear their own unassum- able, (Ileb. 4. 5,) imdeniable, and undying witness, (See farther observations iu Prefatory "Notices" &c., article "Angels.")

( REATION. 53

parts of the great work of" creation, as to place, in the midst, " the firmament ;" formed out of the original mass of the unshapen heaven and earth, and stretched out and expanded by the Word: and then to represent some waters as being " above" that firma- ment, and other waters " under" that firmament : both waters being also formed out of the same original rude undigested matter. And the whole of this part of the creation is called, by the Holy Spirit, the heaven ; together also with its seven spheres, and the whole region of the air ; in which air im- pressions are made, and in which the fowls wander as they will.

To return therefore unto the principal matter before us ; — When any inquiry is instituted into the nature of these waters, it cannot be denied that Moses here affirms that there are waters " above" the heavens ; but of what kind or nature these waters are, I freely confess, for myself, that I know not : for the Scrip- tures make no other mention of them than in this place, and in the Song of the three children, in the Apocn/jyJia : and I can attempt to declare nothing certain on these and similar subjects. Hence I can say nothing whatever, as known and understood, concerning the heaven where the angels are, and where God dwells with the blessed : nor concerning other kindred things, which shall be revealed unto us in the last day, when we shall have been clothed v/ith another body. — Enough has now been said on this part of the divine subject, to show, that on the second day the heaven was so separated, distinguished, and located, that it should be between the waters.

But here another question presents itself. — To the works of all the other days there is added the divine sentence of approba- tion,— " And God saw that it was very good." How is it then that the same sentence is not added to the SECOND day's work, when the most glorious and most beautiful part of the whole creation was made ? To this question it may be replied, that this same divine sentence is added to the end of the creation of all things on the sixth day and more fully expressed thus, — " And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good." And these words apply to the heaven also.

Lyra is willing to think (I know not on what grounds), with Rabbi Solomon, that as this divine expression, — " And God saw

54 CHAI'TER 1. 6.

that it was good," is uttered twice dui'ing the third days work, one of the divine sentences refers to the second day's work : which was perfected on the third day, when the waters which are " under" the heaven, were more distinctly divided from the waters which were " above" the heaven. But it is by far the safest way not to be too curious and inquii'ing on these subjects : because they exceed our human capacity. For how can we understand that order which God approves as such ? Nay, our natural reason must here, of necessity, be confounded : for that which is order with God is, in our judgment, confusion. Hence the stars appear to us to be in a state of wild disorder : the bright being mingled with the more obscure, and the lesser with the greater. Who would judge this to be order? And yet it is consummate harmony ; and so constituted by the all-wise Mind. And so we judge of other things. Om' river Elbe seems a confusion ; as do all other rivers also ; because their streams empty themselves into the sea, by winding com'ses. In the same manner, trees seem to present a confusion. Nor do males and females, in the world, and their miions and combinations, appear to be a state of order. All here also, as to the appearance of things, is disorder and confnsion. All these things therefore unitedly prove, that God possesses an order, and judges of it, differently from ourselves. Cease we therefore to penetrate into these things, with too much curiosity ; — Why it is that God repeats the divine sentence, in question, twice during the work of the third day, and omits it altogether in the work of the second day] Nor determine we, rashly, whether the work of the second day was finished on the third day, or not. Philosophers laid down the rudiments of the arts, and of the science of astronomy ; and in so doing, they divided the heaven into its various spheres. But we adopt a simpler and more true method of procedure and judgment : for we, at once, make God the immediate Creator of all things, by His Word ;— " And God said."

CllEATlON. 55

THE WORK OF THE THIRD DAY.

Ver. 9. And God said, Let the waters which are tmder the heauen be gathered together unto one place.

I liave just before observed, that we do not understand the order of the works of God. Had He therefore asked us our opinion, on the present occasion, we should have advised Him to use such an order, as to add the sentence now in question to the work of the second day, also. But God will ever be the Master of His own order and the Disposer of the world. Wherefore, as I have said, we are not here to be over curious. The text before us plainly declares, that God commanded the waters " under the heaven to be gathered together mto one place." It does not say as before (ver. 7), " under the Jii^mament" where it is said. And God divided the waters which were " under the firma- ment^^ from the waters which were " above the firmament."

The heaven therefore, according to the phraseology and defi- nition of the Scripture, is the whole of the higher region and its machinery, together with the entu*e body of the air and all its spheres. And its Hebrew name is derived from the m,aterial of which it is composed : namely from that confused body of water, by the extension or expansion, or multiplication of which, it was formed. For that first body of unfomied water was not so extensive in itself, but was so expanded, or spread out, by the Word. Just as Christ, according to the record of the gospel, so multiplied a few loaves, by His blessing, as to make them suffice for a great multitude of men. What therefore we philosophi- cally call the air, Vvith all its spheres, Moses here calls the heavens. But by waters, he means these waters of ours, the seas and the rivers ; which were also formed out of that original unformed mass of water ; or out of the dregs or lees of it, as it were ; after the heaven had been formed or expanded out of it, by the Word. I beheve however that the nature and power of our Avater, are far inferior to those of the heavenly waters. For these waters of ours are, as I have said, the dregs, as it were, of the higher waters. So that they may be said to have been gathered together, not only as to their place, or position, but as

5(3 CHAPTER I. 9.

to their body or substance : because these latter waters are heavier than those of the air or heaven. For we can breathe in the air, but we cannot breathe in the water. And when Moses says that these waters were " gathered together into one place" collectively, he is rather to be understood as speaking in a plural or distrihntive sense. As if he had said, that they were gathered into various places ; and not that the whole body of the waters was gathered into one place, as one ocean : but that they were distributed into various seas and rivers ; some higher up, and some lower down : some greater, and some less.

Ver. 9. Atid let the dry [land] appear.

These words claim particular observation : because Moses had just before said, that the earth was Tohu and BoHU ; that is un- formed, rude, and uncultivated : mixed with waters, and washed by the waters on every side. Here, therefore, Moses also means, that this original mass of earth was sunk under the waters, and covered by them. Otherwise, why should he represent God as saying, " And let the dry [land] ajypear ;" if it had not been surrounded by the abyss of water and almost covered with these original nebulous mists, or waters, altogether? For we have here a confirmation of that which I have repeatedly set forth already ; — that the world, at its fii'st formation, was nothing but a rude chaotic mass of water and earth ; and now, on the third day, the earth is brought out, and made to appear. As there- fore, at the first, the light was brought in upon the waters ; so now, the beauty of that light is made to shine upon the earth. For both these two qualities were necessary to render the earth habitable ; — that it should be " dry," and that it should be en- lightened.

And Moses now calls the earth " dry ;" on account of the removal of the original waters from it. Here, therefore, we behold the waters of the ocean to rage and boil as if they would swallow up the whole earth. For the ocean stands higher than the earth. But it cannot pass its appointed bounds : for this spot of dry land cu'cumscribes the earth of the first creation : and even this spot opposes an insuperable barrier to original ocean-waters. Hence Job (Job 38) and the Psalm (104) bear

CREATION; Z)?

witness, that, although the sea be higher than the earth, and is Hmited by no boundaries of its own ; yet it cannot pass its bounds, appointed of God. For the earth, according to its centre and position, would naturally be submerged and covered with the sea. But God keeps back the sea, by His Word, and thus makes the plane of the earth stand forth out of the waters, as far as is necessary for the habitation and life of man.

Hence, it is by the power of God that the waters are pre- vented fi'om rushing in upon us, God therefore performs for us, to this day, and will do so to the end of the world, the same miracle which He wrought for the children of Israel, in the Red Sea. But He made a peculiar manifestation of His power by working the mighty miracle on that occasion, to the intent that He might bind that people, who were few in number, the more devotedly to His worship. And what else is this our life upon earth, but a passage through the Red Sea, wliere the high and threatening walls of water stand up on each side of us ? For it is most true, as we have said, that the sea is much higher than the earth. God therefore, to this day, commands the waters to hang suspended, and holds them up by His Word, that they may not break in upon us, as they burst in upon the world at the deluge. Sometimes, however, signs of God's power are still manifested : whole islands perish under the waters : whereby God shows, that the mighty water is still in His hand ; and that it is with Him either to hold it fast, or to let it rush in upon the wicked and the ungrateful.

Philosophers have their disputes also concerning the centre of the world, and the circumfluent water. And indeed it is won- derful that they go so far as to determine the earth to be the centre of the whole creation. And it is from this argmuent, that they conclude, that the earth cannot fall ; because it is sup- ported, from within, by the other spheres surromiding it on every side. Hence, according to these philosophers, the heaven, and all the other spheres, rest upon this centre : by which support, they themselves also derive their durability. It is well becoming us to know these arguments. But these philosophers know not that the whole of this stability rests on the power of the word of God. Although therefore the water of the mighty ocean is

58 CIIAPTE14 I. lU.

higher than the earth, yet it cannot pass its appointed bounds, nor cover the earth. But we hve and breathe, as the children of Israel existed in the midst of the Red Sea.^

Ver. 10. And God saw that it was good.

Moses here adds this divine commendation : although nothing was wrought, beside the division of the waters and the bringing out of the waters a small particle of the earth. Now above, at the most beautifal part of the creation, this short divine com- mendatory sentence was not added. Perhaps it was omitted, as an intimation from God, that He is more concerned about our habitation than about His own : and that He might by such intimation animate us to higher feelings of gratitude and praise. For we were not destined to exist in the air, or in the heaven, but on the earth ; where we were appointed to support our hfe, by meat and drink. — After having adorned the gTeat covering of this habitation of man, the heaven, by adding light to it ; God now spreads its floor. He calls forth the earth, which should be appropriate for the habitation and service of men. This part of His work, God ticice declares to be " good," on our account : by which He would intimate, that we, men, fonn so great a part of His care, that He is desirous to assure us, by such twofold approbation of this portion of His creation-work, wrought with so much care, that He would ever hold it under His peculiar protection ; that He would grant it His pei*petual presence, and would prevent our great enemy, and our most certain death, the mighty water, from rushing in upon as. Beau- tifully therefore did God form in " the beginning" the founda-

1 These and all the preceding passages and sentiments of the great Reformer, are translated as he left them, without any references being made, on our part, to the discoveries of the sciences antecedent to, coeval with, or since, the days of Luther.

Nor would the Translator draw his own attention, nor that of his readers, away from the spiritual contents of this Commentary, by entering upon a discussion of the separate claims of the glorious natural law of central gravity, and those of the all-high and divine law of the omnipotent power of the Word of God revealed in Hebrews 1. 3. — Doubtless, both laws are inseparably united in one glorious divine agency, exercised by the Almighty hand, of the adorable Sox of Gou.

CREATION. • 59

tion and the roof of this our appointed habitation. Now let us see how He furnished and garnished it.

Ver. 12. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, &c.

God, as we have seen, has now constructed the principal parts of man's habitation. Its roof, the heaven, is a most beautiful one ; but it has not yet its fulness of garniture. Its foundation is the earth. Its walls are the mighty waters on every side. God next makes provision for our food. He commands the earth to bring forth herbs, and the trees to bear fruit of every kind. Here you may again see why the earth was before called ToHU and Bonu ; — because, it was, as yet, not only dark, but altogether barren of fruit.

But mark what kind of food it is which God prepares for us ; — herbs and fi'uits. I believe therefore that our bodies would have been much more durable, if this surfeiting, and all-kind of food of ours, especially the eating o^ flesh of all kinds, since the flood, had not been introduced. For although the earth, after the sin of Adam, was cursed, and was still more corrupt after the flood ; yet our food of herbs would have been much more refining, thin, and pure, had we still fed on them, than our gross feeding on flesh is now. It is quite evident that, in the beginning of the world, the food of man was herbs ; and it is equally evident, that the herbs were created for the very e7id, that they might be food for man. — Whatsoever the earth brings forth therefore, — the trees, and herbs of every Idnd, were the work of this third day.

Now, indeed, all things spring forth from the seed of their kind. But the original creation was wrought without any seed, by the simple power of the Word. Indeed, that seeds now put forth their plants, is still the efi^ect of the work of the original creation, by the Word, and it is a work full of wonder and admiration. For it is a singular act of God's power that the grain, falling on the earth, springs forth in its time and brings forth fruit after its kind. — And that like plants should be put forth from like seeds, in an unceasing and unchanging order, is most certainly the effect of the sure judgment and counsel of

60 CHAPTER I. 12.

God ; — not the consequence of a chance creation ; bvit an especial operation of divine providence. Hence, from wheat grows nothing but wheat ; from barley nothing but barley ; from the bean nothing but beans ; for the same continuous and unaltered nature, order, and condition of each plant, is constantly pre- served.— Philosophy knows nothing of the cause of all this ; and attributes the whole to nature. We, however, well understand, that nature was so created, at the first, by the power of the Word, that the seeds and forms of all plants might he exactly and perfectly preserved. Wherefore, not only are the first-day waters of heaven multiplied, as there is need : but the first seeds are also multipHed, as God sees fit : and they all preserve their original form and nature, with the utmost perfection.

Here, again, a great question is frequently raised as to the time, or season, of the year, in which the world was created : — whether the creation was wrought in the Spring, or in the Autumn. And although the opinions of men differ on this point, yet each differing one has his own reasons and conjec- tures. Those who prefer making the Autumn the season of creation, consider that they prove their judgment to be correct, from the fact, that the trees when first created produced their fruit. For Adam and Eve ate of their fi'uit. They prove their opinion moreover to be the right one, as they think, by the argument, that the works of God are perfect ! Others will have it, that the Spring was the time of the creation : because, (say they) the Spring is the most beautiful season of the year, and is, as it were, the infancy and childhood of nature. Hence it is, that the ancient poet Ovid describes the Spring as being the originating cradle-time of the world.

Neither party of reasoners, however, have sufficient ground for concluding their arguments to be exclusively right : for the sacred text supports both opinions : because it declares, that the earth " brought (or budded) forth :" which certainly is not the time of Autumn, but of Sj)ring. And it also declares that fi?uits then existed ; which, it is equally certain, is not the time of Spring. Wherefore, my opinion is, that such was the miracle wrought of God, at the first creation of the world, that all these things existed at the one same time ; — the earth budded forth ; the trees blossomed ; and the fruits, in their perfection, immedi-

CREATION. 61

ately and suddenly followed ; and then the miracle ceased ; and nature gradually fell into her regular order. And thus, all these herbs and trees are propagated, by means of their seeds, in the same kinds and forms, as those in which they were first created. Hence men reason wrongly, when they argue from the natural, to the supernatural, effect. For the whole is to be attributed to the Creator, and to His first creation-work : in which He, at the same time, perfected the infant buddings of Spring, and the mature fruits of Autumn, as far as the herbs and the fruits of the trees were concerned.

Moreover, this state of things, at the creation, induced Hilary and others to conclude, that the world stood forth suddenly, at the Word of God, in all its full perfection ; and that God did not employ six whole natural days, in the work of creation. For the text compels us to confess, that the trees, together with their fruits, existed on that same day in which Adam was created. But although all this was indeed wrought of God very much more quickly than it is now : for this same work of God in our age generally occupies six months of time, yet the text does not use the verb ' to fi'uctify' only, but also the vei'b '■ to germinate.' — With reference therefore to this question, concerning the time of the creation, it is most probable, that the Spring was the season in which the world was first created. Hence the Jews begin their year at this season ; making the first month of Spring the first of their year ; that being the time of the year at which the earth begins, as it were, to open its bosom, and at which all things in nature bud forth.

Concerning this part of the creation, another question is also raised ; — as to the time when the unfruitful or barren trees and herbs were created. For myself I would not attempt to settle any thing, as to this point: but I will offer my opinion. I be- lieve, that all trees were, in the beginning, good and fruitful ; and that the beasts of the field, and Adam, had, as it were, one and the same table ; and that they all fed on wheat, pulse, and the other nobler fruits ; for there Avas then the greatest possible abundance of all these creatures.

After the sin of Adam, however, God said, for the first time, to the earth, ' that it should bring forth thorns and briers.' Wherefore, there can be no doubt, that our having so manv

(52 CIIAPTEK 1. 1-2.

trees and herbs which are of no use whatever for food, is the divine punishment of that first sin of Adam. Hence it is, that many have considered the whole original state of earth Paradise : on account of the blessing and the abundance which attended the first creation. Those who have held this opinion have afiirmed, that the expulsion of Adam from Paradise was his being deprived of this happy state of the earth, and placed among thorns ; where, frequently, after the greatest labour, scarcely any benefit is derived. On this matter, however, we shall have to speak hereafter. Bat with respect to the present question, — I am quite inclined to think', that all the trees, when first created, were fruitful.

The curious reasoning of the men of our day is detestable ; when they inquire, in their arguments, why it was that God adorned the earth with fruits on the third day, before He had garnished the heaven with stars 1 They affirm, that such a part of the creation-work belonged rather to the work of the sivth day ; and that it would have been more appropriate if, as the heaven was first expanded before the earth was brought forth ; so the heaven had been adorned before the earth. For they say, that the adorning of the earth belonged more properly to the sixth day. Lyra would make here the subtle distinction, that this was not the 07'nament of the earth, but the form of it. But I doubt whether any such distinction can be admitted, as satis- factoiy. My opinion is, that, as I have before said, the order adopted of God, in all these things, is not to be submitted to the exercise of any judgment of ours. Indeed, was not the heaven adorned with that light, which was created on the first day f That light Avas assuredly the most beautiful ornam.ent of the whole creation.

My sentiments, therefore, upon the whole of this sacred matter are, that we should rather be employed in considering the divine care and goodness, exercised in owr especial behalf; in that God prepared a habitation so beautiful for the man, whom He was about to create, before He created him ; in order that, when created he might find a habitation already prepared and fur- nished for him ; into which habitation, thus ready and garnished, God led him when created ; and commanded him to enjoy all the fruits and provisions of his ample abode. — Thus, on the third

CREATION. (>3

day were prepared the food and the store-room. On the fourth day, the Sun and the Moon were given for the service of man. On the fifth day, " dominion" was committed to him over the fishes and the birds. On tlie sixth day, the same " dominion" was intrusted to him over all the beasts ; that he might use all the rich blessings of these creatures, according to his necessities, freely ; and, as a return, God only required that man should acknowledge the goodness of his Creator, and live in His fear and worship. This peculiar care of God over us, and for us, even before we were created, may be contemplated rightly, and with great benefit to our souls : but all conjectures, and reason- ings, and arguments, upon the great suljject of the creation, are unsubstantial, uncertain, and firuitless.

The great goodness of God, and the same care for us, are manifest in His spiritual gifts. For before we are converted to faith, Christ, our Redeemer, is risen and ascended above, and is now in the house of His Father, preparing mansions for us ; that when we arrive there we might find heaven furnished with every thing that can complete onr joy. Adam, therefore, being not yet created, was much less able to think of his future good than even we are ; for he, as yet, had no existence at all. Whereas we continually hear all these things from the Word of God, as promised to us. Let us look, at this first creation of , the world therefore as a type and figm'e of the world to come : j and thereby let us learn the exceeding goodness of God ; who thus benefits, blesses, and enriches us, even before we are capable i of thinking for ourselves. This solicitude, care, liberality and beneficence of God, both for our present life, and for the life to come, are matters much more becoming us to contemplate and admire, than it is to enter upon speculations and conjectures, as to the reason why God began to ornament the earth on the third day. — Let these observations suffice concerning the work of the THIRD DAY. Now follow the remaining days; in which we were appointed riders ; to " have dominion over" the whole creation.

G4 CHAPTER I. 14.

THE WORK OF THE FOURTH DAY.

Ver. 14. And God said, Let thei'e be lights in the firmament of the heaven, and let them divide the day from the night.

The ioo7'k of the fourth day was the creation, by the Word, of those all-beautiful creatures, the Sun, and the Moon ; together with all the stars. Nor were these creatures created, on this day, as to their substances and their bodies only, but as to the BLESSING of God upon them, and through them ; that is, as to their powers, effects, and influence. — Ye have heard above, that on \h.e first day the "light" was created. This light continued to illumine all things, in the stead of the sun, the moon, and the stars, until the fourth day. And on the fourth day, those prin- cipal formers and rulers of the day and the night, were them- selves created.

Hence, there has here arisen a great questioning with refer- ence to this first "light;" — whether, after the sun and the moon were created, it disappeared altogether, or remained, embodied in the sun. And on this point, a great diversity of sentiments and opinions has existed. For my part, my simple belief is, that the nature of all these works of God is the same : and that, as on the first day the rude unformed heaven and earth were created, and afterward completely formed and perfected ; that as the originally imperfect heaven was afterward stretched out and adorned with light ; and as the earth was first called forth from the waters, and then clothed with trees and herbs ; so, I believe, that the first formed light of the first day, which was then only begun, as it were, and imperfect, was afterwards perfected and completed, by the addition of those new creatures, the sun, the moon, and the stars. — Others say, that this original " light" still remains, but is obscured by the brightness of the sun. Both opinions may be true. For it may be that the original light still remains, and was as it were the seed-light of the sun and the moon.

Moses however makes a difference here, calling the sun and the moon the " greater lights." What philosophers say therefore concerning the magnitude of these bodies has properly nothing

CREATION. 60

to do with the text before us. What we have here to do is to observe, that the Scripture does not speak of these bodies with reference to the magnitude of the bodies themsehes but with reference to the magnitude of their light ! For if you woukl compare the sun with the stars ; — could you collect all the stars into one body, you would have a body perhaps greater than that of the sun, but that wliole body of stars together would not form a light equal to the light of the sun. On the contrary, if you could divide the sun into the minute particles, the most minute of those particles would surpass, in brightness, the bright- est star. For all these bodies were created with an essential difference as Paul aflSrmeth. " There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars &c." (1 Cor. 15, 41.) And this difference does not consist in the nature or magnitude of their bodies, but in the nature and essentiality of their creation itself. So that the work of God's creation appears the more wonderful the more it is contemplated. Hence, marvellous, beyond expression or thought, is the fact, that the rays of the sun should be dispersed through such length and such breadth, with such wonderful properties of nourishment and heat to all bodies under their influence ; and that too, while the sun itself revolves with such amazing velocity of course.

Ver. 14. And let them he for signs and fo7' SEASONS, and for

DAYS and YEARS.

When Moses adds, above, " And let them divide the day fi'om the night," he intimates that difference between the natural and the artificial day, so universally made by astronomers. For he had before said " And the evening and the morning were the frst day ;" " were the second day" (fee. &c. : where he is speak- ing of tlie natural day: which consists of 24 hours; durino- which, the first great moveable bod}^, the sun, performs his revo- lution from East to West, and from West to East again. But here, when the sacred historian says " And let them divide the day from the night" he is speaking of the artificial day ; the space of time during which the sun is above the horizon.

These therefore are the primary offices of the sun and the moon ; — to be the rulers and directors of the night and the dav :

E

GG CHAPTER I. 14.

whereas the stars perform not these offices, nor are so appointed of God. But the sun, when he rises, brings in the day, without the rising or aid of the other stars, at alh So the moon, even independently of the stars, is the ruler of the night, and makes the night : for she is created of God for that very office. And as to these changes of the day and the night themselves, they are ordained for the refreshment of our bodies by sleep and rest. The sun shows his brighter light for man's work. The moon has her paler light as more adapted for repose than for work.

But what is the meaning of Moses when he says " And let them be for signs" &c. ? Lyra explains it as signifying signs of rains and storms &c. This is an interpretation which I would not strongly oppose : though I have great doubts whether these " Lights in the firmament of heaven" do, or can, presignify rains tempests, &c., with any certainty, as the poet Virgil and others represent, in their writings. The Gospel does indeed make a ' reddened' evening a sign of " fair weather" and, on the con- trary, a ' lowering' morning a sign of " foul weather" (Matth. 16. 2, 3.) With respect therefore to the common saying, that the rising of the constellation of the Pleiades indicates rain, and other proverbs of a similar description, I will not, with great concern, tear them to pieces, nor will I at once admit and con- firm them ; because I cannot see that they are all uniformly sure and certain.

The expression, " For seasons," however, claims particular observation. The term, in the Hebrew, is Lemoedij[ : and MOED signifies '■ a stated, fixed, certain, time.' Hence it is a term commonly used in the Scriptures to signify ' a tabernacle of covenant :' because there certain feasts were accustomed to be held in a certain place, at a certain time, according to certain rites. Therefore it is that Moses describes the sun and the moon as being created " For seasons:" not only because the seasons are ruled and evidently changed by the course of the sun ; (for we see that most inferior bodies are changed by the access and recess of the sun ; and the quality of the air, according to which our own bodies are also changed, is of one kind in the AAanter, of another in the summer ; of another in the autumn, and of another in the spring ;) but because we observe other differences and distinctio]is of times and seasons in civil life ; all which are de-

CREATION. (J7

rived from tlie inutions and revolutions of these heavenly bodies. Hence, at a certain time of the year men make their contracts for building houses, hire their servants and their services, and collect taxes, debts and rents, &c. All these are services rendered us and blessings bestowed upon us by the sun and the moon ; that we may, by their laws and revolutions, divide the times and seasons for the various labours of man, and enjoy many other blessings which they confer. It is by them that we divide and number our weeks, months, quarters, &c. &c.

The next expression, " For daj's," refers to the natural day ; during which, the sun performs his revolution round the earth. Our being enabled, therefore, to number days and also years, are blessings of the creation, and are thus ordained of God. Where- fore it is that philosophers define time to be 'an enumeration of motions:' wdiich numbering could have no existence if the heavenly bodies did not move by a sure and certain law. If they all stood fixed in a certain place, without motion, number- ing could have neither commencement nor regulation. And where there is no numbering of days, months, years, &c., there is no time. Hence a man in a sound sleep, being destitute of all sense of numljer and of all fiiculty of annumeration, knows not how long he sleeps. In like manner, though we can, in some measure, recollect our infancy, yet we are not conscious of the fact of having sucked the breasts of our mothers ; and yet, we then had natural life. The reason is, that we were de- ficient in the sense of number and the poAver of annumera- tion. And for this same reason, beasts know nothing of time : just as infants have no such knowledge. The sense and faculty of number, therefore, ])rove man to be a peculiar and superior creature of God : on which account, we find Augustine declaring the faculty of annumeration to be an especial gift of our nature ; and proving, from this very gift, the immortality of the soul; — because man alone can calculate and understand time.

With reference to the future life, some here inquire, whether the offices of these heavenly bodies are designed of God to cease. But the life to come, will be without time. For the godly will enjoy an eternal day, ;md the ungodly will haAe an endless night and eternal darkness. The sun tlierefore makes the day, not

68 CHAPTER I. 14.

only by his light and by his brightness, but by his motion ; by which he makes his course from East to West, until he rises again at the end of 24 hours, and thus makes another day. Wherefore, astronomers make three great benefits to proceed from the sun ; his motion, his light, and his influence. Con- cerning his influence, however, I shall enter iipon no subtle in- quiry. It is enough for me to know, that these heavenly bodies were created for our use ; that they may be unto us "For signs and for seasons," that we might observe certain distinctions of time. These things, as being taught us in the Holy Scriptures, are sure and certain. All things else, such as the doctrines and predictions of astrologers, are not thus certain. For even if those predictions had any foundation in experience (etiamsi quid certi haberent) ; yet they very fi.'equently deceive {scepissimefaUimt). — Let these observ^ations suffice concerning the fourth day.

Now here, there begins to open upon us, and to present itself to our meditation, that great subject, — the immortality of the soul. For no creature besides man can understand the motion of the heaven, or estimate the celestial bodies and their revolu- tions. The pig, the cow, cannot measure the water which they drink. But man can measure even the heaven, and form his calculations upon all the heavenly bodies. Wherefore, there glitters forth here a spark of eternal life ; from the fact, that man is naturally exercised in this knowledge of all nature around him. For this anxious inquiry indicates that men were not created with the design that they should live for ever in this small weak portion of God's universe ; but that they should occupy the heaven, which in this life they so wonder at, and in the study and contemplation of the things of which, they are so continually engaged.

If heaven were not the destination of man, what need was there for his being endowed with this wide capacity for rich knowledge and thought. Indeed the stature and form of the body of man prove that he was designed for heavenly things, even though his origin w^as so very mean and humble. For God made the first man from the common earth. After this the human race began to be propagated from the seed of the male and the female : in which propagation the embryo is formed in the womb in all its particular members : and there it grows

CREATION. 69

until by its birth it is ushered forth into the Hght of heaven. From this birth, there comes on the Kfe of sensation, the life of motion, and the life of operation. And when, at length, the body has grown and the man has attained unto sound reason in a sound body ; then first shines forth in all its brightness that life of intelligence which is found in no one other earthly creature. By this faculty, leaning on the aid of the mathematical sciences (which no one can deny were indicated and taught from above), man mounts in his mind from earth to heaven, and leaving behind him the things below concerns himself about and inquires into heavenly things. Hogs do not this, nor cows, nor any other beasts of the earth : it is the employment of man alone. Man therefore is a beintj created of God with the design that at an appointed time he should leave the earth, dwell in heavenly mansions, and live a life eternal. These great principles of man's creation form the reasons why he is able not only to speak and to judge, (which are things pertaining to language and argument,) but is capable also of acquiring any science whatsoever.

From this fourth day therefore begins to be manifested the peculiar glory of our race. Because God here forms His mind and purpose to create such a being as should be capable of understanding the motions of those heavenly bodies, which are created on this fourth day ; and a being who should delight himself in their knowledge, as peculiarly and exclusively adapted to his nature. — All these things therefore oufrht to call forth our thaidvsgiving and praise ; while we reflect that we are the citi- zens of that heavenly country, which we now behold, understand, and wonder at ; yet understand only as strangers and exiles ; but which, after this life, we shall behold nearer and understand perfectly.

Hitherto therefore we have heard the divine historian speak of those creatvu'es only, which are endowed with neither life nor sense ; although some philosophers have spoken of the stars, and the greater heavenly bodies, as if they were animate and rational. This I think has arisen from the motion of these bodies ; which is so rational and so certain, that there is nothing like it in any other of the creatures. Hence some of these philosophers have affirmed, that the heavenly creatures were

70 CHAPTKK I. 14.

composed of body and intellect, though their bodies were not material. Plato reasons in this manner, in his " Tim(eus." All such o})inions however are to be utterly exploded ; and our whole powers of intellect are to be brought down and subjected to the Word of God, and to what is therein written. The Holy Scrip- ture plainly teaches, that God made all these things, that He might, by them, prepare for the man, whom He was about to create, a habitation and place of well adapted abode ; and that all these same things are governed and preserved by the power of the same Word, by which they wei'e originally created. — Wherefore, all things being at length prepared, which pertained to the substance of his habitation, the Scripture will next show us the manner in which man was " formed'' and introduced into his possession as it were. The whole of this is designed to

I' show us, that the providence of God over us, and for us, is greater than all our own care and concern for ourselves can possibly be. These things are plainly taught us in the Scrip- ' ture. All other things whatsoever, which are unsupported by tlie authority of the Scripture, are to be repudiated and rejected. I have here therefore thought it especially becoming and necessary to repeat that admonition which I have frequently given from the commencement of this Commentary ; — that we ought constantly to acquaint and familiarize ourselves Avith the phraseology of the Holy Spirit. For, in all human arts, no one can successfully study any one of them, unless he first correctly understand the nature of the language in wdiich its principles are described. For lawyers have their peculiar terms, which are unknown to the physician and the philosopher. In like manner, the latter have each a phraseology peculiar to them- selves, with which the professors of other arts have little or no acquaintance. Now, one art ought not to perplex another. But every art ought to maintain its own course in its own way, and to adopt its own peculiar terms.

Accordingly Ave find the Holy Spirit to use a language and a phraseology peculiar to His Own Divine Self; declaring, that God created all things by His Word, or by speaking them into being ; (" He spake and it was done" ;) that He wrought all things by His Word ; and that all the works of God, are certain words of God ; certain things created bv the UN-

CREATION. 7 1

CHEATED WORD ! —As therefore the philosopher uses his own terms ; so the Holy Ghost uses His own terms. Hence, when the astronomer speaks of his spheres, his cycles, and his epicycles, he does so rightly : for it is lawful for him, in the profession of his art, to use such terms as may enable him the better to instruct his disciples. On the other hand, the Holy Ghost will know nothing of such terms, in the Sacred Scriptures. Hence those Scriptures call the whole of that part of the creation which is above us, " The heaven : " nor ought that term to be disap- proved by the astronomer ; for the astronomer and the Scripture both adopt (as I have said) terms peculiar to themselves.

It is in this manner that we are to understand the term " seasons" in the Sacred Text before us. For the term ' season' with the philosopher, and with the Hebrew, has not the same signification. With the Jews, the term ' season ' signifies, theologically, an appointed feast or festival ; and also, the inter- vals of days, which concur and conjoin to form the year : where- fore this term is everywhere rendered by the word ' feast' or 'festival' or 'festivity;' except where it is used to signify a 'tabernacle' or 'tent.'

I deemed it best to offer these admonitions concernino; Ian- guage and phraseology, before we advance farther ; and I hope they will not be found useless, or out of place ; as showing the importance, that every art should confine itself to its own lan- guage and terms ; that no one art should condemn or deride another ; but that each should rather aid the other, and render mutual services. And this indeed the professors of all arts do ; in order that the unity of the whole state may be preserved : which, as Aristotle says, " cannot be constituted of a physician and a physician ; but must be formed of a physician and a hus- bandman."

72 CHAPTER I. -^0.

THE WORK OF THE FIFTH DAY.

Ver. 20. A ml God said, Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature that hath life ; and foiol that may fly above the earth, &c. &c.

We find Moses still to retain, invariably, the same sacred phraseology, — " And God said," &c.

Hitherto the divine historian has been speaking of the superior creatures ; — the heaven with all its host of planets, and all the rest of the stars, &C. : which heaven God created out of water, by the Word, and gave light unto it : just as we now see the air around us lucid, w^ith a natural illumination.

ISIoses now proceeds to speak of new creatures ; namely, of birds and fishes. And he connects these two creatures, in his narrative, on account of their similarity of nature. For as the fish swims in the water, so does the bird swim, as it were, in the air. And though their flesh difi:ers, yet they have the same origin. For the sacred text is here quite plain, — that the birds, when created out of the water, immediately flew into the air in which they now live. Moses here retains, moreover, his uniform term, in calling the whole of that part, or region, of the creation, which is above us, " heaven."

And here, first of all, it is worthy our wonder and admiration, that although the fishes and the birds were both created out of the same matter, water ; yet, as the bird cannot live in the water, so neither can the fish exist, if brought into the air. And physicians rightly argue, when they affirm, that the flesh of birds is much more wholesome than that of fishes ; (even though the nature of birds, is also aqueous ;) because they live in a more rarified element ; for air is a purer element than water ; the latter, in which the fishes are generated and in which they live, being constituted of the di'egs, as it were, of the former. Philosophers, however, do not believe this identity of the nature of birds and of fishes. But faith, which is far above philosophy, and far more certain, assures us, that the nature of the fish, and of the bird, had the one same origin.

Here again is a farther proof of the divine authority and

CKEATION. 73

majesty uf this Buuk ; — in that it sets before us, under such various forms, that potoer of God by which He created all things, beyond tlie conception of all our reason and intellect. Who, for instance, could ever have thought, that out of water, a nature could be produced, which should by no means endure water % But, the WoiiD of God sjieaks, and, in a moment, out of water are created birds. If therefore the Word of God but sound, all things are immediately possible ; and, out of the same water, shall be formed either fishes or birds. Every bird therefore, and every fish, is nothing more or less than a loord of divine grammar or language : by which grammar, all things, otherwise impos- sible, immediately become possible and easy : by which also, things contrary and conflictive, become similar, and harmonious; and vice versa.

And these divine things are thus written, and ought to be diligently observed, studied, and known by us, that we might learn to admire and adore the power of the Divine Majesty ; and that we might build our faith upon all these marvellous creation works of God ! For if any one could raise the dead, it would be nothing, in comparison of this wonderful work ; — that a bird was created, in a moment, out of water ! But the reason why we do not day by day, and continually, wonder at these things, is because, by our having seen them always before us, they have lost their wonder, in our eyes. If however any one doth but believe these things, he is compelled at once to wonder at them. And that wonder gradually confirms his faith. — For if God can, from a mass of water, call forth and create the heaven and its stars ; each one of which equals, or exceeds, the earth itself, in magnitude ; — if God can, from a small drop of water, create the sun and the moon ; — can He not defend my poor body against all enemies, and against Satan himself? — can He not, after that poor body is laid in the tomb raise it again to another and a new life ? — Wherefore we arc to learn, from this Book of Genesis, the 2>ower of God ; that we may accustom ourselves to doubt nothing of those things which God iwomises in His Word ! For, in this glorious and niarvellous creation work, is laid a confirmation of our faith in all the pi'omises of God ; — that there is nothing so difficult, nothing so seemingly impossible, which God cannot do, and perfect, by His Word.

74 CHAPTER I. 20.

For all this is here proved by God's creation of the hea^■en, and of the earth, and of the sea, and of all that they contain !

But we must here touch upon that which has arrested the attention of the holy fathers, and especially of Augustine ; — that Moses, in this sacred narrative, uses these tliree expressions, in reference to God ; — " God said;" " God 7nade ;" and " God saw;" as if God designed, by these thi*ee expressions, used by His servant Moses, to set forth the three Persons of the Divine majesty ! — Thus, by the expression " said" is signified the Father. The Father begat the Word fi:'om all eternity; and by this same Word, He made, in time, this world. — And these holy fathers applied the expression, " God made" to the Person of the Son : for the Son has in Himself the " express image" of the Person of the Father ; not only of His Majesty, but of His Power by which He created all things. Hence the Son gives to all things their existence ! And as by the Father, things are spoken into being ; so are they also by the Son, or Word, of the Father ; by whom " all things subsist." — And to these TWO Persons, is also added a Third ; the Person of the Holy Spirit ; who ' sees^ and approves, all things which are created.

These three expressions therefore, ' said,' ' made,' ' saw;' are spoken by Moses, in a beautiful and appropriate manner, as attributively to the three divine Persons : that we might, by these three expressions, the more distinctly understand that great Article of faith, the Holy Trinity ! — For, the sole reason why these props of our faith w^ere religiously sought out by the holy fathers, was, that that profound subject, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, so incomprehensible in itself, might in some measure receive aid, by such means, to its comprehension. Wherefore, I by no means condemn these pious attempts ; because they are perfectly in harmony with the analogy of faith, and most useful also for the instruction and confirmation of faith.

In this same manner Hilaiy also adopts the following attribu- tive distinctions. — " Eternity, (he says) is in the Father ; form, in the Image ; and use, in the Gift." — He says that the Holy Spirit is the Gift, for use, because He gives the use of all things ; in that He governs and preserves all things, that they perish not. These same holv fathers hence hold and affirm also the divine

( HEAT 1 ox. 75

matter, to be thus ; — " The Father is the mind ; the Son tlie understanding ; the Holy Spirit the will''' — Not that the Father is without understanding or the Son Avithout Avilh But these are attributes ; that is, terms, or expressions, which are not apphcable to all the Three Divine Persons, collectively, but to the One, or the Other, Divine Person, separately or diiferently. Not (as we have said) that the Father is without wisdom, &c. But we thus portray and represent these divine things to our minds, for the better retention and explication of this Article of faith, — the Holy Trinity !

When therefore the sacred text says " And God saw that it was good;" the divine expression implies God's intended j^^res^r- vation also, of the thing which He had in each case just ci'eated. For the creature itself, thus newly created, could not stand, unless the Holy Spirit should love it ; and unless this compla- cency of God in His own work should preserve that \^'ork. For God did not thus create these thinn-s, desio-nino- to forsake them when created, but He approves them and loves them still. The Great Creator, by His divine agency, still moves and preserves, at one and the same time, all things which He hath made, after His own God-like method ! — I deemed it right thus briefly to touch upon these sacred matters ; for the godly thoughts of those who have preceded us, in this holy study, and whose course therein we are ourselves pursuing, are well worthy our know- ledge.

The expression, in the above text, which Jerome renders, ' the creeping creature that hath life,' is, in the original Hebrew, Nephesch ; and it signifies a ' soul,' or ' life,' or ' something- living.' Moses calls fishes by this name. AVith reference to birds, it is well known that thei/ arc amphibious ; that is, that tliey live, either on land, or in the air.

Ver. 21. And God created great ichales.

An inquiry may naturally here be made, — why Moses men- tions, byname, "whales" only? But it is so, that the Scripture, in general, makes mention of the greater fishes alone. Tlie mention of " leviathan" and of " dragons," in the Book of Job, and in other places of tlie Scripture, is well known. It is cer-

76 CHAPTEli I. 21.

tain, liowever, that all the larger monster fishes are called by the name, 'whales:' of which, some have a kind of wings, as the dolphin, which is, as it were, the king of fishes. Not, however, because it exceeds all other fishes, in size. For the eagle, which is the king of Birds, does not surpass all birds, nor does the lion, which is the king of quadrupeds, surpass all beasts, in magnitude.

I believe however the reason of this to be, that we might know that these huge bodies are really the glorious works of God ; and that we might not, through any kind of terror at such a\N'e- striking bulks, be driven in any way into the imagination that these stupendous animals were not works of God, but a kind of unreal monsters. These great facts of creation being thus established in our minds; it is easy, afterwards, for us to con- clude, that as these enormous bodies were created of God, the. lesser fishes, such as herrings, sprats, minnows, &c. were created by Him. Let him who would contemplate this matter yet more deeply, read Job, Chap. 41. He will there plainly see in what lofty language the Holy Spirit, by means of the poet-author of that Book, lauds that marvellous monster " leviathan :" whose strength and confidence is such that he contemns even the force of arrows. Such descriptions as these open our eyes, and en- courage our faith ; that we may be led to believe the more easily,, and the more firmly in God ; — that He is able to preserve us also, who are so indescribably less in magnitude and strength.

A question is here also raised, concerning mice and dor-mice ; whence, and how, they have their origin and are generated. For we find, by experience, that not even ships, which are per- petually swimming on the ocean, are free from mice : and no house can be so thoroughly cleared of mice, but that they will still be generated. The same inquiry may be instituted con- cerning flies. And also whither birds go away in the time of Autumn. — If you ask Aristotle concerning mice, his argument is, that some animals are o/jboiyevrj {' generated from a like kind'), and others erepoyevr] (' generated from a difterent kind') : and that mice are erepoyevrj ; because mice (he says) are not generated from mice only, but from j^utrid matter ; the putridity of which is consumed, and gradually becomes a mouse. If you ask him by what power this generation is effected, the philosopher answers, that the putrid humidity of this matter is cherished, generatively,

CREATION. 77

by the heat of the sun ; and that, by this process, a living animal is produced ; just as we see the blue-bottle fly to be generated from horse-dung. But this reasoning is far from satisfying me : for the sun warms all things : but generates nothing, unless God speak it into being by His divine power. Even supposing there- fore that the mouse were generated from putrid matter, yet the mouse would be a creature of divine power. But the mouse is a creature of the divine Word and power ; and it is, as I believe, of an aqueous nature. Were it not a creature of the divine Word and power, it would have no natural form, nor would its species be preserved. Whereas it has a form the most beautiful, in its kind ; legs of such exquisite symmetry, hairs so smooth, as to make it evident, that it was created for a certain order of creatures, by the Word of God. In the mouse therefore we admire also the creature, and the workmanship of God. And the same may as certainly be said concerning flies.

Concerning the disappearing of birds, I have no certain know- ledge. For it is not very likely that they retire into regions more southward. Indeed, the miracle concerning swallows, is known by experience ; — that swallows lie, as dead, in the waters, during the winter, and revive at the approach of summer : which fact is indeed a great similitude and proof of our resurrection. For these are operations of the divine Majesty truly wonderful. Hence, we see them, but we understand them not. And my belief is, that although a single swallow may appear, unseason- ably, now and then, (I doubt, however, whether such ever can be the case ; ) such swallow is restored, from its death-like state, by God Himself.

Unto the creation-icork of tlie fifth, day^ therefore, belong all crawling, creeping, and flying creatures ; and all other creatures whatsoever which move, in any way, in either the air or tlie water.

Vers. 21 and 22. And God saw that it was (food ; And God

BLESSED THEM.

Why did not God pronounce the Word of Messing upon the above inanimate bodies of His creation, also ? In those cases, He only said, that the bodies which He liad created pleased

78 CIIAl^TER I. 21, 22.

Him, but He did not also bless them. But when He comes to the generation and propagation of living bodies, — then He insti- tutes a new mode of their increase and multiplication. Hence the sun and the stars, as we see, do not generate, from them- selves, bodies like unto themselves. But herbs and trees have this blessing upon them, — that they grow and bring forth fruit. Still there is nothing in them like unto this present blessing, pronounced of God upon the living bodies.

Moses therefore, by this Word of the divine blessing, makes a glorious distinction betAveen the bodies before created, and these living bodies which were created on the jifth day : because here, a new method of generation is instituted. For in this case, from living bodies are generated separate kinds of offspring which also live. But this most certainly is not the case with trees nor herbs : for unless they be sown anew, they bear not fruit : nor does a seed grow, simply, from a seed ; but from a plant. But in the present instance a living Ijody is generated from a living body. This latter operation, therefore, — that animal bodies should increase and be multiplied from bodies of their own kind, is entirely another and a new work of God. Because a pear-tree does not produce a pear-tree, but a pear. But in this latter case, that which a bird produces, is a bird. That which a fish gene- rates, is a fish. And marvellous indeed, and numberless, is the multijilication of each species, and infinite the fecundity : but it is greatest in marine and aquatic animals.

What then is the caxise of this wonderful and admirable gene- ration or propagation ? The hen lays an egg : she cherishes it, until a living body is formed in the egg; which, at length, the hen hatches. Philosophers allege the cause of all this to be the operation of the Sun, and the heat of the hen's body, I fully grant all this. But divines speak much nearer to the truth, wdien they affirm, that the whole of this generative process takes place by the effective operation of the Word, here spoken of God — " And God blessed them ; and said, be fruitful and multiply." This Word of God's blessing is present, in the very body of the hen, and of all living creatures : and the heat by which the hen cherishes the egg, is, essentially and effectively, the heat of the Word of God : for, without this Word, the heat of the sun, or of the body, Avonld be utterly ineffectual and useless.

CREATION. 79

Wherefore, to this admirable part of His creation-work, God adds his peculiar blessing, — in order that these living bodies, now created, on the fifth day, might be fruitfuL From these circum- stances may be seen what this divine Messing is, — namely, mul- tiplication. Now when tee bless, we can effect nothing. All we can do is to pray. But this prayer is inoperative. We cannot effect the things for which we pray. But the blessing of God carries with it actual fruitfulness, and multiplication. It is, at once, eftectual. And, on the contrary, the divine curse is non- multij^lication, and diminution. And the curse is also, at once, effectual.

Plere, again, the phraseology of Moses is to be carefully ob- served. What Moses calls the blessing of God, philosophers call fecundity : that is, wdien certain living and sound bodies, are produced from certain living and sound bodies : of which there is nothing the like, in trees. For a tree does not generate the like unto itself: it is the seed that produces the like of the tree. This is a great and marvellous miracle ; but, like all things else, in the wonderful works of God, it loses its wonder, from our being always accustomed to behold it, without reflection or con- sideration.

Another question here arises concerning worms, and various hurtful creeping things ; concerning such reptiles as toads ; and concerning venomous flies, and also butterflies. In all these living creatures, there is a wonderful fecundity. And, it is singular, that the more hurtful these creatures are, the more prolific, generally, is their generation, and the greater their multiplication. But M^e will leave this question to oiu' subse- quent comments on the third Chapter of this Book. For my belief is, that at the creation-time, of which Ave are now speaking, none of these venomous, hurtful, or annoying creatures as yet existed. I believe that they afterwards sprung from, the earth, when cursed of God, as the punishment of sin ; that they miglit afflict us, and compel us to flee unto God Ijy prayer. But more on this subject (as I have just intimated) hereafter.

Thus have we, then, a sight of the living bodies, which were created on the fifth (Jay. And we have seen that the Word of God, spoken on this day, is still eflectual : for fishes are still generated from mere and ^er}' water. Hence, fish-ponds and

80 CHAPTER I. 24.

lakes still generate fishes. Minnows are generated in fish-ponds, in which there were none before. For I see no likeHhood of truth, in the trifling arguments of some, who will have it, that fishes caught by birds, drop their seed into fish-ponds and lakes, while they are being borne along in the air by their feathered captors ; and that such dropped fish-seed afterwards increases and furnishes the ponds. I believe, therefore, the true and sole cause of all this generation and multiplication of fishes, to be, God's commanding Word to the water, on this jiftli day of His creation-ioorh, to bring forth fishes. I believe that this divine Word is still eflPectual : and that it still works all these thino-s !

THE WOEK OF THE SIXTH DAY.

Ver. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, &c.

We have now seen created the heaven with all its hosts, — the sun, the moon, and the stars. We have seen the sea created, with its fishes and birds. For as the fishes swim in the water ; so do the birds swim, as it were, in the air. To the earth also we have seen added its ornaments of herbs, trees, and fruits. And now, before man is introduced into this his dwelling-place, as it were, beasts of the earth are added ; and beasts of labour and burden ; and also reptiles. — After all these things, man him- self is also created !

Man, however, is not created that he might fly with the bird, nor that he mio;ht swim with the fish. But man has a nature common to all other animals, in this respect, — that he is designed to live upon the earth. For the use of ships is artificial : in the construction and use of which machines, man attempts to imitate the fishes, and the birds. For the ship performs both move- ments. It flies in the air and swims on the water. We are not, however, here speaking of things artificial ; but of things natural.

The Hebrews here make a distinction of names and appella- tions. They call Behemah, those animals which we denomi- nate ' beasts of burden ;' and they distinguish, by the same

CREATION. 81

appellation, the lesser beasts of the wood ; such as stags, goats, hares, and whatever animals feed on food common to us ; and which live on herbs and the fruit of trees. But they term car- nivorous beasts, such as wolves, lions, and bears, &c., haieso EREZ ; which is generally and correctly, rendered, ' beasts of the earth.' But whether this distinction is uniformly observed, I know not. It does not appear to me, that the observance of it is uniform. One thing however is quite certain, — that Moses here intended to comprehend all terrestrial animals ; whether they feed on flesh or on herbs. Of all these he affirms, that the earth is the mother ; which brought them all forth from herself, by the Word ; as the sea also brought forth all fishes from her- self, by the same Word.

We have heard above, however, that God said to the water, ' Let the water be moved,' &c. ; in order that by this its motion the sea might be filled with fishes, and the air with birds. And we have seen also that afterwards, the blessing of generation was first added. But here, in the creation of terrestrial animals, an- other word is used; and God says, ' Let the earth bring forth ;' He does not say, ' Let the earth be movedJ For the earth is a quiescent body. Therefore, in the creation-worh of the fourth day, God also says, " And Let the earth bring forth grass." (Ver. 11.) For God wills that the earth should send forth both animals and herbs, without any motion.

But whether these animals were formed after the similitude of the formation of man, out of the " ground," or whether they burst forth, on a sudden ; though the Scripture defines nothing upon the subject, yet, as Moses is here celebrating the formation of man, as having been wrought by a peculiar design and con- trivance of the mind of God ; my own opinion is, that all the other animals of the earth stood forth created, in a moment ; as the fishes were made, on a sudden, in the sea. — The reason why God did not hei'e (vers. 24 and 25) add his blessing, is quite plain ; — because it embraces all the creatures mentioned in these verses, when it is afterwards pronounced (ver. 28) on man. It was sufficient therefore for Moses to say, in this place, " And God saw that it was good" (ver. 25). — But let us now ap- proach the last and most glorious work of God ; — the creation of man I

F

82 CHAPTER I. 26.

Ver. 26. And God said, Let us make mariy in our image, after our likeness.

Here again, Moses adopts a new phraseology. The divine expression is not, in this place, " Let the sea be moved" or " Let the earth bring forth grass," or " fruits." But the remarkable Word of God, here, is, "Let us make (or form, ov fashion, or fabricate) man." Wherefore, this expression implies manifest de- liberation and counsel : the like of which, nothing is found, in the creation of any of the former creatures. Li those cases, God says, simply without any deliberation, counsel, or particular design of mind, " Let the sea be moved ;" " Let the earth bring forth," &c. But here, where God wills, to create man. He turns Himself, as it were, to deep thought, and enters into profound counsel and deliberation.

First of all, then, we have here indicated, the signal differ- ence between man and every other creature of God, and his high exaltation above them all. Beasts do indeed greatly resemble man, and in many particulars. They live with him ; they eat with him ; they are brought up with him ; they feed on many of the same things with him ; they rest with him ; they sleep wdtli him, &c. If therefore you consider their food, their bringing up, their housing, their conservation, &c., there is a great similarity be- tween man and beast. — Moses, however, here sets before us the strikincr difference between man and all the before-mentioned animals ; when he affirms, that man was created by the peculiar counsel and providence of God : whereby he signifies, that man is a creature far excelling all other animals, which live a cor- poreal life : which excellence was more especially prominent, while nature was as yet unfallen and incorrupt. The o^^inion of Epicurus was, that man was created to eat and to drink only. This was not separating man from beasts : for beasts have also their pleasures, and they pursue them with delight. Whereas the sacred text before us, forcibly expresses the distinction and separ- ation of man from beast, when it affirms, that God took deep thousjht and certain counsel, in the formine; of man : which counsel was taken, not only to form man, but to form him ' in the image and after the likeness of God.' This image of God is a far different thing from the care of the belly and the indulgence

CREATION. 83

of the appetite ; tor these things beasts well understand, and eagerly crave.

Moses therefore, in this place, signifies, to the spiritually minded, that we were created unto a life far more excellent than, and high above, any thing wliich this corporeal life could ever have been, even if nature had remained perfect, and uncorrupted by sin. For godly teachers well affirm, that if Adam had not fallen, God would have translated him from an animal life to a spiritual one, after a certain number of saints had been perfected. For Adam was not designed, by his creation, to live without food, and drink, and procreation. But all these corpoi'eal things would have ceased, at an appointed time ; after a certain number of saints had been completed ; and Adam, together with his pos- terity, would have been translated to a life spiritual and eternal. These natural works of our corporeal life, — eating, drinking, procreation, &c., would still have existed, and would have been a certain service of gratitude to God : which service we should have performed; without any of that corrupt concupiscence which cleaves to us since the sin of. the fall, and without any sin of our own, or any fear of death. This would indeed have been a life of pleasu.re and of sweetness. Of such a life, it is lawful for us to think : but such a life, it is not now possible for us to live. This, however, we have still left to us. — We can be- lieve, and can, with all assurance, look for, a spiritual life after this present life ; — an end of this life, in paradise ; thought of for us, and destined for us, of God, through the merits of Christ.

Wherefore the portion of the sacred text before us claims our especial meditation : in which, the Holy Spirit so magnificently extols the human nature, and so distinctly separates it from all the other creatures of God. For the mere corporeal or animal life of man was designed to resemble, in a great measure, the life of the beasts of the creation. Because, as beasts require food drink and sleep for the refreshment and restoration of their bodies ; so Adam was designed also to use these things, even in his state of innocence. But that which Moses moreover affirms, — that man was so created unto this animal life that he was also '?nac/e' in the " image" and " after the likeness" of God, — this is a manifest indication of a life different fi'om, and far above, a mere animal life.

84 CHAPTER I. 2(;.

Adam was endowed therefore with a twofold life ; an animal, and an immortal life. The latter however was not as yet plainly- revealed, but held in hope. Had he not fallen by sin therefore, he would have eaten and drank, and worked, and generated, in all innocence, sinlessness, and happiness.— I have thought it proper to make these admonitory observations upon that differ- ence which God has made, by His deep counsel, between us men and all those other animals, among which He permits us to live. I shall return to this subject hereafter, and shall dilate upon it to a greater extent.

Secondly, I would remark upon this divine Word, " Let Us make," — that it appertains to the mystery and confirmation of our faith : by which, we believe that there is One God, from all eternity and Three distinct Persons in One Divinity or divine Essence, — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Jews, indeed, attempt, in various ways, to elude this pas- sage : but they can bring nothing solidly or effectually against it. For this passage plagues them to death (to use the expres- sion of Occa). That author so describes all trying and torment- ing questions, which he finds he cannot solve.

The Jews assert, that God uses the same expression elsewhere,

when He includes the angels with Himself; and also, where He

includes with Himself the earth and other creatures. But I

would here ask, in the first place, why God did not use this same

expression before in the creation of the previous creatures I I

would demand, secondly, what the creation of man had to do

with angels or angels with it ? And I would, thirdly, call

attention to the fact, that God makes here no mention of angels

whatever, but simply says, " Let Us." Wherefore, God speaks

here of Makers or Creators. This expression therefore could

not design, or imply, angels. In the fourth place, it is quite

certain, that it was not, could not, and cannot, be said, that

we were created ' in the image' of angels. And, fifthly, and

lastly, we have the divine Word in both forms of expression,

in the plural and also in the singular number, " Let Us

make," and " God made," Moses, therefore, here, most clearly,

and most forcibly, indicates to us, that there is, internally,

in the very Divinity itself, and in the very creative Essence,

an inseparable and eternal plurality. Suffer we not the gates

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of liell themselves, to wrest this truth from the grasp of our faith !

And as to what the Jews say about God's joining the earth with Himself, when He speaks by the pronoun We, or Us, that is frivolous and absurd. For surely the earth is not our maker or creator. Why did not the adorable God rather join the sun, with Himself, when He spoke. For Aristotle affirms, that man and the sun generate man. But neither would this invention succeed : because, we are not made in the image of the earth : but we are made ' in the image' and ' after the Kkeness' of those glorious Makers, and Creators, who here speak, and say, " Let Us make," &c. These Makers are Three distinct Persons in ONE divine Essence. It is in the image of these Three divine and glorious Persons, that we are created, as we shall hereafter farther hear.

And again, — it is the extreme of absurdity, in the Jews, when they assert, with reference to this passage, that God adopts, in the words He here uses, the custom of princes ; who, for the sake of reverence and dignity, use the plural number, when they speak. But the Holy Spirit does not imitate this distancing pomp of terms (if I may so term it) ; nor does the Scripture know any thing of such a manner of speech. Wherefore, most assuredly, the Holy Trinity is here intended of God ; — that, in the One divine Essence there are Three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit : so that the Deity is not separated here, even in this case of action or agency. For all the Three Persons here concur, and speak unitedly, when they say, " Let Us make." For neither does the Father make any other man than the Son makes ; nor does the Son make any other man than the Holy Ghost makes. But the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the One same God, are the One same Author of the one same work, and the One same Creator.

Wherefore, according to this scriptural argument and this holy statement of the truth, the Deity, or Godhead, cannot be separated, objectively, as the Object of divine worship, nor actively as the creative Agent. For the Father is not known, but in the Son, through the Holy Ghost. And hence, as actively, so objectively, there is but One adorable God : — who nevertheless is, in, and within, Himself, substantively, or essentially, Father,

8(i CHAPTER I. 26.

Son, and Holy Spirit : — Three distinct Persons in One Divinity, or Deity.

These divine testimonies of this Book of Genesis ought to be dear and delightful to us. For although both Jews and Turks deride us, because we believe that there is one God, but three Persons in the Godhead, yet, unless they are prepared impu- dently to deny the authority of the Scripture, they must be compelled, by the present text, as well as by the passages above cited, to fall in with our doctrine. They may indeed attempt to elude and avoid these testimonies, nevertheless the sting of this passage still sticks fast in their hearts : they cannot get rid of the divine expression, "Let Us make." They can assign no other reason for it than we have here given. Nor can they otherwise explain the reason why Moses uses the plural Noun Eloim. The reflections and natural convictions arising from these divine expressions they cannot shut out from their hearts and consciences, notwithstanding all the various means which they adopt in order to effect their exclusion. And if they deem it the height of their wisdom to elude and get rid of these testi- monies ; — do they think that we are destitute of ability, and that we cannot find wisdom enough to defend them ? But the authority of the Scripture on our side is far mightier than all wisdom on theirs : especially since the New Testament reveals the whole divine matter more clearly still. For there the Son which is in the bosom of the Father teaches us all these things with a clearness fkr surpassing all other testiniony : whom not to believe is the highest blasphemy and eternal death. Where- fore, bid we farewell to all these blind corrupters of divine doc- trines until we meet them, at the day of judgment !

But you will say, perhaps, that these testimonies are too obscure to be appealed to as proofs of so important an article of faith. I reply, — these divine things were spoken, at this time, thus obscm'ely, according to the counsel and purpose of God; and for this very reason ; — because they were all left to that great Lord and Teacher, who was to come ; until whose advent, the restitution of all things was reserved : even the restitxition of all knowledge and of all revelations. Those mysteries, there- fore which, " in the beginning," were set before us thus obscurely, (^hrist, when. He came, revealed, made known, and connnanded

CREATION. 87

to be preached. Nevertheless, the holy fathers were in possession of this knowledge by the Holy Spirit ; though not so clearly as we possess it now, who hear, in the New Testament, the names of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, plainly declared. For when Christ came, it was necessary that all those seals should be unloosed, and all those things openly preached, which, " in the beginning," had been purposely deli- vered to us in obscure words, in reverence of the Great Teacher who was to come. And had not the Holy Spirit deferred the clear knowledge of these things to the time of the New Testa- ment, Arians would have existed long before the birth of Christ. Wherefore, the Holy Spirit willed, that this Sun of knowdedge should be opposed to the devil in these " last times," that his eyes might be the more intolerably dazzled, that he might the more virulently envy men such a brightness of knowledge, and might himself be thus the more terribly tormented.

Thirdly. — There is here agitated a wdiole sea of questions ; — as to what that " image" of God was in which Moses here says that man was formed. Augustine has dwelt largely on the explanation of this passage, in his book " On the Trinity." Those divines in general, who retain the division and definition of Aristotle, follow Augustine. They consider the image of God to be those powers of soul, — memorj^, mind, or intellect, and will. They affirm, that the image of God consists in these th^ee qualities : which image (they say) is found in all men. And their argument is, that as, in divine things, the Word is begotten of the substance of the Father ; and as the Holy Spirit is the complacency or good pleasure of the Father ; so, in man, from the memory proceeds the word of the heart ; which is the mind of the man : which word being uttered, there is developed the will ; which will the mind beholds, and with Avhich it is de- lighted.

These divines affirm, moreover, that " the similitude," after wdiich man was formed, stands in gratuitous gifts. For as a similitude is a certain perfectness of an image ; so (they say) the created nature of man is perfected by grace. According to their views, therefore, the " similitude" of God, in man, consists in his memory being adorned with hope, his intellect with faith, and his will with love. — It is in this manner (they assert) that man

88 CHAPTER I. 26.

is created in tlie image of God ; — that man has a mind, a memory, and a will. Again, they state the sacred matter thus ; — -'Man is created after the "similitude" of God; that is, his intellect is illuminated by faith, his memory is confirmed by hope and constancy, and his will is adorned with love.

FouRTHLY.-^Di vines make also other divisions and definitions of the qualities of this "image" of God, in which man was originally created. They hold that memory is the image of the power of God, mind the image of His wisdom, and will the image of His justice. It was after this manner that Augustine, and after him others, bent their minds on the discovery of cer- tain trinities of natural qualities or endowments, in man. For they thought that, by this mode of explanation, the image of God in man would be the more clearly seen. These not un- pleasing speculations do, indeed, argue deep employment and great acuteness of mental ability, but they by no means aid the right explanation of this " image" of God.

Wherefore, though I do not altogether condemn and reprobate this diligence and these deep thoughts, by which divines desire to reduce all things to a kind of sacred trinity ; yet I doubt whether such attempts are very useful ; especially seeing that others may push them too far. For it is on these grounds that some rest their disputes in favour of Free-will : which, they say, naturally follows from this ' image of God.' They argue thus ; — God is free. Since therefore man is created in the image of God, man also has a free memory, a free mind, and a free will. Out of this kind of reasoning therefore many things fall, which are either spoken untruly at first, or are afterwards wrongly understood, or wickedly perverted. It is from this source that the dangerous doctrine has ai'isen, according to which men affirm, that God so rules and governs men, that He permits them to use their own mind and movement. By this sentiment and teaching many most objectionable opinions have been gene- rated. From this same source has originated that pernicious saying, ' God who made thee without thyself will not save thee without thyself.' Such men conclude, that free-will concurs with the grace and work of God, as a preceding and efficient cause of salvation. Not unlike this, is the saying of Dionysius, which is more pernicious still ; ' Although devils and man fell,

CUKATION. 89

yet all their natural faculties remained whole and entire ; — theii" mind, their memory, their will,' &c. If this be true, therefore, it will follow, that man, by his own natural powers, can save himself. — These perilous opinions of some of the fathers are agitated in all churches and schools. — But I leave these things, and come to the great subject-point before us.

I fear, however, that since this ' image of God' has been lost by sin, we can never fully attain to the knowledge of what it Avas. — ISIemoiy, mind, and will, we do most certainly possess ; but wholly corrupted, and most miserably weakened ; nay, (that I may speak with greater plainness,) utterly leprous, and unclean. If these natural endowments therefore constitute the image of God, it will inevitably follow, that Satan also was created in the image of God ; for he possesses all these natural qualities ; and, to an extent and strength, far beyond our own. For lie has a memory and intellect the most powerful, and a will the most obstinate.

The image of God therefore is something far different from all this. It is a peculiar work of God. If there be those how- ever Avho are yet disposed to contend, that the above natural endowments and powers do constitute the image of God ; they must of necessity confess, that they are all leprous and unclean. Even as we still call a leprous man a man, though all the parts of his leprous flesh be stupefied and dead, as it were, with disease, except that his whole nature is vehemently excited to lust.

Wherefore that image of God in which Adam was created was a workmanship the most beautiful, the most excellent, and the most noble, while as yet no leprosy of sin adhered either to his reason or to his will. Then all his senses, both internal and external, were the most perfect and the most pure. His intellect was most clear, his memory most complete, and his will the most sincere, and accompanied wdth the most charming seciu'ity, with- out any fear of death and without any care or anxiety whatsoever. To these internal perfections of Adam was added a power of body, and of all his limbs, so beautiful and so excellent, that therein he sm'passed all other animate natural creatures. For I fully believe that, before his sin, the eyes of Adam were so clear and their sight so acute, that his powers of vision exceeded those of the lynx. Adam, I believe, being stronger than they, handled

DO CHAPTER r. 26.

lions and bears, whose strength is so great, as we handle the young of any animal. I believe also that to Adam the sweetness and the \drtue of the fruits which he ate were far beyond our enjoyment of them now.

, After the fall, however, death crept in, like a leprosy, over all /the senses. So that now, we cannot reach the comprehension of this image of God by our intellect, not even in thought. Adam moreover, in his innocency, could not have known his wife Eve, but with the most pure and confident mind towards God ; with a will the most obedient to God, and with a soul the most free from all impurity of thought. But now, since the sin of the fall, all know how great is the excitement of the flesh ; which is not only furious in concupiscence, but also in disgust, after it has satisfied its desire. In neither case, therefore, is either the reason, or the will, sound or whole. Both are fallen and corrupt. And the fury of the desire is more brutish than human. Is not this our leprosy, then, grievous and destructive ? But of all this Adam knew nothing, before the sin of his fall. His only pecu- liarity then v/as, that he had greater poAvers, and more acute and exquisite senses, than any other living creature. But now, how far does the wild boar exceed man, in the sense of hearing ! the eagle, in sight ! and the lion, in strength ! No one, there- fore, can now conceive, even in thought, how far the excellency of man, when first created, surpasses what he is now.

Wherefore I, for my part, understand the image of God to be this ; — that Adam possessed it in its moral substance, or nature ; — that he not only knew God, and believed Him to be good, Ibut that he lived also a life truly divine ; that is, free from the fear of death and of all dangers, and happy in the favour of God. This is apparent in Eve, who, we find, talks with the serpent, devoid of all fear ; just as we do with a lamb or a dog. And therefore it is, that God sets before Adam and Eve this, as a punishment, if they should transgress His command ; — ' In the day that thou eatest of this tree, thou shalt surely die the death.' As if He had said, ' Adam and Eve, Ye now live in all security. Ye neither see nor fear death. This is My image in which ye now live. Ye live as God lives. But if ye sin ye shall lose this image : Ye shall die.'

Hence it is that we see and feel the mighty perils in which

CREATION. 91

we now live ; — how many forms and threatenings of death this miserable nature of ours is doomed to experience and endure ; in addition to that unclean concupiscence, and those other ragings of sin, and those inordinate emotions and affections, which are eno;endered in the minds of all men. We are never confident and happy in God : fear and dread in the highest are perpetually trying us. These and like evils are the image of the devil, who has impressed that image upon us. But Adam lived in the highest pleasure, and in the most peaceful security. He feared not fire nor water : nor dreaded any of those other evils with which this life is filled, and which we dread too nivich con- tinually.

Let them who are disposed to do so, therefore, extenuate original sin. It plainly appears, and with awful certainty, both in sins and in the punishment of them, that original sin is great and terrible indeed. Look only at lust. Is it not most mighty, both in concupiscence and in disgust ? And what shall we farther say of hatred towards God, and blasphemies of all kinds ? These are those sad evidences of the fall, which do indeed prove, that the image of God in us is lost.

Wherefore, when we now attempt to speak of that image, we / speak of a thing unknown ; an image which we not only have; never experienced, but the contrary to which we have experi^ i^' enced all our lives, and experience still. Of this image therejj fore all we now possess are the mere terms, — ' the image of God! These naked words, are all we now hear, and all we know. But there was, in Adam, an illumined reason, a true knowledge of God, and a will the most upright to love both God, and his neighbour. Hence, Adam embraced his Eve ; and immediately knew his own flesh. — To all these endowments were added others of somewhat less excellency ; but surpassingly excellent, if com- pared with our present weakness. Adam had a perfect know- ledge of all nature ; — of animals, of herbs, of trees, of fruits, and of all other creatui'es.

When all these endowments are put together, do they not compose such a man, as one in whom you can at once behold the image of God shining forth ? and more especially so, when, to all these endowments, you add "dominion" over the whole crciition. For as x\dam and Eve acknowledo-ed God to be

92 CHAPTER T. 26.

Lord : so, afterwards, they themselves held dominion over all creatures in the air, on the earth, and in the sea. Who can express, in words, the excellency and majesty of this "dominion" *? For m}^ belief is that Adam could, by one word, command the lion, as we command a favourite dog. He possessed a fi-eedom of will and pleasure to cultivate the earth ; that it might bring forth whatsoever things he wished. For the follomng chapters of this Book will prove, that there were, at the time of which we are now speaking, neither thorns nor thistles (Chap. 3. 18). Neither do I believe that wild beasts were so savage and fierce as they are now.

But all these thorns and thistles, and this ferocity of beasts, are the consequences of original sin : by which all the rest of the creation contracted a corruption, and a loss of its original excel- lency. Hence it is my belief also, that before the sin of Adam, the sun was more bright, the water more pure, the trees more fruitful, and the earth more productive, than since he fell. But through that dreadful sin, and that horrible fall, not only are the soul and the body deformed by the leprosy of sin ; but all things which we use in this life are corrupted ; as we shall more plainly shew hereafter.

Now the very intent of the Gospel is to restore this image of God. Man's intellect and will have indeed remained ; but wholly corrupted. And the divine object of the gospel is, that we might be restored to that original, and indeed to a better and higher, image ; an image, in wdiich we are born again unto eternal life, or rather, unto the hope of eternal life, by faith ; in order that we might live in God, and with God, and might be " one" with Him, as Christ so beautifully and largely setteth it forth, in the seventeenth chapter of Saint John.

Nor are we born again unto life only, but unto righteousness also : because faith layeth hold of the merit of Christ, and sets us free, through the death of Christ. Hence arises another righteousness in us ; namely, that " newness of life," in which we study to obey God as taught by the Word, and helped by the Holy Spirit. This righteousness however begins only, in this Ufe, nor ever can be perfected in this flesh. Nevertheless, this newness of righteousness pleaseth God : not as being perfect in itself, nor as being any price for our sins : but because it

CREATION. 93

proceedeth from the heart ; and because it rests on a confidence in the mercy of God, through Christ. And farther ; through the gospel there comes unto us this other blessing also ; — through it, is conferred upon us the Holy Spirit ; who resists in us un- belief, envy, and other sins and corruptions ; to the intent that we may solemnly desire to adorn the name of the Lord and His holy Word.

In this manner does the image of God begin to be restored in us, through the Gospel, by this new creation, in this life. But in this life it is not perfected. When however it is perfected, in the kingdom of the Father, then will our will be truly fi'ee and good, our mind truly illuminated, and our memory constant and perfect. Then will it come to pass also that all creatures shall be more subject unto us, than ever they were unto Adam in paradise.

Until all this shall be fulfilled in us, we shall never be able fully to understand what that image of God was, which was lost by Adam, in paradise. This however which we now utter con- cerning it, faith and the Word teach us : which discover unto us, at a distance as it were, the glory of this image of God. But as the heaven and the earth, " in the beginning," were a kind of rude unformed bodies, as we have slioAvn, before the created light was added to them ; so the godly possess within themselves that unformed and imperfect image of God, which God will perfect, at the last day, in those who believe His Word.

In conclusion, therefore, that image of God, in wliich Adam was created, was a something excellent above all things : in which was included eternal life, eternal security, and all good.i^. That image however is so marred and obscured by sin, that we cannot reach the comprehension of it, even in thought. For though we utter the words ' the image of God," who is there that can possibly understand what it is, for a man to live a life of security, without fears, and without perils ? and to be wise, righteous, good, and free from all calamities or distresses, either of soul or of body ? And what was more than all this was, that Adam was made capable of a life eternal. For he was so created, that as long as he lived in this corporeal life, he might cultivate the earth, not as doing a work of trouble, nor as wearying his body with labour, but as enjoying an employment of the highest pleasure ; not as ' deceiving, or killing, time,' (as we say) but

94 CHAPTER I. 2C.

as perfonning a service to God, and yielding an obedience to His will.

And this corporeal life was intended to be succeeded by a spiritual life : in which man was not designed to use corporeal food and aliments, nor to perform any of those other things which he must necessanly do, in this natural life. But he was designed to live a life spiritual and angelic. For such is the life eternal, to come, described to us in the Holy Scripture : — a life in which we shall neither eat nor diink, nor exercise any other corporeal functions. Hence it is that Paul says, ' The first man, was made a living soul :' that is, he lives an animal life which requires meat, drink, and sleep, &c. But the apostle adds, ' The second man shall be renewed into a quickening spirit :' (1 Cor. 15, 45.) That is, he shall be a spiritual man, in which state, he shall return to the image of God ; for he shall be like unto God, in life, righteousness, holiness, \visdom, &c. — It now follows, in the sacred text

Ver. 26. And Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, &c.

To this most beautiful of God's creatures, man, who possesses the knowledge of God and who is the image of God, in which image shines forth the similitude of the divine nature, in an enlightened reason, in righteousness, and in wisdom, is now assigned " dominion :" and Adam and Eve are made rulers of the earth, of the sea, and of the air. And this dominion is not only committed to them by the design and counsel of God, but by His expressed command. We must, in the first place, con- sider this great matter in a negative and exclusive sense ; — that it is not said to any beast, that it should have any dominion. And in the next place, we must view the matter in an absolute sense ; — that all animals, nay, the earth itself, with all created living things, and all generated from them, are subjected to the domi- nion of Adam : whom God, by His vocal and expressed com- mand, constituted king over the whole animal creation. For these are the words which both Adam and Eve heard, when God said, " And let them have dominion." Here, therefore, a naked man without arms, Avithout walls, nay, without any vesti-

CREATION. 95

ture of liis own body, but standing alone, in his own naked flesh, finds himself lord over all birds, all Avild beasts, and all fishes, &c.

This portion of the divine image also we have utterly lost : so that now, we cannot even conceive, in thought, that fulness of joy and pleasure, which Adam must have felt, at the sight of the whole animal creation before him, and at the sense that he was lord of them all ! For now : all things are full of leprosy, and full of stupidity, and, as it were, of death. For who can now reach, even in thought, a conception of that portion of the divine image, which Adam and Eve possessed, by which they understood all the affections, the senses, the feelings, and the powers, of all the animals of the creation. And yet, what would have been their dominion over all created animals, without this knowledge ? There is, indeed, in this life, a certain knowledge of God, in the saints, derived from the Word and from the Holy Spirit. But that knowledge of all nature, that understanding the qualities of all trees, and the properties of all herbs, that clear discernment of the natures of all beasts, — these are endowments of our nature now utterly lost, and irreparable.

If therefore we would talk about a philosopher, let us talk about Adam ! Let us speak of our first parents, while they were as yet pure and unfallen by sin ! For Adam and Eve had the most perfect knowledge of God. And how, indeed, coidd they be ignorant of Him, whose very inrage they possessed and felt in themselves ! Moreover, of the stars also, and of the whole science and system of astronomy, they had the most certain knowledge.

Moreover, that all these endowments were enjoyed by Eve, as well as by Adam, is quite manifest from the speech of Eve to the serpent, when she answered him concerning the tree in the midst of paradise. From this speech, it appears evident that she knew the end for which she was created : and she shows also the Author ftom whom she had received that knowledge : for her reply to the sei'pent was, " God hath said" (Gen. 3. 3). Eve therefore did not hear these things from Adam only, but she was by nature so pure from sin, and so full of the knowledge of God, that she saw and understood, the Word of God, for herself.

As to us in our present state, we still possess, indeed, some

96 ' CHAPTER r. 26.

certain dull, and, as it were, dead remnants of this knowledge. But all animals besides are altogether devoid of such understand- ing. They know not their Creator, nor their origin, nor their end ; nor whence, nor why, they were created. No other ani- mals therefore possess anything whatever of this similitude of God. Hence it is, that the Psalm contains this exhortation, " Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no under- standing" (Ps. 32. 9.)

Although therefore this image of God be almost wholly lost, there is nevertheless still remaining a mighty difference between man and all other animals of God's creation. But originally, before the sin of the fall, the difference was far greater, and far more illustrious : while as yet Adam and Eve fully knew God and all His creatures, and were wholly absorbed in the goodness, and righteousness, and worship of God. Hence also there was between Adam and Eve themselves a singular unity of minds and of wills. Nor was there, in the whole world, an object sweeter to Adam, or more beautiful in his eyes, than his Eve ! Nor is a wife, as the heathens say, a necessary evil. And why call they a wife an evil ? The reason is manifest. They know nothing of the cause of evil. It was Satan. He it was, who thus marred and corrupted woman's original nature.

The influence however which we now have over beasts, in this life, the use which we make of them, and the things which we cause them to do, Ire not effected by that dominion which Adam possessed, but by industry and art. Thus birds and fishes, as we see, are taken by deception and stratagem : and beasts are tamed in various degrees by art. For those animals which are the most domesticated as geese, fowls, &c., were, of themselves, and by their own particular nature, wild. This leprous nature of ours therefore still retains, through the goodness of God, some appear- ance of dominion over the other creatures. This dominion hoAv- ever is very trifling indeed, and far, very far, beneath the ori- ginal dominion. For under that, there was no need"^f art, or stratagem, to give man influence over the beast. Every creature was put absolutely mider a state of obedience to the voice of God, when Adam and Eve were commanded, by that voice, to have dominion over them.

We do retain therefore the name and the semblance, and

CREATION. 97

as it were, the naked title of the original dominion ; but the reahty itself is almost wholly lost. Still it is good for us to know and to think upon this state of things ; that we may sigh after that day which shall come, in which all these things shall be restored unto us which we lost by the sin of Adam, in paradise. For we look for that life which Adam also ever held in expecta- tion. And well indeed may we wonder, and well may we render thanks unto God, as indeed we do, that we, so deformed by sin, so dull, so stupefied, and so dead by it, should be enabled, through the merits and benefits of Christ, to look, with assurance, for that same glory of a spiritual life, which Adam might also have looked for, with all assurance, without the dying merits of Christ if he had remained, unfallen, in that animal life which possessed the image of God.

Ver. 27. So God created man, in His oion image ; in the image of God created He him.

It is observable that the term likeness is not here used by Moses, but ' image' only. Perhaps the sacred historian wished to avoid amphibology (too extensive circumlocution), and therefore he merely repeated the term image. I see no other cause for the re- petition, unless we receive it as intended for emphasis, and as de- signed to signify the joy and triumph of the Creator in this most beautiful work of His hands. The purpose of Moses was probably to represent God as not so much delighted with any of, or with all. His other creatures as with man, whom He created in His own likeness. For other animals are termed traces of God, man alone is said to be the image of God. For in all the other creatures God is known as by His footsteps only : but in man, especially in Adam, He is known truly and fully ; for in Adam is seen that wisdom, and righteousness, and knowledge of all things, that he may rightly be called a microcosm, or little world in himself: for he understands the heaven, the earth, and the whole creation. God therefore, as Moses would here represent, is delighted in His havincr made so beautiful a creature.

Without doubt therefore, as God was so delighted with this His counsel and workmanship in the creation of man, so He is now delighted in the restoration of that His original glorious

98 CHAPTER I. 27-

work, through His Son our Deliverer Jesus Christ. It is always profitable to us to consider that God is always thinking thoughts of good, yea the best thoughts, towards us (Jer. 29. 11) : and that He is ever delighted with these His thoughts, and this His counsel in our restoration to a spiritual life, by the resui'iection from the dead, of those who have believed in Christ.

Ver. 27. Male and female created He them.

That woman might not appear to be excluded from all the glory of the life to come, Moses here mentions both sexes together. For woman seems to be a creature somewhat different from man : in that she has dissimilar members, and a varied form, and a mind far more weak than man. And although Eve was a most excel- lent and beautiful creature, like unto Adam in reference to the image of God, that is with respect to righteousness, wisdom, and salvation, yet she was woman. For as the sun is more glorious than the moon, though the moon is a most glorious body ; so woman, though she was a most beautifal work of God, yet did she not equal the glory of the male creature.

Moses however here joins the two sexes together, and says that God created them male and female for a further reason still ; — that He might thereby signify, that Eve also being alike created of God, alike with Adam became thereby a partaker of the divine image and similitude, and also of the dominion over all things. Hence woman is still a partaker of the life divine to come, as Peter saith, " As being heirs together of the grace of life" (1 Pet. 3. 7). In all domestic life also the wife is a partaker of the rulmg of the house, and enjoys, in common with her husband, the posses- sion of the offspring and of the substance. There is nevertheless a great difference between the sexes. The male is as the sun in the heaven ; the female as the moon ; while the other animals are as the stars, over which the sun and the moon have influence and rule. The principal thijig to be remarked therefore in the text before us is, that it is thus written to show that the female sex is not excluded from all the glory of the human nature, although it is thus inferior to the male sex. — Of marriage we shall speak hereafter.

In the next place, this same text furnishes us with an argument

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against Hilary and others, who wished to estabhsh the doctrine that God created all things at once. For by the present passage of holy Writ this our interpretation is confirmed, that the six days mentioned by Moses were, truly, six natural days : because, the divine historian here affirms, that Adam and Eve were created on the sirtli day. This text cannot be gainsaid. But concern- ing the order and manner of the creation of man, Moses speaks in the following chapter : in which he informs us that Eve was created a little after Adam : and that she was not made from the dust of the ground, as Adam was, but from one of the ribs of Adam, which God took from out his side while he was asleep. These therefore are temporal works : that is, works done at a certain time, and not all wrought at one moment, as were also the sacred facts 'that God brought every animal to Adam,' and ' that for Adam there was not found an help meet for him' (chap. 2. 19 & 20).

Many divines think also, that it was on the sixth day that Adam sinned. And therefore they hold the sixth day sacred, on a two- fold accomit : because, as Adam sinned on the sixth day ; so Christ also suffered, for sin, on the sixth day. Whether these things really be so, I leave it to them to settle, as matters not fully known. ]\Ioses does affirm, as a certainty, that man was created, and his wife also, on the sixth day. My thoughts on the matter, as I will hereafter show, are, that it is much more likely that Adam sinned on the seventh day ; that is, on the Sabbath ; just as, on the Sabbath also, Satan the most bitterly annoys and torments the Church, while the Word of God is being preached. But neither can Adam's sin having been on the Sabbath, be clearly shown from ISIoses. There are therefore, respecting both days, ' reasons against reasons ;' as Caesar Maxi- milian used to say. I leave these doubtful things, therefore, to be settled by each one, according to his own judgment.

Ver. 28. And God blessed them, ayid God said unto theniy

BE FRUITFUL, &C.

God did not utter this command to the other animals, but to man and woman only. Doubtless, however, all other animals are included in the diAane utterance.

100 CHAPTER I. 28.

This is the command of God to the creature, added to his creation. But O ! good God ! — What have we here, also, lost by sin ! How happy was that state of man in which the gene- rating of oflPspring was attended with the highest reverence of God, with the highest wisdom, and with the purest knowledge of God ! But the flesh is now so swallowed up with the leprosy of lust, that the body, in the commei'ce of generation, becomes actually brute-like ; and can by no means generate in the know- ledge, and worship, of God !

The progress of generation does indeed remain with human nature ; but it is low^ered and weakened beyond description ; and it is so absorbed in lust, that it differs little from the generation of the beast. To all this are added the perils of gestation and parturition, the difficulty of rearing children when born, and an infinity of other evils ; all which tend to impress us with the awfulness and magnitude of original sin. The Messing of God on generation, therefore, which still remains with human nature is, as it were a humbled and an accursed blessing ; if you compare it "vvith that original blessing : and yet, it is the blessing of God, instituted of God himself; and which He still preserves. Where- fore, let us acknowledge, with gratitude and praise, this blessing of God which still remains, though thus deformed by sin. And let us feel and confess, that this inevitable leprosy of our flesh, which is all mere disobedience to the will of God, is the punish- ment of sin, righteously inflicted of God. Let us wait however, in hojje, for the death of this leprous flesh, that we may be deli- vered from all these filthinesses, and may be restored to a perfec- tion and a glory, even far exceeding the original creation of Adam!

Ver. 28. A7id have dominion over the fish of the sea, &c.

What use there was of beasts-of-burden, of fishes, and of many other animals, in the primitive state of creation and of innocency, it is impossible for us clearly to determine, sunk as we are in ignorance of God and of His creatures. What we now see is, that we feed on various kinds of flesh, on pulse, &c. Unless therefore these same things were in the same use then, we know not whv thev should have been created ; because we neither

CKEATIOX. 101

have nor see, any other use for all these creatures, now. But Adam seems to have had no use, as we have now, for those crea- tures, m addition to all that food which he had in abundance from all the trees around him, and from their fruits, which were far nobler and richer than any which we now possess or know. Nor could he need raiment or money, who had all things under his immediate dominion and power. Nor did he need to regard any avarice or expectation in his posterity. Adam and Eve therefore being thus amply provided with food, needed only to use these creatures to excite their admiration and wonder of God, and to create in them that holiness of pleasure, which we never can know, in this state of the corruption of our nature. But all tilings are quite the contrary, now. For at the present time, all the creatures together scarcely suffice for the nourishment and gratification of man. And the case has been just the same in all ages. Wherefore what this " dominion" of Adam " over the fish of the sea" was, we cannot now conceive by any stretch of our thought.

Ver. 29. And God said, Behold, I have given unto you every herh hearing seed, &c.

Here we again behold what anxious care God took of the man whom He had created. He first of all created the earth, or his dwelling-place, in which he was to live. He then ordained other things which He judged to be necessary for his life and subsistence. And when, at length. He had created man, for whom He had made all these glorious preparations. He blesses him with the gift and power of generation. And now He gives him food ; that nothing might be wanting to his being enabled to live most easily and most happily. But my belief is, that if Adam had continued in his original state of innocency, children, ft'om their very birth, would have rushed forth to the enjoyment of those pleasures which the primitive creation furnished, in infi- nite abundance. — But it is perhaps vain in us to attempt to enu- merate these utterly innumerable blessings ; which are all irre- trievably lost to us, in our present state of life ; and of which, (as \ve have frequently repeated,) we cannot, with all our thought, fnrm the least conception.

102 CHAPTER I. 30, 31.

Ver. 30. A7id every tree, &c.

Moses here seems to make a difference between " seeds," and the " green herb." Perhaps it is because the herb is the food of beasts, and the seeds were designed to serve as food for man. For my behef is that, without doubt, the seeds which we now use for food, were far more excellent, in paradise, than they are now. I have no doubt also, that Adam would have refused to taste those various kinds of flesh, (than which we have no food which we deem more sweet and delicious,) in comparison with the sweetness of the fruits of those trees, which grew, naturally, in paradise : from the eating of which, there did not proceed that leprous fatness, which is the consequence of such food now, but a healthfalness and beauty of body, and a wholesome tempera- ture of all its humours.

Now, all varieties of flesh together do not satisfy man ; nor all kinds of pulse, nor all kinds of grain. And we continually endanger the health of our bodies by a surfeit of food. I say nothing now, of those worse than beast-like sins, which are daily committed among us by an excessive use of meat and drink. All this is, evidently, the curse of God, which has followed upon original sin, and has continued until now. And I believe also, that venomous and noxious beasts and reptiles, first came out of the earth, as accursed for the sin of man.

But here a question may arise, — how we are to reconcile the apparent discrepancy, that all the trees in the field are given to Adam to enjoy ; and yet that, afterwards, a signal part of the earth, which the Scripture calls paradise, is assigned to him to till ? Another question may be, whether the whole original earth may be called paradise ? &c. &c. — But these things we will leave to our meditations upon the second chapter.

Ver. 31. And God saw everything that He had made, and he- hold it ivas very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

After God had thus finished all His works, He here speaks after the manner of one fatigued ; as if He had said, ' Behold I have now prepared all things for man, with all perfectness. I have

CREATION. 103

prepared for him the heaven as his canopy, and the earth as his floor. His possessions and his wealth are the animals, with all the productions of the earth, the sea, and the air. The seeds, the roots, and the herbs of the garden, are his food. Moreover I have made man the lord of all these things.— And he possesses the knowledge of Me his God, and the nse of all the animals which I have created : all which he can use, as he will, with the greatest security, righteousness, and wisdom. Nothing is want- ing. All things are created in the greatest abundance, for the sustaining of animal life. — Now, therefore, I will rest ! I will enjoy a Sabbath !'

But (as we have shown all along) these things are almost wholly lost by sin : and we are at this day but as a certain car- case, as it were, of the first created man Adam : and we retain but a shadow of the dominion which he possessed. Shall we not say, then, that he has lost all things, who, out of an immortal, is become a mortal I out of a righteous man, a sinner ? out of one accepted of God and grateful to God, cast off and condemned of God ? For now, man is a sinner and mortal. If therefore these things do not, under divine teaching, stir us up to the hope and expectation of a better day, and a better life, to come ; there is nothing that can stir us up to such hope and exj)ectation. — Let these cominents suffice, for an explanation of this first chapter of the Book of Genesis. In the following chapter, Moses will teach us the nature of the work of this sixth day : — in what manner man was created.

CHAPTER II.

Ver. I. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Our German rendering of the text before us is " and all the adornment of them." In the original Hebrew the exj^ression is Zebaam the ^ host' or ' army' of them. And the prophets have retained this same form of speaking, and of calling the stars and the planets, "the host (or 'army') of heaven ;" as Jer. 1,9. 13:

104 CHAPTER II. 2.

where the Jews are represented as having adored " all the host of heaven." And God says, by the prophet Zephaniah, " I wiU cut off them that worship the host of heaven upon the house- tops." In the same manner also, Stephen testifies, concerning the children of Israel, in the wilderness, that God " gave them up to worship the host of heaven." (Act 7. 42.)

The prophets borrowed these forms of speech from Moses ; who in this passage calls the stars, and other luminaries of heaven, by a miKtary term, calling them the host or tlie warring army of heaven. After a similar mode of expression he calls men beasts, and trees the host or army of the earth. Perhaps this is in anti- cipation of the solemn realities that were to come. For God afterwards calls Himself also the God of hosts, or of armies ; that is, not of angels and of spirits only, but of the whole creation also, which was for Him, and serves Him. For ever since Satan was cast off by God for sin, he. has been filled with such desperate hatred of God and of men, that he would, if he could, in one mo- ment empty the sea of all its fishes, and the air of all its birds, strip the earth of all its fruits, and utterly destroy all things. But God has created all these creatures that they may be a standing army, as it were ; that they might fight for us and our subsistence against the devil, and against men also ; and thus serve us and be to us an unceasing benefit.

Ver. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made ; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work ivhich He had made.

Here, cavillers raise a question, of this nature ; — Moses says • that God " rested on the seventh day from the work which He had made :" that is, that He ceased on the seventh day to work : while Christ says, on the other hand, (John 5. 17,) My Father worketh hitherto, (or until noAv,) and I work. The passage con- tained in the Epistle to the Hebrews, (Heb. 4. 3,) makes for the explanation of the present text ; where it is written, " If they shall enter into My rest" (not indeed into the land of promise, but into "My rest").

My simple and plain reply to the above question is, that a solution of any difficulty that may be raised, is furnished by the

CREATION. 105

present text itself ; when it says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished." The Sahbath, or rest of the Sabbath, here signifies, that God so rested, as not to have any farther design of creating any other heaven and earth : it does not signify that God ceased to pjr serve and govern the heaven and the earth, which He had now created and finished. For concerning the manner of the creation Moses gives us the fullest infonnation, in the pre- ceding chapter ; — that God created all things, by the Word I — ' Let the sea bring forth fishes ;' ' Let the earth bring forth the green herb, the beasts' &c. &c. And by the same Word, God also said, " Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." Now all these words of God remain unto this present day. And therefore it is, that we see the multiplication of all these creatures go on, without cessation or end. Wherefore, if the world were to last for a number of years endless and infinite ; the power and efficacy of these words would never cease ; but there would still be continued a multiplication of all these creatures perpetual and endless, by the mere infinite power of this Word of God ; — this Word of the first creation and foundation of all things ; (if I may so express the original and originating Word.)

The solution of the question now under consideration, there- fore, is easy and plain. — " God rested, on the seventh day, from the work which He had made ;" that is, God was content with the earth and the heaven which He had created, by the Word. He created not, nor intended to create, new heavens or new earths ; nor new stars, nor new trees. God nevertheless still works. He " worketh hitherto,^'' as Christ saitli above. He for- saketh not nature; which He once made, "in the beginning ;" but He preserves and governs it, to this day, by the power of His Word. He has ceased from His creation-work ; but Pie has not ceased from His government-work. The human race began in Adam. In the earth began, by the Word, the animal race (if I may so speak) ; in the sea, the race of fishes ; and in the air, the race of birds. But the human race did not cease, in Adam : nor did all the other races cease, in the first created animals of their kind. The Word originally spoken upon the human race, still remains, in all its power and efficiency. The word, " Be fruitful and multiply," ceases not, nor ever will cease : nor the words, ' Let the sea bring forth fishes,' nor '■ Let the earth bring

106 CHAPTER II. 2.

forth beasts, and the air birds.' The omnipotent power and efficacy of the original Word still preserves and governs the whole creation !

Most clearly, therefore, has Moses established the great truth, that " In the beginning was the Word." (John 1. 1.) And as all creatures still increase and multiply, and are preserved and governed ; still in the same way as they were " in the beginning ;" it manifestly follows, that the Word still continues and lives, and that it is not dead ! When Moses says therefore, "And God rested on the seventh day from the work which He had made ;" His words are not to be considered as having reference to the general course and laws of nature, nor to their continuous preservation and government ; but simply, to the " beginning ;" — that God ceased from creating, and ordering, and ordaining all things, (as we generally speak,) and from creating any new creatures, or new kinds of animals, &c. &c.

