PART I. THE TEMPTATION TO FALL.

THE PRECIOUS AND SACRED WRITINGS OF MARTIN LUTHER

_The Hero of the Reformation, the Greatest of the Teuton Church

Fathers, and the Father of Protestant Church Literature_

BASED ON THE KAISER CHRONOLOGICAL EDITION WITH REFERENCE TO THE

ERLANGEN AND WALCH EDITIONS

EDITED BY JOHN NICHOLAS LENKER, D.D. IN CONNECTION WITH LEADING

SCHOLARS OF ALL PARTS OF THE CHURCH

LUTHERANS IN ALL LANDS CO.,

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., U.S.A.

1904

LUTHER ON THE CREATION

A CRITICAL AND DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY ON GENESIS

BASED ON DR. HENRY COLE'S TRANSLATION FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN.

REVISED, ENLARGED, PARTS RETRANSLATED AND EDITED IN COMPLETE FORM

BY

JOHN NICHOLAS LENKER, D.D.

PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS, AUTHOR OF "LUTHERANS IN ALL

LANDS" AND PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL LUTHERAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

VOL. I.

LUTHERANS IN ALL LANDS CO.,

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., U.S.A.

1904

COPYRIGHT, 1904,

BY PROF. J. N. LENKER, D.D.

SECOND INTRODUCTION

--to--

LUTHER'S WORKS IN ENGLISH.

This introduction or prospectus is supplementary to that in the first

volume on the Psalms, in that it likewise emphasizes, though from

different view-points, the history and fruits, as well as the present

need and future mission of the Protestant Classics of the greatest of

all reformers in their relation to the development of the human race.

Let us in this introduction briefly notice the following: The progress

of the movement to translate and circulate Luther's works in English,

and then emphasize the need of developing an interest to read them;

first, because of the relation of Luther and his writings to the

public library; and secondly, because as the chief of the Teuton

Protestant Church Fathers, we need to understand Luther in his

relation to the Greek and Latin Church Fathers, and our true historic

relations to them all.

THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT.

With profound gratitude to Almighty God for his rich blessing bestowed

upon the publication and quick sale of the first volume, Luther's

Commentary on the Psalms, a book "the mourning soul cannot well be

without," we now send forth the first volume of his Commentary on

Genesis, with the confidence that those, who think with Melanchthon

that "a single page of Luther contains more sound divinity than many

whole volumes," will not change their opinion by studying this volume.

Having purchased all the copies of Luther on Galatians and his Notes

on the Gospels by Dr. P. Anstadt, and the right to reprint them, with

two other volumes about ready for the press, one by Prof. E. F.

Bartholomew, D.D., and another by Dr. Bernhard Pick, our progress is

encouraging, especially since the movement has taken an intersynodical

character with colaborers from every branch of our polyglot communion.

LUTHER ON THE OLD TESTAMENT NEEDED FIRST.

This volume on Genesis follows the first volume on the Psalms because

the volumes ought to be published first that are needed most and will

do the most good. As Professor of Old Testament Exegesis I found that

like "Luther on the Psalms" so "Luther on Genesis" was not accessible

to the English, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish students of theology,

Prof. Bugge's Norwegian translation of extracts from it being out of

print. Therefore we believe this volume also will be welcomed by all

Old Testament professors and students. While both these volumes will

be a healthy corrective to the Old Testament critics, their

contribution to the biblical knowledge and the devotional life of

Protestantism cannot be exaggerated. Though first delivered to

critical students they have also been extensively read in family

worship. Luther began and closed his blessed ministry in the church of

God not by fighting the Pope, but by expounding the Word of God. He

began by explaining the whole Psalter from 1513 to 1516 (before 1517)

forming volumes III and IV of the Kaiser Chronological Edition and

closed his life's labors by expounding the first book of the Bible,

Genesis, which composes volumes I and II of the St. Louis Walch

edition. He commenced with the penitential Psalms of David and ended

with Moses, the earliest writings of the Old Testament. The reason so

many preachers and congregations neglect the Old Testament is because

it is neglected in the seminaries. God willing a volume of Luther on

the Prophetical Books will be issued and then in all three years at

the seminary the students may have something of Luther on the

Pentateuch, Psalms and Prophets.

LUTHER'S WORDS ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

In the recent marvelous development of public libraries it is held if

it is the duty of the state to teach the child to read for the welfare

of the child and of the state, it is also the duty of the state to

offer the child something to read. Hence the library is being

supported by taxation like the public school, and the library

buildings are being erected near the high schools. It is as President

Roosevelt said while west recently, our civilization rests on the

church, the school and the library. The library is the child of the

church and school and will in turn greatly influence both. Luther, the

founder of the Protestant Church, and the founder of the Public

School, is also the founder of the Protestant Library. Yea, more,

nearly four hundred years ago he united the school and the library as

is proved by the following:

It is noteworthy that Luther closes his "Address to the Mayors and

Aldermen of all the Cities of Germany in behalf of Christian Schools,"

which is considered by educators for its pioneer character and

statements of principles "the most important educational treatise ever

written," by a powerful appeal in behalf of public libraries which I

give in full from Luther on Education by Prof. Painter.

Luther concludes that great educational treatise thus:

"Finally, this must be taken into consideration by all who earnestly

desire to see such schools established and the study of the languages

preserved in the German states; that no cost nor pains should be

spared to procure good libraries in suitable buildings, especially in

the large cities that are able to afford it. For if a knowledge of the

Gospel and of every kind of learning is to be preserved, it must be

embodied in books, as the prophets and apostles did, as I have already

shown. This should be done, not only that our spiritual and civil

leaders may have something to read and study, but also that good books

may not be lost, and that the arts and languages may be preserved,

with which God has graciously favored us. St. Paul was diligent in

this matter, since he lays the injunction upon Timothy, 'Give heed to

reading,' I Tim. 4:13, and directs him to bring the books, but

especially the parchments left at Troas, 2 Tim. 4:13.

"All the kingdoms that have been distinguished in the world have

bestowed care upon this matter, and particularly the Israelites, among

whom Moses was the first to begin the work, who commanded them to

preserve the book of the law in the ark of God, and put it under the

care of Levites, that any one might procure copies from them. He even

commanded the king to make a copy of this book in the hands of the

Levites. Among other duties, God directed the Levitical priesthood to

preserve and attend to the books. Afterwards Joshua increased and

improved this library, as did subsequently Samuel, David, Solomon,

Isaiah, and many kings and prophets. Hence have come to us the Holy

Scriptures of the Old Testament, which would not otherwise have been

collected and preserved, if God had not required such diligence in

regard to it.

"After this example collegiate churches and convents formerly founded

libraries, although with few good books. And the injury from the

neglect to procure books and good libraries, when there were men and

books enough for that purpose, was afterwards perceived in the decline

of every kind of knowledge; and instead of good books, the senseless,

useless, and hurtful books of the monks, the Catholicon, Florista,

Graecista, Labyrinthus, Dormi Secure (names of Latin grammars and

collections of sermons), and the like, were introduced by Satan, so

that the Latin language was corrupted, and neither good schools, good

instruction, nor good methods of study remained. And as we see, the

language and arts are, in an imperfect manner, recovered from

fragments of old books rescued from the worms and dust; and every day

men are seeking these literary remains, as people dig in the ashes of

a ruined city after treasures and jewels.

"Therein we have received our just due, and God has well recompensed

our ingratitude, in that we did not consider his benefits, and lay up

a supply of good literature when we had time and opportunity, but

neglected it, as if we were not concerned. He in turn, instead of the

Holy Scriptures and good books, suffered Aristotle and numberless

pernicious books to come into use, which only lead us further from the

Bible. To these were added the progeny of Satan, the monks and the

phantoms of the universities, which we founded at incredible cost, and

many doctors, preachers, teachers, priests and monks, that is to say,

great, coarse, fat fellows, adorned with red and brown caps, like

swine led with a golden chain and decorated with pearls; and we have

burdened ourselves with them, who have taught us nothing useful, but

have made us more and more blind and stupid, and as a reward have

consumed all our property, and filled all the cloisters, and indeed

every corner with dregs and filth of their unclean and noxious books,

of which we cannot think without horror.

"Has it not been a grievous misfortune that a boy has hitherto been

obliged to study twenty years or longer, in order to learn enough

miserable Latin to become a priest and to read the mass? And whosoever

has succeeded in this has been called blessed, and blessed the mother

that has borne such a child! And yet he has remained a poor ignorant

man all through life, and has been of no real service whatever.

Everywhere we have had such teachers and masters, who have known

nothing themselves, who have been able to teach nothing useful, and

who have been ignorant even of the right methods of learning and

teaching. How has it come about? No books have been accessible but the

senseless trash of the monks and sophists. How could the pupils and

teacher differ from the books they studied? A crow does not hatch a

dove, nor a fool make a man wise. That is the recompense of our

ingratitude, in that we did not use diligence in the formation of

libraries, but allowed good books to perish, and bad ones to survive.

"But my advice is not to collect all sorts of books indiscriminately

thinking only of getting a vast number together. I would have

discrimination used, because it is not necessary to collect the

commentaries of the jurists, the productions of all the theologians,

the discussions of all the philosophers, and the sermons of all the

monks. Such trash I would reject altogether, and provide my library

only with useful books; and in making the selection I would advise

with learned men.

"In the first place, a library should contain the Holy Scriptures in

Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German and other languages. Then the best and

most ancient commentators in Greek, Hebrew and Latin.

"Secondly, such books as are useful in acquiring the languages, as the

poets and orators, without considering whether they are heathen or

Christian, Greek or Latin. For it is from such works that grammar must

be learned.

"Thirdly, books treating of all the arts and sciences.

"Lastly, books on jurisprudence and medicine, though here

discrimination is necessary.

"A prominent place should be given to chronicles and histories, in

whatever language they may be obtained; for they are wonderfully

useful in understanding and regulating the course of the world, and in

disclosing the marvelous works of God. O, how many noble deeds and

wise maxims produced on German soil have been forgotten and lost,

because no one at the time wrote them down; or if they were written,

no one preserved the books; hence we Germans are unknown in other

lands, and are called brutes that know only how to fight, eat and

drink. But the Greeks and Romans, and even the Hebrews have recorded

their history with such particularity, that even if a woman or child

did anything noteworthy, all the world was obliged to read and know

it; but we Germans are always Germans and will remain Germans.

"Since God has so graciously and abundantly provided us with art,

scholars and books, it is time for us to reap the harvest and gather

for future use the treasures of these golden years. For it is to be

feared (and even now it is beginning to take place) that new and

different books will be produced, until at last, through the agency of

the devil, the good books which are being printed will be crowded out

by the multitude of ill-considered, senseless and noxious works. For

Satan certainly designs that we should torture ourselves again with

Catholicons, Florists, Modernists and other trash of the accursed

monks and sophists, always learning, yet never acquiring knowledge.

"Therefore, my dear sirs, I beg you to let my labor bear fruit with

you. And though there be some who think me too insignificant to follow

my advice, or who look down upon me as one condemned by tyrants; still

let them consider that I am not seeking my own interest, but that of

all Germany. And even if I were a fool, and yet should hit upon

something good, no wise man should think it a disgrace to follow me.

And if I were a Turk and heathen, and it should yet appear that my

advice was advantageous, not for myself, but for Christianity, no

reasonable person would despise my counsel. Sometimes a fool has given

better advice than a whole company of wise men. Moses received

instruction from Jethro.

"Herewith I commend you all to the grace of God. May he soften your

hearts, and kindle therein a deep interest in behalf of the poor,

wretched and neglected youth; and through the blessing of God may you

so counsel and aid them as to attain to a happy Christian social order

in respect to both body and soul, with all fullness and abounding

plenty, to the praise and honor of God the Father, through Jesus

Christ our Saviour. Amen."

Wittenberg, 1524.

In his "Table Talk" Luther continues thus:

"The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no measure or limit

to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of

vanity, to acquire celebrity and make a name; others for the sake of

lucre and gain. The Bible is now buried under so many commentaries,

that the text is not regarded. I could wish that all my books were

buried nine ells deep in the ground, by reason of the ill example they

will give, every one seeking to imitate me in writing many books, with

the hope of procuring fame. But Christ died not to favor our ambition

and vain-glory, but that his name might be glorified.

"The aggregation of large libraries tends to direct men's thoughts

from the one great book, the Bible, which ought, day and night, to be

in every man's hand. My object, my hope, in translating the

Scriptures, was to check the so prevalent production of new works, and

so to direct men's study and thoughts more closely to the divine Word.

Never will the writings of mortal man in any respect equal the

sentences inspired by God. We must yield the place of honor to the

prophets and apostles, keeping ourselves prostrate at their feet as we

listen to their teaching. I would not have those who read my books, in

these stormy times, devote one moment to them which they would

otherwise have consecrated to the Bible."

LUTHER THE FATHER OF MODERN LIBRARIES.

The foregoing literal quotations on the library; its divine origin and

its biblical and ecclesiastical development from the time of Moses;

its interlingual and international importance; its satanic and

anti-Christ-like dangers; its true mission and relation to the church,

school, family and state; the comprehensive sample catalogue of a

model library; and the words that when libraries tend to direct men's

thoughts from or against the one great Book they are complete

failures; these and other like thoughts of Luther, who was born only

15 years after the death of Guthenburg, his countryman, the inventor

of printing; these words so warm, clear and wise of the hero of the

Reformation, uttered nearly 400 years ago, prove that Luther and not

Franklin was the father or founder of modern libraries of printed

books and documents.

In W. T. Fletcher's "Public Libraries In America," of the Columbian

Knowledge Series, published in Boston, 1899, we read on page 10, "But

when did the public library movement begin? Not even the Reformation,

with its tremendous assertion of the right of man to spiritual

freedom, brought about the change so designated. Franklin more than

any other originated this movement." It is strange that in all the

recent and growing bibliography on the library there is little or no

tendency to trace the origin of the Protestant library to the

Protestant Reformation. Yet Mr. Fletcher says on p. 37, "It is a

significant fact that everywhere the clergy are found foremost in

advancing the library movement." He certainly does not mean the

Catholic clergy.

If you examine the libraries of our day and judge from their contents

and spirit, the conclusion irresistibly comes to one that they do not

know their own father or founder. Their walls often are decorated with

fine pictures of illustrious men, Carnegie and other liberal donors;

but in no public library, not even in districts of our country where

the German and Scandinavian taxpayers are in the majority do we find a

picture on their walls, "Martin Luther, the Founder of the Library

Among the Protestant Teutonic Nations." Though Carnegie should expend

all his fortune on libraries alone, his donation to the library idea

would be unworthy to be compared with that of Luther. Besides what

Luther wrote urging the Teutonic nations accepting his teachings to

erect libraries or "book houses" as he called them, and besides what

he did in other ways to encourage the collection of the writings of

the Germanic nations, this Teuton of the Teutons, their child and

father, born, as I said, only fifteen years after the inventor of

printing died, wrote a library of 113 volumes in the infancy of

printing, which is still today the leading classic library of

Protestantism, which has been translated and retranslated in part into

every language of the globe and influenced every Protestant and many

Catholic authors, and is or should be the foundation and center of

every library that is not anti-Protestant. Alas! Alas! It is not so in

our own Protestant land, the United States. He seems to be feared more

as a leader of a sect, which he never was, than loved and honored as

the hero of the Reformation and the very soul of the Protestant

Teutonic literary activity and its treasures. However I am not so

greatly concerned to have Luther honored as the father of the modern

library by hanging his picture on their walls. There is a better way

for the Protestant library to honor their father and that is to

purchase his writings complete in the German, Scandinavian and English

languages and then interest their German, Scandinavian and English

citizens to read them. True some libraries have a dozen or more books

written about Luther, his life, etc., but not a single book written by

him. All the books that others have or may write about him are as

nothing compared to what he himself wrote in explaining the Holy

Scriptures and the fundamental principles of our modern aggressive

Protestant civilization. If they are the happy possessors of a few

books translated from our great Teuton church father, the books are

often in such poor and antiquated English that no one can nor will

read them with any comfort. Librarians and pastors and Protestant

laymen, what have you up-to-date in your library from the heart and

pen of the father of Protestant literature? Look now and see, and make

a note of what you find and write us, and we may be of some help to

you in completing your collection.

But what is the use for libraries to purchase Luther's works in

German, Scandinavian or English when the people do not call for the

books and read them. Therefore we have given emphasis to their cry

that is going abroad in the land.

READ LUTHER! READ LUTHER!! READ LUTHER!!!

Why? Because as a true intelligent Protestant you cannot read any

thing better. Millions of people have said and millions more will say

next to the Bible they received more from Luther's writings than from

all other books combined. And if you take the Protestant professors of

our land, and for that matter of all lands, they all together would

come far short of making a Luther. He was not only ahead of his times,

but on many subjects he is far ahead of our age. Yes, when we keep

company with Luther we feel we are behind the times, on subjects like

Romanism, Protestantism, Christian schools, Christian libraries, the

Christian family, the Christian state, and many Christian social

problems. It is possible to go backwards as well as forwards.

How can I read Luther when I have not his books and I cannot afford to

purchase them? Our cry is not Buy Luther! Buy Luther!! Buy Luther!!!

But Read Luther! Read Luther!! Read Luther!!! Many buy Luther's works

and do not read them. They can afford to purchase them all and as they

have a beautiful book-case with glass doors, perhaps the finest piece

of furniture in their homes, as the style now is (for what is a home

without an up-to-date book-case?), they subscribe for all Luther's

works for a show in their book-case, and we ask can you name a set of

books that makes a better show in any public or private library than

Luther's works, especially in a Protestant library? They are also

really a far better investment than these large, thick, cheap but

dear, subscription books, which are nice only while they are new and

then they fade and the outside becomes as bad as the inside. When you

look at the libraries of many Protestant homes, you pity them, first

because of what they have not and then because of what they have.

But Luther's writings should go into the home library not for a show

nor for an investment, but to be read. Perhaps there is no passage of

Scripture that our homes should take to heart just now more than the

advice of Father Paul to his spiritual son, Timothy: "Give heed to

reading, to exhortation, to teaching. Neglect not the gift that is in

thee." 1 Tim. 4:13-14. Give heed that you read something, that you

read the best, and give heed how you read, that the gifts in you may

not be neglected. Then the right, sound exhortation and pure teaching

will follow. Notice the order is first, give heed to reading. Many

have never read any writings of Luther except perhaps his small

catechism. They have not built very well on the foundation laid. When

one thinks of the solid Christian books our German and Scandinavian

parents read and what the children read now-a-days, you must sigh.

Again many say I have now more books than I can read and if I buy more

I will not read them. Well, you will not lose much if you do not read

many books you have, but if you would sell these and buy a few of the

classic writings of Protestantism and read and read them again and

again, you would be blessed, and just such a work is Luther on

Genesis.

NO ONE IS TOO POOR TO BE A LUTHER READER.

I have spoken of those who can afford to buy Luther's works and do buy

them, and yet they do not read them. There is another class much

smaller but much better; namely, those who enjoyed the study of their

catechism and the little they have read here and there in extracts

from Luther and they long to read more, but do not know where to get

the books or have not the money to buy them. To all such let our

pastors, parochial and Sunday school teachers and all others say on

every occasion possible that such works can be had in the public

library. If you do not find them there make application on the little

blank slips the library furnishes for the public to request the

library to secure the books desired. If they do not do so at once have

your neighbors repeat and repeat the same request. This is the way the

latest trashy novels are introduced in public libraries, for they buy

only what the public asks for. These libraries are supported as a rule

by taxation and the Germans and Scandinavians are heavy taxpayers and

their requests for good standard books in their own language or in

English will be favorably considered. We ourselves are to blame if

public libraries have not the standard classics of their Protestant

father and founder.

It if therefore in harmony with historic development and with the

spirit of Luther that in Chicago, June 29, 1903, an adjourned meeting

of the convention, which assembled in the same city in September of

the previous year, was held and effected an organization known as the

NATIONAL LUTHERAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

one aim of which as specified in its constitution, is "To aid in

duplicating as far as practicable the 'Luther' literature in the

British Museum Library in all the larger American Public Libraries."

(See the constitution for further details.) The public libraries of

Great Britain are far ahead of the American public libraries in their

Luther literature, and we as free loyal Americans cannot afford to let

it continue so.

The question arises, what nations, what culture should characterize

the libraries of the world? Shall the Greeks, or the Latins or the

Teutons? To aid in answering this question I will add another heading

THE GREEK, LATIN AND TEUTON CHURCH FATHERS.

In the Introduction of Vol. I in the Psalms, to which the reader is

referred, it was stated that the key-note of all of the "sacred books"

of the East is "Salvation by Works." And yet in the face of this

Protestants are asked to believe that they are "sacred books," when

their main teachings are directly contrary to what we have been taught

to esteem as most sacred, namely, our Christian faith in the grace of

Christ for salvation. To Protestants they are not sacred books but the

very opposite. I would far rather call the writings of Luther sacred,

which teach and defend the doctrine of salvation by grace as taught by

the one great Book, although it stands alone and protests against the

false teachings of the so-called sacred books of the east.

However let us now look more closely at the west. Here we find that

Protestants have shown commendable zeal and enterprise in translating,

publishing and circulating the large libraries of the Greek and Latin

church fathers. Every pastor continuously receives circulars with the

almost irresistible temptation to purchase the patristic writings of

both Catholic churches. This is all well, but we should not forget

that the Anglo-Saxon people are neither Greeks nor Latins, but

Teutons, and that our Teuton church fathers are Protestants and they

also should be translated, published, circulated and read and taught.

Little Wittenberg dare not fall behind Constantinople and Rome. It

ought not.

_For "Saxon and Norman and Dane are We."_

True the Teutons can and do learn from the Greek and Latin church

fathers, but we also believe that the children of the old Greeks and

Latins can learn much from our Teuton fathers, and that they have as

good reasons to welcome our classic church literature as we have

theirs; and we hope the day may soon come when they will translate and

read ours as faithfully and impartially as we do theirs. What a

blessing that would bring to Christendom!

