.EARTH'S MORNING:
OR,'THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.








OR,
THO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
BY
HORATIUS BONAR, D.D.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS.
8 7 5.








PREFACE.
WITHIN the last twenty years the book of Genesis has
come very prominently into view, as the starting-point of
numerous discussions.  Science and history have combined to lead us back to it. The former has taken up its
story of creatioz; the latter its nationaZities, as contained in
its genealogies and chronology.
The present volume does not enter into these discussions. It aims at exposition, not controversy. Its object
is to investigate the meaning of each verse and word;
that, having done so, the exact revelation of God in these
may be brought out, and the spiritual truth evolved.
Here are the rudiments of all Scripture-truth. And in
this book we have the first materials on which to construct
a true theory of develo pmenz;-development not simply of'truth,' but of the purpose of God respecting man, and
man's earth. The germs of true development are to be
found here in their earliest stage.  God here unfolds
Himself and reveals His mind step by step; His truth
expanding itself age after age, under divine superintendence, so as to prevent the consequences of mere human
interpretations, or development according to the mind
of man.




vi                     PREFA CE.
All Scripture connects itself with Genesis, and ought to
be read in this connection; for it is not so much the later
Scriptures that throw light on Genesis, as it is Genesis that
throws light on the later Scriptures.
Genesis is not merely the first book of Scripture, but it
is the fountainhead of revelation.  It must be studied as
such if we would understand it aright.
THE GRANGE, EDINBURGH,
November I874.




CONTENTS.
GE N E SI S.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.,.    I
CHAPTER II.,.50. 5~
CHAPTER lII.,                                            I05
CHAPTER IV.,                                             220
CHAPTER V.,.                                      271
CHAPTER VI.,.                289
N 0 T E S.
I. THE SABBATH,.                            323
II. SATAN,..             333
III. THE SONS OF GOD,....  369








T/iozg/ths o   Geneszs.
CHAPTER I.
T is our'faithful Creator' (I Pet. iv. I9) who here
speaks to us. He loves us too well to hide from
us the great things which He has done.  He would
have us know how He made all things; and as He delighted in them, so He would have us delight in them.
When creation came forth,'the morning stars sang
together, and the sons of God shouted for joy' (Job
xxxviii. 7); and when the different parts of the new
creation come into being, there is likewise'joy in heaven.'
In both creations God is represented as taking divine.
delight (Prov. viii. 3I); and in both cases'He calls
together His friends and neighbours, saying unto them,
Rejoice with me' (Luke xv. 6).'He has not left Himself without witness' (Acts xiv.
i7): and in this first book of Scripture we have His;
testimony to Himself and to the work of His hands..
Creation says'God is love,' though on a lower key and
with less distinctness than redemption.'tThe invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly
VOL. VI.                                 A




2               THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
seen, being understood by the things that are made'
(Rom. i. 20).
And this creation bears testimony to the Son of God;
for by'Him  He made the worlds' (Heb. i. 2).'By
Him  were all things created  that are in  heaven  and
that are in earth, visible and invisible: all things were
created by Him and for Him' (Col. i. i6). His connection with creation reveals to us His love.  His love
to man and man's world is no new thing. It did not
begin when He was made flesh.  Long before that we
find that He'rejoiced  in -the habitable  parts of His
earth, and that His delights were with the sons of men'
(Prov. viii. 3 I).1
Nor less has the Holy Spirit His part in the mighty
work.  He'moved' or'brooded' over the face of the
waters (Gen. i. 2).'By His Spirit He hath garnished
the heavens' (Job xxvi. I3).'Thou sendest forth Thy
Spirit, they are created' (Ps. civ. 30). In creation, as
in redemption, Father, Son, and  Spirit are spoken  of
as working.   Creation  belongs to each: and the love
manifested in creation is the love of Father, Son, and
Spirit.'God is love:' and this, though in dimmer characters, is written on the heavens and earth, and shines
out in sun, and moon, and stars. The Holy Spirit is
I Thus old Joseph Beaumont (I648) describes the manifestation of
God and His love in creation, or rather in the purpose to create:'All things at first was God, who dwelt alone
Within His boundless self. But bounteous He
Conceived the form of the creation,
That other things by Him might happie be,
A way to ease its streams His goodness sought,
And at.the last into a world burst out.'




GENESISI. I.                  3
love; and His love is in the sunshine of the first creation
as truly as of the second.
Yet, though surrounded with the loving works of God
each day, how little have we learned the lessons of
heavenly love which creation teaches!  How sadly do
we misinterpret creation;-reading in it power, wisdom,
majesty, and greatness; yet how seldom, LOVE!
HEAVEN and EARTH are the two places or regions
whose history God, in His word, purposes to write.
Ver. I.' nt the beginning God created lh/e heaven (or " heavens "
and the earth.'
He who alone knows everything relating to these,
secret or open, visible or invisible, physical or spiritual,
undertakes to put on record for us,'at sundry times
and in divers manners,' some memorials of the varied
wonders which have taken place within their bounds:
to tell us something of what'eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard;' and what man, in the full sweep of his
science, could not discover.
It is to'heaven and earth' that He confines His information; and of things beyond these He says but
little. Of what He intended them to be; of what He
made them; of what they have been; and of what
they yet shall be, when His great original purpose shall
unfold itself in all its parts in the ages to come, He
gives us His own account. Who but Himself could do
this? Man may guess or fancy, God only can make
known the things of God, in any part of His universe
(I Cor. ii. I I); the Architect alone can give us the




4               THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
eternal plan of His great structure, at least in outline,
and tell us something of its carrying out, the process of
erection, the hindrances, the successes, the failures.
The Bible is God's history of heaven and earth,-the
only authentic history of them  in existence.  He is His
own historian. He begins and ends His volume with
these: and throughout it, they form the scene of His
manifold plans and workings, the circle over which His
divine love spreads itself in its manifestations of wisdom
and power, and within which it gets vent to its eternal
fulness, - a fulness which finds its way into all that
which we call'nature' (i.e. essential constitution of things,
Rom. xi. 24), or'creation' (i.e. things as coming from
a Creator; Mark x. 6).1
He sets out with asserting His own prerogative as
Creator, — His exclusive and undivided prerogative,the originating One, the unbeginning  One.2   He tells
us that the things we see are not self-produced, nor are
they from eternity. They once were not. They once
1 Both of these words are sanctioned by inspiration: the latter
expressive of derivation from God, the former of the nature or essence
of that which God has imparted to that which He has brought into
being.
2'Beginning' is sometimes used, as here, to mean former ages or times
(Gen. x. IO; Isa. xlvi. Io); the corresponding Greek word (apXc)
is applied to Christ in reference to the eternal past (John i. I; Prov.
viii. 22). Hence His name,' Him from the begillnizg' (I John ii. 13)
and'the beginning' (or head) of the creation of God; and simply'the beginning' (Col. i. i8). Hence He is named'the beginning and
the end' (Rev. i. 8, xxi. 6, xxii. 13); and we may notice that
the words in which He is designated (Heb. xii. 2)'author (or leader)
and finisher' (bringer up of the rear), are derived from the above
expressions of the Apocalypse.
t-. 




GENESIS I. I.                  5
began to be. It was He whose name is GoD (Elohim)
that caused them to begin. He created them all, upper
and lower, far off and near: thus giving the lie to the
pretensions of every idol, and setting aside the gods
of the heathen as non-creators (Ps. xcvi. 5; Jer. x. I ).
He gives us no date for His creation. In many places
afterwards He dates His signs and wonders, as when
He brought the deluge over earth, or led Israel out of
Egypt. But He does not tell us when the heavens and
earth began to be. He affirms that they had a beginning,
but when that was He does not say. It might be six
thousand or it might be sixty thousand years ago.  At
some time during that past period which He calls'the
beginning' (apXe), before'the ages' (aWivEs) commenced,
(which we call time), He created the heavens and earth.
His object here' is to claim creation as His own direct
and exclusive handiwork, and to declare that when it
began to be, it did so not as the result of a certain preexisting, eternal order of things or laws, but as the
simple offspring of His creating power.
It seems strange that any other thought should have
entered man's mind. Self-creation, how absurd! Chance
creation, how irrational! Evolution by innate law, how
unphilosophical! A palace self-built! A temple evolving
itself from dead atoms! A city reared by chance! Life
without a living One to originate it! How incredible!
The world declares its Creator (Ps. viii. I). It has
a voice which says beyond mistake,'I did not create
myself: He who created me is infinitely more glorious
than I am' (Rom. i. 20). Even man's reason sees this;




6           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
yet it is faith that discerns it fully, and sees WHO it is that
made all things. The God of the Bible is just such an
one as we could suppose to be the Creator of the world.
What' nature' shows us of God is altogether in harmony
with the Jehovah of Revelation. The jarring things in
this fallen creation are only to be explained and reconciled at the cross. The gods of the heathen (taking the
loftiest descriptions of these deities) could not have made
the world. It is far too glorious a creation for Baal, or
Buddha, or Jupiter to have produced, or even conceived.
Look at this earth and these starry heavens, and say if
the worship of such gods as these is not the height of
unreason.  But read what the Bible makes known of
God, and you will say this is just such a God as could
have planned and made such a world as this. Read
what is written on'these blue heavens above us, and you
will say,'He who made these heavens is just such a
God as could have written this Book.'
He who made all things TO BE, must be the I AM, the
Being of beings, the fountainhead of being. And who
but He can give us the history of creation?  Who but
the Beginning and the Ending could speak from  His
own knowledge, and say thus with authoritative certainty,' In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'
Reason may speak of'a God,' for the visible creation
does declare an invisible Creator (Rom. i. 20); but when
asked'what is His name, and what is His Son's name,
if thou canst tell' (Prov. xxx. 4), it is speechless. God
Himself must be the revealer of the mighty secret. And
He has revealed it. He has told us His name, and His




GENESIS I. I.                  7
Son's name.  Man cannot give a name to God: God
Himself has done it; and the name is our refuge and
our joy.'The NAME of the Lord is a strong tower;
the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.'
O folly of atheism! 0 folly of those who tell us that
matter is God, and God is matter! A world without a
Maker!  A law  without a Lawgiver!  O misery of
atheism! No glorious One, no perfect One, no blessed
One. How sad! What a blank, if this were true! A
sky without a star, a world without a sun!
What feebleness in reason!  It cannot even name
the name of God; and when it tries, as heathenism has
done, to repeat the name first given, it does so with a
stammering tongue.  What could reason tell us of
Jehovah? What can it reveal to us of that which is
outside the creature? What can it say without a Bible?
No voice of God heard or to be heard! Nothing but
the dull, unmeaning clank of matter's dead machinery,
as it moves round and on;-as it rises and falls;-as it
grinds on its various axles,-self-impelled, or driven by
fate! No heart, no soul; what we call conscience only
a corporeal nerve; what we call affection, only a pulsation of the blood; what we call sorrow and joy, only
the movements of a finer materialism,-the twitches of
invisible nerves which science will soon be able to discover and control! No communication between Creator
and creature! No message either of love or wisdom
from One infinitely wise and. loving! No Book of sure
wisdom, whose' teachings can be beyond dispute! Impossible. Surely this is the height, or rather the depth,




'S          7THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
of unreasoning credulity: sillier than the fables of
heathendom, poorer than the dreams of pagan savage.
Ver. 2.' And t/e earth was withoz/ form, and void; and darkness
was ipon the face of the deep.'
Such was the state of this earth about the period when
this history begins. It was a region of rayless darkness.
Deepest night rested over it. It was without form, utterly
shapeless in all its parts.  It was void, that is, unfilled AU.
None of these things existed which make up its'fulness'
(Ps. xxiv. x).: In none of its parts was there any filling
up. It was like the newly quarried block ere the sculptor's chisel has touched it. Evidently pointing back to
this chaos, and using it as a figure, Job  describes
the grave as'a land of darkness, and the shadow  of
death; a land of darkness; as darkness itself; of the
shadow of death; without any order, and where the light
is as darkness.'  Jeremiah also describes the land of
Israel, in the day of calamity, in language of the same
kind (Jer. iv. 23), and Nahum predicts the ruin of
Nineveh in words taken from this description of the
original chaos (chap. ii. Io).  Then further it is called'deep,' or abyss; as if it presented one great mass of
confused and turbid water.
How long this state of chaos might have existed, we
know not. Not a word is said to intimate the time. It
is not such a condition of things as might have been expected to come directly from the hand of God; for all
that comes from Him is perfect, in its kind and in its
degree. The infant is perfect in all its parts, though it




GENESIS I. 2.                      9
is not a man; the seed is perfect, though it is not a flower
or a tree. So that this chaos looks like the wreck of a
former world, the ruins of some vast city or temple; it
seems to be the result of the destruction of a previous
state of things.  It is not the infancy of a new  creation
that we behold, but the mangled and corrupting corpse
of the old, which must be buried out of sight ere the new
can be begun.
Ver. 2.' And the Spirit of God moved upoz the face of the waters.'
How long or how brief the period of chaos was, it
matters not. The appointed time was now come when
these ruins were to undergo a change, and under the
hand of the great Master Builder to rise into another
temple.  God's Spirit went forth to renew  the face of
creation.l Like a bird brooding over its eggs, and bringing life out of them by its vital heat, the Spirit brooded
over the face of the deep or abyss.  Immediately the
quickening, renewing process began.  In what way He
wrought upon creation we know  not, but His almighty
The different senses of the word may be thus classified: —I. It
means wind (Ex. x. I3), which is by a figure the spirit of the earth.
2. The spirit of a man (Prov. xviii. 4). 3. The spirit of the evil one
(Judg. ix. 2, 3). 4. The Spirit of God (Isa. lxi. I). In all of these
there is personality implied, not mere vague influence. As when the
spirit of a man is spoken of it is a personality that is referred to, not
an influence; so when the Spirit of God is spoken of it is the same.
It is of this personality in God, which comes out everywhere in Scripture, so vividly and so blessedly, that rationalism robs us; thereby
snapping the firmest links that bind us, whose own personality is such
a conscious thing, to Him who is infinitely personal, the three-one
Jehovah.




IO             TTHOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
touch produced some change, and vitality was diffused
throughout creation (Job xxvi. i3; Ps. xxxiii. 6, civ. 30).
And when the great restoring process is begun at the
Lord's second coming, the Holy Spirit takes the same
part in the work of restitution as at first; for it is when
He'is poured out from  on high,' that'the wilderness
becomes a fruitful field' (Isa. xxxii. I5), thus identifying
Him as at once the converter of the soul and the restorer
of creation. He is the great agent in every process for
restoring or perfecting or beautifying soul and body, nay
the very earth itself. He is the author of all the loveliness
that we see around us in herb, or shrub, or tree, or flower.
All life, all beauty, all order, all perfection are from the
Holy Spirit!  How near should we feel Him to be, how
gracious, how willing to quicken us, and to restore to us
the lost beauty of our first creation!
Ver. 3.' And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.'
God put this question to Job,' Where is the way where
light dwelleth?' (chap. xxxviii. i9);x and this verse is an
answer to this, as if God had said,'The light dwelleth
with me; for I issued the command, "Be light," and
"light was."'  Thus God claims light as His production,
1 In Job xxxvii. 15 we read,'Dost thou know when God disposed
them, and caused the light of His cloud to shine?' As this seems to
refer to the time of creation, are we not to understand that the light
then made to shine was kindled by the' cloud,' the same cloud which
gave light to Israel in the desert, and is, in the latter day, to pour
down its glorious brightness on Mount Zion? (Isa. iv. 5.) Is not the
Shekinab the abode and fountainhead of light?'who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment' (Ps. civ. 2).




GENESIS I. 3. 3I
as He had already claimed creation. The name of the
Maker of light is Elohim,-God!' I form  the light' (Isa.
xlv. 7). Of all light, both for soul and body, He is the
Creator, nay the great central sun and source.'I am
the light of the world' (John Viii. I2).1
God does not mean to teach us here that this was the
first time that such a thing as light existed at all. There
must have been light before, light with God, light with
the angels, light in heaven, and, it may be, light shining
on this very earth before its state of chaos began. It is a
heathen or philosophic fable that darkness was the original
and  uncreated  state  of things.2   Darkness- is always
associated with death in Scripture, just as light is with
life.  Nay, darkness is associated with'him  who has
the power of death, even the devil;' he is'the ruler of
the darkness of this world;' and it is in connection with'Hail, holy light! Offspring of heaven first-born,
Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam,
May I express thee unblamed?  Since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee
Bright effluence, of bright essence increate,
Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who can tell? Before the sun,
Before the heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God as with a mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the vast and formless infinite.'
-Milton's Paradise Lost, b. iii.
2 We may notice that Christ adds here,' He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,' —To' 7S5 s-u st5,'the light of the life;' referring to chap. i. 4,' the life was the light
of men,' W God.s so- q S ant, yp'son. It is as the living One that He
is the light-goiving One.




12              THOUGHTS 02ON GEINESIS.
the sin and doom both of him and his angels that darkness is spoken of (2 Pet. ii. 5; Jude 4).1 Whatever may
have been the origin of the darkness, we know that it
covered the earth, thick and impenetrable in its gloom.
But now the command went forth, and the darkness
began to  disappear.  The sun did  not at once show
itself, but its light began to find its way dimly and faintly
through the gloom, which from this time became less
and less dense, so that there was now only partial darkness, such as there is in a dull misty morning. How this
alteration was produced we know  not.  We know  this,
indeed, that a very slight change in the component parts
or elements of our atmosphere, or in the proportions in
which these elements are combined, would completely
The question may arise here, What was the connection of Satan
with this world before this time? Was it through him and his rebellion that the world was first wrecked and brought to the state of chaos
and darkness mentioned in the second verse; was the restoration of
light (third verse) an invasion of his domain? Was the fall a partial
quenching of the light;-p-2artial, for grace was to prevent its being
total? Has not the state of the world ever since been one of darkness and subjection to the prince of darkness? Were not the words
of Christ (Luke xxii. 53) an intimation of a crisis in the history of this
darkness and of its ruler, as if it were for a time to succeed in its long.
waged conflict with the light: tvYIr vp/Fv 6-TY;o rip'e,  xcc   i ovo.4O TVov
ox'arovu. The expression, ikouv4 -rog axz,'rovs, is a very remarkable one,
and full of solemn meaning. And had not the darkness on the cross
a reference to the past history of the world, as the region of darkness
and the kingdom of its prince? And does not the darkening of the
sun and moon, just before the coming of the Lord, betoken that darkness had reached its destined crisis, both spiritually and morally, the
earth being reduced to the state of chaos described by Moses; and
therefore ready once more for the interposing power of Him who said
at first,' Let light be'?




GENESIS I. 3.                 13
disorganize it, and prevent its being the medium of light.
Its transparency depends on combinations which require
to be most nicely proportioned; so that as, on the one
hand, an alteration in these could have produced the previous state of total darkness, so another change would, by
restoring its lucidity, let in light upon the earth. Accordingly the command went forth which was to restore transparency to our atmosphere, which at this time was not
only unfit to transmit, but even to bear, the dense humid
vapours that loaded it. One word from Almighty lips
effected the change, whatever it might be.  He spake,
and it was done! A word, no more! How easy with
God! And He who lighted up the world, is the same as
He that lights up the soul (2 Cor. iv. 6).  He is the'light of the world,''the morning star,' the sun of righteousness. His work in the soul is to fit it for receiving
light, and then to pour it in. He restores transparency to
the faculties of the soul, and then the light begins to find
its way into each region and recess.'On whom does not His light arise?' asks Bildad (Job
xxv. 3). David says, in reference to the heavenly orbs,' Their line is gone out through all the earth' (Ps. xix. 4);
and our Lord says,' He maketh His sun to rise on the
evil and the good' (Matt. v. 45). What a declaration of
grace does each day's light make to us! What a gospel
does each sunbeam  preach!  He has not turned our
earth into a region of'outer darkness;' and this is grace.
He still bids His sun go forth each morning to light our
ways, sinners as we are; and this tells us of His willingness to give light to the darkest.




I4              THOUGHTS OiV GENESIS.'Light is sown for the righteous!'  Yes, it is sown in
the fullest sense of that word; not merely scattered abroad,
as commentators would have it, but sown. And this both
naturally and spiritually. (I.) Naturaely. This is not the
time of light. A change has passed upon it by the fall.
It has lost much of its purity and brightness. And the
mere increase of its intensity would not serve unless its
innocuous mildness were restored  along with it.  B1ut
there is a time predicted when'the light of the moon
shall be as' the light of the sun, and the light of the sun
shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days' (Isa. xxx. 26).'
Were the sun still to'smite by day, and the moon by
night' (Ps. cxxi. 6), this increase of light would be no
blessing; but the'restitution of all things' shall embrace
in it a restitution of primeval mildness to the light; and
who can tell how much of the removal of the curse upon
the earth may be effected by this restoration of its genial,
health-giving, fructifying properties to the light. But this
is only the time of sowing. It doth not yet -appear' what
it shall be. It is underground, or at most it is but in the
blade or bud. And oh, if this its imperfect state be so
very beautiful, what will not its perfection be in the
I There seems to be in reference to the light, just as in regard to all
the various parts of creation, a time of crisis spoken of in those predictions, which point to the latter-day glory, and the previous signs
of its arrival. The deterioration which took place at the fall, and
which has been going on since, arrives at its crisis just at the coming
of the Great Restorer. Everything is to be at its worst just when on
the point of being renewed.  Hence the darkness which is to be
spread over the earth-' the day of darkness and gloominess,' etc.,the darkening of the sun, and the withdrawal of the light of the moon,
etc. (Matt. xxiv. 29).




GENESIS I. 4.                  15
coming harvest? if the bud be so fair and fragrant, what
will be the expanded blossom in the new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness? The sowing time is one of tears,
the shower and the sunshine mingled together; but the
reaping time shall be glorious. (2.) SypirituaZly. This is
the hour and the power of darkness. In one sense we have
been brought into'marvellous light' (I Pet. ii.);'Christ
has given us light' (Eph. v.). But still we see through'a
glass darkly' (I Cor. xiii.). Clouds fold themselves round
us; sorrow and conflict, misgivings and faintings, beset us
on each side. But sunshine shall yet burst on us. Light
is sown for us; the light of an unsetting and an unsmiting
sun; the light of Him who is light itself, and in whom is
no darkness at all. Through this sowing time of darkness
and sorrow we are passing to the reaping time of light and
joy.
Ver. 4.'And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided
the light from the darkness.'
On the light that was now beginning to stream in upon
the earth God fixed His eye.  He saw the light; it did
not steal in unobserved; it was not too trivial to attract
His notice. It is minute, noiseless, unaccompanied with
vast or terrible results.  Yet He looked upon it, considered it, surveyed it fully.  For each stray beam  of
light, each twinkle of the distant star, each undulation
of the atmosphere, each faint ripple of the ocean, came
under the notice of His eye. He sees them all. Such
is the eye of Him  with whom we have to do,-the eye
that searches all things: yet the eye that delights to




I 6          THOUGHTS 0ON GENESIS.
rest in love upon each part of the workmanship of His
hand.
But God not only looked upon the light;-He tells us
His opinion of it.  It was good.  Such is the divine
verdict. He made it, He compounded it of its subtle
elements, and therefore He knows it well. It was He
who arranged its parts and proportions; it was He who
twisted its sevenfold radiance; it was He who bade it
shine forth in its beauty. Who, then, can speak of it as
He can?  And He calls it good.  He approves of it,
delights in it, sees it to be altogether suited to the end
He had in view. It was'good' in respect of its innate
excellence,'good' in respect of its beauty,'good' in
respect of its usefulness; one of the fairest, most needful,
and most gladdening of all His handiworks.; apparently
feeble, yet working mightiest wonders; altogether noiseless, yet accomplishing each moment, by its silent, secret
virtue, greater results than the lightning or the hurricane;
calling forth little of man's wonder or praise, yet diffusing
throughout earth a greater and more continuous amount
of gladness than any other of the material elements;
coming down each day upon us with reviving, refreshing,
healing power. All God's creation is good, but light is
especially excellent, the brightest and purest part of all.
It is the only thing that cannot be soiled or stained. It
corrupts not, it withers not. We may bend a sunbeam, or
decompose a sunbeam, or shut it out of our dwelling, but
we cannot soil it. It is the fairest, and freshest, and most
heaven-like of all created things,-fittest emblem of Godhead, both of the Father and the Son.




GENE SIS I. 4.                    I7
The wise man says,'Truly the light' is sweet, and a
pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun'
(Eccles. xi. 7). Yes, it is even so; and what marvellous
love does this betoken in our God!-love that was not
dried up when sin entered, but only came out more
largely in another form, that of grace. Though, doubt —
less, there has been some change in the light since the
fall, some deterioration, yet still it is the most joyous
thing in nature.' It might have been made so feeble as
hardly to impart the needed warmth and light, or it might
have been so intense (as it shall be when the fourth,
angel pours out his vial on, the sun, Rev. xvi. 8) as to,
scorch the dwellers on the earth, but it has not been
so. God has so attempered it to our condition that it
suits us well.  And in so suiting us sinners, it preaches
to us the'grace' of God.  We might have been in the
blackness of darkness, but we are not; and this is* grace.
We might have been in the everlasting burnings, but we
are not; and this is grace.
And if light be so'good' even now  when shining
through a sin-obscured atmosphere upon a cursed earth,
what will it be hereafter when coming down through the
new heavens upon the new earth, wherein dwelleth right1 In that passage of thee book of Esther which speaks of the deliverance of the Jews, we read that'the Jews had Zight, and gladness, and
joy, and honour' (Esth. viii. I6).  And when referring to Israel's
coming days of gladness, Isaiah says,'Thy sun shall no more go
down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be
thine everlasting li4ht, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended'
(Isa. Ix. 20). In both of these, as in other passages, the connection
between light and joy on the one hand, and darkness and grief on the
other, is strikingly brought out.
VOL. VI.                                       B




IS              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
eousness?  What will it be in the New  Jerusalem,'when
the glory of God shall lighten it, and the. Lamb shall be
the light thereof.'
But next, God made a division between light and darkness. He then introduced the alternation between them
which has continued ever since, the'grateful vicissitude
of day and night.' Now it was, perhaps, that the earth
began again to revolve round its axis, God laying His
finger on it and giving it the precise impulse needed.
How  simply is the division effected!  No vast curtain
alternately drawn and undrawn; no huge cloud wrapping
the  earth  in  its foldings, and  again  disappearing; no
alternate kindling and quenching of the great source of
light!  God speaks, or stretches out His hand, or sends
out one of those'angels that excel in strength,' and the
earth begins to revolve.l  Thus the light and the darkness are sundered, or rather alternated.
1 Milton speaks of angels as employed in altering the earth's
position and motions:
-  Some say He bid His angels turn askance
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed
Oblique the centric globe.'
-Paradise Lost,. BoQk x. line 668.
A commentator on the Apocalypse -has thus finely caught up the
thought:'That. angels do excel in strength we well know, from
Ps. ciii., and other parts of Scripture.  And when the proclamation,
Who is able to open the book? was to be made throughout the region
of the heaven and the earth and the deep, a strong angel was chosen.to lift up the creation-filling voice. Whose is.it to wheel the spheres
in their courses, as if they were bowling balls.?  Whose strength is' it
that splits the solid rocks, that heaves the ocean from its oozy bed, that
holdeth the winds, and anon letteth them fly amain? I believe these
~things are under the angels. God will no.t leave inanimate matter to




GENESIS I. 4.                      I9
In the present state of our earth, and according to
the present constitution of its inhabitants (both animate
and inanimate-man, animals, and herbs), this alternation
is absolutely needful.  A world all light would be nearly
as uninhabitable and unhealthy as a world all darkness!
What wisdom and grace are displayed in this -division t
We sometimes say, What would become of us if it were
always nzgiht? Have we ever thought what -would become of us if it were always day? We need the change,
and God has kindly thought on us and provided for it,
in the surest, yet the simplest of all ways,-a way which,
in producing this alternation, produces along with it a
thousand other things, all pleasing and helpful. Let us
have the glory of these wonderful powers, He hath some. intelligent
ones, I mnake no doubt, who have the noble consciousness of working
the will of God therein, and of rendering unto Him the homage which
thence is due. This is the way in which these philosophists have dis.
peopled the world of intelligence, by supposing that, because they see
not spiritual agencies in the mechanical and chemical regions of'nature which they examine, therefore there are no such intelligences.
But because we cannot see beings whose property it is to be invisible,
are there therefore no such beings?  Not to see them is the very
condition of their being. If we could see them,. they were not. But,
for my part, I believe out of this text, that the strength, the main
strength and force of things, consisteth in their subjection to mighty
angels, who work the work under God, and so display the goodness
-the creative goodness, and the riches of the providence of God. I
reverence tradition; and I find herein the most venerable traditions of
all men concurring, from the superstitions of my native land, which
people the waters, and the earth, and the woods, and everything with
invisible power and agencies, up to those of the remotest antiquity of
which we have any record. In ascribing their strength unto the Lamb,,
therefore, I do think'that these angels acknowledge all the powers
which we are wont to call the powers of nature, the laws of the created
world, to be due unto Him, and unto Him alone.'




20              THOUGHTS 02N GENESIS.
praise Him for the revolving earth! Let us praise Him
for the darkness as well as for the light, for the night
as well as for the day!1
Ver. 5.'And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called
w?~th.'
God does not leave His works nameless.  He who
made them and knew their properties and uses, gave
them their names; for names' are the properties or
features of a being or thing expressed to the ear or eye
in words, so that He who hears or reads them may at
once understand what the thing or being is, and wherein
it differs from other things and beings. At the outset we
see how God proclaimed His own name; now He names
all His creatures in succession.  Of the stars we read,'"He calleth them all by names' (Ps. cxlvii. 4). He
tells us how to call His works. Let us not overlook this
part of God's proceedings, nor forget Him as the namer
of His works.  When we speak -of night or day, let us
remember that He called them  by these names.  God
does not count even the naming of His creatures beneath Him. He has named the heavens and the earth;
1 Yet the darkness which God has so graciously given for repose
and refreshment, and the quiet both of the vexed soul and the weary
body, man has perverted and made a covering for his sin. Deeds
which he fears to do in the light he reserves for the darkness. Hence
the expression'works of darkness,''children of night,' and such-like;
and hence the use of the term darkness for'sin;' and hence Satan is
called'ruler of this world's darkness;' and hence the difference
between the'world and God is spoken of as that between darkness
and light:'What communion hath light with darkness?' (2' Cor.
vi. 14.)




GENESIS I. 5.                2 
He has named the changes of light and darkness. How
closely and how lovingly must His eye have rested on
our world! Is there anything, great or small, of which
He was or is unmindful?
Ver. 5.' And the evening and the morning were the first day.'
Thus He sums up these wondrous statements by announcing the completion of a day,-of that period which
embraces an evening.and a morning. He begins now
to number time.'This is day the first.'  Thus God
dates His operations. He not only says,'I did these
things,' but He adds,'I did them then and there, in
such a place, and at such a time.' And throughout
Scripture we may notice the same minute accuracy as
to dates.  In the prophets especially, God sets down
the year, the month, the day when He spoke or did
such and such things. How wonderful is it to see the
Eternal One thus numbering the minutest sections of
time! He is truly the God of order, and arrangement,
and method, and accuracy, in all things great and small.
It is the fool that takes no note of time. God takes
note of it, and in so doing teaches us to prize it, and
to'number our days.' Though He'inhabiteth eternity'
(Isa. lvii.  6); though He calls Himself the' Eternal God'
(Deut. xxxiii. 27); though a'thousand years are in His'
sight as yesterday' (Ps. xc. 4), yet He reckons up and
names the smallest fragments of time. And He who says,'Before the day was, I am He' (Isa. xliii. I3), is the same
who records so carefully the date of His doings as Creator:'It was evening and it was morning, day the first.'




22              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
What a marvellous day has this been!  Order, light,
motion, beauty, are all now  begun..God has spoken
the word!  He has set His hand to the mighty work,
and He will not rest till He has finished it, for He is
the eternal Purposer, and all His purposes shall stand.
There can be no defeat, no reversal. This earth is to
be the sphere of His mightiest work; and in these first
days' operations He is gathering  together the stones
for the foundation of His vastest and fairest temple,
which, though delayed and obstructed for a season in
its erection by Satan's craft and man's sin, shall not on
that account suffer loss, but shall, by this temporary
frustration, have its foundations laid broader and deeper,
that its walls may rise the higher, and its compass stretch
the wider, in the day of final restitution still in reserve
for it. Scoffers may mock, and say, What! all this care
for this little fragment of creation, this pebble on the
shore of infinite space! Yes, even so. It is God's way,
and shall be so to the last, alike in creation and redemption,'for the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.'
Vers. 6-8. And God said, Let there be a firmament (or expanse) int
the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters. from the waters.
7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament:
and it was so. 8. An2zd God cattlled the firmament Heaven. And the
evening and the morning were the second day.
Up to this time the atmosphere had not been sufficiently  dense to bear up  the evaporating waters; for
there had hitherto been two kinds of waters, the more




GENESIS I. 6-8.                23
solid waters of the abyss, and the evaporating waters
rising from these. This evaporation would go on much
more rapidly and incessantly if the atmosphere were
rarer (or thinner), and yet it would not be borne up, but
would rest over the immediate surface of the earth, so
that there were these two bodies of water, the thicker
and the thinner, the more solid and the rarer, in close
conjunction with each other; the deep still throwing
up its vapours, yet these vapours unable to rise, but
mantling the earth with one vast watery shroud, allowing
light to penetrate, yet not revealing the bright round
disc of sun or moon, nor permitting the stars to show
their sparkling lustre. The scene somewhat resembled
the state of earth during those months when the waters
of the deluge were descending; the waters above meeting
the waters beneath, and wrapping the globe round with
inexhaustible rain-clouds.
God again interposes. There is need for both kinds
of waters in that world which He is preparing; but they
must be separate, not intermingled.  There can be no
life either of man, or beast, or vegetable so long as they
are thus mingled. Accordingly the word goes forth; the
atmosphere is made to undergo a change by which it is
enabled to bear up the vapours, and thus divide the
two bodies of water, while the needful process of evaporation is still carried on. This atmosphere is made to
stretch round the earth like a firmament or expanse, and
bears up into its higher regions the ever-ascending waters
of the lower, yet furnishing them also with the means of
re-descent in the form of the gladdening shower. How




-24            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
simple the change! How vast and wonderful its results!
Let us note the following passages in connection with
all this:-rGen. vii. II, I 2; Job xxvi. 8, and xxxvii. I,
I8; Ps. cxlviii. 4; Prov. viii. 28; Jer. x. IO-I3, li. I5, I6;
Zech. xii. i.  Such are some of the references in Scripture to the two great bodies of water, upper and under,
and such the way in which the division is ascribed to
the wisdom  of Jehovah; as if now  His wisdom  were
specially coming forth, whereas hitherto it had been His
power chiefly that had been seen.
God names and dates His handiwork. He calls the
firmament, heaven or the lofty place; and this characteristic is in many ways and figures brought under our
notice in Scripture (Job xi. 8; Ps. ciii. 21; Prov. xxv.
3; Isa. Iv. 9).  The love, the power, the majesty of
God, His thoughts, His ways, His purposes, when compared with those of man, are set forth to us by the height
of the heaven above the earth. And in this way He gives
us some faint measure of these, some poor conception
of His infinite glory and grace. This heaven or firmament shared the curse when man fell, either directly, by
being in itself altered for the worse, or indirectly through
the curse which took possession of the soil and exhaled
into the mantling air. There'is something in earth's
atmosphere that blights and injures. It is not the same
healthful, genial, joyous firmament that it was when
God created it.  And this deterioration has doubtless
contributed to the decay of creation, to the propagation
of disease, and to the curtailment of life; as if the seeds
of death were in it after the fall as largely as were the




GENESIS I. 6-8.                   25
elements of life before.  After the deluge it became
yet more deteriorated, and man's life became shortened,
— gradually shortening in its dates till it reached the
threescore years and ten.  Since that time it has remained the same, and probably will do so during the
short remaining period of earth's fallen state.  We do
indeed read of a period when the seventh angel is to
pour out his vial into the air (Rev. xvi. I7) as if its
crisis had come; so that having been brought into its
worst condition, it was preparing to put on its best,just as death is our way to resurrection-glory,-but how
far this is connected with the curse or its removal we
cannot say.1   After this the firmament is made new;
for just as there is a renewal of the earth, so there is a
renewal of the encompassing atmosphere. This upper
part of creation must partake in the deliverance from'the bondage of corruption.'  This renovation of the
firmament will contribute to the superior brightness of
sun and moon, which millennial days are to witness;
and it will contribute to the restored longevity of man
on earth when his days shall be'as the days of a tree'
(Isa. lxv. 22).  How  many of the groans of creation
will this restoration, this healing of the firmament still'!
What health to the body, what vigour to the soul of
man will it tend to impart, when the primeval blessing
is renewed, which man's sin had so long restrained!
1 The angel's pouring out his vial into the air may point both to
the natural and spiritual crisis in the history of that part of creation,
and indicate that the time is come when not only physical evils are to
be purged out, but the spiritual wickedness in high places expelled.




26'THIOUGH7TS ON GENESIS.
What new'strength, yet-also what new gentleness of
nature, will it bring to the animal creation! What new
verdure to the leaf, what new beauty and fragrance to
the flower will it impart! What a change in the blue
of the heavens and in the green of the earth, when this
long-poisoned air is at length disinfected by the healing
touch of Him who has disease, with all its varied sources,
seen and unseen, at His command; who, when on
earth, showed Himself as the world's great Healer, and
whose voice shall then be heard saying,'Behold, I
make all things new!'
It is in this old firmament, this defiled atmosphere
of ours, that Satan has taken up his abode. How the
darkness became his peculiar birthright we know not.
How or when he was permitted to take up his abode
in the air so as to become'the prince of the power of
the air,' and thence to wield the darkness, which is his
heritage, we know not. We know simply that it is so.
The encompassing air of earth is Satan's special residence and domain. From it he'rains his plagues on
men like dew.' In it he has set his throne, and from
that throne he rules this world and its kingdoms, sending down his legions to scour the earth, to reinforce
his citadels, to assail the Church, to form the bodyguard' of Antichrist, to lead men captive at his will,
till the day.arrive when he shall-be cast down from his
seat and bound in the dark abyss for a thousand years,
in preparation for the'outer darkness' in which he is
to dwell for ever. And who, believing these things, can
look up into the fair yet wan azure without longing




GENESIS I. 6-8.                     27
for the time when its sickliness shall be exchanged for
the intensity  of brightness?   Who, remembering  that
it is the haunt of Satan and his angels, can gaze into
its depths, either of midnight or of noon, without longing for the time when he shall be cast out, and these
old haunts of his purified and filled with blessed angels
carrying on their glad ministry both in the upper and
lower regions of God's redeemed creation?
It is into the air that the saints are to be caught up
to meet their reappearing  Lord.   In  the progress of
His descent to earth, He halts there with His angelic
retinue; and pitching His pavilion on the confines of
earth, He calls up His saints to meet Him; there to
hear the final sentence of'no condemnation' announced,
to celebrate the completed union, to sit down at the
marriage-supper, and to begin the long festivity of the
bridal day.l
1 These verses give us one of the first intimations of the distinction
which Scripture preserves throughout, between' the earthly' and'the
heavenly,' the upper and the lower chamber of the palace of the great
King, this earth the lower, these skies (the floor of a more glorious
heaven) the upper. At present it is full of ungodliness, it lies Siv nvrovypeJ; and the air is full of unclean spirits.  But God's purpose
must be fulfilled, and the day is coming when both shall be purged;
when earth and heaven shall be reunited; when the ladder of communication between the upper and the lower region shall be set up
(Gen. xxviii. I2; John i. 51); when, in the Jerusalem above, the risen
saints shall dwell; and in the Jerusalem below, Israel shall abide;
and over the whole blessed earth, now delivered from the curse, shall
dwell the nations of the saved, rejoicing in the double splendour of the
upper and the lower glory, filling the new firmament with the odour
of their incense and the harmony'of their songs.'Change of air!'
how common the expression, how little thought of what it implies!




28            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Vers. 9, Io.'And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be
gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and
it was so. Io. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was
good.
No change had as yet taken place upon the mighty
mass of waters, which, like one vast and unbroken ocean,
covered the whole earth. It was still in the condition
referred to in the  0o4th Psalm,'Thou coveredst it with
the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above
the mountains.'  It was truly'the melancholy main.'
There was no life, no joy, no intercourse of happy
being.  If then the earth is to be the dwelling-place
of life, there must be a change.  These waters must,
in part at least, be dried up. They are not wholly to
pass off; for they are needful in many ways. They
are needful for beauty, and God considers this in all
His works. They are needful for supplying the atmosphere with vapours, and the earth with showers, as
well as for filling the rivers which fertilize and gladden
it. They are not indeed needful to the extent in which
they now exist; and hence in the new earth they shall
be largely curtailed, if not wholly done away (Rev.
xxi. I). But though in a measure needful, they must
be changed, and their limits abridged. The land which
they cover must rise above the surface, and become
a fit habitation for man. How this was done we are
not told.  God said,'Let it be, and it was so.' It
is but a word, and all is done. This one word went,
like lightning, through the deep foundations of earth,




GEN1ESIS I. 9, I0.               29
upheaving some parts into mountains, sinking others
into valleys or deeper receptacles for the ocean. The
process is alluded to in such passages as the following:-Job xxvi. Io, xxxviii. 8; Ps. xxxiii. 7, xcv. 5,
cxxxvi. 6; Prov. viii. 29; Jer. v. 22; 2 Pet. iii. 5.
Thus God refers to His operations, giving us indeed
but little insight- into the actual process, yet finely
painting and spreading out before us its great features.
The two parts of the globe, thus formed, received
their names from God, the dry land being called earth,
and the gathering of the waters seas. God then looked
upon His handiwork, surveying it in all its parts, and
then pronounced it'good.' The earth was'good,' as
it now spread itself out in all its inequalities of valley
and mountain, of plain and precipice. A goodly earth!
Fit to be the dwelling of creatures made in His own
image; fit to be the material out of which the bodies
of these creatures were to be fashioned; nay, fit to
be the material out of which the body of Hiis own
Son was to be composed when He took flesh in the
virgin's womb. A goodly sea! Goodly in its stretch of
illimitable vastness, and in its transparent depths of
unpolluted blue; goodly in the grandeur of its deafening
storms, and in the still more wondrous grandeur of its
majestic calms; goodly in all its moods whether of
gloom or gladness, whether shadowed with the cloud,
or spanned with the rainbow, or reflecting the sky's
clear azure, or bathed in sunshine, or silvered with
the moonbeam, or strewn with starlight; whether break



30              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
ing in surges against the rock, or stealing in soft ripples
over the glittering sand.l
If sea and earth be thus'good,' according to God's
own judgment, there can be no inherent evil in matter, as
philosophy would teach. Matter is not in itself carnal.
It is not the corrupter of spirit.  It was created good,
and it cannot corrupt itself. It is spirit that has done
this. It is spirit, not matter, that is the fountainhead
of evil.
What a world is this of ours for scenes, and associations,
and remembrances! Earth and sea are full of them; evil
and good, sorrowful and glad.  What feet have trodden
this earth, what eyes have gazed on that sea, since God
brought them into being! Here holy men have lived;
here the wicked have triumphed; here Abel's blood was
shed; here Enoch walked with God; here angels have
been visitors; here the Son of God abode; His footsteps
were on the earth and on the sea. It is a small enough
speck in the map of the universe, but it is the most
wondrous of all. And though it has felt the curse for a
season, it is to taste the blessing again.  And when the
mighty  angel is  seen  descending  to  claim  the  heritage  (Rev. x. 2), he sets his right foot on the  sea,
and his left upon the earth, in token of his having
I We may notice some things connected with this part of creation.
(I.) God is very often spoken of as Maker of heaven and earth and sea,
and as such to be praised (Ps. xcv. 4-6, cxxxvi. 6; Rev. xiv. 7). (2.)
The wicked are compared to the troubled sea (Isa. lvii. 20). (3.) It
is symbolically the place whence the four great beasts come up (Dan.
vii. 3). (4.) It is the emblem of vastness (Job xi. 9). (5.) Of tumult
(Ps. lxv. 7). (6.) Of instability' (Jas. i. 6).




GENESIS I. II-I3.                    3i
come to take possession of all things which God at first
created.
The earth and sea are now the depositories of the dead.
The bodies both of the holy and the unholy are resting
there. But the day is near when out of that earth and
that sea the trumpet, shall call the dead. Neither shall
be able to detain their victims when the life-giving voice
shall be heard (John v. 28, 29; Rev. xx. I3). In the
dust of earth, or deep beneath the roar of ocean, the saint
sleeps soundly, as in a peaceful bed, till Jesus come.  In
that same dust, or beneath these same cold surges, the
sinner lies, like the criminal in his cell, awaiting the summons of the Judge.
Vers. I I-13. And God said, Let the earth bring forthi grass,1
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yieldin6 fruit after his kind,
whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. I2. And the earth
brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree
yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, after his kind: and God saw that
it was good. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
The great work proceeds apace.  We are made to trace
its successive steps, rising the one above the other, in fair
order.  There was first light, followed by the division into
day and night. Then there was the atmosphere, followed
by the division of the upper and the under waters.  Then
the earth, with its division into sea and land, so that a
soil was prepared, with all the needful accompaniments
and appliances for making it productive. This having
1 Literally,'Let the earth sprout forth grass of green herbage
(oroavnv  o'prov, as the LXX. give it), seeding seed; tree of fruit,
making fruit after its kind.'




32               THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
been done, the word goes forth, and the clothing of the
earth begins, with the two great divisions of grass -and
trees, the smaller and the larger orders of the vegetable
creation.  All these sprang up at once when the divine
command went out.'  And in this first generation there
is contained provision for all future time, each class being
so created as to be able to reproduce itself   They could
not produce others of a different kind, or gradually pass
up from- a lower into a higher order; each could only
bring forth his own.   Each  species was to be separate
from the other, bringing forth seed'after its kind.' There
was to be no confusion, no intermingling of diverse kinds.
Such was the law of the Creator, and in the carrying out of
that law no mistakes occur, and no rebellion is ever seen.
Man may mistake or resist the law, but into the lower parts
of creation mistakes and self-willed resistances cannot come.
All there is order, certainty, continuity, and regularity of
the most perfect kind. There is a law woven into every
fibre of their being,-a law from which no power or skill
can force them to deviate. In that law we read the will
of God Himself,-a will stamped upon all creation, and
meeting us in every clod of the soil, and in every herb,
Milton thus describes the scene:' He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned,
Brought forth th' tender grass, whose verdure clad
Her euniversifjace wzith ieasaentgreen.'-Par. Lost, Book vii. 3I3.
The description of Lucretius is so exact that we may cite it:'Principio genus herbarum, viridemque nitorem,
Terra dedit, circum colles, camposque per omnes
Florida filserunt viridanti prata colore.'
-De Rer. Nat Book v. 78I.




GENESIS I. II-I3.                 33
or flower, or tree. Why does this seed bring forth only
grass, and that other only corn, and that other only the
shrub or tree?   Because God so willed it at first, and
because He has left the stamp of that SOVEREIGN WILL upon
the minutest seed that ripens under the autumn sun. Why
do they never run into each other, and become mixed or
confounded, but everywhere preserve the original diversity assigned to them six thousand years ago; so that when
at any time man with all his skill fails to discriminate
different seeds, he has but to appeal to these seeds themselves, by covering them with a little moist soil, and
forthwith each seed declares itself. without mistake or
uncertainty?  Because in each of these atoms of creation
there is a force at work, far superior to man,-the will of
Jehiovah. Why does not the acorn sometimes through mistake produce the elm, or the fir-cone the chestnut, or the
thistle-down the rose of Sharon? Why does not the figtree sometimes pass into the vine,. or the branching cedar
shoot up into naked stateliness, and put on the coronet
of the palm?  In all these myriads of seeds. there is
oftentimes abortion, but never a mistake.  The seed may
rot and die, so failing in its end, but otherwise it fails.
not. In a perfect world there would be no abortion or
decay, but this world of ours is blighted, and therefore
failure exists. But it is simply failure, not mistake. It is
JEHOVAH'S WILL that they should often prove abortive, in
order to be a witness to sin and the curse;. but it is also
His will that there should be no mistake or confusion,.
that it may be seen, even in the lowliest, that He is still
the sovereign of creation.  Thus has God engraven the.
VOL. VI.                                      -




34              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
insignia of His sovereignty upon all His'handiworks, even
the minutest.  The form  and colour of each seed, each
leaf, each blossom; all these continuing  to  this day
without mixture or confusion, are  the badges of His
sovereignty as well as the witnesses of His wisdom and
love.
This day's work, which God pronounces good, and
which He dates, as in other places, may be called either
the clothing or the painting of creation.   Figure, size,
proportion, had all been given before, but still earth was
a dark-brown mass of mingled soil and rock. But now
the command goes out for its adornment.   For God's
purpose is to make it a world of beauty as well as of
stability, seeing He is Himself the possessor and source
of all that is beautiful.  He chooses blue for the colour
of sky and sea, but he chooses green for the hue of earth.
His word spreads over its varied surface the green mantle
which has from that day to this made it to be known as
the'green earth.'l
l Let us notice two special references to earth's greenness. In
Song of Sol. vi. II, the Spouse says, II went down into the garden.of nuts to see the greeznness of the valley,' for it is greenness, not fruit,
that is signified by.the word (see Job viii. I2); the beauty of the green
valley is what is reterred to. In Rev. iv. 3, the rainbow round the
throne was'to look upon like an enzeraZld.' As the emerald is green,
so the symbolical rainbow, all tinctured with that hue, declares the
connection of the scene.mentioned in the chapter with the green
earth. It seems like the reflected verdure of earth formed into a
canopy above the throne,:to show that He who sat upon the throne
was earth's Redeemer.and King.  That emerald rainbow is God's
covenant-pledge to creation that He remembers it, and will ere long
restore to it its blighted -verdure.




GENESIS I. I4-19.                      35
Vers. I4-I9.'And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of
the heaven to divide the day from the night (between the'day and between
the night); and let them be for signs, and for seasons (set tines), and
for days, andyears: 15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of
the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so.  I6. And God'
made two great lit hts; the greater ligfht to rule the day, and the lesser
lifht to rule the night: He made the stars also.  17. A nYd God set them
in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, I8. And to
rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the
darkness: and God saw that it was good. i9. And the eveninfg and the
morning were the fourth day.
There had been lightl before, but there are to be lights;
the light hitherto had been dimly diffused over creation.
Its source has not yet become visible. The firmament. was
still clouded, so that neither sun nor moon could be seen;
and it was under this cloud that God sowed His seed, and
planted His herbs and trees. But now the veil is to be
brushed away, and the two great centres of radiance to
become visible. They, with the stars, had been created
at first, as parts of the heaven and earth spoken of in the
first verse. But not till now are they unveiled; for now
they are needed to nourish and mature the springing
plants of herb and tree, which God had on theprevious
day been  planting.   The  operations of the  third  day
suited best the sihade, but now something more is required,
1 In Ps. lxxiv. I6, the distinction between the light and the source
of light is marked, while both are ascribed to God:'Thou hast prepared light and the sun.' The words of the I36th Psalm are a commentary on the whole passage, teaching us, moreover, the infinite
love of God in this part of His creation, so that we cannot enjoy the
brightness of sun, or moon, or star, without feeling that' His mercy
endureth for ever.' Everlasting mercy is written on these great lights
of the firmament. And as truly as they tell His love, so truly do they'declare His glory' (Ps. xix. I).




36             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
and the sun bursts forth in its strength.  But let us
more particularly mark the uses here assigned to these
luminaries.
I. The first use is to divide between the day and
between the night.  Here again the process of division
comes in, the sun and moon being the instruments for
effecting it.  This division is not arbitrary or useless.
Man's health and comfort require it. The wellbeing of
all the various tribes of being, living or lifeless, requires
this.  Without it, the present condition of creation would
be undermined, and creation ere long destroyed.  Without it there could be no order, no regularity.  When day
and night are confounded, then man suffers; for no law
of creation can be violated without suffering or evil
following.  But while man neglects this regularity of
division at the call either of pleasure or business, God
keeps up His silent protest in the heavens against him.,
He prevents that disorder from becoming general by the
fixture of the heavenly orbs, whose inexorable law of
revolution is always bringing back order and regularity,
restraining the folly and disorderliness of man.
2. To be for signs and for seasons, for days andfor years.
-(r.) Signs; that is, tokens, by means of which God points
to something not before the eye, past, present, or to come,
as the rainbow after the flood, or as the Sabbath, which
was to be a' sign.' These heavenly bodies are specially
to be used as'signs' in the latter day (Luke xxi. 25;
Acts ii. -I9). (2.) Seasons; that is, set times, not only the
seasons of the year, but festivals and solemn days; all
the recurring periods of man's time, great or small (Isa.




GENESIS I. I4-I9..                   37
lxvi. 23; I Chron. xxiii. 3I; Ps. civ. I9).  Thus God has
committed the keeping of man's time to the unintelligent,
nay, the inanimate creation.   The sun and moon keep
time for man; he cannot do it for himself; and the
regularity of the world as to time rmust be entrusted to
creatures without mind or life. Much as man can do, he
cannot keep or measure his time without their aid. He
can construct an instrument for this, or he can let the sun
or moon do it for him; but without some such appliances
he soon loses all count of time.' Thus; at every turn man's
helplessness comes out, and he is made to feel his littleness as well as his greatness; his dependence on' the
inanimate creation as well as his superiority to it.
3. To give i,,'t.-Several times over this is stated, as if
it were their prime and special object, to which the others
were subordinate.  They are man's servants-his torchbearers, appointed for this service by God.'  They shine,
not for themselves, but for Him.  It is towards Him that
each ray is bending, as if doing homage to its King.
Yet man in his folly has worshipped the light as if it were
God!  The master has bowed down to  the servant:
Oh, folly and stupidity beyond conception i  Man alone
1 Is not this the special reference in the 8th Psalm, when David
exclaims,'What is man, that Thou art mindful?' etc. It is not merely
to contrast the magnificence of the starry arch with the meanness of
man, as is generally supposed. It is rather to ask, What is man, that
Thou shouldst make such provision for his comfort and wellbeing as
these skies do furnish?'What is man, that Thou shouldst light up so
many sparkling orbs to give light to him? In reference to the stars
being man's servants, Theodoret has somewhere this idea, that they
turn their back upon the heavens in order to give light to the earth
-—,ra vloryroras oipaYZ.




38             TI-TIOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
mistakes or forgets the end of his creation; other creatures,
even the inanimate, fulfil their end i
4. 7b rule the day and nigf/.1 —Each has his royal
throne assigned. They sit like monarchs in the firmament,
determining the bounds of day and night; that the light
may not encroach upon the darkness, nor the darkness on
the light, but each have its allotted share of time.  They
sit also there as' if to regulate the movements of man, prescribing to him what these movements are to be during the
day, and during the night, —saying to man each morning,'Arise, and go forth to thy labour; and each evening,
Return and rest. Thus these'powers that be (emblems
of the princedoms of earth) are ordained of God.'  It is
His purpose that they are fulfilling; it is by His law that
they are moving, and revolving, and radiating, carrying
healing and gladness as well as light along with them, —
being to man' the ministers of God for good.'
In; all this we see again the impress of Jehovah's
sovereign will. It is that will that shines.out in the day,
or darkens in the night. It is that will that is to be traced
in the hours, and days, and weeks, and months, and years',
and cycles, that give to earth and its inhabitant man, a
chronology and a history. To all this God sets His seal.
l As each of the six periods is measured from the evening to the
morning, the moon must have appeared first.  In that night when
her face was first unveiled she began her less potent rule, and it
was not till morning that the sun burst forth.  So it is first the
Church,'fair as the moon,' shining in and ruling this world's
deep midnight, till the morning wanes and the long-hidden Sun of
Righteousness goes forth'like a bridegroom out of his chamber,'
to take His place in the firmament, and with His bride, the Church,
to rule the endless day.




GENESIS I. 20-25.                         39
It was good. And again, He dates His work,'The
evening was, and the morning was, day the fourth.1
Vers. 20-25.' And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath igfe (lit. let the waters make to creep5the
creeping thing, soul of life, i.e. that has life in it), and fowl that may
fly above the earth on the open firmanment of heaven (lit. and let fowl
fly zpon or above the earth on the _face of the expanse of the heavenzs).
2I. And God created great whales (lit. the great sea-monsters), and
every living creature that moveth (or creepeth), which the waters brought
forth abundantly, after their kind, and every win6gedfowl (lit. every fozwl
of winzg) after his (its) kind: and God saw that it was good. 22. And
God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters
in the seas, and let the fowl multiply on the earth.  23. And the
evening and the morning were the fifth day.  24. And God said, Let
the earth bring forth the livixng creature (lit. the soul qf life) after his
kind, cattle, and creepinz  thing, and beast of the earth after his kiznd:
and it was so.  25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kizd,
and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth zupon the earth
after his kind: and God saw that it was good.'
We have seen the creation of vegetable life, we have
now to mark that of animal life. We are now climbing
upwards in the scale of being, yet each step is a distinct
1 It is interesting to notice the many applications made in Scripture
of the heavenly bodies as emblems of the spiritual.  (I.) God is a
sun and shield (Ps. lxxxiv. II). (2.) Christ is the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. iv. 2); the light of the world (John viii. 12); the morning star (Rev. ii. I6); the dispeller of the darkness (2 Sam. xxiii. 4).
(3.) The Church is fair as the moon (Song vi. Io); clear as the sun
(Song vi. Io); the moon under her feet (Rev. xii. I); crowned
with stars (ib.); the saints are to shine as the stars (Dan. xii. 3);
with difterent glories (I Cor. xv. 4I); as the sun ~in his might (Judg.
v. 3I); as the sun in the kingdom  of their Father (Matt. xiii. 43).
(4.) Christ's ministers are likened to stars (Rev. i. I6-20).  (5.)
Apostates are likened to wandering stars (Jude I3).  (6.) It was
a star that lighted the wise men (Matt. ii. 2).  (7.) At the coming
crisis of earth's history, all these heayenly orbs are to be shaken and
darkened for a season (Mark xiii. 25).




40            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
one. There is no confusion nor intermingling with each
other. The rock does not gradually become a vegetable,
and the vegetable gradually pass into an animal. No.
There is, entire separation in each class, and at every step
the fiat of the Creator must come in. They cannot, by
any innate power, or intermixture of species or development of latent power or capacity, create or produce each
other. The stone remains the stone, however rough, and
the gem remains the gem, however precious. The tree
remains the tree, neither passing downwards into something less, nor upwards into something higher.  The
flower abides the flower, neither casting off its petals and
shrinking into a clod, nor expanding its blossoms into the
plumage of the dove or the eagle. On each, God has
imprinted the law of its kind, which it cannot pass nor
annul.
God first created, then He arran;ged, then He enlightened,
then He divided, then He clothed, then He regulated imze;
now He proceeds to people the earth. Up to this time it
might be fair and goodly, but it was unpeopled. No life
was to be found on it. Now it was to be peopled by
what are called'things having a soul of life,' or living
soul. The inanimate creation had been completed, the
animate must now be proceeded with. In this the order
of procedure is, first, the creatures belonging to the sea;
second, those belonging to the air; third, those belonging
to the earth.  This was the order in which these three
parts or regions of creation were prepared, and so the
same order is preserved when providing inhabitants for
them.




GENESIS I. 20-25.                41I
i. The creatures of thze sea. —These we know are the
lowest in the scale of creation, so God begins with these.
And all species which the sea'contains He creates at
once; from the great sea-monsters down to the meanest
reptile.  God  Himself gives us in the book of Job
(chap. xli.) a description of Leviathan as a specimen
of these (see also Ps. civ. 26). How mighty in power
and manifold in wisdom  must their Creator be!  On
every element He has representatives of His might and
majesty. In the rugged caves of ocean there are creatures
to glorify Him, so that the'dragons and all deeps' are
called on to praise Him  (Ps. cxlviii. 7). And from the
depth of ocean there comes up a hallelujah to Him'who alone doeth great wonders; for whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth-in the seas
and all deep p/aces' (Ps. cxxxv. 6). Nay, the voice-which
John heard ascribing blessing to the Lamb for ever, was
from'such as are in the sea, and all that are in them'
(Rev. v. I3).
2. The creatuzres of the air.. —We take the marginal
reading as the true one,'let the fowl fly,' that is, let
the fowl be created, and let them fly in the firmament,
there taking up their abode.  Of these two, God has
given His own description (Job xxxix. I3-26, 27), singling
out specially the peacock, the ostrich, the hawk, and the
eagle. Thus the air is vocal. It has a hallelujah of its
own.  The'flying' fowl' praise Him  (Ps. cxlviii. io);
whether it be'the stork that knoweth her appointed
time' (Jer. viii. 7), or the'sparrow alone upon the housetop' (Ps. cii. 7), or'the raven of the valley' (Prov. xxx. I7),




42            THOUGIHTS ON GEIVESIS.
or the eagle'stirring up her nest, and fluttering over her
young' (Deut. xxxii. ii), or the turtle making its voice to
be heard in the land (Song ii. I2), or the dove winging
its way to the wilderness (Ps. lxv. 6). This is creation's
harp (truer and sweeter than Memnon's), which each sunrise awakens,'turning all the air to music.'
3. f/ie creatures of the earth. —The beast, the cattle, the
creeping thing; all that the earth now rears upon its
bosom. Of these also God has given us His description
(Job xxxix. I-I2, I9), proclaiming His wondrous works.
Thus earth too has her hallelujah, for'beasts and all
cattle' (Ps. cxlviii. io) are summoned to join in the
chorus, that the diapason of creation may be complete.
Thus sea, air, earth, are peopled, the three regions'
referred to in Ps. viii., which is quoted by the apostle
(Heb. ii.), as so specially containing man's charter, and
setting forth God's purpose.  The'soul of life' has now
been given; sentient beings have taken up their abode
on earth; beings capable of suffering and rejoicing.  It
is in LIFE that God is now manifesting Himself. Hitherto
it has been in order, in shape, in colour, in beauty; now
it is in Zife,-that which is nearest to His own nature,
likest to Himself.  The manifestation which it is His
purpose to make of Himself is becoming more and more
complete.
He blesses them, and pronounces them'good.' He
pours into them all the blessing of which their nature
is capable, and gives it to them  in perpetuity.  For
when God blesses His creatures, He is looking forward
into the far future, and securing to them all that that




GENESIS I. 26-3 I.                    43
future stands in  need  of.  And having  blessed them,
He bids them  multiply, as if He would point out that
the blessing which He gives is an active and communicative blessing, to be spread abroad. And here
we learn that the propagative powers of creation are'
the direct impartation  of God.  They are not a mere
natural property or physical law, but the special gift of
God.  His sovereign  will, His authoritative  command
are here.   Fruitfulness  and  barrenness, the  power to
increase, or the drying up of that power, are from His
hand! (Ps. cxiii. 9.) Hence it is that David gives vent to
his joyful confidence,'O Jehovah, Thou preservest man
and beast: how excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O
God! therefore the children of men put their trust in
the shadow  of Thy wings' (Ps. xxxvi. 7).  And hence
also, after surveying the work of God's hands, he thus
concludes:'I will sing unto  the  Lord  as long  as I
live; I will sing praise to my God while I have any
being. _My meditation of Him shall be sweet; I will
be glad in the Lord' (Ps. civ. 33, 34).
Vers. 26-3,'And God said, Let ius make man in our image, after
our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over thefbwl of the air (lit. heaven), and over the cattle, and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepetzh upo0n the earth.
27. So (lit. and) God created man (lit. the man) in Iris owqn imag, e:
in the image oJ God created He himz; male and female created He them.
28. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitfil, and
multiply, and replenish (fill) the earth, and subdue it; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
every living thinfg that moveth (lit. creepeth) upon the earth.  29. And
God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed (lit. all
rrass seeding seed), which is upon the face of all the earth,'anzd eziery




44              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed (lit. seeding seed); to
you it shall be for meat.' 30. And to every beast of the earth, and to
every fowl of the air (lit. heavens), and to every thing that creeleth
upon the earth, wherein there is life (lit. the soul oJ life), I have given,
every green herb for meat: and it was so. 3I. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the
evening and the morning were the sixth day.'
The great temple of creation  has now  been reared
and roofed in.  It is perfect in its kind, a glorious
manifestation  of its glorious Maker.   But it wants a
worshipper.  It is at best but splendid  desolation-a
silent though wondrous city of the dead.
There must be a living inhabitant, and a living worshipper. God cannot rest in His work till this is done.
And, accordingly, the completion of the work proceeds.
But it is the most important part, and must be planned
with care. The great idea has been in the divine mind
from eternity, and is now to be executed; but in a way
which manifests the profound interest which God took
in what He was about to do. Hitherto it has been but
the swift forth-going of a command; now there is a
consultation, as if God were solemnly deliberating upon
the great design. Hitherto it had been,' Let there be;'
now it is,'Let us make;'-it is not a command to the
elements, to bring forth what they contain; it is a work,
spoken of as specially God's own.  The creature to be
formed must come more directly from the divine hand
than any other; and hence we often read elsewhere,'He made us, and not we ourselves.'
And  with whom  is this consultation  held?'With
whom took He counsel?' Not with angels surely. But




GENESIS I. 26-3 I.              45
with Himself — Father, Son, and Spirit. The peculiar
form of expression is not made use of without a purpose.
And this is the more to be noted, because afterwards,
when each of the Three Persons had come out as it
were into greater distinctness of manifestation, so that
sometimes the Father speaks, and at other times the
Son, and at other times the Spirit, this plural form of
speech is not made use of. It is always I, not we. The
same remarks apply to the use of the word oztr immediately after.
The being about whose formation this consultation was
held, was he to whom the name of rnan was to be given,
as we read,'He called their name Adam (or man), in the
day when they were created' (chap. v. 2). The word
signifies red, or ruddy, referring to the colour of his
flesh, either as it appears under the skin, or as it is
seen shining through the skin, forming the bright complexion of health; the token of perfect and vigorous manhood and womanhood. And hence it is said of Christ,
who in body as well as soul was the perfection of manhood,' He that sat on it was to look upon like a jasper
and a sardine stone' (Rev. iv. 3). It is the same word
used in the following passages:-i Sam. xvi. I2:'He
was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance;' Song
v. Io:'My beloved is white and ruddy;' Lam. iv. 7:' Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter
than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies;
their polishing was of sapphire.'
This being is to be made'in our image, after our likeness' (this is repeated in ver. 27). The use of both




46            THOUGHTS OAT GENAESIS.
image and likeness is not a repetition. Its meaning is,' Let us make man in our image,' in order that he may
resemble us, and so be our representative, the reflector of
our image to others.  The two words are used in Ex.
xx. 4,  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
or any likeness of anything,' that is, anything intended to
resemble or represent anything whatever on earth. God's
special characteristics may be summed up in these: intelligen'ce, holiness, blessedness. Man therefore was to
be an intelligent, holy, blessed being; in these great
features differing from  and rising above all that had
hitherto been created (see I Cor. xi. 7; Eph. iv. 24;
Col. iii. io). The idea of some, that the image of God
consisted in his having dominion, is one resting on no
Scripture, and is disproved by the passage before us, in
which the possession of dominion is described as the
result of his having the image, and so could not be the
image itself. Man was to be God's king, because he was
fitted to be so by being made in the image of God.
Then the gift of dominion follows. This kingship was
directly from God. It was unlimited in so far as earth
was concerned. All things were put under him, setting
before us at the outset the great truth that it was God's
purpose to rule the earth by a king, and that king not an
angel, but a man (Heb. ii. 6). The further exercise of this
dominion is afterwards expressed by'subduing the earth,'
bringing everything into submission to his royal will, and
into conformity with God's plan and purpose. Not as if
there was to be resistance to man in any part of creation,
requiring coercion, but merely such a kind of resistance




GENESIS I. 26-3I.                 47
as he was to have in cultivating Eden; such a kind of
resistance as implied that creation stood waiting for the
utterance of his will, and the forth-putting of his power.
Then there comes the blessing (ver. 28). God blessed
them, that is, He poured into them all the goodness, and
the life, and the joy that they could contain, and declared
that such as they were just now, such they were to be in
time to come. This is the filling of the vessel, according
to its measure, with the fulness of God. In virtue of this
blessing, they were to be fruitful, and multiply, and fill
the earth. And here, as we noticed formerly, is the true
source of all power of propagation in man or beast, in
herb or flower. The earth at first was'void,' or empty,
but now it was to be'filled' (Ps. xxiv. i).
Then food is granted. All that the earth brings forth
of herb and tree. It would seem by the statement of the
3oth verse, that the beasts and fowl were restricted to the
herb of the field, while to man was specially assigned the
fruit of the tree. That man was restricted to the latter
cannot be said; but the special food befitting his higher
nature was the fruit of the tree. No life was then taken
for food; life did not need to be supported by death.
Death was not then a necessary prerequisite to any
creatures obtaining food for the body. The lion did eat
straw like the ox, as it did even afterwards, in the ark,
during the year of confinement there.  Such was the
divine law, and such was the true condition of creation
ere sin had disordered the earth.
Then, when all is finished, God looked round upon His
handiwork, surveying all its parts.  He gives His verdict




48           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
-' very good.' He is well, pleased, and He tells us this.
Such is His estimate of creation.  It is all perfect, all
according to His plan and mind, each of its parts exhibiting the idea which He designed. And again He
dates His work:'The evening was, and the morning was,
day the sixth.'
And is this the six days' work that we see around us?
Yes; but how changed! It is not wholly ruined, for God
has interrupted it in its fall, so that by its midway position
it should point forward to restitution while it proclaims
decay. But still it is not what God made it, and man is
its destroyer! It is man that has made creation groan.
It is man that is the undoer of what the great Maker had
done.
And man himself, what is he now? The image of
Elohim, where is it?  Marred, faded, gone!  A few
fragments still remaining, a few torn leaves to show what
has been the flower! We cannot recognise him as the
same being. Man,'thou hast destroyed thyself!' Compare thy present and thy former self, and be ashamed.
Let the contrast between the first Adam  and thyself
humble thee profoundly; and let the contrast between
the second Adam and thyself humble thee more profoundly still.  The contrast, how sad! The ruin, how
awful! And you did it!
Retrace your steps, get back the lost image; get it
back in God's way. Thy connection with the first Adam
is thy undoing; nothing but connection with the Second
can be thy salvation.'Put on Christ;' let every lineament of the earthly Adam be erased; let each feature of




GENESIS I. 26-3I.              49
the heavenly Adam be engraven upon thee. Aim high;
yet not in pride, as man did, and fell. To have the image
of God is one thing, and it is right and blessed; to'be
as God' is another, and it is awfully presumptuous, —it is
self-deification, and has been the ruin of the race. The
day of perfection, and restoration, and dominion is
coming; but it has not yet arrived. Live looking for it;
live as men who believe it; walk worthy of it. It will
then be seen what a God of glory our God is, and what
blessedness there is in being knit to the second Adam,
who shall then be manifested as the head of creation and
the King of Glory.
VOL. VI                                  1




50              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
CHAPTER II.
yer. I.' Thus (or and) the heavens and the earth were finished,
and all the host of theyn.'
OD now proclaims the completion of His creationwork.l  It was no mere sketch or outline: it was
no half-finished plan: it was a' finished' work. A goodly
and glorious work! Not merely on account of what we
see and touch in it, but on account of what we cannot
see or touch. For creation is full of secrets. Science,
in these last days, has extracted not a few, but how many
remain secrets still! What a multitude of hidden wonders
does each  part of creation  contain!   Outwardly, how
marvellous for the order, beauty, utility of all its parts;
inwardly, how much more marvellous for the secret
springs of life, motion, order, health, fruitfulness, and
power!   Each part, how  wondrous in itself, as perfect
in its kind; yet no less wondrous, as wrapping up within
It may be well to notice that the word' finished' here is the same
as is used in such passages as the following: Ex. xl. 33,' So Moses
finished the work;' 2 Chron. vii, II,'Thus Solomon finished the
house.' And as of these types of redemption, the tabernacle and
temple, it is said they were'finished,' so of redemption itself it is
said,'It is finished' (John xx. 30). And as the old creation is thus
spoken of as being' finished,' so is the new; for after He that sat on
the throne had said,'Behold, I make all things new,' it is added,'it is done'-it is finished (Rev. xxi. 5, 6).