With respect to Martin Luther before you ; — If you look at my individual person, I am a certain kind of new creature : be- cause, sixty years ago I had no existence. This is the common thought and judgment of the world. But the thought and judg- ment of God are far different. For, in God's sight, I was begotten and commenced being multiplied immediately, " from the beginning of the world." Wlien God said, " Let us make man," He then created me also. For whatsoever God willed to create, that He did create, then, when He spoke the word. All things did not then appear indeed, on a sudden, before our exist- ing eyes. For as the arrow, or the ball from the cannon, (for in these is the greatest velocity attached to the works of men,) is, in one moment, directed to its mark, and yet, does not reach that mark, without a certain interval and space between; so God rushes, as it were, by His Word, from " the beginning," to the end, of the world. For with God there is no hefoj^e, nor aftericards ; no sioift nor sloio ; but all things, to His eyes, are at once present. For God is simply and absolutely independent of, and alone, and separate from, all time I

These words of God, therefore, — and God said, " Let there be," "increase and multiply," &c., — create, constitute, and ordain, all creatures, as they were, as they now are, and as they Avill be, iiuto the end of the world. God has, indeed, ceased from creat-

CREATION. 107

ing new creatures. For He has created no new heaven, no new earth. But as He originally willed the sun and the moon to perform their courses, so have they continued to perform them, to this day. As God then filled the sea with fishes, the heaven with fowls, and the earth with beasts and cattle ; so have all these parts of His will been fulfilled, to this day ; and so have they all been preserved to this moment; as Christ said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." For the Word, which God spoke in the beginning, remaineth unto this day ; as it is said, with great majesty, in the Psalm (Ps. 33. 9), " He spake, and they were made."

But here sceptics and objectors will present a further question, for reply. — How can it be true (say they) that God made no new thing, when it is evident that the bow of heaven, or the rainbow, was created, in the time of Noah ? and when also the Lord threatened, after the fall of Adam, that it should come to pass that the earth should bring forth thorns and thistles ? which thorns and thistles the earth wovild not have brought forth, had Adam not sinned. Also concerning the serpent, the same cavillers say, that that reptile ought to creep along almost up- right with its head bending towards the earth ; (for when first created they say it was doubtless upright), as crows and peacocks move now. We readily acknowledge that this is, indeed, a new state of things, wrought also by the Word.

It is moreover true, that if Adam had not fallen by sin, there would not have been that ferocity in wolves, and lions, and bears, which now characterizes them. And most certainly also, there would have been nothing, in the whole creation, noxious or annoying to man. For the text before us plainly declares, that all things which God had created were " veiy good." Whereas now, how numberless are the annoyances by which we are sur- rounded ? To how many and how great distresses, especially of diseases, is the body itself subject? I will say nothing about fleas, flies, gnats, spiders, &c. What a host of dangers threaten us, continually, from the greater ferocious and venomous beasts? And although there had been none of these neiv or altered things, after the creation, our sceptic objectors can surely believe that there was 07ie glorious and marvellous " new thing" (Is. 7. 14), — ' that a virgin should bring forth a Son ! — the Son of God !*

108 CHAPTER II. 2.

— God therefore did not, in the seventh day, cease to work, in every sense : but He works still : not only in preserving His whole creation, but also in altering and new-forming the crea- ture : wherefore, that which we said above, — that God ceased, on the seventh day, from creating new orders of things, is not to be understood as true, absolutely, and in every sense.

But we farther reply to our cavillers, that Moses is here speak- ing of nature, in its yet uncorrupt state. If therefore man had stood unfallen in the innocency in which he was first created, no thorns nor thistles would have existed ; no disease would have been known, nor any violence of beasts feared. This is manifest from the case of Eve : She talks with the serpent without any fear whatever, and as we should do with an innocent little bird, or with a favourite little dog. Nor have I any doubt that the ser- pent was an exquisitely beautiful creature, and gifted with the peculiar excellency of having the highest praise for marvellous cunning ; (though then innocent cunning ;) even as foxes and weazels have that name among us, now.

Wherefore, when Adam was as yet holy and innocent, all the animals of the creation dwelt and associated with him, in the highest pleasure ; being prepared to render him every kind of service, gladly. Nor would there have ever been known, if Adam had thus continued sinless, any fear of a flood ; nor would there, consequently, have ever existed a rainbow in the heavens. But sin caused God to alter many things, and otherwise order them. And at the last day, there will be -an alteration and a renewal, far greater still, of that whole creation, which, as Paul saith, is now, by reason of sin, "subject to vanity." (Rom. 8. 20.)

Finally, therefore, — when Moses here says that " God rested on the seventh day" he is speaking with reference to the condi- tion of the world, as originally created ; — meaning, that while as yet there was no sin, nothing new was created ; that there were no thorns nor thistles ; no serpents nor toads ; and if there were such, they possessed no venomous properties, nor any inclination to harm. Moses speaks in this manner concerning the creation of the world, while yet in its state of perfection, unpolluted and tmmarred by sin. It was then a world innocent and pure ; be- cause man Avas innocent and pure. But now, as man is no

CREATION. 100

longer the same being, so the world is no longer the same world. Upon the fall of man followed corruptionj and upon this corrup- tion the curse of the now corrupt creation. " Cursed is the ground (said God to Adam) for thy sake ! — Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee !" (Gen. 3. 17 & 18.) Thus, on account of one accursed Cain — sin, is the whole earth accursed ! So that now, even when tilled, it does not put forth its original virtue. — After this, upon the sins of the whole world, is poured the flood, over the whole earth, and the human race throughout the whole world is destroyed ; a few righteous persons only be- ing saved ; lest the promise concerning Christ should fail of being fulfilled. And, as it is manifest to us all, that the earth is thus deformed by sin ; so my belief is (as I have before said) that the light of the sun, when first created, and before the sin of Adam, was far more pure and more bright, than it is now.

It is a common saying of divines, in all the theological schools, ^ Clearly distinguish times, and you will harmonize all Scriptures.' Wherefore, we must speak far otherwise concerning the world, under its present wretched corruption ; by which it has been marred through the sin of Adam ; than concerning the world when as yet in its state of original purity and perfection. Let us take an example, still in our sight and knowledge. — Those who have visited the " land of promise," in our day, affirm, that there is nothing in it like unto that commendation of it, which we have in the Holy Scriptures. In confirmation of these state- ments a citizen of Stolberg, after having visited Palestine, and surveyed with all possible diligence of observation, declared, that he considered his own field, in Germany, a far more delightful spot. For on account of the sin and wickedness, and ungodli- ness of men, it is reduced to a positive pickle-tub ; to " a salt land, not inhabited ;" so actually is the very essence of the curse of God upon it, fulfilled; as it is said. Gen. 3. 17. 18 ; Psalm 107. 34. Thus Sodom also, before it was destroyed by firefi'om heaven, was a certain paradise ; a garden of the Lord (Gen. 13. 10). Thus does the curse of God generally follow sin : and that curse so changes things, that from the best, they become the worst. Moses therefore (we repeat) is here speaking con- cerning the state of all creatures, in their original perfection ; as they were, before the sin of man. For if man had not sinned.

110 CHAPTER II. 3.

all beasts and every other creature would have remained in obe- dience to him, until God should have translated him from para- dise; or from earth, to heaven. But after his sin, all things were changed, for the worse.

According to these explanations, therefore, the solution given by us above to all sceptics cavillers and objectors, stands good ; — that God, in six days, finished His work; and that, on the "seventh day," He rested from all His work which He had made : that is, that He ceased from ordaining the certain orders of things : and that then, whatsoever He willed afterwards to work. He did work. But God did not say afterwards, '■ Let there be a new earth ;' ' Let there be a new sea ;' &c. With respect to that wonderful " new thing ;" — that, after the creation was finished, the virgin Mary brought forth the Son of God ; it is indeed manifest that God made our calamity, into which we had fallen by sin, the cause of this marvellous blessing. But God so wrought, even this mighty work, that He showed beforehand that He would, by His Word, do this glorious work also : even as He has also signi- fied, in His Word, that He will, by the same Word, do other marvellous things likewise.

Thus have we replied then to these questions of all cavilling objectors, concerning God's having finished the heavens and the earth, and concerning His having made other things wew, after- wards.— We have now to continue this explanation, so as to learn what this sabbath, or rest of God, is : and also in what manner God sanctified the sabbath, as the sacred text before us declares.

Ver. 3. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it : because that iyi it He had rested /rom all His ivork lohich God created and made.

Christ says, (Mark 2. 27,) that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." But Moses says nothing, here, about man, at all. — He does not even say, positively, that any commandment concerning the Sabbath was given to man. But what Moses here says is, that God blessed the sabbath and sanctified it to Himself It is moreover to be remarked, that God did not this in the case of any creature. God did not sanctify to Himself the heaven, nor the earth, nor any other creature.

CREATION. HI

But God did sanctify to Himself the seventh day. This was especially designed of God, to cause us to understand, that the " seventh day" is to be especially devoted to divine worship. For that which is appropriated to God, and exclusively separated from all profane uses, is sanctified, or holy. Hence the expres- sion ' to sanctify,' ' to choose for divine uses, or for the worship of God,' is often applied, by Moses, to the sacred vessels of the sanctuary.

It follows, therefore, from this passage, that if Adam had stood in his innocence and had not fallen he would yet have held the " seventh day" as sanctified, holy, and sacred : that is, he would have taught his children and posterity, on that day, con- cerning the will and worship of God : he would have praised God, he would have given Him thanks, and w^ould have brought to Him his offerings, &c. &c. On the other days he would have tilled his land, and attended to his cattle. Nay, even after the fall, he held the " seventh day" sacred : that is, he taught, on that day, his own family. This is testified by the offerings made by his two sons, Cain and Abel. The Sabbath therefore has, fi-om the beginning of the world, been set apart for the worship of God. — In this manner nature, in its innocency, had it continued unfallen, would have proclaimed the glory and blessings of God. Men would have talked together, on the Sabbath day, concern- ing the goodness of their Creator, would have prayed to Him, and would have brought to Him their offerings, &c. For all these things are implied and signified in the expression " sanctified." ■ Moreover, in this same sanctijication of the Sabbath, is included and implied the immortality of the human race. Hence the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks most beautifully concerning the rest of God, out of the 95th Psalm ; — " If they shall enter into My rest." For the rest of God is an eternal rest. Adam therefore, had he not fallen, would have lived a certain time in paradise, according to the length of time which God pleased ; and after- waixls he would have been carried away into that rest of God ; which rest God willed not only to intimate unto man, but highly to commend unto him, by this sanctification of the Sab- bath. Thus had Adam not fallen his life w^ould have been, both animal and happy, and spiritual and eternal. But now, we miserable men have lost all this felicity of the animal life, by sin ;

112 CHAPTKR II. 3.

and while we do live, we live in the midst of death. And yet, since this command of God concerning the Sabbath, is left to the church ; God signifies thereby, that even that spiritual life shall be restored to us through Christ. Hence the prophets have all diligently searched into these passages ; in which Moses obscurely indicates also the resurrection of the flesh, and the life immortal.

Further ; by this sanctification of the Sabbath it is also plainly shown, that man was especially created unto the knowledge and worship of God. For the Sabbath was not instituted on account of sheep, or oxen, but for the sake of men ; that the knowledge of God might be exercised and increased by them, on that sacred day. Although therefore man lost the knowledge of God by sin, yet God willed, that His command concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath should remain. He walled that, on the seventh day, both the Word should be preached ; and also those other parts of His worship performed, which He Himself instituted ; to the end that, by these appointed means we should first of all think solemnly on our condition in the world, as men ; — that this nature of ovirs was created, at first, expressly for the know- ledge and the glorifying of God ; and also, that by these same sacred means, we might hold fast in our minds the siu'e hope of a future and eternal life.

Indeed, all things wdiich God wdlled to be done on the Sab- bath, are evident signs of another life, after this present life. For what need would there be of God's speaking to us by His Word, if we were not designed to live another and eternal life after this life ? And if no future life is to be hoped for by us, wdiy do we not live as those other creatures, with whom God talketh not, and who have no knowledge of God ? But as the divine Ma- jesty talketh with man alone ; and he alone acknowledges and apprehends God, it necessarily follows, that there is for us an- other life after this life ; to which it is our great business to attain, by the Word and the knowledge of God. For as to this temporal and present life, it is a mere animal life ; such a life as all the beasts live, which know not God nor the Word.

This then is the meaning of the Sabbath, or the " rest" of God. It is a sanctified day of rest ; on which, God speaks to, or talks with, us ; and we, in return, speak to, and talk with, Him,

CREATION. 113

in prayer, and by faith. The beasts indeed learn to hear and also to understand the voice of man, as dogs, horses, sheep, oxen, &c. : and they are also preserved and fed by man. But the condition of us men is far better and higher : for we both hear God and know His will, and are called to a sure hope of immor- tality. This is testified by those most manifest promises con- cerning the life eternal, which God has plainly revealed to us by His Word, since He gave to the world the obscure significations contained in this divine Book ; such as this rest of God, and this sanctification of the Sabbath. Thouo-li these indications con- cerning the Sabbath are not obscure, but evident and plain. For only suppose for a moment that there were no eternal life after this. Would it not immediately follow, that we should have no need either of God or His Word ? For that which we merely require, or do, in this life, we can have, and do, without the Word of God. Even as beasts feed, live, and grow fat, with- out the Word. For what need is there of the Word to procure meat and drink, thus created for us beforehand ?

As God therefore thus giveth us the Word : as He thus com- mands the preaching and exercising of the Word : as He thus commands the sanctifying of the Sabbath, in the worship of Him- self;— all these things prove, that there remaineth another life after this life ; and that man is created, not to a coi'poreal life only, as the beasts are, but to a life eternal, even as God, who commands and institutes these things, is Himself eternal.

But here another inquiry may arise concerning the fall of Adam itself ; upon which indeed we have already touched above ; — On what day Adam fell ? whether on the seventh, or on some other day ? Although nothing indeed can be brought forth as certain, on this matter, my fi'ee and full opinion is, that his fall was on the seventh day. It was on the sixth day that he was created. And Eve w^as created about the evening or close of the sixth day : while Adam was asleep. On the seventh day, which by the Lord had been sanctified, God talks with Adam, gives him commandment concerning His worship, and forbids him to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For this indeed was the appropriate work or duty of the seventh day ; — the preaching and the hearing of the Word of God. Hence, both from the Scripture and from universal practice, hath re-

H

114 CHArXEll II. 3.

mained the custom of appointing the morning-time for prayer and for sermons ; as we have it also in the Psahiis ; " In the morning will I stand before Thee, and will look up" (Ps. 5. 3.)

On the seventh day therefore, in the morning, Adam appears to have heard the Lord giving commandment concerning his domestic and national duty ; (the private, and public, worship of God ;) together with the prohibition concerning the fruit of the tree. Satan, therefore, unable to endure this most beautiful creation of man, and this holy appointment of the Sabbath ; and envying him so much felicity ; and moreover seeing all things so abundantly provided for him on earth ; and finding him in the possession of the hope of enjoying, after so happy a corporeal life, an eternal life, which he himself had lost ; — Satan seeing all this, about the twelfth hour, perhaps, after God's sermon to Adam and Eve, himself preaches to Eve. Just as he always does to this day. — Wherever the Word of God is, there he attempts also to sow lies and heresies. For it agonizes him that we, by the Word, become as Adam did in paradise, citizens of heaven. So Satan, on this occasion, tempts Eve to sin, and gains the vic- tory over her. And the sacred text before us moreover declares, that when the heat of the day had subsided, the Lord came into the garden, and condemned Adam, with all his posterity, to death. — I am myself quite persuaded, that all these things took place on the very day of the Sabbath : which one day only, and that not for the whole day, Adam lived in paradise, and enjoyed himself in eating its fruits.

By sin therefore did man lose all this felicity. Nor would Adam, had he remained in paradise in all his original innocence, have Kved a life of idleness. He would have taught his children on the Sabbath day : he would have magnified God with his due high-praises by public preaching, and he would have stirred up himself and others to offerings of thanks, by a contemplation of God's gi'eat and glorious works. On all other days he would have worked, by tilling his ground and attending to his beasts, &c. But in manner, and from motives now wholly unknown to man. For all our labour is annoyance : but all Adam's labour was the highest pleasure ; a pleasure far exceeding all the ease that now is known. Hence as all the other calamities of life remind us of sin and the wrath of God ; so our labour and all

CREATION. 115

our difficulty in procuring food, ought to remind us of sin also, and to drive us vinto repentance.

Moses now proceeds to describe man more particularly ; re- peating first of all what he had said concerning his creation, in the first chapter. And though the recapitulations may seem superfluous, yet as the divine historian wishes to maintain a con- tinuation of his history, with all due convenience and order, the repetition is by no means useless.

Vers. 4 and 5. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they tcere created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it loas in the earth, and every herb of the field before it gretv.

" In the day," is here to be taken for an indefinite time, as if Moses had said. At that time, the state of all things was most beautiful : but now, I must describe a condition of things far different. — We need not here inquire however, after a supersti- tious manner, why JSIoses chose to use these rustic forms of ex- pression, concerning " the plants of the field," and " the herbs of the field." For his object now is to describe the creation of man, in its more circumstantial particulars.

Vers. 5 and 6. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there ivas not a man to till the ground. But there icentup) a mistf'om the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

There was not as yet any rain (Moses says) to water the earth : but a certain mist went up, and watered the whole face of the earth, to cause it to bring forth the more abundantly, afterwards. — Now these things belong properly to the third day.

Ver. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his face the breath of life ; and man became a living soul.

Moses here returns to the work of the sixth day, and shows from whence this cultivator of the eartli came : namely, that

IIG CHAPTER II. 7.

God formed him out of the ground ; as the potter forms, in his hand, the pot, out of clay. Hence it is that Moses does not re- present God as saying, in this case, as in the case of all the other creatures, ' Let the earth bring forth man ;' but, " Let Us make man." He describes God as thus speaking, in this case, in order that he might set forth the excellency of the human race ; and that he might make manifest that peculiar counsel to which God had recourse, in creating or making man. Although, after his creation, man grew and multiplied as all the other animals, and beasts of the earth multiply. For the seed of all animals coagulates in the womb, and is formed in the same manner in them all. In this case of generation, there is no difference be- tween the foetus formed in the cow, and that formed in the woman. But with reference to their first creation, Moses testi- fies, that there was the greatest possible difference. For he shows, in this divine Record, that the human nature was created by a peculiarity of divine counsel and wisdom, and formed by the very finger of God.

This difference which God made in the original creation of man and of cattle, likewise manifests forth the immortality of the soul ; of which we spoke, just above. And although all the other works of God are full of wonder and admu'ation, and truly magnificent, yet that man is the most excellent and glorious creature of all, is evident from the fact, that God, in creating him, had recourse to deep counsel, and to a mode entirely differ- ent from that which He adopted in creating all the other crea- tures. For God does not leave it to the earth, to form or bring forth man, as it brought forth beasts and trees. But God forms man Himself; "in the image" of Himself, as a participator of the divine nature, and as one designed to enjoy the rest of God. Adam therefore, before he is formed of the Lord, is a mere lifeless lump of earth, lying on the ground. God takes that lump of earth into His hand, and forms out of it a most beauti- ful creature ; a partaker of immortality !

Now if Aristotle were to hear these things, he would burst out into a loud laugh, and would say, that the whole matter was fable ; a very pleasant one indeed, but a very absurd one ; — that man, who was a lump of earth, as to his original, is so formed by divine wisdom, as to be capable of immortality. For those of

CREATION. (f7

the ancient philosophers, as Socrates and others, who as- serted the immortality of the soul, were laughed at, and all but cast out, by all the rest. But is it not the very extremity of folly for reason to take this great offence, when it beholds the generation of man, to this very day, full of the greatest wonder ! For who would not judge it an absurdity to suppose, that man who is designed to live eternally, should be born from one single drop, as it were, of seed from the loins of the father ? There is even a greater apparent absurdity in this, than in Moses saying, that man was formed from a lump of earth by the finger of God. But by all this folly, reason plainly shows, that she understands nothing of God ! — who, by the efficacy of a single thought, thus makes, out of a lumj) of earth, not only the seed of man, but man himself; and makes also (as Moses afterwards says) the woman, out of a single rib of the man. — This then is the origin of man !

Man therefore, having been thus created, male and female ; from their blood, under the divine blessing is generated the whole human race. And although this generation is common to man and beasts, that similarity by no means detracts from the glory of our original formation ; — that we are vessels of God, fashioned by His own hand ; that He is our potter, and we His clay ; as Isaiah speaks in his 64th chapter. Nor does this solemn state of things appertain to our original only, but pervades our whole life : and even unto death, and in the tomb, we are still the clay of this Potter !

From this same creation of man also we may learn, what the real power o^ free-xoill is, of which our adversaries boast so much. — We have indeed, in a certain sense, a free-will, in those things which are put under us. For we are by the command of God appointed lords of the fishes of the sea, of the fowls of heaven, and of the beasts of the field. These we kill when we please. We enjoy the food, and other blessings, which these supply. But in the things which pertain unto God, and which are above us, and not put under us, man has no free-will at all. But he is, in reality, as clay in the hand of the potter. He is placed under the mere power of God ; passively, and not actively. In this, oiu' real po^itioji, we choose nothing ; we do nothing. On the contrary, we are chosen, we are prepared ; we are regenerated ;

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— we receive only ; as the same prophet Isaiah saith, " Thou art our potter : we are thy clay." (Is. 64. 8.)

But here a lawful and holy inquiry of a new description may be made. — As Moses speaks of the creation of man here in a new kind of phraseology : " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground ; " and as he did not use the same form of expression, above, when the other living creatures were created ; so he here mentions some further peculiarity concerning man, which is not said concerning any of the other animate creatures. " And God breathed into his face the breath of life." This Moses does not say in reference to any of the beasts : though all beasts, as well as man, have the breath of life in their nostrils. — We may here therefore sacredly inquire, first, lohy it is that Moses is led thus to speak, in the present instance. And secondly, why it is recorded, in this place, concerning man only, that God " breathed into his face the breatli of life, and man became a living soul," when all animals, throughout the whole Scripture, are called ' living creatures.' The divine expressions recorded by Moses above, are, ' Let the earth bring forth every living creature after his kind.' But here the phraseology is altogether chano;ed — " And man became a living; soul."

These were the things that, doubtless, moved the patriarchs, holy fathers, and prophets of old, to examine diligently pas- sages of this description, in order to discover what these singular forms of speech might signify, being assured, that the sacred historian intended by them something peculiar and great, and especially worthy of knowledge. For if you look at the mere animal life of which Moses is here speaking, there is no difference between the man and the ass. For the animal life, in both, stands in need of meat and drink. It needs sleep and rest. The bodies of both grow and are fattened alike, by meat and drink. And from the want of meat and drink, both waste and perish alike. In both, the stomach receives the food and transmits it, when digested, to the belly, which generates the blood, by Avhich all the members are refi'fshed and restored. When we consider these things in themselves, I say, there is no difference betw^een the man and the beast. But Moses in this place so exalts the life of man, that he saith of him alone of all animals, that he " became a living soul ;" not a living creature, or a living thing.

CREATION. Ill)

like all the beasts of the earth, but in a more exalted sense " a living soul :" and that, because he was created "in the image of God :" which image, there can he no doubt whatever, shone with a peculiar brightness in the countenances of Adam and Eve, while yet in their state of innocence. Hence it is, that even after the sin and fall, the heathen poets, &c., concluded, from the position of his body, from his upright carriage, and ft*om the elevation of his eyes to heaven, that man was a creature far more excellent than any other creatiu'e in existence.

It is to this surpassing excellency that St Paul has respect, when he recites the passage before us in the 15th chapter of his Epistle to the Corinthians. It is there written, " The first man Adam was made a living soul ; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (ver. 45). By a living soul, in this passage, the apostle means the animal life, which consists in eating, drink- ing, growing, sleeping, generating, &c. ; all which things are found also in brutes. But by an antithesis he says, that " the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." This is a life which needeth not, and knoweth not, the conditions of the animal life. Paul moreover here teaches us, that Adam, even if he had not sinned, would yet have lived a corporeal life ; a life which would have needed meat, drink, and rest ; a life which would have grown, increased, and generated, &c., until God should have translated him to that spiritual life ; in which he would have lived without natural animality (if 1 may so express it) ; namely a life from within (so again to express it), derived from God alone ; and not a life from without, as before, sustained by herbs and fruits. And yet he would have been a man with body and bones, &c. ; and not a pure spirit, as angels are.

My reply therefore to the new inquiry, above admitted, is this. — God, by the mouth of ]\Ioses speaking in the passage before us, designed to set forth the ho})e of that future and eter- rial life which Adam, if he had continued in his innocency, would have enjoyed, after this present animal life. As if Moses had said, ]\Ian became a living soul ; not merely in the sense of that life which beasts live, but in the sense of that life which God afterwards designed Adam to live, even without any animal life at all. And this same hope of iunnortalit}^, or an immortal life, we now have, through Christ. Although, on ac-

120 CHAPTER II. 7.

count of sin, xoe are subject to death and all kinds of calamity. But Adam's natural life, when he became a living soul, was de- signed to be far exalted above that which we now live, since the fall. He would have lived on earth sweetly, happily, and with the highest of pleasm-e : and then would have been translated, at the time determined in the mind of God, out of the animal life, into the spiritual and eternal life : and that translation would have been attended with no pain or trouble whatsoever. Where- as we are not translated out of this animal Ufe, into the life spiritual and eternal, but by death ; and that, after an infinity of evils, perils, and crosses.

It was after this manner that we ought, like the holy prophets, diligently to look into all these expressions of Moses, and to inquire why it is that, with such depth of purpose and design, he speaks concerning man, in terms so different fi*om those which he used, when speaking of all the other living creatures. — The design evidently was, that our faith and hope of immortality might be confirmed ; — and that we might be assured, that al- though the life of man, as to his animal life, is like that of all other living creatures, even of brutes ; yet that he possesses a hope of immortality unpossessed by, and wholly unknown to, any other living creature ; that he possesses and bears the image and simi- litude of God, with no particle of which any other animal is dignified or favoured.

And thus, by a most beautiful allegory, or rather by a most excellent sublimity of figure, Moses here intimates, though ob- scurely, that God would become incarnate. For with reference to man's differing nothing fi'om a sheep, as to his animal life, though created in the image and after the similitude of God ; that assertion is in fact, a kind of statement by contraries, as they term it in the schools ; or, according to another term of theirs, a7i addition byojyposition. And yet as man was created in the image of the invisible God ; by this sublime fact is signified, in obscure figure, (as we shall hereafter hear fi'om Moses,) that God would reveal Himself, in this world, in the ^Man, Christ. These seeds as it were of the most gi'eat and marvellous things, did the pro- phets diligently search out, and gather, from the divine historian, Moses.

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Ver. 8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden : and there He put the man lohoni He had formed.

Here rises up before us a whole sea of questions concerning paradise. In the first place, the word itself, whether it be Hebrew, or Chaldean, or Persian, (for I do not think it is Greek, though Suidas endeavours to discover a Greek origin,) is ren- dered, by the Latins, hortus, ' a garden.' This garden, Moses says, was planted Be Eden, in Eden. For this name of the place is not appellative or descriptive, as our translation has it, which renders it, 'paradise of pleasure.' Eden does, indeed, signify pleasure or delight : and from this name of the garden is doubtless formed the Greek word rjdovrj : but the Preposition be- ing here added to it, plainly proves, that Eden is, in this place, to be taken for the proper name of a place : which is further proved by the particular description of the place : for the garden is said to have been to the Eastward of it. Our translation ren- ders it a principio, ' from the beginning :' which is also a bad version of the expression. For the original term is Mikedem : which does not properly signify ' from the beginning,' but, ' in front ;' that is (according to our mode of expression, and mean- ing,) ' towards the East.' For the original word is an Adverb of 2^l(fce, not of time.

Hence there arises here a further matter of dispute ; — as to where paradise is. Commentators puzzle and rack themselves, on this point, in an extraordinary manner. Some will have its situation to be under the equinoctial, between the two tropics. Others say it must have been a more temperate atmosphere, to cause a place to be so richly and abundantly productive. But why should I proceed "? Opinions upon the subject are beyond number. My short and simple reply to them all is, that every question upon a place, or thing, which no longer exists, is idle and useless. For Moses is here describing things which occurred before the Flood, and even before sin was in the world. Where- as, we have to deal with things as they were, and are, since the sin of Adam, and since the Deluge.

My belief is therefore that this spot of earth was called Eden, either by Adam, or in the time of Adam, on account of that

122 CHAPTEK II. 8-

astonishing productiveness, and that dehghtful pleasurableness, which Adam experienced in it : and that the name of a place, so dehghtful, remained with posterity, long after the place itself was lost and gone. Just as the names of Rome, Athens, and Car- thage, exist among us at this day, though scarcely any traces of those mighty states and kingdoms can now be discovered. For time, and the curse which sins merit, consume all things. When therefore the world, with all the men and beasts upon it, was destroyed by the Flood, this noble and beautiful garden perished also, and all traces of it were washed away from the face of the earth. — In vain therefore do Origen and others enter upon their absurd disputations.

The text however, moreover says, that this garden was guarded by an angel, that no one might ever afterward enter it. Even if this garden, therefore, had not perished by the curse which followed, which dovibtless it did ; yet man's entrance into it is thus absolutely, and for ever, prevented ; as indicated by the guardian angel's flaming sword ; — Its place can nowhere, and by no one, be found. This latter answer, concerning the curse, might be given to all questioners and disputers : though the former argument, concerning the inevitable consequences of the Deluge, I deem less imaginative and more conclusive.

But what shall we say to that place of the New" Testament, " To-day shalt thou be with ]\Ie in paradise" (Luke 23. 43) ? and to that passage also, " He Avas taken up into paradise" (2 Cor. 12. 4) ? I have no hesitation whatever in affirming, that Christ did not go with the thief into any corporeal place. For that point is made quite plain from the case of Paul ; who says, ' that he knew not whether he was in the body, or out of the body' (vers. 2 & 3). Wherefore my opinion is, that in each case, by paradise, is meant that condition or state in which Adam w^as, when in paradise ; — full of peace and rest and safety, and full of all those gifts of blessedness, which are enjoyed, where there is no sin and no death. As if Christ had said, To-day shalt thovi be with ISIe in paradise, free from sin, and safe from death. Just as Adam, in paradise, was free fr'om sin, and from all death, and from all curse. So that I believe paradise to be a paradise state. Just as the Scripture, when speaking of the bosom of Abraham, does not mean the verv fold of the role

CREATION. . 123

which covered the bosom of Abraham, but, descriptively, that Hfe, or state of Hfe, in whicli the souls of the departed enjoy the heavenly life, and the peace and rest which ' remain for the people of God'^Heb. 4. 9).

Wherefore my testimony concerning the text before us is, that Moses is here giving us an historical description ; and informing us, that there was a certain place toward the East, in which there was a most beautiful and fruitful garden. For (as I have be- fore said) the Hebrew expression Mikedem properly signifies a jylace, not a time, as our version improperly renders it. Hence it is usual, with the Hebrews, to call the East wind, Kadim ; a dry cold wind, which parches up the fields. In that region of the world therefore was paradise ; or a garden, in which there were no teil-trees, nor oaks, nor scarlet-oaks, nor any other trees that were ban'en, but in which there were the richest and noblest fruits of every kind, and trees of the noblest description ; such as we now deem those to be which bear cinnamon, and the richest spices. And although all the rest of the earth was cultivated : (for there were as yet no thistles nor thorns,) yet this place had its far higher cultivation. So that Eden was a delightful garden, exceeding, in cultivation and fecundity, the whole earth besides. Though all the rest of the earth, if compared with its present miserable condition, was itself a paradise.

It was in this garden, which He Himself had planted with such peculiar care, that the Lord placed man. All these things, I say, are historical. It is idle for us therefore to inquire, at the present day, where, or ichat, that garden was. The rivers, of which Moses afterwards speaks, prove, that the region of its situ- ation comprehended Syria, Mesopotamia, Damascus, and Egypt : and it is in the midst of these, as it were, that Jerusalem is situ- ated. And as this garden was destined for Adam, witli his pos- terity, it is in vain for us to imagine it to have been a confined garden of a few miles extent. It was doubtless the greater and better part of the earth. And my judgment is, that this garden continued until the Deluge : and that, before the Flood, it was protected by God Himself, according to the description of JSIoses, by means of a guard of angels. So that I believe it to have been a place well known to the posterity of Adam, though inaccessible to them. And my o])inion is, that it continued thus known until

124 CHAPTER II. 8.

the Flood, when it came, utterly destroyed it, and left no traces of it ^ remaining. Such is my mind on this subject. And such is my reply to all questions which over curious men would move concerning a place, which, after the sin and the Deluge, had no longer any existence, or trace of former existence.

Origen however is dissatisfied with any view of the extent of the garden of Eden, corresponding to that which I have taken. His opinion is, that the distance of the rivers ought by no means to determine the dimensions of the garden. But he is thinking, all the time, about such gardens as we now generally cultivate. Hence he has recourse, in his usual way, to an allegory. He makes paradise to represent heaven ; the trees, angels ; and the streams of the rivers, wisdom. But these triflings are unworthy a divine. They may perhaps not misbecome an imaginative poet : but they are out of place in a theologian. Origen bears not in mind, that Moses is here writing a history ; and that too, a record of things, now long ago passed away.

After this same fashion, do our adversaries absurdly dispute at the present day : holding, that the image and similitude of God still remain, even in a wicked man. They would, in my judg- ment, speak much nearer the truth, if they were to say that the imao-e of God, in man, has perished and disappeared ; just as the original world and paradise have done. Man, in the beginning, was righteous : the world, in the beginning, was most beautiful. Eden was, in truth, a garden of delight and of pleasure. But all these things were deformed by sin, and remain deformed, still. All creatures, yea even the sun and the moon, have as it were put on sackcloth. They w^ere all originally " good," but by sin and the curse they became defiled and noxious. At length came the greater curse of the Flood ; which destroyed paradise and the whole human race ; and swept them fi'om the face of the earth. For if, at this day, rivers, bursting their banks, inflict, by their floods, such mighty calamities on men, beasts, and fields ; what must we suppose to have been the awfulness and horror of the calamities brought upon the earth by the universal Deluge ! Wlienever therefore we would speak of paradise, since the Flood, let us speak of that now historical paradise ; which was once, but now, has no longer existence, in any one remaining trace. Let us speak of it, just as we are compelled to speak of the original

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innocencj of man. — In so doing, our utmost effort can effect no more than to reflect, with a sigh, that it is lost ; and that we never can repair or regain it, in this life.

But further ; As Moses had before chstinguished man, in vari- ous wajs, from the brutes, (which nevertheless have the same origin as we have, brutes being formed, like us, fi-om the earth ;) so the divine historian in this place distinguishes man from every other creature bj giving a description of that peculiarly delight- ful garden, and that superb dwelling-place, which God had planted with a high care and culture, and prepared with a mag- nificent splendour, far beyond any thing of the kind which He had bestowed on any other spot iipon the then face of the earth.

For the principal object of Moses, in this his sacred Record of the creation of man, was, to cause it to be clearly understood, that man was by far the noblest and most excellent creature, which God had made. The brute animals had the earth ; on the grass of which they might feed. But for man, God Himself prepared a more noble dwelling-place : in the cultivation and adorning of which he might labour with the extremest pleasure : and in which he might find his food : separated from the beasts indeed, but holding, nevertheless, all "of them, throughout the whole earth, mider his dominion.

Origen therefore, and Jerome also, with all the other alle- gorists, are alike involved in the greatest folly ; who, because they can no longer find a paradise, on the face of the earth, think that some other sense than the natural one, is to be given, in its interpretation. But that there was a paradise, and that there is a paradise, are two very different matters of consideration. Moses, as is the general nature of all such narrations, merely records that there icas a paradise. The case is the same, in re- ference to Adam's dominion over all the beasts. He could call the lion, and command and manage him, according to his will and pleasure : but it is not so now. All these glorious things are no more. They are simply, and merely, though sacredly, recorded by Moses as having been, in the beginning.

Another question yet, however, is here agitated ; — as to the spot of the earth on which God created man. There are some who maintain, with gi'eat warmth, that he was created in, or near, Damascus ; because they find it recoi'ded that the soil of

126 CHAPTER II. '.I.

Damascus is red, and fertile. But I pass by all idle and vain inquiries of this description. It is enough for us to know, that man was formed out of the earth, on the sixth day, after all the other animals had been created ; and that he was placed, by God Himself, in the garden of Eden. But as to the very spot on which he was created, what necessity is there for our knowing that? It is certain that he w^as created out of paradise. For the text before us declares, that he was removed to, or placed in, paradise, before Eve was created : who, as Moses here shows, was created in paradise. — Now let us proceed to that which next follows,

Ver. 9. And out of tlie ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is j^leasant to the sight and good for food.

The contents of this verse properly belong to the description of paradise. For although the whole earth had been so created as naturally to bring forth trees and herbs, with their fruits and seeds, yet this garden of Eden had its peculiar cultivation. A similitude illustrative of the case before us, may be derived ft'om things as they now are among us. Woods and fields bring forth their trees. But when we select a place, as a garden, for special cultivation, the fruits of the garden are always more excellent than those of the field. So paradise, having been created for, and devoted to, peculiar cultivation, beyond that which was be- stowed on any other part of the earth, was adorned with trees delightful to the sight, and whose fruits were sweet to the taste, and for use. When therefore God said, in the first chapter, " Behold I have given you every herb and every tree for meat :" by that meat was meant necessary food. But paradise supplied food for pleasure and delight, — fruits, better, sweeter, and more delicious, than those which the trees on any other part of the earth produced ; on which latter the beasts also fed.

Ver. 9. The tree of life also in the midst of the gai'den ; and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Moses so describes paradise, that he makes God Himself as it were the cultivator of it ; as a cultivator, who, after he has

CREATION. 127

planted a garden with the greatest care, according to his pleasure, selects this and that tree, from the rest, which he tills and loves, as particular favourites. One of such trees as these, was " the ti'ee of life:" a tree created, to the end that man, by feeding thereupon, might be preserved with a sound body, free from diseases, and not subject to fatigue.

Here again, therefore, we find the man, Avhom God first created, highly distinguished from the brutes ; not only by the delightful spot in which God placed him, but also by the exalted pri\ilege of a longer life ; a life always continuing in the same state. Whereas the bodies of all other living creatures grow, in youth, and increase in strength, but in old age decay and perish. But the original condition of man was intended to be far differ- ent. Had he continued in his innocence, he would have enjoyed his meat and his drink ; a change of Ids meat and drink, and a conversion of them into blood, would have taken place, in his body, but that commutation would not have been impure and foul, as it is now. This tree of life, moreover, would have pre- served him in perpetual youth ; nor w^ould he have experienced any of the afflictions or inconveniences of old age. His brow would have contracted no w^rinkles ; nor would his foot, nor his hand, nor any other part of his body, have known weakness or languor. By the blessing of the fruit of this tree, man's powers would have remained perfect, for generation, and for labour of every kind : until, at length, he should have been translated from this cor- poreal, to his spiritual, life. The other trees w^ould have supplied him with food, the most excellent, and the most delicious : but this " tree of life " would have been as it were a general medicine : which would have preserved his natural life and powers, in per- petual and complete vigour.

Some may here interpose a question, and say, How could this corporeal food, or natural fruit, effect such a conservation of the body, as to pi'event it from being weakened or debilitated, by time 1 The reply is easy and divine. — " He spake, and it was done !" (Ps. 33. 9.) For if God can, of a stone, make bread ; why should He not be able to preserve the natm-al powers of man, by a fruit. Even since the sin of the fall, Ave see what powerful properties the smallest herbs and seeds possess.

Look we, for a moment, at our own bodies. — Whence comes

128 CHAPTER II. 9.

that peculiar property of tlieir nature, that bread, eaten by them, is, by their natural heat, digested and converted into blood, by the circulation of which the whole body is strengthened and con- firmed ? Now bring together all the fires and all the furnaces, of the universe, — you cannot produce by them all this one single effect, — the conversion of bread into blood. But this mighty effect is produced by that small degree of heat, which our natural bodies contain. There is no room for wonder therefore that this tree should have become, by the will of the Lord, its Planter and Maker, " The tree of life !"

Adam possessed a natural and moveable body ; a body which generated, ate, and laboured. These exertions are considered to produce decay ; or at least some kind of change ; by which, at length, man is naturally worn out and destroyed. But by this appointment of nature, — " the tree of life," God pro\dded a remedy : by the use of which, man might have a long and sound life, without any diminution of his powers, and in perpetual youth.

Thus all these things are historical facts. This is a point which I am repeatedly admonishing every hearer and reader to bear in mind, lest he should be stumbled by the authority of some of the fathers : who, leaving pure and positive history, turn aside to hunt after allegories. It is on this ground that I am so partial to Lyra, and so willingly rank him with the best of commentators. He always carefully abides by, and follows, history. And although he sometimes permits himself to be swayed by the authority of the fathers, yet he never suffers himself to be turned aside, by their authority, from the plain and real sense of any portion of the Scripture, to allegories.

But much more wonderful is that which Moses here speaks con- cerning " the tree of knowledge of good and evil." For here we have to inquire, what this tree was ; why it was so called ; and what would have been the consequence, or result, if there had not been this tree, in pai'adise. Augustine and those who follow him, rightly consider the matter, when they observe, that the tree was so called from that which was shortly to take place, and to be ordained, concerning it ; and from the solemn consequences which followed. For Adam had been so created, and the garden of Eden so planted and constituted, that if any inconvenience

CREATION.. 129

had occurred to his natural body and hfe, he had a protection against it, and remedy for it, in " the tree of hfe ;" which could preserve his powers and the perfection of his health, at all times. Wherefore if Adam had thus remained in his innocency, wholly swallowed up in the goodness of his Creator, and in the bounti- ful provision which that goodness had made for him, on every side, and in every way, he might have acknowledged God his Creator, throughout that life of innocence, and might have go- verned all the beasts, according to his will, without the least afflictive toil or trouble, and with the highest of all pleasure. For all things had been so created, as to afford man the extreme of pleasure and delight, withovit the least degree of evil or harm.

After Adam therefore had been so created, and so surrounded wth every blessing, that he was intoxicated as it were with joy in God, and with delight in all the other creatures around him ; — God then creates a new tree ; a tree of knowledge, and of dis- tinction between good and evil ; that Adam, by means of that tree, might have a certain sign of worship and reverence of God. For after all things had been delivered into the hand of Adam, that he might enjoy them, according to his will or according to his pleasure, God next requires of him, that, by means of this " tree of the knowledge of good and evil" he should show his reverence and obedience towards God, as his Creator ; and that he should hold fast, as a sign of this exercise of his obedient worship of God, — that he would not taste any of the fruit of this tree ; thus refraining, as in obedience to God's iwohihition.

All the things therefore which Moses has hitherto said, have been things natural, or domestic, or political, or judicial, or medi- cal. This present particular, however, is theological. For here, the Word of God concerning this " tree of the knowledge of good and evil," is set before Adam ; in order that, by means of this tree, he might have a certain outioard sign of the worship of God, and of obedience to God, to be performed by him, in his nature, as man, by the duty and service of an external loork. Even as the Sabbath, of which we have spoken above, pertains, more espe- cially, to the performance of the internal and spiritual worship of God ; such as faith, love, calling upon God in prayer, &c.

But alas ! alas ! the rightful institution of this external wor- ship and obedience towards God has been attended with the most

I

130 CHAPTER ir. 9.

disgraceful results. For we find, in the present day, that the Word of God, than which nothing is more holy, nothing more blessed, is an offence unto the wicked. Baptism also was insti- tuted of Christ, as the washing of regeneration. But has not this divine institution become a great scandal and excitement of offence, by means of various sects ? Has not the whole doctrine of Baptism been distressingly corrupted ? And yet, what was more necessary to us, than this very institution of baptism ? It was most necessary ; in order that the animal man should have some corresponding animal, or outward worship ; that is, some outward sign of the worship and reverence of God ; by which he might exercise an obedience towards God, even in his body.

The present text therefore truly belongs to the church and to theology (or divinity). — After God had given to man a polity, or national government ; and also an economy, or the principles of domestic government ; and had constituted him King over all creatures, and had moreover appointed for him as a protective remedy the tree of life, for the conservation of his corporeal or natural life ; — God now erects for him a temple as it were ; that he might worship his Creator, and give thanks unto that God who had bestowed upon him all these rich and bountifnl bless- ings. So at this day we have churches and an altar in them, for the celebration of the holy communion or supper of our Lord : we have pulpits also, or elevated chairs, for teaching the people. And all these things are thus prepared, not on account of neces- sity only, but for the sake of solemnity also. But this tree of the knowledge of good and evil was itself to Adam his church, his altar, his pulpit ; near or under which, as the place appointed of God, he might perform his acts of obedience to God, might acknowledge the Word and the will of God, might offer his thanks to God, and in which spot he might also call upon God in prayer against temptations.

Reason indeed vents its rage that this tree was ever created at all : because by means of it we have sinned, and fallen under the wrath of God, and into death. But why does not reason, on the same ground, betray its rage that the Law was ever revealed by God at all ; that the Gospel was ever revealed, afterwards, by the Son of God ? For have not offences of errors and heresies, infinite, arisen on the account both of the Law and of the Gospel ?

CREATION. I'M

Let us therefore from this place learn that it was necessary for man, being so created and constituted, as to have all the rest of the living creatures in his hand, and under his dominion, that he should not only privately, but publicly also, acknowledge his Creator, should give thanks unto Him, should offer Him some public and external worship, and have a certain form and work of obedience. If therefore Adam had not fallen, this tree would have been to him a certain common temple or church, a certain palace to which all might have flown and flocked together. Thus it was afterwards, when nature was in her fallen and corrupt state : — the tabernacle in the wilderness, and the temple at Jeru- salem, were certain places appointed for divine worship. As therefore this " tree," eventually proved to be the cause of so awful a fall, it was rightly here called by Moses " the tree of knowledge of good and evil," on account of the horrible and miserable event which followed.

A question may here be instituted, as to whether this tree of life was one only, or whether there were more ; and whether the Scripture which here speaks in the singular number, should be considered as speaking in the plural ; just as we, speaking collec- tively, use the expression ' the pear,' ' the apple ;' whereby we mean, pears and apples, generally ; either of those fruits, as kinds ; not individual s])ecies or specimens of them. To me, it appears by no means absurd or out of the way, that w^e should understand "the tree of life," as a certain space in the middle of PARADISE,^ or a certain grove, in which many ' trees of life' of the same genus or kind grew, and were called by the same name, — ' trees of life.' Hence it is probable that a certain grove was called collectively " the tree of life :" which was a kind of sacred retreat, in which grew a number of trees of the same kind ; namely " trees of knowledge of good and evil :" concerning the whole of which trees, God jironounced His prohibition, that Adam should not eat of them ; of any of which if he did eat, he should surely die the death. — Not that there was anything in the nature of ^this tree, or of any one of these trees, to cause death ; but

' The reader is here particularly referred to the Prefatory Notices, imme- diately appended to Translator's Preface : where are inserted a portion of a corrected translation of the paragraph on Paradise, at preceding page, with a note on the same ; both erroncous'y there omitted.

132 CHAPTER ir. 9.

such was the Word of God pronounced concerning it, or them ; which Word of God was ever attended with its efficacy to all creatures : and the efficacy of which Word still preserves all creatures ; that they degenerate not, nor alter, nor fail of their original form and intent ; that all creatures may be pre- served, in their original form and nature, by an infinite propa- gation !

Plence it was, that, by the Word, the rock in the desert gave forth its waters in all their abundance, and that, by the same Word, the brazen serpent healed all those that looked unto it. By this same efficacy also of the Word of God's prohibition, this one tree, or this certain species of many trees, in the middle of paradise killed Adam by his disobedience to that Word of God ; not that the tree itself was deadly, in its own nature, but because it was appointed by the Word of God to be so, in its effects. In the same way also are we to understand the nature of the tree of life, of which God commanded Adam to eat as often as he needed to restore his powers. It was by the Word of God that the tree of life produced that restoration.

To reason indeed it seems absurd, that one apple could have such deadly properties, or produce such deadly effects, as to de- stroy the whole human race throughout its almost infinite suc- cession ; and that too with a death eternal. But this was not the nature or the effect of the apple in itself. Adam did indeed force his teeth into the apple, but his teeth struck, in reality, upon the sting in the apple, which sting was the prohibition of God, which made his bite to be disobedience to God. This was the real cause of the mighty evil. Adam thus sinned against God, disregarded His commandment, and obeyed Satan. The tree of knowledge of good and evil was in itself " good :" the tree which bore the most noble fruits. But as the prohibition of God was attached to it, and man disregarded that prohibition, the tree became the deadliest of all poisons.

Just in the same manner as God has said, " Thou shalt not steal ;" — the man who touches the property of another as his own, sins against God. So, in ^gypt, when the Jews were com- manded of God to ask silver from their neighbours, and to carry it away with them ; that, was no sin ; they were justified by the command of God ; to whom obedience is due, whatsoever be the

CREATION. 133

issue or result. So also the suitor, when he loves a virgin, and has a strong desire of nature to possess her as his wife, and marries her, committeth no adultery ; though the Law of God forbids coveting and concupiscence. And the great reason is this ; — matrimony is a divine institution ; and is a command of God to them, who cannot live chastely, without marriage. Just the same also is the nature of these two trees. — The tree of life gives life, by virtue of the Word which promises and ordains that life. '' The tree of knowledge of good and evil '" produces death, by the effect of the Word which prohibits the eating of it, on the penalty of death, in case of disobedience.

This latter tree however is called " the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (Augustine saith), because after Adam had sinned by eating of it, he not only saw and experienced what good he had lost ; but also, into what evil and misery he had been hurled, by his disobedience. The tree therefore was in itself "good;" even as the divine commandment, which was attached to it, was "good;" that it should be to Adam a tree of divine worship, by which he should prove his obedience to God, even by an external act of service to Him. But by reason of the sin which followed, the same tree became the tree of curse ! — Moses now, by a certain digression, proceeds to give a more ex- tensive description of the original "garden !"

Ver. 10. And a river loent out of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence it parted into four heads.

Here again our version is in error, when it makes the proper name, Edeu, an appellative. And here, Origen and his followers are to be condemned, who have recourse, in their usual way, to allegories. For the things here recorded by JNIoses, as a history, are facts. There actually was a great river in Eden, by which the whole garden was watered. That river, rising from the east of the garden, divided itself into four streams, that no part of the garden might remain unwatered. For (as I have before ob- served) we are here to have in our mind a large space, or portion, of the earth : because this garden was so constituted, that it might be (as to its original design) an appropriate and perpe- tual habitation for Adam and his whole posterity ; which was equally designed to be most extensive.

134 CHAPTER II. 11, 12.

Ver. 11 and 12. The name of one is Pison : that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havllah, lohere there is gold. And the gold of that land is good : ther^e is bdellium and the oyiyx stone.

This is one of the greatest difficulties found in the writings of Moses : and one which has given rise to the greatest offence, in unholy minds. For the real state of the facts recorded, as they are noio before our eyes, cannot be denied. The description here given by the sacred historian applies, properly, to India : which he here calls " Havilah :" through which the river Pison, or the Ganges, flows. The other three rivers Gihon, Hiddekel, and Phrath ; that is, the Nile, the Tigiis, and the Euphrates, are also well known ; and it is equally well known, that the Nile and the last two rivers have their sources very widely distant from each other. The great question therefore that naturally arises is, since the whole world well knows how far distant these rivers are fi'om each other, — how can the account of Moses be re- conciled with the facts, when he says that all these rivers issued from one fountain ; that is, that they flowed, from one source, in the garden of Eden, towards the East ? For with respect to the Nile, although its source is unknown, yet the arguments and proofs are plain ; that it flows from a region in the South. Whereas it is quite certain, that the Ganges, and the Tigris, and the Euphrates, flow from the North ; sources, in the entirely opposite direction.

The account of Moses therefore militates asainst sense and fact, as they noio are. This state of things has given occasion to many to form conjectures, that Eden was the whole world. And though such conjectures are certainly false, yet they would not of themselves, even if true, reconcile the statements of Moses, nor make all plain, when he here says, that the source of all these rivers was one and the same. And although it is very probable, that if Adam had remained in his innocence, and his posterity had gi'eatly multiplied, in that state of innocency, God would have enlarged this garden correspondently ; yet even that consi- deration would not justify the supposition, that Eden was the whole earth, originally : for the sacred text most plainly separates Eden from all the rest of the earth. What shall we say, therefore, concerning this passage of Moses, contrary as it is to sense and ex-

CREATION. 135

perience, as things now are, and, on that account, so liable to cause offence being taken ? especially, since Origen and others have built upon it so many marvellous and absurd fables ? Some commenta- tors pretend that there is no difficulty at all, nor any liability to offence being taken : and therefore they walk dryshod, as it were, over this deep sea. Such want of candour however is also highly unbecoming a commentator.

My opinion on the matter, (which indeed I have already given above,) is, that paradise, which was very soon closed against man, on account of sin, and afterwards totally destroyed and swept from the earth by the Flood, left not one trace or vestige of its original state remaining, which can now be discovered. I fully believe (as I have before stated) that paradise did exist after the fall of Adam ; and that it was known to his posterity ; but that it was inaccessible to them, on account of the protection of the angel, who, as the text informs us, guarded Eden with a flaming sword. The awful Deluge however destroyed all things. By Avhich also, as it is written, " All the fountains of the great deep were broken up" (Gen vii. 11). Who can doubt therefore, that the fountains of these rivers were also broken up, and confounded ? As therefore, since the Flood, mountains exist where fields and fruitful plains before flourished : so there can be no doubt, that fountains and sources of rivers are now found, where none existed before, and where the state of nature had been quite the contrary. For the whole face of nature was changed by that mighty con- vulsion. Nor do I entertain the least doubt, that all those won- ders of nature which are from time to time discovered, are the effects and relics of that same awful visitation, the Deluge. In the metallic mines which are now explored, are frequently found large logs of wood, hardened into stone ; and in masses of stone themselves, are perceived various forms of fishes and other ani- mals. With the same confidence I also believe, that the Medi- terranean Sea, before the Deluge, was not within the land. My persuasion is, that the position which it now occupies was formed by the effects of the terrible Flood. So also the space now ocn cupied by the Red Sea was, without doubt, before, a fruitful field, and, most probably, some portion of this very garden. In like manner, those other large Bays, the Gulf of Persia, the Gulf of Arabia, &c. as they now exist, are relic effects of the Deluge.

136 CHAPTER II. 11, 12.

Wherefore we are by no means to suppose, that the original source of the rivers, of which we are now speaking, was the same as it is at this day. But as the earth still exists and brings forth trees and their fruits, &c. ; and yet these, if compared with those in their original and incorrupt state, are but miserable remnants, as it were, of those former riches which the earth produced, when first created : so these rivers remain as relics only of those former noble streams : but certainly not in their primitive position : much less flowing from their original sources. In the same manner, — how much excellency has perished from our bodies by sin ! Where- fore the sum of the matter under discussion is, that we must speak of the whole of nature, since its corruption, as an entirely altered face of things : a face which nature has assumed, first, by means of sin, and secondly, by the awful effects of the universal Deluge. Nor has God ceased to act in the same way, yet. When He punishes sins, He still curses at the same time the earth also. Thus, in the prophet Zephaniah, God threatens that He will consume the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea (Zeph. 1.3). Hence the fact, that many of our rivers have, in this age, a far less number of fishes, than in the memory of our forefathers. The birds also are much fewer in number than they once were, &c. God threatens also (Isaiah 13) that He will punish, in this same way, the sins of Babylon. For when men are taken away by God's judgments, the beasts of the earth also dis- appear, and monsters and destroying wild beasts alone remain (Is. 13. 21, 22). For example, Canaan was one of the most fruitful of lands : but now it is said to be as it were a mere pickle-tub of unfruitful saltness ; according to the divine threat- ening, contained in the 107th Psalm. If then such calamities are inflicted of God, as the punishments of the particular sins of nations ; what destructions and desolations must we consider the universal punishment of the Flood to have wrought !

Let no one be offended therefore at Moses saying, that four rivers, which are at this day widely distant from each other, and have now different fountains, flowed fi-om one source, in the garden of Eden. For as I have here repeatedly observed, we are not to think that the form of the world now, is the same as it was before the sin of Adam. Origen was indeed of this opinion himself; and yet he turned aside to the vainest allegories.

CREATION. 137

The Nile indeed exists to this day ; so does the Ganges. But as Virgil says, concerning the destruction of Troy, " A corn- field now flourishes, where Troy once stood ;" so if any one had seen the Nile, and the other great rivers mentioned by Moses, in their primitive beauty and glory, he would have beheld them to be far different from what they are now. For not only are their sources altered, but their qualities and their courses are also changed : just as all other creatures are also deformed and corrupted. Hence it is that Peter affirms, ' That the heaven must receive Christ until the times of the restitution of all things' (Acts 3. 21). For Peter here intimates that, which Paul also testifies, that the whole creation was subjected to vanity (Rom. 8. 20), and that the restitution of all things is to be hoped for ; the restitution, not of man only, but of the heaven and the earth, of the sun and of the moon, &c.

My answer therefore to all questioners upon the passage be- fore us is, that there is the Nile, that there is the Ganges, and that there are other rivers, still in existence : but that they are not now such as they once were : and that they are not only confounded, with respect to their sources, but altered as to their qualities also. In the same manner also, man has indeed feet, eyes, and ears, just as they were created and formed, in paradise : but all these same members are miserably corrupted and marred, by sin. Adam, before his sin, had eyes the most bright, a smell of body the most pure, refined, delicate, and grateful ; a body the most perfectly adapted to generation, and to every purpose intended of God, without the least let, hindi'ance, or obstruction, in the performance of those purposes, as services in obedience to God. But how far removed from all this aptitude, this service, and this natural vigour, are all our members, now ! — Just the same is the present nature of these rivers, and of the whole creation, if compared with its original state and condition.

Let us look therefore, in hope and faith, for the " restitution of all things :" not of the soul only, but of the body also : believ- ing, that we shall have in that day, a body better, and more noble, even than it was when first created, in paradise. For we shall not then be placed in a state of animal life, subject, by its na- ture, to alteration and change ; but in the state and enjoyment of a spiritual life : that life, into which Adam would have been

138 CHAPTER II. 13, 14.

translated, if he had lived without sin. Into the hope of this life Christ brings us, by the remission of sins; and thereby makes our condition better and higher than that which Adam enjoyed, but lost, in paradise.

The Hebrew verb Sabab, which Moses here uses, has a very extensive meaning : it signifies ' to go round,' as watchmen go their rounds, in a city. Pison, therefore, or the Ganges, is still in existence, if you speak of its mere name and stream ; but if you consider its fertilizing and fructifying qualities, its various other properties, and the course of its waters, even the remnants of the original noble river, are not to be found.

The land of Havilah is India, situated towards the East. This country is celebrated, both in the present passage, and in other places, in the Scripture, as most rich and abundant, in every re- spect. So that, at this day, the gems and the gold of India are considered the most precious and most noble. I believe how- ever, according to the phraseology here adopted by Moses, that in " the land of Havilah" is included Arabia Felix, and other adjacent regions.

When Moses speaks of bdellium, and the onyx stone, I take these specimens of gems, for gems in general. For we find India to abound, even in the present day, not only in jewels of the description mentioned, but in emeralds, sapphires, rubies, garnets, diamonds, &c. (for I retain their appellations as they are now used among us). But here again, I would bring back your attention to that which I have before stated. Seeing that this region is endowed, from above, with such a rich abundance of all things, useful and precious ; how much more rich, abundant, opulent, and divinely favoured, must we conclude it to have been, in its original state, before the sin of the fall ! Its present productions and contents can scarcely be called even remnants of its former excellency.

Vers. 13, 14. Aiid the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it which compasseth the whole land of ^T^thiopia. And the name of the third river is IJiddekel : that is it ichich goeth toward the East of Assyria : and the fourth river is Euphrates.

Moses mentions the three remaining rivers by name only ; giving no particular descriptions in reference to them, Gihon is

CREATION. 139

the Nile. This river, as it runs through all ^gypt, takes, in its course, Chus or -Ethiopia, also, as well as ^gypt. Hiddekel is the Tigris the most rapid river of all. " The fourth (Moses says) is the river Euphrates." As if he had added : the river near to us.

In this passage therefore, we have the situation of Paradise marked out circumstantially, by Moses, in his description of its four rivers. But now, it is utterly lost and unknown : and no traces of it exist, except these four rivers. And even these, first rendered leprous, as it were, and corrupted and marred, by sin : and then changed, altered, and confounded, in their sources and in their courses, by the mighty Deluge.

Moses now proceeds to describe in what manner, before Eve was created, a Law was given to Adam ; that he might have also, a mode, or form, of external worship ; by which he might show his obedience, and express his gratitude, to God !

Ver. 15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.

After God had created, and variously adorned, the universe of heaven and earth. He next prepared the garden of Eden ; which He willed to be the habitation and royal seat of man ; to whom He had committed the government over all other living creatures of the earth, the heaven, and the sea. And now God places man in that garden as in a citadel and a temple : from which he had free liberty to go out, and to vv'alk abroad in any other part of the earth; (which also was most fruitful, and most delightful;) and there to amuse and delight himself with the beasts and other animals when, and as, he wished.

And God gives to Adam a twofold charge that he should work, or till, this garden ; and also that he should guard and defend it. Some faint vestiges of this original command yet remain in these miserable remnants of primitive things, which we still possess. For even to this day these two things must ever be joined together ; — not only that the earth should be tilled, but also that the produc- tions of that cultivation should be defended. But both these great principles are corrupted and marred, in an infinite number of forms. For not the tillage of the earth itself only, but the rlefcnce of it also, are filled with every kind of misery and trouble. And what the cause of all this son'ow is, will be fully open to us,

140 CHAPTER II. 15.

shortly, in the followhig chapter of this book. For we shall there see, that this working, or tillage, of the earth is defiled and em- barrassed by thorns, by thistles, by the sweat of the brow, and by various and unending misery. For (to say nothing about the labour and sorrow of procuring necessary food) what difficulty, what labour attend, even the bringing up a child, from the womb !

If Adam therefore had remained in his innocency, he would have cultivated the earth, and wovild have planted his beds of spices, not only without toil or trouble, but as an amusement, at- tended with the exquisiteness of pleasure. His children, when born, would not long have needed the breast of their mother ; but in all probability would have started on their feet, as we now see chickens do, by nature, and would have sought their own food from the fruits of the earth, without helplessness or weakness, and without any labour or sorrow of their parents ! But now, how great do we behold to be the pain and misery of our birth, our infancy, and our growth !

If we speak of food, and the misery attending that, — not only have beasts the same general produce of the earth, now no longer an Eden, which we have ; but men defraud men of the same, and rob them of it by theft and plunder. Hence hedges and walls and other strong defences are found necessary for the protection of property ; and even by these, the produce which we have ob- tained by the labour and sweat of cultivation, can scarcely be preserved in safety. Thus we have indeed a remnant of the labour of cultivation, but veiy far different from the employ of the orio-inal tillage. Not merelv because it is attended with the greatest toil and distress, but because the ground itself, being as it were unwilling, yields sparingly ; whereas to Adam, it yielded as it were with the greatest joy, and with the richest abundance, whether he sowed his seed within Eden itself, or in any other part of the earth. There was then no danger from plunderers and murderers. All was in perfect safety.

In all these respects therefore we can form an idea of the mighty evil of sin ; — when we behold the thorns, the briers, the sweat of the brow, &c., which are before us, which way soever we turn, the magnitude of that evil is ever present. Hence man did not fall by sin in soul only, but in body also : and both participate in the punishment. For labour is a punishment, which, in the state of in-

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noceiice, was an amusement and a pleasure. Even as now even, in the present state of the misery of nature, if any one has a produc- tive garden, neither digging, nor sowing, nor planting is a labour, but a certain devoted employment and a delight. AVhat then must have been this employment, and delight, in the garden of Eden, in the state of original innocence ! How much more plea- surable and perfect ! — And here also we may reflect, with profit, that man was not created to idleness, but to labour ; no, not even in the state of primitive innocence. Wherefore every state of an idle or indolent life, is condemnable ; such, for instance, as the life of monks and nuns.

And as the original labour and employment of man was un- attended with sorroAv or distress (as we have shown) ; so also this guarding and protecting of that which he possessed, was full of pleasure and delight ; whereas now, all such protection is full of labour and peril. Adam could have stopped, or driven away, even bears and lions, by one single word. We have now indeed our means of defence : but they are truly horrible : for we cannot do without swords and spears, and cannon, and walls, and ram- parts, and castle-fosses, &c. : and even with all these, oiirselves and our own, scarcely abide in safety. Hence we have scarcely the feeblest traces remaining, either of the original work or the original protection.

Others expound this passage differently ; making it to mean, ' that God might till and keep it.' But the text speaks of human ' tilling' and human ' keeping,' absolutely. So Cain, just below, (chap. 4. 2,) is said to have been " a tiller of the ground." And in the Books of Job, and Ecclesiastes, kings are called tillers of the earth, or husbandmen ; not merely on account of their labour itself, in tillage, but on account of their guardianship and pro- tection. But (as I have all along said) labour and p7'otection are now hard and difficult terms ! But originally, they were terms denoting a certain delightful employment and exquisite pleasure.

Ver. 16. Aiid the Lord God commanded the man; saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may est freely eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.

Here we have the institution of the church : before there was

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any domestic government (ceconomia), or civil government (politia). For Eve was not yet created. And the church is here instituted, without any walls, or any pomp ; in a place all open and most delightful. After the church was instituted, domestic government {ceconomia) is established ; — when Eve is brought to Adam, as his life-companion. Thus we have, at God's hand, a church, before a private house ; the former of which, indeed, is greater and better than the latter. And as to ci\dl government (politia) ; before sin, there was none ; nor was it needed. For civil government is a necessary remedy for corrupt nature. Be- cause the hist of men must be curbed by the chains and penal- ties of the laws, that it transgress not all bounds. Wherefore we may properly term Polity, or civil government, the established * kingdom over sin ;' just as Paul also calls Moses the minister, and the Law the "ministration, of sin and of death" (2 Cor. 3. 7,8). For the one and especial object of civil government, is to keep off sin. Hence Paul saith, ' that the power beareth the sword' and is ' the avenger of evil doings' (Rom. 13. 4). If therefore men had not become evil, by sin, there would have been no need of civil government : but Adam would have lived with his pos- terity in the utmost tranquillity, and would have done more, by the motion of one of his fingers, than can now be effected by all the magistrates, all the swords, and all the gallows, of a kingdom. There would then have been no ravisher, no murderer, no thief, no slanderer, no liar. And therefore, what need would there have been of civil government ? which is as it were the sword, the costic, and the terrible medicine, which are necessary to cut off, and burn out, noxious members of the state, that its other members may be saved and preserved.

After the establishment of the church therefore, in paradise, there is committed unto Adam the government of his family. The church is thus first instituted of God, that He might show by this, as a sign, that man was created to another and a higher end, than any of the other living creatures. And as the church is thus instituted by the Word of God, it is certain that Adam was created to an immortal and spiritual life ; to which he would assuredly have been translated and conveyed, without death, after he had lived in Eden, and the other parts of the earth, to his full satiety of life, yet without trouble or distress. And in that life,

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there would have been none of that impure lust which now pre- vails. The love of sex for sex, would have been uncontaminated and pure. Generation would have proceeded, without any sin or impurity, as a holy obedience unto God. Mothers would have brought forth children without pain : and children themselves would have been brought up without any of that misery and labour and distress, with which they are now always reared.

But who can find language capable of describing the glory of that state of innocency, which we have lost? There certainly still remains in nature a desire of the male for the female. There also proceed the fruits of generation. But the whole is attended with a horrible impurity of lust ; and with overwhelming pains of parturition. To all this are added turpitude, shame, and con- fusion, even between man and wife, when they would enjoy their lawful embrace. In a word, even here, and in all things else, is present the unspeakable awfulness of original sin. Creation in- deed is " good." The blessing of fruitfulness upon creation is " good." But all these things are corrupted and spoiled, by sin. So that even man and wife cannot enjoy them without shame and confusion of face. Whereas, none of these things would have had existence, if the innocency of Adam had con- tinued. But as husbands and wives eat and drink together, without any shame ; so there would have been a singular and heavenly purity, without any shame or confusion of feeling, either in generation, or in parturition. — But I return to Moses. The church was originally instituted (as I have observed) before there was any house or family or domestic government. For the Lord, we here find, preaches to Adam, and sets before him the Word. On that Word, though so short, it highly be- comes us here to pause a while and dwell. For this sermon of God to Adam, would have been to him, and to us all, his posterity, had we continued in the original innocence, a whole Bible, as it were. And did we, or could we, possess that sermon now, we should have no need of paper, ink, and pens, nor of that infinite multitude of books, which we now require to teach us knowledge and wisdom. — The whole contents of these books, put together, could we grasp them in our minds, would not put us in posses- sion of one thousandth part of that wisdom, which Adam possessed, in paradise ! Could we attain to the sum of all the

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wisdom, in all the world, this short sermon would swallow up, and overflow, the whole. It would show us, in all plainness and ful- ness, as if painted on a tablet, that infinite goodness of God which created this nature of ours pure, holy, and perfect ; and it w^ould show us, with equal plainness, all those impurities, calamities, and sorrows, which have since overwhelmed us, by the inbursting of sin.

Since therefore, as the text shows, Adam alone heard this ser- mon fi'om God, it must have been preached to him on the sixth day ; and Adam must have afterwards communicated it to Eve, on the same day. And if they had not sinned, Adam would have set this remarkable sermon, or precept, before his whole posterity also : and by it, they would have become the most pro- found divines, the most learned lawyers, and the most experienced physicians. Now, there exists an infinite number of books by which men are trained to be theologians, lawyers, and physicians. But all the knowledge we can obtain by the help of all these books together, can scarcely be called the dregs of science, if compared with that fund of wisdom which Adam drew fi'om this one ser- mon of God. So utterly corrupted are all things by original sin.

This " tree of knowledge of good and evil," therefore, or this place in which a number of trees like unto it were planted, would have been (as we have said) a church, where Adam and his posterity, had he and they continued in their innocency, would have assembled, on the Sabbath-day ; and where Adam, after a refreshment, derived from the " tree of life," would have preached God to those assembled, and would have praised Him for the dominion which He had given them over all other crea- tures which He had made. The 148th and 149th Psalms set forth a certain form of such praise and thanksgiving ; where the sun, the moon, the stars, the fishes, and the dragons, are called upon to praise the Lord. But there is no one psalm so beauti- ful, but that any one of us might compose one far more excellent, and more perfect, if we had been born of the seed of Adam, in his state of original innocence. Adam would have preached that highest of all blessings, — that he had been created in, and that his posterity bore, the image and the similitude of God. He would have exhorted them all to live a holy life, without sin ; to till the garden, in which God had placed them, with all industry ; to keep it with all diligence ; and to guard, with all their caution.

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against tasting tlie fruit of the " tree of knowledge of good and evil." This external place, form, worship, and preaching of the Word, man would most certainly have observed, on the Sabbath. Afterwards, he would have returned to his duties of labouring and guarding, until the time appointed of God had been fulfilled, in which he should be translated, without any death, and with all s^veetness, to heaven.

We must noto speak of all these blessings, however, as a trea- sure, lost ; and we are desen^edh/ left to sigh after that day, when all these things shall be restored. It is nevertheless most pro- fitable to remember the blessings which we have lost, and to feel the evils which we suffer, and in the midst of which we live, in so much wretchedness : that we may be thereby stirred up to look for that redemption of our bodies, of which the apostle speaks, Itom. 8. 23. For as to our souls, we are already freed and de- livered by Christ ; and we hold that deliverance, in faith, until the "end of our faith" shall be revealed, 1 Pet. 1. 19.

It is moreover very profitable to consider, from the divine text before us, that God gave unto Adam a Word, a worship, and a religion, the most simple, most pure, and most disencumbered of all laborious form and sumptuous appearance. For God did not command the sacrificing of oxen, nor the burning of incense, nor long and loud prayers, nor any other afflictions or wearyings of the body. All that He willed was, that Adam should praise Him, should give Him thanks, and should rejoice in Him, as the Lord his God ; obeying Him, in this one great thing, — that he ate not the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Of this worship we have indeed some remnants, restored to us, in a certain measure, by Christ, even amidst all this infirmity of our flesh. We also are enabled to praise God, and to give Him thanks, for every blessing of the soul and of the body. But too true it is, that these are but very remnants of the original worship of Eden. But when, after this miserable life, we shall come among the company of angels, — we shall then offer unto God a purer and holier worship. And there are also other remnants of this original felicity still vouchsafed unto us ; — that, by the bless- ing of marriage, we avoid and prevent adulteries ; — that this corporeal life has not only food, though procured with infinite labour, but a protection and a defence of that which we possess,

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secured unto us, against all the evils and dangers wliich surround us, on every side. These are indeed merciful remnants ; still, they are but miserable remnants, if compared with the original blessedness and security.

ISIoreover, brethren, ye are here to be admonished against false prophets, through whom Satan endeavours, by various means, to corrupt sound doctrine. I will give you an example of this, in my own case : and just show you the manner in which I was tormented by a fanatical spirit when I first began to declare this doctrine, which I am now setting forth in my Comments on the passage before us. The text indeed uses a Hebrew^ Verb, signi- fying 'to command;' "And the Lord God commanded the man." Yet this agent of Satan argued, and drew^ his conclusion, thus ; — " The Law is not made for a righteous man." Adam was a righteous man : therefore, the Law was not made for Adam ; because, he was a righteous man. Upon this argument, he im- mediately pinned another; — that this sermon of God, therefore, was not a Laio, but an admonition, only ; and that, consequently, " where there was no Law, there was (as Paul affirmeth) no transgression." And next, from this argument, that "where there is no Law, there is no transgression," he crept on to the conclusion, that therefore, there was no original sin; the truth of which doctrine, he consequently denied. By thus connecting together these two passages of the Scripture, he gained, as he considered, a marvellous victory, and he publicly displayed his triumph, as if he had discovered a treasure hitherto unknown to the world. Now it is profitable thus to mark the mighty attempts of Satan, that we may learn to meet them with wisdom and skill.

Both the above passages, — that the " Law is not made for a righteous man ;" and that " where there is no Law there is no transgression" are found in the Epistles of Paul (1 Tim. 1. 9 ; and Rom. 4. 15). And it is the business of a sound and skilful logician, in divine things, to mark carefully the aims, and the devices, of the devil; because our sophistical reasoners, his miserable slaves, use them after him. They pretend indeed to found their arguments on the Scripture. For they know that it would appear perfectly ridiculous, to thrust upon men's minds nothing but their own dreams. But they do not cite the Scrip- ture wholly, and honestly ; they seize upon those parts of it only

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which seem, at first^ to make for them ; but those portions which stand against them, they either craftily pass over, or corrupt by cunningly devised interpretations. Thus when Satan found that Christ trusted in the mercy of God, under His great hunger, he attempted to draw Him into aforbidden confidence (Matt. 4. 3, 4). And again, in the matter of His standing on the pinnacle of the temple, the devil ti'ied to make Him tempt God ; by quoting to Him a passage in the 91st Psalm, seemingly adopted for his pur- pose. " He shall give his angels charge concerning Thee ; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone."

Now, that portion of the passage in the psalm, which was con- trary to his purpose, Satan craftily passed over, — " to keep Thee, in all TJiy icai/s" Now, here lies the whole force of this Scrip- ture ; that this guardianship of angels is promised to us ' in all our ways,^ or ' in our lawful calling,' only. Christ, in all divine wisdom, sets before Satan this as the true meaning of the sacred text, when He replies to his face in this precept, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Whereby Christ signifies, that the ' way' of man is not in the air, but that that was the ' wa/ of the flying fowls ; but that the ' way' of man, was the stejjs which led from the roof of the temple to the ground ; and which were made for the end, that there might be a descent from the top of the temple to the bottom, easy, and without peril. When there- fore we are in our lawful calling and duty ; whether that duty be commanded of God, or of men, which latter have a right to prescribe the duty of our calling, while we are thus ' in our ways,' — then, we may assuredly believe the guardianship of angels will not fail us.

The above example therefore will furnish a very useful rule to be observed, in our disputations with these fanatical tools of Satan. For those who are not on their guard, are often deceived, when crafty men transfer their arguments, after their own manner, from connected, to unconnected, portions of the Scripture ; or adopt cUshonest connexions, or divisions, of the sacred text ; but adduce not passages, in their integral state, as they stand in the Word. Now this is the very method adopted in the present case, by my adversary ; when he argues, as above from these two de- tached portions, " The law is not made for a righteous man," and,

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" Where there is no law, there is no transgression." He that is not on the watch-tower of msdom and caution, here, is entangled, before he is aware of it, and drawn into the horrible conclusion, that there was no real sin in eating the first apple ; because, (as our crafty opponents would argue,) there was no law: and, (as they farther argue,) which is indeed trae in itself, because, "where there is no law, there is no transgression,"

And I am by no means certain that some, even in our day, have not been deceived by this very argument of the devil. For they so speak of original sin as to make it not a sin itself, but a punishment of sin only. Hence Erasmus, discussing this point with his famous eloquence, observes, 'Original sin is a punishment, inflicted on ourfirst parents, whiclnve, their posterity , are compelled to bear, for another's fault, without any desert of our own. Just as the son of an harlot, is forced to endure the infamy ; not by his own fault, but by that of his mother. For what sin could any man commit who had, as yet, no existence?' These sentiments flatter human reason ; but they are full of impiety and blasphemy.

Wherein then is the syllogism of our crafty adversary unsound ? It is because, according to Satan's common artifice, the text on which it is founded is not quoted integrally, but most perfidiously mutilated. For the whole text stands thus, — " The law is not made for a righteous man, but for murderers, for adulterers," &c. &c. Wherefore, nothing can be more evident, nothing else can be concluded, than that the apostle Paul is here speaking of that Law which God revealed unto man, after sin was in the world ; not of that law, which the Lord gave unto Adam in paradise, while he was yet righteous and innocent. The Law, says Paul, " was not made for a righteous man :" wherefore it insubvertibly follows, that the Law of which Paul speaks Avas given to nature, when not innocent, but sinning, and liable to sin.

Is it not then the height of wickedness, thus to confound pas- sages of Scripture in causes of such solemn moment ? Adam, after his sin, was not the same as he was before, when in his state of innocency. And yet, these men make no difference between the law delivered to man before sin, and the Law delivered to man after sin. But what the apostle says concerning the Law, which was delivered to the world after it w^as filled with sin, these instruments of Satan, lyingly, and with the greatest blasphemy,

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transfer and apply to the law, delivered to Adam, in paradise. Whereas, if no sin had existed, the law prohibiting sin would not have existed. For as I have said above, civil government and laws, (or cauteries,) and the sword, and the " schoolmaster" (as Paul terms " the Law,") would not have been needed, in a state of innocent nature. But the boy, because he is now bad, needs the " schoolmaster" and the rod. So the prince, because he has disobedient citizens, equally needs the crown-officers, and the executioner. It is of this Law that Paul is really speaking : — the Law which nature, when corrupted by sin, needed.

With respect to the need which Adam had of this command- ment of God, concerning the " tree of knowledge of good and evil," I have shown that need, above. It was that Adam might have a settled external worship of God, and a work of external obedience towards Him to perform, statedly. Thus, the aiigel Gabriel is without sin, a creature most pure and innocent ; and yet, he received a commandment from God, to inform Daniel con- cerning tilings of the utmost importance ; and to announce to the virgin Mary, that she was to be the mother of the Christ promised to the fathers. These are positive commandments : and they are given to a creature perfectly innocent.

In the same manner, there is here a commandment given of the Lord to Adam, he/ore his sin, that he should not eat .of the " tree of knowledge of good and evil ;" which commandment Adam would have fulfilled willingly, and with the highest plea- sure, had he not been deceived by the craft of Satan. But Paul is referring to quite another law ; for he is plainly speaking of a law which was given, not to the righteous, but to the unrighteous. Who is there, then, so stupid, or so insane, who will, after all con- clude, that a law was not given to Adam, because he hears us affirm that Adam was a righteous man ? For no other conclusion can follow therefrom, than that the law, which was made for the im- righteous, was not the law that was given to the righteous Adam : and on the converse it must follow, that, as a law was given to righteous Adam, that law was not the same as the law which was afterwards made for the unrighteous.

There is therefore in this syllogism, or argument, of our ad- versar}', the twofold unsoundness of unjust connexion, and unjust division. There is in it moreover a double equivocation. The

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first is, in not making it plain, that the law before sin, is one thing, and the law aftei' sin, another. And, in the second place, the equivocation lies in not making it equally plain, that the righteous man before sin, and the righteous man after sin, are each right- eous, but in a different sense : that the one is righteous by nature, the other by new-creation and justification.

It is most iiseful to examine thus the arguments and reasonings of our adversaries ; and, in this maimer, to apply the science of sound logic to good purpose, in these momentous discussions. For the arts of logic were not seriously intended to be used in the dead disputation of the school only : but that the gravest and most sacred subjects might by them be soundly explained and taught. And it is by the very false reasoning, now in question, that Satan does a mighty deal of business in denying original sin. Whereas to deny original sin, is to deny virtually the passion and resurrection of Christ.

Let the passage of the apostle Paul therefore (1 Tim. i. 9) hinder us not from determining with Moses, in the text now be- fore us, that a law was here commanded of God to Adam, though a righteous man, ' That he should not eat of the tree of know- ledge of good and evil :' in the same way as commandments were also given to angels. And because Adam transgressed this com- mandment he sinned, and begat and propagated his children also sinners, after him.

Ver. 17. — For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

This penal threat also thus expressly added, proves, that it was a law, not an admonition, that was given to Adam. And it moreover shevv's that Adam was created in a state of innocence, or righteous. For as yet there was no sin in existence : because God did not create sin. If Adam therefore had obeyed this com- mand, he would never have died : for death entered into the world by sin. All the rest of the trees of paradise therefore were created, to the end that they might aid, and preserve unto man, his animal life, sound and whole, and without the least evil or in- convenience.

Now it naturally appears wonderful to us, at this day, that

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there should have been an animal life without any death, and without any of those evils, or accidental causes of death, which now abound ; such as diseases, boils, and fetid redundancies, in bodies, &c. &c. The reason is, that no part of the body, in tlie state of innocency, was foul or impure. There was no unpleasant- ness in the evacuations or secretions. There were no impurities whatsoever. Everything was most beautiful and delightful. There w^as no offence to any of the organs or senses. And yet the life was an animal life. Adam ate, digested, performed the functions of, and managed and regulated, his body. And had he continued in his innocence, he would have done all these, and other things, which the animal life does and requires ; until he had been translated to the spiritual and eternal life.

For this deathless translation also we have lost by sin. And now, between this present and a future life, there exists that awful medium passage, — death. That passage, in the state of inno- cence, would have been most delightful : and by it Adam would have been translated to the spiritual life, or, as Christ calls it, in the gospel, the life " as the angels in heaven," (j\Iatt. 12. 25) : in which state all animal actions cease. For in the resurrection we shall neither eat, nor drink, nor are given in marriage. So, with respect to Adam, all animality would have ceased, and a spiritual life, in glory, would have followed : even as ice also believe it will be with us, " in the resurrection," through Christ. So also Adam would have put off his childhood glory of innocence (if I may so term his natural life of innocency), and would have put on his heavenly glory. He would have done with all inferior actions (which however, in that childhood glory of innocency, would have been pure, and miattended with that sorrow which mars all things, since the fall) ; and would have been translated from his infantine glory of created innocence, to that manhood of glorious innocence, which angels enjoy ; and which we also who believe shall enjoy, in the life to come.

I call Adam's primitive, creative innocence, the childhood of glorious innocency, because Adam (if I may so speak) was in a middle state ; or a state of neutrality, or liability : in a state wherein he could be deceived by Satan ; and could fall into that awful calamity into which he did fall. But such a peril of falling will not exist in that state of perfect manhood of glorified inno-

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cency, which we shall enjoy, in the future and spiritual life. And this indeed is that which is signified in tliis threat of punish- ment. " For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou slialt surely die." As if the Lord had said, Thou mayest remain, indeed, if thou obey Me, in this life, in which I have created thee ; yet thou wilt not, even then, be immortal, as the angels are. It is a life placed, as it were in, a middle, neutral, or liable, state. Thou mayest remain in it by obedience, and afterwards be translated into an immortality, which cannot be lost. On the other hand, if thou shalt not obey Me, thou shalt fall into death, and shalt lose that immortality.

There is a great difference, therefore, between the created spiritual state of angels, and the created natural innocency of Adam. Angels, as they now are, cannot fall — but Adam could fall ; for Adam was created in a state in which he might become immortal — that is, in which he might continue in his original innocency, without death, (for he was free from all sin,) and stood in a condition from which he might be translated out of the child- hood glory of original innocency into the manhood glory of im- mortality, in which he could never sin afterwards. On the other hand, Adam coidd fall out of this childhood gloiy of natural inno- cency into sin, the curse and death, as, indeed, it awfully hap- pened. Adam was in a state of natural immortality, or which might have heen a natural immortality, because he had recourse to certain created trees, the virtue of whose fruits produced preser- vation of life. But this natural immortality was not so secured to him, as to render it impossible for him to fall into mortality.

Why God willed to create man in this middle, neutral, or liable state, it is not for us to explain, or curiously to inquire. Equally impossible is it for us to say, and unlawful to ask, why man was so created as that all mankind should be propagated from one man, by generation, while angels w^ere not so created. For angels generate not, nor are propagated, because they live a spiritual life ; but the counsel of God in the creation of man is worthy the highest admiration, in that He created him to an animal life, and to corporeal actions, which also the other animals have, and gave him also a power of intellect, which, indeed, the angels also possess. So that man is a compound animal, in whom are united the brute and the ano;elic natures.

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Moreover, as we have thus fallen, in proceeding with our Com- mentary, into a consideration of the nature of angels, we must not keep back the written opinions of some of the fathers — that tliere is a certain similarity between the creation of man and that of angels. This similarity, however, cannot be extended to the properties of generation, which, in the spiritual nature, has no existence, but to the imperfection that subsisted in each nature as to liability to fall. For, as man (as I have shown) was created in a kind of middle, or liable, or pendent state, so also angels, when first created, were not so confirmed in their natural stand- ing as that they could not fall. Hence it is that Christ saith, concerning the devil, that he " abode not in the truth " (John 8. 44). On these grounds, the holy fathers supposed that a battle or sedition arose between the angels, some of those beings taking the part of some very beautiful angel, who exalted himself above all the rest on account of certain superior gifts bestowed upon him. These things are very probable, nor are they at variance with that which Christ here affirms by the Evangelist John, that the devil " abode not in the truth ;" nor are they in- consistent with that which Jude also affirms in his epistle, that the angels " kept not their first estate, but left their own habita- tion." (Jude 6.)

In confirmation of these their sentiments, the fathers adduce the passage contained in the prophet Isaiah (Is. 14. 12, 13). But with reference to Isaiah, he is evidently speaking of the King of Babylon, who wished to sit in the throne of God, — that is, to rule over His holy people and His temple. Whether, therefore, there really was this dissension and war among the angels, or whether, (which is more agreeable to my views,) certain proud angels, filled with envy, and taking offence at the humility of the Son of God, wished to exalt themselves above Him, it is quite certain that the angels also, like man, were in such a state of innocence as could be altered. After the evil angels, however, had been judged and condemned, the good angels were so con- firmed in their standing, that they could not sin after that con- firmation, for they were all elect angels, but the reprobate angels wei'e cast out.

So also, if the great dragon, or the evil angels, mentioned in the 15ook of Revelations, had continued in their innocence ; they

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also would afterwards have been confirmed therein, and could never have fallen. The fathers, speaking on this subject, hold, that the elect angels .were created in righteousness, and were afterwards confirmed therein ; but that those who fell, " abode not (as Christ expressed, John 8. 44) in the truth." But we are not to think that the angels are few in number ; for Christ affirms (Luke 11. 18) that Satan has a kingdom ; and that he is, as the chief one among robbers, and governs all things in his kingdom, by his authority and counsels ; and it is also said, in tlie same chapter, that the devils, or evil angels, have their prince Beelzebub ; who was at the head of this sedition, in heaven.

But there has arisen a question here ; in the discussion of which, the books of all the sophists are idly employed ; and after all they explain nothing. The question to which I allude is, — 'What was original righteousness?' Some make it a certain quality ; others give other definitions. We, however, following Moses, will define original righteousness to be so termed, because man was originally created righteous, true, and upright ; not in body only, but in soul ; and because he acknowledged God ; be- cause he obeyed Him with the utmost pleasure ; because he understood the works of God without any instruction concerning them. This last faculty of Adam is wonderfully exemplified by the fact, that when he had been in a profound sleep, and God had formed Eve out of one of his ribs, the moment he awoke he re- cognised Eve as the work of God, saying, " This is now bone of my bones." Was not this a marvellous proof of intellect, thus, at the first sight, to know and comprehend the work of God ?

From tliis same original righteousness also, it arose, that Adam loved God and His works, with all purity of afffection ; that he lived among the creatures of God in peace, without any fear of death, or any dread of diseases ; and that he enjoyed a body also the most obedient to the will of God, without any evil desires, and utterly free from that impure lust, which we continually feel. So that a most beautiful and most certain picture of original righteousness may be portrayed, from its entire contrast to that deep corruption, which we now feel, throughout our whole nature.

When human reasoners speak of original sin, they consider only its wretched and unclean lust or concupiscence. But ori-

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ginal sin is in truth the entire fall of the whole human nature. The intellect is so darkened, that we can no longer understand God and His will, nor perceive nor acknowledge the works of God. Moreover, the will is so wonderfully depraved, that we cannot trust in the mercy of God, nor fear God : but, living in security and unconcern, we disregard the Word of God and His will, and follow the concupiscence and violent lusts of the flesh. The conscience also is no longer at peace, and in quiet : and when it thinks of the judgments of God, it sinks into despair, and seeks and follows after unlawful supports and remedies. And all these sins are so deeply rooted in our nature, that they cannot be entirely eradicated throughout the whole of this life. And yet these miserable sophistical reasoners do not touch upon these deep corruptions, even in word. But by taking this true view of original sin, it clearly demonstrates, (according to the nature of correlative proofs,) what original righteousness really was, by its awful contrariety to that original righteousness. Thus making it evident, that original sin is the essential and entire loss and deprivation and absence of original righteousness ; just as blind- ness is the privation or absence of sight.

Yes I the divine matters of original sin and original righteous- ness, extend much more widely and deeply than is imagined by the monks ; who understand original righteousness only as it refers to sexual chastity. Whereas they ought first to look at the soul of man as the seat of all sin and corruption ; and then turn to the body ; and view it as deriving all its defilement and pollution from the soul. With reference to the soul, the great proof of its fallen state, under original sin is, that we have lost the knowledge of God ; that we do not always and everywhere give thanks unto Him ; that we do not rejoice in the works of His hands and all His doings ; that we do not Avholly trust in Him ; that we begin to hate and blaspheme Him, whenever He visits our sins with deserved punishments ; that, in our dealings with our neighbour, we follow our own interests, desires, and objects, and are plun- derers, thieves, adulterers, murderers, cruel, unkind, unmerciful. The ragings of lust are indeed a certain part of original sin ; but those sins and corruptions of the soul, luibelief, ignorance of God, despair, hatred, blasphemy ; — of these calamities of the soul, Adam knew nothing, in his state of innocence.

156 CHAPTER II. 18.

And, ill addition to these reflections, the numberless punish- ments of original sin are to be contemplated. For whatever is now lost, of those endowments with which Adam was created and gifted, while his nature was yet unfallen, is rightly considered the conseque^.ce of original sin. Adam, for instance, was of a most perfect and sagacious intellect. For the moment that Eve was presented to him, he understood that she was his own flesh. He had also the most minute knowledcje of all the other creatures. He was not only just and upright, but of a most perfect and wonderful understanding, in all things. He had moreover a most upright will : yet not a jyerfect will : for pei-fection itself was deferred, from the state of the animal life, to that of the spiritual and eternal life. Let these comments suffice, upon the sacred text before us (vers. 16, 17) : in which the Church is constituted. Moses now proceeds to marriage, and domestic government (oiconomia).

(Authorized Version.)

Ver. 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone ; J will mahe Jam an help meet for him.

(Luther's Version.)

Ver. 18. And the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone ; I ivill make him an help, which'may'be be-

FOEE HIM.

We have now seen the Church constituted^by"the Word, and by the establishment of a certain day, place, and order of wor- ship. For civil government {Politia) there was, as yet, no need ; while nature was innocent, and without sin. Now, domestic government, (aconomia,) is instituted. For God now makes the solitary Adam, a husband, by giving him a wife, and uniting her to him ; of whom, Adam had need also, for the generation and multiplication of the human race. And, as we have observed above, with reference to the creation of Adam, that God created him with deep purpose of mind and counsel ; some here see that Eve also was created with profound counsel and wisdom of de-

CREATION. 157

sign. By all this Moses would shew, that man was a singularly excellent creature ; and that he partook both of the human and the divine natures, — of divinity and immortality. Man there- fore is a more excellent creature than the heaven, or the earth, or any other creature which God made.

And Moses would also impress us, with reference to tae other part of human nature, that is, woman, that she also was created with a peculiar counsel and design of God. And the object of Moses, in this particular point of his divine instruction, is, to shew, that this sex also had great concernment, ir. that state of animal, (but innocent,) life, in which Adam was created ; and in that state of a spiritual and eternal life also, which ue expected. For the female sex was necessary, for the generation and multi- plication of the human race. Hence it follows, that if the woman had not been deceived by the serpent, and had not sinned, she would have been, in all respects, equal to Adam. For her now being subject to her husband, is the punishment laid upon her of God, since sin, and on account of sin : as are also all her other troubles and perils, — her labour and pain in bringing forth child- ren, with an infinite number of other sorrows. Woman, there- fore, is not now what Eve was at her first creation. The condi- tion of woman, then, was inconceivably better and more excel- lent than now ; she was then, in no respect whatever, inferior to Adam, whether you consider the endowments of her body, or those of her mind.

But we may here inquire, when God says, " It is not good that the man should be alone ;" what is that " good" of which God is speaking? seeing that Adam was righteous, and had no need of the woman, as we have, who bear about with us our flesh, all leprous with sin. My reply is, that God is speaking of a common " good," or the good of the species ; not of personal good. All personal good Adam already possessed. He enjoyed perfect innocency. But the common good of which all other animals partook, he possessed not. He could not propagate his species by generation. Adam was alone. Nor had he, as yet, a companion, for that wonderful work of generation and the pre- servation of his species. The " good," therefore, here divinely expressed, signifies the multiplying of the human race. In the same manner, also, Adam, although innocent and righteous, did

1 58 CHAPTER II. 18.

not, as yet, possess that high good to which he was created ; namely, a spiritual and glorious immortality, to which, however, he w^ould have heen translated of God in his appointed time, if he had continued in his innocency- The meaning of " good," therefore, in the text now before us is, that Adam, being himself a most beautiful creature, possessed, as far as his own person was concerned, every thing he could require. But there was yet wanting to him one thing, the " good" of God's " blessing ;" the generating and multiplying of his species : for he was alone !

Now, as nature is corrupted by sin, woman is necessary, not only for the multiplying of the human race, but also for the companionship, and help, and protection, of life. For domestic government needs the ministration of women. Nay, such is oiu* wretchedness by the fall of Adam, that (to our shame and sor- row be it confessed !) we have need of woman as a remedy against sin. Wherefore, in the contemplating of woman, we must con- sider not only the place in domestic government which she fills, but the reinedy for sin, which God has made her to suj^ply. Hence the apostle Paul saith, " To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife" (1 Cor. 7.2.) And a certain master of divine sentiments, also, eloquently observes, " ^Marriage was insti- tuted, in paradise, as a duty and an obedience to God; but since ■the fall, it is a remedy also for sin." Wherefore we are obliged to adopt a union with this sex to avoid sin. This is, indeed, a sad and disgraceful confession to make ; but it is the truth. For there are very few now who take unto themselves wives, purely as a duty of obedience to God ; according to His original will, in the creation of man, as male and female !