In some quarters however English Protestants have been in danger of

appreciating the fathers of the Greeks and Latins to the extent of

neglecting to give due honor to their own. Many Protestant ministers'

libraries contain all classics except the Protestant classics. Let the

whole world have the Greek and the Latin fathers as it has, but let

Protestants awake and give the world theirs. Is it not a shame and a

pity that while all the writings of the Greek and Latin fathers have

been translated into many languages, yet the complete works of Luther,

the first and chief of the Protestant fathers, have never been

translated into any language, though his loyal disciples are numbered

by the hundreds of thousands in different tongues, as the fruits of

those writings? For of the 70,169,000 Lutherans in the world,

43,731,000 speak German, 7,300,000 Swedish, 3,500,000 Norwegian,

3,200,000 Danish, 3,000,000 Finnish, 1,100,000 Esthnish, 400,000

Hungarian (or 4,500,000 of the Finnish or Magyarian race), 4,000,000

English, 2,000,000 Lettish, 500,000 Slovakian, 300,000 Polish, 200,000

French, 100,000 Dutch, 100,000 Russian, 82,000 Icelandic, 50,000

Bohemian, 63,000 Wendish, 113,000 Lithuanian, 250,000 the heathen

dialects of Asia and 280,000 the heathen dialects of Africa. And

further as all German speaking Reformed churches use Luther's version

of the Scriptures, so they welcome his writings also.

True in all these 17 or more languages some of Luther's writings have

appeared. But it is distressing to learn how few they are, and how out

of date and imperfect some of these are. Luther is the common property

of all Protestants, and so are his writings. They would be helpful in

all time to the 21,000,000 Episcopalians, the 17,000,000 Methodists,

the 11,000,000 Baptists, the 9,000,000 Presbyterians, the 4,500,000

Congregationalists, and all other Protestants; and not only to the

140,000,000 Protestants, but also to the 80,000,000 Greek Catholics

and 200,000,000 Latin Catholics and to the heathen, to the infidel, to

the state as well as to the church. The first thing for Protestants to

do is to give all nations the Bible; and the second, to give them the

best Protestant classics. We can. Will we?

No nation or race is greater than its greatest men, and those greatest

men are not greater than their best writings. Hence little is of more

value in literature than the honest critique by these greatest men of

the best writings of the most civilized and cultured nations before

their time. Therefore of the greatest interest are the following

CRITICISMS OF THE GREATEST TEUTON CHURCH FATHER ON THE GREEK AND LATIN

CHURCH FATHERS.

They are taken literally from his Table Talk and read thus: I will not

presume to criticise too closely the writings of the fathers, seeing

they are received of the church, and have great applause, for then I

should be held an apostate; but whoever reads Chrysostom, will find he

digresses from the chief points, and proceeds to other matters, saying

nothing, or very little, of that which pertains to the subject. When I

was expounding the Epistle to the Hebrews, and turned to what

Chrysostom had written upon it, I found nothing to the purpose; yet I

believe that he at that time, being the chief rhetorician, had many

hearers, though he taught without profit; for the chief office of a

preacher is to teach uprightly, and diligently to look to the main

points and foundation on which he stands, and so instruct and teach

the hearers that they understand aright and may be able to say: This

is well taught. When this is done, he may avail himself of rhetoric to

adorn his subject and admonish the people.

Behold what great darkness is in the books of the fathers concerning

faith; yet if the article of justification be darkened, it is

impossible to smother the grossest errors of mankind. St. Jerome,

indeed, wrote upon Matthew, upon the Epistles to the Galatians and to

Titus; but, alas, very coldly. Ambrose wrote six books on Genesis, but

they are very poor. Augustine wrote nothing to the purpose concerning

faith; for he was first roused up and made a man by the Pelagians, in

striving against them. I can find no exposition upon the Epistles to

the Romans and Galatians, in which anything is taught pure and right.

What a happy time have we now as to the purity of the doctrine; but

alas, we little esteem it.

We must read the fathers cautiously, and lay them in the gold balance,

for they often stumbled and went astray, and introduced into their

books many monkish things. Augustine had more work and labor to wind

himself out of the writings of the fathers, than he had with the

heretics. Gregory expounds the five pounds mentioned in the Gospel,

which the husbandman gave to his servants to put to use, to be the

five senses, which the beasts also possess. The two pounds he

construes to be the reason and understanding.

The more I read the books of the fathers, the more I find myself

offended; for they were but men, and, to speak the truth with all

their repute and authority, undervalued the books and writings of the

sacred apostles of Christ. The Papists were not ashamed to say, What

are the Scriptures? We must read the holy fathers and teachers, for

they drew and sucked the honey out of the Scriptures. As if God's Word

were to be understood and conceived by none but themselves, whereas

the heavenly Father says: "Him shall ye hear," who in the Gospel

taught most plainly in parables and similitudes.

Augustine was the ablest and purest of all the doctors, but he could

not of himself bring things back to their original condition, and he

often complains that the bishops, with their traditions and

ordinances, trouble the church more than did the Jews with their laws.

I am persuaded that if at this time, St. Peter, in person, should

preach all the articles of the Holy Scriptures, and only deny the

pope's authority, power and primacy, and say that the pope is not the

head of all Christendom, they would cause him to be hanged.

Jerome should not be numbered among the teachers of the church, for he

was a heretic; yet I believe he was saved through faith in Christ. He

speaks not of Christ, but merely carries his name in his mouth.

Again he says, Jerome may be consulted for the purpose of historical

study. As to faith, and good true religion and doctrine, there is not

a word about them in his writings. He writes only respecting fasts,

sorts of food, virginity, etc. I have already proscribed Origin.

Chrysostom possesses no authority in my estimation. Basil is but a

monk, for whom I would not give the value of a hair. The Apology of

Philip Melanchthon is worth all the writings of all the doctors of the

church put together, not excepting those of St. Augustine.

Tertullian is a thorough Carlstad; Cyprian the martyr is a feeble

theologian.

The fathers said nothing decisive during their lives, respecting

justification by grace; but at their death they believed in it. This

was the more prudent course for them to follow, in order neither to

encourage mysticism, nor discourage good works. These worthy fathers

lived better than they wrote.

Since I became, by the grace of God, capable of understanding St.

Paul, I have been unable to esteem any of these doctors; they have

shrunk into insignificance in my estimation.

PREFACES AND DEDICATIONS

--of--

LUTHER'S "DEAR GENESIS."

HIS "SWAN SONG" AND HIS "IT IS FINISHED."

We certainly will be pardoned for issuing here and at this time the

Prefaces: of Veit Dietrich, who published the first of these lectures

in Latin; of Basil Faber, who was the first to translate parts from

Latin into German; of Dr. Walch, who issued one of the best editions

of Luther's complete works; and of Dr. Cole, who was the first to

translate a small part from Latin into English. The words of these

four men are a stronger appeal than we can write for the extensive

circulation among English Protestants of this the last and the

greatest of Luther's writings.

It is as Mathesius says: "Surely the last thoughts are the best when

they at the time refer to the Word of God and spring from it. The

sermons and books of aged men are worthy of consideration and

preservation." Hence, Jerome Weller called this commentary Luther's

Swan Song, and Morlin calls it the "Consummatum Est," "It Is

Finished," of Luther.

A new interest will be taken in the lines of this book when it is

remembered how dear they were to the Reformer himself. He frequently

expresses his love for his "dear Genesis," and had the prophetic

impression that his labors in Genesis and his earthly life would

terminate together. And so they did. This was the last public work of

Luther's forty years of professorial, ministerial and reformatory

labors. This saint of God, who was "a lion before men, but a lamb

before God," concludes his commentary thus: "This is now the dear Book

of Genesis. May our Lord grant that others may do it better than I

have done. I can no more; I am so weak. Pray to God for me, that he

may grant me a good holy hour at death!"

A friend, one of the collectors of these comments, records these

remarkable coincidences at the foot of the Commentary: "The man of

God, Doctor Martin Luther, finished his Commentaries on the Book of

Genesis in the year of our Lord 1545, on the 17th day of November;

having commenced them in the year 1535. In his opening remarks he had

said, 'This exposition I shall pore over and die over (_immorabor et

immoriar_).' According to this prophecy concerning himself he died at

Eisleben, Feb. 18th, 1546, piously and continually calling upon the

Son of God."

DEDICATION OF VEIT DIETRICH.

_To the Most Illustrious, High-Born Prince and Lord, John Ernest, Duke

of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave of Misnia._

It is this glorious and beautiful architectural building, the world;

that is, the heavens and earth with all that in them is, as the stars,

the elements, the trees, the plants, and all kinds of animals, etc.,

created so admirably for it and wisely ordered by God in their

relations to one another, that teaches us to know God as the one

eternal and almighty Creator and the right Master-builder, and to

understand that he created us for this life, body and soul, and gave

us reason and a spirit in order that he might thereby be worshipped.

And such knowledge would have remained pure and beautiful in the

hearts of all men without doubt and error of any kind had human nature

not fallen through disobedience into such miserable darkness and other

innumerable calamities.

For what blindness and ignorance of God, his nature and will, his

providence and government, there is in the hearts of all men in their

corrupt and infirm nature, is evident from the doubts which stick in

the hearts of everyone, concerning which Plato was right when he

wisely said, "That the minds of men are so overpowered with conviction

by the laws of the motion of the heavenly bodies and other testimonies

of nature, that they are compelled to confess that the world had for

its Creator an eternal and almighty divine Mind." And yet we find that

this knowledge and this conviction are darkened and deranged when we

consider how enormous and confused all things are in the world and in

this life, and when we find ourselves so often plunged into such great

misery and need without help or rescue as if there were no God left to

his creatures.

From such doubts all those mad-brained opinions of philosophers have

arisen. Some, as the Epicureans, denied the existence of God

altogether; others, as Aristotle and the Stoics, believed God was an

eternal mind, yet bound and confined him to second causes; just in the

same way as the poets fable that Saturn was bound by Jupiter. Thus

they ascribe to him no action, but that which the general concurrence

of second causes produces. Hence having their minds infatuated with

this delirium, they can neither ask any good thing of God, nor expect

any good thing from him, because, with them events are necessarily

only consequents which responsively follow upon their natural first

causes.

Therefore, while these men thus reasoned, they did not bring forth

their own private and personal opinions only, but the common errors

which lie concealed naturally in the minds of the whole human race.

The greatest part of mankind fix their eyes upon second causes; but

these never raise them so high as the great Over-ruler of all; so as

to wait for the government or pressing forth of second causes from and

by him, as Elijah did, when he prayed for rain in the midst of a

drought, and as Isaiah did, when he drove back an army of the enemy by

prayer.

When this darkness in the mind of man had followed upon the fall of

our first parents, God came forth anew out of his secret habitation,

and immediately made himself known again, with a distinct _voice_ and

with fresh testimonies; that the human race might not appear to be

created in vain nor without a mighty purpose, nor for destruction

only. The creation indeed was a great benefit and blessing from God.

But much more so was his revelation of himself to the human race from

the very "beginning," by certain testimonies and evidences; delivering

with a distinct voice the _promise_ of eternal life and salvation, and

making a declaration concerning a judgment to come, in which after

this life he would separate the righteous from the wicked. The Law

also, though known to nature at first, he renewed, and showed what was

his true worship. He caused it moreover to be attended with signs,

which could be wrought by no power less than infinite. He recalled the

dead to life, he stopped the motions of the heavens and the course of

the sun, and he even turned the sun back in his course to refute a

human delirium, which pretended to suspend God by second causes as by

the golden chain of Homer.

And lastly, the Son of God himself assumed human nature and lived

openly with us, taught us and became a sacrifice and offering for our

sins; and after having overcome death rose and lived again, and

discoursed with many in an open and familiar manner; and moreover

preached to a great multitude of hearers. And although these things,

on account of their greatness, seem to human judgment to be mere

fictions, yet they are attested and sealed by sure and certain

evidences and miracles; so that they are as surely true as that it is

mid-day when the sun has mounted in his course to the mid-heaven.

To these blessings we are also to add this, that God was pleased that

there should be a history of the human race from the very "beginning,"

and a record of all those testimonies, by which he revealed himself,

committed to writing and engraven on biblical monuments, which should

remain forever. Nor will God be known in any other way than by these

testimonies; nor will he consider any assembly of men, who are

ignorant of these testimonies, to be his Church, nor will he receive

the prayer of those, who do not call upon him as the same God, who

does thus make himself known by these his testimonies.

The Mohammedans and Turks call upon God as the Creator of universal

nature, but they set themselves against his Son and his Son's

doctrine. They say, that he who can approve such doctrine cannot be

God. And as to his Son, in whom God more especially reveals himself,

and concerning whom he says himself, "This is my beloved Son in whom I

am well pleased, hear ye him," on him they spit with infuriated

madness!

And what says Plato here? Although Plato does raise his mind above the

common opinions of the vulgar, and does not ascribe divinity to

statues of wood and stone, but really does inquire after God with very

wise reasoning; and although he defines him to be "an eternal mind"

and the great Cause of all good in nature, yet he still errs very

widely from the true God. But how is that, some one may say? What

description of God will you find more appropriate than Plato's? I

acknowledge that he thought most learnedly and wisely concerning the

nature of God; but concerning his will, he hangs in doubt himself and

leaves all his readers and disciples in doubt also; and to use his own

expression "bestormed and shipwrecked in their reasoning." Neither

Plato nor Mohammed knew whether God heard and received the unworthy;

nor how, nor why, he received them.

Plato ought however to have inquired not only how God manifested

himself in the creation of things, and what traces of himself he

impressed upon the face of nature, but also whether or not he had

uttered any voice by any certain signs or testimonies, and how that

voice was spread abroad and made known. He might have heard these

things when studying mathematics in Egypt, and might easily have

learned all particulars from their neighbors the Jews. But the greater

part of men always despise the voice and the Church of God.

But to what purpose is all this far-fetched Introduction? It is for

this end, that we may know the true Church of God is nowhere but among

those, who have and who embrace the writings of the prophets and the

apostles; that God is nowhere rightly called upon, but where the

doctrine contained in these books truly shines forth. And here again

we have to consider another singular blessing of God: That he was

pleased to cause a whole connected history of all ages, from "the

beginning," to be recorded in these books, and has preserved them by

his own peculiar care. Nay, the whole Mosaic Economy was ordained for

this very preservation of them. For what was the whole of that

Economy, but a school and library of these books?

And the fountain of all is the _first book_ of Moses, called Genesis,

which profane men may perhaps laugh at and consider that it does not

differ from the "Timon" of Plato, in which also the creation of the

world is described. But the godly reader knows that there is a wide

difference between profane descriptions and this description given us

from above. For the latter not only informs us of the beginnings and

nature of created bodies, but gives us a description of God himself.

And it contains also an account of the beginnings of _the Church_; for

the sake of which all other things were created and made, all which

things we must know before we can understand whence the doctrine of

the church proceeded and how the knowledge of it was spread abroad in

the world.

All heathen superstitions crept into the assemblies of men without any

certain authors, and were afterwards accumulated by fanatical persons

on various occasions. But from "the book of Genesis" we learn that the

doctrine of the church was delivered to our first parents by the voice

of God, and that thence the knowledge of it was preserved and spread

abroad in the world by a continued series of persons and events, and

not without manifest evidences and testimonies. Enoch was taken up

into heaven; Noah truly preached of the Flood and was afterwards

preserved in the Flood; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc., for there

are many signs and evidences that they were teachers and priests,

truly called of God, were most certain witnesses, that the doctrine

which they embraced and preached was from heaven.

Symmachus objects against Christians, that all agree that the oldest

doctrine must be the true one; but that the apostolic doctrine is a

recent fiction. But Symmachus is here in a very great error; for it

can be most manifestly proved that the doctrine now held by the Church

is the first doctrine that was ever delivered to the world. And that

is plainly shown in this "Book of Genesis," where both the doctrine is

recorded as having been delivered of God; and also the increasing

nations are described, which departed from the purity of that doctrine

and formed for themselves new opinions concerning God and set up

idols, instead of worshipping him. Therefore, we must come to this

Book for a description of the beginnings of the Church, and for

testimonies of its propagation; and it is to this Book that all

doctrines must be referred in order to discover their origin or

antiquity.

Philosophers knew nothing of the cause of sin, of the cause of death,

nor of the cause of the great calamities to which the human race are

subject; nor did they know anything of the restitution of all things,

nor of eternal life. They were continually inquiring, how there is so

much misery in the nature of the human race, which is so exalted and

excellent. How often do they exclaim against and lament man's violent

and impetuous inclinations to vice! They see that his virtues are weak

and that they are only faint attempts which soon vanish and end in

nothing; as we see in Pausanius, who was the great general of the

Greeks against Mardonius; and in Alexander; also in Themistocles and

many others. Aristotle seeks for the cause of the death of the human

race and of all other living creatures in their material nature; and

to make good his hypotheses, he enumerates privation among the

principles of natural things; that he might in some way or other make

out a continual lapse of matter, decaying and perishing, in order to

assume other forms.

But the Book now under consideration sets before us a far different

cause of the death of the human race and of the corruptions which

defile it; it shows that the cause was a turning away from God in our

human nature at "the beginning;" which human nature, casting away the

light and knowledge of God and of life, procured to itself a confusion

in its powers and a subjection to the tyranny of the devil and of

death. The greatness and enormity of these evils appeared in our first

parents, in the murder of Cain and in other horrible wickednesses,

seen in those first flowers of the human race, which excelled all

others in purity and excellence.

Then again we have a beautiful view and proof of this in the

propagation and continual renewing of the Church; where it appears

that the Church is not a kingdom or body politic, belonging to this

world, enclosed and guarded by armed garrisons; but a body formed of

widely dispersed assemblies, though not hidden and obscure; bearing

about with them the divine voice and the Word, and dispensing it in

public congregations of honest men, to kings, rulers and cities; and

calling and drawing many everywhere to prayer and to the true worship

of God; though they are all the while derided, cast out, and driven

away by tyrants and by the great part of mankind.

Melchizedek, whom the old divines supposed was Shem, the son of Noah,

surpassed all the men of that time in wisdom, righteousness and age;

and he preached for a long time to the people of Sodom and the

neighboring places, for his dwelling was not more than eight English

miles from Sodom. Therefore no doubt he had a congregation, by no

means insignificant, which contained the families of Abraham, Lot and

many others. For although the Church was small, yet there was always

some Church existing; and that no obscure nor inconsiderable

assemblage. And these little schools or congregations of hearers were

protected and defended from on high. For all the neighboring cities,

Sodom the chief in power, with infuriated madness despised the

heavenly doctrine, and railed at and hated its preachers.

In meditating on this book of Genesis the picture Moses gives us of

the Church at that time is to be continually and diligently

considered. And indeed in reading these histories, the following six

particulars are to be carefully borne in mind.

_First, the doctrine of our primitive fathers is to be considered,_

and that the prophets and apostles drew many things from these

fountains. For our forefathers and the prophets learned the benefits

of Christ, both out of the promise given to Abraham and from other

parts of those histories. How eruditely and learnedly does Paul draw

up the article of righteousness by faith out of that word of Genesis,

"Abraham believed in God, and it was counted unto him for

righteousness." And David ascribes unto Christ a priesthood like that

of Melchizedek; marking particularly his office of blessing; when he

blessed Abraham and promised him in the sweetest words, the favor and

help of God; which was different from the office of the Levitical

priesthood.

This is a most rich part of the Scripture of Genesis as the following

commentary frequently points out, and as the godly reader at once

perceives in this very history itself; for he knows that these

histories are to be read in a far different spirit and with a widely

different intent, than all profane and heathen histories. Heathen

histories merely set before us examples of civil manners, and show

that the events attending honest designs are for the most part good,

and pleasant, and successful; but that the most fatal calamities await

atrocious wickedness. And this is nearly all that we learn from

profane and heathen histories. But these prophetic writings contain

things of much higher moment; the doctrine of God, the divine

testimonies concerning eternal things and the government of the

Church.

_Secondly. We must observe and consider these miracles._ Not merely to

feast our wondering curiosity on their singularity or novelty, but

hold them fast as testimonies and evidences; intended to show what

kind of doctrine and what kind of teachers God approves. All those

marvelous and signal acts of God are above nature, and wrought as

"seals" of the doctrine. For we are not to imagine that God was in

jest, when he forewarned the antediluvian world of the Flood, and when

he saved the family of Noah alone from that mighty Deluge. All these

his mighty acts were testimonials of his providence and of his

doctrine, which the aged Noah preached.

_Thirdly. Let the government, defense and protection of the Church be

diligently observed;_ which, although it seems to be neglected of God,

yet exhibits most illustrious proofs of the presence of God and of his

providence.

The Emperor Augustus ruled the world by sure and established laws; he

had his armies, to whose care he entrusted the safety of his

provinces, and he had also his wealth and other resources, wherewith

to support his armies. Thus a political government is fortified and

protected by human laws, counsels and power. But the government of the

Church is far different from this.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wander about like private men and strangers

in the land without any human resources for protection; and they

collect together a Church by the Word or Voice of God, and by the Holy

Ghost. And though they are unceasingly exercised with various sorrows

and distresses, they still find themselves delivered from all evils,

protected and defended from above!

So also Jacob, when about to take his journey with all his family

through the territories of his angry and embittered brother, is filled

with fears and hesitations, and the difficulties seem insurmountable

by all human counsel, but in the night he wrestles with the Lord and

is encouraged, confirmed and protected.

And many like examples are contained in this little but momentous book

of Record, which shows us that God is ever with his Church. It

commands and encourages us also to seek and hope for help and defense

from him. For these things were recorded and handed down to posterity

that we might be encouraged by such examples and might know that God

in the same manner is ever willing to protect and defend us.

_Fourthly. We must bear in mind the continual succession of the

Church._ Men magnify the ordinary succession of all human things; the

titles and honors and decorations of parents and the magnificence of

houses and places. Cain, Ishmael and Esau arrogated to themselves

dominion and superiority in the Church, because they had the advantage

of their brethren in age. The ancient Babylonians maintained that

their opinions concerning God were the most true, because that was the

most ancient dwelling place of our fathers, and because it was the

capital and citadel of their empire; just as bishops and colleges now

on account of an ordinary succession assume to themselves this

peculiar honor, that they cannot err; and that they are the habitation

and the pillars of the truth.