GENESIS II,. 2, 3.                     5r
itself the seeds of ten thousand other creations, as perfect,
hereafter to spring from  them!  God proclaims the perfection of His works, not as man does, in vainglory, but
that He may fix our eye on their excellency, and let us
know that He, the Former of them, is fully satisfied, and
that His work is now ready for its various functions and
uses. The great machine is completed, and now about
to begin its operations.l
Vers. 2, 3.'And on the seventh day God ended (had finished,
completed) 2 His work which Hie had made; and He rested on the seventh
day from all His work which He had made. 3. And God blessed the
seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all
His work which God created and made.,'
By the close of the sixth day God had finished His
work, so that, as that day's sun set, announcing the
seventh day begun, all was completed. God stands here
on the line that separates these two days; He looks back
on the past, and forward to the future.  He sees and
1 The Host.  Such passages as Deut. iv. I9 and Isa. xxxiv. 4 show
that this expression is used in reference to sun, moon, and stars;
Josh. v. 14, that it means God's living army, probably referring to
Israel, not to angels.  (See Ex. xii. 41:'The hosts of Jehovah went
out from the land of Egypt.')  It is used of angels, I Kings xxii. I9;
Ps. ciii. 2I, cxlviii. 2. In Luke ii. 13 we read of'the heavenly
host,' o-pazr',s oupasv;io referring to angels; and in Matt. xxiv. 29,
~uvaix,',; Qrz  opaivY, the powers of heaven, referring to stars, etc.
God's special name, Jehovah Sabaoth, Lord of hosts, is not used in
the earlier books of Scripture. It does not occur till I Sam. i. 3;
but after that it occurs about 300 times in the Old Testament; only
twice in the new, Rom. ix. 29, Jas. v. 4.
2 The Hebrew word here is the same as in the preceding verse,
though our translation gives it as if it were different. Moses' meaning
is, that God' on the seventh day had completed His work.'




52'             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
surveys a finished work, and He'returns to His place'He'rests.' His rest is soon disturbed, as we shall see,
by man's sin, so that He is compelled to begin anew His
work (the far more laborious work of renewing a world);
but meanwhile He'rests;' and His purpose is to make
all creatures partakers of this rest. He rests, not because
weary, but because His work is done; and yet, no doubt,
that word'rest' was intended to declare to us the profounder tranquillity that there is, even to the Creator, in
rest than in labour.
The day of this completion and this rest must be made
memorable for ever.' From that moment, each seventh
day must be marked off as a day of remembrance, a day
to be kept differently from other days, even had man
never fallen. For as man, being a dweller on earth, has
many common duties to perform, which are no less needful
than those which are directly spiritual, so God has appointed six days during which these common duties are
to be sanctified, and one day during which they are to be
wholly set aside. They that confound these two things,
l Calvin, in his Commentary on Genesis, points out this. H Ie shows
that God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath,' ut seculis omnibus inter
homines sancta foret;' and that its observance was not to be confined' to one age or people, but is common to the whole human race.' He
then shows that Judaism introduced certain peculiarities into the observance of the Sabbath. These were done away in Christ, but the
Sabbath itself remained. Nay, in so- far as the Sabbath prefigured
the spiritual rest which Christ brought, it might be said to have passed
into its antitype. But, in so far as it was a day set apart from the
beginning for the service of God, it was to remain, ad munzdi finer
usque, durare o5ortet. Such were Calvin's ideas of the' abrogation'
of the Sabbath, of which so much has'been said!




GENESIS II. 2, 3.                  53
and profess to make every day a Sabbath, are making void
the original purpose of God.  God's purpose never was
to make every day a Sabbath, and it is mock-sanctity to
say so. They who would raise every day to the level of
a Sabbath are quite as far from the aim of the divine
institution as they who drag down the Sabbath to the
level of a common day. During the six days man was
to show how he could serve and glorify God in the
common duties of life; on the Sabbath, he was to show
how God was to be served and glorified by acts of direct
and unmingled worship.  This is the principle of the great
Sabbath-institute,-a principle which runs through all ages,
more so than ever in these last days, when men are
either denying religion altogether, or endeavouring to
eject it from everyday life, and confine it to a peculiar
region of its own.
This seventh day God'blest.'  He uttered His mind
concerning it, calling it a day of blessing; and in so doing,
communicated to it (as it were) the power to impart
blessing —that is, He made it the day in which He would
specially give blessing.l This is then the primary meaning and object of the Sabbath.  It is the day on which
In this sense it is that inanimate things are often spoken of as
being blessed by God: Ex. xxiii. 25,' He shall bless thy bread and thy
water;' Ps. lxv. Io,'Thou blessest the springing therof;' cxxxv. 15,' I will abundantly bless her provision;' Prov. iii. 33,' He blesseth
the habitation of the just.' M. Stuart paraphrases it,' God declared
this day to be worthy of peculiar distinction, honour, and observance'
(Hebrew Chrestomathy, p. I23). In the Greek it is,XO7ynes,'He
spake well of the day.' We'bless' God when we speak well of
Him, that is, tell of His goodness. He blesses us when He speaks
well of us, and imparts His goodness.




54              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
God specially blesses man.  But more than this.  It is
added, He'sanctified  it.'  He marked it off from  all
other days, as the tabernacle was marked off from all the
tents of Israel.  He drew a fence around it, which was
not to be broken through.  He set it apart for  limseif
just as He set the six days apart for man. It was to be
tis day, not man's; just as the altar was His altar, the
laver His laver, not man's.l  And when, or where, or how
has God's claim to a Sabbath been renounced? When
has His setting apart been done away? Men speak and
act as if this'blessing,' this'sanctification' of the day
were a yoke not to be borne; as if the Sabbath were a
curse, not a blessing; as if the gospel had at length
broken fetters forged in Eden by God for man! But,
no.  The Sabbath was set up by God, and by Him only
can be taken down. It was set up (I) as a memorial
of past labour; (2) as a pillar of testimony to God as
Creator; (3) as a proclamation of rest; (4) as a type and
earnest of coming rest. These four points in particular
contain God's reasons for the institution of this day. All
these are still in force; nor has the gospel blunted the
edge of any of them, least of all the last.  Till the antitype
come, the type must remain.   Till that glorious rest
1 This use of the word sanctify is so common, that we need. only
refer to such passages as the following in proof: Ex. xxix. 37, 44;
Josh. xx. 7; Neh. iii. I. The literal seventh was of no consequence.
It could not be the same day over all the world. A seventh of days
was all that was implied. In Heb. iv. 3, 4, the apostle's object is to
state that there was a rest,-a rest which began on the finishing of the
works, which was therefore past, not future; so that it could not be
this rest into which faith is to introduce, and from which unbelief
shuts us out. It is a future rest to which faith looks forward.




GENESIS I. 4, 5.                    55
arrive,-better than creation-rest, better than Canaan-rest
(Heb. iv.),-its type must remain.  Nor is it easy to
understand the reason why some, calling themselves expectants of this coming rest, should be so anxious to set
aside the type of it.  It is strange also that now, when
the resurrection of Christ has added another to the many
reasons for observing a day like this, we should be asked
to abolish it.'
Vers. 4, 5.' These are the genzerations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth
and the heavens, 5. A&id every plant of the field before it was in the
earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God
had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man
to till the ground.'
This fourth verse should  commence a new  chapter,
1 No doubt God's rest was broken by man's sin. But this made it
only the more needful to keep up the Sabbath as a memorial of that
rest which man had broken, and an earnest of that rest which is in
reserve for us. Let us not forget that the Sabbath was not a Judaical
ordinance; and to prevent such an idea, the fourth commandment
commences with REMEMBER, calling on Israel to keep in mind an old
commandment which had been in the world from the beginning.
The word Sabbath (signifying rest) does not only refer to our resting,
but to God's resting. Man's sin marred God's rest-day, by compelling Him (we speak after the manner of men) to begin working anew.
This new creation-work is still going on; and to this our7 Lord refers
(John v. I7),' My Father worketh hitherto, and I work'-that is, our
Sabbath is not yet begun, and therefore I cannot be charged with
breaking the Sabbath in working miracles. When this new creationwork has been finished (the old creation took six days, the new creation 6000 years), then the interrupted Sabbath shall be resumed, at
the point where it was broken in upon; only on a higher and heavenlier
scale, with Eden restored, Satan expelled, all things made new, the
second Adam and the second Eve having dominion over all things;




36             17HO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
and is connected with what follows.'  The first three
verses should be thrown back into the previous chapter.
A new section of creation-history now begins, and the
fourth verse is' the title or heading:'The following are
the details of what took place when God created heaven
and earth.' The fifth is intended to state that all that
was done was entirely God's doing, without the help of
second causes, without the refreshment of rain, without
the aid of man. There had been no power in action
hitherto but God's alone. His hand, directly and alone,
had done all that was done, in making plants and herbs
to grow.   The soil was not of itself productive; no
previous seed existed; there was no former growth to
spring up again. All was the finger of God. He is
the sole Creator. Second causes, as they are called,
are His creations: they owe their being, their influence,
to Him. The operations of nature, as men speak, are
but the actings of the invisible God.  God is in everything. Not as the Pantheist would have it, a part of
God resting from His work, and rejoicing in His Sabbath,-the
Sabbatism which the apostle speaks of as remaining for the people of
God (Heb. iv. 9).
1 Generations. niin. The LXX. render it ou'rn i [343xo? s yvo;,
as in Matt. i. I. Literally it is births, things brought forth. Here
and in chap. vi. 9, xi. 27, xxxvii. 2, it signifies accounts of the origin
of-generations, descents, genealogical notices. After quoting this
fourth verse, Pearson remarks,' So the creation or production of anything, by which it is, and before was not, is a kind of generation, and
consequently the creator or producer of it a kind of fdther: "Hath
the rain a father, or who hath begotten the drops of dew?" (Job
xxxviii. 28); by which words Job signifies, that as there is no other
cause assignable of -the rain but God, so may He, as the cause, be
called the Father of it.'-On the Creed, Art. I.




GENESIS II. 4, 5.                    57
everything, so that nature is God; but a personal Being,
in  everything,  yet  distinct  from   everything;  filling,
quickening, guiding creation in all its parts, yet no more
the same with it than the pilot is with the vessel he
steers, or the painter with the canvas on which he
flings all the hues of earth and heaven. Let us beware
of this subtle delusion of the evil one, the confounding
of the creature with the Creator; of God,'the King
eternal, immortal, and invisible,' with the hills, and plains,,and forests, and flowers which He has made.  To deify
nature seems one of the special errors of the last days.
And no wonder; for if nature be deified, then man is
deified too.   Man  becomes  God, and  nature  is the
throne on which he sits. Let us not lose sight of God
in nature. Let not that which is the manifestation of
His glory be turned by us into an obscuration of Himself.   Let us look  straight to  the living  God.   Not
nature, but God; not providence, but God; not the
law, but the Lawgiver; not the voice, but the Speaker;
not the instrument and its wide melodies, but the Master
who formed the lyre, and whose hands are drawing the
music out of its wondrous chords  1'
1Schiller's poetry is perhaps the saddest yet most fascinating exemplification of the spirit referred to above. His very beauties are
often the most painful parts of his works. His poem on The IGods of
Greece is one of his worst, much admired as it has been.' Man gifted nature with divinity,
To lift and link her to the breast of love!
Cold, from the north, has gone
Over the flowers, the blast that killed their May;
And, to enrich the worship of the One,
A universe of gods must pass away!'
All this, and much more, from one of the lords of modern thought!




58.            THOUGHTS ON GEIESIS.
Ver. 6.' But there went u  a mist from the earth, and watered the
whole face of the ground.'
To supply the want of rain, God called up a mist
which watered the ground, so that herb and plant were
now  refreshed.  Ere He brings man into the midst of
His works, He burnishes them, and makes them  resplendent with freshest green. It is of this'mist' that
Job speaks (xxxvi. 27):'He maketh small the drops
of water; they pour down rain according to the vapour
thereof;' Jeremiah also:'He  causeth the vapours to
ascend from the ends of the earth' (x. 13); thus directly
ascribing to Jehovah as much the continuance as the
creation  of this watering  mist.   He makes it!   He
who built the hills, and lighted  up the stars,-He is
the Creator of the thin airy vapour which disappears
in a moment. And in all these parts of His infinitely
varied handiwork  He  has taught us to  read  solemn
lessons.   In  the  ocean, the  breadth  of eternity; in
the  mountains, the  stability of the  covenant; in  the
vapour, the shortness of our mortal life (Jas. iv. I4).
Was Satan ever more beautifully disguised as an angel of light
than in such a man? Is not German poetry, German metaphysics,
German theology, making havoc among us? Is it not the combined
action of the three that is producing that school which, with such
supercilious dislike of Evangelical truth, is setting itself to make
war against what it so childishly calls Bibliolatry? Under covert
of this evil name, thus, after no brave or manly fashion, fastened
on their opponents, they hope to advance to their great work of
undermining and overthrowing the verbal inspiration of the Word
of God.




GENESIS II. 7.                 59
All nature teems with truth, concerning the past, the
present, and the future.  And this God, who created
the vapour, and made that vapour a figure of man's
life, is the God who careth for us, the God who wants
to give us the life that is no vapour, — the heritage
that cannot pass away! And the mist that waters and
revives the summer flower is not more free than the
eternal life which He gives us in His Son.
Ver. 7.'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
ivinzg soul.'
In the fifth verse we were specially reminded that'there was not a man to till the ground;' now this
want is to be removed; and from this way of noticing
man's creation we are taught that, just as the ground
was made for man, so man was made for the ground.
He has a claim on it, and it has a claim on him.
Accordingly it is to the peculiar link between him and
the ground that our attention is now turned.  He is
closely connected with the ground, for out of it he was
made.  Hitherto we have been merely told of man
being created by God; but not a word has been said
of hoze', or out of wzeat, he was formed.'Now we are
told, it was of'the dust of the ground;' of the finer
and more elemental parts of this material earth.  He
was formed'dust of the ground,' for so the words run
literally. This refers, of course, to his body, teaching
us that it was made first; and then, after that, God
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (or lives),




60o             THOUGHTS ON  GENESIS.
and he became a living soul.' As we know  that the
stoppage of the breath causes the cessation of life, so
the impartation of the breath was the production of
life, as if the breath were the link between the soul
and body, so that, in breaking it, the soul and body
fall asunder. Here is the potter and the clay! Man
bears no part in his own creation. His flesh is taken
out of the dust beneath  him; his  soul comes down
straight from God above, made out of we know not
what; called, perhaps, directly out of nothing.   That
which is material may come out of a mass of previously  existing  matter; but who -will say  that the
immaterial is brought out of a mass of previously existing spirit? No. The soul comes at once from Him
of whom  it is said,'In  Him  was life, and the life was
the light of men' (John i. 4).  It is the Son, the second
person of the Godhead, that is' the Life' —the living and
life-giving One. It was He who with one hand, as it
were, taking up a body out of the dust, and with the
other creating a soul by the word of His power, brought
-1..n rIa   literally, a soul of life, a living animated being, —d;
uzv zi e cbaV, Sept. It is to this the apostle refers in I Cor. xv. 45,
in which he uses the very words of the Septuagint, above quoted,
preserving even the Hebrew idiom. The'breath'of lives' seems to
be that breath by which the lives (animal and rational) are kept in
play, as well as linked to the body.' It is to this expression that the
apostle seems to refer in Acts xvii. 25:   He giveth to all, life and
breath,' —oias xz) z vo'ov. On this whole subject the reader may consult Howe's Principles of the Oracles of God, Lect. I6, I7, I8, I9, 20;
Flavel's Treatise on the Soul; and Christopher Ness' quaint work,
The History and Mystery of the Old and New Testament, chap. iv.
See also Tertullian's curious treatise, De Anima.




GENESIS II. 7.                  6i
them  together, and then cemented them  together with'the' breath of lives,' which He breathed into the nostrils.
Thus the threefold cord which is not quickly broken (the
corporeal life, the animal life, and the intellectual life)
was thrown around this new piece of creation, and the
soul and body married together in a union which only
sin could dissolve.
Such are the two  extremes of man's nature, body
and soul. Such are the sources of both; the one low,
the other lofty. And'possessed of this twofold being,
— thus strangely compounded of the low and the high,
of the material and the immaterial,-is he not taught
on the one hand to be profoundly humble, and on the
other to soar upwards to Jehovah with a noble ambition,
resting satisfied nowhere but in the bosom of his God?
Of our original dust we are often reminded by God.
He recurs frequently to the term, as a figure for such
things as the following:-It is the emblem of frailty
(Ps. ciii. 14); can we then be self-confident, or ever
cherish' the pride of life'?  It is the emblem of nothingness (Gen. xviii. 27); and can we boast of our sufficiency,
or deem ourselves aught when compared with the Allsufficient One? It is the emblem of defilement (Isa. lii. 2);
and shall we vaunt of purity?  It is the emblem  of
humiliation (Lam. iii. 29; Job xlii. 6); and shall we be
puffed up, we who are but dust and ashes?  It is the
emblem of mourning (Josh. vii. 6); and shall we exult,
as if no tribulation could reach us, or say with Babylon,'I shall see no sorrow'? It is the emblem of mortality
(Eccles. iii. 20, xii. 7); and shall we trust in our dying




62           THOUGHIC S ON GEcNESzS.
life, as if death could not invade us? 0 man, thou
art dust! Canst thou be proud or high-minded?  Canst
thou put thy confidence in anything into which the
element of dust enters?
Yet, let us remember, there is nothing sinful in this
dust out of which we are framed. Ours is indeed a
lowly origin, but not an unholy one. There is nothing
sinful in the soil of earth. The curse is on it and in
it, for man's sin. But the soil itself contains no defilement. Out of this very dust was fashioned the body
of Him who took our flesh. The Son of the Highest
has taken into His person this very dust of ours, thereby
showing us that there is nothing in it really vile; nay,
thereby putting wondrous honour upon it, and elevating
it to a seat, upon the very throne of God. Out of this
dust our resurrection bodies are to be formed; so that
when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, we shall
not the less be possessors of a body derived from the'dust of the ground.' This body of ours is yet to sit
upon the throne of the universe. We have borne the
image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly.
But we have souls as well as bodies; and these souls
are specially God's handiwork.  He made them  what
they are. We got them directly from Him at first, and'in Him we live, and move, and have our being' (Job
xii. Io, xxvii. 3, iii. 4, xxxiv. I4; Eccles. xii. 7). This
is the highest and noblest kind of creation. Man cannot make, but he can unmake; he cannot create, but
he can ruin; for he can introduce into the soul that




GENESIS ii. 8.                 63
which is its ruin,- SIN.  God only can either make
it out of nothing, or re-make after it is ruined.  Both
are the acts of Him who is'the Life.' The first life
came from Him, much more the new life; and His act
when creating the first life corresponds strikingly to that
of which it is said,'He breathed on themn, and said,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost.' The second life is indeed
produced in the way of birth (a birth of God, a birth
from above), so that the whole mature soul is not imparted at once, but still the source of the life is the
same,-the life-giving fountain is the same, only it communicates a higher kind of life (I Cor. xv. 45).'The
first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam
was made a quickening spirit.' It is more abundant
life (John x.  o).'I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.'  Our
whole new being is to be after a higher model, and cast
in a far finer mould (i Cor. xv. 49).'As we have borne
the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly.'
Ver. 8.'And the Lord God planted a garden, eastward, in Eden
(Heb. in Eden from: the East), and there He put the man whom He
had formed.'
We now learn in what region, and in what part of
that region, man was placed. It was in the eastern extremity of a region named Eden; a region whose locality
was, it would seem, well known in the days of Moses,
but now  only to be guessed at.   When it took the
name of'Eden,' whether so named at first by God, or




64             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
afterwards by Adam, or not till later ages, we know
not.  It signifies'delight,' being  so named from  its
surpassing beauty and fruitfulness. It was a land, the
like of which has not since been seen on earth; fairer
and richer than'that which flowed with milk and honey;
a land of broad rivers and streams; a land of'sunshine
and gladness; a land of flowers and gems; a land of
the myrtle, and the olive, and the palm, and the vine; a
land. which was the glory of all lands; which has left its
name behind it to all ages, as a name of fruitfulness, and
fragrance, and beauty.
In the eastern corner of this'delightsome land,' this
more than Beulah, God planted a garden with His own
hand, a garden which afterwards, from an Eastern term,
took the name of Paradise, and is often alluded to in
Scripture as the'garden of the Lord,' the'garden of God'
(Gen. xiii. Io; Isa. li. 3; Ezek. xxviii. I3, xxxi. 8, 9,
xxxvi. 35; Joel ii. 3).1 This peculiar spot of earth,
this inner circle, was to be man's residence. There he
was to dwell.  There he was to meet with God, there
to walk with God, there, as in creation's palace, to take
up his abode as creation's king; and from his throne
there to exercise his kingly dominion over an undefiled
and happy earth.2'The paradise mentioned in Luke xxiii. 43, 2 Cor. xii. 4, Rev.
ii. 7, is the heavenly counterpart to the earthly paradise; for no doubt
the latter was' after the pattern of heavenly things.'
2 Paradise was the inner circle; Eden, around it, the outer; the
whole earth around, the outermost; corresponding to the three
divisions in the tabernacle, the most holy, the holy, and the outer
court; and corresponding to the three great divisions in millennial




GENESIS ii. 9.                        65
Ver. 9.'And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow (or
s2pring) every tree that isSpleasant to the sight, and good forfood; the
tree of life also (Heb. and the tree of the life, or lives) in the midst of
the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil..'
The  garden  was nobly  stored.   It was a  princely
orchard. Its fruitful soil gave growth to every various
tree and shrub. Nothing was awanting to make it altogether suitable for its dwellers. Every tree which the
eye loves to look upon, or which is good for food, was
there. No sense remained ungratified. But two special
trees were there, the tree of life, and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.l
I. The tree of  /ife.-This was a real tree, as real as
days,-the heavenly Jerusalem, and the Church its dweller; the
earthly Jerusalem, with Israel its dweller; and the earth at large,
with the Gentile nations inhabiting it.'It is interesting to notice the references to the trees of Eden.  Not
only is Eden itself used as a figure for a region of excellent beauty
(Isa. li. 3; Ezek. xxxvi. 35; Joel ii. 3), but the trees of Eden are referred to three times by Ezekiel in a most striking way,'cedars,''fir - trees,' and'chestnut- trees' being specified (xxxi. 8).  The
Assyrian is compared to the trees of Eden, and it is said of him,'that no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty,'
nay,'all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied
him.' Ezekiel's references to Eden cannot fail to strike the reader.
It was in the Edenic region that he dwelt in his captivity, on the
banks of H-Iiddekel, as in the case of Daniel (x. 4); and just as David's
psalms bear witness to the deserts and hills where he was hunted, so
Ezekiel's prophecies show us that before his eyes visions of Eden were
brought, called up by the scene around and the histories or traditions
connected with the scene.'Ezekiel and John are the two prophets
that abound in references to Eden and Paradise, with its trees and
precious stones. Now Ezekiel's is the yewish apocalypse, and John's
the Christian.  The former is the apocalypse of the' earthly things,'
the latter of the' heavenly things.'
VOL. VI.                                            E




66       TH IOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
any of the rest, and evidently placed there for like purposes with the rest. The only difference was, that -it
had peculiar virtues which the others had not.  It was
a life-giving or life-sustaining tree, —a tree of which, so
long as man  should continue to eat, he should never
die.  Not that one eating of it could confer immortality;
but the continuous use of it was intended for this. Not
that man was made mortal as he now is; the use of
means does not necessarily denote some such  innate
defect.  Man had to eat of food even when unfallen,
yet this did not prove him to have been originally a
dying creature. Nay, Christ had to partake of food,
but this did not argue any defect in Him.  So did
not the existence of the tree of life, and man's need
to eat thereof, argue any original defect in man.  The
link between soul and body was to be maintained by
this tree. So long as he partook of this, that tie could
not be broken.l
2. The free of he knowledge of good and evil.-Why may
we not take this in the same literality of meaning as the
former? Why may it not mean a tree, the fruit of which
This is the natural meaning of the expression' tree of life,' namely
a life-imparting tree, just as'the bread of life' means life-imparting
bread, and as the'water of life', means life-imparting water. Of
course the expression itself does not prove it to be a literal tree, just
as these others are not literal bread nor literal water. But then the
tree having been proved to be a literal tree from the context, we may
use these parallel forms of speech to illustrate its meaning.' The
very denomination " tree of life " would signify to us that there was in
it a faculty of either giving or preserving life.' —Burton's View of the
Creation of the World, p. 209. The son of Sirach calls it lV66po
aVxvoyacsg, the tree of immortality. Lord Barrington, in his Essay on




GENESIS ii. 9.                     67
was fitted to nourish man's intellectual and moral
nature?  fow  it did  this I do  not attempt to  say.
But we know so little of the actings of the body or the
soul, that we cannot affirm  it impossible.   Nay, we
see so much of the effects of the body upon the soul,
both in sharpening and blunting the edge alike of
intellect and conscience, that we may pronounce it not
at all unlikely.   We are only beginning to  be aware
of the exceeding delicacy of our mental and moral
mechanism, and how easily that mechanism is injured
or improved by the things which affect the body.   A
healthy body tends greatly to produce not only a
healthy intellect, but a healthy conscience.  I know  that
only one thing can really pacify the conscience, — the
all-cleansing blood; but this I also know, that a diseased -or enfeebled body operates oftentimes so sadly
on the conscience as to prevent the healthy realization
by it of that wondrous blood, thereby beclouding the
whole soul; and there is nothing which Satan seems so
completely to get hold of, and by means of it to rule
the inner man, as a nervously-diseased body. Cowper's
expression,'A  mind well lodged, and masculine of course,'
the Disi5ensations, says,' The tree of life is a tree that could preserve
life.' He then gives eight reasons for this.  Works, vol. ii. pp. 408412. He is more successful in these than when in a subsequent paragraph he endeavours to prove that the tree of knowledge was a
poisonous tree producing death. Venema takes the same view of the
tree of life:'Nothing remains but that we consider the name given
to it as meaning that it did possess a certain power, communicated to
it by God, of preserving, prolonging, and gladdening the life of man
on earth.'-$S)stem of Theology, chap. 26. Also his Eccles. Hist. vol.
i. p. 26.




68                THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
has in it more meaning than we have commonly attached
to it.l
Vers. Io-I4.'And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;
and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.  II. The
name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land
of Havilah, zwhere there is gold;  I2. Ad the gold of thzat lazd is good:
there is bdellium and the onyx-stoine. 13. And the name oft/he second river
is Gihon: the same is that which compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia
(Heb. Cush).  I4. And the name of the third river is Hiddekde: that is
it which gveth towards the east of Assyria.  And the fourth river is
Euphrates.' 2
For this fair region a river was provided,-a noble river,
-fit counterpart of that'river of bliss' which' Thro' midst of heaven,
Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream.'
Where this mighty  river rose is not said.  It found its
way into Eden from  the lofty mountains which encircled
1 If our translation of Isa. vii. 15 (and the Vulgate) be correct
('Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil,
and choose the good'), there would be a striking instance of the truth
referred to above.  But as the passage may as well run,' when he
shall know,' etc., I do not press it. Jonathan's eyes were enlightened
by the tasting of the honey (I Sam. xiv. 27).
2 Both in the writings of the Fathers and in the old Latin hymns,
these four streams are spiritualized into the four evangelists.'Paradisi
haec fluenta,' says one hymnist, and another enlarges on this with some
beauty,-'Paradisus his rigatur
Viret, floret, fcecundatur,
His abundat, his laetatur
Quatuor fluminibus.
Fons est Christus, hi sunt rivi,
Fons est altus, hi proclivi,
Ut saporem fontis vivi,
Ministrent fidelibus.'
-Daniel, Thzes. Hymnol. vol. ii. p. 85.




GENESIS ii. 10-I4.                    69
that glorious region.   Then  passing  through  Eden, it
glided onwards into Paradise, and there might be seen'winding at its own sweet will,' till it reached the other
extremity of the garden.   There it was subdivided into
four heads.'   These were: (i) Pisol,2 compassing  the
1 Heads, $bSWN, or beginnings, that is,'four lesser rivers into which
T r
a larger spreads itself.' Ezek. xvi. 25,'Every head of the way,' that
is, the beginning, the place where ways branch off. That' rivers'
or'beginnings of rivers' is meant, is evident from what follows.
2Pison. Robertson gives as the meaning of this, magna aqur diiffsio;
Gesenius,'water poured forth, overflowing.' The latter thinks it to
be the Indus; Josephus, the Ganges; Reland and Rosenmiiller, the
Phkasis or Araxes. In none of these is there aught of certainty, and
we mention them only to show the difficulty of coming to a conclusion
on this point. The land of Havilah, Gesenius makes to be India.
But with no certainty. Ham had a descendant of that name (Gen,
x. 7). Shem also had (Gen. x. 29); but from which of these the land
took its name we cannot say. Only, it is remarkable that next to
Havilah, among the posterity of Shem, stands Ophir, who, in all
likelihood, gave his name to the land of Ophir; which conjunction
of the persons, Havilah and Ophir, would lead us to infer a juxtaposition of the lands. In a paper read by Colonel Rawlinson at a
meeting of the Royal Geographical Society some time ago,' On the
identification of the Biblical cities of Assyria, and on the geography
of the lower Tigris,' it was shown'that below the confluence of the
Tigris and Euphrates, four cities had been successively built, as the sea
had retired before the deposit of alluvium, to serve as commercial
emporia.  These cities were the Havilak of Genesis, Beth Yakina
of the Assyrian inscriptions, Teredon of Nebuchadnezzar, and Obillah
of the Sassanians.' This may lead us to place Havilah much nearer
the Tigris and Euphrates than Gesenius would do.  There is uncertainty also as to the meaning of bdelliu;m. Most seem to understand
it as the pearl. See Rosenmiiller, Gesenius, and Robertson, the last
of whom throws out crystal also as perhaps its meaning. It is curious
that the LXX. should have rendered it cgZvspac, a burning coal or fiery
stone, such as the carbuncle or ruby. Is there any connection between
this and the' stones of fire' mentioned in Ezekiel as the gems of Eden?




70              TROU GITS ONI  GENESIS.
land of Havilah, in which land there is the fine gold,
with bdellium and the onyx stone, showing us what a
land of wealth it must have been, its soil fruitful, and its
very rocks veined with gems and gold.  To  that land
Job refers when he says,'The stones of it are the place
of sapphires; and it hath dust of gold' (Job xxviii. 6).
To it also Ezekiel points when, speaking to the Prince of
Tyre, he says,'Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of
God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius,
topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the
jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and
gold.' 1  (2) Gihoz.2  It flowed round Ethiopia or Cush,
and signifies a breaking forth of waters. More than this
we cannot say of it.  (3) Hidcdeke/.'  It is said to go to
There is the same difficulty as to the word translated onyx. The
Sept. give it o xi;o; npo' rCavo;, the emerald. It is more generally
rendered onyx or sardonyx, on account of its supposed resemblance
to the human nail; though Robertson derives it from a word signifying,'igneo ardore praeditus,' and says it means,'lapis coruscis
micans ignibus.'
1 It is remarkable thatfire should be referred to in both the above
passages. In Job it is,' Under it is turned up as it were fire.' In
Ezekiel it is,'Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the
stone of fire.' Had not fire-worship its seat in these regions?
2 Giouon.  It was the opinion of Josephus and of most ancient
writers, that the Nile is meant.  Gesenius makes it to be the Ethiopic
Nile. There is little likelihood in these conjectures.
3 fiddekel. It signifies lightness or swiftness, something active,
vehement, rapid, as does the word Tiger from which Tigris is derived.
The Euzphrates is said to derive its name from the sweetness of its
taste. These two latter rivers are well ascertained; the two former
are, we believe, not now in existence, and cannot be ascertained.
We say this, not only because no writer has ever been able to identify
them; but because the whole four rivers had one common head, which
is nowhere now the case; and also because it is an ascertained fact




GENESIS II. IO-I4.-                   7I
the east of Assyria, and is certainly  the  Tigris.  (4)
The Eurphrates.   This was too  well known to require
minute description. It is spoken of elsewhere as'the
river' (I Kings iv. 2I; Ps. lxxii. 8); the'great river'
(Deut. i. 7), the'flood' (Josh. XXiv. 2).  It was the
Euphrates that was to form one of the boundaries of
Abraham's land:'Unto thy seed have I given this land,
from the river of Egypt (Nile) to the great river, the river
Euphrates' (Gen. xv. i8). It was towards this river that
that the Tigris has more than once been divided into two streams,
perhaps more. If so, or if the Euphrates were so divided, we have
the four rivers on the spot. Colonel Rawlinson thus states the point:' After describing the ruins of Sekherieh, which, on various grounds,
he identified with the Mesene of the Greeks, he went on to notice the
bifurcation of the Tigris. This curious natural feature had been very
accurately described both by Pliny and Stephen, and the Arab
writers enabled us to connect those ancient notices with the modern
geography of the country. The Cauchian plains of Pliny were shown
to be the Coche of the Syrians and Jukha of the Arabs, while the
Delos of Stephen was still preserved in the name of Dieleh (quite
distinct from Dijleh), which the Bedouins of the present day apply
to the dry bed of the Tigris, running by the ruins of Wasit. The
Tigris had changed its course several times. At the period of the
Christian era it was divided into two streams. Under the Sassanians,
the left hand or eastern branch was alone navigable. In the seventh
year of the Hegira the right hand or western branch was reopened,
while in the fifteenth century of our era the river took the form which
it retains to the present day. The tract of country between the two
arms, owing to its natural depression, had been always more or less
subject to inundations, and boats had passed from Wasit to the
Euphrates, along tracts artificially formed for them in the marshes.
The character of the country was the same at the present day, and
the Tigris from the tomb of Abdullah Ibn Ali to Kurna now ran in
a channel which was formerly named the Abul Assad Canal, and
which had been cleared out under the Caliph Mansur for the purpose
of navigation.'




72             THIOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Israel was commanded to turn their' steps (Deut. i.'7).
It was on the banks of this river that Israel sat down and
wept, remembering Zion (Ps. cxxxvii. I). It was in a hole
of one of the rocks that skirt. Euphrates that Jeremiah
was to hide his girdle (Jer. xiii. 4). It was into Euphrates
that Jeremiah was to cast the book containing Babylon's
burden, with the stone bound to it, as the type of
Babylon's more terrible plunge (Jer. li. 63).  It was in
the Euphrates that the Apocalyptic angels were bound,
and on it that the sixth angel poured out his vial, drying
up its waters, and preparing the way for the kings of the
East (Rev. ix. i6, xvi. 12).   Babylon  stood  upon
Euphrates, —Babylon, the great enemy of Jehovah and
His people, as well as the representative of their great
enemy through all ages.  Hard by Paradise, it may be
on the very spot, was Satan permitted to rear his mighty
citadel. He had driven man from that happy seat; he
had blighted its beauty, and now, as if in defiance of
God and man, he rears his city upon the faded flowers of
Eden. One has asked,-'Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And pitch our evils there?'
So was it with' Satan, whether we regard Babylon as
actually reared on the site of Paradise, or merely in some
corner of the wider circle of Eden.' God's garden and
1 There are several passages which seem to show some connection between Eden and the district around Babylon, as if the name
of Eden had been retained in some parts (Isa. xxxvii. I2; Ezek.
xxvii. 23).




GENESIS II. 15.                  73
Satan's city, close by each other, as if the latter were
triumphing  over the  former!   The  emblem  of the
heavenly paradise and the symbol of the great city,'Mother of harlots,' city of Antichrist, side by side with
each other!  The earthly pattern of heavenly things
passing away, and replaced by the abode of darkness,
the cage of unclean beasts, the counterpart of Satan's
own dark dwelling below!
But what care and love God has shown towards man!
What pains and cost to make him happy and comfortable!
It is a father providing for his child, his first-born. God's
desire was to bless. And that desire remains unchanged
and undiminished. Our sin might have been expected
to quench this desire, and to turn the blessing into a
curse, the love into hate. It did so in the case of angels.
It has not done so to us. He loves us still. He blesses,
alnd curses not. Paradise with all its beauty and abundance was but a faint expression of God's love when
compared with His unspeakable gift, or with the more
glorious paradise yet in reserve.  The earthly tree of
life is as nothing compared with the heavenly original
which shall ere long be ours, when, as the' overcoming'
ones, we shall eat of the'tree of life which is in the midst
of the paradise of God' (Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 2, 14).
Ver. 15.'And the Lord God took the man, and put him into (Heb.
illaced, or set him in) the garden of Eden, to dress it (Heb. to till il),
and to keep it.'
Having prepared the garden, the Lord God took the
man and placed him in it, that he might till it and keep




74              TWOUGHTS ON GEN-ESIS.
it. It was made for him, and he for it, as the body is
made for the soul, and the soul for the body.l It was
fruitful beyond anything we now know of, yet it was not
so fruitful as to make any kind of care or cultivation
needless.  It was so fruitful as to occasion no toil nor
weariness to the cultivator, yet not so fruitful as not to
afford occasion  to man's skill and watchfulness.   No
amount of skill or toil now can call up beauty, or verdure,
or fruit, beyond a certain narrow limit; for man has to
do with a rugged soil.   But in Adam's case the ground
easily and gladly yielded its substance without limit to
the most gentle toil. Nay, it was not toil; it was simple,
pleasant occupation.  No doubt the amount and kind of
its actual fruit-bearing was to depend upon himself; he
was to regulate this according to his wants and tastes;
but still the fruit-bearing source was in the soil, imparted
directly by the hand of God,-that all-quickening, allfertilizing Spirit that brooded over the face of the deepi
Afterwards that Spirit was grieved away from the soil by
man's sin; but at first His power was most signally manifested in its fruitful richness. Man was lord of the soil,
and of all that trod it or grew on it, and his daily employments were to manifest his dominion,-not dominion over
1 There is evidently a meaning in so much being spoken of and
to the man alone, before the creation of the woman. He was to
be the head and representative of the race, of the female as well as
the male, which he would not so properly have been had Eve
been created at the same time, or directly out of the ground, instead
of out of the man.'Naturam  igitur humanam in Adze persona
condidit,'atque inde formavit Hevam, ut fcemina tantum portio esset
totius generis.'-Calvin, in loc.




GENESIS Is. I6, 17.                    75
a rebellious earth, needing to be curbed or scourged into
obedience, but a dominion over a willing world, that
stood eagerly awaiting his commands. All creation was,
like a well-tuned instrument, ready made to his hand;
and all that was needed on his part was simply the amount
of happy effort needful to set its strings in motion, and
bring out of them all the rich compass of their music.
And if such was creation under the first Adam, what will
it be under the second? Then truly shall the wilderness
and the solitary place be glad, the desert shall rejoice
and blossom as the rose.'
Vers. I6, 17.'And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of
every tree of the garden thou mayest (or shalt) freely eat (Heb. eating
thou shalt eat, that is, thou shalt go on eatihng un.hindered);  17. But
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for
iz the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Heb. dying
thou shalt die, that is, thou shali begin to die, and go on dying).'
We now come to the constitution under which God
placed man. It was given in the form of a commandment,-' thou shalt,' and' thou shalt not,'-an injunction,
and  a prohibition.'The  Lord  God  COMMANDED  the
man.'  There was, as it were, a moral necessity laid upon
1 Adam's tillage of the ground was of course not toil; but since
the fall it has been hard and unceasing toil. Man has had to carry
on a continual warfare with barrenness, -wringing from the soil
its unwilling produce.  In this process we notice that he keeps
up the same two circles as before the fall, an outer and an inner,Eden and Paradise,-seeking in general to fertilize and beautify the
soil, yet always selecting some nook on which he bestows more
special pains, converting it into a garden or paradise. In Sir Thomas
Brown's Treatise on the Garden of Cyrus, the reader may get an idea
of these efforts.




76           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
him to obey. This utterance of God's will imposed this
necessity.  It was not the mere declaration of certain
consequences to arise from obedience or disobedience.
It was such a declaration of will on the part of Jehovah
as hedged him in on every side with the most overwhelming of all moral necessities. It was not indeed a necessity
that left him without a free choice, but it was a necessity
which gave a most preponderating bias to that free
choice in the direction of obedience, even apart from
consequences.  Under a similar necessity has God in
His announcement of grace placed fallen man. He has
not simply left to us a choice of the evil or the good.
He has given utterance to His will.'This is His coMMANDMENT, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus
Christ.'  A necessity is laid upon us.  It is not a mere
question as to our own woe or weal; it is a question of
obedience or disobedience. Hence the inquiry so often
made by those who have begun to learn what it is to be,
lost, but who as yet only dimly see how they may be
saved,-' Am I at liberty to believe and to come to Christ
as I am?' is one of the strangest that could be made.
What should we have thought of Adam, had he asked,'Am I at liberty to obey God's commands?' What are
we to think of the sinner who asks,'Am I at liberty to
come to Christ?'  At liberty to,come! You dare not
do otherwise, except you are prepared to defy God and
disobey His commandment. At liberty to come! You
are not at liberty to refuse. A necessity lies on you to
come,-even that most solemn of all necessities, which
springs from the declaration of the will of God. You




GENESIS ii. I6, 17.              77
can only be lost by acting all your life long in deliberate
disobedience to the plainest of all commandments that
ever came from the lips of God.
But let us consider the two points of this law given to
Adam,-' Thou shalt,' and'Thou shalt not.'
I. Thle injunction.-' Of every tree of the garden, eating
thou shalt eat.' It is not'mayest eat,' as our translation
has it, but'shalt eat.' As a sovereign's wishes are commands, so is it here.  It is not a mere permission or
invitation, but a command. And it is a peculiar form
of speech,-the positive injunction that most truly comports with the authoritative dignity of a sovereign Jehovah,
as well as suits best the condition of the responsible
creature, by leaving no room for any doubt on his part
as to what is the sovereign will of Him to whom all
obedience is due.
2. The prozibition. —One tree is forbidden, only one,
-the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and this
with the added threatening of death for any breach of
this solemn prohibition. What might be God's ultimate
purpose regarding this tree, we cannot say. Nor can we
fully comprehend the reasons for setting it in Paradise,
within sight and reach of man. It was both in appearance and in its properties the most attractive of all the
trees (Gen. iii. 6), the one which appealed most directly
to man's intelligent nature.  And had the prohibition
been permanent and irreversible, had God meant that
a tree possessing such qualities should never, throughout
man's whole future existence, be partaken of by him, it
is not easy to see the reason either of the planting or the




78              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
prohibiting of the tree.  But take the prohibition as a
temporary one, intended to prove man; suppose that
after a certain time of obedience free access to the tree
was to be allowed, then the difficulty lessens, if it does
*not wholly disappear.l Man was, ultimately, to eat freely
of it, and to obtain all its singular benefits. By means
of it he would rise in the scale of being, and obtain, in
so far as a finite nature can, a participation of the divine
knowledge of good and evil, without having to pass
through that sore and long experience through which
alone we now reach it. The eating of that tree would
have done for him, through physical means, in some
measure at least, what our participation, of Christ, our
eating of His body, does for us now, and will do yet
more abundantly hereafter.  Had man waited God's time,
-had he exercised faith,-he would have gotten all that
We cannot help thinking that this tree gets its name from the,
physical properties of its fruit.  Venema and others, who strongly
insist that the tree of life gets its name from its physical properties,
yet reject the idea that the tree of knowledge has its name from a
like cause, simply because they cannot conceive how the body can
so act upon the mind as that the latter shall be invigorated or elevated
by means of the former. This, however, is no argument, as we have
seen. To make it derive its name from the consequences of a disobedient eating of it, is surely a perversion of the words of the prohibition; it might have better been called in that case the'tree
of death,' as, indeed, some have insisted on naming it, Kennicott
would paraphrase the name thus,'the tree which is the test of good
and evil;' that is, the tree by which God tried them to see whether
they would choose good or. evil, but this will not do (see his ingenious Dissertation onz the.ree of Lzfe, p. 25). It surely means
some particular tree whose fruit had certain properties, so operative
upon the soul of man as to make him grow in the knowledge or
discernment of good and evil.




GENESIS II. I6, I7.             79
the tree could give him ere long, and that in the way of
obedience.'Believing' in God, he would not have'made
haste.' But he believed not; and made haste, as if
resolved to have, whether through obedience or disobedience, all that the tree could yield him. It was to
be proved whether he could trust God, and whether he
loved God's will better than his own. Concerning this
prohibition, we may note, (i) It was a needful pirohibition.
Man must be kept in remembrance that he is not an
absolute sovereign,-that he is but a vicegerent. He
must be made to feel that there is another will in the
universe besides his own, greater than his own, independent of his own, an absolutely sovereign will. (2) It was
but one 5rohibition. There was but one point in which
his will and God's could come into collision. In great
loving-kindness God had made it so.  Man was not
burdened, or fretted, or perplexed with many points of
this kind.  Only one! How gracious! How considerate,
as if God sought to make man's trial the least possible,
so as to leave him without excuse if he should disobey.
(3) It was a sim)le prohibition.  It had nothing intricate
or dark about it.  There was nothing mysterious about
it, nothing in which man could mistake, nothing which
could leave room for the question, Am I obeying or not?
It was distinct beyond the possibility of mistake.  (4) 1t
was a visible prohibition. It was connected with something both visible and tangible. It was not inward, but
outward.  It was not a thing of faith, but of sight.
Everything about it was palpable and open-the tree, the
fruit, tlie place, the threat, the consequences. (5) It was




80              TEO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
an easy prohibition. Man could not say it was hard to
keep.   He was only to  refrain from  eating one fruit.
Being a negative, not a positive requirement, it reduced
obedience to its lowest form and easiest terms. Hence
man's sin was the greater. He was wholly inexcusable.
(6) It was enforced by a most solemn penalty.  It began
with a declaration of God's will, and it ended with the
proclamation  of tile penalty,-death.  How  much  this
expression includes has been often disputed.   There is
no need of this. In the day that man ate of the tree he
came under condemnation; he became a death-doomed
man; the sentence went forth against him.' Grace came
in afterwards, and suspended the full execution of the
sentence; but still the sentence went out-'.dying thou
shalt die.'  That temporal death, as! it is called,-the
dissolution of soul and body,-was the first thing contained in this sentence, there can be little doubt. Not
as if the sentence rested there. Temporal death was but
the entrance into that gloomy region of condemnation
1'Tunc morti addictus fuit Adam, et mors regnum suum in eo
inchoavit.'-CALVIN.'Sinners are actually on the road to death
and destruction from that moment, and a separation takes place
between them and life.'-NITZSCH'S System of Christian Doctrine, pt.
ii. sec. 2. From the moment that man sinned he came under the
curse; he was under doom.  He commenced dying.  This corresponds exactly to the way in which the repeal of the curse is declared,'He that believeth hath everlasting life.' From the moment he
believes he gets possession of this life, though the full life is reserved
for another state; and as the first stroke of the sentence inflicted
on Adam was condemnation, so the first part of its removal in believing is'no condemnation:' and as the close and seal of the
curse, in Adam's case, was bodily death, so the consummation of
it, in the case of the saint, is resurrection.




GENESIS II. I8.                 8'
within which all things terrible await the sinner. Tem —
poral death was to be, not then only, but ever after, the:
visible pledtge or mark of the sentence.  Hence it is that
we read,'It is appointed unto men once to die-;' in,
which words the apostle refers to the primeval sentence,
-man's once dying,-and shows how this sentence was
fulfilled in the once dying of the Substitute (Heb. ix. 28)..
This death brought with it all manner of infinite ills and.
woes. It brought with it, or included in it, condemnation, wrath, misery, separation from God; all endless;
all immediate; all irreversible, had not free love come
in; had'grace not reigned through righteousness, unto
eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord'  The sentence was,'The soul that sinneth, it shall die.'  But'where sin abounded, grace did much more. abound.'
Ver. I8.'And the Lord God said, It is not good that the manl
should be alone; I will make him an he!tp meet for him.'
The previous verses have described the preparation
of man's dwelling; the eighteenth and those that follow
contain a minute detail of the formation of his help meet..
In the case of the animal creation, male and female were
created together.  Not so with man.  There must be
an interval between his creation and that of the woman,,
just as there was to be an interval between the incarnation and the ingathering of the Church.  In all things,
pertaining to man there must be something more special!
than in other beings. The work must be done more
deliberately, step by step, that each thing done may be
seen in itself before it is seen in its connection with
VOL. VI.                                    F




82             THO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
other parts of creation.  Man is created alone at first,
that he may stand forth as the great model of God's
workmanship, and that our eye may be fixed on him as
the representative of our nature.  He is the great head
of humanity; its root; its fountain. In him, thus placed
before us alone, we have the intimation of God's purpose
regarding man's nature, and man's rule over the earth.
Besides, he is thus made to feel his loneliness, his need
of another like himself. He feels as if one half of his
nature were awanting.  He stood, indeed, amid a glorious
world, —a world bursting with fresh, glad beauty on every
side, and teeming with boundless life; but he stood
alone! There was no one like himself no soul to
meet his soul, in all its buoyant outgoings.  He stood
An exile amid splendid desolation,
A prisoner with infinity surrounded.'l
He had, it is true, God for his companion; but this was
not all that was needed, as God Himself here testifies.
There must be one like himself, in whom there will be
more of equality and sympathy and nearness; one neither
too high nor too low for him.'I will make' (says God)'an help meet for him.' God only understands his case,
and can satisfy the cravings of his spirit for the intercourse of a spirit like his o-wn.  I will make for him an
helper, corresponding to him; another self; his counterpart; the very being to -fill up the void within him.2
1 Montgomery's Pelican Island.
2.~.~ S1, literally,' a helper as over against him'-correspondiig'to him. The Sept. has it ponov oair' avoy in this verse, but at




GENESIS II. I9, 20.                   83
Vers. I9, 20.'And (or now) out of the ground the Lord God
formed (or had formed) every beast of the field, and every fowl of the
air (Heb_ heaven), and brought them unto Adam (or to the man),.
to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam (or the man)
called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20. And Adam
gave names to all (the) cattle, and to the fowls of the air (the heaven),
and to every beast of the field.'
God now proceeds to show  man the exact point where
the void lay. Adam had been made to feel that void,
but God's object is to place him  in circumstances such
as shall lead him  step by step, to, the seat of the unsatisfied longing within.   Accordingly, God  brings before
him  all the creatures which He had made, that Adam,
in his choice, may have the whole range of creation.
Adam  surveys them  all.  He. sees by instinctive wisdom
the nature and properties. of each, so that he can affix'
names to all in turn.  His knowledge is large and full;
it has come direct from  God, just as his own being had
come.   It is not discovery, it is not learning, it is, not
ver. 20, where the words are the same, it has'/0,oi5 abze. The Vulgate
makes it' adjutorium simile sibi,' which Isidore Clarius, in his amended
edition of the Vulgate (I542), turns into'adjutorium opportunum..'
Coverdale renders it'an helpe to bear him company.' The Hebrew
expression seems to denote the correspondency or fitting in of the one
nature to the other; the perfect adaptation of the woman to the man..
Milton has brought out part of this idea in the fourth book of Paradise
Lost:-'Tho' both,
Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;
For contemplation he and valour formed,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace
He for God only, she for God in him.'
And a writer of the last generation puts it thus:'Is not man himself
(humanity) split into two parts, man for condescending love, woman
for reverent love?'




84            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
experience, it is not memory, it is intuition. By intuition
he knew what the wisest king in after ages only knew
by searching.' Solomon, we read,'spake of trees, from
the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop
that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts,
and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes'
(I Kings iv. 33).  But Adam's knowledge went far
beyond  this.  In  the case both  of Adam  and  of
Solomon, we see what man shall yet attain to; what
widespread knowledge shall be theirs who are one with
that second Adam, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom  and knowledge.  From  these instances we
see, not merely the folly, but the sin of those who depreciate science, as if it were the handmaid of ungodliness,
and the result of the fall.  Sorely misused has science
been; sadly has it oftentimes risen up between the soul
and God; between sinful man and the incarnate Son;
between the intellect of the learned and the gospel of
the grace of God. Fearfully has it wrought, as a deadly
poison to the human spirit, through the workings of
pride and self-sufficiency, and idolatry of the reason.
But notwithstanding all these results, let us hold fast
the truth which Adam's wondrous attainments teach us,
that such knowledge is, in itself, most truly and surely
good;-not evil.
1 Some have asserted that man rose by the fall; that is, that he
gained in intellect what he lost in spiritual character.  There is
no proof in Scripture for such a statement.  The results of the
fall were unmingled loss, both intellectually and morally.




GENESIS Ii. 20-24.                  85
Ver. 20.' Butfor Adam there was notfound an help meetfor him. 
No counterpart,-no being to fill up the void within
him, was to be found in all these. There was no response
from any one of them to the deep feelings of his breast.
They were too far asunder from him; their nature was
not in harmony or sympathy with his.  The two extremities of being had thus been presented to Adam,God Himself on the one hand, and the animal creation
on the other. In neither of these can a help meet be
found.  The one is too far above him, the other too
much beneath him. A being must be found liker and
nearer himself. The whole creation, perfect as it was,
yet contained nothing for true and loving companionship.
Men may speak of fellowship with nature, in its various
forms and orders of life,-of finding sympathies in the
breeze, the cloud, the wave, the rock, the flower; but
all this is but the exaggeration of sentiment or poetry.
In all creation, animate or inanimate, there is no fellow,
no companion for man.
Vers. 21-24.'And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh
instead thereof  22. Ana the rib, which the Lord God had takenfrom
man, made He a wonman, and brouzght her unto the man.  23. Ana
Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she
shall be catled Woman, because she was taken out of man. 24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to
his wife; and they shall be one flesh.'
God now proceeds to supply the void, but in such a
way as shall make man feel God's design and meaning.
The peculiar process adopted by the Creator in forming




86           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
the help meet was to intimate to man the nature of the
companion presented to him, and the closeness of the
tie between them. Adam was thrown into a deep sleep,
which made him  insensible to pain, though, perhaps,
not unconscious of what was passing.  When in this
state, God took one of his ribs, and fashioned out of it
a woman, healing the wound at once. Then God brought
her to Adam, revealing at the same time to him the
history of her formation.  Adam  recognises Jehovah's
gracious purpose in this; he feels the void supplied;
he acknowledges the oneness between himself and her;
he gives her a name expressive of this. Her name is
to be woman, Isha, derived from his own, Ish, man.
Then follows the historian's statement regarding the oneness of the two, and man's duty to make this tie paramount.  The conjugal relationship is closer than the,
filial. All other bonds must yield to this, however
sacred and tender they may be.  The words of the
twenty-fourth verse are evidently not the words of Adam
himself, but the comment of Moses upon the words of
Adam.  And a greater than Moses has enlarged this
comment:-' From the beginning of the creation God
made them a male and a female. For this cause shall a
man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
and they twain shall be one flesh; so then they are no
more twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath
joined together, let not man put asunder' (Mark x. 6).
With one or two further remarks, we leave this passage.
i. As to Adam's sleep. —It was a heavy, or deep sleep.
It was a sleep sent directly from God. It was a sleep




GENESIS II. 2I-24.                   87
for a special end.  In the case of Abraham  and Daniel
we see the same thing (Gen. xv. i2; Dan. viii. i8, x. 9).
A deep sleep from God fell on both these, when God
designed  to  communicate  visions to them.   In  their
case, God caused them to sleep that He might show
them what was to be done; in the case of Adam, that
He might actually do the thing. In both instances the
individuals were rendered unconscious to outward things
by that which we call sleep, and in that state God took
possession of them; in Abraham's and  Daniel's case,
of the soul; in Adam's, of the body.  It would seem  to
be intimated, that not until Adam had been brought into
that state which approaches nearest to death could God
accomplish his design. There must be sleep in the first
Adam ere God can take out of him the ordained spouse;
and there must be death in the second Adam ere God
can take out of Him  the chosen Bride.  In this way
there might be something prefigurative in Adam's sleep.'
2. As to the taking of woman out of man.-As it was
God that caused Adam to sleep, so it was God Himself
that took the rib out of him.  Thus God shows Him1 This subject was, of course, likely to be a favourite one with
the Fathers.  Their allusions to it are without number.  Thus
Augustine,'Quando dormivit in cruce implebat quod significatum
erat in Adam, quia cum dormiret Adam, costa illi detracta est et
Eva facta est.'-On Ps. cxxvii. And Gotschalc, the Augustine or
Calvin of the ninth century, writes,'Eva de Adam, sic Ecclesia
de Christo; et sicut Adamo dormiente inde formata est Ecclesia,
sic Christo dormiente in cruce, inde formata est Ecclesia.'-Sermolz
on the Nativity.  Tertullian thus writes,'Somnus Adze mors erat
Christi dormituri in mortem et de injuria perinde lateris ejus, vera
mater viventinm figuraretur Ecclesia.'-De Anima, chap. xliii.




88               THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
self to us as at once the great Purposer and the great
Doer of all things.'Second clauses,' as we speak, are
but the mysterious tools or instruments which He makes
use of in carrying out His designs.  He lays us to sleep
each night, and He awakens us each morning with His
own loving hand..He is the God of our nights and of
our days. It was from Adam that God took the substance which He meant to fashion into woman, indicating
that, as man was formed first, and as.woman sprang
from man, so man is to be her head. He from the dust,
she from him. He directly from the Former's hand,
she indirectly, and  through  him.'Adam,' says  the
apostle,'was first formed, then Eve' (i Tim. ii. 13);
therefore, says he, she is'not to teach nor to usurp
authority over the man, but to be in silence.' Thus,
again, he states the gradation: (i) the head of the
woman is the man, (2) the head of the man is Christ,
(3) the head of Christ is God (I Cor. xi. 3). Further,
he adds that'the woman  is the glory  (or ornament)
of the man;' for, says he,'the man is not of the woman,
but the woman of the man; neither was the man created
for the woman, but the woman for the man'  (I Cor.
1 We may notice here how all the different conditions of womanhood'are made use of by God as setting forth some peculiar aspect of His
Church:-(I.) Virgin. 2 Cor. xi. 2; Rev. xiv. 4. (2.) Betrothed.
Hos. ii. I9; 2 Cor. xi. 2. (3.)3 Wife. Rev. xix. 7, xxi. 9. (4.)
Travailing. Rev. xi. 2. (5.) Desolate andforsaken.  Gal. iv. 27.
(6.) Mother. Gal. iv. 26. (7.) Barren. Isa. liv. I. (8.) Widow.
Luke xviii. 3; Isa. liv. 4. And thus one of the Fathers illustrates
the idea:'Sponsa est (ecclesia) quia inhaeret Christo; Mater est,
qui fcecundatur a Christo;  Virgo, quia incorrupta perseverat in'Christo.'-Eulgentius, Epist.




GENESIS II. 21-24.              89
xi. 8, 9).  Such is God's order of things; such His
assignment of place and rank to the creatures which
He has made. We may be sure that there is a reason
for this gradation, not merely a typical, but a natural
one, whether we fully understand it or not. We cannot
alter this law, and be blameless.  We cannot reverse
it, and not suffer loss. The construction of our world's
fabric is far too delicate and complex for man to attempt
the slightest change without dislocating the whole. One
star displaced, one planet thrown off its orbit, will confound the harmonies of space, and strew the firmament
with the wrecks of the universe; so one law lost sight
of or set at nought, will mar the happy order of God's
living world below. In one age or nation man treads
down woman as a slave; in another he idolizes her, and
sings of her as of a goddess; in both cases inflicting a
social wrong upon the race; in the latter case as truly
as in the former; and who can say how deep an injury,
both spiritual and social, has been wrought, and how
fatal an influence has been sent forth, by that fond
sentimentalism  which, impregnating our poetry, and,
coursing like fever through the veins of youth, not only'costs the fresh blood dear,' but saps the whole social
system, nay, propagates a principle of subtle ungodliness and creature-worship, in its praise of woman's.
beauty, and idolatry of woman's love.
3. As to the taking of woman from the side of man.From neither extremity of Adam's body did God take
the woman, signifying that she was neither to be man's
lord, nor man's drudge, but his fellow, only with this




90            THO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
inferiority, that she was taken out of him, and therefore
he was to be her head.  From  that part which lies
nearest his heart did woman come. She was not so
much to partake of man's intellectual as of his loving
nature.  It was not from  man's thinking forehead or
sinewy arm that she sprang, but from those parts where
it may be said there is the least of man to be found.
From the region where the warm blood flows, and the
heart throbs, and the pulses take their rise, and the
fountain of life wells up, did woman come. From that
quarter of man's being where, in all ages, affection has
been conceived to make its home, where joy and sorrow
have their flowings and reflowings, where fear and hope
are each hour sinking and swelling, did woman come.
The fragrant plumage of the turtle tells us out of what
spice-grove she has come.  So does woman's tender
nature of itself declare that it is from the region of the
kindly and the gentle that she has been brought forth.,,
As it was out of the bosom of the Father that the Eternal'
Son came down to us laden with the Father's love; as
it was out of the bosom  of the Son that the Church
came forth, at once the object and the reflection of His
mighty love; so it was out of man's side,-man's bosom,
-that she came forth who; was to be at once the embodiment of his gentler affections, and the being round
whom these affections were to cling. And as it was
on the high priest's breast,-his place of love,-that
the names of Israel rested, in jewelled splendour, so
is it on man's breast that woman is to rest;-ay, and so
is it hereafter, on the breast of the eternal Bridegroom




GENESIS II. 21-24.              91
that the Church is to repose, in more than earthly glory,
in that day when His'left hand shall be under her
head, and His right hand shall embrace' her; when
she shall be'set as a seal upon His heart, as a seal
upon His arm' for ever.
4. As to the making of woman from a rib of man.-One
of those protecting circles which prevents the sinking
in of the flesh upon the heart, and which gives the
heart full room to play, was to be taken out entire, that
out of it woman might be formed. The bone and the
flesh were both taken, —the softer and more solid parts
of man's body,-that it might be seen how truly she
was of man's very nature, though in some respects differing. Not a separate being formed out of the dust,
in which man could not recognise a part of himself,
but a being thoroughly identified with him; not merely
like him, but one with him, so that her absence would
be the absence of a part of himself, -a blank, a void,
without whom he would be incomplete. This taking
out a rib in order to form the woman, suggests very
much the idea that would have been called up had a
cedar plank, or a piece of gold, been taken out of the'holiest of all' in the temple, to fashion into one of the
vessels of the sanctuary.  A vessel formed in such a
way would be very different in the eyes of'Israel from
one formed of cedar direct from Lebanon, or gold direct
from Ophir. It could not fail to remind them of the
sacred place from which its materials were taken, and
it would be for ever associated in their minds with all
that' the holy of holies' suggested to an Israelite. Thus




92            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
woman, taken from the very shrine of man's corporeal
sanctuary (for the apostle teaches us to call our bodies
temples, i Cor. vi. I9), is linked with all the sacred
or tender associations that are called up by that wellknown but mysterious word,-the heart!
5. As to the making of the zeoman.-The expression
is a very peculiar one. It is neither of the two former
that have been already employed,-' created' or' made.'
It is, literally,'builded.' The word is a very common
one, occurring about four hundred times, but here only
in so peculiar a sense. It is the word used in reference
to the building of a city, a house, a family, a temple, a
throne, an altar, and such like.  And there is surely
some signification in applying such a word to the formation of woman.  Of man it is said he was made, of
woman she was builded.  Now man was the type of'
Christ; and of the latter, in reference to His human
nature, it might be said simply He was'made,'-formed
at once. But the woman signifies the Church, taken out
of the wounded side of her dying Lord. And of the
Church it is often said she is'builded;''in whom,'
says the apostle,'all the building, fitly framed together,
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye
also are buflded together for an habitation of God, through
the Spirit' (Eph. ii. 21, 22); and again,'for the edifying'
-literally, the building-?' of the body of Christ' (Eph.
iv. I2). By the term'building,' applied to the formation of Eve, God has thought fit to shadow forth to us
the process by which, age after age, the Church (which
is the second Eve) was to be fashioned into a help




GENESIS II. 21-24.             93
meet or counterpart for Christ, the second Adam; yet
as the second Adam  was far more glorious than the
first, so does the second Eve, taken out of His pierced
breast, far transcend the first, God in all respects bestowing more cost and pains upon the new creation than
upon the old. For redemption has brought in, not simply
a new order of things, but one far higher than that
which it is designed to replace: the one being earthly,
the other heavenly; the one fleshly, the other spiritual;
the one human, the other divine. And thus the Church,
Christ's chosen Bride, springing from his smitten side,
is'builded;'-builded  by the same Almighty hands
that built the wondrous heavens; builded, as was the
temple of old, without sound of axe or hammer; builded,
at once as the City of the Lamb's special habitation,
and the Companion for His dearest fellowship, without
whom this goodly universe would have been incomplete
to Him; for even in it, though renewed and glorified,
it would have been found that it was'not good for
Him to be alone.' For Him no help meet could have
been found, had not the Father provided this'glorious
Church,' and had not He Himself, in the greatness of
His longing for that help meet, consented to sleep the
deep sleep of death upon the cross, that thus she might
be taken out of Him, whose beauty, as seen pictured
in the Father's purpose, had already' ravished His heart'
(Song iv. 9); whose presence could alone make even
the better paradise complete; and union to whom,
throughout eternity, was what His heart desired (John
xv. 9, xvii. 23-26).




94           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
6. As to the closing ztP of the flesh instead of what was
taken out.-Adam  was not to be the loser in any way
or sense, but the gainer. All deficiency was replaced,
all loss supplied. God would teach him the nature of
woman and the object of her creation (wrapping up in
this also a type of things to come), but He would teach
it in a way that would not leave man the sufferer.
Jacob's lesson was to be learned by'halting on his
thigh' all his life after; but Adam's was to be learned
by looking at his help meet, and then while remembering
how she had been'builded,' to feel that she had cost
him nothing beyond the sleep into which he had been
so mysteriously thrown. A sleep, but nothing more,this was all the price for a boon so precious!  No
abiding pain, or loss, or weakness.  He was still the
same Adam as when he came from the hands of his
Maker.  Neither has the second Adam  suffered loss
for us. It did indeed cost him much to redeem us. It
cost Him  a darker, sadder, and more troubled sleep
than Adam's. But it is all over now! He retains
nothing of the weakness, or sorrow, or darkness of His
low estate. He is not less the King of glory because
He was once the humbled Jesus.  He does indeed
appear in heaven a Lamb'as it had been slain;' He
may, perhaps, retain the wounds of the cross; but more
than this He does not. All other traces of His humiliation are erased. He has lost nothing by the Bride that
He has gained. Nay, He has won much; for His weakness, sorrow, shame, when here, have bought for Him
new strength, and gladness, and glory. Hence the song




GENESIS IT. 21-24.. 95
of angels,'Worthy is THE  LAMB  THAT WAS SLAIN to
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and  strength,
and honour, and glory, and blessing' (Rev. v. 12).
7. As to the woman's introduction to the man.-'He
brought her unto the man.' God Himself, as if standing
in a father's room, and acting the father's part, brings
the bride to the bridegroom. As a beloved daughter
He presents her to her future husband.   He  joined
their hands and  pronounced  over them  the marriageblessing (chap. i. 28),'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.'  A stranger, and yet no stranger,
-a part of himself, the filling up of his being, she was
brought before him, and  knit to  him  in inseparable
bonds. And it is thus that the true Eve speaks of herself in the Song,'The King hath brought me into His
chambers' (chap. i. 4); and again,' He brought me to the
banqueting-house' (chap. ii. 4). Of her also it is written,'She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework' (Ps. xlv. I4), and again, that she is'prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband' (Rev. xxi. 2). One
of her special characteristics is, that she is'given' of
the Father to the Son; and in that day when He comes
in His glory she shall be caught up to meet Him  in
1 Marriage was thus instituted before the fall; yet it remains after
the fall, a standing ordinance. No precept concerning it was given
afterwards till the time of Moses, yet it remained in force, and Christ
appeals to this marriage transaction in the unfallen state as the basis
of the law of marriage. The same with the Sabbath. It was given
to unfallen man, yet the law remains in force after the fall, though
there is no precept regarding it till Moses. And when that precept
comes, it points back at once to the first institution of the rest-day.
Our Lord does the same,-' The Sabbath was made for man,'




96              THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
the air, and be brought into His presence by the Father,
there to have the marriage service celebrated, and as
a'chaste virgin' (2 Cor. xi. 2), to be presented to Him
to whom she has been so long betrothed. Then shall
that song be sung to which all the new creation shall
echo,'Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to
Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His
wife hath made herself ready; and to her was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and
white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints'
(Rev. xix. 7, 8).
8. As to  Ada m's recognition  of her.'-Whether by
revelation or consciousness we know not; but Adam
knows the woman thus brought to him, and calls her
woman, as being a part of man.  This is his response
to  God's introduction  of her.   He acknowledges the
oneness, and receives her as himself. We have God's
consent in bringing, the woman's consent in coming,
and now we have Adam's consent in receiving. Thus
is the marriage completed by the full concurrence of
all.  And so is it with the second Adam  too.  He re1 The words. in the original are peculiar. It is not simply' this is
now bone of my bones;' the word translated now means' this time'
or' this turn,' as if he had said,' God has brought the animals to me
one by one, and I have not found a counterpart to me,-but this time
I have,-the being that He has brought to me this time is just such
an one as I needed.' Bishop Kidder's explanation will not stand,'for this once, as she should be otherwise produced afterwards.'-. Commentary on the Books oj Moses, vol. i. p.  I.  Rungius comes
nearer it when he translates it nunc tandem, now at length, and adds
that it is the voice of one exulting and giving thanks to God for the
boon conferred (p. I44).