Other animals, however, have no Jiecessity of this kind. There- fore, for the most part, they come together once in the year only, and are contented with that intercourse, as if, by this fact, they said, " We come together as a duty to God !" But it is far diffe- rent with men. They are compelled to have recourse to their union with wives in matrimony to avoid sin. Hence we gene- rate and are born, in the midst of sins, on both sides. For our parents do not come together as a pure duty to God, but as a remedy also, for the sake of avoiding sin.

And yet it is by means of this very remedy, and by this very miserable state of things, that God fulfils His original blessing

CREATION. . 159

pronounced upon male and female when He created them. And thus men, though in sin, and with sin, generate, and are gene- rated. But this would not have been the case in paradise, had man continued in the innocency of his original creation. Gene- ration in that state would have been a most holy yielding of obedience to God, utterly free from that impure lust which now exists. And children would have been born in original right- eousness and rectitude. They would have known God imme- diately at their birth, without any instruction or admonition. They would have spoken of His holy name, and would have praised Him, and given Him thanks.

But all these glorious things are now lost. Yet it is profitable to us to think upon them deeply ; that we may hold fast some sense of the real state in which we now are ; namely, under all the effects of original sin ; and that we may rightly contemplate also the original condition of Adam ; a state of perfect righteous- ness ; which state we hope again to enjoy, in all its blessedness, at the "restitution of all things." — (Acts 3. 21.)

With respect to the divine expression, " Let Us Make," I have already observed that Eve was created, as well as Adam, by a peculiar counsel of God, in order that it might be manifest that she was a partaker with him of a better and an immortal life ; a hope not possessed by any of the other living creatures, who live a natural life only, without any hope of an eternal life.

That which the Latin renders " like him," in this passage, is in the Hebrew, " which may be before him." God, by this ex- pression also, distinguishes the human female from the females of all other living creatures, which are not always " before " their mates. But woman was expressly 'created that she might be " before " her husband, always and everywhere. Even as the Emperor also calls the life of married persons " an individual life." Whereas the brute female requires her niate only once in the whole year ; and after she has conceived, she returns to her own kind, and takes care of herself. Of her young, which were brought forth at any previous time, she takes no care whatever. She does not cohabit with her mate always.

The nature of marriage among mankind, however, is utterly different fi'om this. There the woman is married by the man that she may be " before him " always, and may cohabit with

160 CnAPTER II. 18.

hirn, as one flesh. And if Adam had remained in his state of innocency, this individual life, or cohabitation of man and wife, would have been most sweet and delightful. The embrace itself also would have been most holy and reverential, and worshipful of God. There would have existed none of that impurity and shame, arising from sin, which now exists.

Is not this fallen state of man, then, most awful to contem- plate ! For in its holy reality there was nothing more excellent, nothing more admirable in all nature, than the fulfilment of the divine law of generation. It was an act of obedience to God, the highest which man could perform, next to the praising and lauding of His glorious name ; which obedience Adam and Eve rendered unto God, in as much holiness, and with as much free- dom from all sin, as when they were engaged in acts of praise and adoration. The fulfilment of this law of nature, and of God, indeed, still continues. But how wretched are these present rem- nants of the original innocency ! How horribly deformed by sin, " pollution, and baseness of every description. All these things are deplorable evidences of nature's original sin. And yet, for the great and glorious ends of creation, there was need of the woman as a help-meet for man. For as much as man alone could not generate ; nor could the woman generate alone. For as the apostle saith, neither the man nor the woman ' had power over their own bodies' for that high end. And hence these are the loftiest praises of each sex ; that the male is the father, and the woman the mother, of generation of mankind. The wife, in this high sense also, is the help of the husband. But (as we have re- peatedly said) if we look at the state of originally-created inno- cency, the generation of man has lost all its excellency, its pure delight, its holiness, and its worshipful obedience to God.

Moreover, in this age, and at this day, you may find many who wish that they had no children at all born to them. And this far more than barbarous inhumanity and enormity, is found more particularly among princes and nobles, who frequently ab- stain from marriage, for the sole reason that they may have no posterity. Still more base is the practice found in those princes, who suffer themselves to be counselled and persuaded not to marry, lest their families should become too large for civil pur- poses. Such men are indeed worthy of having their names

CREATION. 101

blotted out from the land of the living, as the punishment of their contempt of the laws and intents of God ! Who is there that would not execrate such swine- Hke monsters as these? These inhuman beings, however, still farther manifest, in many base particulars, the nature and depth of original sin. Were it not for the consequences of this mighty sin, we should all ad- mire the fulfilment of the law of God in generation, as one of the highest acts of the obedience and worship of God ! And we should extol it, as one of the greatest gifts of God, mth its due praise and admiration.

From the above inhuman abuse and contempt of marriage, have arisen those numerous reproaches of the female sex, which celibacy has greatly augmented. Whereas it is one of the greatest of His blessings, that God has preserved for us women, (even against the wishes and the wills of such inhuman beings,) both as a divine means of generation, and as a remedy also against the sin of fornication. In paradise, indeed, woman would have been a helper in our duty and obedience to God only ; and in our fulfilment of Plis command, ' to be fruitful and to multiply and replenish the earth' (Gen. 1. 28). But now, woman is in a very great measure a medicine and remedy for sin. So that, in truth, we can now scarcely mention the name of woman with- out shame ; most certainly we cannot unite ourselves to her, without some sense and blush of that shame. The mighty cause of all this is original sin ! For in paradise (as we have all along observed), the union of man and woman would have been wholly free from the thought of shame or impurity. The whole union would have been looked upon, and felt, as a duty of obedience to God ! ordained by Himself, and sanctified by His blessing pronounced upon it.

The same calamitous state, on account of sin, rests upon us also, even in the midst of all our spiritual gifts. For although we may have faith, and live in faith ; yet we cannot be free from doubt, fear, and the sensible awe of death. These just punish- ments of original sin, our holy fathers in the faith, deeply saw and felt. That which now follows is, as it were, a repetition of what has preceded, concerning the creation of Adam ; by which repetition, Moses would more conveniently arrive at his now in- tended description of the manner in which woman was created.

L

162 CHAPTER II. 19,

In reading what follows, therefore, we must consider Adam to have been already created.

Ver. 19. And lohen the Lord God had formed out of the ground every beast of the field, &c., He brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.

As if Moses had said, ' God now willed, by a certain deep and afore deliberated counsel, to create woman. For He saw that every other living creature had a help meet for generation. Adam alone had not such an help. God therefore now brought all the living creatures of the earth, and of the air, to Adam, to see what he would call them. And when Adam had given to each one its appropriate name, he found no one living creature like unto himself, as an help meet for him.'

And here we are again struck with the wondei*ful knowledge and wisdom which Adam possessed. Created as he was in inno- cency, righteousness, and knowledge, he beholds all the li\ing creatures stand before him ; and, without any ncAv illumination for the purpose, but by the pure properties and excellency of his nature alone, he so discerns, in a moment, the characteristic nature of each creature, that he gives it a name exactly descrip- tive of its created peculiarities. Well, indeed, might the " domi- nion" over all living creatures have been added of God to man, to whom Pie had given such intellectual light as this ! And this " dominion" which God had conferred on Adam, He now ratifies anew, by bringing to him all creatures to be named according to his judgment. By all which it is farther manifest, that Adam could, by one single word, compel lions, bears, boars, tigers, and any other of the nobler animals, to do any thing he wishes, ac- cording to their natural properties and powers : all which pro- perties he thoroughly understood, at a moment's glance, when he gave them their names. But all these original endowments of man are utterly lost by sin.

No wonder, therefore, that we have no knowledge of the ador- able God, when we know nothing as Adam did of the natures, powers, and properties even of the beasts of the earth ! There exist, indeed, books in multitudes, which describe the natures of the beasts and of j)lants. But what a length of time, M^hat an

CREATION. 1 GB

extent of observation and of experience Avere necessary, to collect together the contents of all these volumes ! In Adam, however, there was a marvellously different illumination and intellect. He discovered, by a moment's glance at each living- creature, its whole nature, and all its separate faculties and created endow- ments ; and that, too, with a perfection far above that to which we can ever attain, by a whole life of devoted study and research in natural history. And this knowledge in Adam, as it was a peculiar and eminent gift of God, so was it greatly pleasing and delightful to God. And on account of this pleasure it was, that God brought the livino; creatures to Adam, and commanded him to use the knowledge which He had thus given him, in assign- ing to each living creature its appropriate name.

Vers. 19, 20. A7id ivhatsoever Adam called every living crea- ture, that loas the name thereof. Atid Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to eveiy beast of the field ; hut for Adam there was tiot found an heljy to be before him.

What an ocean of knowledge and wisdom, therefore, Avas there in this one man ! And although Adam lost much of this know- ledge by sin, yet my full belief is, that the whole contents of the books of all the wise, which have ever been written, throughout all ages, since letters first had birth, have not to this day equalled that wisdom which Adam possessed, even after his sin and fall. But all has become obscured by degrees in his posterity, and is well nigh extinct altogether.

But we must here again renew our recollection that Moses is still engao-ed describing the creation-work, and the Divine trans- actions of the sicth day. For that which he had briefly said upon the divine expression, " Let lis make man," he now more fully expands and explains in this second chapter, in order that he might distinguish man from all the other living creatures by more than one recorded testimony. Wherefore he devotes the whole of this second chapter also to a farther and more particular explanation of the creation of man.

With reference to the male, INIoses has already said, in this chapter, that he was made of the dust of the ground ; and that the breath of life was breathed of God into his face. He has also

164 CHAPTER II. 19, 20.

stated, that the whole multitude of livmg creatures was brought before Adam ; and that, when Adam had seen among them all no one creature, a help meet for him, woman was made to be his companion in the generation and preservation of the human species : for God did not will that the posterity of Adam should be made out of the ground, as he himself was. Now, all these things appertain (as we have just observed) unto the creation work of the sixih day. For, as God had said, " Be fruitful and multiply," the explanation of the manner in which the woman was created and brought to Adam, became a necessary part of the sacred narrative.

All this is, moreover, intended to lead us into the firm belief and satisfaction of mind, that Six days were really occupied by the Lord in His creation of all things — contrary to the opinion of Augustine and Hilary, who think that all things were created in a moment. To such an extent do they depart from the history of facts, and follow allegories, and indulge in (I know not what) speculations. Nor do I speak these things by way of reproach to the holy fathers, whose labours we ought to venerate. I make these statements for the confirmation of the truth, and for our own consolation. The fathers were great men. Yet they were men : men who were fallen, and still liable to fall. So that we have no groimd for exalting ourselves, like the monks, who wor- ship all things belonging to them, as if they were not liable to fall. Whereas, for my part, it is rather a great consolation to me, than otherwise, that the fathers are discovered to have erred, and sometimes fallen, also ; because my thoughts run thus : — If God pardoned sins and errors in them, why should I despair of pardon from Him. On the other hand, despair immediately comes on if you begin to think that the fathers did not experience the same things which you feel and suffer. It is, at the same time, quite certain, that there was a mighty difference between the call of the apostles, and the call of the fathers. On what grounds, therefore, can we esteem the writings of the fathers equal to the writings of the apostles ?

But with special reference to the saci-ed passage of Moses, now before us — How, I pray you, is it possible, that six days should be either a moment or an hour ? Neither faith, which rests wholly in the Word, nor reason itself, can admit this ! Where-

CREATION. 1 65

fore, let us be assured, that there were between the Divine acts of the creation certain intervals. — Thus, Adam is first created alone. Then there are broufjht unto him all the animals — not only that he might name them, but that he might be tried, by seeing whether he could find, in all this order of beings, a meet companion. After this, Eve is created. Lastly, these certain words are spoken of the Lord — " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat," &c., which words struck the ears of Adam. All these things carry with them a proof, that they occurred at certain intervals of time, unless, indeed, you would turn away, like Origen, from such plain and positive historical facts, to the most absurd allegories. For ISIoses is not here giving us a record of God Himself, in whose sight all things, past, pre- sent, and to come, are ever present in the one same moment ; but he is recording a history of Adam, a creature of time, who was made, and who lived ; and with whom, as being a creature, there is a difference between the present and the future. I have deemed it right to bring back these things to your recollections by this repetition. Now let us proceed with Moses»

Ver. 21. Therefore the Lord God caused a deep sleejy to fall upon Adam ; and, token he had fallen asleep, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the place icith flesh.

Here, also, not faith only, but reason and fact, also, prove that the time of Adam's being awake was one space of time, and the time of his being asleep another. These spaces have evi- dently tlieir intervals. As, therefore, Adam was created in the si.vth day, and all the animals were brought to him on that day ; as he heard the command of God concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ; as God sent upon him a sleep, it is manifest, beyond dispute, that all these facts have reference to time, and to this animal life. And it is equally evident, that the DAYS mentioned in the Sacred Record must be understood to have been true and real days, contrary to the opinion of tlie holy fathers. Whenever, therefore, we find the opinions of the fathers to disagree with the Scripture, we tolerate them with reverence, and acknowledge them to be our elders in the Church ; but we do not, for their sakes, depart from the authority of the Scripture.

1G6 CHAPTER II. 21.

Elegant and true is that sentiment of Aristotle, in the First Book of his " Ethics," A/ub(j}OLV <yap ovrotv, <^i\oiv oarcov TrpoTifiav rrjv a\')j06tav. " Where both friends and truth are near to its, it is our sacred duty to give the higher honour to the truth." The philo- sopher of old here plainly affirms, that it is better to stand by the truth, than to shew too much favour to those who may be our friends, or even our relations. Such a sentiment is nobly be- coming a philosopher ! If, therefore, a natural man and a heathen holds that such a principle should be maintained in moral, human, and civil disputations, with how much greater firmness should it be held in the discussion of those things which stand on the manifest testimony of the Scripture ! How jealous should we be of setting the authority of men above that of the Word ! Men may be deceived ; but the Word of God is the wisdom itself of God, and truth infallible.

But with respect to this portion, the Divine History itself, what, I pray you, coiild be recorded more fabulous in the esti- mation of human reason, if you wish to follow that ? For could any one be found who would believe this fact concerning the crea- tion of Eve, if it were not thus openly declared ? For here all the other creatures stand as plain examples to the contrary. What other living creature soever is generated, is generated from male and female, and is so generated, that it is the female that brings it into the light. But here, the female herself is created from the male ; and that, too, with a no less wonderful creation than that by which Adam himself was made, from the dust of the ground, a living soul. These facts are mere monstrosi- ties and outrageous absurdities, if, setting aside the authority of the Holy Scripture, you would follow the judgment of reason. Hence it is that Aristotle affirms, that neither the first man nor the last man can be given as the foundation of an argument. And reason would force us to affirm the same, of her naked self, without this text before us. For if it be received as a truth, (a truth which the uniform law of the whole creation testifies,) that nothing is born alive but from male and female, it is a true con- clusion, that the first man, as so horn, cannot be given.

The same conclusion may also be declared to be correct by human reason concerning the creation of the world, which the philosophers of old, therefore, concluded to be eternal. For

CREATION. 167

although reasons are put together by reason, by which it is proved that the world is not eternal ; yet reason herself, all the while, settles down, with all her powers, upon this basis of conclusion. For what beginning will reason find in nothing ? And again, if you say that the world had a beginning, and that there was a time in which the world had no existence, it will immediately follow, close upon your heels, that, hefoi^e the world, there was nothing at all. Other absurdities will follow in an infinite series ; by the multitude of which, philosophers being struck, plunged at once into the conclusion, that the world was eternal.

But again, if you afiirm that the world was infinite, there im- mediately springs up before you another new infinity, in the suc- cessive generation of mankind. But, then, philosophy will not admit a plurality of infinities ; and yet it is compelled to admit them upon its own conclusions, because it knows neither the beginning of the world, nor the beginning of mankind. This hostile contrariety and utter obscurity brought the Epicureans into a state which compelled them to assert, that both the world and mankind existed without any reason at all; and that, without any reason at all, they would both perish ; just as beasts, which, after they are dead, are just as if they never had been. From premises like these, other terrible conclusions naturally follow ; either that there is, positively, no God at all ; or, that He cares not at all for human things. These are the labyrinths into which reason is brought, when, without the word of God, it follows its own judgment.

But it is very profitable thus to behold that how impossible it it is that reason, or our own wisdom, should go beyond the above stated limits, in its judgments concerning the creature. For what, I pray you, does the philosopher, with all his reasoning, know, of the heaven, or the earth, or the world? seeing that he understandeth not from whence either of them came, or in what end they are all, or either of them, appointed to terminate. Nay, what do w^e ourselves know concerning ourselves ? We all see that we are men. But ought we not to believe also, and know, that we have this man for our father, and that woman for our mother ? But lioio or loliy this is so, can never be learnt from human reason. Hence all our knowledge and our wisdom lie only in the comprehension of the material ov formal cause ; and even

168 CHAPTER II. 21.

in these we often make the most wretched mistakes. But as to the efficient and final cause ; of that we know not, nor can explain, any thing whatsoever. And (what is the saddest part of our ignorance !) our deficiency is at its worst, when we come to dispute, or to think, concerning the world into which we are born, and in which we live. Is not this, I pray you, a poor and miserable pretension to wisdom !

Hence Ai'istotle affirms, that man and the sun beget man. A noble doctrine of human philosophy, truly ! Follow this highest effort of natural reason, and it will bring you at length to the inevitable conclusion, that both man and the sun are eternal, and infinite, as the same philosopher concluded the world itself was. For you will never find a man who w^s, or is, in himself, either the beginning, or the end, of himself or of his race. Wherefore, I myself am not able to discover, by my own reason, either the beginning or the end of my Martin Luther ; if (that is) I wish to understand either my beginning or my end, and not to believe it. For as to our possessing a formal knowledge, or a know- ledge of the forms of things, — a cow possesses the same, which knows her own home ; or, (as the German proverb has it,) ' The cow sees and knows the gate.' — Here, again, discovers itself the awfulness of the original fall and sin. For we are thereby ren- dered so destitute of true knowledge, that we cannot, of our- selves, discover either our beginning or our end.

After all the disputations, therefore, of Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, and the other philosophers of note, who have concluded, fi"om man's walking upright, while all other animals have their heads inclined downwards, looking towards the earth, and from his possessing the powers of intellect, that man is a singular animal, and created to immortality; — after all this argument, and this conclusion, wdiat a poor, meagre, and almost futile wisdom, is this ! The whole of it, after all, is derived from a contemplation of the form. And if you should still go on to argue upon the inaterial of man, would not the same human reason compel you to conclude, that this nature of ours is perishable, and must be dissolved, and cannot be immortal ?

What, then, is the conclusion of the whole? Let us learn it. It is, that the only true wisdom is found in the Holy Scripture, and in the Word of God. The Word teaches us not onlv con-

CREATION. 169

cerning the material, not only concerning the form of the whole creation, but also concerning the efficient and the final cause of all things ; and concerning the beginning and the end, of all things : — WHO created them, what He created, and for what end He created that which He did create ? Without the know- ledge of these two causes, the efficient and the final, all our highest wisdom differs but little from that of the beasts : who use their eyes and their ears, but know nothing of the beginning, or the end, of what they see.

The text before us, therefore, is very remarkable. And the more it seems to be, contrary to all our experience, and to reason, the more diligently should we ponder it, and the more firmly should we believe it. By this text, therefore, we are taught the beginning of man ; — that the first man did not exist by genera- tion, as Aristotle and the other philosophers, deceiving themselves by human reasonings, have dreamed ; that the propagation of the posterity of the first man is, indeed, effected by generation ; but that the first man himself was created from the earth of the field ; and that the first woman was formed and fashioned out of a rib of the man, extracted from him while he was asleep. Here, therefore, we have the true beginning of man : which all the reason and pliilosophy of Aristotle could not discover.

The beginning, then, of man, as wrought of God, being thus established by the testimony of Moses, there thence follows the pi-opagation of man, by means of the union of male and female ; in no degree less wonderful than the original creation of each. The whole human race are procreated by a single drop of human blood. On this propagation of mankind it is, that the apostle Paul eloquently displays his philosophy, derived from this sacred portion of the Scripture, before the philosophers of Athens, " God that made the world and all things therein," &c., (saith the apostle) ; " seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, (^w?;y kcll ttvotjv,) and all things ; and hath made, of one blood, all nations of men for to dwell on all tlie face of tlie earth ; That they should seek the Lord, if, haply, they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us : For in Him we live, and move, and have oiir being" (Acts 17. 24 to 28). Here Paul speaks, before all the Athenian philosophers, of the propagation of mankind " by the blood of one ;" (as he expresses it ;) If,

170 CHAPTER II. 21.

therefore, the whole race of mankind have been generated from one small drop of blood of one man, and are still so generated, as the experience of all men, throughout the whole world, testifies ; most certainly this miracle is no less wonderful and admirable, than were those original wonders ; — the creation of the first man, from the dust of the ground ; and that of the first woman, from the rib of the man.

But how is it that the original miracles of the creation of Adam and Eve, seem to us so wonderful and so incredible ; while the still standing miracle of the continuous propagation of man, which we all know and daily see, excites no wonder or admira- tion, at all ! It is because (as Augustine saith) ' Miracles be- come no miracles at all, by familiarity.' Hence we wonder not at the admirable light of the sun ; because we see it every day. For the same reason, we admire not other gifts and blessings of God's creation, but are blind and deaf to them all. On the same ground, Pythagoras well said, that a most sweet and marvellous concert of sounds was effected by the harmony and velocity of the motions and revolutions of the heavenly bodies ; but that men became deaf to this celestial concert, by hearing it con- tinually ; just as those who are accustomed to the roarings of the Nile are not at all affected by the tliunders of the water, while to others, who are not accustomed to them, they are awful and intolerable. There is no doubt, that Pythagoras received this idea fi'om the fathers, by tradition. Not, however, that they really believed in any actual harmony of sounds, made by the motions of the heavenly bodies. Their meaning was, that the creation of these celestial bodies was truly delightful and marvel- lous ; but that their beauty and their glory were not duly observed by us ungrateful and insensate beings ; and that we did not render unto God the praises due to Him, as the Creator of such wonderful and admirable creatures.

In the same manner, it is a mighty marvel, that a small acorn is put into the earth ; and that from tlience grows up a lofty and magnificent oak. But because these things are daily fiimiliarities, they become nothing at all ; as does the natiu'e itself of the pro- pagation of mankind. The conception of the mother, the gesta- tion, the birth of the child, its nutrition, its development of faculties, its growth to childhood, youth, and manhood ; — all

CREATION. 171

these things are great and harmonious wonders ; but to all this miraculous concert of nature, we are now, by familiar and con- stant habit, utterly deaf.

Whereas, could all these marvellous realities be seen and esti- mated by the vision of true faith, they would be no more common things to the beholder, nor less miracles, than that which Moses here records, when he testifies, that one of Adam's ribs was taken from his side, while he was asleep ; and that the woman Eve was formed out of it, by the hand of God. For if it had pleased the Lord to form us as He did Adam, from the dust of the ground, by this time, that manner of forming man, might have ceased also to be a miracle, in our sight ; and we might now, perhaps, be rather admiring the existing law of the generation of mankind, by male and female. So true is that barbarously- composed, perhaps, but by no means random-shot poetical line —

Omne rariun carum : vilescit quotidiaman.

" Rave things will e'er delight our eyes, But common things are no surprise."

Thus, if the stars did uot rise every night, and in all places, what concourses would there be to witness the spectacle of one night's starry heaven ? But now, not one of us opens a single window to behold the sight. ]\Iost justly condemnable, therefore, is our ingratitude. For, if we believe God to be the efjicient and final Cause of all things, ought we not to wonder at His works, to be delighted with them, and to proclaim them always and everywhere ? But hosv few are there who do this in truth, and from the heart I

In vain, therefore, and absurd, is the doctrine of Aristotle, that man and the sun beget man. We learn from this book a far different cause of propagation — the commanding Word of God which saith to this and to that husband. Thy drop of blood shall, on this occasion, become a male, and on that occasion, a female. But of this word reason knows nothing. Therefore reason can do nothing but invent trifles and absurdities concerning the causes of such mighty things. I^Iedical professors, following the philo- sophers, have given us their various opinions concerning the pro- pagation of mankind ; and though reason may not be able to deny the justness of many of them, yet all of them put together

172 CHAPTER II. 21.

cannot reach the Great Fiest Cause. The Holy Spirit leads us far deeper than all the opinions of men, when it sets before us the Word of God, by which all things are created and conserved. Hence the mighty reason why a man, and not an ox nor an ass, is generated by a drop of human blood, is the effectual power of the Word which was spoken of God, at the creation of all things, " in the beginning!" It is in all divine truth, therefore, that Christ teaches us, in the Lord's Prayer, to call upon God as oiu* Father, and that the Creed teaches us to confess God as our Creator. When we look back, therefore, to this First Cause, then can we speak of all these things with pureness, with holi- ness, and with joy. But if we leave out the First Cause, we cannot even think of them without baseness and obscenity !

From this part also of our sacred discussion, we farther behold the horrible nature of the fall and of original sin, in that the whole human race are sunk in ignorance of their very origin. We see male and female come together in marriage union. We see the female, at her appointed time, bring forth her infant into the light of heaven. These things (we repeat) are familiar to the sight and to the knowledge of all ; and yet, if the Word teach and instruct thee not, thou knowest nothing of the marvellous work which is wrought, and which thine eyes behold. This ignorance is abundantly proved by the vain disputations of philo- sophers, which we have just been contemplating. Is not this, then, a miserable ignorance and a horrible blindness ?

Whereas, had Adam continued in his innocency, he would have found no need of instructing his posterity in their origin, even as there was no need of being himself instructed in the creation of his wife Eve ; — the moment he saw her he knew that she was " bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh !" And the same knowledge of themselves, had the original innocence continued, would have existed in all the posterity of Adam. They would have all understood the Great final and efficient Cause, of which thin CCS we now know little, or nothing more than the beasts of the earth themselves.

Having thus discussed, as was necessary, the divine facts them- selves, contained in the text before us, let us now consider the expressions used by the sacred historian in recording them.

The Lord God (saith !Moses) caused to glide, or to fall, upon

CREATION. 173

Adam Thardemah, ' a slumber,' or a ' deep sleep ; ' for the verb Radam signifies ' to fall asleep as those do who become drowsy unawares, and nod the head.' For there are various kinds and degrees of sleep ; some are heavy and profound, which are so deep as to be disturbed by no dreams. These are health- ful, because they moisten the body, and are beneficial to promote digestion, and are attended with no distress to the head. Others, again, are light, mingled, as it were, with wakefulness. In these latter, dreams are more freqn.ent. They also, more or less, dis- tress the head, and are proofs of a weakness of body. Moses says, therefore, that Adam was sunk into a profound sleep ; so that, stretched on the grassy earth, he fetched deep breathings, as those do who sleep well and sweetly. It was such a sleep as this that God (as Moses informs us) caused to fall upon Adam. And this is, indeed, a sleep truly divine — a most delightful gift of God, which comes down upon us like dew from above, and softly pervades and irrorates the whole body. When Adam, therefore, was thus fallen asleep, the Lord took out one of his ribs. The Hebrew word Zela signifies, 'the rib with the side.' Wherefore, my view of the passage is, that the Lord did not take the bare rib of Adam, but the rib clothed with the flesh, according to that very expression of Adam below (ver. 23) " this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." And the Lord (be it observed) did this by His Word. So that we are not to suppose that God used any cutting, after the manner of a surgeon. God said, out of this bone thus clothed with flesh, " Let there be w^oman !" and there was woman ! And God afterwards filled up the aperture in his side with fiesh.

Here a discussion is raised by some marvellous triflers of com- mentators. They will have it that the male has more ribs on one side of the body than on the other. But surgeons, who are anatomists, know better than this. Lyra disputes the point thus : — ' Are we to consider that the extracted rib was a superfluous one in the body of Adam 1 If it was so, it was a monstrosity. If it Avere not so, it must follow that Adam afterwards was defi- cient in one rib. But that also would be a monstrosit}^' At length, Lyra arrives at the conclusion, that the extracted rib was superfluous in Adam, as a solitary instance ; and that, therefore, when it had been extracted, the body of Adam was perfect ! And

174 CHAPTER II. 2].

yet, that the body of Adam was deficient in this extracted super- fluous rib, because of the creation of the woman out of it.

But to all these things we give an answer by the word, " God SAID !" This divine Word settles all arguments of this descrip- tion. What need is there, then, of disputation as to ivhence God took any particular portion of created material, who, by one word of His mouth, can create, and did create, all things ! All these idle questions, however, are used by philosophers and professors of medicine, who dispute about the works of God, without the Word of God ; whereas by their so doing, they sink out of sight both the glory of the Holy Scripture, and the glorious majesty of the Creator.

Wherefore, leaving all such questionings as these, we will abide simply by the history of the facts, as they are recorded by Moses ; — that Eve was formed out of the rib of Adam ; and that the aperture made in that part of his body was closed up with flesh. Thus Adam was made out of the dust of the ground : " I was made out of a drop of my father's blood. But how my mother conceived me, how I was formed in the womb, how my bones grew there," (Eccles. 11. 5), — all this I leave to the glory of my Creator. It is indeed incredible that a man should be born from a drop of blood ; yet it is a truth. If therefore this Almighty powder can produce a human being from a drop of blood, — why not from a lump of earth also, — why not from a rib !

And as to Adam's sleeping so profoundly, as not to feel what was done unto him; — this deepness of sleep is as it were a cer- tain sweet picture of that change which Adam would have witnessed had he continued in his state of innocency. For a righteous nature could have experienced no pains of death. Adam woidd have lived in the highest possible pleasure, in obedience to God, and in admiration of His works, until the time of his change, appointed of God, had come ; and then he would liaA^e experienced a removal something like this sleep, which fell upon him so sweetly as he lay down amid the roses, and beneath the richest foliage of trees. And in such a departing sleep would he have been changed and translated into the glorified spiritual life, feeling no more in death than he felt of his body being opened, and of the extraction of the rib, with its flesh, from his side.

CREATION. 175

But now, this nature of ours must experience the pangs of death. That dissokition of the body, however, is followed in the saints, by the sweetest of all sleep, until the day when we shall awake unto a newness of life, and a life eternal. And as Adam here, in all the fulness of wonder exclaims, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh ; and yet was so sweetly and deeply sunk in sleep, that he knew not that his rib had been ex- tracted from his side ; so shall we in that day exclaim, Behold, into what sudden glory does this body, lately gnawed by worms, arise !

Thus, then, have we spoken with sufficient copiousness (we think) upon the creation of Eve ; which creation, although it seems to human reason perfectly fabulous, is yet most sure and certain truth, because it is recorded in the Word of God, which alone teacheth the truth concerning the two jmncipal causes of philosophers, the efficient and the final; and concerning the Great First Cause of all causes. The knowledge of which two causes, where it can be obtained, is of the utmost moment, even in natural things. For what doth it profit to know hoAV beautiful a creature man is, if you Icnow not the end for which he was created ; — that he was created for the worship of God ; and that he might live to all eternity with God. Ai'istotle does indeed say a worthy something, when he makes the end of man to be happiness ; a happiness consisting in the action of virtue. But in all this weakness of our nature, who is there that ever yet attained unto that end ? when even the very best of men are ex- posed to a multitude of evils, which the common trials of life, or the depravity and malice of men, are sure to bring upon them. That happiness of which Ai-istotle speaks, requires tranquillity of mind to make it perfect ; but who can always hold fast that peace of mind, amid such tossings to and fro of human life. In vain, therefore, is such an end proposed by the philosopher, which no man can attain.

The principal end of man, therefore, which the Holy Scrip- ture sets before us is, that man was created in the likeness of God, with the DiWne intent that he should live for ever with God ; and that while here on earth, he should praise and extol God, give Him thanks, and obey His Word in all patience. And this end, by some means or other, through grace, we do attain,

176

CHAPTER II. 22.

though with all infirmity, in this life ; and in the life to come we shall attain unto it perfectly. Of these things philosophers know nothing. And. therefore the world, in the height of all its wisdom, is yet sunk in the deepest ignorance, wherever it is found desti- tute of the Word, or of theology. For men, without the Word, know nothing of their beginning or their end. I mention not any of the other living creatures, who are not created (as we have abundantly shown), to know any of these things, nor to partake of these high blessings.

(Authorized Version.)

Ver. 22. Arid the rib, tvliich the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and, brought her unto the man.

(Luther's Version.)

Ver. 22. And the Lord God built the rib u-hich He had taken from Adam, into a icoman, and brought her unto the inan.

A new expression this, unheard before. Moses does not use the verb ' to fonn,' or ' to make,' as he had done all along ; but the verb ' to build.' This has caused all commentators to con- clude, that some great mystery lies under so singular a phraseo- logy. Lyra thinks, with his Rabbi Solomon, that the new form of the female body, is intended to be intimated. For, as the form of buildings is broader at the base, but narrower at the upper part ; so, he says, the bodies of M^omen are broader in the middle, and more contracted in the upper parts : while men have wider chests, and broader shoulders. But these are mere peculiarities of certain parts of the body ; whereas the Scripture is speaking of the body as a whole, and calling it a building ; just as Christ Himself calls the body, the house of a man (Matt. 12. 29).

Others have recourse to an allegory, and say, that the w^oman is here called ' a building,' on account of her being spoken of in the Scripture as a similitude of the Church. And as in a house there are various parts — walls, beams, rafters, roof, &c. ; so, in the Church, which is represented by the Holy Spirit under the similitude of a body, on account of the diversity of its members, there are various offices and administrations. As to myself, I am by no means displeased at any thing that is appropriately ad-

CREATION. 177

vanced by those who would transfer what is here said respecting the building of the woman, to Christ and His Chui'ch. But as all these opinions amount only to an allegory after all ; the historical and proper meaning of this passage must be diligently searched into, and retained. For a woman, especially a married woman, is here sacredly termed '■ a building,' not allegorically, but his- torically, and really. And the Scripture universally uses this form of expression.

Hence Rachel says to Jacob, " Take my maid Bilhah, that I may also be built up by her" (Gen. 30. 3). The Scripture speaks in the same manner also concerning Sarah (Gen. 16. 2). And in Exodus, it is said, concerning the midwives, " that the Lord built them a house" (Exod. 1. 21); that is, that the Lord repaid them for all the services which they had rendered unto His people Israel, contrary to the command of the king, by blessing them with a household and family. So, again, in the history of David, when he had it in his heart to build a house for the Lord, he receives this answer from God by Nathan ; " Furthermore, I tell thee, that the Lord will build thee an house" (1 Chron. 17. 10).

It is a form of expression, therefore, quite general in the Scrip- ture, to term a woman a domestic " building," on account of the fruits of generation, and the bringing up of the offspring. But the real nature of this building up, which would have existed had Adam not fallen, we have now lost by his sin ; so that we cannot now reach it (as we have all along observed) even in thought. Our present fallen condition, in this life, retains (as I have before repeatedly stated) certain small miserable remnants of the original domestic life, cultivation of the earth, and defence of property ; and also of dominion over the beasts. We have the rule over sheep, oxen, geese, fowls, etc. ; though boars, bears, lions, etc., I'egard not this our dominion. So also there remains a certain hardly visible remnant of this female building. Whoso taketh to himself a wife, hath, as it were, in her a certain nest and home. He dwells with her in a certain place, as birds nestle with their young in their little nest. But this dwelhng together in the one nest they know not, who live unmarried, like the im- pure Papists.

This living together of male and female, as man and wife, in

M

178 CHAPTER II. 22.

tlie state of matrimony, their together managing their domestic concerns, their together being blessed with an offspring, their bring- ing up their children, is a certain hardly discernible picture and remnant of that blessed original married life ; on account of the nature of which, Moses here terms the woman a " building." The posterity of Adam, had he continued in his innocency, w^ould have taken to themselves wives, would have parted from Adam their father, and would have chosen for themselves certain little garden spots of their own ; and would have there dwelt with their wives, tilled the ground, and brought up their children. There would have been no need of splendid mansions built of hewn stone, nor of rich kitchens, nor cellars of wine, which now make up the luxu- ries of life. But as birds, iai their little nests, the married pairs would have dwelt together, here and there, diligently labouring and calling upon God. And the women would have been the principal cause of their husbands living in certain dwelling places, in paradise. Whereas now, under our present fallen and calamitous state by sin, we absolutely need houses of wood and stone, to defend us from the injuries of the weather. And though we cannot form even a conception (as we have said) of the ori- ginal felicity of man and woman in their marriage happiness, yet even these miserable remnants (we repeat) are excellent gifts of God ; to live in the possession of which, without continual thanks, is wickedness in the extreme.

With reference to the " dominion" which man received from the hand of God ; we all feel how much of that dominion is lost, since our fall and defilement by sin. Yet, after all, what an in- finite mercy still remains to us, that this " dominion" Avas given to man, and not to the devil ! For how should we possibly have been able to stand, in this matter, against such an invisible enemy 1 especially if a power to harm, had been possessed by him, equal to his will f We might all have been in danger of annihilation in an hour, yea, in a moment, if Satan had deter- mined to infuriate the wild beasts against us. Although, there- fore, well nigh all the original " dominion" is lost : it is an infi- nite blessing, that our present remnants of it are not possessed by the devil !

It is an infinite mercy, also, that we possess our present rem- nants of generation. Although, in the state of original inno-

CREATION. 179

cency, women, as we know^ would have brought forth without pain ; yet there would have been a nmch more extensive fruit- fulness. Whereas now, the blessing of generation is impeded by numberless diseases. It often happens that the fi-uit of the womb does not arrive at maturity and birth, and sometimes the woman is barren altogether. All these defects are the punishments of the horrible fall of Adam, and of original sin. Just in the same manner, to this present day, is the woman the " building," and house, and home, of the husband. To the woman the man de- votes himself. With her he lives : and, together with her, he undertakes the labour and care of bringing up the family ; as it is written below (ver, 24), " Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife," &c.

But this living together as a man and wife is not only attended with those other trials, which afflict the marriage state in great number and variety on account of sin, but is also astonishingly deformed and marred by perverse nature : seeing that there are not only those who consider it to be very wise and great to re- proach the female sex, and to despise marriage, but who even forsake the AN'ives whom they have married, and who cast off all paternal care of their children. Such men destroy the building of God by their perverseness and wickedness. Men of this de- scription are a kind of monsters in nature. Wherefore let us shew our obedience to the Word of God, by acknowledging our wives to be the building of the Lord ; through whom not only our house is built up by generation, and by whom other neces- sary domestic duties are performed ; but through whom we the husbands themselves also are built up, by our rising offspring around us. For wives are (as we have said) a certain nest and centre of habitation to which the husbands resort, where they dwell and live \n pleasure and happiness.

When Moses adds. And he brought her imto the man, this is a certain divine description of espousals especially worthy our observation. For Adam does not take hold of Eve when created and draw her to himself, according to his own purpose and will, but he waits till God brings her to him ; just according to the saying of Christ, What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder, (Matt. 19. 6,) for the joinmg of male and female is a lawful joining and ordinance, and an institution divine !

180 CHAPTER II. 22.

A^^erefore Moses here adopts his peculiar and appropriate phraseolog}^, And He brought her to the Man. Who brought her to the man ? — He — God— Jehovah — Eloim — The Lord God — The Whole Divinity — The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These all unitedly say to Adam, Behold, this is thy wife with whom thou art to dwell, and with whom thou art to generate and bring up children. And there is no doubt what- ever that Adam received Eve with the utmost pleasure ; for even now, in this corrupt state of nature, the mutual love between hus- band and wife is peculiar, and great, and excellent.

This particular passage demands, as I have said, our particular observation. For it stands as the revealed will of God, not only against all abuses of the sex, and all lusts of every kind, but also as a confirmation of marriage, and all those impious hatings and revilings and refusings by which the papacy has deformed and marred matrimony. Is it not a matter, then, of great admiration that God instituted and ordained marriage even in the state of innocency ? Much more need, then, have we of this divine in- stitution and ordination in our present state, wherein our flesh is weak, and so corrupt through sin ! This divine consolation, therefore, stands proof and invincible against all doctrines of devils (1 Tim. 4. 1). By the Scripture before us, we see that marriage is a state of life divine — that is, ordained of God himself.

What was it, therefore, that came into the minds of those tools of Satan, and enemies of Christ, who deny that there could be any holiness or chastity in marriage, and who affirmed that those only were adapted for ministers of churches who lived in celibacy, because the Scripture (they argued) said. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord (Is. 52. 11). Are then those who are married unclean ? If so, God Himself is the author and insti- tutor of un cleanness, who Himself brought Eve to Adam. Adam himself also did evil in suffering himself to be persuaded to enter into a state of un cleanness, when his natm'e, in his state of inno- cency, needed not marriage. But have not the impious Papists suffered the righteous punishments of such blasphemies as these ? They have not only polluted themselves with harlots in multi- tudes, but have indulged in other unmentionable wickednesses, even unto abomination, and are at this day just ripe for the pun- ishments of Sodom and Gomorrah.

CltEATION. 181

When I myself was a boy, marriage was positively considered BO infamous on account of all this impure and impious celibacy, that I used to believe I could not even think of the married life without sin. For the minds of men generally were filled with the persuasion that if any one wished to live a holy life, and a life acceptable to God, a man must never become a husband, nor a woman a wife, but must take upon them the vow of celibacy ; and hence many men who had married became, on the deaths of their wives, either monks or contemptible priests. All those worthy men, therefore, who have laboured and endeavoui'ed to cause marriage to be honoured as aforetime, according to the Word of God, and to be held in all its due praises, have taken upon themselves a highly useful and necessary service to the Church of Christ. So that now, blessed be God, all men consider it to be good, and holy to live in unanimity and tran- quillity with a wife, even though it should be the lot of any one (Prov. 16. 33) to have a wife that is barren, or labouring under any other affliction.

I do not, however, deny that there are some men Avho can live chastely without marriage ; but let these who have thus a gift greater than the most of mankind, sail in their own ship. But as for that chastity which the Pope so highly lauds in his monks and nuns, and contemptible priests, it is, in the first place, pol- luted and contaminated by numberless horrible sins ; and, in ad- dition to all this, celibacy is an institution of man without any warrant fi-om the Word of God. O, what triumphs would the Papists celebrate could they but prove by the Word of God their celibacy to be a Divine institution, as we can abi^ndantly prove marriage to be. AVith what mighty weight of the Pope's autho- rity would they compel all men to adopt their life of celibacy. Whereas, now, the only commendation of celibacy which they can discover, is a tradition of men, or rather, as Paul hath it, a doctrine of devils (Col. 2. 8 ; 1 Tim. 4. 1).

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 23. And Adam said, This is now hone of my hones, and flesh of my flesh.

The sentence which will immediately follow — Therefore shall

182 CHAPTER II. 23.

a man leave his father and his mother, &c., is cited by our Lord, Matt. 19. 5, as the words of God Himself, and not of Adam. But in that particular point there is no difficulty whatever : be- cause, as Adam was pure and holy, the words of Adam may rightly be said to be divine words, or the voice of God : for God spoke through him. All the word and the works of Adam, therefore, in that state of innocency are divine : and, therefore, may truly be said to be the words and works of God.

Eve is presented to Adam by God Himself. And just in the same manner as the will of God is prepared to institute marriage, so Adam is prepared to receive Eve with all pleasure and holi- ness when brought unto him. So even now, also, the affection of the intended husband towards his betrothed spouse, is of a particular and elevated kind. It is, nevertheless, deeply conta- minated with that leprous lust of the flesh which, in righteous Adam, had no existence. :f.

It is, as we have already observed, worthy /our greatest wonder and admiration, that Adam, the moment he glanced his eye on Eve, knew her to be a building formed out of himself. He im- mediately said — ' This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.' — These are not the words of an ignorant one, nor of one who was a sinner ; nor of one who was ignorant of the works and of the creation of God. They are the words of one righteous and wise, and full of the Holy Spirit : of that Holy Spirit who reveals to the world, before ignorant of such high and holy wisdom, that God is the efficient cause of marriage and of man's betaking to himself a wife ; — and that the final cause of marriage is that the wife might be unto her husband a civil, and moral, and domestic habitation, and cohabitation. This knowledge cometh not from sense and reason merely. It is a revelation, as we here see, of the Holy Spirit.

The expression hapaam, — ' now,' or ' in this instance,' or ' at length,' is by no means useless or superfluous as it may, at first, seem to be. That very word in this sentence, uttered by Adam, most beautifully expresses the glad surprise and exulting joy of a noble spirit which had been seeking this delightful meet com- panion of life and of bed ; — a companionship, full, not only of love, but of holiness also ; — as if Adam had said, I have seen all beasts. I have considered all the females among them given to

CREATIOX. 183

them of God, for the iniiltiplication and preservation of their kind. — But all these are nothing to me ! This female, however, is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. — She is at length what and all I want ! With her I desire to live ! and with her to obey the will of God in the propagation of a posterity. This is the kind of overflowing feeling of joy and love which this parti- cular word ' hapaam,' used by Adam, is intended to express.

Now, however, this true purity, innocence, and holiness, are lost. There still remains, indeed, a feeling of joy and affection, in the intended husband, towards his spouse ; but it is impure and corrupt, on account of sin. But the affection of Adam was most pure, and most holy, and most grateful to God, when under the excess of it, he said — ' This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.' She is not made of stone, nor of wood, nor of a lump of earth, as I was. She is nearer to me than all this ! for she is made of my own very bones and very flesh.

(Authorised version.)

Ver. 23. She shall be called Woman ; because she toas taken out of Man.

(Luther's version.)

She shall he called man-formed female fviragoj ; because she was taken out of 7nan fvirj.

As, therefore, Adam knew by the Holy Spirit, the things j ust men- tioned ; which things he saw not, nor knew, before ; and as when he saw them by the revelation of the Spirit, he praises God and extols Him for His having created for him a meet life-companion, out of his own body ; so now, by the same Spu'it, he prophesies of his Eve's future, when he says that she ought to be called a man-formed or man-like female (virago). — The truth is, that it is utterly impossible for any interpreter to convey through any other language the peculiar strength and beauty of the original Hebrew expression. IsCH signifies a man ; and Adam says, concerning Eve, She shall be called ischa, as if toe should say, She shall be called vira, from vir. Because a wife is an heroic or man-like woman ; for she does man-like things, and performs man-like duties.

184 CHAPTEE 11. 23.

This appellation, which Adam gives to the woman, contains in it a wonderful and sweet description of marriage ; in which, as tjie lawyers express it — The woman shines in the rays of her husband. For whatsoever the husband possesses, the whole of the same is possessed and held by the wife also. And not only is all their wealth possessed by them in common, but their chil- dren also, their food, their bed, and their habitation : and their wishes are also equal. So that the husband differs from the wife in no other thing than in sex. In every other respect, the woman is really a man. For whatsoever the man possesses in their house, the woman possesses also ; and what the man is, that also is the woman : she differs from the man in sex only. In a word, the woman, as Paul remarks in his instructions to Timothy, is man-formed and man-like (virago) by her very origin ; for, (as the apostle saith to Timothy) Adam was first formed, then Eve (1 Tim. 2. 13).

Of this communion of all things in marriage, we still possess also some feeble remnants ; thougli, miserable indeed they be when compared with what they were in their original state. For even now the wife, if she be but an honovirable, modest, and godly woman, participates in all the cares, wishes, desires, pur- suits, duties, and actions of her husband. And it was for this end, indeed, that she was created " in the beginning ;" and for this end, was called, virago (or, as we may express it, with proper and correct latinity, vira) from vir, ' a man ;' that she might differ, in sex only, from the father of the family.

And though this name can apply in its strictest and fullest sense to Eve only ; who, alone of all women, w^as created thus out of man, yet our Lord applies the whole sentence of Adam to all wives, when he says, that man and wife are one flesh (Matt. 19. 5, 6). Although, therefore, thy wife be not made of thy flesh and thy bones ; yet, because she is thy wife, she is as much the mistress of thy house, as thou art the master thereof, except that by the law of God, which was brought in after the fall, the woman is made subject to the man. That is the woman's punishment, as are many other troubles also which come short of the glories of paradise ; concerning which glories, the sacred text now before us gives us so much information. For Moses is not here speaking of the miserable life which all married people

CREATION. 185

now live ; but concerning the life of innocpncy, in which, had that innocency continued, the government of the man and of the woman would have been equal and the same.

Hence it is, as we have said, that Adam gave the name, " woman," (ischa), or ' man-formed female' (virago, or vira), to Eve, prophetically, also on account of the equal administra- tion of all things with her husband in the house. But now the sweat of the brow rests upon the man. And to the wife it is commanded that she be in subjection to the man. There still remain, however, as we have said, certain remnants, or dregs, as it were, of the woman's dominion. So that the wife may still be called man-like female {virago), on account of her sameness of possession of all things.

Ver. 24. Tlierefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, ayid shall cleave unto his wife.

Both Christ and Paul apply these words also of Adam, as a common rule or law for our marriages, since the loss of original innocence. If, therefore, Adam had remained in his original state of innocency, the children born unto him would have married ; and leaving the table, and the dwelling-place of their parents, and livincT no lono-er with them, would have had their own trees under which they would have lived separate from their parents. They would have come from time to time to their father Adam, would have sung an hymn, would have spoken gloriously of God, would have called upon Him, and would have returned afterwards to their own places.

And even now, although all other things are changed, yet this close bond between married persons still remains in much firm- ness. So that a man would leave his father and his mother much sooner than he would leave his wife. And where we find the contrary to this, (for married persons are now sometimes found to leave and forsake each other ;) all this is not only con- trary to the present Divine command, by the mouth of Adam ; but such things are awful signs of that horrible corruption, which has come upon man through sin ; and such corruption and unfaithfulness, are greatly increased by Satan, the father of all dissensions.

186 CHAPTER II. 24.

Heathen nations, also, have discovered that there is nothing more appropriate for man, nor beneficial for kingdoms, than this oneness of the life of married persons. Hence, they affirm, that it is a conclusion drawn from the law of nature, that a wife, who shall retain her individuality, or oneness of life with her husband, even unto death, is necessary for man. Hence, also, Christ Himself saith, that Moses suffered the Jews to give their wives a bill of divorcement, because of the hardness of their hearts ; but that in the beginning it was not so (Mark 10. 4). These evils of divorcements have all arisen, since the fall, through sin ; as have also adulteries, poisonings, and such like, which are some- times found among married persons. Scarce a thousandth part of that primitive innocent holy marriage is now left to us. And even to this day (as we have said) the husband and the wife have their home-nest, for the sake of mutual help and generation, according to the command of God, issued by the mouth of our first parent Adam ; by which, this state of manned life, and this leaving father and mother is exaltedly and gloriously commended, as well as commanded of God Himself; as Christ also affirms, in His references to the words of Adam, on which we are now dwelling.

This ' leaving father and mother,' however, is not to be under- stood as a command that the children of Adam, when married, should have nothing more to do with their parents. The com- mand reaches only to dwelling any longer with their father and mother. It enjoins the children, when married, to have their own home-nest. In the present state of sin, and all its various evils, we often find that children are compelled to support their parents, when worn down with age and necessities. But had paradise and all its innocency continued, the state of life (as we have all along observed), would have been inconceivably more exalted and blessed than our present fallen and sinful condition. Yet even then this same command of Adam, or rather of God Himself, would have been obeyed. The husband, through love of his wife, would have chosen his ground-spot and made his home- nest with her, as the little birds do, and would have left his father and his mother for that end.

This sentence of Adam, however, is prophetic also. For as yet there was no father or mother ; nor, consequently, were there

CREATION. 187

any children. Adam, nevertheless, through the Holy Spirit, prophesies of that married life, which should be, in the world ; and predictively describes the separate dwelling of man and wife, and the separate domestic authorities and governments of the several families, in all ages ; — that each family should have their own nest-habitation, and authority, and rule.

Ver. 25. And they icere both nahed, the man and his loife, and were not ashamed.

This short closing sentence of the present chapter might have been omitted, (as it at first appears,) without any loss : seeing that it mentions a circumstance, for recording which there seems no great necessity. For what does it seem to concern us, to know, whether those in paradise walked about naked, or clothed in raiment ? This little clause of the concluding sentence, how- ever, is very striking, and very necessary. It shows us, in a matter which may seem to us quite insignificant, how dreadful an amount of evil this nature of ours has suffered, through ori- ginal sin. — All nations, more especially those which lie towards the north, hold nakedness of the body in great abhorrence. In like manner, the more grave and modest characters among us, not only condemn short military jackets, as they are called, which are worn by our youth, but avoid public baths. And our uncomely parts (1 Cor. 12. 23) are always most studiously covered. This, among us, is a wisdom and a moral discipline worthy of all praise. But Adam and Eve (Moses informs us) went about naked, and were not ashamed. In them, therefore, to go about naked, was not only not disgraceful, but even laud- able, delightful, and glorious to God.

But all this delight and glory we have now lost by sin. We alone, of all ci'eatures, are born naked ; and, with an uncovered skin, we enter at first into this world. Whereas, all the other animals bring into the world with them, as coverings of their own, skins, hairs, or bristles, or feathers, or scales. We, on the other hand, continually need the shadow of buildings to protect us from the heat of the sun, and a" multitude of garments to defend us from the rain, the hail, the frost, and the snow. Adam, how- ever, had he continued innocent, would have felt none of these

188 CHAPTER II. 25.

injuries or inconveniences. But as the human eyes retain still that peculiarity of nature, that they are not evilly affected, or distressed, either by cold or by heat ; so would the whole body of Adam have been entirely free from the distresses of cold or heat, had he never fallen.

This brief clause, therefore, shows us (as we have said) the awfulness of the evil which has come upon us, as the consequence of the sin of Adam. For, if any one should now dare to appear naked, it would be considered a proof of utter insanity. That very state of body, therefore, which was, in Adam and Eve, their highest gloiy, would be, in us, should we be seen in that state, our deepest shame. It was the very glory of man, and would have continued to be so, had he remained in his original inno- cency, that while all the other animals had need of hairs, feathers, and scales, &c., to cover their unsightliness, man alone was created with that dignity and beauty of body, that he could appear, uncovered, in the glory of his created nakedness. But (as we have repeatedly observed) all this glory is lost. We are now compelled, not only for necessary protection, but for the sake of avoiding the deepest turpitude, to cover our bodies with more study and care than any other animals of God's creation. For they all come into the world covered by nature.

After this manner, therefore, does this second chapter of the Book of Genesis more clearly and fnlly describe the creation- work of the sixth day. — In what manner man was created by the wonderful counsel of God. — In what manner the garden of Eden was formed : in which man might have lived in the highest pos- sible pleasure. — In what manner, by means of the prohibition of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the external worship of the future church was instituted by Divine authority : — by which external worship, and in which place, had the prohibition of the tree of the knowledge not been violated by Adam and Eve, they would have testified their obedience to God, had they not been deceived and drawn aside by the snares of Satan.

Some suppose that Adam, with his Eve, passed the night of the siosth day in paradise, until the following seventh day, the Sabbath. — And what occuiTed on the Sabbath day, the follow- ing chapter will inform us.

CREATION. 189

CHAPTER III.

Ver. 1. Noio the serpent teas more subtile them any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

In the preceding chapter, we have been taught the manner in which man was created on the sixth day ; — that he was created in the image and after the likeness of God ; that his will was good and perfect ; and that his reason, or intellect, was also per- fect : so that, whatsoever God willed or said, — that man also willed, believed, and understood. And this knowledge was necessarily accompanied by the knowledge of all other creatures, &c. For wheresoever the perfect knowledge of God is, there must also be, of necessity, the perfect knowledge of other things, which are inferior to God.

This original state of things shows how horrible the fall of Adam and Eve was, by which we have lost all that most beauti- fully and gloriously illumined reason, and all that will which was wholly conformed to the Word and will of God. For by the same sin and ruin, we have lost also all the original dignity of our bodies : so that now, it is the extreme of baseness to be seen " naked ;" whereas, originally, that nudity was the especial and most beautiful and dignified privilege of the human race, with which they were endowed of God, above all the beasts of the creation. And the greatest loss of all these losses is, that not only is the will lost, but there has followed, in its place, a certain absolute aversion to the will of God. So that man neither wills nor does any one of those things which God wills and com- mands. Nay, we know not what God is, what grace is, what righteousness is ; nor, in fact, what sin itself is Avhich has caused the loss of all.

These are indeed horrible defects in our fallen nature, which they who see not, nor understand, are more blind than moles. Universal experience does indeed show us all these calamities ; but we never feel the real magnitude of them, until we look back to that unintelligible but real state of innocency, in which there existed the perfection of will, the perfection of reason, and that

190 CUAPTER III, 1.

glorious dignity of tlie nakedness of the human body. When we truly contemplate oiu' loss of all these gifts, and contrast that privation with the original possession of them ; then do we, in some measure, estimate the mighty evil of original sin.

Great causes of great error therefore are created by those who extenuate this mighty evil of original sin ; who speak of our corrupt nature after the manner of philosophers, who would re- present human nature as not thus corrupted. For such men maintain, that there remain, not only in the nature of man, but in the nature of the de\al also, certain natural qualities which are sound and whole. But this is utterly false. What and how little remains in us that is good and whole, we do indeed in some measure see and feel. But what and how much we have lost, they most certainly see not who dispute about certain remnants of good being still left in human nature. For, most certainly, a good and upright and perfect will, well-pleasing to God, obe- dient to God, confiding in the Creator, and righteously using all His creatm'es with thanksgiving, is wholly lost. So that our fallen will makes, out of God, a devil, and dreads the very men- tion of His name ; especially when hard pressed under His judg- ments. Are these things, I pray you, proofs that human nature is whole and uncorrupt '^

But consider the state of those things which are inferior to these that appertain unto God Himself. The marriage union of male and female is an institution appointed of God. How is that union polluted by the fall and by sin ! With what fury of lust is the flesh inflamed. By means of sin, therefore, this divinely appointed union has lost all its beauty and glory, as a work of God, and is defiled with pollutions, corruptions, and sins, innumerable. In like manner, also, we have a body ; but how miserable, how variously deformed by sin ! — no longer retaining the dignity of nakedness, but requiring careful and perpetual coverings of its shame.

So also we possess a will, and a power of reason. But with what multiplied corruptions are they vitiated ! For as our reason is beclouded with great and varied ignorance ; so our will also is not only greatly warped by self-will ; and not only averse to God, but the enemy of God ! It rushes with j^leasure into evil, when it ought to be doing quite the contrary. This multiform corrup-

CREATION. 191

tion of nature, therefore, ought not only not to be extenuated, but to be as much as possible magnified. It ought to be shown that man is not only fallen from the image of God, from the knowledge of God, from the knowledge of all other creatures, and from all the dignity and glory of his nakedness, into ignor- ance of God, into blasphemies against God, and into hatred and contempt of God ; but that he is fallen even into enmity against God ; — to say nothing, at the present time, of that tyranny of Satan to which oiu' nature has by sin made itself the basest slave. These things (I say) are not to be extenuated, but to be magnified by every possible description of them ; because, if the magnitude of our disease be not fully known, we shall never know nor de- sire the remedy. Moreover, the more you extenuate sin, the less you make grace to be valued.

And there is nothing which can tend to amplify and magnify the nature and extent of original sin, more fully and appropri- ately, than the words of Moses himself, when he says, that Adam and Eve were both naked, and were not ashamed. No polluted lust was excited by the sight of each other's nakedness. But the one, looking on the other, saw and acknowledged the goodness of God. They both rejoiced in God, and both felt secure in the goodness of God. Whereas now, we not only cannot feel our- selves free from sin : not only do not feel ourselves secm'e in the goodness of God, but labour under hatred of God, and despair of His goodness and mercy. Such a honible state of fall as this, clearly proves how far nature is from being in any degree sound and whole.

But with how much greater impudence still, do our human reasoners make this their affirmation of there being still left something sound and whole, in the nature of the devil! For in the devil there is a gi'eater enmity, hatred, and rage, against God, than in man. But the devil was not created thus evil. He had a will conformed to the will of God. This will, how- ever, he lost : and he lost also that most beautiful and most lucid intellect, with which he was endowed; and he was converted into a horrible spirit, filled with rage against his Creator. ]\fust not that have been then a most awful corruption, Avhich trans- formed a friend of God into the most bitter and determined enemy of God !

192 CHAPTER III. 1.

But here human reasoners bring forward that sentence of Aristotle — " Reason prays for the best." And they attempt to confirm it, by passages from the Scriptures, and by the opinions of philosophers, who hold that right reason is the cause of all virtues. Now, I deny not that these sentiments are true, when they are applied to things which are subject to reason ; such as the management of cattle, the building of a house, and the sowing of a field. But in the higher and divine things, they are not true. For how can that reason be said to be right reason, which hates God ? How can that will be said to be good, which resists the will of God, and refuses to obey God? When, therefore, men say with Aristotle, " Reason prays for the best," reply thou to them, — Yes ! Reason prays for the best, humanly ; that is, in things in which reason has a judgment. In such things, reason dictates and leads to what is good and useful, in a human, bodily, or carnal, sense. But since reason is filled with ignor- ance of God, and aversion to the will of God ; — how can reason be called good, in this sense *? For it is a well-known fact, that when the knowledge of God is preached, with the intent that reason may be restored ; then, those who are the best men (if I may so speak), and who are men of the best kind of reason and will, are those who the most bitterly hate the gospel.

In the sacred matter of divinity, therefore, let our sentiments be, that reason, in all men, stands at the greatest enmity against God : and also, that the best will, in men, is most adverse to the will of God : seeing that, from this very source, arise hatred of the Word, and persecution of all godly ministers. Wherefore, (as I said) let us never extenuate, but the rather magnify, that mighty evil, which human natui'e has derived, from the sin of our first parents : then will the effect be, that we shall deplore this our fallen state, and cry and sigh unto Christ our Great Physician, who was sent unto us by the Father, for the very end that those evils, which Satan has inflicted on us through sin, might by Him be healed, and that we might be restored unto that eternal glory, which by sin we had lost.

But with reference to that part of the sacred history, which Moses describes in this chapter, — it has reference to that persua- sion of my own mind, which I have already expressed ; namely, my belief, that this temptation took place on the Sabbath-day.

CREATION. 193

For my opinion is, that Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day ; Adam earher in the day, and Eve, in the evening- On the following day, which was the Sabbath-day, Adam (as I believe) spoke to his wife Eve, concerning the will of God : in- forming her, that the most good and gracious Lord had created the whole of paradise for the use and pleasure of men ; that He had also created, by His especial goodness, the tree of life ; by the use of which, the powei's of their bodies might be restored, and continued in perpetual youth ; but that one tree, — the tree of knowledge of good and evil, was prohibited ; of which it was not lawful for them to eat ; and, that tliis obedience to theur merciful Creator they were solemnly bound to render. After Adam had communicated this information to Eve, he perhaps led her about in paradise, and showed her the prohibited tree. — Thus did Adam and Eve, in all probability, in all their original innocence and righteousness, full of safety and security through their confidence in their God, so good, and so merciful, walk about together in paradise ; considering together the word and the command of God ; and blessing their God, on the Sabbath-day, as they ought to do. But in the midst of all this happiness, (Oh ! the grief!) Satan enters; and, within a few hours, destroys the whole of it ; as we shall in this chapter hear.

Here, again, is poured in a whole sea of questions. — For curious men inquire, why God permitted so much to Satan, as to tempt Eve ? They ask, also, why Satan employed the serpent, in his temptation of Eve, rather than any other beast of the creation. — But who shall render a reason for those things, which he sees the Divine Majesty to have permitted to be done ? Why do we not rather say, with Job, that God cannot be called to an account? and that none can compel Him to render unto us His own reasons for all those things which He does, or permits to be done ? Why do we not, on the same ground, expostulate with God, because the grass is not green, nor the trees in leaf, all the year round, now, as in the beginning ? For I fully be- lieve, that, in paradise, had the state of original innocency con- tinued, there would have been a perpetual Spring, without any Winter or frosts, or snow, as they now exist, since the fall and its sin. — All these things depend wholly on the will and power of God. This is enough for us to know. To inquii'e into these

194 CHAPTER III. 1.

things farther than this, — is impious curiosity ! Wherefore, let us, the clay of His hands, cease to inquire into and dispute about such things as these ; which belong alone to the will of our Potter ! Let us not judge our God, but rather leave ourselves to be judged by Kira.

The answer, therefore, to all such questions and reasonings ought to be this. — It pleased the Lord that Adam should be put under peril and trial ; that he might exercise his powers. Just as now, when we are baptized, and translated into the kingdom of Christ, God \n]\. not have us to be at ease. He will have His Word and His gifts to be exercised by us. Therefore He permits us, weak creatures, to be put into the sieve of Satan. Hence it is, that we see the church, when made clean by the Word, to be put under perpetual peril and trial. The sacramentarians, the anabaptists, and other fanatical teachers, who harass the church with various trials, are stirred up against her ; to which, her great trials, are also added internal vexations. All these things are permitted of God to take place : not, however, because it is His intention to forsake His church, or to suffer her to perish. But as wisdom saith, all these conflicts are brought upon the church, and upon the godly, that they might overcome them ; and thus learn, by actual sight and experience, that wisdom is more powerful than all things.

Another question is here moved ; on which we may dispute, perhaps, with less peril, and with greater profit ; — why the Scripture speaks of this matter thus obscurely, and does not openly say, that one of the fallen angels entered into the serpent, and, through the serpent, spoke to Eve and deceived her ? But to this I reply, that all these things were involved in obscurity, that they might be reserved for Christ, and for His Spirit ; whose glory it is to shine throughout the whole world, as the mid-day sun, and to open all the mysteries of the Scrij^ture. As this Spirit of Christ dwelt in the prophets ; those holy prophets understood all such mysteries of the Word. — We have said above, however, that as the beasts of the creation had each diffe- rent gifts ; so the serpent excelled all other creatures, in the gift of guile ; and therefore it was the best adapted for this stratagem of Satan.

Of this peculiarity in the serpent the present text of Moses is

CREATION. 195

an evident proof ; for lie says, at the opening of this chapter — " Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." We marvel, even now, at the gift of insidious cunning in the fox ; and also at its astonishing ingenuity in escaping danger. For sometimes, when closely pursued by the dogs, and quite worn out and ready to drop, with exhaustion, it will hold up its tail ; and while the dogs stop their course, with the intent of rushing with all their force to seize it, the fox, with marvellous celerity, secures a little advantage of ground, and thus escapes their capture. There are also other beasts whose remarkable sagacity and industry surprise us ; but subtilty was the peculiar natural property of the serpent ; and therefore it seemed to Satan to be the instrument best adapted for his deception of Eve.

Ver. 1. And he said unto the tcoman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ?

Human reasoners dispute also concerning the nature of this temptation ; as to what it really ivas ; — whether our first parents sinned by idolatry, or by pride, or by self-secmnty, or simply by eating the fruit. But if we consider these things a little more carefully, as we ought to do, we shall find that this temptation was the most awful and the most bitter of all temptations. Be- cause, the serpent attacked the good-will of God itself, and endeavoured to prove, by this very prohibition from the tree of life, that the will of God towards man was not good. The ser- pent, therefore, attacks the image of God itself. He assails those highest and most perfect of powers, which, in the newly- created nature of Adam and Eve, were as yet uncorrupt. He aims at overturning that highest worship of God, which God Himself had just ordained. In vain, therefore, do we dispute about this sin or that. For Eve is enticed unto all sins at once ; when she is thus enticed to act contrary to the Word and the will of God.

Moses, therefore, speaks here most considerately, when he uses the expression, " And the serpent saidr Here, woed attacks loord. The WORD which the Lord had spoken to Adam was, " Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat."

196 CHAPTER III. 1.

This WORD was to Adam the Gospel ; and the law thus given, was his worship. It was a service and an obedience which, in this his state of innocence, Adam was able to render unto God. These are the Divine things which Satan attacks. These are the things which he aims at overturning. Nor does he merely intend (as those think who know nothing of the matter), to point out the tree to Eve, and to invite her to pluck the fruit. He does indeed point to the tree ; but he does something far worse than this. He adds another and a new ivord; as it is his practice to do to the present day in the church.

For wheresoever the Gospel is purely preached, there men have a sure rule for their faith ; and by that they are able to guard against idolatry. But there Satan plies temptations of every kind : and he tries by what means he can the most effec- tually to draw men away from the Word, or how he can most com- pletely corrupt the Word itself. Thus, in the Greek Church also, in the time of the apostles, heresies of every kmd were stirred up. One heretic denies that Christ is the Son of God. Another denies that He is the Son of Mary ; just as the ana- baptists of our day impiously deny that Christ assumed any thing of the flesh of Mary. So, again, in the times of Basil more particularly, men attempted to deny that the Holy Ghost is God. Our own age, in like manner, has witnessed the same examples of heresies. For no sooner had a purer doctrine of the Gospel shone upon us, than assailants of the works and Word of God, of every kind, rose up on every side. Not, how- ever, that other temptations of other kinds cease. For Satan still tempts to whoredom, and to adultery, and to other like great sins. But this temptation, when Satan attacks the Word and the works of God, is by far the heaviest and most dangerous ; and that temptation the most intimately concerns the Church and the saints.

It was in this manner, therefore, that Satan attacked Adam and Eve on this solemn occasion. His aim was to tear away from them the Word, in order that, giving up the Word, and their confidence in God, they might believe a lie. Wlien this takes place, what wonder is it if a man afterwards becomes proud ? — if he becomes a despiser of God, an adulterer, or anything else ? This temptation, therefore, is the head and chief of all

CREATION. 197

temptations. It brings with it the breach and the violation of the whole ten commandments. For unbelief is the fountain- source of all sins. When Satan has brought a man under this temptation, and has wrested fi'om him, or corrupted in his heart the Word, he may do anything with him.

Thus, when Eve had suffered the Word to be beaten out of her heart, by a lie, she found no difficulty whatever in approach- ing the tree, and plucking from it the fruit. It is foolish, there- fore, to think of this temptation, as the sophists, or human- reasoners, and the monks, think of it ; — that Eve, when she had looked upon the tree, began to be inflamed by degrees, with the desire of plucking the fioiit ; until at last, overcome with the longing for it, she plucked the fruit, and put it to her mouth ; — the sum of the whole temptation, and her fall by it, were, that she listened to another word, and departed from that WORD which God had spoken to her ; which was, that if she did eat of the tree, she should surely die. But let us now contemplate the words of Moses, in the order in which we find them.

In the ji7'st place, then, Satan here imitates God. For as God had preached to Adam ; so Satan now also preaches to Eve. For perfectly tnie is that saying of the proverb, " All evil begins in the name of God !" Just, therefore, as salvation comes from the pure Word of God ; so perdition comes from the corrupted Word of God. What I term the corrupted Word of God, is not that only which is corrupted by the vocal ministry ; but that which is corrupted by the internal persuasions of the heart, or by opinions of the mind, disagreeing with the Word.

Moses implies all this in his expression, " He said." For the object of Satan was to draw away Eve, by his word, or saying, from that which God had said ; and thus, by taking the Word of God out of sight, he corrupted that perfection of will which man had before ; so that man became a rebel. Pie corrupted also his imderstanding, so that he doubted concerning the will of God. Upon this immediately followed a rebellious hand, stretched forth to pluck the fruit, contrary to the command of God ! Then followed a rebellious mouth, and rebellious teeth ; in a word, all evils soon follow upon unbelief, or doubt, concern- ing the Word and God. For what can be worse than for a man to disobey G od, and obey Satan !

198 CHAPTER 111. 1.

This very same craft and malice do all heretics imitate. Under the show of doing good, they wrest from men God and His Word. They take the Word away from before their eyes, and set before them another, and a new loord and neio god ; a god which is nowhere, and no god at all. For if you examine the words of these men, nothing can be more holy, nothing more re- ligious. They call God to witness that they seek with their whole heart the salvation of the church. They express their utter detestation of all those who teach wicked things. They profess their great desire to spread the name and the glory of God. But why should I enlarge. They wish to appear to be anything but the devil's teachers or heretics. And yet, their one whole aim is to suppress the true doctrine, and to obscure the knowledge of God. And when they have done this, the fall of their listeners is easily enough effected.

For unwary men suffer themselves to be di'awn away from the Word, to dangerous disputations (Eom. 14. 1). Not contented with the Word, they begin to inquire why and for lohat reason these and those things Avere done. And just as Eve, when she listened to the devil, calling the command of God into doubt fell ; so it continually happens, that we, by listening to him, are brought to doubt whether God is willing that we, when heavily oppressed with sin and death, should be saved by Christ ; and thus, being misled and deceived, we suffer ourselves to be in- duced to put on cowls and cloaks, in order that we may be crowned of God with salvation, on account of our works of per- fection. Thus, before men are aware, another and a new god is set before them by Satan ; for he also sets a word before us ; but not that Word which is set before us of God, who declareth, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached unto all men in the name of Christ (Luke 24. 47). When the Word of God is in this manner altered and corrupted, then, as Moses saith, in his song, ' there are brought in among us news gods, newly come up whom our fathers knew not, and feared not' (Deut. 32. 17).

It is profitable to be well acquainted with these snares of Satan. For if he were to teach men that they might commit mm'der and fornication, and might resist their parents, &c. ; who is there who would not immediately see that he was persuading them to do things forbidden by the Lord ? And thus it would

CREATION. 190

be easy to guard against him. But in the case of which we are speaking; — when he sets before us another icord; when he dis- putes with us concerning the will and willingness of God ; when he brings before our eyes the name of God, and of the church, and of the people of God ; — here we. cannot so easily be on our guard against him. On the contrary, there is need of the firm- est judgment of the spirit to enable us to distinguish between the true God, and the new god.

It is such judgment as this that Christ exercises, when Satan attempts to persuade Him to command that the stones be made bread, and to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. For Satan's aim was to persuade Christ to attempt something without the Word. But the tempter could not deceive Christ, as he had deceived Eve. For Christ holds fast the Word, and does not suffer Himself to be drawn away fi'om the true God, to the 7iew and false god. Hence, unbelief and doubting, which follow upon a departure from the Word, are the fountain and source of all sin. And it is because the world is full of these, that it remains in idolatry, denies the truth of God, and forms to itself new gods I

The monk is an idolater. For his imaginations are : — That if he lives according to the rule of Francis, or Dominic, he shall be in the way to the kingdom of God. But this is making a neio god, and becoming an idolater. Because the true God declares, that the way to the kingdom of heaven is believing in Christ. When this fiiith is lost, therefore, unbelief and idolatry immedi- ately-enter in, which transfer the glory of God to works. Thus the anabaptists, the sacramentarians, and the papists are all idolaters ! Not because they worship stocks and stones ; but because, leaving the Word of God, they worship their own thoughts. The ]:>ortion of the Scripture therefore now before us, is designed to teach us, that the beginning of original sin was this effectual temptation of the de^al ; — when he had drawn Eve away from the Word to idolatry, contrary to the first and second and third commandment.

For the nature of the words, " Yea, hatli God said," is this : — It is a horrible audacity of the devil, representing a new god, and denying the former true and eternal God, with the utmost self- confidence. It is as if the devil had said, ' ye must be fools, indeed, if ye believe that God really gave you such a command-

200 CmiFTER 111. 1.

ment. For God is by no means such a God as to be so greatly concerned whether ye eat the fruit or eat it not. For as the tree is " the tree of knowledge of good and evil;" how, think ye, He can be so filled with envy, as to be unwilling that ye should be tvise /'

Moreover, this inexpressible malice fully proves, that, although Moses makes mention of the serpent only, and not of Satan, Satan was the real contriver of the whole of this transaction. And although these things had been thus involved in obscurity, in this sacred history of them ; yet the holy fathers and prophets, under the ilhimination of the Holy Spirit, at once saw that this temptation was not the doing of the serpent ; but that there was, in the serpent, that spirit, which was the enemy of Adam's inno- cent nature ; even the spirit, concerning whom Christ plainly declares, in the Gospel, ' that he abode not in the truth ; and that, he was a murderer, and a liar, from the beginning' (Luke 8. 44). It was left, however, (as we have said,) unto the Gospel to explam these things more clearly, and to make manifest this enemy of God and of men. But the fathers saw all this, by the following mode of reasoning : — It is certain that at the time of the temptation all creatures stood in a perfect obedience ; accord- ing to that sentence of Moses, " And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was veiy good." But here, in the serpent, such a spirit manifests himself who proves himself to be the enemy of God, and who corrupts the Word of God, that he might, by that means, draw away man into sin and death.

It is manifest, therefore, that there was a something, some spirit, in the serpent, far worse than the serpent itself by nature ; a spirit which might properly be called the enemy of God ; a spirit that was a liar and murderer ; a spirit in whom there was the greatest and the most horrible and reckless unconcern ; a spirit which trembled not to corrupt the commandment of God, and to tempt man to idolatry ; though he knew that, by that act of idolatr}^, the whole human race must perish. These things are truly horrible, indeed, when they are viewed by us aright. And we see, even now, examples of the same security and unconcern in papists and other sects ; an unconcern, by which they corrupt the Word of God, and seduce men.

Eve, at first, nobly resisted the Tempter. For as yet she was guided by the illumination of that Holy Spirit, of whom we have

CREATION. 201

above spoken ; and by whom she knew, that man was created perfect and in the Hkeness of God. At length, however, she suffered herself to be persuaded and overcome.

With respect to the fall of the angels, it is uncertain on which day that fall took place ; whether on the second, or on the third day. This only can be proved; and that is known from the Gospel ; — that Satan fell from Heaven ; for Christ Himself testi- fies of the manner of the fall ; where He says, " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10. 18.) But whether the heavens were then " finished," or yet in their rude unformed state, we know not. — The discussion of this point, however, be- longs not to our present exposition of the passage before us. Our present duty is to contemplate the extreme malice here disclosed ; joined with the most horrible unconcern. For this spirit trembles not to call the commandment of the Divine Majesty into doubt ; though he fully knew, all the time, what an awful calamity must thereby fall upon the whole human race.

In the second place, the wonderful subtlety here exercised, is to be deeply considered : which is discovered first in this ; — that Satan attacks the highest powers of man, and assails the very image of God in him ; namely, his will, which, as yet, thought and judged aright, concerning God. " Now the serpent was more subtile (saith the text before us) than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made." But the subtlety manifested, in this mstance, far exceeded all the natural subtlety of the serpent. For Satan here disputes with man concerning the Word and the will of God. This the serpent, in his natural state and con- dition, could not do : for therein, he was subject to the " domi- nion" of man. But the spirit which spoke in the serpent is so subtle that he overcomes man, and persuades him to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree. It is not, therefore, a creature of God, in his created good state, that here speaks : but it is a spirit, who is the bitterest enemy of God and of men ; a spirit, who is indeed a creature of God, but not created thus evil, of God. It is a creature, who abode not in the truth ; as Christ saith (John 8. 44). These facts are consequences, plainly result- ing, from the Gospel and from the text of Moses now before us.

The subtlety which we are now contemplating is seen also, from the stratagem of Satan, in attacking the weak part of human

202 CHAPTER III. 1.

nature ; — Eve, the woman ; and not Adam, the man. For although both of them were created equally righteous, yet Adam excelled Eve. For as, in all the endowments of nature, the male strength exceeds that of the female sex, so in the state of the innocency and perfection of human nature, the male in some degree excelled the female. Hence Satan, seeing that Adam was the more excellent creature, dared not attack him ; for he had fears, lest his attempts should fail. And my belief is, that if he had attempted Adam first, Adam woiild have had the victory. He would more likely have crushed the serpent with his foot ; and would have said to him, ' Do you hold your tongue. The Lord hath commanded otherwise.' Satan, there- fore, attacks Eve, as the weaker part ; and tries her strength. For he sees that she has so much trust in, and dependence on, her husband, that she will not think it possible, that she should be persuaded to do wrong, after what her husband had told her !

By this portion of the sacred record, we are also instructed concerning the Divine permission ; — that God sometimes permits the devil to enter into beasts ; as he here entered into the ser- pent. For there can be no doubt that the serpent, in the assump- tion of whose form the Satan talked with Eve, was a real and natural serpent. But when men enter into discussions whether this serpent assumed, on that occasion, a human countenance, &c., — all such discussions are absurd. The creature was, doubtless, a most heautiful serjjent, in its natural state ; otherwise. Eve would not have conversed with it so securely. After the sin of the fall, however, that beauty of the serpent was changed. For God's rebuke to him declares, that, hereafter, ' he should go upon his belly on the gi'ound.' Whereas, before, he walked upright, as the male fowl. God also declares, ' that he should eat dust ;' whereas, before, he fed upon better food ; even upon the productions of the earth. Nay, even the original security of man with the serpent, is lost ! We flee from serpents, at the sight of them ; as they also flee fi'om us !

These are all wounds, which have been inflicted on nature, on account of sin : just in the same way we have lost the glory of our nakedness, the rectitude of our will, and the soundness of our intellect and understanding. I believe, also, that the serpent lost much of his subtlety ; which Moses here lauds, as a distin-

CREATION. 203

guisliing gift of God. Moreover, I believe that, in the same pro- portion as the serpent is now an evil creature, amidst the beasts, so it was then a good creature ; and a blessed and lovely- creature ; a creature with which not man only, but all the other beasts also, lived in perfect freedom, and with great pleasure. The serpent, therefore, was a creature, the best adapted of all the other li\ang creatures, for the purpose of Satan. By it he could ensure the most easy access to Eve ; and could the most effectually converse with her, so as to draw her into sin.

Such is my opinion concerning the natural serpent : the beautiful nature of which Satan planned thus to abuse. I be- lieve it was originally a most beautiful creature : without any poison in its tail : and without those filthy scales with which it is now covered. For these grew upon it, after the sin of the fall. Hence, we find it a precept given by Moses that any beast, which should kill any person, should itself immediately be killed (Exod. 21. 28) : and for no other reason, than because Satan sinned, by using a beast when he murdered man. Hence, also, a serpent is killed, wherever it is found ; as a lasting memorial of this diabolical malice, and this fall of man, wrought by his means.

With reference to the grammatical expression here used ; — the Latin interpreter renders the Hebrew ak by cur. Now, though this rendering is not very wide of the real sense of the passage ; yet it does not convey the true and proper meaning. For it is the highest and greatest of all temptations, when a dis- pute is entered upon, concerning the counsel of God ; — why God did this, or that. But my judgment is, that the weight of the matter does not rest on this particle of expression ivhy ? or where- fore"^ But rather on the name God, eloim. It is this that constitutes the greatness and awfulness of the temptation.

It is as if Satan had said, — ' Ye must be foolish ones, indeed, if ye suppose that God could possibly be unwilling that ye should eat of this tree when He had Himself given you " dominion" over all the trees of paradise : nay, when He had positively created all the trees for your sakes. How can He, who bestowed, as a free favour, all things upon you, possibly envy you these partic;ilar fruits, which are so sweet and so pleasant !' — For Satan's whole aim is to devise a means of drawing them away

204 CHAPTER III. 1.

from the Word, and from the knowledge of God ; and to bring them to conchide, that what they had stated was not, really, the will of God ; and that such was not really what God had com- manded them. That this is the true sense of the whole divine passage, that which follows tends to prove ; when Satan says, " Ye shall not surely die." For all the stratagems of Satan centre in this one aim ; — to draw men away from the Word, and from faith, unto a new, and a false, god.

And this same plan of Satan do all fanatical spirits follow. Hence, Arius reasons, and inquires, — Do you really think that Christ is God, when He Himself says, " My Father is greater than 11"— Just in the same manner, also, the Sacramentarians ask, — Do you really think, that the bread is the body, and the wine the blood, of Christ ? Christ most certainly had no thoughts, so absurd. When men begin thus to indulge their own cogitations, they by degrees depart from the Word, and fall away into eiTor.

Since, therefore, the whole force of the temptation was the leading Eve to doubt, whether God really did say so ; it is a much more correct rendering to leave the emphasis resting on the name of God. The leaving it to rest on the interrogative particle, — why ? takes away from the peculiar force of the mean- ing. In my judgment, therefore, the passage will be best rendered by not ; thus making the emphasis to rest on the not. Hath God said that ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden 1 For Satan's real aim is, not to set up an inquiry why God said this. His object is to bring Eve to conclude that God had, positively, not so commanded ; in order that, by bringing her to this conclusion, he might wrest from her the Word. Satan saw that the reasoning power of Eve might, in this way, be the most effectually deceived, if he drew away from her sight and judg- ment the Word of God, under the very name of God ! And he thinks the same still !

This question of Satan is full, moreover, of insidious deception. He does not speak particularly, but generally ; he includes, in his interrogation, all the trees of the garden together. As if he had said, ' you have committed unto you an universal " dominion" over all the beasts of the earth ; and do you really suppose that God, who has thus given you " dominion" over all the beasts of

CREATION. 205

the earth, has not given you the same dominion over all the trees of the earth ? Why, you ought rather to think, that as God has put under you the whole earth, and all the beasts of the earth ; so He has also granted you the use of all things which grow upon the earth.' This is, indeed, the very height and depth of temptation. Satan here endeavours to gain over the mind of Eve to his purpose, by artfully drawing her into the conclusion, that God is never unlike Himself; and that, therefore, if God had given them universal dominion over all the other creatures. He had given them universal dominion over all the trees also. From this, therefore, it would naturally follow, that the com- mandment concerning their not eating of the tree of life, was not the commandment of God ; or that if it were His command- ment, it was not so to be understood, as that He really wished them not to eat of that tree.

Wherefore, this temptation was a double temptation ; by which, as a twofold means, Satan aimed at the same end. The one part of the temptation is, — ' God hath not said. Therefore ye may eat of this tree.' The second branch of this awful tempta- tion is, ' God hath given unto you all things. Therefore all things are yours. And therefore this tree is not forbidden you, &c., &c.' Now, both branches of this temptation are directed to the same object ; to draw Eve away fi"om the Word and from faith. For this commandment concerning not eating of this tree of knowledge, which God gave to Adam and to Eve, proves that Adam, with his posterity, had they continued in their original innocency, would have lived in that perfection of nature, by faith, until he and they had been translated from this cor- poreal life, unto the life spiritual and eternal. For whereso- ever the Word is, there of necessity is faith also. The Word was this, " Of the tree of knowledge, etc., thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam and Eve must therefore have believed that this tree in- volved in it a something perilous to their salvation. Therefore, in this very Word of commandment, faith also is included.

We, who are designed to be transferred fi'om this state of sin to a state of eternal righteousness, also live by faith. But we have a Word, different from that which Adam had, in his state of nature's innocence and perfection. For he was designed to

20G CHAPTER in. 1.

be transferred, simply, from a state of animal life, to that of a spiritual and eternal life. Wherefore, this tree (as I have before observed) was intended of God to be a temple, as it were, in the midst of paradise, in which the Word, which God spoke to Adam, might be preached. The substance of this Word was, that all the other trees of paradise were healthful and to be eaten ; but that this tree of knowledge, involved in it the danger of destruc- tion ; and that, therefore, they should learn to obey God, and His Word, and to render unto God His worship, by not eating of this tree ; seeing that God had forbidden them to eat of this particular tree.

In this manner, therefore, nature, in its uncorrupt state, even while it possessed the knowledge of God, had yet a Word or pre- cept of God, which was above the comprehension of Adam ; and which he was called upon to believe. And this Word of precept was delivered to man, in his state of innocency, that Adam might have a certain sign or form of worshipping God, of giving Him thanks, and of instructing his chikken in this knowledge of God. Now, the devil, beholding this, and knowing that this Word or precept of God was above the understanding of man, plies Eve with his temptation, and draws her into a thinJcing, whether this really xoas the commandment and will of God. And this is the very origin of all temptation : when the reason of man attempts to judge concerning the Word, and God, ivithout the Word !

Now the will of God was, that this His precept should be unto man an occasion of his obedience, and of his external worship of God ; and that this tree should be a certain sign, by means of which, man should testify that he did obey God. But Satan, by setting on foot the doubtful disputation, — whether God really did give such a commandment, endeavours to draw man away from this obedience into sin. Here, the salvation of Eve con- sisted solely in her determinately urging the commandment of God, and not suffering herself to be drawn aside into other dis- putations ; — whether God really had given such a commandment ? And whether, as God had created all things for man's sake, it could be possible that this one tree only was created, containing a something incomjyrehensible and dangerous to man's salvation. It seems, indeed, unto men, to be a show of wisdom, to inquire

CREATION. 207

into these things more curiously than is lawful. But as soon as the mind begins to indulge in such disputations, all is over with him ! — But now let us hear the answer which Eve makes to Satan : —

(Authorized Version.)]

Vers. 2 and 3. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; hut of the tree lohich is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

(Luther's Version, or Paraphrase.)

Vers. 2 and 3. To whom the looman replied, of the fruit of the trees ichich are in paradise, ice do eat. But of the fruit of the tree xohich is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that ice shoidd not eat, nor touch that, lest p)erchance we should die.

Eve's beginnings are successful enough. She makes a dis- tinction between all the other trees of the garden, and this tree. She rehearses the commandment of God. But when she comes to relate also the pvmishment, she fails. She does not relate the punishment, as it had been declared by the Lord. The Lord had said, absolutely, " For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die" (Gen. 2. 18). Out of this absolute de- claration. Eve makes a mode of expression, not absolute, — ' Lest perchance we should die.'

This defect in the statement of Eve is very remarkable, and demands particular observ^ation : for it proves, that she had turned aside from faith to unbelief. For, as the promise of God de- mands faith, so the threatening of God demands faith also. Eve ought to have made her statement as a fact, and a certainty. — ' If I eat, I shall surely die.' This faith, however, Satan so assails, with his insidious speech, as to induce Eve to add the expression, ^ p)erchance.' For the devil had effectually persuaded her to think that God surely was not so cruel an one as to kill her for merely tastine a fruit ! Hence the heart of Eve was now filled with the poison of Satan.

This text, therefore, is also by no means properly translated

208 CHAPTER III. 4, 5.

in our version. Tlie meaning of the original Hebrew is, that Eve speaks her own words ; whereas, she is, ostensibly, reciting the Word of God ; and that she adds to the Word of God, her own expression, ' perchance.' Wherefore, the artifice of the lying spirit has completely succeeded. For the object which he espe- cially had in view ; namely, to draw Eve away from the Word, and from faith ; he has now so far accomplished, as to cause Eve to corrupt the Word of God ; or (to use the expression of Paul) ' he has turned her aside from the will of God, and caused her to go after Satan' (1 Tim. 5. 15). And the beginning of certain ruin is to be turned aside from God, and to be turned after Satan ; that is, not to stand firmly in the Word, and in faith. When Satan, therefore, sees this beginning in Eve, he plies against her his whole power, as against a bowing wall, until she falls pros- trate on the ground.

Vers. 4 and 5. And the serpent said unto the icoman, Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

This is the satanic reasoning adopted by the Tempter, to pros- trate utterly a poor weak woman ; when he sees her turning away from God, and inclined to listen to another teacher. Before, when he said, in his satanic insidiousness, ' Hath God, indeed, thus commanded you I' he did not positively deny the Word. He only attempted, by speaking in the form of a question, to cfraw Eve aside into doubting. But now, having fully accom- plished his first point, he begins, with daring presumption, to deny the Word of God altogether, and to charge God Himself with falsehood and cruelty. He is not now contented with having caused Eve to add her expression, * perchance,' Out of the ' perchance,' he now makes a plain and positive denial ; — " Ye surely shall not die."

We here witness, therefore, what a horrible thing it is when Satan once begins to tempt a man. Here, ruin causes ruin : and that which was at first apparently a trifling offence against God, ends, eventually, in a mighty destruction. It was an awful step into sin in Eve, to turn from God and His Word, and to lend

C'llEATION. 209

her ears to Satan. But this her next step is far more awful still : for she now agrees with Satan, while he charges God with false- hood, and, as it were, smites Ilim on the face. Eve, therefore, now is no longer the woman merely turned away from God, as in the first stage of lier temptation. She now begins to join Satan, in his contempt of God, and in his denial of the truth of His Word. She now believes the father of lies, directly con- trary to the Word of God.

Let these things, therefore, be to us a solemn lesson, and a terrible proof ; to teach us what man is ! For if these things occurred in nature, while it w^as yet in its state of perfection, what shall we think may become of us ! We have proofs, even now, before our eyes. Many of those who, at the commence- ment of our course, gave thanks with us unto God for His revealed Word, are not only fallen away from it, but are become our bitterest adversaries !

Thus it was also with the Arians. No sooner had they begun to fall away from faith in the divinity of the Son, than tliey quickly grew into a violent enmity against Him. So that they became the bitter enemies of the true Church, and persecuted her with the greatest cruelty. Precisely the same examples of the same ultimate rage against the truth have we witnessed in the anabaptists also. They were all led away from the Word, and tempted to use the doubtful expression, ' perchance ! ' Shortly afterwards, Satan drove them to turn the doubting 'perchance' into a positive ' no/,' — ' God hath 7wt said,' &c. Then, from for- sakers of God, they became the open persecutors of God : imitat- ing therein their father, Satan ; who, after he had fallen from heaven by sin, became the most bitter enemy of Christ and His Church. Nor are examples of the very same description few in our day. For we have no enemies more bitter against us, than those who have fallen away from the doctrine, which, with us, they once professed. And it is from this very sin, that that awful description which David has given us of the "fool" (Ps. 14. 1), arose. " The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." For those who have thus fallen, are not satisfied with having turned away from God, unless they have become the assailants also, of God Himself, and of His Word.

Wherefore, there is absolute need that we abide by this rule,

o

210 CHAPTEU 111, 4, 5.

and moor ourselves to this sacred anchoi*, as it were, all our lives through ; — that, since it is an agreed on certainty, that the Word which we possess, and which we confess, is the Word of God, we should assent and cleave to it with all simplicity of faith, and not dispute concerning it with curious inquiry. For all inquir- ing and curious disputation, brings with it most certain ruin.

Thus, for instance, we have the plain and manifest avord of Christ concerning the Lord's Supper ; when He says, concern- ing the bread, " This is ISIy body, which is given for you" (Luke 22. 19). And concerning the cup, " This is the cup of the New Testament, in My blood" (1 Cor. 11. 25). When, therefore, fanatics depart from faith in these plain words, and fall into a disputing Iioio these things can be ; they, by degrees, get away from them so far, as positively to deny that these are the words of Christ ; and, at length, they fiercely fight against them. Just as it befel Eve, as recorded in the passage of Moses now before us.

Exactly after the same manner, when Arius began to think about (lod, and to conclude, by his own reason, that God was a most positive and absolute unity, he at first fell upon this pro- position,— ' Perhojys Christ is not God.' Then he carried the accumulation of his absurdities so far, as plainly to conclude (and to defend his conclusion) — ' Christ is not God.' It moved him not at all, that John plainly declares, " The Word was God." It moved him not at all, that Christ commands men to be bap- tized " in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." It moved him not at all, that we are called upon to believe in Christ, to worship Him, and to pray unto Him ! And yet, what absurdity can be greater than that ice shoidd take upon ourselves to judge concerning God, whose condition is to be judged of Him, and of Him alone? Wherefore, our duty is (as I have before observed) to stand by this principle ; that, when w^e hear God say anything, we believe it, and call it not into dis- pute or inquiry ; but that, on the contrary, we bring our intellect and every thought into captivity unto Christ.

We may here, therefore, appropriately recite the words of the prophet Isaiah, " If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established" (Is. 7. 9). For if we should inquire, and inquire until we should burst with the stretch of our curiosity ; yet wc

CREATION. 2 1 1

shall never understand ho^c the eye sees ; nor hoiv the ear hears ; nor lohat tlie soul is, &c., &c. And yet, all these things are in us, and we use them every day, and every moment, in all our actions. How then shall we understand those things which ex- ceed all our faculties and senses, and which are found in the Word of God alone? Hence it is found in the Word alone, that the ordained bread is the body of Christ ; and that the ordained wine is the blood of Christ. These things it is our dut}^ to believe, not to understand : for understood tliey can- not be.'