But Paul shows us in Romans 9:6, etc., that all such judgments and

opinions are refuted in Genesis, where the apostle shows in the most

forcible manner that the Church is not propagated and continued by any

prerogatives or privileges of birth or place, but by the calling and

Word of God. The family of Jacob was the Church; because it retained

the doctrine of the Word from heaven; but Esau did not retain it.

Thus the Church which fell away and declined in Palestine was restored

by the calling of the great teacher Abraham, and by the renewal of the

promise to him with additional evidences and testimonies, and this

history shows that the Church is the care of God, and is regenerated

and revived by him; as Paul says, "And he gave gifts unto men,

prophets and apostles, and pastors, and teachers."

Let us not then be moved by honors of dignity, or places, or an

orderly succession, so as to be made to believe that the church is

that assembly of men who oppose the Gospel and who would kill and

exterminate all honest men on account of their profession of the

doctrine of godliness, as Cain did.

_Fifthly. We must bear in mind while reading this Book of Genesis, the

lives, manners and actions of the persons recorded in it._ We have

before been speaking of the doctrine and government of the Church, and

they who despise these will never truly value or prize this book. For

such men seek in these histories as in all others, and are interested

only in the various commotions and changes of states and kingdoms, and

the examples and lives of the leaders of armies and the wonderful

events of wars. But here they read also the conversations and lives of

shepherds; which are like real pastorals, better than Virgil's

Bucolica. And they here read also the marriages and quarrels of women,

which they despise as altogether without interest. All such readers

and proud men err, and do not understand that it is the Church which

is here portrayed by Moses, which is poor and humble in external

appearance and unlike mighty empires; yet, as the members of that

Church lived a civil life, its history consists in domestic and

political actions; according to the vocation of those members of the

Church of God and the various occurrences which took place in their

lives.

Thus Abraham taught his guests concerning God, and with such effect

that they themselves said, that he was an angel from God; for it is

indeed a great work, verily the greatest of all works to teach rightly

concerning God. This same man carries on war when circumstances

require it and defeats a huge army of the Chaldeans with a very small

number, showing thereby that true courage is a divine motion in the

soul from God. This same man is also a master of a family, is full of

pure affection, and loves his wives and his children. He is also a

diligent man in all his domestic affairs. He defends his fountains and

his cattle. In buying he evinces peculiar care, justice and equity;

things which he knows God requires in all the dealings of men with

each other. And in all this tenor of domestic and political life

Abraham's great aim is this, that thereby his confession and

profession might be made manifest by his actions. In all the common

calamities moreover which attend this life of trouble, he exercises

the fear of God, patience and calling upon God in prayer; and he

experiences at the hand of God many and great deliverances.

All these things in the lives of the holy patriarchs are committed to

_letters_ and recorded in this Holy Book; to the end that

superstitions of every kind might be refuted. For in all ages

superstitious men have imagined and sought out various ceremonies and

modes of religious action, which are not consistent even with common

sense, and these superstitious ceremonies they have pompously

commended to the people under the title of great acts of religion. All

the laws of celibacy, of particular meats and drinks, of afflicting

and torturing the body, to make a feigned outside show of religion,

are as ancient as the world itself. But let us oppose to all these mad

inventions the domestic and political lives and conversations of the

patriarchal fathers, which were full of examples of faith, full of the

most honorable and kind duties toward their fellow men, and full of

the tenderest affection. Nevertheless, these holy characters were not

without ceremonies. There were sacrifices; there were certain

explanations of the Word and will of God; there were certain holy

exercises. The possession of letters and of learning also rested with

these men especially. From them it is that we received theology,

history and medicine. Therefore they must doubtless have been engaged

in various domestic duties and exercises; that those of the less

experienced ages might be instructed by them and trained to virtue.

_Sixthly. Even the faults and falls of the great men, recorded in this

Book must be particularly considered._ They took the greatest care not

to rush into anything against their consciences. But some offenses

will arise in the best of men even against their wills. And sometimes

offenses occur of which men are wholly ignorant and unconscious before

they take place. Lot, when in the great grief of his mind he had drunk

to excess, was defiled by an incestuous commerce with his own

daughters.

But in these slips and falls we are to observe a distinctive

difference. These holy men who feared God, as I said, were on their

guard not to rush into anything against their consciences; and when

they happened to fall they deplored the weakness of human nature and

learned to see the value of the promise of deliverance through the

Saviour, who was to come. And they at length knew that God had

received them again in mere mercy, for the sake of the great Deliverer

promised; and by that confidence and trust in the promised mercy they

returned to God; and therefore they obtained pardon and were delivered

from their sins and the punishment of them. Hence Jacob preaches and

proclaims the angel, the Son of God, by whom he said he was "delivered

from all evil"; namely, from sin and eternal punishment. But the

wicked, as Cain, the "giants," and the people of Sodom, defiled

themselves with various sins and iniquities in an open contempt of

God, and rushed into eternal destruction. Therefore the wide

difference between the falls and punishments of these two characters

is to be diligently observed in reading this book of Genesis.

These observations I have made by way of Introduction for the benefit

of the inexperienced, that being thus forewarned they might know that

the doctrine contained in these sacred histories is concerning the

most momentous things, and is most copious and extensive, which indeed

the following commentary will most learnedly and blessedly open up and

explain. Let those therefore who read it bear in mind that the six

particular admonitions which I have here mentioned; and let their aim

in reading be this, that by meditating on the lives of the holy men

here recorded, they may become accustomed to the fear of God and to

faith in him; and to call upon him in prayer and supplication.

And as there is no old commentary of the book of Genesis existing, and

as it is well known to all that this book is calculated to be of the

utmost benefit and profit, thanks are due to the Reverend Doctor

Luther, our teacher, both from myself and from all who fear God, for

having undertaken this exposition, by doing which he has rendered a

most essential service; not only to us, but to all posterity; because

he has here opened up and explained the most important things; and has

also so commented upon those most excellent men and lights of the

Church, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, that their virtues because

of this commentary shine forth with much renewed brightness.

Before this, when the people heard the names of these luminaries of

the Church, they had no particular thoughts upon their spiritual

excellencies or their heroism; nor did they consider them to be above

the common rank of shepherds; but now, they learn to acknowledge the

peculiar presence of God with them, and to render thanks unto God that

they were called of him and that they so wonderfully governed and

revived the Church. From these also they have borrowed eminent

examples of the fear of God, of faith, of confession, of patience, and

of many other holy virtues. On these they fix their eyes as on leaders

and lights of the Church, and inquire of their doctrine for the

confirmation of their faith. In a word they venerate them as their

fathers; that is, as teachers of all who call upon Jesus Christ; and

they understand also that these same patriarchs are the fathers in the

flesh of those murderers, the Jews, and of others who, like the Jews

of old, hold up Christ for a laughing-stock and "crucify him afresh"

day by day.

Indeed, it is no small step toward godliness to know the doctrines of

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; and to exalt these eminent men in

our esteem.

And that this commentary might be a benefit to more, and might be

handed down to posterity, as Doctor Luther had not leisure enough to

commit it to writing, with the help of my friends, Caspar Cruciger and

George Rorary, I collected it with the greatest diligence and speed,

as we received it from the mouth of our venerable teacher Luther; and

faithfully committed it to paper; and I hope our services will be

acceptable to all our readers who fear the Lord.

This useful and valuable monument of divine knowledge and experience

therefore I dedicate to you, most Illustrious Prince, John Ernest;

which, I doubt not, you will prize more than any monuments of marble

or of brass. For I know it is your desire that this noble work of

Martin Luther should be preserved for the Church's sake; and I am

equally assured that you love and cherish it with a pious regard, and

after the example of your father; and I am also persuaded that you

love the author of it; which also you do after the example of your

reverend father, that most upright prince, Elector John, Duke of

Saxony, whose worth we thus deservedly record; who, although he was

far inferior to our most eminent leaders, whom I have before

mentioned, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; yet I may justly rank him

with that Pharaoh, King of Egypt, whom Joseph instructed in the true

knowledge of God; and who gave a quiet dwelling to the family of

Jacob. For thus your father also learned the Gospel with a holy desire

that he might worship God. And he cherished and adorned the churches,

and devoted all his counsels with the greatest moderation, to the

common peace and tranquility of Germany.

Receive therefore, Illustrious Prince, this great work, which is now

dedicated to you; that by reading these wonderful histories of the

government, the perils, and the defense of the Church of God, you may

learn to govern and strengthen your own exalted mind.

The reason why this commentary did not appear all at once, but in

separate volumes, was because the labor of collecting and committing

it to paper was very great; and we have not much idle time at our

disposal, from the duties of our calling, as many dream we have; nor

as those have, who only vaunt and talk of their great and numerous

good works. I hope however that this my candid confession will be

accepted by the reader, if I shall put into his hands a part of our

labors first; though it is not a small part; and I promise that the

remainder shall be added to it in a short time. For as one of old

says, "A godly mind surmounts the hardest toil."

We who are engaged in church work have not only the labor of

commenting and teaching, but we have also to endure many other

burdens; and that, too, with much courage and firm determination of

mind.

Nor am I deterred from my purpose even by the opinions of those, who

say that nothing which our adversaries advance, who reproach this kind

of doctrine (which, through the goodness and mercy of God, sounds

forth in our Church), ought to be published to the world. For God's

will is that he should be proclaimed aloud, both by the living voice

and by the writings of his Church. Hence it is said concerning the

Church's living voice, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast

thou perfected praise." And concerning her writings, "These things

shall be written for the generation to come." God's will is, that the

doctrine revealed by him should be delivered faithfully and purely to

posterity. And his will also is that we should inculcate it by

speaking, by discoursing, by commenting, and by writing; that it might

become familiarly known to us. And this continual meditation and

application of the pen are of essential service to the promotion of

godliness.

In a word, on what subjects can we meditate and what things can we

commit to paper more useful and important than these? I approve of the

labors of all, who devote themselves to the useful arts. I praise

those who describe the nature and properties of plants and adorn any

of the arts given us from above. But it is not more the duty of men to

philosophize upon plants or upon the anatomy of the human body, than

to collect with a godly intent those things which were delivered to us

of God, attended with sure and certain testimonies.

And as to our adversaries, who reproach the doctrine of our Church,

all such are refuted in this very book of Genesis by those sure

witnesses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Since, therefore, we have

such eminent men as these, as witnesses on our side; nay, as our

teachers, too; let us not be moved by the calumnies and reproaches of

the wicked. Reader, farewell. To God I commend you.

Christmas, 1544.

DEDICATION OF BASIL FABER.

_To the Worthy, Honorable and Illustrious Christopher von Steinberg,

my Gracious Lord:_

How one should read the books of Moses and what one should chiefly

learn from them are fully set forth by our beloved and highly honored

father, Doctor Luther, in many places of his writings; namely, one

should first of all and above all concentrate his attention upon the

very loving and comforting promises concerning our Lord and Saviour,

some of which are very clear and plain in the sacred writings of

Moses, as Gen. 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the

woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head,

and thou shalt bruise his heel." Also, Gen. 22:18, "And in thy seed

shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Likewise Deut. 18:15,

"Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of

thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken." In

the second place attention should be given to the glorious and

beautiful examples of faith, of love, of suffering, of patience, of

prayer and other spiritual characteristics and traits in the saints,

as in Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others. How God was

disposed toward them, governed, protected and heard them. And thirdly,

study the examples of unbelief among the ungodly and of the divine

wrath and judgment, in Cain, Ishmael, Esau, in the Flood and in the

destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. For all these are nowhere described

more truly and fully than in the writings of Moses; and such examples

illustrate, if they are rightly studied, how the entire Old Testament

is to be used with profit; namely, that we learn to trust and believe

in God from the examples of the saints set before us, how God received

them, ruled and led them and wonderfully protected them. But from the

examples of the wrath and judgment of God learn to fear him.

Such passages are not only here and there in all the books of Moses,

but in his first book he treats also the following important themes:

Whence all creatures, especially man, have their origin; also what sin

and death are and how man may be delivered from them and become truly

pious, which every man seeks and desires; for these are the most

important subjects of all the sacred Scriptures. Likewise, how the

Church originated and grew, often came in need and danger, and was

wonderfully preserved by God.

The foregoing one should know, if he would read Moses, and especially

his first book, Genesis. But so much is in these sound and useful

lessons and explanations of Genesis by our honored father, Doctor

Martin Luther, of blessed memory, that I will give a short account of

it. And first it is true that this dear and great man, our beloved

father and prophet, Doctor Martin Luther, served the Church to his

last days in many and various labors. In his exposition of the

prophetical and apostolical writings, he has most faithfully

explained, enforced and defended the doctrines concerning the

forgiveness of sins, righteousness before God, and eternal salvation.

However his expositions of his "beloved Genesis," as he delighted to

call it, are a key or paragon to all his other writings and books, and

a very rich treasure in which an excellent theology is gathered and

formulated, as every diligent reader will find for himself. For what

is now and then treated in many writings of Doctor Luther, flow

together here in one work, which might rightly be called Dr. Luther's

Theology. Further you find here for the first time many useful reports

of all kinds of spiritual and theological discussions, as they spring

up continuously, and especially critical and special instruction

almost on every article of Christian doctrine, of God, of the three

Persons in the divine Essence, of the creation, of sin, of faith and

the forgiveness of sin; of the Law and the Gospel, and how both

doctrines are to be distinguished from one another, which have never

been treated better and more fully than in this book. Also, of the

true Church, of the papacy of Rome, against which you will find here

very powerful storms, almost on every page. Against the Jews and all

their lies, dreams and phantasies; also some powerful discussions and

strong refutations of their prejudices, comments, corruptions and

misunderstandings. In addition also the correct exegesis or

explanations of many difficult passages of the Scriptures, and strong

consolation in all kinds of spiritual need and temptations, as against

doubt and unbelief, the fear and the crisis of death, and the like.

Also, the refutation of many false teachings and heresies both old and

new. In addition some fine and useful histories illustrating the

course of the Gospel in our day. Likewise prophecies concerning

Germany as to its sad future because it lightly esteems the Word and

is so very unthankful, some of which have already been realized and

others are about to be. Finally you find at times, according to the

drift and occasion of the expositions, good counsels and reports also

about external and worldly affairs, to know which fully is necessary,

useful and pleasant.

Therefore then, as I considered it a sin that such a treasure should

remain only in the Latin language and that others, who were

unacquainted with it, should be robbed of it, especially since Dr.

Martin Luther was the teacher and prophet of Germany; and in order

that everybody, especially the fathers of homes and the people at

large, might enjoy this treasure to their profit, advancement and

consolation, have I in my weak ability translated the first two parts

of the Exposition into German in the plainest and most faithful

manner, and dedicated the same to your high honor and to other

Christians of the nobility, who have been admonished to love and

further such Christian works, for a testimony and praise that your

highness was disposed in a Christian and praiseworthy manner to

further such useful church works, and heartily inclined to do them.

May our beloved God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant that it

may be helpful to many pious Christians! Herewith I commend your

highness and the benevolent Christians of the worthy nobility to the

care and protection of Almighty God.

Your humble, willing servant,

BASIL FABER.

Dated Magdeburg, St. Michael, A.D. 1557.

PREFACE OF DR. JOHN GEORGE WALCH.

Among the illustrious gifts of grace with which God endowed our

beloved and blessed Dr. Martin Luther, as the chosen agent for the

reformation of the Church, one of the greatest was that he did not

only love the divine Word from his heart and held it indeed, dearer

than thousands of gold and silver; but also that he possessed a deep

insight into and was mighty in explaining the Scriptures of the Old

and New Testaments. Both were united in a high degree in him by the

wisdom and goodness of God. He was indeed a great lover of the divine

Word and found in it his greatest pleasure, when he studied it to be

established in his faith by learning from it the way he should walk.

In the many and various trials he had to experience he could draw from

it the one consolation, of which he gave many proofs and at the same

time left behind him a testimony that can not be gainsaid, which

confirms that for which he is in this respect honored. For his love

and high appreciation of the sacred Scriptures he makes apparent upon

every occasion. From the beginning of his academic career to its close

he lectured constantly and untiringly on the Scriptures and sought to

make his hearers acquainted with them. He founded his teachings on

them and was therefore firm and unmovable in the same. He used them

against his opponents as the sword of the spirit, put them to flight

and refuted all their errors, so that they could not do anything

against him, especially the Papists. He praised the Scriptures most

highly and admonished all to read them and pray to God for true light

if they desired the true knowledge and wished to further their

salvation. As great as was his love to the divine Books so well was he

experienced in them and God gave him great talents to understand and

explain them. He did not hang to the outward shell nor did he seek to

apply in his expositions an extensive human knowledge; but he came to

the right foundation and the true and real purpose of the Spirit of

God, whether he had before him the legal or the evangelical Word, and

knew a clear and impressive way to give the true meaning and will of

God in the respective passages, especially concerning the universal

sinful and deep ruin of mankind, the grace and merciful love of God,

Christ the kernel of all the holy Scriptures, righteousness by faith,

the active and working character of faith, as also other points of

life and doctrine, which he did not do the least in the historical

parts of the Scriptures.

Such gifts Luther received from God because he was chosen as the agent

of the Reformation, and they were by all means necessary to that end.

For by means of the Scriptures the light penetrated the darkness

covering the world, and revealed the abominations of the papacy. Hence

he translated the Scriptures into German from the original texts. He

placed the Bible in the hands of the people. Then in his sermons,

academic lectures and everywhere he diligently explained in many

excellent expositions the divine Books, where he showed how one is to

understand the Word of God and apply it fruitfully to his edification.

These expository and exegetical writings of the sainted Luther are

written with a talent especially adapted for the work, and they have

also at all times brought special blessings, although we deny not that

some are to be preferred to others. And among Luther's very best

writings all agree, and rightly so, is his Commentary on Genesis, a

short historical account of which I will now give.

Luther began this work at Wittenberg in his lectures to the university

students in 1536, and ended it after ten years of labor, Nov. 17,

1545, only a few months before his death. So John Mathesius reports in

his "Sermons on the Life of Luther," and then adds, Luther because of

worry left Wittenberg for a time to visit the Prince of Anhalt, at

Merseburg, and wrote, "Upon his return home, he finished his Genesis,

Nov. 17, 1545, on which he had labored ten years." Ludwig von

Seckendorf's "History of Lutheranism" is the authority that he began

this work in 1536, while in the margin of the Latin edition is printed

that he entered upon the exposition of the twenty-second chapter, Oct.

27, 1539.

In the meantime the wisdom of God directed that this glorious treasure

should not lie buried, but should be brought to light for the

quickening of many souls, and issued periodically in parts. The

beginning was made while Luther was still living, and the first part,

the Creation and the Flood, appeared in 1545, containing his lectures

on the first eleven chapters of Genesis, edited by Veit Dietrich, who

heard Luther deliver the lectures while a student at Wittenberg, to

which he wrote a dedication, and Luther added a short but precious

"Address to the Christian Reader" [both of which we print in full].

Luther died in 1546, and Veit Dietrich in 1549, but Jerome Besoldus,

pastor at Nuremberg, continued the work and issued the three other

parts or volumes at Nuremberg. The second volume, The History of

Abraham, with a preface by Michael Roting, professor at Nuremberg,

from the twelfth chapter to verse 10 of the twenty-fifth chapter, was

published in 1550. The third volume, to the thirty-sixth chapter,

appeared in 1552, with a preface by Philip Melanchthon, and the fourth

volume to the end of Genesis, in 1554, prefaced by Besoldus himself.

Jerome Baumgartner, a councilman of Nuremberg, and a great lover of

Luther's writings, appointed Besoldus to this work upon the death of

Veit Dietrich, Melanchthon and Rorary approving. Jerome Besoldus

studied at Wittenberg, heard these lectures from Luther's mouth, and

diligently wrote a large part of them as they were delivered. He

stayed in the home of Luther and ate at his table. He made use, also,

of what Dietrich, Cruciger, Rorary and Stoltz had written from

Luther's mouth. He says when Veit Dietrich died while preparing the

second volume, the enemies of the Gospel sought to prevent its

publication, and there was little hope that it should appear in print

complete. But God graciously heard the prayers of the godly in these

dark and distressing days, who longed for the last and best writings

of their beloved Luther, when Councilman Baumgartner resolved that at

least what Veit Dietrich had prepared for the second volume should

appear, and the result was the work complete was printed.

This commentary was delivered to the students in Latin and first

published in that language. But soon arrangements were perfected to

issue it in German. Basil Faber, who died while rector in Erfurt, a

celebrated educator, translated the first two volumes, whose

dedication we give in full; and John Guden, senior pastor at

Brunswick, translated volumes three and four, and his dedication was

to the same person and written on Epiphany of the same year, 1557, a

little before Faber's dedication.

Other editions of the commentary, both in Latin and German, followed,

and then it was incorporated in the editions of the complete works of

Luther; in the Wittenberg edition, in Latin and German, and in the

Altenburg and the Leipsic collections in German, and all subsequent

editions.

That Luther himself did not make much of this work is a proof of his

humility and that he ascribed nothing to himself, but all to the grace

of God. Nevertheless the commentary is worthy of all the praise it has

received. In the Formula of Concord our forefathers referred to it as

a _"Commentarius praeclarus,"_ or an excellent commentary and the

Leipsic and Wittenberg theologians in their final report and

explanation, especially against Flacius, mention "The Augsburg

Confession," the Postils, and other sermons of Luther which are full

of the precious teachings and strong consolation of the Holy Ghost,

and all his other books on doctrine, especially those written after

the Diet of Augsburg, in 1530, among the best of which are his

explanations of certain Prophets and the Psalms, the Epistle to the

Galatians; and in this select list is classified the "Commentary on

Genesis." They designate it as a "rich exposition, with which he

closed his calling, his ministerial office and his life in a blessed

way. Because of this we justly esteem it highly. For in the same

commentary he gave full and free expression to his last convictions

and confession on most of the articles of the Christian faith and

bequeathed them to the world."