GENESIS 11. 21-24.                   97
ceives and owns His Bride. He welcomes her as indeed
part of Himself, one with Himself.'Both  He that
sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one,
for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren'
(Heb. ii. x i). And again it is written,' We are members
of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones' (Eph. v.
30).' And thus recognising the mysterious oneness
between  Himself and  His  Bride, He  expresses His
admiration of her beauty, as the'fairest among women'
(Song i. 8),'all glorious within' (Ps. xlv. I3); whilst
she with joy responds and speaks of Him as'fairer
than the children of men' (Ps. xlv. 2).'Behold, thou
art fair, my love; thou art all fair; there is no spot in
thee' (Song iv. 7), is the utterance of His admiring love
of her; while she replies,'My beloved is white and
ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is
as the most fine gold; His locks are bushy, and black
as a raven: His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent
as the cedars: His mouth is most sweet; yea, He is
altogether lovely' (Song v. I6). And in the happy consciousness of possessing Him and His love, she gives
1 Theodoret, commenting on the verse in Ephesians, applies it thus:'As Eve was formed (srxz8on) out of Adam, so are we out of the
Lord Christ; for we are buried with Him in baptism, and rise again
with Him; and we eat His body and we drink His blood.' And
then, referring to a man's leaving his father, etc., he applies it thus:' He (Christ) leaving His Father above (,rav/yhw cv~rocpe), was joined to
the Church' (rj- Szxno-aiq cvv'pOn). We may notice here, that while in
the passage before us it is the masn that is said to leave his father's
house, not the wife, yet this latter is evidently understood; for if the
man must do it, much more the wife. Our readers also will remember
in the 45th Psalm, it is the- bride that is exhorted to forget her father's
house.
VOL. VI.                                        G




98              THO UGI7TS ON GENESIS.
vent to the deep feeling of her satisfied soul,'My beloved is mine, and I am  His; He feedeth among the
lilies until the day break and the shadows flee away'
(Song ii. I6).
All this transaction took place in silence; without
noise and without violence,   In  the silence of deep
sleep'  (it might be midnight too) the Lord wrought His
work. It might seem a deed of pain and violence to man.
But no. There was the unconscious opening of the side,
the gentle abstraction of the needed part, the tender and
unfelt healing of the wound! How strange the work, yet
how silent the doing! And how like the noiseless building
of the temple on Moriah, on which no sound of axes or
hammers was ever heard.  How like the process that is
now going on in this world for the building of the'living
Temple! The work advances in silence. No uproar, no
shouting, no Babel-clamour of discordant tongues. From
day to day it moves on noiselessly. Stone after stone
is cut from  the rude rock, hewn and polished, ready
to  be fitted into  the glorious fabric.   Member after
member is gathered in, and added to the mystic body,, May we not be allowed to suppose that man was created early on
the sixth day;-during the day he reviewed and named the creatures,
-then as it drew towards evening he fell into the deep trance-like
sleep, and on awakening on.the Sabbath morning, he saw and
welcomed his mysterious help meet? On that Sabbath dawn it was
that' the morning stars sang together, and.all the sons of God shouted
for joy,'-chanting the bridal song; —and on the world's great
Sabbath dawn shall that song be sung over paradise regained, as the
Bride is seen descending,'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them, and betheir God' (Rev. xxi. 3).




GEVNESIS II. 25.             99
-the Bride, the Lamb's wife!  All by an invisible
hand, and by a process of which the world knows
nothing!  And when this midnight is over, and the
world's great Sabbath dawns, then in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, shall this prepared Bride, in full
maturity of being, and bloom of resurrection beauty,
stand forth to view, when the Bridegroom's voice shall
be heard,'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come
away; for lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and
gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the
singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is
heard in our land' (Song ii. io).
Ver. 25.'And they were both nahed, the man and his wife, and
were not ashamed.'
There they stood, just as they came from the hands
of God.  They did not need to blush; they felt no
shame.  It is sin that has connected nakedness and
shame together. No sin, no shame. There is no blush
upon an angel's brow. Unfallen man had the unashamed
nakedness of innocence; but with the fall this has passed
away, not to be returned to, even under redemption, but
to be replaced by something higher, the glorious raiment
of a righteousness that is unfading and divine. Unfallen
man needed no covering, and asked for none; but fallen
man, under the bitter consciousness of the unworthy and
unseemly condition to which sin has,reduced him, as
unfit for God, or angels, or man to look upon, cries out
for covering,-covering such as will hide his shame even
from the eye of God.  Hence He who undertook to




I-0            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
provide this covering, must bear the shame.  And He
has borne it,- all the shame of hanging naked on the
cross; the shame of a sinner; the shame of being made
the song of the drunkard; the shame of being despised
and rejected of men; the shame of being treated as an
outcast, one unfit for either God or man to look upon, —
unfit. not only to live, but even to die within the gates
of the'holy city (Heb. xiii. I, i 2).  All that shame has
He borne for us, that we might inherit His glory. He
stooped to the place of shame below, that we might obtain
the place of honour in the better paradise above.
Thus walked our first parents amid the groves of a
paradise that had not then been lost. Thus dwelt they
in its bowers as a home, and worshipped in it as a
sanctuary.l For with them the family mansion was the
temple of their God.  These were one, ere man had
sinned.  The entrance of sin divided these.  Nor did
grace, though coming in so largely and so swiftly, unite
them  again.   From  that day onward they have been
separate. But the time is at hand when they shall be
again united as in paradise; and in the new Jerusalem,
the Church shall find at once her temple and her home.
1 The long preserved traditions of paradise led men in after ages to
worship in groves and under trees, and even to construct their temples
in imitation of these. A Gothic cathedral is just a petrified forestshrine,-the pillared trees shooting up on each side, and the interwoven branches embracing overhead and forming the roof.  God
seems to have taken special care to suppress this idea, both on
account of the heathen abominations done in groves, and also because
His times for a return to Eden worship was not yet come. Hence
both the tabernacle and temple have nothing of the kind about them,
save a few engravings of palm-trees.on the walls.




GENESIS II. 25.                IO1
Even now we anticipate this blessed reunion; for faith
brings us into the holy of holies, there to worship and
to dwell. We pitch our tents beside the mercy-seat, and
under the shadow of the glory. In the innermost shrine
of the temple is the Church's proper home. And when
we pass from the visions of faith into the realities of
possession and enjoyment, we shall find the same happy
union of the home and the temple.  In the Jerusalem
beneath, the separation may be still kept up, but in the
Jerusalem above, the palace and the temple are one;
for as i-t is the Lord God Almighty that is to be the
temple there, so it is in the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb that we are to abide, we in Him and He in
us. It is the bosom of the Father that is to be our
dwelling for ever.
That promised inheritance of the saints was prefigured
by Adam's paradise, with this difference, that as the
second Adam far transcends the first, so shall the paradise
of the second Adam far excel and outshine the paradise
of the first. The glory of the terrestrial is one, but the
glory of the celestial is another. The glory of unfallen
creation is one, but the glory of restored creation is
another. The glory of earth standing alone in its beauty
is one; but the glory of earth and heaven united,-of
earth and heaven reflecting and augmenting each other's
splendour,-is another.  Yet still the earthly and the
heavenly have their common features, by which the one
is known to be a copy of the other, just as the tabernacle
was a copy of heavenly things shown to Moses on the
mount.  In the Apocalyptic picture of the'inheritance




102          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
of the saints in light,' we can trace the likeness between
the two in the main aspect of the outline, though the
filling up may somewhat differ. This unlikeness certainly
we notice, that in the one there was no building whatsoever, in the other there is a magnificent city.  Yet
this city is embosomed in a gorgeous paradise; and it
is built of the various gems for which the ancient paradise
was noted; as if God had for these many ages hedged
in and veiled the sacred spot, that He might enlarge
and beautify it after a fashion which eye had not seen;
nay, that He might rear within its bowers and out of
its rich mines a city worthy of Himself and of that Son
who was to be its Lord, and of that company, redeemed
by blood, who were to inhabit it; so that when at last
the fence is taken down, and the covering removed,
there stands forth to view, not the ancient paradise, for
the dwelling of'the man and his wife,' but the'many
mansions' (John xiv. 2), the'prepared city' (Heb. xi. I6);
the city of gems and gold, for the habitation of the nobler
heirs, the great multitude that no man can number.
In the midst of the street of this city there reappears
the tree of life; just as the former tree of life had been'in the midst of the garden,' and just as the pot of
manna (sole memorial for ages of the tree of life) was
in the midst of the ark (Heb. ix. 4).  Of the tree of
knowledge no trace is to be found, as if no memorial
of man's sin were to remain; or as if, the interdict being
removed, there was no longer any need to specify it;
or as if it had been entirely superseded by Him in whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; or as




GENESIS II. 25.                    103
if knowledge and life, once separated, had now become so
entirely one, that the tree of life might represent both; for'this is life eternal, that they might know  Thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.' " Adam
in paradise had the tree of life; Israel in the wilderness
had the manna (angels' food, Ps. lxxviii. 25, as temporary
supply till the true' bread should come down); but the
Church, in the New Jerusalem, is to have the more
glorious tree, of which the former was but a terrestrial
shadow.  Beyond'the mountain of myrrh,' and the'hill
of frankincense,' when the day has broken and the
shadows fled; beyond Lebanon, and Amana, and Shenir,
and Hermon; beyond'the lions' dens' and the'mountains of the leopards' (Song iv. 6, 8), she shall sit down
in the garden of her God, under the fair branches of the
1 The spiritual reference to the tree of life may be seen in such
passages as the following:-' She (wisdom) is a tree of life to them that
lay hold of her' (Prov. iii. Is), and' the fruit of the righteous one is
a tree of life' (Prov. xi. 30)-that is, the fruit which the righteous one
produces (words and deeds) is like a tree of life to all around; as
in Jas. iii. Is,' The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them
that make peace'-that is, the fruit of righteousness, or righteous
fruit, is sown by the peaceful walk and character of those who seek
and make peace. The root of holiness is peace. Again we have,'When the desire cometh (when the thing desired is obtained),
it is a tree of life' (Prov. xiii. I2); deferred hope sickens, fulfilled
hope revives and invigorates. Again,'A  wholesome tongue is a
tree of life' (Prov. xv. 4); the healing of the tongue is like planting
a tree of life. It diffuses life and health. Christ speaks of Himself
as the'Bread of life;' as if He were not merely fruit, but fruit
specially prepared as the soul's food, ready to be partaken of, sent
down from heaven, prepared by the Father's hands,-'The bread
of God which came down from heaven, of which if a man eat he
shall never hunger and never die.'




104          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.'Plant of renown,' partaking of Him who is her life, in
a way such as she has never done on earth, and feeling
that thus she has a life which Adam had not, which
angels have not,-a life that flows out of the deepest
well of life, the bosom of Him who is in the bosom of
-the Father.




GENESIS III.                  I05
CHAPTER III.
E have been looking at a perfect world. We
have seen it to be such as God could call'good;' not a cloud in its sky, not a ruffle on its oceanbreadth, not a tinge upon its verdure; not a pang, or
sigh, or groan, or tear, all over its bright plains. It is
the dwelling of the unfallen, the outer chamber of heaven,
the land wherein dwelleth righteousness. We have seen
the harmony of creation; all its parts linked together in
loving oneness, the animate and inanimate, the intelligent
and irrational; no jar, no dissonance in any. Man is
the head, the lord, appointed to exercise holy dominion
under Jehovah as his Head and Lord. We have seen
the beauty of creation, with its flowers and dew, its
gems and gold, its sunshine and- starlight above; its
green stretch of hill, plain, forest, below. We have seen
it as a world without a sin, or a shadow, or a sigh, or' a
wrinkle; neither decay nor disease have entered it; there
are no tossing sickbeds, no heartbreaking deathbeds, no
severing bonds, no bitter farewells, no heaving tombs.
It is a world altogether good; a world which angels
might visit; over which God might delight, and in which
He might dwell with man. We need not say of it, as
has been done,'Fit haunts of gods;' we may at once
say,'Fit dwelling of Jehovah.' A visible dwelling for




Io6              THIOUGHTS ON GEIVESIS.
the invisible God is that which was designed. This
has always formed one special part of God's purpose
in all its unfoldings.
We have now  to. learn the story of its change; its
change from being the seat of life and righteousness and
joy, to becoming the region of death and evil and sorrow;
from  being the dwelling of God, to becoming the haunt,
nay, the regal residence of Satan, and the sphere of
peculiar action to his hosts,'the rulers of the darkness
of this world.'  From  this chapter onwards to the twentyfirst of Revelation we have the sad story of its sin. The
two first chapters of Scripture tell of its unfallen glory,
the two last of its restored perfection; but all between
is gloom, a story of ruin and desolation-' written within
and without with lamentation, and mourning, and woe.' "
We have seen a summer's sky overcast in an hour, the
heavens putting on sackcloth, and the sun which had
I There is a curious old book of the sixteenth century, in quarto,
with the following title: —A  Hyze full of Hunnye, contayning the
firste booke of Moses called Genesis, turned into English meetre, by
William  Hunnis, 1578.  From the'argument' of this work we extract the following verses as a specimen. After'describing creation
he speaks of man:-'Who viewing these His gracious gifts,
Should praise His holy name,
And magnify Him day and night,
Entirely for the same.
But man, forgetting quite himself,
And God that rules on high,
Committed sin, displeased God,
And stumbled wittingly.
Who thro' his disobedience
Enthralled himself in woe,
And fell from God, from whon to him
So many gifts did flow.'




GENESIS III.                  I07
risen in calm going down in storm. So was it with our
world, as this chapter proceeds to record; once holy,
yet only for a day. How sudden and sad the change!
Yesterday it was paradise; to-day, the wilderness. Yesterday it neighboured heaven; to-day it is the suburb of hell.
Yesterday it was God's footstool; to-day it is Satan's
throne. Yesterday it was linked to the sanctuary above
by a bond that seemed everlasting; to-day that bond is
broken, and it commences a swift descent into the uttermost darkness.
This third chapter records the manner in which this
change was effected; the different steps which led to it.
And here we have the true origin of evil-God's own
account of the way in which tares were first sown in
the field in which God had sown the finest of the wheat.
The passage takes for granted that there was already
an enemy in existence.  There had been sin before,
somewhere, though where is not said. There had been
an enemy somewhere; but how he had become so, or
where he had hitherto dwelt, or how he had found his
way to this world, is not recorded. That he knew about
our world, and that he had some connection with it, is
evident; though whether as its original possessor, or a
stranger coming from far in search of spoil, we cannot
discover. All that is implied in the narrative is, that
there did exist an enemy, - one who hated God, and
who now sought to get vent to that hatred by undoing
His handiwork.'' If creation is the first wonder of time, the second is the origin
of that new element which extends through all generations, the en



io8             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
This enemy now makes his appearance.  He has not
been bound; he has not been prohibited entrance: he
gets free scope to work. He shall be bound hereafter,
when the times of restitution of all things commence,
but not yet. He shall not be permitted to enter the'new earth,' but he is allowed to enter and do his work
of evil in the first earth. In order to deceive, and in
order to prevent any suspicions arising, or any questions
being put as to what he was, or whence he came, or
what he sought, he takes the form of one of those
animals with which man was surrounded; he selects
that which possessed more intelligence than  the rest,'
not only to excite less suspicion, but probably because,
trance of evil into the pure creation, the defilement of that which was
formed good, by the first sin. As the history of creation can possess
complete truth only where the idea of the Creator and the creature
is a true one, so also can the history of the fall only where the idea of
good and evil may be discovered, in its true form, where the history
proves itself to be true in its' idea.' —Havernick On the Pentateuch,
p. Ioo.
1'Quum instrumento opus haberet, delegit ex animalibus quod
sibi aptissimum for videbat.'-CALVIN. This expositor, after showing
that the serpent was but' the mouth of the devil,' goes on to consider
the question why Moses does not explicitly state Satan's agency in
this scene. He gives various reasons for this, such as'puerilis ecclesise setas,' etc. They do not satisfy. May-not the true reason be
just the very opposite of these suppositions? May it not be, that
from the beginning men so thoroughly understood the thing to be
Satan's doing, that there was no need for using other language?
The personality and agency of Satan were far better understood and
realized in early days than in our own. Hence, not only all Jewish,
but all heathen traditions, while making mention of the serpent as
helping in the origination of sin, introduce also along with him the
evil spirit as the great agent. Serpent-worship was universal among
the heathen. (See Faber's Hore I~Zosaicce, vol. i. p. 7I, etc. )




GENESIS III. I.                     I09
according to the nature of things, he could more easily
and more fully take possession of it, and wield it more
successfully as the instrument of his deception.
It is, however, only from other parts of Scripture that
we directly learn who the real tempter was. It is simply
said here,
Ver. I.' Now (or and) the serpent was more subtle than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made.'
This language is too simple to be allegorized or perverted. It obviously refers, in the first place, to the
literal serpent.l This was the visible instrument through
which the enemy spoke and acted. Nor is it a greaterdifficulty to suppose that Satan spoke to Eve through
the wisest of animals, than that God spoke to Balaam
through the stupidest, when He opened the ass's mouth
to utter His message. The description here given is,
as usual, of the matter just as it appeared.2 It was the
serpent that was seen  and  heard.   It was the serpent
that acted throughout, so far as Eve or Adam understood at the time. Hence it is the serpent alone that
1'Ille insatiabilis homicida...  non ursos, non leones, non
fortia terrm animalia delegavit, sed tortuosum et callidum serpentem... serpens non fortior erat sed callidior cunctis animantibus.'
-BERNARD, Serm. de Septem Sp5iritibus. As Adam had just been
naming the animals according to their natures, Eve would know that
the serpent was more subtle or cunning than the rest. (See Lord
Barrington's Dissertation on the Temptation and Fall, p. 4.)
2'As Satan can change himself into an angel of light, so did he
abuse the wisdom of the serpent to deceive man.'-Bishops' Bible.
The original nature of the serpent is evidently referred to as being' more subtle' than other animals.




II TIHOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
is mentioned. Yet that it was Satan assuming the disguise of a serpent, is evident. No mere animal could
thus of itself reason of good and evil; could thus plot
man's ruin, and  show  such hatred  of God.   Besides,
the sentence afterwards pronounced on  it implies this,
just as the apostle's statement doesl (2 Cor. xi. 3. See
also Rev. xii. 9-I4, xv. 20-22).
Thus we learn, even at the outset, that God is not
the author of sin.   It is the creature that introduces it.
God, no doubt, could have hindered it, but for wise ends
He  allows it.  We know  also  how  sin  spreads itself.
It is always active. It multiplies and propagates itself.
Every fallen being becomes a tempter, seeking to ruin
others,-to drag them down to the same death into
which he has himself been driven.
Nor is it merely the upper orders of being that become
1 The plague of the fiery serpents seems to point to this, showing
us the way of man's ruin by Satan, and the way of restoration by
Christ (John iii. I4). We may notice the other allusions to the
serpent. I. Its bite (Gen. xlix. I7; Jer. viii. 17; Prov. xxxiii. 32).
2. Its tongue (Ps. cxl. 3). 3. Its voice (Jer. xlvi. 23). 4. Its poison
(Ps. lviii. 4). 5. Its wisdom (Matt. x. 26). 6. Its atlef/lizess (Matt.
xxiii. 33).. Such are the Scripture references. They preserve an
awful uniformity throughout, presenting to us this one animal as prey
eminent above the rest for its evil qualities, and associating that one
creature with Satan himself; with the introduction, propagation, and
punishment of sin, giving us in it the emblem of sin's exceeding sinfulness, and of the ruinous results of contact or connection with it.
See a very full collection of passages from the Fathers relating to the
serpent and his subtlety, in Suicer's Thesaurus, vol. ii. pp. 535-537.
He thinks that oYvoopyo,, not po'sluo; (as the LXX. render it), is the
proper translation, citing in proof the words of the apostle,' As the
serpent deceived Eve by his cunning' (cvovpync,), 2 Cor. xi. 3.




GENESIS III. I.                     I 
snares or tempters. The lower parts of creation can be
made instruments' of ruin. God cannot tempt, but the
creature does, in all its parts. The smallest, commonest
thing-a leaf, a tree, an  animal-may become Satan's
instrument. Whatever can touch or affect any of our
desires or feelings, may be made use of by Satan for
our injury, just as the serpent was made use of here.
How watchful ought we to be in such a world, where
so many things minister to the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eye! Flee sin; flee its very shadow; flee
its most distant approach under any guise! Say not
the temptation is a feeble one. That cannot be. The
strength of the temptation lies in yourself, far more than
in the tempting object.   Get as far from  sin and  as
near to God as you can; that is your only security.  In
God you are safe, but nowhere else.   In Him  who is
God manifest in flesh, you are beyond the reach of
danger. No tempter can succeed; no enemy can reach
you there.
Ver. I.'And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye
shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' 1
The angels fell untenmpted. Man's case was different.
1 The use of' God' (Elohim) here and in what follows, instead of
the Lord God (Jehovah-Elohim), gives rise to the following striking
remark of Hengstenberg:-' The masterstroke of the tempter's policy
was then, as it is still now, to change jehovah into Elohim, the living,
holy God into a nescio quod nuzmen. (With what vagueness the term
Elohim is used by the serpent, is shown by the expression, Ye shall
be as Elohim, ye shall be raised to an unearthly nature and dignity.)
Having done this, and not before, he could venture upon deluding




112            THOUGHTS ONV  GENESIS.
A tempter ensnared him. That tempter took the form
of a serpent. Hence he is named so specially,'that
old serpent, which is the devil and Satan' (Rev. xx. 2).
He had himself fallen untemIted, but this did not make
him less willing to tempt. He had become the enemy
of God, and thus became the enemy of man. A ruined
being himself, he sought to ruin others, that so he might
have companions in guilt and woe, and thus avenge himself upon God.
From  the first clause regarding the serpent's subtlety,
we are prepared for a well-laid plot, manifesting consummate art and guile.l The temptation will be well
disguised; the snare will be well laid. The tempter
must speak fair, if he hopes to succeed at all.  He
must veil himself as well as his object; for if he be
recognised, or if his object be discovered, the victim
will elude his grasp.
them with a downright falsehood. Jehovah is not a man that He
should lie. The woman should have employed the name of Jehovah
as an impenetrable shield to repel the fiery darts of the wicked one.
The use of the name Elohim (that this was not from ignorance of the
name Jehovah, is proved by chap. iv. I) was the beginning of her fall.
First, there was a depression or obscuration of the religious sentiment; then the tree appeared good to eat and pleasant to the eye;
God died in the soul, and sin became alive.'-On the Pentateuch,
vol. i. p. 317.
1'Magis metuendus est cum fallit quam, cum  saevit,' says
Augustine (on Ps. xl.). This will remind the reader of Rutherford's
well-known remark,' Brother, since we must have a devil to trouble
us, I love a raging devil best.'  Hence the apostle speaks of the' wiles of the devil;' and hence the serpent seems to have been fixed
on by God as the animal of all others fitted to set forth Satan's
characteristic, —deadly cunning. The violence of the'roaring lion'
is subordinate to this.




GENESIS III. I.                   I3 
It is the woman that he assails, as being'the weaker
vessel,'  and therefore more likely to yield, and, in
yielding, to draw the man with her. Then, as now (as,
for example, in Popery2), he avails himself of woman's.
weakness and woman's influence.
He comes up to Eve, as one may suppose that a
stranger might do, seeking information.  He feigns tobe one who has just heard a rumour that has greatly
surprised him, —a rumour which he cannot credit, so,
insulting does he deem it to God's character, so injurious
and unkind to man.3 It is evident that he had heard:
God's prohibition.  How, we know  not; but we see
here that he has access to learn what is taking place
amongst us.  He can hear and see the things that we
hear and see! He is on the watch to gather them up,
-ever listening, ever looking, ever following us, that
he may discover alike what we say to God, and what
God says to us.  At one time he is the beguiling serpent,
at another the devouring lion, but always'walking about,'
-'walking to and fro throughout the earth,'-to learn!
what may serve his purpose of malice towards man and:
revenge against God (Job i. 7; 2 Cor. xi. 3; I Pet. v. 8).
1 t~adEv4-TpoY aos-s,-,weaker than the man,-less capable of resistance.'Imbecilla res est fcemina,' says Quintilian; and Hilary
speaks of' sexus mollioris.'-Comment. on. Matthew.
2 For striking illustrations of this, see The Secret Instructions of
the yesuits, and Michelet's Priests, Women, and Families. Satan,
through the priest, does now to the daughters of: Eve what, through
the serpent, he did to Eve herself..
3'The devil feigneth that he believeth God had wholly forbidden
them the use of the fruits of the garden, to make way to talk with'
the woman, and to induce her-to give ear to him.'-DIoDATI.
VOL. VI.                                       H




14              THOUGCHIS ON GENESIS.
With  well - feigned  surprise and  incredulity he puts
the question,'Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden?' meaning thereby to insinuate
the harshness of the injunction which he pretended
hardly to believe.'  Is it possible that God can have
said so? Is it conceivable that He who has just made
you, and provided you with such abundance, should
grudge you a little fragment of that plenty, and debar
you from the garden's choicest fruits; making you lords
of creation, yet not allowing you to put forth your lordship; nay, refusing you access to that tree, the fruit of
which would enable you rightly to exercise wise dominion? 2 In this his object was to calumniate God; at
least, cunningly to suggest an idea which would misrepresent His character to man.  He keeps out of sight
all that God had done for man, all the proofs of love,
so manifold, so vast; he fixes on one thing which seemed
inconsistent with this; he brings up this before man in
the way most likely to awaken evil thoughts of God.'
The Jewish rabbis affirm that this is but the conclusion of a long
conversation held between the woman and the serpent. Bush remarks,'The probability is, that this was not the commencement of
his discourse, but that something, which the historian does not record, had been previously said.' The words are literally,'Yea,
surely, has God said?' Mercer translates them,'Itane verum est
eum dixisse;' Calvin,' Etiamne.dixit Deus?'
2 Some have thought that Satan really began with a lie: insinuating that God had forbidden them the use of every tree of the garden.
The woman's answer does seem to confirm this; only it is more
likely that Satan took advantage of a truth, in order to misconstrue it, than that he framed a lie, which could be at once denied and
disproved.' He begins by calling in question the trutth of God. Is it true




GENESIS III. I.                    I5
Not as if he wished to say one word against God, nor
even as if he needed to say anything; but as if the thing
itself were too plain to be mistaken; as if, on the supposition of its being true, it could admit but of one
interpretation.  He leaves the fact to speak for itself.
His object is to isolate the one fact, and so to separate it from all God's acts of love as to make it appear an instance of harsh and unreasonable severity.'
Man had hitherto known the prohibition; but he had put
no  such construction  on it; he had not imagined it
capable of being so interpreted.  Now  Satan brings it
up, and sets it out in an aspect likely to suggest such
constructions as these:-'God is not your friend after
all; He but pretends to care for you.  He is a hard
master, interfering with your liberty, not leaving you a
free agent, but constraining you, nay, fettering you. He
mocks  you, making you  creation's head, yet setting
arbitrary limits to your rule; placing you in. a fair garden,
that God has prohibited the use of any tree? For what was it
created? Such are the inquiries of wicked men to this day. " For
what are the objects of pleasure made," say they, "but to be enjoyed?" We might answer, among other things,'"to try them that
dwell on the earth"' (FULLER On Genesis).  Calvin suggests the
same idea:'Mulieri scrupulum injicere voluit ut verbum Dei non
esse crederet, cujus non palam extabat plausibilis ratio.' He hints
also at another shade of meaning:'Can your eating or not eating of
a tree be of any concern to God? do you think He would take the
trouble of forbidding you?'
1'It seems to contain an insinuation that, if man must not eat of
every tree, he might as well eat of none. Thus discontent overlooks
the good, and pores upon the one thing wanting. " All this availeth
me nothing, so long as Mordecai is at the gate."'-FULLER 0;O
Genesis.




IIz 76THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
yet debarring you from its fruits. He grudges you His
gifts, making a show of liberality, while withholding what
is really valuable.'
Thus Satan sought to calumniate God, to malign His
character, to represent Him as the enemy, not the friend,
of man. If he can succeed in this, then man will begin
to entertain hard thoughts of God,-then he will become
alienated from Him; then he will disobey; and then
come the fall, the ruin, the guilt, the doom, the woe!
Man is lost! Hell gets another inmate. The devil gets
another companion. God's second work is marred, and
He Himself is left to grieve over His new-made child
torn from His embrace. In this way Satan thrusts in
the wedge between man and God,-breaks the link between the creature and the Creator.  How simple, yet how
successful the process!1 A single question is put. God's
character is maligned. The lie is believed. Man suspects God and perishes! Such is the dark process still
by which Satan seeks to hinder our return to God.  His' Fallax diabolus et ad traducendum artifex calidissimus,' says
Hilary (on Matt.); and again (on Ps. cxli.),' Quicquid iniquitatum
homines gerunt a diabolo suggeritur.' Thus it is that the Fathers
speak of Satan. They always seem to see him and to contend with
him hand to hand. He is always personal to them,-their great
enemy; no mere figure or personification of the evil principle, but a
living agent of perilous power and craft. In their days men calling
themselves Christians had not learned to speak of'extinct Satans.'
Chrysologus has a singular passage, setting forth the evil agency of
Satan. We can only quote part:-' Diabolus mali auctor, nequitipe
origo, rerum hostis, secundi hominis semper inimicuo; ille laqueos
tendit, lapsus parat, foveas fodit, aptat ruinas, stimulat corpora,
purgit animas,' etc.-Serra. xi., on Christ's Fasting and Temzptation.




GENESIS IIT. 2, 3.                I 7
aim is to misrepresent God to man; to prove God to
be unkind in what He has prohibited, and a liar in what
He has declared. The gospel is the full representation
of God's gracious character made known by God Himself that the sinner may be induced to return. Satan
perverts it or says it is untrue. Man believes the tempter,
stands afar off, and dies!
Vers. 2, 3.'A nd the woman said unto the serpent, WIe may eni (or
we shall eat) of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3. But of the fruit
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, Zestye die.'
Had the woman fully understood the wicked suggestion of the serpent, or had she seen who it was that was
speaking to her under the guise of the serpent, she would
perhaps have fled  at once.  But not fully realizing
either, and wishing perhaps to vindicate God for imposing,
and herself for submitting to, such a restriction, she
stood still to reason with the tempter.  To a certain
extent she was not so inexcusably guilty in this thing
as we are in parleying with Satan instead of resisting
him at once, and placing God's armour between us and
his assaults; still there was enough to leave her without
excuse. Even though she might not fathom the malignity of the suggestion, still it touched the question of
obedience or disobedience to God, and this she ought
at once to have resented and flung off with abhorrence.
Yet she does not yield at once. On the contrary,
she defends her position.  She makes ready mention
of God's kindness and wide liberality, reminding the




1I8             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
tempter that there was but one tree forbidden, and that
all the rest were free for use.
Still she alters the words of the prohibition, and in
this we see her beginning to waver. The change may
be a slight one, yet we cannot help thinking that there
is a meaning in it.  She adds to it, for God had not
said,'Neither shall ye touch it;' she takes from it, for
she greatly softens the threat, making it not'thou shalt
surely die,' but' lest ye die.' 1  She thus exaggerates
the restriction, as if wishing to prove it to be a hardship,
and she dilutes the penalty, or at least the awfulness of
its certainty, as if trying to persuade herself that it was
not quite such a certainty as she had once thought it.
Thus does sin work still.  It magnifies God's prohibitions into hardships, in order to find an excuse for disobedience, and then it tries to underrate both the
certainty and  the  greatness of the  penalty.   Simple
obedience is what man does not like. Simple acquiescence in God's commands is what he is slow to learn.
He altered God's words in order to get an excuse for
departing from God, and so he still alters'the word of
the truth of the gospel' for the purpose of excusing
himself for not returning at once to God, and taking
advantage of the free welcome of His abundant grace.
I Calvin does not admit the former alteration to be an indication
of apostasy already begun, but contends for the latter being so.  He
thinks that she was overlooking the penalty, or at least its certain infliction:'Mortis periculum procul et frigide sentire se demonstrat.'
Bernard has brought out the same sense:' Ista (Eva) sub dubio supponit, ne forte, inquiens, si comederimus moriamur.' And again:'Deus affirmat, mulier dubitat, Satan negat.'-Sernzozes.




GENESIS III. 4, 5.                    I9
Vers. 4, 5. cAnd the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not
surely die: 1 5. For God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof; then
your eyes shall be opened; andye shall be as gods (or as God), knowing
good and evil.'
The tempter immediately catches up the words of
the woman, in which she had spoken of death as being
the penalty of eating. Professing to act as her friend,2
he speaks as one attempting to undeceive her as to a
mistake under which she was labouring.'You speak
of the tree as dangerous to eat, or even to touch; nay,
as involving the penalty of death to the eater.   You
have been quite deceived in this matter; there is no
such deadly penalty; it is a mere threat on the part of
God to prevent you eating of a tree which He knows
would open your eyes and make you as Himself, knowing good and evil.' 
Thus he proceeds with his design of calumniating God,
and questioning His veracity as well as His goodness.
He goes a step further than in his former suggestion.
He openly denies the certainly of the threatened penalty;
1 Coverdale's translation is very expressive:'Tush, ye shall not
die the death.' An old writer notices that the devil says ye, not thou,
having his eye on Adam as well as Eve.
2 One of the Fathers remarks:' Diabolus plures decipit blanditiis
quam terroribus.''3  Knowing good and evil.' To know good and evil is sometimes
a general expression for knowing everyhinzg, just as not to know good
or evil is the expression for total ignorance,-the ignorance of infancy.
(Deut. i. 39.) Or the expression may refer to' sitting in judgment on
good and evil;' as in Eccles. viii. 5,' A wise man's heart discerneth
(knoweth) both time and judgment;' and in 2 Sam. xiv. i7,' As
an angel of God, so is my Lord the king, to discern good and bad;'
and I Kings iii. 9, Solomon prays for a heart to'discern between




120            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
he questions its reality, and casts suspicion on God's
intention in announcing it. Nay, more than this, he
goes on to affirm that God knew well that, instead of a
curse, there would come a blessing from the tasting of
the tree; and that it was because He was jealous of man,
and envious of the blessing thus to be reached, that He
had shut him out from the tree. Thus he insinuates
that God was a being of mere craft and falsehood, bearing no kindly feeling towards man, standing between him
and a treasure-house of boundless blessing.
In this answer to the woman he speaks as one conscious that he was  naking way.   He sees from  hzer
answer that he has made an impression by his indirect
suggestion; and he now follows it up by something
bolder and more direct.''Ye shall not surely die!'
God neither can nor will execute His threat.  Do not
be alarmed. Do not let a mere fancy hinder you reaching out after such blessings as lie before you. So says
Satan to the sinner still.'There is no hell; the second
good and bad.' The temptation then would be that they should be as
God in judging, sitting on His judgment-seat. In the world as it
stood, they were only to be rulers of what God had pronounced'good:' they are tempted to seek to be judges of'evil'- to enter
on a new domain both of rule and of judgment. Into this new region
they sought to be introduced, not in God's time or way; and hence
they found it only a region of shame and darkness. But the time is
coming when we shall possess it in a different way, the way of faith
and obedience; the obedience of Him who' grew in wisdom,' waiting
God's time for filling Him with knowledge; not like the first Adam,
snatching at it impatiently. Then we shall'judge all things;'
we shall'judge the world;' we shall'judge angels.'
1'Nemo cum serpente securus ludit, nemo cum diabolo jocatur
impune.'-CHRYSOLOGUS, Serm. I55.




GENESIS III. 4, 5.             12I
death is a mere dream; eat, drink, and be merry; sin
as you like, and don't fear punishment.' Thus he beguiles
the soul, and leads it onward to the second death.
Strange that men should believe him; that they should
listen to his voice in preference to God's. They zeanz
to be persuaded, and so they are persuaded; they want
to be deceived, and so they are deceived! Yet can all
this deception quench the flame of the burning lake, or
set aside death, or make the wrath of God less true or
terrible? Let him say there are no diseases, no pains,
no sicknesses, noew, would men believe him? No. And
will they believe him when he tells them, there is no
death hereafter?'Your eyes shall be opened.' They shall be opened
by that very act which you so much shrink from. It is
God who is keeping them  closed.  He is drawing a
curtain round you, excluding you from visions of brightness on every side. What a prospect spreads round you!
A little boldness in disobedience, and all this fair region
shall be yours, as it is already mine.'Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.' No
lower level than that of God Himself shall you rise to.
All His height of honour shall be yours. Nay more, all
His knowledge. Ye shall know, and judge, and see, even
as He knows, judges, and sees. From all this wide circle
of knowledge God is shutting you out.  He wants the
throne wholly to Himself; He cannot bear a rival.
Thus Satan sowed the seeds of mistrust, unbelief,
atheism, hatred, of God.  Thus the'evil heart of
unbelief' was produced, and separation from God was




I22           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
the immediate result. It is thus that he still keeps the
sinner at a distance from God, and prevents his' submitting to the righteousness of God.'  He sows and
waters the'seed of dark distrust in the sinner's soul, by
persuading him that God is not sincere either in His
wrath or in His grace.  He leads the sinner to exalt,
nay, to deify himself; to think so highly of himself, that
he will not consent to God's terms at all. And hence
the first thing that the Spirit does to a man is to make
Ahim stoop, by convincing him of sin, and bringing him
to forget all his ideas of self-deification. Then he is
glad of another's righteousness, and takes it eagerly.
But till then, he will not take even heaven itself on
God's terms. He looks on God as his enemy; or at
least as not so entirely his friend that He will at once
receive him and bless him as he is. Strange that it
should be so now! Whatever our first parents might
plead in excuse, we are inexcusable. God's gift of His
Son,-the cross, the death, the grave of that Son,-have
all unfolded in its fullest breadth the love of God, proving
that He is the sinner's true and real friend.  Yet who
believes this?  How  few take God's word concerning
this, and enter into peace and friendship.
Nay, more than this, Satan tells us that sin is a
blessing, not a curse; that its consequences are good,
not evil; and under this aspect the sinner pursues it.
He sees in the command not to sin a restriction of his
liberty, and he spurns it! He sees in sin itself the
attainment of what is pleasant, and he pursues it. What
is sweet in sin is present, what is bitter is fiture; so he




GENESIS III. 6.                     123
drinks the cup, and bids the future care for itself.  Yet
that future involves in it the favour of Jehovah Himself,
and the joys of an eternal heaven. Is he prepared to
say that that favour is a mere dream, and the loss of it
a trifle? Is he prepared to say that there is no heaven
as well as no hell,-no joy as well as no sorrow for
eternity?
Ver. 6.'And when (" when " is not in the Hebrew) the woman saw
that the tree was goodforfood, and that it was pleasant to the eyes (Heb.
a desire to the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise 1 (Heb. to
cause to understand), she took of the fruit thereof; and did eat; and
gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.'
The tempter has now  thrown  a new  and peculiar
interest round  the tree.   He has riveted the woman's
eye upon it, and what shall hinder her heart from following her eye? She had stood still to reason with him.
This was her first false step. She now.stood still to
gaze upon the object reasoned about, and to wonder
why she should  be shut off from  it.   He  had  thus
succeeded in fixing her eye on the tree; he had succeeded in  shaking her belief as to  the penalty; and
now  what remained but that she should wholly yield?
Nay, is she not already  overcome?   The  fascination
1  Pleasant to the eyes,'-Vulg. pulchrum oculis. Sept. 6p'efrov
ro7s Oapxploso-r. Coverdale,'lustye unto the eyes.' The word means
delight, or pleasure, and refers here to something that the eye
delights in.'To be desired to make one wise.' This is a still
stronger word:'flagrantius appetendus,' says Robertson.  This
author derives the word'to make wise' from one signifying'to
ripen,' implying that the meaning in the present passage is'to
bring to maturity in knowledge.'




124             7HOO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
becomes stronger and stronger. She lets it carry her
unresistingly along. She consults neither her husband
nor her God. She hurries into the commission of the
sin.'
There were three things that wrought upon her.
I. The tree was good for food.  A  strong reason, had
she been famishing, but none when surrounded with the
plenty of the rich garden. Strange that she should have
cared for it on such an account! She is in no need of
food, yet it is on this account that she covets it! She
is without excuse in her sin. It was the lust of the
flesh that was at work (Eph. ii. 3; I John ii. i6). She
saw in the tree the gratification of that lust, and in God
a hinderer of it. Thus she fell.
2. It was a desire of /hze eyes.  And had she no other
objects of beauty to gaze upon? Yes; thousands. Yet
this forbidden one engrossed her, as if it had acquired
new beauty by having been prohibited. Or can she
not be satisfied with looking?  Must she coved?  Must
she touch  and taste?   It is plain  that hers was no
longer the natural and lawful admiration of a fair object,
but an unlawful desire to possess what she adnmired.2
1 Though it is evident that she consulted not with Adam, yet
the words'with her' would lead us to suppose that he was present,
or within sight.  Calvin -gives reasons against this, but they are
very slight. The Jewish writers seem to have believed that he was
with her at the time.
2 Jerome will have it, that we are not even to gaze upon what we
may not desire:'Intueri non debet quod non licel concu/isci'  (on
Jerem.). This is too much; it is ascetic rigidity, making restrictions
where God has made none.  Adntirin~ and coveting are two very
different things.  When reading such remarks, we cannot help




GENESIS III. 6.                   125
It was'the lust of the eye.' Job understood this, and'made a covenant with his eyes' (xxxi. i); the Psalmist
knew it, and prayed,' Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.'
3. It was a tree to be desired for impnarting wisdom.
This was the crowning  allurement.  She must have
wisdom, and she must have it at all risks, and she
must have it without delay.   She made haste to be
wise. She would not in faith wait for God's time and
way of giving wisdom. So strong was the craving for
knowledge, and so strangely did the divine prohibition
sharpen the appetite for it!  She could not but know
that nothing would be withheld from her that was really
good; that she would get all knowledge in due time,
and in God's own way; but her confidence in God had
wavered; she could no longer trust Him for this; she
was in haste to be wise; and now that all wisdom  was
within her reach, she can no longer wait. Such was
the desire (or lust) of the mind! (Eph. ii. 3.)
These three reasons prevailed.  She plucked the fruit,
and did eat.  Nay, more, she gave also to her husband,
who was with her, and he did eat.  She was not content
to sin alone.  Even the dearest on earth must be drawn
into the same snare.
believing that we find the prototype of them all in Eve's'neither
shall ye touch it.' Jerome, however, adds truly,'Neque enim Eva
lignum vetitum contigisset nisi hoc prius incaute respiceret.' And
then he remarks,' Hinc ergo pensandum est quanto debemus
moderamine erga illicita visum restringere, nos qui mortaliter vivimius, si et mater viventium per oculos ad mortem venit... concupiscendo visibilia, invisibiles virtutes amisit.'




126           THO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
Let us mark here such lessons as the following:i. The danger of trifling with objects of temptation.
To linger near them; to hesitate about leaving them;
to think of them as harmless,-these are the sure forerunners of a fall. Beware of remaining within sight. Get
beyond the circle of the spell.'Flee youthful lusts.''Look not on the wine when it is red' (Prov. xxiii. 31).
Your only safety is in instant flight.  If the tempter can
get you to look, he has secured his victory.
2. The three sources of temptation: the lust of the
flesh, of the eye, of the mind. Strictly speaking, they
are not in themselves sinful, but in their excess, or disorderly indulgence. There is no sin in relishing food,
nor in looking at a fair object, nor in desiring knowledge; yet through these channels our temptations come.
Things lawful in themselves are our most subtle seducers.1
There is nothing to taint the ear in'the concord of
sweet sounds;' and yet how often does music become
our wiliest tempter! There may be nothing to defile
the eye in the fairest imitations of nature that art has
ever flung upon her canvas; yet has not painting but
too frequently ensnared the soul, and drawn it away
from the Creator to the creature? What is there in
the widest range of science that can be branded as
evil? yet do we not -see it in the present day supplanting
the knowledge of God Himself, and used by Satan as
his mightiest instrument for leading men captive at his
will?  Is not poetry the highest form  of word and
1'Fallimur oculis, decipimur auditu, capimur odore, et sapore
vitiamur.'-CHRYSOLOGUS, Sernz. xxvii.




GENESIS III. 6.                  127
thought? yet man has corrupted it into the utterance
of his own wild passions, or the idle breathings of his
fond affections. In the scenes of nature there is nought
but what is good, and fair, and bright; yet these has
man made use of to shut out God, either saying, with
the Atheist,' There is no God in nature;' or maintaining,
with the Pantheist, that nature itself is divine.
3. The swift progress of temptation.  She listened,
looked, took, ate!' These were the steps.  All linked
together, and swiftly following each other.  The beginning how  small and  simple; the end how  terrible!'When lust (desire) hath conceived, it bringeth forth
sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death'
(Jas. i. I5).  And therefore, adds the apostle,'Do not
ERR,2 my beloved brethren;' that is, do not turn aside
one step out of the right way, as you know not where
you may end.-  You begin with a look, you end in
apostasy from God. You begin with a touch, you,end
in woe and shame. You begin with a thought, you end
in the second death.   Yet of all these steps God protests
solemnly that Hlie is not the Author (Jas. i. I3).  It is
mnan that is his own ensnarer and  destroyer.  Even
Satan cannot succeed unless seconded by man himself.
4. The tendency of sin to propagate itself.  No sooner
has the tempted one yielded than he seeks to draw others
1' Creditus est serpens, contemptus est Deus; tactum est vetitum,
mortuus est homo.'-AUGUSTINE on Ps. lxxiv.
2 Atz vxavavyMe,'do not go astray;' do not let temptation allure
you one step out of the way. This word is used eight times in
the Apocalypse in connection with Satan and his seductions.




I28             THZO UGHTS ON GENESN~     S.
into the snare. He must drag down his fellows with
him. There seems an awful vitality about sin; a fertility
in reproduction, nay, a horrid necessity of nature for selfdiffusion.   It never lies dormant.  It never loses its
power of propagation. Let it be the smallest conceivable, it possesses the same terrific diffusiveness.   Like
the invisible seeds that float through our atmosphere, it
takes wing the moment it comes into being, flying abroad,
and striking root everywhere, and becoming the parent
of ten thousand others.
Ver. 7.'And the eyes of then both were openzed, anzd they kznew that
they were ntaked; and they sewzedfig-leaves tog'elhe, anzd made themselves
aprons.'  1
Their eyes were opened! They in that moment saw
things which they saw not and could not have seen
before.  They saw  into a new  region, but that region
was a sad and dark one. Their eyes were opened, and
they seemed as if suddenly placed before a mirror, for
the first object that met their view  was,-THEMSELVES.2
And the first thing that struck and startled them about
themselves, was their nakedness!- They were naked
before, but nakedness had brought with it no sense of
shame.  But the moment they disobeyed, the conscious1'Sewed' is too strong and definite a word; it is simply'wrought
or fastened together.'
2 We all know something of this' opening of the eye' immediately
on the commission of an act of sin. Up to the moment of the commission we are blind to the sin and its consequences. The moment
it is done a strange feeling seizes us, we become aware of the sin,
conscience stirs, and we wish the deed undone.  In addition to
this, however, there might be something in the -actual tree affecting
the moral nature, and stimulating conscience.




GENESIS III. 7.                 I29
ness of being unfit to be seen arose within them. Formerly,
all parts of their body were'comely;' now certain parts
became'uncomely' (I Cor. xii. 23).  Just as certain
animals were afterwards set aside as unclean, so were
certain parts of man's body, that there might be about
man the perpetual token and remembrance of sin.  It
would seem as if, when Adam, ate of the fruit, the grosser
passions of his nature were let loose, and rose into.
mastery.  All parts of his nature had hitherto been in
equal and harmonious proportions; now the flesh rose
up, and sin revealed shame.  As, in the case of bodily
disease, the general virus which may be pervading the,
whole frame fastens or settles down upon some special,
part, so was it in the case of the moral poison which
now shot through the whole man, in consequence of
that fatal act of disobedience.
A sense of shame either in regard to. soul or body is
not natural.  It does not belong to the unfallen.  It is
the fruit of sin. The sinner's first feeling is,'I am not
fit for God, or man, or angels to look upon.'  Hence
the essence of confession is, being ashamed of ourselves..
We are made to feel two things; first, a sense of condemnation; and secondly, a sense of shame; we are
unfit to receive God's favour, and unfit to appear in
His presence.  Hence Job said,' I am vile;' and hence
Ezra said,'I am'ashamed, and blush to lift up my face
to Thee, my God' (ix. 6). Hence also Jeremiah describes the stout-hearted Jews,'They were not at all
ashamed, neither could they blush' (vi. I5).  Hence
Solomon's reference to. the'impudent face' of the strange.
VOL VI.. YI




130           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
woman (Prov. vii. I3), and Jeremiah's description of
Israel,'Thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst
to be ashamed' (iii. 3). It was the shame of our sin
that Christ bore upon the cross; and therefore it is
said of Him that He'despised the shame.' It was laid.
upon Him, and He shrank not from it.  He felt it, yet
He hid not His face from it. He was the well-beloved
of the Father, yet He hung upon the tree as one unfit
for God to look upon; fit only to be cast out from His
presence. H.e took our place of shame that we might
be permitted to take His place of honour.  In giving
credit to God's record concerning Him we are identified
with Him as our representative; -our shame passes over
to Him, and His glory becomes ours for ever.
It was this sense of shame that led Adam and Eve to
have recourse to fig-leaves for a covering.  Suddenly
possessed with the awful thought that they were unfit to
be seen, even by each other, they eagerly betook themselves to the first thing that lay within their reach, glad
to get hold of anything which would hide them from
each other's eyes, or prevent that strange feeling of
shame which had thus arisen.
It is to the eye that the sense of shame appeals, and it
is only in the light that its appeal can be made good.
To prevent this appeal the sinner seeks the darkness, and
hence it is that deeds of shame and deeds of darkness
are the same in import. Hence it is also that our Lord
speaks of men hating the light and loving the darkness
because their deeds are evil.  But whether it is to figleaves or to darkness that the sinner betakes himself, the




GENESIS III. 7.                13
feeling that leads to the act is the same. His object is
to get where no eye can see him.  He forgets the eye
above, that can look through every human covering; and
hence, as Adam tried his fig-leaves, so he tries his good
deeds, his prayers, and his repentance; forgetful that the
eye of flame (Rev. ii. i8) can look through them. The
covering he needs is one which will hide his shame from
the eye that is divine.  He learns this when the Holy
Spirit begins His work of conviction in him. For then it
is as if God's eye of awful holiness were piercing through
his coverings and flashing through the darkness in which
he had wrapt himself. Then he learns that the covering
he needs must be divine. It must be as divine as that
eye which is looking into him from above. It must be
something which will hide his shame even from the eye
of God; something that will do for him not merely in
the darkness or the twilight, but under the brilliance of
a cloudless noon.
What is it but this same consciousness of shame that
leads man to resort to ornaments?  These are intended
by them to compensate for the shame or the deformity
under, which men are lying.  They feel that shame
belongs to them; nay, confusion of face.  They feel
that they are not now'perfect in beauty,' as, once they
were. Hence they resort:to ornament in order to make
up for this. They deck themselves with jewels that their
deformity may be turned into beauty.  But there is
danger' here; —danger against which the apostle warns
us, specially the female sex (I Pet. iii. 3, 4). There is
nothing indeed innately sinful in the gold, or the silver,




132             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
or the gems which have been wrought by the skill of
men into, such forms of brightness. But in our present
state they do not suit us. They are unmeet for sinners.
They speak of pride, and they also minister to pride.
They are for the kingdom, not for the desert.  They are
for the city of the glorified, not for the tent of the stranger.
They will come in due time, and they will be brilliant
enough to compensate for the shame of' earth.  But we
cannot be trusted with them now.l
1 We add the following extract from a work already quoted, which
helps to illustrate the whole passage over which we have gone:-'Those who are so averse to admit the figurative language
of Scripture, are puzzled extremely to account for the vehicle of
Satan's first temptation-a serjenat  Let such writers and readers
as feel so disposed, amuse themselves with answering the cavils of
critics and the sneers of fools on this subject; it shall be our province to attempt a plain and scriptural investigation of it.  We
have already stated that it appears the situation of Adam in paradise
corresponds with our situation now; he lived by a commandment,
as we do; for "this is His commandment, that we should believe
on the name of the only-begotten Son of God," who is the true tree
of life. In like manner we observe, that there is nothing uncommon,
nothing contrary to what is daily experienced, in the first temptation;
otherwise Paul was wrong to say, " But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor.
xi. 3). As the serpent is characteristic of guile, subtilty, and deceit,
so his form was assumed by Satan, as his character daily is by the
tempter, corrupting the truth of the gospel.  God had placed our
first parents in paradise, setting before them life from the tree of
life, and death from the tree of knowledge. There are no proofs
mentioned as adduced, simply the Divine Word, as to these trees.
Satan, by the serpent, reasoned their minds out of the belief of
the simple truth God had set before them. And he gradually persuaded them, not only that they should not die from eating the tree
of knowledge, but that the brightest happiness and most perfect




GENESIS HII. 8.                     I33
Ver. 8.'And they heard the voice of the Lord God (7ehovah-Elohim)
walking (or who was walking) in the garden in the cool (Heb. the
wind) of the day: and Adam (Heb. the man) and his wife hid themselves from the presence (Heb. the face) of the Lord God amongst (Heb.
in the imidst) the trees of the garden.'
Scarce had the transgressors twisted their girdles, and
thus completed the hasty covering which was to hide
their shame from each other's eyes, when they heard
the voice of the Lord God, and trembled as they were
thus reminded that there was another eye to hide from.
It was not, indeed, a long-known, but still it was a
well-known voice. They had heard it before, and they
recognised it at once.'It is the voice of Jehovah!  He
is coming, -whither shall we flee?'  It was no  mere
sound; no casual blast or rush of the meeting streams; it
was a living voice,-the voice of a being as true and personal as themselves.  To them  God was a real being,a person; and His voice a real voice.'
attainments would infallibly ensue.   So is it at this hour; the
gospel sets the tree of life before us, as connected with present
and future bliss; the tempter sets this world, and assures us' that
everything gratifying to man is to be found in it, while certain death
is by no means the penalty. In every age and nation, Satan's temptation has had the same object-we had almost said, the same language. Believing this father of liars, as we are all most prone to
do, —persuading herself that every gratification would follow,-Eve ate
and gave her husband, who partook in her transgression, and became
subject to the same penalty. Their conduct under the impressions
of guilt was the same as in all future ages: their eyes were opened;
they found themselves naked and exposed to shame and everlasting
disgrace; they therefore betook themselves to the only frail covering
they could devise-fig-leaves.'-MoRRISON'S AKey to the Pentateuch.
1  tWe conclude that the Logos did not only appear in a visible




I34             THOUGHTS ON GCENESIS.
Whether any form  were seen we know  not.   There
might be; for God did always, in after ages, as to Abraham,
reveal Himself in  a form.   But this matters not.   A
distinct and intelligible voice addressed them; and they
recognised it as the voice of Jehovah-Elohim,-' the Lord
God.' They'heard' it, and they knew it. They had'heard' it before, and they are now to hear it again,
though in circumstances far different.
When the Lord God thus uttered His voice, He was'walking in the garden,' for it seems not to be the voice
that was moving or walking (as some think), but Jehovah
Himself.- Elsewhere He is spoken of in the same way.
When speaking to Israel of Canaan, as their promised
dwelling, He not only says,'I will set my tabernacle
manner, but conversed also with Adam and Eve, audibly and by an
articulate voice.'-FLEMING'S Christology, vol. ii. p. 249. The word'voice' is used in several senses in Scripture.  Sometimes it denotes
a distinct articulate sound (Deut. iv. I2, 36, v. 22; Ezek. i. 24, 25,
28, x. 5); sometimes a commandment (the thing proclaimed by the
voice) (Ps. xcv. 7); sometimes thunder (the sound accompanying
the voice) (Ex. ix. 23, 28, 29; Job xxxvii. 5).  It was this voice
that spoke to Cain (Gen. iv. 9), to Noah (Gen. vi. I3), to Abraham
(Gen. xv. I). It is said (Ex. xix. I9) that'Moses spake, and the
Lord answered him by a voice.' It was God's voice that shook Sinai
and its wilderness; that shook the posts of the temple (Isa. vi. 4).
It is by this voice that' the Assyrian is to be beaten down' (Isa.
xxx. 3I). It was this voice that Isaiah heard (vi. 4), and Ezekiel
(i. 24, x. 5, 9), and Daniel (x. 6). It was this same voice that was
heard at the baptism of Christ (Matt. iii. I7), at His transfiguration
(Matt. xvii. 5). It is interesting to trace this'voice' throughout
Scripture, so generally in connection with the'cloud,' or'glory'
(2 Pet. i. I7). It is sometimes terrific as the thunder; sometimes a' still small voice;' sometimes as the noise of a' multitude;' sometimes like many waters, —by all these figures setting forth'the
majestic, melodious, mighty voice of God.'




GENESIS IIn. 8.                     135
among you,' but'I will walk among you' (Lev. xxvi. I 2).
Or, when referring to their desert-sojourn, He gives, as
a motive to entire purity in their habits,'The Lord thy
God walketh in the midst of thy camp, therefore shall thy
camp be holy' (Deut. xxiii. I4). As the reference here
is obviously to God's presence, as manifested in the Shekinah, or visible glory, so it might have been in Eden by
some such visible form  that the Lord revealed Himself
and'walked' in paradise.
It was'in the wind of the day' that Jehovah was heard.
Meaning thereby, either at the time that the breeze was
blowing, or in the breeze; or, more probably, both.  It is
generally in connection with the wind, or whirlwind, that
Jehovah is said to appear (Ezek. i. 4). In 2 Sam. xxii.  i,
we read,'He was seen upon the wings of the wind;' in
Ps. xviii. io we read,' He did fly upon the wings of the
wind;' in Ps. civ. 3 we read,'Who walketh upon the
wings of the wind.'  In these passages we note the difference of expression, yet the identity of the general idea,He was seen upon the wind; He did fy upon the wind;
He did walkze upon the wind; which last is the very
expression in the passage before us..
As soon as Jehovah appeared and His voice was heard,
1 Yet, as in our passage it is 5 and in others 5J., and as the former
is the usual expression for at, or at the timze of, we must take' at the
breeze of the day' as the primary sense. (See Gen. xlix. 27; Josh. x.
27, etc.,) The Vulgate gives it,'ad auram post meridiem;' the Sept. ro
lixaYoyv, i.e. the evening. Symmachus renders it, shk zysc' ro; 4i~ias;
Theodotion, sv -  ir8su a92rpo; xarai~v r';s /pipas. Jerome paraphrases it'declin.nte sole.' (Works, vol. v. p. 269.) Calvin thinks
that, after their sin, they slept all night, and that it was in the mzorninzg that the voice awoke them. So also Diodati. (See Morrison's




I36             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS
the transgressors fled.   Terror took hold of them, and
shame covered them.' Fig-leaves might hide them from
each other's eyes, but when God comes nigh they must
try something more effectual. They flee. That is their
first effort.  Their object is to get as far from  Him  as
possible.   But they need something else.  They flee to
the thickets, that there the gloom may render them
invisible.
It was from the'presence,' or'face,' of God that they
fled.   It is evident that something was seen by them,
Introductory Key to the Scriptures on this passage.) The following
passage from a writer formerly quoted may interest the reader:-'It is evident from  Scripture that Jehovah the Son, the only
visible God, appeared to Adam so soon as he was created, and on
many after occasions. Adam heard His voice, and held familiar
conversation with Him, as a man does with his friend. Then and
ever afterwards, in all the ages previous to His incarnation, Jehovah
seems to have made the sound or rushing of wind the visible symbol
of His appearance.  Thus He announced His approach to Job
(xxxviii. I). So He appeared to Ezekiel (i. 4). This also was the
sign by which David knew that Jehovah was gone out before him to
smite the host of the Philistines (I Chron. xiv. i5). And, as this
had always been the sign of the divine approach, the coming of the
Holy Ghost upon the apostles was announced in the sound of a rushing mighty wind (Acts ii. 2). Hence God is said to walk on the
"wings of the wind."  Now, as this was the usual token whereby
Adam knew the approach of his Maker, so soon as he heard the
sound of wind issuing from a cloud, walking among the trees of Eden,
he was apprized of the approach of the offended Jehovah; and,
alarmed by his fears, he ran to hide himself from the divine presence
among the thickets of the garden.'- Pirie's Works, vol. iii. p. 68.
1 Our readers will perhaps remember Spenser's line-'All wrongs have mends, but no amends of shamne.'
-(Faerie Queene, book ii. cant. I )
Most true! No' amends of shame,' but through Him who took our
shame upon Himself.




GENESIS IIT. 8.                      I37
here and elsewhere called by this name. It was from this
face' of God that they turned away, just as the wicked
are said hereafter to be'punished with everlasting destruction from   the presence of the  Lord.'l   This name
seems to be given because the manifestation (whatever it
might be) was that which, in God, corresponded to the
face of man,-the part which reveals most of the man
himself.  It was a visible glory indicative of a personal
presence, —the. presence of the second Person of the Godhead, who, from eternity, was the brightness of Jehovah's'1 ar rrorpov foz XvJpov. This, of course, refers to the presence of
Christ.  But it was to this'presence' that all former'presences'
pointed. All these were but prefigurations of His glory,-the bright
raiment which was to invest the person of the God-man in the fulness
of time. It is to this'presence,' or'glory,' or'Shekinah,' that
reference is made in such passages as the following:-Gen. iv. 14, I6,
xviii. 22, xix. I3; Ex. xxvii. 21, xxviii. I2, 30; Lev. i. 3, 5, II.
It is to the second Person of the Godhead that'presence,' or'face,'
refers. He is essentially and eternally the',off-shining,' or radiance,
of Jehovah's glory (.'.r;ysccu,zoc r45 Sa), and the express image of
His person (xzpoz-ep -en ris vo.rradcs aib, the impression or stamp
of His person).  He is also the'Word,' as being the utterance or
expression of the mind of Godhead, —-the communication between the
invisible and the visible.  Thus Owen calls Him'the essential
image of the Father,' and:says,'were He not the essential image of
the Father in His own divine Person, He could not be the representative image of God to us, as He is incarnate*' (on the Person of
Christ). Thus the voice that spoke in Eden was the voice of the
WORD; and the presence that was seen was the presence of Him
who is the radiance of Jehovah's glory.'Th le Logos,' says Fleming,'according to the agreement of the sacred Trinity, was He that
acted even to created intelligent beings as their immediate Head, in
the name of God, essentially considered. The Logos, being infinite
in regard of essence, could never be seen or known, even by the most
glorious created spirits, had He not condescended to assume some
created form,-such as that which the Jews called the Shekinab, or




138             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
glory and the express image of His person. This visible
glory (like the Shekinah in the wilderness pursuing the
rebels) seems to have advanced towards them; and as it
advanced tzey retreated,-the voice and the glory from
which the voice issued combining to terrify them, for they
were the voice and the glory of that God whom they had
disobeyed. Their own refuge is the trees of the garden;
yet what shelter could they be from a glory so bright, or
from  a voice which  makes the mountains  to shake'?
(Ps. xxix.)
That voice! It pierces the sinner's ear in a moment.
It forces its way into the conscience. Nothing can withstand it.  It is specially to the conscience that it speaks,
alarming, convincing, overpowering. When it speaks in
the law, then the commandment comes (Rom. vii. 9); the
sinner is smitten, he flees before it or falls under it. It
the glory of God;. and it seems plain to me, that the Logos appeared
thus in heaven to the angels. And I look upon it to be more than
probable, that this assumed image was not barely light, or something
like a luminous cloud, but was something likewise of a determined
shape, appearing as an animated being. And I believe, from what
I can judge by laying things together, that it was the exact representation of a man clothed with a most glorious garment of wonderful
light. And I make no question but this ancient image was the very
same with that wherein Christ appears now in glory, excepting that
He has now a real animated body of human flesh, whereas before He
had an ethereal one only, or one of some such sort of composition.
But, excepting this, I make no question but that the features and
lineaments of the one body and the other were as exactly, and more
exactly, the same, than ever any picture was like an original. And
when Christ was transfigured, I believe He appeared the very same
to Moses that He appeared to be to him formerly, when he and the
elders of Israel, as well as the angels then present, saw Him upon
Mount Sinai (Ex. xxiv. I, etc..).'-ChZrisi'olog,y, vol. ii. p. 255.




GENESIS III. 8.                    I39
sweeps through him and lays him in the dust. His mouth
is stopped; he is compelled to plead guilty.'By the law
is the knowledge of sin.'
And then, that glory! It terrifies the transgressor.  He
cannot bear it, even afar off.  Its approach overwhelms
him.  Even the saints have trembled at it,-Job (xlii. 5),
Isaiah (vi. 5), and Daniel (x. 7, 8),-how much more the
sinner! The'presence' of Jehovah is light, and that he
cannot bear, for he loves the darkness.  Israel got a
glimpse of it on Sinai, and trembled; the ungodly shall
see it in the day of wrath, and flee to the rocks for shelter.
And then the insufficiency of human coverings. Till
God came nigh, the fig-leaves seemed safe enough; but
He shows  Himself, and  then  the covering  is found'narrower than a man can wrap himself in it' (Isa.
xxviii. 20).  He flees, and  tries another covering (for
leaves will not do; he must have the whole trees), still'making lies his refuge, and under falsehood hiding himself' (Isa. xxviii. 15).   For whither can he flee fromGod's'presence'? (Ps. cxxxix. 7.) Neither fig-leaves nor
thickets will do. It is God that is the sinner's terror; and
the nearer that He comes the greater is that terror.' No
human coverings can avail. Darkness will not do. Distance will not do. The wrappings of man's merits will
1 Jerome, in commenting on the first verse of the 82d Psalm, —' God
standeth,' or, as he has it,'Deus stetit,'-has a curious passage, in which
he attempts to show the difference of the expressions,'God stands,''God walks,''God sits;' referring the first to His posture in reference to man innocent; the second to God's posture in reference to man
guilty, as if He were moved out of His place to come to him; and the
third in reference to God's posture to men before the judgment-seat.




I40          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
not do.  To be naked before God is what he shrinks
from; and none of these can hide his nakedness. That
which alone can remove his terror and his shame is a
shelter that is divine, —a covering that is infinite, —the
righteousness of the Son of God.
In the day of wrath this scene of Eden will be repeated,
-man fleeing from the presence of God. In the absence
of thickets he will betake himself to the rocks and hills
(Hos. x. 8; Rev. vi. I5, i6). But what will these do?
Can His eye not pierce these?  Can His hand not pluck
them thence? For thus the Lord has spoken,'Though
they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them
down; and though they hide themselves in the top of
Carmel, I will search and take them out thence' (Amos
iX. 2, 3).
Ver. 9. 9.'And te Lord God (FHeb. ehovah —EZloihn) called unto
Adam (Heb. the man), and said unto him, Where ar thou?'
The voice which had been heard was no inarticulate
noise such as tempest or thunder.  It spoke explicitly
and articulately. It addressed itself to Adam, —to'the
man.' The words are not' He said to,' but' He called to,'
Adam. And there could be no mistake as to who was
meant. He proceeds by making inquiry after him, that,
step by step, He may make sin unveil itself, and draw
confession from the sinner.  lie does not at once lay
hold of the offender and extort a confession by terror.
Neither does He proceed upon His omniscience and say,'Thou art the man.' His object is so to speak to the




GENESIS iii. TO. oI4
conscience that the man may confess, and be led without
compulsion to survey his own devious steps.'Where art
thou?' was the question. Simple, yet, like the Lord's words
to the woman of Sychar (John iv.), effectual for bringing
all to light. As if He would say,'I expected to find
thee at the appointed meeting-place, but I find thee not.
How  is it so?  What has led thee away?  Where art
thou?'  Thus He goes in quest of the sinner.l
Ver. Io.'And ze said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because I was naked; and I hid zmyself.'
The man replies immediately. God has met him face
to face, and he cannot evade Him or decline an answer.
I-e had heard the voice.  He had known it at once.  It
was' in the garden' that he heard it, and terror took hold
of him.  He admits that he had fled from God, and that
he was not where he ought to have been found.  He
excuses himself for fleeing because, being naked, he was
afraid of the majesty of God; and feeling that he was unfit to stand before Him, he had hid himself.2 In so speak1'Graciously calling him to return, who would otherwise have eternally fled from God.'-.7. Wesley's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 25.
2 Fleming supposes that man, before he sinned, had a sort of'luminous vestment,' which disappeared the moment he sinned
(Christology, book iii. chap. 3); and adds,'Adam turning apostate,
was no way fit that he should wear the livery of the Shekinah any
longer, and therefore the luminous garment with which he and Eve
were clothed is taken away, and they are left naked.' Mede has a
somewhat similar idea, when he speaks of their'nakedness' as being
an'obscuration of that glorious and celestial beauty which he had
before his sin; the difference whereof was so great, that he could not
endure afterwards to behold himself any more, but sought for a covering, even to hide himself from himself.'- Works (folio), p. 233.




I42            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
ing, he seems to take credit to himself for having fled,
and rather suggests that the blame lay with God, who had
made him naked. In this there is no confession of sin;,
there is fear and shame; but that is all.  Instead of'declaring his transgression,' he first attempts to hide it
by hiding himself; and when that is vain, he shifts the
blame from himself to God.  It seems to be to this that
Job refers, when he says,' If I covered my transgression
as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom' (Job
xxxi. 33).  Covering sin in any such way avails not.
There is but one covering which is effectual,-the covering of the blood.  It is by blood alone that sin can be'covered.'  Man, however, knew not this.  He thought
he could cover it himself.  He had yet to learn that the
only thing that can cover sin is that which can absorb it
and make it to be as though it had never been. God had
yet to unfold His own method, and to teach man the
efficacy of the blood as a covering; so that when he came
to understand this he would feel that, in order to cover
sin, it is not necessary to flee from God or to resort to
thickets, but that, receiving God's testimony to the covering
efficacy of the blood, he may meet God face to face without shame or fear, reversing the words of his first father,
and saying,'I heard Thy voice, and was not afraid, for I
had found a covering; and, instead of hiding myself, I
returned to Thee.'
Ver. ii.'And He said, Who told thee (or declared to thee) that
thou zoast (or art) naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof ] cozmmnanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?'
God pursues the inquiry.  His object is to make man




GENESIS III. 12.               I43
convict himself. He has touched the conscience already,
and He now sends the arrow deeper. Thou speakest of
being'naked.' How is this? Thou didst not feel thus
at first.  Hitherto thy nakedness has been no barrier
between thee and me. Who, or what, has suggested the'thought that it is so?  Who, or what, has made thee
afraid or ashamed to come?  Whence hast thou got this
knowledge, by means of which thou excusest thyself from
drawing near to me, and palliatest thy guilt in fleeing
from me?  Man is silent. He answers not a word. No
one has told him. The thought has started up from within.
A strange but irresistible feeling has taken possession of
him,-' I am naked; I cannot look upon God; God
cannot look upon me.' Without noticing man's silence,
God proceeds with His inquiry.'Hast thou eaten of the
tree which I prohibited?.'  This is the only thing that
could have done it. Is it possible that thou hast already
transgressed? Thus, by question after question, he leads
man to the acknowledgment of his sin, making him feel
that his sin is already known, that the true cause of his
fear is no secret, and'that all things are naked and open
unto the eyes of Him with whom he has to do.'
Ver. I2.'And the man said, The wovman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.'
He feels that God has had His eye upon him, and
that what He says is true. It is the tree that has given
him this knowledge of'evil.' Had he waited God's
time, the eating of it would have given him the knowledge of only good; but he has refused to wait; he has




144            THOUGHITS ON GENESIS.
disobeyed God; he has made haste to be wise; and
it has opened his eyes only to the evil.  Still, however,
he will take no blame to himself for doing what he has
done. He makes no direct and honest answer to God,
in freely confessing that he had eaten; yet he cannot
deny the deed, and therefore, in the very act of admitting (not confessing), he casts the blame upon the
woman,-nay, upon God, for giving him  such a tempter.'
Here let us mark such truths as these.
I. The difference between admilting sin and confessing
it.  Adam  admits it,-slowly and sullenly, —but he does
not confess it. He is confronted with a Being in whose
presence it would be vain to deny what he had done;
but he will go no further than he can help.  He will
tacitly concede when concession is extorted from him,
but he'will make no frank acknowledgment.  It is so
with the sinner still.  He does precisely what Adam
did; no more, till the Holy Spirit lays His hand upon
his conscience and touches all the springs of his being.
Up till that time he may utter extorted and reluctant
concessions, but he will not confess sin.  He will not deal
frankly with God. He is sullen, and admits that he is
a sinner because others do. it,-because it would be
I Jerome has an ingenious comment on Lam. iii. 65.'Give them
sorrow of heart' is our translation, the margin giving'obstinacy;'
and Jerome translating it'scutum  cordis,' as the text had given
V6~pCovaoIov. He represents Adam as holding up this shield when
God came nigh, flinging back the blame not only upon the woman,
but upon God:'Ut quasi reatum suum oblique in auctorem redideret.' Eve also holds up the shield:' Hoc scutum etiam requisita
mulier tenuit.... ut ipsa quoque reatum suum oblique in creatorem
duceret.'- Works, vol. iv. p. 323'..