In like manner, with respect to the present passage of ISIoses, the words of God were most simple and most plain, — " Of the tree which is in the midst of the garden ye shall not eat." But with respect to the mind of God in those words ; that, reason understood not, iv/n/ God willed these things so to be. When, therefore, Eve, not contented with the conmiand of the Lord, which she had heard, began curiously to inquire into it, she perished. This temptation, therefore, is a true example of all tliose temptations, by means of which, Satan assaults the AVord and faith. Before the desire of eating the fruit entered into Eve, she had let go the word Avhich God spoke to Adam. Had she held fast this Word, she would liave stood in the reverence of God, and in faith. On the other hand, no sooner had she let go the Word, than contempt of God entered in ; and upon that followed, obedience to the de^■il.

It is most profitable to us to learn these things, and to know them. Hence it is that Peter admonishes us to stand fast under temptation, and to resist the tempter, keeping fast hold of the AVord by a firm faith, and keeping our ears shut, so as not to listen to any things which are contrary to the Word, or not in accordance with it. For the iradt^fiaTa (^ passions,' ' sufierings,' or ' experiences' of Adam and Eve, are most truly fxaOi'jixara)

' The reader is earnestly entreated to notice here, that Luther neitlier .confesses, nor professes /r«?«5-substantiation, or coji-substantiation, or any other substantiation. lie simply and solemnly stands on those two prin- ciples, on which he would have every man stand ; — the Word of God, and FAri'H in that Word ; what part or portion of the Word, that Word or say- ing of God may be ! He neither ofiers, nor justifies, any explanation in such cases of the mystery of faith ; on the contrary, he is throughout showing the ruinous conscfiuences of all such attempted explanations. — 11. C.

212 CUAPTEU 111. 4, 5.

(* lessons') to us ; that we suffer not the same things, by being drawn aside from the Word and faith, as they were.

That which follows, in the text before us, — " For God doth know that your eyes shall be opened," may be taken in a twofold sense. We may either understand Satan to have thus spoken, for the purpose of exciting an ill-will against God, for having forbidden man to eat of a fruit so good and useful ; by which means, Satan would create in Eve the beginning of a hatred to- wards God, for not being sufficiently indulgent. Or, again, (as I would rather understand the passage,) Satan speaks this, as in praise of God ; that he may thereby the more easily entrap Eve in his deception. As if he had said to her, ' Be assured that God is not such an one as to wish you and Adam to live in dark- ness, as it were, ^^^thout the knowledge of good and evil. He is good. He envies you nothing which can in any way conduce to your benefit or pleasure. He will be quite satisfied and content that you should be like Himself, as to the knowledge of good and evil.''

When Satan praises God after this manner, he has the razor fairly in his hands, so that he can cut the throat of a man in a moment. For the fall of a man is thus rendered by Satan the most easy, when the pretext of the Word and the will of God is brought in upon the back of that which the lust of the heart de- sires. This is the reason why I would rather understand the words now in question to be spoken by Satan, as intended to per- suade Eve, rather than to excit© in her any hatred towards God. I leave it, however, quite free to you, my hearers, to adopt that sense of the passage which pleases you best. The sum of the whole, or the one aim of Satan, is this ; to draw Eve away, by all possible means, fi-om the Word ; and to persuade her to do that, which by the Word had been forbidden. For Satan is the most bitter enemy of the Word of God : because he knows, that our whole salvation lies in our obedience to that Word.

But here a question is moved ; an inquiry by no means absurd. — How it was that Eve did not yet feel her sin ? For, although she had not yet swallowed the fruit ; yet she had sinned against the Word and against faith. She had turned away from the Word unto a lie, and fi'ora faith to disbelief; from God to Satan, and from th Avorship of God to idolatry. As this was the sum and substance

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of her sin (for tlie plucking the apple was not the sum of her sin) — How was it that death did not immediately follow 1 How was it that she did not feel so mif^hty a sin ? Nay, farther, How was it, that after she had eaten the fruit, she did not feel the death which was the decreed punishment of it, before she persuaded Adam to eat of it also ?

The schools dispute much and variously concerning the supe- rior power, and the inferior power, of reason. And they hold, that Adam possessed the superior power of reason, and Eve the inferior. Cast we away, however, all such half-learned and scholastic argumentations : and seek we the true meaning of the passage before us, and the true reason why Eve felt not, imme- diately, her sin and death. The reason of the whole is this —

In the first place, the long-suffering of God is great. There- fore, He does not punish sin immediately. If He did, the moment we sinned, we should perish. This long-suffering of God Satan ever abuses. And it just suits his purpose, that man should not immediately feel his sin. For because punishment is thus deferred, Satan fills the mind Avith security and unconcern. So that a man is not only kept blind to the fact that he has sinned, but is caused to take delight and to glory in his sins.

All this we behold in the popes. If these beings could pos- sibly see with their eyes, and in their minds, the slaughter-house of conscience, yea, the perdition, into Avhich they bring men, by their impious doctrine, they would, without doubt, amend that doctrine. But now, Satan so dazzles their eyes, as it were, with his delusions, that they cannot perceive their own judgment, and the wrath of God which hangs over them. And, therefore, in the very midst of these their mighty sins, they live with the greatest security, and even with gladness and rejoicing : dis- playing their magnificent triumphs, as if they had performed the most noble achievements.***

This was exactly the case with Eve. By her disbelief, she had rushed away from the Word into a lie. Therefore, in the eyes of God, she was now dead. But as Satan still held under his power her mind and her eyes ; she not only did not see her death, but was gradually more and more inflamed with a longing for the fruit ; and was positively delighted with this her idolatry and with her sin.

214 CHAPTEll III. 6.

Now, if Eve had not dejjarted from the Word, thus to look upon the fruit, with a desire to taste it, it Avould have been to her an abhorrence. But having thus departed, she turns over the sin in her mind with gratification. Whereas, before this her de- })arture from the Word, had she seen any oth.er stretch forth the hand to touch this tree, she would have recoiled with horror. But now, she is imjmtient of delay. Sin has burst its way forth from her heart, and has descended to the lower members of her body, — her mouth, and tongue. This desire and delightful longing, therefore, to eat the fruit, are, as it were, the diseases gendered by the sin of her heart : on which diseases, death after- wards follows : though Eve, while she is sinning, feels it not. This is plain fr'om the next portion of the context.

Ver. 6. Ajid ivhen the looinau saio that the. tree teas good for food, and that it zvas pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fi'uit thereof, and did eat ; and gave also unto her husband with her, and lie did eat.

Only mark here the manner in which sin diffuses itself over all ihefive senses of a man ! For Avhat was wanting in Eve to the augmentation of her sin, v/hen once she had believed Satan, contrary to the Word of God, and had listened to his lies, in telling her that she would not surely die, but that, on the con- trary, her eyes would be opened and that she would know both good and evil ! — Her eyes could not be satisfied with seeing. It was nothing to her now that she possessed the knowledge of God, and that she had right and perfect reason. She was not content, without the addition of tlie knowledge of evil also. And this was the very essence of Satan's poison ; — her desire to be wise above that which God had spoken to her as His command. For such wisdom was death, and the very efiemy of that wisdom of God, which had been delivered to her in His Word of precept. For this wisdom caused her to consider ^/mi to be righteousness, which was really sin ; and to look upon that as most desirable wisdom, which was utter madness.

The whole point, therefore, lies in this (which, however, the Latin version has omitted to express ;) — that the tree was a tree to be desired, because it made the eaters thereof wise. — And this

CliKATlON. 215

is the very aim of the devil ; — to cause a man to think his know- ledge and ^^'isdom the greater, the farther he departs from the Word.

Hence, men think it to be the sum of all wisdom to assert, that bread is bread ; and that wine is wine ; but that bread is not the body, nor wine the blood, of Christ. So Arius considers that he has carried otf the palm of all wisdom, when he asserts, from certain scriptures evilly distorted from their manifest sense, that the X0709 was indeed before all creatures ; but that still he was created. In like manner, the anabaptists imagine that they blow forth the Aery height of wisdom, when they declare aloud, with full-swollen cheeks, that water cannot reach the soul or the spirit ; but that it washes the naked skin only ; and that, there- fore, baptism avails nothing to the remission of sins. Hence, we have known fanatical spirits to baptize, here and there, without any water at all : who nevertheless continued to boast, that they never dissented from us or our doctrine. And, truly, this is wisdom. But it is the wisdom of the devil ; and directly contrary to the Word and wisdom of God. And it is the peculiar and proper temptation of the devil thus to render us wise in our own estimation contrary to and above the Word of God. Just as he himself was once in Heaven, and then fell therefrom. And this high wisdom is a temptation of his far exceeding in destroying- efficacy all the grosser temptations of lust, avarice, pride, &c.

The verb Hischil signifies ' to be prudent,' or ' wise.' Hence, Masciiil is ' wise,' or ' prudent ;' as in Psalm 14. 2, " The Lord looked down from Heaven, upon the cliildren of men, to see if there were any that were of understanding, and did seek God." And, again, Isaiah 53. 11, " By his knowledge, Tasciiil, shall my righteous servant justify many." The word signifies, properly, that wisdom by which God is known and acknowledged. And Eve had this liirht, or rather this sun of knowledge in her heart before she fell : because, she had the Word. And she had, moreover, the knowledge of all the creatures. But not content with this Avisdom, she wished to mount higher, and to know God otherwise than He had revealed Himself to her in Plis A^"ord. This was her fall. She let go the true Avisdom ; and tJiat being- lost, she rushed into utter blindness.

Just as Satan acted, in the garden of Eden, so he acts now.

216 CHAPTER III. 6.

God commands us to believe the Gospel of His Son ; that we niio'ht thus be saved. This is true wisdom, as Christ Himself also affirms ; " This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the one time God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17. 3). This wisdom the monk utterly disregards, and turns aside to other things. He puts on a cowl, girds himself with a rope, and takes upon him the vow of celibacy : and he thinks that by such means he shall please God, and shall be saved. And all this is that sublime wisdom which is exercised in the worship of God, and in a great religious observance to- wards Him : the whole of which is the implantation of Satan, engrafted on the original sin of our fallen nature : causing men to turn away from the Word of God, which He has Himself " set forth" as the way of salvation, and to turn aside to the fol- lovdng of their own cog-itations. Just like Eve. She was created, the wisest of all women that ever existed : but she longed for another wisdom contrary to, and above, the Word : and on account of this newly desired wisdom, she fell, and sinned, in a multiplicity of forms, with all her senses, with her thoughts, with her sight, ^^'itll her desire, with her touch, with her taste, Avith her whole act.

They are not to be listened to, therefore, who argue that it was cruelty that this nature of ours should be thus miserably corrupted, sunk under death, and involved in all the other calamities to which it is subject, for the simple act of tasting a fruit. The Epicureans, indeed, when they hear these things, laugh at them as a mere fable. But to a careful reader, who duly ponders these recorded facts, it will at once be manifest that the simple bite of the fruit was not the cause of these awful consequences. Such an one will see that the sin co7nmitted was the cause of the whole calamity which followed — even the sin of Eve — which she com- mitted against both tables of the law, against God Himself, and against His Word. For her sin was of that description, that she cast aside the Word of God, and gave herself up wholly to Satan, and to his teaching, as his disciple.

The greatness and awfulness of the sin of Eve, therefore, can neither be lessened nor made too great. This greatness and awfulness of the sin of Eve are, (to use a common expression), the pregnant causes of all the calamitous punishments which we en-

CREATION. 217

dure. So awful was the sin, and so awful the turning away fi'oni God ! And this horrible turning away from God is the great solemn fact which our minds ought to contemplate. They ought not to dwell upon the mere plucking or swallowing the fi'uit ; for those who look upon the act only, and not upon the sin of the heart, from which the act proceeded, must naturally be led to accuse God of cruelty for having inflicted upon the whole human race such terrible punishments for so small and insignificant a sin. Such reasoners on the matter, therefore, hate God and despair ; or, like the Epicureans, they laugh at the whole matter as a fable.

What we have to consider, therefore, is the AVord. For that, against which Eve sinned, was the Word of God. As great, therefore, as was the Word, so great was the sin which Eve com- mitted against the Word. It was under this sin that all nature fell, and under which it still lies. For, how can nature overcome that sin ! It is of a magnitude infinite and inexhaustible. To overcome this sin, therefore, there is need of Him who brings with Him an inexhaustible righteousness, even the Son of God.

That Satan knew all this, his subtlety proves. For he does not immediately entice Eve with the sweetness of the fruit ; he attacks at once the chiefest strength of man — faith in the Word ! The root and source of all sin, therefore, is disbelief, and turning aside fi'om God. Even as, on the contrary, the root and source of all righteousness is faith. Satan, therefore, first of all, draws Eve aside from faith to vinbelief. When he had accomplished this, and had brought Eve not to believe the Word of God's com- mandment spoken unto her, he had no trouble in accomplishing the rest — in causing her to rush up to the tree, and to pluck the fruit and eat it. For, when sin is ripened in the heart by un- belief, the external act of disobedience soon follows. This is the manner in which the nature of sin is to be considered, according to this its true magnitude — under which magnitude, we are all ruined. Next follows the description of sin, with its punish- ments.

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 7. And the eyes of them both tvere opened, and the)/ hieiv that they were naked ; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

218 CHAl'TEU III. r.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 7. Then tlte eyes of them both were opened; and when they knew that they toere naked, they seiced jig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles.

I have remarked above that the form of all Satan's temptations is the same. He first plies his temptation upon a man's faith, and then draws him away ft'om the Word. Upon this follow various sins against the Second Table. This procedure of Satan we may see plainly manifested in our own experience. That which follows, therefore, in the present chapter, is a particular description of sin — what it is in the act, and what it is afterwards, when the act is passed. For, while sin is in the act, it is not felt. If it were truly felt, we should return into the right way, warned by the sorrows which sin ever brings upon the sinner. But be- cause these sorrows lie hidden, after we have departed from in- tegrity of soul and from faith, Ave go on, without concern, into the act itself. Just as Eve sinned in eating the fruit, after she had been persuaded by Satan, contrary to the Word of God, ' that she should not die ;' but that the only effects would be, ' that her eyes would be opened,' and that she would become wiser. After she had drank in this poison of Satan through her ears, she stretched forth her hand vipon the forbidden fruit, plucked it, and ate it with her mouth ; and thus she sinned with all the senses of her mind and of her body. And yet she did not even then feel her sin. She ate the fruit with pleasure, and entreated her husband also to do the same.

The essential principles are the same, in all temptations, and in all sins, whether of lust, of anger, or avarice, &c. While the sin is in the act, it is not felt ; it terrifies not, it stings not, but the rather it flatters the passions and delights. And no marvel that the case should be so Avith us when we are infected with this poison of original sin, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, and especially when we reflect that the sins of paradise took place in nature while it was yet sound and perfect. Hence it is that we see, in the cases of profane men, and of fanatical spirits, and of those Avho have no faith, or who have fallen from the faith — how secure and unconcerned they are — how vehement

CREATION. 219

and pertinacious in defending their errors ; so much so, tliat they will not hesitate even to die in the defence of tliern. Such is the natm'e of sin, while it remains unfelt. Bu.t afterwards, when the sin is made manifest by the law, then it comes doAvn upon the man, with all its intolerable weight.

So, before this discovery of her sin, while it was inwardly pre- paring for the act, the eyes of Eve were not opened. Had they been so, she must have died before she could have touched the fruit ; but because her eyes were not yet opened, and because her unbelief yet remained, there remained also the longing for the fruit prohibited, and there remained also the purpose and the desire to obtain the Satan-promised knowledge, which was also forbidden. Poor miserable Eve, she is so swallowed up in dis- belief, both in soul and in body, that she sees not the mighty evil she is committing !

Similar examples of the insensible security and unconcern of sin are furnished also by our ecclesiastical histories. Arius securely blesses himself, as long as he can find means of eluding the scripture testimonies concerning the Divinity of the Son. But this security lasts not very long ; so, as soon as the eyes of Eve were opened, she remembered the law of her God spoken to her, (which before she had forgotten,) ' that she and Adam should not eat of the forbidden tree.' Before this knowledge of God's law to her, she was " without sin," as Paul expresses it (Rom. 7. 9). "For I was alive without the law once" (saitli the apostle). Not because the law really did not exist, but because the apostle did not feel the threatenings and punishments of it ; and, hence, he seemed to himself to be " without the law." " For by the law (as he saith elsevrhere) is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. o. 20). When therefore the law revived, in his knowledge of it, his sin revived also with that knowledge (Rom. 7. 9).

All this Moses would indicate in this his history of our first parents, when he says, " Then the eyes of them both were opened," as if he had said, Satan had closed, not the eyes only of Eve, but her heart also, by unbelief, and by the disobedience of all the members of her body and of her soul without and within. But after her sin was committed and " finished," he wilUngly suffers the eyes of them both to be opened, that they might see what they had done. For this is Satan's manner of cutting

220 cHAPTEii in, r.

short the rnin of those who sin under his temptations ; when they have sinned, he leaves them to perish in despair.

This portion of sacred history, therefore, is a kind of complete exposition of the sentence of Paul, where he says, " For by the Law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3. 20). For the Law does nothing but make known, and cause to revive, that sin, which before the knowledge of the Law, lay asleep, as it were, and dead. Just as, in the following chapter, it is said to Cain, ' If thou doest evil, thy sin sleepeth, until it be made known to thee' (Gen. 4. 7). For it lieth asleep, while it is in the act. But when the Law comes, then the eyes are opened ; so that the man then sees what God had commanded, and what punishment He had decreed for the transgressors of His command. When this takes place ; so that the Law fully rules in the conscience ; then a man arrives at the true knowledge of his sin : which know- ledge, no human hearts can endure, unless consolation be given them from above.

What Moses next adds, therefore, — that after they had eaten the fruit, " they saw that they were naked," are words by no means superfluous, nor without an especial import. For if they be duly considered, they contain a beautiful description of ori- ginal righteousness. — The schoolmen, indeed, argue that original righteousness was not connatural ; that is, not a part of human nature, as originally created ; but a certain ornament, only addi- tionally bestowed on man, as a separate gift. Just as if one should place a garland on the head of a beautiful maiden. A garland is certainly no part of the nature of a virgin, but a something separate from her nature, as such : a something added from without ; and which might be taken away again, without any violation of her nature. These schoolmen, therefore, argue, both concerning man and concerning devils also, — that, although they lost their original righteousness, yet their natural properties remained pure, as they were originally created. This doctrine, however, as it takes from the magnitude of original sin, is to be shunned as a deadly poison.

Conclude we, therefore, as a truth, that original righteousness was not a certain superadded gift, Avhicli was bestowed froni Avithout, separate from the very nature of man : but that it was a truly natural righteousness : so that it was the very nature of

CREATION. 221

Adam to know God, to love God, to believe in God, to acknow- ledge God, and to worship God, &c. These things were as natural, in Adam, as it is natural to the eyes to see the light. But as, when the eye is injured by the infliction of a wound, you may rightly affirm tliat nature is violated; so, after man fell from his original righteousness, it is rightly and truly maintained, that the properties of nature were no longer sound and whole, but defiled and corrupted by sin. For as it is the nature of the eye to see ; so it was the original nature of the reason and of the will of Adam to know God, to trust in God, and to fear God.

Since, therefore, it is evident that all these natural powers are lost, who is so great a madman, as to assert, that the faculties and properties of nature are still sound and whole ? And yet, there Avas nothing more common, nor more fully received, in the schools, than this doctrine. How much greater, then, must be the absurdity and the madness, to affirm this doctrine to be true, concerning devils also ! especially, when Christ Himself declares of them, ' that they abode not in the truth !' and when we our- selves know them to be the most bitter enemies of Christ and of His Church !

The natural faculties in man, therefore, which were created originally sound and whole, were the knowledge of God, faith in God, the fear of God, &c. All these Satan corrupted by sin in the same manner as leprosy defiles the whole flesh. The will and reason of man, therefore, are so corrupted by sin, that he not only does not any longer naturally love God, but flees from Him, and hates Him, and wishes to live without Him, and to be without Him altogether. Most exactly, therefore, has Moses described in this portion of his sacred history, that corruption which succeeded original righteousness^ and glory. For it was the peculiar gloiy of Adam and Eve not to know that they were naked, What corruption, then, can be greater, than that that nakedness, which was originally the glory of our first parents, should now be changed into the basest turpitude. Thus, no one blushes on account of his eyes, when sound and perfect. But when the eyes are distorted, or partially blind, they cover us with a certain cloud of defect, and with a feeling of shame. In like manner, in their state of original innocency, it was a matter full of glory in Adam and Eve to walk in nakedness. But

\l/

222 CHAPTEK III. 7.

Avhen, after tlieir sin, ''■ they saw that they were naked," they were overwhehned with shame, and loc^ked about them for " girdles" wherewith to hide their turpitude. How much greater tiu'pitude, then, is disclosed by the fact, that the slaughtered will, the corrupted understanding, and the wholly defiled reason, have changed man into an utterly altered being. Are all these woful things proofs, I pray you, that the qualities and faculties of man's original nature still remain sound and whole "?

But consider for a moment, what will necessarily follow, from the doctrine of makins; original rio;hteousness, not to have been an essential part of created nature, but a certain superfluous and superadded gift of ornament, only. — If you lay it down as a fact, that original righteousness was not an essential quality of the nature of man, it must inevitably follow, that the sin, wdiich fol- lowed original righteousness, was also not an essential quality of the nature of man ! And if so, was it not utterly a vain thing that Christ should be sent into the world as the Redeemer of man, if it was man's original righteousness only (which was merely a foreign and separate addition to his nature) that was lost ; and if that loss still left the faculties and qualities of his original nature sound and perfect 1 — But what doctrine can be worse than this ? what doctrine more unworthy a divine to utter ?

Flee we, therefore, from such mad dreams as these, as fl'om real pestilences and corruptions of the Holy Scriptures : and let lis, instead thereof, follow actual experience : which teaches us, that we are born of corrupt seed, and that we derive, from the very nature of that seed, ignorance of God, self-security, unbelief, hatred of God, disobedience, impatience, and numberless other kindred eWls : all which are so engendered and implanted in our very nature ; and are a poison so wholly diffused throughout our flesh, body, soul, nerves, and blood ; yea, through all our bones and their very marrow ; and so wholly poisoning our will, our understanding, and our reason ; that the poisons not only can never be extracted ; but that we cannot even acknowledge, or feel, or see, that this is our state of sin !

It is a well known sentiment of the old Greek comedian, Aristophanes, ' that to visit harlots is no disgrace to a youth.' Pardon, however, may be extended to such a sentiment in a heathen poet. But it is most awful in such as call themselves

CREATION. 223

Christian men, and men professing a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, to incline towards such a sentiment, as that whoredom is not positive sin. And yet, whole colleges of our canonicals actually approve the sentiment, with one consent, by their lives and manners. When this is the case, therefore, wdth respect to actual outward sins, what must we conclude to be the state of men's minds, with respect to the uncleanness of the heart, and the motions of sin in oiu' very nature ? These motions of nature, wicked men cannot, of course, understand to be sins !

Thus, a wicked man cannot understand that the glory of nakedness was lost by sin. For the fact of Adam and Eve walkincr abroad naked, was their hifijliest adornment, in the sight of God, and before the whole creation. But now, since the entrance of sin, we not only recoil at the thought of walking naked before men, for their sakes ; but we are filled with shame, | for our own sakes ; as Moses here testifies, concerning the feel- i ings of Adam and Eve. And this very shame witnesses, that our confidence in God, as well as in man, is lost ; whereas this confidence, in both, existed before sin entered, by the fall. Bvit after the entrance of sin, Adam, even though blinded, would yet have been abashed to present himself naked before the eyes of God, or of men : because, by his disobedience, his former confi- dence in God, his glorious Creator, was lost.

All these things, therefore, abundantly testify that original righteousness w^as an essential quality of the nature of man, when first created: and as that original righteousness was lost by sin, it is manifest that no qualities or properties or powers of nature remain perfect and sound ; as the school-men madly dream. For, as it was the original nature of man to go forth naked, full of innocent confidence and security towards God, and with the knowledge that such nakedness pleased both God and men ; so now, since the entrance of sin, man feels that this same naked- ness of nature, originally so glorious, is displeasing to God, to a man's self, and to all rational creatures. And, accordingly, man prepares himself girdles, and carefully covers his " uncomely parts" (1 Cor. 12. 23). Is this not an awful change in nature, then ? Nature does indeed remain ; but corrupted in numerous forms. For all innocent confidence in God is lost, and the heart is full of distrust, fear, and shame. So, also, the members of

224 CUAPTEIl III. 7.

nature all remain the same. But those members which were once beheld in all their nakedness with glory, are now cautiously covered, as dishonourable and base, lest they shonld be seen ! Because of the great internal defects of nature ; because nature has lost all confidence in God by sin. For, if we possessed that confidence in innocency, as Adam enjoyed it, Ave should know no shame, no blush, in our nakedness !

From this corruption, which immediately followed upon sin, arose another evil. Adam and Eve were not only ashamed on account of their nakedness, wdiich, before their sin, was most honourable, and a most glorious adornment ; but they even make to themselves coverings to hide from sight those parts of their body which, in their original nature, were thus so honourable, and so glorious. For what, in all nature, is so wonderful, so noble, and so glorious, as the fact of generation ! And this fact, so noble, so glorious, is not assigned of God to the eyes, or to the face, which we consider to be the more honourable and dig- nified parts of our body, but to those parts which thus, taught by our awful state of sin, we cover from sight, with all possible carefulness, lest they should be seen. And thus, as the fact of generation in the innocent state of nature, had it continued, would have been most pure and most holy ; so, since the en- trance of sin, even this fact is filled with the leprosy of lust ; as are also all the parts of the body connected therewith. Those, therefore, who live without marriage, " burn" in lust, most im- purely. And those also who live in marriage, unless they rightly moderate their feelings and affections, and carefully guard their " due benevolence," (1 Cor. 7. 3) — how variously are they tempted and afiiicted !

Do we not yet, then, from all these considerations, feel how foul and horrible a thing sin is ? For lust is the only thing that can be cured by no remedy ! Not even by marriage, which was ex- pressly ordained from above to be a remedy for this infirmity of our nature. For the greater part of married persons still live in adultery, and thus sing, practically, the well-known song of the heathen poet of old : —

" Nee tecum, possum vivere nee sine te.'' — (Ovid) Neither with thee, nor yet without thee, wife, can I by nature, live. — (Paraphrase.)

CREATION. 225

Such is the horrible turpitude which arises out of this most hon- ourable and most excellent part of our natural body ! I call it most excellent, on account of the noble and marvellous work of generation ; which is, indeed, most excellent, and wonderful, and glorious ; because it preserves the continuation of the race of mankind ! By reason of sin, therefore, the most excellent and effectual members of our body, have become the most vile and base.

But this would not have been the case with Adam and Eve, had they continued in their innocency. They were full of inno- cent confidence in their God. Therefore, whenever they wished to devote themselves to the procreation of children, they would have come together, not maddened with that lust which now reigns in our leprous flesh ; but with an admiration of the ordin- ance of God ; in obedience to God, and in the worship of God ; and also, with the same holy quietness and solemnity of mind, as that in which we go to hear the Word of God, and to worship God. But all these things we have lost by sin ; so that we can now only conceive of them, and miderstand them, negatively^ not positively. For, from the awful state of evil in which we now stand, we can only gather negatively, an idea of the greatness of that good, and that glory which we have lost. But we owe a deep debt of gratitude to God, even for the remnants of the original glory which are still left us ; how corrupt soever the noble, and wonderful, and glorious, work of generation, now may be ; of which both the Church and the State have need, for the perpetuation of saints, and of citizens.

And it is a marvellous fact, that in all the writers, in all tongues, not one iota is found which sets forth the glory of that original nakedness, which is now, through sin, so filled with tur- pitude and shame ; but which, before sin entered into the world, was so honourable and glorious ! Of this contemplation, there- fore, we have Moses alone as our great teacher ; who, neverthe- less, sets forth the whole matter in but very few, and those very simple words — teaching us that man, having fallen from faith, was filled with confusion ; and that the glory of his organs of generation was changed into utter turpitude and ignominy, so that he was compelled to make himself coverings, wherewith to hide them from sight.

226 CHAPTER III. 8.

The Hebrew term hegoeah, of which we here have the plural, properly signifies a girdle, or apron-girt ; so that we are here to understand that these fig leaves covered the upper parts of the thighs all round in eveiy part ; in order that that part of the body which before sin was the most honourable (1 Cor. 12. 23), might now be covered as being the most uncomely and base, and utterly unworthy the sight of men. O how horrible was the fall by sin ! For after it the eyes of man w^ere so opened, that what was before the most honourable and glorious, he now looks upon as most dishonourable and base.

And so it is to this day. As soon as the law has come, we then first discover what we have done. And sin thus made known, seems to have in it such awful baseness, that the enlight- ened minds of men cannot endure the sight ; and, therefore, they endeavour to cover this their turpitude. For no one ever, though he be a thief, an adulterer, or a murderer, etc., is willing to ap- pear to be such. So, also, heretics are never found to acknow- ledge their error in any degree, but defend it most pertinaciously, and wish to appear to hold the catliolic truth. And that they may secure this appearance, they sew together fig leaves, as broad as possible ; that is, they try all things which seem likely to colour over and cloak their heresy.

This same nature of sin is seen even in children, who, fre- quently, though caught in the very fact of doing evil, yet busy themselves in discovering a means wdiereby they can persuade their parents to the contrary ; thus excusing themselves, speak- ing lies (Ps. 58. 3). In precisely the same manner do men also act. Even when caught and held fast, they yet endeavour to slip away, that they may not be confounded, but may still appear good and just. This portion of poison, also, has been infused into our very nature, as the present passage of Moses likewise testifies.

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God loalking in the garden in the cool of the day : and Adam and his loife hid themselves from the -presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of

the garden.

CKEATTON. . 227:

(Luther's version.) Ver. 8. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God xoalk- ing in the garden in the hreeze of the day, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

This is, therefore, a third evil of original sin, bearing its additional proof, that original righteousness was lost. But here again, Lyra is entangled in the opinions of Rabbins, some of whom interpret the expression in the breeze of the day (ad auram diei), as refer- ring to place, or to the climate between the south and the west ; while others of them explain the expression as referring to time, holding that this sacred circumstance occurred in the evening. When the heat begins to subside, the winds commence their breathing.

My mind is, however, that we should receive breathmg (spiritum) here, as simply signifying ' the Word,' and understand the passage as meaning, that after the consciences of Adam and Eve were convinced by the divine law, they were terrified at the sound of a leaf. Just as we see to be the case with all fear- stricken men, when they hear the creak of a beam, they dread the fall of the whole house. AVhen they hear a mouse moving, they are terrified lest Satan should be at hand with an intent to destroy them. For, by nature, we are so wholly filled with alarm, that we really fear even those things which are perfectly safe.

Adam and Eve tlierefore, as soon as their consciences are con- vinced by the law, and they are brought to feel their turpitude in the sight of God, and of themselves having lost their faith and confidence in God, are so filled with fear and alarm, that when they hear a breeze or breath of wind, immediately imagine that God is at hand as an avenger, and hide themselves from Him. I believe, tlierefore, that by the voice of the Lord walking in the garden, Moses really means a breath or sound of Avind which preceded the appearance of God before them. Hence Christ saith in the gospel, when speaking of the wind, ' Thou hearest the sound (or voice) thereof (John iii. 8). For, when Adam and Eve heard the rustling of the leaves, as if shaken by the wind, they thought on a sudden within themselves — Hark ! there is the Lord coming to take vengeance upon us !

228 CHAPTER III. 8.

When, therefore, Moses adds, " in the breeze of the day," to the words " the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden," he seems to me to do so by w^ay of particular explanation of the meaning he intended to convey. As if he had said by way of comment. This voice was like a breezy blast of the day ; and as if he wished the emphasis of his expression to rest on the word day. For he does not speak concerning a wind in the night, in order to exaggerate the greatness of the terror which follows upon sin ; as if he had said in farther explanation, they were so stricken with fear that they were alarmed at the sound of a leaf, even in the clear light of day. What, therefore, (he seems to intend to intimate,) would have been the result if God had come to them in the night, and in the solemn darkness ? for there the terror must have been more dreadful still. For as the light gives ani- mation, so the darkness increases dread. This terror, therefore, with which Adam and Eve, after their sin, were struck, in the very broad light of day, is indeed a manifest proof that they had fallen utterly from the confidence of faith.

This I believe to be the true sense in the present passage, and it fully agrees with that threatening of Moses (Leviticus 26.), where he is speaking of the punishments which should assuredly follow the commission of sin ; that the sinners should be chased by the sound of a shaking leaf, and that they should flee from it as from a sword (Levit. 26. 36). For, when the conscience is truly alarmed on account of sin, the man is so oppressed by it, that he not only cannot do anything, but cannot even direct any thought to any purpose. And just as they say it is sometimes the case in an army, when the soldiers, overpowered by fear, can- not move a hand, but give themselves up in entire helplessness to be slaughtered by the enemy ; in the same manner, so horrible is the punishment which follows sin, that the conscience of the sinner is struck with alarm at the sound of a leaf. Nay, that he cannot endure that all-beautiful creature, the light of day, by which all nature besides is enlivened and refreshed.

Here, therefore, you have another sight of the magnitude of that original sin which is born in us at our birth, and implanted in us by the sin of our first parents. And this sight (as I have said) enables us to understand negatively, or by a comparison of contraries, what original righteousness was. It contained in it

CREATION. 229

SO beautiful a confidence in man towards his God, that he could not have feared, even though he had seen the heavens falling in ruins upon his head !

With what entire confidence did Eve listen to the serpent ? We do not talk to a little house-dog who has been brought up in our family circle, and to whom we have been accustomed for years, nor with a favourite chicken, more familiarly than Eve did with that then beautiful creature. Before their sin, there- fore, Adam and Eve sought no hiding-places : but stood upright in all their created wisdom and righteousness, praising God with uplifted eyes. But now they are terrified at the sound of a shaking leaf. O ! how awful a fall ! — to fall fi*om the safest security and delight in God, into a fear and dread so horrible, that man can no longer endure the sight of his God, but flees from His presence as from the presence of the devil ! — For it is not the devil fi'om whom Adam and Eve are now fleeing : they are rushing from the sight of God their Creator, Avhose presence is now more dreadful and intolerable to them than that of Satan ! Satan is now more congenial to their feelings than the adorable God : for from Satan they flee not, nor are filled with his dread. This dread, therefore, is actually a flight fi'om, and a hatred of, God Himself.

It is instructive here to mark the gradual increase and pro- gressive steps of sin : which goes on until it becomes (as Paul is wont to express it) "exceeding sinful" (Rom. 7. 13.) For man first falls from his faith into unbelief and disobedience. Upon unbelief follow the dread and hatred of God, and fleeing from Him : and these are soon succeeded by despair and impenitence. For whither shall the heart flee when thus dreading the presence of God ? Shall it flee unto the devil 1 That, of course, is vain ; and never expected to be the case : and yet to this it all comes ! For this history shows that God created man, and made him lord over all created things. And yet that same man now flees from Plim, and considers nothing more hateful or intolerable than the presence of this same Creator. Were it not so, he would not now thus turn away from his God, nor flee from Him in instant dread of the voice of His approach. For all this is not during the night ; not under thunderings and lightnings, as at the Mount of Sinai, but in the bright light of " day," while a

230 CHAPTER II r. 8.

gentle breeze is breathing, and the leaves of the trees softly rustling by its touch ! There is nothing, therefore, more intole- rable to endure, nothing filled with greater niiseiy, than a con- science alarmed by the law of God, and by the sight of sins committed.

This it was which made Adam and Eve do the worst of all things they could do ; — to shun their Creator and their God, and to flee to the truly vain refuges of fig leaves, in order to cover themselves from His sight, and to hide themselves among the trees ! And what could be more, beyond description, horrible, than thus to fiee away firom God, and to hide them- selves from His sight 1

Wlierefore this affords a further view of alterations of the rectitude of the will and of the miderstanding, after the sin of the fall. The very facts show that the will was corrupted and depraved. For Adam and Eve long for those very things which God had prohibited : and they so long for them as to become disobedient to God and obedient to Satan ! Nor can we enter- tain any doubt of the corruption of the understanding also, when we see the counsel of covering themselves which Adam and Eve adopted; and by which they thought they were safe. — Was it not, I pray you, the very extreme of folly, first to attempt im- possibilities, in trying to flee from God, whom no one can escape or avoid ? And was it not, in the next place, greater folly still, to attempt that escape from the presence of God in so absurd a manner, as to believe themselves safe when hidden among the trees of the garden : when they must otherwise have known, that no walls of iron, nor mighty mountains of brass, can save from the presence, or the grasp, of God ?

All confidence in God being thus lost by sin, there now follows a horrible dread upon the will. And all wisdom and understanding being lost (those most beautiful gifts of God), there follows, in their place, the extremity of folly ; such folly, that men attempt impossibilities by means the most absurd. So in- exhaustible a deep of evil is original sin ! And even all these calamities are but the prelude to that which is yet to come. For we are not yet brought to the judgment of God. — This next follows.

CREATION. 231

Ver. 9. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou ?

Here we have a description of the judgment of God I — When Adam, terrified by the consciousness of his sin, fled from the presence and sight of God, he found not only paradise, but the whole world too narrow, in which to find a corner wherein to hide himself from God in safety. But all this his anxiety makes manifest the folly of his mind in seeking a remedy for his sin by fleeing from his God. But he had fled from Him much too far already. For his very sin was, his having departed fi'om God, at the first : he needed not, therefore, to flee farther from Him still. But so it is. That is the very nature of sin, — the farther a man departs from God ; the farther still he wants to depart. And thus, the man who has once departed and apostatized fi^-om God, goes on departing and departing still, to all eternity I — Hence, it is truly said, concerning the punishments of hell, that its greatest punishment is, that the wicked there are always wishing to flee from God, but feel that flee they cannot ! Just in the same manner Adam, though found out and apprehended of God, yet ceases not to attempt to flee out of His hands.

When therefore, Moses here says, " the Lord God called unto Adam," we are to understand that the Lord called him to judg- ment.— But a question is raised here concerning the j^^^'son by means of whom Adam was called of God ; and it is by no means out of the way to suppose that all these thhigs were carried on by the ministration of angels ; and that an Angel here acted, in the place of God ; and, as God, spoke all these things to Adam. Just as magistrates, when they say or do anything, say and do it, not in their own person, but in the person of God, as His representatives. Hence, it is, that the Scripture calls those judg- ments, which are exercised and administered by appointed men, the judgment of God. It by no means displeases me, therefore, that it should be considered that Adam was here called by an Angel ; and that it was shown him by that same Angel that all flight was impossible.

It is here especially to be noticed, moreover, that Moses ex- pressly tells us that it was Adam who was called : seeing that it was to Adam alone that the Word of God was spoken, on the

V

232 CHAPTER III. 10.

sixth day, concerning that tree of which they were both forbidden to eat. As, therefore, Adam alone heard the command ; so he alone is first called to judgment. But as Eve herself also had sin- ned, and had departed from God ; she also hears the judgment, at the same time, and becomes a partaker of the punishment.

The words, " Where art thou f are the words of the law, spoken from God, and reaching unto the conscience of Adam. For, although all things are naked and open unto the eyes of God, (as it is written, Hebrews 4. 13,) yet He speaks unto our sense, and feeling, and understanding ; for He sees us aiming at the one thing of fleeing away from Him and attempting our escape from His sight and presence. When, therefore, God says, " Where art thou ?" it is as if He had said, ' Thinkest thou that I see thee not T For He will have Adam to see and feel, that though hidden, he is not hidden f7'om God I And that though he flees from God, — from God he cannot flee. — For this is the very nature of all sin ; — it causes us to attempt to flee from the wrath of God ; from which wrath, nevertheless, we find it impos- sible to flee. It is, indeed, the utmost of folly to think that we shall find a remedy in fleeing from God, rather than in returning to Him : yet it is the very nature of sin, that the sinner cannot return to God ! What, then, can we possibly conceive to have been the exceeding folly, and state of mind, in Adam? He had heard the voice of the Lord ; — and yet, he hoped that he could conceal himself from His presence ; when, lo ! he was now standing before the tribunal of God, and was demanded of God for punishment !

Yer. 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked ; and I hid myself.

As it was vdth the utmost folly that Adam fled from God ; so it is in the utmost folly he answers Him ; so utterly deprived is he of all wisdom and counsel by sin. He now really wishes to teach God that he is naked, who had Himself created him naked ! Thus does he wholly confound himself, and betray and condemn himself, out of his own mouth. He confesses that he heard the voice of the Lord, and was afraid. And had he not also heard the voice of the Lord before, when the Lord forbad him to eat the fruit of that tree ? Why did he not then fear also ?

CREATION. 233

Why did he not then^ also, hide himself? How was it that, ihen^ he stood with up-lift countenance, and with joy before Him ? re- joicing in His presence, and delighting to hear Him speak ? — Now he trembles at the somid of a shaking leaf! It is at least evident that he is no longer the same Adam he then was ; he is totally changed, and become quite another man ; he now looks about for a lie, and a false cause for his defence ! For how can it be true, that " the voice of the Lord is the real cause of his fear; when, before, he feared not that Divine voice, but heard it as the voice of his God, with happiness and joy ?

Leani we then from this solemn history, that perverseness and folly, which ever accompany sin ; that transgressors, by all their excuses, only accuse themselves ; and that the more they defend, the more they betray themselves ; and especially before God ! Just thus, Adam here attempts to conceal his sin, and to set oiF himself as innocent. He alleges, as the cause of his fleeing, to be, not his having sinned, but his having heard the voice of the Lord ; and he makes that to be the cause of his alarm, and of his being ashamed because he was naked. Poor wretched man ! He never thinks that he had no such fear as this when he heard the same voice of God at first ! He never recollects that he was not then ashamed because he was naked ! For, as that nakedness was the creation of God, why should he the creature be ashamed of that which God had made ! He then walked in all his nakedness in the sight of God, and of the whole creation in paradise,^ perfectly secure and happy that such was the will of God, and delightino- himself in God, on that very account. But now, he is covered with shame, because he is naked, and flees from God, and hides himself from Him on that account ! Every one of these things is an argument by which Adam condemns himself, and betrays his present state of sin ! And just in the same manner will the wicked condemn themselves in theyzna^ judgment ! when all the darkness shall be di'iven away fi'om all the hearts of men, and the sins of all men shall be read in the " books," when " opened !"

God knew perfectly well that Adam had sinned, and was guilty of death. Yet He calls him, that he might be condemned

1 See footnote, p. 131, and particularly the longer footnote, p. 51 ; and especially Prefatory Notices, at the end of Translator's Preface, article " Paradise."

234 CHAPTER III. 10.

by the testimony of his own mouth, as having sinned. For he flees from God when He calls him ; which fact was itself the very essence of sin ; even as it is the very essence of righteousness to flee unto God as a refuge. This fleeing from God, therefore, is "^ the strongest possible testimony of Adam against himself. Yet even still he vainly hopes that his sin can be covered by a lie ; for he alleges, as the real causes of his flight, the voice of God and his own nakedness.

From this learn we, therefore, that such is the nature of sin, that unless God bring the medicine immediately after it is com- mitted, and call back the sinner to Himself, he will flee from his God farther and farther ; and by mendaciously excusing his sin, he will add sin to sin, until he runs at length into blasphemy and despair. Thus sin draws after it, by its own weight, as it were, sin upon sin, and makes eternal ruin ; until the sinner, finally, will rather accuse God Himself, than acknowledge his own sin.

Whereas, Adam ought to have said. Lord, I have sinned! But this Adam does not. He rather actually accuses God of sin : and in reality he says, Thou Lord hast sinned. For I should have remained wholly in paradise after my eating the fruit, if Thou hadst remained perfectly quiet. For the words of Adam bear all this import in truth, when he says, in substance, I should not have fled if Thy voice had not terrified me*from Thy presence. Thus man, wdien accused of his sin by his God ; so far from acknowledging his sin, rather accuses God as being the cause of it, and transfers his sin from himself, and lays the blame of it on his Creator. Hence, sin increases to infinity, unless God, by His mercy, come to succour the sinner. And yet Adam all the while considers this excusing himself, and blaming his Creator, the highest of wisdom. For he is so confounded by the terror of his conscience, that he knows not what he says nor what he does. Although, by thus excusing himself, he only accuses himself the more grievously, and increases his sin to the utmost extent.

Let us, however, by no means think, that all this happened to Adam only. We, every one of us, do the very same things ; nor will nature, of herself, ever permit us to do otherwise. For, after having sinned, we all rather accuse God, than acknowledge

CREATION. 235

our sin before Him ; just as Adam here did, who asserted, that the voice of God was the cause of his fleeing from Him : thus, actually making God Himself to be the cause of his flight. And next, upon the back of this sin, quickly follows another and further sin. For he that spares not his Creator himself, how shall he be likely to spare the creature ? Therefore, Adam next charges God with his nakedness, thus making Him the Creator of a thing that was vile and base. For, by his sin, Adam is so de- prived of his senses, that he turns the glory of his nakedness into a reproach to his Creator !

(Authorized Version.)

Ver. 11. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat.

(Luther's Version.)

Ver. 11. To whom the Lord said. Who then has indicated to thee that thou wast naked ? Except it be, that thou hast eaten of the tree of which I fore-commanded thee that thou sJiouldst tiot eat.

Here, the conscience of Adam is pierced with the true sting of the law. It is as if God had said. Thou knowest that thou art naked, then, and therefore thou hidest thyself from me. But nakedness is my creature. Dost thou condemn that creature, then, as vile and base. It is not thy nakedness, therefore, that hath confounded thee : nor is it My voice that hath terrified thee. It is thy conscience that accuseth thee of sin ; because thou hast eaten the fruit of the forbidden tree. This is the cause of thy flight from My presence. Here, Adam being thus pressed by the law, and by his conscience, is in the midst of death ; yea, in the midst of hell. For he is compelled to confess that there was no evil in his nakedness ; because it was so created of God. But he was forced to acknowledge, that the mighty evil was, that he now had a guilty conscience concerning his nakedness, in which before he had gloried, as in a beautiful adornment : and that he now dreaded that same voice of God, which before he had heard with supreme delight.

It is to this state of mind, which the Lord now perceives in

236 CHAPTER III. 12.

Adam, that the words of this passage expressly speaks. As if the Lord had said, Since thou hast an evil conscience, and art filled with di'ead ; most assuredly thou hast eaten of the for- bidden tree. For thou receivedst no command from Me that thou shouldst not commit murder, nor that thou shouldst not commit adultery, but that thou shouldst not eat of the fruit of this tree. As, therefore, thou art filled with terror, thou thereby makest it manifest, that thou hast sinned against that commandment.

Thus, those very things which were Adam's thoughts, those same things he now hears fi-om the mouth of the Lord. Adam was thinking thus : — I have eaten the fruit, but I will not say that I have fled from God on that account. I will say nothing about my sin. I will say that I was afraid, because I was naked, and that I was terrified into flight by His voice. But while he is saying these things to himself, he is compelled to condemn himself, and he hears his conscience within convicting him of a lie, and condemning his sin. Li addition to this accusation of his own conscience, the Lord Himself now accuses him of his sin openly, and in the plainest words. But not even now can Adam be brought to the honest acknowledgment of his sin. For he next says, —

Ver. 12. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Only mark the true colours, the essential evil, and real nature of sin. It is depicted in this excuse of Adam. It shows that a man can in no way be brought to an open confession of his sin, but that he will deny his sin, or excuse it, as long as he can find that there is any hope or any probable ground of excuse left him. For it was not so wonderful that Adam should, at first, hope that his sin could be covered, and that he should rather accuse God than acknowledge the sin he had committed. The great wonder was, that after he was convicted in his own conscience, and after he had heard his sin declared from the mouth of God Himself, he should still persist in excusing that sin. For he does not say, ' Lord, I have sinned ; forgive me the debt of my sin ; be merci- ful unto me ;' (for the very natui'e of sin is, that it \Aill not suffer

CREATION. 237

the mind to flee unto God, but instead thereof, compels it to flee from God ;) but he transfers all the fault from himself to the woman.

It is a well known rule, taught in the schools of legal and civil orators, that when a charge of crime is brought against the de- fendant, the act should either be denied totally, or defended, as having been done rightly. Adam here does both. He first of all denies his sin altogether, and asserts that his terror arose, not from his sin, but from the voice of the Lord. And then, when so far convinced of his sin in what he has done, he attempts to defend the act, as having been done rightly and unavoidably. ' If (says he to the Lord) thou hadst not given me this woman, I should not have eaten the fruit.' Thus, he further lays all the blame of what he had done on God himself, and positively accuses Him as being, after all, the real cause of his sin. Wherefore, there is no end to a man's sinning, when he has once turned aside from the Word. Adam, at first, sinned by unbelief and dis- obedience, and now he heaps upon that sin reproaches of God and positive blasphemy, saying, in effect. It was not I who lis- tened to the serpent ; it was not I who was captivated by lookino- on the fruit of that tree ; it was not I who stretched forth my hand to pluck the forbidden fruit. The woman whom Thou gavest me did all this. In a word, Adam has no desire to ac- knowledge his sin. On the contrary, he wishes to be considered pure and clean.

This portion of the divine record contains a further description of sin, and of the real nature of sin. For, whensoever the promise of the remission of sins, or faith in that promise is not immediately at hand, the sinner cannot do otherwise than Adam did. If God had said, Adam, Thou hast sinned, but I will pardon thy sin, then Adam would have acknowledged his sin with all luimility and candour, and with the utmost detestation of what he had done. But because the hope of the remission of sin was not pre- sent to his mind on account of his having transgressed the com- mandment of God, he can see nothing, he can feel nothing, but death, the certain punishment of such transgression. And be- cause human nature cannot but be shocked at the sight of that certain death, therefore Adam cannot be brought to the confession of his sin ; but he tries all possible means by which he has the

238 CHAPTER III. 12.

least hope of warding off the blame of his sin. And thus does every sinner hate the punishment of his transgressions ; and because he hates that pimishment, he also hates the justice of God, and God Himself, and endeavours, by all means in his power, to persuade both God and all men that he suffers innocently.

Just in this manner does Adam here endeavour to lessen his sin by saying that it was not he who listened to the serpent, nor he who plucked the fruit. " The woman whom Thou gavest me (says he) offered me the fruit of this tree." In the same state of mind as Adam are those men, who, when they have come to a knowledge of the sins they have committed, being filled with despair, either cut short their life with a halter, or curse God, as the cause of their transgressions. The words of Job are familiarly loiown : — " Cursed be the day in which I was bom ; why was not my mother my tomb." — (Job. 3. vers. 3 and 11.) For such lay all the fault of their sin on God, and complain against God, that they were ever created to destruction and damnation. Nor can any sinner do otherwise, when the hope of pardon and the promise of grace are not present to his soul. For, because death is intolerable to human nature, therefore it pro- duces desperation and blasphemies.

It is an utterance therefore full of pain and of wrath against God, when Adam says : — " The woman whom Thou gavest me." It is as if he had said. Thou Thyself hast laid upon me the bur- den of this evil ; if Thou hadst given to the woman some separate garden to herself, and hadst not burdened me with Thy command that I should live with her, I might have continued without sin. As, therefore, I have sinned, the fault is Thine in adding to me a wife. In the case of Adam, therefore, is set before us an exact example of all those who sin, and who despair under their sin. They cannot do otherwise than accuse God and ^.rcuse them- selves ; for, seeing as they do that God is omnipotent, they con- sider that He could have prevented these their sins. So horrible a thing is sin, whensoever the minds of sinners are not soon re- lieved, and lifted up with the promise of the forgiveness of sins. And this is the true effect of the law, whenever the law is alone, without the gospel, and the knowledge of its grace, it always leads to despair and to final impenitency.

CREATION. 239

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 13. Ajid the Lord God said unto the looman, What is this that thou hast done ? And the woman said, The serpent be- guiled me, and I did eat.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 13. And the Lord God said unto the ivoman. Why hast thou done this? Who ansioered, the serpent deceived me, and I did eat.

Here the example of Eve is also set before us ; who, being corrupted by sin, is seen to be in no degree better than Adam.

Adam wished to appear innocent, and laid the blame on God, because He had given him a Avife. Eve also attempts to excuse herself, and accuses the serpent, which also was a creature of God. She confesses, indeed, that she had eaten the fruit ; but she says. The serpent which Thou createdst, and which Thou per- mittedst to go about in paradise, imposed upon me. Now, is not this actually accusing her Creator, and removing the fault from herself? Hence, we see that sin is always, and everywhere, the same, and works in the same Avay. It is never willing to be punished as sin, but ever wishes to appear to be righteousness. And as it cannot accomplish this, it turns the blame from itself upon God : so that when God accuses a man of sin, the man actually charges God with falsehood, in that accusation. So that sin, from being a hinnan sin, becomes positively a devilish sin : and the unbelief of the man is turned into blasphemy, and his disobedience into a reproach against his Creator !

I term this a devilish, and not a human sin : because, the devil hates and accuses, and condemns God, and justifies him- self, to all eternity : nor can he possibly, from his heart, say, 'Lord, I have sinned; pardon my sin.' Were it not so, the devil would not eternally despair of pardon. But that pardon is impossible, as long as he acknowledges not his sin, but blasphemes God as exercising unjust cruelty against him as a creature, without just cause.

Hence we see Adam and Eve so deeply fallen and sunk under sin, that they could not be sunk under it lower. For, upon their

240 CHAPTER III. 13.

unbelief, followed the disobedience of all the powers and all the members, in man. Upon this disobedience, immediately after- wards followed the excuse and defence of their sin. This defence was next followed by an accusation and condemnation of their God. This is sin's last step : — to reproach God Himself, and to make Him the author of sin. This nature of ours can ascend no higher than this, in its sin against God. And these are the onward steps of sin, unless the minds of fallen sinners are lifted up by a confidence in God's mercy.

Wherefore, the state of the church, under the Pope, was most horrible ; for in it was neither seen nor heard anything whatever which could lift up the mind of a sinner, labouring under his sin and guilt ; except that, once a year, the history of the passion of our Lord was slightly taught. And the statement of that history showed forth, in some slight manner, the source from which pardon was to be sought. But everything else, on every side, led men away from the promise of the remission of sins, to their own righteousness. Hence it was, that we saw, in many monasteries, men alarmed by their sins, through their whole life-time, who were filled with despair as they walked about ; and who at length died in agony, worn out -wdth sorrow and pains of spirit. And, as to the rest of their brethren, this doctrine of pardon being wholly unlaiown, — they did nothing but stand in their places, and procure the protection of their saint, by idola- trous prayers. Thus were these miserable creatures worn out, and consumed with the most terrible pains of soul, without hope, without counsel, and without any help whatever. Was not this then, I pray you, a state of things full of horror ?

Wherefore, if the papacy and all the monasteries together could be overturned by the touch of one finger, it ought at once to be done, on account of the whole papal church being this most wretched slaughter-house of consciences ! For there is nothing more horrible than for a man to be under the weight of his sins ; and yet never to hear, or to be ignorant of, the remis- sion of sins, and the promise of grace. Now, the Pope was the very cause of the remission of sins, being utterly kept out of men's sight. For no sound doctrine, nor any true worship whatever, was retained in the church. And if any were saved, in these times, they were saved by the bai'e annual recital of the suffer-

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ings of Christ, apprehended by faith ; contrary to the will of the Pope, and in defiance of his opposition. For it was through him tliat men, in the extreme perils of tlieir souls, were brought down to the necessity of imploring the intercession of Mary, and of the saints. For these sayings filled every place ; — that the mother Mary showed her breasts to her Son, and that the Son showed His wounds to His Father ; and that the man was thus saved ; not by the intercession of the Son, but by the intercession of His mother !

I earnestly entreat you, therefore, with all the persuasion in my power, to set the highest value possible upon the doctrine of the Gospel. For what do we see in the history of Moses now before us to have been suffered by Adam and Eve, when their sin was before them, and this knowledge of the promise of grace and of pardon was out of their sight ? The veiy same do we also see in the damnation of Satan. For as he is destitute of the promise of grace ; — Therefore, he is not able to cease from his sins, nor from his hatred of God, nor from his blasphemies against Ilim. Hence it is, that the condition of Adam was so different from that of Satan, and so much better and more blessed. For Adam was called to judgment, that he might acknowledge his sin ; that being terrified by his sin, he might afterwards be lifted up again and comforted by the promise of the remission of his sins : as we shall now farther see, in this most beautiful part of the sacred history of Moses ; in which we shall also find included the preaching of Christ.

For as the issue of this whole transaction sets forth the very great goodness and mercy of God towards man ; seeing that God calls him back to the remission of sins, and to eternal life, through the Seed that was to come ; so, also, these very beginnings of this Divine mercy, if we view tliem aright, are much better and greater than Adam deserved, at God's hand. For we have not here a display of that terrible majesty of God, which Avas witnessed on Mount Sinai ; where there were thunderings and lightnings mingled with the loud soundings of trumpets. Here God approaches with the soft sound of the gentle breeze : signi- fying that He came, in this case, to seize with the tender hand of an affectionate Father. He does not drive Adam from Him, on account of his sin, but calls him away from his sin to Him-

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self. This fatherly care, however, Adam, overwhelmed Avitli his sin and the terrors of it, does not at first understand or per- ceive ; he does not consider how far difrerently God deals with him from the manner in which He dealt with the serpent. For He did not call the serpent to Him. He did not ask the sei-pent why he had sinned, in order that He might recal him from his sin unto repentance. He charges the serpent with his sin, and pronounces his doom. These things show unto us that Christ, our Deliverer, interposed Himself, even then, between God and man, as a Mediator. For it was the greatest display of grace, that even after the sin of Adam, God was not silent, but spoke ; and that, too, in many and plain words, with the intent of show- ing forth evidences of His fatherly mind towards sinners. His carriage towards the serpent was altogether different. Where- fore, although the promise concerning Christ was not yet given, it may be plainly discerned in the thoughts and counsel of God, on this occasion.

Thus far, therefore, ISIoses has set before us the judgment which God exercised after the sin of the fall of our first parents. He calls them to His tribunal, and convicts them, and interrogates them, and hears them. They, poor creatures, desire, indeed, to escape that judgment, but they cannot ; nay, while they attempt to e.rcuse themselves, they doubly accuse and betray themselves. The woman acknowledges what she had done. Adam attempts to conceal the fact, although (which is the very nature of sin), he does not wish it to appear to be really sin at all. For as long as grace is withheld from the sinner, it is impossible for him to do otherwise than excuse himself, and try to make his sin appear to be righteousness. God, therefore, is always compelled thus to contend with us, by His laws, until He extorts from us the con- fession of our sins, and brings us to justify Flim; as it is written, Ps. 51. 4, where this confession is fully described. But as long as the law rules alone, and galls the conscience, the conscience, thus terrified, cannot bring out this confession, as the examj)les of Adam and Eve here fully show.

From this portion of the sacred record of Moses, the holy prophets drew many divine truths ; for they studied this book of Moses \\nth far deeper diligence and greater faith than we do. From this source they derived the following holy sentences : —

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" The wicked fleo when no man pnrsueth " (Prov. 28. 1). " The mcked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest : there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Is. 57. 20, 21). " He that believeth shall not be ashamed" (Is. 28. 16). " The righteous are bold as a lion" (Prov. 28. 1). " The just shall live by his faith" (Ilab. 2. 4). From this same place of Moses Christ also drew that memorable saying of His, which we find in the Evan- gelist John : — " For every one that doeth evil hateth the light " (John 3. 20). For it is the very nature of sin that whoso com- mitteth sin desires to remain hidden in darkness, and not to be brought into the light, just as Adam covered himself with fig- leaves, and fled to conceal himself among the trees.

And we must also here touch upon that passage of the apostle Paul (1 Tim. 2. 13 and 14), " For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being de- ceived was in the transgression." This passage almost all inter- preters understand to mean, that Adam was not deceived, but that he sinned knowingly ; not from yielding to the persuasion of the devil, as Eve had done, but from being unwilling to distress the delight of his life, that is, his wife ; and thus preferring the love of his wife to the command of God. And they attempt to render this interpretation likely and probable by saying, that the serpent reverenced the male as his lord, but that he attacked the female, whom, although she also was holy as the man, yet as being the weaker creature, he considered to be the better adapted to yield to his persuasion, and that therefore Eve was deceived by the serpent, not Adam. Adam (they maintain) was deceived both by himself and by the woman, but not by the serpent ; by the woman when she presented to him the fruit to eat ; by himself when, because he did not see Eve die immediately she had eaten the fruit, he was induced to believe that the punishment which God had threatened would not " surely" follow. Just as a thief, wlien he has found his theft to have succeeded, once or twice, goes on stealing in security. Whereas, had the law-ofiicer or the gallows been kept before his eyes, he would ha^-e ceased to steal.

Wlierefore, I do not altogether condemn the above interpreta- tion, for it makes both views to stand true, that Adam teas de- ceived, and that he was not deceived. He was not, indeed, de- ceived by the serpent as Eve was, but lie wai< deceived both by

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his wife and by himself, when he persuaded himself that the punishment which God had said should follow would not really come. Then follows the execution of judgment upon all the parties concerned.

Ver. 14. A7id the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

Afterjudgment has been pronounced, and the whole case com- pletely gone through, next follows the execution of judgment ; in which, as we shall now hear, there is rendered to each party, according to their work, but not according to their real desert. Now, this passage claims our thoughtful observation. In the first place, because there is not found throughout the five books of Moses so long a speech in the person of God. And, in the next place, because this Divine speech contains no laio whatever as to what the serpent or man was required to do. The whole speech is occupied in promising that good, or threatening that evil, which should come upon each party concerned.

And it is worthy our particular observation here, that, after the sin of the fall, no farther law whatever w^as imposed on Adam, though nature, in its state of perfection, had a divine law set be- fore it. The reason of this was, because God saw that nature, being now fallen and corrupt, could not only derive no helj) or relief fi'om any law given to it, but that, being thus corimpted, and also disorganized and confused altogether, it could not bear any syllable of law whatsoever. Wherefore, God did not in- creasedly oppress nature, already thus oppressed by sin, with any farther law of any kind. But, on tlie contrary, God mercifully applied unto sin, as a terrible wound, a healing plaster, — that is, the promise concerning Christ, — still using, nevertheless, that costic, the curse on sin, which the devil had caused to be inflicted. For, as wholesome plasters, even while they lieal, yet corrode and pain the flesh; so the healing promise is so set before Adam as that the threatened curse on sin should also be added, to operate with it, in curing the lust of the flesh. By the lust of the flesh, I mean, not only that foul motion and itching of lust, but also that " all

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inaiincr of concupiscence" and uncleanness of soul, as Paul terms them (Rom. 7. 8 ; Epli. 4. 19), through which we are by nature incHned to idolatry, unbelief, self-security, and all other horrible sins against the First and Second Table. To curb and cure all this depravity of nature, we have need of the operation of this burning costic — the curse of God on sin.

I would that I could handle the text now before us in a man- ner becoming its deepness and dignity, for it embraces all that is glorious in the whole Scripture, containing in itself the curse of God on Satan, and the destruction of the seed of the serpent by the seed of the woman ! The former part of the text is wholly figurative. God speaks to the serpent, but it is manifest that the serpent alone is not here to be understood as spoken to of God. For these are not the words of God, as a Creator, as were those His words above, when He said unto the beasts of the earth, — " Be fruitful and multiply ;" nor when He said to the earth itself, — ' Let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and trees, yielding seed after their kind.' They are words of divine threat- ening, and a declaration of mind and will, such words as God never speaks to an irrational creature, but to an intelligent creature only.

God does indeed address the " serpent" by name, but He is all the while especially speaking to Satan, who ruled in the serpent, and by the serpent deceived the first parents of mankind. Never- theless as, on account of the sin of man, the lord of the whole creation, all animals and all trees perished in the flood, just as the subjects of a nation are often punished on account of the misdeeds of their prince, so it befel the serpent. That animal also was punished because of the sin of the devil, who had abused the serpent, in making use of it to work so mighty an evil as the sin of the fall. God, however, intends, figuratively, to be represented under this punishment of the serpent, the deluging punishment of Satan.

The obscmity wdiich lies in this figurative representation has been the reason why this text, which ought to be most clearly known and understood by all, has never, to my knowledge, been explained by any one with sufficient diligence and clearness. And I have often wondered to myself what the fathers and the bishops could have been about, who, when occupied in the

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government of churches, and in the condemnation of heretics, did not feel that they had a still more important duty to perform in devoting themselves, vnth greater diligence, to the explanation of such passages of the Scripture as these. Such bishops and fathers possess nothing more than their names as such. They may, with much greater truth, be called destroyers than watchmen or guardians of the churches. I am now speaking of those of our fathers and bishops who really excelled in holmess of life and doctrine. Even among these not one is found to have explained the text before us in any manner becoming its great dignity. Perhaps those various engagements which generally beset the rulers of churches too deeply involve them to leave them time for the purpose.

The disgrace of our more recent divines is notorious. They have even shamefully corrupted this whole passage ; and out of the neuter pronoun ipsum (semen) they have made the feminine, IPSA ; which, with the most open wickedness, they have thus wrested, and have applied this clause of the passage to the Virgin Mary, — " She shall bruise thy head" (ver. 15). I can pardon Lyra, who was, as it appears, a good man, but he conceded too much to the authority of the fathers ; and hence he suffered him- self to be drawn aside by Augustine, to the most weak and foolish allegorizings ; which system Gregoi'y also follows in his "Morals," maintaining that by the woman, in this part of the sacred record, ought to be understood the inferior power of reason (as, by the man, the superior power of reason) ; and by her seed, the operation of good ; but by the seed of the devil, his evil suggestions. But what need, I pra^ you, friendly reader, is there of all such dark- ness of the most absurd allegories in this all clear light of the truth ?

But, grant that we might, with any propriety, divide reason into tivo qualities or powers, the superior and the inferior. With how much greater ajjpropriateness may we term thai the inferior power of reason Mdiich is adapted to the government of domestic and poKtical affairs, and not that which is concerned in swine-like pleasure and gratification? calling that the superior power of reason by which we contemplate or consider those things which are separate from economy or polity, and which pertain inito religion, — the solemn matter which is set before us in the Word,

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and wherein we do nothing operatively, but contemjilate and learn only ? But, though we thus speak upon these things, what have thej^ to do, after all, with the sacred text now before us ? Do they not altogether encumber and keep out of sight its real sense, and substitute a spmious sense in its stead? — a sense which is not only useless, but pernicious. For what can reason do at all, or what light can it give, in the divine matter of religion ?

There is also a farther absurdity still in this mode of interpre- tation, by which Eve is made to be the inferior power of reason. For it is perfectly evident that Eve was not inferior to her hus- band Adam in any sense whatever ; that is, neither in body nor in soul. It is from this ridiculous mode of interpretation that all those profane disputations concerning free-will have arisen, and concerning the doctrine, ' that reason always prays for the best,' &c., until theology is gone away altogether into philosophy and sophistical absurdities.

Wlierefore, let us, casting away all such pernicious and absurd follies, enter upon a new road of interpretation, caring nought for having disregarded the footsteps of those who have gone before us. For we have the Holy Spirit as our guide ; not setting be- fore us, in Moses, a heap of absurd allegories, but teaching us through him the mightiest truths, and the mightiest things which took place between God the Creator and man the sinner, and Satan the author of the sin.

First of all, then, let us settle it as a fact that the serpent here spoken to of God was a natural and real serpent, but a serpent besieged and occupied by Satan, who spoke through and by that serpent. Let us next consider it to be a truth, that those things which God spoke to the serpent are not to be understood as hav- ing been spoken to the serpent abstractedly as a brute animal, but that the person immediately spoken to was Satan, to whom God was all the while more expressly speaking. By this manner of intei'pretation, I am siu'e that I retain the plain and simple his- torical and literal meaning, and a meaning in accordance with the whole passage ; by which meaning (as divinely intended), the serpent remains a serpent, though occupied and possessed by Satan, the woman remains a woman, and Adam remains Adam, all which is proved by what follows in the sacred narrative. For it is not an infenor poioer of reason and a superior power of reason.

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who begat Cain and Abel (as recorded in the following chapter), bnt Adam and Eve, — that is, the first parents of mankind, who fell by sin into death, and became subject to the dominion of Satan.

When, therefore, God says to the serpent, — " Thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go," the Divine meaning is not that which Augustine gives, and which his favourers therein follow. They understand that by " belly" is to be allegorically understood pride. But the Divine mind in the passage is, that as Satan abused the serpent in effecting the sin of the fall, so the serpent is compelled of God to bear a part of the punishment of that sin, and therefore is thus cursed above all cattle, that it might be tlie most hateful of all the beasts of the field. At the beginning of the creation it was not so ; but now, through the Divine curse, such a nature has been imparted to the serpent, that that creature which, before the curse, was the most delightful and the sweetest of all creatures, is now hated and dreaded above every other animal of the creation. Hence we find, by experience, that we have a natural abhorrence of serpents, and that serpents as naturally dread and flee from us. Thus, tlieser])ent is indeed made to bear this curse as part of the punishment of sin. These words, however, are not spoken unto the serpent only, God is dealing all the time with Satan in the serpent. It is on Satan that this sentence is pronounced, as his final judgment. It is Satan that is here placed before God's tribunal.

For God here speaks to the serpent in far difi^erent language from that which He used towards Adam and Eve, when He called thetn back in love from their sin. His language then was, " AVliere art thou?" "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" All these particulars indicate the love of God towards the whole human race : showing forth, that God will seek after man, and will call him back after he has sinned, that He may dispute with him, and hear what he has to say. All this w^as a sure signifi- cation of grace ! For, although these words of God, spoken to Adam and Eve, were legal and judicial words ; yet they set before them a hope, by no means obscm^e, that they should not be con- demned for ever.

But with the serpent and Satan God by no means dealt so mercifully. He did not caU Satan to Him, and say, ' Why hast

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thou clone thisT He pronounced upon him at once the sentence of judgment ; and that, too, in the most awful words, " Because thou hast done i/«'s." As if He had said, Thou, Satan, hadst sinned before this, and hadst been condemned, when thou didst fall fi'om heaven : and now to that sin thou hast added this other sin. Thou liasfc by the abuse of the serpent hurled man into sin also. Therefore, in the first place, the serpent shall bear this punishment ; — that whereas, before, it partook of that blessing which all other beasts also enjoyed ; now, it alone shall remain under IMy curse.

From all these circumstances, it must follow as a manifest consequence, that the serpent, before the sin of the fall, was the most beautiful creature among the beasts which God had made, and most delightful to man ; as are, at this day, kids, and lambs, and kittens to us ; and also, that it moved with its head erect ; and, moreover, that it now creeps upon the ground, is not a property of its original nature, but the consequence of the Divine ciu'se. Just in the same manner as they are the consequences of the cm'se, that the woman conceives in uncleanness, brings forth in sorrow, and nurses and trains her offspring with toils and griefs. Were there no curse, the whole process of creation would be most pure and holy ; the giving birth to children most easy and delightful, and the training up of children the utmost pleasure. Sin, therefore, has not only utterly corrupted natm'e itself, but most basely defiled it.

And yet, the human reasoners even of our day dare to affirm, that the original properties of natui'e have remained essentially sound and whole, — even in devils also. But, if the serpent, which Satan had abused to effect the sin of the fall, bore such a punishment on account of that sin ; that whereas, before, it was the most beautiful of all creatures, it now, on a sudden, crawled on the ground upon its belly, and drew after it its viperous tail, before the eyes of Adam, and was thus, all on a sudden, become an object of hatred and of dread ; how can we doubt that the same was the utterly changed case with the man, who was the very one who had committed the sin, and had imbibed into his veiy nature the poison of Satan? As, therefore, the Egyptians beheld not -without the greatest amazement, the rod thrown down by Moses suddenly changed into a serpent ; just so, in paradise,

250 CHAPTEK III. 14.

immediately upon God's uttering this word of the cvirse from His mouth, the serpent was changed, from a form the most beautiful, into an object the most disgusting and abhorrent.

And to this same curse appertains that which God moreover said, " And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." The allegorists explain this, as meaning that Satan wQuld render men given up to the love of earthly things one with himself, by de- ceiving them. But as I have before said, God is here speaking to the serpent, as such, and cursing the serpent ; causing it to bear its punishment of the sin of the fall. For there are other beasts which also feed upon the earth ; but the serpent eats the earth, as its curse ; — that whereas, before, it had a certain pecu- liar gift of subtlety and of beauty, and of food also, which it enjoyed in common with man ; it now bore, as its punishment, that the nature of its food was also changed.

It is the glory of sheep, of oxen, and of other beasts, that they feed on herbs, and even on the fruits of trees ; and also that they produce from themselves various things useful for the food of man, such as butter, milk, and their own flesh, &c. The serpent also possessed this glory of his feeding in common with the other beasts. But now he is cast out from this society, and, as it were, from this common table and common feasting, on account of the sin of the fall ; so that he is not permitted to feed upon even the most useless herb ; nor on apples, or pears, or nuts, on which even the mice feed ; these he dare not taste. He eats the crude earth only. These are not my words, but the words of Moses : and they teach us, that the nature of the serpent is entirely changed, and wholly different from what it originally was.

And though I have said, and it is true, that it is to the serpent that God here speaks, and yet so speaks, that His words are directed, all the time, more expressly against Satan, as the fol- lowing part of the narrative A^ill still more plainl}' show ; yet I am by no means satisfied, that those things spoken, which rightly apply to the nature of the sei*pent, should be transferred allegori- cally, as intended to be spoken to Satan, as Augustine transfers them, and is followed therein by Lyra. For the serpent and Satan were intimately connected in the sin of the fall ; though Satan was the principal actor, and the serpent only the instru- ment. And therefore it is that the}' are made alike partakers of

CREATION. 251

the punishment. The serpent, however, bears a corporal punish- ment only. But for Satan, the author and agent of the whole, a different judgment is prepared : even that judgment concern- ing which Christ speaks (John 16. 11), when He says, " Because the prince of this world is judged." — The description of this judgment will now shortly follow, as recorded by Moses, in the succeeding verses.

Wherefore, when many say that the devil, like the serpent, no longer walks erect, and that he has lost his original form and stature ; the things they say are true ; but they are quite inap- propriate here, and have nothing to do with the right interpreta- tion of the passage now in question. And Avhen I said above, that the serpent, before the curse of God upon it, moved in an erect posture, I do not wish to be understood to mean that it moved in an upright position as man, but with its neck and head erect, as a stag or a peacock. To crawl on its belly, therefore, after the curse, was the Divine judgment on the serpent.

That which now follows, belongs expressly to Satan only. And the things here recorded of him by Moses, paint forth his judgment in far more true colour's, than any of those foolish and out-of-place descriptions of the allegorists. They, moreover, set before us this strong consolation : that the devil is now so si- tuated that he cannot attack and harm us, at his liberty, as he wishes to do, and would do, if the Seed of the woman stood not directly in his way.

Ver. 15. And I will put enmity betioeen thee and the looinan, and between thy seed and her seed.

Tliese are the things which are spoken expressly and properly to Satan. And they contain his judgment. While in these same words of Ids judgment, there is set before the godly their strong consolation. The things above spoken are historical, as I have said, and apply to the serpent ; which, because through the abuse of Satan, it aided in effecting the sin of Adam and Eve, bears, as his part of the punishment, his ejection from the com- mon life, as it were, and from tlie society of the other animals of the creation ; being made so different from them, that he dares not eat the same food, nor live in any way like them.

252 CHAPTER III. 15.

The present passage might also be brought under an allegori- cal interpretation. But the allegories used would be far less appropriate ; and they would not stand firm in the defence of the truth. For as to the facts of the case, they are these : Satan, on account of his sin, was cast out of Heaven and condemned ; and no longer goes about in his original form, as an ox, or a hind does, but creeps on the ground ; which may signify that he does not attack the godly by open force, but uses wiles and de- vices for their harm and destruction : which devices, neverthe- less, the godly when they look into the Word, see and under- stand ; and by them they perceive how vast his deformity is ; and so, dread and abhor him. And most certainly his creeping on the ground, and not walking upright, may well indicate that his tyrannical power is broken and destroyed ; so that he cannot do so much harm to the chui'ch, as he otherwise would do.

These allegories, we repeat, may be used in the interpretation of the present text : but they do not explain the meaning of Moses therein : and therefore they are improper. Wherefore, when we have to speak of Satan, let us ever follow the other testimonies of Scripture upon the subject : for they are proper, certain, and sure : such, for instance, as the following : — " The devil was a mvirderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth ; because there is no truth in him :" and also, " When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own" (John 8. 44) ; and, again, " Yovir adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet. 5. 8) : and, also, where Clirist saith, " The prince of this woi'ld is judged" (John 16. 11).

In a word, wdio does not plainly see, that the testimony of the present passage applies properly to Satan ; and that it is to him that the Son of God is here opposed, expressly to prevent him from making any attack upon us with open violence, as if he had no certain Antagonist ! The church, therefore, under this pro- tection, is perfectly safe. And not only is Satan deprived of the power of attacking the church with any open violence, but his power and desire of harming any thing or person else, are also destroyed. Were it not so, he would not suffer a single tree to grow to matiu'ity. He would impede and crush all things that spring forth in the earth ; and would prevent, not the bii'th of men only, but the bringing forth of all beasts ; and would de-

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stroy the safety of everything. This his insatiable desire to hami and to destroy is fully manifest from his inability to attack by open violence, and from his doing whatever he does by the means of craft, guile, and snare.

We should here, moreover, carefully observe, that these things are not spoken of God, for the devil's sake. For God does not deign to condemn Satan, on his own account, by these His words ; but He deems it sufficient to leave Satan to be condemned by his own conscience. All the things which God speaks to Satan, He speaks for the sake of Adam and Eve ; that they may hear this judgment of God upon him, and may comfort them- selves, by thus hearing and seeing that God is the Adversary to the nature of him, who had inflicted such a wound on man. For, out of these very words of God to Satan, there begin to shine forth grace and mercy : yea, out of the very midst of that anger, which sin and disobedience had so righteously kindled. It is here, in the very midst of the heaviest tlireatenings, that the mind of the Father discloses itself; of a Father, not so angry as to cast away his Son, but holding out salvation, yea promising victory, over that enemy, who had thus deceived and conquered human nature.

For though both had sinned, Satan especially, and man also, by Satan, in the fall ; yet the judgment now pronounced upon Satan, and upon man, are widely difl'erent. God does not join them together in one and the same punishment ; as He might righteously have done. He makes the widest distinction between them. For although He is angry with man also, who obeyed the enemy of God, disregarding God Himself, yet the Divine indignation against Satan is by very far the greater. Satan God plainly convicts and condemns, in tlie sight of Adam and Eve ; that Adam and Eve, from this very condemnation of their enemy, might have a little time to recover their breath ; and might feel how much more blessed their condition was, than that of Satan. — The first j)art of the great consolation here graciously given, lies in this ; — that the serpent was accused and cursed, and, together with the serpent, Satan also, for Adam and Eve's sake! Not so much for Satan's judgment and damnation, as for Adam and Eve's comfort and salvation.

Wherefore, by this judgment of Satan, that sun of consolation,

254 CHAPTER III. 15.

which had been just before hidden, as it were, behind the dark- ness of certain heavy clouds, now rises above those clouds, and shines with its most heavenly light, on the affrighted hearts of Adam and Eve. For they not only do not hear themselves cursed, as the sequent was, but they hear God declare, that He has put them into the ranks of a constituted army against their condemned foe : and that, too, with the hope of an almighty help, which the Son of God, the Seed of the woman, should bring unto them. Hereby, therefore, the remission of their sins, and their full reception into grace, were plainly revealed to Adam and Eve ; who were thus perfectly fi'eed from their sin and guilt, redeemed from death, and delivered from hell, and fi'om all those terrors, under which they were all but utterly sinldng, in the sight of God.

Such is the great consolation which arises from the fact so carefully to be observed by the godly, — that God did not curse Adam and Eve, as He did the serpent. All that God did to Adam and Eve, was to put them into an army of continual fight with this enemy, that they might not live a life of ease and in- dolence. This very thing, therefore, turned out for the good of man. But the chief part of the great consolation here vouch- safed was, that although this enemy should ever war by subtlety and snares ; yet that a seed should be born, which should bruise the serpent's head. For hereby is set forth the final destruction of the t}Tanny of Satan : although that tyranny will never come to its end, without a most terrible conflict ; a conflict which must be fought out by man. But only reflect upon the unequal- ness of the conflict ! It is the " heel" only of the man that is in danger ; his head is safe and invincible. On the other hand, it is not the tail, nor the belly, but the " head" itself of the ser- pent, that is to be bruised and crushed under foot by the seed of the woman. And this victory is given also to us all ; as Christ plainly declares, when He says, that after the strong man armed shall have been overcome, the sjaoils shall be divided. For the Chi'istian is by faith at once made conqueror over sin, the law, and death ; so that the very gates of hell cannot prevail against him.

This first great consolation, therefore, our first parents and their, posterity searched into and learned with all diligence; as

CREATION. 255

being the original fountain and tlie spring head, as it were, of all tlie promises. For they saw, that had they been left without this promise, the blessing of goieration would have indeed re- mained witli men, as with all otlier animals of the creation ; but which generation would only have been a begetting and a being born unto death. That great blessing bestowed of God upon human nature is here highly increased, yea consecrated : seeing that the hope hereby added to the blessing of generation, is such that tln-ough it, the head of Satan shall be utterly crushed ; and that not only his tyranny shall be destroyed, but that human nature itself, thus made subject to death through sin, shall attain unto eternal life. For Moses is now no longer dealing, in his narrative, with the natural serpent ; he is now speaking of the devil, whose " head" is formed of death and sin ; as Christ de- scribes him when He saith (John 8. 44), that he was " a mur- derer from the beginning, and a liar, and the father of it." Therefore, wliensoever, and wheresoever his power is destroyed ; that is, when sin and death are taken away by Christ, what remaineth, but that the children of God shall be saved !

It was in this manner, therefore, that Adam and Eve under- stood this text, and comforted themselves against sin and despair, by tlie revealed hope of this future crushing of the serpent's head, by Christ the seed of the woman. And through this, their hope in the promise tlivis given unto them, they shall also rise again, at the last day, unto life eternal.

Ver. 15. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Who is not filled with wonder, yea, rather with execration, at the malicious design of Satan, in having attempted to transfer this divine text, so full and running over with consolation, con- cerning the Son of God, to the Virgin Mary ! For in all the Latin Bibles, the pronoun ipse, is put in the feminine gender, ijysa, — " She shall bruise." And Lyra, who was by no means unacquainted with the Hebrew language, was carried away by this error, as by the violence of an overflowing and resistless stream, into the same impious sense, given to this text : so that, in the face of its plain meaning, he interpreted the passage, as applying to the blessed Virgin ; making her the person, by whom

256 CHAPTEK III. 15.

the power of Satan should be broken, through the mediation of her Son. And he apphes to the Virgin also that passage in the Song, * Thou art terrible as an army with banners.' And, although Lyra professes to hold this interpretation of the present passage, as received from others, yet his sin is great in not refut- ing it. Many afterwards followed him. And all the more recent interpreters have abused this most holy passage, to idolatry; finding no one to stop or resist them.

All this, however, has arisen either from the ignorance, or negligence, of the rulers in the church. Because these did not set themselves against idolatry, sound doctrine was by degrees suppressed, and became extinct. And since we have now, by the blessing of God upon us, restored the sound doctrine, these disgraceful beasts, given to the belly, plainly show, that they care not for religion, but for then' own benefices only. And because such idolatry promotes the interests of these men, they even show their indignation at men being taught the truth. But these blind beings do not see, tliat the gospel is a doctrine of that Divine nature, that those who receive it lose nothing by it, but their sins and eternal death ; and that tliey gain, in their stead, deliverance from all idolatry, and from the dominion of Satan.

Wlierefore let us render thanks to God, that we have this pas- sage also restored to its full integrity. Not that thereby any honour, due to Mary, might be taken from her ; but that all idolatry might be shut out. For as to men saying that Mary crushed all the power of Satan by giving birth to Christ ; — if that be the true state of the case, does not that same honour be- long equally to all the other women who preceded Mary, in the same line of genealogy ? Nay, a part of this same honour per- tains to all the husbands also, in Mary's line, and to all her ancestors. For, had she not descended from all these, as her forefathers, she herself could not have had existence. For she was born by marriage, according to the common order of nature. If, therefore, Mary, by the act of giving birth to her Son, bruised the head of Satan, all the ancestors of Mary must of necessity be ranked in the same degree of dignity and honour.

The Scripture, however, teaches us veiy differently, when it saith, that Christ " died for our sins and rose again for our justi- fication" (Rom. 4. 25) ; and when it saith, " Behold the Lamb

CREATION. 257

of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" (John 1. 29.) Wlierefore, let the blessed Virgin hold her place of due honour, as the woman whom God adorned with that high privilege above all other women, — that she, as a virgin, should bring forth the Son of God. Tliis honour, however, ought by no means so to be bestowed upon her, as in any way to take from her Son, our Lord, the glory of our redemption, and of our deliverance from sin and death.

Moreover, the peculiar expression of the Holy Scripture, in this passage, is by us most carefully to be held and guarded, as affording a truly wonderful light, which opens unto us the depth of the Divine goodness, revealed to us in the present sacred text ; wherein we are taught concerning that enmity which God put between the serpent and the woman ; such an enmity, as that the Seed of the woman should crush the serpent with all his powers. This crushing, Satan perfectly well understood at the time ; and, therefore, it is that to this day he rages with so much hatred against this human nature of oiu'S. Adam and Eve, on the contrary, raised up by the promise of this crushing, conceived the hope of theii* restoration, in all its fulness, in their souls. And being thus filled with faith, they saw that their salvation would assuredly be God's peculiar care : seeing that God had expressly testified, that the male Seed of the woman should utterly defeat and crush this their enemy. For the words are divinely put together with a wonderful emphasis.

The Divine expression here is, '■'■Her Seed." As if God had said. Thou Satan, by means of the luoman, didst attack and seduce the man, that thou mightest by means of sin be the head and lord over them. I therefore, in return, will execute my secret purposes against thee, by means of the very same instrument. I will take hold of the woman ; and by her I will produce a Seed ; and that Seed shall bruise thy head. Thou, by means of sin, didst corrupt and make subject to death the flesh of the human nature. I will produce from that same flesh such a Man, who shall crash and utterly defeat both thee and all thy powers.

By these Divine words, therefore, both the promise and the threat were expressed with the most perfect plainness. And yet they were most obscure. For they left the devil in such a state of doubt and suspense, that he held under suspicion all the women

R

258 CHAPTER III. 15.

which brought forth from that time ; fearing lest they should give birth to this Seed ; though one woman only was designed to be the mother of this blessed offspring. Therefore, as the Divine threatening was expressed in a general term, " Her Seed," Satan was so mocked thereby, that he feared this Seed from every woman who brought forth.

In the same proportion, on the other hand, the faith of all man- kind was confirmed. For, from the hour in which the Divine promise was made, all men expected that promised Seed, and comforted themselves against Satan. Hence it was that Eve, when she brought forth her first-born, Cain, hoped that she had now "gotten" that bruiser of the head of Satan. And though she was deceived in that hope, yet she saw that the promised Seed would assuredly at length be born at some time or other from her posterity. And thus, with respect to all mankind also, this promise was most clear, and at the same time most obscure. Isaiah threw some degree of light upon this glorious promise, when he said, " Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son" (Is. 7. 14). For it was then made certain, that this Seed would not be born from the union of a man and a woman. But the prophet added other certain particulars, by which he still involved his prophecy in obscurity. In such oliscurity, therefore, this most clear promise still remained, until ]\Iary had brought forth her Son. Of this birth, then, angels themselves were witnesses ; and after the angels, the shepherds and the wise men ; until, by the apostles, this birth was proclaimed abroad throughout the whole world.

This obscurity, therefore, tended to increase the concern and suspense of Satan to the highest degree. So that, accordingly as it had been said, ' I will put enmity between thee and the woman ;' so Satan suspected, and held as his enemy, every woman alike, who gave birth to a child, from the time that word was spoken, until Christ was revealed. On the other hand, with respect to man, this same obscurity increased and strengthened out their faith. So that, though each woman saw that she was not the mother who gave birth to this Seed, yet they all beheved and were fully assured, that this Seed would be born fi-om some other woman. — God having thus spoken individually or person- ally (if I may so express it), that very manner of expression

CREATION. 259

tended most effectually to mock and rack Satan, and to console the godly, and to raise them up to faith and hope. Thus women continued to bring forth, until the Flood ; and afterwards, also, until the time of Mary. But the seed of none of those women could truly be said to be the Seed of the woman, but might the rather be said to have been the seed of the man. But that wliich was born from Mary was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and was the true Seed of Mary, the appointed woman. This the other promises also testify, which were made to Abraham and to David : according to wliich promises, Christ was called ' the Son of Abraham' and ' the Son of David.'

This meaning of the original promise here given, Isaiah first opened, when he prophesied ' that a virgin should conceive and bear a Son' (Is. 7. 14). Afterwards, a more clear explanation and confirmation of it was made by the angel, in the New Testa- ment. Wherefore, I doubt not that there w^ere many saints, under the Old Testament, who did not understand this mystery, but who nevertheless fully expected that Christ would be born into this world of a woman, and that He would be the Deliverer of the human race : though they knew not what would be the particular manner and circumstances of His birth. With this general knowledge they were content, and by this knowledge they were saved; even though they knew not the manner in which Christ would be conceived and born. For this knowledge was reserved for the New Testament ; to be thereby revealed, as by the clearer and brighter light. And it was set forth, in the first age of the Church, with a greater obscurity, purposely, on account of Satan ; whom God willed to be mocked and racked, in this manner, that he might thereby have the less rest, and be the more filled with fear, on every side.

Wherefore, after this great original promise had been thus set forth generally in the beginning, and had by degrees been more circumstantially particularized ; and then confined to the seed of Abraham ; and then further restricted, by means of the patri- arch Jacob, to a certain tribe, — the tribe of Judah ; — after this, the devil became unconcerned about other peoples and tribes, and persecuted this one line of generation M'ith marvellous cruel- ties and stratagems : until, about tlie time of Christ, it had been reduced to the extremest poverty, and had become a hopeless

2 GO CHAPTER III. 15.

trunk-root, from which no one could hope for either fruit or leaves. And hence it is that the Scripture terms that line of succession a " stem," or bare root, as it were, of Jesse (Is. 11. 1) ; signifying thereby a decayed trunk, from which nothing what- ever could be expected.

This hatred and this fury of Satan are the effects produced on him, which the Lord here predicts, when He warns that Serpent of the enmity which He had put between his seed and the Seed of the woman. For Satan primarily sought this Seed of the woman, with hostile hatred, through all the peoples, and families, and lines, throughout the whole world. When the promise was transferred to Abraham, and restricted to his posterity, we see from history by what various means Satan attempted to hinder its fulfilment. And when this glorious promise was further transferred to the line of Judah, and restricted to that tribe, we behold with what horrible calamities it was oppressed and agi- tated ; until at length it seemed to be wholly subverted and era- dicated. So that, at the time of the birth of Christ, the poor Mary was living at a long distance from Jerusalem, in the little and insignificant town of Nazareth ; and Jeinisalem itself was possessed and governed by wicked heathens. Wherefore, most correctly and beautifully was this tribe of Judah compared to a dead and hopeless " stem" of Jesse. But as God cannot lie, this " root," so much decayed and despaired of, at length blossomed forth.

Satan, however, did not, even then, cease from his cruelty, and hatred, and enmity against the Seed of the woman. While He lay in the cradle, Satan sought Him out, by the instrumentality of Herod. So that the new-born Christ was compelled to live among the ( i entiles, in Egypt. After this, also, Satan adopted and tried all possible means to destroy Him ; until finding Him, and seizing Him, he threw Him into the hands of the Jews, and nailed Him to the cross. No ! nor could his inexhaustible hatred be satisfied even then. He feared Him, even as He la}- in the tomb : so desperate was the enmity which was " put" between him and the Son of God ! Nay, even now, when Satan sees the Seed of the woman sitting at the right hand of God, and, . according to the old proverb, e^w ^ekwv (' out of gun-shot'), he vents his fury, in every possible way, against His Church, and the

CKEATION. 261

poor helpless members of His body. — Of all these sufferings and perils the clauses of the Divine passage, now before us, were prophecies. From these same words, nevertheless, in meditating upon which we ought to employ our whole souls, we derive a con- fidence in the Son of God, — that He will bruise Satan, utterly.

But to return to the text. — This promise, as I have already said, is at the same time most clear, and yet most obscure. For since God, as I have also observed, here uses the expression, ^ The Seed of the woman,' generally, He does it that He might cause all women alike to be suspected by Satan ; that He might thus rack the Serpent with perpetual suspense and dread. The expression, therefore, is a wonderful synecdoche (' condensation of instruction'). It bears a general reference to all individual women, apd yet contains a direct reference to one individual woman only ; to INIary, and to her Seed ; who was to become a mother, without any intercourse with the male sex. For God, I repeat, thus willed all women to be suspected by Satan ; while, on the other hand. He willed that a most sure hope should be left to the godly, which should lead them to expect this salvation from all parents, until, in the fulness of time, the true mother should be revealed. As, therefore, the first clause of the passage, " I will put enmity between thee and the woman," refers to all women, in general : so this second clause, " Her Seed," refers, with a special individuality (if I may so express myself), to that Seed which should be born of Mary, of the tribe of Judah, who was espoused unto Joseph.

This text, therefore, contains that glorious promise which re- vived. Adam and Eve, and raised them again fi'om death unto that life, which they had lost by their sin : though the life to which they were thus raised again, was rather a life hoped for, than a life possessed ; as Paul also frequently speaks, when he uses the language, " We die daily." For although we do not wish to call the life which we live here, death ; yet it is, in truth, nothing more or less than a continual living on to death. For as he who is infected with a pestilential and fatal disease, begins to die also, from the moment of his infection : so, from the moment that this life of ours is infected by sin, it can no longer properly be called life, on account of that sin, and death, its sure pimish- raent. For we begin to die, even from our mother's womb.

262 ClIAPTEIi III. 15.

But by baptism we are restored to the life of hope ; or rather, to the hope of hfe. For that is the true Ufe, which we hve, in our renewed state, before God. Before we come unto that hfe, w^e are in the midst of death. We are ever dying, and rotting on the earth, as other carcases are ; as if there were no hfe at all in us. But we Avho believe in Christ, possess a hope that we shall be raised again, at the last day, unto the hfe eternal. It was in this manner, also, that Adam was raised again from his state of death through sin, through this promise, thus spoken by the Lord. Not that he was raised to a perfect life : for he did not as yet regain that life which he had lost. But he conceived, in his soul, a hope of that perfect life, when he heard that the tyranny of Satan was thus to be bruised and destroyed.

Under the Divine mind and promise, declared in this text, therefore, is included redemption from the Law, and from sin, and from death. And by the same text is set forth the plain and certain hope of resurrection fi-om the dead, and of the being called into another life, after the present life. For if the " head" of the serpent is to be destroyed, most certainly death is to be destroyed also : and if death is to be destroyed, with equal certainty that Avhich deserveth death, namely, sin, is also to be abolished. And if sin is to be abolished, so also is the Law : and not only so, but that obedience which was lost, is to be restored. And as all these things are promised thi'ough this Seed of the woman, it is per- fectly manifest, as a natiu*al consequence, that human nature, since the fall, can neither take away sin, by any powers of its OAvn, nor escape death, the just punishment of sin, nor regain the obedience to God, which it has lost by the sin of the fall. For all these things require a greater power, a mightier strength, than that which is possessed by man.