In like manner have other divines of our Church judged of this

commentary and held that we should esteem it highly and that it proves

Luther was truly a great expounder of the Scriptures. (Basil Faber's

dedication is quoted at length here, also Veit Dietrich at other

places, but we refer the reader to their documents, which we give in

full.)

John Guden says: "Luther has left us in this Commentary a rich

treasury as a legacy, and what a valuable treasure it is, they will

truly learn, who diligently read it. As a summary, one finds here the

true kernel of the doctrine our God has revealed to us through Dr.

Luther, as Melanchthon, Jonas and other spiritual men have also

rightly judged."

Mathesius with good spiritual taste says: "He who learns to know

Christ in Genesis has instruction in the power of the divine Word and

knows what sin and righteousness are, which avail before God. My

testimony concerning this blessed Commentary I wish to leave behind me

that my natural and spiritual children may not forget it, but esteem

it highly all their lives. My Genesis, for the sake of instruction and

consolation, I have frequently read through, underscored and

described. Remember this commentary explained to me the Word and will

of Christ, and from it God gave comfort, rest and life to my troubled

soul. For when our case is like the suffering of the patriarchs and

the exposition suits one's heart as if the Doctor really speaks with

us, then the Commentary is incorporated in us and lives in us, and

refreshes and quickens one's heart." Joachim Morlin, in "How to Read

With Profit the Writings and Books of the Beloved and Blessed Man of

God, Dr. Martin Luther," praises above all others this Commentary and

says: "Read the following 'Consummatum Est,' 'It Is Finished,' of this

holy man, 'The Beloved Genesis,' in which as in a new world he brings

forth and opens up not only certain parts but all the treasures and

riches of the wisdom of the divine Word, so that there is not another

book like it on earth since the times of the apostles. Luther's

Genesis makes all theologians scholars." Jerome Weller says: "Luther's

Commentary on Genesis is his Swan Song. For although all Luther's

writings are full of manifold doctrines and consolations, yet his

Commentary on Genesis excels all others. There is hardly a temptation

for which he has not given in this Commentary a sure remedy; yes,

Luther has excelled himself in this Commentary. Therefore I

continually admonish all theological students again and again that

they read this commentary diligently and assiduously and never lay it

out of their hands, but seek to be wedded to it. For I can assure you

I received more benefit from this commentary than from almost all the

other writings of Luther. Therefore I will never be satisfied nor

tired of reading it. If all that has been written since the apostles

were gathered in one heap, they would not be worthy to be compared

with this Commentary. I know that I speak the truth, and all who have

experienced the truth and learned theologians share my convictions."

Not that the work does not praise itself but that we may better know

that not only a few but that the teachers of our Church generally,

have at all times justly emphasized its praise, I add a few more

testimonies. Timothy Kirchner, in the preface to his _"Thesaurus Dr.

Lutheri"_ (1565), says: "In this book all theologians must go to

school, and no one will graduate in it. Luther, the man of God, has so

clearly and richly treated in it nearly all the greatest and most

important articles of our Christian faith, that the like, the holy

Bible alone excepted, has not appeared in the world and indeed will

not. It will be and remain indeed a _'Thesaurus thesaurorum,'_ a

treasury of treasuries, and a perennial fountain of all consolation,

along with the Bible." David Chytraeus (1557) also does not know how

to praise this work enough, he says: "It is a Swan Song and at the

same time a complete work in every respect. Not only is it a rich

treasure of spiritual wisdom and learning, clothed in fine, rich

language, and an accurate explanation of all the difficult passages

and questions, but it has also developed in its language a special and

characteristic power, which moves the soul of the reader and inspires

him to true piety, fear of God, faith and other virtues." He

admonishes all the godly attentively and diligently to read this last

work of Luther, and advertise it in preference to other writings,

which are indeed learned, but are not as awakening as this one. Daniel

Cramer agrees with Chytraeus and says in his "Isagogics," in 1630:

"Whoever has not read this Commentary is not worthy of the name of a

theologian." Abraham Calov in his preface to his "Commentary on

Genesis" (1671), calls this "A golden book," and Thomas Crenius

(1704), "A work that can not be praised enough." Christian Gerber

expresses his conviction thus: "The writings of Luther are worthy to

be esteemed more highly and used more diligently. His Commentary on

Genesis is a remarkable book, not only awakening but useful and

edifying to read. He has so beautifully described the virtues and

piety of the holy patriarchs that one can hardly read them enough when

he once begins. One could draw from this Commentary an excellent

patriarchal and Christian system of ethics, and it is to be hoped that

some theologian will do it, which would indeed be a useful and

excellent book." Again John Heinreich von Seelen writes: "It is a

treasure more precious that gold, containing inestimable riches of

holy thoughts, so that some have rightly judged that this is the best

of all Luther's books." Von Seckendorf writes: "One is really amazed

at the almost incredible gifts of Luther to explain the holy

Scriptures so critically and clearly without any great effort. He

studied the greatest expounders of the Bible. He was little concerned

about his words and style and dictated nothing, and the same thoughts

he uttered on other occasions in different words, for he was never in

want of words." Many more like testimonies could be quoted.

The foregoing words of praise are well grounded, as every one who has

thoughtfully and diligently read this book must confess. What Richard

Simon, the Jewish critic, and Pallavicinus, Maimburg and other enemies

of the Protestant faith have said against it only prove their own

ignorance and darkness in spiritual knowledge and makes Luther shine

forth all the brighter. When von Seckendorf wished to make extracts

from this Commentary, so many important subjects and passages were

found that he did not know which to select.

There is a glorious work for this book of the sainted Luther to

accomplish. From it the learned and the unlearned may be taught the

true meaning of Genesis, gain a critical insight into many theological

subjects and reap much for their private devotions. Therefore it is

well that new editions of it are constantly being issued and an

opportunity is given to a larger number to read it. This edition will

be found more correct and accurate than the others, and also more

serviceable and convenient. This is due to the publisher, Mr. John

Gottgetreu Mueller, who has chosen not only good paper and print, but

also a convenient form (a quarto instead of a folio form). May the

Lord of lords make this labor of the sainted Luther to be a greater

blessing, so that his most holy name may further be glorified and many

souls be established in the saving knowledge of the Gospel, or

encouraged to that end, for the sake of his merciful love. Amen.

JOHN GEORGE WALCH.

Jena, April 6th, 1739.

FROM THE PREFACE BY DR. HENRY COLE.

A TRIBUTE OF A THEOLOGIAN OF ENGLAND.

"This invaluable and last production of the loved and revered reformer

is a rich and precious mine of sacred wisdom; a vast treasury of deep

research, of varied scriptural knowledge and of extensive Christian

experience; in a word, it is a profound and comprehensive body of

biblical, sacred-historical, doctrinal, spiritual and experimental

divinity. So that a Christian who procures 'Luther on Galatians' and

'Luther on Genesis' possesses a complete treasury of rich, solid and

saving theology.

"Indeed it is impossible to convey by any command of description an

idea of the extent, depth and richness of the mine of Christian

knowledge and experience, which Luther's long hidden and unknown

exposition of Genesis contains. The sins, trials, afflictions, faith,

hope, deliverances, joys and duties of kings, princes, magistrates,

husbands, wives, parents, children, masters and servants, rich and

poor, are treated, as they occur in the lives of the patriarchs and

prominent characters of the divine Record.

"I hesitate not a moment to express my fullest persuasion that the

Church of Christ will consider Luther's commentary on Genesis the

deepest and most spiritual exposition of any book or portion of the

holy Scriptures in existence; entering the most deeply and clearly

into God's mind, and furnishing the most profound, varied and blessed

edification for the family of heaven; and also the most useful,

truthful, valuable and divine instruction for the world at large.

"As an expositor of the holy Scriptures Luther's comments contain a

depth of investigation unpenetrated, a width of meditation unspanned,

an extent of research unoccupied, a scriptural knowledge unpossessed,

a variety of reflections unevinced, a multitude of wonders unrevealed,

a number of beauties undiscovered, a value of instruction

uncommunicated, a spirit of holiness unbreathed, a height of praise

unascended, a depth of worship unfathomed, and a magnification of the

Scriptures as the Word of God, unsurpassed and unequalled by any

commentator, before or since his day."

This divine and educator of the Church of England says Luther's

Commentary on Genesis is "Doubtless the masterpiece of the greatest of

the extra Bible saints and servants of the Most High." "What an

ox-like labor, or as the reformer expresses it, 'what a ministerial

sweat!'" "This greatest of all commentaries."

Space will not permit more. In the second volume on Genesis we hope to

say more on the place this commentary has held and ought to hold in

English Protestantism.

A TRIBUTE OF A CHRISTIAN LADY IN SCOTLAND.

Dr. Cole in his preface, dated London, Feb. 2nd, 1857, records to the

praise of God that, "It came in a most remarkable and wholly

unexpected way to the knowledge of a noble lady of Scotland, Lady

M----, that the 'Creation,' the first part of Luther's great

commentary on Genesis, was translated; and that the translator was at

a loss for ways and means whereby to print and publish it; and, after

two letters of favored communication and explanation between the

translator and her ladyship, this 'noble' disciple of the Redeemer,

1 Cor. 1:26, in her second letter at once with divine nobleness of

mind purchased the manuscript at its full fixed price, without one

word about abatement; and she also as nobly undertook to print and

publish it at her own expense. From her ladyship's communications it

appeared that she herself was 'brought to the knowledge of the truth'

by reading translations of Luther's writings. Her present holy acts of

service to the cause of truth were therefore those of gratitude to

God, of love and honor to the name of Luther, and of encouragement to

his humble translators."

Years before, this lady read of Dr. Cole's intention to translate

Luther on Genesis, but it did not appear. Thinking that the translator

had no doubt "gone the way of all the earth," she made an effort to

have it translated and published, in order to be benefited still more

by reading Luther in English. Hence her great surprise after many

years to receive a letter from Dr. Cole, stating the manuscript was

finally ready. She replied thus: "My Dear Sir:-- Your letter was the

cause of much interest and surprise to me; for about the time that you

completed your translation of 'The Creation' by Luther, I was

anxiously inquiring from every one I could think of, to know if there

was any one who could and would translate it; and I bought the work on

Genesis in the original in hope to find some one to translate it; but

upon inquiring of Messrs. ---- and others, I found that the

translation and publication would be so expensive that I was obliged

to abandon the thought of it."

* * * * *

It thus pleased all-wise God to choose not a rich son of his, but a

daughter to execute his blessed work. May God grant that this interest

so general and promising in England and Scotland half a century ago in

translating Luther may be revived by all the sons and daughters who

have been benefited by his writings!

Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 28th, 1903.

J. N. LENKER.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

My lectures on Genesis I did not undertake with the intention that

they be published and advertised; but in order that I might serve for

a time our University as it is at present, and that I might exercise

my audience and myself in the Word of God; lest I should finish the

death of this body in an old age indolent and entirely useless. To

this end Ps. 146:2 awakened and encouraged me: "While I live will I

praise Jehovah; I will sing praises unto my God while I have any

being."

Moreover, I undertook the work in order that I might be found at death

among that "little flock" and of those "babes," out of whose mouth

"God perfects praise" or establishes strength, by which he destroys

the enemy and the avenger, Ps. 8:2. For the world always has enough

monsters and devils, who blaspheme, corrupt and pervert the Word of

God, so that God be not adorned with his glory, but Satan instead is

adored.

It however so happened that these lectures fell into the hands of two

good and pious men who collected them. Dr. Casper Cruciger, whose

books sufficiently testify how he was led by the spirit of God and by

the study of his Word; and Mr. George Rorary, the ministers of our

church here at Wittenberg. Their work was followed by that of Master

Veit Dietrich, the pastor at Nuremberg, who contributed his share. All

of these men are truly faithful, scholarly and zealous ministers of

the Word of God, and their judgment is that these lectures should by

all means be published. For my part I leave them to act according to

their own conviction, as St. Paul says, "Let each man be fully assured

in his own mind," Rom. 14:5, and as I see that they are moved by a

holy zeal to serve the congregations of the Church of Christ, I

therefore strongly approve of their intention and I pray that the

benediction of God may rest upon them!

However I would prefer that their Christian labors and valuable time

were spent on a better book and a better author. For I am not one of

whom it can be said, "He did a good work"; neither one of whom you can

say, "He tried to do a good work"; I belong to the last order of

authors, who dare scarcely say, "I desired to do a good work." Oh,

that I might be worthy of being the last in this last order. For all

these lectures were delivered in an extemporaneous and popular form,

just as the expressions came into my mouth, following in quick

succession and also mixed with German, and surely more verbose than I

wished.

Not however that I am conscious of having spoken anything contrary to

the truth. My chief aim has been, as far as possible, to avoid

obscurity and present as perspicuous as my talent and ability could

the things which I wished to have understood. For I feel keenly that

these weighty matters of which Moses wrote have been treated by me in

a manner far beneath their dignity and importance. But I console

myself with the old proverb, "Let him fail who attempts to do a thing

better than he is able"; and with this Scripture, "God requires

nothing of a man beyond the ability he has given him." 2 Cor. 8:12.

But why multiply words? That of which we treat are the Scriptures; the

Scriptures, I say, of the Holy Spirit, and for these things, as St.

Paul says, who is sufficient? 2 Cor. 3:5. They are a river, says

Gregory, in which a lamb may walk or touch bottom and an elephant must

swim. They are the wisdom of God which makes the wise of this world

and "the prince" of it fools; which makes babes eloquent, and the

eloquent men babes.

In a word he is not the best, who comprehends all things and never

fails, for such a one never has been, is not now and never will be;

but he is the best here who loves the most, as Ps. 1:2 says, "Blessed

is the man that loveth the law of Jehovah and meditateth on it."

Abundantly sufficient is it for us, if we delight in this divine

wisdom, love it and meditate on it day and night.

We examine the commentaries of the fathers and find that the good will

was certainly not lacking among them, but to do it they were not able.

And how ridiculous are all of our day, who attempt to explain the

great things, the Scriptures by a beautiful, as they term it, by a

pure Latinity or by paraphrases, being themselves utterly destitute of

the spirit and of understanding, and no more competent to treat such

holy things than, as the proverb runs, "Asses are to play upon a

harp." Jerome correctly said, Every one brings the offering to the

tabernacle he can afford. One brings gold, another silver, another

precious stones and the skins or the hair of goats. For the Lord has

need of all these things. The wills of all were equally pleasing to

him, though their offerings were not equal.

Therefore I permit these few goat hairs of mine to be published, as my

offering and sacrifice unto God, whom I beseech in Christ Jesus, our

Lord, that he would, through my labors, give occasion to others to do

better or at least to exert themselves to explain these things better

than I have done. As to my adversaries and their god, the devil, I

believe with holy pride and exultation in the Lord, that I have given

occasions enough to them to cavil and calumniate, for this I have

continually and liberally done from the beginning of my ministry. This

is the only service they are worthy to perform, for they neither can

do nor desire to do anything that is good; being, as Paul says, "men

of corrupt minds; and unto every good work reprobate," Tit. 1:15, 16.

May our Lord Jesus Christ perfect his work, which he hath begun in us

and hasten that day of our redemption, for which we long with uplifted

heads, and for which we sigh and wait in pure faith and a good

conscience, in which we have also served an ungrateful world, a world

that is the incorrigible enemy even of its own, to say nothing of our,

salvation. "Come, Lord Jesus!" and let every one that loves thee, say,

"Come, Lord Jesus!" Amen.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS.

CHAPTER I.

I. INTRODUCTION.

This first chapter of our Holy Bible is written in the simplest and

plainest language, and yet it contains the greatest and at the same

time the most difficult themes. Therefore the Jews, as Jerome

testifies, were forbidden to read it or hear it read before they were

thirty years of age. The Jews required that all the other Scriptures

be well known by every one before they were permitted to approach this

chapter. Their Rabbins however accomplished little good by this, for

even many of the Rabbins themselves, whose years were more than twice

thirty, give in their commentaries and Talmuds the most childish and

foolish explanations of these, the greatest of all subjects.

Nor has any one yet in the church to the present day explained all

these momentous things correctly and satisfactorily in every respect.

For interpreters have confused and entangled every thing with such a

variety, diversity and infinity of questions that it is very clear

that God reserved to himself the majesty of this wisdom, and the

correct understanding of this chapter, leaving to us only the general

ideas that the world had a beginning and was created by God out of

nothing. This general knowledge may clearly be taken from the text.

But with respect to the particulars, there is so much that one cannot

be clear about and hence innumerable questions have continually been

raised in commentaries.

From Moses however we know that 6000 years ago the world did not

exist. But of this no philosopher can in any way be persuaded;

because, according to Aristotle the first and the last man cannot in

any way be determined, although however Aristotle leaves the problem

in doubt whether or not the world is eternal, yet he is inclined to

the opinion that it is eternal. For human reason cannot ascend higher

than to declare that the world is eternal, and an infinite generation

preceded us and will follow us. Here human reason is forced to stand

still. However from this belief follows as a consequence the perilous

opinion that the soul is mortal, because philosophy knows no plurality

of infinities. For it cannot be, but that human reason must be

overwhelmed and shipwrecked in the sea of the majesty of these themes.

Plato collected, perhaps in Egypt, some traditional sparks as it were

from the sermons of the fathers and prophets, and therefore he came

nearer the truth than others. He holds that matter and mind are

eternal; but he says that the world had a beginning and that it was

made out of matter. But I cease to mention the opinions of

philosophers, for Lyra cites these although he does not explain them.

Thus neither among the Hebrews, Greeks nor Latins is there a leading

teacher whom we can follow here with safety. Therefore I shall be

pardoned if I shall see what I can say on the subject. For except the

one general opinion that the world was created out of nothing there is

scarcely another thing connected with the subject on which there is

entire agreement among all theologians.

Hilary and Augustine, two great lights in the church, believed that

the world was made on a sudden and all at once, not successively

during the space of six days. Augustine plays upon these six days in a

marvelous manner in explaining them. He considers them to be mystical

days of knowledge in the angels, and not natural days. Hence have

arisen those continual discussions in the schools and in churches

concerning the evening and morning knowledge, which Augustine was the

cause of being introduced. These are all diligently collected and

particularly mentioned by Lyra. Let those therefore who wish to know

more about them consult Lyra.

But all these disputations, though subtle and clever, are not to the

point in question. For what need is there to make a two-fold

knowledge. Equally useless is it to consider Moses in the beginning of

his history as speaking mystically or allegorically. For as he is not

instructing us concerning allegorical creatures and an allegorical

world, but concerning essential creatures and a world visible and

apprehensive by the senses, he calls, as we say in our trite proverb,

"a post, a post;" that is, when he says morning or day or evening, his

meaning is the same as ours when we use those terms, without any

allegory whatever. Thus the Evangelist Matthew, in his last chapter,

uses the same manner of expression when he says that Christ arose on

the evening of the Sabbath; that is, at that time of one of the

Sabbath days which was formed by the evening light. But if we cannot

fully comprehend the days here mentioned nor understand why God chose

to use these intervals of time, let us rather confess our ignorance in

the matter than wrest the words of Moses from the circumstances which

he is recording to a meaning, which has nothing to do with those

circumstances.

With respect therefore to this opinion of Augustine, we conclude that

Moses spoke literally and plainly and neither allegorically nor

figuratively; that is, he means that the world with all creatures was

created in six days as he himself expresses it. If we cannot attain

unto a comprehension of the reason why it was so, let us still remain

scholars and leave all the preceptorship to the Holy Spirit!

These days were distinguished thus. On the first day the unformed mass

of heaven and earth was created to which light was then added. On the

second day the firmament. On the third day the earth was produced out

of the waters and its fruits created. On the fourth day the heavens

were adorned by the creation of the sun, moon and stars. On the fifth

day the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air. On the sixth day

the beasts of the earth were created, and Man was made. I say nothing

of the other views which divide these sacred matters into the work of

creation, of distinction, and of ornation, because I do not think such

divisions of the subject can be made to harmonize in all respects with

each other. If any one admire such views let him consult Lyra.

As to Lyra thinking that a knowledge of the opinion of philosophers

concerning matter is necessary, and that on such knowledge must depend

a man's understanding the six days' work of creation, I question

whether Lyra himself really understood what Aristotle calls matter.

For Aristotle does not, like Ovid, call the original unformed chaotic

mass matter. Wherefore omitting these unnecessary subjects altogether,

let us come at once to Moses as a far better teacher, whom we may more

safely follow than we may philosophers, who dispute without the Word

about things they do not understand.

II. GOD'S WORK ON THE SIX DAYS IN PARTICULAR.

PART I. GOD'S WORK ON THE FIRST DAY.

I. V. 1. _In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth._

A necessary and a very difficult question arises here, in that Moses

speaks of the creation of the heavens and the earth, and yet does not

mention the day on which nor the Word by which they were created. For

one naturally inquires why Moses did not rather use the same form of

words here, as he did subsequently, where mention is made of the Word

thus: _"In the beginning, God said, Let there be the heavens and the

earth?"_ For Moses mentions "the heavens and the earth" before God had

spoken anything, whereas both the Decalogue and the whole Scripture

testify that God made the heavens and the earth, and all that in them

is, "in six days." But as I said before, we enter on this path without

a guide. We leave therefore to others to follow their own judgment

here, while we will expound it according to our views.

Not those elements which now are, but the original rude and unformed

substances Moses calls "the heavens and earth." The water was dark,

and because it was by nature the lighter element it surrounded the

earth, itself also as yet unformed was a kind of mud. God formed this

first material, if I may so call it, of his future work, not before or

apart from the six days, but, according to the express words of the

Decalogue, in the "beginning" of the first day.

As I view the matter therefore Moses does not mention here the first

day, because these confused substances of the hitherto rude heavens

and earth were afterwards formed, and as it were fully adorned and

distinguished. For what he immediately calls the "deep" and the

"waters;" that is, the rude and unformed water which was not yet

distributed nor adorned with its proper form, he here calls "the

heavens;" whereas, had Moses spoken otherwise and had said, "In the

beginning God said, Let there be the heavens and the earth;" there

would have been no need of afterwards saying, "God said;" seeing that

these unformed waters would have been already illuminated and the

light would have been already created.