GENlESIS III. I2.            I45
thought pride in him not to do it,- because he cannot
help it,-because he is conscious there is something
wrong; but still there is no open-hearted confession. If
there is not actually the'keeping silence' (Ps. xxxii. 3),
or the'covering of sin' (Prov. xxviii. 13), there is nothing of the ready spirit:' I acknowledged my sin unto
Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions to the Lord.; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin' (Ps. xxxii. 5; Prov. xxviii.
I3; Luke xv. I8 —2I; IJohn i. 9).
2. The artfulness of an unhumbled  sinner.  Even
while admitting sin, he shakes himself free from blame;
nay, he thrusts forward the name of another, even before
the admission comes forth, as if to neutralize it before
it is made. How artful! yet how common still! Men
do not only give a mere reluctant admission,-they do
not merely in so doing try to shift the blame from themselves, but they attempt, by introducing the name of
another, before She admission is made,-to give the impression most cunningly that this other is the really guilty
person. Thus, by mentioning another first, they hope
to draw away all the attention from themselves to him,
so that, before their own guilt has been conceded, attention has been directed to him, as the guilty one'; and
thus not only is there a bare admission of guilt instead
of an honest confession, but there is a most cunning
endeavour to undo that very admission by the peculiar
way in which it is made. It is difficult to say whether
such a method be more cunning or cowardly.  It is
certainly the procedure of a man who is, on the one:
VOL. VI.                                   E




146           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
hand, afraid to confess; and, on the other hand, afraid
not to confess, and who compromises these two opposite fears by a most artful declaration, which shows
how sorely he shrinks from the consequences of his
own poor admission. Ah! where do we find honest,
unreserved acknowledgment of sin?  Nowhere, save in
connection with pardon. Up till the moment that we
learn the'forgiveness that there is with God,' there will
always be reserve,-a cowardly reluctance to confess,
an unmanly shifting of the guilt from off ourselves, a
desire to palliate our sins, or lessen their number. There
will -always be'guile,' for there will always be a motive
to hide our sins; but when the free pardon comes, it
takes away all reserve, it renders us'guileless.'  We
confess freely, for the reasons for restraint are done
away. And in coming to receive the pardon we put
forward the name of our Surety first, before even mentioning our sins, that, like Adam, though not with his
guile, we may call attention to Him on whom we cast
our guilt:'For THY NAME'S SAKE, O Lord, pardon
mine iniquity, for it is great' (Ps. xxv. II).
3. The self-justifying pride of the sinner.' He admits
as much of his guilt as cannot be denied, and then
takes credit to himself for what he has done.  He is
resolved to take no more blame than he can help.  Even
in the blame that he takes, he finds not only an extenua1 The contrast between this and David's feeling in Ps. ii. 4 is very
striking. Adam's object was to justify himself; David's was to justify
God' That THOU mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be
clear when Thou judgest.'




GENESIS II. I2.              i47
tion, but a virtue, a merit; for he fled, because it was
not seemly for him to stand before God naked! Nay,
even in so much of the blame as he takes, he must
divide it with another, thus leaving on himself but little
guilt and some considerable degree of merit.  Had it
not been for another, he would not have had to admit
even the small measure of blame that he does! There
is pride here, but no godly sorrow; nothing of the'broken spirit;' nay, not even despair.  His self-righteousness elates him, buoys him up, and makes him think
his case not so bad as to be hopeless. Till the sinner
sees the cross it will be always so. Law will not humble
him. The voice of God will not humble, though it
may alarm him. He must see the utter condemnation
of himself in the cross, and at the same time God's
provision for meeting his case and removing the condemnation, ere he will throw away his confidences.  It
is only the knowledge of the Divine righteousness that
can remove either his pride or his shame, just as it is
only the knowledge of the'perfect love' that can cast
out fear.
4. The hardened selfishness of the sinner.  He ac.
cuses others to screen himself.  I-e does not hesitate
to inculpate the dearest; he spares not the wife of his
bosom.  Rather than bear the blame, he will fling it
anywhere, whoever may suffer.  And all this in a
moment!  How  instantaneous are the results of sin!
Already it has rooted out affection, and broken the,nearest tie, and made man a being of dark selfishness.
He has ceased to'love his neighbour as himself.' SELF




148          THOUGIHTS ON GENESIS.
has now risen uppermost within him.  He is steeled
against his dearest of kin.  He does not hesitate to
expose them to the wrath of God; he cares not what
their doom may be, provided he escape!'Hateful, and
hating one another,' is the inscription on the forehead
of our fallen race. It is this that we here read upon
the brow of Adam.
5. The sinner's blasphemy and ingratitude to God.'The woman whom Thou gavest me,' said Adam. God's
love in giving him a help meet is overlooked, and the
gift itself is mocked at.  God's earnest pains in providing for him a companion so suitable are forgotten,
nay, turned into an occasion for casting the blame of
his fall upon Him. Had it not been for Thee, I should
not have sinned;-she whom Thou gavest me has become
my seducer.  Thou didst it, in giving me such a companion. Thus it is that Israel taunted God with being,
the author of their sins and woes (Ezek. xxxiii. io):'If
our transgressions be upon us, and we pine away in
them, how should we then live?' That is,'If we die,
we must just die; we cannot help it; and God is only
mocking us with broken promises, speaking to us of life,
yet sending only death.' And in reference to this it was
that God cleared Himself upon oath, refusing to lie under
the imputation, or to take the blame of man's death:'As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in
the death of the wicked.'  Thus it is that scoffers. in
these last days pervert the gifts of God into an excuse
for sinning, or into reasons for believing that there is no
such thing as sin at all.  When we speak of their sin




GENESIS III. I2.               149
in following their lusts, they ask,'What sin can there
be in the indulgence of those desires that God has
given? or if there be sin in these things, who is to blame
but He who gave them?'
6. The sinner's attempt to smooth over his deed.'The
woman gave me the fruit, and I ate of it; that was all.
Giving, receiving, and eating a little fruit; that was all!
What more simple, natural, innocent? How could I
do otherwise?'  Thus he glosses over the sin.  He
speaks smooth things to himself regarding it, and would
fain make God think as little of it as he does himself.
And so men still trifle with sin. What harm is there in
it?  What harm  is there in the song, the dance, the
laugh, the gaiety, the glitter? Are not these amusements
harmless?  Ah! it was thus that the first sinner tried
to reason with his God.  But did he succeed?  Did
God accept his plea of harmlessness? Did He turn away
His wrath, or dilute the curse, or justify the transgressor?
So long as man persists in smoothing down his sin, and
trying to make God think as lightly of it as he does
himself, he must fail in finding favour. It is not till he
acquiesces in God's verdict, and, accepting condemnation as his due, takes the sinner's place before God, that
he can hope at all. For all hope to a sinner begins in
the acknowledgment of his hopelessness, and in consenting to take his hope, not from the idea that wrath
is'not his due, but from the knowledge of that wondrous
grace that has stretched its blessed circle far beyond the
uttermost limits of human sin.




150             THOUGHTS ONV GENESIS.
Ver. 13.'And the Lord God said unto the zooman, What is this
that thou hast done?  And he woman said, The serpent beguiledx me,
and I did eat.'
The trial proceeds, and the investigation is carried
on with all judicial calmness. Adam's sullen answer
awakes noty wrath, and calls forth no remark. The Lord
God now  passes on to the woman.  She had been accused by the man, and He turns to her to see how the
man's accusation  stands.  He takes him  at his word,
and proceeds with the inquiry:'What is this that thou
hast done?' Is it really true that thou hast done this
thing with which thy husband charges thee?
In Eve we mark the same self-justifying spirit.  She
does not, indeed, retaliate upon the man, and say,' How
am I to blame for Ihis sin, seeing he need not have eaten
unless he had pleased?'  She admits that she had done
the deed, though, like her husband, she does so most
sullenly, and not by a direct or frank confession.  She
does not deny the deed, but she will not take the blame.
1 It is the same word as is used in Ps. Iv. IS:'Let death seize
upon them;' literally,'Let death beguile them;' that is, stealthily
and craftily lay hold of them, as did he who has the power of death,
of our first parents. Robertson (Clavis, p. 44) refers also to Ps.
lxxxix. 23,'The enemy shall not seduce him,' as he did Eve. In
2 Cor. xi. 3 we read,'As the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty,' lnYc[~- sv hY rSr-covpyfq; and in I Tim. ii. I4,'Adam was
not deceived (b-crigs); but the woman, being deceived (.o-rv,7~eoau7),
was in the transgression.'  In Eph. vi. Ii, the apostle speaks of'the wiles (aces 6cs8o3ns;) of the devil.' Of the Lord Jesus (the
woman's seed, and therefore the opposite of the serpent's seed) it is
said,'Neither was guile (Oaxo;) found in His mouth' (I Pet. ii. 22);
and of His seed it is written that they were like Him:'In their
mouth was found no guile' (~hoX) (Rev. xiv. 5).




GENESIS III. 13.                   151
It was the Serpent that beguiled her! How  could she
help it?  As if she would thus indirectly cast back the
blame on God.' It was Thine own creature, the Serpent;
he is the real cause; blame him, not me; why was he
allowed to beguile me?'
Thus it is that the sinner refuses to accept the guilt,
even when he admits the deed.  He dares not say, I
did not do the deed; but he does not hesitate to affirm,'I was not to blame in doing it.'   He affirms, either'the sin was not a very great one,' or,'there were many
excuses for me;' anld the greatest of all is this, that'it
was a creature of g;od's own making that seduced me.'
See how fatally sinj works.  It makes him  a liar,-a liar
to his own conscience, to his fellows, to his God. It
makes him a coward. It makes him an accuser of others.
It mdakes him a blasphemer of God Himself. To own
himself totally a sinner, —made so, not by God, nor by
any fellow-creature, nor by education, nor by circumstances, but solely by himself,-is what he will not stoop
to. Yet on any other terms God cannot deal with him.
As a confessed sinner, he may at any moment go to
God, assured of finding favour and pardon; but on any
other footing, approach to God must be wholly in vain.
1 In all this process of inquiry there is no grace manifested. And
hence the sinner flies from God, unrepenting and unconfessing. Nor
will terror ever do aught but drive a man from God. No amount of
it will ever draw him nigh, or unlock his breast, or soften him into
repentance.  Nothing but grace can do this.  Besides, terror only
appeals to the coarser feelings of our nature; grace touches the finer
chords. Terror contracts the spirit, grace enlarges it. Terror drives
man into the thicket, only grace can draw him out.




152          THOUGHTS ON GENIESIS.
Half-confessions will not do; concealments will not do;
extenuations will not do; there must be the full acknowledgment of entire guilt, otherwise God can have no
dealings with him at all.
And here again, let us mark the forbearance of our
God. Even before grace is directly announced to man,
we can observe the dawnings of it in the way in which
God approaches man, and in the difference between His
dealings with man and His dealings with the serpent.
How slow to anger! How loth to find the woman guilty!
How anxious to hear all that she has to say for herself
before pronouncing sentence! How condescending, too,
in all this; for He comes Himself in person to make the
inquiry, not trusting it to another; and comes most
graciously to seek after man, when man was fleeing from
Him; not hastily putting a harsh construction upon his
flight, but waiting to hear his excuse and defence; not
threatening nor upbraiding, but, in the words of calm
and friendly inquiry, asking,'What is this that thou hast
done?'
Such is the God with whom we have to do,-' the God
of all grace;' not hating, but loving; not cursing, but
blessing; not hasty, but slow to anger; not upbraiding,
but dealing tenderly; not condemning, but pardoning.
How manifestly is this the same God who so loved the
world as to give His only-begotten Son! How perfect
the harmony oi character in this God, from these first
words, spoken to fallen man, to the last which His book
contains!  How blessed to learn that this God, who
sought out Adam when he fled from Him, is seeking the




GENESIS III. 14, I5.                    53
sinner still, unprovoked by his wanderings and resistances
and self-excuses; waiting, with undiminished patience and
forbearing love, to receive, and to love, and to bless!
Vers. 14, I 5.'And the Lord God (HIteb. )?ehovah-Elohim) said unto
the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field: upoza thy belly shalt thou fgo, and
dust shalt lhou eat all the days of thy life.  5.  And I wiliut enmity
between thee and the wozan, anzd between thy seed and her seed: it shall
bruise thzy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'
Though both of these two verses refer, in a measure,
to Satan himself, yet they do embrace separate subjects;
the former pointing more especially to the curse upon the
literal serpent, the latter predicting the curse upon the
great Tempter.' They seem but one prophecy, and yet
they take in two objects, the near and the distant, the
literal and the figurative.  Commencing, like all double
prophecies, with the near and the literal, they end in the
distant and the figurative.   As in the  72d Psalm, the
singer begins with the actual Solomon and ends with the
greater Solomon; and as in several burdens the prophet
Isaiah begins with the Babylon then in being upon the
plain of Shinar, and ends with Babylon the great, upon
the seven hills; so is it here.  He begins with the serpent, He ends with Satan.  The figure used is taken from
See Usher's Body of Divizlty, chap. ix., where, after giving an
exposition similar to the above, he says,'If God did punish a poor
worm, which had no reason nor will to choose or refuse sin, how
much less will lHe spare us, which have both!'' As an argument of
the detestableness of the sin, and a constant memorial of it, the abused
beast is cursed. Compare Ex. xxi. 28, xxxii. 20; Lev. xx. 15; Gen.
ix. 5.'-Bishop KIDDER On the Pent. vol. i. p. 15.




154             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
the serpent, but the prophetic picture thus given concerns a far greater personage. For it is evident that one
main object gained by employing such a figure in such
a way as is done here, is to bring before us the personality
of that being who is here introduced to us.  The words,
no doubt, are figures, but they are figures of what is literal,
-precise and personal. They are not figures of abstractions or principles or truths, but of a person. They do
not set forth God's condemnation of error or of evil, but
His judgment upon a person. They do not denote the
mere conflict between evil and good, with the triumph
of the latter after a brief depression, but they foretell the
battle between two persons. The nature of the combat
is not declared, but the personality and literality of the
combatants is vividly, and beyond mistake, set forth.l
This much is plain. Let us now look at the words
themselves.
God had, in His dealing with our first parents, proceeded in the way of judicial inquiry, step by step. He
had taken nothing for granted, but had calmly questioned
them, allowing them full opportunity of defending themselves; loth to condemn, nay, giving out His accusations
1 German rationalists, denying the personality of Satan, make this
a conflict between the good and evil principles in man! See Dr.
S. F. N. Morus' Comment. Exeg. Hist. vol. i. pp. 417-4I9.  The
literary scoffers of the age, who set aside the truths of Scripture as
overdated and obsolete,-unsuited to an era of intellectual progress,
-mock at the personality of the Evil One, talk of'extinct Satans,'
and treat the ancient belief in the devil's true being as an old fable.
If the Bible testimony to a God and a Christ be plain, equally plain
is that testimony to the being and personality of Satan.'No God'
and'no devil'generally go together.




GENESIS III. I4, I5.                  I55
simply as questions, no more.'  But when He comes to
deal with the serpent and with Satan, we find nothing of
this. They were dealt with as already condemned, and
\only waiting their sentence.  Such is His grace to man,
and such the intimation of His purpose to deal with him
in grace, not in judgment. Wondrous contrast between
the two races of creatures and His purposes concerning
them!  With the one all is grace, with the other all is
righteousness and wrath!  Even in the lower creation
this difference is shown.  That animal that had sided
with Satan, and become his instrument in ruining man,
is cursed with Satan's curse, and for Satan's sin; while
the other animals are cursed with a less heavy and less
abiding curse, and that for man's sin.2 As if God would
thus from the beginning proclaim the pre-eminent guilt
1 Serpens vero jam non requiritur, quia nec ejus poenitentia quoerebatur.'-JEROME.' As for the Serpent, He vouchsafes not to ask him
one question, nor to expect what he should say for himself; but
presently, without examination, proceeds to judgment against him.'
-MEDE, Works, p. 221.
2 Satan's connection with the serpent is a subject of great difficulty.
The serpent's punishment was on account of Satan's sin, not man's
sin. Hence the heavier curse,-a curse not only heavier in itself, but
longer in duration, not removed even in millennial days, when blessing
returns to the rest of creation (Isa. lxv. 25). Dust shall still be the
serpent's meat.'Dum plenam naturne integrm ac bene constitut~e
instaurationem promittit sub Christi regno inter alia commemorat,
pulverem serpenti pro pane futurum esse.'-CALVIN.  We think it
may be made a question whether the animal creation at large were
cursed for man's sin or for Satan's sin. No doubt they were involved
in the former, but still was it not for their participation in the latter,
through their representative the serpent, the wisest of them all, that
they have fallen under the curse? Is not this implied in the words,'Thou art cursed above all cattle'? etc. The ground is said to be




156            T7HOUGHTS OV GENESIS.
of every ally of the Evil One; and the swift doom of all
that, in the day of doom, shall be found upon his side.
The serpent was but the involuntary agent, yet he was
cursed; how much more they who have'yielded their
members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin' (Rom.
vi. I3),1 nay,'run greedily' in the way of the Evil One I
Though the serpent was but the instrument, yet he is
cursed.2   And the words,'above all cattle,' imply that
the rest of the animal creation were made to share the
curse which had come down upon it as Satan's special
agent in the plot against man. And why this universal
curse?
i. To show  the' preading and conlaminztizin  nature of
sin. —One sin is enough to spread over a world.  There
is something in the very nature of sin that infects and
defiles. It is not like a stone dropped in a wilderness,
cursed for man's sake, as it was by eating its fruit that he fell; but
the animals seem cursed on Satan's account, as they were connected
with his temptation. Yet in the end they are separated from him
and his doom, and made to share the grace in store for man, their
head and king.
1 The word'yield' poorly expresses the Greek vrccp1;-,npr, which
forcibly implies the willing, nay eager, presentation of our members to
be the instruments of sin.
2'Shrunk from its erect and probably lofty stature; deprived of its
limbs; reduced to grovel on the earth and seek its food in the dust;
mute henceforth, and abject; the baneful serpent sunk beneath this
awful curse, and glided away to hide itself out of sight; and from that
day the miserable reptile has ever slunk from the eye of man.'-HEAD'S
World and its Creator, p. 124.  In these figures of the humiliation
of the serpent, we read the utater humilialioln of the tempter himself.
The posture and thefood of the serpent most aptly set forth the present
degradation of the Evil One, just as the remaining words denote his
final ruin.




GEINESIS III. I4, 15.                  I57
upon the sand, there to  lie motionless and  powerless.
It is like that same stone cast into a vast waveless lake,
which raises ripple upon ripple, and sends its disturbing
influence abroad, in circle after circle, for, miles on every
side, till the whole lake is in motion.  We do not understand the activities and energies of sin.  We are slow to
credit them.  Still less do we understand or believe the
strange connection between one sinning creature and
another; so that it seems unrighteous to us that one
should involve another in evil.  Yet it is evident that
there is such a thing as a union, not only of nature, but
of responsibilizy.  I do not profess to explain this.  But
God proceeds upon it as a law  of being.   The passage
before us takes it for granted; nay, the whole Bible
assumes it. It is not some casual or some arbitrary proceeding.  It is the law, the righteous law of creaturehood,
which unfolding itself first in the curse, has consummated
its development in the blessing, when' He was made sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.'
We cannot in this place discuss the doctrine of the imputation of
sin or righteousness. This much we may say, that not only does the
Bible assume them, but they are evidently wrapt up in the history of
man. Why is disease transmitted? Why does woman suffer in childbirth? Why do infants die? Because sin has been imputed. There
has been previous guilt somewhere. Many admit the transmission of
evil, but deny the transference of guilt. Now we may ask, could
there be the transmission of evil, if there were not a transmission
of guilt? Would the one be a righteous thing without the other?
However difficult it may be to demonstrate the justice of making
guilt transmissible, yet it is much more difficult to prove the
justice of transmitting suffering, if the transmission of guilt be un



58             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
2. To show  how all the manifold parts of creation hang
together and depend upon each other.-One being displaced,
all are ruined. There is a unity in creation which we
have not yet learned to understand, —a unity of the
closest kind, yet quite compatible with individual responsibility and separate action. The arch is not more
dependent on the keystone than are the different parts
of creaturehood dependent on each other for stability and
perfection. It is as if the unity of the Godhead had its
counterpart in the unity of creation.   And, strange to
say, it is the fall that has so fully discovered this oneness,
and made us acquainted with its manifold relations..3. To be a monument of the evil of sin.'  Sin needs
something visible, something palpable, to make known
righteous. That law of being which transmits suffering or death can
only be just upon the supposition of a previous law of being, transmitting guilt. Hence it is not the compensation afforded us in Christ's
righteousness that makes the imputation of Adam's sin an equitable
thing. But it is the great original law of creaturehood, as to the
transmission of moral and legal liabilities, that makes both of these
strictly and truly righteous.
1'Because the excellency and sagacity of the serpent had been the
occasion of man's confusion, by being made the lying counterfeit of
the devil's excellency and wisdom, and the mask whereby he so
covered his vileness that the woman took him not to be as he was
indeed; therefore God in His wisdom thought good to change the
copy, and henceforth to blur and deface that unhappy physiognomical
letter, and, by abasing the serpent for the time to come, to make him
an everlasting emblem and monument wherein man might hieroglyphically read the malice, vileness, and execrable baseness of that wicked
spirit that had beguiled him; to hate him (as now we do the serpent)
with mortal hatred, and by his unlucky fortune to expect the devil's
deadly destiny. In a word, that which was once used for a mask to
cover the devil's knavery, should for the future be a glass wherein to
behold his villany'-.-Mede, p. 229,




.GENESIS IIi. 14, 15.            159
both its existence and its'exceeding  sinfulness.'  It
must exhibit itself to our senses.  It must stand forth to
view, branded with the stroke of God's judgment, as the
abominable thing which He hates. Thus He has strewn
the memorials of sin all over the earth.  He has affixed
them to things animate and inanimate, that we may see
and hear and feel the vileness and the bitterness of the
accursed thing. Before God can proceed to unfold His
purpose of pardon, He must rear upon the soil of earth
an enduring monument of sin, that thereafter there may
be no mistake on the part of man; that it may never be
supposed that in being gracious to the sinner He was
trifling with the sin.
While the serpent is thus cursed above all the rest of
creation, he is made to understand the reason why he
is so dealt with.'Because thou hast done this.'  God
takes care that there shall be no mistake.  The curse
is no accidental and no arbitrary evil; it is traceable to
one distinct cause. The serpent has beguiled man, and
therefore judgment lights upon it' The curse causeless
shall not come.''Because thou hast done this,' is God's
preface to His sentence on the serpent. It is His preface to the judgment pronounced upon the sinner.'Because thou hast done this,' are the awful words with which
he will be sent into the everlasting fire.
Such is the visible curse on the serpent. Let us now
mark (ver. I5) the invisible curse on Satan. There was
to be, from that moment, war between Satan and the
woman, enmity between his seed and her seed.  Nay,
there was to be warfare,-open warfare. This warfare




I6o           THO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
would consist of two great parts, or stages.  In the first,
the woman's seed would be wounded; in the second,
the serpent would be destroyed.  The'length of his
warfare is not stated, or how near its two great parts
might be to each other.  They might be near, or they
might be far off, we are not told, for it was not needful
that we should learn this at first. Simply the two things
are presented to us, but the question of time is kept
out of view, that, from the very first, there might be not
merely a looking for the arrival of the woman's seed,
but also a watching for Him. - We get here but the far-off
glimpse ot a great mountain-range. Its lofty peaks seem
all clustered together, as if there were not a step between:
yet, when we reach them, as now in their last days we
have done, we find them separated from each other by
valleys, and plains, and precipices of vast extent and'height.  We could not gather from the brief words of
this verse whether the battle was to be the conflict of
a day or of ten thousand years.  After ages were to
unroll the detail; to reveal to us the suffering and the
triumph, the shame and the glory.  So closely are the
first and second comings of the Lord here brought together, that we should have supposed that there was no
interval between them.
But though the times and seasons were not given, and
therefore much was hidden from man, yet enough was
told to let him know that God had taken his part against
his enemy; that Divine love had interposed and pledged
itself to the final discomfiture of Satan, and the final
blessedness of the victim which he had counted on as




GENESIS iII. 14, 15.           i6i
his own. Here sounds the first note of gladness in the
ear of man. It sounds in many respects indistinctly and
inarticulately; but in this respect, at least, is it most
distinct and articulate, that it announces the free love
of God, and that free love not simply as displayed in
the sending of a deliverer; but as making for itself a
righteous approach to man through the sufferings of that
deliverer Himself.  Now the great thought of God's
heart, the idea of grace, began to be unfolded, not only
to man, but to the universe. But oh! what a mighty
apparatus requires to be constructed,ere that one idea
can be made plain, and man trusted with it! What an
apparatus must be raised (and that gradually, age after
age) for carrying out as well as for exhibiting the whole
adjustment of righteousness and grace, holiness and grace,
wrath and grace, punishment and grace, ere the sinner
can be made to comprehend the new, the strange idea,
or to distinguish it from mere indifference to sin, or'be
trusted with the application of it to himself! This was
the first step to the unfolding of'the mystery which was
hid in God, who created'all things by Jesus Christ; that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom
of God, according to the eternal purpose which He
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Eph. iii. 9-II).
And it is in reference to this that the epistle thus
concludes:'Unto Him be glory IN THE CHURCH,
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen' (Eph.
iii. 21).  And at the consummation of the glorious
mystery shall this song be sung:'Oh the depth of the
VOL. VI.                                 L




I62z         TWOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!'
(Rom. xi. 33.)
Having briefly sketched the meaning of these two
verses, let us now look at them more in detail. They
are too important to be slightly passed over.  They
contain the root of all redemption-truth.
i. Let us mark how God proceeds in His inquiries after
sin.-He first traces it out step by step, tracks it in all
its windings, ere He utters one word of judgment. His
dealings hitherto had been with Adam, as the head of
creation. Therefore He speaks first to him. Then from
Adam sin is traced to the woman, then from the woman
to the serpent. By this process, it was brought solemnly
before the conscience of the transgressors, that they might
see what they had done. In this process God takes no
advantage of the sinner.  He does not make use of
His omniscience or omnipotence to convict or overawe
the sinner, or to extort confession from him. He proves
all by the sinner's own admission, that his mouth may
be stopped, and that the Judge may be acknowledged
as righteous in all He does; that He may not only be
the just God, but that He may be seen to be so by His
creatures (see Job xxxiv. 23; Ps. li. 4; Rom. iii. 4).
And as- is the process of inquiry, so is the judgment.
The sentence is judicially announced, not in anger, but
in righteousness.  Having traced the sin to its source,
God begins with the serpent, the source of the evil, or
rather with Satan and the serpent jointly, as the twofold
source. He began with the transgressor in His inquiry,
He begins with the tempter in His judgment; for the




GENESIS III. I4, 5.             I63
first word of condemnation must be directed against the
originator of sin, the first stroke of wrath must fall on
the prime mover of the deed. Thus, even in the minutest
things, showing His truth and justice!  Even in the
order of judgment, how careful to mark His sense of the
different kinds of criminality! Such is a specimen of
the way in which He will judge the world in righteousness!
2. Let us marik the circzumstances in which the sentence was
given. —It was given in the hearing of our parents. It
was not specially directed to them.  They were but
hearers. Yet the scene,was designed for them. This
curse on the serpent was spoken in their ears, because
it contained in it God's purpose of grace towards them.
God's design was, that they should learn His gracious
intentions without delay, and thus their fears be quieted
and their confidence in God restored, but still that they
should learn them in a way which should completely
humble them, and make them feel that the grace did
not arise from anything in themselves. They learn this
grace of God in a sort of side way, as if God turned
away His face when making it known.  They get it
in the form of a curse against the, serpent for the evil
done by him, thereby learning that the evil done must
all be undone before man can be blest! This awful
curse against the being that had ruined them intimated
such things as these: (I.) That God meant to save them,
and not to give them up to the snares of their enemy;
(2.) That they could only be saved by their enemy being
destroyed; (3.) That this destruction would be attended




I64 T;THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
with toil, and conflict, and wounds; (4.) That it was
easy to ruin a world, but hard to save and'restore.
How affecting the thought, that God could not preach
the gospel directly to Adam, but that he must be left
to gather it from the curse against the Evil One,-as if
he could not be trusted with the full glad tidings of
grace till he had learned the exceeding sinfulness of
sin! How different now with us! God preaches that
gospel directly to the sinner in all its largeness; saying
to each of us, There is grace enough for thee, come thou
and be reconciled, come thou and be saved!
3. Let us mark how God hated that which Satan had
done.-' Because thou hast done this,' are the words of
awful preface to the sentence. God had no pleasure in
the snare or the ruin it had wrought. He had no satisfaction in the marring of His handiwork, no pleasure in
the death of the sinner, no joy in the desolation of His
world. His words are the expression of deep displeasure
against him who had done the horrid deed, and at the
deed which had been done. And let us not forget how
much of that which Satan has since then been doomed
to suffer, as well as of that which he shall hereafter suffer,
has its origin here.'Because thou hast done this!' No
doubt he was ruined and. doomed before, for his own transgression; but now he is to be sunk to a lower level of condemnation, and loaded with a weightier curse, for being
the tempter of man, the destroyer of a world. This is the
brand upon his burning forehead; this is the millstone
round his neck. God will have him understand how
He abhorred that which he had done. And when here



GENESIS III. r4, I5.            I65
after he is seized, and bound, and shut up by the strong
angel in the abyss, shall not these words ring in his ears
as he is thrust down into his dwelling of darkness,'Because thou hast done this'?  His sin, by means of
which he succeeded in casting man out of Eden, shall
be the sin by which he himself shall be cast wholly out
of earth, to deceive the nations no more.
4. In undoing the evil God begins at its source.-The
drying up of the stream will not do; the source must
be reached. If man is to be saved at all, it must be
by the removal of sin; and if sin is to be removed,
God must begin at the very root.  There must be a
complete undoing of the evil,-an undoing which shall
no,t only sweep off the actual sin, with its sad results,
but which shall strike at the very nature of sin itself.
Thus God's hatred of sin is the foundation of the
sinner's deliverance; and no deliverance can be sure
or permanent, if not founded upon this. God's purpose
of grace does not treat sin as a light thing, but as an
infinite evil, which must be met at its first uprising;
nay, which can only be rightly met when met there.
Grace cannot come forth to the sinner, save in connection with the utter condemnation of the sin. There can
be no true love to the sinner, which does not extirpate
and utterly make away with the sin.  Sin was the real
enemy, and love to the sinner must proceed at once against
this enemy, not resting till it is utterly destroyed.
5. God shows that Satan shall not be allowed to
triuznmTh. —He has gained a mighty advantage, but his
victory is only temporary and partial.  God is seen




i66          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
interposing and setting His face against the adversary,
God is taking the sinner's side; and this is the assurance that Satan's victory shall be reversed! His doom
is sealed.  Degradation, shame, ruin, are his portion.
What might have been his doom hitherto on account
of his former sin we know not; but here we learn the
superadded penalty which he was henceforth to bear.
Man hears the condemnation of his enemy, and knows
that this defeat is his deliverance.  And of this he is
to have a visible 2pledge in the serpent's form and habits.
This very curse upon the serpent is the declaration to
man of his own deliverance from the curse, for it is
God's declaration of displeasure against the enemy that
had seduced him.  Thus Satan's ruin and the sinner's
deliverance are bound up together. It was to'destroy
the works of the devil' that the Son of God was to
come; nay, it was'to destroy him that had the power
of death, even the devil.' And we now, in these days,
know that He has come.  He has done His mighty
work. He has led captivity captive.
6. God Himself undertakes man's cause. —' I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed.' It is not,'there shall be enmity;'
but'I will put it.' God Himself will now proceed to
work for man. The serpent's malice and success have
but drawn forth the deeper love and more direct interposition in man's behalf.
7. God promises a seed to the woman.l —All that this
~ How Ziferally was this fulfilled in the Son of Mary! He was the
seed of the woman, not of the man.




GENESIS III. I4, 15.                67
implied she could not know  at the time.   But it is
evidently declared, that she was not to die immediately.
The sentence,'In the day thou eatest thou shalt die,'
was to be suspended in so far as death temporal was
concerned.  She was to have a seed, and that said,
Thou art not to  die immediately.l   This suspension
was, of itself, an intimation of grace. The seed of the
woman might be supposed to be three. First, there is
the whole race of man. Secondly, there is the Church.
Thirdly, there is the Messiah. To this last, more especially, does the promise point.  On Him, as the woman's
seed, He sought to fix man's eye from  the beginning.
Through Him  deliverance was to come.  For whatever
might be the mystery hanging over this, still it was indicated that it was in this way, and- through this seed,
that sin was to be undone. The woman's seed was to
be God's instrument in destroying Satan, and avenging
the wrong he had done to man.  Here let us mark,
(X.) The honour put upon the woman, even though she
was first in transgression2  This is grace indeed,-grace
in its largeness. And thus, while the woman is taught
not to be overmuch cast down, the man is hindered
from  triumphing  over her.  (2.) The confounding  of
Satan.  It is the seed of his victim  that is to be his
destroyer.  It is thus that he is put to shame, and the
1 Hence to Messiah Himself the promise was,' He shall see His
seed, He shall prolong His days,' Isa. liii. Io.
2 May we not say, that thus the man was reproved for casting blame
upon the woman? He was prevented from boasting. If the woman
had the dishonour of being the chief transgressor, she had the honour
of being the instrument of deliverance.




i68          THO UGHTS ON GENiESIS.
success of his wiles made the means of his own ruin.
His triumph is his destruction.  (3.) The directing of
the Church's eye to a person as the instrument of blessing; nay, to a man,   very flesh and blood.  The
salvation was to come from God, and yet it was to come
tlrougkh man.
8. God is to put enmity between the serpent and the
woman, and between the serpent's seed and the woman's
seed.-The woman and the serpent had joined together
in rebellion; and so long as this friendship lasted, there
could be no hope for her or for the race.  But God
steps in to break this bond. This'covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and this agreement with hell shall
not stand.'  The woman and the serpent had been
fellow-accomplices; but henceforth this league was to
be broken. As if God had said to the tempter,'Thou
hast beguiled her to be an accomplice with thee against
me, and thou thinkest to get her seed to join thee; but
it shall not be so. I will break the alliance. I will not
only separate between thee and her, but I will raise up
deadly hatred.' Let us notice here such things as these:
(I.) The enmity between Satan and the Church. There
can be no friendship with him, and no sympathy with
his works.  Thus the distinction between the Church
and the world is as old as Eden; and it is not merely
distinction, it is hostility. (2.) The enmity between
Christ and Satan; between Him who is the representative
of heaven and him who is the representative of hell;
between Him who is the friend and him who is the
enemy of man. (3.) The name given to the ungodly,



GENESIS III. I4, 15.           I69'the seed of the serpent.' And it was this expression
that Christ took up when He spoke of the'generation
of vipers,' and said to the unbelieving Jews,'Ye are of
your father the devil.'  By birth we are the serpent's
brood, till grace transforms us, and we become the
woman's seed; then our friendship with the accursed
race is for ever broken. (4.) The name of the Church,
-'the seed of the woman.' Yes, the seed of her who
sinned, who'was in the transgression,'-offspring of Eve,
-of her who was first in apostasy. What tender favour
is thus shown to her! (5.) The name of Christ. The
same as the Church's, the'seed of the woman.' Yes,
He was indeed'born of a woman,' —the Son of Mary,
-the Son of Eve,-the Son of her that had transgressed.
We sometimes wonder that Jesus should have allowed
such names as Tamar, and Rahab, and Bathsheba to
be in the roll of His ancestors; but is not all this implied
in His being called at the outset the seed of the woman?
What grace is there in His taking to Himself such a
name! What oneness with us does such a name imply;
oneness with all the redeemed! Ah, surely He is not
ashamed to call us brethren! Truly the Son of man
did come to seek and to save that which was lost.
9. There is not only to be enmity, but conftict.-That
these two parties should keep aloof from each other was
not enough. There must be more than this. There
must be alienation and hatred; nay, there must be warfare, and that of the most desperate kind. Satan and
the Church must ever be at open warfare. The world
and the Church must ever be foes to each other. It




170          THOUGHTS' ON GENESIS.
cannot be otherwise.  No concession, no compromise,
can ever make it otherwise, or alter the declared purpose
of Jehovah. Neither Satan nor the world can change.
They may hide their vileness, they may mask their hatefulness, and seek to win us with flattery, or beguile us
with lies; but they change not.  They are still'from
beneath,' not'from above;' and woe be to us, if by
silence, or unfaithfulness, or compliance, we dishonour
our Lord before them, and act unworthy of our calling,
and name, and hope!
The beginning of this warfare we see in Cain and
Abel. Its progress we find in the history of succeeding
ages. In Christ Himself we see that warfare at its height.
Since then it has still proceeded, and perhaps more
than before, in the open field. Babylon was Satan's
citadel at first, round which his armies were gathered,
and from which, as from a centre, he assailed the Church
in her citadel, which, in former days, was exclusively
Jerusalem. In each of the seats of the four successive
monarchies Satan found a citadel. These were his four
great encampments, from which he launched his squadrons against the army of the living God. Especially in
the last of these empires has he found at once a city and
a fortress, from which he assails the hated followers of
the Lamb, and'wears out the saints of the Most High;'
shedding their blood like water, and scattering their
bones upon the earth.  In a threefold form does this
great anti-Christian armament take the field,-as Paganism, as Popery, as Infidelity,-the last the most terrible
of all7 as the product and combination of the others,



GENESIS III. 14, I5.                 I71
the concentration and embodiment of all the various
forms of evil from  the beginning.  In its ranks will be
found'the seed of the serpent' in fullest development,the truest offspring of the Evil One to which earth has
given birth. This conflict is made up of two great parts,
-two events, each of which is the crisis of a long series
precedinig, and the commencement of another series
arising  out of it.  They are widely different in their
nature, though forming part of one great development.
They are thus referred to by our Lord,'Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?'
(Luke xxiv. 26); and by the Apostle Peter, when he
speaks of'the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that
should follow' (I Pet. i. i i); and again, when he speaks
of himself as a'witness of the sufferings of Christ, and
also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed' (I Pet.
v. I). They form the two mighty events, known to us
as the first and second comings of the Lord,-the first
coming embracing that part of the conflict which consists
in His'suffering,' the second  coming embracing  that
which is consummated in His'glory.' Let us notice
the two divisions.
i. The bruising of the heel of the woman's seed. —It is
not the woman's heel that is to be bruised, but the heel
of her seed; neither is it the woman that is to bruise the
1 The serpent, as it were, cunningly steals behind and seizes the
heel. (See Gen. xlix. 17.)'The serpent,' says Turrettine,'can only
lay hold on and bite the heel, that is, the humanity and flesh of Christ?
by which He trod the earth; and by means of temptations, persecutions, and death, afflict Him,' etc.'Thus it is also,' he adds,' with
believers. The old serpent bites their heels.'-(Vol. ii. p. 242.)




172           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
serpent's head,' but her seed;-'it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel.'  It was an inferior part
that was to be wounded, not a vital one.  Yet still there
was to be a wound. The serpent's seed was to have a
temporary triumph, and this was fulfilled when Jesus
hung on the cross. Then the heel was bruised. Then
Satan seemed to conquer. That was the hour and power
of darkness.  Then'He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.'  Then that
wound was given which defeated him who gave it, and
began our victory.  Thus it was that the Church was
taught to look forward to the'bruised heel,' and out of
that symbol to gather the great truth which alone can
heal the conscience, that God had provided a substitute,
by the shedding of whose blood there was to be deliverance.  It was not salvation by mere love that was taught;
it was not salvation by mere incarnation; it was salvation
by sacrzficial subsfilule, salvation by vicarious bloodshedding, salvation by a surety's endurance and exhaustion
of the penalty which was our due.  In no other way
could love find its way to us, and in no other could our
consciences have been pacified.  The'bruised heel'
was not the mere display of love; it was the judicial
removal of the righteous barrier, which would otherwise
have for ever hindered that love from reaching the sinner.
In the man with the'bruised heel' we see the sinner's
substitute, and, at the same time, the sinner's pattern, —
1 It is not,'she shall bruise thy head,' but'it' or'he,' KNi. It
was not to be Eve herself, or any daughter of Eve. And this was
perfectly understood all along from the beginning.




GENESIS III. I4, I5.                 173
his'leader and commander.' We are followers of the
Man with the bruised heel! Let us not be ashamed of
Him  or of His cross!  Let us not expect for ourselves
anything better than He had to pass through. Tribulation
was His entrance into the kingdom.  It must also be
ours. The servant is not greater than his Lord.
2. The bruising of the serpent's head.l-It was his most
vital as well as his most honourable part that was to be
bruised.  An intimation this of utter defeat and ruin.
He has received  many a stroke.  His deadly wound
was given upon the cross, in that very stroke by which
he bruised the heel of the woman's seed. So that from
that moment our victory was secure. But the final blow
is reserved for the Lord's second coming. Then it is
that the great dragon, that old serpent, is to be bound
in chains, and shut up in the abyss. And it is to that
day of triumph that the apostle's words specially refer,'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet
shortly.'
Such was the curse upon the tempter; such the glad
tidings to man which it contained; such the grace it
1 There is evident reference to this not only in Rom. xvi. 20, but
in the promise to Messiah (Ps. xci. I3),'Thou shalt tread upon the
adder... the dragon shalt Thou trample under feet;' and in the
promises to the apostles,'They shall take up serpents,' etc. (Mark xvi.
I8); and especially in Luke x. I8, I9, where, after saying,' I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven,' our Lord adds,' Behold, I give
you power to tread on SERPENTS AND SCORPIONS, AND OVER ALL
THE POWER OF THE ENEMY;' as if He would say,'I, the seed of the
woman, the bruiser of the serpent's head, delegate this power of mine
to you; I, who am specially appointed to carry on the enmity between
the two seeds, I give you power over the enzemy.'




174            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
manifested; such the victory which it pledged; and such
the process through which that triumph was to be reached.
It was this display of an infinite but most unexpected
grace that made Adam throw aside his fig-leaves, leave
his thicket, and draw nigh to God. He could have
expected only avenging wrath; he meets with pardoning
love; love that would not rest till it had undone all
the evil that had been brought into the world by man's
sin; that would spare no cost, not even the blood of
the Only-begotten of the Father, in accomplishing this
end; and would press forward through every  enemy
and every barrier, till it had taken the spoil from the
mighty, and delivered the lawful captive; till it had
overthrown the adversary in righteous battle; till it had
won back man and man's forfeited inheritance; till it
had compensated for all the dishonours done to God by
Satan's victory; nay, till it had secured glory to God in
the highest, peace on earth, and good-will to man.'
Ver. I6.' Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow and thy.conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;
and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.'
In the sentence on the woman there are no words of
preface, serving as a link to connect the special sin with
the special penalty.   In the case of the serpent, the
preface was,'because thou hast done this.' In the case
1 In this first promise, which so fully contains the gospel, not one
word is said of anything being done by man, He is set aside, and
God does everything for him.'Salvation is of the Lord.' Man
stands still and beholds it. The gospel is no command enjoining us
to do anything; it is God's declaration that He has done all for us.




GENESIS III. I6.                  I75
of Adam, it was,'because thou hast hearkened to the
voice of thy wife;' but in the case of the woman, it is
not, as might have been expected,'because thou hast
hearkened to the serpent;' but, without any such introduction, the sentence goes forth at once,' I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow.'  The want of this introduction,
taken in connection with the peculiar sentence, seems to
show that the woman's punishment was something special,
superadded to her share in the punishment of the race,
because of:her leading her husband into the transgression.
As one with the man, she was to partake of his sentence;
but, as having misled the man, she was to have a penalty
that would always remind her of this. Adam, as the representative of the race, is made to bear the general
penalty; and in this the woman, as one of the race, has
her part.  But, apart from  this, as the beguiler of her
husband, when given him as his help-meet, she is to have
her sorrows multiplied.@ Yet though her sentence implies
this, God, in His tender love to her, does not actually
May there not be in the words,'I will greatly multiply,' a reference to the well-known physical law, that adverse circumstances,
such as hardship or feebleness in the human race, or a poor soil in the
case of plants, tend to increase the propagative power, and multiply,
instead of diminishing, the numbers produced; as if nature, inwardly
conscious of more precarious life, and anticipating a speedier end, were
putting forth every effort to prevent the cutting off of the peculiar race
or kind, by hastening the process of propagation, and multiplying the
numbers produced? In that case, it would be as if God, when inflicting the sentence which gave weakness and hardship to woman as her
lot, threw around her, as an amelioration and compensation, the protection of a new law-the law which was to regulate her fruitfulness,
not by the extent of her healthfulness, and ease, and comfort, but' by
-the amount of her feebleness, and hardship, and oppression; a law.




176            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
announce this with a'because,' lest the man should think
that God was confirming his accusation against her (ver.
I2), and thereby lessening his guilt.  Thus she gets
something which the man does not, because she was first
in transgression, and because she was both the deceived
and the deceiver.'Adam,' says the apostle (I Tim. ii.
14),'was not deceived (by the serpent); but the woman,
being deceived, was in the transgression.  Notwithstanding, she (even she!) shall be saved (no less than Adam)
through her child-bearing (by means of that very childbearing which contained her sentence and her sorrow),
if she continue in faith, and love, and holiness, with
sobriety;' for without holiness no man shall see the
Lord.
Thus it was made manifest, (I.) That God looked upon
the serpent as the great origin of the sin and the evil in
both woman and man. (2.) That God treated Addm as the
representative of the race, through whom sin entered, and
passed over to posterity, so that it was not Eve's sin that
effected our ruin (though it brought woe upon herself),
but that (if we can suppose the case), had Eve sinned
alone, no evil would have followed to mankind (Rom. v.
12, I4; I Cor. xv. 22). (3.) That the very penalty inflicted
was connected with grace; 1 the child-bearing in sorrow,
which was the penalty, being the channel through which
which, while it multiplied her grief, multiplied her joys also, giving
her ten children, though in sorrow, for one without it, and compressing within the brief period of shortened life on earth the whole strange
story of a woman's heart, and a mother's tears.
1'A promise of mercy, and forgiveness of sin, and great afflictions,
or rebukes for the same, may and'shall attend the same soul; "I




GENESIS III. I6.'77
the seed was to come by whom deliverance was to be
wrought. (4.) That God wished it to be known that this
sentence of evil, as well as.the previous sentence of blessing, came directlyfrom Himself.  He is the Almighty, the
Sovgreign doer as well as puzrposer of all.'I will greatly
multiply.'
This sentence takes for granted the previous promise of'the seed.' As if God were saying to the woman,'Yes,
thou shalt have a seed, and from it deliverance shall
come, and come through thee, the introducer of the evil;
but the bringing forth of that seed shall be a perpetual
memorial.of thy sin, so. that thou shalt be continually
humbled, and solemnized, and saddened, by the very
thing which seemed fitted only to lift thee up, and make
thee rejoice; with thy joy shall grief be mingled, so that
thou shalt not be allowed to forget thy sin, but be perpetually reminded of.it; and if at any time thou shouldst
exult unduly, and say, "I am  the deliverer," thou shalt
hear a voice saying in thine ears, "But thou wast the
transgressor."'   Thus the memorial of the deliverance
and of the sin is one. The two things are kept before
our eyes by the same token; and we are taught that,
will greatly multiply thy sorrow " comes after the promise of grace.'
-BUNYAN'S LExposition of the first tez chzapters of Genesis.' God does not cast Eve off, or curse her as He had done the serpent.
All this was fatherly chastisement, rather than a satisfactory punishment. God might have inflicted the mulct of sudden death upon her,
which she, had merited; He might have taken away the blessing of
fruitfulness before promised, but He only mingleth it with dolours.'CHRISTOPHER NESS, HistoIy and Mystery of the Old and New TestamZent, vol. i. p. 52.
VOL. VI.                                        M




178             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
whilst there is a redemption and a Redeemer, it was an
awful sin that needed such a redemption and such a
Redeemer.  On each portion and fragment of this ruined
world has God written the evil of sin. 
His sentence on the woman is, in part, a reversal of the
first blessing:'Multiply, and replenish the earth.'  God's
blessing alone went out at first with. the command to
multiply; but now some drops of the curse are to be
infused into it, in remembrance of sin. The race was still
to go on increasing; but henceforth it was to be in sorrow.
The very perpetuation of the species was to be accompanied with marks of the displeasure of God. The dark
cloud of sorrow was to take up its station above each man
as he came into the world.  There was henceforth to be
pain and danger, fear and trembling, the shrinking of
woman's feeble nature from the greatness of the conflict
which lay before her, ere the desire of her eyes was attained.; and that which was meant to have been an unmingled joy, became the sorest trial of humanity; one of
Nature's sharpest struggles; one of the bitterest ills that
flesh is heir to.: And, kindred to these pangs of her
corporeal frame, are the other varied sorrows which overshadow her lot-the weakness, the dependence, the fear,
the rising and sinking of heart, the bitterness of disap1 Bernard, in alluding to this passage, notices, on:the one hand, the
pains of child-bearing, and on the other, the disgrace that was
attached to barrenness, as if woman were now placed in a strait
betwixt the two. After speaking of the'hard necessity and heavy
yoke laid on the daughters of Eve,' he adds,'Et si pariunt cruciantur;
et si non pariunt maledicuntur.  Et dolor prohibet parere, et non
parere, maledictio.'-HIolizil.:I. de Advenzt-u.




GENESIS III. i6.                    179
pointed hope, the wounds of unrequited affection;-all
these, as drops of the sad cup now put into her hands,
woman has, from the beginning, been made to taste.
The sentence falls on her specially as woman, not as
one with the man, and part of the human race, but as
woman. The things which mark her out as woman are
the things which the sentence selects. It is as the
mot/her and as the wife that she is to feel the weight of the
sentence now  pronounced.   A  mother's pangs (which
otherwise would have been unknown); a wife's dependence (which, in all save Christian countries, is utter degradation); sorrow, not joy, in that appointed process
through which the promised seed is to be born into the
world  1 inferiority, instead of equality, in that relationship
in reference to which it had been said by her husband,' Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh;' not henceforth the husband'cleaving to the wife,' as at the first
(ii. 24), but the wife cleaving to the husband, and the
husband ruling over the wife. Such are the sad results of
sin 1 2'An old commentator gives four reasons for the sorrow, among
which are not only the prospect of the temporal ills of her offspring, but the foreboding of the eternal ruin of so many of those
whom she brings forth:'eorum  qui generantur, pauci sunt electi
et praedestinati, plerique propter eorum flagitia aeternis suppliciis
destinati.'-Vol. i. p. 678 of a Comzmentac;y orz Genesis, in four quarto
volumes, by Benedictus Pererius Valentinus, A.D. I599.  This may
be somewhat strained; yet it is a solemn thought for either man or
woman.
2' She must pay the penalty of her sin before she can rejoice in her
child,' says Chrysologus; and then adds,'What must be the end of
that of which the beginning is penal? Shall joy be the life-portion of
the man who begins that life in sorrow?' Sermones in Ps. i.




I80o           TIO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
In the helplessness of clinging dependence, as well as
in the fondness of blind attachment; in the consciousness
of needing an arm to lean upon, as well as in the irrepressible overflow  of passionate and unreasoning love,'thy
desire shall be to thy husband.' Nay, more,'he shall
rule over thee.' His the lordship, thine the submission;
his the rule, thine the obedience. Such, henceforth, is
to be thy condition; such the principle on which the
domestic constitution is to be reared.'  So God has
ordained it; not only as the penalty of woman's sin, but
as that which best suits a fallen world, and which best
carries out His design in regard to the families and kingdoms of the children of men.  And what can that family
expect where this divine ordinance is overlooked, nay,
perhaps reversed?   Hence the apostle utters the command so strongly,'Wives, be in subjection to your own
husbands' (I Pet. iii. I);'Submit yourselves unto your
own husbands in everything. Let the wife see that she
reverence her husband' (Eph. v. 22, 24, 33).2
1The'natural subordination in innocency,' as Fuller calls it in his
Exposition of Genesis, was to be greatly increased, so as to become
afterwards a yoke. It is not merely that she who had thus'gone'
beyond her bounds' should be' forced back into her own proper rank'
(in ordinem suum cogitur), as Calvin remarks, but she was henceforth
to occupy a still lower place than before; not necessarily' bondage,'
as he says, but still such a position as would eventually lead to bondage, unless counteracted by higher principles.  Yet it is to be
noticed (says Trapp), that though the apostle bids wives submit themselves to their husbands, he does not say, Husbands, rule over your
wives. —TRAPP On Genesis, A.D. I650.
2'A just law unto her, who, having given way to her own inordinate
phantasie and appetite, had undone both herself and husband. And
yet a rule given her for her own good and safety, who, having by




GENESIS III. i6.                   I8d
Yet, as if to comfort her spirit under this heavy prospect; as if to elevate woman's lowly lot, and to sanctify
a mother's pangs, God has taken this very fact concerning
her as the groundwork of figures wherein He sets forth
the world's coming deliverance and the Church's promised glory.   To this He refers when  He speaks of
creation's groans and travail-pains (Rom. viii. 22); and
of His people's joy when the day of present sorrow shall
have, passed away (John xvi. 21, 22). Again, as if to
dignify woman's humbling dependence on another, the
figure of the wife is made use of in illustrating the relationship between Christ and His redeemed (Eph. v. 23-32).
He, the lover; she, the loved one; he, gazing on her
beauty (Song vi. 4, vii. i-6); she, leaning on his strength,
experience found how ill she was able to moderate her own desires,
must needs be the more secured, by having a moderator set over her.'
-WHI-IITE On the first three chapters of Genesis, I656. A tolerably
thick folio, containing abundance of practical instruction deduced from
these chapters. Poole thus paraphrases the words:'Seeing, for
want of thy husband's rule and conduct, thou wast seduced by the
serpent, and didst abuse that- power I gave thee, together with thy
husband, to draw him into sin, thou shalt now be brought down to a
lower degree; for he shall rule thee, not with that sweet and gentle
hand which he formerly used, as a guide and counsellor only, but by a
higher and harder hand, as a lord and governor, to whom I have now
given a greater power and authority over thee than he had before.'
Jackson remarks:' That is, thy desire shall be subject to thy husband.
Upon his will and pleasure all thy desire must depend. For in this
sense the same phrase is used (Gen. iv. 7) concerning Abel's subjection
to Cain as the first-born. It is true, by the law of creation, the
woman should have lived in subordination under her husband, and
should have been governed by him; but being here denounced as a
chastisement for sinne, it implieth a further degree of subjectionthan
that which should have been by the law of nature and creation.'JACKSON On the Pentateuch, A.D. I646.




182             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
(Song ii. 6, viii. 5); he, decking her with jewels, as the
partner of his throne and heart; she,' sick with love,' yet
reverently looking up to and rejoicing in the strength and
honour of her husband-king; he, putting on his royal
state and raiment of glory, to win her eye yet more; she,
though conscious of the infinite inequality, not saying,
as human love in such circumstances is represented as
doing:'It were all one
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it; he is so above me,
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere;'
but saying, in the conscious security of well-proved affection,' My beloved is mine, and I am his.'
Under the figure of woman's birth-pangs, the whole
creation is described as travailing and groaning, pressing
forwards with eager longings to the glorious birth which
lies before it, in the day of the'regeneration.' Israel,
too, is spoken of under the same figure, as anticipating a
wondrous birth in the same day of'restitution' (Isa. lxvi.
7, 8); and the Church also is represented as, with like
pangs and groanings, longing for her expected hour of
blessing (Rev. xii. 2).1
l Now be it observed, there is not in nature such an image as
woman's travail for expressing that event which, looking to the
substance of it, is the bringing again of the Son out of the womb of
the invisible into the visible world, for ever to abide therein; which,
looking to the circumstances of it, is, with long-deferred hope, growing
towards the consummation into longing desire, and accomplished with
rending pangs, yet issuing in joy, transport of joy, that the Man-child




GENESIS III. I6..                   z83
And as this sentence  on woman as a mother is thus
made use of to set forth the process of bitter grief and
anguish through which the coming glory is to be reached,
so the sentence on her as the zefe is referred to in connection with the Church's relationship to Christ; for
though she is spoken of as the Bride, the Lamb's wife,
spouse of the second Adam, yet to her it is said, as if to
keep her in mind of her subject condition,'He is thy
Lord, worship thou Him' (Ps. xlv. II); so that, though
in one sense she seems raised to an equality with Him,
and placed upon His throne, yet she is ever to keep in
mind her inferiority to Him who is' God over all.'
Church of God! Bride of the Lamb! keep in remembrance thy heavenly calling, thy relationship to the Son
is born into the world; which, again, for the time of it, is fixed and
definite, but as it approaches, all uncertain to the very hour, inducing
continual preparation and readiness, yea, and longing, until the fierce
trial be overpast, and the joy be come. By this most expressive
similitude, dignifying and sanctifying that sorest trial of humanity,
having expressed the condition of the parturient Church, and the
weakness to which at length she is brought, and her own lamentation
over her own unprofitableness in the earth,-' We have, as it were,
brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the
earth;' the Holy Spirit comforteth the Church with these words,
spoken in the person of the Christ:'Thy dead shall live; my dead
body shall they arise;' which words, without any gloss whatever of
an interpreter, convey their own meaning to be, that the deliverance
which the Church lamented she had not wrought upon the earth,
should be wrought by the rising of her dead men, who are promised
this, among other things, that they should rule the nations with a rod
of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.  These dead
men of the Church He honours by the name of His dead body, according to the universal symbol of the Apostle Paul, which representeth
the Church as the body of Christ, the fulness of Him that filleth all
in all.




184           zTHOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
of God, that thou mayest be cheered, and gladdened, and
quickened; yet keep in mind thy lowly origin, thy unworthiness of character, thy unlikeness to the Holy One
who has bethrothed thee to Himself, that thou mayest be
humbled and abased.  He is thy Lord, worship thou
Him; forget not the adoration that is due to Him  for
His high majesty and condescending love.  He is thy
Lord, let thy desire be to Him. Love Him as He hath
loved thee, and let His name be written on thy heart.
He is thy Lord, let Him  rule over thee! Serve Him  as
He hath served thee, when for thee He took on Him the
form of a servant. Rejoice in being reigned over by one
whose sceptre is love. He is thy Lord, look for His appearing, for He comes to complete the espousals. Long
for that marriage-day; the day of nearness, and union,
and vision, when the bridal-blessing, the bridal-glory, the
bridal-crown, shall all be thine. In spite of the'much
tribulation' that lies before thee, be of good cheer, for
thus He Himself has spoken:'A woman when she is in
travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as
soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no
more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the
world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will
see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy
no man taketh from you' (John xvi. 2I, 22).
Vers. 17- I9.' 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, Thou shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for
thy sake (or on thy account); in sorrow (or with pain) shalt thou eat of
it all the days of thy liJe: I8. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring




GENESIS III. 17-I9.               185
forth to thee (Heb. and thorns and thistles shall it cause to bud to thee);
and thou shalt eat the herb of thefield.. i9. z the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou
taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thotu return.'
God now turns to Adam, to pronounce sentence upon
him.  In his case, as in that of the serpent, He begins
with'because,' making him feel the special point on
which his punishment is made to turn.  Adam had cast
the blame of his sin on the woman, as if to palliate his
own guilt, or at least to divide it with another.  God
begins at that very point, and takes up the excuse thus
made as the very aggravation of the sin.  Had the case
been that of the woman hearkening to the man, there
would have been some excuse for her, for she was under
him; but it was Adam, the head, hearkening to the voice
of her whom  he ought to have led, instead of suffering
himself to be led by her.  God had made him the head
of the woman as well as the head of creation, and therefore his sin was aggravated, not extenuated, by its being
done at the woman's suggestion. For thus Adam left his
place of rule; he forgot his headship, he overlooked his
responsibility both to his wife and to his posterity; he
set his wife's voice above the voice of God. Thus he
made haste to sin; and, as he aggravated. the sin by
doing it at the suggestion of her whom he ought to have
restrained, and guided, and watched over, so he aggravated it still more by trying to make that a palliation
which was an increase of heinousness.
The sentence then follows:'Cursed is the ground for
thy sake.' It is not a direct one, as in the case of the




iS6           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
serpent and of the woman, but a sentence in the form of
a curse upon the earth. The king is punished by a curse
upon his kingdom, in addition to the personal woe falling on himself, just as Pharaoh was cursed in the plagues
inflicted on his people.
The ground, out of which he was taken, is cursed on
his account, as if all pertaining to him had become evil.
It is not he that suffers on account of his connection with
the soil, but it is the soil that suffers on account of its
connection with him, affording proof that it is not from
matter that evil flows into spirit, but that it is from spirit
that evil flows into matter. That soil from which he had
sprung, that soil which God had just been strewing with
verdure and flowers, that soil whose fruitfulness had produced the tree whose beauty and desirableness had been
the woman's beguilement and his own ruin, that soil must
now be scourged and sterilized on his account; as if God
had thus addressed him:' I can no longer trust thee with
a fruitful soil, nor allow the blessing with which I have
blessed the earth to abide upon it; thou art to remain
here for a season, but it shall not be the same earth.; in
mercy I will still leave it such an earth as thou canst
inherit, not a wilderness nor a chaos as at first, but still
with enough of gloom, and desolation, and barrenness, as
to remind thee of thy sin, to say to thee continually, 0
man, thou hast ruined the earth over which I had set
thee as king.' God's blessing on the soil at first proclaimed the commencement of an age of holiness on
earth; His curse proclaimed the entrance of sin; and, in
the latter day, His blessing shall again descend, restoring




GENESIS III. 17-I9.                 I87
it to former excellence and beauty.  It was for man's
sake that it was made a blessed earth at first; it was for
man's sake that it was transformed into a cursed one;
and for man's sake it shall be restored to a blessed world
again. The first Adam's connection with it (being made
of dust) drew on it all evil when he fell; but the second
Adam's connection with it-for He also has a body formed
out of it-shall undo the evil, cancel the curse, and perfect it again.l
Let us mark the details of the curse.
I. The earth.is to bring forth the thorn and the thistle.
Whether these existed before, we do not undertake to
say, nor whether they are given here merely as the representatives of all noxious plants or weeds, nor whether
the object of the curse, in so far as they were concerned,
was to turn them  into abortions, which they really are.
Taking the words as they' lie before us, we find that the
essence of the curse was the multiplication of these
prickly abortions, till they should become noxious to man,
and beast, and herb of the field; mere nuisances on the
face of the ground. Elsewhere in Scripture they are referred to as calamities. As the effects of judgments, Job
refers to them, xxxi. 40, and Jeremiah, xii. I3. As the
1 See Ps. xcvi. II-13, xcviii. 7-9; Isa. xi. 6-9, xxix. I7, xxxii. I5,
xxxv. I, lxv. I7, lxvi. 22; Ezek. xlvii. 8-I2. It is to this period
that our Lord refers when He speaks of'the regeneration' (Matt. xix.
28), and Peter when he speaks of' the restitution of all things' (Acts
iii. 2I), and Paul when he refers to the deliverance of the' reluctant'
(ouXt lsxouo) creation (Rom. viii. 19-23), and Peter when he speaks of
the new heavens and earth (2 Pet. iii. 13), and John when he describes
the same (Rev. xx. I).




I88            TTHOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
true offspring of a barren soil, the apostle speaks of them,
Heb. vi. 8.  As injurious to all around, our Lord Himself
alludes to them, Matt. xiii. 7-22.  And it is evident that
all these passages connect themselves with the original
curse, and are to be interpreted by a reference to it.l
They are tokens of God's original displeasure against
man's sin, so that the sight of them should recall us to
this awful scene in Eden, and make us feel how truly
God hates sin, and how impossible it is for Him to change
in His hatred of it. These tokens of His anger have not
been rooted up, neither have they withered away. They
have survived the changes of six thousand years. They
are God's monuments of sin, and must stand till He who
erected them shall take them down, and that come to
pass which is written,'Instead of the thorn shall come up
the fir-tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle-tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off' (Isa. Iv. I3).
Christ, in bearing our sins, was' made a curse for us'
1 Thorns are always spoken of in connection with evil. The word
occurs twelve times in the Old Testament. We have such an expression as' thorns of the wilderness,' as if the two things were congenial.
We have the coming up of the'thorn and brier,' which is spoken of
in connection with the desolation of Judea (Isa. xxxii. 13); and the'grieving thorn' is used as the figure for Israel's enemies (Ezek.
xxviii. 24), as Paul speaks of the'thorn in the flesh.'  The antiChristian confederacy is to be'as thorns thrust away' (2 Sam. xxiii.
6). And as Jeremiah had said,' Sow not among thorns' (iv. 7), so
our Lord had spoken of the good seed being choked by thorns. The
word'thistle' only occurs once, elsewhere (Hos. x. 8), and Gesenius
makes it to mean some'luxuriantly growing but useless plant.' If
thorns be really, as is said, abortive branches, the curse of barrenness
appears in them more remarkably.




GENESIS III. I7-I 9                  189
(Gal. iii. I3).  He took our curse upon Him  in all its
parts. He was treated as the accursed One. In token of
this He sorrowed, and was crucified, and died, and went
down into the grave. It was our curse that wrought all
these evils for the sinless One.  And it was in token that
He was truly the cuirse-bearer that He allowed Himself to
be crowned with thorns. In wearing a' crown,' He was
saying,'I am a King-earth's King, as the first Adam
was;' and His enemies, in crowning Him, were unconsciously owning His royalty and dominion i in wearing a
crown of thorns, He was announcing Himself as the willing sufferer of the sentence which attached not only to
Adam, but to His inheritance, the earth; He was saying,'Lo, I have come to stand in the first Adam's place, to
bear the first Adam's penalty, to endure the first Adam's
curse, to redeem the first Adam's forfeited kingdom, and
in token thereof I accept this crown of thorns.'
2. Man is to eat the herb of the field. Originally, the
fruit of the various trees was to have been man's food;
the'herb' was for the lower creation, if not exclusively,
at least chiefly.' But now he is degraded. He is still,
of course, to eat fruit, but in this he is to be restricted.
1'When the curse, the heavy curse, passed upon him, he had to
betake himself to the herb, which heretofore was the property of the
lower creatures for browsing on, to which they were created prone,
and bowed down. Now, he is truly of the earth earthy, his origin
dust, his food gathered from the dust, his eye cast upon the dust, and
his bed at length made in the lap of dust; his life a circle from dust
to dust, a series of sensations, of animal impulses, of animal gratifications, of animal actions, until, like the animals, he yield up the animal
life which, with sore toil and labour, he hath been endeavouring to
maintain.'-IRvING On the Curse as to Bodily Labour.




I90           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Whether it were that, the earth being less productive in
fruit, he must betake himself to inferior sustenance; or
whether it might also be from a change in bodily constitution, requiring something else than fruit, we cannot say.
The sentence is,'Thou shalt eat the herb of the field,
not the pleasant fruits of paradise.' In the ages to come,
when the better paradise arrives, every vestige of this is
swept away, and we'eat of the tree of life which is in the
midst of the paradise of God' (Rev. ii. 7).
3. He is to eat in sorrow. There was to be no glad
feasting, but a bitter eating, or, if there might be feasting,
it should be like Israel's,'with bitter herbs,'-the sweet
and the bitter mingling. A cloud of sorrow was to hang
not only over his dwelling, but especially over his table;
and perhaps to this we may trace the divinely instituted
practice ofjfisting, as if not only man's eating was to be in
sorrow, but as if at certain times he was specially to connect his common food with the remembrance of sin, and
to put it away from him altogether, as if not worthy to be
sustained by God at all.
Does not man mock all this by his feastings, making
them to be special seasons of merriment and pleasure,
and forgetting that God had thrown over them a dark
shadow, as the memorial of sin! Yet the time is coming
when joy shall take the place of sorrow.  The great
festival is at hand; the feast of fat things for Israel (Isa.
xxv. 6), the marriage-supper for the Church (Rev. xix. 9),
and the great feast of tabernacles at Jerusalem  for the
nations of the earth (Zech. xiv. i6).  Of this day of
happy festival —this time of the removal of the curse —we




GENESIS III. 17-19.                  191
have an earnest in the supper of the Lord, when we show
His death till He come; nay, more, we may be said to
have an earnest of it each time that, like the early believers, we eat our bread with gladness and singleness of
heart (Acts ii. 46), as men who by faith have already
tasted their deliverance from the curse.
4. He is to eat it with toil. He is to wring a stinted
subsistence out of the reluctant earth with sore labour
and weariness; and the'sweat of his face' is to attest
the hardness of the conflict.' The earth will not yield
even the herb of the field without heavy toil, toil in every
department of the preparation of his food-tilling, sowing,
reaping, grinding. He cannot live but in a way which
reminds him of his primal sin. Each day he hears the
1 Is not the following a true picture of man's toil?-' If you are up
by times, you will hear, in the grey of the morning, the footsteps of
the labourer beneath your casement pacing heavily on to the scene of
his daily labour. As the dawn makes progress upon the rear of night,
the din slowly increases, and ascends until the first watch of the day.
One constant volume of sound inspheres the city like the noise of the
neighbouring ocean, through which the rattling sound of chariotwheels, and the rolling din of heavy vans, and the shrill discord of
oaths and angry men, break incessantly like waves which dash upon
the shore. It ceaseth not the livelong day. It ascendeth into your
ears, a ceaseless tide of sound, in which no instant of silence is to be'
discovered. A voice of men and cattle, and of the instruments of
their toils, which are all day long employed in bearing burdens from
place to place, and in returning to bear more, until the shades of
evening come to loose them from their harness, and allow them to
rest their weary limbs. And these burdens which they bear are not
the enjoyments of men, but the subject-matter of their toil, as you will
discover if you follow them to their landing-places.'-IRVING Ot tShe
Curse as to Bodily Labour. The whole book of Ecclesiastes is an
illustration of this part of the curse.