Hence it was absolutely necessary that the Son of God should become a victim or sacrifice for us, that by the offering of Him- self, He might accomplish all these things for us ; that He might take away sin, swallow up death, and restore unto us the obedience Avhich we had lost. All these treasures, therefore, we do possess in Christ, but in hope. Thus Adam, and thus Eve, lived and conquered, by this hope. And, in the same manner, all believers live and conquer, by the same ho])e, and will so live and conquer, until the last day. Death is indeed a horrible and invincible

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tyrant ; but the Divine power thus makes that, which is in all things horrible, a nothing ! just as the same power of God made-, out of that which was nothing, all things. For only behold Adam and Eve. They were filled with sins and with death. But as soon as they heard the Divine promise concerning the Seed of the ^^'oman, which should bruise the serpent's " head," they were comforted by the same hope by which we also are comforted, — that death shall be destroyed, and sin shall be abolished, and that righteousness and life and peace shall be restored. In this hope did our first parents live and die ; and on account of that hope, they were truly holy and righteous.

In the same hope do we also live. And when we come to die, we hold fast this hope of eternal life for Christ's sake ; Avhich hope the Word always sets before us, while it commands us to trust in the merits of Christ. But in vain do we expect to attain unto that perfection in this life, that we should be altogether righteous, that we should love God perfectly, and that we should love our neighbour as oiu'selves. We do, indeed, begin, and make a certain little progress therein ; but the sin which is in our members ever wars against us, and is ever present ; so that it ever mars, or altogether prevents, this our obedience.

As, therefore, this life of ours, on account of the death within us and before us, may truly be called a death : so righteousness is altogether buried under our sins. It is in hope, therefore, alone, that we hold fast life and righteousness, as things altogether hid- den from our sight, but which will be revealed in their time. ]Mean while, our life is a life in the midst of death ; and yet, in the midst of this death, we hold fast the hope of life, by the teaching and commanding and promising Spirit of God. This consolation is blessedly set forth in the G8th Psalm : — " He that is our God is the God of salvation ; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death" (ver. 20). For we ascribe to our God the great glory, that He not only helps us in this temporal life, as the devil sometimes stands by Ms worshippers, as is manifest from num- berless examples among the heathen ; but the glory which belongs to our God, is that " to the Lord our God belong the issues from death ;" that He delivers from death those who are oppressed thereby on account of their sins, and translates them into eternal life (Col. 1. 13). And our God does this, as Moses here teaches

264 CHAPTER III. IG.

US, by crushing the " head" of the serpent. In this part of the Divine history of Moses, therefore, we have Adam and Eve re- stored, not indeed perfectly, into that life which they had lost, but into the hope of that life ; by which hope they have escaped, not indeed the first taste of that death, but the whole eternal substance of it ; — that is, although their flesh was sentenced to suffer, and was compelled to suffer, a temporal or momentary taste of death, yet, on account of the here promised Son of God, M^ho should crush the head of the devil, they hoped for a resurrection of the flesh, and a life eternal after the temporal death of the flesh ; which hope we also have.

Next follows the other part of this Divine speech : in which God first threatens her temporal punishment to the woman, and then to the man his temporal punishment also.

(Authorised version.)

Ver. 16. Unto the woman He said, I ivill gj^eatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth chil- dren ; and thy desire shall he to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 16. Unto the womcm, indeed, God said, 1 will greatly multiply thy pain lohen thou shalt be with child. In pain shalt thou bring forth children ; and thou shalt be under the poiver of thy hus- band, and he shall rule over thee.

This is the pimishment which was inflicted on the woman ; but a punishment full, indeed, of joy and gladness, because it varied not in the least from the sentence just before pronounced on Satan. For, seeing that the glorious promise still remained, that the head of the serpent should be crushed, there was a sure hope of a resurrection from death. And whatever is imposed on man, as the punishment of his sin, is possible to be borne, while this hope remains to him firm and sure. And this is the reason why the Holy Scripture is so very careful not to say anything, in the pimishment of the woman, which should be contrary to, or at all militate against, the sentence just before pronounced against the serpent. God did, indeed, impose a punishment on the woman ;

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but lie still left her the hope of a resun-ection, and of a life eternal. The death which she had deserved by her sin, God transferred on the other and less honourable part of man, namely, on the flesh ; that the spirit might live, because of righteousness, through faith, as the apostle saith (Rom. 8. 10) : " The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life, because of righteousness."

The woman, therefore, is subject to death as to the flesh ; but as to the hope set before her, she is free from death. For that Divine word, by which God threatens the devil with the ' Lridsing of his liead^ remains ever sure to her. The animal life, therefore, hath, as here declared, its cross and its death ; as Paul also saith, ' The natural body dies, but is raised a spiritual body' (1 Cor. 15. 44). So also, in this natural or animal life, there remain marriages : and the woman experiences those punishments, on account of her sin, which the Lord here inflicts upon her ; that from the time of her conception, and at the time of her giving birth to the child, she endures various pains and perils all that part of her life which she lives in a child-bearing state. All these evals and sorrows, however, pertain to the animal life, or to the flesh itself only. But there remains to her, all the while, the hope here given to her of a sph'itual and eternal life after this present life.

This punishment of the woman, therefore, if we truly and rightly consider the whole matter, is, in its holy reality, a glad and joyful punishment. For, although the righteous burdens imposed are painful to the flesh to bear ; yet, by means of these very burdens and punishments, her hope of a better and eternal life is actually strengthened. For Eve, on the present mighty occasion, hears, in the first place, that she Avas not cast off of God for her sin. And in the next place, she is not, by this her pun- ishment, deprived of that blessing of generation and fi'uitfiilness which was promised to her, and freely given to her of God, before her sin. She sees that she still retains her sex : — that she is still a woman ! She sees that she is not separated from her Adam, so \ as to remain and live alone, and separated from her husband. ^ She sees that the glory of maternity (if I may so express it) is still left her ; — she may still be a mother ! And all these bless- ings of this present natural life are left to her, in addition to that promised hope of life eternal. This multitude of mercies, which

266 CIIArTER III. 16.

was still reserved for her, no doubt wonderfully revived and gladdened tlie mind of Eve. Nay, a greater and more real glory still awaited her : She not only retained the blessing of fraitful- ness, and of continuing in marriage union with her husband, but she possessed also the sure promise, that from her should come that Seed which should ' bruise the heacV of Satan.

Eve, therefore, without doubt, in this her most sad case (for sad it must indeed have appeared to her), had yet her bosom filled with joy. And it is very likely that she consoled her Adam with some such words as these : — ' I have sinned. But only see how merciful a God we have ! What large blessings, both temporal and spiritual, has He still left to us sinners. Wherefore, we women will willingly bear this labour and this sorrow of conceiving and bringing forth children, and of obeying you, our husbands. This is, indeed, fatherly anger ! for we have still remaining also the promise, that the " head" of our enemy shall be " crushed ;" and that we shall be raised again unto another life, after the death of this flesh of ours, through our Redeemer. The gTeatness of all these blessings, and this infinite multitude of benefits, far surpass whatever of curse or punishment our Father has been pleased to lay upon us.' These, and like conversations, Adam and Eve, no doubt, often held together, to alleviate their temporal sorrows.

In this same manner, also, ought loe to contemplate the un- speakable treasures we possess in our hope of the life to come, and by such meditations ought we to lessen the troubles of the flesh. This is what we find the Apostle Paul doing (2 Cor. 4. 17, 18) : " For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Those, therefore, who are enabled to lay hold of the hope of future glory, and to believe in God, here promising the ' crush- ing of the serpent's head;' and who can, moreover, look upon those temporal blessings which remain to us ; — that our Lord hath given us this whole world to enjoy ; and that He has given wives, homes, and children, and has preserved all things to us, and increases them by His blessing ; — tell me ! — will not such persons bear, with all patience, any temporal afflictions which

CREATION. 2G7

may be laid upon them ? And will they not say, ' This is not the anger of a judge, nor of a tyrant, but of a Father' /' On the other hand, however, and in the other Cvase, they will behold the anger of the Judge, indeed, falling upon the serpent! In his case, there is not only no deliverance promised, but a certain ' crushing of his head' foretold. And this anger of the Judge, Satan felt at the time ; and he feels it still. And it is on this very account, that, until the last day shall come, he rages with such great and unceasing fury against the Church and the Son of God!

This Divine threatening, therefore, in the passage now before us, wherein the Lord threatens Eve with the sure punishments of her sin, was indeed a heavy threatening. But out of the midst of those very punishments, there beamed forth unspeakable mercy. And this mercy so revived and strengthened Eve, that she rejoiced with a mind full of gladness, even in the midst of her sorrows. And as to ourselves, we feel how necessary these pun- ishments are to crucify and keep under the flesh. For how could we be humbled, if this nature of ours were not pressed down to the earth with such burdens as these ? Eve therefore experi- enced, and every woman, in her station and duty, must experi- ence, these sure calamities. These sorrows must be multiplied unto all women. They must both conceive in sorrow, and bring forth in sorrow.

It is, moreover, worthy of observation, that the Hebrew ex- pression here used is Rab ; which signifies, l)oth a continuous and distinct quantity ; conveying to us the understanding, that these great and many and various sorrows, which were thus right- eously inflicted on Eve, were such as she would not have had to endure, if she had not fallen by sin : and the expression also implies the sorrows and punishments inflicted, particularly, on conception and childbirth. This same expression terms, by its implied meaning, the whole of that time, ' conception,^ during which the child is borne in the womb : which whole time is afilicted with great and various wealvuesses, pains, and diseases. The head, the stomach, the general health, and the appetites, are variously and greatly affected. And after the child thus borne is matured, and the birth is at hand, the greatest sorrow of all is endured ; and the child is not born without great peril even of life.

268 CUAPTEU III. 10.

When heathens, and those who have no knowledge of -God or of His works, see these things, they take such offence at them, that they form the conchision, that, on account of these various troubles, it is not becoming a wise man to marry at all. And true it is, that the female sex is far more deeply hvimbled and afflicted, and bears a punishment far more heavy and severe, than men. For what sufferings of the body, equal unto those which we have just described, does man endure ? But by marriage the husband does take upon himself, as it were, a part of these pun- ishments of original sin : for the husband cannot see his wife endure all this pain and sorrow, without much distress in himself. So that many wicked men prefer living a life of profligacy to a life of marriage.

Against such wicked sentiments as these, the godly Avill arm and console themselves ; and, by true wisdom, will set against these evils, the certain and far greater blessings which attend the married life. Hence the ancient heathen poet Pindar, in his Ode to Hiero, King of Syracuse, condemns this perverseness in igno- rant men. Though God (says he) is ever wont so to dispense His benefits, as to leave some evil intermingled with them ; yet none but the wise and good can carry themselves aright under them. For they adorn their prosperity ; and, under its bright colours, they hide the adversity which they endure ; setting their prosperity ever foremost to be seen of men : —

"Ev irap iadXov, Tri/yttara avv Avo halovrac /3porol<i ^AOdvaroi. ra jxev S)v, Ov hvvavrai vrjTTLOi Kocr/ncp (pepetv, ^AXhJ djadol, ra Koka rpe-^avTe<i i^co.

—Find. Pijth. Ode iii. 145-150.

" To one good thing, two evil things, The gods appoint. Fools Know not liow to adorn their ills. But wise men do : making the Worst, to wear the best appearance.

And this is what the godly ought ever to do, in this their

CKEATIOX. 209

solemn case. The punishments to which women are subject, on account of the sin of the fall, are indeed great. But is there not, in marriage, a blessing which infinitely surpasses all the punish- ments of original sin, with which it is afflicted? Have not those who are married, in the midst of their great troubles, that sure hope of immortality and eternal life which comes to them through the Seed of the woman ! Nay, the troubles and trials them- selves of marriage, are not without their benefit. They all tend to break down and humble our nature, which cannot be humbled without the cross.

And, further, there is left to be enjoyed, in these great bodily afflictions, the peculiar glory of motherhood ; that high blessing of the womb ! This was a blessing wdiich even the wise among the heathens so greatly admired and so loudly lauded. And other good gifts of marriage also remain to us, and are enjoyed by us ; — we are borne in the womb of our mothers ; we suck their breasts ; we are nursed ; we are nourished ; and, by the devoted attention and care of our mothers, we are preserved in infancy and childhood. To view the great and solemn matter of mar- riage thus, is ra koX! e^co rpiireadai, ' to set our blessings in their fairest light.' This is, not to look at our evils only, but to de- light ourselves in the benefits and the great blessing of God, in His holy ordinance of marriage ; and under those benefits, and that blessing, to sink out of sight the various punishments, cor- ruptions, pains, and afflictions, by which it is compassed.

But the godly alone understand these things, and do them. They alone view marriage aright. They alone give honour unto women, as unto the weaker vessel ; because they see them to be their companions of immortality, as well as of mortality, and as being heirs together with them of the inheritance in the heavens. The godly, moreover, behold them highly honoured of the Lord, by the blessing and the glory of motherhood ! — that it is by them that we are conceived, from them that we are bom, and by them that we are nursed in infancy.

And for myself, I have often contemplated, with wonder and delight, the peculiar adaptation of the female body for nursing infants. How aptly, and becomingly, and gracefully, do even little girls carry infants in their bosom ? And with what appro- priate gestures do mothers dandle their infants, especially when

270 CHAPTER II [. in.

the crying babe is to be pacified, or quieted so as to be laid in the cradle f Only tell a man to do these same things, and he will set about it as an elephant would attempt to dance : so awkward are his motions, if he has only to touch a babe with his finger, to say nothing about all those other offices and attentions which a mother only can perform. Whosoever, therefore, rightly views and estimates the sacred matter of marriage, will receive all these offices and services of the woman as certain signs and proofs of the blessing of the Lord ; by which God testifies that the female sex, though thus severely punished on account of their original sin, are very dear to Him, and His peculiar care. Where- fore, let these meditations suffice concerning the first part of the Divine curse on the original sin of Eve.

The other part of the curse lies in the particulars themselves of the marriage union. If Eve had not sinned, not only would her childbirth liave been without any pain whatever, but even her union itself with her husband would have been most pure, and utterly free from all shame. There would have been no more shame attached to those connubial circumstances, than tliere is in a man's takinc; his meal with his wife, and conversing with her at the dinner-table. The bringing up of children also would have been most easy, and full of pleasure. But all these bless- ings were lost by the sin of the fall ; and in their place are en- dured, by the woman, all those too well-known evils of pain and labour, in carrying the child, bringing it forth, and bringing it up. Wherefore, just as a graceful maiden weaves a beautiful chaplet from the flowers of the garden, and bears it on her head, not only without any molestation, but with the greatest pleasiu'e and the greatest pride ; so, if Eve had not sinned, she would have borne her child in her womb, not only free from distress or inconvenience, but with the utmost pleasure and pride. Where- as now, in addition to all those pains of bearing the child, and giving it birth, she has rendered herself subject to the power of her husband : whereas, before, she w^as wholly free, and in no sense inferior to the man ; and was an equal j)artaker of all the endowments bestowed of God on him.

This, then, is the punishment of the woman ; which righteously fell upon her, as the consequence of original sin : and which pun- ishment she bears quite as unwillingly as she does those pains

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and troubles, which are as righteously imposed on her flesh, in child-bearing. Wherefore the rule and government of all things remains in the power of the husband ; whom the wife, according to the command of God, is bound to obey. The husband rules the house, governs the state politic, conducts wars, defends his own property, cultivates the earth, builds, plants, &c. The woman, on the other hand, as a nail driven into the wall, sits at home. Hence it is that the Apostle Paul calls women olKovpov<^, " keejicrs at home" (Titus 2. 5J. For this same reason it was, also, that the ancients represented Venus as sitting on a shell ; because, as the shell-fish always carries its shell with it, so the woman ought always to be constantly at home attending to her domestic affairs ; as one deprived of the right of governing those things which are out of her house, and public, and as one whose duty it is never to go beyond her own most private and domestic concerns, in the matter of government.

Plad Eve therefore stood in the truth, she would not only have been free from all subjection to the rule of the man, but she her- self also would have been an equal partaker of government, which now belongs to men alone. Women, however, are generally impatient of this burden, and by nature aim at the assumption of that, which by their sin they have lost ; and when they can do nothing more, they at least show their unwillingness to bear the yoke, by a murmur of discontent. Whereas they are not com- petent to undertake the management of luen's affairs, — of teaching, ruling, &c. Of bearing children, and of feeding, and nnrsing, and bringing up their offspring, they are capable. In this manner, therefore, Avas Eve punished ; and all w^omankind endure the same curse also. But, as I have before . said, this very punish- ment is a joyful one, if you look at the hope of eternal life which springs from her Seed, out of the midst of her child-bearing pains ; and if you consider also the glory of maternity, or motherhood, which is left to her.

Vers. 17, 18, 19. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Tliou shalt not eat of it : cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to

272 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

thee ; and thou shall eat of the herb of the field. In the sioeat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for 02ct of it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

The husband was last in the transgression (1 Tim. 2. 14) ; and therefore the punishment is inflicted on him last. But the Lord threatens no punishment to the man, here, in the matter of gene- ration. God makes no mention of the pains of generation, in his case. Therefore the punishment of the husband lies in the fury of lust, inflamed by the poison of Satan, throughout his whole body ; but without the pains of the woman. His duties, as the husband, however, are laden with certain punishment. For, as it appertains unto the man to feed, to rule, to guide, and to edu- cate his family, those duties cannot be performed by him without great trouble and distress, nor without the hardest labours. The duty laid of God upon the woman is to obey her husband ; but with what, difficulty is this very performance of her duty obtained ! I say nothing about the rule of the man over others, who are not of his immediate family and household.

Hence it was that the philosophers of old were led to wonder from what cause, in nature, it could possibly arise, that men could more easily govern any kind of wild beasts than they could rule their fellow-men. This is the ground of Xenophon's complaint, when he says, Trdvrcop rwv aWcov ^uxov earl paov t] avdpacnroav apx^tv — ' It is easier to manage any other animal whatsoever, than to rule man.' The duties of a husband, indeed, are great and noble : which are, to cultivate the earth, or to perform any other work by which his wife and children may be provided for ; to rule his house and family ; to govern states and kingdoms ; and to teach and instruct those of his own house, and others also, unto godliness and moral duties. All these most noble duties, however, are always attended with their punishment of original sin. They cannot be performed without the greatest distresses. Of this we have daily examples before our eyes.

And, first of all, on account of the sin of Adam himself the EARTH is cursed ! For the expression which the Latin transla- tion renders ' in thy work' (in opere tuo), is, in the original Hebrew, baeburecha, ' for thy sake' (propter te). The Latin

CREATION. 273

interpreter was deceived by the similarity of the letters. He read tlie Hebrew as being baebudecha. For abad signifies ' to cultivate the earth,' or ' to till the ground.'

From this it appears how awful the calamity of sin is, — seeing that even the earth, which is innocent in itself, and committed no sin, is nevertheless compelled to bear sin's curse ; and, as the Apostle Paul expresses it (Rom. -8. 20), is " made subject to vanity," from which, however, it shall be delivered in the last day, and for which also it waits in earnest expectation (ver. 19). For Pliny calls the earth ' a kind, gentle, and indulgent mother, and also a perpetual handmaid of service to mankind.' And yet, as the Apostle Paul shows in the above passage, this kind earth herself is compelled to bear her curse also. In the first place, because she does not bear those good things for man and beast which she would have borne had man not fallen ; and, in the next place, because she does bear many hurtful things, which, but for man's sin, she would not have borne, such as the destructive weeds, darnel, tares, nettles, thorns, thistles, &c. ; to which may be added, poison, noxious reptiles, and other like hurtfiil things, all which were brought into the creation by sin.

For my owh part, I entertain no doubt that, before the sin of the fall, the^air was more pure and healthful, the water more wholesome and fructifying, and the light of the sun, more bright and beautiful. So that the whole creation, as it now is, reminds us, in every part, of the curse inflicted on it, on account of the sin of the fall. Yet some remnants of the original blessing of God still rest upon it ; in that, being compelled, as it were, to do so by the hard labour of man, it still continues to produce things necessary for our use — although those very things them- selves are impeded and deformed by briers and thorns — that is, by useless and noxious trees, bushes, and weeds, which the Divine anger ceases not to sow among them.

This original curse, moreover, was afterwards greatly in- creased by the Deluge ; under which all the good trees were rooted up and destroyed, barren sands accumulated, and both noxious herbs and beasts multiplied. In those very places, therefore, where Adam, before his sin, used to walk among the most fruitful trees, over most fertile meadows, and in the midst of roses and flowers of every kind, there, nettles and briers, and

S

274 CHAPTER III, 17-19.

other anno}'ing plants abound ; and, in such quantities, that the good and useful plants are well nigh choked by them. Only look at the field now just prepared by the plough for recei^^ng the seed ; — no sooner is that seed sown, than immediately there spring up the destructive darnel, and the tares; which grow even faster than the fruits which are for the use and nourish- ment of life. And, if the former were not plucked up, by the constant care and toil of the husbandman, they would daily grow on, to such an extent, that these very destructive weeds of the curse would choke the good seed altogether. The earth herself, indeed, is innocent, and would of its own free nature bring forth all things which are the best and most excellent. But she is prevented from so doing, by the curse inflicted on man, for his sin.

As, therefore, the woman endures the punishment of sin, in her body (though a punishment which she is mercifully enabled to bear), wherewith she is afflicted in the bringing forth of children ; so the husband has to endure his punishment in the government of his household ; while, with all kinds of difficulty, laboiu', and distress, he rules his house, and pro%'ides for his family. And justly so ; for it was on his o^ai accomit that the field was cursed. Whereas, before he sinned, no part of the earth whatever was either barren or corrupt : but all places in it were marvellously fertile and productive : but now, on the con- trary, not only is it in many parts entirely barren, but even those parts, which are otherwise fi'uitful, are deformed and defiled with tai'es, weeds, briers, and thorns. And this calamity is, indeed, great ; and might well drive Adam himself, and all us also, to choose strangling rather than hfe. But, the whole mighty evil is rendered endurable by the promise of the woman's " Seed :" by which the punishment of eternal death — which is infinitely greater than all this punishment of hfe — is wholly taken out of the way.

That which next follows, in the text before us, " In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy hfe," are words quite easy of comprehension. For, who knows not how^ laborious the life of an husbandman is. It is not enough that he prepare the ground for receiving the seed ; which care is nevertheless attended with great and various labour ; but even when the corn is yet in the

CREATION. 275

blade, each single day almost demands of him its necessaiy labour and toil ; not to mention those almost infinite hinch'ances of weather, noxious vermin, &c. ; all which greatly augment this his pain and sorrow. Whereas, before the sin of the fall, not only were there no such evils and hindrances in existence ; but the earth, had Adam not sinned, would have brought forth all things quicker, than the hope itself, or than the expectation of man, aarTrapra koI avrjpora, as it were, ('unsown and un- ploughed.')

Moreover, this calamity, which sin brought into the creation, was in many respects lighter and more tolerable in the state of things before the Flood, than in that condition of the world which followed it. In the antediluvian state of the curse, no other mention is made than of thorns, and thistles, and labour, and sweat ; but now we experience nimiberless other additional evils. How many diseases and pestilential injuries are inflicted on the standing corn, on the plants of pulse, on trees, and, finally, on all the productions of the earth ? How many evils are Avrought by destructive birds and noxious caterpillars ? Add to these evils, extremes of cold and frost, thunderings, lightnings, excessive wet, winds, rivers bursting their banks, fissures of the earth, earthquakes, &c. Of none of these is any mention made in the state of things under the curse, before the Deluge. M}^ firm belief is, therefore, that as the sins of men mcreased, the punishments of those sins increased also; and that all such punishments and evils were added to the original curse of the earth.

If, however, any one should think that Moses embraced all these latter evils, in his expression of the Divine curse, " Cursed is the ground for thy sake," I certainly will not contend with him. But no one surely can deny, that all these evils and punishments increased, as the sins of men increased. In the same manner, as in the present day, we experience more frequent calamities befalling the fruits of the eartli, than in former times. For the world degenerates and grows worse and worse every day. — Most plainly, therefore, may we herein trace the evidences, that all these increased calamities were inflicted on Adam, as an instruction to him in the first age of the world, that an increas- edly severe discipline was necessar}-. But by degrees this dis-

276 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

cipline. down to the times of Noah, gradually became loosened, and men began to live more dissolutely and wickedly ; until, at length, the earth was filled with violence, injustice, and tyranny. And then it w^as necessary, that either heavier or more frequent punishments should be inflicted : just as, in bodies, severer diseases reqiure severer remedies.

When, therefore, in the time of Noah, the whole earth had been deluged by the Flood, and every living creature, except a few souls, had been utterly destroyed ; the age which imme- diately succeeded that of Noah, lived, without doubt, in the fear of God. But as years rolled on, even these men became de- praved ; being corrupted by Satan. So that an example, more terrible in its natm'e still, was necessary to be made : as is shown in the awful destruction of Sodom, and its neighbouring cities. Hence it is, that the Scripture saith, that it was necessary that the Amorites should ' fill up the measure of their iniquities.'

So also, the whole synagogue of the Jews, when it had fallen away into heathenism and open ungodliness, was utterly de- stroyed. In like manner, also, Rome herself, as long as her ancient discipline stood sound and unrelaxed, mightily increased her power on every side : but when the storms of vice pressed hard upon her, it became necessary that her punishments also should draw upon her the more closely.

About the time when the Gospel began to be known among us, in Germany, the age became somewhat moral and tolerable. But now, when the fear of God can scarcely anywhere be found, and when vices of every description increase daily, false prophets moreover rising up among us, what else can be expected than that, when we have filled up the measure of our iniquities, either the consummation of all things will overtake us, or that Germany will again suffer the due punishment of her sins ; so universally true is it, that when sins increase, the punishments of them increase also.

According to that whicli I have said concerning the calamities which rest upon all the productions of the earth ; so my full be- hef also is, that even the bocUes of men, in the primteval ages of the world, were far more healthful than they are now. This is proved by that longevity, so mcredible to us, which was enjoyed by the men of the primitive ages of the world before the Flood.

CREATION. 277

Accordingly, we do not find tlie Lord pronounce, in the present passage, any threats on Adam, concerning apoplexy, or leprosy, or the scrofula, or any other of the destructive diseases.

When I was a child, the small-jjox was unknown in Germany. — It was first known among us when I was about fifteen years of age. Now, however, even infants in the cradle are attacked by it. When this disease first made its appearance, it filled every one with dread. But now there is so little concern about it, that friends will often say to each other, in a pleasant joke, ' The small-pox take you !' — So also, even unto this my present age, the sweating disease has been a prevalent (or, as medical men term it, an epidemic) malady. For it is universally seen, that as each country of the earth has its peculiar blessings ; so, when men abuse those blessings, contrary to the honour of God, the countries wherein such abuses are found, are visited and afflicted with sure and corresponding calamities. But the disease to which I have referred, made its first general appearance in those midland parts of Germany, which were the furthest dis- tant fi:om the sea. And what is abhorrent to relate, some persons have serpent-like worms in their bowels, and worms, even in their brain. These last diseases were utterly unknown, I think, to the physicians of old : who, nevertheless, enumerate nearly four hundred different kinds of disease. — Now, if all these various diseases had existed in the first age of the world, how could Adam and his descendants, down to the times of Noah, have lived to such extremely old ages ? Wherefore, Moses (as I have said) here makes mention only of the barrenness of the earth, and of the difficulty of man's procm'ing his bread.

Indeed, if any one wishes to assume the orator, and to display the copiousness and eloquence of his language, let him, in open- ing the contents of the passage before us, set himself to enume- rate all the diseases and evils of the human race (which are the consequences of sin). Were he to commence that task, he would find a sea of calamities of eveiy kind so boundless, that, filled with awe and dread, he would be inclined to beg of God this one thing, — that he might not be permitted to live, even one hour, in the midst of so many and mighty perils !

But why do we dwell so long on these diseases only ? — All the creatures of God together, as one mighty army, are against

278 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

US, and all but armed for our destruction. How many are there, whom the fire and the water destroy ! Plow mvich peril threatens men from ferocious and venomous beasts, and other noxious creatures ! Nor do they infest our bodies only, but our food of every kind, which is intended for our nourishment. Not to mention that we ourselves also, rush upon each other in hostile slaughter and murder. Just as if there were not pestilences and destructions enough besides, which threatened us on every side.

And if you look at the general pursuits and objects of men ; — what is this life of ours but a daily scene of contention, decep- tion, snare, rapine, and murder ? And all this, in addition to those evils and calamities, which hang over our heads from the external things which we have mentioned. — My belief is, that all these things did not exist before the Deluge ; or, if they did exist, were not so numerous or so heavy and severe as they now are found to be. But as the sins of men increased, so, as we have said, these their punishments have increased also. — The calamities inflicted on Adam, therefore, were light in comparison of those inflicted on us. For the nearer the world approaches to its end, with the heavier punishments and calamities is it visited. To all which evil is added, that greater evil still, that the more the world is stricken, the more it hardens its forehead and becomes stupified, as it were, and insensible of its punish- ment altogether, as it is written in the Proverbs " They have striken me (shalt thou say), and I was not sick ; they have beaten me, and I felt it not : when shall I awake ? I will seek it yet again" (Prov. 23. 35). This blindness and obduracy ex- ceed all the above calamities of the body.

Is not our state, then, I ask, marvellous and miserable % The traces of the -vNTath of God, which our sin has desen^ed, are, first of all, bound up, as it were, in our bodies ; and next, the same wrath of God is beheld resting on the earth, and on all creatures ; and yet all these awful evils are disregarded by us, and our minds filled with security and indolent unconcern ? For what are the thorns, what the thistles, what the water, what the fire, what the caterpillars, what the flies, what the fleas, what the bugs, what the lice ; — what, I say, are all these together, and separately, but so many messengers which continually preach to

CREATION. 279

US of sill, and of the wrath of God on its account ! For before sin entered into the world, those Hving evils had not existence ; or if they were in existence, they harmed not nor annoyed.

Wherefore, to our full knowledge and sight, we are in, and live in, more than Egyptian darkness. For though all things around us remind us of the wrath of God continually, and are all but so many pricks in our eyes, of admonition, we not only do not regard that wrath, but embrace this life, and enjoy it as our only delight. In the same proportion, therefore, as sins are multiplied, and self-security increases, and men grow callous and insensible under their punishments, so those punishments themselves are multiplied, not only in this life, but in that which is to come. I am here speaking of the wicked in this world. For, if it were possible, that men, when in hell, could possibly endure their punishments and torments, in sensation only, with- out the consciousness, at the same time, that the punishments which they endured were just, such ignorance would render their torments more able to be endu^ (,;}(_ Just in the same way as we on earth will not acknowledge our punishments, and so we harden ourselves, as it were, against grief. But in hell, that in- sensibility which now prevents us from seeing our real misery, will be wholly taken away, and all the doors of our senses will be unlocked, so that we shall not only feel the pains of our pun- ishment in our body, but our mind itself will be filled with a sense of the wrath of God, and with the confession, that we have deserved the whole of that wrath by our wickedness. These are the feelings that will sharpen, and in an inconceivable de- gree augment, the future torments of the wicked.

The next clause in the text is, "Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." Here we are again reminded, that the earth of itself brought forth no such thing ; but only on ac- count of the sin of Adam ; as Moses had before expressly said, "For thy sake." Wherefore, as often as we see thorns and thistles ; as often as we behold tares, and other noxious weeds of the same kind growing in our fields, and in our garden, so often are we reminded, as by certain signs, of sin and the wrath of God. Wherefore, it is not only in churches that we hear our- selves accused of sin ; — every garden, every field, and almost the whole creation, is filled with such preachers and such monitors

280 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

of our sin, and of the wrath of God, which is brought down upon us on account of that sin.

Wlierefore, all prayer to the Lord is necessary, that He would take away fi'om our eyes and from our hearts this marvellous insensibility ; that being thus perpetually reminded of our sin, we may at length put off this our self-security, and walk in the fear of God. For by these various e\'idences of the cm'se of God, we are continually met, and cast down, and overwhelmed. This, Moses will now still more extensively set before us. He next says : —

And thou shalt eat of the herb of the field.

Here, again, is a great calamity. Above, God had given unto man the sweetest and most delightful gifts ; even that he should eat of ail the trees of paradise, except two only. The Lord had also given him dominion over all fishes, and over all that the whole earth produced ; whether of fruits or of animals. But now, all these blessings are taken away fi'om him, on account of the eaten fruit, and nothing is e}ft him but the herb of the field. Now, from this passage, I believe it can be fully proved, that Adam did not feed upon butter, or milk, or eggs, or cheese, or flesh, or even on apples or pears, &c., but on pot herbs, and the seeds of certain herbs and plants only ; such as peas, beans, millet, rice, wheat, flour, &c. Where, then, were the splendour and luxuiy of the banquet, at which Adam feasted his friends, when he gave a daughter in marriage, or when he himself was present at the marriage of any of his sons ! seeing that nothing was granted them of God, on which to feed, but " the herb of the field !"

Such, then, was the frugal fare of the primitive age of the world. It consisted of the most simple food, with water. Now, however, a horrible luxury has overrun the whole present gene- ration of men. They are not satisfied with collecting together flesh of every kind for the gratification of tlieu* appetites ; but flesh of every kind is mixed with fish of every kind ; spices, also, of every kind are used in addition. Nay, the dissatisfied per- verseness of nature is indulged to such an extent, that those things which are by nature sweet, are rendered by various con- diments bitter ; and those which are by nature bitter, are by the same means rendered sweet. What varieties prevail in our drink

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also ! Who would not consider himself made a laughing-stock, if he should see his host set before him water as his drink ? Nor are we contented with beer, which is brewed at our own homes ; nor with wines, made on our paternal estates. We even fetch them from beyond the sea. If our first father, Adam, could re- tmii on earth, think you not that he would laugh at, or rather wonder at, this madness of appetite in his sons 1 Why, he would avoid, as poison, those very things which we eat and drink with avidity and delight : and he would prefer, to all these oiu' dain- ties, even rapes or turnips, in their natm'al undressed state.

In this passage, therefore, frugality of living is commended to us. For we are here taught, that our first parents, being tlms right- eously deprived of all their other kinds of food, had nothing else left them for food but the herb of the field. These facts, therefore, ought to lead us not only to frugality, but also to pa- tience ; whensoever we may see others abounding in delicacies and dainties of every kind, while we ourselves have nothing but bread, and salt, and water. For our thovights ought to be these ; — this is the punishment justly inflicted on Adam. When he might have enjoyed, by the will, and command, and gift of God, the delicious fruits of every kind which grew in paradise ; he was compelled, with all his posterity, to live on the common pot-herbs, because of his disobedience. Then follows the clause : —

In the sioeat of thy face shall thou eat bread.

With what variety of expression and repetition does Moses dwell on this laboui- and trouble, when he is declaring the man- ner in which the husband must labour and toil in feedino- his family, defending his property, and governing his house ! And all these toils and troubles are far more difiicult, in this our age, on account of the perverseness of men, than they were " in the beginning." For we universally witness, even where the expec- tation of food is certain, with what difficulty a family are kept to their duty. Nor was Adam himself without his ex|)erience of this great evil. For even while he was ruling his family with all possible holiness, he witnessed murder committed by his son Cain. I say nothing now about all those other sorrows which a long life compels a man to see and bear in his posterity. This anxiety and toil, therefore, await the husband. lie must en- dure this labour, which is neither pleasant nor successful. Nor

282 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

ought any one to be found who does not endure this sweat. Hence, by so much the more perilous is the hfe of the Papists ; all of whom abuse their wealth, obtained by the labours of others, to their own gratifications and indolence.

But here a question has been raised, — Whether all men ought not to be husbandmen ? or, at least, whether they ought not to devote themselves to manual labour % Some did, indeed, thus foolishly contend at the beginning of the Gospel among us. For they so abused the present and other like passages of the Scrip- ture, which command the labour of the hands, that the youth, throwing aside their literary studies, gave themselves up to manual employments ; and Carolstadt, the leader of these mis- guided ones, leaving his proper station in life, purchased a farm, and himself cultivated it, and dug his own land. For myself, indeed, if I could, with a good conscience, forsake my calhng as a minister of the Word, it would be a far more easy and pleasant employment for me, to be employed in cultivating my garden, digging with my spade, and breaking the clods with my shovel, than to endure this hard labour, which I now undergo. For the toil of country labourers, bears no proportion whatever to this our ministerial " sweat."

Wherefore, their interpretation of this passage, who contend that manual labour only is the sweat here spoken of, is to be altogether rejected. The declaration of Christ is perfectly plain upon this point : who commands, that those who teach in the Word should enjoy the labours of others ; " And into whatso- ever house ye enter (saith He), first say, Peace be to this house. And in the same house remain, eating and diinking such things as they give : for the labovu-er is worthy of his hire" (Luke 10. 5, 7). Here the Lord takes bread from the table of those who hear the Word of God, and gives it to the teachers of the Word. In the same way, also, Paul speaks, when he says, " Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel" (1 Cor. 9. 14). And it is in confirmation of this same mind of God, that the apostle cites that word of the law, " Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn" (ver. 9). And, indeed, why is the commandment concerning the payment of tithes given to the husbandman, who laboiu's and cultivates his farm, if the mi-

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nisters of the Word are nevertheless to procure their food by the labour of their own hands ?

These, and like passages of the Scripture, show that the " sweat of the face" is the common curse on all men. The first " sweat" is, that of husbandmen and householders ; the second, the "sweat" of magistrates ; the third, of teachers in the Church. Of all these orders of men, the condition of husbandmen is the happiest : this the poet of old affirms —

Felices nimimn sua si bona nurint Agricolce.

Happy their lot ; did they but know their good,

Who cultivate the earth for all.

For though they do " sweat" under great labour, yet that labour is seasoned with a peculiar pleasure, while the daily new and marvellous face of all creatures directly meets their eyes. Whereas, in the political world, and in the Church, infinite troubles and molestations present themselves, in addition to the daily perils which are incurred, if (that is) a minister of Christ will perform his duty faithfully. For we speak not now concern- ing those indolent mortals, who know not, nor acknowledge, these punishments of sin, but who are devoted only to the consideration of the manner in which they can best satisfy their lusts. Let such Epicureans be left to the indulgence of their own evil appetites and inclinations. We are here speaking of those who do perform seriously what they undertake to do, whether in the State or in the Church. Such men labour and sweat more in one day than a husbandman does in a whole month, if the mag- nitude and the various perils of their works be considered. It is for this very reason also that tributes and revenues, and other dues of the same description, are paid unto kings and princes. And who does not see that this is but a small return or reward, after all, to such our rulers, for the immense labour which they undergo, where they really do their duty faithfully. And even if there be some who neglect their duty, this legitimate ordinance of God is not, on their account, to be disregarded.

I have somewhere heard it said of the Roman Emperor, Maximilian Augustus, that he was so overwhelmed with his public duties that he never gave himself a sufficient time for eating his meals. He was therefore sometimes compelled to withdraw liimself from his State labours, and seclude himself in the Avoods,

284 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

and there indulge in hunting. Sometimes also (it is said) he would change his raiment, and mingle himself with private society, that he might enjoy a gi'eater fi'eedom of conversation. And though this occupation of hunting was sometimes considered a vice in that Emperor, yet those who really knew the extent of his labours and the reality of his daily life, considered that this amusement was adopted by him from necessity and not from pleasure. What labours of the plough, then, what laboiu's of the spade, what other toils of a rustic life, will you bring into com- parison vdth that " sweat" which the government of such a mighty empire as that Rome demanded ? Wherefore, the palaces of kings and princes do indeed bear then* names as such, while the kings and princes themselves are the most hard-working of all servants. Hence, monks, and the whole confederacy of the Pope, are the only beings that really live a royal life, because they leave all labours, all business affairs, and all the perils of them, to others, while they themselves enjoy all the comforts of life, in perfect indolence.

These same observations apply equally to the pastoral charge in the Church, — which charge is to be considered the heavier, the more important the duties are which such pastor has to perform. For, are we to suppose that Augustine lived at his ease, and gave himself up to his pleasures only, surrounded as he was by so great a multitude of adversaries, against whom he had daily to contend to prevent them from wholly subverting, as they would have done, the doctrine of Christ? For such were the Pelagians, the Donatists, the Manichees, and other like disturbers of the chm'ches. So I myself also, in this day, by the grace of God, so perform my duties, as to leave no one, I believe, to envy such a laborious life of ease, as I daily pass. It is the height of ignorance and folly, therefore, in fanatics to m'ge on all persons (as we have above shown) the necessity of manual labours, which nevertheless are useful for strengthening the body. Whereas, on the contrary, those great laboiu-s of the State and of the Church, which we have just described, wear out the body, and exliaust, as it were, all the moisture of the very bones and their inmost marrow.

Let us duly and rightly distinguish this " sweat" as it ought to be distinguished. The household " sweat" is great, the civil or political "sweat" greater still, but the Church "sweat" is the

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greatest of all. Only look at the Apostle Paul, and you will at once see the greatness of his sweat. For, seeing that the Church is in all ages infested with devils and harassed by heresies, scan- dals, and great sins, by the unrighteous violence of tyrants and by evils of every description, — will any man say that there are no labours and no sweats in the Church ? Will any one affirm that those who rule in the Church are not well deserving the pro- vision which they receive ? You mai/ say this, if you please, of the Pope and the Cardinals, and the whole of that congregation of the wicked. For they, doing no work at all, and consulting- only their belly and their ease, consume immensities of provision. These ai*e they, indeed, of whom we may rightly say, with Paul, " If any one will not work, neither shall he eat" — (2 Thess. 3. 10). Now, the work of the Church is to teach the Word, to administer the Sacraments, to war with fanatics, to remove scandals out of the way, to build up the godly in the faith, &c. Where men really do this, it is of such that Christ saitli, " The labourer is worthy of his hire" (Luke 10. 7).

Now, the condition of Adam, as being the one who was the first great sinner, was, if rightly considered, worse than ours. For, whereas we all sweat separately, each one in his own order and station, Adam in his own person was compelled to endure, at one and the same time, the sweat of the household rule, the sweat of the political rule, and the sweat of the Church rule. He by himself performed all these duties in his family and pos- terity, as long as he lived. He provided for his family, and he ruled his family. He trained them up, and was at the same time their father, their king, and their priest. And how full of pain and of peril each one of these duties is, miiversal experience teaches.

Wherefore we have need of great consolation to support us against all these evils ; and we should accustom our minds to much patience, seeing that we find these calamities to be laid even on the elect also, who possess the hope of a resurrection and of eternal life. As, therefore, this hope is thus left to us afflicted men, it becomes us to be of a courageous mind, and to overcome our evils by means of this hope, because we are not destined to live here for ever. Just as men, when travelling, if they happen to fall in with a miserable lodging and a covetous host, console

286 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

themselves with the thought, that though their food be bad, and their bed hard, that misery will last for one night only. Such ought our thoughts to be in the midst of these our calamities, on account of the sin of the fall. For what are our two or three years of life (almost the half of which we pass in the insensi- bility of sleep), when compared with eternity !

Let afflictions and adversities come, therefore, as the Lord shall be pleased to appoint them to each of us, whether they be the sweat of the house-rule, of the state-rule, or of the church-rule ; we will not suffer ourselves to be moved by them to impatience. We will not cast aside our house-duty, or our state-duty, or our church-duty. Such woman-like weakness as this becometh not brave soldiers. It is unworthy them to throw away their arms, and to flee at the first onset. And what of pleasures and of ease ! We are not appointed unto them, but unto labour and active life. Hence the poet of old saith, —

Tu ne cede malis ; sed contra audentior ito.

Yield not to ills ; but bolder grow, as these Are seen t' increase.

And this shall we be able to do, if we set against these afflictions of time the hope of a resurrection and of eternal life. As, there- fore, no one would willingly lose this hope, so let all men con- sider that they are bound not to forsake that calling and station of life in which they have been placed of God. Let him, there- fore, who is called to teach the chm'ches, do that work with a magnanimous spirit, moved neither by his own perils nor by the lazy life of popes ; who, when they ought to be preaching the Gospel, ruling the churches, hearing sacred causes, and judging controversies concerning doctrine, and helping the churches that have need of help, cast off all these highest of duties, and leave them to the useless monks, while they themselves are occupied in accumulating monies, and making provision for fulfilling their lusts (Rom. 13. 14). As, therefore, these escape from the sweat, they shall not have the cooling refreshment. As they will not suffer with Christ, they shall not reign with Him (Rom. 8. 17).

On the other hand, therefore, let all of us wdio endure this sweat, each one in his station, always be thinking that, although we may have a bitter burden to bear, these afflictions will have

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their certain end. Hence it is that Moses now adds the following consolation, under any affliction, however hard, —

Till tliou 7'eturu unto the ground : for out of it wast thou taken ; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Witli respect to wicked men, they endure an infinite number of calamities, Avith the hope of enjoying a little morsel of pleasure. What an amount of dangers by land and by sea does the mer- chant experience, with the hope of gain ? For what a small amount of hire does the soldier sell his life. The harlot in the brothel is compelled to endure a thousand-fold greater evils than any wife in the honest home. Hence, the Germans call such, by a striking proverb, ' The devil's martyrs ;' because they, of their own accord, cast themselves into the greatest calamities, whicli they might never have experienced, if they had been willing to live a godly life. And again, wliat a host of evils do men, given to wine and to gluttony, bring upon themselves by their excesses ? fi'om all which they might have lived free had they eaten and drank more moderately. Wherefore, well may men be lost in considering what remedy can possibly be found for the human race. Since they are so hardened by Satan, that they not only do not feel their evils, but studiously follow after them, and pur- sue them with all eagerness. For, if they really did feel the evils of their ways, would they not forsake them. But the fact is, that such an insensibility benumbs the minds of men, that you may see them glorying in these their very evils themselves. As, therefore, such wicked perverseness is found in the greatest part of mankind, that, for the sake of a light and foolish pleasure, they will involve themselves in great and certain calamities, it is won- derful that the godly do not consider these things for their good, and say within themselves. Although I must live in the midst of all these various evils, yet they must all soon have their end, and will be all recompensed by another and a better life.

And this is the consolation which the sacred sentence now be- fore us is intended to afford. For, it gives a promise that all these calamities shall have an end, and that, too, by the bruising and crushing of the " serpent's head:" Till (saith Moses) thou re- turn unto the ground (elhaadama)." For this original word signifies the ground or earth in general. But the IlebreAv word APHAR signifies, properly, recently dug or ploughed earth, or a

288 CHAPTER Iir. 17-19.

lump of newly turned up earth. Our translation renders this original word by " dust ;" that it may signify loosened or crumbled earth. For Adam was made a living man out of a clod or lump of the earth. When, therefore, the bonds of this clod shall be loosened, it shall return (the Lord here saith) to its former mould or dust.

And here again we are reminded of the manner in which, as the sins of the world increased, their punishments increased also. The original usage of committing the bodies of the dead to the earth to be dissolved again to dust, was certainly a milder and human-like custom ; but afterwards it became the practice of almost all nations to burn the bodies of their dead. How often also does it happen that human beings are devoured alive by wild beasts, and have the bellies of those beasts for their tombs ? Hence we find enumerated among the four punishments declared by the prophet, "the teeth of wild beasts" (^Jer. 15. 3), and also by Moses himself, the poison of serpents and of other venomous animals (Deut. 32. 24). For so it is ever found, that the more insensible we are to the Divine punishment of our sins, the heavier punishments does God lay upon us, to break us down, and to beat in pieces our obduracy ; as it is written, in the Book of Leviticus, " And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins ; and I will break the pride of your hardness" (Levit. 26. 18, 19).

Thus, the fall of Adam was a fall from life into death, and jfrom soundness of body into diseases of every kind. Still the age of Adam was truly a golden age, if compared with ours. But all things degenerated by degrees, and that the great image of Daniel also plainly shows (Dan. 2. 31 to 35). For, as the world pro- ceeds, and the nearer it approaches its end, the worse men be- come ; and this is the reason why heavier punishments are in- flicted on us than on those who have gone before. What a per- tinacious war against the truth is carried on at this day by the Papists ! What cruelty do they exercise against those who con- fess the truth ! I mention not now their well-nigh Satanic covetousness, perfidy, and acts of violence, without end. Can the punishments of such, then, be very far off?

Thus far Moses has been recording the punishments inflicted on Adam and his posterity on account of the sin of the fall. And

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though these punishments are great, yet they were milder " in the beginning" tlian they are now. Because those sins which were then of the 'positive (if I may so speak) are now increased to the superlative degree.

But here, before we proceed witli the remaining contents of this chapter, let us pursue a little farther our discussion of that passage, on which we have briefly dwelt, in its place, before, where it is said to the woman, " I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, or thy impregnation" (ver. 16, above). For the original word there found is heronecha ; which interpreters generally explain as descriptive of all those troubles and straits of mind and body which women endure from the time of their conception to their childbirth.

A qviestion is here raised by some, whether, as the wife is im- pregnated, and gives birth to a child, only once in a year, that one impregnation and parturition is itself a punishment ? And it is also inquired, why, if such be a punishment, God here saith, " I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception ?" With respect to the latter, I believe the original word to be rightly translated, " I will greatly nmltiply thy conception" (that is, thy pains and sorrows which are consequent upon that conception). So that it is a punishment that a woman should conceive only once in the year ; and yet, that tJiat one conception in the year should be laden with such numberless pains and sorrows. For, if man had continued in his innocence, no doubt the fruitfulness of women would have been altogether greater. We do now find certain instances wherein often two, sometimes three, and occa- sionally four, children are brought forth at a birth.

There are universal laws of this fecundity in the brute creation. The fruitfulness of birds, and of fishes, is very great. Dogs, cats, and sows, produce a great number at a partm-ition. The larger beasts, however, produce their offspring only once in a year, generally. My full belief is, however, that women, had there been no sin, w^ould have been productive of a far more numerous offspring. Whereas now, for the most part, the most fruitful of them give birth to no more than one child in the year* ; to which diminished fruitfulness there is also added that unclean lust of fallen nature. All these things alike impress our minds with the magnitude of sin.

T

290 CHAPTER III. 17-19.

But here again we find brought forward the Jewish cavil con- cerning the serpent. They say, if by the seed of the woman is to be understood here, her natural seed, which is born from her womb, as we have interpreted the important passage, it would seem to be a natural consequence that the seed of the serpent, mentioned in this same passage, should also be that seed which proceeds from the belly of the serpent. Otherwise, say they, that opposition which Moses sets forth cannot consist, when he says, " I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed" (ver. 15).

Out of this cavil many consequences will follow. In the first place, it will follow, that God is here speaking with the natural serpent only, and determining his punishment ; and in the next place, it will inevitably follow, that Christ has nothing at all to do with this passage, nor this passage with Him ; and it will equally follow, that this text furnishes no proof whatever concerning Christ ! Wherefore this cavilling objection of the Jews has the aj^pearance of containing something in it ; but, in fact, it con- tains nothing at all.

First, then, my reply to this cavil is — He that is ignorant, let him be ignorant still ; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still (Rev. 22. 11). For he that will not believe the openly revealed and manifest Gospel, is worthy of being left in ignorance of these more hidden passages of the Scripture, and in disbelief of them altogether. Neither is our present object to confirm or illustrate the Gospel by the passage now in question ; but to hold up the brighter light of the Gospel before it, in order to illuminate its obscurities. And if any will not believe the shining light of the Gospel, what marvel is it if they are left to disbelieve these more obscure words of the prophets, and to produce their new and ab- surd opinions in opposition to them ? The promise of the Gospel is revealed from heaven ; and, moreover, it is preserved in safety amidst the greatest tyrants, and the most horrible punishments of our sins fi^-om God. If the Jews pertinaciously fight against this promise, and will not believe it, they must be left alone. We, meanwhile, will deal with those who believe, and who submit themselves to the Gospel.

Christ saith (John 8. 44) that Satan is the " father of lies, and a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth." This is that light of the Gospel by which the dark places of the

CREATION. 291

Old Testament are illumined. Now, if Satan was " a murderer from the beginning," tell me. Whom, or what persons did he murder ? Were they not Adam and Eve, whom he murdered by sin ? Where did he murder them ? Was it not in paradise ? When did he murder them ? Was it not when he made nothing of the commandment of God, and promised Adam and Eve that they wovdd be like gods if they would eat of the forbidden tree ? Both propositions, therefore, are true. The natural serpent was in paradise ; and by the natural serpent, the old serpent, the devil, deceived man, and murdered him.

The principal meaning of this passage, therefore, is to cause us to understand that the devil was the author of all this calamity ; just as, when any one commits murder, it may rightly be said of the sword of the murdered, ' This sword killed the man.' Whereas, in truth, it w^as not the sword alone, nor of itself, that killed the man, but the murderer who used the sword. Indeed, it is quite a common use of the figure synecdoche (the convey- ance of two ideas by one expression) to understand the author of the act under the mention of the instrument made use of. Wherefore we explode this Jewish cavil utterly.

Secondly, it is also a matter of truth that contraries are not necessarily consistent contrarieties in every respect. For the form of contrarieties is multiplex, as logicians teach. Some things are opposed to others relatively, others privatively, and others by con- tradiction. Thus, the natural father, by whom we are begotten, and the father of lies, are opposed to each other. Although, therefore, we should grant the Jews their interpretation of this passage, that Moses is here speaking of the natural serpent, yet the text itself evidently contains a synecdoche, Mdien we compare it with the words of Christ. The words of Moses are, — " And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle." What, then, did the serpent do ? He deceived Eve, and thus murdered her.

So the words of Moses, therefore, only hold up the light of the Gospel, — ' The devil was a mm-derer from the beginning' (John 8. 44). Is it not by this light at once manifest that God so speaks with the natural serpent, as recorded by Moses, that his words are intended to apply to the devil, concealed under the form of the natural serpent ; who, having assumed that form, under it

292 CHAPTER III. 20.

hurled man into sin and death, and laid him under the wrath of God ? Wherefore, by the seed of the serpent, in this passage, is not to be understood the natural seed of the natural serpent, but the seed of the devil ; as Christ also represents the same, in the Gospel, using the same appellation of " seed," where he says, ' An enemy came and sowed among the wheat evil seed^ (Matt. 13. 25). This evil seed is contrary to the spiritual seed, even as flesh and spirit are wholly contrary to each other.

But it is not necessary, as we have said, that contraries should contain that contrariety to each other throughout, in all respects : just in the same manner as similai'ities do not respond to each other in every particular. Thus, for instance, Adam is a figure of Christ ; which similarity consists in the great truth, that, as sin hath abounded towards all men by Adam, so the righteous- ness of Christ also abounds towards all those who believe in Him. These particulars of Adam and of Christ agree with each other. In all other respects, Adam and Christ do not agree. Where- fore let this their error be left to the Jews, to content themselves therewith. We, believers in Christ, know that the serpent, to whom God speaks in this text, is the devil. And this we know fi'om the interpretation of Christ Himself. — It now follows.

Ver. 20. And Adam called his loifeh name Eve ; because she is the mother of all living.

We have above heard that it was inflicted as one punishment upon the woman, that she should be under the power of the man. That power to which she is thus made subject is here described anew. It is not God who here gives to Eve her name, but Adam, her lord ; just in the same manner as, before, he gave to all the animals their names, as creatures put under his dominion. No animal devised its name for itself Every one received its appella- tion, and the dignity and glory of its name, fi'om its lord, Adam. So, to this present day, when a woman marries a man, she loses the name belonging to her own family, and is called after the name of her husband. On the other hand, it would be a thing quite monstrous, if the husband should wish to be called by the name of his wife. This, therefore, is a sign and further confirma- tion of that punishment of subjection which the woman procured

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to herself by her sin. In the same manner, also, if the husband changes his place of residence, the woman is compelled to follow him, as her lord. So various are the traces in nature which put us in mind of original sin, and of our numerous calamities on its accopnt.

And the name which Adam gave to his wife is a name full of joy and dclightfulness. For what is better, or more precious, or more delightful, than life ? There is a well-known poetic line —

Num tu bona cuncta Ut redimas vitara recuses ?

To save thy life, what wouldst thou not resign ? The world, with all its wealth, (if they were thine !)

For neither gold, nor gems, nor the glory of the whole world, can be compared with the preciousness of life. This Christ inti- mates (Matt. 6. 25). Hence the Jews generally give their children names taken from roses, flowers, and jewels, &c. The name of Eve, however, was not taken from the preciousness of any worldly thing, but from life itself, which in value exceeds all things. But Adam adds also his reason for giving this name to his wdfe. " Because (saith he) she is the mother of all living^ It is evident, therefore, from this passage, that Adam, by his re- ceiving of the Holy Spirit, was wonderfully enlightened ; and that he believed and understood the word spoken of God concerning the Seed of the woman, which should bruise the head of the ser- l)ent ; and that he therefore wished to signalize this his faith, and to adorn it by the name which he gave his wife, the like name unto which he had not given to any other creature. It is equally evident, also, that he moreover wished, by this name given to his wife, to cherish his own hope of a future Seed, to confirm his own faith, and to comfort himself by the belief of a future and eternal life, even at the very time when all nature had been rendered subject to death.

For, if Adam had not apprehended all this by the faith of the life to come, his mind could not have been upraised to such an assurance of it, as of himself to give his wife a name so frdlof joy. As, therefore, he did give such a name to his wife, it is perfectly evident that his mind was lifted up by the Holy Ghost to this confidence in the remission of sins, by the Seed of E^•e ; whom he

294 CHAPTER III. 21.

therefore named Eve, in order tluit tliat name might be, as it were, a memorial of that Divine promise by which he himself was raised anew unto life, and by which he left the hope of an eternal life to his posterity. This hope and this faith he imprinted, as it were, on the forehead of his wife, in the brightest colours, by the name Eve which he gave her: just in the same manner as those who are delivered from their enemies erect trophies, and other glad memorials, to commemorate the \actory which they have gained. But, perhaps, you will inrpiire, how it is that Adam called Eve the mother of all living, when she was as yet a virgin, and had borne no child at all. Adam, we here again see, did this to testify his faith in the Divine promise : because he believed that tlie human race would not be cast away nor destroyed, but would be saved. This same name of Eve, therefore, embraces also a prophecy of the grace that should come : and it indicates that consolation, which is necessary, under the perpetual trials of this human life, and against all the temptations of Satan. It is very possible, also, that the joyful giving of this name to Eve, which, as we have said, is a most beautiful proof of the faith of Adam, and of the recreation of his spirit unto a new life, formed a reason why the holy fathers, in after ages, held that day, on which their children were circumcised and received their names, as a more glad and joyful festival, than the day on which they were born ; to the intent that such festival might, lastingly, com- memorate this giving of the first name by Adam, when he called his wife Eve. But now follows another kind of memorial quite the contrary to this : a memorial of sorrow, not of joy.

Yer. 21. Unto Adam also, and to his icife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

This Divine fact recorded by Moses is by no means so joyful and delightful a one, as was that of Adam giving to his wife the name of Eve. For, although the Lord had said, ' In the day that thou eatest of this tree, thou shalt die by a certain death;' yet Adam consoled himself by this name which he gave to liis wife, that the life which he liad lost should be restored by the promised Seed of the woman ; which should bruise the serpent's head, and should Himself destroy the destroyer.

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Here, however, Adam and Eve are clothed with garments by the Lord God Himself; in order that, being perpetually reminded by this clothing, as a lasting memorial, they might reflect, as often as they looked at their garments, upon their awful and miserable fall, from the highest felicity into the extremest cala- mity and wretchedness : to the intent that they might ever after- wards fear to sin, and exercise continual repentance ; yet looking for the remission of sins by the promised Seed. And this is the reason, no doubt, why the Lord God did not cover them with leaves, nor with that wool which grows on trees ; but clothed them with the skins of slaughtered animals, to remind them that they were now mortal and subject to certain death. As, there- fore, the name Eve contained in it the joyful hope of life, even of eternal life ; so these skins were a memorial of sin passed and sin to come ; but a memorial, also, of all those calamities, present and to come, which that sin deserved. And, indeed, this nature of ours has need of such memorials, and such perpetual admoni- tions. For we easily forget both past evils and past blessings. Hence it is that Peter says, " But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. AVherefore I will not be negligent to })ut you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth" (2 Pet. 1. 9, 12). For it is a truly awful expression of the apostle, when he here intimates, that some forget the remission of their sins ; and that, after they have well believed, they yet draw back from their faith, and adorn not themselves with that most beautiful chain of Christian virtues which he enumerates, but indulge in covetousness, pride, envy, lust, &c., &c. We, in our day also, have great need of this admonition ; — that we, experiencing as we do all these burdens of calamity under the papacy, become not ungrateful to our merciful God, nor forget His many bless- ings ; as, alas ! the greater part of the world do.

As a remedy, therefore, against this forgetfulness, these skins were added, as clothings for Adam and Eve ; that they might be a certain lasting sign, or memorial, or admonition, whereby both they and all their posterity might be reminded of their most wretched condition. But in after ages, marvellous to say, the world began to grow mad, in the matter of this very memorial

296 CHAPTER III. 22.

of their calamity ! For who can possibly describe the extent of the devotedness, and of expenses to which both men and women proceed, as to their dress and garments ! Indeed that devoted- ness is such, that it can be no longer properly termed a pleasure nor a luxury, but a madness ; because, like asses created for bearing burdens of gold, they seem rather to consider with how much gold they can load themselves, than with how much they can best adorn themselves. A superior kind of dress may be justly commended in certain cases ; especially in more illustrious persons. But that rage for dress, in all classes, which now pre- vails, cannot but offend the eyes of all good men. And if Adam himself could rise from his grave, and behold this madness for raiment, in all orders of society, my real belief is, that he would stand petrified with astonishment at the sight. For the clothing of skins, which Adam daily wore, daily reminded him also of his sin and his lost felicity. Whereas we, on the contrary, clothe ourselves with splendid garments, and indulge in luxury of dress, that we may testify, to all men, that we have not only forgotten the evils of the fall, from which we have been saved by the Seed of the woman, but the blessings also which we have by Him re- ceived. We next find, that the admonition which the Lord had given, by the sign of the garments. He gave also in word.

Ver. 22. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to knoio good and evil : and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever :

These words contain a sarcasm and most bitter derision. Some inquire, therefore, why it is that God here deals so harshly with the miserable Adam ? How it is that, after he had been robbed of all his glory, and had fallen into sin and death, he is goaded, in addition to all this, by his Maker, with this most bitter reflec- tion passed upon him. Was it not enough, they ask, that he should Avear this visible sign Avhich should perpetually remind him of his lost glory and his present calamity, but he must hear also, in addition, this audible word of the Lord God ?

To all which I reply ; — Adam had the promise of mercy given to him ; and with that he ought to have lived content. But in order that he might the more deeply fear, and the more carefulh'

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guard against all future sin, there is spoken to him this bitter memorial word also. For God foresaw what kind of men Adam's posterity would be ; and, therefore, lie puts this word into his mouth, that he might preach it to his posterity ; and might teach them, as a warning, that by his wishing to become like God, he became like unto the devil ; in order that they also, being thus warned, might not add to that sin of their first parents, their own sins, and so depart still farther from God.

As therefore, before, by the clothing of skins, so now, by this His word itself, God reminds our first parents both concerning their past and their future calamities. Not that God is delighted with this Adam's sad case : had it been so. He would have given him no such admonition at all ; but would have remained silent. But God willed that man should sigh after the restoration of that " image of God" which he had lost ; and should, therefore, the more hate sin, which had been the cause of so awful a calamity ; and that Adam should admonish his posterity of what had been the consequence of his sin ; that when, having been pkmdered of his reason by Satan, he thought he should become like God, he became like Satan himself.

On this passage, also, is moved that great question, — Why God, who is One, here speaks in the plural number? And whether there are more gods than one ? And Nicolaus of Lyra, with others, considers that these words are either spoken in the j)erson of an angel, or addressed to angels — " Is become as one of us;" that is, ' Is become an angel.' But this is a most frigid gloss. For God does not here call Himself an angel. Nor does the force of the expression lie in the word " one ;" but rather in the pronoun us. Wherefore, we repudiate altogether this cold comment. For if these words are spoken in the person of an angel, it is certain that God did not speak them ; but God did speak them. For the assertion of the text is, " And the Lord God said." Wherefore, here again let us have recourse to the light of the Gospel. For this light, as I have above observed, illumines all these obscure places of the Old Testament. And, indeed, if you will explain these words as having reference to the angels, such interpretation will not accord with that portion of the sacred narrative which went before. For Satan above said (ver. 5), " And ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

298 CHAPTER III. 22.

From which it is manifest, that Adam and Eve really endea- voured to become like unto God, not hke unto an angel. Where- fore, this passage cannot rightly be understood in any other way, than as meaning equality with God !

Let this error of the Jews, therefore, concerning the reference of the present passage to angels, which error Lyra also follows in his interpretation of it, be hissed out of the sacred field ; and let there be established from this text, according to the letter of it, the doctrine that there is a plurality in the Godhead : which doctrine was also determined above (chap. 1. 26) ; where God said, " Let us make man in our image." All these pas- sages argue, in the first place, the unity of the Divine essence. For the uniform expression in them all is, " And God said." And in the next place, they argue also the plurality, or (accord- ing to the generally used term), a Trinity, of persons in the God- head. All these mysteries, however, are more fully revealed in the New Testament. As, for instance, when Christ commands believers to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The Three Divine Persons in the Godhead, therefore, were thus at once shadowed forth, at the very beginning of the world ; and were thus aftei'wards clearty understood by the prophets ; and at length fully revealed in the Gospel.

The meaning of this passage, therefore, stands perfectly plain ; as does also the fact, that the intent of Adam and Eve was, that they might become like unto God, or the image of God. Now the image of the invisible God is the Son ; " by whom all things consist" (Col. 1. 17). Wherefore Adam, by this his sin, dashed against the very person of Christ, who is the true image of God. These great things are but briefly and obscurely set before us in this Divine narrative. There is no doubt, however, that Adam himself drew from them numberless sermons to his family and posterity : in the same way as the prophets after him evidently contain various allusions to these mysteries, and wrap them up in marvellous indications, which the Gospel finally reveals in open and bright manifestation.

It makes also for our interpretation of the present passage, that the name of God used therein is Jehovah ; which cannot signify any creature : being a name which is applied absolutely and only

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to the Creator Himself. And what does the Creator liere say? — ' Adam is become as one of us.' Now here, most assuredly, neither our profession nor our faith will tolerate our receiving these words as being spoken, or as having refei'ence to angels. For who will dare to say that God is one of the angels ? or that an angel is one of the us, the eloim ? The glorious God is above all angels, and over all creatures ! How, therefore, can God make Himself only equal to the angels !

Receive we this passage, therefore, as a sure testimony of that article of our faith which respecteth the Holy Trinity ; — that there is One God, and Three Divine Persons in the Godhead. Moses indeed seems here obscurely, but plainly and purposely, to intimate, concerning the sin of Adam, that his aim was to be- come like, not tmto angels, but unto God. For if he had sinned against angels only, he would not have been condemned to death for such sin. But because his sin was directly against the Majesty of the Creator, by his aiming to become like unto Him, and to do as that Divine Majesty did ; therefore it was, that so awful a punishment followed so awful a sin.

And as, when a man is delivered from a crucifixion, every one wall naturally remind him of the danger in which he was placed, and will exhort him to guard against a like danger ever after- wards : so, after Adam is restored again to the hope of life, through the Divine promise, God admonishes him, by the bitter irony contained in the text, not to forget this his horrible fall, nor ever again to attempt to equal God, in which he so awfully failed ; but to humble himself before the Divine majesty, and ever after- wards to guard, with all his posterity also, against such a sin. For these things were not spoken to Adam only — they apply to us also, who, after we have been baptized and renewed by grace, ought to take heed, with all watchfulness, that we fall not back into our former imgodliness.

In this same manner, also, tliere is an equally bitter sarcasm contained in the words, when God here says, " And now, lest he jnit forth his hand, and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." — As if God could not, by one mere nod, prohibit Adam from touching the tree, and also prevent him from ever doing so ! — Moses next adds those terrible and terrifviiio- words.

300 CHAPTER III. 23, 24.

Vers. 23 and 24. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man ; and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Chei'uhims, and a flaming sword ivhich turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

The contents of this text, also, are intended for our rebuke and admonition; as Paul saith (Rom. 15. 4), 'For whatsoever- things were written aforetime, were written for our sakes also.' For there is great peril, lest, forgetting our former sins, we should be plunged into them again ; as Christ also gives us warning, when He says, " Behold, thou art made whole : sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5. 14). Peter also speaks in the way of warning, when he says, " But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and the sow that was washed to her wallow- ing in the mire" (2 Pet. 2. 22). The same admonition and warning are given by the same apostle elsewhere, when he says, *He hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins' (2 Pet. 1. 9).

These and other passages of the Scripture are all of them ad- monitions concerning the guarding against sin in future ; because, as in diseases, so in sins, the relapse is more difficult of cm'e than the original disease. Hence, therefore, it is that Adam and his whole posterity are warned, "in so many various forms, in the present portion of the sacred Record of ISIoses ! All is written, in order that, after they have received the hope of eternal life by means of the promise given, through the Seed of the woman, they might beware that they lose not that hope by sinning again : according to that remarkable parable concerning the house which was swept and garnished after Satan was cast out ; which Satan again occupied, taking with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself.

It is for these ends, therefore, that the Lord uses so much bitterness, in this His address to our first parents. It is as if, in explaining Himself, He should say, ' I before forbade Adam and Eve to touch the tree of death ;' but such was their impudent self-will, that they would not abstain from doing so, even to their

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own destruction. Now, therefore, I must take all care tliat they approach not and eat of the ' tree of life' also ; for it may be they will not refrain from putting forth their hand on that also. Therefore I will so effectually prevent them from eating of this tree, that I will prohibit them from the use of any of the trees of paradise whatsoever. Wherefore I say unto them, ' Go ye forth from the garden altogether, and eat the herb of the field, and whatsoever else of the kind the earth produceth. Ye shall here- after not only eat no more of the tree of life, but ye shall not taste even any one of the trees' of paradise, at all.'

This passage further shows, therefore, that the trees of para- dise were in no manner like unto those which the other part of the earth brought forth. "^Vlierefore, even the food which Adam and Eve ate, after their ejection from paradise, reminded them, and still reminds their posterity, of their sin, and of their most miserable condition, into which they have been hurled, by their sin ! In so many and various ways are our calamities depicted before our very eyes, that even our clothing, independently of our destitution, by nature, of those spiritual gifts (the knowledge and worship of God, &c.), perpetually remind us of those deep calamities.

Here a question presents itself, — whether, if God had permitted Adam to eat of the tree of life, Adam would, by this food, have overcome death, in the same manner as, by eating of the tree of death, he became subject to death ; for the reasoning in each case seems to be parallel. The tree of death killed ; and that by the Word ! which said, " In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou slialt surely die." The tree of life, therefore, by the power also of the same Word ! gave life, and preserved from death.

Lyra and others, in their reply to this question, say that this tree of life had indeed the power of preserving life for a length of time, but not for ever ; and, therefore, it could not have re- stored that life which was lost by sin. For Adam was not created with the design of his remaining in this corporal life for ever ; but. he was designed to be translated from this corporal life, and from this corporal nourishing of it, into that spiritual life, for which he was ultimately designed, and into which he would have been translated (as we have already fully shown) if he had not sinned. Just in the same way as, when a man is

302 CHAPTER ITI. 23, 24.

created a consul from his former private life, no death is taken into consideration, in his being created to that office, but his glory and dignity alone are increased ; so Adam, had not death intervened by his sin, would have changed his mortality for an immortality, without any death at all ; being translated from the life corporal to the life spiritual and eternal. — This ' tree of life,' however (according to the view of Lyra), served only for the preservation of the corporal life. And, therefore, he interprets the present text, ' Lest he should live an age :' that is, a life of long duration. Such is Lyra's opinion.

My understanding of the text, however, is different. — My be- lief is, that if Adam had been admitted to eat of the tree of life, he would have been restored to that life which he lost : so that he would not have afterwards cUed, but would have been simply translated from the life corporal to the life spiritual and eternal : for the text contains both these statements most clearly ; — that Adam was prohibited from eating of ' the tree of life,' that he might not be restored to the life which he had lost; — and also, that if he had eaten of that tree, he would have lived leolam : that is, for an age, or a length of time.

My rejection of the opinion of Lyra, however, is especially on the ground, that he attributes the power of giving life to the nature of the tree itself simply : whereas it is quite certain, that the tree possessed not this property of its own nature, but from the power of the Word, absolutely. Just in the same manner as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had its peculiar property, from the same Word. It did not kill, because its fruits themselves were deadly, or poisonous, or pestiferous ; but because the Word, as a certain paper, w^as added to it : on which paper God had written, ' In the day that thou eatest of this tree, thou shalt die by a certain death.'

Wherefore, in the first place, to this tree of death there was attached spiritual death, or the death of the soul ; that is, disobe- dience. For after Adam and Eve had violated this command- ment of God by sin, which commandment had continued effectual in them up to that time, they began to think thus, ' Behold, God has forbidden us to eat of this tree : but what is that to us T — This contempt of the commandment was that poisoned hook, by which, being firmly fixed in their throats, Adam and Eve were

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utterly destroyed ; and because the Divine threatening was added to the commandment ; therefore, after eating it, the fruit wrought in them death, on account of their disobedience. The tree of death itself, therefore, was not poisoned ; but (as I have copi- ously explained before, in its place, under the second chapter) it was the tree of Divine worship, where man might testify, by his obedience in that worship, that he acknowledged, reverenced, and feared his God. For as to the tree itself, God saw everything which He had made, and behold it was very good. Wherefore, I have no doubt that this tree of life, in the present passage, de- rived its efficacy, as did the tree of death, from the Word. It had no power to give life from its own nature ; but all its efficacy so to do, was derived from the f)OioeT of the Word of God ! Therefore, since the Word rested, in its power, on that tree, if Adam had eaten of it, he would have been restored to the life which he possessed before his fall.

It was just thus also with the serpent, which Moses raised in the desert. It did not give ov ja:3e life by its own nature ; for it was made of brass, as any ot'^^Vh'rpent might be made of the same metal to this day. But it was the Word, added to that serpent, which made it effectual to give life ; hecciuse God com- manded that serpent to be lifted up, and because He added this Word to it when lifted up, — " Every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Num. 21. 8). Now, if thou shouldst make a serpent of brass at this day, thou couldst not have this Word to add to it. Moreover, the cause of the healing did not lie in the act of the looking, but that cause was contained in the Word, by which God had commanded that those who were bitten should look unto the serpent ; to which commandment was also added the pt^omise of healing to those who should look. But be- cause the Kabbins understand not the nature of the Word, there- fore they shamefully err and fail in their interpretation, and pro- nounce the meaning to be, that the nature itself of these trees was death-giving or life-giving. For they understand not that all things therefore take place, because God, by His Word, either promises or threatens that they shall so take place.

Our sophistic human reasoners trifle in the same way, when they argue upon the manner in which baptism justifies. For Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura consider that there is a certain

304 CHAPTER III. 23, 24.

power of effecting justification infused of God into the xoater when the infant is baptized ; so that the water of the baptism, by its own virtue thus communicated, creates justification. We, on the contrary, affirm that the water of baptism is water, nothing else or better than that water which the cow drinks. But we affirm, that, to this water, natirral and simple in itself, is added the Word, " He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved." And again, " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Mark 16. 16, and John 3. 5). Now, if any one is inclined to call this Woed, or this Promise, the power communicated to the water of baptism, I will not resist such a view of the sacred matter. But the mind of our sophists is quite different from this : for they will not assign this power to the Word ; they argue concerning the element only ; and they affirm that the, water itself contains a peculiar power comminiicated to it of God. Scotus has expressed the matter more correctly in his definition of it, when he says, that baptism is " a Divine compact, or coveui^wt, resting on the element."

The Word, therefore, is that i Kich is in every case to be re- garded and honoured, — that Word by which God holds and en- dues His creatures with efficacy ; and a difference is ever to be made between the creaf.ure and the Word. In the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there are bread and loine ; in baptism there is water. These are the mere creatures. But they are held in God's hand by the AYord ; and as long as the creature is thus apprehended by the Word, so long also doth it effect that which the Word promiseth. And yet we would by no means be under- stood as favouring, by these our views, the Sacramentarians, when we thus join together Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.

Baptism hath annexed to it the promise, that, by the co-opera- tion of the Holy Spirit, it regenerates. In the Supper of the Lord, in addition to the promise of the remission of sins annexed to it, it has also this excellency ; that, with the bread and the wine, there is also truly set forth the body and blood of Christ, as Christ Himself saith, " This is My body which is given for you:" and also, " This cup is the New Testament in My blood" (Luke 22. 19, 20). In the same manner, it might also be said, that the human nature itself in Christ does not redeem us. But because the human nature was corporally held fast by the Divine nature,

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and Christ is both God and man in one person, therefore His re- demption is all-availing ; and therefore, also, Christ is called the " Son of Man," and the Saviour.

The Pope, indeed, has invented the ' blessed water,' '■ extreme nnction,' and nmnberless other like things, to which he has attri- buted the remission of sins. Li all these cases, ever^think thus with thyself: — Has God ever added to these things His Word of CoMM^ys^D and His Word of promise ? And if the promise and the precept of God are not attached to them, immediately judge that they are idolatry, and a profanation of the name of God. But they Avill tell you that the prayers of the pious are added to them, and that there exist holy examples, in imitation of which, these things were constituted. But do thou regard neither the pious prayers, nor the holy examples, nor the intentions of those who invented or established these things. Do thou look only at this — whether the j)f^cept and the ^^''"omise of God are attached to them ; for the Divine commandment and promise alone can endue creatures with a new power, beyond that power which they of their own mere nature possess.

Thus, " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" was ot its own nature good, as a creature. But by means of the Word of God, added and attached to it, it became to man, through his sin, the poison, not of his body only, but of his soul. And in like manner, on the contrary, ' the tree of life' had, by means of the Word of God, attached to it the power of preserving life, and it would have restored and preserved the life of Adam, liad God so permitted. But God, being angry with Adam, did not permit him to return to eat of that tree after his fall. And this repulsion from ' the tree of life' and from paradise, was not only intended to keep Adam under the continual memory of the sin which he had committed, but also because Adam had now a better promise given him, — that the seed of the woman should bruise the seed of the serpent ; so that, although Adam was subjected to corporeal death, he yet retained the hope of an immortality, through the Son of God. Just as an angry father, though he does not de- prive his son of the right of his inheritance, yet chastises him, and turns him out of doors.

It is thus the will of the Lord God, therefore, that man should be content with the hope of a belter life than that in which Adam

u

306 CHAPTER III. 23, 24,

was first created. For even though Adam had eaten of the tree of Hfe, and had been restored thereby to his former life, he would not even then have been safe from Satan, nor from the danger of falling again from that life, by his temptation. God, therefore, hath prepared for man that state of hope in which we may live assured, that through the blessed Seed of the woman, we never can die an eternal death, although this corporeal life thus ap- pointed for us may be filled with various afflictions. The words of the passage now before us, therefore, are the words of God, spoken ironically, and in anger, to Adam, now justified ; warning him to be more cautious of sin for the future, and not to forget his past sins and calamities.

Moses, moreover, beautifully inverts the order of his words : to the intent that he might the more effectually admonish man of the things which he had related before ; where he had said, ' The Lord God placed man in the garden of Eden, that he might till it and guard it.' Here, on the contrary, he says, ' The Lord God sent man forth fi'om the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.' For God, by Moses, would have man to reflect, that he was formed of the ground, and was sta- tioned in a most delightful place ; but that, by means of his sin, he was cast out of that most delightful place, and carried back to the ground from which he was first created. By this striking inversion of the facts of his record, Moses indicates the manner in which God not only warned Adam and all his posterity against all future sin, but reminded them also of their great sins past. Now, therefore, Adam, whose appointed station before was in paradise, a place separate from all the beasts of the earth, and in which a peculiar food was prepared for him, is cast out into a place in common with the beasts, and has his general food in common with them also.

Nor is Adam cast out of paradise only, but a guard also is set at the entrance of the place, that he might not, by any means whatever, be able to enter it again. Just as watches are set to guard citadels and armies. Moses, therefore, by that copiousness and variety of speech which he here uses, would show, that this expulsion of Adam from paradise was in the highest degree ne- cessary unto our salvation ; that, being warned thereby against sill, Ave might live in the fear of God, ever watching against

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temptations from Satan, who worked so much evil to this our nature, by the sin of our first parents.

Concerning the original word, mikedem, we have spoken above, and have shown, that it signifies ' from the East,' or ' in the Eastern quarter.' The meaning of Moses is, that paradise had a way, or gate, on the eastern side, by which there was an entrance into this garden. Thus, also, in the building of the temple, described by Ezekiel, mention is made of a gate of the sanctuary, which looked toward the East : so that we may con- clude, that this temple was a certain form of paradise ; for para- dise, had nature remained innocent, would have been as it were the temple of the whole world. At this entrance, therefore, to- ward the East, which alone led to paradise, Cherubims were placed, or angels, which might guard this way ; that neither Adam nor any of his posterity might ever enter paradise again. The Lord did these things, after the manner of men, as a terror ; in order that there might thus exist a lasting memorial of so aw^d a fall.

IMorcover, these Cherubim had not iron wherewith to drive back those wdio should approach, but lahat, that is, ' the blaze,' or ' the flame,' of a turning or brandished sword ; a flame like the flash of lightning, which is uncertain in its motion, and dazzles the eyes. This flame or flash of fire has the form of a sword, continually waved or brandished. Just, for instance, as we have it represented that cloven tongues like as of fire appeared resting upon each of the apostles, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2. 3). The same appearance do flying dragons also exhibit. In this same manner it was, also, that the angels here spoken of unceas- ingly emitted flames, which flashed in all directions, so that no one might by any possibility approach.

The absurdities of Origen on this passage we utterly reject ; nor are we at all more pleased with the triflings of Lyra, who will have it, that by the ' flaming sword,' we are to understand the sinner ; who, for a sin unto death, has ceased to be, in desert, though not in number, one of the church militant. And he says, that the ' flaming sword' being represented as ' turning every Avay,' signifies, that if true repentance follow upon such sins, a man is deservedly recalled into the church. For ourselves, how- ever, as we have all along maintained, that paradise was a real

308 CHAPTER III. 23, 24.

and visible garden, in a certain spot of tlie earth ; so we explain the present text in a simple and historical sense; — that this ' sword' was a real and visible ' flame,' or ' a flash of fire,' in the form of a sword, by the turnings or brandishings of which, every way, the Cherubim, or angels, terrified and drove away Adam and his posterity, so that they dared not any more approach this garden.

And paradise was kept closed by this guard of angels, until the deluge ; to the end, that there might exist a certain and last- ing memorial of this miserable and calamitous fall of Adam, to all his posterity ; in the same manner as, in after ages, the Lake of Sodom and the pillar of salt remained, as memorials, through- out the posterity of those generations. x\nd indeed our insen- sibility and unconcern need such monuments of the wrath of God. After the deluge, however, paradise, together with its angels, and these brandishings of their sword, disappeared. For each rising generation had its monuments of the Divine wrath, which were nearer to them, and the better calculated to alarm the self-secure, although even this avails nothing with the wicked.

Thus have we, then, in our Commentary on these first THREE CHAPTERS of the Book of Genesis, gone through with the History of the Whole Creation. In what manner the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, were created : — in what manner paradise was created of God, that it might be the palace of man, the lord of the whole world, who had dominion over all things therein : — in what manner God instituted a temple for man in paradise, which was appointed for acts of Divine worship ; namely, the " tree of the knowledge of good and evil," by his conduct concerning which, Adam might testify his obedience to his God. We have also heard, in these three chapters, the history of those things which were done by man in paradise : how wofully he fell and sinned against God, and lost all this glory of his innocence and natural immortality.

All these subjects I have treated with plainness and simplicity, according to the measure of my gift ; giving them their plain historical sense, Avhich is the true and genuine meaning. For the principal thing which we have to do in interpreting the Holy Scriptures, is to gather from them, to some degree of certainty, their plain and simple sense ; especially, surrounded as we are

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with such ;i variety of interpreters, Latin, and Greek, and He- brew. For nearly all these not only pay no regard to the plain historical sense of the Scripture, but even confound it by foolish allegories, and bury it under the confusion which they themselves cause.

The absurd system of Origen and Jerome, — which those com- mentators have followed in these chapters of the Book of Genesis, — is well known. They have throughout departed from the plain history, which they call " the mere letter that killeth," and " the flesh ;" and have magnificently displayed the spiritual sense, as they term it, of which they know nothing. And Jerome has followed Origen, as his great teacher herein. Precisely the same thing also has taken place in our time. For as men, who have been gifted with talent and eloquence, have bent all their powers to persuade their hearers and readers, that histories are mere dead facts, which profit nothing to the edification of the churches ; it has thereby come to pass, that we have all run headlong to- gether into allegories. And I myself also, when a youth, found wonderful success in this my attempt at allegorizing. For I found a licence herein to invent the greatest absurdities ; seeing, as I did, that such great doctors of the churches as Jerome and Origin were, sometimes gave open field to their ingenuities. In- deed, to such an extent was this indulgence in allegories carried, that he who was the greatest adept at inventing them, was ac- counted the greatest theologian. Augustine, also, carried away by this false opinion, often disregards the historical sense of the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms, and has recourse to allegory. In fact, all w-ere filled with the false persuasion that the allegori- cal meaning was the spiritual and true sense ; especially with reference to the histories of the Old Testament ; but that the historical or literal sense was the mere carnal interpretation.

But is not this, I pray you, the positive profaning of sacred things ? Thus Origen, out of paradise, makes heaven, and out of the trees, angels. But if we are to go on at this rate, we shall by and by leave no one fact of creation remaining at all. It is highly necessary, therefore, especially in young students of the Holy Scriptures, that, when they come to read the old di\ ines, they condemn, with good judgment, or rather with fixed deter- mination, all those things in their writings which they find at all

310 CHAPTER III. 23, 24.

improbable or unsound, lest they be led astray by the authority that lies in the name of the fathers and doctors of the Church ; for, in this way was I deceived, as were all the schools of the pro- fessors of divinity also. For myself, ever since I thus began to abide by the historical sense of the Scripture, I have cautiously shunned all allegorizing ; nor have I ever adopted allegories, un- less the text itself evidently furnished them, or the interpretations derivable from the New Testament justified them.

I found it very difficult, however, to give up altogether my long existing indulgence in allegorizing, although I saw that these allegories were vain speculations, and the mere froth, as it were, of the Holy Scriptures. For it is the plain historical sense of the Scripture that truly and solidly teaches. After this plain sense of the Word has been rightly understood and handled, then allegories may be used, as certain ornaments by which the plain historical sense may be illustrated and strikingly depicted. But naked allegories wdiicli respond not at all to the historical realities, nor tend to paint them forth more impressively, are at once to be rejected as idle dreams ; for instance, from what part of the Scrip- ture can it be proved that paradise signifies heaven, and the trees of paradise the angels ? Are not these pure follies, and mere creatures of the brain, without fruit or profit ?

Let those, therefore, who would adopt allegories, seek the jus- tification of them from the history itself in question ; for it is history which, like somid logic, teaches true and indubitable realities. On the other hand, allegory, like oratory, ought to adorn history only; but to prove facts, it avails nothing. Allegory is useftil in this way : as, when we say that the heavens represent the Church, and the earth the empires upon it, and the political constitutions by which it is governed. Thus, Christ Himself calls the Church " the kingdom of heaven," and the " kingdom of God." And the earth is called in the Scripture the " land of the living," where men live, and kings and princes rule (Job 28. 13). The Apostle Paul uses the same kind of allegory', when he represents Adam and Eve, or marriage itself, to be a type of Christ and His Church. This is an allegory fidl of Divine in- struction and consolation indeed. For, what could be uttered more deep or sweet than that the Church is the spouse, and Christ the bridegroom ? For, by this figure is signified both that con-

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jugal fellowship, and that most joyful communication of all those gifts which the bridegroom has to bestow, and by which gifts are buried in obli^don both all the sins and all the calamities with which the spouse is loaded. Wherefore, that also is a most de- lightful word, where Paul says, " For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11. 2).

In the same manner, also, the same apostle says (Rom. 5. 14), that Adam was " the figm'e of Him that was to come." And how 1 The apostle himself gives the explanation : — " For if, through the offence of one (saith he) many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many" (ver. 15). Does not this allegory, used by the apostle, beautifully refer to the historical facts recorded by Moses, as its foundation ? Exactly after the same manner does the apostle make out of the history of Sarah and Hagar, an allegory whereby to represent the Two Testaments. Let all those, therefore, who are inclined to introduce allegories, seek their foundation of them, and justifications for them, from the Divine history itself.

Moreover, we have heard above the sacred record of ' the Seed of the woman,' and ' the seed of the serpent.' And it is to this history that Christ refers in His parable or allegory concerning the enemy who sowed in the night the evil seed — that is, wicked doctrine and evil inventions (Matt. 13. 28). Who does not at once see that such allegories as these are more appropriate, more illustrative, more useful, and far superior to those allegories which Augustine and Lyra, and others, have introduced concerning the inferior power and the superior jjoioer of reason, on which we have dwelt, in their place '? In like manner, also, the closing of para- dise, and the stationing of a guard of cherubim, with brandished swords of fire, to prevent any one from re-entering, evidently signify nothing more or less than that man, while living in the A^'orld " Avithout," and destitute of faith in Christ, can endure neither the light of the law nor the light of the Gospel. And hence it is that Paul says, concerning the Jews, ' that they could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses, and that Moses was obliged to put a veil over his face on that account' (2 Cor. 3. 13).

Hence, 'the tree of death,' in paradise, represents the law, and

312 CHAPTER III. 23, 24.

' the tree of life' the Gospel of Christ. And to neither of these trees can any approach who have not faith in Christ. For they are prevented by the sword of the angels on guard, who cannot endui'e hypocrisy or poisonous self-righteousness. But whoso acknowledges his sin, and believes in Christ, to him the gate of paradise stands open, because he brings with him, not his own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ ; wdiich righteous- ness the Gospel therefore preaches unto all men, in order that we all might rest upon it, and be saved.

But there is no need that we should pursue this subject of allegories farther. Let it suffice, that we have offered these ad- monitions, that we might thereby direct those who use allegories, to adopt those allegories alone, which the apostles have indicated and justified, and which have their sure foundation in the very letter and in the historical facts of the Scripture.

But we must offer a word also concerning the cherubim. Fre- quent mention is made of them throughout the Holy Scriptures. In the Latin authors, we find nothing stated concerning them. They merely observe, that the term Cheuub signifies a plenitude of knowledge. Among the Greek authors, Dionysius does speak of the cherubim. There is a boasting report, that Dionysius was a disciple of the Apostle Paul, but that is not true. Dionysius was a man full of the most vain absurdities, in which he abounds, in his disputations concerning the heavenly and the ecclesiastical hierarchy. His imaginations make nine choirs, as so many ranks or spheres of heavenly beings. In the supreme hierarchy, he places, first, the seraphim ; next, the cherubim ; next, thrones ; next, dominions ; next, powers ; and lastly, principalities. And then, in the lower or inferior hierarchy, he places, first, potentates ; next, archangels ; and last of all, angels. Now, who does not see that all these representations are nothing more nor less than idle and futile human inventions.

After all this, he says, that in the ecclesiastical hierarchy there are, first, bishops, then deacons, then sub-deacons, then readers, then exorcists. In such absurdities as these, was exercised that great man, the disciple of the chief of the apostles, the gi'eat teacher of the Gentiles ! And yet, such is the boasted authority of this supposed great man, that inflated hypocrites set down all these, his foolish inventions, as if handed down to them by oracles

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from heaven. Whereas, in all these, his follies, there is not one word to be found concerning faith, nor one word of useful in- struction in the Holy Scripture. And who, after all, told him that there were nine choirs of heavenly beings and potentates ? And why, moreover, did the Franciscans afterwards add a tenth sphere, as a sort of palace, in which the holy mother Maiy, might dwell ? In a word, these are follies and absurdities adapted only for Papists to learn and admire, as a just punishment for their pertinacious war against all sound doctrine.

With respect therefore to the Cherub, I will offer my opinion, as far as I have been enabled to form it, from my read- ing. The name Cherub appears to me to signify that florid countenance which we see in yovmg women, in the blossom of their age. For which reason of youth, also, angels are represented, in pictures, as infants. So that, by cherubim, you may understand angels, as heavenly beings, appearing with a blooming counten- ance, and with brow free from Avrinkle or sign of sorrow, and smoothly extended with joy, wearing a face plump and full with gladness, whether it be a human face or any other. The name Cherub, therefore, is a general appellation, a term which does not apply to any order of angels in particular, as Dionysius dreams, but has reference only to their general appearance, because they present themselves to men with a juvenile and florid aspect. And this, indeed, is the opinion of the Jews themselves, who assert, that Kerub is a Chaldaic term, and that the letter Kappa is a, servile letter, and that RUB signifies a beautiful youth, who has a full and florid face ; and they aflirm, that the angels are called Kerubim, as representing their florid and joyful and delightful countenance or appearance ; and thus, indeed, they are generally represented in paintings.

In the same manner, also, the name Seraphim is a general appellation of angels : a name derived from /ire, or burning, on account of the quality of their form, as is shown in that passage of Numbers (21. 6), where Moses saith, " And the Lord sent HANNECHASCiiiM HASERAiiA SERAPHIM (' fiery serpents') among the people :" or, ' Seraphim serpents' (serpentes Seraphim) : that is, ' serpents burning, or on fire.' So that we may here under- stand SERAriii3i, or fiery angels : that is, angels not only beauti- ful, in their full and florid face, as are the Cuerubi3I, but also

314 CHAPTER III. 23, 24.

jiery^ or shining, as the angel is represented in the Gospel to have been, which sat on the stone at the tomb of onr Lord, of whom Matthew saith, " His countenance was like lightning" (Matt. 2^. 3) ; and as angels are also described by the Psalmist, when he says, " Who maketh His angels spirits, and His minis- ters a flaming fire" (Ps. 104. 4). And, again, it is said, Luke 2. 9, " That when the angel of the Lord came to the shepherds, the glory of the Lord shone round about them." Of the same de- scription, also, was the countenance of Christ, at His transfigura- tion on Mount Tabor, of whom it is said, " And His face did shine as the sun" (Matt. 17. 2). The same, also, shall be our countenances, when we shall be raised up again, at the last day, to enter into the glory which Christ hath prepared for us.

With respect to what is written in the Books of Kings, con- cerning "the Cherubims overlaid with gold" {Chernhici certini), we are there to understand these full and blooming countenances of angels, together with their wings (1 Kings 6. 28). Not that angels really have wings, but because they cannot otherwise be described. Hence it is that we find (Isa. 6. 6) that the angel, who comes flying with a joyous and beautiful countenance, such as angels are described on pictures of tapestry, is called cheeub. And, if to this fall and florid countenance, there be added also brightness, such as was the shining countenance of Stephen, full of joy and delight, so that nothing but rays of joy dart fi-om the eyes, such angels are called Seraphim.

Such as these shall we also be. Our countenances shall shine as bright as the mid-day sun. There shall be no wrinkle, no contracted brow, no watery eyes ; but as it is written (Rev. 21.4), " And God shall wipe away all tears from oui' eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." Let us, therefore, hold fast this hope, and live in the fear of God ; until, being delivered from this life of affliction, we shall live that angelic and eternal life, which is to come. Amen ! Ainen !

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CHAPTER TV.

Thus have we at length waded through that mighty sea of matter, in their attempt to do which, all who have made that at- tempt, have so greatly sweated and toiled, and of which sweat Ave also have fully partaken. To us, however, the whole way was much more direct and plain, because, throwing aside all allegories, we liave followed throughout the historical and proper sense of every passage. Whereas, the greatest part of commen- tators have not regarded that proper sense, but have made Ori- gen, and Dionysius, and others, their teachers, rather than Moses himself; and so have deservedly wandered out of the way. — The things which now follow, in the Divine Record, are more plain than those which have preceded, and admit of less dispute ; and therefore they tend the more to support my view of the sacred Narrative : because every one must plainly say, that the intent of Moses, was not to put forth a host of allegories, but simply to write a history of the primitive world.

Ver. 1. And Adam hiew Eve his wife, and she conceived and hare Cain.