The meaning of Moses therefore in all simplicity is that all things

which now exist were created by God and that "in the beginning" of the

first day were created the mass of mud or of earth, and of dark mist

or of water; on which afterwards, in the after part of the first day,

God shed the light and caused the day to appear, which might discover

this rude mass of "the heavens and the earth;" which was in all

respects like undeveloped seed, and yet adapted to produce whatever

God should require.

V. 2a. _And the earth was waste and void._

In the Hebrew words TOHU and BOHU there is no more meaning than can be

expressed in any other language, yet these terms are frequently used

in the sacred Scriptures. TOHU means "nothing," so that a TOHU earth

means, in its simple reality, that which is in itself "empty" or

"waste;" where there is no way, no distinction of places, no hill, no

vale, no grass, no herbs, no animals, no men. And such was the first

appearance of the waste and untilled earth, for while the water was

mixed with the earth no distinctions of those various objects could be

discerned, which are clearly seen since the earth's formation and

cultivation.

Thus Isaiah, 34:11, when threatening destruction to the whole earth

says "There shall be stretched upon it the line of TOHU, confusion;

and the plummet of BOHU, emptiness;" that is, it shall be made so

desolate that neither men nor beasts shall be left upon it; all houses

shall he devastated and all things hurled into chaos and confusion.

Just as Jerusalem was afterwards laid waste by the Romans and Rome by

the Goths, so that no vestige of the ancient city as it once was could

be pointed out. You now behold the earth standing out of the waters,

the heavens adorned with stars, the fields with trees, and cities with

houses; but should all these things be taken away and hurled into

confusion and into one chaotic heap, the state of things thus produced

would be what Moses calls TOHU and BOHU.

As the earth was surrounded with darkness or with waters over which

darkness brooded, so also the heaven was unformed. It was not only

TOHU because it was destitute of the garnishing of the stars, and BOHU

because it was not yet separated and distinguished from the earth, but

because it was as yet altogether destitute of light and a dark and

deep abyss which like a dense cloud enveloped the earth, or that mass

of mud; for the division of the waters from the waters follows later.

Here then we have the first thing which Moses teaches: that the

heavens and the earth were created on the first day; but, that the

heaven was as yet unformed, not separated from the waters, destitute

of its luminaries, and not elevated to its position; and the earth in

like manner was as yet without its animals, its rivers and its

mountains.

As to Lyra's argument that this original matter was mere power and was

afterward rendered substance by its own power, or as to what Augustine

says in his book of "Confessions," that matter is as it were nothing,

and that no medium matter can be thought of between the Creator and

the thing created; such subtle disquisitions I by no means approve.

For how could that be a mere nothing which was already of such

material and substance that Moses calls it "the heavens and the

earth"? Unless indeed you would call it artificially the same kind of

matter which you call wood, which is not yet wrought into a chest or a

bench. But this latter substance is what true philosophers would call

matter in a secondary state.

We should rather consider the whole subject, as Peter considers it,

2 Pet. 3:5, where speaking of the wicked, he says "For this they

wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth

compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God; by which

means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished."

For Peter seems to intimate that the earth consists of water, and was

made out of water, and that after it was produced out of water and

placed as it were in the light, it swam as it now seems to do in the

water. This, says he, the wicked knew, and therefore being confident

of this condition of things, they feared no peril from water, which

they knew to be the fundamental substance of the earth. Yet the water

destroyed that earth which it preserved, buoyed up and bore; just as

at the last it shall be destroyed by fire. From this intimation of

Peter, it would appear, that the earth was made to stand in the water,

and out of the water. But let this suffice concerning the original

matter or material. If any one should discuss the subject with greater

subtlety of argument, I do not think he would do so, with any profit.

V. 2b. _And darkness was upon the face of the deep._

The "water," the "deep," and the "heavens," are here put for the same

thing; namely, for that dark unformed substance which afterwards was

divided by the Word. For it was the office of the second Person of the

Trinity, namely Christ, the Son of God, to divide and adorn that

chaotic mass produced from nothing. And this may have been the very

design of Moses in not mentioning the Word in the first place; that

is, in not saying at first, _"And God said."_ For some maintain that

this was done by Moses purposely.

V. 2c. _And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters._

Some consider "the Spirit of God" here to mean merely the wind. But if

anything material is here to be understood by "Spirit," I should

rather refer it to the first moving of the original unformed mass of

heaven and earth, which is called "the deep," which is always in

motion to this day; for water is never still, its surface is always in

motion. But I prefer here to understand the Holy Spirit. For the wind

is a creature which did not exist, while as yet the heavens and the

earth lay in that confused chaotic mass.

There is moreover an universal agreement of the Christian Church

concerning a revelation of the mystery of the Holy Trinity in this

first creative work. The Father through the Son, whom Moses here calls

the Word, creates "the heavens and the earth" out of nothing. Over

these the Holy Spirit broods. And as a hen sits upon her eggs that she

may hatch her young, thus warming her eggs and as it were infusing

into them animation, so the Scriptures say the Holy Ghost brooded as

it were on the waters; that He might infuse life into these elementary

substances which were afterwards to be animated and garnished. For the

office of the Holy Spirit is to give life.

These explanations, as far as I see, are sufficient for our present

purpose. Wherefore casting away all other diverse opinions, let us set

down this as the truth, that God created "the heavens and the earth,"

as yet a rude mass, out of nothing; so that the earth, as an unformed

chaotic mass, enveloped the heaven as yet also an unformed mass, like

a dark, circumfluent, nebulous cloud.

It is necessary however that we discuss the terms here used. At the

very beginning of this discussion we are met by the expression "In the

beginning." Some have expounded the words "In the beginning" as

meaning "In the Son," from John 1:1; seeing that Christ also gives to

the Jews when they inquired "who He was?" this answer, "The beginning,

who also speak unto you," John 8:25. This same exposition is given

also from Ps. 110:3, "With thee is the Beginning, in the day of thy

power;" which passage nearly all commentators expound as meaning,

"With thee is thy Son in divine power." But it is well known to those

acquainted with the Greek language that the expression _tan Archan_

should be rendered by an adverbial phraseology "at first" or "in the

beginning," etc. It is a figure of speech which we frequently meet in

Greek. Wherefore let those who will, amuse themselves by thus

interpreting the expression "In the beginning." I prefer the simplest

explanation which can be at once understood by the less learned.

My belief is therefore that the design of Moses was to signify the

beginning of time; so that "In the beginning" has the same meaning as

if he had said, "At that time before which there was no time." Or he

means that when the world began it so began that the heavens and the

earth were created by God out of nothing; but created in a rude

shapeless mass, not formed and beautified as they now are. Though they

lay not long thus, but began immediately on the first day to be

garnished with the light.

The Arians imagined that angels and the Son of God were made before

"the beginning." But let us pass by this blasphemy. We will omit also

another question, "What was God doing before the beginning of the

world;" was he in a state of entire inaction or not? To this question

Augustine introduced in his Confession the reply, "He was making a

hell for all searchers into his secrets." This reply says Augustine

was made to ridicule the violent and audacious blasphemy of the

question.

The modesty therefore of Augustine pleases one, who elsewhere candidly

says that in all such cases he draws in the sails of his thoughts. For

if we speculate and dispute to infinity, these things still remain

incomprehensible. Even those things which we see we can understand but

little. How much less then shall we grasp in our knowledge such things

as these. For what will you determine concerning things that were

before and beyond time? Or what can be your thoughts of things God did

before time was? Wherefore let us away with all such thoughts and

believe that God before the creation of the world was incomprehensible

in his essential rest, but that now since the creation he is within

and without and above all creatures; that is, he is still

incomprehensible. This is all that can be said, because that which was

outside of time our intellect can not comprehend.

Wherefore God does not manifest himself in anything but in his works

and in his Word; because these can in some measure be comprehended,

all other things which properly belong to his divinity, cannot be

comprehended or understood, as they really are; such as those things

which were beyond time and before the world's creation, etc. Perhaps

God appeared to Adam unveiled; but after his sin he may have shown

himself to him in "a noise," Gen. 3:8, under which he was covered as

with a veil. So also later in the tabernacle God was veiled by the

sanctuary; and in the desert by the pillar of a cloud and by the

pillar of fire. Wherefore Moses also calls these things "appearances"

or "shadowings" of God, by which he then manifested himself. And Cain

calls that the "face" and the "presence" of God where he had before

offered his sacrifices, Gen. 4:14. For our nature is so deformed by

sin, yea corrupted and lost, that it cannot understand God naked and

unveiled nor comprehend what he really is. Therefore it is that these

covering veils are absolutely necessary.

It is moreover insanity to dispute much concerning God as to what he

was beyond and before time, for that is to desire to comprehend naked

divinity or the naked divine essence. And it is for this very reason

that God has wrapt himself in the veils of his works and under certain

visible appearances, just as at this day he veils himself under

baptism, absolution, etc. If you depart from these veiling signs, you

at once run away beyond measure, beyond place and beyond time into the

most absolute nothing; concerning which, as philosophers say, there

can be no knowledge. Therefore it is that we with solemn propriety

enter not into this question; but rest content with this simple

meaning of the expression, "In the beginning."

II. But it is more worthy of observation that Moses does not say "In

the beginning, ADONI, the Lord created the heavens and the earth;" but

he uses a noun of the plural number ELOHIM; by which name, in the

Books of Moses, and in other parts of the Scriptures both angels and

magistrates are sometimes called. As in Ps. 82:6, "I have said ye are

gods." It is certain however that here it signifies the one true God,

by whom all things were made. Why therefore does Moses here use a

plural noun or name?

The Jews cavil at Moses in various ways. To us however it is clear

that the intent of Moses is to set forth directly the Trinity; or the

plurality of persons in the one divine nature. For as he is speaking

of the work of the creation it manifestly follows that he excludes

angels, who are creatures, from the creative work. There remains

therefore this sacred conclusion of the whole matter; that God is One,

and that this most perfect Unity is also a most perfect Trinity. For

how otherwise does Moses use the plural number, "In the beginning

ELOHIM _created_."

The cold and wicked cavilling of the Jews therefore is to be

altogether exploded, when they say that Moses used the plural number

for the sake of reverence. For what place is there here for the

exercise of reverence? Especially since that which is an idiom among

us Germans is not common to all languages; namely, that it should be

considered a point of reverence to use the plural number when speaking

of one person.

Although the Jews make so much noise about this term ELOHIM being

applied to angels and to men, be it remembered that it is in the

plural number in this place where it cannot possibly be applied to any

but the one true God, because Moses is treating of the Creation. There

were moreover many other singular nouns which Moses might have used

had he not purposely intended to show to the spiritually minded, that

in the divine nature there is before and independently of all creation

and all creatures, a plurality of persons. He does not indeed say in

plain terms, there is the Father, there is the Son, and there is the

Holy Ghost; and they are the one true God; because that was reserved

for the doctrine of the Gospel. It was enough for him by the use of a

plural noun though afterwards applied to men also, to set forth this

plurality of the divine persons.

Nor ought it to offend us that this same term is afterwards applied to

creatures. For why should not God communicate his name unto us, seeing

that he communicates to us his power, and his office? For us to remit

sins, to retain sins, to quicken to spiritual life, etc., are the

works of the divine Majesty alone; and yet these same works are a sign

to men and they are wrought by the Word which men teach. Thus Paul

said, "That I may save some of them that are my flesh," Rom. 11:14.

And again, "I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means

save some," 1 Cor. 9:22. As therefore these works are truly the works

of God, although they are assigned also unto men and are wrought by

means of men; so the name of God truly represents God though it is

applied also to men.

Arius could not deny that Christ existed before the world was created,

because Christ himself says, "Before Abraham was, I am," John 8:58. It

is written in the Proverbs, 8:22, also, "Before the heavens were, I

am." Arius is obliged therefore to confess that Christ or the Word was

created before all things, and that he afterwards created all things,

and that he was the most perfect of all creatures though he did not

exist from everlasting. But to this fanatical and impious opinion we

ought to oppose that which Moses so briefly expresses by the term "In

the beginning." Nor does Moses place anything before "the beginning"

but God himself; and him he here represents by a plural noun.

Into these absurd opinions do minds fall when they speculate on such

mighty things without the Word. We know not ourselves; as Lucretius

says, "Man knows not the nature of his own soul." We feel that we can

judge, enumerate, distinguish quantities, and, if I may so call them,

spiritual creatures, such as truth and falsehood, and yet we cannot to

this day define what the soul is. How much less then shall we be able

to understand the divine nature! We know not for instance what is the

motion of our will; for it is not a motion of quality or of quantity;

and yet it is some motion. What then can we know of things divine?

It is fanatical therefore to dispute concerning God and the divine

nature without the Word and without some veiling representation. Yet

thus do all heretics; and they think and dispute respecting God with

the same security as they would respecting a hog or a cow. Therefore

they receive a reward worthy their temerity; for by these means they

are dashed on the rocks of every peril. Hence he who would contemplate

such mighty things in safety and without danger must confine himself

with all simplicity within those representations, signs and veils of

the divine Majesty, his word and his works. For it is in his word and

his works that he reveals himself unto us; and such as attain unto the

knowledge of these are like the woman laboring under the issue of

blood, healed by touching these hems of his garment.

Those on the other hand who strive to reach God without these veils

and coverings, attempt to scale heaven without a ladder, that is,

without the Word; and in so doing are overwhelmed by the majesty of

God, which they vainly endeavor to comprehend, and they fall and

perish. And so it befell Arius. He conceived the imagination that

there was some medium between the Creator and the creature; and that

by that medium all things were created. Into this error he necessarily

fell the moment he denied contrary to the Scriptures a plurality of

persons in the divine nature. But as he discussed these things without

the Word of God and depended solely on his own cogitations, he could

not but be thus dashed to pieces.

Thus the monk of the Papists, because he follows not the Word,

imagines such a God to be sitting in heaven as will save any one who

is covered with a cowl and observes a certain strict rule of life.

Such a one also attempts to ascend into heaven by his own cogitations

without God as revealed in his Word, or without the revealed face of

God for his guide. Thus also the Jews had their idols and their

groves. The fall and the destruction of all are alike. They are

precipitated and dashed to pieces; because every one leaving the Word

follows his own imaginations.

If therefore we would walk safely we must embrace those things which

the Word teaches, and which God himself has willed us to know; and all

other things which are not revealed in the Word we must leave. For

what are those things to me, which God did before the world was made,

or how can I comprehend them? This is indulging thoughts upon the

naked Divinity. And these are the thoughts by which the Jews suffer

themselves to be led away from this text; and which thus prevent them

from believing in a plurality of persons in the deity; whereas it is

evident that Moses employs a plural noun.

The papal decree condemned the Anthropomorphists (manlikeners),

because they spoke of God as they would of a man, and attributed to

him eyes, ears, arms, etc. An unjust condemnation truly! For how

otherwise can man talk with man concerning God? If to think thus of

God be heresy; then for a certainty is the salvation of all children,

who can only think and speak thus as children concerning God, at an

end for ever. But to say nothing about children, give me the most

learned doctor in all the world; how otherwise will even he speak and

teach concerning God?

An injury therefore was thereby done to good men; who, though they

believed God to be omnipotent and the only Saviour, yet were condemned

merely because they said God has eyes by which he looks upon the poor

and needy, and ears by which he listens to their prayers. For how

otherwise can this our nature understand the spiritual reality of God.

Moreover the Scriptures use this form of speech. Wherefore such were

undeservedly condemned. They should rather have been lauded for the

simplicity which they studied; which is so requisite in all teaching.

It is absolutely necessary that when God reveals himself unto us, he

should do so under some veil of representation, some shadowing

manifestation, and should say, "Behold under this veil thou shalt

surely discover me." And when we embrace God under this veil or

shadow, when we thus adore him, call upon him, and offer to him our

sacrifices, we are said rightly to offer our sacrifices unto God!

It was thus doubtless that our first parents worshipped God. In the

morning when the sun rose they adored the Creator in the creature; or

to speak more plainly they were by the creature reminded of the

Creator. Their posterity retained the custom, but without the

knowledge; and hence the custom lapsed into idolatry. The cause of

this idolatry was not the sun; for he is a good creature of God; but

the knowledge and the doctrine became by degrees extinct; for Satan

cannot endure true doctrine. Thus when Satan had drawn Eve from the

Word, she fell immediately into sin.

To return then to the Anthropomorphists. I consider that they were

condemned unjustly and without cause. For the prophets represent God

as sitting on a throne. When foolish persons hear this their thoughts

are immediately picturing a golden throne, marvellously decorated,

etc., though they must all the while know that there can be no such

material throne in heaven. Hence Isaiah says "that he saw God sitting

on a throne; and his train filled the temple," Is. 6:1. Whereas God

cannot absolutely or by real vision appear to be thus represented or

seen. But such figures and representations are well-pleasing to the

Holy Spirit; and such works of God are set before us by the means of

which we may apprehend God by our understanding. Such also are those

figures when it is said that "He made the heavens and the earth"; that

he sent his Son; that he speaks by his Son; that he baptizes; that he

remits sins by the Word. He that does not understand these things will

never understand God. But I say no more here; since these things have

been frequently and abundantly discussed by me elsewhere; yet it was

necessary to touch upon them on the present occasion for Moses' sake,

whom the Jews here so severely attack, in the exposition of which we

are proving the plurality of the divine persons in the deity. Now let

us proceed with the text.

III. V. 3. _And God said, Let there be light: and there was light._

Moses has already said that the rude mass of heaven and earth which he

also calls "darkness" and "the deep," was made by the Word; and that

work ought to be considered the work of the "first day." Yet, it is

now for the first time that Moses uses the expression "God said, Let

there be light," etc. A marvelous phraseology this indeed; unknown to

any writer of any other language under heaven, that God by speaking

causes that to exist, which had no existence before. Here therefore

Moses sets before us the medium and instrument which God used in

performing his works, namely the Word.

But we must here carefully mark the distinction in the Hebrew language

between the words AMAR and DABAR. We render each by the terms to say

or to speak. But, in the Hebrew there is this difference: AMAR only

and properly signifies the word uttered. But DABAR means also the

thing or substance uttered. As when the prophets say "This is the Word

of the Lord," they use the term DABAR not AMAR. Even at this day the

new Arians blind the eyes of those unacquainted with the Hebrew

language by saying that the term in question implies, and is, "a thing

created;" and that in this way it is that Christ is called the Word.

Against this impious, and at the same time ignorant, corruption of the

term Word, the reader is duly warned, and exhorted to remember that

Moses here uses the word AMAR which simply and properly signifies the

word uttered; so that the word uttered is something distinct from him

who utters it; as here is also a distinction between the person

speaking and the thing spoken.

Therefore we have before proved from this text a plurality of persons;

so here is also an evident distinction of persons; for it affirms that

it is God the speaker, if I may so express myself, who creates; and

yet he uses no material; but creates the heavens and the earth out of

nothing by the sole word he utters.

Compare here the Gospel of St. John "In the beginning was the Word."

He exactly agrees with Moses. He says that there was no creature

whatever before the world was made. Yet God possessed the Word. And

what is this Word and what does it do? Hear Moses. The light, says he,

as yet was not; but the darkness out of its nothing-state is changed

into that most excellent creature, light. By what? By the Word.

Therefore, "in the beginning" and before every creature is the Word;

and it is so powerful that out of nothing it makes all things. Hence

that irrefragably follows, which John eloquently adds, that the Word

was and is God! And yet, that the Word is a person different from God

the Father; even as the Word, and he who utters the Word, are things

absolutely distinct from each other. But at the same time this

distinction is of the nature that the most perfect oneness, if I may

so speak, of unity remains.

These are lofty mysteries, nor is it safe to go further into them than

the Holy Spirit is pleased to lead us. Wherefore here let us stop;

content with the knowledge that when the unformed heaven and unformed

earth, each enveloped in mist and darkness, had stood forth created

out of nothing by the Word, the light also shone forth out of nothing;

and even out of darkness itself by the Word. The first work of the

Creator Paul speaks of as a marvellous work; "God that commanded the

light to shine out of darkness," etc. The command of God, says he,

made that light. This therefore is enough for us and sufficient to

confirm our faith, that Christ is truly God, who existed with the

Father from all eternity before the world was made; and that by him,

who is the wisdom and word of the Father, the Father made all things.

It is remarkable also that Paul in his passage makes the conversion of

the wicked the work of a new creation, and a work wrought also by the

Word.

But here reason impiously busies itself with foolish questions. It

argues, if the Word ever existed, why did not God create the heavens

and the earth before by that Word? And again, Since the heavens and

the earth were first made, when God began to speak, it seems to follow

that the Word then first had existence, when the creatures began to

exist, etc. But these impious cogitations are to be cast from us for

concerning these things we can determine nothing nor think aright. For

beyond that "beginning" of the creation is nothing but naked and

divine essence; naked deity! And since God is incomprehensible that

also is incomprehensible which was before the world; because it is

nothing less than naked God!

We believe it right therefore to speak only of "the beginning,"

because we cannot advance beyond the beginning. But since John and

Moses affirm that the Word was "in the beginning," and before every

creature, it of necessity follows that the Word was ever in the

Creator and in the naked essence of God. Therefore he is the true God;

yet so, that the Father begets and the Son is begotten. For Moses

establishes this difference when he names God, who spoke and the word

which was spoken. And this was enough for Moses to do; for the clearer

explanation of this mystery properly belongs to the New Testament and

to the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. In the New Testament

therefore we hear the literal names of the sacred persons, the Father,

the Son and the Holy Ghost. These indeed are indicated in certain

psalms, and in the prophets but not so distinctly expressed.

Augustine explains the word somewhat otherwise. For he interprets the

expression "said" in this manner. "Said;" that is, it was so defined

from all eternity by the word of the Father; it was so appointed of

God. Because the Son is the mind, the image and the wisdom of God. But

the true and simple meaning is to be retained. "God said;" that is,

God by the Word made and created all things. This meaning the apostle

also confirms when he says, "By whom also he made the worlds," Heb.

1:2. And again, "All things were made by Him and for Him," Col. 1:16.