192             THIOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
original sentence ringing in his ears.   And yet all this
hard toil serves barely to sustain a' dying life;' and even
that only for a little, until he return to the dust. This is
the end of his earthly toil!
5. He is to die. Grace does not remit the whole
penalty.  It leaves a fragment behind it, in pain, weakness, sickness, death, though at the same time it extracts
blessing out of all these relics of the curse. Besides, in
thus leaving men subject to death, it leaves open the
door by which the great Deliverer was to go in and rob
the spoiler of his prey. By death is death to be destroyed.  Man must die!  He came from  the dust, and
he must return to it.'  The grave must be his portion.
Yet, like everything else in the great purpose of grace,
this is but the occasion for bringing in larger blessingthat is, resurrection, and all that resurrection' comprises.
Far beyond our original possessions, are those which flow
to us through this channel. Resurrection-life and resurrection-glory are things higher far than that which Adam
knew ere he fell.
Thus has sin degraded man; bringing him down to a
lower level; introducing toil, and sweat, and weariness;
1 Had we room, we might find an interesting subject in the various
connections in which the word'dust' occurs. Abraham speaks of
himself as dust and ashes (Gen. xviii. 27). It was'dust' that was to
be mingled with the water in the trial of jealousy (Num. v. I7). It
was' dust' that was sprinkled upon the head in the time of sorrow
(Job ii. I2). It is in the' dust' that we are said to'rest' (Job xvii.
I6), to' lie down' (xxi. 26), and it is out of the dust that we are to
awake and arise when He who is our Life appears (Isa. xxvi. I9;
Dan. xii, 2).




GENESIS rII. I7-19.                  I93
infusing sorrow  into every part of our lot; nay, making
us to be'born to trouble as the sparks fly upward' (Job
v. 7, xiv. I); making our very food to be the memorial of
the curse, and existence only to be maintained by a daily
warfare with it; bringing in death, preparing the grave,
tearing asunder soul and body; ruining this globe itself,
and making its very soil the abode of evil.
Where the actual seat of the curse lies we cannot say.
Whether it is in the ground itself, from  which noxious influences ascend; or whether it is from the air, in consequence of its being the abode of' the prince of the power
of the air,' so that the soil is impregnated with evil by
these ever-descending influences, we cannot say.   The
subtle processes of atmospheric action are only half discovered, and even science itself is not prepared to say
what is the cause of earth's strange fruitfulness in evil and
barrenness in good.   But the disease is there, though
man may not detect the seat.  God's purpose subjected
the creation to'vanity.' We know this. We know also
that it is subjected'in hope' (Rom. viii. 20), and that
that hope will ere long become a reality.
What efforts man makes to shake off the curse, both
from himself and creation!-by means of science healing
his own body, alleviating his sufferings, lessening his toil,
and fertilizing the earth.  To a large extent has he succeeded.l   Marvellous discoveries have been  made, by
l One cannot fail to notice that the various discoveries of the present day all tend in these directions. Chloroform in one direction,
agricultural chemistry in another, and Liebig's investigations on the
subject of diet in another. Compare the words of the curse, and mark
the resemblance.
VOL. VI.                                        N




I94          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
means of which, for a season, the body may be made
insensible to suffering, so that the severest operations
may be performed-nay, even woman's travail passed
through, without the consciousness of a pang. Marvellous
progress has been made in tillage, so that with less toil
the soil is made more fruitful; in producing the various
articles needed for subsistence or clothing, mechanical
power has been brought in, to lighten or supersede the
toil of man. In many such ways has man succeeded in
lightening the curse. Nor in any of these efforts is there
sin. It is not sinful to endeavour to heal disease, or
alleviate pain, or ease labour, or wipe the sweat from the
brow. No. Man is to use all those facilities and advantages which God has given, and to be thankful that any
part of the burden can be thus relieved.
If man, indeed, were in these endeavours defying God,
and proclaiming his purpose of effacing what God has
written so legibly upon creation, then it would be sin;
it would be rebellion. But it is evident that God has
allowed man to seek alleviations of the curse; He has
allowed him to seek to prolong life by medicine; and, in
doing so, He has told him that there is no sin in these
endeavours, so long as God is recognised. When Paul:said to Timothy,' Drink no longer water, but use a little
wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities,'
he was seeking to lighten the curse. And so, when we
take measures either for healing disease or relieving pain,.we are only acting in the spirit of that grace which has
been dealing with our world since sin intruded, and showing us that God has not wholly given it over to the evil




GENESIS III. I7-I9.             I95
one; nay, we are acting in the spirit of Him who came
not to destroy men's lives, but to save; who was anointed
by the Holy Spirit for the very purpose of healing diseases,
as well as of preaching the gospel to the poor.
But what then becomes of the curse? Is it to be disregarded wholly? Alas! after man has done his utmost,
how very little of it has he removed! How much remains
behind! And if those who sometimes are startled at the
progress which man is making in soothing pain and healing disease, and who are at times afraid to make use of
his remedies, would but consider how very little is, after
all, effected; how in most cases it is a mere transient
suspension of pain, a mere shifting of the burden from one
shoulder to another, a mere relief such as that which rest
gives to the body when it is weary; they would not be
under any serious apprehension of man's interfering with
the curse. That curse is too sore and deep for any to
remove save He who laid it on. He will, in His own way
and time, remove creation's curse, and stay its groans;
He will bring to an end man's toil and woman's travail;
He will swallow up death in victory. For that glorious
day of hope let us wait in faith, knowing that not till then
will the,'regeneration' come; not till then will all things
be restored. Man may wipe off the tear, but he cannot
dry up its source. He may hide himself from the billow
and the blast, but he cannot say to either,'Peace, be
still.'




t96             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Ver. 20o'Atnd Adam (Heb. tize mican) called his wife's name Eve
(Heb, Chavah); because she was the mother of all livin6.' 1
The sentence has now been pronounced, the criminals
have heard it and have left the place of judgment, each,
doubtless, occupied with his own thoughts and pursuing
his own way. Satan goes out from the presence of the
Lord to begin his'going to and fro in the earth' (Job i.
7), to lay his snares, to prepare his wiles, to forge his fiery
darts with double malignity, because he has been foiled
in his purpose utterly to ruin the race. The woman
retires to brood over coming grief, yet to mingle happier
thoughts with her darker musings in the anticipation of
the promised offspring which was to be the issue of her
pain and travail. The man departs to look round upon
a blighted paradise and a ruined earth, to brood over the
days and nights of toil that awaited him, till this brief
day here be done; yet to cheer himself with the thought
that there was love even now for him, and the undoing of
the evil in the end.
What space may have  intervened  between  the announcement of the sentence and the scene in this 20th
1 Was this her first name? or was she called ishi before, and now,
like Abraham, had her name altered to express her new circumstances
as mother not of the dead, as she might have been, but of the living l
The Septuagint translate the Hebrew name and call her Zag4. Perhaps
it would have been as well had we done the same; for surely to an
English reader the meaning of the passage would have been better
expressed thus,' And the man called his wife's name Life, because she
was the mother of all livizg.' There seems no reason for De Sola's
change of tense here, into'now the man had called;' nay, it appears
from the way in which the statement is introduced, that he had not
called her so before,




GENESIS III. 20.              I97
verse, we know not. We may suppose it to have taken
place when Adam and his wife retired from the present
vision of Jehovah.  They talked or silently mused together over what had just befallen them,-over the evil
and the good, the falling and the rising, the condemnation
and the pardon, the curse and the blessing, the past, the
present, the future of their life.  Then the man, as if
catching up the notes of grace which were just dying away
amid the trees of the garden, adds his Amen, and embodies them in the name of her who was now doubly knit
to him, doubly one with himself.
The fact that it was not God but Adam that gave the
name to the woman, teaches us much. Why did not God
give Eve her name, as He had done to Adam? God did
not allow Adam to name himself, even in his innocence; yet
now in his fall He permits him to name the woman, nay,
sanctions his so doing. This was for such reasons as the
following:-(I.) To show His grace. What grace, what
tender love is displayed in allowing man to give a name
to his wife,-and such a narne,-Eve, —LIFE! (2.) To
show that Adam was not to be deprived of his headship.
He was still to be' head of the woman,' even in his fall,
and as such he names her. (3.) To show, that though
Adam had so cruelly flung blame upon her before God,
yet no estrangement had followed. She was still bone of
his bone. They had been companions in guilt, they were
to be companions in sorrow, and they were fellow-heirs of
the hope just held out to them. Thus they were reunited
in new bonds of mingled sadness and joy. (4.) To show
the direction in which Adam's thoughts were running, that




1 98         THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
from this manifestation of the current of his thoughts we
might learn how the promise had taken hold of him. This
verse gives us unequivocal insight into the state of Adam's
feelings. It exhibits him to us as one who understood,
believed, prized, rested on the divine promise which he
had just heard. He stands before us as a believing man;
and we might say of him,' By faith Adam called his wife's
name Eve.' It is the voice of a believing man that speaks.
One cannot mistake either the word or tone. Unbelief
could not have spoken thus; none but a believer could
have thought on such a name; a name that takes all its
significancy from the promise, —Life, or the Living One,doomed, and yet living; nay, dead by law, yet living;
mother of the living; mother of a spared race; mother
of one who is the Prince of life,' the resurrection and the
life;' mother of a family of men, alive from the dead!
He takes the promise, he ponders it, he receives it as a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation; and, on thus
receiving it, he gives vent to his feeling, and utterance to
his faith, in this expressive name. What can this verse be
but the solemn utterance of Adam's faith in the divine
promise?  Surely this is one of the most simple and childlike, yet one of the most expressive ways of proclaiming
his faith; and as Abraham expressed his faith by calling
his son Isaac,'the child of gladness,' so did Adam by
naming his wife Eve,'the mother of the living.'  He
looks at her and says,'I see in thee the divine promise
all realized, — life, not death, coming from thee; God
carrying out His purpose of grace in thy seed, though afar
off; I see in thee the pledge and embodiment of divine




GENESIS III. 20.               199
forgiveness and love, and I proclaim my faith in all this
before God and before posterity, by naming thee Eve.'
This name is not the mere burst of feeling or a vague
expression of acquiescence or wonder; it is the explicit
confession of his faith. It is as a believing man that he
speaks; a man strong in faith, and wishing to hand down
to posterity a declaration of his confidence in the promise
of a gracious God.
How simple is his faith! He has just been listening to
the voice of God announcing grace, and life through grace;
and forthwith he believes.  He cavils not, questions not.
A dark cloud had come between him and God; but now
that cloud has passed, and the true light is shining again.
He has just for a moment tasted the bitter cup of separation from his God (and who can tell the agony of that
interval?), and straightway he is brought back to his
father's love and bosom.  The child has but wandered a
few steps from the parental door, when it is snatched up
by the fond mother's arm and replaced beneath the happy
roof, never more to stray. The sheep has but gone a little
way from the fold, enough to let it feel the bleakness and
famine of the desert, when it is seized by the shepherd's
strong hand and carried back in joy.
How immediately and how simply he believes!'Faith
comes by hearing;' he heard and believed, taking God at
His word, and giving Him credit for speaking nothing but
the truth, though no sign was given. God had spoken;' He manifests his faith in the promise of the Messiah by whom he
was delivered from death, and in whom he and his posterity should
live for ever.' -WHITE On Genesis.




200          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
who was he, that he should doubt or hesitate, or reckon it
presumption to return to God at once?  He has spoken
but dimly, no doubt; it is a very brief word of promise;
yet he sees in these few words the free love of a forgiving
God, and that is enough.  He tastes that the Lord is
gracious; and how sweet must that cup of grace have
been to the parched lips of Adam! God has spoken once;
but that once suffices, for He with whom he has to do is
the God that cannot lie. We, with a thousand promises
and assurances of love, doubt and tremble; Adam, with
but one word, unratified by sign or token, believes.
If any one might have needed a sign, it was Adam. If
any one might have said,' I am too great a sinner, I dare
not at once believe,' it was Adam. For his was deep
guilt indeed: he had ruined a world; he had let in the
flood of evil upon'the earth; he had banished God from
it; he had helped God's enemy to triumph; he had
known what holiness was, and therefore knew what sin
was. If any might have shrunk from trusting at once, it
was Adam. Yet he believed, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness. Nay, he not only believed, but he'confessed with his mouth;' he testified his faith; he proclaimed his sure hope of everlasting life.
Go, sinner, and do likewise! Go, and like a child
receive the simple word of God, speaking to you in love.
Go and take forgiveness at His hands, and sonship, and
the kingdom, and the glory. Do not, in the pride and presumption of your heart, speak of your unfitness and unworthiness, as if you would fain be fitter or worthier of the
favour of Jehovah. Go, and as you are by birth a child




GENESIS III. 21.                   201
of Adam, rebelling and departing from God, become by
the second birth a child of Adam returning and reconciled.
Take God's promise of life, —life through the living one,the seed of the woman; take it and be saved, take it and
be blest; and when thou hast thus received God's record,
confess with thy mouth, as thy first father did.  Make it
manifest thou art a believing man; not a doubting, distrusting, wavering man, but a believing man.
Ver. 2I.' U7nto Adam also (Heb. and unto Adam), and to his wize,
did the Lord God make coats of skins, 1 and clothed them.'
Adam's faith, so far as it went, was true and firm, but it
was dim. The extent of his own wants he knew not.
The kind of remedy which his case required he understood
not. The way in which the promised deliverance was to
come he could not foresee. All that as yet he knew
was, that God had revealed Himself as gracious, and had
pledged His love; therefore he could trust Him  entirely,
not merely for showing favour to the sinner, but for providing a way in which grace and righteousness might be
reconciled.
Adam, however, having now made solemn confession of
his faith, God proceeds to take another step by which
some further insight into the process of deliverance was
to be given. Adam had believed at once, without sign or
l ni, nizn', coats of skin. Tunicas pelliceas, Vulg.; xmvrzas?spfa~-;Yov;, Sept. The word denotes properly, under-garments, fitting
closely to the body. Thus there are three points of contrast: (I) skin
contrasted with fig-leaves; (2) close-fitting garments with the loose
fig-leaves; (3) the self-made fig-leaf clothing with the God-made skinclothing.




202             THOUGIHTS ON GENESIS.
pledge exhibited, and God honours his faith by a further
revelation of His purpose, making him  to know  that'blessed is he that hath not seen, and yet hath believed;'
that'to him that hath shall be given;' that'if any man
is willing to do the will of God, he shall know of the
doctrine.'
In Adam's first estate no shame was felt, but as soon as
he sinned shame covered his face. He showed this by
his fleeing to'the thickets, and he showed it by the figleaves with which he covered himself.   God now  deals
with him  as one ashiamed, and who has just cause of
shame.   He takes for granted that Adam's shame and
sense of sin were right things, and He proceeds to deepen
them, to make him feel his sin more bitterly, to unfold the
evil of sin, to spread out before him the infinite wants
which sin had occasioned, to make him understand how
largely as well as how entirely he must be indebted to
God, and to teach him how great that redemption must
be, and that Redeemer who was to accomplish his deliverance.
He begins by taking off their fig-leaves —for, doubtless,
this act was His-and then giving them coats made by
His own hand, coats of skin for their covering.' In so
1 The utter blindness of most of the Fathers to the real meaning of
this, is one of the many proofs that might be given that they neither
prized nor knew the truth of salvation by another's righteousness, and
life by the death of a substitute. Some of them affirm that the garments were made of'skins of trees;' others, such as Origen, that it
is Adam's bodv that is meant, as having become fleshly by his sin.
This absurdity Epiphanius refutes in a letter, which Jerome has translated, and left among his own works, calling -it frivolasmr expositionlem




GENESIS III. 2I.                    203
doing was He not saying,'Look at your sin; it is far
deeper and darker than you reckon, so deep and dark
that no fig-leaves can cover it or hide your shame; there
must be something else even for your bodies than coverings derived from the trees of the garden; something
which I only can provide and put on; not the growth of
the fields like these fig-leaves, but obtained by the death
of the being from which it is taken; something which
costs life, which points to blood and death; something
which will continually remind you that a sinner's covering
must be a thing planned by God, provided by God, made
by God, put on by God, yet a thing of earth, not of heaver,
a thing not outwardly comely or bright, yet costly, so
costly that even God can obtain it only by taking that
which is more precious than gold or gems, the life of the
creature which He has made'? 
Thus was man taught that one great point in his coming
deliverance would be the covering.  He needed to be
covered, else he could not look up to God, nor could God
look upon him; nay, he could not look upon himself
(JEROME'S Works, vol. i. p. 2Io). Theodoret and Athanasius come
nearer the truth, maintaining the garments to be really from slain
animals, and to be intended to point out to man his sin and its penalty,
death. But the idea of sacrifice does not seem to have occurred to
them; o~o~xoy ofvnar,'i5; la'iiv 4 zap'-; v YpE~o-o; Zir5 g poyiSvoYEvY;.
ATHAN. On the Cross and Passion.  Works, vol. i. p. 10o2.
1Man was not left to provide this clothing, for the right to use
animals for such a purpose could come only from God, and because'God would teach man that it belongeth only to God to cover sin with
the clothing of the Redeemer's righteousness.'-DIODATI. Some
suggest that Adam was thus to be humbled and made to feel how
low he had fallen when the beasts of the field must furnish him
with clothing.-FAGIus.




204.            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
without shame.  One awful feeling of the sinner is, that
he is naked before God, and this feeling is met by the
clothing provided by God. But as this feeling of shame
is the result of sin and a consciousness of guilt, the covering must be one which will assure him of forgiveness; for
if the covering does not of itself proclaim pardon, it will
not remove the sense of shame.   It did this even in
symbol when Adam was clothed with the skins; it does
so more truly when we see in it the righteousness of Him
who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for
our justification.'  Man's raiment will do nothing; his
goodness, his repentance, his prayers, his feelings, these
cannot cover sin, nor hide shame, nor purge the conscience; it must be through death that all this is to be
done.
God Himself must do it all.  He selects the victim, He
slays it, He makes the clothing, He puts it on.2  From
first to last, salvation is of Jehovah!  It is salvation by
death, by sacrifice, by the substitution of life for life.  Nor
could Adam fail to trace here a connection between the
slaying of the animal from whose skin the garment was
made, and the bruising of the heel of the woman's seed.
1Athanasius, referring to Christ being stripped of His garments,
remarks strikingly,'It became Him when leading man into paradise
to put off the garments which Adam received when he was cast out'
(Works, vol. i. p. IOI2), as if Christ thus took more completely our
shame as well as our sin upon Him.
2 At this time, no doubt, sacrifice was instituted, and the coats were
the skins of the slain victims. Adam would at once connect these
things together, the woman's seed, the bruised heel, the sacrifice, the
clothing; and how much of Christ would he learn from this! That
sacrifice should originate with man, or be a device of his for appeasing




GENESIS III. 22, 23.                 205
That slain Lamb and that bruised heel were in some
mysterious. way linked together. Time would evolve the
connection; meanwhile, the man ponders it in his heart
as he looks upon his clothing and remembers whence it
was obtained.
Vers. 22, 23.'And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become
as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he5sutforth his hand,
and take also of the tree of life (Heb. the life), and eat, and livefor ever:
23. Therefore (Heb. and) the Lord God sent him forth from the garden
of Eden, to till the grouzndfrom whence he was taken.'
Adam has now been clothed with the God-provided
raiment; not raiment such as he would have devised or
felt himself at liberty to propose,-raiment which reminded him of his sin, yet exhibited the way of forgiveness
and life through the death of a substitute.  He stands
before God as an accepted man, covered with a garment
which removes his sense of shame, and enables him to
look up to God without blushing or wishing to be hidden
from His face; teaching us that God's first dealings with
the sinner are always about the matter of acceptance, and
that this therefore ought to be our first point in dealing
with God.
But the question of acceptance being settled, that of
God, is incredible. How could man suppose that God would be
pleased with the slaughter of one of His own creatures, or what connection could man discover between the death of one of these and
pardon? Besides, what right had man to take away life? Could he
have dared to do so without a command from God? Those who
speak of there being a rooted idea in the minds of all men as to the
connection between the suffering or death of a creature and the appeasing of God's wrath, have yet to tell us how and when and where
such an idea came into their mind.




206          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
discipline begins. On this Adam is now to enter. He
had much to unlearn as well as much to learn. He had
to be taught that, though forgiven, he stood now on a
different footing from that on which he stood when a holy
being, and that therefore a new line of treatment must
be adopted. He might suppose that, being restored to
favour, he would be reinstated in his former privileges,
remain in Eden, and have access to the tree of life just as
before. This, however, cannot be. He is not to be at
once placed upon his former footing; he is not to go on
eating the tree of life, thus prolonging his days and enjoying an immortality on earth. He has sinned the very sin
against which God had warned him; he has gotten' forbidden knowledge by forbidden means,' and thus far he
has gained his end; he has become as God, by eating of
the tree of knowledge. God has forgiven him freely and
without reserve, yet between his past and his future condition a great gulf must be fixed. He is indeed to'live
for ever,' but not the same kind of life, nor in the same
way, as heretofore. The immortality for which he is now
destined is to be obtained, not by eating of the tree of
life, but through death.  It is to be reached only by
resurrection. Such was God's purpose respecting him and'his posterity. It was to a more glorious immortality than
that which he had lost that he was now to be led, but its
entrance was the grave!  Meanwhile he must leave
paradise and be shut out from the tree of life.
God's lesson now to Adam was, that he must still return
to dust. This part of the doom was to remain, not so
much as a remnant of the original sentence, as a chastise



GEN."ESIS III. 22, 23.           207 
ment, a needed piece of discipline, and as the necessary
passage to the new immortality that lay beyond.  Had
God allowed Adam to have access to the tree of life, it
would have just been saying to him, Thou shalt not return
to dust; eat of the tree of life and preserve your immortality here, such as it is on this now blighted earth. To
prevent him from entertaining any thought of this kind,
and to fix his eye on resurrection, he was sent forth from
paradise to till the ground from which he was taken, that
is, Eden.1  He was to be cast out of the inner circle which
had been his home, and whose special fertility would have
made his toil in keeping it a source of pleasure; but he
was still allowed to remain within the outer and less fruitful
circle, there to remain a toiling man all the days of his life.
Such seems to be the true meaning of the above passage.
There is no ground for believing it to be spoken, as an
interrogation, far less in irony. What more unlike God,
than thus to be mocking His creatures at the very moment that He is bending over them in such deep true
love?  Is this like Him that'upbraideth not'?  Is it like
Him who was'grieved at His heart' because of man's
iniquity? It is only once or twice that Scripture speaks
ironically, and it is to the daringly ungodly, as to the priests
of Baal. But does irony befit a scene like this? Standing on the wreck of a newly-made, newly-ruined world,
having just proclaimed to man His grace, and pointed
him to the coming Redeemer, is it possible that He can
utter irony, and wound without a cause His weeping
1 Formerly he had but to' keep and dress,' now he is to' till;'
formerly it was paradise, now it is the outer region.




208             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
children? Besides, what follows is so solemnly expressed
('lest he put forth his hand, and eat, and live for ever'),
*even in its very abruptness so like the solemn oath of
God against Israel's entrance on the land ('lest they
should enter into my rest'), that we cannot admit of
irony in the case at all. There is so much of deep love
on the one hand, and of stern judgment on the other,
that the introduction of irony here would be quite out of
place. Nor will there appear any necessity for such a
supposition, if our previous exposition of the tree of life
be remembered.
Ver. 24.' So (Heb. and) He drove out the man ~1 and He placed at
the east of the garden of Eden cherubims 2 and a 3faming sword which
turned every way, to kee.p the way to the tree of life.'
Man, however reluctant, must leave paradise. Neither
God's purpose, nor His honour, can allow him to remain.
1 w-h   It is the same word as is used for' driving out' the nations
of Canaan, Ex. xxxiv. II; for' divorcing' a wife, Lev. xxi. 7; for'casting out' the bondwoman, Gen. xxi. Io; for the' thrusting out'
of Israel from Egypt, Ex. xii. 39. The Sept. give isbigxC; the
Vulgate, ejecit; Tremellius, expulit; Orton paraphrases it,'iHe
drove out the man by violence.' The Jews say that God led Adam
gently by the hand till he came to the entrance, and then, as he hung
back, He thrust him out by force.'The double expression of the
driving of man out of paradise seems to imply, that God would have
special notice taken of that judgment of His upon hirm.'-WHITE.
2 The Sept. render the passage,' He cast out Adam and made him
to dwell in front of paradise, and stationed the cherubim,' etc. They
must have had another reading before them. But the word'He
placed,' in our translation, does not bring out the full sense. It is
literally,'He made the cherubim to dwell at the east,' etc. It is the
same word as in Josh. xviii. I,' He set up the tabernacle;' Ex. xxv. 8,




GENESIS III. 24.                    209
Whether ejected by force we cannot say, but his unwillingness to quit seems implied.
His expulsion is not to be viewed, as is generally done,
as mere ejection from a happy dwelling, his own special
home, as if this were his punishment. No, it is banishment from God and from His presence, that is the true,
idea which the passage presents to us.l   Paradise was,
not so much Adam's home as Jehovah's dwelling.   It
corresponded to the holy of holies; it was the chamber
of the presence of the great King. And Adam's being,
cast out of this, corresponded to Israel's; being kept outside the holiest, and not allowed to enter into the immediate presence of God, where He dwelt between the
cherubim.2   Though Adam's banishment was in  some'that I may dwell among them;.' Ps. lxxxv.. 9,'that glory may dwell
in our land;' Ex. xxiv. I6,'the glory of the Lord abode, -expressions
which call to mind similar ones in the New Testament:' the Word
was made flesh, and dwell among us,'' that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith,' etc. Faber remarks:'The force of the original
Hebrew is, that God. placed these cherubim in a tabernacle.'-Z-orce
Mosaicre, vol. ii. p. 34.
1 Hence Cain, using the same word, says,' Thou hast driven me
out' (Gen. iv. 4); and Jonah says,' I am cast out of Thy sight'
(ii. 4), both of them referring to being banished from the presence of
Jehovah.
2 This'dwelling between,' or'sitting upon' the cherubim, refers
evidently to the service rendered by the cherubim. Sometimes they
are Jehovah's chariot, I Chron. xxviii. I8; Ps. xviii. Io; see also,
Ezek. i. 15-2I; sometimes they are His throne, I Sam. iv. 4; Isa.
xxxvii. I6; in this connection they are referred to in Ezekiel, and
in Rev. iv. 5, where the living creatures seem to form the throne.
Their presence in paradise is the intimation that it was considered
more in the aspect of Jehovah's temple than of Adam's home. The
word cherub or cherubim occurs ninety-one times in the Old Testament, and seems to be derived. from a word signifying to engrave, so,
VOL. VI. I.




2IO             THOUGHTS OA GENESIS.
measure of the nature of ajunishment, yet its chief object
was to announce that truth which it took ages to unfold,
that there was a hindrance to man's drawing near to God,
that'the way into the holiest of all was not yet made
manifest.'
Man is banished from  paradise, yet he is left within
sight of it; he is allowed to remain in Eden.' He is not
driven into some desert, as if there were nothing for him
but wrath. There is favour for him in spite of his sin;
and the expulsion does not cancel the pardon he has
received, or intimate that God has begun to frown.  It
merely showed that before the full consequences of that
favour could reach man, time must elapse, and barriers
be thrown down.  It is not the' outer darkness,' neither
is it the full sunshine, into which he is brought. It is the
twilight that surrounds him,; and that twilight assures him
of the coming noon.
He is left to linger at the gate, or wander round the
sacred fences of that forbidden ground.  For paradise is
not swept off nor swallowed up.2  It is left as God's
temple, now shut up and empty, but still within sight of
that it would thus mean the' sculptures' or symbols. We need not
enter into the fancies either of the Rabbis or of the Fathers on this
point.
1 Adam was formed in Eden, outside of paradise, and then taken
into paradise, which was the dwelling of God, where God'walked,'
and where the' voice' was heard. Now, after -his sin, he is cast out
of the temple and replaced in Eden.
2 White takes up the point, of God's leaving paradise, as a monument both of God's judgment and mercy, and shows how thereby He'justified Himself, and convinced men of their unworthy carriage
towards Him.'-On thefirst three chazpters of Genesis.




GENESIS III. 24.                    211
man. Probably it shared the common blight of creation;
though, like primeval man, it took long to wither; till,
having waxed old and being ready to vanish away, the
deluge came and swept it from the earth.' It remained
as a specimen of God's original handiwork, reminding
man of the glory which he had lost. It stood as a monument of what.sin had done in blighting God's perfect
creation, and turning man into an exile. It showed how
God estimates the material creation, and that: matler is
not the defiling and hateful thing which some conceive it
to be.  It proclaimed that God had not wholly left the
earth, and that in His own set time He would return to
it; nay, that. man, though. for a season dethroned and
banished, should yet repossess. earth as king and lord.
Thus God, in preserving paradise for a season, with man
a wanderer outside its gates, announced these truths to
the ages to come,-truths which were afterwards embodied
in types and promises, and unfolded at length to us by
His holy prophets. For the prophecies of after ages are
but the translation into words of the facds which these
primeval scenes presented to the eye.
Within the sacred enclosure, towards its. eastern extremity, God placed, or made to dwell,'the cherubim.'2
Speaking of the cherubim and paradise, Faber says:'As no hint
is given that the paradisaical cherubim were ever withdrawn before
the flood, and as the same reason which first caused them to be
stationed before the garden still subsisted until the very time of the
deluge, we have ample ground for concluding that their manifestation
was not temporary, but permanent.'-Hore Mosaicr, vol. ii. p. 35.
2 Some have suggested that the rendering might be,'So He drave
out the man; and he inhabited or dwelt between the cherubim, at the




212             THO71fOUGHTS ON2 GENESIS.
Of this word no explanation is here given; but from the
way in which it is introduced, and from the article'the'
prefixed, we conclude that it was quite familiar to Moses,
and that the children of Israel would at once understand it
as denoting the same thing which they were commanded
to place in the holy of holies. No Israelite would understand it of certain living beings moving to and fro, but
of a symbolic figure or statue, such as that in their own
tabernacle.  Just as' the cherubim' were afterwards set
in' the holiest,' and for the same symbolical ends, so were
they placed in paradise. There is nothing more to lead
us to suppose that they were living beings (such as angels)
in their former abode in the garden, than in their latter
in the wilderness. In both they were symbols.'l
Of what, then, were they the symbols? There is no
proof of their being representatives of angels, still less of
east of the garden of Eden, the fire unfolding itself to preserve inviolate the way of the tree of life;' or, as Mr. Morison (Key to the
Scrptlures) interprets it,'to point out the way to Jesus Christ, the
true tree of life.' This would bring the scene to a still nearer resemblance of that within the tabernacle; for thus,'He who was worshipped, dwelling between the cherubim in the temple and tabernacle,
was worshipped also at the east of Eden, between the cherubim also,
and that accompanied by the visible emblem, the Shekinah or flame
of fire.'-MoRIsoN's Key, p. 15.
1 After showing that theform of the cherubim must have been well
known to Israel, inasmuch as no special directions are given to Moses
or to Bezaleel as to their construction,, and after expressing his judgment that they were not withdrawn till the deluge, Mr. Faber adds:'We can scarcely avoid concluding, when we reflect upon the close
analogical resemblance in every particular, that they bore the very
same relation to the stated worship of patriarchism as the cherubim of.the Levitical tabernacle did to the stated worship of the law.'-Horw
Mosaict, vol. ii. p. 36.




GENESIS III. 24.                  213
the Trinity, as some have thought; there are no passages
connecting the cherubim with either of these. They are
always introduced in connection with man, and man's
redemption.'  They are referred to about a hundred
times in the Old Testament, but only in the above connection.  In Ezekiel (i. 5, 8, i o) it is said they'had the
likeness of a man,' and the'hands of a man,' and the'face of a man.' In Isaiah, also (vi. 2, 6), they have face,
and feet, and hands,-being evidently the same as in
Ezekiel, though called seraphim.  Then, further, we find
them connected with the lower orders of creation, with
the lion, and the ox, and the eagle, —the representatives of
the different orders of animals (Ezek. i. io).. Then we
find them associated with the vegetable creation,-the'palm-tree' (Ezek. xli. i8, 20, 25), the representative of
that order of creation, and the well-known symbol of
triumph and joy, not only in the case of Israel (Jer. xxiii.
40), but of the redeemed multitude (Rev. vii. 9). Then
we observe them in connection with Christ Himself (Ex.
xxv. I9, xxxvii. 8), being' made out of the mercy-seat;'
or, as the apostle expounds it,'He that sanctifieth, and
they that are sanctified, are all of one,' literally,'out of
ones made or taken out of one being or one piece;' and
in Ezekiel's description (i. 26, 27) we discover'a man,'
evidently the incarnate Son Himself, upon the throne that
1 See, in reference to the whole subject of the cherubim, Mr. Smith's
admirable work, The Doctrine of the Cherubim (Longman, 1850); also,
though with less satisfaction, such works as the following:-Faber's
fora AMosaicae, and Origin of Pagan Idolatry; Dr. Sharp's Discourses
in answer to Hutchison, where the etymology of the name cherub is
well investigated, pp. 397-407.




2I4           T7HOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
was over the cherubim. Further, we find them in closest
relationship to the symbols of redemption (Ex. xxxvii. I,
9). They were part of the mercy-seat; they stood upon
the mercy-seat, their feet were upon the blood with which
it was sprinkled (Lev. xvi. I4), and, of course, they
themselves would share the sprinkling; their abode was
a chamber, every part of which was sprinkled with blood;
they were enveloped in the incense which went up from
the high priest's censer on the day of atonement (Lev.
Xvi. 12, I3); their eyes, bending downwards, were ever
fixed upon the blood of the mercy-seat.  And then, in
Revelation, where these same symbols reappear, only as
in Isaiah and Ezekiel, instinct with life, there can be no
mistake as to the beings represented, for they sing the
song of redemption (Rev. v. 9),' Thou hast redeemed us
to God by Thy blood.' The whole scene carries us back
to the Old Testament emblems as given by Moses, by
Isaiah, and by Ezekiel. These are the wings, the mystic
faces, the incense, the blood, the throne, and, last of all,
the glorious triumph of which the palm-trees were the
symbol,'We shall reign on the earth' (v. Io).
That the cherubim were the symbols of a coming redemption, and foreshadowed re-entrance into that very
presence of Jehovah from  which man had just been cast
out, seems evident.' But the peculiar forms and various
I Athanasius, though not interpreting the cherubim as we have done,
yet notices rather strikingly the Lord's promise to the thief,'To-day
shalt thou be with me in paradise,' as showing that Christ has reopened its gates, so that Adam, in the person of the thief, enters his
lost habitation. See his Exposition of the Faithz. It is as if now the




GENESIS III. 24.                   2 5
appendages belonging to them intimate that more than
man are concerned in this restitution. The figures of the
lion, and the eagle, and the palm-tree indicate that the
whole creation is to share in the blessing. The symbol
is not merely one of redeemed man, but of a redeemed
creation, from man, the head, down to the lowest forms
of being.  All that God created' good' is thus symbolized
as awaiting deliverance in the day of the manifestation of
the sons of God; and thus the three concluding psalms,
so minute in their details of praise, so prophetic of the
glory of creation in all its parts, and so often sung before
that God who'inhabited the: cherubim,' with their commencing and closing hallelujahs, shall be found most
wondrously to harmonize with that burst of universal
praise from'every creature in heaven, and on the earth,
and under the earth, and in the sea' (Rev. v. I3),-to'Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
for ever and ever.'
But while the symbols of redemption are thus set up in
paradise, they are not to be too nearly approached.' In
front of them there is placed'a flaming sword which
turned every way;' or, more exactly,'the flame of the
gates of paradise were thrown open, and the second Adam enters with
the chief of sinners at His side, leading the way. Who is there on
this sinful earth that may not follow?
1 Lactantius, in his book on the Origin of Error, alluding to man's
expulsion, says:' Paradise itself He surrounded with fire (igne circumJzvallavit), that man might not approach till the time when He shall set
judgment on the earth, and recall the righteous who serve Him to that
same spot (paradise), when death has been taken away.'-Book ii.
sec. 12.




2 I6           TO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
sword which turned itself.' This self-revolving flame was
the symbol of Him who is'a consuming fire;' of Him
who appeared as'devouring fire' on Sinai (Ex. xxiv. I7);
of Him who sent forth to Israel His'fiery law' (Deut.
xxxiii. 2); of Him  whose throne is like the fiery flame,
and His wheels like burning fire (Dan. vii. 9); of Him
who is to be'revealed from heaven in flaming fire'
(2 Thess. i. 8). That this fiery sword was part of, or at
least connected with, the Shekinah, is evident from the
first chapter of Ezekiel, which is a description of the
Shekinah. 
This fiery sword took up its position at the gate of
paradise, to bar all entrance to man.  It not only, like
the veil in the tabernacle, hindered his entrance, but
threatened him  with death should he attempt it.  It was
God's awful prohibition of man's entrance into the presence of God until the hindrances which existed should
be taken out of the way.  Till the woman's seed should
arise, and by the blood of His'bruised heel' remove
that flaming barrier, man must remain outside.2 From
that flame came the fire which consumed the sacrifice on
the altar, which was doubtless erected in front of paradise,
teaching man that it was through the altar, and the
sacrifice, and the blood, that the way was at length to
1 Ezekiel's expression (chap. i. 2),.'a fire unfolding itself,' bears
manifest reference to this expression in Genesis.  The self-linking
flames of Ezekiel and the self-whirling fire of Moses are strikingly
similar.
2 Jerome speaks about Christ removing'that flaming wheel and
fiery sword, which were at the gates of paradise,' and entering in with
the thief.-,Works, vol. v. F. Io.




GENESIS III. 24.               217
be opened up, and paradise repossessed in greater
blessedness and glory than before. But not till the true
altar had been reared, and the true sacrifice slain, and the
true blood shed, could there be boldness to enter into
the holiest. Not till then would it be said,' Let us draw
near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith'
Heb. x. I 9-2 2)..
The'tree of life' was not at once uprooted. It remained where it had first been planted. But man was
not to touch it yet. He might see it afar off, with the
fiery sword between, but access is prohibited.  Its fruit
is no longer to be tasted.  He is to live, not to die; he
is to be made heir of a more glorious life than he had
possessed before, but not by means of that tree of life.
His new life is to come in another way, and through
another channel, of which that tree was but the symbol;
through Him  who is the resurrection and the life.  So
that it was as if that now prohibited tree were pointing
his eye to something beyond and above itself, saying,
Look not at me, but at Him  of whom  I am but the
shadow.
Man is now  to worship outside of paradise.  The
favour of God is freely given; but intercourse, though not
denied, is restricted.  Man must now  worship in the
outer court.  The hope of re-admission is vouchsafed,
but the time is indefinitely deferred.  The tree of life is
to be again thrown open to him  in far more blessed
circumstances (Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 2), but no intimation is
made of what lies between.
Man's altar is reared before the gate of paradise, in




218             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
front of the flaming sword; and there he lays his sacrifice,
at once pleading for re-admission, and preparing the way
for it. The cherubim are at the eastern extremity; the
tree of life in'the midst;' the. flame, at the gate; outside,
the altar! Such was God's first outline of a temple; an
outline which, though often altered in the course of ages,
still preserved its main features throughout.l From that
day to this we have been worshippers outside paradise.
Faith takes us into the holiest of all: and in that sense
we have been already re-admitted, for the veil has been
rent, and the fiery sword withdrawn, or rather quenchedquenched in the blood of the sacrifice.  But still we have
not yet been actually admitted.  We still wait the reappearance of the woman's seed, and then shall not only
our first father Adam, but all the saved seed; a mighty
multitude, in one glorious band, re-enter with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads, with no dread before of a
second ejection and a second exile:
Then we shall have unhindered access into a; better
paradise than the first, and be privileged to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the midst of it. Then shall the redeemed from among men, the true cherubim, of which all
1 One of these changes we may notice, though not able to account
for it. Paradise lay at the eastern extremity of Eden, and the cherubim
at the eastern extremity of paradise (though some think that the words'at the east' ought to be rendered'before,' or'in front of' -FABER).
In the tabernacle this was altered, as it was placed east and west, with
its gate to the east, and the holy of holies to the west. On the other
hand, the temple was placed on the east side of Jerusalem, as
paradise lay east of Eden. Ezekiel's temple is represented as situated
on the south side of the mountain (xl. 2), though its position is the
same as' the tabernacle,. the main gate being towards the east.




GENESIS III. 24.              219
that have been seen hitherto have been but the shadows,
take up their residence in the true tabernacle which the
Lord hath pitched for them, where they shall abide in
nearest communion, seeing face to face, and knowing
even as they are known.




220             THO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
CHAPTER IV.
Ver. I.'And Adam knew Eve his wife; 1 and she conceived, and
bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.'
T is no longer paradise that stands before us. We leave
it and its fair scenes behind us, not to see them again
till the visions of Patmos bring them before us in more
than primal glory. The guarded gate, the sword of fire,
the cherubim, the tree of life, —all these are to be lost sight
of for a season, and our eye to be directed to the wondrous process by which the lost heritage is to be redeemed,
and man put in possession of a home fairer than that
which he had lost, yet bearing still the unforgotten name,
the paradise of God. It is as if a cloud or veil were flung
over Eden, that all concerning it might henceforth be
1 In maintaining that this was after they had quitted paradise (and
not before, as some Jewish and even Christian writers supposed),
Augustine reasons, that the temptation and fall occurred immediately
after the creation of woman, which seems likely. Jerome reasons, in
his own ascetic way, that paradise was'non nuptiis sed virginitati
destinatum.' Musculus infers that it must have been so, as the fruit
of the conception was Cain, showing that he had been shapen in iniquity
and conceived in sin. This first clause is to show us, that though
Adam had been formed from the ground, and Eve from Adam's side,
yet now there was the commencement of God's system for the propagation of the race, in virtue of which each one was to be connected with
Adam.' Memorat neque ex terra neque quovis alio modo hominem
nasci sed ex conjunctione maris et fceminme, qua per unum hominem
peccatum in omnem posteritatem transfunditur.'-RUNGIUS,, p. 220.




GENESIS Iv. i.                221
things of faith to man. That cloud still wraps it; but the
fulness of time shall come; the cloud shall part asunder,
and, rising upwards, disclose to view not merely paradise
regained, but something more excellent and divine,-' the
inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that
fadeth not away.' The last glimpse we had of paradise
was when the first Adam, with his sorrow-stricken partner,
left its gates, which closed behind them; the next is, when
the second Adam and His triumphant Bride are entering
its unfolded gates, with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads.
We quit paradise, then, and follow Adam to his new
home outside its gate, yet not far off from its still visible
glory. We have seen him as the first husband: we now
see him as the first father. We get a glimpse, too, of Eve,
the wife and mother, now first experiencing the bitterness
of the curse that sin has drawn down on her. We learn
also the first result of the command,' Be fruitful and
multiply;' and we see that, thus far at least, the curse
has been repealed or suspended, for the original blessing,'Be fruitful,' is still in force. Sin has not prevailed to
cancel the blessing,, though it has embittered and saddened it.
Months, of course, have passed on ere she brings forth
Cain; and during these she would be led to meditate
much upon the promise.  Though she has never yet
looked upon the face of infancy, and has only seen the
connection between mother and offspring in the animal
creation around her, bringing forth their young after their
kind; yet she could not but have some idea of what was




222           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
about to take place, and could not but be anticipating,
not only the threatened pangs, but the gladness that
follows, making her forget all these in the joy that a
man is born into the world.
In the expected fruit of her womb, what could she
see but the promised seed? Unless the contrary had
been revealed to her, it seems impossible that she could
have counted on anything else, if she believed the
promise; and, no doubt, with anxious longings did she
look forward to the day when the child of promise should
be born.  What months of solemn thought, and selfhumiliation, and earnest hope, and mingled grief and joy,
must these have been! The day came at last, and in
the hour that she became a mother, her faith, resting on
the promise, yet but dimly seeing how it was to be
fulfilled, broke forth in the exulting cry,'I have gotten
a man from  the Lord,' calling his name Cain, which
signifies a possession; 1 as if she said,' Jehovah has
fulfilled His promise; I have gotten. the deliverer: I
will call him the gotten one,-the possession.'
Thus did her faith and hope declare themselves. She
recognises Jehovah in this. It is He who has given her
joy in the midst of grief; so that, though burdened with
the awful consciousness of having ruined a world, she
now rejoices in the thought of giving birth to the world's
deliverer. She sees how Jehovah has remembered His
1 The often suggested translation,'I have gotten a man, even
Jehovah,' is not an unlikely one. JEHOVAH was in reality Messiah's
original name;'He was to be' the' coming one.' Enoch knew that
name as Messiah's:' Behold, the Lord cometh' (Jude I4).




GENESIS iv. I.                223
promise, and she rejoices, as if now the effects of her sin
were to be at once effaced. Her light must, indeed, have
been dim.  She had little to rest upon; just one brief
promise.  Yet faith, when simple, makes much of little
things; and so did Eve's. The promise had been like a
seed sown in the earth. She had been watching its upspringing; and now, when the first traces of it appear,
she gives utterance to her joy..She views it, too, as
favour shown to herself. Not foreseeing the sword that
was to pierce through her own heart, she rejoices that
God has thus visited her in her low estate, and manifested
His love. She had felt His frown when He proclaimed
to her the sorrows awaiting her as a mother; and now
she tastes His smile, and receives from His gracious
hand the gift of fatherly love;-love that had freely forgiven her, and was now pouring down on her the blessings
of its free bountifulness.
We saw Adam's faith showing itself in the naming of
his wife; we now see Eve's in the naming of her son.
In calling his wife Eve, Adam spake as a believing man;
and in naming her first-born Cain, Eve speaks as a believing woman; as one who knows Jehovah, knows Him as
her God, and finds in His grace and faithfulness her rest
and joy; as one who has understood the promise, and sets
her seal to the sure word of the great Promiser.  No
doubt she spoke in much ignorance; but still it was faith
speaking; and though, in after years, when she found
her sad mistake, she might mourn over disappointed
hopes, yet, looking back on the day when she remembered her grief no more for joy that a man was born,




224           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
she could still say,'I believed, therefore I spake.' She
had been watching the first springing of the seed, and,.
to her unpractised eye, it seemed now to have sprung up..
In its first upbursting, she could not discern the difference
between the seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent.  She deemed it the former; but it proved the
latter. Still her faith was called out; she believed and
spake; and though soon undeceived, yet not the less.
was it faith in her, though it failed to discern the difference'at first between that which was from beneath and
that which was from above.
Thus simple ought our faith to be,-looking straight
to God, and resting on His promises. It will make many.mistakes and meet with many disappointments, yet in
the end it will not lose its reward; for He on whom it
rests shall come at length, though He seem to tarry long.
It is not a faith free from mistakes that God expects of
us, but a faith which, in spite of mistakes and delays,
rests on Himself and His sure word, knowing that all
He has spoken will sooner or later come most surely to
pass.
Ver. 2.'A/nd size again bare his brother Abel. A2nd Abel was a
keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.'
There is no proof that the brothers were twins, though
some have thought so. The narrative seems to warrant
the common idea, that there was an interval; how long,
we know not. It was long enough to let Eve feel what
a world of vanity and sorrow she dwelt in; to show that
she was a stranger on the earth; and, accordingly, she




GENESIS IV. 2.                     225
gave vent to the sorrowful feelings of her heart (as did
afterwards the mother of Jabez, i Chron. iv. 4) in calling
him Abel, that is, vanity. In the name of her first-born,
we see her up-springing joy of heart, as if now the wrong
she had wrought were to be repaired; in the name of
her second-born, we trace the utterance of hope deferred,
making the heart sick, yet raising it upwards to something
above the vanities of this vain earth.  It was the second
time that a mother's pangs had been upon her, and in
passing through them she is made to feel that this is nother rest.
The boys grew up, and Cain followed the. calling of his
father Adam, feeling, doubtless, the weight of the, curse
in the toil and sweat which the tilling of the ground cost
him.'   So that he especially ought to have known the
evil of sin, seeing that he was made, more than his
brother, to endure the curse..  That he did not, only
shows how desperately he had hardened his heart against
the dealings of God, and refused the teachings by which
the Holy Spirit sought to convince him  of sin.   How
much might a man's earthly lot teach him, if he would
but listen to God's voice in it! But he will not, and so
his conscience becomes seared by that very discipline
1'By this, it seems that Cain was the man in favour, even him that
should by his father's intentions have been heir. He was nurtured up
in his father's employment, but Abel was set in the lower rank.'JOHN BUNYAN, Exjposition of the first two chapters of Genesis. An
old Latin commentator thinks that Abel chose the shepherd's life as
the most remote from sin, and turned from agriculture because the
ground was cursed: whereas Cain took to the latter, as not, heeding,
the curse.
VOL. VI.




226            THOUGH.TS ON GENVESS.
which was meant to make it tender. Abel was a keeper
of sheep; finding in this occupation something more
congenial to his spirit.  He had thus a less rugged and
toilsome life, as well as one which left him more of leisure
and ~of solitude, in which he might often anticipate the
feelings and song of David,'The Lord is my shepherd.'
And if Cain's employment ever reminded him of the curse,
and spoke to him of sin, Abel's showed him the Lamb
of God, by whom the curse was to be borne, and brought
continually into view the'no condemnation' in which he
had learnt to rejoice.
Vers. 3, 4.'And in P5rocess of time (Heb. at the division of days) it
came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an ofering'
unto the Lord. 4. And Abel, he also bozught of the firstlinzgs of his
flock, and of the fat thereof.'
Each brought his offering to Jehovah; and this was
done at what is called'the division of days,' very probably the Sabbath. The act mentioned here is evidently
not one, but a series of acts, as if it had been said,' they
were in the habit of bringing.'  Here let us mark such
things asithe following:-.: Both worship professedly the same Jehovah.  They
acknowledge Him as Jehovah, their God.
2. Both worship Him at the same place. In all likelihood- they worshipped  at the gate  of paradise, and
brought their offerings to the altar at which their father
worshipped.  They frequent the same temple (if we may
say so), and bow at the same altar.
1 We find Musculus noticing this,'Non semel tantum sed aliquoties.'
-Explanatio in Genesim, p. I i6.




GENESIS Iv. 3, 4.                   227
3. Both come at the same appointed times and seasons.
They observe all these outward parts of worship alike.;
4. Both bring an offering in their hands, thereby acknowledging the allegiance which was due to Jehovah.
Thus far they are alike. But here the likeness ends,
and the difference begins. How great is that difference!
In man's eye, the likeness is great, and the difference
small; in God's eye, it is the opposite.
I. Abel comes as a sinner, having no claim upon God,
and feeling that it is only as a sinner that God can deal
with him.  Cain  approaches as a creature only; not
owning sin, though willing to acknowledge the obligations
of creaturehood.
2. Abel comes acknowledging death to be his due; for
he brings a lamb, and slays it before the Lord, as a
substitute for himself. Cain recognises no sentence of
death; he brings only his fruits, as if his grapes or his
figs were all that he deemed God entitled to.  His offering might cost him more toil than his brother's, but it
spoke not of death.  It was meant to repudiate the ideas
of sin and death, and salvation by a substitute.'
3. Abel comes with the blood in his hand, feeling that
he dared not appear before God without it; that it would
not be safe for him to venture nigh, nor honourable for
God to receive him otherwise. Nothing but the blood
1 See Smith's Scrizpt. Test. to Messiah, and Magee On the Atonement.
Abel brought'a more excellent sacrifice than Cain' (Heb. xi. 4),
-Xdov0Ya dVuY —which the Vulgate curiously renders'plurimam hostiam.' It seems to mean, not merely a more excellent sacrifice, but
a fuller one; something that had in it much more of a sacrifice than
Cain's.




229            TTHOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
upon his conscience can give him confidence before God.
Cain brings no blood,-doubtless scorning his brother's
religion as'the religion of the shambles;' a religion
which increased instead of removing creation's pangs.
4. Abel comes resting on the promise,-the promise
which revealed and pledged the rich grace of God.  Cain
comes as one that needs no promise and no grace.  His
is what men call'the religion of nature;' and in that
religion there is no room, no need for these.
In Cain's worship we see the germ  of man's religion;
a religion which has taken a thousand various and
subtle forms; a religion which, in these last days, is
assuming yet more varied and subtle forms. In whatever form we find it, we see at least two things invariably
absent,-the recognition of the mere grace of God, and
of the blood of the substitute as bringing that grace
nigh.  These are the two elements which Cain's religion
sets aside; and these are still the two elements which
man's religion abhors.
God's religion turns on these two things; and these
have ever been the joy and confidence of those:who,
like Abel, have learned to worship Him who is a Spirit
in spirit and in truth.
Vers. 4, 5.' And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering: 1 5. But unto Cain, and to his offering, He had not respect.'
Jehovah accepts the one brother and rejects the other.
1 Herein are the true footsteps of grace discovered, viz. the person
must befirst in favour with God; the person first, the performance
afterwards.'-BUNYAN.




GENESIS IV. 5.              229
He intimated in some explicit way, —such as, perhaps,
the coming down of fire from the Shekinah that rested
between the cherubim, or the flaming sword that waved
at the gate of paradise,-His well-pleasedness with Abel.
Of Cain He took no notice, marking most visibly His
thoughts regarding the brothers.  This well-pleasedness
and displeasedness were, of course, marked things-things
which Abel knew and which Cain knew, and which their
parents knew. Abel knew that he was accepted; Cain
knew that he was rejected; —God, from the beginning,
thus showing us that He means us to know even here
when we are accepted, and when we are not accepted,
There was no uncertainty about either the one or the
other.'By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain;' and God left him in no doubt
as to the acceptance of that offering. He obtained witness that he was justified (Heb. xi. 4),'God testifying
of his gifts' —that is, giving some open testimony respecting their acceptableness, by means of which all
men knew that the favour of Jehovah was resting on
him. He came to the altar each day, with the blood
in his hand, as a believing man, and he was accepted.
God made no secret of His love to him; he left him in
no doubt as to his acceptance.
Ver. 5.'And Cain was very wroth, and his countenzancefell.'
Anger took possession of his bosom, and rested there
(Eccles. vii. 9). He was' very wroth:' this was the first
effect. Then his'countenance fell.'  It was not the
sudden flash of anger that lighted it up, but the gloom




230            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
of sullen, silent, deep-seated malignity that overshadowed
it. Its lines bent downwards; he went hanging his head;
he will not look upward to heaven, for God has thwarted
him; he will not look around upon his brother, for he
hates him, as one who has supplanted him in the favour
of God.l He broods over his fancied wrong and insult,
meditating revenge, not merely against Abel, but against
God. He is not led to repentance, or heart-searching
as to the reason of God's making such a difference.
He is too proud to admit the thought that the fault
can be with himself.  He cannot bear the thought that
God should prefer another, and that one his own brother.
Instead of saying, Well, I am glad that Abel is to be
blest if I am not, he quenches all natural affection,
and scowls upon him  in bitter wrath.   Nor can he
endure to think that another should be preferred on
such grounds,-the difference between the fruits of the
field and the firstlings of the flock! Had the preference
turned upon any other point, it would not have seemed
so irritating; had it been because Cain was immoral and
Abel moral, it would not have been felt as so insulting;
but that it should turn upon the difference between a
cluster of grapes and a lamb of the flock, this was intolerable. Such are still the feelings of Cain's successors,
the men of this world.  They are angry at others being
Yet why be so angry, if he did not care for God's favour? It
seems as if no being, however evil, can erase from his mind the idea
of God's favour being desirable. Hence the first exhibition of envy
and malice was not on account of man's friendship or woman's love,
but for the favour of God.




GENESIS iv. 6.                     23I
accepted; envious of the peace of believing men; unable
to bear the idea of assurance of pardon; enraged at God
for bestowing favour on a friend, or neighbour, or brother.
O  heart of man! what art thou? the seat of every evil
passion, the fountain of enmity both against man and
God.
Ver. 6.'And the Lord said unto Cain,, Why art thou wroth? and
why is thy countenancefallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be
accepted? I and if thou doest not well, sin lieth2 at the door.3 And unto
thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.'
Jehovah now speaks to Cain.4   He had given visible
indications of the non-acceptance of Cain's fruit-offering;
and this had been followed by anger and sullen defiance
1 The word means lifting up, exaltation, forgiveness, acceptance.
2 The word signifies either sin or sin- offering, hardly ever the
punishment or penalty. It occurs upwards of a hundred times as'sin-offering,' which seems to be its meaning here.
3'The door'-the door of the paradise, in front of which they
worshipped, and where the sin-offering slighted by Cain is pointed to
as lying.' The door of the tabernacle,' and'the door of the temple,'
were in after ages well-known expressions.
4 The divine voice no doubt came from'the excellent glory,' the
Shekinah, the presence of the Lord, before which our first parents
worshipped.' Enough has been already said in the preceding volumes
of this work to warrant the conclusion that the worship of the Israelites
"was no other than patriarchism, by various additions and special
institutions, adapted to the peculiar situation of a people which had
been selected by Jehovah."   There was therefore a special place
where God was worshipped by sacrifice before the cherubim.  Of
the nature and- character of the rites performed in this primitive
worship it is difficult to speak with any precision; but it is evident
that there must have been a person (in those days generally the father
of the family) to offer the sacrifice; and in all probability there was,
in the pure patriarchal period, some visible fire or glory representing
the presence of Deity.'-SMITH'S Sacred Annals, vol. i. p. 9.




232           7THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
on the part of the rejected worshipper. He now audibly
addresses him, just as he spoke afterwards to Abraham,
and to Moses, and to Israel. The words spoken are in
the form of a gentle expostulation.  There is no wrath in
them, as we might have expected. It is the voice of longsuffering and compassion. It is grace that is dealing with
the sinner; grace like that which dealt with Judas when
the' sop' was given, the last token of friendly forbearance.'Why hast thou become thus angry? and why has thy
countenance fallen?' Art thou not acting most unreasonably as well as sinfully, showing anger against thy God,anger without a cause? Am I to blame? May I not do
what I will with mine own?   Besides, hast thou not
brought this upon thyself?  Must I do as thou desirest?
Must I show myself as loving and favourable to the man
that regards my ordinances, as to the man that sets them
at nought, and chooses ordinances of his own? If thou
doest well, is there not acceptance for thee? 1 and if
thou doest not well, there is a remedy; the sin-offering
lieth at the door;2 so that whatever.has been thy past
guilt and rejection of the way of approaching me, thou
mayest yet enjoy my favour, and the birthright belonging
to thee as the elder brother shall not be affected. To
The'doing well' here seems to refer to the offering, not to welldoing in general. If thou compliest with my ordinances, and bringest
a lamb like thy brother, shall there not be acceptance (lifting up,
favour, forgiveness) for thee? The expression is similar to that in
Mic. vi. 8,' He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;' the good
thing; the thing in which God delights; the way of approaching Him
by sacrifice.
2 Lies or couches like an animal.




GENESIS iv. 6.                    233
thee shall thy brother's desire still be; to thee he shall
look up as his superior; and thou shalt still have the
rule over him.l
This is God's last appeal to Cain regarding the birthright. As it was the threatened loss of this and its conveyance to Abel that had so troubled him, so God makes
his appeal to turn upon this point. He is slow to anger
and plenteous in mercy, and He shows this in His dealings
with this sullen unbeliever. He will not cast off at once.
He has long patience, and would fain bring the rebel
to repentance, The birthright was Cain's as the eldestborn.  Such was God's law; for the law of primogeniture
is no mere human fiction nor modern invention. Nor
will God depart from  this law  without a reason, whatever His own eternal purpose may be. Before transferring the prerogative to the younger brother, He will
make manifest the righteousness of the alteration.  Cain
is rejected because he rejects God's appointed way of
approach. To the last we see how God makes Cain's
acceptance to turn upon this,-'Wilt thou take my way
or thine own? If thou wilt take my way, then even
yet all shall be well. Thy privileges shall not be taken
from  thee.  Thy rights as the elder-born shall stand.'
This is God's appeal to unbelief.   How that unbelief
met the appeal, the next verses show us. As Esau
despised the birthright, so did Cain. It was the same
1 injlj./Jq-desire or longing, occurs only three times. Chap. iii.
I6,' Thy desire shall be to thy husband.' Cant. vii. Io,' His desire
is toward me.' The verb signifies to run, run after, long for. See
Gesenius; also Patrick on the passage.




234             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
unbelief in both; the same rejection of Messiah and of
God's way of acceptance by His blood.
Ver. 8.'And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to
pass, when they zoere in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his
brother, and slew him.' 1
Love is lost upon him.   Kind  words are in vain.
God's appeal fails. It may be that the appeal recorded
was made, not once, but many times; all without effect.
He will not listen. His angry sullenness increases. He
resolves to revenge himself both upon God and upon
Abel.  He cannot get at God directly, and therefore he
takes his revenge on Him by slaying His beloved child,
thus venting his impotent malignity against God. He
hopes to frustrate God's purpose of love to Abel, and
to prevent him enjoying the divine favour or the birthright. It is the same feeling as drew out the cry of after
ages,'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance shall be ours;' he hoped by this means to
seize on the inheritance when Abel was gone. Blind
revenge indeed, whether as regards God, or Abel, or
himself!  And not only revenge, but hatred of the good.
Wherefore slew he him? asks the apostle. Because his
own deeds were evil, and his brother's righteous. He
was a hater, not a lover of the good.2  Here is the enmity
1 The Sept. read,'And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go
into the field.' The words according to the Hebrew run literally thus:' And Cain spoke unto Abel his brother. And it (or this) was when
they were in the field. And Cain rose against Abel,' etc.
2 One of the characteristics of the last days is, that men are to be
pix.~yxgoi. Here we have the first trace of the sad feature, —' not
lovers of good.'




GENESIS iv. 9.                    235
of the seed of the serpent to the seed of the woman, —an
enmity which nothing will satisfy but death. Hatred to
Christ, hatred to the Father, hatred to the Church,-these
are the world's deep and unchangeable feelings, modified
or restrained by circumstances, but still unaltered. The
root of all is hatred of Christ Himself; dissatisfaction
with God's purpose of making him the one way, and his
sacrifice the one ground of acceptance. It was thus that
Cain's hatred was stirred up, and so is it in every son of
Cain.'If they have hated me, they will also hate you.'
And then mark the cunning as well as the malignity of
the serpent. By fair speeches Cain leads Abel away into
a solitary field, and there murders him.  He has forgotten the all-seeing Jehovah above, or is resolved to
defy Him. All that he cares for is to be away from the
eye of man. How near to the atheist he has- come in
his heart already, saying'There is no God,' or at least
God will not see!
Ver. 9.' And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?'
God does not allow blood to be spilt like water on
the earth, without inquiring after it. He'makes inquisition for blood' (Ps. ix. I2), specially for'innocent
blood.' It is precious in His eyes (Ps. lxxii. i i). 1
The murderer's conscience was not likely to be silent.
It would burn like a furnace. It would sting like an
In the day of Babylon's judgment, we find that it is' the blood of
the saints' that weighs her down and consummates her ruin. God comes
and finds in her the blood of all His Abels (Rev. xviii. 24). She is the
true Cain,-the murderer in full stature, grown old in wickedness.




236           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
adder.  It is not, however, to this that our eyes are
directed, but to something more awful,-to the Judge
Himself; to Him'whose eyes are as a flame of fire.'
God comes down, as He had done in paradise to Adam
after his sin. Probably it was soon after the event, at
the next time of sacrifice, and to the usual place of offering that Jehovah came. Cain was there as usual, with
his grapes and pomegranates. But Abel was awanting!
A voice comes forth from' the glory.' It is the voice of
Jehovah. He speaks as one that missed a worshipper;
nay, a favourite child; and He speaks to Cain as to the
elder brother who ought to have care for the younger.'Where is Abel thy brother?' A question fitted to go
straight to the murderer's conscience, and no less fitted
to rouse his wrathful jealousy, as showing how truly
Abel was the beloved one.'Where is Abel,-where is
thy brother,-he who is bone of thy bone?  I miss him,
dost not thou miss him too?'
The question only draws from Cain a bold and reckless
lie; sin leading on to sin, —murder, falsehood, effrontery,
profanity.'I know not,' he says to the All-seeing One.
He can look up into the face of God and say,' I know not.'
As if he would add,' You may know, for he is your
favourite, and you ought to look after him.' He is like
the wicked one spoken of in the Ioth Psalm, who says,'God hath forgotten, He hideth His face; He will not
see.' 1  Nay, more, he'foams out his.own shame' before
1 Ps. x. ii. The whole tone and pleadings in this psalm carry us
back to Cain and his brother. It sets forth very fully and awfully' the
way of Cain.'




GENESIS Iv. 9.                  237
God.  He is not afraid to be insolent even to God.' Am
I my brother's keeper?' He rejects the natural claims
of kindred and affection; even while afraid to own the
dark deed, he is not afraid to speak as one who had cast
off all' natural affection.  Strange inconsistency!  He
mocks God, he utters lies in His presence, he flings off
the bonds of brotherhood, yet he will not own the murder!'Thou canst not say I did it.' How unsearchable man's
heart in its evil!'It is deceitful above all things, anddesperately wicked.' Cain will go on heaping sin upon
sin, but his pride will not allow him to confess the charge.'Am  I my brother's keeper?' as if he would say,'What
have I to do with him?  /hou art his keeper; he is Thy
favourite; Thou shouldst know more about him than I;
why ask such a question of me?' He speaks as one who
would not allow himself to be questioned even by God;
as one who denied God's right to question him, who was
enraged at the suspicion thus cast upon him,-a suspicion
to which his conscience at once responded, while his lips
rejected it. What will man not do to God?  Is there any
length of pride, or deceit, or insolence to which he will
not go? Many things may restrain him, yet he is ever
ready to break loose, and to defy Jehovah. He will
crouch to a poor mortal superior, but he will insult the
God that made him.l
1 The Chaldee paraphrast makes Cain to say,'There is no justice,
there is no judge, there is no world to come, there are no rewards
for the just.' How applicable here the words of Ps. xxxvi. I,'The
transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, There is no fear of
God before his eyes.'




238             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Ver. Io.'And He said, What hast-thou done?  The voice of thy
brother's blood crieth unto mefrom the ground.'
The divine reply is calm, yet awfully piercing.  There
is no outburst of vengeance, nor sudden stroke of wrath.'What is this dreadful deed which thou hast done, and
which thou art trying to conceal from me? The voice of
thy brother's blood cries to me from the ground.' 1 In the
first part of the answer, God brings home the charge to
the sinner's conscience, and makes him feel how vain was
his attempt to evade it, or to conceal the deed. In the
second part, He adduces witnesses.  The voice of Abel's
blood. - That blood crieth to me, says Jehovah.  It makes
no vague or random sound, but appeals directly to me.
Cain had shed that blood, and perhaps had hidden the
body in the ground.  The voice was silenced; there
could be no witnesses; the murderer seemed safe.  Who
could accuse him?  But from  that very ground, in which
The apostle's words (Heb. xii. 24) seem plainly to refer to this'The blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of
Abel.' There seems no reason for referring this, as some do, to the
blood of Abel's sacrifice. His blood cried for vengeance, Christ's for
mercy.  Abel's blood spoke of the curse, Christ's of the blessing.
Abel's spoke of wrath, Christ's of grace. Abel's spoke of condemnation, Christ's of pardon. Abel's spoke of terror, Christ's of comfort
and peace. Abel's spoke of death, Christ's of life. Abel's spoke of
hatred, Christ's of love. Abel's spoke of earth become the dwellingplace of sin, Christ's was the pledge of earth yet to become the abode
of holiness. It ought to be noticed here that the word' blood' in the
Hebrew is'bloods,' and the verb'crieth' is literally'cry,' in the
plural, agreeing not with'voice,' but with'bloods.' In the plural
the word generally refers to murder. Ps. v. 7,' Men of bloods.'
The Targum gives a curious meaning:' The voice of the bloods of the
generations or multitudes of just men who should have proceeded from




GENESIS iv. io.                     239'
he had buried the bleeding body, there came up a voice
in the ears of God, accusing the murderer, and pleading
for vengeance.  Out of that very place of secrecy where
he had hoped for ever to conceal his crime from  every
eye, the voice came up to God. The blood had made
its appeal to Jehovah, and  He had  now  come down
to answer that appeal, and to  show  how  precious was
that blood in His sight. As yet there was no human
judge to  take cognizance of the crime.   God Himself
must do it.
Thus from the days of Abel has pleaded the blood of
the saints:-' How long, O Lord, wilt Thou not judge
and avenge our blood?'  Thus the voice has been going'up for ages from the ground, from the cell, from  the cave,
from the rock, from the glen, from the moorland, from the
flood, from  the flame, from  the scaffold.  What spot of
Europe, not to take in more, is there from which this cry
thy brother,' etc. The reader will remember the well-known passage
of Shakespeare-'O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven,
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,'A~brother's murder.'
We ought'to refer the reader to Dr. Kennicott's Dissertation on
The Oblations of Cain and Abel.  It is on some points strained and
over-ingenious, but able and interesting. He thinks that'I have
gotten a man from the Lord' means,'I have gotten a man according
to the promise of the Lord' (p. II5).  He thinks that Abel's name
was given not at his birth, but afterwards, as expressive of his mother's
feelings at his death (p. II7).  He strongly and irresistibly argues
out these.two points: (I) that sacrifice was of divine institution; (2)
that the Sabbath was observed by the patriarchs, and that it was on
the Sabbath that the brothers brought their offerings.