Wlien Adam had fallen into death by his sin, he had the pro- mise given him, as we have above heard, that from his flesh, thus made subject to death, there would surely arise unto hhn a IVranch of life. He fully understood, therefore, that he must propagate his seed ; and especially so, since the blessing pro- nounced on him and his wife, " Be fruitful and multiply," was not only not taken away, but afterwards confirmed by that Divine PROMISE concerning the Seed of the woman, which should bruise the Serpent's head. Therefore, Adam did not know his wife E\'e, from the mere inclination of the flesh, as toe generally judge ; but it was the necessity o^ \\\iit salvation, which was to come unto him, through the blessed Seed of the woman, that constrained. him to do so.

316 CHAPTER IV. 1.

No one, therefore, ought to be offended with the relation of this circumstance by Moses : — that Adam " knew his wife." For although, on account of original sin, this divine act of genera- tion is considered to be one of turpitude, by which we find pure ears to be generally offended ; yet spiritual men ouglit always to distinguish between original sin, and the creature and the appoint- ment of God. The act of generation, as a creation-appointment of God, is good and holy : for it is the very blessing pronounced of God upon male and female, when they were created. And if man had not fallen, this act of generation would have been most pure, most holy, and most honourable. For as no one blushes to converse, and eat, and drink with his wife, because all these things are honourable among all men, so, had it not been for the fall of Adam, the act of generation would also have been most honourable, and void of all 'shame!'

Generation has indeed been left to us, even hi this state of fallen and corrupted nature. But there has adliered to it that poison of the devil, an impure lust, and prurient concupiscence, which is the cause of numberless sins and evils ; from all which, nature, in its unfallen state, was perfectly free. Now, however, we find, by experience, that the flesh is filled with inordinate and unsatisfied desires ; so much so, that even marriage is not, for many, a sufficient remedy. If it were, there would be no adulteries, nor fornications. Whereas these (to our shame and pain !) everywhere abound. Nay, in how many and various ways does this infirmity of the flesh discover itself, even in mar- ried persons ? These infinite evils are not the consequences of the creation, nor of the blessing pronounced on male and female. These latter proceeded from God. But they are the consequences of sin and of the curse, which proceeded from the sin of Adam. Therefore, the creation-appointment of God, ought to be sepa- rated from all these evils ; for that is a good creature of God, con- cerning which, even the Holy Spirit Himself, we see, is not ashamed to speak.

But further. Not only is there no idea of impurity to be at- tached to this mention of the creation-command and 'blessing' of God, made by Moses, when he says, " And Adam knew Eve his wife;" — it was even necessary \\vai Moses should wviie and teach these things, on account of the heresies which were in after

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times to arise : such as those of Nicolaus, Tatian, &c. ; and, above all, on account of the Papacy. For we see the Papists nothing moved whatever, by that which is written above, — that the Lord created man " male and female !" — They so live, and so bind and fetter themselves by vows, that they seem to be utterly ignorant that there are any such beings as the male and female sexes. They are not at all moved by what is also above written, that the Lord God " brought Eve unto Adam," and that Adam said " This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." They are nothing moved by the promise and blessing of God, " Be fruitful and multiply." The Decalogue touches them not, when it commandeth, " Honour thy father and thy mother /" Yea, they disregard their very origin : born as they are from the union of male and female, commanded and blessed of God. — Passing by, despising and casting away all these things, they compel their contemptible priests, monks, and nuns, to devote themselves to perpetual celibacy ; as if the married life, of which Moses here speaks, were a life reprobate and damnable !

The Holy Ghost, however, hath a purer mouth and purer eyes than the Pope ! The Holy Spirit Himself, therefore, blushes not to mention the act of generation, or the union of husband and wife : though these great saints condemn it as im- pure and base. Nor does that Holy Spirit mention this marriage union in one place only of the Sacred Record. The whole Scripture is filled with such histories : so much so, that on that very account some popes have prohibited young monks and nuns from reading the Holy Bible. But I need not enlarge. Suffice it to say, that such has been the rage of the devil against this creature of God, holy matrimony, that the Papists have compelled men to abjure marriage, to the very end that they might insti- tute their orders of a celibate life ; and they have condemned the commandment of God — marriage life — as polluted, in comparison with the life of celibacy, which they themselves have set up !

This wickedness, however, has not been left without its own just punishments. For there are continually before our own eyes examples of the fruits which impure celibacy brings forth : and there are extant in books, records of most homble crimes, of which it has been the cause. That holy man Udalric, an Augustan bishop, testifies, that after Pope Gregory had determined on

318 CHAPTER IV. 1.

establishing celibacy, and had forbidden even those to live with their wives, who had been married before the decree concerning celibacy had gone forth, — the Pope had a mind, on one occasion, to fish in a pond which he had in his park at Rome ; and that, when he did so, it led to the discovery, that the fish-pond con- tained more than six thousand heads of infants ! — The same Udalric also writes, that Pope Gregory, being struck with awe and consternation at such a sight, revoked his sanction of the impious decree concerning celibacy. The successors of Gregoiy, however, easily swamped the foulness of this discovery, and the pious abolition of the decree by Gregory also ; for they also, like their predecessors, considered that celibacy was adapted, not only to increase their wealth, but to support their dignity.

A similar example presented itself also in my time, wdien some nuns at Neumburg were compelled to leave the place, on account of then" flagitious lives, and the monastery was given up to the Franciscans ; and when these latter, for their convenience, caused some alterations to be made in the building ; in laying these new foundations, there were discovered twelve pots, each one of which contained the dead body of an infant ! — An infinity of similar instances have occurred, at other places, in every direction.

Rightly, therefore, did Gregory act in revoking his decree ; by which revocation (as Bishop Udalric remarks), he made a very beautiful application of the word of the Apostle Paul, who says, " It is better to marry than to burn :" to which, I also add, ' It is better to marry, than to incur the peril of eternal death by sin.'

At Rome itself, also, on account of the great numbers of infants who are exposed, monasteries are erected, of whom the Pope is nominated '■ the Father !' And the near relatives of the infants, which have been so exposed, precede him in the public proces- sions ! I forbear to testify of an infinity of other kindred enor- mities, Avhich are too abhorrent to the mind to mention.

Wherefore, it behoves us all to guard against such doctrines of devils as these ; and to learn to hold marriage in all reverence ; and with^all reverence to speak of that holy kind of life, which we see God Himself to have instituted ; and which we hear to be commended of Him in the Decalogue, where He saith, " Honour tliy father and thy mother :" to wliich holy matrimony,

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is also added tlie blessing, " Be fruitful and multiply." And concerning this holy marriage it is, that the Holy Ghost is here speaking, whose mouth is holy ! But all those sins and vices, and all that turpitude which have entered into the originally pure creation of God by sin, we ought not to agitate, or deride, or touch, when speaking of holy mamage, but rather carefully to cover them ; just in the same way as we see that God covered the originally naked Adam and Eve with coats of skin, after their sin. For marriage ought to be treated and spoken of by all as honourable ; it being that holy union, fi'om whicli we all are born ; and which is, as it were, the seminary, not only of each nation, but of the church and kingdom of Christ unto the end of the world !

This high glory of marriage, however, heathens and other profane men, do not understand. Therefore, all they can do is to collect together the vices which exist in the marriage life itself, and in the abandoned female sex. And thus, separating the unclean things from the clean, they retain the unclean only ; and the clean they see not at all. Hence, also, certain profane law- yers so irreverently judge and speak of this Book of Genesis, as to affirm, that it contains nothing more than the marriage doings of the Jews. Are not then such men as these, I ask you, worthy of li\ang to see m»arriage despised, and unclean celibacy intro- duced '? — and themselves, subjected to its crimes and punish- ments?— which exceed even those of Sodom!

The Holy Spirit, however, thought it not enough to say here, " And Adam knew Eve ;" but He also adds, " his wife /" For the Holy Spirit approves not wandering lusts and promiscuous intercourse ! He wills that every man should live content with his own wife. And although, alas ! even that union of married people itself is very far from being pure — as it would have been had man continued in his state of innocency ; nevertheless, even in the midst of the vices of lust, and of all the other calamities of the fall of Adam, the ' blessing' of God on marriage still stands unaltered. For the fact of Adam knowing Eve his wife, which Moses records, was not written for Adam and Eve's sake. When Moses penned these words, Adam and Eve had long been re- duced to their original dust. It was for our sakes, therefore, that this was written : " That those who cannot contain nn'glit marry

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(1 Cor, 7. 9), and live content, each with his Eve, and might not desire strange women.

This expression, " knew his wife," is a phrase pecuhar to the Hebrews ; for neither the Latins nor the Greeks so expressed themselves. It is a form of speech particularly beautifal : not only on account of the modesty and reverence which it preserves, but on account of the peculiarity of signification which it con- veys. For the verb yada has a much more extensive meaning than the verb ' to know,' in our language. Thus, when Job says, concerning the wicked, ' They shall know what it is to act against God,' he means, that they shall feel and experience the conse- quences of so acting. So, also, when David says, " For I acknow- ledge my sin" (Ps. 51. 3), his meaning is, I feel and experience what it is to sin. So, again, when the angel of the Lord saith to Abraham, " For now I know that thou fearest God" (Gen. 22. 12), his meaning is, ' I know by sense and experience.' And so, again, when the Virgin Mary said unto the angel " How shall this be, seeing I know not a man" (Luke 1. 34), her mean- ing is the same as that of Job, David, &c. For, it is evident, that Mary knew many men, but she had neither known nor ex- perienced any man, as man, or the male of God's creation. It was in this manner, therefore, that Adam " knew Eve his wife," as it is expressed in the present passage. Adam did not know his Eve as an object of sight or of a speculative knowledge, but he experienced in reality what she was as the " woman," whom God had created such.

That which follows, " And Eve conceived, and bare Cain," is a certain evidence that the human nature was more excellent and perfect then, than it is now. For there were originally no unfruitful embraces, as there are now in this old age of the world. As soon as Eve was known by her Adam, she was immediately impregnated and conceived.

Here a question may arise, why Moses here saith, " And hare Cain r — Why he does not say. And bare a son, Cain ; as below, verse 25 ; where his expression is, "And she bare a son, and called his name Seth." Both Cain and Setli were sons. Why, then, are they not both called ' sons' ? The answer to this ques- tion is — that these different expressions of Moses were so ordered, on account of the posterities. For, Abel being murdered by his

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brother, perished corpomUy ; but Cain, by his sin, pei'ished spiritually/. And yet the generation or seed-bed of the church was n'ot propagated fi'om Cain, though he was still alive, cor- poralhj ; for the whole of his posterity perished in the Flood. Therefore neither the blessed Abel, nor the accursed Cain, has in the Scripture the name of " son." But Seth was the one from Avhose posterity Christ, that promised Seed, was ordained to be born. Seth, therefore, is the first of the children of Adam and Eve, who is counted worthy the name of " son." — Then next follows : —

(Authorized version.) Ver. 1. And Eve said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

(Luther's version.) Ver. 1. And Eve said, I have gotten a man of the Lord.

From this expression of Eve there may be gathered another and further reason why she did not call Cain a " son." It was the greatness of her joy, and of her reverential awe, which pre- vented her from calling Cain a " son." For she thought some- thing greater concerning Cain, than as a natural son. She con- sidered that Cain would be that Man which should bruise the serpent's head. And therefore she does not say simply, " a man ;" but, " a man of the Lord," implying that he would be that Man concerning whom the Lord God had promised her that her Seed should bruise the Serpent's head. And although Eve was de- ceived in this her hope, yet it plainly appears that she was a holy woman ; and that she believed in the salvation that was to come, by the Blessed Seed. And it was because she believed this, that she so greatly rejoiced in the son which she had borne, and that she spoke of him in the exalted terms contained in the text before us. It was as if she had said, ' I have gotten a man of God, who will carry himself more righteously and happily than I and my Adam carried ourselves in paradise. Therefore I call him not my " son." He is a man of God; promised to me, and shown to me of God.' It might have been for this latter reason also, as well as from the former, that Eve did not call Cain " a son."

X

322 CHAPTER IV. 1.

With respect therefore to Eve's adhering so closely to the Divine promise, and her believing so fimily in the deliverance that should surely come through her Seed, in all that she did rightly. For, by that same faith in the " Seed" that was to come, all the saints of old were justified and sanctified. But WTith re- spect to the individual intended by the promise, she erred. She believed that it w^as Cain who should put an end to all those calamities into which Satan had hurled man by sin. This faith of Eve, however, rested on a certain opinion of her own, without any sure sign, and without the sure Word. The promise indeed was true, and certain, and sm'e ; but nothing was said or signified, certainly, Avhether it was Cain or Abel who should be that great conqueror of the serpent.

In the matter therefore of her determining the indi^^dual. Eve was deceived ; and, consequently, her giving to her son so proud and joyous a name, was all in vain. For the text shows that Cain was so called, from the verb Kanali, which signifies ' to possess,' or ' to acquire.' So that by this name Eve consoled herself against the evils she had brought upon herself, and set against them the acquisition of eternal life and salvation, which she should obtain by her Seed, against that loss of life and sal- vation which she had incuri'ed by sin and Satan. It was as if she had said to her Adam, ' I remember, with sorrow, what we have lost by our sin ; but now, let us speak of, and hope for, no- thing but recovery and acquisition. I have gotten a man of God, who will acquire and recover for us that glory which we have lost.' It was this certainty of the promise therefore and her sure faith therein, which drew Eve into this haste, and caused her to think that this her first son was the Seed concerning whom the Lord had made the promise.

But Eve, poor miserable woman, was deceived herein. She did not yet see the extent of her calamity. She did not yet know that from the flesh nothing but flesh can be born, or pro- ceed (John 3. 6) — that sin and death cannot be overcome by flesh and blood. Moreover she knew not, as yet, the point of time in which that blessed Seed, concerning whom the promise spake, should be conceived of the Holy Ghost, and be born of a virgin into the world. Just in the same manner, also, the patriarch, after Eve, knew not this point of time, although the promise of

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the Seed to come was gradually made clearer and clearer, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. In the same manner, also, we, in this our day, know assuredly that there shall be a final judgment, but the day and the hour thereof anc know not. Hence Christ saith, even unto his apostles (]\fatt. 24. 3G).

Ver. 2. Aiid she again hare his h'other Abel.

It cannot be known for a certainty whether Cain and Abel were twins or not, although it is verj^ probable, indeed, that they were twins. But be that as it may, it is certain that our first parents had various thoughts concerning these two sons, and that they imagined that their redemption was at the door. It is also indubitable that Cain was held in the highest honour, and made the object of their chief delight ; while Abel, on the other hand, was not an object of so mxich pleasure, nor of so much hope, as the names themselves of the two sons show. Cain was so called, as we have said, because they considered that it was he who should acquire or restore all things. On the contrary, Abel signifies ' vanity,' or ' that which is nothing, or of no value, or abject.' Some interpreters have rendered the name in our Bible 'mourn- ing, or sorrow ;' but the Hebrew term for sorrow is ebel, not iiABEL. Moreover the expression hebel is of very frequent use in the Sacred Scriptures. How often is it repeated, in the Book Ecclesiastes ? " Fa;7?V?/ of vanities : all is vanity" (Eccles. 1. 1): and also in the Psalm, " Therefore their days did He consume in vanity^'' (Ps. 78. 33) : that is, they attained not the ' promised land' of Canaan.

Habel therefore was so called, as being considered one, con- cerning whom there was no hope, or one respecting whom all hope was vain. But Cain was so denominated, as one of whom all things were hoped. These very names which were given to these two sons therefore plainly manifest the thoughts and feel- ings of the parents concerning them ; that, as the promise was made concerning the Seed of the woman, Adam and Eve thought that the Divine promise, thus made, was to be fulfilled through Cain, their first son ; but that Abel would effect nothing, seeing that everything was to be successfully accomplished, as they thought, through Cain. And therefore it was, that they called

324 CHAPTER IV. 2.

him Habel. And this hope which Adam and Eve entertained concerning Cain, was undoubtedly the reason why these two bro- thers Avere not brought up with the same care and concern. For to Abel was committed the charge of the cattle ; but Cain was trained up in the pursuits of his father, and to the cultivation of the earth, as being the superior and nobler employment. Habel was a shepherd ; Cain was a king and a priest, as being the first- born, and as destined, by his birth, to fulfil those high hopes and expectations of the recovery of all things which his parents enter- tained concerning him.

But here, ponder we the wonderful counsel of God ! From the beginning of the w^orld, primogeniture was always held a very high privilege, not only among the people of God, with wdiom the right attached to primogeniture was an institution of God Him- self, and by flim highly commended, but among the gentile nations also. And yet facts and experience prove, especially among the holy people, that the first-born have often disappointed the hopes of their parents, and that the after-born have often attained to the condition and dignity of the first-born.

Thus, were not our first parents miserably deceived in their hopes concerning their first-born, Cain, the murderer ? So also Abraham, the exalted, was not the first-born, but Haran. So again Esau ivas the first-born ; but he had to yield his birth-right and its blessing to Jacob. Again, David was the youngest of all his brethren, and yet he was anointed king. And the same wonderful counsel of God may be seen in many other instances in the Scriptures. For although the first-born had, by Divine right, the prerogatives of the kingship and the priesthood, yet they frequently lost them, and the after-born were appointed to them in their stead.

And whence, in most instances, arose this perversion of things ? Both from the fault of the parents, and from the pride of the first-born themselves. The parents gave to their first-born greater liberty and indulgence ; and then, the first-born them- selves, thus corrupted by the indulgence of their parents, despised and oppressed, through this j-jride in their birth-right, the rest of their brethren. But God is the God of the " humble." He '• giveth grace to the humble, and resisteth the proud." Those first-born, therefore, who exalt themselves in pride, God puts

CREATION. 325

down from their right and their seat ; not because such do not inherit the right of their primogeniture, but because they grow proud of these their gifts and privileges, and carry themselves with insolence and oppression ; and such God cannot endure.

Thus when the angels, who had been endowed with gifts the most noble and the most bright, above all other beings, began to grow proud in heaven, and to despise the humility of the Son of God, they were cast down into hell, and became the most foul devils. For God cannot endure pride, and He will have His JNIajesty to be preserved and held inviolate everywhere, as the prophet saith, " And ]\Iy glory will I not give to another" (Is. 42. 8).

Thus also, the people of Israel were God's peculiar people, and the holy city of Jerusalem was the habitation of God. But when they cast off the fear of God, and grew proud, through a confidence in their high gifts and privileges, the whole people was cut off, and their city laid waste by the gentile nations. And this indeed is the common pestilence of our nature. We rest not content with the gifts which God has bestowed upon us, but abuse them through pride, and insult our bountiful Creator and Giver. God, for example, bestows empires, and kingdoms, and peace, and other large blessings, that kings and princes might acknowledge Him, and worship Him, and give Him thanks. But kings and princes so abuse these great gifts and favours, as if they were bestowed upon them for the very end that they might insult and trample under foot their Creator, who has been to them so bountiful a giver.

The very same e\'il of pride also is found in private and domestic life. God gives sound health, a wife, children, and personal pro- perty ; not that, through these things, we should offend Him, but that In all such things we might acknowledge His mercy, and render Him continual thanks. And for this same end, also, that we might always give Him thanks. He has bestowed upon us the use of, and the " dominion" over, nearly all His creatures. But how few are there who render unto God the thanks which are thus due to Him ! Do not almost all of us live in the con- tinual and most shameful abuse of the gifts of God ? God, there- fore, is compelled to use, in our case, the same remedy which the Roman Emperor Vespasian adopted. He used to suffer his

326 CHAPTER IV. 2,

citizens to groAV rich. For he was accustomed to say, that such rich ones were Hke a sponge, which, when filled with water, if well squeezed, will give back the water in abundance. So, when God has enriched certain ones with His bountiful gifts, if they grow ungrateful, and abuse the bounty of their God, He squeezes them till they are empty again ; as the blessed Virgin saith, " And the rich He hath sent empty away."

It was for this reason that God did not spare the first-born, Cain. He did not give the first birth-right to Cain, that he might grow proud of it, and despise his God ; but that he might adorn it, and might reverence and fear his God : and when he did not this, God cast him off. — And in this matter the sin belonged even to the parents also. They fostered this pride in their first- born, as the names which they gave their two sons plainly prove. For Adam and Eve placed all their hope in their first -bom only. They called him ' their treasure,' as his name indicates. But Abel they looked upon as nothing, and considered that he could do nothing ; while they adorned Cain as a king, and held Mm to be the " blessed seed." From him, therefore, they promised to themselves great things, and of him they speak great things ; and he, on his part, became filled with pride. But Habel they despised all the time, as a man of naught.

God however in due time reverses all things. Pie casts away Cain, and makes Habel an angel, and the " first of all the saints." For Habel, when murdered by his brother, was the " first" who was delivered fi'om sin and from all the calamities of this world ; and he shines throughout the whole church, to the end of the world, as a distinguished star, through that illustrious testimony of ' righteousness,' which the whole Scripture bears to his honour.

In this manner therefore was Abel, whom Adam and Eve and Cain also despised, as a man of naught, made, in the sight of God, to be a lord of heaven and earth. For, after death, Abel is placed in a higher state and condition than if he possessed a thousand earthly worlds, with all their riches.

Such is the end of pride and presumption, acting against God ! — Cain trusted in his first birth-right, and despised his brother, in comparison with himself, and believed not the promise con- cerning Christ ; Abel, on the contrary, took fast hold, by faith.

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of the promise made unto Adam, concerning the Seed of the wo- man. And this faith was also the reason why he offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, as the Epistle to the Hebrews ex- presses it (Heb. 11. 4).

Ver. 2. Ayid Abel was a keeper of sheep, hut Cain was a tiller of the ground.

According therefore to the names given unto the two sons, by Adam and Eve, such also was the condition of life unto which each son was appointed by his parents ; and the difference of these appointments manifests that exalted hope which the parents en- tertained concerning Cain, above his brother. For although each " calling" of life is honourable, yet that of Abel is domestic only, while that of Cain is rather political, or public, in the na- tion. As, therefore, Adam was himself a tiller of the ground, so he trained up Cain, whom he more greatly loved, to his father's higher calling; while to Abel is committed the more leisure care of the flock. So that it plainly appears that the one son was looked upon as the lord, and the other as a servant, by his parents.

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 3. And in process of tifne, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 3. And it came to pass, after the end of the days, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an off'ering unto the Lord.

From the end of the days ; — that is, after a certain number of years liad been fulfilled or accomplished. It is here that we are first informed that the godly parents, Adam and Eve, preached to their children, often and much, concerning the will and the Avorship of God. For we here find that both the sons brought unto God their offering. But you will inquire, pei'haps, what, and concerning what, did Adam and Eve preach unto their children. They certainly had most glorious subjects for all these their sermons and conversations. They remembered well their

328 CHAPTER IV. 3.

original condition, and what paradise then was : and without doubt, they frequently pointed out to their children the place, now guarded by the prohibiting angels, and warned their chil- dren to beware of sin, by which they had been deprived of so many blessings, and shut out from them.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that they exhorted their children to live in the fear of God ; that they might console them- selves with the confidence of His goodness toward them ; assuring them that if they did so, they would attain to a better life, after this present life. — And who could enumerate all the blessings of that former life, which they had originally enjoyed !. To all this their teaching, there was added that other branch of doctrine concerning the promise of the Seed of the woman, and of the GREAT DELIVERANCE from all these calamities which was to come. And most probably, these God-fearing parents preached all these things to their children in a certain place, and especially on the Sabbath days. And it was doubtless from their being stirred up to do so by these sermons, that the children came to offer their sacrifices, and to render unto God His worship.

Now this is the first passage of the Scripture in which mention is made of MINCHA, or ^ an offering :' from which it plainly ap- pears that the custom of sacrificing and offering victims is no re- cent thing, but a practice which has existed ft'om the beginning of the world. It is no wonder, therefore, that the offering of sacrifices, which had been a custom handed down fi'om Adam to Moses, as from hand to hand, should at length have been reduced by Moses into its peculiar forms and into a certain order : all those things being rejected and repudiated (doubtless many), which the vain superstition of men had added to the original manner of sacrificing. Such additions are seen in the examples furnished by the heathen sacrifices, contained in Homer and Virgil : wdiicli sacrifices the heathen nations, no doubt, received from the primseval fathers, but Avliich they multiplied and encum- bered with many things, through their superstition.

And while I am dwelling on the present passage, let the reader enter with me into this consideration. — Adam and Eve, we here see, are not parents only ; nor is it their sole care to feed their children, and to train them up for this present life. They hold the offices, and perform the duties, of priests also. And be-

CREATION. 329

cause they are filled with the Holy Ghost, and illuminated with the knowledge of Christ, who was to come, they set this great hope of their future deliverance before their children also, and exhort them to show forth their gratitude to the God of such in- finite mercy. For it is to be received as a certain fact, that the end of all the sacrifices which have been handed down to us from the beginning, was none other than to set forth this great hope !

And now consider with me next, what kind of hearers there were to listen to this good and holy doctrine from the lips of Adam and Eve. These hearers and scholars were two : — Cain, the first-born, who appeared as a saint, and who was believed to be the lord of all, was a wicked man, and believed not the Divine pro- mise. On the other hand, Abel, whose authority was as nothing, and who was thrust aside to take care of the cattle, was a godly man, and believed the promise. And yet the ungodly Cain so concealed his ungodliness, that he both heard his parents, when teaching him and his brother, as if he solemnly reverenced the Woi'd ; and he also brought his offering, as his godly brother did. — Here we have an example of the twofold church : the true church and the hypocritical church, as we shall more fully set it forth hereafter. For although, in the passage now before us, mention is made of the sacrifice offered only, and not of preach- ing also, yet we are to rest fully assured that Cain and Abel did not bring their offerings without the preaching of the Word. For God is not worshipped with a mere dumb work. Here must also be the Word, sounding both in the hearts of men and in tlie ears of God. And in the same way, also, calling upon the name of the Lord, was added to tliis original sacrifice.

Some may here inquire, whether Cain and Abel had any word or command of God for offering their sacrifice. My answer is, — an answer which all sacred histories confirm, — that the o-reat and merciful God, of His supcrabounding grace, always appointed, together with His Word, some certain and visible sign of His grace ; in order that men being admonished and kept in remem- brance, by means of the certain signs or works of the sacraments, may the more surely believe that God is favourable and merciful unto them.

Tn the same manner, after the Flood, God set His bow in the heavens ; that it might be a certain sign and proof, that He

330 CHAPTER IV. 3.

would not again awfully visit the world with a like punishment. After the same manner, also, circumcision was given unto Abra- ham, as we shall hear in its place ; in order that He might hold fast the assurance that God wotild be to him a God ; and that He would give him a Seed, in whom all the nations of the earth shovdd be blessed. To us, under the New Testament, are given Baptism and the Supper of our Lord, as ordained visible signs of grace ; that we might be the more fully assured that our sins are all taken away by the suffering of Christ for us, and that we are redeemed by His death. Hence the church was never so left destitute of external signs, as that men were suffered to remain in ignorance as to tvhere God might certainly be found.

And although the Avorld, for the most part, follows in the steps of Cain, and abuses those external signs of the grace of God, turn- ing them into hyjiocrisy ; it is, nevertheless, evidently an unspeak- able mercy, that God represents Himself unto us in such, and so many ways. And this very great gift of God is that which is intended to be lauded by those high commendations contained in the Book of Proverbs, " I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him ; rejoicing throughout the whole world" (Prov. 8. 30, 31). That which wisdom here declares is, that her regard was always directed towards men ; to the intent that she might reveal herself towards men. The meaning is, as if God had said, ' I have always so walked before the eyes, and in the hearing of men, that they may always understand Me to be present in their sacrifices, in circumcision, in their offering of incense, in the cloud by day, in the Red Sea, in the manna, in the brazen serpent, in the tabernacle of Moses, in the temple of Solomon, and in the cloud over the mercy-seat : and all these things were My delight ; that by means of them, I might pre- sent Myself before the eyes of the sons of men, and reveal Myself unto them.'

And it was also a great consolation to Adam, that after para- dise had been lost, and the tree of life also, and those other blessings of paradise which had been outward signs of the grace of God, God gave unto him another SIGN of His grace ; namely, that of the offering of sacrifices ; in order that, by this given SIGN, he might understand that he was not cast off by God, but was still the care of his Maker, and the concern of his Maker.

CEEATION. 331

And this is what God intended to be understood by Adam, when He had hghted his sacrifices and obhitions with the lieavenly fire, and when the flauie Avhich consumed them ascended to heaven ; as we read concerning the sacrifices of ]\Ioses and of Ehjah. For all these sacrifices were true symbols and repre- sentations of the Divine mercy : of all which signs, miserable men had need ; that they might not be without some continual lin-ht and indication of the rn-ace of God.

In the same manner also, the Word itself. Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, are our morning stars, upon which we look, as certain indications and representations of the Sun of grace. For we can definitely aflfirm, that where the Lord's Supper, and Baptism, and the Word are, there is Christ, and the remission of sins, and eternal life. On the contrary, where there are not these signs of grace, or where they are despised by men, — there, not only is there not grace, but also, foul errors abound ; so much so, that men make to themselves other signs, and appoint other modes of worship. Thus the Greeks worshipped their Apollo, and other heathens other demons. The Egyptians worshipped their Anubis, their Serapis, and crocodiles, garlic, onions, &c. &c. The Romans adored, as their gods, Jupiter Quirinus, and the abominable statues of Priaj^us, Venus, &c.

The very same thing has occurred also in the papacy. For after those true signs of grace began to sink in men's esteem, and to be despised, superstition could not remain quiet. It sought out for itself other signs ; such as vows, orders of monks, pilgrimages to the tombs of the saints, intercessions of the saints, and other superstitions. All these things are fi.dl of errors, and joined with ungodliness ; and yet miserable mortals embrace them as certain signs of Divine grace. And amidst all this, you hear of no bishop who condennis, no school which exclaims against, such blasphemies as these, nor which teaches sounder things. For where the light of the Word is lost, and these SIGNS of grace also, which God has given unto men, men necessarily run after the desires of their own hearts. So also the Jews, when they had despised the tabernacle and the temple, sacri- ficed under trees, and in groves, even until parents became so cruel as to sacrifice their own children.

All this idolatry, so various and so widely wandering out of

332 CHAPTER IV. 8.

the way, plainly shows how great a gift of God it is to possess the Word, and those signs of Divine grace, which God Himself set forth and commanded. And if the Gentiles had been willing to follow in the footsteps of the Jews, they would never have fallen away into those monstrous idolatries under which they were sunk. And so also with respect to oiirselves ; — had we held Baptism and the Holy Supper of our Lord in that esteem in which we ought to have held them, we should never have be- come monks. Nothing concerning purgatory, nothing concern- ing the sacrifice of the mass, nothing about those other like iniquities, would ever have been taught, and handed down to us in the chui'ch. But after the light of the Word had been put out by the wicked Popes, it was easy enough to thrust upon men all these abominations.

Unspeakable therefore is this gift ; — that God not only con- descended to speak unto men by His Word, but added also to the Word these visible signs of His grace ; such as, in the New Testament, Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. Are not those, therefore, who use these signs in a manner beneath their dignity, or who treat them with contempt, worthy of being left as they are to purchase the Pope's dung, as the richest balsam, and to worship it, and to pray to it ! For why dared they despise such goodness of the Divine Majesty ! They might have had, if they pleased, these certain signs of the grace of God, at their own houses, without any expense, and without any labour. But despising these, they travel to Rome and to Compostella, &c. ; and thus spend their money and afflict their bodies, and at length most justly lose their souls. God be blessed for evermore ! that He has, in this our day, recalled us by His Word from these mighty errors and idolatries, and has so enriched us with the signs of His Divine grace, that we may have them before our doors, and in our house, and even on ovir beds.

It was in this manner that God, at the first, and fi'om the very beginning of the world, in order to confirm His promise concern- ing oui" salvation, took this care that men might always have sig7is by which they might comfort themselves under their sins, and might lift up their heads by a confidence in the Divine grace. For it is not the dignity of the work or act itselfj but the mercy of God, and the efficacy of the DWine promise, in the sacrifice, which

CREATION. 333

.ire availing unto the worshipper ; — it is because God hath or- dained these acts of worship, and because He hath promised that they shall he w^ell-pleasing unto Him, that therefore Baptism and the Supper of oiu' Lord are to us, what the sacrifice and offering, after the promise, were to Adam. For God in those sacrifices revealed His grace ; and He approved those same sacrifices hy Himself igniting them, and consuming them by fire from heaven.

And it was to these acts of worship that the first father brought up his sons : that they might in this manner render their thanks unto God, might bless God, and might conceive a sure hope in the mercy of God. But the wicked Cain, inflated with the dignity of his first birth-right, despised all these most blessed preachings of his parent. He brought his offering, indeed, as his father had commanded him ; but, puffed up w ith the high opinion of his own sanctity, he imagined that God would approve the act of the Avorship itself, because of the dignity of the person (him- self), the worshipper. And Abel, wdio, according to the name given him, was nothing in his own eyes, also brought his offering ; but HE worships God thereby, through faith in the Divine pro- mise ; as it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 11.4).

Ver. 4. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.

Here, if you look at the acts of their w^orship themselves, you can see no reason for preferring Abel to Cain. For the Jews expose their absurdity by their dreams, when they say, that Cain did not offer chosen wheat, but chaff only; and that ^Aaf wasthe reason why he was rejected of God. But the Jews are self- righteous worshippers, and cleave unto the works themselves. The judgment of the Epistle to the Hebrews, however, is quite different : the testimony of which is, that it was " By faith that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain" (Heb. 11. 4). The fault of the offering, therefore, did not lie in the things which were offered, but in the person who offered them. And it w'as the faith of the person, and its weight, which gave the value to the offering made by Abel ! But Cain, by the state of his person, rendered the offering which he made of

334 CHAPTER IV. 4.

no avail. Abel believed that God was good and merciful ; and it was this faith that rendered his offering acceptable to God. Cain, on the contrary, trusted in the dignit}^ of his first birthship, and despised his brother as a man of naught, in comparison with him- self. A^Hiat, therefore, in the end Avas proved to be the judg- ment of God? — God made the first-born to be as the after-born, and the after-born to be as the first-born. For He had respect unto the offering of Abel, and showed that the offering of this priest was acceptable unto Himself; and, on the other hand. He declared that Cain was not acceptable to Him, and that he was not a true priest in His sight.

The Hebrew expression, schaah, has a very wide signification ; and I have carefully explained its full meaning in my Paper against Latomus ; and also, its like signification, as found in the prophet Isaiah. "At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel ; and he shall not look to the altars, which are the work of his hands" (Is. 17. 7, 8) ; as considered in connection with that passage of Isaiah, QQ. 12, " Then shall ye suck, and ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees." The full meaning of the original expression, therefore, and its allusion, are, that when a mother cherishes her babe in her bosom, and looks upon it, she views it with a glad and delighted eye. This is the mean- ing, I say, and the allusion, and the figure, which the original ex- pression conveys. Its signification therefore is much more ex- tensive than that of the common verb, ' to see,' or ' to behold.' For when a mother looks at her babe, she smiles upon it with delight, and camcs in her countenance a peculiar expression of love. The modern expressions of our language do not contain a term by which the full import of this original word can be con- veyed ; nor does the Latin language (as far as I know) contain any expression adequate to its satisfactory translation.

The whole of this divine matter is nearly the same in mean- ing and substance as that which Moses expresses, when he says, ' If Thy presence {fades tuce) go not with me, carry us not up hence' (Exod, 33. 15) : that is, grant that we may ever have Thy signs \y\\h us in our midst, by which Thou appearest always be- fore us, and makest manifest Thy presence with us, and Thy favour unto us. And these signs, as I have before said, were

CREATION. 335

the pillar of fire and the cloud, &c. And though Moses does not, in the portion of the Divine History now before us, explain what that sign was, by which God showed that the offerings of Abel were acceptable imto Him ; yet it is very probable that His acceptance and pleasure were manifested by fire sent down from heaven, by which the offering and the ^^actim were ignited and consvimed before the eyes of all present, by which it was plainly shown that God was delighted with the sacrifice which Abel offered. For by this Divine manifestation God showed that He judgeth the heart and the reins : because, in the matter of these two offerings. He " had not respect" unto the glory of the first birth-right of Cain ; but, on the other hand. He " had respect" unto the mind of the despised Abel.

And here the whole church first begins to be divided into that church, which is ' the church' in name only, but which, in rea- lity, is the church of hypocrisy and the church of blood ; and into that other church, which is barren and desolate in appear- ance, and subject to sufferings and to the cross, and which, be- fore the world, and in the estimation of that church of hypocrisy, is really the Abel : that is, vanity and nothing. But Christ Himself, who also maketh this division and difference, calletli Abel the " rio;hteous" one, and maketh him the beginnincj of the church of the godly, which shall continue even unto the end of the world. While Cain is the beginning of that church of en- mity and blood, which also shall continue unto the end of the world ; as Augustine also setteth forth this history in his book, " Concerning the City of God."

A great doctrine therefore and a great consolation, are set before us, while we trace both these churches to these their ori- ginal fountains, as it were, and when we mark that wonderful counsel, with which God has ever ruled and overruled these things : ordaining that the true church should at one time be greater, and at another time less ; yet, so that the hypocritical and the bloody church should always have the glory before the world, and should crucify the true church, which is the beloved of her God.' — For even thus, at the begiiming, did commence the practical fulfilment of that Divine prediction, that the seed of the serpent should bite the heel of the blessed Seed. And this same enmity and biting we experience to this very day.

336 CHAPTEK IV. 4.

Therefore we ought not to be aflfrighted by this our appointed lot. It ought rather to be unto us a great consolation, that we learn by our own experience to suffer those very same things at the hands of our enemies, which the bloody Cain inflicted on the " righteous" Abel.

For it is not now, for the first time only, that the name of the church is torn away from us, and that we are called heretics, and that those who kill us glory that they are the only true church, and maintain that assumed name by fire and sword, and by every kind of cruelty. — The same thing befel the righteous Abel. The same thing befel Christ our Lord, who was not a priest, nor a king of Jerusalem, before the people ; and yet He was dragged by the priests, and by the kings, to the cross ! And toe all, as the apostle saith, must be made conformable to Christ. — And thus it is that the true church is ever hidden and un- known, and is cast out, and its members held as heretics, and slain ; while Cain alone has the glorious name, and is held in estimation, and alone possesses the hope of doing great things : and therefore it is, that he rushes on liis brother with hostile en- mity of mind, and slays him.

Now these things were not political, nor domestic, but truly ecclesiastical, in the highest degree. Abel was not slain on any political or domestic account, but alone on account of the wor- ship of God. For it was not enough for Cain that he was the lord of the family, he wishes to be the son of God : he will be the pope and father of the church. And therefore he takes upon himself the judgment of sacrifices, and condemns and slays his brother, as a heretic. — Hence is the prophecy of Christ, that the church should be subject to various perils, and that the time should come when those who should slay the godly should think that they were thereby worshipping God, and doing Him service. Therefore those who will make themselves the most righteous among us, these are the pestilences and the persecutors of the church. On tlie other hand, the true church is that church which is never judged to be ' the church.' But she is, accord- ing to her name, the Abel (who was not only a figure of the true church but the very beginning of it) ; that is, she is ac- counted as nought : so that when she is slain, her slayers think that God will care nothing about her, because Cain (they think)

C RE AT I ox. 337

as being lord of all and king, may do, and is able to do, any- thing.

Now this is the offence of the cross, against which we have ever to fight, by faith. For we are not therefore to think that loe are not the Church, because our adversaries condemn us and persecute us with every kind of cruelty, thus securely. But, on the contrary, we are ever surely to consider that this cross and these judgments of the wicked are the sure and infallible signs o? the true Church, as Psalm 10 sheweth throughout, and Psalm 72. 14, " And precious shall their blood be in His sight ;" and also Psalm 116. 15, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." In these Psahns, therefore, you hear that those who are slaughtered in this manner by the Cainites, are so far from being out of the concern and the care of God, that this their death is precious in His sight. Those, therefore, who are thus the care of God, are the true people of God.

Wherefore, let us endure the cruelty of our adversaries, and let us joyfully give thanks unto God that we are not in the number of those who are the slayers ; and who, because of their name and title, persecute ^ the Church,' seize upon the property of others, and rush with cruelty and violence upon their bodies also. And, indeed, all the histories of all ages and times testify, that the true Church was ever a suffering Church, — that the false Church was ever an evil and violent-doing Church ; and that the true Church was ever condemned by that other, the church of hypocrisy and blood. Therefore there can be no doubt among us of the pre- sent day that the Church of the Pope is the Cainite Church, and that we are the true, the Abel Church ; and as Abel harmed not Cain, so loe not only do no harm to the Chvirch of the Pope, but suffer ourselves to be harassed, and condemned, and slaughtered, by them.

Nor do we record these things falsely. It is well-known to the whole world how often we are subjected to anathemas, distressed by subscriptions, and condemned by various denunciations. Nor have there ever ceased to be found men in almost every corner of Europe ready to offer themselves as the fierce executors of crudest decrees. Neither Spain, nor France, nor England, nor Belgium, nor Bohemia, nor Poland, nor Hungary, nor Austria, nor Bavaria, has been free from witnessing this unjust cruelty

Y

338 CHAPTER IV. 4.

and savage rage. And yet, what were they persecutincp all the while ? What, but godly doctrine ? — a doctrine perfectly agree- ing with the writings of the apostles and prophets ? Can there be any doubt or obscurity, then, in forming a judgment concern- ing the true Church ? For can you possibly judge that to be the true Church where nothing sound is taught, where unjust tyranny is practised, and where the highest power is joined with the greatest wealth ? Is not that rather the true Church where there is sound and holy doctrine, healing to afflicted consciences ? and where, for the sake of that doctrine, there are endured the cross, contempt, poverty, ignominy, and all those things of the same kind which the poor little helpless flock of Christ is recorded, ever and eveiywhere, to have suffered ?

It is not only most useful therefore, but also most consolatory and sweet, to have ever before our eyes this most certain demon- stration, which carries with it so plain a distinction between the two Chiuxhes, — that Church which is filled with men of enmity and malignity (such as that purple harlot), bearing the name of the true Church ; and that other Church, which is accounted as nought, which suffers, which hungers and thirsts, and lies prostrate under oppression. For Christ records that He and His disciples both hunger and thirst in this world (Matt. 25. 35 to 46). But the judgment shall one day come which shall judge between the full and the hungry, between the goats and the sheep, between Cain and Abel. At this judgment, God shall declare that He approves this suffering and hungering Church, and condemns the Church of hypocrisy and blood. These are our consolations, and this is that sugar, as it were, by which our present calamities must be sweetened and overcome. Such then is the theological part of this Divine matter. Now let us come to the political part of it, and consider the judgment of God concerning that.

We doubtless may justly wonder wdiy it was that God per- mitted the first son of Adam (to whom the honour of the first birthright, as to nativity, was always due throughout the whole human race,) to fall so horribly, that his whole posterity should afterwards be destroyed. But the cause was the very same as that on account of which God spoke with such bitter derision to Adam when He said, " Lest he also become as one of us" (Gen. 3. 22). The reason was the same as that for which the Lord

CREATIOX. 339

guarded the garden by the cherubims. For God will erush all presumption and pride, which are implanted, as it were, in the heart of man by original sin. And such is our nature, that w'e can endure anything else better than this crushing of our pride. We see what insolence and pride there are in all our nobles of the court, on account of the vain nobility of their descent. For truly vain is that nobility, which real worth, and illustrious ser- vices to his country, have not procured for a man.

It is said of Plato, the philosopher, that he also was accustomed to give thanks to God for three things ; first, that he was born a man and not a beast ; secondly, that he was born a Greek at Athens, and was not a barbarian ; and thirdly, that he was born a man and not a woman. The fatuity of the Jews is just like this. They glory that they were born men, and not beasts ; Jews, and not Gentiles ; males, and not females. But to what, I pray you, does all this glory of origin amount ? What vanity is it to see a certain ass in a palace with his gold chains on, not only thinking himself better than every one of the people, but also growing proud and insolent against God Himself. Just so it was Avitli the Romans. They prided themselves in the course of years on the glory of their nation's mighty deeds, always care- fully thrusting fi'om them the degrading term ' barbarian.' In a word, the greater any nation has ever grown in its own eyes, the more proud and insolent it has ever become. And the same is the nature of us all by sin.

But look at the jvidgment of God in this matter. Cain could truly and justly boast in the highest of all nobility, for he w^as the first-born of all mankind. But the greater and more glorious his origin w^as, by so much the more horribly did he fall. Hence general experience has also given place to the well-known pro- verb, which saith, '• The sons of the great are great evils.'

Nor are these evils peculiar to private families only, mighty empires suffer the same. The nation of the Greeks was most glorious. They excelled all other nations in their learning, and in the greatness of their illustrious deeds. But into what ex- tremes of turpitude did they fall ? And how miserably was their nation destroyed at last ? And you may see the very same things fulfilled in all other nations of the earth. Good therefore was God in permitting Cain thus to fall, that he might be an example

340 ClIArTKll IV. 4.

to the whole world ; that no one might ever glory in the noble- ness of his blood, as the Jews boasted of their father Abraham, and as the Greeks boasted of their wisdom. For God will have Himself to be feared, and us to be humbled. But this His will, though known to us, is, for the most part, known to us in vain. For we are nothing moved by all these terrible instances of His wrath, nor by the perditions and destructions of the first men and the first nations.

Universal experience, therefore, testifies, that the sentiment of the Virgin JSIary is true, " He hath put down the mighty from their seats" (Luke 1. 52). For those things which are the first and the best become the most damnable, not from anything in themselves that is evil, but on account of the diabolical pre- sumption and pride of men. This sad result the Gentiles also saw, as the well-known saying of one of their philosophers testi- fieth ; who, being asked what God was doing, replied, ' Exalting the humble, and humbling the exalted.' But the heathen philo- sophers saw not the cause of all these things.

Thus also the flesh judges it to be a great glory to be born a male, and not a female. We see, however, that God has taken especial care that man, so great, should not be born of man, and so also Christ would have Himself to be called ' the Seed of the woman, not the ' Seed of the man.'' O what would have been the pride of men had God willed Christ to be born of a man. No ! all this glory is transferred from the men to the women, who, nevertheless, are subject to the rule of the men. And all this was done that men might not glory in themselves, but be h\unbled. Nay, since the woman cannot bring forth without the man, God has therefore especially ordained that the men also should not bring forth of themselves without the woman. For such is human nature, that man cannot rightly use his glory, but ever abuses it with pride, and rises up against Him from whom he receives such gifts. It was for this reason therefore that Cain so awfully fell, and lost the right of his first birthship, that we might be thereby taught to fear God, and to give Him thanks, and might be warned against abusing His gifts unto arrogance and pride.

CREATION. 341

Vers. 4 and 5. And the Lord had respect nvto Abel, and to his offering : Bat unto Cain and to his offering lie had not re- spect.

This is an important portion of the Scripture : and therefore it is most carefully to be observed, and most strongly enforced. For it would be sufficient for all doctrine if, under the New Testament, trust in the mercy of God were set before men, against all trust in Avorks, with so clear a testimony, and in such plain words, as it was thus set forth at the very beginning of the world. For when Moses saith that the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect, does He not clearly show that God ever respects the person before the work, and that lAe first looks at the person who performs the work ? And does not the sacred historian make it perfectly plain, that if the person be good, his work also pleaseth Godf but that, if the j^erson be evil, the work also of such an one pleaseth not God ?

Now this is the sum of our doctrine, which ive profess and teach;— that the person is accepted of God before the work ! And that the person is not made righteous by the righteous work, but, on the contrary, that the work is rendered righteous and good by the good and righteous person, as the text now be- fore us clearly proves. For because God (as here shown) had respect unto the jyerson of Abel, He had respect also unto his offering. But, on the other hand, because God had not respect unto the person of Cain, therefore unto his offering also He had not respect. This doctrine, the text before us plainly proves, makes evident to be true, and to be its true meaning ; nor can our adversaries deny it. From the words of that text, therefore, follows this most clear and most evident consequence ; — that Abel was " righteous" before the work of his " offering ;" and that his work pleased God, because of his person ; not his per- son, because of his work. Yet it is for the latter doctrine that our adversaries contend, who teach that the man is justified by his works, and not by his faith alone.

And it is in this manner that the Author of the Fpistle to the Hebrews looks at this text with clear and pure eyes, when he saith, " 'Ry faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice

342 CHAPTER IV. 4, 5,

than Cain, by wliicli he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts ; and hy it, he being dead, yet speaketh" (Heb. 11. 4). — Cain also offered, and also before Abel brought his oifering ; but the former offered, inflated with the glory of his birth, expecting that his gift would please God, be- cause it was offered by the first-born. Cain therefore comes to offer without faith, without the confession of sin, without im- ploring the grace of God, without trust in the mercy of God, and without prayer for the remission of sins, having no other ground for his hope that he shall please God, than because he was the first-born ; and this is what all self-justifiers do at this day. They look intently on their works alone, and hope that they shall please God on account of these their works. They trust not in the mercy of God only, nor hope in God that He will pardon their sins for Christ's sake. And such was Cain. But it would have been impossible for him to have displeased God, if he had possessed faith.

Abel, on the contrar}^, acknowledged himself to be an un- worthy and miserable sinner ; and therefore he fled unto the mercy of God, and believed that God was favourable unto him, and that He was willing to have mercy upon him. God, there- fore, who looketh into the heart, jiidged between the two brothers, who alike brought their offering. He condemned Cain, not on account of the ofterings themselves, as if they were less good than those of Abel (for if he had offered even a nut- shell in faith, it would have been accepted of God), but because his person was evil, and without faith, and filled with pride and arrogance. While, on the contrary, God had respect unto the offering of Abel, because his person pleased Him. Hence it is, that the text so clearly and particularly expresses it, — that the Lord had respect first to Abel, and afterwards to his oftering. For, when the person first pleases you, then also the things which that person does, please you. But, on the contrary, all things are unpleasing to you, which that person does whom you hate.

The passage before us, therefore, is remarkable and important ; for it is thereby clearly proved that God regards neither the magnitude, nor the multitude, nor even the price, of the works done: but simply and only the faith of the person who does them. And that God despises neither the fewness, nor the mean-

CREATION. 343

ness, nor tlie worthlessness of the works done, but the absence of faith only, in the person who does them.

Of what avail is it, therefore, that the Jews glory, and ex- claim, " The Temple of the Lord ! The Temple of the Lord !" ( Jer. 7. 4.) What avails it that the Papists boast of their masses, their sackcloth, their horse-hair blankets, their hard labours, their sweats, and the magnitude, and the multitude, and even the price, of their works ? For God regardetli not works, not even those commanded by Himself, when they are not done, as the passage of Jeremiah, just mentioned, shows. Much less does God regard those works which are invented of men without His Word. He regards faith alone : that is, a trust in His mercy through Christ. It is by this faith and this trust that the persons begin to please God : then, after this, their works also please Him. Hence it was that the offering of Cain did not please God, because Cain, having no faith, did not please Him. On the contrary', the offering of Abel did please God, and that because of his faith ; because he trusted neither in his dignity, nor in his sacrifices themselves, nor in the work which he performed : but trusted alone in the promise given of God concerning the Seed of the woman.

The text before us, therefore, exactly applies to our doctrine concerning justification ; — that a man must be righteous before all works, and be accepted of God, without any works, through that grace alone which his faith believes and apprehends. Nor does even faith justify, as a work, but because it apprehends the mercy of God shown forth in Christ. It is in this trust in the mercy of God that the true church Avalks, with a humble con- fession of her sins and unworthiness, while she believes that God will pardon her through Christ.

And now the works which follow upon this trust in God's mercy are, as it were, evidences and testimonies of the man's faith ; and tliey please God, not on account of themselves, but on account of the faith of the person who offers them ; or be- cause he believes in the mercy of God towards him. — This faith the other church, the Cainite church, not only has not, but ever persecutes it where she finds it. For she, on the contrary, like Cain, sets it down, f()r a certainty, that she shall please God, on account of her works. But God hates this pride : for He can-

344 CHAriEK IV. 5.

not endure such contempt of His grace and mercy, &c. — This passage of the Scripture, therefore, is worthy our most careful consideration.

(Authorized version.) Ver. 5. And Cain teas very ivroih, and his countenance fell.

(Luther s version.)

Ver. 5. Wherefore Cain teas very angry, and his countenance fell (conciderunt vuhus ejus.)

This and the few following clauses will give us a little literary trouble. But I hope we shall make our way out of the difficulty successfully. — We have heard that Cain was disappointed in his hope. He had despised his brother, in comparison with himself, and had judged that on account of the right of his primogeni- ture, he should hold the first place with God, as he had done with his parents. The judgment of God, however, was quite different fi'om that of men. He showed that he approved Abel, but rejected Cain.

The result was, therefore, that Cain was violently enraged against his brother. For he could not endure, with any patience whate^'el•, that he should be thus rejected, and excommiinicated, and deprived also, at the same time, of his rule and his priest- hood. Just in the same manner, also, we see kings and princes to be utterly impatient of the judgment of the church. For they are not satisfied with being kings and princes : they want to be accounted also righteous, and saints, before God ; and they will take to themselves the name of ' the church.' Exactly like these, also, Cain was filled with indignation, when he saw that the honour of righteousness, and grace, before God, was taken away from him. For what else was this than the being cast out of the church and excommunicated? And his indignation at this dishonour was the greater, in proportion to the measure in which he judged himself degraded beneath his brother. For his thoughts were these : — ' My brother will assuredly aspire to the headship and rule, now he sees me thus despised and disregarded of God.' And hence it is that Moses uses the ad\erb " very wroth :" by which form of expression, he would signify that Cain

\

CREATION. 345

was vehemently offended because he was thus ignominiously con- founded in pubKc before his whole family : whereas he had always wished to appear the first among them.

This Cain-like wrath is just that rage which we see also in the Cain-like church of the ])ope. For what is there which gives the pope, the cardinals, the kings, and the princes greater offence than that I, a poor beggar, set the authority of God above the authority of them all ; and that I condemn, in the name of the Lord, all those things which are worthy such condemnation. They them- selves also acknowledge that there are many things which need rigid reformation. But that I, a poor, obscure person, coming into public out of some obscure corner, should presume to do this, is a thing which they consider to be beyond all endurance. And therefore they put forth all their authority against me, and by the weight of that authority they attempt to crush me.

And, most certainly, there is not, in the whole world, a wrath more cruel than that of this church of hypocrisy and blood. For in all political or civil rage there is some degree of humanity still remaining. No assassin is led to execution, how savage soever his nature may be, with pity for whom men are not in some measure touched. But when that false and blood-thirsting church falls upon a poor son of the true church, she is not satis- fied with shedding his blood ; she loads him also with her curses and execrations, and devotes him to every ignominy and insult, and even vents her rage upon his miserable, breathless corpse. Just like the Jews, who were not content with having nailed Christ to the cross, with the full piu'pose of not taking Him down till He was dead, but even while He was breathing out the last breath of His soul, they gave Him, in His thirst, vinegar to drink mingled with gall. Such fury as this is never found in political wrath !

The wrath, therefore, and the pharasaic fury of the false church, is a fury in its very nature diabolical. This wrath began in Cain, and it continues in all Cainites to this veiy day. And we can most truly glory that we also have to eiidvire with godly Abel, just such wrath as this, in this our day. For Avho enter- tains a doubt, that if our bishops and certain furious princes coidd do it, they would slaughter us all in one moment '*^ Who doubts, that, if according to the prayer of the notorious Roman Emperor,

346 CHAPTER IV. 0.

we all together had but one neck, they would with the greatest delight rush upon us, sword in hand, and cut off our head 1 Only look at the counsels of these later years, and their designs, and you will say that uiy testimony is true.

That which Moses next adds, " And his countenance (vultus) ' appearances,' ' looks,' ' whole aspect,' fell," is a Hebrew manner of expression ; an expression which not only represents the deed done, or the fact, but also implies that the mind also was in such a state of commotion, that it could not rest ; and that although Cain could do no farther harm, yet his wrathful will to do so, was manifested by his countenance. He did not lift up his fallen brow, nor speak in a friendly voice to his parents as before. And eA^ery answer he made them was rather a sullen murmur, than a natural utterance. He was struck pale at the first sight of his brother, after his offering, which God had accepted. And he showed, by the threatening looks of his eyes, that his mind was burning with the desire of revenge.

Moses expresses all this, when he says, '' And his countenance fell :" for he does not mean his countenance or visage only, nor merely one part of his countenance ; but he intends all his ap- pearances {vultus) ; his whole appearance ; his every look, gesture, and motion ; in the same manner as the apostle uses a Hebrew expression, when he says, concerning charity, that it " doth not behave itself unseemly" (ovk a-xv/^ovel) ; that is, doth not carry an unseemly countenance, doth not contract its brow, doth not look with anger or disdain, doth not wear a threatening aspect ; but is of a free and open visage, expressing, with its eyes, kind- ness and affection. For the latter are becoming ; but the former are unbecoming, and indicative of vice within. This clause, therefore, " And his countenance fell," contains a particular de- scription of the anger and hypocrisy of Cain. He could neither look at his brother Abel, nor hear his voice, nor speak to him, nor eat nor drink with him in rest or quietude of mind.

If any one desires to witness an example of this Cain-like wratli, let him put himself in the presence of some Papist, who is seeking distinguished praise for doctrine or piety, in his day and generation ; and he Avill find that such an one is the subject of a rage against the truth, perfectly diabolical ; to which fury, if you compare the anger of a judge, the latter will appear, in com-

CREATION. 347

parisoii, to be the greatest kindness, and mercy, and open can- dour. For, in the judge, anger is merely a duty : he is not angry with the person of the prisoner, but with his crime. But the Cainite wrath fires and distorts the eyes, scowls the brow, swells the cheeks with rage, and arms the hands. In a word, it is evident in every part of the body, and in its every gesture, and that unceasingly. For it does not die away by time, as political or domestic wrath does.

Next follows the fatherly and most grave admonition of Adam, who would willingly have healed and saved his son, if he could have done so. But this wrath knows no medicine or cure. Neither Cain, nor any Cainite, will hear either father or mother, or God Himself!

Ver. 6. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou tcroth ? and why is thy countenance fallen f

All these circumstances plainly prove, that the present was not the first time that Cain had been confounded, in this offering of his sacrifice ; bvit that from the hour of this sacrifice, he had gone in perturbation of mind, filled with sadness, and gnashing his teeth ; and looking neither upon his father, nor upon his mother, without an evil eye ; affected, just as we have already said that pharasaic rage affects the whole man, and changes the whole visage and gesture. For Cain considered it to be a great in- dignity, that at a public sacrifice, and in the midst of Divine worship, and before the eyes of his father and his mother, Abel, whom he had always despised, and whom even his parents them- selves had accounted a child of nought, should be preferred of God to himself; and thus pronounced of God worthy the glory of the kingship and the priesthood.

As soon, therefore, as he had fully shown that he was of a hostile mind towards his brother, he receives from his father, Adam, the admonition in our text. For my belief is, that these words are spoken by Adam himself; and that IN loses says, they were spoken ' by the Lord,' because Adam had now been justified, and had been gifted with the Holy Spirit ; and, therefore, those things which he now s[)oke by the Holy Spirit, according to the Word of God, are rightly said by Moses to have been spoken by

348 CHAPTER IV. 7.

God Himself. Just as, at the present day, those who preach the Gospel are not in reality themselves the preachers and teachers, but Christ, who speaks and teaches in them, and by them. And most certainly these words are spoken by Adam with peculiar gravity and intent ; for he saw that his son could not patiently endure the indignity put upon him ; he saw him grieve over his lost superiority ; and he felt what havoc the Tempter might make in the corrupt nature of his son, who had done such evil to himself and Eve, when in a state of innocency and perfection. Adam, therefore, was filled with deep anxiety, and addressed his son with that solemn gravity of language, which Moses records in the text. And, although no one of the fathers has explained that speech of Adam to his son Cain, in a manner worthy its gravity and importance ; because, perhaps, none of them had sufficient leisure from their ecclesiastical en- gagements ; yet I will attempt to move this stone of difficulty out of the way ; and, as 1 hope and think, not without some ad- vantage to the truth. Adam's words to his son are these : —

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 7. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not loell, sin lieth at the door.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 7. If thou doest ivell, shall there not he a remission ? and if thou doest not ivell, si7i lieth at the door.

I cannot sufficiently wonder at the fewness of the words into the expression of which, IVIoses was able to condense so mighty a subject. Our translation does not properly reach the sense. And althoiigh Augustine was not altogether unacquainted ^^ith the Hebrew language, yet his knowledge of it was not solid ; for he renders this important text thus, ' If thou ofFerest aright, and yet dost not rightly divide the offering, thou hast sinned. Eest, and be quiet.' What such sins are, those well acquainted with the Hebrew know. Though the doctrine which Aiigustine de- duces from this his rendering of the passage, is theologically cor- rect and good, the Septuagint translators of the Hebrew seem also not to have been duly qualified for the magnitude of tlie

CREATION. 349

work tliey undertook. Wherefore, leaving for the present, both the translations and the opinions of all other commentators, we M'ill now strictly follow the proper sense of the Hebrew in the text before us. That sense is the following, — ' If thou doest well, there shall be a remission, or alleviation : if thou doest not well, sin lietli at the door,' &c.

]\Ioreover, it is ordained by nature (as even the philosopher testifies), that words should be made to serve things, and not things made subservient to words. The sentiment of Hilary is well known ; which sentiment, a certain master of sound opinions also thus cites ; ' Words ought ever to be understood according to the matter contained in them, and intended to be expressed by them.' In every exposition or explanation of the Scriptures, therefore, the subject-matter is first to be considered ; that is, we are first clearly to see the thing or matter spoken of in each case. When this is strictly first done, then next the words are to be brought to a due application to the thing (if the grammatical laws of the language will permit) ; but the things are never to be made to bend to the words. And it is because the Rabbins, and those who follow them do not this (for they have lost the things, and so cleave hard to the words only), that they often fall into the most absurd sentiments and opinions. For, as they possess not thoughts worthy of those spiritual things, of which the sacred Scripture speak, they err from the subject-matter treated in each case by the Word, and draw the words after them into vain and carnal cogitations.

But one thing is certain, that the Jews have lost Christ ; how then can they possibly understand aright either the things of the Gospel, or the things of the Law ? They know not what sin is, nor what grace is, nor what righteousness is. How then should they be able to explain successfully such passages of the Scrip- ture as that now before us ? Just like the Jews, are, in general, the " wise" (sophists) of our day. For what sound knowledge whatever have they of such Divine and mighty things as these ! Being ignorant therefore of the thi7ig or matter itself, how is it possible that they should rightly understand the words of the Scriptures in which it is expressed ? And although a knowledge of the words is prior in order ; yet the knowledge of the things is better, and the more important. For if you alter the things.

350 CHAPTER IV. 7.

the words also -will be clianged into another sense, to correspond with the altered things ; and a new grammatical construction altogether, is the sure consequence.

Thus, the great grammarian of Gerunda possesses an excellent knowledge of the words (and, indeed, there are many in our day who far surpass me in a critical knowledge of the Hebrew lan- guage), but because he understands not the Divine matter there- in contained, he miserably corrupts the present passage ; for he explains it thus : — ' If thou doest well, thy offering shall be more acceptable than that of thy brother, becaiise thou art the first- born.' You here see that Gerundensis understands what the names of the things are, but not the things themselves ; what the term is, bu.t not what the matter is. For the vqvj design of God, in the present passage, is to show that He will have no regard to first birthship at all. How, tlien, could the offering of Cain ever have been more acceptable to God than that of Abel, on account of his primogeniture '? The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews knew what the thing was, and therefore he gives a very different statement of the sacred matter, namely, that it was " by faith that Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain." The ren- dering of Jerome is much better than that of Gerundensis. The version of the former is, ' If thou doest well, thou shalt receive ; if thou doest ill, sin (he adds the pronoun thine own sin) ^^ill lie at the door.' Yet, even thus, Jerome does not reach the true sense. For, when he explains the verb seeth as meaning ' to receive' (which really signifies ' to relieve,' or ' to alleviate'), no one, I think, will approve Ms rendering of the passage. But all this Jerome has gotten from the Jews, who have always been of the opinion, and have understood the case to be, that God would have rewarded Cain if he had offered liberally. Now, therefore, I w^ill simply state what my view of this im- portant passage is.

First of all then it is necessary (as I have said) that we hold fast the Divine matter herein concerned. The Divine matter then herein involved is that which cannot deceive, as being the founda- tion of the whole Divine cause — that nothing pleases God unless it be done in faith, according to that universally applicable and well known sentence of the Apostle Paul, — " Whatsoever is NOT OF FAITH, IS sin" (Rom. 14. 23). And Solomon also saith,

CREATION. 351

— " The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 15. 8). The other great foundation of the cause of God is, that sin is so mighty a thing that it can be put away by no sacrifices, nor by any other works whatsoever, but by the mercy of God alone, which mercy must be apprehended and received by faith. And all this is manifested and shown to have been the good pleasure of God, by the first jiromise concerning the Seed of the woman ; without which Seed, there is no redemption. Now these foundations the Rabbins possess not, for this know- ledge comes by the Spirit of Christ alone, who, like the mid-sun, illumines all the darkness of nature and sin. Whatsoever, there- fore, militates against, or is contrary to, these foundations, we at once reject as false and impious.

And although, for myself, I have no objection Avhether you understand " sin" here as referring to the past sin, or to the future sin, of Cain, yet it seems to me better to understand it as referring to sin in general. The force of the whole passage, therefore, lies in the Hebrew verb sees from NASA (' be alleviated,' or 'lifted up,' or ' relieved.' And in this very case we have a remarkable ex- ample of the difference which exists between the name or term of the thing and the thing itself. For, if you apply the term to ' lift up,' or to ' lift off,' to a corporeal or solid substance, it sig- nifies ' to elevate,' or ' to lift up on high ;' as we have it in Isaiah, " I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up" (Isa. 6. 1). But this is a very different signification of the Hebrew verb from that which it expresses in the Psalm, " Blessed is the man whose sins are ' lifted up,' or ' lifted off'" (Ps. 32. 1), and yet the Hebrew verb is the same in each instance. Now, a common grammarian, in the Hebrew language, understands the former meaning of the original verb, but he is ignorant of its latter sig- nification. For, ' to lift up a throne on high,' is quite another thing from lifting up, or lifting oft', sin fi'om the conscience ; that is, remitting or taking away sin.

Wherefore, the meaning of the present great passage is, ' If thou hadst done well, or if thou hadst been good ; that is, if thou hadst believed, thou wouldst have had God favourable and mer- ciful toward thee, and there would have been a true alleviation to thee ; that is, a remission of sin. But since I see that God had not respect unto thee, it evidently follows that thou wert not

352 CHAPTER IV, 7.

good in His sight ; and that, therefore, thou wast not relieved fi'om thy sin ; wherefore, thy sin remaineth.'

Adam therefore here uses a most beautiful and striking simili- tude. For, in making use of the verb ' to lift up,' or ' to lift off,' he compares sin to a heavy burden, under which Cain was so oppressed and prostrated, that, unless it were taken off, he could not draw his breath. And the epistle to the Hebrews shows the manner in Avhich we are released from this burden, when it says, " By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain" (Heb. 11. 4).

By this mode of interpreting the present important passage, therefore, the words, or the grammatical construction, perfectly agree with the matter contained in them, which is, that God has respect unto faith only, and judges those alone to be good who believe. And these words of Adam contain also a most severe rebuke. Their meaning is, as if Adam had said to Cain, ' Thy pride has destroyed thee. Thou camest before God inflated with the glory of thy primogeniture, and thoughtest that God would accept thee on that account. But I clearly perceive, by this judgment and reprobation of God, that thou art destitute of faith, for God rejects none but the unbelieving.'

Now, no one of the Rabbins explains the passage before us in this manner. For they see not that Adam is here inculcating in his son, after the manner of the Apostle Paul, that word of Christ in the Gospel, — " He that believeth shall be saved" (Mark 16. 16) ; and also that word of the apostle himself, — " Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Rom. 3. 28). For what else does Adam here say to Cain, than that God is merciful to those who believe in the Blessed Seed, and who cast away all trust in their own works, and all ideas of their own merit ? For his meaning is, ' If thou shalt do this, thy sin shall not lie thus as a heavy burden upon thee. Thou shalt be relieved of that load, nor shalt thou thus roar with rage : for God has promised that He will not impute sin to any one that believeth.'

If therefore you refer these words to the past sin of Cain, they contain also a most grave fatherly admonition. Their import is, as if Adam had said, ' Hitherto thou hast not believed, and therefore thou art thus rejected ; and if thou shalt still go on

CREATION. 358

thus, thou wilt be cast off utterly. But if thou shalt do well, or slialt become good ; that is, if thou shalt believe in the promised Seed, I take upon myself to assure thee that the result will be that thou shalt be relieved of thy burden of sin ;' (that is, as the Psalm interprets this expression of Adam, ' sin shall not be imputed unto thee,' Ps. 32. 2).

The clause which next follows, thy " sin lieth at the door," is a fio-iirative description of sin ; which figure, for myself, I should prefer understanding as being used as a proverb. For this figure exactly describes the real nature of sin, showing that, wdiile in the act, it lies like a beast dead asleep ! It does not bite, nor terrifv, nor torment, but rather fawns and pleases. Thus it was with Eve in paradise, when she first ate the apple after Adam, she did not think that God had seen her do it, much less did she think that they both should be so bitterly punished for what they had done. So also ferocious beasts, when they are just satisfied \Aath food, are more tractable, and are more inclined to sleep than to harm. In the same manner also, sin, while it is in the act, is delightful, nor is its poison or pain felt ; it rather lies down and goes to sleep. For whoever saw a miser to be racked with pain while an opportunity of great gain stood before him ? Whoever knew an adulterer to grieve at the opportunity given him of gratifying his wishes ? If thou hadst at that moment torn his skin with a scourge, or beaten his head with a mallet, the temptation would have vanished. But while sin is asleep, and its punish- ment unfelt and unseen, it is the height of pleasure to the miser to rush upon his gain, and to the adulterer to possess the object of his sinful desires ; nor does there seem to be, nor does he wish for, any end or any bound to his pleasure.

Adam is speaking therefore in the present passage, not only of the sin of Cain, but of sin in general : showing what the real nature of sin is. For that which was the state of Cain is the state of all men. Cain, before he offered his sacrifice, proudly boasted of the privileges of his primogeniture : he despised his brother, and assumed to himself the first place in all things. Sin was then lying still, and asleep ; but it was 'lying at the door :' that is, in a place or state in which it was likely to be disturbed. For it is by " the door" that we go in and out ; and therefore a place by no means adapted for a long sleep. And this is also

z

354 CHAPTER IV. 7.

the very nature of sin. Although it does lie asleep, yet it lies in a place where it is not likely to sleep long, according to the words of Christ, by the Evangelist St. Matthew, " There is no- thing covered that shall not be revealed" (Matt. 10. 26). The wicked man thinks indeed that his sin is asleep and hidden ; but it lieth asleep at " the door," and at length it is awoke by con- viction, and brought to light, and made known : for " at the door," and rest and sleep, are things directly opposed to each other. For as darkness is opposite to light, so is sleep to an un- quiet place : they are things contradictory to each other in their very nature. — In this manner therefore may the present pas- sage be interpreted, in its reference to Cain's pasf sin.

And if you explain these same words in their reference to the future sin of Cain, their meaning is this ; — ' If thou shalt harm thy brother, and shalt indulge the wrath conceived in thy mind, I tell thee that thy sin will indeed lie asleep ; but it will lie asleep at the door : that is, in a place where it will surely be disturbed ; and therefore it is impossible but that it must be awoke and roused up, when, as a furious beast, it will lay hold upon thee.' And so the event proved. For after Cain had committed the murder, while he was burying his brother alone, his sin was asleep. But how long ? No longer than until the sound of that voice of God reached his ears, " Where is Abel, thy brother ■?" The present words of Adam therefore are a true description of all sin. It always " lieth at the door." For such is the nature of the minds of men, that as long as they escape the eyes of men, they think their sin will lie hidden and unknown. But unless they do well : that is, unless they believe that God will pardon their sin through Christ, it will surely be awoke and revealed, to their torment and destruction.

The figurative proverb therefore which lies in these words of Adam, contains a most solemn truth, — that nothing remains hidden ; but that all things are revealed and made known, as the Apostle Paul also saith, " Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment" (1 Tim. 5. 24). Hence we see the judgment of God in an especial manner, in the cases of crimi- nals. How many persons are mui'dered in secret, and yet the authors of those unnatural and horrible crimes are brought to light by means the most wonderful. — The grave admonition

CREATION. 35/)

therefore of Adam to his son Cain, is that he would guard against indulging in sin, resting fully assured that it would not remain hidden, but that God would certainly bring it to light and punish it. The poets of old did not wander far fi'om this great truth, when they represented Cupid, the god of lustful de- sire, naked, but blind also. For as our sin seems to us to be hidden, we think that it is hidden from all others also. But God at lengtli brings to light, and reveals things the most deeply concealed.

I believe therefore the meaning of these words of Adam, which I have thus given, is their true and simple sense. By them the father is admonishing the son to believe in God, and in the promised Seed : assuring him that if he does so, God will show Himself merciful unto him. But (saith the father) if thou follow the lusts of thy heart, thy sin will indeed lie at rest in thy soul : that is, it will appear to thee to be concealed and hidden, but it will be lying all the time "at the door:" that is, in a place where it cannot lie long asleep, or out of sight. For that which " lieth at the door" is beheld by all wdio enter in, and by all who go out.

Let us not forget however (as I before observed) the grand and principal truth taught by this portion of the Holy Scrip- ture;— that God, from the very beginning of the world, is One who judgeth between the flesh and the spirit, and who respecteth not the dignity of the person or his works. For God hath here respect unto Abel, not moved by any work which he performed, but simply by his faith, in which he offered his sacrifice. But unto Cain God had not respect : not because the offering of Cain was less splendid or sumptuous than that of Abel, but be- cause he had not faith, and therefore his primogeniture profited him nothing.

And this is a very powerfU argument against the Jews, who, as the Evangelist John tells us, gloried in their race and descent : boasting that they were the children of Abraham (John 8. 33). If therefore the honour and prerogative were anything in God's sight, Cain certainly had wherein to glory. And what avails also the glor;yang of the Jews, that God spoke unto them by Moses "? Are we to conclude, think you, that Adam, the first teacher, was a teacher less than Moses ? No ! Adam was

356 CHAPTEK IV. r.

greater than Moses, and superior to hiin, in many respects. He did not teacli, like Moses, circumcision, nor the other legal cere- monies, which were necessary to a stiff-necked people, to prevent them from superstition, but Adam taught faith in the promised Skkd, wliich should bruise the serpent's head. All the primo- geniture of Cain therefore, and all his other privileges and his works, profited him nothing ; for God had respect only to faith in the promised Seed. Hence it is that Paul plainly saith to the Jews, in the New Testament, " Know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham" (Gal. 3. 7). And the Evangelist John saith the same things concern- ing the Jewish people ; " But to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God ; even to them that believe on His name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1. 12, 13).

I believe therefore, as I have before said, that the interpreta- tion of the words of Adam, which I have thus given, is their true meaning. For, first of all, it is a meaning in perfect accord- ance with the fimdamental truth of the Holy Scripture, and also with the sacred matter itself spoken of. And secondly, it does not violate any law of grammar ; and it moreover tends to illus- trate beautifully and variously, by its figures, the Divine things contained in the loords used by Adam. But the Rabbins (as I have before observed) being ignorant of the things spoken of by Adam, are not at all hoi pen out of the difficulty by all their knowledge of the terms employed in the patriarch's speech. How absurd for instance is the opinion of some, who ^pply the ex- pression. There shall be 'a lifting up' {et erit levatio) to the ^ fallen countenance' of Cain ! As if Adam had said ' Then thou shalt be able again to lift up thy countenance, which is now wholly changed and fallen.' These absurdities are indeed pro- perly noticed by all our more recent commentators, to whom also oiu' thanks are due, for their fiiithful labour in translating the original text grammatically. But true theology is indispen- sable, which alone can rightly judge of and rightly teach the things spoken of in the Holy Scripture.

CREATIOX. 357

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 7. And unto thee shall he his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 7. And Its desire shall be toward thee, and thou shalt rule over IT.

Some men have most absurdly wrested this passage to prove by it, free ivill. But it is perfectly evident that Adam does not here really affirm that Cain coidd do what he advised him to do. He is only admonishing or intreating him to do it. For it by no means follows that we can do what we are commanded to do. — ' The desire of sin (Adam here says to Cain) shall be toward thee :' that is, as Paul expresses it, " Sin is in thy members ;" and, again, " The flesh lusteth against the spirit ;" ' but thou shalt not be eternally condemned, because thou feelest this motion of sin in thy members. If sin entice thee, do thou rule over it by faith. Suffer it not to rule over thee, or thou shalt perish for ever.' It is in this same manner also that the apostle commands us to " Mortify the deeds of the body, — through the Spirit" (Rom. 8. 13).

This part of Adam's speech therefore is intended to show us, and to bring us to acknowledge, what the life of the godly in the flesh is : namely, that it is a perpetual struggle of the spirit against sin. Those therefore who sleep and snore, and prepare themselves not for this fight, are easily vanquished. Adam however appears to wish, by this his speech, not only to admonish his son to guard against sin in future, but also to comfort and lift him up from his distress on account of the j^cist ; for he beholds his son both filled Avith anguish on account of the Divine rejec- tion, and now also tempted to revenge. But saith Adam to his son, ' Rule over thy sin, and thou shalt find God merciful. Be- lieve in Him, and He M'ill pardon thy sin.'

The Hebrew verb, which we find in this passage, is maschal ; the same as that which the Lord used above, when He said unto the woman (chap. 3. 1(5), " And thy desire shall be to thy hus- band, and lie sliall rule over thee." In these words the meaning

358 CHAPTER IV. 8.

of the Lord is, that the wife should obey the husband, and Hsten to her husband, and that she should not take upon herself the judgment in all things ; and that if she did so, the husband, in his authority, as the man, should rebuke and prevent her. It is in the same manner that Adam here speaks to Cain ; saying to him, ' Sin will entice thee and prompt thee to revenge ; (this is the father's meaning, when he says, " And ITS desire shall be toward thee") ; but do thou say unto sin, I will not obey thee. Refrain thyself and rule over it.' These words of Adam there- fore contain an admonition full of consolation ; showing that on account of the Blessed Seed, we are no longer under sin ; and that therefore we ought to rule over it. For Adam's speech em- braces both doctrines ; the doctrine of the fear of the Lord, and the doctrine of faith. We ought to fear God, because " sin lieth at the door:" and we ought to have faith in God, because He is merciful.

(Authorized Version.) Ver. 8. And Cain talked with Abel his brother.

(Luther's Version.) Ver. 8. A7id Cain spoke to Abel his brother.

Our translation has it, " And Cain said to his brother Abel ; (adding the M'ords) Let us go out of doors." But this also is one of the inventions of the Rabbins ; to whom how much credit is to be given, I have above fully shown. Lyra, following the in- vention also of Aben Ezra, relates, that Cain told his brother how severely he had been rebuked of the Lord. But who would believe things for which there is no authority in the Scriptures ? We hold therefore to that meaning of the text which the Scrip- ture plainly shows to be its true sense ; — that Cain, being repro- bated or rejected of God, indulged his wrath ; and that he now added to his former sins, contempt of his parents and of the Word: thinking thus within himself: — The promised Seed of the woman belongs to me as the first-born. But my brother, Abel, that contemptible one, and that one of nought, is evi- dently preferred to me, by the Divine authority itself; manifested

CREATIOiX. 359

by the fire from heaven, which consumed his sacrifice. What shall I do, therefore ? I will dissemble my wrath until an oppor- tunity of taking A^engeance shall occur.

The words therefore, " And Cain spoke to Abel his brother," / understand as meaning, that Cain, dissembling his anger, carried himself towards Abel as toward a brother, and that he spoke to him, and conversed with him, as if he bore with a quiet and patient mind the Divine rejection, which he had just experi- enced, and the sentence of God thus pronounced against him. It was in this manner also that Saul dissembled his wrath ; who, after a like example, pretended a benevolent mind and good-will toward David. " I know well (said Saul) that thou shalt surely be king" (1 Sam. 24. 20) ; and yet he was all the while think- ing of the way in which, having killed David, he might prevent his being king. Just in the same way did Cain now converse in dissimulation with Abel his brother ; saying to him, I see that thou art chosen of the Lord. I envy thee not tliis Divine bless- ing, &c., &c. This is the very manner of hypocrites. They pretend friendship until an opportunity of doing the harm they intend presents itself.

That such is the true sense of the passage, all the circum- stances clearly show. For if Adam and Eve could have gathered the least suspicion of the intended murder, think you not that they would either have restrained Cain, or removed Abel, and placed the latter out of danger? But as Cain had altered his countenance and his carriage towards his brother, and had talked with him in a brotherly manner, they thought that all was safe ; and that the son had bowed to and acquiesced in the admonition of his father. This outward appearance and carriage deceived Abel also ; who, if he had feared anything like murder from his brother, would doubtless have fled from him, as Jacob fled from Esau, when he feared his brother's wrath. What therefore could possibly have come into the mind of Jerome, when he be- lieved the Rabbins, who say, that Cain was here expostulating with his brother ?

Wherefore Cain is here the image and the picture of all hypo- crites and murderers, who, under the show of godliness, slaughter the good. For Cain thus being besieged by Satan, covers his wrath, waiting the opportunity to slay his brother Abel ; mean-

3G() C HAl'TER IV. 8.

while he converses with him, as a brother beloved, that he niii^ht the sooner lay his hands upon him unawares.

This passage therefore is intended for ou7' instruction : that we may learn to understand the ways of murderers and hypocrites. For the same is always the case. Every Cain talks with his brother, as Cain of old talked brotherly with x\bel. And on the other hand, also, every Abel trusts in every Cain, as a brother would trust a brother ; and so he is murdered. And the parents also meanwhile are deceived. Just so the Pope and the bishops of this day talk much and consult much concerning the peace and the concord of the church. But he is most assuredly de- ceived, who does not understand all these councils in the direct contrary. For true is that word of the Psalm, " The workers of iniquity speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts" (Ps. 28. 3). For the very nature of all hypocrites is, that they carry an appearance of goodness, speak friendly to you, pretend humility, patience, and charity, and give alms, &c. ; — and yet, they are all the while planning slaughter in their heart.

Let us learn therefore by this history to know a Cain, and to guard then the most against him when he speaks the most friendly, and as a brother to a brother. For it is in this way that our adversaries, the l^ishops and the Pope, talk with us in this our day, wdiile they pretend a desire for concord and peace, and seek a reconciliation of doctrines ; whereas if an opportunity of seiz- ing us and executing their rage upon us should present itself, you would soon hear them speak in a very different tone. For all the time there is death in the pot (2 Kings 4. 40) ; and under the best and sweetest words, there lies concealed a deadly poison.

Ver. 8. And it came to 2>(<'Ss when they were both in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and sleio him.

Here then you see the deceptiveness which lay under the above dissembled conversation of Cain with his brother. Cain had been admonished by his father, with Divine authority, to guard against sin for the future, and to expect pardon for the past, through the promised Seed, But Cain despises both admoni- tions, and indulges in his sin, as all the wicked do : For true is

CREATION. 30 1

the saying of Solomon, — that when the wicked man comes into the great deep of sins, he despises them altogether ; bnt that ignominy and reproach follow (Prov. 18. 3).

Just in the same manner our ministry of the Word, at the pre- sent day, deserves no blame. AVe teach, we exhort, we rebuke, we turn ourselves every way, that we may recall the multitude from the security of sin to the fear of God. But the world, like an untamed beast, still goes on ; and follows not the Word, but its own lusts ; which lusts it nevertheless strives to palliate, under the appearance of what is honest and right. The pro- phets and the apostles also stand before us as examples of the same labour in vain ; and we also are taught the same by our own experience. Our adversaries being so often admonished and convicted, know that they are doing wrong, and yet they lay not aside their murderous hatred against us.

From the case of Cain therefore learn what a hypocrite is. He is one who pretends to the Morship of God and charity ; and yet, at the ^■ery same time, destroys the worship of God, and slaughters his brother. And all this semblance of good-will, is only intended to create the better opportunities of doing the harm designed. For if Abel had foreseen the implacable wrath, and the truly diabolical fury of his brother, lie might have saved his life by flight. But as Cain betrayed nothing of this kind, while he talked with his brother in seeming affection, and put on the appearance of his usual good-will, Abel perished before he felt the fear of danger. There is no doubt that Abel, when he saw his brother rising up against him, entreated and implored him not to pollute himself with so awful a sin. But a mind thus beset by sin pays no regard to prayers, nor heeds uplifted hands. Just as Cain therefore had despised the admonition of his father ; so now also he equally despises his brother, fallen on his knees before him.

These things instruct us into that cruel tyranny of Satan, under which our nature, when involved in sins, is bound. Hence Paul calls such, " The children of wrath" (Ephes. 2. 3) ; and declares that such are " taken captive by Satan at his will" (2 Tim. 2. 2G). For when we are mere men ; that is, when we apprehend not the Blessed Seed by faith ; we are all like unto C*ain, and there is iiotliinir wanting but opportunity to murder f)ur brother. For

362 CHAPTEll IV. 9.

nature, destitute of the Holy Spirit, is driven on by that same evil spirit by which Cain was driven on to murder. Whereas if there were in any one those sufficient powers, or that free-will of which men talk, by which a man might defend himself against the assaults of Satan ; these gifts of nature would most assuredly have existed in Cain, to w^hom belonged the first birth-right and the promise of the Blessed Seed. But it was not so. And the condition of all men is the same. Unless nature be helped by the Spirit of God, it cannot uphold itself nor stand. Then why do we vainly and absiu'dly boast o^ free-ioill ? — Now follows another remarkable passage.

Ver. 9. A7id the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother ? And he said, I knoiu not : Am I my brother s keeper ?

Good God ! into what a depth of sin does our miserable na- ture fall, when driven onward by the devil. At last murder was committed on a brother. And perhaps the murdered Abel lay certain days unburied. When therefore Cain returned to his parents, at the accustomed time, and Abel returned not with him, the anxious parents said to him, Cain, thou art here, but where is Abel ? Thou art returned home ; but Abel is not returned. The flock is without their shepherd. Tell us therefore where thy brother is? — Upon this, Cain, growing indignant, makes answer to his parents, by no means with due reverence, " I know not : Am I my brother's keeper 1 "

But it happened unto Cain as unto all the wicked ; that by ^A'cusing, he accused himself. Agreeably also to the words of Christ our Lord, " From thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant" (Matt. 18. 32). The heathen had also a striking proverb among them, ' A liar ought to have a good memory.' Such was the judgment of heathen men ; though they knew nothing of the judgment of God and of conscience, and were capable of judgment and giving admonition concerning natural and civil things only. And true it is that liars expose themselves to many dangers of detection, and betray many facts, by which they may be convicted and refuted. Hence the Ger- mans have tliis proverb, ' A lie is a very fruitful thing.' For one lie begets seven other lies ; whicli become necessary to esta-

CREATION. 363

blish the first lie, and to make it wear the face of truth. And yet it is impossible, after all, to prevent conscience from some- times betraying itself, if not in words, yet in countenance and gesture. This will be proved by numberless examples hereafter. I will cite one example here.

In Thuringia there is a small town in the district of Orla, called Neustadt. In this town, a harlot had murdered her infant, to which she had secretly given birth, and had thrown it, after the murder, into a neighbouring fish-pond. By a singular occurrence, a portion of the linen in which she had wrapped the infant, brought the horrid deed to light, and the case was brought before the magistrate ; and as the simple men of the place knew no better means of investigating the crime in order to discover its author, they called all the young women of the town into the town-hall, and closely examined them all, one by one. The judg- ment concerning all the rest was quite manifest, and it was evi- dent that they were all innocent. But when they came to her who was the real perpetrator of the deed, she did not wait for the questions to be put to her, but immediately declared aloud that she was not the guilty person. This declaration at once caused the magistrate to suspect that she really was the author of the deed, because she was more anxious than all the rest to clear her- self from any suspicion. Therefore she was seized by the con- stables, and forthwith suffered death. Indeed examples of the same kind are infinite, and occur daily, showing that where per- sons are most anxious to ^.rcuse themselves, they most effectually accuse and betray themselves. So true is that word which we have just before heard, that sin does indeed lie asleep and con- cealed, but it lies " at the door."

Just so in the present sacred case. Cain thinks that he has made an effectual excuse for himself, by saying that he was not his brother's keeper ; whereas, by the very mention of his brother's name, he at once confesses that he ought to have been his younger brother's keeper. And then again does he not, by the same admitted confession, that he ought to have been his brother's keeper, accuse himself of being of a hostile mind towards his brother? and does he not, moreover, strike into the mind of his parents a surmise of the murder committed? For Abel nowhere appears, and is not to be found. Just so also Adam c.rcuses

364 CHAPTER IV. 0.

himself in paradise, and lays all tlie blame on Eve. But this ex- cuse of Cain is far more idle and absurd ; for, while he excuses his sin, he doubles it. Whereas on the contrary, the free con- fession of sin finds mercy, and appeases wrath. It is recorded in the history of St. Martin, that when he was pronouncing to some notorious sinners the pardon of their sins, he was rebuked by Satan, who asked him why he did so ; to whom St. Martin is said to have replied, — ' Why I would pronounce the pardon even of thy sins, if thou wouldst say from thy heart, I repent that I have sinned against the Son of God, and I pray to God to pardon me for the same.' But the devil never does this. For he persists in and defends his sin.

All hypocrites imitate Cain, their father, in this his lie. They either deny their sin altogether, or like him excuse it, and there- fore they cannot find the pardon of their sins from God. And we see the case to be the same in domestic life. By the defence of wrong doing, anger is increased. For whencA^er the wife, or the children, or the servants have done wrong, and deny or ex- cuse their wrong doing, the father of the family is the more moved to wrath ; whereas on the contrary, plain confession always meets pardon, or a lighter punishment. But it is the very nature of hypocrites to excuse and palliate their sin, or to deny it altogether ; and under the show of religion, to slay the innocent.

But here let us take a view of the manner in which sins follow each other, and increase more and more. First of all, Cain sins by presumption and unbelief. AVhen priding himself on the privilege of his first birthright, he takes it for granted that he shall be accepted of God, on the ground of his high merit, as the eldest son. Upon this pride and this glory of self-righteousness, immediately follow the envy and hatred of his brother, whom he sees preferred before himself, by a certain sign from heaven. Upon this envy and hatred next follow hypocrisy and lying. He talks with his brother in dissembled affection, whom he all the Avhile designs to murder ; and whom, by this affectionate conver- sation, he throws the more effectually off his guard. Upon this hypocrisy follows murder. Upon this murder follows a lying excuse to cover his awful sin. And the last stage of the whole sin is despair ; and this last step is the fall from heaven to hell !

And although Adam and Eve did not deny their sin ; althougli

they confessed it, yet they shifted it from the one to the ot. Adam laid it on Eve, and Eve laid it on the serpent. But Caiu' went farther than them both ; for he not only did not confess the murder he had committed, but declared that he had nothing to do with the care of his brother. And did not this speech at once prove that his mind was in a stateof hostility against his brother? Though therefore Adam and Eve confessed their sin with only half their hearts, yet they had some claim to pardon, and they were punished with less severity accordingly. But Cain, because he denied his sin determinately, was rejected, and fell into despair. And the same judgment awaits all our Cainite popes, cardinals, and bishops ; who, although they plan in their minds plots of murder against us, yet say like Cain their father, " I know not : Am I my brother's keeper?"

There was a common proverb of old, ' What is it to the Romans that the Greeks die ?' So we think that our dangers and calamities only belong unto ourselves. But how does this prin- ciple agree with the commandment of God ? For His will is, that we should all live together, and be to each other as brethren ? Cain therefore by this very saying of his, heavily accuses him- self when he makes the e.rcuse that the custody of his brother was no matter of his. Whereas if he had said to his father, ' Alas, my father, I have slain Abel my brother. I repent of the deed I have done. Return upon me what punishment thou wilt.' Had he thus spoken, there might have been room for remedy ; but as he denied his sin, and contrary to the will of God, cast off the charge of his brother altogether, there was no place left for mercy or favour.

Moreover ISIoses has arranged all this narrative, thus parti- cularly and remarkably, on purpose that it might be a testimony and memorial of all hypocrites, that he might, by his peculiar manner of recording the solemn facts, graphically paint forth what hypocrites really are, and that he might show how awfully they are seized upon by Satan, as his instruments, and inflamed by him against God and against His Word and His Church. It was not enough for this murderer that he had killed his brother, contrary to the command of God, but he adds to that sin the farther sin, that, when God inquires of him concerning his brother, he becomes filled with indignation and rage. I say when

SfiG y CHAPTER IV. 9.

Gtv^i^ inquires of Him, because, although it was Adam who spoke .these words to his son Cain, yet he spoke them by the authority of God, and by the Holy Spirit. In so awful a sin therefore was it not a most kind and gentle manner of expression, to in- quire, " Where is Abel thy brother?" And yet to this voice, which contained in it nothing severe, the hypocrite and the mur- derer grows so ferocious and proud, that he replies, " I know not : Am I my brother's keeper?" And he is fired with indignation that he should be called to an account concerning the matter at all. For the reply of Cain is the reply of a spirit of resistance and indignation against God.

But to this sin Cain adds a worse sin still. For when he ought to have fallen under this accusation of having committed the murder, he himself at once turns round and accuses God, and expostulates with Him : " Am I my brother's keeper % " He pre- faces his reply with no expression of reverence or honour, though due both to God and to his father. He did not say, ' Lord, I know not.' He did not say, ' My Father, didst thou make me the keeper of my brother ? ' Such expressions as these would have indicated feeling of reverence towards God or towards his parent. But he answers as being Lord himself, and plainly manifests that he felt indignant at being called to account even by him who had the high right even to call him to that account. And this is a true picture of all hypocrites. When standing in the most mani- fest sins, they grow full of insolence and pride, and aim, all the while, at appearing most righteous persons. They will not believe even God Himself when rebuking them by His Word. Nay, they set themselves against God, contend with Him, and excuse their sin. Thus David saith, in the 51st Psalm, ' that God is judged of men, but that at length he clears and justifies himself, and prevails' (Ps. 51. 4). This is that insolence of hypocrites which Moses here paints forth.

But how does the attempt of Cain here succeed in his case ? Why, thus : While he uses every means to e.rcuse himself, he most powerfully accuses himself. Thus Christ saith, " Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant" (Luke 19. 22). Now, this servant wished to appear wholly and without guilt, saying, " For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man ; Thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest

CREATION. Ml

that thou didst not sow : therefore I hid thy t<alent in a napkin" (vers. 20 and 21). Now, what g.icuses more plausible than these could the wicked servant adopt 1 Yet by what means more effectual could he rtccuse himself? For Christ at once uses his own very words against this wicked servant himself, and condemns him out of his own mouth. And this is the very way and Avisdom of the Holy Spirit.

Such examples as these are profitable unto us, that by them we may learn not to contend with God. On the contrary there- fore when thou feelest in thine own conscience that thou art guilty, take heed with all thy soul that thou contend neither with God nor with men, by defending or excusing thy sin. Rather do this : When thou seest God point His spear at thee, flee not from Him ; but, on the contrary, flee to Him with humble con- fession of thy sin, and with prayer for His pardon. Then Avill God draw back His spear, and spare thee. But when, by the denial and excuse of thy sin, thou fleest farther and farther from Him, the nearer is God to thee, as an enemy, and the more closely and hotly does He pursue thee as such. Nothing there- fore is better or safer for thee than to come to Him at once, with the confession of thy fault. For thus it comes to pass, that, while God conquers iis, we also conquer by Him.