And within these limits ought to be confined every thought of the

creation; our duty is to proceed no further; if we do, we fall

headlong into certain darkness and destruction.

Let these facts therefore be sufficient for us in any question

concerning the world and its creation. With respect to the material of

the world that it was made out of nothing; as the light was made out

of that which was not light, so the whole heavens and the whole earth

were made out of nothing; as the Apostle says, "He calleth those

things that are not, as though they were," Rom. 4:17.

With respect to the instrument or medium which God used, it was his

omnipotent word which was with God from the beginning, and as Paul

speaks, "before the foundation of the world," Eph. 1:4. Therefore when

Paul says in Col. 1:16, "All things were made by him," for he uses the

preposition, after the Hebrew manner, for per; the Hebrews thus use

their letter BETH; this and all similar passages are taken from this

verse of Moses, who is here speaking of the Word uttered, by which

anything is commanded or demanded.

This Word was God, and was an omnipotent Word, spoken in the divine

essence. No one heard this Word uttered but God himself; that is, God

the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. While it was uttered

the light was generated; not out of the material of the Word nor out

of the material of the speaker, but out of darkness itself. The Father

spoke within, the work was immediately wrought without, and the light

existed. In the same manner also were all things afterwards created.

These facts, I say, concerning the manner of the creation are amply

sufficient for us.

IV. But here again a well known question is perpetually agitated,

namely, of what kind was that light by which the original unformed

mass of heaven and earth was illumined, seeing that neither the sun,

nor the stars, were then created; and yet the text shows that this

light was real and material. This fact has given occasion to some to

have recourse to an allegory, who would explain the matter thus: "Let

there be light;" that is, the angelic nature. And again, "God divided

the light from the darkness;" that is, he separated the holy angels

from the wicked angels. But this is to trifle with allegories, utterly

out of place and not to interpret Scripture. Moses is here

historically recording facts. He is moreover writing and penning a

record for unlettered men; that they may have the plainest possible

testimonies concerning the great creation. Such absurdities therefore

are not here to be tolerated.

A second question is here also agitated, namely, whether this light

moved itself with a circular motion. I confess that I for my part know

not the truth of the matter. But if any one desires to know what I

consider the nearest to the truth my opinion is, that this light was

movable, so that its motion from east to west, or from its rising to

its setting formed the natural day. Although it is difficult to

describe the kind of light it was, yet I am by no means inclined to

think that we should depart, without cause, from the plain grammar of

the subject; or that we should use any violence by wresting from their

common meaning the plainest terms. For Moses distinctly affirms that

"there was light;" and he reckons this as the "first day" of the

creation.

My opinion is therefore that this was true and real light; and that it

revolved with a circular motion as the light of the sun revolves. I

believe however that this light was not so clear and splendent as it

afterwards was, when augmented, ornamented and beautified by the light

of the sun. Even as the sacred Scriptures testify that in the last day

God will make the present light of the sun, now unclean, in comparison

with its future brightness, far more splendid and glorious; as

therefore the present light is as it were a thick and imperfect mass

of light, when compared with that light which shall be, so that

original light was imperfect when compared with the light that now

shines. Such are my sentiments concerning these two questions. Moses

then proceeds to say:

V. 5. _And there was evening and there was morning one day._

We must here first observe that the Jews begin their day differently

from us. With them the day commences from the evening and the setting

sun and terminates on the evening following. We begin our day with the

rising sun. And it is very remarkable that the Jews derive their term

evening, which they call AEREF, from ARAF which signifies "to mingle

or confound." In the same manner from the term AREF they form their

expression AROF, which our countryman renders by Cynomia, "dogfly,"

which may signify "a confused fly." Because in the evening, the

appearances of things are confused and indistinct, and when the light

is removed cannot be clearly discerned.

V. Moses has taught us concerning the first day. We shall see however

that Moses retains this same expression "God said" in the creation of

all the other creatures. "And God said let there be a firmament," etc.

The very repetition of this same expression ought to be most

delightful to us, because as I said, it brings to us a mighty

testimony for the confirmation of our faith; that the Son, in these

eternal things, is very God; and that in the unity of the divinity

there is a plurality of Persons; because the speaker is one Person and

the Word spoken another Person.

In this manner also the Psalmist speaks, "By the Word of Jehovah were

the heavens made," etc., Ps. 33:6. And Solomon implies the force of

this wonderful phrase of Moses, when he writes that the divine wisdom

was as it were the handmaid of the Creation. "I was set up from

everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was, etc.; when he

established the heavens, I was there; when he set a circle upon the

face of the deep," Prov. 8:23, 27. Here Solomon shows that he fully

understood this doctrine of our religion, so plainly set forth by

Moses; and that he understood it in a manner beyond the knowledge of

the ignorant multitude, who heard these things, and read them, but

understood them not. For had not Solomon fully understood this

mystery, he could not have spoken thus. But he drew all these things

from this verse of Moses, as from a deep and holy fountain. Another

proof of this his divine knowledge is Prov. 30:3, "What is his name,

and what is his Son's name, if thou knowest?"

I believe also that there were similar writings of other holy men,

such as of Enoch, Elijah, etc., in which there existed many

testimonies of the same kind. But as even at the present day, these

things though plainly revealed in the New Testament remain hidden, and

are by many not only not received, but fiercely opposed, so to a much

greater extent did it happen among the Jewish people, while the holy

fathers set these mysteries before the wise in divine things, with the

greatest skill and wisdom.

To us it is great consolation to know that these divine mysteries were

thus shadowed forth by Moses from the beginning of the world; that in

these divine beings there is a plurality of persons and yet a unity of

the divine essence. And if there are some who do not believe, but

fiercely oppose this doctrine, what is that to us? Abraham saw three,

and adored one! And the Holy Spirit says, Gen. 19:24, "Then Jehovah

rained fire from Jehovah out of heaven." Although fanatics understand

not nor regard these words, yet we know that they are the words not of

a drunken man, but of God.

Many such testimonies as these exist throughout the Old Testament,

which that excellent man, Hilary, has diligently collected. If these

testimonies are obscure, and to the wicked and unbelieving seem to be

unfounded, yet to the godly all things which are revealed and handed

down to us in the Holy Scriptures are firmly founded and sufficiently

clear. They know that the Person speaking is one Person and that the

Word spoken is another Person; not in nature but in Person; and is

that Word by which all things were made "in the beginning;" and by

which they are all upheld to this day; as Paul says in his Epistle to

the Hebrews, "Upholding all things by the Word of his power," Heb.

1:3.

But here we are to be admonished that the words, "Let there be light,"

are the words of God and not of Moses; that is, that they are

realities, facts, works! For God "calleth those things that be not as

though they were;" and God speaks not grammatical words but very and

substantial things. So that what with us is sounding voice, is with

God a substantial thing, a reality! Thus, the sun, the moon, the

heaven, the earth, Peter, Paul, you, and I, are all and each, words of

God! Yea, we are single syllables or single letters as it were of and

in comparison to the whole creation.

We also speak, but we can only speak grammatically, or in letters.

That is we give names to created things, etc. But divine grammar is

quite another thing! When God says, "Shine thou sun," the sun

immediately exists and shines forth. Thus the words of God are things,

not mere words!

Here therefore there has been rightly made a distinction between the

word created and the word uncreated. The word created is a thing, or

fact, or work done, by means of the word uncreated. For what is the

whole creation but the word of God spoken forth or uttered? But the

word uncreated is the divine mind or thought, the internal command of

God, flowing from God, and the same as God, and yet it is a distinct

Person. And thus God reveals himself unto us as the speaker, having

with or in himself, the word increate, by which he created the world

and all things with the utmost facility of operation, namely by merely

speaking! So that there was no more difficulty with God in creating

than with us in speaking. It was in such meditations as these that the

pious fathers Augustine and Hilary found their delight.

PART II. GOD'S WORK ON THE SECOND DAY.

I. V. 6. _And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the

waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters._

Moses may here seem to have forgotten himself in that he treats not at

all of two most important themes: the creation and the fall of the

angels, but confines his sacred narrative to the creation of corporeal

things. Though there is no doubt that angels were created, yet not one

word is found in all the Scriptures concerning their creation, their

battle, or their fall; except that which Christ briefly utters, John

8:44, in reference to the devil, that he "abode not in the truth;"

except also that woful account of the Serpent, which the sacred

historian hereafter gives us in the third chapter of Genesis. It is

wonderful therefore that Moses is wholly silent on things of such

great interest.

Hence it is that men having nothing certain recorded upon the subject,

naturally fell into various fictions and fabrications, that there were

nine legions of angels, and that so vast was their multitude that they

were nine whole days falling from heaven. Others have indulged

imaginations concerning the mighty battle between these superior

beings, in what manner the good resisted the evil angels. My belief is

that these ideas of the particulars of this battle were taken from the

fight which exists in the church, where godly ministers are ever

contending against evil and fanatical teachers, and that on this

ground they have formed their ideas of the battle of the good angels

against the evil ones who wished to usurp Deity. But so it ever is.

Where no plain testimonies exist rash men consider themselves at

liberty to imagine and invent what they please.

In the same manner men form their various opinions concerning the

danger and the fear of angels and of the evils they work, all which

opinions are founded on Is. 14:12, 13, where Lucifer is represented as

having said in his heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my

throne above the stars of God." But the prophet is there predicting

the greatness of the pride of the King of the Babylonians. Bernard

again has the idea that Lucifer foresaw in God that his purpose was to

exalt man above the nature of angels, that his proud spirit envied man

this felicity and that he fell in consequence. But let the Christian

man take these things at their own value and at no more. For myself I

would by no means urge any one to give his assent to any such

opinions. The things that are certain are, that the angels fell, and

that the devil from having been an angel of light was made an angel of

darkness. Perhaps there was also a conflict between the good angels

and the evil.

As Moses however was writing to a new and uninformed people his object

was to write those things only which were useful and necessary to be

known. The nature of angels therefore and other kindred subjects which

were not necessary to be known he passed by. Wherefore nothing on the

whole of this obscure subject, beyond what Moses has plainly recorded,

ought to be expected from me. The more especially so, as the New

Testament itself treats very sparingly of this deep theme. It says

nothing more concerning the angels than that they were condemned and

that they are still held as it were in prison and in chains until the

judgment of the last day. Let it suffice us therefore to know that

there are good angels and bad angels, but that God created them all

alike good. Whence it follows of necessity, that the evil angels fell

and stood not in the truth. But how they fell and stood not in the

truth is unknown. It is nevertheless probable that they fell by pride;

because they despised the Word or Son of God, and wished to exalt

themselves before him. This is all I have to say. Now let us return to

Moses.

II. We have heard that the work of the First Day was the rude unformed

"heavens and earth," both of which God illumined with a certain impure

and imperfect light. We now come to the work of the second day, where

we shall see in what manner God produced out of this original rough

undigested mist or nebulosity, which he called "heavens," that

glorious and beauteous "heaven" which now is, and as it now is; if you

except the stars and the greater luminaries. The Hebrews very

appropriately derive the term SCHAMAIM the name of the heavens from

the word MAIM, which signifies "waters." For the letter SCHIN is often

used in composition for a relative, so that SCHAMAIM signifies

"watery," or "that which has a watery nature." This indeed appears so

from the color of the "heavens." And experience teaches that the air

is humid by nature. Philosophers also say that if there were no sun

the air would be a perpetual humidity. But they assert that the air is

both humid and warm, but that it is humid from its own nature, because

the heaven was made out of waters, and that therefore it is, that it

rains and contains a fructifying moisture; but because the light and

heat of the sun are added to it, the humid nature of the air is so

tempered that it is also warm.

This thick and rude mass of mist or nebulosity, created out of nothing

on the first day, God grasps by his Word and commands it to extend

itself into the form and with the motion of a sphere. For in the

Hebrew the word RAKIA signifies "a something extended;" from the verb

RAKA, which means "to unfold or expand." And the heaven was formed by

an extension of that original rude body of mist, just as the bladder

of a hog is extended into a circular form when it is inflated. I use

thus a rustic similitude that the sacred matter may be the more

plainly understood.

When therefore Job 37:18 says "that the heavens are strengthened with

iron," "that the sky is strong as a molten mirror," his mind is not

dealing with the material but with the Word of God, which can make a

thing the softest by nature the hardest and the firmest. For what is

softer than water? What is thinner or more subtile than air? Yet these

things, which were the most subtile and the softest by nature, from

being created by the Word preserve their form and motion with the

greatest perfection and the greatest firmness. Whereas, had the heaven

been formed of adamant or of any material infinitely harder still, it

would by its rapid, long and continuous motion, have soon been broken

in pieces or melted. In the same manner the sun, by his rapid motion,

would melt in one day even if formed of the hardest material, were it

not for the Word of God by which it was created. For motion is of

itself very creative of heat. Hence Aristotle asserts that the lead of

the arrow is sometimes melted by the velocity of its motion.

These facts of nature therefore are miracles of God, in which the

omnipotence of his Word is clearly discerned, exhibiting the wonder

that the heaven, though softer and more subtile than water, and

performing continuously the most rapid revolution, and that too with

so vast a variety of bodies and their motions, should have existed and

revolved so many thousands of years uninjured and unweakened! It was

this that caused Job to say, "that the heavens were molten, as it

were, of brass," Job 37:18; that they are by nature the softest of

substances. How great the subtility of the air is in which we live, we

ourselves know perfectly well; for it is not only not tangible, but

not discernible. And the heaven, or ether, is still more subtile and

thinner than the air or atmosphere. For its blue or sea-color or

water-color appearance is not a proof of its density, but rather of

its distance and its thinness; to which its rarified state, if you

compare the thicker substances of the clouds, the latter will appear

in comparison, like the smoke of wet wood when first ignited. It is to

this extreme subtility, yet unaltered durability, that Job alludes as

above mentioned. So philosophers have among them this celebrated

maxim, "That which is humid is limited by no boundary of its own."

Wherefore the heaven which cannot consist by any boundary of its own,

being aqueous, consists by the Word of God; as it is taught in the

present divine record of Moses, "Let there be a firmament!" Gen. 1:6.

Hence philosophers who were more diligent in their inquiries formed

their conclusion, and that by no means a light one for nature to form,

that all things were ruled and governed, not by chance nor at random,

but by a divine providence; seeing that the motions of the heavens and

of the superior bodies are so certain and so peculiar to themselves.

Who indeed could possibly say that all these things proceeded by

chance, or by their own mere undirected nature, when even the

workmanship of men proceeds not from chance, but from skillful art and

certain design, such as pillars formed round, triangular, hexagonal,

etc.?

All these things therefore are the works of the divine Majesty! By him

the sun holds his course so accurately and with so fixed a law, that

he deviates not a hair's breadth from his all-certain path in any one

part of heaven. This course he holds in the most subtile ether,

supported by no substances or bodies whatsoever, but is borne along as

a leaf in the air. Though this comparison is neither strictly correct

nor appropriate, because the motion of a leaf is irregular and

uncertain; but the course of the sun is ever certain, and that too in

an ether far more subtile than this atmosphere in which we move and

live.

This marvelous extension of the original rule and dense nebulosity or

cloud or mist is here called by Moses "a firmament," in which the sun

with all the planets have their motion round the earth, in that most

subtile material. But who is it that gives such firmness to this most

volatile and fluctuating substance? Most certainly it is not nature

that gives it, which in far less important things than these can exert

no such power. It follows therefore that it is the work of him, who

"in the beginning" said unto the heavens and unto this volatile

substance, "Let there be a firmament," or "Be thou a firmament," and

who establishes and preserves all these things by his omnipotent

power, put forth through his Word. This Word makes the air with all

its thinness and lightness to be harder and firmer than adamant, and

to preserve its own boundary; and this Word could on the contrary make

adamant to be softer than water, in order that from such works as

these we might know what kind of a God our God is; namely, the God

omnipotent, who made out of the rude mass of unformed heavens the

present all-beauteous, all-glorious heaven; and who did all these

things according to his will as well as according to his power.

But I have said that with the Hebrews the "firmament" derives its name

from a verb in their language signifying "to extend." It is to this

signification of the Hebrew verb that David beautifully alludes, in

his similitude of military hide-coverings and tents which he uses in

Ps. 104:2, when he says of God "Who stretcheth out the heavens like a

curtain." For as the rolled-up hide-covering of the military tent is

unrolled and then stretched out as a canopy to the stakes which are

fixed in the earth, so Thou, O God, says David, unrolledst as it were

and stretchedst out the first formed, but as yet unformed, rude

heaven, into the present glorious "firmament," where Thou sittest

invisibly as on a sphere over the whole creation, in the midst of all

things and yet out of and above all things.

It is a circumstance naturally exciting our particular wonder that

Moses evidently makes three distinct parts or divisions of this

portion of the creation. He describes "a firmament in the midst of the

waters," which "divides the waters from the waters." For myself I am

inclined to think that the firmament here mentioned is the highest

body of all; and that the waters, not those "above" the firmament, but

those which hang and fly about "under" the firmament, are the clouds,

which we behold with our natural eyes; so that by the waters which are

"divided from the waters," we may understand the clouds which are

divided from our waters which are in the earth. Moses however speaks

in the plainest possible terms, both of waters "above" and of waters

"under" the firmament. Wherefore I here hold my own mind and judgment

in captivity and bow to the Word, although I cannot comprehend it.

But a question here arises, what those waters are and how those bodies

of water which are "above" the firmament are distinguished from those

which are "under" the firmament. The division and distinction here

made by philosophers is well known. They make the elements to be four;

and they distinguish and place them according to their qualities. They

assign the lowest place to the earth; a second place to the water; a

third to the air; and the last and highest place to the fire. Other

philosophers add to these four elements ether as a fifth essence.

After this division and number of the elements, there are numerated

seven spheres or orbs of the planets, and an eighth sphere of the

fixed stars. And on these subjects it is agreed among all philosophers

that there are four spheres of generating and corruptible principles;

and also eight others of non-generating and incorruptible principles.

And Aristotle disputes concerning the nature of the heaven; that it is

not composed of the elements, but has its own peculiar nature, because

if it were composed of the elements it would be corruptible, in that

these substances would mingle together and mutually produce and suffer

corruption. Therefore he will not attribute to heaven and the heavenly

bodies the primary qualities, _primas qualitates_, that is, the

attributes of the elements, and says that they are simply creatures

possessing a co-eternal light, and qualities and attributes peculiarly

their own, and created with them.

Now these things, although they are not certain, yet since they

contain principles of a most beautiful theory, gathered from a course

of reasoning approaching the truth, are useful for instruction, and it

would be barbarous if one should determine to neglect or despise them,

since in some respects they harmonize with experience. For we

experience it to be the truth that fire by its very nature travels

beyond itself, as is seen in the phenomena of the lightning and the

fiery meteors in the air. By these principles, learned from

experience, they are led to give fire the highest place, next to it

the air, after it water comes third, and last the earth in the lowest

place, since in weight it surpasses all the others.

These things have their place and use as rudiments or primary

principles, which if any one contend that they are not universally

true, yet they are true in general and serve to the end that we may

learn and hand down to others the true theories. For though fire can

be struck from flint, yet it cannot therefore be denied that in the

highest regions there is fire. Therefore theology gives these

theorists this rule, which philosophy does not know sufficiently, that

although God ordained and created all these things by his Word, yet he

is not therefore bound to these rules so that he can not change them

according to his good pleasure. For we see that neither grammar nor

the other sciences are so perfectly set forth in rules that there are

no exceptions; thus the laws of public and secular affairs step in and

temper all things with reason. How much more can this be done in

divine things, so that, although we indeed experience that the four

elements are ordained and disposed by God, yet they can, contrary to

this order, also have and maintain fire in the middle of the ocean,

just as we saw that it was hidden in flint.

Likewise the mathematicians have concluded that there were a definite

number of spheres, not that it is necessary to be so, but because one

can not teach anything definitely about such things unless one

distinguishes the spheres thus, on account of the variety of their

motions, about which one can teach nothing without such imagination,

if I may so name it. For teachers and professors of these sciences or

theories say: We give examples, not because they are in every detail

correct, but in order that no one may teach differently concerning

those subjects. Therefore it would be the height of folly to despise

and ridicule such things as some do, because it is not so sure that it

could not be different, for they serve to the end that good arts and

sciences may be taught, and that is sufficient.

The philosophers in general teach such things, to which the more

modern theologians agree and add to these eight spheres two more,--the

crystalline, glacial or aqueous heaven, and then the empyreal or fiery

heaven. The Greeks however have discussed these themes much more

elegantly and prudently than our scholars. For Ambrose and Augustine

have had very childish thoughts. Therefore I praise Jerome because he

simply passed over them in silence.

There are some who hold that the crystalline heaven is watery, because

they think it is the waters of which Moses here speaks, and there the

firmament or eighth sphere is added so that they be not consumed by

their rapid and constant motion. But these are puerile thoughts, and I

will rather confess that I do not understand Moses in this passage

than that I should approve such illiterate thoughts.

The seventh heaven they call empyreal; not because it is fiery or

burning, but from the light which is lucid and splendid. This heaven

in the home of God and of the blessed, because it was filled

immediately after creation with angels, and Lucifer, as they affirm,

fell from this heaven. These are about all the ideas that theologians

have added to the opinions of philosophers.

However, our scientists, who have studied astronomy, teach that there

are still more spheres; namely, twelve, and three motions in the eight

spheres; as, the _motum raptum_, _motum proprium_, _motum

trepidationis_, a rending motion, a characteristic motion, and a

trembling motion. For of such things indeed one cannot speak, unless

he give each motion its own sphere.

Averrois had other thoughts, more absurd and far more in agreeable to

reason. For he advocated that each sphere was an intellect, or an

intelligent nature. The occasion or cause of these foolish thoughts

was that he saw the infallibly perfect and most regular motion of the

heavenly bodies. Therefore he thought these spheres were intelligent

substances, each setting itself in motion in a sure and continuous

manner. But from this follows the greatest and worst ignorance of God;

wherefore we repudiate the thoughts of Averrois. But the others, which

we have mentioned, we approve in so far as they are useful to be

taught. For indeed this knowledge of the motion of the heavenly bodies

is most worthy of all praise, however little that knowledge may be.