240'THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
is not ascending? From the plains of Italy, from the
valleys of Piedmont, from the dungeons of Spain, from the
streets of Paris, from the stones of Smithfield, from the,
fields of Ireland, from the moors of Scotland; from all
these has been ascending for ages the cry,'How long!'
a cry unsilenced and unsatisfied; deepening and swelling
as the ages roll on; a cry which will ere long be fully
answered by the coming of Him who is the great avenger
of blood and-rewarder of His saints.
Ver. I.' And now art thou cursed from the earth (Heb. ground),
which hath oj5ened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy
hand.'
This is the first direct curse on man.  The serpent and
the ground had been cursed before; but neither Adam
nor Eve had been so.  But now God, addressing a man;
the son of a man; a creature of His own; says,' Cursed
art THOU.' Fearful words, coming straight from the lips
of' God into the very ear of man, standing in the presence
of God. No lightning bursting on him from the clouds
could be half so terrible.  The blessing is revoked, and
the curse goes forth. It is a curse because of innocent
blood, as if foreshowing the curses which the shedding, of
innocent blood was yet to bring upon men.  This curse
is represented as coming up from the ground, as if the
ground which had been moistened with the blood were
to be the instrument of inflicting the curse.' In Ezekiel
1 Why our translators in the previous verse rendered the word'ground,' and here'earth,' is not easy to say; perhaps for the same
reason that the Sept. in the former verse renders in by ix, and in the




GENESIS IV. 12.                      241
we read of the' mountains devouring men' (xxxvi. I2-I4),
and elsewhere of the land'spewing out' (Lev. xviii. 28,
XX. 22); SO here the very ground is impregnated with evil
to Cain, and sends up its curses on him. The soil is
to cast him off; the earth is to loathe him; inanimate
nature, more tender-hearted than he (inasmuch as it
drank in the blood), is to set its face against him.   It
had received the innocent blood into its bosom, and it
was to send up unceasingly on the murderer an endless
curse.1
Ver. I2.' WUhen thou tillest (or shalt till) the ground, it shall not
hencejbrth yield unto thee her strength (Heb. it shall not add to give her
strength to thee). A fugiive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth'
(Heb. moving and wandering shall thouz be on the'earth.'-not'the
ground').
This curse is a twofold one; it was to affect the ground,
and it was to affect himself.  It was to inflict barrenness
on the soil, so that it was not to continue to yield its
strength as it had hitherto done to, his tillage; 2 the
latter by &so'; both versionists seeming to understand the latter as if
God meant to say,'Thou art cursed, and driven out from the earth.'
This idea, however,, is afterwards (ver. I4) expressed by  py:_,' rom
upon,' which the Sept. render er', and the Vulg.. super, by which
preposition they also render the passage before us. Patrick, however,
makes' cursed from the earth' to mean,' thou art banished Eden.'
1 Augustine dwells on the contrast between Cain and the ground,
the one shedding the blood, the other receiving it into its bosom:' Ille fudit sanguinem, non excepit. Ille fudit, alia terra excepit; et
ab ea terra quoe os aperuit et excepit, ille maledictus est.'
2 The curse was specially suited to Cain as a' tiller of the ground,'
and as one who brought of the fruit of the ground' as his offering to
God. Now God rebukes both his tillage and his offering;- marring
the former, and drying up the source of the latter. His occupation
VOL. VI.                                          Q




242            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
innocent blood had sterilized it.  Adam's sin drew down
on the soil the curse of fruitfulness in evil (chap. iii. i8);
Cain's draws down on it the curse of barrenness in good.
But the curse affected himself as well as the ground.  It
was to afford him no settled dwelling, as well as no return
for his labour; sustenance and settlement were to be
denied. He was to be rooted up from the soil and flung
off, to be carried to and fro, like the withered leaf.
Driven out from the presence of Jehovah, from the place
where the glory dwelt, and where the altar was erected,
he was to become a wanderer over earth; his sin, like
a malignant demon, pursuing him, and allowing him no
rest for the sole of his foot. As Israel, in after days, were
made wanderers among the nations for the bloodshedding
of the Lord of glory, so was Cain. Tortured within and
cursed without, he was to bear the weight of a brother's
blood whithersoever he went. Impelled by envy, he had
murdered his holy brother, and now something more
terrible and more unquenchable takes possession of him,
-remorse of soul,-the undying sting of conscience.  He
had slain his brother to prevent his inheriting the birthright, and to secure the blessing for himself; and now he
finds that he has called up against himself a curse which
is to track his footsteps throughout earth, and render his
very life a burden and a sorrow. Such is SIN! So terrible,
would thus become a perpetual witness against him; and hence,
perhaps, it was, that he and his descendants betook themselves to the
mechanical arts and city-building. Fruitfulness of soil being denied,
they dug for gold, and silver, and iron. Thus was the memory of
Cain's sin perpetuated.




GENESIS Iv. 13, I4.                   243
so ruinous, so relentless, so armed with the curse of God.
Such are the fruits of envy. Burden upon burden, stroke
upon stroke, sorrow  upon sorrow!  From  above, from
beneath, and from around, the torment, and the terrors
and the bitterness pour in. There is no peace to the
wicked, no rest, no settlement.   How  sin uproots and
unsettles, making a man to flee hither and thither, in order
to get away from himself!  How vain!  O SIN, sin! what
horrid things are all wrapt up even in its smallest indulgence! An unkind thought, a harsh word, an envious
feeling, — then sullenness, anger, murder- a brother's
murder! How little do we know sin, or reckon on its
results, or calculate the fruits that come forth from its
womb! 1
Vers. 13, 14.'And Cain said unto the Lord, MIy punishment is
greater than I can bear.2  I4. Behold, Thou hast driven me this day
from the face of the earth; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I
shall be a fugitive and a vagabond3 in the earth: and it shall come to
pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.'
Up to this point the murderer has lifted up a bold front
1 How like the curse on Cain has been that on Israel for ages!
And both for the same crime,-a brother's blood! Israel is the true
Cain, a wanderer among the nations; see Lev. xxvi. 36; Deut. xxviii.
25, 65. Augustine speaks thus of the Jewish nation, Com. on Ps. xl.
and lix.; but he dwells fancifully on the signs which God has given to
them that they shall not be destroyed, such as the sign of circumcision,
unleavened bread, etc.
2 The marginal rendering seems the true one here:'Mine iniquity
is greater than that it maybe forgiven.' Hiivernick remarks,' The
unbloody offering of Cain stands in a remarkable agreement with the
expression, My sin is greater than can be taken away.'-Introd. to
the Pent. p. I03.
3'A  fugitive and a vagabond.'  The old English translations,




244              THOUGEHTS ON GENESIS.
before Jehovah. But the sentence from God's own lips
has overwhelmed him. It has smitten him like a thunderbolt. He can no longer defy God, nor brave His anger,
nor trifle with  His omniscience.   He  is not, indeed,
humbled; repentance is far from him; but he is silenced,
convicted, crushed. Like Ahab, in an after age, he bows
before a power with which he can no longer' trifle; but
that is all. Like Judas, he is stung with remorse, as when
the betrayer cried out,'I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.' He now, for the first time,
confesses sin; yet it is only this sin,-no more, —that he
avows. In the sharp bitterness of remorse, he passes from
callousness to despair. For there is no right sense of sin
here, but the mere agony of blind remorse, arising from
the reaction and revulsion of his furious passions, and the
terrible thought that he is in the hands of an angry God.
Transgressor, what does this avail?   Remorse  is not
Tyndale, Coverdale, and the'Bishops,' give'a vagabond and a
runnagate;' the Vulgate,'vagus et profugus;' Tremellius and Junius,' vagus et infestus agitationibus.' How the Sept. got ODYwyv rsa   reSj/zV,
groaning and trembling, one hardly sees.  Homer speaks of xofless
avzps;,'wandering men.' —(Odyssey, Book xix. 74.) Horace uses the
expression,'fugitivus et erro.'-(Sat. Book ii. 7, line II3.)  Byron, in
his sad misanthropy, exclaims,'I am as a weed
Flung from the rock, on ocean's foam to sail,
Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail.'
-Chitde Harold, Canto III.
And Montgomery, even more beautifully, and in a far nobler strain,
speaks of' Waifs in the universe, the last
Lorn links of kindred chains for ever sundered.'
-Pelican Island, Canto II.




GENESIS IV. I3, 14.            245
repentance.  Terror is not repentance. Despair is not
repentance. The revenge which an outraged conscience
takes on man for some dark deed is not repentance.
These are but Cain's sullen ravings, or Ahab's alarm, or
Judas' despair. There are outcries such as these in hell,
with weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; but
where is godly sorrow, the tears of a broken heart?
Cain enumerates the causes of his despair. These are
three,-the three articles of the sentence pronounced;
and then he sums up with a conclusion of his own:'It
shall come to pass that every; one that findeth me shall
slay me.'
(I.) Behold, Thou hast cast me out this day from (or
from upon) the face of the ground.  Thou hast driven
me! He sees it to be Jehovah's own doing. He who
drove Adam out of paradise, now drives Cain out of
Eden.  Adam's sin brought expulsion from  the inner
circle, Cain's from the outer. He is to be cast out from
the land where he had been born, where was his home;
from the ground which he had tilled. He was now doubly
banished; compelled to go forth into an unknown region,
without a guide, or a promise, or a hope.
(2.) From Thy face I shall be hid. God's face means,
doubtless, the Shekinah or manifested glory of Jehovah
at the gate of Eden, where Adam and Eve, and their
children, had worshipped; where God was seen by them,
where He met them, and spake to them as from His
mercy-seat. From this place of Jehovah's presence Cain
was to go out. And this depresses him. Not that he
really cared for the favour of God, as one'in whose favour




246            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
was life;' but still he could not afford to lose it, especially
when others were left behind to enjoy it. And all his
religious feelings, such as they were, were associated with
that spot.
(3.) I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth.'
Unchained from his primeval home, he was now to drift
to and fro, he knew not whither.  He was to be a leaf
driven to and fro, a man without a settlement, and without
a home. Poor, desolate sinner! And all this is thine
own doing! Thy sin has found thee out. Thine own
iniquities have taken thee, and thou art holden with the
cords of thy sins (Prov. v. 22).
Cain now sums up all by drawing his own sad inference.
He is sure to be slain by the first that meets him.  There
was nothing of this in the sentence; but a guilty'conscience suggested it.  He sees himself a marked man.
Death surrounds him.  What else can a murderer expect?
What else can a murderer's conscience forbode?
Ver. I5. CAnd the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth
Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a
mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.'
Jehovah meets the murderer's despair with words and
acts of grace.  His sullen ravings draw forth no wrath.
God has declared the punishment, and will not be provoked to exceed it. Nay, He takes measures to prevent
its being exceeded. Not a drop more shall go into even
x'A fugitive,' one'moving' or flying from God and paradise. A'vagabond,' a'wanderer,' having no rest, even in the land to which
he came.




GENESIS iv. I5.                    247
Cain's cup than He Himself decrees.l  And Cain must
know this, and must be assuredc that nothing beyond the
awarded penalty shall be permitted to come upon him.
Grace meets the murderer, and gives him  this assurance
on the part of God. God will not allow any save Himself to deal with  Cain.'Vengeance is mine, I  will
recompense, saith Jehovah.'  If any shall attempt to take
his life, vengeance shall fall on him sevenfold. Of this
God gives Cain a sign,2 a sign for himself, that he would
be preserved safe from all attempts against his life, thus
relieving his apprehensions, and in this respect delivering
him from the terrors which surrounded him; terrors not
confined to the time then present, but terrors of what
might be in the ages which lay before him ere he returned
to dust.3
1 God's time had not yet come for the enactment,'Whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' Till that enactment
was made, no man had a right to slay even a murderer.
2 Not' set a mark upon,' but' gave a sign to.' Dathe and RosenmUller very decidedly adopt this as the true rendering, both remarking that i::. is often used in the same sense as jn_; yet there must be
some reason why the former word is used. The nature of the sign,. or
its position, required the use of'placed,' not"gave.' De Sola renders
it,'appointed a sign to Cain,' and shows that the preposition 53 does
not mean upon, but for or to.-See also Hamilton's Pentateuch aznd
its Assailants, p. I74. We may notice also, that the word I'li 
occurs seventy-six times in the Old Testament, and, save in the place
before us, has always been translated a sign or token, not a mark.
3 The world by this time (about I30) would be beginning to increase
in population. But besides, Cain lived on for several generations, and
needed to be assured that at no future time should vengeance be taken
on him. Some may count it strange that in the first part of the verse
God should provide for the possibility of his being killed, by appointing vengeance on the slayer, and in the latter should assure Cain that




248           THIOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
But why is God so anxious to preserve Cain from death,
and to give him the assurance of this security? Some
reasons are obvious, besides those which run us up directly
to the sovereignty of God. (I.) God's desire is to manifest
the riches of His grace, and the extent of His forbearance,
and that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but wishes by His long-suffering to lead him to repentance.
(2.) Death would not have answered God's end at all.
It was needful that Cain should be preserved alive as an
awful monument of sin, a warning against the shedding
of man's blood. We find that this proved ineffectual; for
in after ages we read that the earth was'filled with
violence,' which compelled God to interfere, with'the
Deluge; and we find also, that after the Deluge, God
enacted the statute referred to above for the repression of
murder, putting into man's hands the very power which
before that He had kept wholly in His own. (3.) Cain
was spared too, because of this partial repentance. God
accepted Ahab's repentance (I Kings xxi. 29); poor and
hollow as it was, so does He Cain's; for He is gracious
and merciful, looking for the first and faintest sign of a
sinner's turning to Himself, willing to meet him at once
without upbraiding, and putting the best possible construction on all he says and does. To what length is not
the grace of our God able to go! Sin abounds, but grace
superabounds. How desirous is Jehovah not to curse,
he should not be killed. But this is God's way of suiting Himself to
man; as, for instance, when He speaks of the possibility of a saint
falling away or being a castaway, and yet assures him that he shall
not fall nor come short of the kingdom.




GENESIS iv. I6.               249:
but to bless; not to smite, but to heal; not to destroy,
but to save.
Ver. i6.'Aznd Cain went ozut from the presence of the Lord (Heb.
from the face of _7ehovah), and dwelt in the land oJ god, on the east of
Eden.'
He must tarry no longer within the bounds of Eden.
Willing or unwilling, he must go. Like Judas from the
presence of Jesus, so does Cain go out from the face of
God, from the place where the visible glory of God, the
Shekinah, had its abode. Partly troubled at his banishment, and partly relieved at getting away from the near
presence of the Holy One, he goes forth, a banished
criminal, whose foot must no longer be permitted to profane the sacred circle of Eden; an excommunicated man,
who must no longer worship with the Church of God, round
the primeval altar. He goes out,- not like Abraham to the
land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey,
but to the land of the threatening, the land where no
divine presence was seen, and on which no glory shone,
and where no bright cherubim foreshadowed redemption,
and proclaimed restoration to paradise, and the tree of
life. He goes out to an unknown and untrodden land; a
land which, from his own character as'the wanderer,'
received in after days the name of Nod. He goes out,
the flaming sword behind him, driving him out of his
native seat, and forbidding his return.
A banished man, an excommunicated worshipper (the
sentence of excommunication pronounced by God Himself)-one'delivered over to Satan' (I Tim. i. 2o), he




250               THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
takes up his abode in the land of Nod.  There he'sits
down,' not as if at rest, for what had he to do with rest?
Can the cloud rest?   Can the sea rest?   Can the guilty
conscience rest? He sits down in Nod, but not to rest,
only to drown his restlessness in schemes of labour. He
went towards the rising sun.l  He and his posterity spread
eastward, just as Seth and his posterity spread westward.
The two great families separated, only to meet again in after
ages, when overflowing wickedness had erased the line of
separation, and a common ungodliness had made them one.2'The  way  of Cain'-what is it?  (Jude  ii.)   The
apostle speaks of it as something terrible, and something
which will be specially exhibited in the last days.'Woe
unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain!'  That
way began in unbelief, in the rejection of God's way of',salvation through the shedding of blood.' 3 It ended in
utter worldliness and infidelity; in the unrestrained in1 Montgomery thus paints the fugitive-'Eastward ot Eden's early peopled plain,
Where Abel perished by the hand of Cain,
The murderer from his Judge's presence fled;
Thence to the rising sun his offspring spread.
But he, the fugitive of care and guilt,
Forsook the haunts he chose, the homes he built;
While filial nations hailed him sire and chief,
Empire nor honour brought his soul relief;
He found where'er he roamed, uncheer'd, unblest,
No pause from suffering, and from toil no rest.'
- World before tie Flood.
2 If this be the separation between the seed of the woman and the
seed of the serpent, is Gen. vi. 2 the scene of their accomplished
reunion? The sons of God and the daughters of men (as Israel and
Moab) allying themselves together.
3 See Mr. Faber's Eight Dissertations, vol. ii., appendix, for an
article on Cain.




GENESIS Iv. I6.                 251
dulgence of the lust of the flesh, the eye, and the pride
of life.  It was a way very much marked by the Apostle
Paul's characteristics of the perilous times of the last days
(2 Tim. iii. i). In it we find selfishness, envy, hatred,
murder, hypocrisy, lying, pride, independence, rebelliousness, ambition, all coupled or covered over with the' form
of godliness.'  Rejection of the woman's seed, and of
God's way of acceptance through that seed-this is the
main feature, that which influences all the rest. No Christ
for him! No bruised heel for him! No shedding of
blood for the remission of sins! No righteousness of a
substitute in which he may stand before God!'The
way of Cain!' It still exists.  It has not been ploughed
up so as to become imperceptible.  It is still visible, and
it is coming more and more into admiration as man's
conscience gets blunted, and as his proud self-sufficiency
exhibits itself.  No sacrifice, no substitute, no imputed
righteousness, no  blood-shedding, no'religion of the
shambles' for us!
And is such a way the way of holiness?  Will such a
religion lead men to love and gentleness, and brotherly
kindness? Will such a faith make a happy kingdom and
a blessed earth, introducing the reign of peace and gladness? So say its exulting votaries, emancipated, as they
suppose, from the trammels of old creeds, and from the
brutalizing influence of altars besmeared with blood. So
says the philosophic theology of the day.  So says the
poetry of the age.'
1'Christian Socialism,' as it is called, is, not less than the infidel's
Socialism,'the'way of Cain.'




252           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
But look at Cain. That was his way.  He rejected
the expiatory blood, turning away from the'religion of
the shambles,' to the mild gentleness of a worship in which
no life was taken, and no blood was spilt, and no suffering
inflicted. Did this mild and genial religion of his lead to
a loving, gentle life? No. He who had so many scruples
about shedding the blood of an innocent lamb, has none
about taking the life of a holy and unoffending brother.
He who is too pure and refined in his ideas of religion to
profane his altar by turning it into'shambles,' is all the
while busied in preparing' shambles' of his own, where,
for the gratification of malice, hatred, envy, and revenge,
and every hellish passion, he may, with his own hand,
butcher a brother for being more righteous than he.
Ver. 17.'And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare
Enoch: and he builded a citji, and called the nanze of the city, after the
name of his son, Enoch.'
Cain had probably been married before his crime, yet
had no family.  His wife goes forth with him from Eden,
and in the land of his banishment brings forth a son, who
gets the name of Enoch; the same in name as the holy
son of Seth in an after age, but in character unlike. Cain
was himself born within the primeval region where Adam
dwelt; but his children are not to be born there. Their
native region is to be that of the banished wanderer, as if
God, even in this thing, would draw the separating line
between the seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent.
In his new country he had set himself to build a city,




GENESIS iv. IS.                  253
and as his son was born while he was engaged in building
it, he calls it by the name of his son. He does not call
it by his own name. He deems it better that that should
be hid, not published,-forgotten, not perpetuated.  But
he seeks to connect the city with a family name, though
not with his own.  How like the ungodly spoken of by
David,'They call their lands by their own names'! (Ps.
xlix. II.) 1  He is now settling down in worldliness, and
trying to forget God amid stir, and movement, and
pleasure. He is ambitious of being remembered in the
earth.  Posthumous fame is his desire.  He is desirous to
be not merely the founder of a family, but the builder of
a city. He seeks thus to soothe his guilty conscience, to
drown remorse, to bury out of sight and out of memory
the dreadful past.  He is the true picture of a sinner
trying to flee from himself and to escape from God. But
it cannot be!  The void within still remains unfilled!
Conscience still stings. The past, like a black spectre,
frowns or moans behind him, and the future flings its cold
shadow over him, pointing onwards to the endless sorrow.
What can the sinner do?   Return to God is his only'chance,' as men speak; or, as the gospel tells him, his
certain and joyful hope.
Ver. iS.' And unto Enochi was bori Irad: and ~rad begai Jfelujael: and Mehujae! begat Methusael: and Methusaed begat Lanzech.'
Thus son after son is born.  The world runs on.  Its
1 The whole of this psalm is appropriate. It looks like a sketch of
Cain and his children. It shows us the'seed of the serpent' in their
aspect of utter worldliness. See also Job xxi. 7-2I.




254           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
families multiply: and name is added to name. Abel is
forgotten, and the voice of his blood is silenced,-at least
it ceases to disturb these generations of the prosperous
sons of Cain.  Enoch loses sight of his holy uncle's
murder in the triumph of having a city called by his
name. Cain's sin passes out of mind. God's curse upon
the murderer is made light of. To lay aside the stranger's
tent, and build the city for ages, as if they would dwell
here for ever, is now the aim of these Cainites. The'world' is now rapidly developing itself as' the world.'
There is'eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage;' and the chorus of after ages begins to be
adopted,'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much
more abundant.'
Ver. I9.'And Lamech took unto hin two wives: the name of the
one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.'
Here begins the brief story of Lamech the polygamist,
-a story of lust, bloodshed, and defiant hardihood.  He
is the first to violate God's primeval law of marriage; and
the violation of this soon leads to other sins. In Cain we
have seen the man of violence. In Lamech we see the
man of iZst. From these two fountainheads of evil, what
wickedness has flowed out upon earth! And, as in the
last days we find men returning to'the way of Cain,'
so do we find them returning to the way of Lamech,-'walking after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness, and
despising government, presumptuous, self-willed' (2 Pet.
ii. Io). All the old world's sins repeated and intensified




GENESIS IV. 20-22.                  255
in the last generation, just before the arrival of Him of
whom Enoch prophesied (Jude I4).
Vers. 20-22.'And Adah bare 7abal: he was the father of such as
dwell in tents, a-nd of such as have cattle. 2I. Anzd his brother's name
was _ubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and
organ.  22. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of
every artfitcer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was
Naamah.'
Still the world goes on. God allows men to take their
course. Forgetting Him in whom they live, they proceed
onwards, each one in his own way and in the gratification
of his own tastes. All kinds of professions, and occupations, and arts are introduced. The natural man is fertile
in all things pertaining to this present evil world; and
Satan, the god of this world, sharpens and quickens his
ingenuity and skill.
I. P]astoral peursuits make progress.   Jabal was the
father of such as dwell in tents, and have cattle (ver. 20).
Jabal takes the lead as the great shepherd of his day,gentler, perhaps, and more peaceful in his nature,-more
like Abel in his dispositions. The Spirit of God does not
here cast censure on such employments, as if there were
sin in them.' He simply points out these children of Cain
as sitting down contented with earth, and engrossed with
its pursuits.  It is the spirit of earnest and absorbing
worldliness which is meant to be exhibited; the spirit
that pursues lawful employments to such an extreme of
engrossment, that by excess they become unlawful. These
children of Cain seem to have shrunk from tillage. They
would have had to till a cursed soil,-a soil cursed for




256           THOUGHTS ON GENEkSIS.
their father's sill (ver. I 2).  They would have had to
labour on with their father's guilt overhanging them,their sweating brow, and weary limbs, and baffled schemes,
reminding them that they were labouring on under a
double curse-the curse of Cain added to the curse of
Adam; that they were tilling ground which Cain had sterilized with a brother's blood,-blood which was still crying
from every clod and furrow. Hence they seem to have
given up their father's original occupation, and become
keepers of cattle, not tillers of the ground. The soil was
too full of terror, as well as of toil, for them to attempt its
tillage.  How a man's sin finds him out.! How it traces
him out wherever he sets his foot! How it haunts his
days and nights, standing in his way like the angel before
Balaam, to turn him out of his road, and to compel him
to seek other paths, and other occupations, where he may
not be so perseveringly pursued by that dark shadow, or
rather that living spectre!
2. The Fine Arts.-Jabal had a brother by name Jubal,
who betakes himself to the harp and the organ.' Yes, —
music,-the world must soothe its sorrows or drown its
cares with music! The world must cheat its hours away
with music!  The world must set its lusts. to music!
The harp and the organ,-these must be employed to lull
the conscience asleep, to minister to pleasure, to drown
the sorrows of earth, to cheat the soul out of its eternal
1 Without entering upon the inquiry what was the t.~, ]izinnor,
and what was the g~.t2 Ugab, we may say that the former seems to
comprehend all stringed instruments, the latter all wind instruments.




GENESIS IV. 20-22.              257
birthright! Thus Job describes these families of Cain:-'Their children dance: they take the timbrel and harp,
and rejoice at the sound of the organ' (Job xxi. 12).
Yet, sweet sounds are not unholy. There is no sin in the
richest strains of music. And God, by bringing into His
own temple all the varied instruments of melody, and
employing them in His praises, showed this. But these
Cainites make music of the siren kind. God is not in all
their melodies. It is to shut Him out that they devise the
harp and the organ. Yet these inventions He makes use
of for Himself afterwards; employing these men as the
hewers of wood and the drawers of water for His temple.
They devise and fashion the instruments for their own
pleasure and mirth; and God takes them out of their
hands, and putting them into the hands of His servants,
brings out of them divine music, for the service of His,
temple, and for the praise of His glory. When we are
told,' Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant
of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the cornet,
and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with
psalteries and harps' (i Chron. xv. 28), we are carried
back to Jubal, and made to see how God can turn to His.
own ends the wisdom of this world, the natural skill and
science which the men of earth pursue for the gratification
of their own carnal desires.
3. ThZe Miechanical Arts. — Zillah bare Tubal-cain to
Lamech; and this Tubal-cain was an instructor of every
artificer in brass and iron. The arts flourish under Cain's
posterity.  They can prosper without God, and among
those in whose hearts. His fear is not. God suffers them,
VOL. VI., 




258           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
to go on forgetting Himself, and occupying themselves
with these engrossing employments. He permits them to
put forth their skill and genius to the uttermost, fashioning for themselves all manner of curious or useful instruments for ornament, for tillage, for war, for all those
various ends for which brass and iron are moulded by the
artificers of ancient or of modern times. He does not interfere; and this not only because He is long-suffering, but
because one of His great purposes is, that man shall have
full scope to develope himself mentally, morally, and
physically.  Man has torn himself off from  God; and
God will let it be seen how the branch can unfold its
leaves and fruit, or rather what kind of leaves and fruit
it can put forth when thus severed from Himself. God
will let the world roll on its own way, that it may be seen
what a world it is. He will let sin come out in all its
various manifestations, that its true character may be exhibited, as well as the true character of that fountainhead
where it had now concentrated itself,-a human heart.
There is no sin in working in brass and iron, or in attaining to the highest skill in so doing; but there is sin
in the worldliness, the selfishness, the forgetfulness of
God, springing out of the exercise of that skill in these
Cainites.
Men are trying so to fit up and adorn the world, that
they shall be able to do without God in it at all. The
experiment is making, whether they may not be quite as
comfortable and as safe in a world where God is not, as in
a world where He is all in all. They till the soil; they
clothe it with fair verdure in hill and dale; they cover it




GENESIS IV. 20-22.               259
with the living creatures which God has made for it; and
the cattle upon a thousand hills exhibit the life and the
plenty with which they have made it to abound; they dig
into its very bowels for the iron and the brass, out of
which to construct instruments to fill its air with melody,
or implements with which to cultivate its varied growth,
or weapons with which to defend themselves against evil,
or ornaments with which to beautify their dwelling; they
call in the aid, too, of woman's attractions; for Naamah,
Zillah's daughter, and Tubal-cain's sister, seems mentioned
for the very purpose of suggesting this;'  all that skill, and
art, and ornament, and brilliancy, and harmony, and female 
grace can do to make earth a paradise is attempted. Poor
man! What efforts he has made to undo the curse with
which his own sin had smitten creation! What pains he
has taken to render this world habitable and pleasant;
to make himself and his children independent of God for
happiness, or health, or safety, or blessing! But in vain;
it will not do. The fashion of this world passeth away;
its beauty fades, and its loveliest forms are but sunsetrainbows, brightening those vapours, that in an hour will
vanish or grow dark.
What is' earth without the God that made it, or the
Christ by whom it is yet to be made new?  What are
the arts and sciences; music, painting, statuary?  What
are the wisdom, skill, energy, power, genius of the race,
developed to the full? What are the mind's resources,
the heart's fulness, the body's pliant power, man's strength
1 Naamah seems to be the heathen Venus; as Tubal-cain is Vulcan.




260             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
or woman's beauty, youth's fervour or age's grey-haired
wisdom?  What are all these in a world from  which its
Creator has been banished; a world whose wisdom is not
the knowledge of Christ, and whose sunshine is not the
love of God?
Vers. 23, 24.' And Lamech said unto his wives, Atdah and Zillah,
hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I
have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt:
24. If C'ain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and
sevenfold.'
The substance of this abrupt and singular narrative may
be set down as follows: Lamech had been engaged in
some deed of blood,-to which, perhaps, his polygamy
had led.  From  this murder his family apprehend the
worst consequences to himself. To soothe their,fears, he
addresses his wives,-'Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech.
Surely I have slain a man to my wounding,
And a young man to my hurt.
Surely if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.'
As if he had said,' It is true that I have slain a man, but
it was in self-defence, and in so doing I have been
wounded; I have slain a young man, and in so doing
have been bruised; but surely I have less cause to fear
than Cain: if he was to be avenged sevenfold, then I
may count upon being avenged seventy-sevenfold.' 1
1 Marbachius suggests that his wives were endeavouring to restrain
his ferocity, especially representing the consequences of its indulgence,




GENESIS IV. 23, 2a.                  26I
Such was the argument by which Lamech sought to
allay the alarms of his wives.   And in this we see the
man. We get a knowledge of his character, and no less
so of the state of the times. It seems to have been an
age of lust and bloodshed. Lamech is its type. It was
the introduction to that darker time, when wickedness
having swelled to its utmost, God was constrained to interpose and sweep the transgressors from the earth. The
scene in Lamech's house was a specimen of the times,times like those depicted in Psalms xi. and lii., or in Isaiah
v. (especially ver. I8), like those predicted by Paul (2
Tim. iii. I; 2 Pet. ii. 2, iii. I, 2), and by Jude throughout
his epistle. It is the dark picture of a dark time; men
rushing headlong in the way of Cain, breaking asunder all
ties of brotherhood, defying God, and making account of
no interests save their own. It is a scene which shall
yet be expanded to far larger dimensions in the last
days, when evil shall cover the earth, and when'the
wicked one,' more cruel than Cain, viler than Lamech,
and that this speech is the answer to these remonstrances.-ERASMI
MARBACHII, Comm. in Pendl. vol. i. p. 63. The above is a brief but
clear and shrewd commentary, of date 1597. Dr. Wells (also Julius
Bates) renders the words interrogatively,'Have I slain?' etc.,
thereby not involving Lamech in the crime of murder, but of bigamny.
It is of this that he is thus supposed to speak; as if he would show
that his marrying two wives was not so heinous a sin as Cain's murder
of his brother (p. 40). This is forced, though In might be used interrogatively, as in I Sam. xxiv. 20; 2 Kings xviii. 34, etc. On the
whole passage, see Lowth's 4th Lecture on Hebrew Poetry. He
takes the simple and natural view. His'Annotators' are more ingenious than satisfying. Schlegel maintains from this passage that
Lamech was the originator of human sacrifices. —Phil. of Hist.,
Bohn's Ed., p. 20I.




262            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
and more ambitious than Nimrod, shall shed man's blood
in torrents, and impiously reckon on impunity at the
hands of God.
But let us look more narrowly at Lamech. He stands
before us in such aspects as the following: —
I. As the first violator of God'sprimeval law of marriage.
-That law most strictly enjoined one wife; and doubtless
had been observed till Lamech's time.  He sets it at defiance. That law was the very foundation of society. It
was the foundation of family peace, of true religion, of
social order, of right government in the state. Take away
this foundation, or place two instead of one, and the whole
fabric shakes, the nation crumbles'to pieces.' It is not
merely the family hearth that is destroyed, but the throne
of the King is undermined. Bonds the most sacred and
needful Lamech breaks. The most ancient and venerable
law of earth he tramples on. Lust has gotten the mastery
in him.  He is the true type of those'filthy dreamers'
who' defile the flesh' (Jude 8); of those who in the last
days are to'walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness,
having eyes full of adultery' (2 Pet. ii.).  And as Lamech's
sin threw open the floodgates of lasciviousness, so may the
sins of those who in our day are walking in his steps be
1 In Mal. ii. I5, God tells us that His special reason for this law
was, that thereby He might raise up a godly offspring. He had'the residue of the Spirit,' and He might have produced not one Eve
but many; yet He wisely ordered it otherwise. How much of godliness depends on unity and order in a household; and how much is
it in the power ot the woman either to promote or to mar this unity!
See on this whole subject, the Rev. Christopher Anderson's most
admirable work upon the Domestic Constitution.




GEN'ESIS IV. 23, 24.             263
throwing open these same floodgates, and ripening the
world for the judgment of the great day.
2. As a murderer.-Lust had led  to  adultery, and
adultery had led to violence and murder. We are not
told the name of him whom'he slew.'  It matters not.
He is a murderer,-true follower of Cain, —true offspring
of the serpent, of him who was'a murderer from the
beginning' (John viii. 44).  Abhor Lamech's spirit as we
would that of Satan.  Flee anger, passion, revenge,-of
all that would lead, however remotely, to bloodshedding.
In Cain, it was envy; in Lamech, lust. Flee both.
3. As a boaster of his evil deeds.-He does the deed of
blood, and he is not ashamed of it; nay, he glories in it,
-nay, glories in it to his own wives. There is no confession of sin here, no repentance, not even Cain's partial
humbling. Thus iniquity lifts up its head and waxes bold
in countenance,2 defying God and vaunting before men,
as if the deed had been one of honour and not of shame.'Boasters' are to rise up in the last days (2 Tim. iii. 2),
specially boasters of evil, like Lamech.  Men are to'boast themselves in mischief' (Ps. lii. 7). The wicked
is to' boast of his heart's desire' (Ps. x. 3).
4. As one taking refuige in the crimes of others.-He
makes Cain not a warning, but an example.  He perverts
God's purpose in sparing Cain, and takes courage in evil
from Cain's example.  He'goes in the way of Cain'
(Jude, ii), and makes no account of God's awful monu1 The Jews say it was Cain; others, his own son; others, a younger
brother.
2 Fronltemque a crimine sumit.




264            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
ments of indignation against sin. He sills because Cain
sinned! He thinks he has a rzig  to sin, because Cain
sinned! Oh, desperate perversity of man's heart! What
will it not make an excuse for sinning? And yet it
always tries to find an excuse or an example, as if afraid
and ashamed to sin unless for some reason, or with some
example before it!
5. As onei5erverting God's forbearcance.-He trifles with
sin, because God showed mercy to another.l He tramples
on righteousness, because it is tempered with grace.  He:sets vengeance at nought, because God is long-suffering.
Instead of saying,' God is so loving that I dare not sin;'
he says,' God is so loving that I will go on in sin without
limit.' Divine compassion has no effect in softening his
obstinacy; but'after his hardness and impenitent heart,
he treasures up to himself wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God' (Rom.
ii. 5). Thus men still turn God's grace into lasciviousness,
and make Christ the minister of sin!
6. As a scoffer.-He believes in no judgment, and
makes light of sin's recompense.  His words are evidently
the words of a scoffer, and of one who believed in no
wrath of God against the workers of iniquity. He speaks
like the scoffers of the last days,'Where is the promise of
his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things
1In the 52d Psalm, God meets this tendency of man to'continue
in sin because grace abounds,' and asks most touchingly and graciously,' Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually;' that is,' Ought not this goodness
to stop thy boastings and'melt thy heart, and lead thee to repentance?'




'GENESIS iv. 25.                 265
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation'
(2 Pet. iii. I-3). Is not this the mocking that we hear on
every side? No day of judgment, no righteous vengeance
against sin, no condemnation of the transgressor! God
has borne long with the world, He will bear longer with it.still! He may do something to dry up the running sore of
its miseries; but as for its guilt, He will make no account
of that, for' God is love' I But what then becomes of
lazew, or of righteousness, or of the difference between good
and evil? And what becomes of God's past proclamations of law, His manifestations of righteousness, His
declarations of abhorrence of all sin? Was Adam's ejection from paradise the mere attempt to cure a disease, and
not the condemnation of his guilt?  Was the deluge the
mere drying up of the world's running sore of wretchedness, that it might start healthy and vigorous on a new
course, instead of being the expression of' God's estimate
of human guilt, and His determination to prevent men
from imagining that He was indifferent to the evil of sin,
and, as the God of love, that He could only treat it as a
sad misfortune, but not as an infinite and unalterable
crime against love, and majesty, and truth, and government, and holiness?
Ver. 25.'Anzd Adam knew his wife agai.n; and she bare a son, and
called his name Seth (that is, set or apipointed): for God, said she, hath
apyointzed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 
With Lamech's history ends the inspired record of the
line of Cain.  They pass away, and are seen no more..
Their memory rots, and their names are forgotten. No




266           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
man writes their story, or builds their monument. With
Lamech's murderous vauntings, the sounds of their proud
ungodliness die away in our ears. His voice is the last
that we hear of the children of Cain.  Cain the first,
Lamech the last, are the representatives of the race,- its
alpha and its omega.  Brief but awful summary of the
world's enmity to God, and rebellion against the promised
seed! Enough to show us what the seed of the serpent
is; what man's heart is; what the world is, with all its
art, and science, and melody, and beauty. It has made
evil its good; it has called darkness light; it has fashioned
for its own worship its gods of the intellect, its gods of
the flesh, to whom alone it bows down, disowning the
true God, rejecting all allegiance to Him, banishing Him
from earth, and seeking to make for itself a home on its
surface without Him,-a circle for its joys to move in
without His love.
But now the scene changes. A vision, bright though
brief, passes before us, like a sudden burst of sunshine on
a dark troubled sea. We get a glimpse of the holy family,
the household of the redeemed and separated ones, who,
in the midst of a world where evil is overflowing, are still
faithful to God, and believers in the promised seed.
We are carried back to Abel and his bloody grave.
He,-the Isaac of Adam's house, the hope of his father
and the joy of his mother, in whom the promise of redemption seemed about to be fulfilled,-he was cut down,
like a flower at dawn. It might seem as if, with him, his
parents' hopes lay buried, and the prospects of the race
blighted. It was not merely their feelings that were torn,




GENESIS IV. 25.                267
but it was their faith, that, like Abraham's, was tried to:the uttermost.  Now, however, God is to visit them in
tender love. He not only fills up the void in the family
circle, and pours consolation into their wounded spirits,
but He lifts up their drooping faith and gives it a new
foundation to rest on. To Eve is born a third son; and
he comes to them as the gift of love and the pledge of
hope.   Eve names him  Seth, which means'set' or'placed' or'appointed,' as being expressly given to her
in room  of Abel whom  Cain slew. In this her faith
shows itself again; for in the case of her three sons, it is
she herself who gives the names, and in them displays her
faith. In Cain, it was simple and triumphant faith, that
had not yet entered into conflict, nor known what trials
and crosses are. In Abel's, it was the utterance of hope
deferred, making the heart sick, and realizing strangership
on earth and'vanity' in creation. And now, in Seth,
it is faith reassured and comforted, brought to rest in
God, as able to fulfil to the uttermost all that He had
promised.
(I.) She recognises God in this.  It is not the mere'law of nature;' it is the Lord.  It is in the fulfilment of
his Sovereign purpose that He is doing this.
(2.) She gives a name expressive of her faith.  She
calls her infant the appointed one, the substituted one.
She saw God making up her loss, filling up the void, providing a seed, through which the promised deliverer was
to come.
(3.) She fondly calls to mind her martyred son.  The
way in which she does this, shows the yearning of her




268           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
heart over him who was taken away, as if his place was
one which needed to be supplied, as if there were a blank
in her bosom which God only knew how to supply.  She
had learned, doubtless, that'blessed are the dead that
die in the Lord;' but still her heart went out fondly after
the beloved child, and she could not be comforted till
she had one like him to fill up his room. It is not sentimentalism; it is faith. It is not mere maternal love; it
is faith, faith that clung to the memory of her holy son,
as one not merely beloved of herself, but beloved of her
God.
Ver. 26.'And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he
called his name Enos': then began men to call uzon the nanme of the
Lord.'
We are yet to have another glimpse of the holy seed,
the heavenly family, not merely passing onwards as
strangers, but shining as lights in the world.  God has
reserved for Himself not one family, but many, in this age
-and these are letting their light shine.  God's witnesses
seem not few, but many.  To Seth a son is born, and
though his name imports nothing great iln so far as the
flesh is concerned;   yet it seems that he was not only of
the seed of the godly, but himself a man of faith; nay, a
man mighty in word and deed for God. For in his days,
and probably through his influence, a mighty and blessed
work seems to have been accomplished, and men now
publicly united together to worship Jehovah, gathering
lEnos,-weak mortal, or dying man, "showing how truly believers
were beginning to feel that' all flesh is grass."




GENESIS IV. 26.                     269
round the primeval altar at the gate of paradise, and there,
over the bleeding sacrifice, calling upon the name of the
Lord.'
In Enos-the' feeble mortal,' as his name imports, the
bruised reed, the man who has no confidence in the flesh
— we see a faithful witness for God,-one who gathers
into one the scattered families of believers, and unites
them in the worship of the living God.
Thus ebbs and flows the tide of heavenly life on earth.
1 For the meaning of' calling on the name of the Lord,' see Gen.
xii. 8, xiii. 4, xxi. 33. It means generally the worship of the Lord,
and the form of expression implies that it was public or general,men gathering together in solemn assembly.   This was the first
gathering of the saints in the name of Jesus,-the anticipation of the
Master's words,' Where two or three are gathered in my name.'' The
Lord' or'Jehovah' is properly Messiah's name: He who'was, and is,
and is to come,' —the I AM. Eve knew Him by this name (ch. iv. I);
Enoch also knew Him by this name (Jude I4). The Christology of
the Old Testament, as centred in or clustering round that name, is
worthy of being more thoroughly studied. Of late years, men who
wrest the Scriptures have told us that we ought to meet'under the
Presidency of the Holy Ghost' instead of the name of Jesus; thus
framing a profane phrase out of their own fancy, and setting aside
the scriptural term'the name of Jesus,' in which name all the saints
have met from the beginning. That the Holy Ghost is PRESIDENT
of a congregation; or gathering, or church, thus superseding Christ
the head, is a fiction got up in order to form a new sect, which under
professions of superior spirituality would get vent to its supercilious
assumptions over other bodies, dividing Christians, splitting churches,
compassing sea and land to make one proselyte, and doing what in
them lies to grieve the Holy Spirit, to whom they have assigned the
unscriptural designation of PRESIDENT of the Church. Such are the
sayings and doings of the'last days,' when men'creep into houses,'
lead captive the unwary, and beguile unstable souls, who have been
running about from church to church,, from minister to minister,
finding no rest for their souls.




270          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Thus has the cause of God been carried on,-not steadily
progressing, but often cast back, and the saints reduced to
a handful; then once more reviving, and believers added
to the Church in numbers. Onwards from Seth's day the
work has proceeded in this way., and is to do so till the
Lord come. Let us not be discouraged; yet let us not
seek great things for ourselves; but simply to do the
Lord's work in our day, and to reach the reward.




GENESIS v. I. 2.                    27I
CHAPTER V.
Vers. I, 2.' This is the book of thegenerations of Adam.1 En the day
that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; 2. Male
and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name
Adam, in the day when they were created.'
THIS  chapter stands by itself.  It is one of names
1     and dates; a -chapter of genealogy, a page of
early chronology. It does fill a larger space than we
should have expected; yet of its importance we are not
competent judges. The Holy Spirit has written it, and
placed it in His volume, for all ages to read. It must
therefore contain important truth, both for the world and
for the Church, though we may not quite see or appreciate
it. It has served mighty ends in ages past, for it has
furnished history with the main stem of its chronological
tree; and it may yet serve no less great ends in the ages
to come; for in the world's last days men will be more
thrown back upon itsfirst days than they are willing to
believe.   We should have preferred a record of the sayings and doings of the patriarchs to such lists of names
and years; and we may not be able to enter fully into
1 De Sola renders this,' This is the enumeration of the descendants
of Adam;' and remarks that -'l, which is here used, signifies
radically to count or number, and properly means enumeration.'This is the list or catalogue' (POOLE). It is the same word that is
translated c register' in Neh. vii. 5.




272            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS..
God's reasons for giving us such barren verses, as we are,
apt to think them. But what we know not now we shall
know hereafter.  Bible history is written on the principle
of abridgment and selection. God Himself is the abridger
and selecter. He has written the story of His own world
in His own way, and according to His own plan, keeping
such things as these in view-(i) what would most
glorify Himself; (2) what would most benefit the Church
upon the whole; (3) what would mark distinctly the
stages leading; on to the Incarnation of His Son; (4)
what would prove the true humanity of Messiah as the
seed of the woman, and so the embodiment of the grace
and truth wrapt up in the first promise to man.  The first
verse carries us back to the earlier chapters, and repeats
the statement already given as to man's creation in the
divine image. It is plain from it that God desires us
to look at and ponder such things as these-(I) man's
creation by God; (2) his creation in the likeness of
God;' (3) his creation, male and female; (4) his being'blessed' by God,. and that he enters this world as a
blessed being, not under the curse at all; (5) his receiving the name of Adam, or man, from God Himself, as if
God specially claimed the right of nomenclature to Himself. How much importance must God attach to these
While Luke traces Christ's genealogy to Adam (as Matthew does
to Abraham), he traces Adam's parentage to God. How solemnly
do his last words fall on our ears,'Which was the son of God;' or,
as it stands in its simplicity, just -roa ezo0.'Our generation,' says
Philo,' is from man, but him (the first man) God made' (Elac4Olpy.sc).
And again,' But of him (Adam) no mortal was the father or cause,
but God;' quoted in. the Hlellenistic Testament, on Luke iii.. 38,




GENESIS v. 3-5.                   273
things when He thus repeats them at so brief an interval!
He does not repeat in vain. Every word of God is'pure,' and it is full of meaning, even though we may not
now see it all.  It is not a mere grain or atom; it is a
seed,-a root.
Vers. 3-5.'And Adam lived an hundred and thirtyyears, and begat
a son i7n his own likeness, after his image; and called his namze Seth.l
4. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred
years; and he begat sons and daughters.  5. And all the days that
Addam lived were;nine hundred and thirty years: and he died..'
This is the sum  of Adam's life! He lived, he begat
a son, he died! How brief and bare t Yet such is the
outline of man's life as seen by the eye of God, and from
that point of view which God occupies.  Our memoirs
of a man of threescore and ten fill volumes; God's
memoirs of a man of nine hundred and thirty occupy but
three verses. What desires have we to get some glimpse
into Adam's life, to know  something of his words and
deeds! But not one is left on record!
In the third verse, we are told of Adam's age when he
begat Seth,-one  hundred  and  thirty years,-showing
us how  deliberately God proceeds in carrying out His
promises.  He does not'make haste,' yet they are all
sure.  The woman's seed shall come forth in due time.
Delay may occur, obstacles may intervene, Abel may
be cut down, Seth may be long of coming; yet the promise shall not fail.2
x De Sola renders it,'then begat a son,' etc., making the meaning
more definite.
2 Adam is here said to give Seth his name, as elsewhere Eve is
VOL. VI.                                       S




274           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
But this son is in Adam's own likeness and image.
Adam was made in God's image, Seth in Adam's; but
Adam was no longer what he once was. It' is the image
of a fallen man, wrinkled and distorted with sin.' That
which is born of the flesh is flesh.' The thorn cannot
produce the grape, nor the briar the fig; neither can a
bitter fountain send forth sweet waters.
After Seth's birth, Adam lived 800 years, begetting
sons and daughters; thus living on with all the patriarchs
of the early age, till the 3o8th year of Enoch, and the
57th before his translation; almost to the very days of
Noah; 930 years in all. Such was the long age of Adam,
— an age which, though gradually diminished till it came
to the threescore years and ten, is yet to be revived in
millennial days, when, as it is written,' the days of my
people shall be as the, days of a tree' (Isa. lxv. 22).
Then he died!. He by whom  death came in at last
fell. under it.  He returned to dust.  His sin found him
out, after a long pursuit of 930 years, and laid him low.
The first Adam dies! The tallest, goodliest palm-tree of
the primeval paradise is laid low. The first Adam dies;
neither in life nor in -death transmitting to us aught of
blessing.  He dies as our forerunner; he who led the
way- to the tomb.  The. first Adam dies, and we die in
him; but the second Adam  dies, and we live in him!
The first Adam's grave proclaims only death; the second
-Adam's grave announces life,-' I am the resurrection and
the life.' We look into the grave of the one, and we see
said to have done (chap. iv. 25); both concurring in this, and expressing in it their common griefs and sympathies.




GENESIS v. 6-8.                  275
only darkness, corruption, and death; we look into the
grave of the other, and we find there only light, incorruption, and life. We look into the grave of the one, and we
find that he is still there, his dust still mingling with its
fellow-dust about it; we look into the grave of the other,
and find that He is not there, He is risen,-risen as our
forerunner into the heavenly paradise, the home of the
risen and redeemed. We look into the grave of the first
Adam, and see in him the first-fruits of them that have
died, the millions that have gone down to that prisonhouse whose gates he opened; we look into the tomb
of the second Adam, and we see in Him the first-fruits
of them  that are to rise; the first-fruits of that bright
multitude, that glorified band, who are to come forth from
that cell, triumphing over death, and rising to the immortal life; not through the tree which grew in the earthly
paradise, but through Him  whom that tree prefiguredthrough Him who was dead and is alive, and who liveth
for evermore, and who has the keys of hell and death.
Vers. 6-8.' And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat
Enos. 7. And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and
seven years, and begat sons and daugnhters. 8. And all the days of
Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.'
The first link in the great chain of incarnation was
Adam.  The second link seemed at first to be Cain.
At least so Eve thought; but it was soon seen that he
was the first link of another chain, —the serpent's seed,
whose last link is, not Christ, but Antichrist.  Then it
might seem as if the second link were to be Abel; but
suddenly it was snapped asunder, and the promise looked




276          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
as if ready to fail.  But when thus the Lord had tried
Adam's faith, as He did Abraham's, He stepped in and
produced another link, which was neither to fail nor to
be broken.  Seth stands before us as the second great
link of the wondrous chain. In him the promise was to
be made sure. He was truly' Seth' —le substituted one,
brought in to supply a brother's place and to perform
a brother's part, both to the smitten family and to the
Church of God, whose hope seemed to be cut off. He
was not, like Abel, suffered to be the victim of Cain's
envy, but rose up to manhood, primeval manhood,-the
manhood of an entire century.  In his o05th year he
begat Enos, thus making sure another link, and raising
up another witness, besides being himself a noble witness
for God. Thereafter he lived 807 years, and begat sons
and daughters, of whom, however, we know nothing.
They might be followers of their father, or they might be
like their uncle Cain; we know not. God names but
one, leaving the rest unheard of till the great day that
shall give up all names. Seth lived altogether 9I2 years,
-a shorter life by I8 than Adam, yet surviving him II2
years; nay, surviving Enoch, and perhaps witnessing his
translation.
Then he died! He too, like Adam, paid the penalty,
and gave up the forfeited life. It was not the debt of
nature, as men idly speak, that he paid; it was the penalty
of the righteous law. He died.  The dust returned to
dust, and the spirit to the God that gave it. He through
whom the Prince of life was to come, died; and for now
well-nigh 5000 years he has been resting in the tomb.




GENESIS v. 9-I I.                    277
He, and Adam, and Abel have had a long sleeping time.
Ours will be shorter; for the Lord is at hand; and,
instead of 5000 years, it may be less than five. When
Seth  went down into the tomb, it had received few
tenants; but now they are beyond number; and it is just
when earth is overfilled, overcrowded with occupants, as if
it could hold no more, that the gates of the grave burst
open, and the ransomed ones arise.'
Vers. 9-II.'And Etnos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan.
Io. And Enos lived, after he begat Cainan, eight hundred and fifteen
years, and begat sons and daugnhters. II. And all the days of Enos
were nine hundred andfive years: and he died.'
Three verses contain  the biography  of Seth.   God
Suidas, upon the word Seth, has the following piece of information,
derived from Jewish tradition:-' The men of that age called Seth
a god, because he invented the Hebrew letters and the nomenclature
of the stars; and besides, they gave him the name of God in admiration of his great piety' (roxxisv sbo-iE3Xy Zir0jo dvtC avsy). He then,
referring to Symmachus, affirms that the sons of Seth, Enos, and
Enoch, were called by the name,' Sons of God;' and that afterwards
these Sethites, or Sons of God, intermarried with the daughters of
men, or Cainites (see Lexicon, vol. iii. pp. 305, 306).  The Popish
fabulists, however, have a much more wonderful story than the Jewish
rabbis. One of their historians, Joannes Gerbrandus, thus relates
it: —'In the year 1374, when the Christians and Saracens were
digging in the valley of Jehoshaphat, they found a tumulus of bricks;
and opening it, they found a body of wonderful size, entire, with
flowing beard and long hair, wrapped in sheep-skins, and above his
head this inscription, carved in Hebrew-I am Seth, the third son of
Adam; I believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and in Mary the
Virgin, His mother, who are to come out of my loins.' No wonder
that the old author who quotes this, though a Romanist, should add,'fides penes auctorem sit' (Adagia ex Sancltorur Patrum Monumentis
promnpta, etc., p. 377, by Aloysius Novarinus-a folio, full of curious
extracts, A.D. I637).




278            THOUGHTS ON GENMESIS.
counts this enough, and passes on. Enos comes next,
and other three verses sum up his life. He is the third
link of the wondrous chain through which the promise
descends. He is a sinful man, like the rest; nay, as
his name signifies, a weak, poor, mortal man; yet still
one of the blessed succession through whom the Sinless
One was to come; God showing thereby that He still
reserves to Himself to bring the clean thing out of the
unclean. Enos lives ninety years, and begets Cainan.
thus fastening another link of the glorious chain. Afterwards he lives 815 years, begetting children; in all, 905;
thus passing into Noah's days, and approaching towards
the flood. Then dust returns to dust.  He is seen to
be not'the Living One,' but an heir of mortality, a true
child of him through whom death came into the world.
How true is God to His threatenings! Not a jot of one
of them shall fail. The oft-repeated phrase in this chapter,'and he died,' is the testimony to God's truthfulness in
His sentence upon Adam, and the proclamation of Satan's
falsehood, when he said,'Ye shall not surely die.'l'And he died' is the solemn  toll of the patriarchal
funeral bell. How it makes us long for the'trump of
God,' when all this shall be reversed, and it shall be said
of each,'he liveth,' to die no more!  What a contrast
between this chapter and the I5th of First Corinthians!
In the one, it is death swallowing up life; in the other,
1 See Pererzius Valentinus, vol. i. p. 775.  He takes up the question why' he died' occurs so often, but says little to the point, save
showing that God thus manifested His own veracity, and the shortness
of life, in comparison with the eternity that lies beyond.




GENESIS v. 12-20.                    279
it is life swallowing up death; nay, it is death swallowed
up of victory. Genesis is truly the book of DEATH.
Vers. 12-20.'And Caijzan lived seventyyears, and begat Mahalaleel.
I3. And Cainan lived, after he begat ~Mahalaleel, eight hundred and
forty years, and begat sons and daughters.  I4. And all the days of
Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.  15. And
Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat 7ared.  I6. And
Mahalaleel lived, after he begat 7ared, eight hundred and thirty years,
and begat'sons and daughters.  I7. And all the days of JMahalaleel
were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. IS. And
fared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch.
19. And Jared lived, after he begat -Enoch, eight hundred years, and
begat sons and daughters. 20. And all the days of fared were nine
hundred sixty and two years: and he died.'
The fourth link of the mighty chain is Cainan. His
seems to have been an earlier manhood than the others,
for at 70 he begat Mahalaleel.  Thereafter he lived 840
years; in all, 9Io.  Then he returned to dust, and went
to the grave of his fathers. The sentence still remained
in force.  Death still prevailed, even over those through
whom the Prince of life was to come.
The fifth link  is Mahalaleel.  His is yet an earlier
ripened  manhood.   At 65 he begets Jared, thereafter
living 830 years; in all, 895; then, like his fathers, he
died. The patriarchal bell has tolled again; yet he had
lived  far on into  Noah's days; a witness, doubtless,
against the increasing ungodliness of the world, and a
protester against the intermixture of the heavenly and
the earthly, the sons of God and the daughters of men.
The sixth link is Jared.  He ripens not so soon, yet
the result of his late maturity is a wondrous birth. At
the age of I62 he begets Enoch. Perhaps his faith was




280            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
tried, like Abraham's; it was so long before this son of
the promise came; yet, when he came, what an Isaac
was he! What a child of gladness!  And how must his
father have rejoiced in such a son,-rejoiced even when
bidding him farewell, as he went up to a home above,
through the first opening that had been made in these
heavens to admit ascending man.' Yet, after a long
life,-962,-the  second  longest on record,'he died.'
Again the bell tolls, and again God's truth is proved
against the lie of the devil. The sentence takes its due
course, and he, the father of one who was not to taste
of death, himself must die.
Vers. 21-24.'And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat
Methuselah.  22. And Enoch walked'with God, after he begat
A/Methuselah, three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 23.
Ana all the days of Enoch were three hundredsixty and five years.
24. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not:for God took him.'
Enoch's manhood is an early one, as if the early ripe
are the early! taken. He begets Methuselah when 65.
This singularly holy man has sons and daughters, as if
to show us that there is no special sanctity in the unmarried state.'Forbidding to marry' was unknown in
Enoch's days.   He'walked with God' as a husband
and a father.  He'walked with God' as one loved and
loving; as one who knew Jehovah, and who had got so
intimate with Him, that he is described as'the man that
walked with God.'  It was faith, as the apostle tells us
He survived Enoch's translation 435 years. It must have seemed
a marvellous thing to him, that his son should be singled out for going
upwards, when all others were going downwards.




GENESIS v. 21-24.           28I
(Heb. xi. 5, 6), that began this walk, and it was faith that
maintained it. It was this that first brought him nigh,
and that afterwards kept him nigh.  It was thus that
his close, confidential, happy intercourse with God was
commenced and carried on.  For 300 years he thus
walked with God, as husband and father, before his
family, setting an example to his children; an example
to the age.
He pleased God.  God delighted in him. He was
among the patriarchs what Daniel was among the prophets, and what John was among the disciples. He was
the greatly-beloved one. And God had made no secret
of His delight in him. He had, in some way not told,
given clear indications of this, for' before his translation
he had this testimony, that he pleased God' (Heb. xi. 5).
God took him. At the age of 365 he went up to be
with his God, not tasting that death which was laying low
all around him. He did not wither down like the rest
of those primeval trees. He was at once transplanted
from the desert below to the paradise above. He had
lived and worshipped within sight of the paradise below,
and he is caught up at once into the better paradise.
And there he has been for nearly 5000 years already.
Not merely in soul, like other saints, but in body; glorified
and incorruptible, like the children of the resurrection, or
like those who shall be alive when the Lord returns.
Such was God's love to Enoch; such was His desire to
take him out of a world of sin, to snatch him away
from the evil to come; such His desire to reward and
bless him with the nearer vision of his glory; such His




282          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
desire to have him near Himself, as if He could. not bear
his absence any longer, nor wait the appointed period of
death; but carried him off in His fatherly arms, to be
with Him in His glory.
Thus God showed that, while death was the law, still
He could make exceptions; and these exceptions indicated
the nature and extent of the deliverance which God was
preparing for man. It would not rest till it had glorified
even man's body, and given him a home above, an inheritance in the heavens, something better and more glorious
than the earthly Eden.  Hitherto man had looked up
from earth to heaven; he was taught that ere long he
should look down from heaven to earth.  The link
between him and his native earth was not to be broken,
but to be established on a new footing, according to the
distinction afterwards brought more fully out, between
the earthly and the heavenly, the'things terrestrial' and
the'things celestial.'
Other patriarchs are taken away by death from the evil
to come, and' hidden in the grave,' while wrath is passing
over earth; but he is lifted up, and hidden in Jehovah's
own pavilion. Even Noah, who also'walked with God,'
is but carried throzgh the storm, sheltered in the ark,
where he hears its violence beating on every side; but
Enoch is caught up out of it, -transfigured and translated,-type of those who shall be caught up out of the
fiery judgments of the last days, and brought into the
royal chambers, there to consummate their espousals with
the Lamb; and thence to issue forth,'when the Lord
comes WITH ten thousand of His saints to execute ven



GENESIS v. 25-27.               283
geance' on an ungodly world. For it is remarkable that
Enoch's prediction, as preserved for us by Jude, is not of
the Lord's comingfor His saints, but of His coming wit/h
them. Enoch speaks in the name of those who have
been caught up by him already, and who come along with
Him to'judge angels,' to'judge the world,' to share the
awful honour of accomplishing the Father's purpose of
righteous recompense upon a world that has disowned
His Son, and set at nought His grace (Ps. cxlix. 9).
Yet in Enoch's removal there is nothing said to indicate
that it was striking or terrible to the world. No token
was given, —no trumpet summoned the world to witness
his ascent.'He was not;''he was not found.' This
is all we learn. He disappeared from among the children
of men. He walked with God for three centuries; and
in the midst of this calm walk he passed upward, as by
an invisible ladder, into the presence of his God! How
blessed, how congenial, this termination of a lifetime's
walk with God! How natural the transition from the
fellowship below to the nearer communion above! As in
the case of Elijah, they might seek him, but'he was not
found.' Without a sick-bed, or a death-bed; without the
pains or weaknesses of decaying age, in the full maturity
of primeval manhood, he went up to the inheritance
above.  Such shall be the blessed lot of the waiting
saints when the Lord returns. Let us watch with girded
loins. Let our life be Enoch's walk with God.
Vers. 25-27.' And Metlhuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven
years, ana begat Lamech. 26. And Methuselah lived, after he begat
Laineclh, seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and




'284             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
dau-ghters.  27. And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred
sixty and nine years: and he died.'
The eighth link of the chain is Methuselah.  His manhood ripens slowly, and he lives long. It was not till he.was x87 that he begat Lamech. Sprung of a parent that
had passed into the skies, and himself the longest liver
upon earth, he is certainly no common man. Yet, though
Enoch is his father, and though he resists death till the
age of 969, still he yields at last. The last enemy conquers.  The man of a thousand years dies.  He seems
given us as the type of the race in millennial times, when
their'days shall be as the days of a tree' (Isa. lxv. 22),
as his father is the type of the glorified Church.   The
two classes are separate, yet closely connected together;
the one, as it were, the offspring of the other,-the earthly
the offspring of the heavenly.
Vers. 28-32.' And lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years,
and begat a son; 29. And he called his name Noah,l saying; This
same shall comfort us concerning (or "for' or'from') our work and
toil of our hands, because of (or'from') the ground which the Lord
hath cursed. 30. And Lamech lived, after he begat Noah, five hundred
ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters.  3I. And all the
days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he
died. 32. And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah beg-at
Shem, Hatm, and 7naphetlr.'
The ninth link is Lamech.  He begets Noah at the
Noah signifies'rest.' The word is not unlike tnn, to comfort,
and seems used because of its expressive similarity.' Work' denotes
the lighter labour;'toil' the heavier and more painful. This toil
arose from the curse; and   from' comes *nearer the Hebrew than' because of.'




GENESIS v. 28-32.               285
age of I82, but lives a shorter life than most of the
others,-only 777. Then he died. The sentence took
its course on him. Dust returned to dust. It would
seem that the original curse upon the ground began to
be felt heavier.  The population increased, and the,
means of subsistence grew more difficult to men, who
knew but little about the tillage of the ground, and who
probably shrank from such tillage of an accursed soil,
laying out their labour the more on pastoral employments. Besides, probably, they had been, age after age,
expecting the Deliverer, and He had not come. Hope
deferred had made their heart sick, and their toil sorer.,Enoch's prophecy, too, of the coming Deliverer would
rouse up their sinking hope, and make them sanguine
that the day of rest from  their labour was at hand.
Hence Lamech, in full expectation that such was the case,
called his son Noah,-anticipating rest in his day, if not
from him, as the expected seed of the woman. He did
not read the signs of the times aright. He did not see that
evil, and not good, was at the door. He was disappointed.
Yet still We see in him the man of faith, looking for
rest, and realizing it as coming in some way or other from
the woman's seed. How much man felt his need of rest
and comfort! How deeply did he sympathize with the
groans of a travailing creation! How earnestly did he
long for deliverance from the heavy curse! That deliverance came not in his day, yet he did not wait and
hope in vain. And though the Lord should not come
in our day, yet if we look for Him, we shall not lose our
reward.




286           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Just five years before the flood Lamech dies. He
must have been a fellow-preacher of righteousness along
with his son,-a fellow-witness during the 120 years of
testimony,-a fellow-builder of the ark; father and son
fighting the battles of the Lord together, and encouraging
each other in their toil and suffering, —and then the
aged saint is taken away from the evil to come, after
having seen the ark all ready, and heard the assurances
given by God to his son, that all should be well with
him, though the looked-for rest was not to come in his
day.
The tenth link is Noah.  Of him we learn nothing at
present, save that he was 500 years -old ere he begat
his three sons.  What befell him  and them  we shall
learn subsequently. This last verse of the chapter seems
a sort of introduction to what follows in the next.
Such are the.ten antediluvian links' in the great chain,
whose last link is the Son of God. Such are the ten
early witnesses for God. They lived, and testified, and
died. A single chapter contains ten biographies. Such
is God's estimate of. man, and man's importance! How
unlike man's estimate. of himself! How unlike are the
biographies contained in this chapter to those volumes
of biography over which are spread the story of a single
life! Is not this man-worship, hero-worship? And was
it not to prevent this that God has hid from us the
details of primitive history,- everything  that would
magnify man and man's doings? Just as He has taken
pains to prevent the grosser idolatries of sun-worship
and star-worship, by exhibiting these orbs in the first




GENESIS v. 28-32.              287
chapter as His own handiwork; so in this fifth chapter
He has sought to anticipate and prevent the more refined
idolatry not only of past ages, when man openly and
grossly deified man, but of these last days, when man
is worshipping man in the most subtle of all ways, and
multiplying the stories of man's wisdom, or prowess, or
goodness, so as to hide God from our eyes, and give to
man an independent position and importance, from
which God has been so careful to exclude him. We
might say, too, that this chapter.is God's protest against
that special development of hero-worship, which is to
be exhibited in the last Antichrist, when God shall be
set aside, and man be set up as all.
The importance attached to these recorded names'
is just this, that they belong to the line of the woman's
seed. It was this that made them worthy of memory.
The chain to. which some precious jewel is attached,
is chiefly noticeable because of the gem that it suspends.
The steps~ which led up to the temple were mainly important because. of the temple to which they led. So
it was the connection of these ten worthies of the world's
first age with the great Coming One,' that gave them
their importance. Standing where we now do, far down
the ages,' and looking back on the men of_ early days,
we are like one. tracing some great river back to its
distant source'amid the lonely hills. The varied beauties
of its banks, however great, yet derive their chief attraction and interest from  the mighty city reared upon its
margin, at some turn of its far downward course, and
from the mighty ones which that city has given birth




288          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
to. It is Bethlehem that gives all its interest to the
river whose beginnings this chapter traces; or rather,
it is He who was there born of a woman, —Jesus the
son of Abraham, the son of Adam. Save in their bearing
upon Him, how unmeaning do these names appear!
It is not in sacrifices alone, or promises, or types, that
we are to look for Jesus, but even in such bare genealogies as those before us. It is He who gives fulness
and interest to them  all.  It is from Him  that they
derive all that brightness which, to the natural eye, is
quite invisible.  And from them  we rejoice to learn,
that Jesus of Bethlehem is as truly the Son of Adam as
He is the Son of God.
These all died. They died.  And death- has been
passing upon all men since, godly or ungodly. We are
carried to the same house to which the patriarchs, one
after the other, descended.  We: are laid side by side
with Adam, and Seth, and Lamech, and Noah.  But
our hope burns brighter now. We shall not have so long
to sleep as they have had. They were laid to sleep just
when the night was falling, and they have had to sleep
through the whole hours of darkness. But the morn is
near.  The day will soon break.  We shall not have
long to sleep. It may be that some of us shall scarcely
have laid down our wearied heads and limbs, till the
voice of the archangel shall awake us. Then it shall
not be written of us,'he died;' but of each of us, as
we awake, it shall be said,'he rose again.'