But Cain and hypocrites do not this. God points His spear at them : but they, on their part, do not humble themselves before Him, nor pray to Him for pardon. Nay, they even point their spear at God : just as Cain did on this occasion. Cain does not say, ' Lord, I confess that I have killed my brother : Forgive me.' On the contrary, though being the accused, he himself accuses God, by replying, " Am I my brother's keeper?" And what was the effect of this his pride ? By it he openly confessed that he cared nought for the Divine laws, which say, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And, again, ' Do not unto another that which you would not have another do unto you.' These laws were not Jirst written, nor onli/ written, in the Decalogue ; but they were inscribed in the minds of all men, by nature. Yet Cain not only acted directly against these laws, but showed that he cared nought for them : nay, that he abso- lutely despised them.

By this his way therefore Cain stands the picture, as we have

368 CIIAPTKR IV. 0.

siiid, not only of a wicked man, but of a man the most wicked : who, though a murderer, is yet a hypocrite, wishing to appear a saint : being all the time one who is more prepared to accuse God than to appear worthy of accusation himself. And this is Avhat all hypocrites do. They blaspheme God, and crucify His Son, and yet wish to appear righteous persons. For after their murders, blasphemies, and all their other sins, their whole aim is to seek means wdiereby to excuse and palliate the great sins they have committed. But the result always is, that they only be- tray themselves, and are condemned out of their own mouths. Just in this way, while Cain, in the present instance, studies to render himself quite pure in appearance, he most effectually and foully defiles himself. He thinks he has made a most plausible excuse, when he says, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" But this very excuse becomes his most effectual accusation. And thus according to the saying of Hilary, " Wickedness is ever closely accompanied by folly." And so it was in the case of Cain. Had he been as wase as he was wicked, he would have excused himself in quite a different manner. But since God has ordained that wickedness should thus be ever accompanied by folly, Cain's excuse becomes his plain accusation. And for this very reason. The defence of truth against her adversaries is always easy. For as Cain, in his case, testified, both by his -words and by his ges- tures, that he cared not for his brother, but hated him ; so all wicked men, by various means, ever betray their wickedness. By the example of Cain therefore things the most important, and the most full of instruction, are set before us : all of them tending to show that God suffereth not hypocrites to remain long undiscovered, but that Fie compels them to convict themselves by those very means by which they craftily strive to conceal their hypocrisy and their sin.

]\Ioses does not, in this description, use a multitude of words, according to the practice of the world in general : for these, in setting forth any certain subject, embellish it with various strik- ing ornaments of figure and speech. But w^e know by experience, that the real feelings of the mind cannot be fully described by the paintings of any human eloquence. And indeed an abundance of words only makes the aftection of the mind described to ap- pear less than it is in reality. Moses therefore acts quite diffe-

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rently. He, by the use of a very few words, discloses a mighty abundance of subject-matters. The divine historian above used the expression, " And when they were botli in the field." Here Moses indicates that the murderer Cain had watched his oppor- tunity ; that, when alone, he might attack his brother, when also alone. And all the connected circumstances plainly show that Abel was not then unemployed, for he was in the field, where he had to do those things which his father had given him to do. Herein Moses moreover shows, that Abel's parents were free from all fear of danger. For although, from the beginning, they liad feared that the wrath of Cain would eventually break out into some still greater sin ; yet, by his compliance and kindness, and by his pretended afl'ection, he prevented all suspicion of evil from remaining in the minds of his parents. For had there been the least apprehension of evil still existing, they certainly would not have permitted Abel to go from their presence with Cain, alone. They would have caused his sisters to go with him, as companions, for some sisters he no doubt had. Or his parents themselves would have prevented, by their presence and autho- rity, the perpetration of so great a wickedness. And as I said before, the mind of Abel, also, was perfectly free from all suspi- cion. For had he suspected evil at the hand of his brother, in the least degree, he would doubtless have sought safety by flight. But after he had heard and seen, as he thought, that Cain bore the judgment of God patiently, and did not envy his brother the high honour which God had bestowed upon him, he pursued his work in the field with all security.

What orator could describe, with an eloquence equal to its importance, the real nature of that act of Cain, which Moses ex- presses in these few words '? " And Cain rose up against his brother." Many descriptions of awful cruelty exist in books on every side, but no description of cruelty could ])aint it forth, in a more atrocious and execrable light, than the picture drawn by the few words of Moses, when he simply says, Cain " rose up against" his brother Abel. As if he had said, Cain rose up against Abel, the only brother he had, with whom he had been brought up, and with whom he had lived in the one only family upon earth, up to that day : all which family communion he utterly forgot, and, not only so, but he forgot their common

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parents also. The greatness of the grief which he would cause to his parents, by so solemn a wickedness, never entered his mind. He never thought that Abel was a brother, from whom he had never received any offence whatever. For Cain knew that the honour of the more acceptable sacrifice wdiich Abel had offered, proceeded not from any intent or ambition in him, but from the will and doing of God Himself In a word, Cain did not consider in Avhat position he himself woidd be : that by this wicked deed, he who had hitherto stood in the highest favour with his parents, would lose that favour altogether, and would fall under their deepest indignation.

It is recorded in history, that when a painter, wdio was paint- ing the stoiy of Iphigenia, on the point of being sacrificed to Diana, by her father, had given to each one of the surrounding spectators his appropriate countenance, with a latitude of art which might best express his pain and sorrow, he at length came to the father himself, who was also a spectator ; but that, feeling convinced that no art of the painter could adequately represent his feelings and countenance, he covered his head with a mantle. — Moses, I consider, does the same thing, in the present passage, when he uses the verb lakam, "Rose up against." What tra- gical pictures would the eloquence of Cicero or Livy have here drawn out, while they were strikingly portraying the wrath of the one brother, and the dread, the cries, the prayers, the tears, the uplift hands, and all the horrors of the other : applying to the description all the powers of their mind and language ? But such feelings cannot, by all these powers of eloquence, be fully described. Moses therefore writes most appropriately, when he sets forth things so inexpressible, by mere dots, as it were, in order that, by the fewness of his words, the feelings of the reader may be engaged to meditate on the facts, the more closely and deeply, for himself. For the vain attraction of words is like paint applied to natural beauty : it only mars and spoils the force of the reality.

Of the same expressive character are the few words which he next adds, " And slew him." He does not, by those few words, represent a common murder, such as we see committed by men, in general : for thei/ sometimes kindle quarrels from the most trifling causes, and commit murders, in the end. Such mur-

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(lerers however immediately after the murder is committed, are filled Avith distress : they grieve for the deed they have done, and acknowledge those delusions of the devil by which he blinded their minds. But Cain felt no distress : he expressed no grief, but denied the deed he had done, altogether. This satanic and insatiable hatred in hypocrites is described by Christ, when He says, ' When they kill you, they will think that they do God service' (John 16. 2). So, the priests and the kings filled Jeru- salem with the blood of the prophets, and gloried in what they did, as if their deeds were great and successful exploits : for they considered such murders as proofs of their zeal for the law and the house of God.

And the furious cruelty of the popes and the bishops, in our day, is just the same. They are not satisfied with having ex- communicated us again and again, and with having shed our blood, but they wish to blot out our memory from the land of the living : according to the description of such hatred, expressed in the words of the Psalm, " Raze it, raze it, even to the founda- tion thereof" (Ps. 137. 7). These instances of hatred are satanic, not human : for all forms of human hatred grow into mildness by time ; and after Ave have avenged the ofltence and pain given, the hatred at length ceases. But these instances of pharisaic hatred increase in virulence, day by day ; and for this very reason : because they are justified under the cloak of religion and godly zeal. — Cain therefore is the father of all those murderers, who slaughter the saints, and whose wrath knows no end, as long as there remains one saint for them to kill. All which is proved by the example even of the crucified Christ Himself. For as to Cain, there is no doubt of his having hoped, that by putting Abel to death, he should still hold the high honour of his first birthright. And in the same way, the ungodly ahvays think that their cruelty will profit them in some way. But when they find that this their hope is vain, they at once fall, like Cain, into despair.

Now, when the fact of this atrocious mui'der was made known to the parents, what do we think must have been the dreadful feelings which it excited ? — what the lamentation ? — Avhat the sighs and groans, Avliich it caused? But I dwell not on these things : they are rather scenes for the eloquent and able orator

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to describe. I will only observe, that it was a marvel that both parents were not struck lifeless with pain and grief. For the greatness of the calamity was rendered the greater by the fact that their first-born, who had created in them such large hopes concerning himself, was the perpetrator of so horrible a murder. If therefore Adam and Eve had not been helped from above, they could never have surmounted this family calamity : for it was a catastrophe which exceeded all catastrophes that the world has ever known. And hence Adam and Eve were without that consolation which toe may have under sudden and unexpected calamities : which consolation is, that like evils have befallen others, and have not come upon us alone. But oiir first parents had two sons only : though I believe that they had daughters also ; and therefore they had not that multitude of examples be- fore them, which are always before our eyes.

Who can doubt however that Satan, by this new kind of temp- tation in Cain, increased greatly the gi'ief and trial of our first parents ? For they no doubt thought thus with themselves, — Behold this is all our sin. We, when in paradise, wished to be- come like God ; but by our sin we are become like the devil. The very same thing has befallen us, in the case of our son. We loved this son alone, and made everything of him. Our other son Abel w^as righteous before us, above this son ; but of his righteousness we made nothing. Tliis elder son we hoped would be he who should crush the serpent's head : but behold ! he him- self is crushed by the serpent ! Nay he himself is become like the serpent : for he is now a murderer. And whence is this ? Is it not because he w^as born of us f and because we, through our sm, are what we are ? Therefore it is from our flesh, — therefore it is from our sin, that this calamity has broken forth !

It is very probable therefore, — and the events of the series of years which followed, confirm this probability, — that the sorrow- ing parents, struck with the awfulness of this calamity, abstained for a long time from connubial intercourse. For it appears that when Cain committed this murder, he was about thirty years of age, more or less. During this period, some daughters were born unto Adam. For, since it is said below (ver. 17), that " Cain knew his wnfe," there is no doubt that he married a sister. Moreover since Cain himself says (ver. 14), " And it shall come

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to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me ;" and as it is further said (ver. 15), " And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him ;" — it appears most probable, from all these circumstances, that Adam had many more child- ren than Cain and Abel ; but that these two only are mentioned, on account of the important and memorable history concerning them, and because those two were their first and principal child- ren. For it is my full belief, that the marriage of our first parents, during the first thirty years of their union, was most fruitful. In some books, the names Calmana and Dibora are found, as being daughters of Adam ; but I know ]iot that such authors are worthy of any credit. — As therefore Seth is recorded as having been begotten a long time after this awful murder, it seems to me very probable that the parents, distressed beyond measure at this monstrous family crime, refrained for a long time from marriage communion. Moses does not indeed touch upon all these things in his narrative : he intimates them only, in order that he might excite (as we have said) the reader to a deep con- sideration of this memorable history : the circumstances of which, he records in the fewest possible words, as if presenting them to be seen, as through a lattice.

But I retui'n to the text now immediately before us. Cain is an evil and a wicked man ; and yet, in the eyes of his parents, he is a divine possession, and a divine gift. Abel, on the con- trary, is in the eyes of his parents, and in their estimation, as nothing, according to the signification of his name ; but in the eyes of God, he is truly a righteous man ; hence it is, that Clirist Himself honours him with this exalted appellation, when He calls him, "Righteous Abel!" (Matt. 23. 35.) This was the Divine judgment concerning Abel, which Cain could not ejidure ; and therefore he thought that the only manner in which his hatred of his brother could be satisfied, was by murder. And he moreover thought, that by this awful means he could still retain the high honour of his primogeniture. But he was far from thinking that he committed a great sin by this murder : because, as being the first-born, he thought he had a right to do this. He killed him therefore as I think, not with a sword (for 1 conclude that there were, as yet, no iron weapons), but with a clul) or with some kind of stone. And after tlic murder, Cain

374 CHAPTER IV. 1).

remained quiet and unconcerned : for he thought that the deed would be concealed by his hiding the body, which he buried ; or perhaps he cast it into a river ; considering that by such means he could rest the more sure that the body could not be found by his parents.

"When Abel therefore had been from home a longer time than he had been accustomed to be, the Holy Spirit inspires Adam to utter the words of the text, and to inquire of Cain concerning Abel ; saying, " Where is Abel thy brother ? " Here therefore the sermon and the prophecy of Adam, of which we have heard before, begins to be fulfilled ; where he had said, " If not, sin lieth at the door." For Cain thought that he had concealed his sin, and had laid it to rest, and that all would thus be hidden. And true it was that his sin did lie at rest ; but it lay at rest " at the door." And who now openeth the door ? None other than the Lord Himself. He ro\xses up and awakens the sleeping sin. He brings the hidden sin to light. And the same thing must be fulfilled in all sinners. For unless, by repentance, thou first come to God, and thyself confess thy sin to God, God will surely come to thee, and awake thy sin, and discover it to thee. For God cannot endure that any one should deny the sin that he has committed ; as the psalmist also testifies, " When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me : my moisture is turned into the drought of summer" (Ps. 32. 3, 4). For although sin hath its sleep and its security ; yet that sleep is " at the door," which cannot long remain unawoken or hidden.

When Moses here says, " And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?" I understand Moses to mean, as above, that it was Adam who spoke by the Holy Spirit in the person or place of God ; and that God therein assumed the per- son of a father, speaking to his son. This sacred phraseology therefore, " And the Lord said," &c., is intended as thus used by the Holy Spirit, to commend the high authority of parents ; whom, when children dutifully hear and dutifully obey, they hear God and obey God. And I believe that Adam knew by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, that Abel had been slain by his brother ; for he spoke at once concerning the murder, " What liast thou done ? the voice of tliv brother's blood crietli unto me

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from tlie ground':" although Cain all the time endeavoured to conceal the deed.

And if Eve heard these words spoken to Cain by his father ; what do we think must have been the grief and horror of her mind ! They must indeed have been beyond all description. But the calamity fell still nearer and heavier upon Adam him- self. For as he was the father, he was compelled, as his duty, thus to rebuke his son, and to excommunicate him from his family, and from the church of God, for this his sin. And although he did not slay him (for the law concerning the pun- ishing a murderer by death, which is pronounced hereafter, in the ninth chapter, was giveji after the patriarchs saw murders to become frequent) ; and though inspired by the Holy Spirit so to do, he even ' set a mark upon his son, lest any one finding him should kill him ;' yet it was an awful punishment which was in- flicted on Cain and upon all his posterity. For in addition to the personal curse of bearing abovit this mark of a murderer, he was exconnnunicated from his family, driven from the sight of his pareiits, and from the society of his other brothers and sisters, who still continued with their parents, as in the church of God.

Now Adam could not have performed all this awful diity with- out the deepest pain : nor could Cain have heard all that Adam said without the same indescribable anguish. For a father is a father, and a son is a son. Adam therefore would willingly have spared his son, and would willingly have still retained him at home. And we do now sometimes see murderers reconciled to the brothers of those whom they have murdered. But in this terrible case no place was left for reconciliation. Cain is bidden at once to be a vagabond upon the face of the earth. The pain there- fore of the parents was doubled. They see one of their sons slain by the other ; and now, they see the slayer excommunicated by the judgment of God, and cut off for ever from the society of the rest of his brethren.

JNIoreover when we here speak of excommunication from the church, you are not to have in your mind our present churches, magnificent structures superbly built with carved stones. The temple or church of Adam was a certain tree, as in paradise ; or a certain little hill under the open heaven, at which they assem- bled tooether to hear the Word of God, and to offer their sacri-

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fices ; for which purpose they had altars erected : and God was present with them when they thus offered their sacrifices and heard His word, as is manifest from the Divine presence at the offering of Abel. And other portions of sacred history also tes- tify that altars were erected in the open air, and that sacrifices were there offered. And indeed the same practice for many reasons would be useful even now : that we might assemble to- gether in the open air, and there pray with bended knees, and there preach the Word, there give thanks to God, and there bless each other, &c. It was from a temple of this kind, and from such a church, not a conspicuous and magnificent church m a certain place, that Cain was ejected or excommunicated : who was thus doubly punished ; first by a corporal punishment, be- cause he was cursed as a vagabond in the earth, with the mark of a murderer set upon him ; and, secondly, by a spiritual pun- ishment, because he w^as cast out by excommunication, as from another paradise, and ejected from the temple and church of God.

Lawyers also have made much use of this passage of the holy Scripture, and have handled it with great worthiness ; seeing, as they did, that the Lord inquired into the matter before He passed condemnation upon the murderer. This Scripture therefore the framers of laws have so applied, as to determine thereby, that no man should be condemned, until his cause had been fully known ; nor until he had been first called to the bar of judgment, had been convicted, and had confessed his guilt. We have seen the same also before in the case of Adam. " And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" (Gen. 3. 9.) And again, farther on (chapter 18. 21), " I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether accord- ing to the cry of it, which is come unto Me ; and if not, I will know."

Let us however, leaving for the present all civil and political doctrine, look at the all-blessed theological or divine doctrine and consolation, herein contained ; when it is recorded that the Lord inquired for Abel after his death. For in this fact we have made manifest unto us, the resurrection of the dead. Because God, by this inquiry, testified that He was the God of Abel, though now dead : for He inquired after him though now slain and no

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more. From this passage therefore we may frame to ourselves this most immoveable argument ; — that if there were no one who had the care of us, after this life, Abel would not have been inquired for after he was slain. But God does here inquire after Abel, even after he is taken away out of this life : He has not a Avill to forget him : He still retains the remembrance of him : He asks ' where he is.' God therefore, we here see, is the God of the dead. My meaning is, that even the dead, as we here see, still live in the memory of God, and have a God who cares for them, and saves them, in another life, beyond, and different from this corporal life, in which saints are thus afflicted.

This passage therefore we repeat, is most worthy our observa- tion : wherein we see that God had this great care of Abel, even when dead ; and that on account of Abel, though dead, he excommunicated Cain, and visited him with destruction even while living ; though he was the first-born. This therefore is a great and glorious matter indeed ; that Abel though dead was still alive, and canonized (as we call it) in another life ; a canoni-% zation, far more blessed and more really divine, than is the state of any of those whom the Pope has ever canonized ! The death of Abel was indeed horrible : for he did not suffer death without excruciating torment, nor without many agonies of tears. And yet his death was a goodly death : for now he lives a better and more blessed life than he did before. For this corporal life of ours is lived in sins, and is ever in danger of death. But that life which is to come is eternal, and perfectly free from all trials and troubles, both of the body and of the soul.

No ! God does not inquire after the sheep and the oxen that are slain, but He does inquire after the men who are slain. Men therefore have the hope of a resurrection. They have a God who incjuires after them, even after their death in the flesh, and who brings them back from that death unto an eternal life, — a God who inquires after their blood, as most " precious" to Him, as the Psalmist also saith, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Ps. 116. 15).

This inquiry for the saints after their death, and this their resiu'rection, is the glory of the human race, obtained for it by the Seed of the woman, which bruised the serpent's head. And the case of Abel is the first example of this promise which was

378 CHAPTER IV. 10.

made to Adam and Eve ; and by this example God showed that the serpent harmed not Abel, although He caused him to be thus murdered by his brother. This was indeed an instance of the serpent's ' bruising the heel' of the woman's Seed. But when he attempted to bite his head, that is, his life, he himself was crushed. For God, in answer to Abel's faith in the promised Seed, required his blood after his death, and proved Himself thereby to be Abel's God still. This is all proved by what next follows.

Ver. 10. And He said, What hast thou done f The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.

Cain's sin hath hitherto lain " at the door." And the preced- ing circumstances plainly show how hard he struggled to keep his sin asleep. For, being interrogated by his father concerning his brother Abel, and his father having asked him where he was, ^he adds to his murder absolute falsehood. And this answer of Cain moreover shows, that the words of the inquiry were spoken by Adam, in his own person, and not in the person of the Divine Majesty. For Cain considers that the deed was hidden from his father, of course, as being mere man, but he could not have so thought concerning the Divine Majesty. Therefore had it been God who had spoken to him, in his own proper Divine Person, He Avould have returned a different answer. But as he thought that he was speaking to a man only, he denied the deed he had done altogether, saying, " I know not." As if he had added. There are numerous perils by which a man may perish. He may be destroyed by wild beasts ; he may be drowned in some river ; or he may lose his life by some other manner of death. And Cain no doubt thought that his father would imagine anv other death of Abel rather than that his own brother had perpetrated such a deed as to murder him. But Cain could not deceive the Holy Spirit in Adam. Adam therefore then speaks openly, in the person of God, and at once convicts him of the murder, saying, " What hast thou done?" As if he had said, ' Why dost thou persist in denying the deed ; be assured that thou canst not de- ceive God, who hath revealed to me the whole. Thou thinkest that the blood of thy brother is hidden by the earth witli which

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thou liast concealed it. But it is not so absorbed by the earth, and concealed by it, as to prevent its crying aloud unto God.' Thus did Adam, by the Spirit of God, indeed wake up in Cain liis sin, which was lying asleep " at the door," and drag it forth to light.

The text now before us therefore is full of consolation to the saints, to support them against the enemies and murderers of the church ; for it teaches us that our afflictions and sufferings, and the shedding of our blood, fill heaven and earth with their cries. I believe therefore that Cain was so terror-struck in his mind by these words of his father, and that he was so confused and astounded, that he knew not what to say, nor what to do. For no doubt his thoughts were, ' If my father Adam thus knows all the circumstances of the murder which I have committed, how can I any longer doubt that the whole is known unto God, unto angels, and unto heaven and earth. Whither therefore can I flee ! Which way shall I turn me — wretched man that I am ! '

And the case is exactly the same with murderers to this day.» They are so harassed with the stings of conscience, after the crime of murder has been committed by them, that they are always in a state of alarm. It seems to them that heaven and earth have put on a changed aspect towards them, and tliey know not whither to flee, so awful a thing is this crying of blood that has been shed, and so horrible an agony is an accusing conscience. And the case is just the same also under all other atrocious sins which have been committed. The committers of them experience the same distresses of mind, when sorrow of spirit lays hold of them, for what they have done. The whole creation seems changed towards them ; and even when they speak to persons with whom they have been familiar, and when they hear the answers which they make, the very sound of their voice appears to them altogether changed, and their countenances seem to wear an altei'ed aspect. Which way soever they turn their eyes, all things are closed, as it were, with mourning and horror. So fierce and destroying a monster is a guilty conscience. Unless there- fore such great sinners are succoured and upheld from above, they must put an end to their existence from ai)guish and intoler- able pain and despair.

In this place also Moses adopts his usual bre\ ity, wliieh brcvitv,

380 CHAPTEK IV. 10.

liowever, exceeds in force all abundance of words. In the first place, he makes use of a very striking figure of speech when he attributes to the shed blood of Abel the cry of a voice which fills heaven and earth. For how can that voice be small or weak which is uttered from earth, and fills the ears of God in heaven. Abel therefore who, when alive, was patient under injuries, and gentle, and placid of spirit, now, when dead and buried in the earth, is utterly unable to endure the injury he has received. He who before dared not utter a syllable of complaint against his brother, now cries aloud, and so engages the attention of God by his cry, that God Himself descends from heaven and charges the murderer with his crime. Moses therefore here uses the strongest term. He does not say, * The voice of thy brother's blood speak- eili unto Me from the ground,' but " the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me," &c., as heralds proclaim their intelligence aloud, when, with exerted voice, they call men together to a public assembly.

, And all these things are thus written, as I have before ob- served, to cause us to see that our God is merciful, and that He loves His saints, has a peculiar care of them, and inquireth after them, and searcheth them out ; and that, on the contrary. He is angry with the murderers of His saints, and hates them, and will assuredly punish them. And this consolation is most necessary for us ; for, when we are set upon by our enemies and miirderers, we are apt to conclude that our God has forgotten us, and has thrown off all care of us. For we think within ourselves that if God did care for us, He would not permit such things to come upon us. And Abel might also have thought the same, saying to himself, God surely cares nothing for me ; for if He did. He would not suffer me thus to be murdered by my brother.

But only look at what follows, and see whether God had not all the while a greater care of Abel than Abel could possibly have had of himself. For how could Abel, had it been possible for him to have survived the murder, have inflicted on his brother such vengeance as God here inflicts upon him, after his death, by his brother's hands ? How could he, if alive, execute such awful judgment on his brother as God here executes ? For now Abel's blood cries aloud unto God, who, while alive, was of a spirit the most gentle and meek. Abel, now dead, accuses his

CREATION. 381

brother, before God, of being a murderer ; whereas, if alive, he would bear all the injuries of his brother in silence, and would even conceal all his feelings under them. For who was it that betrayed Cain, and accused him of having slain his brother? Does not the text here tell us that the accuser was the blood of the murdered Abel? Yes ! that blood still fills the ears of God and of men with its not yet ceased cries.

These things, I say, are all full of consolation : especially unto us who now suffer persecution from the popes and wicked princes, on account of our doctrine. They have exercised upon us the ut- most cruelty, and have vented their rage against godly men, not in Germany only, but in other parts in Europe also. And all this sin is disregarded by the Papacy, as if it were nothing but a joke. Nay, the Papists really consider it to be the " service" of God (John 16. 2). All this sin therefore as yet 'lieth at the door.' But it will be woken up and made manifest in its time. For the blood of that best and most faithful of martyrs, Leonard Caizer, which was shed in Bavaria, cries aloud still. Nor has the cry of the blood of Henry of Zutphan, shed by his own countrymen, ceased ; nor the blood of our brother Anthony of England, poured out by his English enemies. Not to mention a thousand others ; who, although their names are not so pro- minent and renowned, were yet fellow-sufferers with the con- fessors and martyrs. The blood of all these, I say, crieth aloud still : and that cry will, in its time, cause God to descend fi'om Heaven and to execute judgment in the earth — a judgment which will be awful and intolerable to the enemies of the Gospel,

Let us not think therefore that our blood is disregarded of God. Let us not imagine for a moment that God regardeth not ovir afflictions. No ! He collects all our tears, and puts them into His bottle (Ps. 56. 8). The cry of the blood of all the godly who have thus been slain, penetrates the clouds, enters the heavens, and comes even unto the throne of God, and moves Him to come forth and vindicate the blood of the righteous that has been shed (Ps. 79. 10). — And in the same manner as these things are written for our consolation, so are they also written for the terror of our adversaries. For what think you can be more awe-striking to these our tyrants to hear, than that the blood of all they have slain continually cries aloud and accuses

382 CHAPTER IV. 10.

them before God ? God is indeed loiig-sufFering, especially now towards the end of the world ; and therefore sin lieth the longer " at the door." Vengeance does not immediately follow. But it is sure and certain that God is most righteously offended with all this sin, and that He will never suffer it to pass away un- punished.

Such is the judgment of God on Cain. But my belief is, that this judgment was not executed on the first day of the murder, but that some time intervened between the murder and this terror on Cain, from God. For God is, in His nature, long-suffering : because He waits for the returning of sinners to Himself. But He does not, on that account, omit or forget to punish them. For He is the righteous judge both of the living and of the dead, as we confess in the Creed of our faith. God therefore exercised this His judgment in the very beginning of the world, memorable in the case of these two brothers. He judged and condemned the living murderer, and justified the slain righteous Abel. And He excommunicated Cain, and drove him into those agonies of soul that the space of the whole creation seemed too narrow to contain him. For from the moment he saw that God would be the avenger of his brother's ' crying blood,' he found safety nowhere. While to Abel, on the contrary, the space both of earth and of heaven gives an unbounded latitude of security.

Why should we ever doubt therefore that God ponders and numbers in His heart the afflictions of His people ? And that He measui'es our tears, and inscribes them all on adamantine tablets % and which tears, the enemies of the church of Christ can never erase by any device of theirs, but by their repentance alone, for what they have done to His saints. Manasses was a terrible tyrant, and a most inhuman persecutor of the godly. And his banishment and captivity would never have sufficed to have blotted out these sins. But when he acknowledged his sin and repented, in truth, — then the Lord showed him mercy. — So Paul had, in his case, and so the Pope and the bishops have now, in their case, only one way left them, — to acknowledge their sin, and to supplicate the forgiveness of God. But as they do not this, God will sm'ely require at their hands, in His fury, the blood of the godly. Let no one hold a doubt of this. So here, Abel is dead, but Cain is still alive. But O ! good God !

CRKATION. 383

what a life of misery does he hve ! For his wishes are, that he had never been born. Because he ever hears the voice of his excommunication, and expects every moment death, and tlie vengeance of God upon his sin. And the awful case of our ad- versaries, and of the church's tyrants shall, in its time, be exactly the same.

Ver. 11. And noiv art thou cursed from the earth loliich hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother'' s Mood from thy hand.

Thus far have we heard the manner in which the sin of Cain was revealed, by the crying blood of his brother Abel ; and that he was hereby convicted of the murder by his father Adam, and that the judgment of God concerning the two brothers was, that the one should not only be justified but canonised, as we say, and declared to be a saint, and the first fruits, as it were, of this blessed Seed of the righteous, but that the other brother, who was the first-born, should be condemned and excommunicated or cast out, as the foUoAving sacred narrative now shows ; for Moses now proceeds to record the punishments which were in- flicted of God on this fratricide.

And here, in the first place, the careftilness and discrimination of the Holy Spirit, even " from the beginning," is most worthy our observation. For above, when the punishment was inflicted on Adam for his sin, the person of Adam was not cursed, but the earth only. And even the earth was not cursed absolutely in itself, but a certain excuse, as it were, was made for it. For the curse was pronounced thus : " Cursed is the ground, for thy sake'^ (Gen. 2. 17). Hence it is, that Paul saith, "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly :" that is, not of its own will or fault. But because the earth instrumentally caused man to become a sinner ; therefore also the earth was compelled to bear the curse, as the instrument, in the same manner as gold, the sword, &c., are cursed, not in themselves, but because men sin by their means. This is most beautiful reasoning, as it were, in the Holy Spirit, when he thus distinguishes between the earth and Adam. He makes the curse to fall on the earth, but pre- serves the person of Adam.

But in the instance now before us, the Holy Spirit speaks of

384 CHAPTER TV. 11.

Cain otherwise. He curses the person of Cain. And why is this ? Is it because the sin of Cain, as a murderer, was greater than the sin of Adam and Eve ? Not so. But because Adam was that root from whose flesh and loins Christ, that blessed Seed, should be born. This Seed therefore is that which was spared. For the sake of this Blessed Seed, this fruit of the loins of Adam, the curse is transferred from the person of Adam to the earth, the very instrument. So that Adam bears the curse of the earth, but his person is not cursed : because from his posterity Christ was to be born. — But because Cain, by his sin, fell from this glory of being the root of the blessed Seed ; therefore his person is cursed. And the Holy Spirit says to him, " Cursed art thou :" that we might understand that he was cut off from the glory of the promised Seed, and was condemned never to have, in his posterity, such a seed as that Seed, through which the BLESSING should come. This was Cain's rejection from all that stupendous glory of the promised Seed. For Abel was now slain : therefore there could now be no posterity from him. But Adam was appointed still to serve God by his generating child- ren. In Adam alone therefore, Abel being slain, and Cam be- ing accursed and rejected, the hope of the Blessed Seed rested, until Seth was born unto him.

The words of the Holy Spirit here, are indeed few, when He saith to Cain, " Cursed art thou." But they are words w^orthy the deepest and most diligent ponderings. The words are, in their import, as if the Holy Spirit had said to Cain, ' Thou art no longer he from wdiom the blessed Seed can be hoped for.' By these few words therefore Cain is rejected for ever, and is cut off as a branch from its stem : so that he can no longer hope for that glory which he so much strove to hold fast. For Cain's great desire was that the glory of this future blessing should be propagated from his loins, and proceed from his posterity. But the more he strove to secure this glory, the further he was fi'om obtaining it. And just so it is with all the wicked : for the more they labour to accomplish their pui*poses, the more surely they fail, and fall.

And here hegin (as we have also before observed in the case of the offerings of Cain and Abel), the two churches, which are ever at perfect enmity with each other ; the church of Adam, and

CREATION.

the i^odly which possess the hope and promise of the blessed Seed ; and the other, the church of Cain, which lost this hope and this ]iromise by sin, and never could recover it. For in the Deluge the whole posterity of Cain was utterly destroyed : so that no one prophet, nor any saint, nor any head of a church of the posterity of Cain, was left in existence : so utterly were all thirigs denied to Cain, and taken from him, by this one word, when the Holy Spirit said to him, " Cursed art thou."

But the expression " From the earth" is also added. This is as it were a tempering of the awful wrath of God upon Cain. For if the Holy Spirit had said, ' From heaven,' it would have taken away the hope of salvation from the whole posterity of Cain, for ever. But now, since the expression is, " From the earth," the fall of Cain's posterity from the promise and glory of the blessed Seed is threatened and determined ; and yet, a door was left open, by which it might come to pass that some private persons of the generation of Cain might, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, join themselves to the posterity and church of Adam, and be saved; as indeed in after ages it came to pass. For although the Jews alone retained the glory of giving birth to this blessed Seed, and possessed the promise which was in Him, according to the Psalm, " He hath not dealt so with every nation ; and as for His judgments they have not known them" (Ps. 147. 20) : yet the Gentiles had the right of beggars (if I may so express it) ; and by begging they obtained the same Mess- ing, through the Divine mercy, which the Jews possessed through the true posterity of Adam, or the promise of God.

In like manner also all rule in the church was absolutely denied to the Moabites and Amorites ; and yet, many private individuals among them embraced the religion of the Jews. It was thus also that all right in the church was taken away from Cain and his posterity, absolutely. Yet so that permission w^as left them to leg as it were, for this grace. This right of being beggars was not taken fi-om them. For Cain, because of his sin, was cast out from the right of sitting at the family table of Adam. But the right was left him in his posterity, to beg and gather up as dogs the crumbs that fell from his father's table (Matt. 15. 26, 27). This is Avhat is signified by the Hebrew expression, MIN haadema, " From the earth."

B B

386 CHAPTER IV. 11.

I make these observations upon the present passage, because there is a great probability that many of the posterity of Cain, in the earhest ages of the world, joined themselves to the holy patriarchs. But they abode in the church as private persons only, and without any office therein ; as being those who had utterly lost the promise of the blessed Seed, being born from tlieir body and posterity. And the loss of this promise was a mighty matter to them indeed. And yet this very great curse w^as so mitigated toward them, that there was granted to them, as we have said, the riffht of beina; beggars for it as it were. Heaven was not absolutely denied them, provided they would join themselves with the true church ; as it is written, and parti- cularly described, Isaiah 56, verses 3 to 8. But this joining of themselves to the true church, among his posterity, Cain strove to hinder in various ways. For he set up new forms of worship, and invented numerous ceremonies ; that thereby he also might appear to be the church. Those however Avho departed from him, and joined themselves to the true church were saved ; although they were compelled to despair of the glory of Christ being born from their body or posterity. But let us now return to the sacred text.

Moses here uses a very striking personification. He repre- sents the earth as being a kind of dread beast, when he speaks of her as having opened her mouth and swallowed the innocent blood of Abel. But why does he speak of the earth in terms so terrible, when all these horrid things were transacted without her will or knowledge ? Nay, when the earth is a good creature of God, and these things were done against her will, and her struggle to prevent them ? For Paul, as we have just observed saith, " The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, &c. (Rom. 8. 20). My reply is, this was done, and the Spirit thus spake (as recorded by Moses) as a terror to Adam and to all his posterity, that they might live in the fear of God, and might dread the sin of murder. For the words of Adam mean, and are as if he had said, ' Behold the earth hath opened her mouth and swallowed the blood of thy brother ; but she ought to have swallowed thee, the murderer. The earth indeed is a good creature, and is good to the good and the godly; but to the wicked she is fiill of yawnings and loud cries.' It is to this end

CREATION. 387

tliat Moses records the Holy Spirit as having used these terrible expressions, in reference to the earth, through the mouth of Adam. It was to strike terror and confusion into murderers. Nor is there any doubt that Cain, after ho heard these things from the mouth of his angry father, was terror-struck in his soul, like Judas, and overwhelmed with confusion ; so that he knew not which way to turn. The expressions, " Which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand," are indeed full of terror ; and they point out the awfulness of this murder, in deeper colours than any pictures could represent it. Then follows : —

Ver. 12. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her streiigtli.

The Lord had above said unto Adam, " Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." But here the Holy Spirit speaks to Cain otherwise. His words before us are as if He had said, ' Thou hast watered and manured the earth, not with en- riching dung and reviving rain, but with thy brother's blood. Therefore the earth shall be to thee less productive than to others. For the blood which thou hast shed shall hinder the strength and the fruitfulness of the earth to thee.' And this is the second part of the punishment; namely the bodily curse on Cain: — that, although the earth should be just alike cultivated by Adam and by Cain, yet it should be more fruitful to Adam than to Cain, and should yield its return to the former for his labours ; but that to the laboxu's of Cain, it should not yield any such re- turns of fruitfulness, on account of the blood shed ; which should hinder it, though by nature desirous to return, for all the labours of men, her fruitfulness and strength.

But here also we must offer a remark concerning the gram- matical peculiarity of the original language. In the present passage, Moses terms the earth, iiaadama. But in the passage which follows, " A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth," he uses the term arez. Now adama signifies, accord- ing to grammatical interpreters, ' that part of the earth which is cultivated ;' in which trees grow and other fruits of the earth which are adapted for food. But arez signifies ' the whole

388 CHAPTER lY. 12.

earth,' whether cultivated or uncultivated. This curse of God therefore properly has reference to that part of the earth which is cultivated for food. And the curse implies, that where one ear of wheat should bring forth three hundred grains for Adam, it should bring forth scarcely ten grains for Cain the murderer ; and for this end, that Cain might behold, on every side of him, proofs that God hates and punishes the shedding of blood.

Ver. 12. A fugitive and a vagabond shall thou be ifi the earth.

And this was a third punishment contained in the Di^dne curse on Cain ; which punishment, continues to rest on murderers to this day. For unless they find reconciliation, they wander about, having no fixed abode or certain dwelling-place.

We have here two original terms, novo nod, ' a vagabond,' and ' a fugitive.' But my manner is to distinguish them thus. I consider no to signify, ' the uncertainty of the place in which you are, or dwell ; that is, how long you can remain there. In the same manner, as the Jews at this day, are ' vagabonds' or wanderers : because they have no certain or fixed dwelling- place, and are in hourly fear, lest they should be compelled to go forth fi'om where they now may be dwelling. But nod signifies, the ^ imcertainty of the place to lohich you can go; that is, the not knowing where to go : so that, while, on the one hand, you have no certain place in which to dwell ; to that misery is added the further misery, that when you must leave your present un- certain place of abode, you know not wdiither, or to what other place, to go. The original, novo nod, therefore contains in it a double punishment ; — the not being able to remain with any cer- tainty in any place ; and the not knowing whither to go, when you are driven from j'^our present uncertain place of abode ; as we find it also in Psalm 109. 10, " Let his children be con- tinually vagabonds." Venoa ianuu banef, that is, ^ let them, by wandering, wander ;' or, ' let them be wanderers indeed, or utter wanderers ;' that is, let them never find a place in which they can dwell with certainty or safety. If they are this year in Greece, let them be compelled, the next year, to wander into Italy ; and so on perpetually.

Just such is evidentlv the miserable state of the Jews at the

CHEATION. 389

present day. They can fix their dwelling-place nowhere for a certainty. And to this calamity of the Jews of the present day, God adds another misery in the case of Cain, that, when he is driven from one place of abode, he should not know where to find another, and thus should live suspended, as it were, between heaven and earth, not knowing where to stop, nor where to find any continuing place of rest or of refuge. And in this manner was the sin of Cain visited with a threefold punishment. In the first place, he is deprived of all spiritual or church glory, for the promise concerning the blessed Seed being born from his pos- terity, is taken away from him. In the second place, the earth is cursed to him in her fruitfulness, which is a domestic punish- ment, reaching to all his provision for this life. And thirdly, the punishment of a j)olitical or civil calamity is inflicted on him, in his being made a vagabond, and never able to find any certain place of abode or rest.

But still, a way of joining himself unto the true church is left him, but without the promise ! For as I have before said, if any of the posterity of Cain did join themselves to the true church, and to the holy fathers, they were saved. And thus there was left to them the domestic priAalege, but without the blessing. And so also the political privilege was preserved to them, that they might build a city and dwell therein, but for how long, was still left uncertain. Cain therefore in his posterity, is still a beggar, as it were, in the church, in the domestic house- hold, and in the civil state.

And moreover with these punishments of Cain, there was joined, as an alleviation, that he should not be slain immediately on account of the murder which he had committed ; as also after- wards, a like Levitical law was ordained concerning manslayers. But Cain was preserved alive, as an example to others, that they might fear God and flee from the sins of murder. Let these ob- servations sufiice therefore concerning the sin of Cain, and the judgment and vengeance of God on the same.

But there are some who here reply, and indeed the saints them- selves often so argue to themselves, that the godly also sometimes endure these same curses, while the wicked, on the contrary, are free from them. They look at the Apostle Paul, as an instance, wliere he snvs that hi' also ' wiuidered about, and had no certain

390 CHAPTER IV. 12.

dwelling-place.' And verily our own condition is precisely the same at this present day. We preach to the churches, and have either no certain dwelling-places at all, or are cMven into banish- ment, or are in fear of banishment every hour. And the same was the condition of Christ, of his apostles and prophets, and of the patriarchs of old.

In the same manner the Scripture saith concerning Jacob, " The elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25. 23). But does not Jacob become a servant when we see him a most distressed supplicant ? Does he not, from fear of his brother, haste away into exile ? Does he not, on his return home, supplicate his brother and fall on his knees before him ? Is not Isaac also seen to be a most miserable beggar? (Gen 6. 1 to 35). Abraham his father, also goes into exile among the nations, and possesses not, in all the world, a place whereon to set his foot, as Stephen saith (Acts 7. 1 to 5). On the other hand, the mocking and wicked Ishmael is a king, and from him are born the dukes of the land of Midian (Gen. 25. 16) before Israel entered into the land of promise. In the same manner, it will be seen, in the fol- lowing verses of the present chapter, that Cain first built the city Enoch (ver. 17), and that from him were born shepherds, workers in metals, and inventors of music. All these things seem to the world to prove that the curses of God are wrongly conjined to Cain and his posterity, seeing that these same curses also fre- quently rest on the true church ; while on the contrary it is well with the wicked, and they flourish.

These things are often a stumbling-block, not to the world onlj^, but to the saints themselves, as the Psalms in many places testify. And the prophets also are frequently found to grow indignant, as does Jeremiah, when they see the wicked to possess a freedom, as it were, from the evils of life, while they are oppressed and afflicted in various ways. ISIen may therefore naturally inquire, Where is the curse of the wicked ? Where is the blessing of the godly ? Is not rather the contrary the truth ? Cain is a vaga- bond, and settled nowhere ; and yet Cain is the first man that builds a cit}^, and has a certain place to dwell in. But we will reply to these inquiries more fiilly hereafter. We will now pro- ceed with the text of Moses.

CREATION. 391

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 13. Aiid Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can hear.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 13. And Cain said unto the Lord, My iniquity is greater than can he remitted.

Here Moses seems to have fixed a cross for the grammarians and the Kabbins. For they crucify this passage in various ways. Lyra recites the opinions of some who explain this passage afirmatively, considering it to mean, that Cain said in his despair, that his sin was gi'eater than could be pardoned ; and it is thus that we have rendered this expression of Cain. Augustine also retained this view of the passage, for he says, ' Thou liest, Cain ; for the mercy of God is greater than the misery of all the sinners of the whole world put together.'

The Rabbins however expound the passage as being a negative inter7'ogation, making Cain to say, ' Is my iniquity greater than can be remitted!' But if this rendering be the true one, Cain not only does not acknowledge his sin, but excuses it, and more- over insults God for laying upon him a punishment greater than he deserved. But it is just in this way that the Rabbins almost everywhere corrupt the sense of the Scripture. Therefore for myself, I begin to hate them, and I admonish all who read them, to read them with great caution and judgment. For although they did possess the knowledge of some things, by tradition as it were, from the fathers, yet they corrupted them in various ways ; and therefore they often deceived, by those corruptions, even Jerome himself. Nor did the poets of old ever so fill the world with their fables as the wicked Jews did the Scriptm'e with their absurd opinions. A great labour therefore is thereby thrown in our way to get hold of the pure text, and to clear it fi'om their false opinions and comments.

The cause of all this error is, that some are grammarians only, but know nothing of the divine things concerned ; that is, they are not divines also ; therefore they are compelled to dream and to guess, and thereby to crucify both themselves and the Scrip-

392 CHAPTER IV. 13.

tures. For how is it possible that such persons should be right judges of things which they do not understand. Now, the divine subject-matter in the present passage is, that Cain is accused in his own conscience. And no one, not only no wicked man, but not even the devil himself, can endure this judgment of his own conscience ; as James also witnesses, ' The devils also believe and tremble before God' (James 2. 19). And Peter also saith, Whereas angels which are greater in power and might cannot endure that judgment which the Lord will exercise upon blas- phemers (2 Pet. 2. 11). So also Manasses, in his prayer, con- fesses that all men tremble before the face of the Lord's anger.

All these things, therefore, fully prove that there was not in Cain, under this his judgment, enough of spirit left to enable him to set himself against God, and to expostulate with Him. For God is an Almighty adversary to contend vnth, and He always makes His first attack upon the heart, and fastens His grip on the conscience. Now of this matter the Rabbins knownothmg, nor liave any understanding thereof whatsoever ; and therefore they speak on this judgment of God, as if it were a matter transacted before men, in judgment, where a fact is either falsely denied or A'ainly excused, before the judge. The judgment of God however is quite a different matter. For there, as Christ saith, " By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be con- demned" (Matt. 12. 37). dain therefore does acknowledge his sin in the present passage, but he does not grieve so much con- cerning his sin as concerning his punishment for it. Cain's words therefore are here to be understood affirmatively, and they show the horribleness of his despair.

A further proof of this entire despair of Cain is, that he does not utter one word of reverence. He never mentions the name of God, or of his father. His conscience is so confused, and so overwhelmed with terror and despondency, that he is not able to think of any hope of pardon. So the Epistle to the Hebrews gives the same description of Esau, saying, " Who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright; forwe know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully vnih. tears" (Heb. 12. 16, 17). Thus, in the present instance, Cain feels his punishment, but he grieves more for his punish-

CREATION. 303

inent than for his sin. And all persons in the like despair do just the same.

The two original words of this passage, MiNSO and AON, again form two crosses for grammarians. Jerome translates the clause, " My iniquity is greater than can be pardoned." Sanctes, the grammarian of Pagnum, a man of no mean erudition, and evidently a diligent scholar, renders the passage, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." But by such a rendering, we shall make of Cain a martyr, and of Abel a sinner. And concerning the original word nosa, I have before observed, that when it is applied to sin, it signifies, ' to lift sin up, or off, on high :' that is, ' to take it out of the way.' Just as we, by the use of a common figure, say, ' to remit sin,' or ' the remission of sins,' as we have it (Psalm 32.) aschre nl:sciiu pksche : which, when rendered literally, means, ' the being made happy, by having been relieved from crime or sin.' We render it, " Blessed is he whose trans- gression is forgiven :" that is, whose sin is taken away. As we have it also again, in the Prophet Isaiah, "The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (neschu aon) : that is, ' shall be relieved from their crime or sin ;' or ' shall be the people of the remission of sins' (Isa. 33. 24).

The other original term aoni, gi'ammarians derive from the verb jVNAH : which signifies, ' to be afflicted,' as in Zacharia, i' Behold thy king cometh unto thee poor or afflicted." Our translation renders it "meek," &c., as we find it also in the Psalm, " Lord remember David and all his meekness, or lowli- ness :" that is, ' ail his afflictions.' From this same original root is derived the expression, " low estate" (or " lowliness") of his handmaiden, used by the Virgin Mary in her song (Luke 1. 48). It is this meaning of the original word aoni which induced Sanctes to render it, in the present passage, punishment. — But here the original aoni signifies ' iniquity,' or ' sin,' as it does also in many other passages of the Holy Scripture, which appears still more plainly, from the verb to ' lift up' or ' to lift ofi^j' which stands connected with it. Hence it is that grammarians, who are notliiiKj morn than grammarians, and who know nothiiio- of divine things, find their crosses in all such passages ; and crucif)^, not only the Scripture, but themselves and their hearers. But in the interpretation of tlie Holy Scripture, the subject or di^■ine

394 CHAPTER IV. 14.

matter, and sense, are first to be determined ; and when that appears in all respects consistent with itself, then next the gram- matical propriety is to be explained. The Rabbins however take a directly contrary course. And hence it grieves me much that divines and the holy fathers so frequently follow them.

Ver. 14. Behold Thou hast di'iv en me out this day from the face of the earth ; and from Thy face shall I he hid ; and I shall he a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth ; and it shcdl come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

From these words it still more plainly appears that the sentence and curse on Cain were pronounced of the Lord, through the mouth of Adam. Cain here acknowledges, first, that he is driven out from the domestic and political communion ; and, secondly, that he was excommunicated from the church.

Of the difference of the meaning of the original words ada- MAH and EREZ, we have spoken above. We have shown that EREZ signifies the whole earth generally ; but that adamah means the cultivated part of the earth in particular. The mean- ing therefore of these words of Cain is, ' I am now compelled to flee from Thy presence and from that place of the earth which I have cultivated. The whole world indeed lies before me, but I must be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth : that is, I shall have no certain dwelling-place therein.' In this same way also, murderers among us are punished Avitli exile, and become vagabonds in the earth. These words therefore afford a further evidence of the manner in which the words, which Adam said above, are to be understood, " Cursed art thou upon earths They refer to Cain's being driven away into banishment. This part of Cain's punishment therefore is a civil or political punishment, by which he is shut out from the whole civil community.

But that which Cain next adds, " And fi'om Thy face shall I be hid," is an ecclesiastical or church punishment. It is an ex- communication from the true church of God. For as the priest- hood and the kingdom rested with Adam, and Cain, on account of his sin, was excommunicated from Adam, he was thereby also deprived of the glory both of the priesthood and of the kingdom. But why Adam adopted this punishment of expelling his son

CREATION. 305

from him, and excommunicating him from his presence, is ex- plained by the words which we just before heard from the father's mouth, " When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength :" as if he had said, ' Thou art cursed, and thy labours are cursed also. Therefore if thou slialt remain with us upon earth, it cannot be but that both thou and we also must perish with hunger. For thou hast stained the earth with thy brother's blood ; and wherever thou art thou must bear about the blood of thy brother with thee : and even the earth herself will exact of thee the punishment of that blood, by not yielding to thee her strength.'

There is a sentence almost the same as this which was pro- nounced on Cain by Adam, contained in 1 Kings 1, where Solomon gives commandment to Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, say- ing, ' Slay Joab, and thou shalt take away the innocent blood which was shed by Joab, from me and my father's house. And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head. But upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the Lord" (vers. 28 to 34). As if he had said, ' If Joab sutler not this punishment of his unjust murder, the whole kingdom must suffer that punish- ment, and be shaken from one end to the other, by wars.' It is just thus that Adam speaks in the present passage. As if he had said, ' If thou shalt remain on the earth here with us, God will bring punishments upon us for thy sake : so that the earth will not yield to us her fruit.'

But now let us offer our reply to the question above raised concerning Cain and his posterity, not being the only persons subject to the curse of wandering and affliction, seeing that the saints also, it is argued, are subject to the same ; and that Cain, though thus cursed, was yet the first who built a city, &c. — It was said to Cain, as his curse, " A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon earth." And yet (as we have said) Cain is the first man who builds a city : and his posterity from that time so increased, that they seduced, oppressed, and so utterly overthrew the church of God, as not to leave more than eight persons, from the posterity of Seth, remaining. The whole of the other multi- tude of mankind, who perished in the Flood, had followed Cain, as the sacred text })lainly declares : " And it came to pass, when

396 CHAPTER IV. 11.

men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair ; and they took them wives of all which they chose" (Gen. 6. 1, 2). And it is also said that these sons of God, when they came in into the daughters of men, begat giants and mighty men, which were of old, men of renown (ver. 4). As therefore Cain had so great and mighty a posterity, and as he first built a city, how can it be true (men ask) that he was a fugitive and vagabond upon earth, according to the curse pro- nounced upon him ?

We will reply therefore to the literal facts before us. For what we have said above, in reference to the New Testament, concerning Paul and the apostles, and Christ Himself and the prophets, — that is altogether a different subject. — When Adam here says to Cain, " A fugitive and a vagabond slialt thou be upon earth," he speaks these words to him to send him away : designedly joining no precept or direction therewith. He does not say to him, ' Go to the East :' he does not say, ' Go to the South :" he does not mention any one place to which he should go. He gives him no direction what to do. He simpl}^ sends him away : but as to whither he should go, or what he should do, he expresses no concern. As to what the will and the way of his son may be hereafter, the father takes no manner of care whatever. He adds no promise of protection. He does not say, ' God will take care of thee ;' nor, ' God will defend thee.' But as the whole wide heaven lies open to the bird, leaving him the liberty to fly where he will, but giving him a sight of no place in that heaven, to which he might flee in safety for protection from the attack of the other birds : so does Adam dismiss Cain. This Cain fully feels ; and therefore it is tliat he adds the utterance, " And it shall come to pass, that every one that findetli me shall slay me."

Now the condition of Adam in paradise was different fi'om that of Cain, and better. Adam had sinned, and by his sin he had sunk himself under death. But when he was driven out of paradise, God appointed to him, by His command, a certain em- ployment,— that he should till the earth in a fixed and certain place. God also clothed him with a covering of skins. This, as we have said above, was a sign that God would take care of him and defend him. And that wliich exceeded all things else, a

CREATION. 397

glorious promise was made to the woman concerning her Seed, whicli should " bruise the serpent's head." But no one thing like these mercies, was left to Cain. He was sent away absolutely with- out the mention of any certain place or any certain employment. No command was given Itim, nor any promise made to him. He was like unto a bird set loose in the wide heaven, as we have said, to wander in its flight where it may. Such was the state and meaning of Cain's being truly and properly "a vagabond," without any fixed dwelling-place.

And thus unsettled and wandering are all those who have not the Word and the command of God, by which a certain place of worship, a certain ministry, and a certain describing of God as the object of worship, are vouchsafed unto them. And just such were Ave under the Papacy. There were a plenty of cere- monies of worship, and of works and exercises. But all these were undertaken and done without any command of God. This was truly a Cain-like trial, — to have no Word of God ; not to' know what to believe, nor what to hope, nor what to think ; but to do all things, and to nndertake all things, without any know- ledge or hope concerning the event. For what monk ever existed, who could aflirm or know that he did any one thing rightlv? For all things were mere human traditions, and the inventions of mere human reason, without the Word. And in the midst of all these things, we all wandered about, fluctuating in our , minds, like the wandering Cain : not knowi^ng anything of what ' the judgment of God would be concerning us ; whether He would look upon us with love or with hatred. And in this un- certainty were we all, at that time, taught and trained.

And in this same way were the whole posterity of Cain wan- derers and unsettled. For they had no promise nor command of God, and were without any certain rule, either to live by, or to die by. And if any of these did come to the knowledge of Christ, and joined themselves to the true church ; this did not come to them through any promise of God, but through His mere mercy.

But Seth, who was born afterwards, had, together with his posterity, the certain promise, certain dwelling-places, a certain worship of God, and certain rites of worship. But Cain, on the roiitrary, was always essentially " a vagabond." For although

398 CHAPTER IV. 14.

Cain did build a city, yet lie was ever in uncertainty how long he should retain it as a dwelling-place ; for he had no promise of God on which to depend. And what things soever ive possess, without the promise of God, how long we shall possess them is always an uncertainty. For Satan can either disturb them, or take them away altogether at a moment. On the other hand, when we move, fortified on every side by the command and pro- mise of God, Satan's strivings against us are all in vain : for God fortifies and secures, by His command, all that we possess. Although therefore Cain was the great lord, as it were, of the whole world, and possessed all the riches of the world ; yet be- cause he was without the promise of the help of God, and was thereby deprived of j^he guardianship of angels, he had nothing else to depend on, but human counsel and human reason. He was therefore truly " a vagabond" and unsettled wanderer. And it was from the conviction of this, that he added, —

And it shall come to pass that every one that Jindeth me shall slay me.

And this was a most certain and inevitable consequence. For after Cain had been deprived of all help of God and of his father ; after he had lost all right of priesthood and of the kingdom ; he saw the consequence to be, that any one who should find him might slay him. For he was excommunicated, spiritually and corporally. And yet God still conferred upon this wicked mur- derer a twofold benefit. He had lost both the kingdom and the church ; yet he retained the blessings of life and of posterity. For God promised to him the protection of his life, and gives him also a wife. These were two blessings, by no means to be de- spised ; and blessings which Cain had no ground to hope for, after he had heard the first part of his sentence from his father's mouth. And these blessings were moreover great, inasmuch as they afforded him a place and space for repentance : although they were uncertain and without any command of God : for God added to him no certain promise whatever. Just as we, when under the Papacy, came imto the mercy of God unexpectedly, and by accident, if I may so speak. For no certain promise was before us, that the truth would ever be made known to us, while

CREATION. 399

we lived ; or that antichrist would be made manifest to us. These two blessings however did come upon the posterity of Cain, for the elect's sake. For it is to be fully believed, that many of the posterity of Cain, avIio joined themselves to the true church, Avere saved. Just in the same manner, as afterwards a place was found among the Jews, for proselytes and Gentiles.

And though there was a most rigid law, that no Moabite or Ammonite should be engaged in any religious or church ser- vices of the Jews ; yet many Ammonites, and Moabites also, who came to the kings of Juda and served them, civilly, were saved. Tlius Riith, the ancestorial mother and primeval grand- mother of our Lord and Saviour, was herself a Moabitess. This was as it were an incidental mercy (if I may again so call it) ; tliat is, not a mercy before certified by a Divine promise thereof. And so again Naaman, so the king of the Ninevites, so Nebu- chadnezzar, so Evilmerodach, and others from among the Gen- tiles, were saved by the same incidental mercy, as it were. For they had not, as the Jews, any promise concerning Christ. It was in this manner, on account of the elect (who were designed of God to be saved by this His incidental, as it were, or unex- pected mercy), that the protection of his life, and that a wife and posterity were granted of God to Cain. For although his pos- terity were designed of God to live under the curse, as we have said, concerning the Moabites ; yet some of tlie patriarchs mar- ried wives out of this posterity of Cain.

(Authorized version.)

Ver. 15. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore lohosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall he taken on him sevenfold.

(Luther's Version.)

Ver. 15. And the Lord said unto him, Yea verily whosoever slayeth Cain shall be 2^unished sevenfold.

Jerome, in his Epistle to Damasus, maintains that Cain had begged of the Lord that he might be slain, and he so rushes, full sail as it were, into this opinion, that he has no doubt whatever of its trutli. Lyra follows Jerome, and resolutely affirms, that the

400 CHAPTER IV. 15.

context requires such an interpretation. But this error of theirs they owe entirely to their Rabbins, from whom they received it. For the true sense of the passage is, that every one was jjrohibiied from killing Cain, and it was therein that the Divine judgment iWas tempered with mercy, because God thereby gave to the murderer a certain breathing time from his punishment, giv- ing him thus his life in safety, and afterwards adding to that mercy a Avife.

Moreover, how is it at all probable that any wicked man should ask death at the hand of God, while the Divine judgment is now resting upon him ? For death is the very punishment of sin ; therefore he flees and dreads death, as the greatest part of his punishment. Wherefore away with all these Rabbinical absur- dities, among which may be justly ranked the opinion of Lyra, that this text ought to be divided, and the meaning made to be this, ' Wliosoever killeth Cain shall surely be severely punished ;' and the expression ^' sevenfold," which is contained also in the expression of Cain's punishment, they explain as meaning in the ^ seventh degree ;' that is, in the seventh generation. But the Rabbins are full worthy of behig left to such absurdities, seeing that they have rejected the light of the New Testament. They have caused us however a double labour, for we are compelled to clear the present and other texts from all such corruptions, and to vindicate their truth by disencumbering them of all such absurd comments. But it is my custom, now and then, to recite them, lest I should appear either proudly to despise the Rabbins alto- gether, or not to have read them at all, or to have paid no atten- tion to those of their -writings, which I had read. I do read them however and vmderstand them, but I read them with judgment and authority ; and I suffer not Christ to be obscured, nor the Word of God to be corrupted by them.

The Lord therefore does not, in this passage, at all alter His sentence concerning Cain's being cursed upon earth, but He per- mits him to enjoy this His occasional or incidental mercy, for the elect's sake, who were to be saved from the residue, mass, and dregs, as it were, of the curse, and therefore He says to Cain, that he shall not be killed, as he feared.

Wherefore there is no necessity for lacerating this text, as Rabbi Solomon does, who, after the words, " Whosoever slayeth

CRKATIOX. 401

Cain," puts a stoj) ; making it to be a hiatus or elijms ; as that noted line in Virml —

Quos ego sed motos praestat componere fluctus.

Whom I but now, be calm, ye boist'rous waves.

And then the expression, " Shall be punished sevenfold," the Rabbi refers to Cain himself, who was punished in his seventh generation. For Cain begat Enoch, and Enoch begat Irad, and Irad begat Mehujael, and Mehujael begat JSIethusael, and Methu- sael begat Lamech. And the Jews' fable u])on that passage (verse 23, below) that Lamech, when he was old, and his eyes were dim, was taken by his son Tubal Cain into a wood to hunt wild beasts, and that, when he was there, and shot at a wild beast, he accidentally shot Cain, who, in his wanderings, had concealed himself there. But all such things are mere fabulations of the Jews, and unworthy a place or notice in our schools. Moreover they militate against the very truth of the text. For if Cain was really designed of God to be killed in the seventh generation, and if that time was thus fixed for his death, by this text, he was not " a fugitive and a vagabond upon earth," in the sense in which the curse pronounced he should be. We condemn therefore this interpretation of Rabbi Solomon, with all judgment and autho- rity, because it militates directly against that sentence which God had before pronounced. And God is not man, that He should change His mind (1 Kings 15. 29, 30).

This rule, indeed, should be observed with strictness, in all interpretation of the Holy Scripture, that no meaning in the sub- sequent portion of any passage should be made to militate against the corresponding meaning of a preceding portion of it. And as to what the Rabbins moreover say, that the Deluge was the par- ticular punishment of Lamech's sin, in thus killing Cain, Lyra most justly refutes that vain error. For he very truly affirms that the deluge was the common punishment of the whole world of wicked men. We leave therefore all these Jewish absurdities, and hold fast the true meaning of the text now before us, that, when Cain feared lest he should be slain by any one who should find him, the Lord prevented him from being thus slain, and denounced on such murderer a sevenfold punishment greater than that of Cain. And though Lyra argues and inquires how it

c C

402 CHAPTER IV. 15.

could be, that he who should slay Cain could deserve a sevenfold greater vengeance than Cain deserved, who slew his own brother, of what profit is it to us to inquire into the counsel of God in such matters as these ? especially when it is certain that God nevertheless bestowed on Cain, even after his murder, the un- certain or incidental mercy of His protection ? or (as it is our custom to term it) the legal promise and blessing.

For there are two kinds of promises, or a twofold promise (as we have often set it forth). There are the legal promises (if I may so call them), which depend, as it were, upon our own works, such as the following, " If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land" (Isa. 1. 19). Again, ' I am God, showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments' (Exod. 20. 6). And also above, in this case of Cain, " If thou doest good, there shall be an alleviation," &c. (chap. 4. 7). And these legal promises have, for the most part, their coiTesponding threatenings attached to them.

But the other kind of promises are promises of grace, and with them no threatenings are joined. Such as the following : — " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; unto him shall ye hearken" (Deut. 18. 15). Again, " I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Jer. 31. 33). And again, ' I will put enmity between thee and the Seed of the woman' (Gen. 3. 15). Now these promises depend not in any way upon our works, but absolutely and only upon the goodness and grace of God, because He Avas pleased to make those promises, and to do what He thus promised. Just in the same way as we have the promises of baptism, of the Lord's Supper, and of the keys, &c. ; in which God sets before us His goodwill, and His mercy, and His works.

Now God gave no promise of this last kind to Cain. He only said to him, ' Whosoever shall slay thee shall be punished seven- fold.' But Adam 7tac? such a promise of grace made to /«'?/?. And Cain, because he was the first bom, otight to have received that promise as an inheritance from his parents. And that promise was the large and blessed promise of eternal glory ; because by it the Seed was promised which should bruise the serpent's head, and that also without anv work or merit of man. For that

CREATION. 403

promise had no condition joined to it, — such as, if thou shalt offer tliy sacrifices, if thou slialt do good, &c.

If therefore you compare this promise of grace with the words which God spake to Cain, the latter is as a mere crust which is lield out to a beggar. For even his hfe is not promised to him absohitely. Nothing more is said than a threatening pronounced against those who shoukl slay him. God does not say positively. No man sliall slay thee. He does not say, I will so overrule all others, that no one shall slay thee. Had the words been thus spoken, Cain might have returned into the presence of God and of his parents. But a command only is given to men that they slay not Cain. If therefore the words spoken to Cain be at all considered as a promise, it is that kind of promise which (as we have before said) depends on the works and walls of men. And yet even such a conditional promise is by no means to be des- pised, for these legal promises often embrace most important things. Thus Augustine observes that God gave to the Romans their empire on account of their noble virtues. And in the same manner we find, even to this day, that the blessings of those nations which keep themselves from murders, adulteries, and thefts, &c., are greater than those of other nations in which these wickednesses prevail. And yet, even those kingdoms and states which are the best constituted, possess notliing beyond these tempo7'al promises.

The Church however possesses the promises of grace, even the eternal promises. And although Cain was left utterly destitute of these promises, yet it was a great mercy that the teinporal mercies were left him, — that he was not immediately killed, — that a wife was given him, — that children w^ere born unto him, &c., — that he built a city, — that he cultivated the earth, — that he fed his cattle, and had possessions, — and that he was not utterly ejected from the society and fellowship of men. For God could not only have deprived Cain of all these blessings, but He could moreover have added to his body pestilence, epilepsy, apoplexy, the stone, the gout, and any other kind of disease. And yet there are some men disposed curiously to argue in what manner God could possibly have multiplied the cm'se of Cain sevenfold on himself or on any other.

As therefore God above deprives Cain of all the divine blessings.

404 CHAPTER IV. 15.

both spiritual and as pertaining to the Church and to the State, so here He mitigates that sentence, by commanding that no one should slay Cain. But God does not promise, at the same time, that all men should surely obey this His command. Therefore Cain, even with this corporal promise granted to him, is still an unsafe and unsettled " vaoabond." And it mio-ht be that if he continued in his wickedness he might be slain at any moment, while, on the contrary, if he did well, he might live a long time. But nothing is promised him with any certain promise, for although these corporal or legal promises are great and important, yet they are quite uncertain and conditional.

Whether therefore Cain was killed or not, I cannot Avith any certainty say, for the Scriptures afford no plain information upon that point. This one thing however can be evidently proved from the present text, that Cain had no certain promise of the preser- vation of his life, but that God left him to a life of uncertainty, doubtfulness, and restless wandering, and that He did no more than protect the life of Cain by a command and threatening which mio;ht restrain the wicked from killing him on account of the certain awful punishment which would follow that murder of the murderer. But it is equally evident that God made no indication of His will to prevent Cain from being killed, nor gave him any promise to that effect. And we know moreover what the nature of the law, or a legal command, is, and there are always very few who obey it. Therefore although it is not recorded at what time, in what place, or by whom Cain was slain, yet it is most probable that he was killed. The Scripture however makes no mention of it, even as it is quite silent also concerning the number of the years of Cain, and says nothing about the day of his birth or the day of his death. He perished together with his whole genera- tion (to use a vulgar proverb) ' without cross, candle, or God.' A few only of his generation are excepted, who were saved by the incidental (if I may so again express it) mercy of God.

A question is also here wont to be raised, as to what persons the words of Cain could possibly apply, when he says, " Every one that findeth me shall slay me ;" when it is evident that, be- sides Adam and Eve and their few daughters, no human beings were in existence. — I would at once reply therefore that the whole may be referred to the fact, that we behold the wicked

CKEATION. 405

" flee wlieii no man pursueth," as the Scripture saith : for they imagine to themselves various perils where none really exist. Just as we see it to be the case with murderers at the present day, who are filled with fears where all is safe ; who can remain quiet nowhere ; and who imagine death to be present every- where.

And when it follows, in the command of God, " Yea, veril}^, whosoever slayeth Cain shall be punished sevenfold ;" those words were not spoken merely on account of the fears of Cain : for Cain had sisters. And perhaps he greatly dreaded that sister wliom he had married, lest she should take vengeance on him for the murder of her brother. Moreover Cain had perhaps a vain thought of a long life of punishment, and he saw that many more sons might be born of Adam : he feared therefore the whole posterity of Adam. And it greatly increased these his fears, that God had left him nothing more than his incidental and uncertain mercy, without any certain promise of it. I do not consider that Cain feared the beasts at all, or dreaded being slain by them : for what had the sevenfold vengeance threatened to his murderer, to do with beasts.

Ver. 15. Ajid the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should slay him.

What this mark was is not to be fomid in the Holy Scrip- tui'es. Therefore various commentators have entertained their various opinions. Nearly all of them however have come to this one conclusion. They have considered that there was visibly seen in Cain a great tremor in his head and in all his limbs. They suppose that, as a physical cause of this trembling, God had changed, or disarranged, or mutilated some particular organ in his body, but left the body whole, as it was first created. And they conclude that God made this mark to consist in a conspi- cuous external peculiarity only ; namely, an awful trembling all over his body. This supposition of the fathers contains in it much probability, but it cannot be proved by any testimony of the Scripture : for this "mark" might have been of some other particidar kind. For we behold in almost all murderers an im- mediate change in the eyes. The eyes wear an appearance of a

406 CHAPTER IV. IG.

sullen ferocity, and lose that softness and sweetness which are peculiar to them hy nature.

But whatever this " mark" was, it was certainly a most hor- rible punishment : for Cain was compelled to bear it throughout his whole life, as God's vengeance upon the awful murder which he had committed. And rendered conspicuous by this degrading " mark," hateful and abominable in the eyes of all, was Cain sent away and banished from his home by his parents. And although the life which he asked of God was granted him, yet it was a life of ignominy, with a mark of ignominy branded upon it : affixed to him, not only that he himself might be perpetually reminded ' of the sin wliich he had committed, and be kept under lasting confusion for the same, but that others also might be deterred from the crime of committing murder. Nor could this " mark" be effaced by any repentance. Cain was compelled to bear about this sign of the wrath of God upon him, as the punishment of his crime : just as he was doomed to endure his banishment, the curse, and all the other punishments of his sin.

It is worthy of observation that the original verb used above is HARAG, which signifies ' to kill.' But the verb here found is NAKAH, which means ' to strike.' God therefore here gives to Cain security, not only from death, but also from the danger of death. This seciu'ity however, as we have before observed, is a legal security only : for it merely commands that no one should slay Cain, threatening a sevenfold punishment to the person wlio should slay him. But God does not promise that all men should obey this His command. It was far better for Cain how- ever to have this legal promise made him, than to be without vmy promise at all.

Ver 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and Aoelt in the land of JVod, on the east of Eden.

This is also a very remarkable text ; and it is a wonder that the Rabbins did not here also invent some marvellous things, according to their custom. Moses here leaves it to the thought- ful reader to reflect how miserable and how full of tears this de- parture of Cain from his father's house, must have been. His godly jiarents had already lost their son Abel ; and now also, at

CREATION. 407

the command of God, the other son departs from them into banishment, loaded with tlie Divine curses, on account of his sin : which very son his parents had hoped would be the only heir of the 2yromise : and therefore they had devotedly loved him from his cradle. Adam and Eve nevertheless obey the command of God, and at that command of God cast out their son. In this passage therefore obedience to God, or the fear of God, is strik- ingly set forth. Adam and Eve had indeed learned by their own experience in paradise, that it was no light sin to depart from the command of God ; therefore they thought thus with themselves. Behold our sin in paradise has been punished with death, and with an infinite number of other calamities into which we have been thrown since we were driven out of paradise. And now that our own son has committed so atrocious a sin, it be- hoves us not to resist the will of God and His judgment, though they be thus bitter unto us.

The history of the woman of Tekoah is well known, whom Joab instructed to intercede for the banished Absalom. For she pleads, as an argument, before the king, that as she had lost one son, it would be hard for her indeed to be deprived of the other also. And Rebecca also said to Jacob, her younger son, after she had perceived the wrath of Esau against his brother, " Wliy should I be deprived also of you both in one day" (Gen. 27. 45). Adam and Eve also overcame this same pain in their bosoms, and mortified their paternal and maternal affections in their expul- sion of Cain from their roof. For in addition to their feeling it their duty to obey the will of God, they were instructed by their own former experience. They had before been driven out of ]iaradise for their sin of disobedience. They feared therefore that if they now retained their son with them, contrary to the will of God, they should be cast out of the earth altogether.

This part of the history of Adam and Eve therefore is a beau- tiful instruction into obedience to God, and a striking exhortation to the fear of God. This is also Paul's principal object in his first Epistle to the Corinthians : nearly the whole of which is written against the self-confidence and securitv of the human heart. For although God is merciful, yet men are not therefore to sin securely : for He is merciful to those oidy who fear and (>b(>v Him. — As therefore it was the greatest bitterness to the

408 CHAPTER IV. Ifi.

parents to lose their sou : so this departure fi.'om his home was, I have no doubt, most bitter to Cain himself. For he was com- pelled to leave not only his home, and his dear parents, and the protection of his parents, but the hereditary right of his primo- geniture, the prerogative of the kingdom, and of the priesthood, and the communion of the church also.

Hence it is that we have the expression in the text, that Cain " Went out from the presence of the Lord." — We have above shown what that is which the Scripture terms, " The face of the Lord :" namely, all those things and means by which the Lord makes Himself known to us. Thus the " face" of the Lord, under the Old Testament, were the pillar of fire, the cloud, the mercy- seat, &c. Under the New Testament, the face of the Lord is Baptism, the Lord's Supper, the ministry of the Word, &c. For by these things, as by visible signs, the Lord makes Himself known to us, — that He is with us, that He cares for us, and that He favours us.

It was from this place therefore, in which God declared that He was always present, and in which Adam, as His high priest, resided, being also the Lord of the earth, that Cain " went out :" and he came into another place, where there was no " face of God ;" where there was no visible sign of His presence, by which he could derive the consolation that God was present and favoured him ; he had no sign whatever, save those signs which are common to all creatures, even to the beasts ; namely, the use of the sun, of the moon, of the day, and of the night, and of the water, the air, &c. But these are not the signs of that immu- table grace of God, contained in the promise of the Blessed Seed. They are only the signs of God's temporal blessings, and of His good-will to all His creatures.

Miserable therefore was that ' going out' of Cain indeed. It was a departure full of tears. He was compelled to leave for ever his home and his parents, who now give to him, a solitary man and a " vagabond," their daughter, as hfs wife, who might live with him as his companion ; but they knew not what would be- come either of their son or of their daughter. They had there- fore in this departure a threefold increase of their pain and grief: for they hereby saw their loss of three children, Abel, C^iin, and their daughter, now Cain's wife. Other\\ise what

CREATION. 409

reason can possibly be rendered for that which follows, " And Cain knew his wife ?" excepting the conclusion, that Cain's sister was given him of his father for his wife ?

Where then did Cain live with his wife ? Moses answers, " in the land of Nod :" which name that land derived from its " vaga- bond" and unsettled inhabitant. And where was this land situated ? beyond paradise, toward the East : a ])lace indeed most remarkable. Cain came indeed into this certain place toward the East. But when he came there he was neither secure nor safe : for it was " the land of JVod,^' in which he could not set his foot with any certainty on any spot, and where there was no " face of the Lord." For this " face" he had left with his parents, who lived where they had paradise on theii' side, or toward the West. But Cain, when he fled from his home, went toward the East. So that the posterity of Cain ^vere separated from the posterity of Adam ; — having paradise as a place of division between them. The passage therefore moreover proves that paradise remained un destroyed after Adam was driven out of it. And in all pro- bability it was finally destroyed by the Deluge.

This text therefore greatly favours the opinion of those who believe that Adam was created in the region of Damascus, and that after he was driven out of paradise for his sin, he lived in Palestine : so that it was in the middle of the original paradise that Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jericho, stood, in which places Jesus Christ and His servant John, principally resided. And although the present site and state of those places do not alto- gether accord with the opinion alluded to, the devastations of the mighty Deluge have caused that disagreement ; by which awful catastrophe all things, — fountains, rivers, mountains, &c., were utterly changed. And it is very possible that on that very spot where Calvary afterwards stood, on which mountain Christ was crucificed as an offering for the sins of the world, — on that same spot, " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" stood, while paradise still existed. So that, as far as identity of place is con- sidered, death and destruction by Satan, and life and salvation by Christ, were thus wrought on the one same spot of this earth !

It is not without a particular intent therefore that Daniel uses, in his 9th chapter, a new kind of phraseology, when he says, '' And the end tlioreof (of the sanctuary, and tlic sacrifice, and

410 CHAPTER IV. 17.

the oblation) shall be with a flood (Dan. 9. 2(3, 27). As if he had said, ' The first paradise was laid waste and utterly destroyed by the mighty Deluge. And the other future paradise, in which redemption shall be wrought, shall be destroyed by the inundation or flood of the Romans.' For as Babel, or confusion, was the destruction of the Jewish people : that is, the confusion caused by the invading army, and their being afterwards con- founded among the nations : so, " in the beginning," that great evil began, — that Cain and his posterity inhabited that part of the earth where Babel was afterwards built : when languages and men were ' confounded' and separated. These are my thoughts and views, derived partly from the fathers, which, though they may not be true, are yet probable, and have nothing vmgodly in them. And there can be no doubt that Noah, after the Flood, saw the face of the whole earth to be altogether changed from what it was before that awful visitation of the wrath of God. The mountains were cast down or overturned, the fomitains of rivers broken up, and the courses of the rivers themselves wholly altered, and diverted into other channels, by the mighty force of the overwhelming waters.

Ver 17. And Cain knew his wife ; and she conceived, and bare -Efioch : and he builded a city, and ccdled the name of that city after the name of his son Enoch.

It is here a matter of great remarkableness and admiration that Moses describes the generation of the sons of Cain before the generation of the sons of God. But all this is done accord- ing to the certain counsel of God. For the chikh'en of this world surpass, in this life and in this their generation, the child- ren of God (Luke 16. 8), with reference to the first promise, and blessing of midtiplying, having dominion, &c. The spiritual seed of the woman do indeed possess the spiritual blessing ; but the seed of the serpent arrogate to themselves the corporal and temporal blessing ; and by their power and enmity they bruise and bite the heel of the blessed seed. In this temporal respect therefore the animal man stands first, and the spiritual man after him.

But in this respect Moses afterwards makes, as we shall sec, a

CREATION. 411

marvellous difference. For although he recSrds the history of the posterity of Cain, before the posterity of the righteous ; yet we afterwards see the posterity of the righteous are more espe- cially the care of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit, by Moses, does not, as we shall presently see, give of them a mere dry catalogue, recording their names only ; but He gives a care- ful account of the number of their years, and of their death. He relates, not only what they did, as in the case of the sons of Cain ; but He records also what the Lord did for them, and said to them ; what He promised them ; how He saved them in perils ; and how He blessed them, &c.

None of these things are recorded in the case of the wicked posterity of Cain. When Moses has merely said that Cain begat a son named Enoch, and that he built a city, to which he gave the name of his son, calling it Enoch, the sacred historian imme- diately cuts off the memory of Cain altogether, and as it were buries him for ever, with these few short words of record. He seems to entertain no farther care or concern for either his Hfe or his death. He merely records the corporal or temporal bless- ing pertaining to him, — that he begat a son, and that he built a city. For as the gift of generation was not taken away from the murderer Cain, so neither was the gift of dominion taken from him. But he lost all tlie richness of the blessing of the earth, because he had caused it to drink up the blood of his brother which he had shed ; as we have above particularly shown in its place.

And the Holy Spirit records these things thus, in order that Ave might see that there was, from the very beginning, a twofold church ; the one the church of the sons of Satan and of the flesh, which often makes sudden and great increase ; and the other, the church of the sons of God, which is generally weak, and makes slow steps of progress. And although the Scripture does not relate in what manner these two churches lived together " in the beginning ;" yet as it was declared of God to Satan, " I will put enmity between thy seed and her Seed," it is certain that the church of Cain was ever most hostile to the church of Adam. And the present text fully shows that the sons of men so increased and prevailed, that they almost wholly perverted and • Icstroyed the church of the sons of God. For in the great

412 CHAPTER IV. 17.

Flood, eight souls* only of them were saved ; all the rest of the generation of mankind perished in the waters, on account of their sin.

And this is a calamity of the true church common to all ages. For as soon as she begins to make any increase, she is compelled to oppose herself, with all her might, to Satan and the vmgodly ; but she is at length worn out by the wickedness of her enemy ; and is either obliged to yield to her enraged foe, overcome by the cross and its afflictions, or she sinks under the seductions of plea- sures and riches. So it was with the posterity of Adam. Broken down at length under so long a war with the sons of men, they yielded, being reduced at last to eight souls only, who were saved. Ungodliness having so far prevailed, and the godly having been compelled to yield to such an extremity, the Lord at length interposes and saves the few remnants ; but all the rest, both the seduced and the seducers, he involves in the same awful judgment and punishment. And the same we hope and believe the Lord will do, in the judgment of the last day.

Many questions are here raised and discussed. For some inquire respecting the circumstances connected with the wife of Cain ; and at what time the murder was committed ; whether Cain murdered his brother hefore he was a husband, or in the marriage state. And the Jews moreover say, that Eve brought forth twins at e^•ery birth, a male and a female. And they assert that Cain married his sister Calmana, and Abel his sister Debora. Whether these things be true or not, I cannot affirm : I know not ; but the matters of the church are not endangered by them, although there is nothing certain knov\n concerning them. This one thing is certain, — that Cain had a sister for his wife. But whether he had her as his wife when he committed the mm'der, although nothing certain can be proved upon that point, yet the text now before us greatly tends to the conclusion that Cain icas married when he committed the murder on his brother : for it intimates, that the inheritance was divided between the two brothers, when it affirms, that the care of the cattle was com- mitted by their father to Abel, and the tilling of the ground to Cain. I for myself therefore am inclined to believe that hotli the brothers were married.

And that also which we ha^e said above on Acrse 3, respecting

CREATION. 413

the " end of the clays," favours much this same conclusion, — that, " after the end of the days," Cain and Abel brought their ofterings, which the Jews explain in the following manner, — that at the end of the year, the two newly married husbands brought, as ofterings, the new fruits which God had given them in this first year of their marriage ; that Cain brought the first fruits of the earth, and Abel the first fruits of his flock. And this time was probably about the autumn of the year ; the time in which the fruits of the earth are gathered in. In accordance with which, the Jews afterwards had the feast of expiation, about the time of autumn. For Moses, in Iiis Levitical law, seems carefully to have marked and collected the examples and acts of the primitive fathers, and to have reduced them into his divine code. When therefore the new husbands came to render their tlianks to God for His blessings, and to offer their gifts, and the offering of Abel was accepted of God, and not the offering of Cain, Cain's heart was immediately filled by Satan with hatred of his brother ; and upon this hatred, afterwards followed the horrible murder. This is the opinion of the Jews, which I thus relate, because it does not appear to be at all wide of the truth. But, as I have already often said, the Jews are to be read with sound judgment and authority : that we may retain those things in them which are quite consistent with the truth, but reject, and condemn, and refute, all those things which are mere fictions of their own.

But if Cain was not married when he slew his brother, it is a still more wonderful circumstance that, after such a wicked deed, he obtained a wife at all : and certainly that damsel was worthy the highest praise who married such a man. For how could that maiden rejoice in a marriage with her brother, who was a mur- derer, and accursed, and excommunicated '? And she, on her part, no doubt supplicated her father, and expostulated with him ; and asked how he could give her, an innocent one, in maiTiage to a man thus accursed, and force her out into banish- ment with him ? Nay, the very example of her brother's murder must have naturally filled her also with terror, lest the crime which her husband committed on his brother, he might also dare to commit on her, his sister and his wife. Adam therefore must have been an admirable orator in bringing about this marriage,

414 CHAPTER IT. 17.

by his counsel and advice ; where he had to persuade his daughter not to disobey the command of her father ; and to assure her, at the same time, for her consolation, that although Cain was under the curse of God for his sin, yet that God would preserve her, in her innocent state, and would especially bless her.

Nor have I any doubt whatever, that, for the sake of his wife, who stood in her holy faith towards God, and in obedience to- wards her parents, and who had married so murderous a brother, God conferred many family and private blessings on Cain throughout his whole posterity. For as Christ was the minister of circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the certainty of the promise made unto the Jewish fathers ; and as He was the minister of the Gentiles, because of the mercy of God ; for the Gentiles had no such promise made unto them ; so, the like private or incidental mercy was shown, in many instances, to the posterity of Cain also.

There are therefore these two opinions concerning the mar- riage of Cain ; but Avhich of the opinions is the truth, I know not. If Cain was married after he committed the murder, his wife is most certainly worthy of all praise, and the honour of all fame, who could thus yield to the authority of her parents, and thus suffer herself to be joined in marriage wdth an accursed murderer. For myself, the former opinion appears to me to be much nearer the truth ; and that he murdered his brother after his marriage with his sister : because we have so evident a testi- mony, in the text, concerning the division of 'the inheritance.' And then also the necessity lay on the wife to folloio her hus- band. For as wife and husband are one body and one flesh, Adam had no will to separate them ; and the wife moreover is bound to bear her part of the calamities of her husband. And just in the same manner also, on the other hand, the posterity of Cain enjoyed a part of those blessings which were bestowed of God on the innocent wife. Thus Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was saved in the time of Joseph : and the king of Nineveh was saved in the time of his calamity ; although neither of them belonged to the people of God. And so I believe also that some were saved out of the posterity of Cain, although Cain himself had utterly lost the promise concerning the blessed seed.

CREATION. 415

THE POSTERITY OF CAIN.

As it regaixls the names Avliicli were given to these first branches of the posterity of Cain, I beheve that they, like the names of all the godly patriarchs, were not given idly, nor rashl}-, nor at random ; but with a certain design, and with a certain predictive, or descriptive, intention. Thus, Adam, signifies a man of or taken out of the red earth. Eve, signifies tlie mother of life, or of the living, or of all living. Cain signifies acquisition or possession. Abel signifies vanity. And we find significations of the same expressive description in many names of the Gentiles : and indeed we often find in many names given to a man's offspring, &o\\\&i\\mg ixirticidar, either of prediction, or description, or memorial.

Hence Enoch is a name of prediction and of future hope, as a relief to the mind of Cain ; or rather, of his wife ; for it was the latter who called her son that she bare, Enoch, from the Hebrew, hanach, which signifies, ' she dedicated,' or ' she de- voted.' It is a word frequently used by Moses. As when he says, " Wliat man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it ? let him not go out to war, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate it" (Deut. 20. 5). For the verb in this passage, which signifies originally, ' to dedicate,' here signi- fies ' to possess,' or ' to enjoy,' &c. : and when this possession or enjoyment first begins in a person, it is attended with hope, and expectation, and prayer. So when the wife of Cain brought forth her first son, she said to her husband, Enoch ; that is, ' Dedicate him,' ' devote him :' for the verb is in the imperative mood. As if Cain had said also to himself, ' ^lay this our beginning be happy and prosperous. My father Adam cursed me on account of my sin. I am cast out of his sight : I live alone in the world : the earth does not vield me her streno-th : she Avould be more fruitful to me had I not thus sinned. And yet God now shows me his temporal and incidental mercy in giving me this son. May this good beginning be attended with happiness and good hope and expectation.' And as here, in the generation of Cain, this present Enoch was the beginning of corporal or temporal blessings to that generation ; so afterwards, in the generation of

416 CHAPTER IV. 18.

the righteous, there was also an Enoch ; under whom, as we find, religion and the spiritual blessing began to prosper and flourish.

That which is added by Moses concerning the city which Cain thus built, belongs more particularly to history. But I have before observed, that Cain, when separated and excommunicated from the true church, and driven from his father's home into banishment, hated, from that time, the true church of God. When therefore Cain thus first built a city, that very act also tended to show, that he not only disregarded and hated the true church, but that he wished also to oppose and oppress it. For he thought thus with himself, ' Behold I am cast out by my father, and I am cursed by him ; but my mamage is not a barren one ; therefore I have therein the hope of a great posterity. What therefore is it to me that I am driven by my father from his roof? I will build a city ; in which I will collect together a church for myself. Farewell therefore to my father and his church. I re- gard them not.'

It was not therefore through fear, or for defence, that Cain " built a city ;" but from the sure hope, as he thought, of pros- perity and success ; and from pride and the lust of dominion. For he had no need whatever to fear his father, who, at the Divine command, had thrust him out, to go into some foreign land. Nor had he any more ground of fear from their children, than from themselves. But Cain, in all he thus did, was lifted up in pride by this incidental mercy of God (as I have termed it) ; and, as the world ever does, he sought, by means of his " city," an opportunity of emerging from his present state, into future greatness. Whereas on the contrary the sons of God are anxious only about, and only look for, another city, " which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God ;" as we have it described in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 11. 10).

Ver. 18. And to Enoch ivas horn Irad.

What opinion to form concerning this name, I really know not : for its origin is very obscure ; and yet, I believe this name also is not accidental, or by chance as it were, but designed to contain something particularly significant. In the book of Joshua, we have a city called Ai ; and this same term is used

CREATION. 417

elsewhere as an appellative. Now the proper name Ai signifies, ^ a lieap' such as a heap of fallen buildings. And if, with this name, you compound the verb taead, the word thus compounded will signify a ' falling heap.' Enoch therefore called his son Irad, as a j^rayer, that he might be prosperous, and might go down to posterity with a vast heap of descendants ; so that, although the posterity of Cain, on account of their excommuni- cation, were as a great heap of ruins ; his prayer was, that it might not altogether perish, but might be preserved and greatly increased by means of this son Irad. If any one can offer a better interpretation, I will by no means despise it ; for on ob- scure points like the present, conjectiire is quite allowable.

Ver. 18. And Irad begat Mahalael.

This name is formed from the verb mahal, which signifies ' to destroy ;' and from laal, ' he began,' or ' he attempted or dared.' So that this name signifies, that the posterity of Cain should now enter upon so mighty an increase, that it should dare to set itself in array against the true church, and despise it, and persecute it : so mightily should it prevail by its wealth, and wisdom, and glory, and multitude. And these indeed are for the most part the kind of influences through which, the true church is always overcome by the world, and by the false church.

Ver. 18. And Mahalael begat Methusael.

Meth signifies death ; and SCHAAL means ' to ask' or ' to demand.' Hence we have the name Saul ; that is, ' demanded.' This name is more lofty than any of the others. For I under- stand it to signify, that Methusael threatens, that he will avenge his parents who are dead, whom the other church (that is the true church) had punished with excommunication and exile.

Ver. 18. And Methusael begat Lamech.

Hitherto the Cainites seem to have insulted the true church with impunity, and to have triumphed over them. But the name

D D

418 CHAPTER IV. 19.

Lamech signified that God, at this time in which Lamech was born, inflicted on the posterity of Cain their due punishment. For the name Lamech is derived from the verb makach, Avhich signifies ' to humble,' ' to diminish,' and ' to suppress.' Or, it may be understood actively ; and to mean, that in the time of Lamech, the posterity of Cain so greatly increased, that the true church was quite overwhelmed by them.

Such was the immediate posterity of Cain : men, no doubt, renowned for their wisdom and greatness. And I also believe, that some of them were saved by the incidental and unexpected mercy of God, as I have above explained it. But by far the greater part of them, both most bitterly hated, and also perse- cuted the true church. For they could not brook the being in- ferior to the sons of Adam, the true church ; and therefore they set up their own forms of worship, and introduced many other new things for the sake of suppressing the church of Adam. And because the false church was thus kept separate from the true church, I believe that Cain married to each other his re- maining sons and daughters. So that, about the time of Lamech, Cain's posterity began to multiply exceedingly. And therefore it is, as I believe, that Moses here ends that posterity's catalogue.

Ver. 19. And Lamech took to himself two icives : the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

Here again a twofold question arises. For in the first place, divines dispute the points, whether Lamech married these two wives for lustful reasons, or for some other cause. My belief is, that this his polygamy was not entered into for the sake of lust ; but with the object of increasing his family ; and from the lust of dominion ; and especially so, if, as his name imports, the Lord at that time had been punishing the Cainites, or the posterity of Cain, by pestilence, or by any other calamity ; in which case, Lamech probably thought, by means of this double marriage, to restore that desolation. In this same manner, barbarous nations retain polygamy ; both to increase their domestic influence, and to strengthen and establish their political power.

With reference to the names of these two wives, the name of the one is Adah ; that is, ' adorned,' or ' having chains on the

CREATION. 419

neck ;' for adi signifies a neat or elegant woman : and adah, the verb, signifies ' to adorn/ or ' to put on.' And perhaps this name was given to her, not only because she Avas the mistress of the house, elegantly adorned or clothed ; but because she was beautiful also. The name of the other wife, Zillah, signifies, ' his shade.'

Vers. 20, 21. And Adah bare Jahcd : he ivas the father of all such as divell in tents, and of such as have cattle. And his hrother\<i name ivas Juhal : he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

The name Jabal is derived from the verb labal, which signi- fies ' to bring forward, or produce, or introduce.' And the name .Tubal has the same origin and signification : for it means, ' pro- duced, or introduced.' Both these names therefore contain a wish or prayer of Lamech, concerning the increase of his family. For the posterity of Cain always entertained the object and expecta- tion of surpassing in numbers. And no doubt the Cainites held up this temporal blessing, in the face of the true church, as an evident proof that they were not cast off of God ; but that they also were. the people of God.

(Authorized version.)

Vers. 22. And Zillah she also hare Tuhal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron : and the sister of Tnhal-cain teas Naamah.

(Luther's version.)

Ver. 22. And Zillah she also bare Tuhal-cain, an artificer in every workmanship of brass and iron : and the sister, &c.

Tubal-Cain signifies, ^ to bring, or produce, possession.' Just as the Romans give the names to their Valerii (fi-om valeo), and to their Augusti (from augeo). And Naamah has her name from sweetness or beauty. Such was the posterity of the Cain- ites, ^/n/s /a?' ; which ((ftertvards increased to an infinite multi- tude. But Moses here cuts them off short, and leaves them.

The opinion of the Jews here, and the reason which the}-

420 CHAPTER IV. 22.

assign for Moses having not only recorded the names of the Cain- ites, but for his having described the arts, and labours, and em- ployments of each, are to be altogether rejected : for they imagine that the posterity of Cain were compelled to exercise other arts, because the earth was cursed of God ; and that therefore they were necessitated to obtain their food by some other means : some by giving themselves to the feeding of cattle ; others to workmanship in brass and iron ; and others to the cultivation of music, in order that they might procure, by purchase or barter, from the descendants of Adam, corn and other productions of the earth, necessary for food and subsistence. But if the Cainites had been thus hardly pressed by hunger, they would have for- gotten the harp, and organ, and other instruments of music, in this then- necessities of life. For the pursuits of and enjoyment of music are not adapted to the hungry and thirsty. Therefore their very inventions of music, and their giving themselves to the pursuits of other arts and sciences, are themselves proofs that the Cainites abounded in all those things which are necessary for food.

The reason why therefore the descendants of Cain turned themselves to these pursuits and were not contented with the simple food which the earth produced, as the descendants of Adam were, was because they wished to have rule and dominion ; and because they aimed at the high praise and glory of being men of talent and ability. I believe however that some of them passed over to the true church, and followed the religion of Adam. And such as Moses here describes the generation of the wicked, or the false church to be, from the beginning down to the mighty Flood of waters : so that generation is ever like itself; and will remain such, until the Flood of final fire. For " the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light" (Luke 16. 8). And therefore it is that they ever advance and increase, and commend themselves and their own, and thus acquire riches, dignities, and power : while the true church, on the other hand, always lies prostrate, despised, oppressed, and rejected, &c.