Moses however proceeds with his narrative of the creation in all

simplicity and plainness, as they say; making here three divisions:

waters "above" the firmament, waters "under" the firmament, and "the

firmament" in the middle. In the term heaven, Moses comprehends all

that body which philosophers represent by their eight spheres, by fire

and by air. For the sacred historian makes no mention of the flowing

of the waters until the third day. And it is manifest that the air in

which we live is called in the holy Scriptures the heaven; because the

Scriptures speak of the "fowls of heaven," Job 28:21; Ps. 8:8. It also

speaks of the heavens being shut when it does not rain, 1 Kings 8:35.

And again it speaks of the heavens giving their dew, Zech. 8:12; all

these things take place in the air, not in the spheres of the moon or

of the other planets. This distinction of the spheres therefore is not

Mosaic nor scriptural but is an invention of men as an aid to

instruction on these astronomical subjects; and which ought not to be

despised as such an assistance.

And although they say that the elements are corruptible, yet I doubt

it, for I see indeed that they remain. And although a part at times is

changed, yet it follows that the whole will be changed; but these

changes of the elements are only in part. Thus the air remains

unchanged in which the birds live and fly; also the earth upon which

the trees and other things grow, though certain parts of the same are

changed.

Now Aristotle makes the cause of all these things the first mover,

_primum motorem_. Averrois however says the cause of these motions are

_"formae assistentes a foris;"_ that is, intelligent natures which

move from without. Following Moses we say that all these things are

brought forth and governed simply by the Word of God. He spake and it

was done. He never commanded that the angels should govern these

bodies; just as we ourselves are not governed by the angels, although

we are guarded and kept by the angels.

Thus also that the motion of the planets retrogrades is the work of

God created by his Word, which work belongs to God himself, which is

greater and higher than can be attributed to angels, but God, who thus

distinguished these things, governs and preserves them. And it is the

same God who commanded the sun to start in its course but the

firmament to stand still, said also to the planets and the stars, thou

shaft move so and so. The Word does even this; namely, it makes the

most uncertain motion the most certain, even though these heavenly

material bodies move in the fluctuating atmosphere, and not in any

place or along any material line. For as a fish in the middle of the

sea, a bird in the open heavens, so the stars move in their appointed

course, but in a motion most secure and very wonderful indeed. Thus

also this is clearly the cause why the Elbe river here at Wittenberg

and in this district has its fixed and continuous course and dare not

become weary. All such works are the works of the Word, which Moses

here honors and praises: "He said," etc.

But we Christians ought to meditate and think on these things and

their causes differently from philosophers. Although there are some

things which are beyond our comprehension, as for instance these

waters that are "above" the firmament, all such things are rather to

be believed with a confession of our ignorance than profanely denied,

or arrogantly interpreted according to our shallow comprehension. It

behooves us ever to adhere to the phraseology of the holy Scriptures,

and to stand by the very words of the Holy Spirit, whom it pleased in

this sacred narrative by his servant Moses, so to arrange the

different parts of the great work of creation, as to place in the

midst "the firmament;" formed out of the original mass of the unshapen

heaven and earth, and stretched out and expanded by the Word; and then

to represent some waters as being "above" that firmament and other

waters "under" that firmament, both waters being also formed out of

the same original rude undigested matter. And the whole of this part

of the creation is called by the Holy Spirit the heaven; together also

with its seven spheres and the whole region of the air; in which are

meteors and signs of fire and in which the wandering fowls make their

homes.

Therefore these common principles we will not oppose nor deny, when

they say everything by nature sinks under itself, and everything light

rises above itself, although we also see that dense heavy vapors arise

but by reason of the influence and motion of heat. We say also that

all these things were thus created and maintained by the Word, and

they can also by virtue of the power in the same Word be changed yet

today; as all nature will finally be altogether transformed. Thus also

it is contrary to the rule given that waters should be above the

heaven or firmament, and yet the text affirms it.

To return therefore unto the principal matter before us; when any

inquiry is instituted as to the nature of these waters, it cannot be

denied that Moses here affirms that waters are "above" the heaven; but

of what kind or nature these waters are, I freely confess for myself

that I know not; for the Scriptures make no other mention of them than

in this verse, and in the Song of the three children, in the

Apocrypha, Dan. 3:61; and I can attempt to declare nothing certain on

these and similar subjects. Hence I can say nothing whatever as known

and understood concerning the heaven where the angels are and where

God dwells with the blessed; nor concerning other kindred things,

which shall be revealed unto us in the last day, when we shall have

been clothed with another body.

But I add, for the sake of those who do not understand this, that in

the Scriptures the word heaven often signifies what we call the

horizon. Hence the whole firmament is called the heaven of heavens, in

which are gathered the heaven of all human beings; that is, the

horizon. In this respect we have a different heaven here in Germany

than the people in France or Italy. But this name helps nothing at all

in the explanation of our text. Therefore the greater number of

theologians interpret here waters, as also indicated above, the

glacial heaven, the cold heaven, which is located where it is that it

may moisten and refresh the lower sphere in their great and swift

motion, lest they be consumed by their excessive heat. But whether

they have thus concluded correctly, I will leave unanswered.

I freely confess that I do not know what kind of waters these are. For

the old teachers of the church did not specially worry about this, as

we see Augustine condemned all astrology. Although it contains much

superstition, yet it should not be entirely despised, for it is wholly

given up to the observation and consideration of divine themes, a zeal

and diligence most worthy of human beings. Therefore we find that many

most highly talented and excellent persons have exercised themselves

in astrology and obtained pleasure from it.

Sufficient has been said on this subject to show that on the second

day the heaven was separated and located so that it stood in the

middle between the waters.

III. But here another question presents itself. To the works of all

the other days there is added the divine sentence of approbation, "And

God saw that it was good." How is it then that the same sentence is

not added to the second day's work, when the greatest and most

beautiful part of the whole creation was made? To this question it may

be replied, that this same divine sentence is added at the end of the

creation of all things on the sixth day and more fully expressed thus,

"And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very

good." And these words apply to the heaven also.

Lyra is inclined to think with Rabbi Solomon, that as this divine

expression, "And God saw that it was good," is uttered twice during

the third day's work, one of the divine sentences refers to the second

day's work; which was perfected on the third day, when the waters

which are "under" the heaven were more distinctly divided from the

waters which were "above" the heaven. But it is by far the safest way

not to be too curious and inquiring on these subjects; because they

exceed our human capacity.

Others speculate here and give reasons they understand not, that the

second number is of an evil omen, because it is the first number that

departs from the unity of God, but God was displeased with this

digression and approved of the unity, and therefore he did not add the

clause "it was good" on the second day. Lyra is however right in

calling this a misleading and dangerous explanation. For in this

manner all the numbers depart from the Unity.

Therefore it is far the safest not to be too curious and inquiring in

these subjects, because they are placed above our human capacity. For

how can we understand that order which God himself establishes and

approves. Yes, reason must here be put to shame, for what is order in

the eyes of God we judge to be the confusion of order. Thus the stars

seem to us to be arranged thoughtlessly in wild disorder in that the

bright ones are scattered among those more obscure, and the lesser

among the greater. Who would judge this to be order? And yet it is the

most perfect harmony, so constituted by the all-wise mind itself. In

like manner we judge of other matters. It seems confusing that our

Elbe and all rivers flow to the sea in an irregular winding course.

Such disorder there seems to be also among trees, yes, between man and

wife, where it appears there is no order. But all this only proves

that God is a God of order and that his judgment as to order is quite

different than ours.

We therefore cease to follow more curiously the question why God added

twice to the third day, "And God saw," etc., and omitted it on the

second day. Nor will we conclude rashly whether the work of the second

day was finished in the third day or not. Philosophers have handed

down the rudiments of the arts and of the science of astronomy, and in

doing so they divided the heaven into various spheres. We have a much

simpler theory or science, in that we at once make God the immediate

Creator of all things by his Word, _Dixit_, "And God said."

For how can we understand that order which God approves as such? Nay,

our natural reason must here of necessity be confounded; for that

which is order with God is in our judgment confusion. Hence the stars

appear to us to be in a state of wild disorder; the bright being

mingled with the more obscure, and the lesser with the greater. Who

would judge this to be order? And yet it is consummate harmony; and so

constituted by the all-wise Mind. And so we judge of other things. Our

river Elbe seems a confusion; as do all other rivers also; because

their streams empty themselves into the sea by winding courses. In the

same manner trees seem to present a confusion. Nor do males and

females in the world and their unions and combinations appear to be a

state of order. All here also as to the appearance of things is

disorder and confusion. All these things therefore unitedly prove that

God possesses an order, and judges of it, differently from ourselves.

Cease we therefore to penetrate into these things with too much

curiosity, why it is that God repeats the divine sentence in question

twice during the work of the third day and omits it altogether in the

work of the second day? Nor determine we rashly whether the work of

the second day was finished on the third day or not. Philosophers laid

down the rudiments of the arts and of the science of astronomy; and in

so doing they divided the heaven into its various spheres. But we

adopt a simpler and more true method of procedure and judgment; for we

at once make God the immediate Creator of all things by his Word, "And

God said."

PART III. GOD'S WORK ON THE THIRD DAY.

I. V. 9a. _And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered

together unto one place._

In the foregoing I observed that we do not understand the order of the

works of God. Had he therefore asked us our opinion here we should

have advised him to use such an order as to add the sentence now in

question to the work of the second day. But God will ever be master of

his own order and the ruler of the world. Wherefore we ought not to be

over curious here. The text plainly declares that God commanded the

waters "under the heavens to be gathered together unto one place." It

does not say as before, V. 7, "under the firmament," where it is said,

and God divided the waters which were "under the firmament" from the

waters which were "above the firmament."

The heavens therefore, according to the phraseology and definition of

the Scriptures, are the whole of the higher region and its machinery,

together with the entire body of the air and all its spheres. The

Hebrew name is derived from the material of which it is composed;

namely, from that confused body of water, by the extension or

expansion or multiplication of which it was formed. For that first

body of unformed water was not so extensive in itself, but was so

expanded or spread out by the Word. Just as Christ, according to the

record of the Gospel, so multiplied a few loaves by his blessing as to

make them suffice for a great multitude of men.

What therefore we philosophically call the air, with all its spheres,

Moses here calls the heavens.

But by waters he means the waters of our seas and rivers, which were

also formed out of that original unformed mass of water; or out of the

dregs or lees of it, as it were, after the heavens had been formed or

expanded out of it by the Word. I believe however that the nature and

power of our water are far inferior to those of the heavenly waters.

For our waters are, as I have said, the dregs, as it were, of the

higher waters. So that they may be said to have been gathered together

not only as to their place or position, but as to their body or

substance, because these latter waters are heavier than those of the

air or heaven. For we can breathe in the air, but we cannot breathe in

the water.

And when Moses says that these waters were "gathered together unto one

place" collectively, he is rather to be understood as speaking in a

plural or distributive sense. As if he had said, that they were

gathered unto various places; and not that the whole body of the

waters was gathered unto one place, as one ocean, but that they were

distributed into various seas and rivers; some higher up, and some

lower down, some greater, and some less, etc.

V. 9b. _And let the dry (land) appear._

These words claim particular attention, because Moses had just before

said, that the earth was TOHU and BOHU; that is unformed, rude and

uncultivated, mixed with waters and washed by the waters on every

side. Here therefore Moses also means that this original mass of earth

was sunk under the waters and covered by them. Otherwise, why should

he represent God as saying "And let the dry land appear," if it had

not been surrounded by the abyss of water and almost covered with

these original nebulous mists or waters? For we have here a

confirmation of that which I have repeatedly set forth; that the

world, at its first formation, was nothing but a rude chaotic mass of

water and earth; and now on the third day the earth is brought out and

made to appear. As therefore at first the light was brought in upon

the waters; so now, the beauty of that light is made to shine upon the

earth. For both these qualities were necessary to render the earth

habitable; that it should be "dry" and that it should be in the light

or illuminated.

II. Moses now calls the earth "dry" on account of the removal of the

original waters from it. Thus we behold the waters of the ocean rage

and boil as if they would swallow up the whole earth. For the ocean

stands higher than the earth. But it cannot pass its appointed bounds,

for this spot of dry land circumscribes the earth of the first

creation; and even opposes an insuperable barrier to original

ocean-waters. Hence Job, 38th chapter, and the 104th Psalm bear

witness that, although the sea is higher than the earth and is limited

by no boundaries of its own, yet it cannot pass its boundaries

appointed of God. For the earth, being the center of the world, would

naturally be submerged and covered with the sea. But God keeps back

the sea by his Word and thus makes the plane of the earth stand forth

out of the waters, as far as is necessary for the habitation and life

of man.

Hence it is by the power of God that the waters are prevented from

rushing in upon us. God therefore performs for us to this day and will

do so to the end of the world, the same miracle which he wrought for

the children of Israel in the Red Sea, Ex. 14:21-22. But he made a

special manifestation of his power by working the mighty miracle on

that occasion, to the intent that he might bind that people, who were

few in number, the more devotedly to his worship. And what else is

this our life upon earth, but a passage through the Red Sea, where the

high and threatening walls of water stand up on each side of us? For

it is most certainly true that the sea is much higher than the earth.

God therefore to this day commands the waters to hang suspended and

holds them up by his Word that they may not break in upon us, as they

burst in upon the world at the deluge. Sometimes however signs of

God's power are still manifested, whole islands perish under the

waters, whereby God shows that the mighty water is still in his hands,

and that it is with Him either to hold it fast or to let it rush in

upon the wicked and the ungrateful.

Philosophers have their disputes also concerning the center of the

world and the circumfluent water. Indeed it is wonderful that they go

so far as to determine the earth to be the center of the whole

creation. And it is from this argument, that they conclude that the

earth cannot fall; because it is supported from within by the other

spheres surrounding it on every side. Hence according to these

philosophers the heaven and all other spheres rest upon this center,

by which support they themselves also derive their durability. It is

well becoming us to know these arguments. But these philosophers know

not that the whole of this stability rests on the power of the Word of

God. Although therefore the water of the mighty ocean is higher than

the earth, yet it cannot pass its appointed bounds nor cover the

earth. But we live and breathe as the Children of Israel existed in

the midst of the Red Sea.

V. 10. _And God saw that it was good._

Moses here adds this divine commendation although nothing was wrought

beside the division of the waters and the bringing out of waters a

small particle of the earth. Now above, at the most beautiful part of

God's creation, this short divine commendatory sentence was not added.

Perhaps it was omitted as an intimation from God that he is more

concerned about our habitation than about his own; and that he might

by such intimation animate us to higher feelings of gratitude and

praise. For we were not destined to exist in the air or in the heaven,

but on the earth where we were appointed to support our life by meat

and drink.

Therefore after God adorned the roof of man's habitation, namely, the

heaven, and added the light, he now spreads its floor and makes the

earth suitable for the dwelling service of men. This part of his work,

God twice declares to be "good" on our account, by which he would

intimate that we men form so great a part of his care, that he is

desirous to assure us by such a twofold approbation of this portion of

his creation-work wrought with so much care that he would ever hold it

under his peculiar protection; that he would grant it his perpetual

presence, and would prevent our great enemy and our most certain

death, the mighty water, from rushing in upon us. Beautifully

therefore did God form in "the beginning" the foundation and roof of

this house. Now let us see how he furnished and garnished it.

III. V. 11. _And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs

yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after its kind, etc._

God, as we have seen, has now constructed the first and the principal

parts of man's house. Its roof, the heaven, is most beautiful, but it

is not yet fully adorned. Its foundation is the earth. Its walls are

the mighty waters on every side. God next makes provision for our

food. He commands the earth to bring forth herbs and trees to bear

fruit of every kind. Here you may again see why the earth was before

called TOHU and BOHU; because it was as yet not only dark, but

altogether barren of fruit.

But mark what kind of food God prepares for us; namely, herbs and

fruits of trees. I believe therefore that our bodies would have been

much stronger and healthier if this surfeiting and especially the

eating of flesh of all kinds since the flood had not been introduced.

For although the earth after the sin of Adam was cursed, and because

still more corrupt after the flood, yet our food of herbs would have

been much more refining, thin and pure, had we still lived on them,

than our gross feeding on flesh is now. It is quite evident that in

the beginning of the world the food of man was herbs, and it is

equally evident that the herbs were created for the very end that they

might be food for man.

That the earth produces grain, trees and herbs of every kind is the

work of this day. Now indeed, all things spring forth from the seed of

their kind. But the original creation was wrought without any seed, by

the simple power of the Word. Indeed that seeds now put forth their

plants is still the effect of the work of the original creation by the

Word, and it is a work full of wonder and admiration. For it is a

singular act of God's power that the grain, falling on the earth,

springs forth in its time and brings forth fruit after its kind. And

that like plants should be put forth from like seeds in an unceasing

and unchanging order, is sure proof that it is not the consequence of

a chance creation, but the especial operation of divine providence.

Hence from wheat grows nothing but wheat; from barley nothing but

barley; from the bean nothing but beans; for the same continuous and

unaltered nature, order and condition of each plant are constantly

preserved.

Philosophy knows nothing of the cause of all this and attributes the

whole to nature. We however well understand that nature was so created

at the first by the power of the Word, that the seeds and forms of all

plants might be exactly and perfectly preserved. Wherefore not only

are the first-day waters of heaven multiplied, as there is need; but

the first seeds are also multiplied, as God sees fit, and they all

preserve their original form and nature with the utmost perfection.

Here again a question is frequently raised as to the time or season of

the year, in which the world was created; whether the creation was

wrought in the spring or autumn. And although the opinions of men

differ on this point, yet each one has his own reasons and

conjectures. Those who prefer making autumn the season of creation,

consider that they prove their judgment to be correct from the fact

that the trees when first created produced their fruit. For Adam and

Eve ate of their fruit. They prove their opinion moreover to be the

right one, as they think, by the argument that the works of God are

perfect! Others will have it, that the spring was the time of the

creation, because the spring is the most beautiful season of the year

and is, as it were, the infancy and childhood of nature. Hence it is

that the ancient poet Ovid describes the spring as being the

originating cradle-time of the world.

Neither party however has sufficient ground for concluding their

arguments to be exclusively right; for the sacred text supports both

opinions, because it declares, that the earth "brought or budded

forth," which certainly is not the time of autumn, but of spring. It

also declares that fruits then existed; which it is equally certain is

not the time of spring. Wherefore, my opinion is that such was the

miracle wrought of God at the first creation of the world that all

these things existed at the one time; the earth budded forth, the

trees blossomed, and the fruits, in their perfection, immediately and

suddenly followed; and then the miracle ceased; and nature gradually

fell into her regular order. Thus, all these herbs and trees are

propagated by means of their seeds in the same kinds and forms as

those in which they were first created. Hence men reason wrongly, when

they argue from the natural to the supernatural effect. For the whole

is to be attributed to the Creator and to his first creation-work, in

which he at the same time perfected the infant buddings of spring and

the mature fruits of autumn, as far as the herbs and the fruits of the

trees were concerned.

Moreover this state of things at the creation induced Hilary and

others to conclude that the world stood forth suddenly at the Word of

God in all its full perfection; and that God did not employ six whole

natural days in the work of creation. For the text compels us to

confess that the trees together with their fruits existed on the same

day Adam was created. But although all this was indeed wrought of God

very much more quickly than it is now for this same work of God in our

age generally occupies six months of time, yet the text does not use

the verb "to fructify" only but also the verb "to germinate."

With reference therefore to this question, concerning the time of the

creation, it is most probable that the spring was the season in which

the world was first created. Hence the Jews begin their year at this

season, making the first month of spring the first of their year, that

being the time of the year when the earth begins to open its bosom and

all things in nature bud forth.

Concerning this part of the creation another question is also raised

as to the time when the unfruitful or barren trees and herbs were

created. For myself I would not attempt to settle anything as to this

point, but I will offer my opinion. I believe that all trees were in

the beginning good and fruitful; and that the beasts of the field and

Adam had as it were one and the same table; and that they all fed on

wheat, pulse and the other nobler fruits; for there was then the

greatest possible abundance of all these creatures.

After the sin of Adam however God said for the first time to the earth

"that it should bring forth thorns and briars." Wherefore there can be

no doubt that we have so many trees and herbs which are of no use

whatever for food as the divine punishment of that first sin of Adam.

Hence it is that many have considered the whole original state of

earth paradise, on account of the blessing and the abundance which

attended the first creation. Those who held this opinion affirmed that

the expulsion of Adam from Paradise was his being deprived of this

happy state of the earth and placed among thorns, where frequently

after the greatest labor scarcely any benefit is derived. On this

matter however we shall speak hereafter. But with respect to the

present question, I am quite inclined to think that all the trees were

fruitful when first created.

The curious reasoning of the men of our day is detestable; when they

inquire in their arguments, why it was that God adorned the earth with

fruits on the third day before he had garnished the heaven with stars?

They affirm that such a part of the creation-work belonged rather to

the work of the sixth day; and that it would have been more

appropriate as the heaven was first expanded before the earth was

brought forth, had the heaven been adorned before the earth. For they

say that the adorning of the earth belonged more properly to the sixth

day. Lyra would make here the subtle distinction that this was not the

ornament of the earth but the form of it. However I doubt whether any

such distinction can be admitted, as satisfactory. My opinion is that,

as I have before said, the order adopted by God in all these things is

not to be submitted to the exercise of any judgment of ours. Indeed

was not the heaven adorned with that light, which was created on the

first day? That light was assuredly the most beautiful ornament of the

whole creation.

In this sacred matter I therefore much prefer that we consider the

divine care and goodness exercised in our especial behalf, in that God

prepared a habitation so beautiful for the man, whom he was about to

create, before he created him, in order that when created he might

find a habitation already prepared and furnished for him, into which

thus ready and garnished God led him when created, and commanded him

to enjoy all the fruits and provisions of his ample abode. Thus on the

third day were prepared the food and the store-room. On the fourth day

the sun and the moon were given for the service of man. On the fifth

day "dominion" was committed to him over the fishes and the birds. On

the sixth day the same "dominion" was intrusted to him over all the

beasts, that he might use all the rich blessings of these creatures

freely, according to his necessities; and as a return God only

required that man should acknowledge the goodness of his Creator and

live in his fear and worship. This peculiar care of God over us and

for us even before we were created, may be contemplated rightly and

with great benefit to our souls, but all conjectures, reasonings and

arguments upon the great subject of the creation are uncertain and

fruitless.