GENESIS vI. I, 2.                     289
CHAPTER VI.
Vers. I, 2.1'Ancd it came to pass, when men began to multiply on
(or over) the face of the earth (Heb. the ground or soil), and daughters
were born unto them, 2. That the sons of God saw the daughters of
men that they were fair; and they took them, wives of all which they
chose.'
HE  original law  of increase is still in force.   Sin
has not cancelled nor weakened it.  The sentence
of death against man does not interfere with it;  nay,
rather seems to  give it new  impulse,-as if creation,
threatened with death, urged forward all the processes
1 The Septuagint makes this chapter to begin with the last verse of
the preceding, as if the statement respecting Noah and his sons (ver.
32) were the introduction to what follows. The I here, like the
Greek us, is not so much a link with what goes before as an introduction to what follows, and corresponds with our particle' now.'
The expression,'on the face of the earth,' might be more literally
rendered'over (5V) the surface of the ground,'-alluding to the
population spreading itself out as well as increasing.  We ought to
notice, too, that the word translated men is singular, yet it is said'born to them.' The passage might run thus:-'Now it came to
pass that men began to multiply over the ground, and daughters were
born to them.' There ought to be a period at this verse. HMvernick
remarks,-' We must pass over the genealogies in chap. v., which
interrupt the history, and join the passage with iv. 26. Here it is
the progeny of Seth that is spoken of, and the worship of Jehovah
which they practised; by which the narrator has evidently made
sufficient preparation for " sons of God," especially when, in ver. 25,
they are designated as a whole, a seed (comp.. Deut.. xiv. I;. Ex..
iv. 22).'
VOL. VI.                                          T




290           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
of life to prevent its own extinction; or rather, as if God,
who loves not to see His works destroyed, and who has
a glorious purpose in view, were hastening on the different
steps, that so the days of evil may be shortened.
Men multiply over the earth, though, perhaps, at a
slower rate than now. The whole race now has become
evil, so that the name'man' has become, as the word'world' did in later days, an expression for the ungodly.
Earth is becoming what David afterwards felt it to
be, when he saw the faithful failing'from among the
children of men' (Ps. xii. I), so that there were hardly
any left on earth save'the children of men;' or when,
seeing himself surrounded with an evil generation, he
said,' How great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid
up for them  that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought
for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!' (Ps.
xxxi. I9); or when he speaks of'the works of men'
(Ps. xvii 4); or when he speaks of his'soul being
among lions, even among the sons of men' (Ps. lvii. 4).
Thus we find (even in this chapter) that the words'man,' and'flesh,' and'world,' which are not in themselves names of evil, are becoming synonymous with ungodliness.
To'men' daughters are born.  Sons, of course, as
well as daughters are born; but daughters are specially
mentioned, because of the part they act in the scene that
follows.  It is a scene which is the natural summing
up and result of what began in Lamech, when woman's
beauty took the lead in seducing man from  God.  It
is in the region of the beautiful that Satan lays his most




GENESIS VI. i, 2.                   291
subtle snares. He combines in one the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eye. It is the comeliness of woman
that gives new impulse to the ungodliness of earth.
The earth is a scene of gaiety and lust.'Man' and
his daughters overspread it.  To  the eye of the flesh,
it is a bright display of earth's perfection.   The song
and the dance, and the fair attire, and the rich gem,
and the ringing mirth, —these make up the sum  of this'magic of bliss, in which the world was revelling.;
The  fame of these'daughters  of beauty' spreads.
Eyes are attracted to them that should not have looked
on them; and hearts are beguiled by them  that should
have repelled their advances. But as it was the beauty
of the daughters of Moab that ensnared Israel, and
led on to wickedness which drew down God's stroke of
judgment, so did the attractions of these daughters of
men entangle those  who stood, in reference to  God
before the flood, ads Is-a-el did in later days.
For there were still some that' dwelt alone,' and
were not mingled with the ungodly.   They were few,
but age after age they held fast to the early faith.
Adam  was their head; for long did he dwell among
them; and he was known as the son of God (Luke iii.
38).2 Seth and Enos, and the band of patriarchs, were
1 See Milton's description of the time and the scene in Paradise
Lost, book xi. 58I-592-'A bevy of fair women richly gay,
In gems and wanton dress.'
2 If Luke drew his catalogue from the regular and legal genealogical
tables, as doubtless he did, then it is plain that Adam's name had
been entered in these tables as'son of God,'




292             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
called by Adam's name; and even after his death they
and their children clung to Adam's faith, and worshipped
Adam's God. When Cain and his posterity spread over
the earth, Adam and Seth, and their offspring, still
clustered round the primeval home, and worshipped at
the gate of paradise, within sight of the flaming sword
and the cherubim  within.   This region was to them
what Canaan was to Israel; and as Israel in after days
got the name of sons of God, so did these in the earlier
age; for the name of the redeemed has been one
throughout-'-sons of God.'  Identified with Him  who
is the Son of God, and washed in His blood, they get
His name.'
These sons of God, though for ages dwelling alone,
at length  came into  contact with the ungodly.   The
It is said that in the Old Testament none but angels are called'sons of God.' In proof of this, Job i. 6 and ii. I are adduced; but
these are at least doubtful.  The only apparently undoubted one is
Job xxxviii. 7,' The sons of God shouted for joy;' where, however,
we may notice that the article is awanting in the Hebrew before' God,'
so that this passage stands alone. But admitting that angels are called
sons of God, we do not need to concede that men may not be called
the same. In Luke iii. 38, Adam is called the son of God. In Ex.
iv. 22, 23, God calls Israel His'son;' and that this is not in any
inferior sense, is proved by Hos. xi. I, which, referring originally to
Israel, is applied by Matthew to Christ. In Isa. xlv. II, God calls
them His'sons;' and in Jer. xxxi. 2I, He calls Ephraim His'dear
son;' and in the same chapter, at the ninth verse, God says,' I am a
father unto Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born,'-the very words
which are used in reference to Messiah, Ps. lxxxix. 27. See also
Hos. i. Io,'Ye are the sons of the living God;' Deut. xiv. I,'Ye
are the sons of Jehovah, your God.' And one of the apostle's objects
in the 3d and 4th of Galatians is to show that we are brought into the
participation ot sonship, such as Abraham had, long before the law




GENESiS VI. I, 2.                   293
tide of the world's population gradually swelled till it
reached the confines of Eden, and there it flung ashore
its glittering gems, which soon attracted  the  eyes of
the inhabitants of the sacred region. They picked them
up, adorned themselves with them, and soon the separating line  between  the two regions disappeared.   The
sons of God were captivated with the beauty of these
daughters of men, and entered into marriage affinity
with them.' Thus the godly are entangled and corrupted.
Thus the ungodly became more  ungodly still.   The
barrier is quite broken down between the seed of the
woman and the seed of the serpent. Thus is not merely
an individual ruined, as in the case of Samson; not
merely a nation, as in the case of Israel; but a whole
world is destroyed.   Such are  the evils flowing from
was given by faith in Christ,-' Ye are all the sons of God (vloli Eovojust as the patriarchs were) by faith in Christ Jesus' (Gal. iii. 26).
The Church's privilege is to be brought into that standing and relationship towards God which Abraham had enjoyed, and which had been
known from the beginning, but which the introduction of the law had
narrowed or curtailed.  The verse above cited means,' Ye all, who
believe in Jesus Christ, Abraham's true seed, are placed on Abraham's
footing, and get Abraham's name, vlo' osoZ,'-a name which appears
to have been much better known in patriarchal times than we imagine.
Philo writes:' Ye who have knowledge are rightfully addressed as
the sons of the one God, as Moses says, "Ye are the sons of Jehovah,
your God."'-(De Coizfuisioize Zionguarum, sec. 28.)
There is no proof of unlawful violence here. The expression is
a common one to intimate the lawful marriage union-'they took
themselves wives;' as the Lord expressed it,'they married and were
given in marriage.' The words, however, probably intimate that, like
Lamech and the Cainites, they took as many wives as they pleased.
Mark the contrast between the words'whom they chose,' and'a
prudent wife is from the Lord.'




294            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
the lust of the flesh and of the eye! We have seen
it in Lamech's case; we see it in the case before us on
a larger scale; we see it in after ages in Sodom, in Israel,
in Samson, in David, in Solomon. What endless evils
have flowed from  impure  desires!   What corruption
of piety; what strifes, and hatred, and wars!   One of
the marks of the last days is'incontinence;' and both
Peter and Jude have left warnings for the Church as to
these special sins.  Let us mark, too, the danger of
unequal marriages.'Only in the Lord' is the apostle's
rule; and when this is wilfully neglected, —when beauty
and wealth, instead of piety, are preferred,-then what
sin is there, what peril, to the individual soul, to the
family, to the Church, to the land! See Gen. xxxvi. 35;
i Kings xi. i-6; Ezra ix. I2; Neh. xiii. 23-28; Mal. ii.
iI;  i Cor. vii. 39; 2 Cor. vi. I4.1
Ver. 3.' And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive zwith
man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and
twenty years.'
Perhaps these words were spoken by the lips of Noah.
It was thus that, as God's preacher of righteousness, he
condemned the world (Heb. xi. ii), speaking to that
generation, in the name of Jehovah, both of grace and
righteousness, both of His long-suffering to the sinner,
and of His hatred of the sin. It is of the Holy Spirit
1 How expressive these words of the prophet Malachi,'Judah hath
married the daughter of a strange god;' Judah, of whom, in the previous verse, he had called God the father,-distinguishing him thereby
from the heathen, as if Judah only could be called the son of God!




GENESIS vI. 3.               295
that he speaks; of Him who'moved upon the face of
the waters' at the first, and who now is seen moving upon
the more turbid waters of the ungodly world. It is He
whom God calls here, as elsewhere (Prov. i. 23; Isa.
xlii. I; Ezek. xxxix. 29; Joel ii. 28; Hag. ii. 5; Zech.
iv. 6; Matt. xii. I8),' My Spirit;'-mine, in opposition
to man's spirit, to Satan, to the flesh.  The'striving'
here spoken of implies conflict between God and the
sinner, nay'judgment' also, as the word seems to indicate,-God contending with man in righteous love,sitting in judgment on his sins, yet seeking to win himself. But all this love is vain. The striving fails. Man,
like Israel, resists and vexes the Holy Ghost. He refuses
to be won.  He accomplishes this awful victory over
God, —the victory, of which the trophy is his own
perdition. God's name for man's corruption is'flesh,'that'flesh' in which'dwelleth no good thing.' The
words'man,' and'world,' and'flesh,' have originally
no bad meaning.  But when overflowing ungodliness
has filled man, and the world, and the flesh, with sin,
then these words become synonymous with pure and
unmixed evil. God's Spirit had been striving long with
man; but there must be a limit to this; and when man
has reached this limit,-when he has become a mass of
utter sin,-then God's Spirit withdraws, and he is given
up to a reprobate mind.  Yet in resolving to let man
alone, that he may ripen for judgment, God gives a time
of respite,-an hundred and twenty years. A long day
of grace indeed! God will not take advantage of man
in any way. He gives him full time to turn. He is




296             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
long-suffering to the uttermost.  How vast His compassions! How great is His unwillingness to smite! How
infinite His patient love!
Ver. 4.' There were giants in the earth in those days (Heb. the
Ne5heelim were on the earth in those days); and also after that, when
the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare
children to them, the same became mig-hly men which were of old, men
of renown.' 1
Earth's wickedness had long been  on the increase.
There had been mighty men (like Lamech before, and
like Nimrod afterwards) on the earth; but this sad union
gives a fresh impulse to the ungodliness, and raises up
a new  race of giant-sinners.  The union between the
Church and the world led to physical improvement;
to a higher perfection in all things pertaining to the
flesh, bodily strength, natural. accomplishments, and
everything that man calls'progress.'   But it made the
flood of evil to swell the more rapidly, when thus the
windows of heaven and the fountains of the great deep
mingled their mighty stores, as if in prefigurement of
the coming flood of waters, and the two sources of its
overflow, the one from  above, the other from  beneath.
That which'letted' did'let,' until it was taken  out
of the way; and when that which  divided the waters
1 The origin of the word'Nepheelim' is hard to settle; but the
meaning of it is sufficiently well expressed by' giants,'-mighty men
of prowess and stature. See Num. xiii. 33, the only other place
where the word occurs. The latter clause of the verse is more literally
rendered by the Septuagint: ixs7vo,;'t1v  re,  yovare; o d' " ocwvoo, da
avop&ro od 4 voyop-ro-' these were (or are) the giants who were of
old, men of name.'




GENESIS vi. 5.                   297
above from  the waters beneath was removed, then the
tides mingled, the flood of sin swelled up,'the wicked
one' was revealed, whom the Lord swept away with
the stroke of His overwhelming sword, leaving righteous
Noah lord of the earth in room of those who had so
long usurped the sway.'
4Ver. 5.'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imaffination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually.'
This scene is represented as coming specially under
the eye of God.  He looked down from  heaven, and
saw! (Gen. xviii. 21; Ps. xiv. 2.)  What further need
of witnesses? Here is one better than a thousand human
witnesses.  He saw, and could not be mistaken.  He
saw, and would not misrepresent. Five chapters before,
we are told that God saw that all was good; now He
sees that all is evil.  Nothing but evil meets His eye,
in the outer or the inner world of man. He had made
this world not fifteen hundred years before; it was then
holy and blessed, fit dwelling for Himself and all holy
beings.  Now  not a trace  of its excellency remains.
All is evil.  There was'wickedness:' it was'in  the
earth,' His own earth; it was the wickedness of'man,'
the very being whom He had formed in His own image;
it was'great.' And surely that which God calls'great
1 This is only one of the many points in which the days of Noah
resemble the day of the Son of man. One of the best books on this
subject, though it does not bring out the above parallel, is the volume
of Mr. Maitland, Discourses on the Histoiy of Noah's Day.




298           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
wickedness' must be great indeed. But it is not the
outer world alone that is evil. The inner world is *Worse.
The fountain has become thoroughly polluted.  Man's'heart is evil;' the'thoughts' of his heart are evil; the'imaginations' of the thoughts of his heart are evil;
nay,'every imagination' of the thoughts of his heart is
evil; nay,'only evil,' and that'continually.'  Such is
God's picture of a human heart! What difference now
between a man and a devil? Is earth now any fairer
than hell?  Such is the race of man when ripe for
judgment.  Is not, then, that judgment righteous?  Is
it strange that God should sweep such a race away?
Nay, is it not strange that He should bear with it so
long, and be so unwilling to destroy it, as to suspend
His stroke for a hundred and twenty years, and all this
while deal with it in patient pity, yearning over it with
unquenched love?
Ver. 6.' Atnd it reipented the Lord that He haa ide mans on the earth,
and it grieved Himz at His heart.'
While thus describing man's guilt, God still owns him
as His handiwork.  We here read, not that man'had
been made,' but that' He had made man.' God does
not keep out of view the fact, that the being who had
become so thoroughly evil was the very man whom He
had made. There is no hiding of this apparent failure
of His plans. It is said that He'repented' that He
had made man; and though in one sense God cannot'repent' (Num. xxiii. I9), yet in another He does repent; nor does He hesitate to speak of His'repentings'




GENESIS vi. 6.                     299
(Hos. xi. 8).' For though He is unchangeable, yet that
unchangeableness is no arbitrary or unreasonable thing,
as if no altered circumstances could lead God to change
His mind.   That would be  the unchangeableness  of
folly, not of wisdom. Besides, let us remember that it
is unchangeableness of purpose that we ascribe to God
as His perfection, not unchangeableness of procedure.
Nay, it is through the very variation of His procedure
that He  carries out His unchangeable purpose.   But
it is added,'it grieved Him at His heart.' The expression is so strong as to be startling. It makes us ask,
Is it right to speak thus of God? Is it right to speak
so; for it is God who thus speaks of Himself. And how
deep the insight which He thus gives us into His heart;
how marvellous the discovery which He thus makes to
us of His yearnings over rebellious man!  It is the
same word that He uses in Ps. lxxviii. 40, when He
speaks of Israel'grieving Him in the desert;' and in
Isa. lxiii. io, when He speaks of their vexing His Holy
Spirit.   Only it is stronger than  these, for it is,'it
grieved (or afflicted) Him at His heart.'
I The word tnM is, as Robertson gives the meaning in this place,
-T' to express deep sorrow, to repent.' It occurs frequently, sometimes
in reference to God, and sometimes in reference to man.  For the
former, see Ex. xxxii. I4; Deut. xxxii. 36; Judg. ii. I8; Ps. cvi.
45; Joel ii. I3; Jonah iii. Io; in all which passages, while it is true
that God speaks after the manner of men, yet He also shows us this,
that change of mind, when circumstances change, is not inconsistent
with His unchangeable character; as, for example, when the sinner
is brought to repent, then God changes His mind and procedure
towards.him. The pardon of the sinner is the result of this change
on the part of God.




300           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
It was not that an unexpected crisis had arisen.  It
was not that God's purpose was frustrated. It was not
that God is subject to like passions as we. It was not
that He had at length ceased to care for the works of
His hands, and to wish that they had never been.  But
God is here speaking after the manner of men. He is
looking at facts simply as they are, without reference to
past or future. He isolates or separates them, and looking
at them as they stand alone, He declares what He thinks
and feels.  Nor do God's eternal purposes alter His
estimate of events.  It was God's purpose that Christ
should be delivered up and slain; yet that did not alter
God's estimate of the crime. Each action of man is in
one aspect a necessary link in God's mighty purpose, yet
each must be weighed and measured by itself God is
looking at the scene just as a man would look at it, and
expressing Himself in language such as man would have
done in such circumstances.  He sees all the present
misery and ruin which the scene presents, and they truly
affect Him according to their nature; and as they affect
Him, so does He speak in the words of man. The scene
affects God just as it would have affected a wise and just
but most tender-hearted parent; and His words correspond to this.  The feelings implanted in man must, to
some extent, be the same as those existing in God. For
man was made in God's image in respect to his feelings
as truly as in respect to his intellect. The human heart
is the counterpart of the divine. Hence it is that God
so often uses the language of human feeling when referring to Himself. God's love, hatred, wrath, pity, grief, are




GENESIS vI. 7.                   30I
all real; and they correspond to those feelings which He
has implanted in man; with only this difference, that in
God there is no admixture of sin.
Yes, God is'grieved at His heart.' These are His own
words. Let us not explain them away. He is grieved at
the change which sin has made in the works of His hands.
He is grieved at the dishonour thus brought upon Himself.
He is grieved at man's misery and ruin,-so fearful, so
eternal! He is grieved because He must Himself be the
pronouncer of man's sentence, the inflicter of man's doom.
How unutterably gracious must this God be with whom
we have to do! How unwilling to destroy, how willing to
bless and to save! With what a yearning love does He
bend over rebellious man!
Ver. 7.' And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have
created, from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it repenteXh me that I have
made them.' 1
Probably these words were spoken to Noah,'the
preacher of righteousness,' or to some of the other of the
righteous patriarchs then on the earth, that they might
proclaim the message of judgment. Not without special
meaning are the commencing words,'And Jehovah said.'
He lifts up His voice and makes public declaration of His
purpose of judgment, that man may be fully warned; that
1' I will destroy man,-even that very man whom I created, not
regarding the work of my hands,-from that very earth which I made
for him,-man and all these living creatures which I made for his
benefit.' Thus the words may be paraphrased.  The reader may
remember Ovid's words:' Perdendum mortale genus.'-Metam. i. I88.




302            TIOUGHTS XON GENESIS.
he may know when ruin comes that it is no sudden outburst of vengeance, but the coming forth or carrying out
of a calm and deliberate purpose.l
God's declaration is,'I will destroy man!' He has
purposed, and who shall gainsay Him, or disannul I-is
purpose?  He will'blot out' man,-He will sweep him
away as men do what they loathe.2  When He'blots out'
our sins, on our believing the record of His grace, He
blots them out entirely, removing them from us as far as
the east is from the west; so He will'destroy' man as
completely as He will remove sin; He will'blot out'
these sinners of an unbelieving world as thoroughly as He'blots out' the sins of believing Noah and his children.
It is the man whom He has created that He is thus to'blot out.'  As He blots out the sin that He has not
made, so He blots out the sinner whom  He has made.
He spares not. the work of His own bands.  Words of
deep dread, truly!'I will destroy man whom  I have
created.' Solemn warning and rebuke to those who flippantly taunt us with believing in the eternal doom of the
ungodly, and say,'Oh! God did not make man to destroy him.' True, He did not make him to destroy him;
but He will do it! He did not make him  for the dark1' Before weird (doom) there's word,' says the Northern proverb.
2 The word is Onii, the same as is used for the washing away of
filth. Deut. xxix. 20; Ps. li. I; Isa. xliv. 22. Sept. wrexsq, 4w;
Vulg. delebo.  The word translated'destroy' in the 13th verse is
2n1m, the same word as'corrupted,' ver. I2: as if God would say,'They have corru5lted themselves; I will corrupt them; I will make
them reap the fruit of what they have sown.' The Septuagint gives
xamosapw; the Vulgate, disperdam.




GENESIS VI. 7.                 303
ness, but for the light; yet the everlasting darkness shall
be his lot. He desires not the death of the sinner, yet
he shall die.  He did not make man for hell, nor hell for
man, yet the wicked shall be turned into hell.'I will
destroy man whom I have created.' He will do it Himself; with His own hands will He destroy His own workmanship.  He will not leave him to fall to pieces himself,
nor merely make his own' conscience his tormentor, as
some men speak; He will execute judgment Himself.
And all this because He is the' righteous God that loveth
righteousness.'
He will destroy him'from the face of the earth.' The
earth is not to be destroyed in this ruin. It is not to
receive any further curse on account of man's sin; nay,
it is to be delivered from a burden, an intolerable load of
defilement that had been accumulating for fifteen centuries. Though God had cursed the earth, yet He always
makes it appear that it is for man's sake, not its own.'The creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly'
(Rom. viii. 20). Nay, we might say that here there is a
purpose of grace intimated respecting the earth, when
judgment is proclaimed against its dwellers. God's object
by the flood of waters was to cleanse the earth of its
pollution, just as hereafter He shall purge it by fire, removing on that day not merely the incumbent wickedness, but burning out the curse from its veins.  Water can
do the former; but fire is needed for the latter.
But though the earth itself is not to share man's ruin,
the beasts and fowls and creeping things must be swept
away along with him.  They must share his doom, as




304           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
being more closely linked to him than the material earth.
What, then, must sin be in the sight of the Holy One,
when it draws after it such boundless ruin? Whatever is
most intimately connected with man, the sinner, must
perish with him.  Man's first sin introduced the curse,
but it did not destroy the creatures; now, however, sin
has so swelled, so risenl and overflowed creation, that
God's righteousness insists upon execution being done
even upon the unintelligent creation, that He might thus
publish before the universe, by the voice of an all-devouring flood, how terribly He hated that which man.had done.
Then the statement of the sixth verse is repeated:' For
it repenteth me that I have made them.' How solemnly
does this reiteration of God's mind fall upon our ears!
How deeply does He feel the sin, the wrong, the dishonour that man had done I How profound the compassion for those very sinners whom, in His righteousness,
He was thus compelled to sweep away!    How awful
must have been the scene presented to His view, when,
after surveying it, He was constrained to say, in reference
to the creatures which He had made,'It repenteth me
that I have made them'! Can any ignorance-can any
madness exceed theirs who would make light of sin, who
would treat it as a mere transient disease, which is in the
course of ages working itself out of the system, and will
soon pass away?  Terrible will be thy position, O man,
when God comes to say this of thee!  It will be terrible
l Ovid's verse is very striking, as if borrowed from this:'Qume Pater ut summa vidit Saturnius arce,
Ingemit.'-Metanz. i. I63.




GENESIS VI. 7.                        30o
enough when thou art brought to feel,'Oh that I had
never been  made!' but it will be more overwhelming
still when God comes and says,'Oh that I had never
created thee!' 1
1 The Fathers speculated much and often on the nature and feelings,
of God, raising all manner of questions as to. His anger,, love, hatred,
repentance, etc. There is much more, however, of philosophy than
of Scripture in their disquisitions; and Cicero, Plato,- etc., are
oftener quoted than Paul or John. Minucius Felix has some good
remarks in his Octavius, p. I44, Ouzel's edition., Lactantius, besides
many general references to the subject, has a long discourse, De ira
Dei, in which there are good statements and well-pointed arguments;.
but a woful lack of Scripture. He quotes Plato's remark,'Nemo
prudens punit quia peccatum est,. sed ne peccetur,' Ivu &en adbj5.  x1thzso;,
a remark which, though lauded in our day,. is but a one-sided axiom,,
which, if accepted as the whole truth, would set aside moral guilt, and
do away with all necessity for a judgment.. His treatise throws no
light upon the subject.  It merely affirms the truth,. that if anger be
denied to God, so must love, etc.. —'si non ira est in eo nec gratia est,'
sec. 4. It is curious to notice the opposite. sentiments of the ancients
on this point. Ovid,, referring to the world's wretchedness, speaks of
the great Father as'groaning,' ingemens; whereas Epicurus is repre-.
sented as saying,, respecting the nature of God-' Semota a nostris rebus, sejunctaque longe,
Nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis,
Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nil indiga nostri
Nec bene promeritis capitur, nec tangitur ira.'
Augustine's remarks are more satisfactory:'The anger of God is no,
perturbation of His mind,, but a judgment assigning sin, its punishment.
His revolving and re-revolving (Augustine follows the Sept. idv/.nfisn,
"He pondered").is but the unchangeable ordering of changeable thinrgs.
(" Mutandarum rerum immutabilis ratio "). For God repents not of
what He does,. like a man; for His.opinion (" sententia") of everything
is as fixed as His foreknowledge is certain.  But Scripture without
such expressions cannot insinuate itself familiarly into all kinds of men.
-.. This it could not do if it did not bend itself towards us, nay
stoop to us sometimes,: when lying prostrate..'-De Civ. Dei, book xv..
chap. 25.
VOL.. VI..                                           I




306            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
Ver. 8.' But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.'
There is one exception. The race is not to be wholly
swept away. There is a remnant according to the election
of grace. God has mercy on whom He will have mercy
(Rom. ix. I5).  God's purpose shall stand, in spite of
the world's sin.  Not by nature above the level of an
unbelieving world, Noah by grace stands fast.'Not of
works, but of Him that calleth.' He rises when others
fall.  He rises higher, the lower the rest sink.  For
Jehovah has laid hold on him; and Jehovah upholds
him.  Nor was it because he was better than the rest
that God's choice fell on him; but he was made better
in consequence of that choice.  And where is the believing man that cannot trace his faith, his love, his whole
change, to the same eternal fountainhead?
God's description of a saint, then, is one that has found
favour in His sight.  And this is the saint's own account
of himself-' Then was I in His eyes as one that found
favour' (Cant. viii. io). This is all he can say for himself,-all the account he can give of the origin of his
sonship, the cause of his spiritual change. How blessed
to be able thus simply to trace all that is good in us
directly to the sovereign will and love of Jehovah!
Ver. 9.' These are the generations 1 of Noah: Noah was a just man,
andperfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.'
The general testimony to Noah was, that he' had found
" 1 Generations.' This word occurs about forty times -in the Old
Testament, and is always translated in our version by the same word:




GENESIS vI. 9.                     307
favour with God.'  The fuller and particular testimony
now follows.  It is God's own opinion of His saint.  It
takes up three features.
I. He was a lunst man, —a man whom  God accounted
righteous. It seems to be with reference to this expression that the apostle calls him'an heir of the righteousness which is' by faith' (Heb. xi. 7). There is righteousness on him and in him; and God recognises both. The
surety-righteousness of the Son of God places him in
the state of a just man; and the inward righteousness of
the Spirit gives him the character of a just man. He
stands out before us, holy in a generation of the unholy,
justified in a world of the condemned.
2. He was perfect in his age.'  He stood out'complete'
as a man of God, in all the various features which constitute that character; as the apostle speaks when he
tells of the fitness of the divine word to make'the man of
Gen. v. 7, xi. Io, xxxvi. I, etc.  Calvin, followed by Rosenmiiller,
Dathe, etc., extends its meaning, and gives as its signification,'Tota
vitae historia.' Paulus Fagius renders it,' These are the things which
befell Noah and his family.' Our version in this same verse gives
generation as the sense of'ifi, which occurs about I50 times; and
almost always in the sense of age, or men of a particular age: Ps. xcv.:
Io; Eccles. i. 4. The Septuagint translates the former word by,ivyo.s,
the latter by yvMa. Calvin remarks that the plural (generations) is
used to show that it was not in one age, but several, that he kept his
integrity.
1 The words are literally,'Noah, a just man, was perfect in his
time.' The word means whole, complete-' a full year' (Lev. xxv.
3o);'a whole day' (Josh. x. I3). It occurs about fifty times in the
sense of' without blemish' as applied to sacrifices. Noah is' without
spot,'-a complete sacrifice,-body, soul, and spirit,-and so accepted
of the Lord. Gesenius makes it refer simply to moral integrity.
Scripture connects it with sacrifice and priesthood.




308             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works' (2
Tim. iii. I 7).  He was not a man without sin; for'there
is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth
not' (I Kings viii. 46; 2 Chron. vi. 36; Eccles. vii. 20);
but he was perfect as pertaining to the conscience, and
in all the parts of his character and life he bore the
stamp of righteousness,-as is written of Zacharias and
Elizabeth,'They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of God
blameless' (Luke i. 6).   Yes, he was'perfect in his
generation.'  He stood alone; yet he stood.  He held
aloof from  the evil around.  He had taken on nothing
of the pollution which abounded.   He held fast in an
age of matchless sin, when he had none to side with him
but God.
3. He walked with God. The word is strong and
peculiar, denoting the repetition and energy of the act.
He walked and walked; yea, walked with fervent and
untiring energy.' Through centuries he lived on, walking with God, as Enoch had done before him; nay,
during part of the time, with Enoch at his side; for
only of these two is the expression used.   It is as if
1 Both in this verse and in chap. v. 23, 24, it is the Hithjiaed that
is used; in the former the Hithpael preterite, in the latter the Hithpael
future (with the I conversive). It is this that makes it so expressive.
See Job i. 7; Zech. i. Io, vi. 7; Ezek. i. I3. The Septuagint makes
it sUntp'b Een  rZ eo. Rungius has some excellent remarks on Noah's
standing alone, and preserving a testimony to the'woman's seed,'
also on the reproaches he must have endured from these'giants.'
He calls him the martyr of martyrs:'Vere fuit martyr martyrum
Noah,' p. 295.




GENESIS VI. io.              309
God had come down to earth and walked through it,
with Enoch on one side, and Noah on the other. Of
Abraham it is said,'Walk before me, and be thou perfect;' but it would almost seem as if this walk of Enoch
and Noah were something nearer and more blessed than
this.
Ver. Io.'And Noah begat three sons, Shem, 1Ham, and yapheth.'
This holy man is a husband and a father. For the
marriage bond is holy, nay,'honourable in all' (Heb.
xiii. 2), and the paternal relationship excellent and
blessed. To the members of Noah's family the whole
human race was ere long to be reduced. Such is the
narrow isthmus between the old world and the new;
such is the remnant to which the Church of God is
brought. How will Satan triumph at the prospect of cutting off the seed of the woman; nay, of compelling God
(let the expression be pardoned) to cut off that seed
Himself, and so to break His first promise, as well as
destroy the world's one hope! The seed of the woman
was fast becoming extinct. The promise hung upon a
thread. The Church's hope was narrowed to a single
saint. Thus God lets matters go to a crisis,-an extremity, -that His own wisdom  and power may be
brought out, and pride hidden from man.  It is all of
God.
Shem is namedfirst in this list, though Japheth was the
elder (x. 2i). Like Judah, he was to have the preeminence,-the birthright; and this not by any natural
right, but solely by the choice of God.  How often




3 I            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
does God teach us in His word that all honour is of
Him, and that the highest pre-eminence which He could
confer on a man was to make him a link in Messiah's
line. Connection with Christ, even before He came, was
God's badge of nobility-His star of honour.  It is so
still.   Connection with Christ, through  belief of the
Father's testimony to Him, is man's truest, highest honour,
either now on earth or hereafter in the kingdom.
Vers. II, I2.' The earlh also (Heb. And, or No/w, the earth) was
corrupt before God; and the earth was filled wi/h violence. I2. And
God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt: for allfesh had
corrupted his way upon the earth.'
It was'corrupt.'"  It had become a decaying  and
abominable carcase; defiled and hateful; the very opposite of that which God had made it. For though it was
not made, like the future inheritance,'incorruptible,'
still it was'incorrupt.' There was no blemish on it; no
sin; no taint; no stain.
It was corrupt'before God.' Full in His sight and
under His eye, it revelled in its vileness. Its wickedness
was daring, and dark in its defiance of God. He declares
this not as one relating a thing from report, but narrating
what had come under His own eye.  Yes, He looked on
it.  He hated the sin; yet He bore long with it.  Such
are His compassions!'The earth was filled with violence.' Injustice, cruelty,
rapine, wrong,-these formed the sum of its story. Like
The Jews refer this specially to licentiousness, and to the strange
intermarriages previously spoken of.




GENESIS VI. I, 12.                      311
a mighty sea, violence had swelled up, till every plain and
valley were overflowed.   It was drenched in  sin  ere it
was drowned in water.'
Such  was earth!   Transformed  from  paradise  into
worse than a wilderness; from  being the seat of God to
be like Babylon, the abode of devils, giants, murderers,
and all unclean and hateful things. What has sin done!
What can it not do!  How  quickly can it empty a soul
or a world, of all good, and fill them  with all evil!  The
frosts of winter do not so destroy the tender plant as
sin does the soul or the world into which it finds its
way.
But the awful description is repeated in the next verse,
and God Himself is declared to be the witness of the
evil.  God looked at the earth.  He surveyed it, so that
there might be no mistake; and that no man might say
that He judged hastily or untruly. He will not misjudge
His creatures; nor will He allow them to suppose that
He is doing so.  Behold, it was corrupt.  There could be
no mistake. The divine eye could not be deceived. All
1 Montgomery thus describes the scene:-'But as they multiplied from clime to clime,
Embolden'd by their elder brother's crime,
They spurn'd obedience to the patriarch's yoke;
The bonds of nature's fellowship they broke;
The weak became the victims of the strong,
And earth was fill'd with violence and wrong.'
-World before the Flood, canto i.
Du Bartas thus describes the scene: —'From these profane, proud, cursed kisses sprung
A cruel brood, feeding on blood and wrong;
Fell giants strange, of haughty hand and mind,
Plagues of the world, and scourges of mankind.'




3 I 2             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
flesh had corruj5ted its waey Cupon /e earth.,          The whole
race had gone astray, and become vile. Outwardly as
well as inwardly  all was evil.   Thus sin  spreads and
widens, as well as deepens. It has no end. It never
dies out, nor loses  its hatefulness.    God  bears long
with it. He allows evil as well as good to ripen. He
will not pluck the unripe evil, any more than the unripe
good. It is not till' the grapes are fully ripe' that the,clusters of earth's vine are gathered (Rev. xiv. I8). Every
sin is rendering earth riper for the last vengeance, and
preparing it for the flood of fire.2
Ver. 13.'And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come
befbre me; for the earth is filled with violence through them: and,
behzold, I will destroy them with the earth.' 3
It is to Noah, face to face, that God now speaks. The
1 We may just notice here the use of his, where we should have its.
Attention to this will help to clear up several difficulties in Scripture.
2 It may be worth while to throw together in a note some of the
classical allusions to the events recorded in this chapter. It would
be impossible to cite Hesiod, as, both in his Works and Days and
Theogony, the passages are too long and too numerous to come
within our limits.  But their resemblance to the divine narrative is
striking.  Homer has several allusions to the early giants, vsp ruFpovO
yPyvcMoo~l (Odyss. vii. 59); and Sophocles speaks of the ynyv; soppaso's
yycv-rwv.  Virgil refers to their' immania corpora' (#2rneid, vi. 582);
and Ovid to the'gigantas, immania monstra' (Fast. v. 35). Describing the wickedness of this age of giants, Ovid writes,-'Tertia post illas successit ahenea proles
Savior ingeniis et ad horrida promptior arma.'-Metam. i. I26.
And again-'Sed et illa propago
Contemptrix superum sxevxeque avidissima czedis,
Et violenta tuit; scires e sanguine natos.'-Metam. i. z6o.
3 The LXX. give xapi;s as the rendering of r'1; while Aquila,




GENESr  S VI. 13.                    313
preceding utterances, though probably spoken through
Him, were general proclamations, meant for all.  He tells
him  that now  at length His long-suffering is exhausted,
and that the end of all flesh has come up before him. It
had been long delayed, but it comes at last; —the end of
all flesh;-the end of their day on earth; and with the
end of that day, the end of grace, the end of hope, the
beginning of wrath and everlasting woe! How simply, but
how solemnly, God speaks!  Not in anger, yet with awful
decision! Such shall be the judgment of the great day.
God does not judge hastily, or in a spirit of revenge,
more correctly, gives ~qxo;, and Symmachus rpes. The following
passages will show that our translators have rendered it correctly by'an end:'-Gen. viii. 6, xli. I; Jer. li. I3; Lam. iv. 8; Ezek. vii. 2;
Amos viii. 2. The last of these passages resembles the one before us
clearly-' The enzd is come upon my people.''All flesh,' a very
universal term, including man and beast. See chap. viii. I7; Num.
xviii. I 5. Most critics interpret the clause thus:  The end (or destruction) of all flesh has been determined by me' (see Gesenius, Rosenmiiller, Dathe, etc.); and perhaps this is substantially correct. But
may it not be as if God were looking on the earth (ver. I2), and after
each scene, from the first to the last, has presented itself to His view,
ie speaks-' I.see the end of all flesh'? Philo has a curious passage
of mysticism on the clause, understanding the words of the Sept. as if
they had meant,' The time of mankind has come against me' (wvavfovy).
See his Questions and So/htions.'Through them'-lit. Heb. before
their face, i.e. coming forth from them; see Ex. viii. 24,'the land
was corrupted by reason of' (Heb. from the face of)'the swarm of
flies;' Judg. vi. 6,' by reason of;' Heb.' from the face of;' Jer. xv.
17; Ezek. xiv. I5.  We may notice that the word En4)  occurs above
2200 times in various applications.' With the earth.' That this is
the proper rendering of rn  is evident from chap. ix. I, where the
destruction of the earth is spoken of. That this is a literal meaning
is plain from chap. xxxvii. 2, xliii. I6; Judg. i. I6; Jer. li, 59. The
Sept. has XzA; U-PI yn~v, which is the same meaning.  Is it not to this
that the Apostle Peter alludes (2 Pet. iii. 6), o' xo'pos5.SzrXd'ro?




314'THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
against poor sinning man. He has reasons for what He
does, and they are worthy of Himself. No stroke comes
at random. All is calmly spoken, and calmly done.
And will not this, O sinner, be the aggravation of your
endless sorrow?  You cannot soothe yourself with the
idea that you are suffering unjustly, or are the victim of
a hasty sentence.  The wisdom  and the justice of the
proceeding will be clear even to yourself. This, too,
makes your case so hopeless.  Were the reasons for your
condemnation weak or partial, you might hope for a reversal of the decision; but they are so wise, so good, so
holy, that reversal is eternally impossible.  In the case
before us, God's reasons are man's total corruption of
his ways, and his filling the earth with violence. He has
not only let in evil, but he has made it overflow; he
has filled the earth with it.'The earth is defiled under
the inhabitants thereof' (Isa. xxiv. 5).  It is not roe sin
that brings down the judgment; no, nor many.  It is
the persisting in sin till others are corrupted, and the
earth polluted, and the Spirit grieved away. God hates
even one sin; but He is slow to punish.  Not till sin
has become an overflowing flood, does He smite. But
when He does judge, how terrible the stroke! Thus
God waits now in His patient love.  Earth is full of sin,
but He waits.  He will not cast it into the winepress of
His wrath till its grapes be fully ripe (Rev. xiv. i8). The
flood of waters waited till iniquity had filled the earth.
So is it with the flood of fire; it waits till the wickedness
of the last days has reached its height.  Then the judgment sits; and it is seen that sin was no mere disease




GENESIS VI. 14-I6.                    315
which needed healing, but guilt, which could only be
dealt with at a seat of justice by the great Judge of all.
For the inflicter of the sentence is God Himself:'I will
destroy them with the earth.' They have corrupted the
earth; I will corrupt them with that earth which they have
corrupted. They and their earth shall be destroyed together; for the sentence comes forth against both.l This
destruction does not infer the annihilation of either man
or the  earth.   Nor does the Apostle Peter, when  he
speaks of the old world'perishing,' mean annihilation.
So, when this earth is spoken of as consumed by fire, we
are not to understand annihilation. It passes through
fire, only in order to be purified; and thus, purged from
its dross by the Refiner's fire, it comes forth a more
glorious world than before.
Vers. I4-I6.' Make thee an ark of gopher-oood; rooms shalt thou
make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with fitch.
15. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of; the length of
the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and
the height of it thirty cubits.  I6. A window shalt thou make to the
ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark
shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third storeys
shalt thou make it.' 2'How  shall any escape?' would be Noah's feeling, on
hearing  God's sentence against the  world.   Without
1 The word in the original is the same in both clauses: 6 They have
corrupted the earth; I will corrupt them,' etc. The Sept. has preserved the identity of phrase. Trapp paraphrases it,'I will punish
them in kind, pay them in their own coin.'
2 There is no need for minute criticism on the words of these three
verses.  Gesenius, Robertson's Clavis, and Moses Stuart's Chrestomathy (p. I53), will give the radical meanings and common uses of




3 I6            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
delay, God reveals the provision to be made for the
deliverance of the few.  That deliverance was to be of
God as directly as was the destruction.   Yet man was
to make the vessel of deliverance.'Make for thyself,'
is the express and urgent command.  Deliverance was
secured and provided by God, yet everything was made
to depend on man's using the appointed means, just as
in the case of Paul's deliverance from shipwreck.
The ark was well planned, well proportioned; admirably adapted for its end; not for sailing, but floating,
not for ornament, but safety. God knows how to deliver
His own, yet He does so by means, though these means
are sometimes apparently slender enough. His providing
means, and placing them at our disposal, implies the
promise that in using them we shall attain what they
the terms, which our translators have rendered with sufficient accuracy.
The word used for'ark' occurs only in connection with Noah's vessel
and Moses' basket,-a proof that the word is a general term applied
to any sort of chest, great or small, made to float on the water. The
word is not the same as that used for the'ark of the covenant.'
Gopher-wood, a resinous tree, such as the pine or cypress, probably
the latter, from the likeness of the letters, —-avvrplo0oS.  The word
translated pitch (both noun and verb) means properly' cover'-'cover
inside and outside with a covering;' the word nowhere else means
pitch. It always means' covering,' or'ransom,' or Iatonement,' save
in Canticles, where it is translated'calmphire' (chap. i. I4, iv. I4).
We ought to add, that in I Sam. vi. I8 it means village, giving origin
to Capernaum, or Caphernaum, and similar prefixes. The ark was
divided into camnbers, or nests, or rooms (see Num. xxiv. 2I; Job
xxix. I8; Hab. ii. 9). It had a window,.or lransparency, or clear
light. It was finished or sloped to a cubit above. Its door was in
the side. It had a threefold division (which the Fathers greatly loved
to mystify). It was 300 cubits long, 50 broad, 30 high; a measurement in which Augustine finds profound signification.




GENESIS vi. 17.                    317
were meant to lead to.  God does not mock us.  He
does not place a ladder up to heaven, without meaning
us to ascend.  He does not provide a Saviour merely
to  tantalize  or mock.   He provides an  Ark, and He
opens a door in it, that we may go in and be saved.
He provides comfort as well as safety; light in this Ark,
that we may not go blindfold to heaven, or in the dark;
not merely  safely  lodged, but carried  through  with
comfort and gladness. And just as the Church's deliverance is sure, so is the destruction of the world. The
flood of fire will spare none. Yet the open door of our
Ark bids welcome to all. And we know that our Ark
is as sufficient as it is suitable.   Christ is just such a
deliverer as we need. And we must receive Him as such,
not fashioning an ark of our own, or making a Christ of
our own; but taking just the very Christ whom the
Father here provides.'
Ver. I7.'And, behold, I, even I, do bring (or ant bringing) a flood
of waters %u1on the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life,
from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.'
Now, for the first time, the nature of the coming destruction is announced. It is to be a flood of waters;
1 The references to the ark in the Fathers would furnish matter for
a long Excursus, which might be curious, but certainly would not be
profitable, more especially as they make the ark a type not of Christ,
but of the Church.  It was to them a favourite and prolific subject for allegory.-See Origen in his Homilies on Genesis. Irenaus
has a few brief allusions to the subject. Ambrose, de Noe et Arca.
Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis. Augustine, De Civil. Dei, book xv.
chap. 26 and 27, in which that Father gives full vent to his fancy.
Lactantius merely gives the narrative, De Orig. Erroris, book ii.




318             THO UGHTS ON GENESIS.
and it is to be no accidental outburst, but brought upon
the earth by God Himself. He Himself is to be the
doer of the whole.   His object is to destroy all flesh
wherein is the breath of life,l'from  under heaven,' that
these blue heavens may no longer bend over such a mass
of wickedness, and that sun no longer look down on such
crimes.  And then, to show  how  terribly complete this
destruction is to be, it is said,'Every thing on the earth
shall perish.' What a sweep of judgment God makes
when He begins! How like these words to those announcing the terror of the last day,'They shall not
escape!' (i Thess. v. 3; Jer. xi. i I.)   Noah's day, and
the day of the Son of man, are like each other not merely
in their suddenness, but in the fierceness of the judgment.
sec. 13. The same may be said of Prosper, De Vocat. Gent. book ii.
chap. I3 and I4.  Jerome, Adversus yovinianum, etc., chap. 9;
more largely Adversus Luciferianos, chap. 8; Commentary on Ezekiel,
chap. 42. Athanasius makes a fine use of the subject, in his brief tract
against those who judged of truth by the multitude of adherents:' Prefer, if you please, the multitude drowned by the flood to Noah
saved; yet allow me to betake myself to the ark which contained
the few'-spoi Ii avyyXSp oov q- rOVS A3ySu5 iXOUio Xi:'rs SrplopesUV.
Gregory Nazianzen, on referring to the ark, speaks of Noah'preserving the seeds of the second world in a small vessel of wood'-x5oa0ou
~Siwrpov arzp~ur. Twentieth Oration.  Fulgentius, De Trin. chap.
xii.; De Remiss. Peccat. chap. xx. We might multiply such citations,
but these are sufficient.-See Pererius Valentinus, vol. ii. book x.,
where, however, the references are not full or complete. See also
Glossce Literales in Genesim, by the Jesuit Del-Rio (p. I58), A.D. I6o8.
Christopher Ness, however, while equally ingenious, is more satisfactory than these ancient mystics.  See his History and Mystery of the
Old and New Testament, chap. ix. pp. 99-I29.
1 The clause might be rendered more emphatically,'To destroy
all flesh which is in it (the earth); and to destroy the breath of life
from under the heavens; everything that is in the earth shall perish.'




GENESIS vi. I8-2z.                    319
It is written,'The flood came and destroyed them  all'
(Luke xvii. 27); and again,'Even thus shall it be in
the day when the Son of man is revealed' (Luke xvii. 30).
Increasing ungodliness ended by overflowing judgment
in both.
Vers. I8-21. C But with thee will I establish my covenant: and thou
shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons'
wives with thee.  I9. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of
every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee;
they shall be mate and female. 20. Of fozols after their kind, and of
cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind;
two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.  2I. And
take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather
it to thee; and it shall be foodfor thee, andfor them.'
There is an exception to this destruction; Noah, and
all those whom God was to treat as one with him, and
to spare for his sake.  This exception is to be made on
the footing of a covenant, or rather the covenant.l The
reference seems to be to a previous covenant, well known
and recognised.   This covenant had'fallen down,' and
seemed as if about wholly to fail. If all flesh is to be'
cut off, how is the covenant to be carried out? God
sets apart Noah, making him  the link by which the chain
is to be kept unbroken. All the previous promises are
to  be centred in him.  Through him  the race of man
is to be perpetuated, that in this way'the Seed of the
1'With thee I will establish my covenant,' or set up my covenant.
It is the same word as in Gen. xvii. 7; Ex. vi. 4, xxvi. 30; Deut.
xxvii. 2; I Sam. ii. 35; Ezek. xvi. 60o.'And I will raise up that
which is fallen down.' That such is its sense in the Hiphil, see
Gesenius, who gives as instances, Deut. xxii. 4, Job iv. 4, Ps. xli. 6I.




320          THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
woman' may at length come. Though the covenant thus'set up' with Noah is in substance the old promise made
to Adam, yet it comes before us in a new aspect, and
with new appendages. It connects Noah personally with
itself, and his preservation with its ultimate accomplishmnent.  It is cast as the life-preserver to Noah in the
midst of the rushing flood. It is made to encircle the
ark with its sure girdle, that so the assurance may be
given that all shall yet be well, in spite of man's desperate
ungodliness.  Evil may abound, hatred may assail the
chosen one, the waters may compass him about, the fire
may wrap him round, but the covenant holds him fastsurer than any anchor. He cannot sink or drift away, or
be destroyed, for God's everlasting purpose has taken up
its abode in him, and that purpose must fail ere he can be
overthrown.
The covenant provides not only that there shall be an
ark, but that some shall enter it; nay, it fixes oni' those
who are to enter it. So, in regard to Christ and His
salvation, love planned a covenant, love provided an ark;
but love did more than this-it secured the entrance of
at least some. It saw that none would enter if left to
themselves, and it laid hold of some and drew them in.
God provides for the beasts of the field and the fowls
of the air. They are to be saved;3 and, in order to this,
they are to be made to enter. In the one verse it is said,'Thou shalt bring,' and in another,'They shall enter,'
showing Noah's part and God's part in the matter. Noah
makes ready the ark; God inclines them to go in. But
more,-God must have all these fed as well as sheltered;




GENESIS III. 22.                321
and Noah is instructed to take provisions with him for
man and beast. God overlooks nothing. He cares for
all His work; He clothes the lilies, He feeds the rivers,
He watches the falling sparrow, He counts the hairs
of our head. Truth and grace are with Him.  His tender
mercies are over all His works. What a gospel does the
ark preach to us!-glad tidings of grace, the reception of
which at once links us to the God of all grace.
Thus has Jehovah His time and His way for inflicting
His judgment, as well as His time and His way for providing deliverance. He is altogether sovereign in His dealings
with earth and its dwellers; sovereign in grace, sovereign
in judgment.  He establishes His covenant with whomsoever it pleases Him; blessing Noah in His free love, and
for his sake saving his family; nay, saving the brute creation and sparing the earth, which had, for well-nigh sixteen
centuries, been polluted with the crimes of man.
Ver. 22.'Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded
him, so did he.'
He listened to God and obeyed in faith, overlooking
nothing, just as we read of Moses in regard to the
tabernacle (Ex. xl. I6).   He  staggered not through
unbelief, but gave God the credit for knowing what was
to be done far better than he. Faith leads to obedience;
the simpler faith is, the more prompt and implicit the
obedience.  Much as faith is needed in our time, surely
obedience is no less so. Ours is the day of disobedience
as well as of unbelief; of selfwill, no less than of enmilty
and mistrust.
VOL. VI.                                     X








N OTE S.
THE SABBATH.
GOD, at the very outset of the world's history, draws the
distinction between work and rest. Even in regard to
Himself, this difference is to be noticed. Work is not rest,
and rest is not work, even to Omnipotence.
In both His own work and His own rest He is glorified,
though each has its own kind of glory. He expects both kinds
from us; and hence He set us the example at the beginning.
In working we glorify Him, and in resting we glorify Him;
but still the glory which He gets from our work is one thing,
and the glory which He gets from our rest is another.
Nor must these two things be confounded. They are distinct in themselves, and distinct in their bearings upon our
deportment and service here in this dispensation.
There are some that confound these two things, and overlook
not only their separableness in themselves, but their actual and
explicit sezaration by God. These joiners together of what
God has sundered do not deny that we ought to glorify God
whether working or resting; but they mix up together the
working and the resting, and think that what God wants is a
sort of mingled glory rising out of both these conjoined, and
fused into one, instead of a distinct and separate glory from
each; a glory which cannot be thus mingled without being
injured and stript of that definite and clear character which
He desires that it should possess. His purpose is, that He
should get a certain glory from working, and another glory
323




324           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
from resting; and who are we that we should, by any theories
of our own, seek to thwart the purpose of Jehovah, or rob Him
of the twofold glory which He is looking for at our hands?
It was not for nothing that He laid down so expressly, in the
beginning of His volume, His own twofold line or method of
action, if we may so speak; the active and the passive, the
work and the cessation from work. Nor was it without a
purpose that, when in the course of ages the distinction might
be undergoing a process of obliteration, He took it up and
proclaimed it to Israel. For what He did, both in paradise
and in the wilderness, was not merely to give forth an arbitrary
appointment as to a certain day; but it was to bring out a
mighty distinction, on- which very much was to depend in after
ages, both as to His own glory and man's proper service.
If this be the case, then it is plain that the distinction between
the six days and the seventh day lies much deeper than we
generally conceive. It is not a distinction founded upon the
seventh day or the first day of the week. The actual day is of
comparatively small importance, and only comes before us in
its connection with the past events to which it is linked by way
of memorial, or in connection with future events, to which it is
linked by way of type or earnest. It is a distinction founded
on the difference between working and resting, and upon the
peculiar glory which God is to obtain from the one and from
the other. Whether we can fully comprehend the reason of
this distinction, it matters not. There it is. There are the
original facts in the very forefront of the Bible. There are
God's own actings, and there are His declarations and injunctions as to the manner in which He expects us to act; in which
He expects every one to act who, with the Bible in his hands,
believes that'God created the heavens and the earth,' and
that' on the seventh day He rested from all His works which
He had created and made.'
Among those who look upon the Sabbath as a mere limitation of man's liberty, an abridgment of his pleasures, we cannot expect to find any sympathy with the above distinction.
They deny the Sabbath because it is a weariness, and because
the Lord of the Sabbath is not their Lord.




NOYTES.                     325
But there is another class with whom we may expect some
sympathy, even though they have rejected the Sabbath as a
divine ordinance. There is a class which holds that every day
should be a Sabbath, and that, therefore, there ought to be no
such diversity as we hold to be obligatory. They differ from
the others in this respect. These others get rid of the Sabbath
by lowering it to the level of every other day; whereas they set
it aside by raising every day to the level of a Sabbath. Now,
even granting that this latter were possible, —which, according
to the present construction of God's world, it is not,-it would
not be carrying out God's original intention. It looks very
well; it sounds very lofty; it bears the stamp of superior
spirituality; so that when we hear a man say,'Oh, I make
every day a Sabbath!' we may be led to think him a very holy
man, and his life a very angelic one, and his whole system a
very elevated and enlarged one.
But what if this very holy man gets all his holiness from
being wiser than God? This is a serious question.
God knows what is best for us. He-knew what was best for
unfallen man, and He did not tell him that every day should
be a Sabbath. If Adam had reasoned as many do in our day,
and resolved to make every day a Sabbath, would not God
have condemned this piece of will-worship? and would Adam,
in devising it, have been less guilty of a disregard to the divine
purpose, than if he had rejected the Sabbath altogether? God
knew what is best for fallen man, and nowhere, from Genesis
to Revelation, does He hint at the desirableness, or propriety,
or profit of making every day a Sabbath.
In thus trying to be wiser than God, and'striking out a more
elevated walk than He has pointed out, we are sure to fall into
an unhealthy religion; not necessarily a religion of gloom, but
certainly, if not one of gloom, at least one of sentiment, and
sickliness, and unmanly bearing. No religion can be healthy
or vigorous which departs from the divine arrangements, and
tries to elevate itself by altering the proportions of tinie which
God has established. What has Romanism gained by its
endless saints' days, or High Churchmen by-their' Christian
year'? Attempts, whether made by Protestant or Papist, to




326           TH7O UCHi'S ON GENESIS.
raise our week-days into Sabbaths can only end, as they have
always done, in subverting the Sabbath, and defeating God's
gracious design in giving it.
The original distinction, made by God Himself, and founded
both upon His nature and ours, between working and resting,
must be kept in mind; and we must not attempt to confound
these, or suppose that, provided we try to glorify God in everything, it matters little whether we set the two different things
distinctly before us; viz. the glory which we are to give Him
in working, and the glory which we are to give Him in resting. In trying to make every day.a Sabbath, we are doing
what we can to efface this divine distinction. And can it
be effaced without sin, without injury to the soul, without
harm both to the Church and to the world, both to Jew
and Gentile? It cannot; for thus God does not get the
glory which He desires. He does not get the separate glories
of which we have been speaking, but a mere human compound of both,-vague, indefinite, diluted,-something that
neither glorifies Him nor benefits His saints, nor bears
witness to the world.
When God entered on His rest, He erected a memorial of
it; a memorial both of His work and of His rest, for rest was
to be a memorial of work. This memorial, suitable even to
unfallen man, was especially needful to fallen man in a fallen
world. God erected this pillar of testimony; nor has He taken
it down. It was first set up in paradise, then in the wilderness, then transplanted to Calvary, and there it remaineth to
this day.
In one thing only was there a difference. The seventh'day
having become a blank, by the Son of God lying, during it,
under the power of death, its special glory passed on' to the
next, so that the first day of the week, while retaining all
earlier meanings, is presented to us as a more complete
memorial of the past,- creation-work and creation-rest,-and
at the same time a more perfect prefiguration of resurrectionwork and resurrection-rest.
Thus much we can say as to the general principles on which
the Sabbath-Institute is founded. Let us look at the question




;NOTES.'         327
a little more minutely; for, if these principles are correct, the
subject is one of deep moment.
No one thinks of denying that the law of the Sabbath is
written broadly and legibly enough in the Old Testament; so
that up to the coming of Christ it could not be disputed. God
laid His hand upon the seventh portion of man's time, and
claimed it as His own. It was provided that, in one day out
of seven, the sun should go forth to shine upon a world at rest;
memorial of what it was intended to be; relic of what it
once had been; type of what it is yet to be hereafter, when all
things are made new.
Now, there has been no repeal of this law. The fourth
commandment was carefully inserted in the Decalogue by
God's own finger, and it behoved to be as distinctly taken out
and erased by the same finger that placed it there. Has it
been so? Have the commandments been reduced from ten to
nine? Did Christ come to destroy, not to fulfil the law? Those
who deny the authority of the Sabbath now must undertake to
prove the following things:I. That the Decalogue, or law, is no longer binding; or at
least that one out of the Ten Commandments is no longer
binding. And if one man cancels the fourth, has not another,
-viz. the Romanist,-a right to cancel the second? If this
man is at liberty to erase this jot or tittle, another man may do
the same with another, till the whole has been abrogated;abrogated by man, not by God,-abrogated simply because its
observance was an inconvenience and a weariness.
2. That Christ came to diminish ourstore qf blessings during
the present disfpensation; —that He has narrowed instead of
enlarging our privileges: as if He had made the announcement,'Israel was blessed with a Sabbath, but I cancel that
blessing; Israel had Sabbath privileges and Sabbath joys, I
blot them out; Israel was called on to give the seventh of
his time to God, but I set you free from all such restraint, to
do with your time just as you please.' Thus we have, according to these men, fewer privileges, fewer blessings than Israel.
And is this what Christ came to do? Was it for this that the
Son of God took flesh and died?




323            TEOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
3. If they shrink from this, then they must maintain that the
Sabbath is not a blessing; —that it is an unwholesome, unnatural,
intolerable restraint; —a weariness, a bondage, a curse. And,
indeed, this is the basis and drift of their reasonings, if they
have any meaning at all. These men evidently have the secret
feeling, that the Sabbath is not a blessing, that it is a restraint,
-a. restraint upon their worldliness, their follies, their gains,
their business. Hence their eagerness to prove its non-existence, its abolition.  The wish is father to the thought, the
desire is father to the conclusion. They wish no Sabbath, and,
with daring blasphemy, they ascribe its abolition to Him who
came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. So that one of
the chief benefits, according to them, which Christianity has
conferred on our race is, that it has effaced the Sabbath. It
did virtually eighteen hundred years ago exactly what the
French Revolution did eighty years ago,-it effaced the Sabbath. Thus the chief thing for which the world has to praise
the Saviour is, that He first struck off its Sabbath chains, and
bid it go free from Sabbath obligations;- nay, perhaps the
only thing for which some of these men think they have to
thank the Lord of the Sabbath is, that He abolished it! Will
they maintain this? Yet this they must, if they will honestly
and consistently carry out their argument. To what extremity
will not the hatred of the Sabbath drive a man?
4. That the Sabbath was a 7ewish institution exclusively,
and therefore fell when Judaism fell. Now, that there were
several Jewish observances connected with the Sabbath in
Israel, we do not doubt. But when these fell, did the Sabbath
fall with them? Did their passing away bring the Sabbath
to the ground? No. When the veil was rent, and Judaism
crumbled to pieces, the Sabbath stood erect and untouched
amid these ruins. It had not risen with Judaism, and it did
not fall with Judaism. It was made for man, not for the yew.
It was an ordinance as old as creation, and therefore, strictly
speaking, had nothing to do with Judaism. It was an ordinance evidently known to Israel before proclaimed from Sinai;
for as soon as they had entered the wilderness, and long ere
they reached Sinai, the manna fell, and thus the Lord spake




NVO TES.                   329
to them:' To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the
Lord. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day,
which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none' (Ex. xvi. 23,
26). From which it is plain that Israel knew the Sabbath well
before its proclamation from Sinai, and that when called on
to'remember' it, they were called to remember something
which they and their fathers knew; something older than
Moses, older than Abraham, older than Noah, as old as Adam
and paradise.
5. That every day should be a Sabbath, and that, therefore,
there is no need of a Sabbath. When this argument comes
from the lips of a worldly man;-a man who never spent an
hour upon his knees, and who knows nothing of communion
with the Father and the Son, it is profanity;-it is hypocrisy.
But even when it comes from the lips of one who seems to be
living above the world, and to prize fellowship with God, we
confess it appears strange and suspicious. Should not every
day have been a Sabbath to Adam? Yet he was commanded
even in paradise to keep a Sabbath to the Lord. Was not
every day a Sabbath to the Lord Jesus when on earth? Yet
He kept the Sabbath, and always made known His reverence
for it by vindicating Himself from the charge of Sabbath-breaking, and showing that works of mercy might be done upon that
day. But, apart from this, we dislike and suspect this sentiment' even from the lips of religious men. They profess to
bring up every day to the level of a Sabbath; but it is invariably found that, in reality, they bring down the Sabbath to the
level of every day. We have heard of individuals, some years
ago devout and spiritual. They were placed in the midst of
worldliness, exposed to Sabbath gaiety, Sabbath parties, Sabbath dinners, Sabbath pleasure, from week to week. Their
souls were burdened, and each Sabbath evening they retired
to rest with a wounded conscience and a heavy heart. After
a while they ceased to be thus vexed in spirit, and were quite
at ease. Had they got quit of their worldly company? No.
Had they boldly testified for Christ and for His Sabbath in
the midst of them? No. They had been led to see that' to a
Christian every day should be a Sabbath.' Therefore their




330           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
conscience no longer smote them, even when mixing all day
long in the society of the world. Alas! they were deluding
themselves with the dogma that every day should be a Sabbath.
Yet they had not brought up each day to the elevation of a
Sabbath. Nay, they had evidently brought down the Sabbath
to the level of the day of commonest worldliness and folly.
6. That the reasons for the observance of a Sabbath no longer
exist. These reasons are: (I) Man's need of rest. Is this
reason gone? Does man need rest no longer? Is the world
now so calm a scene, and earth so serene a region, that no
seventh day's rest is needed? If not, if the reason still exist,
must not the day still remain? Can the institution be erased
when the reason for it still remains, not only as strong as ever,
but stronger than ever, in these days of earnest worldliness,
and excitement, and hurrying to and fro? (2) Time for
unhindered fellowship with God. Is there no longer need for
this? Is there not more than ever, in this age of business and
enterprise? Adam in paradise, Israel in the wilderness, when
there was no bustle, no tempting world around, needed a
Sabbath for fellowship and worship. And do we not in these
busy days? And if the reason remains, the ordinance must.
(3) A memorial of creation. For four thousand years God
kept up this memorial of creation as a thing that was needed;
and where is His declaration that creation needs no memorial
now? Ah! do we not feel how needful it is to uphold the
Sabbath in these days, when men are undertaking to prove
from science that the world created itself? Ought we not to
prize the Sabbath as God's standing testimony against atheism,
-God's own loving voice proclaiming,'I created all this out
of nothing,'-God's appointed witness to a universe created by
Himself, against the atheistic theory of a self-creating universe?
(4) A memorial of resurrection. The Sabbath has now become
a double memorial, viz. of creation and resurrection. If, then,
it was sacred before, it is doubly sacred now. And to say that
the Sabbath has ceased because Christianity has risen, is just
saying this, that so long as we had but one reason for this
memorial, we kept it up; but now that we have two; we must
level and efface it. (5) A type of the rest or Sabbath which




NOTES.                     331
remaineth for the people of God. Now a type must stand till
it be succeeded by the antitype. That antitype, that rest, has
not yet come. And till it arrive, the Sabbath must be maintained. So that, whether you look backward to the old creation
or forward to the new,-backward to resurrection, or forward to
the restitution of all things,-you see how entirely untouched,
nay, how thoroughly immoveable, are the reasons for its sacredness and perpetuity. Till these reasons be swept away, the
Sabbath must stand. Unless you can say that man has no
need for rest, no need for communion with God,-unless you
can sweep away creation, resurrection, and the hope of the
coming rest, you cannot cancel the Sabbath, nor dispose of
its obligation and authority.
The character of a cause is generally known by the character of its friends and its enemies. No one will deny that the
great mass of the religious-minded men is in favour of the
Sabbath, and the great mass of the ungodly against it. Popery
is an'enemy to the Sabbath; and wherever Popery flourishes,
there the Sabbath goes down. Infidelity is an enemy to the
Sabbath; and wherever infidelity flourishes, there the Sabbath
goes down. Popish Spain has no Sabbaths, infidel France
has no Sabbaths; Protestant England, Protestant America,
and Protestant Scotland, have their Sabbaths still. And may
we not conclude favourably of that cause against which Popery
and infidelity are confederated as one man? May we not
conclude well of that ordinance which takes root deepest, and
spreads its branches widest, in the most religious and Godfearing nations of the earth?
They who oppose the Sabbath are standing in the position
of men who are enemies to one of the brightest blessings and
best birthrights that a nation can possess. They need not
wonder that we should feel strongly the robbery which they
are seeking to perpetrate. They are robbing us and our
children of that which is worth more than a kingdoms riches,
and which we will not part with without a struggle. And they
themselves, were they men in earnest, should feel the seriousness of the position they assume. If they are in earnest, it
must have cost them much pain before they could bring




332            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
themselves to the conclfision that there is no Sabbath. In
arguing with the atheist, who denies a God, we can appeal to
him and say, If you are in earnest, it must have been with the
profoundest grief that you have come to the conclusion that
there is no God, no infinite good, no being of infinite love. In
reasoning with the infidel, who sets aside the Scriptures, we
can say, If you be in earnest, it must have cost you unutterable
pain to come to the conclusion, there is no Bible, no book
of divine wisdom and truth. And you, of all others, ought to
be serious, solemn men, weighed down with the conviction of
such an infinite blank. And so, in reasoning with the opposers
of the Sabbath, we appeal to them, and say, If you are men in
earnest, it must have been with bitterest grief that you have
brought yourself to the conclusion that there is no Sabbath,no day of holy rest, no day of fellowship with God, no memorial
of creation, no pledge of coming glory. You must have weighed
the evidence well before coming to so sad a conclusion, and
you must be most willing to hear evidence in favour of that
which, if we can prove it, should be good and grateful news.
Would you but listen in such a spirit to our reasonings, would
you but believe us when we tell you how much your own
temporal comforts, your own immortal interests, are bound up
in the observance of this day,-a day that of itself preaches to
you the glad tidings of Him who died, and rose, and ascended,
and lives, and intercedes, and will come again in glory,-you
would hesitate before you tried to obliterate the most ancient
of all distinctions between day and day; you would try rather
to preserve and perpetuate its testimony to creation, to redemption, to resurrection, to the glory of the Kingdom, and
the security of the rest which remaineth for the people of God.'
1 An old critic thinks that the number seven was called'orags, or
more anciently esmrd;, from sEesoVa;, to worship, —the worshipping
day.




NO TES.                     333
II.
SATAN.
OF Satan's creation we know  nothing. That he was
created holy we cannot doubt, for God is not the
author of unholiness, but of holiness.
Of the time when he was created nothing is revealed; nor
of how long he stood; nor of how he fell. For aught that
we know, he might not have stood longer than Adam, or he
might have done so for ages. This only would we say, that
it seems impossible for a creature, standing alone, simply in
creature strength, to stand any length of time, however short.
What led to his fall we know not. He'kept not his first
estate, but left his own habitation.' This is all -that we are
told,-as if he had become dissatisfied with that estate, and
gone in quest of another habitation.
How he came to be connected with this earth is wholly
unrevealed. Whether this were his' first estate,'-his realm,
-and he had become dissatisfied with it, or whether some
other planet were his kingdom, and he having become dissatisfied with it, had come in quest of another abode to this
earth,-these are questions which we may ask, but cannot
answer. Certainly his connection with our world is a mysterious fact. How he should be found here,-and found here
just at the time of man's creation,-is quite inexplicable.
We are so accustomed to consider him as connected with
earth and its history, that we lose sight of the mystery of the
commencement of this connection. Why, out of all the millions
of stars, should this be the place where he appears? How
did he find his way to this orb if he were not here before?
What brought him to it? Was it solely as a tempter that
God allowed him to come? or is he wandering about like a
dethroned monarch, seeking to regain his lost sceptre, and
once more to be sovereign of this his lost planet?
We are not concerned to account for his sudden appearance




3394           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
on this globe at the time of man's creation, nor to answer any
of the above questions. We are satisfied to take the simple
facts of Scripture, and to learn from them his character-and
actings.
He is brought before us under several characters, or rather,
we might say, his character is brought before us under several
aspects,-all of them dark, repulsive, horrid. There is nothing
in any of them of that grandeur and nobleness which Milton
has ascribed to him. He tells us that' His form had not yet lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscured.'
Scripture attributes to him nothing save evil,- unmingled
evil, enmity to God and man, special enmity to Christ and
to His Church.
We find him set forth to us under such names or aspects as
the following:I. The Tempter (I Thess. iii. 5). —It is under this character
that he first appears before us in paradise, - tempting the
woman, and persuading her to disbelieve, to distrust, and to
rebel.
2. The Deceiver (I Tim. ii. I4; Rev. xx. 3, 8, Io). —He is
not merely a tempter, but a deceiver. He beguiled Eve with
his subtlety, and his object has been, ever since, to practise
deceits upon the children of men,-nay, to transform himself
into an angel of light,-and by his cunning to deceive, if it
were possible, the very elect.
3. A Liar (John viii. 44).-'He tempted Eve by a lie; he
deceived her by a lie; he carries on his temptations and
deceptions still by a lie! He has lied from the beginning;
he lieth still; he is a liar; he is the father of lies, and with
his lies is he seeking to cover the whole earth.
4. A Mvrrderer (John viii. 44).- His whole aim from the
beginning has been to slay men, both soul and body. He
has delighted to torment men's bodies, as we see in the case
of Job, and in the case of the demoniacs in the time of our




NO TES.                      335
Lord. He bears deadly malice against the whole race, and
specially against the woman's seed, which he has been carrying out in persecution and murder, age after age; so that his
name is; truly Abaddon, or Apollyon,'the destroyer.'  It is
he who has so often unsheathed the sword against the godly,
and shed the blood of saints. It was he who entered into
Judas, and led him to hand over his Master to His murderers.
It is to be he who is to muster the great Armageddon host,
to fight against Jehovah in the last days.
5. An Executioner (Heb. ii. I4).-He is said to have the'power of death,' as if he were God's executioner; as if it
were through him that disease smites us, and death is at last
inflicted. He is the angel of death! Terrible name! How
he came to have the power of death, or when the sword of
death was put into his hands, we know not. But there he
stands, executing that very sentence which he so cunningly
declared to the woman would not take place,-' Ye shall not
surely die.' At the time he uttered the words he had the
sword in his hand; he stood waiting for his prey, ready to
seize his victim as soon as, by disobedience, she should put
herself into his power.
6. An Adversary (I Pet. v. 8).-He is the Church's great
enemy, watching to destroy, like a beast of prey prowling
round the fold in order to seize his victims. This enmity is
what the first promise predicts: enmity between the seed of
the woman and the seed of the serpent; yet limited enmity,
enmity which God restrains, and which can go no further
than the heel, either in the case of Christ or His Church.
7. He is an Accuser (Rev. xii. io). —His name, devil or
t3xoxog, signifies this, just as Satan signifies adversary. No
doubt, after deceiving our first parents, he went straight and
accused them to God, which he seems always to have had the
power of doing, and hence he is called'the accuser of the
brethren.' Awfully true to his name has he'proved himself
to be! What evil reports has he not set on foot against the
saints! what lies has he not invented! what slanders has he
not heaped upon them! Both before God and man he has
proved the truth of his name.,' the accuser of the brethren.'