CREATION. 421

Ver. 23. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and ZiUuh, Hear my voice ; ye wives of Lamech^ hearken unto my speech : for I have slain a man to my ivounding, and a young man to my hurt. (Luther, ' to my paleness.'')

Thus far has Moses given us a history of the generation of the children of this world : and having finished his catalogue of them u]) to the time of Lamech, and his wives and children, he buries them, as it were, altogether, in silence ! lea^-ing them without any promise, either of the life which is to come, or of the life that now is. For excepting that temporal blessing of generation, and of food for this life, the Cainites possessed nothing whatever. And yet they so increased in power and in multitude that they filled almost tlie whole world, and at length they overturned and wasted, to such an extent, the righteous nation of the children of God, which possessed the promise of the future and eternal life, and sunk them into so deep a hell of wickedness, that eight men only were left remaining, who were saved when the Flood came upon the whole world of the ungodly. And though there is no doubt that there were some of the generation of Cain saved both before the Flood and in the Flood, yet the Scripture does not mention them, to the end that we might the more fear God and walk according to His Word. But the hearts of men are evi- dently harder than adamant, who are nothing moved by this dreadful Flood, than which no example of the wrath of God more awful or more terrible is found in the history of all time since the world began.

Moses therefore having thus buried in silence the whole gene- ration of Cain, and left them there, thus records one unimportant fact only respecting Lamech — (his having ' slain a man to his wounding,' and ^ a young man to his hurt') ; but what the real nature of that fact was, Moses does not explain, so as to afford us the least satisfaction upon the subject. And I know not that any one other passage in the Holy Scripture has been so variously interpreted, and so rent and wrested as this text. For ignorance at least, if eloquence is not, is fruitful of opinions, and errors and fables. I will therefore mention some of the vulgar opinions u])on the passage now before us.

422 CHAPTER IV. 23.

The Jews hold the following fable of their own invention. They say that Lamech, when he had grown old, and was blind, was led by a youth into the woods to hunt and kill wild beasts, not for the sake of their flesh but of their skins ; which circum- stances are altogether absurd, and at once prove the whole fable to be a lie. And they have it, that Cain was there concealed among the bushes, and that in that solitude, he not only exer- cised his repentance, but sought some security for his life. And they maintain that the young man Avho directed the arrow for Lamech, thinking he saw a wild beast in a certain thicket, told Lamech to shoot his arrow, and that Lamech shot his arrow ; and, contrary to all thought, struck Cain, and killed him. And they add, that after Lamech had been made conscious of the murder he had committed, he immediately shot the youth him- self, who also died under the wound he thus received. It was thus (say the Jews) that the '' man" and the " young man" were slain by Lamech. — But such absurdities as these are utterly un- worthy of refutation. Indeed Moses himself completely refutes them, who records the fact that Cain, so far from fleeing into solitude and concealment, " built a city." Which implies also that he governed a state, and thereby established for himself a kind of kingdom. Moreover the ages of Cain and Lamech would not accord with such facts. For it is not at all probable that Cain lived unto the time when Lamech had become old and blind.

There is also another Jewish invention, — that after Lamech had thus killed Cain, his wives would no longer live with him, through fear of the punishment which they foreboded would come upon him ; and they say that therefore Lamech, to comfort himself and to reconcile his wives to live with him, prophesied that whosoever should kill him would assuredly be punished " seventy and sevenfold." — The Jews invent like absurcUties also concerning the sons of Lamech, whom they say he taught to fabricate arms for the destruction of men.

Other commentators again will have it that the sense of this text is to be taken negativeli/, thus, — ' If I had killed a man, as Cain killed his brother, I should have been worthy of your re- probation,' &c. — My opinion of the text however, midst all these fables, is tin's. I believe that the words, " If Cain shall bo

CUEATION. 423

avenged sevenfold, truly," &c., &c., are not to be understood as the words of God. For that generation did not possess the Word. How then can Lamech be considered a prophet, when men had not as yet, and consequently Lamech had not, the Word of God at all '? Yet Jerome liolds by this fiction ; and lie says that as the same number of generations (namely seventy- seven) may be collected from Luke, as having existed from Adam to Christ, therefore the sin of Lamech mi^ht have been taken away by Christ after seventy-seven generations had passed away. But if men may be allowed to indulge in such absurdities as these, there will be no difficulty in making out of the Scriptures anything you please. And Jereme forgets all the while that Lamech is the seventh in descent from Cain. The voice of the text before us therefore is by no means to be considered the same as that Divine voice above, which spoke to Cain. The present voice therefore is that of a wicked man and a murderer ; not a voice of truth but of rashness, feigned and imitated fi'om the former voice of Adam to Cain. And why should not such an one as Lamech, in his own church, and in his own house, and before his own wives, preach such things as these I

And it might have been ,that Lamech's wives, being good and godly women, were greatly alarmed at the consequences that might fall upon their husband for the murder which he had com- mitted ; and that therefore the wicked murderer might by these words wish to make himself appear like his father Cain (whose murder God had said should be " avenged sevenfold") ; and that he desired in this way to confirm the minds of his wives, that they might not think that he would be assuredly slain. And tliis is what the wicked church is accustomed to do. It pro- phecies out of its own head. But all such prophecies are vain. — This one thing however we can gather fi'om the present text, that Lamech did not utter the contents of this his prophecy from the Word of God, but out of his own brain.

With respect to Cain, I do not think that he was killed b}' Lamech, but that he died\ox\g before the time of Lamech. And as there were continual animosities between the Cainite church and the church of Adam (for the Cainites could not brook their lieing held as excommunicated ones), my opinion is, that Lamech killed some eminent man, and some distinguished youth of the

424 CHAPTER IV. 23.

iieiieration of the righteous, just as Cain, his father, had killed Abel. And I believe that, having committed such murders, he wished to protect himself from being killed, by uttering the words of the text, after the manner of the Divine protection of his father Cain. For Lamecli was no doubt a man of very great abilities, and the chief man in his day and state. He had also increased his private power and influence, for he was the first man who married two wives, and he harassed the Church of the godly in various ways, as men are wont to do who have great abilities, and are also evil and malicious. And therefore it was that he fur- nished his men with arms, and secured their devotedness to him by riches and pleasures, that he might overcome the true Church on every side which held the holy faith, the pure Word, and the pure worship of God. These his followers Lamech secured to his interests by every means in his power, paying little attention to anything else.

It is very probable that the patriarch Adam died about this time, as the first patriarchal death ; and there is no doubt that Lamech seized on this opportunity of transferring the whole government of the then world to himself, that he might have all things under his own rule. For this is the manner in which the world acts to this day. The Church of God therefore, ])laced as it were in the midst, is oppressed on either side ; by tyrants and blood-thirsty men, on the one hand, and by those who are devoted to the concerns and pleasures of this Avorld, on the other. For as tyrants use \aolence and the sword to destroy the church, on the one side, so the men of riches and pleasure entice her by their allurements, on the other.

Hence it is that Moses records, VN'ith so much particulant}^, that the blood-thirsty seed of the Cainites gave themselves up also to pleasures and to the other concernments of this world. And hence it is also that Christ shows so particularly that much blood was shed, even before the flood, as He testifies when He says, " That ujion you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar" (]\Iatt. 23. ob). And hence it is moreover that Moses farther testifies below (chapter G. 1 to 13) that the earth, before the Flood, was "filled with iniquities;" wherein he is

CKEATION. 425

not speukiuo' of the ini(|uities and violent deeds of thieves and adulterers, &c., but he is especially describing the tyranny of the Cainite church, which pursued, with all the violence of the sword, the holy posterity of Adam. And it is for this same reason that the sacred historian describes the descendants of Cain by the name, " Giants." These are the reasons which lead me to conclude that Lamech imitated his father Cain in the words of the text whicli he uttered respecting his death, thus pronouncing a threat against any one who should kill him. And I believe that the persons whom he had slain were some distinguished man of the holy patriarchs, together with his son also.

And it was an evidence of the greatest tyranny in Lamech, that, when he had been discovered by his wives, he did not grieve for what he had done, but altogether held in contempt the punish- ment which he had just cause to dread. As if he had said, ' I have killed a man, 'tis true, but what is that to you ? The wound of that belongs to ine ; I shall be wounded for it, not you. I have indeed killed a young man, but the paleness of that belongs to me. I shall be piuiished for it, not you.' AA^hat utterances could evince more contempt than these, in the face of open sins 1

These are my thoughts on the passage now before us. For the text shows that tlie Cainites were tyrannical men, proud of their success, and given to pleasure. And the very words of Lamech pro\e him to be a proud man, not grieving at all for the murder he had committed, but glorying in it, as in a righteous cause. For the Cainite church always excuses that tyranny which it exercises over the godly, as Christ saith, " Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" (John 16. 2). Under this feeling, it is that Lamech says, —

Ver. 24. If Cain shall he avenged sevenfold, tndy Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Here Lamech sets himself above his father Cain, making it to appear that he had a more righteous cause for the murder which he had committed, and fortifying himself against those who might be inclined to avenge his two perpetrated murders. For the words of the text are not the words of the Lord (as we have said) but the words of liainecji himself. .lust as the Pope

426 CHAPTER IV, 24,

fortifies himself by violence, tyranny, threats, and anathemas, to make himself secure against avengers, for he has the conscience of a Cain and a Laraech, '■ Let him (says the Pope) who shall do anything contrary to these my decrees, know that he shall incm- the indignation of St Peter and St Paul,'

Lamech therefore is an example of this world, under the cha- racter of whom it is the intention of Moses to show what kind of a heart, will, and wisdom, the world has. Just as if he had said, in reference to Lamech, ' Such are the actions of the seed of the serpent, and such are the children of this world,' They gather up riches, follow their pleasures, and increase their power, and then abuse all these things by their tyranny, making use of them against the true Church, the members of which they persecute and slay. And yet, in the midst of all these mighty sins, they fear not, but are proud and secure, boasting and saying, ' What can the righteous do against us? (Ps, 11. 3,) Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us V (Ps. 12, 4.) According to that word of the Psalm, " The wicked hath said in his heart, God hath for- gotten ; He hideth His face; He will never see it" (Ps. 10, 11).

That such is the meaning of the passage in question the facts recorded prove, though the words of the text do not so clearly express that meaning. The true Church has ever Satan as its great enemy, and he drives the Cainites into fury against their brethren, the Abels, as Christ also saith, affirming that the devil was a murderer from the beginning (John 8, 44). And it is declared throughout the Scripture concerning the true Church, that the wicked are ever shedding its blood. The various pas- sages in the Psalms speak the same things, " And precious shall their blood be in His sight" (Ps, 72. 14). Again, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Ps, 116, 15). And again, " For Thy sake we are killed all the day long" (Ps, 44, 22).

As therefore the Church of God has at all times, and in all ages, given her blood to be shed by the wicked, and by false brethren, so also, in that first age of the world, she had to suffer from her enemies, whom the Scripture calls " Giants," and affirms that those " Giants" filled the earth with " violence." Among these giants was also this Lamech now before us, who >vas such an one perhaps as Pope Julius II. or Clement VII. :

CREATION. 427

wlio, although they exercised cruelty in the highest, yet wished to appear, and to be called most holy saints. Just as Lamech also .here wishes to make it appear that he had a most righteous cause for the murder which he had committed. And therefore it was that he threatened greater vengeance on the man who should kill him, than God Himself had threatened on the person ■who should slay his father, the murderer Cain.

In this manner therefore was the Church vexed w'ith the cross and with persecutions, from the very " beginning" of the world, until God, compelled to do so by the wickedness of man, destroyed the whole world by the flood. Just so also, when the malice of Pharaoh had been filled up, he was drowned with all his hosts in tlie lied Sea. Just so, again, when the measure of the malice of the nations had been filled up, they were all uprooted and de- stroyed by Moses and Joshua. Just in the same manner, after- wards, when the Jews had persecuted the Gospel, they were so utterly destroyed that not one stone was left upon another in Jerusalem. The examples of the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Grecians, and the Romans, are precisely the same judgments of God.

The Scripture therefore does not record lohom Lamech killed, it only records that two murders were committed by him, and that Lamech, in his impenitence, wished to defend himself in the same manner as his father Cain had been divinely protected, by promulgating a denunciation of vengeance on any one who should slay lilm, thereby making it to appear that he had righteous cause for the murder which he committed. And if this meaning, wdiich I have given to the passage, be not the true one, it is at least cer- tain that the generation of the Cainites was a blood-thirsty gene- ration, and hated and persecuted the true church. And it is moreover true that Lamech had not the Word, and that therefore this his utterance is not to be considered the same as that word which was spoken to his father Cain, for the latter was the voice of truth, and divine, but the voice of Lamech was the voice of his own pride, which paints forth the nature of Satan, and of the church of hypocrites, which is secure in its sins, and glories in them as in riohteous deeds.

428 CHAPTER IV. 25.

THE GENERATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

Ver. 25. And Adam knew his wife again; and she hare a son, and called his name Seth : For God, said she, hath ajypointed me another seed instead of Abel, xohoni Cain sleiv.

Hitherto Moses has spoken of the generation of the wicked only : the whole of which generation he bnries as it were under the above brief catalogue of them. The sacred historian now turns himself to the description of the godly and of the true CHURCH. And first of all, we are to observe the manner of ex- pression which Moses uses in reference to Eve's giving to her son Seth his name. " And she called his name Seth." Moses does not so speak concerning Cain, when he was born, nor con- cerning righteous Abel ; nor with reference to Enoch when he was born ; nor with reference to any of the others when they had their names given them. By this particular expression respect- ing Seth and his being named, Moses would signify that this was the first son on wdiom the stream of the promise flowed, which had been made to the parents in jiaradise. And Eve also plainly intimates the same, when she herself explains the reason why she gave this son the name or appellation, " Seth." For Eve by no means obscurely manifests, on this occasion, her godli- ness and her faith in giving her son such a name.

And when Eve recalls to her mind the murder committed by Cain on his brother Abel, the circumstance of that recollection and particular mention also proves that there had existed a fierce enmity between these two churches, and that she had witnessed and suffered many evils and indignities from the Cainites ; and that it was on that account that she called to mind, on the pre- sent occasion, the awful murder which had been committed, whereby Cain wished to destroy the i-ighteous seed that he might reign alone; 'but thanks be to God (saith she) who hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel.'

Moses here also, as is his usual manner, embraces in the fewest possible words the mightiest things, that he might excite the reader to tlie most diligent consideration of the works of God.

CREATION. 429

On the natural and just pain and grief of the parents at the murder of Abel by his brother, we have spoken before. And I see no reason why we should not believe that after the perpetra- tion of that horrible murder, no son was born ^o Adam until the birth of Seth. For it is most probable that the awful peril of a recurrence of a like deed to that which they had thus experienced, induced the godly parents to abstain from connu' ial intercourse. I believe therefore that by a particular promise made to them by an angel, their minds were again comforted and confirmed ; and that they were caused to believe that a son of the description of Seth would now he born unto them, who should firmly hold the promise, — that, although the generation of Cain should utterly perish by their sin, yet that his generation, that is the generation of this son, who should now be born, would be preserved until the promised Blessed Seed should come into the world.

It is a proof (as we have said) of some such particular promise having been revealed to the parents by an angel, that Eve adds to the name which she gave to her son a kind of short sermon ; and that Moses, when recording this circumstance, makes use of an expression adopted by him in no one other instance of tlie names which Adam or Eve gave to their children. " And she called his name Seth." Moreover Seth is derived from the Hebrew verb sath, which signifies ' he placed,' or ' he esta- blished ;' which was intended to show that this son would be, as it were, the foundation or person on which the promise concern- ing Christ would rest : even though many other sons should be born unto the parents. For Eve does not give him an exalted name, as Cain ; and yet she gives him a name which should signify that the posterity of Seth should never be suppressed or destroyed.

The descendants of Cain, being cast out from the sight of their parents, are left under the curse, without any promise whatever. They have nothing remaining of the mercy of God toward them, save tliat which they receive as beggars at the hands of the generation of the godly : the former being heirs only of that incidental and temjyoral mercy of God which we have before described. But toho, out of the posterity of the Cainites, obtained that mercy, Moses does not mention ; and his design in this omission is to keep separate the tavo CPIURCHES : the

430 CHAPTER IV. 25.

ONE the church of" the righteous, which had the promises of a life eternal to come, but in this life were poor and afflicted ; the OTHER the church of the wncked, but who, in this life, are rich and greatly flourish.

And Eve, the mother of us all, is highly to be praised, as a most holy woman, full of faith and charity : because in the name and person of her son, Seth, she so nobly lauds and sets forth the true church, paying no regard whatever to the generation of the Cainites. For she does not say, ' I have gotten another son in the place of Cain.' She sets the slain Abel hefore Cain, though Cain was the first-born. Herein therefore the highest praise is due not only to her faith but to her eminent obedience : for she is not only not offended at the judgment of God concern- ing onghteous Abel, but she also changes her own judgment con- cerning Him. For when Abel was born she had despised him, and had magnified Cain as the first-born, and as the possessor, as she thought, of the promise. But now she acts in all things quite the contrary. As if she had said, 'After God's ac- ceptance of him and his offering, I had placed all my hopes on my son A bel, because he was righteous ; but his Avicked brother Cain slew him. But now God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel.'

She does not indulge her maternal affection for Cain. She does not excuse or lessen the sin of her son. But she herself also excommunicates him, already excommunicated of God ; and she banishes him, together with all his posterity, among the pol- luted mass of the nations who live without any sure mercy of God : laying hold only as they can of that incidental mercy which we have so fully explained, and which, as we have said, they receive as beggars, from the generation of the righteous, not being at all heirs of it by any promise. It is a great marvel, surely ! that as the church of the Pope has made up so mighty a list of Saints, they have not yet inserted in that catalogue Saint Eve ! a w^oman full of faitli and love, and of an infinite number of crosses ! But perhaps we are to gather from this omission a proof that the heart of the Pope is always set more upon the glory of the church of the Cainites than upon that of the true and holy church !

I am inclined to say nothing here about that absurd and idle

CREATION. 4?»1

fable, — that Laniech brought his disobedient wives, who refused his bed, to Adam, as judge in a case ; and that when Adam commanded them to render to their husband due benevolence, the wives, in reply, asked Adam why he did not do the same to Eve ? And these fablers say that Adam, who had refrained from the bed of his wife from the murder of Abel to that time, again lived as man and wife with her, in order that he might not, by his example, induce others to maintain perpetual continence, and thus prevent mankind from being multiplied. All these fables however show how impm'e the thoughts of the Jews were. And of the same description of impurity is the like argument of these same Jews, who hold that when Seth was born, which Avas within a hundred years after the death of Abel, the children of Cain had increased unto the seventh generation. Such absurdities do wicked men invent to bring reproach upon the Holy Scripture. And of precisely the same description is the opinion of these same inventors of falsehood, that Cain was born in paradise, wdiile as yet the original righteousness of his parents remained. And what is the object of this lying invention but to cause us to do away with Christ altogether ? For take aw^ay original sin, and what need is there of Christ at all ? These things are indeed, as we have intimated, unwoii;hy of being mentioned here. But they are worthy the enemies of Christ and the persecutors of His grace ?

In Seth therefore we have a new generation, which proceeds from, and is born of, the great original promise ; — that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. JMost apj^ro- priately therefore did Eve give to him the name Seth, as a con- solation to herself, that this seed, of which he was a renewed stem, could never be destroyed or suppressed. And David uses the same original verb, SATH, in the 10th Psalm, " The foundations which Thou hast laid, they have destroyed."

Ver. 26. And to Seth, to him also there was horn a son ; and he called his name Enos.

The verb yikra, ' he called,' is in the masculine gender, by which you are to understand that it was the father who gave this name to his son. In the former case, the verb was feminine :

432 CHAPTER IV. 20,

because Eve gave to her son Setli liis name. Therefore the ex- pression in each case is different, which difference of gender in a ve7'h the Latin language does not contain.

Moreover Enos signifies ' a man afflicted or full of calamity :' as in Psalm 8, " What is man that Thou art mindful of him" (ver. 4). Enos therefore signifies that at that time there was some persecution or affliction of the church. For that " old serpent," who had cast man out of paradise, and who had killed Abel, the man beloved of God, was neither asleep nor idle. Therefore upon the consolation enjoyed by the birth of Seth, there soon follows another trial or tribulation which the godly parents Adam and Eve signified by giving the name Enos to this their son. For the names thus given are by no means to be considered accidental (as we have before observed). They were either prophetical or formed from some particular event.

Ver. 26. Then hegan men to call upon the name of the Lord.

The Rabbins understand this as having reference to idolatry. They consider Moses to be recording that about this time the name of the Lord began to be given to creatures, the sun, the moon, &c. But Moses is not here speaking of what the genera- tion of the Cainites did, but what the godli/ generation of Adam did. The sacred historian is testifying that after the birth of Enos there began the true worship of God, — the calling upon the name of tlie Lord ! Here therefore Moses most beautifully defines what it is to worship God, — to call upon the name of the Lord : which is as it were the work of the First Table, which gives commandment concerning the true worship of God. Now, calling upon the name of the Lord embraces the preaching of the Word, faith, or confidence in God, confession, &c. : even as Paul beautifully joins these things together in the 10th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. And indeed the works of the Second Table belong also to the worship of God; but these works do not refer to God immediately and only, as do the works of the First Table.

After therefore confusion was made in the house of Adam by Cain, the generation of the godly also began to multiply by de- grees, and a little church was formed, in which Adam, as the

3

G>

CREATION. 433

high priest, governed all things by the Word and by sound doc- trine. And Moses here affirms that this formation of a church, and this worship, in calling upon the name of the Lord, began about the time of the birth of Enos. And although this name implies that the church had been oppressed by some particular affliction and desolation, yet God raised her up again from that destruction by His grace and mercy, and added moreover the great spiritual blessing of the godly meeting together in a certain place, to preach and pray, and to offer their sacrifices : which blessing had hitherto perhaps been either prevented or hindered by the Cainites. Wherefore we have here another evidence of the promised Seed warring with the serpent and bruising his head.

Moreover since Moses does not here say that men began to call upon the Lord, but upon the name of the Lord, this his expres- sion has direct reference to Christ ; just as, in other places of the Scripture also, schem ('name') is called Jehovah. This ex- pression therefore, ' that men began to call upon the name of the Lord,' contains a meaning most important. It signifies that Adam, Seth, and Enos taught and exhorted their posterity to expect redemption, and to believe the promise concerning the Seed of the woman ; and to overcome, by that hope, the snares, the crosses, the persecutions, the hatred, and the violence of the Cainites, and not to despair of salvation, but rather to give thanks unto God, assured that He would at some time deliver them, by the Seed of the woman.

And what could Adam and Seth teach greater or better than the Great Deliverer, Christ, as promised to their posterity ? And this line of things perfectly agrees with true divine reasoning, which should ever be followed in teaching religion. For the firs care should ever be directed to the First Table. When this Table is well understood, the understanding of the Second Table will soon and easily follow ; nay, it is then easy to fulfil the latter. For how is it possible that, where pure doctrine is taught, where men rightly believe, rightly ' call upon the name of the Lord,' and rightly give thanks unto God, the second and other inferior fruits can be wanting ?

In this manner did it please God, at that time, to comfort the afflicted church of the godly, and to prevent their despair con-

E £

434 CHAPTER IV. 26.

cerning the future. And we see, throughout the pages of sacred history, a perpetual succession and change of consolations and afflictions. Thus Joseph in Egypt keeps alive his parents and his brethren, when divinely visited by famine. After this, when they were oppressed by wicked kings, they were again delivered from their crael bondage. And again, Cyrus delivers them, when captives in Babylon. For when God permits His own people to be oppressed by the violence and snares of the devil and the world, He always lifts them up again, and gives them prophets and godly teachers to restore His sinking church, and to break off, for a while, the fury of Satan.

And we must further observe, that, as I said above, a definite argument and a logical conclusion are to be founded on the pas- sage before us. Moses does not make the worship of God to consist in ceremonies, invented of men and handed down by tradition, nor in erected statues, nor in other ridiculous absurdi- ties of human reason, but in ' calling upon the name of the Lord.' This therefore is the true and highest worship of God, well- pleasing unto God, and afterwards commanded by Him in the First Table of the Decalogue ; which Table comprehends the fear of God, trust in God, confession, calling upon God, and preaching. For the First Commandment of the law demands faith, that you believe that God is the only helper in time of need (Ps. 9. 9). The Second Commandment demands confession and prayer, that we call upon the name of the Lord in times of peril, and that we give thanks unto God. The Third Commandment requires that we teach the truth, and that we guard and defend sound doctrine.

These are the true and proper acts of the worship of God, and they are those which God requires. He requires not sacrifices nor money, nor anything of the Idnd. The First Table is, that you hear and meditate in, and teach, or preach, the Word ; that you pray unto God, and fear Him. Where these things are found, the worship or works of the Second Table follow, as it were, of their own accord. For it is impossible that he who doeth the works, and performeth the worship, of the First Table, should not do and perform those of the Second Table also. Hence David saith in the 1st Psalm, " He that meditateth in the Word of God day and night shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, which bringeth forth his fruit in his season, and whose leaf shall

CREATION. 435

not wither" (Ps. 1. 2, 3). These things are evident consequences of the right worship of God, according to the commandments of the First Table. For he who beheves in God, who fears God, who calls npon God in tribulation, who praises God, and gives thanks unto Him for His mercies, who gladly hears the Word of God, who continually contemplates the w^orks of God, and who teaches others to do the same things, — do you think that such an one will harm his neighbour, or disobey his parents, or kill, or commit adultery, &c. '? The First Table therefore of the divine law is first to be set before men, as I have observed. They are first to be taught what are the true acts of the worship of God, or what the true worship of God is. This is first ' to make a good tree ;' and from this tree will afterwards spring forth good fruits. Now, our adversaries take a directly contrary course : they want to have the good fruits before they have made any good tree at all. I moreover believe that about this time there Avas added some visible ceremony of divine worship ; for God is ever wont thus to do. He always joins with the Word some visible sign. Thus, when Abel and Cain presented their offerings, God showed by a visible sign from heaven that He had respect unto Abel and Ids offering, but not unto Cain and his offering. And so, in all pro- bability, it was in this case and at this time. When the chiu'ch began to flourish, and the Word of God was openly taught with some considerable success, God added also some visible sign, for the time being, that the church might assuredly know that she pleased God. But whatever that sigyi then was, whether fire from heaven or any other indication of His good pleasure, God shortly put it off unto the third generation, that men might learn to be content with the Word alone. But afterwards, when men had comforted themselves, by the Word alone, against the Cain- ites, under their tribulations at their hands, God, of His great mercy, added to the Word some fixed and continuing visible sign. He established a place, and appointed persons, and certain cere- monies also, unto which the Church might be gathered together, and might exercise faith, and preaching, and prayer. For by means of these things — the Word, the First Table, and a visible sign ordained of God — a church is constituted, in which men exercise themselves in teaching and hearing, and in partaking of the sacraments. And then upon these things will assuredly

436 CHAPTER IV. 26.

follow the works of the Second Table ; for these works are acts of worship existing in them only, and are well pleasing to God from them only, who have, and who exercise, the worship of the First Table.

This gift of God therefore, a congregated church, with its visible signs and ordinances, is that blessing which Moses sets forth in the few short words of the text now before us, when he says, " Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." For this beginning to call upon the name of the Lord was not on the part of the Cainites, as the Jews explained the passage, but on the part of the godly posterity of Adam, which alone was then the true church. Wherefore if any out of the posterity of Cain were saved, it must of necessity have been by their joining them- selves with this the true Church.

Of the first four chapters of the holy Book of Genesis therefore this is the sum and the intent, — that we should believe ; that after this life there is a resurrection of the dead, and a life eternal, through the Seed of the woman. And this is the blessed portion of the godly, and of them that believe, who in this present life are filled with afflictions, and subject to injuries at the hands of all men ; while, on the contrary, to the wicked are given, as their portion, the riches and power of this world, which they use against the true church of God.

In the first chapter, it is shown by Moses that man was created unto immortality, because he was created " in the image of God."

The prece'pt of the second chapter sets forth also the same thing, " In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou slialt surely die." For it follows that the first created man and woman could not have died if they had not eaten of that fruit. By their sin of eating therefore they fell from immortality to mortality, and they begat an offspring like unto themselves.

In the thi7'd chapter immortality is set forth anew, as restored by the promise of the Seed of the woman.

In the fourth chapter, we have an especial example of immor- tality set before us in Abel ; who, after he had been slain by his brother, was received into the bosom of God, who Himself testified that the voice of the blood of Abel cried unto Him fi-om the ground.

And the fifth chapter, which now follows, is expressly written

CREATION. 437

to set forth the immortality of Enoch, who was taken up into heaven by the Lord. And although the following chapter is necessary for the purpose of recording the number of the years of the generation of the righteous, yet its most remarkable sub- stance is its record that Enoch did not die like Adam, nor was slain like Abel, nor was carried away, nor torn to pieces by lions and bears, but was taken up into heaven, and translated into immortality by the Lord Himself: all which was written that we might believe in the Seed of the woman, Christ our Redeemer, and the conqueror of the devil ; and that, through Him, we also might expect a life immortal after this mortal and afflictive life. This harmony of the first five chapters of the holy Book of Genesis the Jews see not ; for they are destitute of that light which illustrates these things and makes them manifest, which light is Christ, by whom Ave have the remission of sins and the life immortal.

CHAPTER V.

Ver. 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam.

This catalogue of the generation of the righteous, Moses has expressly given for two reasons. First, on account of the promise of the Seed made to Adam ; and secondly, as we have said, on account of the translation of Enoch to immor- tality. Moses gives also another catalogue in the tenth chapter, below, after the Flood. But this latter catalogue is written from a far different motive than the present. For in the present chapter, he both gives the number of the years of the righteous, and also adds, in the case of each one the words, " And he died."

This little brief expression may at first thought appear super- fluous. For after the divine historian had said, " And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years," what seems to be the use of his adding the few words, " And he died ?" For after he had stated the number and end of the years of Adam,

438 CHAPTER V. 1.

he had of course also stated the time of his death. For had he lived longer, those other years would also have been recorded, as the length of his life.

Moses however does this with a certain and divine purpose ; in order that he might thereby point out the unspeakable wrath of God against sin, and the inevitable punishment of it, inflicted by Him on the whole human race ; on the righteous, as well as on the wicked. Even as the Apostle Paul also pursues his argument, drawn from this very portion of the Holy Scripture : " As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Eom. 5. 12). For this is a consequence perpetuated throughout all generations. Adam died : therefore Adam was a sinner. Seth died : therefore Seth was a sinner. Infants die : therefore infants partake of sill, and so are sinners. This is what Moses intends to set forth, when he says, concerning the whole order of patriarchs, that, though they were all sanctified and renewed by faith, vet " they died !"

Nevertheless, from the midst of this whole order of dying patriarchs, there shines forth a most lovely light of immortality, when Moses here records, concerning Enoch, that " he was not ;" that is, that he no longer appeared among men ; and yet, that he did not die^ but was taken up into heaven by the Lord Himself. By this glorious fact therefore is signified, that the human race is indeed condemned to death, on account of sin ; and yet, that the hope of life and immortality is left us, that we may not abide in death for ever.

For this cause therefore it was, that God thought it needful, not only that the promise of life should be given to the original world, but that immortality should also be set before believers, by the example of Enoch. And for this same cause it was, that Moses said, concerning each patriarch, that he fulfilled so many years of life, and " died ;" that is, suffered the punishment of sin, and was therefore a sinner. But the divine historian does not use those expressions concerning Enoch. Not because that patriarch was not a sinner ; but because, even unto such sinners as he, there was left a hope of eternal life, through the blessed Seed. And all the patriarchs, in like manner, who died in the faith of this Seed, held fast the hope of eternal life.

CREATION, 439

Enoch therefore is another example by which God makes it manifest, that it is His loill to give unto us a life eternal, after this Hfe. For the Lord saith, that Abel also, who was killed by his brother, still lived, and that his voice cried from the ground. And in the present instance, Enoch is taken up by the Lord Himself into heaven. We will not despair therefore, though we see death, thus derived from Adam, extend to every one of the whole human race. We must indeed suffer death, because we are sinners ; yet we are not designed of God to remain in that death for ever. For we have a hope in the mind, a providence of God, believing that God's thoughts are to abolish in us this death : even as He began to do by the promise of the blessed Seed : and which the examples of Abel and Enoch show us shall be done. Wherefore we possess the first fruits of immortality by our hope thereof; even as the Apostle Paul saith, " For we are saved by hope" (Rom. 8. 24) ; which hope saves us until the fulness of immor- tality shall be brought unto us at the last day, when we shall see and know that eternal life, which we possessed here in faith and hope.

Now flesh doth not understand this. Flesh judgeth that a man dieth like a beast. Therefore the veiy best and greatest of the philosophers did indeed well know, that by death the soul was separated and fi^eed from the prison of the body. But they believed that tlie soul, when thus liberated fi'om the house of the body, in which it had dwelt, was mingled among the company of the gods ; and was thus set free from all bodily troubles. Such was the immortality dreamed of by the greatest of the ancient philo- sophers. And even that immortality they could not hold fast, with any firmness of hope, nor explain, nor defend. But the Holy Scriptures teach us far otherwise concerning the resurrec- tion and eternal life ; and they set the hope of both so plainly before our eyes, that they leave no room for uncertainty or doubt.

This fifth chapter therefore may be considered as setting before us a certain representation and picture of the whole primeval world : for in it are enumerated the ten patriarchs, extend- ing with their posterities down to the Deluge ; which posterities afterwards reach down to the immediate time of Christ. And it is by no means an unprofitable study for any saint, to set these records before his eyes as a map, just as they are described by

440 CIIArTEK V. 1.

Moses. For by so doing, he \^ill see what patriarchs lived at the same time with each other, and lioic lovg they so Kved. And this is an employment in which I have delighted myself, when I had leisure to do so. Cain also has Ms line, as Moses has shown in the preceding chapter. Nor have I any doubt whatever that the posterity of Cain was far more numerous than that of the righteous Seth.

From these two families, or roots, was the whole world peopled, down to the Deluge : in which awful judgment, both these branches, with their two generations of descendants (that is, the posterity of the wicked, and that of the righteous), were uprooted out of the earth ; eight souls only being left, of whom also one was wicked. As therefore, in this chapter, a beautiful and mag- nificent picture of the primeval world is presented to our view by Moses, so it is an unspeakably aw'ful sight of the wrath of God to behold the terrible destruction which it wrought ! — to see the whole mighty multitude of the posterities of these ten patri- archs reduced to eight souls !

We will reserve this awfiil record however to its proper time and place ; that is, till we come to dwell on the Flood. Let us now do that which Moses intends to do in the present chapter. The divine historian's object is to set before us the glories and the exceeding majesty of this primeval age of the world, for our deep contemplation. Thus, Adam lived beyond the age of his grandson Enoch, and died a short time only before Noah was born. A hundred and twenty years only intervened between the death of Adam and the birth of Noah. Again, Seth died only fourteen years before Noah's birth. And again Enos, and the rest of the patriarchs, except Enoch, lived at the same time with Noah. Whosoever therefore shall in this manner compare the lives of the primeval fathers, will see that this great number of grej'-headed patriarchs, of whom one lived seven hundred, and another nine hundred years, were coeval; and not only lived at the same time with each other, but taught and governed the church of the godly, at the same time, for whole centuries !

The exceeding glory of the primitive world therefore consists in this ; — that it contained so many good, and wise, and holy men ; and that many of them thus lived, and taught, and governed the church of God at the same time. For we are by no means

CREATION. 441

to think that all these are mere common names of plain and simple men. They were the greatest heroes and men of renown that the world ever contained, next to Christ and John the Baptist. And in the last day we shall behold and admire the real majesty of all these worthies : and then w^e shall truly be- hold the mighty deeds which these mighty men wrought. Yes ! It will then be made manifest what Adam did, what Seth did, what Methusalah did, and the mighty deeds of them all !— What they suffered from the old serpent : how they comforted and fortified themselves, by their hope in the promised Seed, against all the harm and violence of the world ; that is, of the Cainites : what various snares they witnessed and endured : what injui'ies and hatred and contempt they bore for the sake and the glory of the Blessed Seed, which should be born from their posterity and time. For we are by no means to imagine, that these gi'eat and holy men lived without the greatest afflictions and innumer- able crosses. All these things, I say, shall be revealed, and openly, at the last day. And it is an employment, as I have said, full of profit and pleasure, now to contemplate with our mind, as with open eyes, that most glorious age, in which so many patri- archs lived, coeval with each other : nearly all of whom, except Noah, had seen and known their first father, Adam.

THE GLOEY OF THE CAINITES.

And the Cainites also had their glory. Among them also were men of the highest wisdom, in every kind of art, and in civil science, and in human affairs ; and also, there were among their posterity tlie most specious and accomplished hypocrites, who save the true church a world of trouble, and harassed the holv patriarchs in every possible way. So that we may justly call all those who were thus oppressed by them, most holy martyrs and confessors. For the Cainites, as ]\Ioses has before intimated, very soon surpassed the descendants of Adam in numbers, and labours, and perseverance. And although they were compelled to revere their father Adam, yet they adopted all possible means of oppressing the church of the godly ; and especially so after tlie death of the first patriarch, their father Adam. And by this

442 CHAPTER V. 1.

their wickedness, these Cainites hastened on the dreadful pun- ishment of the Flood.

This power and malice of the Cainites, however, caused the holy patriarchs to teach and instruct the church of God, their church, so much the more diligently and devotedly. What numerous and what solemn sermons may we suppose were preached by them, in the course of these most eventful years ! For there is no doubt that both Adam and Eve testified of their original state of innocence, and described the glory of paradise, and warned their posterity to beware of the serpent ; who, by tempting them to sin, had caused all their mighty evils. How constant, may we suppose them to have been, in explaining and enforcing the promise of the blessed Seed ! How earnestly, and with all their souls, must they have encouraged the hearts of their godly posterity ! exhorting them neither to enjoy the success and splendour of the Cainites, nor to be broken-hearted by their own calamities !

All these particulars however Moses omits to record, both be- cause they could not be described on account of their great ex- tent, and because the revelation of them is reserved for that great day of deliverance and of glory ! Hence the awful Flood also, which is contained in the five following chajyters, is described in like manner with the greatest brevity by the sacred historian, because he wished to leave such mighty things to the deeper thoughts and meditations of men. For the same reasons also Moses has purposely given us, in these first five chapters, as briefly as possible, a picture of the original and primeval world. It was indeed a great and admirable state of things, and yet that primeval age contained a multitude of the worst of men : so much so, that not more than " eight souls" were saved from the destroying Flood ! Wliat then, may we conclude, will be the state of things before the last day shall come 1 seeing that even now, under the revealed light of the Gospel, there is found so great a host of despisers of it, that there is abundant cause to fear lest, ere long, they might fill the world with errors, and so pre- vail as to extinguish the light of the Word altogether !

The voice of Christ indeed is an awful voice, where it utters these words, " Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18. 8.) And (Matt. 24.

CREATION. 443

37, 38) our Lord compares the last days with the days of Noah. Tliese utterances of our Lord are indeed most awful declarations. But the world, in its self-security and ingratitude, is a despiser of all the threatenings as well as of all the promises of God. It abounds everywhere in iniquities of every kind, and corrupts itself daily more and more. For from the time that the great domi- nion of the Popes ceased among us, who had ruled the whole world by means of the mere dread of their vengeance, sound doctrine has been despised, and men have degenerated and coiTupted themselves into all but beasts and brutes. The number of holy and godly preachers of the Word has been gradually diminished, and all men are indulging their appetites and lusts. The last day however Avill assuredly come as a thief in the night, and will overtake these men in all their self-security, and in the indul- gence of their ambition, tyranny, lust, avarice, and vices of every kind.

And let it be remembered that it is Christ Himself who has foretold these things. Wherefore we cannot possibly imagine that He would lie. If therefore the primitive world, which con- tained so mighty a multitude of the greatest patriarchs, was so wholly corrupted, what may we not fear and dread under all the weakness of oiu" poor nature ? May the Lord our God there- fore grant to us that we may be gathered, as soon as possible, in the faith and confession of His Son Jesus Christ, unto those our fathers ; nay, if it please Him, that we may die within the next thirty years, that we may not live to see those awful and miser- able calamities, both temporal and spiritual, of the last time ! Amen ! — But let us now proceed with the text before us :

Ver. 1. This is the hook of the generations of Adam.

Adam, as will be seen in the immediately following context, is a name common to the whole luiman race ; but it is applied to Adam alone more expressly, as an appellation of dignity, because he was the source or stock of the whole human family. The Hebrew word sepher, ' a book,' is derived ft-om saphar, which signifies ' to narrate' or ' to enumerate.' Wherefore this narra- tion or enumeration of the posterity of Adam is called " The book f)f tlie generations of Adam."

444 CHAPTER V. 1.

Ver. 1. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him.

This clause of the sacred text has induced the blinded Jews to fable that Adam slept with Eve as his wife in paradise in the same day in which he was created, and that she conceived in that same day. But these blind mortals have numerous fables among them of the same description. And indeed nothing sound or pure, in the matter of the sense of the Holy Scripture, can be expected from them. But the intent of Moses, in this clause, is this, — it is his express purpose to record the whole and perfect age of Adam, and to number the days of his life from that day in which he was first created ; and the object of the sacred his- torian therein is to show, that before Adam there was no genera- tion or multiplication of mankind. For generation is to be clearly distinguished from creation. There was no generation before Adam, but creation only. Adam and Eve therefore were not horn but created, and created immediately of God Himself.

Moses adds however, " In the likeness of God made He him." So that we are to understand that, when the divine historian says in the verse below that Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat Seth, he numbers the years of the first patriarch fi'om the first day of his creation.

With respect to Adam's having been made in the likeness of God, we have shown above, in its place, what that " likeness" of God was. And although almost all commentators understand the expressions, " the likeness of God," and " the image of God," to mean one and the same thing ; yet, as far as I have been able from careftd investigation to arrive at an understanding of the matter, there is a certain distinctive difference between the two original terms. For zelem properly signifies ' an image or figure,' as when the Scripture saith " Ye shall break down their images" (Exod. 23. 24). In which passage the original term signifies nothing more than the figures, or statues, or images erected by men. But demuth signifies a likeness, or the per- fectness of an image. Thus, for instance, when we speak of a lifeless image, such as that which is impressed on coins, we say. This is the image of Brutus or of Caesar, <S:c. That image how-

CREATION. 44,5

ever does not at once represent the whole and real likeness, nor exhibit all the lineaments of the character of the person repre- sented.

When therefore Moses says that man AA'as " made in tlie likeness of God," he means, that man does not only represent God in that he has reason, and intellect, and will, abstractedly, after the image of God, — that is, as God also possesses those faculties or qualities ; but that man possesses them also after " the likeness" of God, — that is, that man possesses such a will, and such an understanding, as that he understands and knows God ; and a will, by which he wills and desires that which God wills and desires. Hence if man, having been created thus, both " in the image" and " in the likeness" of God, had not fallen, he would have lived for ever, full of joy and rejoicing, and would have possessed a will ever prepared, and happy, and ready to obey the will of God. But by sin both this " likeness" and this " image" were lost. They are however restored in some mea- sure by faith. For, as the apostle saith, w^e hegin to hioio God by this renewal and restoration (Col. 3. 10 ; Ephes. 4. 24).

Of these blessed gifts however we possess only the first fi'uits. This new creation within us is only as yet begun : it is not per- fected here in the flesh. The Mien will is in some measure raised up, and helped to praise God, to give Him thanks, to the confession of sin, and to patience ; but only, as we have said, in the "first fruits" of those exercises of the soul. For the flesh, after its owm nature, follows still the things of the flesh, and all those things which are contrary to God. So that the gifts of the Spirit are only as yet the beginnings of restoration within us. These " first fruits" however will arrive at all the fulness of the restoration of the " image of God" in the life to come, after all the sin of the flesh shall have been abolished by death.

Ver. 2. Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they loere created.

I have above observed, that the general name, Adam, was ap- plied to Adam alone, by way of excellence, I omit to mention those absurd triflings of the Rabbins, who say, that no man is a real Adam, or the male of mankind, unless he has a wife ; and

446 CHAPTER V. 3.

that no woman is a real Adam, or the female of mankind, in the full and proper sense of her Adam name, miless she has a hus- band. These opinions may perhaps have originated in the con- versations of the primitive fathers, but the Jews have wholly corrupted them by their absurd notions.

Moses however no doubt here makes mention of the divine blessing, for the purpose of showing that the original blessing was not taken away from man on account of sin. Thus the creation-gift of multiplication and dominion remained to Cain, even after he had killed his brother.

Ver. 3. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his oivn image, and called his name Seth.

Moses, we see, in this repetition part of his record, does not mention Abel, because he departed from the world without any heir. He is therefore set apart to be unto ns principally a dis- tinguished example and proof of the resurrection of the dead. Cain also is here left unmentioned by the divine historian, because he was cut off from the line of Christ, and cast out of the true church by his sin.

Moreover, in what manner Adam and Eve lived together dur- ing these 130 years, after the death of Abel, the Scripture does not inform us. Some writers of our day indeed add to these 130 years 100 previous years, during which they consider Adam lived with Eve before Abel was murdered by his brother Cain. Thus these authors give to Adam 230 years of age previously to his begetting his son Seth. For myself, I consider it most probable, as I have before observed, that Adam and Eve spent this 130 years in mourning, as godly parents, this awful family affliction, — the murder of one of their sons by the other. For Adam begat from his body children like himself, both sons and daughters, after his expulsion fi'om paradise, for many years, probably for 30 years. Perhaps therefore the murder of Abel was committed when he was about 30 years of age. For the children seem to have been very little younger than their parents ; because their parents were created at once, not begotten of parents in the course of years, as their children were of them.

CREATION. 447

I believe therefore that the godly parents devoted all the 100 years, from the murder of Abel to the birth of Seth, to grief and lamentation, and that they abstained all those years from con- nubial intercourse. This abstinence however was not maintained with the intent which the Jews fable ; for they absurdly affirm that Adam vowed perpetual chastity, like our monks ; and that he would still have kept his vow, had he not been commanded by an angel from heaven to return to the bed of his wife. But such a story as this is only fit to be told to a Roman Pontiff of the age of forty, who alone is worthy of listening to such fables. No ! Adam was not so wicked as thus to refuse the gift and command of God ! For such abstinence would have been taking vengeance on himself for the grief he had endured. And it would have been rejecting the bestowment of that blessing which God had been pleased to leave to nature, even in its fallen state.

Moreover, this was a matter not left in the power or hand of Adam. For as Moses has clearly shown, God created man male; who had therefore need of a female, or wife, because the in- stinct of procreation was implanted in his nature by God, the Creator, Himself. If therefore Adam abstained from the bed of his wife, he did so for a season only, that he might give time and vent to his grief over his domestic calamity, and that he might return at the desired time to the bed of his wife Eve.

When however Moses here expressly adds, concernino- Adam, that " he begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image," theologians entertain various opinions as to the real meaning of those expressions. The true and simple meaning of them is, that Adam was created " in the image" and " after the likeness" of God ; or that he was the image of God, — created so, not begotten so, or generated so, by Him. For Adam had no parents. But in this " image of God" Adam continued not : he fell from it by sin. Seth therefore, who was afterwards born of Adam, was begotten, not ' after the image of God,' but ' after the image of his father Adam :' that is, he was altogether like Adam. He represented, in his person, his father Adam, not only in the form of his face, but in his " likeness" altogether. He not only had fingers, a nose, eyes, motions, a voice, and speech, like his father, but he was like him also in every other respect of mind, body, morals, disposition, will, &c. In these respects therefore Seth

448 CHAPTER V. 4, 5.

difl not bear that image of God which Adam had originally, and which he lost ; but he bore the likeness and the image of Adam, now his father. And this latter similitude and image were not created of God, but begotten by Adam.

Now, this latter similitude and image contained in it original sin, and the punishment of eternal death, on account of sin, which was inflicted of God on Adam. But as Adam, by faith in the Seed that was to come, recovered the image of God, which he had lost ; so Seth also recovered the same after he grew up to man's estate : for God impressed again his own Divine " likeness" upon him through the Word, as Paul also speaketh, when he saith to the Galatians, " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4. 19).

With respect to the name of Seth, I have before observed it has an imperative signification, containing the expression of one commanding, and full of good hope. It is as if his parent, in giving him his name, had said, ' Cain has not only fallen and disappeared, but has caused his brother to fall and disappear also. May God grant therefore that this our son Seth may stand and be established as a firm foundation, which Satan shall never sub- vert or destroy.' For this is the hopeful blessing or supplication which the name Seth contains or implies.

Ver. 4. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years ; and he begat sons and daughters.

Ver. 5. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years ; and he died.

This is another part of the happiness and glory of the primeval age of the world, that men lived so long a life ; which longevity, when compared with the length of our lives, seems quite incred- ible. A question naturally arises as to the cause and means of life so long enjoyed. Nor am I at all displeased with the reasons assigned by some, that the constitutions themselves of men were then far better than ours are now, and also that all things which men then used for food were more healthful than those are which we now use. To these particulars, we must add that important means of a long life, the greatest moderation in the use and enjoy- ment of food. How gi'eatly this last particular conduces to

CREATION. 449

liealtli, and the lengthening of our life, it is quite needless to explain.

Although however the bodies of men, in the first age of the world, were altogether more sound than they are now, yet neither the vigour of all the members of those bodies, nor their power, were by any means the same as they were in paradise before Adam and Eve lost the original excellencies of their bodies by sin. This original blessing of the bodies of our first parents was somewhat restored, when, after their sin, they were renewed and regenerated by faith in the Promised Seed. Therefore even sin itself was weakened by faith in the Seed that was to come. In the same manner, all we ourselves also haA^e lost the strength and powers of our bodies, in the same proportion as we have degenerated from this righteousness of Adam and Eve by faith.

With reference to food, who cannot easily believe that one apple in that primeval age was more excellent, and afforded a greater degree of nourishment, than a thousand in this our time ? The roots also on which they fed contained infinitely more fra- grance, virtue, and savour, than they possess now. All these excellencies, and of the fruits themselves especially, holiness of life, and righteousness, and moderation, and also the peculiar salubrity of the air, tended to produce longevity in the primitive age of the world, until that new appointment of God (the eatin^ of flesh) was added, by which the life of men was very much diminished in duration.

Now, if we turn to consider thoughtfully the nature and man- ner of our lives at the present day, we are much more corrupted than nourished by the meat and drink which we consume. For in addition to the immoderate indulgences in which we live, how much have the fruits themselves degenerated in natural <i-oodness and virtue ? Whereas our first parents and the patriarchs lived moderately, and chose those things only for their meat and drink which were calculated to nourish and refi'esh their bodies. And there can be no doubt that, after the deluge, all the fruits of the earth degenerated greatly ; even as, in our own age, we find all things to degenerate manifestly also. Nor do the Italian wines and fruits differ more from our own at the present day, than the fruits before the deluge differed from those which were produced by the earth after the Flood, by reason of their growth out of that

F F

450 CHAPTER V, i, 5.

saltness of the sea and putrid mud which succeeded the awful destruction of all living creatures.

These causes therefore, with others which many assign for the oreat longevity of the primeval patriarchs, I by no means disap- prove ; but this one reason is quite sufficient, in my opinion, to accovmt for the whole of that longevity, that it pleased God to place those our first fathers in the most excellent portion of the oriffinal world, and to permit them to live there so long. And yet we see, as Peter strikingly saith, that God " willed not to spare even the old world;" no, nor even the angels themselves in heaven that sinned. So horrible a thing is sin. Thus Sodom and Gomorrah also occupied the most excellent portion of the earth ; and yet, on account of sin, they were utterly destroyed. In the same manner also the Holy Scriptures set forth the greatness and awfulness of sin now, and exhort to the fear of God.

Thus far, then, the divine historian has set forth unto us the BASIS, or rather the source and origin of the w^hole human race, namely, Adam and his Eve. From these is now born Seth, the first ' standing' or ' established' branch of this tree, namely, the lineage of Christ. But as Adam lived " eight hundred years " after he begat Seth, during the whole of that time he had and saw a very large posterity. This whole time was also a time of renewed righteousness, by faith in the Promised Seed. But afterwards, when men were multiplied, and the sons of God were mingled with the daughters of men, then it was that the world began to be corrupted, and the majesty of these holy patriarchs began also to be despised.

It is a most delightful sight, and a most edifying contemplation (if you have but time to devote to the computation of their several ages), to behold the facts, that so many grey-headed patriarchs lived coevally with each other, in this primitive age of the original world. For if you carefully number the years of the life of the great first parent Adam, you will see, that as Noah lived with his father Lamech more than five hundred years ; therefore Adam lived to see all his posterity, even unto the ninth genera- tion ! and to behold these themselves also having an infinite multitude of sons and daughters : which multitude Moses does not attempt to number : being content with having enumerated

CREATION. 4,U

tlie original stocks, Adam and Eve, and their immediate branches, down to the patriarch Noah.

There were liowever without doubt, in this mighty multitude, many very distinguished saints, of whom, if we possessed a full history, it would exceed in excellency all the histories of the world : compared with which, the Exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt would be as nothing ; their passage through the Red Sea nothing ; their passage through Jordan nothing ; the captivities and returns of Israel nothing. But as the primeval world itself perished, so perished also its histories. Of all his- tories therefore, since the primitive patriarchal world, the history of the Deluge holds the first and highest place ; in comparison with which, all other histories are but as sparks to the blazing fire. But concerning the original world of the patriarchs, we have nothing more recorded than their names : which however themselves are certain notes of voluminous histories.

It is very probable however that Eve also lived to the age of 800 years, and saw that great multitude of her posterity which we have mentioned. And what must have been her concern, how great her labours, how devoted her toils in visiting, in teach- ing, and in improving her children, grandchildren, &c., &c. ! And moreover, what must have been the crucifixions of her soul, how many and deep her sighs and groans, that the generation of the Cainites opposed themselves, with so much determination, to the true church ! But some even of them also were converted to the true church, no doubt, by the incidental mercy of God (as we have before explained that mercy).

Truly therefore that i)rimeval time was a " golden age," to which, if you compare our present age, the latter is scarcely worthy of being called the age of mud ; because, during those primeval centuries, there lived at the same time nine patri- archs together, with their posterities ! and all of them agreeing concerning the faith in the Blessed Seed ! All these glorious things Moses just mentions, but does not explain ; otherwise, as we have said, this portion of the divine history would exceed all the histories of the whole world.

There is one particular however in the history of Enoch, the SEVENTH patriarch from Adam, which Moses was (piite unwill- ing to pass over, as being most remarkable, although e\-eu here

452 CHAPTER V. 21-21.

also the divine historian adopts incredible brevity. But of all the other patriarchs he only mentions the names, and the num- ber of the years of each. Of Enoch however he makes such particular mention, that he seems, in comparison, to neglect the other patriarchs altogether, and as it were to disparage them a^.most, as if they were evil men, compared with Enoch ; or at least altogether less favoured of God. For did not Adam also, and Seth, and Cainan, Enoch's son, together with their pos- terities,—did not all these also ' walk with God?' Why then does Moses ascribe this great honour to Enoch only ? And was Enoch so distinguished, by being thus translated of the Lord, as that the other patriarchs are not also with God, and do not also, as Enoch, now live with Him 1 Yes ! they do all, like Enoch, now live Math God : and we shall behold them all, at the last day, equally shining with Enoch in the brightest glory !

Why then does Moses so particularly and so highly extol Enoch ? Why does he not bestow the same praises upon the other patriarchs ? For although they died a natural death, and were not . translated to heaven as Enoch was, yet they also " walked with God." We have heard also above concerning Enos, that in his times likewise mighty things were done ; for it was in his days that " men began to call upon the name of the Lord;" that is, that the Word and worship of God began to flourish in an especial manner ; and therefore holy men then also " walked with God." Why is it then, we repeat, that Moses does not laud Enos equally with Enoch ? Why does he bestow such high praises on the latter only ? For his words are these : —

Ver. 21. And Enoch lived sixty and Jive years, and begat Me- thuselah.

Ver. 22. And Enoch toalked with God after lie begat Methu- selah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

Ver. 23. And all the days of Enoch ivere three hundred sixty and Jive years.

Ver. 24. And Enoch walked with God : and he was not ; for God took him.

When however Moses says that Enoch " walked with God," we are by no means to understand that expression as our monks

CREATION. 4")3

of the present day understand it. We are not to conclude that Enoch kept himself shut up in some private room or corner, and there lived a monastic life, as our monks do now. No ! so emi- nent a patriarch must be placed on a candlestick, or (as our Saviour Christ expresses it) set as a city on a hill, that it might shine forth in the public ministiy.

It is as bearing such public office, that the Apostle Jude extols this eminent ])atriarch in his epistle, where he says, " And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judg- ment upon all, and to con^'ince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" (Jude, vers. 14, 15). From what source Jude obtained these things which he has thus written, I know not : probably they remained in the memory of man from the primi- tive age of the world ; or it may be that holy men sacredly com- mitted to writing many both of the words and of the works of the gi'eat patriarchs, as they were handed down from age to age by tradition.

It is this public ministry of the holy Enoch therefore that Moses is so highly lauding in the sacred text before us, in which lie is exalting this great patriarch, as a kind of shining sun, above all the other patriarchs and teachers of the primeval world. Wlierefore we may gather from all these circumstances, that Enoch possessed a particular fulness of the Holy Ghost, and a pre-eminent greatness of mind ; seeing that he opposed himself, with a strong faith and confidence above all the other patriarchs, to Satan and the church of the Cainites. For to " walk with God," is not (as we have before observed) for a man to flee into a desert, or to conceal himself in some secluded corner, but to go forth in his vocation, and to oppose himself to the iniquity and malice of Satan and the world, and to confess the Seed of the woman ; to condemn the religion and the pursuits of the world, and to preach, through Christ, another and eternal life after this present life.

Such a life as this did the holy Enoch live, for 300 years as the greatest prophet and high priest of his generation : and he had six patriarchs for his teachers. Most deser\'edly therefore

454 ClIAPTEK V. 21-24.

does Moses extol him as a disciple of the greatest eminence, taught and trained by many patriarchal masters, and those the greatest and most illustrious ; and a disciple moreover so gifted with the Holy Spirit, that he was the prophet of all the prophets, and the saint of all the saints, in that primeval world. So great a patriarch was Enoch, in the first place, in his high office and ministry. And in the next place, he is thus spoken of by Moses in terms of praise above all the other patriarchs, because it was the will of God that he should be an examj)le of the resurrection to the wliole world, to secure their consolation and confirm their faith in the life to come. This text therefore is worthy of being written in letters of gold, and deeply engraven in the inmost hearts of all believers.

Here again therefore we have another view of what it was in Enoch to ' ^^'alk with God.' It was to preach the life beyond this present life ; to teach concerning the Seed to come, con- cerning the serpent's head which was to be bruised, and con- cerning the kingdom of Satan, which was to be destroyed. For such was the preaching of Enoch, who nevertheless was a hus- band and the father of a family ; who had a wife and children ; and who governed his family, and procured his subsistence by the labour of his own hands. Wherefore say or think no more about living in a monastery, which has indeed the outward show of walking w ith God, but not the reality of it. And when this godly man had lived, after the birth of JSIethuselah, 300 years in the truest religion, in faith, in patience, and in the midst of a thousand crosses, all which he endured andovercame byfaith in the blessed Seed to come,hewas not,and appeared nomore among men.

Here therefore mark the words of Moses, full of the deepest sense and meaning. The divine historian does not say (as he expresses himself concerning the other patriarchs), " And he died." This expression of Moses therefore concerning the disap- pearance of Enoch, all divine interpreters have received as a proof of the resurrection of the dead. The expression in the Hebrew is most brief and most significant. And Enoch walked with God, and ve enenu, " he was not :" which expression in the original, signifies that Enoch was lost or disappeared, con- trary to the thought or expectation of all the other patriarchs, and nt once ceased to be among men.

CREATION. 455

Without doubt therefore, at the severe loss of so holy and great a man, both his father and his grandfather were filled with grief and consternation ; for they well knew with what devotedness he had taught the true religion, and how many things he had suffered. When therefore they had lost thus on a sudden such a man as Enoch, who had such a testimony of his godliness both fi'om men and from God Himself, Avhat do you think must have been their feelings ? Find me therefore, if you can, a poet or an orator who has language and ability to set forth this di\ane text with adequate feeling and dignity ! Enos, Seth, and all the other patriarchs, knew not by whom or whither Enoch was taken away ; they sought him therefore, but found him not. His son Methuselah sought him, and his other children and his grand- children sought him, but they found him not ! They suspected no doubt the malice of the Cainites ; and they probably thought that he was killed, as Abel was, and secretly buried.

At length however, as we may believe, they learned, through a revelation made to them of God by an angel, that Enoch was taken away by God Himself, and into paradise ! This reality of the case however they did not know probably the first or second day after the translation, and perhaps not till many months, and, it may be, many years afterwards. In the meantime holy men bewailed their deep affliction, concluding that the great patriarch had been murdered by the Cainite hypocrites. And it is ah^•ays the divine rule of action, that the cross and affliction should pre- cede the consolation ! For God never comforts any but the afflicted ! just as He never quickens unto life any but the dead ! nor ever justifies any but sinners ! He always creates all things out of nothing !

Thus also it was a severe cross and a deep affliction to the patriarchs when they saw him taken away from them, and ap- pearing nowhere among them, who had govei'ned the whole world by his doctrine, and who had done so many great and illustrious deeds through the whole course of his life. While therefore these holy men were mourning and bewailhig their afflicted case, behold ! consolation is at hand, and it is revealed to them that the Lord had " translated" Enoch ! Such an ex- pression we have not throughout the whole text of the Scripture, concerning any other man than save Elijah. God willed there-

456 CHAPTEK V. 21-'24.

fore to testify by an open example, even " from the beginning" of the world, that He had prepared for His saints another life after this life, in which they might live for ever with Him their God.

Moreover the Hebrew verb lakak does not signify " trans- lated," according to our general idea of the expression ' trans- lated,' but ' received to Himself.' These words therefore are the words of life, which God revealed by some angel to the patriarch Enoch, and to the whole of that generation of saints, that they might have the consolation and promise of eternal life, not only in the Word, but also by the fact and example themselves, as in the case of Abel also. And how delightful must have been to them this word of announcement, when they heard that Enoch was not dead, nor slain by wicked men, nor taken away from them by the fraud or snares of Satan, but was translated : that is, 'received to Himself,' by the living and omnipotent God's own act!

This is that bright and glorious ornament which Moses wished to be so conspicuously seen in the present chapter : namely, that the omnipotent God did not take unto Himself geese, nor cows, nor logs of wood, or stones, but — a man ! even Enoch himself! that he might thereby show that another and better life was re- served for 7nen ! — a better life than this present life, so filled with evils and calamities of every kind. For although Enoch was a sinner, yet he departed from this life in a manner which proved that God had prepared for him and brought nigh unto him, as a gift, another and eternal life, seeing that he now lives with God, and that God took him — to Himself!

Enoch therefore indeed " walked with God" in this sense also; — he was in this life a true and faithful witness, that after this present life men are appointed to live an eternal life, through faith in the blessing of the promised Seed. For this is to live a life before God, and not the living that mere animal life which is subject to corruption. And as Enoch constantly preached this doctrine, so God now verified and fulfilled this very preach- ing in the patriarch himself, in order that we may fully and surely believe that Enoch, a man like unto ourselves, born of flesh and blood as we also are, namely, born of the seed of Adam, was taken up into heaven by God, and now lives the life of God ; that is, an eternal life.

CREATION. 457

Before that generation of the holy patriarchs knew all these tilings, it was a most appalling thing for them to hear that a man so holy as Enoch had thus so altogether disappeared ; that where he was, or in what manner he perished, no one had the least knowledge. Therefore his godly parents and all the elders wei'e overwhelmed with the deepest soitow. But afterwards an in- credible joy and consolation were afforded them when they heard that their son lived with God Himself, and had been translated by God to an angelic and eternal life.

This consolation God made known to Seth, who was then the greatest prophet and high priest, after his father Adam had fallen asleep in the faith of the blessed Seed fifty-seven years before : having then arrived at about his eight hundred and sixtieth year. Seth being now an old man and full of days, and so being Avithout doubt fully confirmed in the faith of the blessed Seed to come, and anxiously awaiting deliverance from the body, and earnestly desiring to be gathered to his people, died with the greater joy, on account of the translation of his son Enoch, about fift^'-two years after that translation ; which fifty-two years was indeed but a short time for an old man wherein to be able to make his will and visit all his grandchildren, and preach to them, and exhort them to persevere in the faith of the promised Seed, and to hope in that eternal life unto which Ids son and their father Enoch had been thus just translated to live for ever with God. In this manner doubtless the aged saint employed his time among his descendants, bidding ' farewell' to and bless- ing each one : being full of years, and full of joy, he no doubt thus taught, and comforted both himself and all his family.

Even with respect to myself, if I knew that I was appointed to die in six months' time, I should scarcely find time enough wherein to make my will ; to remind men of what had been the testimony of my preaching ; to exhort and entreat them to con- tinue and persevere therein ; and to warn and guard them (as far as my powers of mind could do so) against offences of false doctrine. All these things could not be done in one day, nor in one month. Those fifty years therefore during which Seth lived after the translation of Enoch, formed but a very short period for him in which to instruct all his family in the nature of this glorious consolation, — that another and eternal life is to

458 CHAPTER V. 21-24.

be hoped for after this Hfe : a hope which God revealed unto His saints by the marvellous fact of His having translated and taken to Himself Enoch, who was of the same flesh and blood with our- selves.

In performing this last work of his life, Seth no doubt en- treated his descendants thus, — ' Follow not the evil inclinations of your nature, but despise this present life and look forward to a better. For what evil is there existing which is not found in this present life ? To how many diseases, to what great dangers, to what dreadful calamities, is it not subject ? to say nothing now of those evils which are the greatest of all afllictions ; namely, those spiritual distresses which afflict with anguish the mind and con- science, such as the Law, sin, and death itself. Why is it then that ye so anxiously expect such great consolations from this pre- sent life ? and yet ye do so eagerly expect them, that ye seem as if ye never could be satisfied with their enjoyment. Whereas the real state of this life is, that one would be ready at almost every hour to end it at once with our own hands, unless it had been the good will of God to permit us to live for the very end of preaching Him, of giving Him thanks, and of being of service to our brethren. This service therefore let us render unto God, for their sakes, with all dihgence ; let us look forward with con- tinual sighs unto that true life to whicli, my children, your brother Enoch has been thus translated by the glorious God,' and taken to Himself. ' These and the like things the holy and aged patriarch Seth no doubt taught all his family before his death, after this ereat consolation had been revealed.

And there is no doubt that, after these holy patriarchs under- stood that Enoch was translated thus alive unto immortality, they longed for the time when they also might be delivered out of this afflicted life by death at least, if not by the same glorious translation as that by which the good and great Enoch was de- livered. If then those godly patriarchs of old so anxiously looked forward to and desired the eternal life to come on account of the blessed examples of Abel and Enoch, whom they knew to be now living with God, how much greater ought to be our expectation and desire, who have Christ for our Leader unto eternal life, and who is "gone before?" as Peter saith (Acts 3. 20 to 26). In this our great Forerunner, Christ, the holy patriarchs believed,

CREATION. 450

as in Ilini who should come ; but we believe in Plim, as knowing that He has come., and lias " gone before" us unto the Father, that He might prepare for us mansions, and might sit at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. Ought we not therefore to sigh with earnest expectation for those future and eternal things, and to cast behind us these present and miserable things ? For it is not an Enoch or an Abel who sets before us, as those patriarchs did before them, the hope of a better life to come: but it is Christ is our Leader Himself; who is Himself the author and the giver of that eternal life. It becomes us therefore with a great and holy mind to despise this life and this world, and with a full breast to breathe after the glory of the life eternal.

But herein it is that we feel how great the infirmity of our flesh is, which madly lusteth after these present things with all its affection and purpose, but has no power to rejoice in the all- certain glory of the life to come. For how is it possible that that future life and its glory should not be most certain, which hath for the witnesses thereof not only Abel, and Enoch, and Elias (or Elijah), but also the Great Head itself, and the " first fruits" of the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ ! Most worthy therefore the hati^ed, both of God and of men, are the wicked Epicureans ; and most worthy our hatred also is our own flesh, which continually tempts us to the Epicurean doctrine and life, while it wallows in temporal cares and pleasures, and disregards with unconcern the eternal ffood things of the world and life to come.

The words of the Divine text before us therefore are most carefully to be observed, and to be impressed most deeply on our minds, which plainly show us that Enoch was not translated and received by any one of the patriarchs, nor by any one of the angels, but by God Himself. For this was the very consolation which rendered the lives and also the deaths of the holy patri- archs endurable by them : nay, which enabled them to depart from this life with joy. For they saw that the Seed which had been promised them warred for them, even before He was re- vealed, with Satan and the world, and ' bruised,' in Enoch, ' the serpent's head.' And they held fast the same hope also concern- ing all their posterity of believers in the same promised Seed.

460 CHAPTER V. 21-24.

And therefore they despised death in all holy assurance, as not being death indeed, but a certain sleep, out of which they should surely awake unto a life eternal. For " to them that believe," death is not really death, but a certain sweet sleep. For when the terror, and the power, and the sting of death are taken away, it can no longer be considered death indeed. The greater there- fore the faith of the dying man is, the weaker is death in him. On the contrary, the weaker the faith of the dying man is, the more bitter to him is death.

In this same divine text we are also reminded of the nature of sin. For if Adam had not sinned, we should not have been dying men, nor have died at all; but, like Enoch of old, we should have been translated, without fear or pain, from this animal life to that better, and spiritual, and eternal life. But as we have forfeited that eternal life, the present history of the patriarch Enoch assures us that the restitution of paradise and of eternal life is by no means to be despaired of. Our flesh indeed cannot be free from the pain of death ; but where the conscience hath obtained peace through the Seed of the woman ! death has no- thing more in it than a swoon, by means of which we pass out of this life unto eternal rest. For none of that pain of the flesh in death would have been known by us, had Adam and his posterity continued in the state of original innocency ; but we should have been translated from this world as if by means of a sleep, by awaking from which we should have found ourselves in heaven, introduced into the life of the angels, who dwell there. But now that the flesh is corrupted by sin, that corruption must first be abolished by means of death. But in the case of Enoch, it might be that he was translated by God, out of a deep sleep, without death or any pain ; perhaps while reclining on a spot of grass where he had prayed himself to sleep !

Let us therefore diligently ponder and sacredly admire the text before us, as one which Moses intended to make to stand out most conspicuously, as a memorable portion of the history of the original world before the Flood. And what fact could possibly be more full of wonder and admiration than that a man, a corrupt sinner, born of flesh and blood, as we are, and defiled as we are by that sin and corruption, so obtained the victory over death as not to die at all ! Even Christ our Lord Himself was man, but a

CREATION. 4G1

RIGHTEOUS man ; yet our sins caused Him to suffer the bitterest of all deaths, but He raised Himself up from death, on the third day, unto the life eternal. In Enoch therefore there was the singular and glorious fact, — that he died not at all, but was caught up and translated to heaven, without any intervention of death, to the life spiritual and eternal.

Here again the Rabbins are worthy of all hatred ; for (as is always usual with them) what places soever of the Holy Scrip- ture are the most remarkable for greatness and glorj', those very parts they corrupt the most shamefully. So here, in this glorious particular concerning Enoch, they absurdly prate that Enoch was indeed a good and righteous man, but very much inclined to the evil desires of the flesh ; and that therefore God so pitied him as to translate him before the time of his natural death, lest he should commit sin, and be condemned eternally. And is not this, I pray you, awfully corrupting the glorious text before us ? For what is the use or sense of their saying, concerning Enocli in particular, that he was a subject of the evil desires of the flesh ? As if all the other patriarchs also did not possess and feel the same corrupt desires of their natui'e !

And pray, how comes it to pass that they take no notice of the other part of tlie testimony of Moses also, that Enoch " walked with God ?" For therein we have the equally solemn testimony of the sacred historian, that Enoch indulged not those evil inclina- tions of his flesh, but overcame them by the firmness of his faith. The Jews however, when they speak of the corrupt desires of the flesh, have in their thoughts and conceptions nothing more than those baser inclinations of our nature, — lust, avarice, pride, and the like motions and passions of the flesh. Whereas Enoch, without doubt, warred and wrestled all his life against those mightier temptations of the world and the devil, and felt, like Paul, that " tliorn in the flesh" ' buffeting' him day by day; against which he continually wrestled, fighting with the old serpent in every form of his temptations. And at length, when lie had been tormented, and bruised, and worn down with every kind of temptation, God in mercy commanded him now to depart from this miserable life to the blessed life to come.

But what that life is which Enoch now lives in heaven, we, who still continue to be natural flesh and bloofl, cannot possibly

462 CHAPTER V. 21-24..

know. It is enough for us to know that Enoch was translated with his whole body also. And this, there is no doubt, the patriarchs clearly understood by revelation ; and there was great need of the revelation of this fact to them, as an all-sufficient con- solation, seeing that they were men appointed, as all men, to die ; and ive also have equal need of the same consolation, which con- solation therefore we thus possess and understand from the trans- lation of Enoch. But lohat that holy patriarch is now doing, where he is, and hoio he lives, we know not. We know, and are assured, that he lives ; and we also know that the life he lives is not like unto this animal life, but that he is with God. This the text now before us distinctly declares.

Most memorable therefore is this history, by the marvellous fact recorded in which God willed to set before the original and primeval world the hope of a better and eternal life. Even as to the second age of the world, under the second divine dispensation to it, which was the dispensation of the law, God gave the ex- ample of Elijah, who also was taken up into heaven, and ti^ans- lated by the Lord, before the very eyes of his own servant Eliseus. We are now under the New Testament, as in a third condition of the world, and under a third dispensation unto it. We have Christ Himself, our Great Deliverer, as our glorious example, who Himself ascended into the heavens, taking with Him many of His saints.

By such threefold means did God will to establish as many testimonies of the resurrection of the dead, that He might thereby draw away and allure our minds by all possible attractions from this corrupt, and offensive, and calamity-filled life ; in which, however, we will glady serve God, as long as He shall please, in the faithful performance of all civil, and political, and domestic duties, and especially in instructing others in holiness and in knowledge of God. Although, as the apostle saith, " We have here no certain dwelling-place" (1 Cor. 4. 11). " For Christ, our forerunner, is gone before us, that He might prepare for us many and eternal mansions" (John 14. 2, 3).

But just as w^e find many among us by whom such things are considered absurd, and not worthy of faith or notice, so there is no doubt that, in the primitive age of the world, the divine facts of its history, now immediatel}^ before us, were deemed ridiculous

CREATION. 4<j;'5

also. For the world is ever like itself. These glorious things therefore are set before us with all the weight of divine authority, and are committed of God to aviutings, and are avkitten for the saints and the faithful, that they might read them, and under- stand them, and believe them, and follow them. For they pre- sent to our sight a manifest victory over death and sin, and afford us a sure and certain consolation of victory over the condemnation of the law, and over the wrath and judgment of God against our sin, as manifested in the case of Enoch. To the godly therefore nothing could be more delightful, and full of grace and joy, than these divine histories of the patriarchs.

But it is under the New Testament that the mercy of God abounds more truly and marvellously still. For even if ive should reject the glorious histories of the patriarchs, yet we have far higher and greater histories still, which assure us that the Son of God Himself hath ascended into heaven, and now sitteth at the right hand of God, by whom we see the head of the serpent to have been openly bruised and destroyed, and that eternal life, which we lost in paradise, completely restored. These glorious facts are far greater than the translation of Enoch and Elijah. Nevertheless God willed both that the original world should be consoled by their translations, and that the following world, which had the law, and the third dispensation, which had the Gospel, should be equally comforted also.

The great divine doctrine therefore which is set before us in these jive chcqyters of the Book of Genesis is this, — that certain men in the primeval patriarchal world " died" and rose ao-ain. In Adam all men " died." But those who believed in the Pro- mised Seed, they rose and lived again, as is testified by the his- tories of Abel and of Enoch. In Adam, death was appointed for Seth, and for all others, and they " died ;" and therefore it is written concerning every one such saint, " And he died." But in the example of Abel and Enoch is set before us the resm-rec- tion of the dead, and the life immortal to come. And all these things are expressly intended of God to prevent us from despair- ing in death, and to establish us in the sure and certain hope that all those who believe in the Promised Seed shall live again, and shall be canned up unto God in heaven, whether they be thus carried up from the water, or from the fire, or from the ojjen air,

464 CHAPTER V. 2«, 29.

or from the tomb. All we who believe therefore long to live, and we certainly shall live, that eternal life which remaineth for us after this life, through the Promised Seed.

(Authorized Version.)

Ver. 28. And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two yearsy and begat a son ;

Ver. 29. And he called his name Noah, saying j T7iissame shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground ichich the Lord hath cursed.

(Luther's Version.)

Ver. 29. And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us from the works and labours of our hands, in the ground, which the Lord hath cursed.

Moses appears to touch, merely as in a passing way, this part of the divine history which is connected with the name given to Noah. It deserv^es however our more particular and careful examination. Lamech was living at the time when Enoch was taken away of God out of this life unto the other and immortal life. Therefore, after the Lord had manifested so great a glory, and had wrought so signal a miracle, as to translate Enoch, a man in all things like unto ourselves, out of the low state of this earthly life unto a life eternal (for Enoch was a husband and the father of a family, who had sons and daughters, and a household, and land, and cattle), the holy patriarchs, filled with joy and glad- ness, fell into the thought and expectation that the joyful day of the fulfilment of the great original Promise was close at hand. For it seemed to them to be a most remarkable instance and dis- play of the divine mercy, that Enoch, a man in all things like unto themselves, should be translated alive from earth to heaven.

As therefore Adam and Eve, after the divine promise had been made them, fell, at the first, into the thought and hope that their first-born son Cain was that blessed Seed, — induced so to hope, through the greatness of their joy, in seeing their son Cain, a man like unto themselves, bom unto them ; so I believe it was in the same manner tliat Lamech, through holy error and misapprehen-

CREATION. 465

sion, gaA'e to Ins present son the name, Noali, and said, ' This same shall comfort us, and shall deliver us from the labours and sorrows of this life. For our original sin, and the punishment thei'eof, shall now cease. We shall now be restored to our former perfect and innocent state. The curse shall now cease which was pronounced on the earth on account of the sin of Adam; and all the other miseries inflicted on the human race, on account of sin, shall also cease.'

In this manner I believe it was that the thoughts of Lamech ran. He expected that, having thus seen his grandfather Enoch translated into heaven without pain, or disease, or death, a whole scene of paradise would immediately follow. He concluded, like Adam and Eve before him, that N'oah was the Promised Seed, and that he would restore the state of the whole world. His words plainly intimate his thoughts to have been, that the curse would now be taken away. But not so. Neither the curse nor the punishment of sin can ever be taken away, until original sin itself shall have been first taken away.

The Rabbins therefore, those pestilential corrupters of the Scripture, are here also worthy of detestation ; for they corrupt this passage also by the following interpretation of it, ' He shall cause us (they say it should be rendered) to rest from our labours, and from the work of our hands ; that is, (they say,) he shall show unto us an easier way of cultivating the earth, by the yoking oxen to the ploughs, and so breaking up the earth with a plough- share, instead of digging it by the hands of men, as we have hitherto been accustomed to do.'

I wonder however that Lyra was satisfied with such an ex- planation of the passage as this, and that he followed it. For he ought to have been well aware of that constant custom of cor- rupting the Scriptures, which is everywhere common with the Jews, who, being ignorant of what is spiritual, turn all spiritual things into natural and corporal things, that they may thereby seek glory among men by pleasing them. For what greater indignity could have been laid upon the holy patriarch Lamech, than to make him rejoice in the birth of his son Noah merely for the sake of ' the belly !' and to give the name, Noah, to that son on such an account !

No ! It was a much greater concern than this which filled his

G G

466 CHAPTER V. 28, 29.

mind with anxiety. It was the wrath of God, and death, with all the other calamities of this life, as the consequences of sin, which occupied his thoughts. His hope was, that Noah, as the promised Seed, would put an end to tliese evils. And therefore it was that he thus exulted with joy and expectation at the birth of this his son, and called upon others also to join him in the same hope. His thoughts did not dwell upon the plough, nor upon oxen, nor upon other lighter things of the same kind, per- taining to this present life, as the blind Jews dream. He was really filled with the hope, that this his son Noah loas that Seed to come, which should restore the former blessed state of para- dise, in which there was no curse. As if he had said, ' Noio, we feel the cui'se in the very labours of our hands. We toil, and sweat, in cultivating the earth ; yet it yields us, in return, no- thing but briers and thorns. But note, there shall arise unto us a new and happy age. The curse on the earth shall cease, which was inflicted on account of sin, because sin shall cease.' This is the true meaning of the text now before us.

But the holy patriarch, like Adam and Eve before him, was deceived in this his hope. For the glory of that reparation be- longed, not to the mere son of a man, but to the Son of God. Vain therefore and absurd are the above dreams of the Rabbins. For although the earth is not dug by the hands of men, but by the use of oxen, yet the labovu' of the hands of men has not ceased. The translation of Enoch therefore does not set before us any corporal consolation, for the ' belly's sake,' but our great deliverance from sin and death ! Lamech therefore hoped also for a restoration of the former state of sinless life, and innocency, and happiness : for he saw tlie beginning of this change to have been manifested in the translation of his grandfather Enoch ; and he felt assured that the deliverance and restoration of all the faithful was close at hand. Just as Eve (as we have already observed), when she brought forth her first-born son Cain, said, " I have gotten a man from the Lord." As if she had said, ' One who shall take away all these punishments inflicted on sin, and shall restore us to our original state of sinless life and innocency.' But Eve, we repeat, was deceived in her hope. And just in the same manner also was the good and holy Lamech deceived, by his too great desire and expectation of the restoration of the world.

CREATION. 467

All these anxieties however plainly show how ardently those holy patriarchs longed for, hoped for, and sighed for, that great "restitution of all things" (Acts 3. 21). And although they herein erred, even as Eve erred and was deceived before them in the matter of her son Cain, yet this holy desire itself of the gi'eat restoration to come was of the Holy Ghost, and proved the truth and constancy of their faith in the Promised Seed. When Eve therefore named her son Cain, and when Lamech called his son Noah^ — these names were all ' birth cries' (as the apostle represents them) of the whole Creation, groaning and travailing in pain together, and earnestly expecting the resur- rection of the dead, deliverance from sin, the restoration of all tilings, and the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8. 19 to 23).

The true and simple and real meaning of the present text therefore is this, — that after the grandson Lamech had seen his grandfather Enoch translated to heaven, out of the present miseries and afflictions, caused by the original sin ; and when he had seen a sure hope of the life to come set forth thereby ; and when a son, after this, had been born to him, he called his name Noah ; that is ' rest :' because he erroneously hoped, that by means of 1dm, deliverance from all the curses of sin, and from sin itself, would be enjoyed. This interpretation is according to the analogy of faith, and it confirms the hope of the faithful in the resurrection, and in the life eternal to come.

Herein therefore is strikingly seen the awful ingratitude of the men of this our age of the world. For we here behold the long- ing desire after the life to come, which these most holy men of the primeval world manifested ; whose shoes we are not worthy to clean. But how different a matter is it to desire a thing and to possess it ! We see those great patriarchs, most holy men as they were, adorned with the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit, and standing forth the heroes, as it were, of the whole world, filled with a longing desire of the Blessed Seed, which had been promised to them. That Promised Seed was to them their whole riches : so intensely did they hunger and thirst, and burn with desire ; and so earnestly did they look for Christ, though yet to come! Whereas we, who possess Christ, note come and present with us, and openly set forth before us, and freely given unto us, and glorified before our eyes, and sitting at the right hand of God,

468 CHAPTEK V. 28, 29.

and interceding for us, despise Him I and think no more of Him tlian we do of any common creature of God ! Nay, perhaps we esteem Him less. O the misery ! O the sin of man !

From the portion of the Divine Record, therefore, thus far written by the sacred historian, and from our preceding obser- vations, we have presented unto us a view of the theee ages of the world, and their difference. The original, or primeval AGE, was the most excellent and the most holy. It contained the noblest jewels of the whole human race. After the Flood also there existed many great and renowned men — patriarchs, and kings, and prophets ; and although they were not equal to the patriarchs before the Flood, yet in them also there shone forth a bright longing for Christ, as Christ also Himself saith, " For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them" (Luke 10. 24). And then there is our own age, the age of the New Testament ; before whom Christ come hath been set forth : which age is as it were the dregs and putrefaction of the whole world. For everything else in our age is esteemed more than Christ ; whereas, in the primeval ages of the world, He was ever held of all things the most precious.

And what is the cause of this most awful state of things in this our age ? The cause is our accursed flesh, and also the world and the devil. Like the Jews of old, we altogether loathe the things of the Gospel, thus always before us. So true is that Latin poetic proverb : —

Omne varum carum ; vllescit quotidianum. " The new and rare is dear ; the daily same is nought."

And that proverb also : —

Minuit prcesentia famam. " Things present lose their fame."

And we fully exemplify these proverbs of old. For loe are richer than the primeval patriarchs with respect to the greater light itself of the revelation under which we live ; but tliey, under their lesser light, set far more value upon the revelation of the Promised Seed, and were like fond and loving suitors. But

CREATION. 469

ice are like full and satiated servants : for we are surrounded by the Word on every side, and despise it, though almost buried under its abundance. As therefore the primeval world Avas the most excellent and the most holy ; so this world, of " the last days," is the most worthless and the most wicked. Wherefore as God did not spare the original world, and also destroyed the second world by ' overturning,' ' overturning,' ' overturning' one kingdom after another, and one empire after another (Ezek. 21. 17), what judgments can we think God will bring upon this our last-day world, which thus securely and unconcernedly despises Christ, " the desire of all nations," (as the holy pro- phet Haggai calls Him, Hagg. 2. 7,) pressing Himself upon us on every side, even unto our loathing, by His Word, and by His sacraments I

Ver. 32. And Noah loas five hundred years old : and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Jaiyheth.

Here again we meet with surprising brevity in the di\^ne historian. But here also, as is his custom, Moses expresses in the fewest possible words the greatest and most important things, which the ignorant reader passes by unobserved. But you will say, perhaps, What great thing lies in the simple fact here re- corded,— that Noah first begat sons when he was five hundred years old ? Why, most assuredly, if Noah had no children all those 500 years, he either endured that length of time the severe trial of unfruitfulness ; or, if he abstained from marriage all those years, he stands an example of most marvellous chastity. And tlie latter I believe to be most probably the truth of the case. But I neither speak of, nor intend here, the filthy chastit}^ of the Papists ; nor indeed do I allude to any such chastity as may be practised by ourselves. If you would behold chastity, look at the prophets and the apostles, and even at some of the other patriarchs. But what shall we say of this patriarch Noah'^ What chastity is here ! He was a male by birth and by nature ; and yet he lived without connubial intercourse for 500 years !

Now you will scarcely find one in a thousand of the men of this age, who has arrived at the age of thirty, and has not known woman ! And moreover Noah, even after lie had lived a single

470 CHAPTER V. 82.

life for so many centuries, at length took to himself a wife, and begat children ; which latter fact carries its own proof, that he was in a state appropriate for marriage all the 500 years before. Therefore the conclusion is, that he abstained from marriage, during the whole of those 500 years, from some certain cause !

In the first place therefore it is necessary and evident that such unequalled chastity must have been a peculiar gift of God. It evinced a nature almost angelic. For it does not seem a thing possible in the nature of man to live thus 500 years with- out knowing a wife. And in the next place these five centuries of chastity in Noah manifest some signal displeasure which he must have experienced against the world in which he then lived. For on what other account are we to conclude that he abstained so long a time from marriage, than because he had seen that all his cousin-generations, the descendants of his original uncle, Cain, had degenerated into giants and tyrants, and had filled the world with violence ? I believe therefore that he thought in his deep reflections that he Avould rather have no children at all, than to see himself the father of such children as those. And my be- lief is, that he would never have taken to himself a wife at all, if he had not been admonished and exhorted so to do, either by his coeval patriarchs, or had been commanded to marry by some angel from heaven. For he who had refrained from marriage from such a cause for 500 years, might have refrained from the same causes diiring all the rest of his life.

Thus does Moses (as we have repeatedly observ^ed) wrap up in the fewest possible words the greatest and most weighty things : things, the importance of which the indolent or ignorant reader passes over unobserved and unthought of. So here, — while the sacred historian seems to say nothing about chastity, he is all the time recording as a wonder to all generations the chastity of Noah : a chastity which marvellously exceeded all the other chastity of the whole primeval world ; — a chastity of perfectly angelic example.

The Jews, with their usual vanity and absurdity, idly fable that Noah thus for centuries denied himself the enjoyment of a wife, because he knew that God would destroy the world by a Flood. If therefore (they absurdly argue) Noah had married, like all the other patriarchs, in the earlier part of his life — that

CREATION. 471

is, when he was about an hundred years old or less — he himself, as a father, would alone almost have filled the then world with children in the space of 400 years ; and thus God would have been compelled to have destroyed, (had He destroyed the whole world,) both the father himself and the whole of his generation of childi'en. Just with the same fabulous absurdity do these Jews affirm, on the latter part of the present text, that Shem is made to be the jii^st-hovn of Noah, because he was first circum- cised.

In a word, these blind and miserable Jews corrupt all things in the Holy Scriptures, and turn their meaning to suit their own carnal affections, and to promote their own glory. But if Noah abstained from marriage for the reason which tliey thus assign, why did not all the other patriarchs, for the same reason, abstain from marriage and from the procreation of children also % These comments then of the Rabbins are frivolous to the last degree, and worse than nought. Why do they not rather at once urge, as the cause of Noah's wonderful chastity, that which w^as the real cause ? — namely, the peculiar gift of God ! — that he w'ho was in all respects by nature a male, should have been able to refrain from the knowledge of a wife for 500 years. There is no other example of such abstinence and continence in the whole course of all the ages of the world !

The Book of Genesis indeed highly offends the Papists, be- cause it says so often, concerning the patriarchs and primeval fathers, that they begat sons and daughters. They say of this Holy Book, that it is a book in which little more is contained than the record that the jiatriarchs were men of extravagant love of their wives ; and, in their great holiness and purity, they con- sider it quite an obscenity that Closes should make so much men- tion of such things, and in such particular terms. But the im- pure hearts of these holy beings, by this their great purity, load the greatest example of chastity in the whole world with the greatest reproach. For if you would really behold the brightest examples of chastity -s'shich the whole world contains, hear Moses relating in this Holy Book that the patriarchs married not wives until they were centuries of age: among whom the present patriarch, Noah, shines forth a distinguished star, who did not marry until he had reached the five hundredth year of his age.

472 CHAPTER V. 32.

Where will you find such examples as this, in any degree, or for any length of time, in the Papacy ? For although certain among the Papists sin not actually with their bodies, yet in what impurity and obscenity of their minds are they sunk ? And all this obscenity is God's righteous judgmerit on their contempt of marriage, which God Himself designed to be a remedy for the corruption and impurity of nature.

Therefore there w^as another cause, as we have said, and an- other reason, why Noah refrained from marriage. He did not condemn marriage, nor did he consider it to be a profane or im- pure manner of life ; but he saw that the posterities of the pre- ceding patriarchs had degenerated into the wickedness of the ungodly generation of the Cainites. Such children he felt he could not endure to see his own children become : he therefore luaited, in the fear of God, in expectation of the end of the world. And when afterwards he did enter into marriage, and begat children, he no doubt did this by some particular admonition and command of God.

But here a question naturally arises concerning the ages of the sons of Noah, and the oi^der of their birth ; and it will be sacredly worth our while to inquire into this matter, that our computation of the years of the world may be the more consistent, and may rest on plainer and surer grounds.

The common opinion is, that Shem was the jfirst-honi of Noah, because his name is mentioned first in order. The testimony of Scripture however compels us to conclude that Japheth was the first-born, Shem the second-born, and Ham the last-born. The truth of this is proved in the following manner : — Shem begat his son, Arphaxad, two years after the Flood (Gen. 11. 10), and Shem was then 100 years old (Gen. 11. 10). Hence Shem was 98 years old when the Flood came upon the earth ; and Noah, when Shem was born, w^as 498 years old. But Japheth was evidently born before Shem, and was the elder brother (Gen. 10. 21). It plainly follows therefore that Ham alone, the youngest brother, was born wdien, or immediately after, Noah was 500 years old.

The reason why Shem is mentioned before Japheth in the sacred record, is not because he was first circumcised, as the Jews (who are always hunting after their own carnal glory) falsely

CREATION. 473

fable, but because it was through him and his line that Christ, the Promised Seed, was to come.

But you will perhaps say. How will this, your explanation of the matter, agree with the sacred text now before us, which positively says, " And Noah was five hundred years old ; and Noah begat Shera, Ham, and Japheth?" The whole will be converted into perfect harmony, if you make the preter-perfect tense to be the preter-pluperfect, and read the passage thus : — And when Noah was five hundred years old, he had begotten Shem, Ham, and Japheth. For Moses does not record in which particular year each son Avas born, he simply mentions a certain year ; stating that, at that time, all the three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, were born to the patriarch Noah. By this reading of the sacred text therefore, now before us, the whole Scripture record on the subject will be seen to harmonize most perfectly.

Moses therefore is careful to conclude this Jifth chapter with the most admirable and memorable example of chastity which the whole world ever presented to view : that the patriarch Noah, being now 500 years old, first entered into the marriage life, having led all those years a life of holiness and chastity ; and havino; maintained such a lengthened abstinence from the wedded life, from the offence and grief of mind which he felt at the licentiousness of the youth of his age, who had degenerated, on every side, into the wickedness of the posterity of Cain ; and which holy patriarch, when he did take unto himself a wife, did so in obedience to the call and command of God, though he had power over himself to pass a single and chaste existence, without a wife, unto the end of his days.

In this manner, then, does Moses describe, in these first five chapters of the holy book of Genesis, the primeval and original world. The sacred historian is very brief indeed, using very few words, but those few words are quite sufficient to make it plain that there was in the beginning of the world a most holy and truly " golden age .'" Of this age of gold all the ancient poets also have made express mention, deriving their information from the traditions and perpetuated conversations of the primeval fathers.

But as the sins of men increased in number and magnitude, God spared not ihoi first age of the world, but destroyed it by a

474 CHAPTER V. 32.

Flood utterly, even as also He spared not the second age of the world, which was under the law. For on account of its idolatry, and impiousness of its worship, He not only overturned one king- dom after another, but even His own people, the Jews, having been severely punished at His hands, by various afflictions and captivities, were at length utterly desolated and destroyed by the Roman armies.

Oicr age, Avhich is the third age of the world, although it is the age of grace, is so filled with blasphemies and abominations, that it is not possible either to express them in language, or to conceive them in the thought of the heart. This age therefore cannot be pmiished by corporal punishments, as far as we can judge, but must be punished by eternal death and eternal fire ; or, (if I may so express it,) by a flood of fire ! and these indeed are the very things prophetically shown forth by the three colours of the rain- bow. The Jirst colour is sea-green, representing the destruction of the ^^rs^ world by the waters of the Flood on account of their violence and lust. The middle colour of the bow is yellow, pre- figuring those various calamities by which God avenged the idolatry and wickedness of the second world. The third and last colour of the bow is ^ery-red ; for fire shall at length consume the third world, with all its iniquities and sins.

Wherefore let us constantly pray that God would so rule our hearts by His fear, and would so fill us with confidence in His mercy, that we may with joy wait for our deliverance, and the righteous lyunishments of this ungodly world. Amen. Amen.

THE END.

MURRAY AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EniNBURGH.

DATE DUE

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