336            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
8. He is the god of this world (2 Cor. iv. 4).-This name
seems to correspond with that which our Lord gives him,'the prince of this world' (John xiv. 30), and to that which
the apostle gives to the principalities and powers,'the rulers
of the darkness of this world.' He has got dominion over the
earth. The world obeys him. He has covered it with darkness, and that darkness he rules or wields at pleasure. And
hereafter he will induce the whole world to wonder after his
representative,'the beast;' nay, to have its name stamped
upon their forehead; nay, to fall down and worship it.
Other similar names he has, such as Beelzebub, that old
serpent, the dragon, the wicked one. All these indicate the
same characteristics of utter wickedness and rebellion against
God and His Christ.
These characteristics have been exemplified in each age
and clime of this world. To trace his workings in the earth,
would lead us into a larger field than we can at present occupy;
this, however, we may say, that he has, without cessation,
been working in our world from the beginning hitherto. By
his legions of evil angels he carries on his schemes in every
kingdom and in every heart. He leaves no place unassailed,
no heart untempted, in so far as he is permitted of Jehovah.
For let us remember that he is not omnipotent, nor is he at
liberty to do all he desires or plans, unrestrained. But in so
far as this divine permission allows him, he works without
ceasing everywhere.
Nor does he work at random. He has evidently had a
regular and consistent plan all along to carry out. Possessed~
of vast wisdom, he does not fling away his efforts uselessly.
He works out a consistent and considered scheme. He does
not allow wrath to blind or malice to mislead him. He plans
and he executes with all the superhuman skill with which he
is gifted, as originally an angel of light, excelling in wisdom
as in strength. All error comes from him, all apostasy, all
idolatry, all denial of Christ.  He is ever on the watch to
ensnare and lead captive the unwary.
His greatest device is that of Antichrist. This he has been
building up and maturing during past centuries; and this he




NOTES.                       337
is still occupied with in these last days.  This is his main
central scheme, on which he expends his utmost cunning and
strength.  And for a time he succeeds.  He has led men
into the entanglements and abominations of Popery; and he
is yet to have more universal success in other ways, when
he deceives the whole world, and makes it to wonder after
and to worship the beast. (See Rev. xiii.)
Instead of losing, he gains ground in the course of ages.
He comes down, having great wrath, because he knows he
has but a short time. He persecutes the saints; he slays the
witnesses; he makes war with the Lamb; he sets Antichrist
upon the throne, and brings all the world to worship him.
For just as he tempted Christ by offering Him all the world's
kingdoms, so does he tempt Antichrist, and prevail. Antichrist worships him, and he in turn brings the whole world to
worship Antichrist. Up to the last he is seen maintaining his
old characteristics. He is the deceiver, the liar, the murderer,
the god of this world, and the prince of the air, to the very
last. His enmity to the seed of the woman has lost none of
its intensity or ferocity. His warfare continues as unrelenting
and murderous as when he stirred up Cain to slay his brother.
The battle of Armageddon is wholly of his organization. And
the following passages describe his last act of enmity, Rev.
xvii. I4, xix. 19.
And what follows this last outburst of Satanic rage against
the Lamb and His followers? Does he muster his routed
forces for another conflict, and come forth for a second and
more terrible Armageddon!  No; the 2oth chapter gives
the result.  He is not merely overpowered and his legions
scattered, but he is seized and bound. A mighty angel descends, and his reign is over; the spoiler is spoiled; the
destroyer is destroyed; he that led into captivity has gone
into captivity; the imprisoner of the saints is led to prison,
and bound in chains too strong for all hell to break.
And what follows this binding of Satan? The saints take
their seats upon their long-promised thrones;- the righteous
reign of Christ begins; the earth is swept clean of its long
pollution; the times of the restitution of all things now runm
VOL. VI.                                      Y




338           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
their course; the'darkness of this world' is exchanged for
the light of the world to come; for the ruler of the long darkness has been expelled from his seat, and the glory of the Son
of God takes possession of that air where Satan had dwelt, and
where he had exercised his power on earth.
And what is the great event which ends the reign of Satan
and begins the reign of the saints? The coming of the Lord!
In proof of this, we have only to look at the concluding part
of the preceding chapter. At the I Ith verse a new scene unfolds itself. The saints have been caught up to the clouds
to meet their Lord, and the marriage-supper of the Lamb is
described as then taking place. Then the heaven opens; the
Lord Himself appears. The beast is taken, and the false
prophet, and cast into the lake of fire.  Then follows the
scene in the 20th chapter, of Satan's binding, and the reign
of the saints during the period of his binding.
It is plain that, up till this period, Satan has had dominion
on the earth. During that dominion there could be no millennium. To end this dominion of the Evil One, by destroying the beast whom  Satan had set up, and binding Satan
himself, the Lord comes in person. And now the glory is
manifested. There can be no millennium before Christ comes.
Immediately on His coming it commences.
Into the momentous question of Satan's fower we have not
entered. It is one which demands our most solemn attention,
and it is one which will necessarily force itself upon the notice
of the Church as the last days draw on. It must be evident
to every reader of Scripture, that he has far greater power
than we have usually ascribed to him, at least of late years.
Our forefathers came much nearer the truth on this point than
we do. Modern enlightenment has exploded the ancient ideas
of Satanic operation. How far this enlightenment can claim
to be scriptural, we do not now say.
A recently published work of Mr. Smith takes up the subject in a way such as few historians have ventured to do. The
work is entitled The Gentile Nations, published some years
ago, and forms the conclusion of his Sacred Annals. We
cannot better.conclude our remarks than by giving a few




NOTES.                      339
extracts, which may help our readers to pursue the subject at
greater length.
The origin of idolatry is thus traced to Satan by Mr.
Smith:-'The origin of idolatry will never be understood while the
investigation is confined to the character of the human mind
or the history of the human race, without a distinct recognition of man's exposure to Satanic influence and aggression.
It might as reasonably be attempted to write a history of
England whilst ignoring the Norman Conquest, or a system
of physics without reference to gravitation, as to give a consistent and rational account of the origin of idolatry in the
absence of all reference to Satan, its real author and object.
It may be said, "This is unscientific and unphilosophical."
But is it not in perfect accordance with the purest science,
and the soundest philosophy, to apply all truth to useful
purposes, and by the judicious adaptation of ascertained
principles to cognate subjects, to solve apparent mysteries,
unravel difficulties, and make that clear and plain which was
before confused and obscure? Why, then, should this mode
of proceeding be prohibited in respect of the truths of the
Holy Scriptures by those who admit their divine origin?
Sceptics and infidels may decline such a method: it is their
consistent habit so to do. But why should those who make
the undoubted verity of God's Holy Word the basis of their
highest hopes and dearest interests, hesitate to apply its teaching to the great problems presented by all the aspects of the
world's religion?'In the investigation of the origin and character of idolatry,
this aid is essential, The moment we enter on this study, we
are met by such questions as these: " What were the origin
and design of bloody sacrifices? Why were they universal,
when the most profound sages were ignorant of their origin
and object? Why was the form of the serpent, above every
other, consecrated to supreme elevation and honour?" These
and many other queries cannot be solved by any study of
human nature or human history. No recondite researches into
ancient mythology, no laboured exploration into the poetry or




340           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
religion of the primitive nations, will afford a satisfactory
answer. To understand the origin, object, and character of
idolatry, we must pass beyond the twilight of mere human
intelligence and induction, and, standing in the full glory of
revealed truth, contemplate the primitive condition and early
history of mankind. Here we learn our glorious origin, and
the mighty agencies with which our nature, in the outset of
its career, was brought into contact; mark the fearful change
wrought in man's moral nature, and watch its terrible results
until we see him turn away from the God of his life, and bow
in profane adoration before the most filthy impersonations of
his foul destroyer.'In this light we see that the relentless foe of God and man
did not quit his prey, when covered with guilt, and involved
in condemnation. It may be fairly questioned whether any
crisis in the affairs of the human race stands invested with
more terrible grandeur than this. Here we see, that as divine
mercy interposed the scheme of redemption for the salvation
of man, the arch-foe not only opposed its principles and its
progress by a wide range of malignant effort; but, in a manner
at once daring and insidious, he devised idolatry, and succeeded in introducing it into the world, as a means of wresting
the spiritual dominion of mankind from the Mediator-Deity,
and establishing himselt as "the god of this world." This was
the agency under which idolatry was introduced, and rose into
influence and power; and throughout its almost infinite range
of development, the evil and debasing character of its author
is legibly imprinted upon all its numerous* deities, doctrines,
rites, and religious observances.'
The origination of idolatry, in the fierversion of divine truth
by Satan, is thus stated:-'Having thus ascertained by undoubted induction, confirmed as it is by Scripture proof, the period and place
whence idolatry originated, we may proceed another step,
and elicit from the great and common principles of all
heathen mythology some notion of the ruling elements of
unhallowed feeling and corrupt imagination, which generated
the evil of which we speak. In this effort it will be of conse



NOTES.                      341
quence for us to recognise the important fact, that in all ages
Satanic error has been most successful when presented to the
human mind as a tierversion of truth. Faber justly observes,
" The human mind rarely tolerates any great changes if they
be violent and sudden, particularly in matters of religion. It
seems natural to suppose that this great apostasy was not a
violent and abrupt setting aside of true religion; that it was
not a sudden plunge from the worship of Jehovah into the
grossness of rank idolatry. I should rather apprehend, that
it must have commenced with a specious perversion of sound
doctrine, and with an affectedly devout adoption of authorized
rites, and ceremonies, and phraseology." This judgment of
an experienced and learned writer, who had, carefully investigated the subject, may be safely admitted as a sound principle,
of important use in the prosecution of this inquiry.'
Satan's object in these idolatrous systems-to defeat God's
scheme of redemption-is then briefly noticed, along with the
general overlooking of this awful fact in studying heathen
mythology. Our youth are taught mythology, but not as they
ought to be. They are not taught to look on it with abhorrence, as Satan's scheme for opposing redemption; they are
rather made to regard it as a beautiful and wonderful exhibition of human intellect! 
Then Satan's efforts to get himself worshipped under the
form of a serpent, are thus sketched:-' That the malign foe should repeat his assault on human
happiness after the promise of redemption, is not wonderful.
That he should have persevered in his aggression, might be
inferred from his subtlety and malice. But it will scarcely be
believed, that even Satan should not only have aimed so high
as to supplant the adorable and eternal God as the object of
human worship, but should also have aspired to put himself
forth as the object of supreme worship, and challenge the
adoration of the world under the precise form in which he
had succeeded in effecting the ruin of the race. Yet so it
was. The serpent form has in all probability approached
nearer to universal adoration than any other.'A learned author, who has investigated this subject with




342           THOUGHTS ON GENZESIS.
great labour and research, assures us that he has " traced the
worship of the serpent from Babylonia, east and west, through
Persia, Hindustan, China, Mexico, Britain, Scandinavia, Italy,
Illyricum, Thrace, Greece, Asia Minor, and Phcenicia. Again,
we have observed the same idolatry prevailing north and south,
through Scythia on the one hand, and Africa on the other.
THE WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT WAS THEREFORE UNIVERSAL.
For not only did the sacred serpent enter into the symbolical
and ritual service of every religion which recognised THE SUN,
but we even find him in countries where solar worship was
altogether unknown, as in Sarmatia, Scandinavia, and in the
Gold Coast of Africa. In every known country of the ancient
world, the serpent formed a prominent feature in the ordinary
worship, and made no inconsiderable figure in their Hagiographa, entering alike into legendary and astronomical mythology.
"' Whence, then, did this ONLY UNIVERSAL idolatry originate?  That it preceded polytheism, is indicated by the
attribution of the title OPS, and the consecration of the
symbolical serpent, to so many of the heathen deities. The
title OPS was conferred upon Terra, Vesta, Rhea, Cybele,
Juno, Diana; and even Vulcan is called by Cicero, Ojias.
"' In Grecian mythology, the symbolical serpent was sacred
to Saturn, Jupiter, Apollo, Bacchus, Mars, AEsculapius, Rhea,
Juno, Minerva, Diana, Ceres, and Proserpine; that is, the
serpent was a sacred emblem of nearly all the gods and
goddesses.'" The same remark may be extended to the theogonies of
Egypt, Hindustan, and Mexico, in all of which we find the
serpent emblematic, not of one deity, but of many.' What, then, is the inference? That the seroent was the
most ancient of the heathen gods."'
How curiously this serpent-worship, or rather, Satan-worship, was developed in different places, is thus adverted to:-'So the great and terrible truth stands clearly attested, not
only by the Word of God, but by authentic records of every
ancient nation, that the old serpent the devil, who seduced our
first parents from their allegiance, succeeded in establishing




NO TES.                      343
himself, under the very figure in which he wrought his first
fatal triumph, as the almost universal object of human worship
— " the god of this world." Yes, and as the corrupt fancy and
bewildered speculations diversified modes of worship, and
multiplied forms and objects of adoration, this malign spirit,
as if to assert his universal supremacy, and perpetuate his
name and influence over the wide world of human nature,
stamped the serpent name on every deity, and the serpent
form on every ritual. To use the eloquent language of the
author already cited, " The mystic serpent entered into the
mythology of every nation; consecrated almost every temple;
symbolized almost every deity; was imagined in the heavens,
stamped upon the earth, and ruled in the realms of everlasting
sorrow. His subtlety raised him into an emblem of wisdom;
he was therefore pictured upon the aegis of Minerva, and
crowned her helmet. The knowledge of futurity which he
displayed in paradise exalted him into a symbol of vaticination; he was therefore oracular, and reigned at Delphi. The'oaiening of the eyes' of our deluded first parents obtained
him an altar in the temple of the god of healing; he is therefore the constant companion of iEsculapius. In the distribution of his qualities, the genius of mythology did not even gloss
over his malignant attributes. The fascination with which he
intoxicated the souls of the first sinners, depriving them at
once of purity and immortality, of the image of God and of
the life of angels, was symbolically remembered and fatally
celebrated in the orgies of Bacchus, where serpents crowned
the heads of the Bacchantes, and the poculum boni dcemonis
circulated under the auspices of the ophite hierogram, chased
upon the rim. But the most remarkable remembrance of the
paradisaical serpent is displayed in the position which he
retains in Tartarus.  A cunodracontic Cerberus guards the
gates; serpents are coiled about the chariot wheels of Proserpine; serpents pave.the abyss of torment; and even serpents
constitute the caduceus of Mercury, the talisman which he
holds when he conveys the soul to Tartarus. *The image of
the serpent is stamped upon every mythological fable connected with the realms of Pluto."




344            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
To such a fearful extent is the presence and image of Satan
the destroyer impressed on the wide range of idolatry! Nor
is the character with which he has imbued it less dubious than
the symbolism under which it is exhibited to the world. The
genius of heathen idolatry is throughout diabolical.'
In a subsequent page he comes to the question of how far
Satan was really at work in the heathen oracles, and how far
he was permitted to communicate supernatural knowledge to
mankind:-'The important question is then suggested, What was the
real character of these oracles? Were they the result of combined fraud and ingenious contrivance? Or did they in any
measure emanate from, and were sustained by, Satanic influence? In the solution of this question, the learned of our own
as well as of other countries are much at variance with each
other. Bishop Sherlock is so confident of the Satanic character of the heathen oracles, that he does not hesitate to state
that he regards those who deny that the devil gave out the
oracles to the heathen world, as evincing a "degree of unbelief"
which deprives them of all right to debate questions of this
kind; while, on the other hand, Dr. Middleton pleads guilty
of this degree of unbelief, and maintains that these oracles
were " all mere impostures, wholly invented and supported by
human craft, without any supernatural aid or interposition
whatever." When such divines stand thus opposed to each
other, nothing can be hoped for in respect of authority. Our
only resource is, therefore, to investigate the subject for ourselves, under the guidance of such aids as its nature affords.' It may be observed, in limine, that an objection has been
taken to supernatural interposition in respect of oracles, which
appears to be most unsound and unreasonable. It has been
asserted that numerous proofs exist of fraud, deceit, and
corruption, in the agency'by which they were administered:
and hence it is argued, that they could not have emanated
from diabolical influence. It is difficult to conceive of a more
inconsequential conclusion.  If it had been alleged that these
oracles were the result of divine prescience, then the proof of
positive guile and wickedness in the agents might be held




NOTES.                      345
sufficient to disprove the claim. But surely there is no such
obvious antagonism between Satanic influence, and fraud,
guile, and wickedness, that the presence of the one must
necessarily prove the absence of the other. On the other
hand, I am free to confess, that this asserted guile and fraud,
instead of disproving the presence of Satanic influence, rather
inclines me to infer the operation of such agency.'
Mr. Smith next comes to historical examples confirmatory of
his statements. He adduces the following from Scripture:-'Passing by other and more doubtful cases, I call attention
here to a clear and indubitable instance of the communication
of superhuman knowledge by diabolical agency. The case I
refer to has been noticed for another purpose in a note; it is
that of the Pythoness of Philippi. We have here (Acts xvi.
I6-I9) an unquestionable proof of such a communication of
superhuman knowledge.  It may be first observed, that the
term used by the sacred writer to describe this woman's occupation, pavYTEV~o0/, and which our translators have rendered
"soothsaying," signifies "toforetell, divine, 5roafhesy, DELIVER
AN ORACLE." It is precisely the same word which is used by
Herodotus when referring to the divination of the Scythians, and
which is also employed by him when speaking of the famous
oracle at Delphi. The case is therefore strictly in point.' In this instance, then, it is clear that an evil spirit gave to
the woman the power of making superhuman, or oracular
communications. The presence and power of this spirit were
absolutely necessary to the production of these results: for
when the demon was expelled, her masters "saw that the
hope of their gains was gone," and their chagrin and rage led
to a fierce persecution.  It is vain to urge that this was a
mere mercenary affair, and that it is not to be supposed that
Satanic influence would be permitted in such a case. The
Holy Ghost has declared it to be a fact. Whatever fraud or
wickedness might have been employed in connection with
this business, it is therefore an acknowledged truth by every
believer in revelation, that oracular answers communicating
superhuman knowledge were in this case given by diabolical
agency.'




346            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
He then treats specially of the heathen oracles, taking up
the question as to possibility of fraud and imposture:-'It is important to consider the fact, that these oracles were
sustained in high credit, and trusted with implicit confidence,
by the wisest statesmen and sovereigns of the nations of
antiquity most celebrated for their high state of civilisation.
Not only did this continue under particular circumstances, and
for a season or an age, but it lasted throughout successive
centuries. This is an argument which all candid minds have
felt.  Hence the learned Banier asks, "Is it then credible,
that if the oracles had been nothing but the offspring of priestcraft, whatever artful methods they may be thought to have
used, and however successful in pumping out the secrets and
schemes of those who came to consult them; is it credible, I
say, that those oracles would have lasted so long, and supported themselves with so much splendour and reputation, had
they been merely owing to the forgery of the priests? Imposture
betrays itself, falsehood never holds out. Besides, there were
too many witnesses, too many curious spies, too many people
whose interest it was not to be deluded. One may put a cheat
for a time upon a few private persons, who are overrun with
credulity, but by no means upon whole nations for several ages.
Some princes who had been played upon by ambiguous
responses,-a trick once discovered,-the bare curiosity of a
freethinker,-any of these, in short, was sufficient to blow up
the whole mystery, and at once to make the credit of the oracles
fall to the ground. How many people, deluded by hateful
responses, were concerned to examine, if it was really the priests
by whom they were seduced!' But why? Was it so hard a
matter to find one-of the priests themselves, capable of being
bribed to betray the cause of his accomplices, by the fair promises and more substantial gifts of those who omitted no means
of being thoroughly informed in a subject of such concern?"'Lempriere echoes the same argument, and says, " Imposture
and forgery cannot long flourish, and falsehood becomes its
own destroyer." Yet it is an undeniable fact that, "during the
best period of their history, the Greeks-, generally speaking,
had undoubtedly a sincere faith in the oracle, its counsels and




NOTES.                       347
directions."  Hence Lucan, who wrote his Pharsclia scarcely
thirty years after our Lord's crucifixion, laments, as one of the
greatest evils of the age, that the Delphic oracle was become
silent. From the general credit which the oracles maintained
in an enlightened age, and during a very lengthened period, it
is extremely improbable that they should have been nothing
more than the base results of fraud and fiction.'
The following instance from heathen history is given as
illustrative of the author's statements:'I refer to the case of Crcesus, king of Lydia, and the Pythian
oracle. Herodotus informs us that this sovereign, alarmed at
the growing power of Cyrus, king of Persia, and meditating an
attack on his dominions, was anxious first to consult the most
celebrated oracles as to the issue of such an important enterprise, before he committed himself to it. Prior, however, to
his submitting to the oracle the important question upon
which his fate depended, he was determined to propound one
which should enable him, as he thought, to test the prescience
of the oracle. He accordingly sent messengers to Delphi; and
having carefully considered the period required for the journey,
and allowed them ample time, he commanded them at the appointed hour to present themselves before the Pythoness, and
propose this question: " What is Crcesus, son of Alyattes, now
doing?"  They were to write the answer carefully down, and
send it to him. The answer was to this effect:-' I count the sand, I measure out the sea;
The silent and the dumb are heard by me.
E'en now the odours to my sense that rise,
A tortoise boiling with a lamb supplies,
Where brass below and brass above it lies."
CThe fact was, that Crcesus, determined to be occupied in
the most unlikely and unkingly manner, was engaged at that
time in boiling the flesh of a tortoise and a lamb together in a
covered vessel of brass.'
The following conclusions are then deduced from the preceding statements. They-are worth pondering:-' First, then, it cannot be denied that the first answer, which




348            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
referred to the strange occupation of Crcesus at the time, exhibits remarkable accuracy. We may think ourselves very
wise in dismissing such a case with the cry of "jugglery and
cheating; " but it is doubtful whether by such conduct we do
not evince great folly. The king of Lydia was a man of great
energy and intellectual power: he was therefore competent to
judge of the chances of imposition, and to guard against them,
much better than we can now imagine. Yet he, by the presentation of gifts to the value of nearly one million sterling,
gave ample proof that he regarded the whole as a bona fide
transaction. Is it not, then, reasonable to ask, "By what
means could the Pythoness have given such a reply? By what
means could the priestess at Delphi have ascertained what the
king of Lydia was doing at a given hour, in his, palace at
Sardis, hundreds of miles, away, when he had determined to
exercise his utmost care and ingenuity in order to test her
ability?"  Neither captious querulousness nor unmeaning
sneering will meet the case. Here is an undoubted historical
incident, which, I am bold to say, admits of no satisfactory
solution, except on the principle of diabolical agency. But on
this principle all is plain: the difficulty, otherwise insurmountable, immediately vanishes.' But then it is asked in the most triumphant tone, " Why
were not all the responses given in language equally distinct
and intelligible? Why the double meaning and equivocation
of the other replies?"  It is truly astonishing to see the confidence with which this objection is urged, when it is open to a
very simple and rational solution. It is easy to conceive that
diabolical agency might enable the Pythoness to give a clear
and distinct answer as to what was transpiring at the moment
in a distant place, which to all merely human intelligence would
have been wholly inscrutable. But it is far from certain that
this agency could unravel the mystery of future contingent
events. This is the exclusive attribute of Jehovah: He challenxges this power to Himself alone: " I am God, and there is
none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring
the end from the beginning" (Isa. xlvi. 9, Io); whilst to the
idols and their worshippers He says, " Produce your cause, saith




NO TES.                     349
the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of
Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall
happen: let them show the former things what they be, that we
may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare
us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods" (Isa. xli. 21-23).
Diabolical aid, therefore, although it might give superhuman.
knowledge in respect of passing events, and afford a means
of conjecture beyond all human wisdom as to the future, could
not communicate the power of foretelling future contingencies.
Obscure, conjectural, and enigmatical expressions, in the communication of oracles, would consequently be as necessary
under this agency as without it.'The result of our inquiry then is,I. That we find the heathen oracles maintaining a high
character and general confidence, to an extent, and for a
period, beyond that which would be likely to result from continued and unaided human fraud and falsehood.'2. The accredited declarations of these oracles exhibit a
measure of knowledge respecting passing events, and a
sagacity in respect of futurity, far above all that merely huaman
ingenuity or contrivance could produce.'3. Yet all this is found in such combined operation with
wickedness, fraud, and corruption, as clearly to prove that if
superhuman knowledge was connected with the oracles, it
must have been diabolical.'It is a certain fact, based on the authority of New Testament revelation, that diabolical agency was used in ancient
times, for the purpose of giving forth superhuman oracular
responses.'From all these premises we conclude that the sagacity and
general credit of heathen oracles was in some instances owing
to diabolical agency.'
The whole subject of the personality and agency of Satan
demands our most solemn study. It has been far too much
overlooked,-in many cases evaded and denied. The Church's
prospects in these last days call on her to weigh the matter.
There is far more in it that concerns her than she seems aware




350            WHOUGHTS ON GENIESIS.
of. Individually, we have a szuperhkuman adversary to face;
and so, collectively, has the Church. Let us know what God
has revealed concerning his craft and power, that we may
know with what weapons to contend, and in what strength we
are to overcome.
The tendency of the age is to ignore the supernatural. The
wisdom of this world rejects the idea of another race of beings,
either good or evil, by which things are done for man and
man's world, which man could not have done for himself or
by his own power. This desire to throw out of the circle of
agency all beings save man himself, and all laws save those of
nature, is very startling. To centralize all action in himself,
and all power of action in the visible and tangible instrumentalities which science has revealed,-this is man's aim. Thus
God is shut out as a direct power, and all invisible beings are
set aside as agents. Of these, and such as these, man refuses
to know anything. In his wisdom, he is fast becoming either
an atheist or a Sadducee, or both. Most imperative, then, is
the duty, most urgent the necessity, for giving emphatic prominence to the revelations of Scripture concerning the beings
and agencies belonging to that outer circle, which, surrounding man on every side and touching him at every point, do
operate most influentially, though unseen and unheard, upon'
his physical constitution and his spiritual life. The Bible recognises, with awful explicitness, him who is'the prince of the
power of the air;' and it does indicate most sadly the selfsufficiency, the vain philosophy, the hardihood, the flippant
Sadduceeism of the age, to scorn, or even to overlook, the
revelations which God has made regarding the personality and
the actings of a being whose malignant enmity against the
Church is only equalled by his mysterious power; and whose
strange proximity and presence in the midst of us render him
the most successful of seducers, no less than the most dangerous of foes.'
1 Is it in allusion to Satan, as'Prince of the power of the air,'
that Shakespeare writes?-' Some airy devil hovers in the sky,
And pours down mischief.'-King rohn.




NOTES.                       35I
The annals of our world are the records of sin and its manifold developments. Our earth is not, in its spiritual aspects,
like the sun, all over luminous, with a few dark spots, but
rather a body all over dark, with a few broken streaks of light
here and there.
But in this dark story there is a twofoldness, a duality
throughout, which strikes us with a strange awe. It is not
two sins or two sinners that are presented to us., but two kinds
of sin and two kinds of sinners; one visible, the other invisible;
one human, the other superhuman; the two acting mysteriously
together, yet without open compact; the invisible and the
superhuman operating upon the visible and the human, and
both together working against God.
It would seem to be God's purpose to bring out the whole
evil of sin in these two ways, and to develope it from these two
centres,-to unroll the dark web of evil from these two instrumentalities, thereby indicating to us that without such a
duality and such a combination or alliance, the whole frailty
and corruptibility of creaturehood could not be brought out.
For God's purpose during the present dispensation evidently
is to evolve and exhibit, once for all, creature-impotency for
good, creature-potency for evil. He takes the two orders of
intelligent creaturehood, first successively and then conjunctly,
and places them in circumstances in which all the goodness
and power and stability that are in them may be allowed full
scope for development; and in which, on the other hand, also
all the evil and feebleness and instability may be brought out.
The angels are created and placed in a condition the likeliest
of all to draw out and to maintain all the good that was in
them, and that their finite nature could contain. They kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation, and that
which should have been a manifestation of goodness became
an unfolding of evil; not simply of non-goodness, but of positive evil, transgression, rebellion, hatred of God.
Man was next created and set here in a holy paradise, in
circumstances best fitted to evolve and to mature all the
excellences which had been deposited in his finite nature,
with the'fewest possible temptations, and the greatest amount




352            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
of strength which his being was capable of. He let go his hold
of God and His love, failing from his perfection, and bringing
forth evil-only evil, from that hour to this;-evil which has
deluged earth with crimes and horrors for six thousand years,
and is to fill hell for eternity with weeping and wailing and
woe.
But these two forms of creaturehood (and we know no third)
successively and singly could not exhibit all the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, and the power of the creature for evil. They
must be brought together and permitted to work in combination.. And it is this confederacy of evil, and revolt, and
lawlessness, and enmity to the Creator, that has been exhibiting itself on earth during the whole period of its dark history.
Not single evil, but double; not the evil of one sinner, but of
millions; not the evil of millions merely, but the evil of two
classes of sinners in alliance; each of these composed of
millions; each bringing out the peculiar evil proper to his
class and kind; yet also the still worse evil produced by their
combination. This, all this, has been exhibited in the world's
past history, and is to be exhibited yet more terribly in the
closing scenes of its career of wickedness, when the alliance
of the two classes will yet be closer and more intimate, and
the fruits of that alliance, the darkest form or forms of evil
that creaturehood has yet exhibited, or the world ever seen.
At the head of what I may call invisible or immaterial
creaturehood is Satan, and behind him a host of fallen spirits,
all of them ministers of evil. Scripture speaks of them as
Satan and his angels.' It is chiefly, however, of Satan
himself that we have now to speak. And first of all let us
read his names as they are written in the word of God.
I. Satan (Job i. 6; I Chron. xxi. I; Zech. iii. i; Matt. iv.
10, xii. 26). This means the Adversary. It is a name no doubt
given by God; for who could name him rightly but God. It
is as the adversary of man and God that he first appears.
2. Thle Devil (Matt. iv. I, xxv. 4I; Jude 9). The Greek
word signifies accuser, and it is as such that he acts out his
character.'3. Abaddon (Rev. ix. II). The Destroyer. In the Hebrew




NO TES.                     353
it is Abaddon; in the Greek Apollyon, but having the same
meaning. He is the destroyer, the slaughterer of the race, the
persecutor of the Church.
4. The Old Serpent (2 Cor. xi. 3; Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2). That
he is signified by the old serpent, is evident from the wbrds of
the last two passages,'that old serpent, which is the devil and
Satan.' And this name connects him with the first temptation
of man in paradise.
5. The Dragon (Rev. xii. 7, xx. 2). This was some monstrous,
mystic animal of the serpent kind, supposed by the ancients
to be endued with destructive power. Thus the serpent and
the dragon are distinguished; the former the emblem of
cunning, the latter of power.
6. Belial (2 Cor. vi. I5). This means worthlessness and
malignity, but it came to be used as a name of Satan, as in the
above passage, from his being the personification of all evil.
7. Beelzebub (Matt. xii. 24). The name of a heathen god,
but applied by the Jews to Satan, and recognised by our Lord
as one of his names, when He asks, How can Satan cast out
Satan?
8. The god of this world (2 Cor. iv. 4). He whom this present world (age) worships and obeys; believing his temptation
and his promise,'All these things will I give Thee if Thou
wilt fall down and worship me.'
9. Ruler of the darkness of this world (Eph. vi. I2).. He who
inhabits the darkness; who produces the darkness; who sits
as king over it; ruling it for his own ends, in opposition to
Him who is the light of the world.
Io. Prince of the fower of the air (Eph. ii. 2). He is the
dweller in high places, and as such he is the prince who has
authority in the air, and who, from that seat of authority, works
upon the inhabitants of earth.
I I. The prince of this world (John xiv. 30). He who rules
over this world (xzo-os), and is acknowledged by it as prince,
in opposition to Him who is Prince of the kings of the earth,
King of kings.
Iri addition to these great outstanding names, he is designated'the wicked one' (Matt. xiii. 38);, a'murderer' (John
VOL. VI.                                    Z




354             THOUGHTS ON GENVESIS.
viii. 44); a'liar,' the'father of lies;' a persecutor, for it is
written,' The devil shall cast some of you into prison' (Rev. ii.
io); a tempter; a deceiver; an accuser; the inflicter of disease
(Job ii. 7; Luke iv. 6); he who has the power of death (Heb.
ii. I4): We read, too, of the seat or throne of Satan; the'synagogue of Satan;' the dwelling of Satan; the'depths of
Satan' (Rev. ii. 24); the'wiles of the devil' (Eph. vi. I I); the'snare of the devil' (2 Tim. ii. 26);'the works of the devil'
(I John iii. 8).1
These various names and designations show the following
things:I. His personality. He is no mere ideal of sin, nor principle
of evil, nor figure of human wickedness; as when we sometimes, for effect in writing or speaking, personify sin, or lust,
or pride. He is thoroughly real and personal; as much so as
we are. Men may scoff at him, and take their jest out of his
doings, or point their oaths with his name, or mock at his hell,
but he is real in spite of all their mockery.
2. His malignity against God, and Christ, and the saints.
He hates these utterly, and takes revenge upon them.  He
bruises the woman's seed in the heel, and he is doing the same
to all the saints. For cruelty he has no equal.
3. His cunning.  He is the serpent, the liar, the tempter,
the deceiver; and as such, with his angels, he is doing his
daily work amongst the sons of men. He is the master of all
spells and wiles. There are no snares like his for subtlety and
success.
How fearful is the battle of the Church; with such power,
such malignity, such cunning, arrayed against her!  What
strength, what wisdom, what watchfulness do we need!strength, wisdom, watchfulness, beyond what we ourselves
1 The word devil occurs thirty-eight times in the New Testament.
In all these cases, with three exceptions, it is synonymous with Satan.
The three exceptions are striking-: 2 Tim. iii. 3,'Men shall be trucebreakers, false accusers (devils), incontinent;' Tit. ii. 3,'The aged
women, that they be not false accusers' (devils); I Tim. iii. I I,'Their wives be grave, not slanderers' (devils)..




NO TES.                      355
possess. For we are but human, he superhuman; and how
can feeble, fallen humanity do battle with the superhuman, the
invisible; with angelic power and wisdom; save by the possession of that which is beyond the human and the superhuman,beyond the angelic and the created,-the uncreated and the
divine?'Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.''Be filled with the Spirit.'
But let us proceed now more directly to his history.
What he was originally, where his first habitation was, when
and how he fell, we do not know. All that is revealed concerning these points is contained in the following passages:' He abode not in the truth' (John viii. 44), implying that he
once stood in the truth (vers. 32 and 36);'the angels which
kept not their first estate (or principality, lordship, ocpX4), but
left their own (proper or original) habitation' (Jude 6);' God
spared not the angels that sinned' (2 Pet. ii. 4), or when they
sinned, though what their sin was is not said. These passages
refer (I) to an originally perfect state, both for Satan and these
angels; (2) to a time when they fell; (3) to their fall as being
from a rejection of'the truth;' (4) to their loss of dignity and
power-i.e. of that which constituted them the principalities
and powers in heavenly places; (5) to their being cast down to
hell (literally, Tartarus), in chains and darkness.
It has been supposed by some that there are two classes of
fallen angels; the one headed by Satan, roaming widely over
the earth and peopling the air; the other bound in chains,
in the darkness of Tartarus. But though there is nothing
positively adverse to this opinion in Scripture, it does not
seem borne out by the passages cited in support of it. They
may be chained, or restrained, in comparison with the former
liberty of their unfallen estate, and yet go to and fro on the
earth; or the words may mean not reserved in (present)
chains, but for future chains,-the chains or chain spoken of
in the 20th of Revelation; and the darkness referred to may
be the future darkness of the bottomless pit, or it may be that
alluded to by the apostle when he speaks of' the ruler of the
darkness of this world.' We do not take up the question of
there being two classes; but certainly, as to the opinion that




356           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
one of these sections is referred to in the 6th of Genesis as'the sons of God,' we may say this, that while on the one
hand it is quite unproved, on the other it is connected with
very great improbabilities.
In connection with Satan's early history we read the story
of the tempt/ation in paradise. We ask naturally, How came
Satan to be there at all? and how came he to be there at the
very time that man was created? We should not wonder at
a good angel being there, sent on some errand of goodness
to the new-created dweller; but Satan's presence is not so
easily accounted for. We ask, with musing wonder, Was this
Satan's world once? Was he its guardian angel or its sovereign? And do we find him, like Marius, sitting among the
ruins of his former palace, or, like a beast of prey, prowling
round the habitation of its new possessor? Is it because of
his original connection with our earth that he is still prince of
the power of the air; disenthroned, dispossessed, yet still
allowed to work and plot here against God, against His Christ,
-the second Adam,-against His Church, and to ally himself with man for carrying out his purposes of evil? Is it to
him that reference is made in that marvellous and mysterious
prediction of Ezekiel concerning Tyre, and'the prince of
Tyre,''the king of Tyre'? for certainly the personage here
spoken of seems more than mortal; looks like a spirit or fallen
angel, of which Tyre was the incarnation and habitation. The
allusions in that passage to' wisdom' indicates that he who is
spoken of is the genius, or spirit, or possessor of all earthly wisdom; he who tempted man with the bait of proffered wisdom,
with the hope of being wise as God; he who took possession of the serpent as the wisest or most subtle of creatures.'Say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thou art wiser than Daniel:... With thy wisdom thou hast gotten thee riches..... Thou
hast set thine heart as the heart of God..... Thou sealest up
the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast
been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was
thy covering: the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl,
the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle, and gold.... Thou art the anointed cherub that




NOTES.                     357
covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the
midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways
from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in
thee' (Ezek. xxviii., where the visible Tyre and some invisible
being are mixed up together).
But whatever may be the cause of Satan's presence in
paradise, or the link of his connection with Eden, we find
him there at man's creation. He is there to plot against
man.  To act upon man, he requires to take possession of
some fleshly being whose organs he can use in addressing
man. He enters into the serpent as the wisest and most
subtle of all the beasts of the field; and through him he
commences his terrible work, as the murderer, the liar, the
deceiver, the slanderer. He baits the hook of hell with'wisdom,' and he succeeds. Ye shall be as'God,' he says to man,
and man believes him. He had begun by shaking his confidence in the goodness and truthfulness of God; and having
succeeded in this, the rest followed inevitably. The promise
of knowledge,-knowledge like God's,-was irresistible. For
what will not man give for knowledge? Power, empire, fame,
military glory, pomp, gold, lust, the beauty and love of woman,
-all these have been the objects which man has coveted, and
for which he has flung away the favour of God. But, beyond
all these, knowledge has been his ambition-the ambition of
his ambitions! What has he not given, what has he not
ventured, what has he not flung away, in order to win knowledge? What mountain has he not climbed; into what cavern
has he not penetrated; to the bottom of what sea has he not
dived, in order to win knowledge? Through toil, through
danger, through sin, and braving hell itself, he has pursued it.
And it is the knowledge of evil as well as good on which he
has set his heart. The range and region of evil is to him
strangely attractive, partly because it is so various and boundless, and partly because it is forbidden.  To know beyond
what man knows, or ought to know; what God knows; and,
in pursuit of this, to beat down the barriers of goodness, or
law, or benevolence, this has been his aim. To stand upon




358            THOUGHTS 0N GENESIS.
the highest pinnacle of earth, and gaze around on the boundlessness of the universe, this has been his ambition. The
poison of the tree of knowledge is still in his veins, impelling
him restlessly onward in the pursuit of knowledge, knowledge
without God.'The wish to'know, that endless thirst,
Which even by quenching is awaked,
And which becomes or blest or cursed
As is the fount whereat'tis slaked,
Still urged me onward, with desire
Insatiate to explore, inquire
Whate'er the wondrous things might be
That waked each new idolatryTheir cause, aim, source, from whence they sprung,
Their inmost powers, as though for me
Existence on that knowledge hung.'
Of this knowledge Satan is the prince, the high priest, the
archangel. As such he makes his first appearance to man,his friend, his counsellor,-an angel of light, offering to lead
him into light and freedom, and taking a profound and affectionate interest in his welfare.  But as Judas betrayed the
second Adam, so he the first, with a kiss. He is permitted
to succeed; man becomes his victim; there is a holiday in hell
at creation's ruin.
The next glimpse we have of Satan's history is when we see
him standing, along with the man and woman, to receive his
sentence. He is silent now. His flatteries have ceased. His
lies have been laid bare.'The Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle,' etc.;'and I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' This is his condemnation; a forewarning of the eternal curse, and of'the
fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' It is the divine
intimation to heaven and earth, to angel and devil, as well as
to man himself, that God has interposed between man and
man's enemy, that Satan has only succeeded in part, and that




NAOTES.                      359
his success will be his final ruin. It is the good news to man
of God's free love; the good news of a coming deliverer, of
one who is to bruise Satan under His feet, who is to cast out
the prince of this world.
The third glimpse we have of Satan is in the history of Job,
in the age of the patriarchs. Doubtless he was working in
the world before this. It was he who, as the murderer, drew
on Cain to murder.  It was he who led on the old world in
their sin, and lust, and vanity, and defiance of God, swelling
the flood of evil till the flood of waters swept them away. But,
in the beginning of the book of Job, God has given us a fuller
insight into the doings of Satan than we had before. He is
seen there, as permitted, in some mysterious way, to appear
before God. He is seen as going to and fro in the earth,
watching the saints, inflicting disease, and, if permitted, death;
but all under restraint of God, and simply as one allowed by
God, for a purpose and a season, to do on earth a little of the
work of hell, specially against the Church of God.
For ages after this we hear nothing of him till, in the reign
of David, we suddenly meet with him as the tempter. Indeed,
it is only thus in glimpses that we see anything of him in the
Bible. He unexpectedly appears at some particular juncture,
then disappears for ages; then reappears, brandishing the
sword or spreading the snare of hell, and showing himself as
the murderer, the liar, the deceiver, the tempter; then vanishes
from our sight for a season to carry on his work in secret.
We read (I Chron. xxi. I),'And Satan stood up against Israel,
and provoked David to number Israel.' It was in God's anger
that he was permitted to do so (2 Sam. xxiv. I), yet none the
less was it truly Satan's work; his work as the murderer, his
work as the enemy of Israel and of the Church.
Again he appears before us in the remarkable scene, similar
to that in Job, given us by Micaiah in the history of Ahab (2
Chron. xviii. 18-22). Jehovah is seen on His throne, and His
hosts are all around Him; and the question is put, Who shall
entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at
Ramoth-Gilead? One speaks, and another, till at length one
steps forward with the proposal, I will entice him. I will be a




360            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And who can
this be but Satan?-he, the liar and the murderer from the
beginning.   Thus he rises up again, and then disappears
for a season.
Again, in the remarkable scene depicted by Zechariah, he
reappears. Joshua the high priest stands before the angel of
the Lord, and Satan stands at his right hand to resist him
(Zech. iii. I). Here it is Satan contending against a saint
to tempt or oppose; but elsewhere it is against the traitor to
destroy. Ps. cix. 6,' Let Satan stand at his right hand.'
Perhaps the most mysterious glimpse into Satan's position
and operations is that in the book of Daniel. A corner of the
veil that hides the world of the invisible is drawn aside, and
we see him and his angels, or'princes,' at work, in connection
with the kingdoms of the earth. In the passage already quoted
from Ezekiel, we have seen some ground for thinking that it is
Satan, or one of his' powers,' that is referred to as the prince
of Tyre. Daniel, in the following passage, uses the same word
prince in connection with Persia and Greece:-' The prince
of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days:
but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me;
and I remained there with the kings of Persia.... Knowest
thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to
fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo,
the prince of Grecia shall come. But I will show thee that
which is noted in the Scripture of truth; and there is none
that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.... At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince
which standeth for the children of Thy people' (Dan. x. 13-20,
xii. I). From which passages we learn that Michael the archangel was the guardian angel of Judea and of the Jews; 1 and
that another, called the prince of Persia, is the guardian or
presiding angel of that country; and that another, called the
prince of Greece, is the presiding angel of that kingdom.
These two latter, being opposed to and fighting with Michael,
That Michael is not Christ (as some say) is evident from I Thess.
iv. I6.




NOTES.                       36i
must be evil angels, some of the principalities and powers, the
rulers of the darkness of this world. This is a solemn subject,
of which little is revealed, and therefore I speak cautiously and
reverently; but it would appear that not only are there good
angels as ministering spirits for individual heirs of salvation,
but some also, such as Michael, set over kingdoms; and who
knows but that now, since his ministry in Judea has ceased for
a season, it may have been transferred to Britain? It would
appear also, that as there are evil spirits which possess individuals, so are there some of these (the greater and higher)
which preside over, nay, possess kingdoms. And are not the
four great empires of earth depicted by Daniel specially so
ruled and inspired, so'possessed;'the reins of empire in them
held by invisible hands; the power, the genius, the literature,
the art, the commerce of these nations wielded by infernal
energies; the laws, the morals, the religion inspired by the
agents of him who was a murderer, a liar, a deceiver from the
beginning, and who boasted even to the Prince of the kings of
the earth Himself, that he was lord of earth's kingdoms? And.may we not truly speak of the devil-possessed empires of
Babylon, and Persia, and Greece, and Rome? And need we
wonder at their idolatries, and blasphemies, and persecutions;
hatred of the light, and resistance to the cross? Need we read
with incredulity the terrific picture which, in the Ist chapter
of Romans, the apostle draws of heathendom,-its true name
is Satan-dom,-when we learn that the inspiration which guides
it is from beneath; and that the invisible rulers and instructors
of its peoples, the secret prompters and presidents of its courts
and cabinets, are the princes of the blood-royal of hell?
These are the chief references to Satan in the Old Testament. The glimpses of his history and doings are brief and
few; but they all bear testimony to his character as the
Wicked one, the enemy of Christ and of the Church.
The notices of Satan in the New Testament are more frequent; and they grow darker and darker as the great crisis
and close draw on. We meet with him, first of all, in the
temptation of the Lord, where three times over he assails the
Son of God, tempting Him to doubt His Father's love and His




362           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
own Sonship; and three times over he is repelled by the
sword of the Spirit, though with every advantage on his part,
and every disadvantage on the part of this Second Adam,
whom he sought to seduce in the wilderness as he had seduced
the first in the garden. But what were wiles or fiery darts to
One who knew so well how to wield the sword of the Spirit
and the shield of Faith?
Again we meet him;-and now not alone, but with his
legions;-dwelling in the bodies of men, and tormenting them
with his hellish cruelty. We find him possessing some directly;
we find him bowing down one with infirmity; we find him
rending another; we find him with seven spirits in Mary
Magdalene; we find him in the herd of swine; we find him
wishing to sift Peter; we find him entering the heart of Judas.
All these are proofs that the days of our Lord's ministry on
earth were busy days with Satan, days of visible manifestation
and more direct possession: the seed of the woman and that
of the serpent being now brought face to face with each other;
the armies of heaven and of hell being gathered, under their
respective captains, to wage desperate battle. How frequent
is the reference to Satan in the history of Christ on earth! and
how striking are Christ's own words, spoken either lo him or
concerning him!' Get thee hence, Satan' (Matt. iv. Io);  If
Satan cast out Satan, how shall then his kingdom stand?' (xii.
26);'Get thee behind me, Satan' (xvi. 23);'Then cometh
Satan, and taketh away the word' (Mark iv. I5);'I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven' (Luke x. i8);'Whom
Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years' (Luke xiii. I6);'Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may
sift thee as wheat' (Luke xxii. 31);'The devil taketh Him up
to the holy city' (Matt. iv. 5);' The devil taketh Him up to an
high mountain' (iv. 8);'The enemy that soweth them is the
devil' (xi. 39);'Jesus rebuked the devil' (xvii. I8). From
these allusions we learn how completely Satan was on the alert
in the days of Christ; what large range was allowed him; and
what striking opportunities he had of showing himself; what
power to inflict disease; to take possession of men's bodies;
to operate upon their minds; to make use of their organs of




NO TES.                        363
speech; to inflame their passions; to carry onehis purposes of
evil through them, and in conjunction with them; in ways which,
by himself, he could not have accomplished. We may not be
very decided in affirming that he was allowed access to our
Lord during His last hours, and that his'messengers'were let
loose to'buffet' Him; but there are expressions in the psalms
which seem to imply this.  He surely is the roaring lion, and
his legions the bulls of Bashan, of which the 22d Psalm speaks:'Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have
beset me round; they gaped upon me with their mouths, as a
ravening and a roaring lion....  Save me from  the lion's
mouth' (Ps. xxii. I2, I3, 2I).  If so, then it was not merely
the rage of earth that surrounded His cross, but also that of
hell; it was not only the shouts of the multitude that fell on
His dying ear, and disturbed His dying hour; but the voice
of the roaring lion, as he sprang upon his prey, and accomplished the last piece of malignity which the restraining
purpose of God permitted him, -'Thou  shalt bruise his
heel.' 1
In the early Church we find Satan working. He filled the
heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost; he gets power to
chastise saints that are delivered by the Church to him for their
sin (I Cor. v. 5).'Whom I have delivered unto Satan, that
they may learn not to blaspheme' (I Tim. i. 20). He tempts
the saints for incontinency (I Cor. vii. 5); he gets advantage
over them (2 Cor. ii. II); he is transformed into an angel of
light (2 Cor. xi. I4); he sends messengers to buffet even
apostles (2 Cor. xii. 7); he has a synagogue upon earth (Rev.
ii. 9); he has a seat, or throne (Rev. ii. 13); he exercises his
wiles, and shoots his fiery darts (Eph. vi. i I); he ensnares
1 Perhaps it is into the life of Christ that we should fit in the scene
referred to by Jude (9)-Michael contending with the devil about the
body of Moses. Michael the archangel is sent to raise Moses, that
he may appear with Elijah on the transfiguration hill (as it is with the
voice of the archangel that the dead in Christ are to be raised at His
coming). Satan, who has the power of death and the grave, disputes
and contends with him. Michael overcomes with' The Lord rebuke
thee.'




364            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
and assails us (2 Tim. ii. 26; Jas. iv. 7); he casts into prison
(Rev. ii. io); he deceives the nations (Rev. xxii. 2). It is
against his principalities and powers that we are to wrestle.
Such were his operations in and against the Church in
apostolic times; such are his operations still. It is he who
fought against the Son of God, that fights against the Church
of God. Sometimes he is a persecutor and murderer; sometimes a deceiver and beguiler; sometimes a tempter into open
sin; sometimes an allurer into fair-seeming vanities; sometimes a persuader into error; sometimes an angel of light;
sometimes the prince of darkness;-the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Our Lord speaks of Satan falling from heaven like lightning;
and, in the Revelation, we have the description of the great
battle between the devil and his angels and Michael and his
angels. Into the details of this battle we do not enter; but
there is something awfully solemn about it, and something
appalling about its results; the devil being cast down to iearth,
and brought into closer proximity with its nations; nay, and
having great wrath because he knoweth that he has but a short
time.
Then comes the great event to which the Church looks
forward so eagerly,-the binding of Satan, at the second
coming of the Lord. For ages he had wrought his works
of evil against the Church; he had inspired the false religions
of earth; he had raised up at last his greatest agent and
instrument, his truest representative, Antichrist; he had
animated the beast and the false prophet; he had glorified
himself in Babylon the great. But now, all that is over.
The Mighty Angel descends with the chain, seizes, binds,
casts him into the abyss or bottomless pit, for a thousand
years, to deceive the nations no more till the thousand years
are done.
Then the earth has rest; the old serpent is cast out; Antichrist has perished; Messiah reigns; the glory of the Lord
covers the earth;-all things are made new. But earth is not
done with Satan, nor Satan with earth. The thousand years




NOTES.                      365
roll by. Satan is loosed, and goes forth once more to deceive.
He musters the nations, he brings them up as a cloud against
the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire descends
out of heaven, and devours the hosts of Satan. He himself is
cast no longer into the bottomless pit, but into the more terrible
place of torment, the lake of fire, where the beast and false
prophet have been already a thousand years.
Thus ends the history of Satan as given in the Scripture; a
history not given us for speculation or curiosity, but for warning. What watchfulness, what solemnity, what holy fear become us, with such an enemy on every side! We wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
Let us mark how, ii these days of ours, he works, and
tempts, and rages:He comes as an angel of light, to mislead, yet pretending to
lead; to blind, yet professing to open the eye; to obscure
and bewilder, yet professing to illuminate and guide. He approaches us with fair words upon his lips: liberality, progress,
culture, freedom, expansion, elevation, science, literature, benevolence,-nay, and religion too. He seeks to make his
own out of all these; to give the world as much of these as
suits his purpose, as much as will make them content without
God, and without Christ, and without the Holy Ghost. Nay,
he makes use of these,-even of religion itself,-to separate
men from the living Jehovah.  Nor is it merely images,
crucifixes, pictures, statues, altars, and such like, which he
substitutes for God, seducing the heart and intoxicating the
senses; but the true creed, and the true theology, and the
true gospel, he makes use of to gratify the intellect, soothe the
conscience, while the soul remains all the while a stranger to
God and His Christ. For he does not care how near a man
may come to Christ, provided he is not one with Him and in
Him. It matters not to him how much of truth a man possess,
if he can only make that truth a screen to separate, not a link
to unite him and God; a non-conductor, not a conductor of
the heavenly life. He knows how to employ the dim religious




366           TWHOUGHTS ON. GENESIS.
light of ritualism, the cold frosty rays of rationalism, yes, and
even the bright warm light of evangelical sunshine, for drawing
off the eye and heart from Him who is the light of the world,
the bright and morning Star.
He sets himself against God and the things of God in every
way. He can deny the gospel; or he can dilute the gospel;
or he can obscure the gospel; or he can neutralize the gospel;
-just as suits his purpose, or the persons with whom he has
to do. His object in regard to the gospel is to take out of it
all that makes it glad tidings to the sinner; and oftentimes
this modified or mutilated gospel, which looks so like the real,
serves his end best; for it throws men off their guard, making
them suppose that they have received Christ's gospel, even
though they have not found in it the good news which it
contains.
He rages against the true God,-sometimes openly and
coarsely, at other times calmly and politely,-making men
believe that he is the friend of the truth, but an enemy to its
perversion.  Progress, progress, progress, is his watchword
now, by means of which he hopes to allure men away from the
old anchorages, under the pretext of giving them wider, fuller,
more genial teachings. He bids them soar above creeds,
catechisms, dogmas, as the dregs of an inferior age, and a
lower mental status. He distinguishes, too, between theology
and religion, warmly advocating the latter in order to induce
men to abandon the former. He rages against the divine
accuracy of the Bible, and cunningly subverts its inspiration by
elevating every true poet and philosopher to the same inspired
position. So successfully has he wrought in disintegrating
and undermining the truth, that there is hardly a portion of it
left firm. The ground underneath us is hollow; and the crust
on which we tread ready to give way, and precipitate us into
the abyss of unbelief.
He rages against the Cross of Christ, yet with exceeding
subtlety and persuasiveness, seeking to blind men to its true
meaning and use. In his enmity against it he instigates some
to cut it down, others so to bedaub it with such superstitious
ornament that it is the genuine cross no longer. He assails the




NOTES.                        367
gospel too, mixing up grace and merit; adding to it or taking
from it; persuading some that it is not free, and others that it
is so free that none will be lost. He attacks propitiation and
sacrifice, propagating the lie that sacrifice is merely self-denial,
and that the death of Christ is a sacrifice solely because the
highest example of self-abnegation ever exhibited. Thus we
find him everywhere assailing truth and vitalizing error, working against the true religion, and inspiring and energizing the
false. He is the very life and soul of all anti-Christian unbelief
and lawlessness, raising up the many antichrists, and ripening
the world for the last great Antichrist about to be revealed in
the height of rebellion and pride; as if he would make good
to man his promise to the first Adam,'Ye shall be as God,'
and to the second Adam,' All these things will I give Thee if
Thou wilt fall down and worship me;' for the Antichrist accepts what the Christ refused, and is crowned as Satan's king
and vicegerent upon earth.
But his time approaches and his day is short. The nations
shall muster on Armageddon; the kings of the earth shall
combine; all shall worship the beast. But the triumphing of
the wicked is short. His doom is sealed; first, in the bottomless pit, and then in the lake of fire.
And what a history! what a career! He comes to his end,
and none shall help him. He passes away into captivity, and
there is none to sympathize with the captive, mighty and
majestic though he be in his chains.'When Nero perish'd by the justest doom
That ever the destroyer yet destroyed,
Amid the roar of liberated Rome,
Of nations freed and of a world o'erjoyed;
Some hands unseen strew'd flowers upon his tomb;
Perhaps the weakness of a heart not void
Of feeling, for some kindness done when power
Had left the wretch one uncorrupted hour.'
But over the downfall of this mightiest of princes,-the prince
of the power of the air, the god of this world,-not a note of
lamentation shall be heard. The heavens shall rejoice and the




368           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
earth be glad. The saints shall sing Allelujah, as the smoke
riseth up for ever and ever.
And yet there is something unspeakably solemn in his downfall.  For what history has been like his, so stupendous, so
triumphant, so terrible?
Nor can we deem him devoid of feeling. A being of such
mighty intellect and power cannot be insensible. He is no
stock nor stone. His capacities for joy and sorrow are vast;
but it is only with the latter that he has aught to do. We
picture him to ourselves as a being all pride, malignity, revenge,
and cunning; so much so, that we forget that he was made
with capacity of feeling.  But the heart that is capable of
these things must be capable of being profoundly wretched.
He has not, indeed, human tears to weep. Our sorrows, our
burdens, our fears, our anguish, are not his.  But he has
something of his own, no less bitter than ours., Ours are
human, his are superhuman; for no intelligent being can be
passive; he must be happy or miserable according to the
capacities of his being. As truly as the unfallen angels are
happy, so truly are the fallen wretched.'The fire prepared
for the devil and his angels' is something terrible beyond conception. What it amounts to I know not; but in the case of
Satan it must be pre-eminent torment, unutterable woe; such
as groans cannot express, and to which tears would afford no
relief; and it may not be without use; it may help to
solemnize us,-to reflect on the great and eternal misery of
this great enemy of God and man. It is the misery of an unholy but majestic nature; the torment that springs from
hellish hatred of all good. And, in addition to this, it is the
misery of disappointment, failure, mortification, misfortune,
remorse; the misery of reflection on 6000 years of constant,
persevering malignity against God and His Christ, relieved
by not one deed of goodness; yet at last his plans all ruined,
his work undone; his Babels and Romes all in the dust;
his Nimrods, his Sennacheribs, his Herods, his Neros, his
Napoleons, his Antichrists, his false prophets, his forgers of
lies, all passed away; every fragment of his laborious handiwork broken in pieces, and earth, in spite of all his efforts, a




7NO TES.                     369
happy, holy, glorious paradise, with the seed of the woman,
the last Adam, for its King. All this will be to him the bitterness of bitterness, the torment of torment.
Yet in all this misery, vast though, it be, one source of
anguish can never be his, —a rejected Christ. Certainly, not
to have loved the most lovable of all beings -must of itself be
wretchedness, especially to an intellect like his, that can
understand worth; but still there is no stinging remembrance
of a rejected Saviour. This, the very woe of woes, the gall and
wormwood of the eternal cup, is the portion of the lost sons of
Adam, who had salvation within their reach, but madly flung
it away. Terrible as is the doom of the fallen Archangel, this,
at least, will form no part of his awful hell.
III.
THE SONS OF GOD.
ELSEWHERE we have given our interpretation of the
passage in Genesis where the expression is found.L
But there is room for some investigation both into the words
themselves, and also into the history of the expositions which
have been given of them. It may be worth our while to
make a little further inquiry into this passage, as Dr. Maitland
in his Eruvin, and Dr. Kitto in his Daily Bible Illustrations,
have revived the patristic exposition, and affirmed that sons
of God must mean angels. The latter writes diffidently, but
the former abates nothing of his usual dogmatism, even in
treating of a passage confessedly peculiar.2
Dr. Maitland asks, How could the intermarriage of the seed
of Seth and the seed of Cain produce giants? We might as' Gen. vi. 2.
2 What would Dr. Maitland say to Haivernick, who denounces the.'angelic' theory as one of the silliest whims of the Alexandrian
Gnostics and cabalistic Rabbins?
VOL. VI.                                     2 A
I                                                I_




370            THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
well ask, How could the intermarriage of angels and men produce giants? When angels have taken man's form (as to
Abraham, etc.), they have not indicated any superior stature.
If Dr. Maitland will tell us how the one class of marriages
produces giants, we will satisfy him as to the other. Nor can
we think it an unsupported affirmation in us to say, that from
all that God has made known to us in His word regarding
angels, good or bad, their nature, their history, their doings,
etc., such intermarriages are impossible. Or, arguing physiologically, might we not say that in all the various parts of
animal and vegetable nature, the intermixture of genera is
impossible; so, gifortiori, the intermixture of two races who
differ more from each other than genus does from species is
impossible.'
But the intermixture of the Sethites and the Cainites was
very likely to produce a race of superior bodily constitution.
For these two races, continuing separate, and intermarrying
themselves with very near kindred, must have greatly degenerated; and the intermixture of the two was very likely to
generate a stronger race. Nor is it at all unlikely that such
was the result also in after years, when Israel intermarried
with the Moabites. About this time we read of giants again.
And this is one of the things in which Dr. Maitland's theory
halts. If intermarriage with angels was required to produce
giants in the time of Noah, it must have been needed again
afterwards to produce them in the time of Israel. It is not a
little curious that the same word,' Nepheelim,' is used in
both cases (Num. xiii. 33),'There we saw the Nepheelim, the
sons of Anak, who come of the Nepheelim.' 2 As all the antediluvian' Nepheelim' must have been swept off at the flood,
there must have been in after ages the recurrence of the same
scenes as before (intermarriages with angels). If Dr. Mait1 Besides, as IHengstenberg remarks,'the standing designation of
angels as holy ones, includes in it the neither marrying nor being
given in marriage' (Matt. xx. 30).
2 The word'Nepheelim' occurs only in these two places, Genesis
and Numbers.




NOTES.                       37I
land's theory be tenable, Anak must have married an angel,
and his sons Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, who are called'Nepheelim,' must have been semi-angels. Nay, some of
Anak's ancestors must have also married angels, seeing it is
not only said that the'Nepheelim' were sons of Anak, but he
himself came of the same race, being half an angel and half a
man. Anak's wife must have been afemale angel, whereas in
former times the angels that came down must have been all
male. To use the language of patristic demonology, the antediluvian angels must have been incubi, and the postdiluvian
angels succubi.1
We are told more than once, in the 6th of Genesis, that it
was man's sin that was so great in the earth; that it was on
account of man's sin that the deluge came. But if the old
Jewish and patristic theory, revived by Drs. Kitto and Maitland, be true, then it was not man's sin that wrought the evil,
but the sin of angels. For it is clear that they were the guilty
parties in this transaction, if they were parties at all. It is
against the'sons of God' that the accusations are manifestly
pointed.  It was their superior guiltiness that brought the
world's criminality to its crisis.2  If they were not men, what
does the judgment that fell upon the world -so specially for
their sin, mean? Is earth to be punished for the sin of angels?
Is man to be swept away because angels have corrupted themselves? On the other hand, how natural the whole scene, if
the sons of God were the Sethites, the representatives of the
patriarchal Church! They were the salt of the earth; and the
moment that the salt lost its savour, corruption shot through
the mass, and earth ripened for the wrath of God.
Nor can anything be more natural and likely in another
way. For.ages the two great sections of the race had kept
Pope Innocent vIII., in a decretal against witches, gives warning
to all who abuse themselves in such ways,-' doemonibus incubis et
succubis abuti.' Tostatus states the two kinds, and relates the history
of Merlin,' vatema in Anglia celebrem,' who was produced by means
of a succubus.
2'The genesis of human corruption, and its ascent to the highest
point, are designed to be represented.'-HENGSTENBERG.




372           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
separate.  Adam, Seth, and their posterity, retained the
primeval seat of man. They still dwelt in Eden, though outside of paradise, and worshipped at the well-known altar,
within sight of the flaming sword and the symbolic cherubim.
Eden was to them what Canaan was to Israel. There they
dwelt alone, and were not mingled with the nations. There
these sons of God, headed by the patriarchs (for Seth must
have lived to the days of Noah), maintained the true faith and
the honoured name. But as ages went on, the population
increased, and the two races, spreading out, approached each
other. From the statement of Moses, it would appear that the
Cainites had been specially fruitful in daughters. These, by
reason of proximity of place, had at length come into contact with the sons of God. Like the Moabitish women in
the case of Israel, like the'outlandish women' in the case
of Solomon, they tempted the Sethites by their beauty. The
races mingled, and a new and peculiar progeny was the result.
But more than this, the boundary between the seed of the
woman and the seed of the serpent was now broken down,
defection became general, wickedness increased, and the
world was ripe for judgment.
Against all this Noah and his fellows (for he was the eighth
preacher of righteousness) protested,' condemning the world;'
but in vain. They went on intermingling. They went on' eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till
the day that Noah entered the ark.' The seed of the woman,
called here the sons of God, dwindled down into two or three;
the seed of the serpent covered the whole peopled earth.
Whilst, however, it is stated that the intermarriages of the,
sons of God and the daughters of men produced' Nepheelim,'
it seems also implied that there were Nepheelim on the earth
before, which completely upsets one of Dr. Maitland's arguments.' The Nepheelim were in the earth in those days, and
also after that,' etc. Haivernick goes further, and maintains
that the Nepheelim are not said at any time to be the fruit of
the intermixture.'There is nothing in vi. 4 of a race of
giants springing from this union. " In those days'were the
well-known Nepheelim in the earth" cannot without violence




NOTES.                      373
receive such a reference, specially when what follows is taken
into connection-"also after that, the sons of God went in unto
the daughters of men," i.e. at that time there were men of that
kind, and they continued even till a later period.' Calvin,
also, though he does not go so far, yet puts the matter thus:'The giants had a prior origin, but afterwards those who were
born of the promiscuous marriages imitated their example.'
He confirms this by the expression'and also,' as if it were
implied that not only were these Nepheelim found previously
in the race of Cain, but also afterwards in that race which
resulted from the mixture of the two races.
An old writer has well asked,'What sort of creatures could
the offspring of men and angels be?' Would they be men, or
would they be angels? How far would they partake of the
one nature, and how far of the other? And could these semiangels semi-men produce offspring? In Genesis and Numbers
it is implied that this was done, whereas we know that, according to physical laws, intermixtures of genera can go no further
than the first generation. But granting that the intermixture
goes on from one generation to another, what sort of race is it
that is produced? And in what relation' do they stand to Adam
as a head? If they are either semi-angels or semi-demons, as
the theory of Dr. Maitland and Dr. Kitto must concede, then
they are but half-descended from Adam, and so cannot be
represented by him, or partake of the corruption that flows
from him. Nay, further, in what relation can these semi-angels
stand in reference to salvation? Are they capable of salvation by Christ? Could they believe on Him who took not on
Him the nature of angels, but who took on Him the seed of
Abraham? Could they be washed in His blood, or made one
with Him who is not bone of their bone, nor flesh of their
flesh? And for what shall they be condemned? For rejecting Christ? For refusing Noah's message about the promised
seed of the woman? Yet what was the seed of the woman to
those who did not belong to the human race?
The Jewish rabbis were the originators of the fable. From
them the Fathers took it, as they did many other Jewish traditions, preserving and decorating them, as they would the relics




374           THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
or bones of an old saint. These doctors find no difficulty in
telling us what became of the angels themselves who thus
sinned with the daughters of men, as well. as what became of
the children.' After they had begotten children,' says one'rabbi,'the holy and blessed God took them to the mountain
o darkness and bound them in iron chains.'l The children
of these angels, the rabbis have, like the heathen poets,
buried beneath the mountains.2 Nay, more, some of them
maintained that the sin of these angels and the sin of Eve was
the same, so that, just as Sammael ensnared Eve, so did Aza
and Azail the daughters of Eve in Noah's days.3 Others of
them, such as Aben Ezra, have taken the more sober view.
It might be curious, but certainly not profitable, to go over
at length the expositions of the Fathers upon this passage,both on the words'sons of God,' and also on the word'giants.' We had noted a good many portions as specimens;
but, on second thoughts, we leave them in their folios. They
are all very much of the same cast. Jerome does not tell us
what he thinks; he simply says,' Non angeli;' Ambrose contradicts himself, but leans to the angelic theory; Augustine
and Chrysostom are the chief Fathers that set themselves to
refute the fabulous comment, and to establish the true one.
Augustine's remarks are so good, that we are inclined to give
a sentence or two.'  The human race advancing and increasing, there was produced, by this freedom of will, an intermixture and confusion of both cities (Church and world, Jerusalem
and Babylon), each sharing the other's sin. Which evil, again,
found its origin in the female sex-not, indeed, in the same
way as from the beginning; for it was not these women who,
seduced then by the guile of any one, persuaded men to sin,
but those who from the beginning were of depraved habits in
the earthly city, were beloved by the sons of God, the citizens
of another city sojourning in this world, on account of their
beauty of person. Which blessing is indeed a gift of God;
1 Schottgenii Horc Hlebraice et Talrudicce, p. 1050.
2 See Bush on Genesis; Doughtei Analecta Sacra, p. 9.
3 Hackspanii Cabbala yudaica, p. 357.




NO TES.                     375
but seeing it is given to the bad, the good ought not to
reckon it a great blessing.... Thus the sons of God were
taken with the love of the daughters of men; and as they
enjoyed these wives, they declined into the habits of the
earthly society, forsaking the piety which they had retained
in the holy community. And thus was beauty of person,
made no doubt by God, but a temporal and carnal thing, the
lowest good of all, evilly loved, and God slighted,-God the
eternal, the internal, the sempiternal good.... Of this love
the order being confounded, these sons of God neglected
God, and loved the daughters of men.' 1
Bishop Patrick says:' The plain sense is, that they who had
hitherto kept themselves unmingled with the posterity of Cain,
according to a solemn charge which their godly forefathers
had given them, were now joined with them in marriage, and
made one people with them. Which was the greater crime,
if we can give any credit to what an Arabic writer saith, mentioned first by Mr. Seldon in his book De Diis Syriis, that the
children of Seth had sworn by the blood of Abel they would
never leave the mountainous country which they inhabited to
go down unto the valley where the children of Cain lived.
The same author (Patricides, with Elmacinus also) says that
they were inveigled to break this oath by the beauty of
Naamah (Gen. iv. 22), and the music of her brother Jubal.
For the Cainites spent their time in feasting, music-dancing,
and sports, which allured the children of Seth to come down
and marry with them, whereby all manner of impurity, impiety, idolatry, rapine, and violence filled the whole earth.
This Moses here takes notice of, that he might give the reason
why the whole posterity of Seth, even those that sprang from
that holy man Enoch, were overwhelmed with the deluge, as
well as the race of Cain.'
It seems evidently to these scenes that our Lord refers
when, speaking of the days of Noah, He says they were eating
1 De Civ. Dei, book xv. chap. 22. Though he cites the passage
as' the angels of God,' he proceeds to show the meaning of the term,
chap. 23




376             THOUGHTS ON GENESIS.
and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage; and just as
it was the apostasy of the godly, and the intermixture between
the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, with the
accompanying violence and lasciviousness, that hastened the
flood, so shall it be the defections of the last days, the incontinency and ungodliness of the last generation, that shall consummate the world's guilt, and prepare for its judgment.'
Thus shall the salt lose its savour, corruption strike through
the whole mass like leaven, and the fiery deluge sweep away
another world of the ungodly; only, however, to deliver creation
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
SONS OF GOD.2'May there not be a reference to these scenes in Rev. xiv. 4,' These
are they who were not defiled with women,' i.e. these are the sons of
God who kept themselves undefiled with the daughters of men?
2 The literature of this passage is curiously extensive, beginning
with the rabbis, and coming down to Dr. Kitto. The fullest discussion of all the points connected with or suggested by the passage is in
the Jesuit Pererius Valentinus, who had devoted upwards of forty of
his small folio pages to the subject (vol. ii.). He omits, however, the
rabbinical views; indeed, his work, learned as it is in the Fathers,
gives no indication of rabbinical or oriental lore.  See Dr. Well's
Critical Notes, p. 9; Patrick's Commentary; the 5th Excursus of
Doughteus in his Analecta Sacra; Pfeiffer's Dubia Vexata Scriptura,
locus xxii.; L. Vives' Note on Augustine's City of God, book xv.
chap. 23; Suicer's Thesaurus under'yyzxo; and vuio; Suidas' Lexicon
under'Seth;' Lord Barrington's Theological Works, vol. ii. p. 462;
Calvin's Commentaries. But the best statement on the subject is to be
found in Hengstenberg on The Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 325. Havernick
is also good-Introduction to the Pentateuch, p. I I i.
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