The same care for us is manifest in his spiritual gifts. For long

before we are converted to faith Christ, our Redeemer, rose and

ascended above, and is now in the house of his Father preparing

mansions for us; that when we arrive there we may find heaven

furnished with everything that can complete our joy. Adam therefore

not yet created was much less able to think of his future good than

even we are, for he as yet had no existence at all. Whereas we

continually hear all these things from the Word of God, as promised to

us. Let us look at this first creation of the world therefore as a

type and figure of the world to come, and thereby let us learn the

exceeding goodness of God, who thus benefits, blesses and enriches us,

even before we are capable of thinking for ourselves. This solicitude,

care, liberality and beneficence of God, both for our present and

future life, are matters more becoming us to contemplate and admire

than it is to enter upon speculations and conjectures as to the reason

why God began to ornament the earth on the third day. Let these

observations suffice concerning the work of the third day in which a

house was built and furnished for man. Now follow the remaining days

in which we were appointed rulers, to "have dominion over" the whole

creation.

PART IV. GOD'S WORK ON THE FOURTH DAY.

I. V. 14a. _And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of

heaven to divide the day from the night._

This is the work of the fourth day in which those all-beautiful

creatures, the sun and the moon, together with all the stars, were

created by the Word. Nor were they created as to their substances and

their bodies only, but as to the blessing of God upon them and through

them; that is, as to their powers, effects and influence.

You heard above that on the first day the "light" was created. This

light continued to illumine all things instead of the sun, the moon

and the stars until the fourth day. And on the fourth day those

authors and rulers of the day and the night were themselves created.

Hence there has here arisen a question with reference to this first

"light;" whether after the sun and the moon were created it

disappeared altogether or remained, embodied in the sun. And on this

point a great diversity of sentiments and opinions has existed. My

simple belief is that the nature of all these works of God is the

same. As on the first day the rude unformed heaven and earth were

created and afterward completely formed and perfected, as the

originally imperfect heaven was afterward stretched out and adorned

with light, and as the earth was first called forth from the waters

and then clothed with trees and herbs, so the first formed light of

the first day, which was then only begun, as it were, and imperfect,

was afterwards perfected and completed by the addition of those new

creatures, the sun, the moon and the stars. Others say that this

original "light" still remains, but is obscured by the brightness of

the sun. Both opinions may be true. For it may be that the original

light still remains and was as it were the seed-light of the sun and

the moon.

Moses however makes a difference here, calling the sun and the moon

the "greater lights." What philosophers say therefore concerning the

magnitude of these bodies has properly nothing to do with the text

before us. What we have here to do is to observe that the Scriptures

do not speak of these bodies with reference to the magnitude of the

bodies themselves but with reference to the magnitude of their light!

For if you would compare the sun with the stars and collect all the

stars into one body, you would have a body perhaps greater than the

sun, but that whole body of stars together would not form a light

equal to the light of the sun. On the contrary if you could divide the

sun into minute particles, the most minute particles would surpass in

brightness the brightest star. For all these bodies were created with

an essential difference as Paul affirms. "There is one glory of the

sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars,"

etc., 1 Cor. 15:41. And this difference does not consist in the nature

or magnitude of their bodies, but in the nature and essentiality of

their creation itself; so that in this the work of God's creation is

more wonderful. Hence marvellous beyond expression or thought is the

fact that the rays of the sun should be dispersed through such length

and breadth, with such wonderful properties of nourishment and heat to

all bodies under their influence; and that, too, while the sun itself

revolves with such amazing velocity.

Astronomers say also that the stars are lighted as it were by the sun

so that they shine. Likewise they say that the moon borrows its light

from the sun. And this is beautifully proved in an eclipse of the

moon, when the earth comes between the sun and moon and the light of

the sun is not transmitted to the moon. I do not deny nor reject this,

but I do hold however that it is of divine power that this efficacy is

added to the sun to light and illumine even the distant moon and stars

with its own light; and likewise that the moon and stars are so

created that they have the capacity to receive the light that is

projected from the sun so far away.

Augustine sets forth two opinions about the moon in the beginning of

the 12th Psalm, and in his discussions he forces an allegory upon the

church, while he himself defines nothing. But I leave this; for from

astronomers as from master artists we most readily learn what points

are possible to be disputed in this science. I am satisfied that in

these bodies so glorious and useful for our life we discern the

goodness and power of God, who created such things by his Word and

conserved them to the present day for our use. These are matters

belonging to our calling or profession; that is, they are theological

themes, and they have the efficacy to comfort and strengthen our

hearts.

What is further discussed concerning the nature and attributes of

these creatures, although for the most part approaching the truth and

studied with profit, yet I see that the reason is by far too weak to

understand these things perfectly. Therefore the greatest men of

genius and learning, overwhelmed by the worthiness of these creatures,

could not conclude otherwise than that they are eternal, and, as it

were, gods.

Since, therefore, philosophers define a star to be a denser point

within its own orbit, we come much nearer the truth when we define it

to be light created by God through his Word. And it is indeed more

likely that the stars are bodies round like the sun, little globes

fixed to the firmament, so that each gives light by night, according

to its gift and its creative functions.

V. 14b. _And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and

years._

When Moses adds above, "And let them divide the day from the night,"

he intimates that difference between the natural and the artificial

day, so universally made by astronomers. For he had before said, "And

there was evening and there was morning one day;" "were the second

day," etc., where he is speaking of the natural day which consists of

24 hours, during which the first great movable body, the sun, performs

his revolution from east to west. But here, when the sacred historian

says, "And let them divide the day from the night" he is speaking of

the artificial day, the space of time during which the sun is above

the horizon.

II. These therefore are the primary offices of the sun and the moon:

to be the rulers and directors of the night and the day; whereas the

stars perform not these offices nor are so appointed of God. But the

sun, when he rises, brings in the day without the rising or aid of the

other stars. So the moon, even independently of the stars, is the

ruler of the night and makes the night; for she is created by God for

that very office. As to these changes of the day and the night, they

are ordained for the refreshment of our bodies by sleep and rest. The

sun shows his brighter light for man's work. The moon has her paler

light as more adapted for repose than for work.

But what is the meaning of Moses when he says, "And let them be for

signs," etc.? Lyra explains it as signifying signs of rains and

storms, etc. This in an interpretation which I would not strongly

oppose; though I have great doubts whether these "Lights in the

firmament of heaven" do, or can, pre-signify rains, tempests, etc.,

with any certainty, as the poet Virgil and others represent in their

writings. The gospel does indeed make a "reddened" evening a sign of

"fair weather," and on the contrary a "lowering" morning a sign of

"foul weather," Math. 16:2-3. With respect therefore to the common

saying that the rising of the constellation of the Pleiades indicates

rain and other proverbs of a similar description, I will not with

great concern tear them to pieces, nor will I at once admit and

confirm them, because I cannot see that they are all uniformly sure

and certain.

I hold the simplest meaning of the text is that he does not speak of

such inferior signs, but greater signs, such as eclipses and

collisions of heavenly bodies, so that a sign is a wonder, a prophecy

or miracle, by which he reveals his wrath or the misfortune of the

world. If any think this explanation is too coarse, let us remember

that Moses wrote for a rude people.

Here belong meteors and the rare phenomena which take place in the

air, when stars are seen to fall, when halos surround the sun and

moon, when the rainbow appears and similar things happen in the sky.

For Moses calls the heaven the whole aqueous mass in which the stars

and planets move, also the highest sphere. We speak of spheres and

circles to make the explanation plainer. For the Scriptures know

nothing of these and say that the moon with the sun and stars are not

each in its sphere, but in the firmament of heaven, below and above

are the waters. That they are signs of future events, experience

teaches concerning planet collisions and meteors.

The expression "For seasons" claims particular attention. The term in

the Hebrew is LEMOEDIM; and MOED signifies "a stated, fixed, certain

time." Hence it is a term commonly used in the Scriptures to signify

"a tabernacle of covenant;" because there certain feasts were

accustomed to be held in a certain place and time according to certain

rites. Therefore it is that Moses describes the sun and the moon as

being created "For seasons;" not only because the seasons are ruled

and evidently changed by the course of the sun; for we see that most

inferior bodies are changed by the access and recess of the sun; and

the quality of the air according to which our own bodies are also

changed is of one kind in the winter, of another in the summer, of

another in the autumn and of another in the spring; but because we

observe other differences and distinctions of times and seasons in

civil life, all which are derived from the motions and revolutions of

these heavenly bodies. Hence at a certain time of the year men make

their contracts for building houses, hire their servants and their

services, and collect taxes, debts and rents, etc. All these are

services rendered us and blessings bestowed upon us by the sun and the

moon, that we may by their laws and revolutions divide the times and

seasons for the various labors of man and enjoy many other blessings

which they confer. It is by them that we divide and number our weeks,

months, quarters, etc., etc.

The next expression, "For days," refers to the natural day, during

which the sun performs his revolution round the earth. Our being

enabled therefore to number days and also years, are blessings of the

creation and are thus ordained of God. Wherefore philosophers define

time to be "an enumeration of motions," which numbering could have no

existence if the heavenly bodies did not move by a sure and fixed law.

If they all stood fixed in a certain place without motion, numbering

could have neither commencement nor regulation. And where there is no

numbering of days, months, years, etc., there is no time. Hence a man

in a sound sleep, being destitute of all sense of number and of all

faculty of enumeration, knows not how long he sleeps.

In a like manner, though we can in a measure recollect our infancy,

yet we are not conscious of the fact of having sucked the breasts of

our mothers; and yet we then had natural life. The reason is that we

were deficient in the sense of number and the power of annumeration.

For this same reason beasts know nothing of time; just as infants have

no such knowledge. The sense and faculty of number therefore prove man

to be a peculiar and superior creature of God on which account we find

Augustine declaring the faculty of annumeration to be an especial gift

of our nature, and proving from this very gift the immortality of the

soul; because man alone can calculate and understand time.

With reference to the future life, some here inquire whether the

offices of these heavenly bodies are designed of God to cease. But the

life to come will be without time. For the godly will enjoy an eternal

day and the ungodly will have an endless night and eternal darkness.

The sun therefore makes the day, not only by his light and brightness,

but by his motion, which he makes from east to west until he rises

again at the end of 24 hours and thus makes another day. Wherefore

astronomers make three great benefits to proceed from the sun: his

motion, his light and his influence.

Concerning his influence however I shall enter upon no subtle inquiry.

It is enough for me to know that these heavenly bodies were created

for our use; that they may be unto us "For signs of wrath or of grace

and for seasons," that we might observe certain distinctions of time,

etc. These things, because they are taught us in the Holy Scriptures

are sure. All things else, such as the doctrines and predictions of

astrologers, are not thus certain.

One is wont to inquire here concerning the astrological predictions

which some confirm and prove from this text. If they are not defended

perseveringly and pertinaciously, I will not combat them strongly. For

one ought to concede to the ingenious and learned brains their

playground. Therefore when one reads of the misuse and unbelief of

their superstitions, I would not be greatly offended if one exercise

himself in these predictions for the sake of pleasure.

As to that which pertains to the practice of astrology I could never

he persuaded to count astrology among the sciences, for the reasons

that it has no clear demonstration or visible proof. That they cite

experiences does not influence me. For all astrological experiences

are merely particular. For those, skilled in the practice only, have

observed and committed to writing the things that have not failed; the

other experiences, however, in which they failed or were not followed

by the results they predicted would certainly follow were not

committed to writing nor remembered. But just as Aristotle says that

one swallow alone does not make summer, so I think one cannot form a

true and complete science from such single and particular

observations. For just as it is said of hunters, they may hunt every

day, but they do not find game every day. The same may be said of

astrologers and their predictions, because they fail very often.

But now since they indeed contain some truth, what folly it is at the

same time that one should be so anxious about the future. For grant

that it is possible to know the future through the predictions of

astrologers, were it not in many respects far better, if they are

evil, to be entirely ignorant of them than to know them, as Cicero

contends? Instead it is much better to stand in the fear of God always

and to pray than to be tormented and tortured by the fear of future

events. But more of this at another time.

Wherefore my judgment is that astrological predictions cannot safely

and satisfactorily be founded upon this passage of Scripture; for they

are, as I have said, signs observed and collected by reason. But the

next and proper meaning, if we understand Moses concerning the signs,

which God knows and shows, is to the end that men in general may be

admonished and terrified by them. Let these observations on the fourth

day suffice.

Now here begins to open upon us and to present itself to our

meditation that great subject, the immortality of the soul. For no

creature besides man can understand the motion of the heaven or

estimate the celestial bodies and their revolutions. The pig, the cow,

the dog cannot measure the water they drink. But man can measure even

the heaven and form his calculations of all the heavenly bodies.

Wherefore a spark of eternal life glitters forth here from the fact

that man is naturally exercised in this knowledge of all nature. For

this anxious inquiry indicates that men were not created with the

design that they should live forever in this small weak portion of

God's universe; but that they should occupy the heaven, which in this

life they so admire and in the study and contemplation of which they

are continually engaged.

If heaven were not the destination of man what aim or need was there

for his being endowed with this wide capacity for rich knowledge and

thought. Indeed the stature and form of the body of man also argues

that he was designed for heavenly things, even though his origin was

so very mean and humble. For God made the first man from the common

earth. After this the human race began to be propagated from the seed

of the male and female, in which the embryo is formed in the womb in

all its particular members, and there it grows until by its birth it

is ushered forth into the light of heaven. From this birth comes the

life of sensation, the life of motion and the life of operation.

When at length the body has grown and the man has a sound reason and

soul in a sound body, then first shines forth in all its brightness

that life of intelligence found in no other earthly creature. By this

faculty, leaning on the aid of the mathematical sciences, which no one

can deny were indicated and taught from above, man mounts in his mind

from earth to heaven, and leaving behind him the things below concerns

himself about and inquires into heavenly things. Hogs do not do this,

nor cows nor any other beasts of the earth, it is the employment of

man alone. Man therefore is a being created of God with the design

that at an appointed time he should leave the earth, dwell in heavenly

mansions and live a life eternal. These great principles of man's

creation form the reasons why he is able not only to speak and to

judge, which are things pertaining to language and argument, but is

capable also of acquiring any science whatever.

From this fourth day therefore begins to be manifested the peculiar

glory of our race. Because God here forms his mind and purpose to

create such a being as should be capable of understanding the motions

of those heavenly bodies, which are created on this fourth day; and a

being who should delight himself in their knowledge, as peculiarly and

exclusively adapted to his nature. All these things therefore ought to

call forth our thanksgiving and praise; while we reflect that we are

the citizens of that heavenly country which we now behold, understand

and wonder at, yet understand only as strangers and exiles, but which

after this life we shall behold nearer and understand perfectly.

Hitherto therefore we have heard the divine historian speak of those

creatures only, which are endowed with neither life nor sense;

although some philosophers have spoken of the stars and the greater

heavenly bodes, as if they were animate and rational. This I think has

arisen from the motion of these bodies, which is rational and so

certain that there is nothing like it in any other creatures. Hence

some philosophers have affirmed that the heavenly creatures were

composed of body and intellect, though their bodies were not material.

Plato reasons thus in his "Timoeus."

All such opinions however are to be utterly exploded and our whole

intellect is to be subjected to the Word of God and to what is there

written. The Holy Scriptures plainly teach that God made all these

things, that he might by them prepare for the man, whom he was about

to create, a home and a hospitable reception; and that all these

things are governed and preserved by the power of the same Word, by

which they were originally created. Wherefore all things being at

length prepared pertaining to the furniture of his home, the

Scriptures next show us the manner in which man was "formed" and

introduced into his possession to the end that we might be taught that

the providence of God over us and for us is greater than all our own

care and concern for ourselves can possibly be. These things are

plainly taught us in the Scriptures. All other things not supported by

the authority of the Scriptures are to be repudiated and rejected.

I have therefore thought it especially becoming and necessary to

repeat here that admonition which I have frequently given, that we

ought constantly to acquaint and familiarize ourselves with the

phraseology of the Holy Spirit. For no one can successfully study any

of the human arts unless he first correctly understands the idiom of

the language in which its principles are described. For lawyers have

their peculiar terms, unknown to the physician and the philosopher. In

like manner, the latter have each a phraseology peculiar to themselves

with which the professors of other arts have little or no

acquaintance. Now one art ought not to perplex another. But every art

ought to maintain its own course in its own way and to adopt its own

peculiar terms.

Accordingly we find the Holy Spirit, to use a language and a

phraseology peculiar to his own divine self, declaring that God

created all things by his Word or by speaking them into being; "He

spake and it was done"; that he wrought all things by his Word; and

that all the works of God are certain words of God, certain things

created by the uncreated word. As therefore the philosopher uses his

own terms, so the Holy Ghost uses his. Hence when the astronomer

speaks of his spheres, his cycles and his epicycles, he does so

rightly, for it is lawful for him in the profession of his art to use

such terms as may enable him the better to instruct his disciples. On

the other hand the Holy Ghost will know nothing of such terms in the

sacred Scriptures. Hence those Scriptures call the whole of that part

of the creation which is above us, "The heaven," nor ought that term

to be disapproved by the astronomer; for the astronomer and the

Scripture both adopt, as I have said, terms peculiar to themselves.

It is in this manner that we are to understand the term "seasons" in

the sacred text before us. For the term "season" with the philosopher

and with the Hebrew has not the same signification. With the Jews the

term "season" signifies, theologically, an appointed feast or

festival; and also the intervals of days, which concur and conjoin to

form the year, wherefore this term is everywhere rendered by the word

"feast" or "festival" or "festivity"; except where it is used to

signify a "tabernacle" or "tent."

I deemed it best to offer these admonitions concerning language and

phraseology before we advance further, and I hope they will not be

found useless or out of place, as showing the importance that every

art should confine itself to its own language and terms; that no one

art should condemn or deride another, but that each should rather aid

the other and render mutual services. And this indeed the professors

of all arts do, in order that the unity of the whole state may be

preserved; which, as Aristotle says, "cannot be constituted of a

physician and a physician; but must be formed of a physician and a

husbandman."

PART V. GOD'S WORK ON THE FIFTH DAY.

I. V. 20. _And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living

creatures, and let birds fly above the earth,_ etc., etc.

We see Moses retains invariably the same sacred phraseology, "And God

said," etc. Hitherto he has been speaking of the superior creatures;

the heaven with all its host of planets and stars, which God created

out of water by the Word, and gave light unto it, just as we now see

the air around us lucid, with a natural illumination.

Moses now proceeds to speak of new creatures also produced out of the

waters; namely, of birds and fishes. He connects these two creatures

in his narrative on account of their similarity of nature. For as the

fish swims in the water, so does the bird swim as it were in the air.

Though their flesh differs, yet they have the same origin. For the

sacred text is here quite plain, that the birds when created out of

the waters immediately flew into the air where they now live. Moses

here retains moreover his uniform term in calling the whole region

above us, "heaven."

And first it is worthy of admiration that, although the fishes and the

birds were both created out of the same matter, the waters, yet as the

bird cannot live in the water, neither can the fish exist, if brought

into the air. Physicians rightly argue, when they affirm that the

flesh of birds is more wholesome than that of fishes, even though the

nature of birds is also aqueous; because they live in a more rarified

element; for air is a purer element than water; the latter, in which

the fish are generated and live, being constituted of the dregs as it

were of the former. Philosophers however do not believe this identity

of the nature of birds and of fishes. But the faith of the sacred

Scriptures which is far above philosophy and far more certain, assures

us that the nature of the fish and of the bird had the same origin.

Here again is a further proof of the divine authority and majesty of

this book, in that it sets before us under such various forms that

power of God by which he created all things, beyond the conception of

all reason and understanding. Who for instance could ever have

thought, that out of water a nature could be produced, which should by

no means endure water? But the Word of God speaks, and in a moment out

of water are created birds. If therefore the Word of God but sound,

all things are immediately possible; and out of the same water shall

be formed either fishes or birds. Every bird therefore and every fish

is nothing more or less than a word of divine grammar or language; by

which grammar all things, otherwise impossible, immediately become

possible and easy; by which also things contrary and conflicting

become similar and harmonious; and vice versa.

But these divine things are thus written and ought to be diligently

observed, studied and known by us, that we might learn to admire and

adore the power of the Divine Majesty; and that we might edify and

strengthen our faith from all these marvellous creation works of God!

For if one could raise the dead it would be nothing in comparison to

this wonderful work; that a bird was created in a moment out of water!

But the reason we do not day by day and continually wonder at these

things, is because by our having seen them always before us, they have

lost their wonder in our eyes. If however one does but believe these

things, he is compelled at once to wonder at them. And that wonder

gradually confirms his faith. For if God can form a mass of water,

call forth and create the heaven and its stars, each one of which

equals or exceeds the earth itself in magnitude; if God can, from a

small drop of water, create the sun and the moon, can he not defend my

poor body against all enemies and against Satan himself? Can he not

after that poor body is laid in the tomb raise it again to another and

a new life? Wherefore we are to learn from this book of Genesis the

power of God; that we may accustom ourselves to doubt nothing that God

promises in his Word! For, in this glorious and marvellous creation

work is laid a confirmation of our faith in all the promises of God;

that there is nothing so difficult, nothing so impossible, which God

cannot do and perfect by his Word. For all this is here proved by

God's creation of the heaven, earth, sea and all that is in them.

But we must here touch upon that which has arrested the attention of

the holy fathers, and especially of Augustine; that Moses in this

sacred narrative uses these three expressions in reference to God,

"God said;" "God made;" and "God saw;" as if God designed by these

three expressions, used by His servant Moses, to set forth the three

persons of the divine majesty! Thus by the expression "said" is

signified the Father. The Father begat the Word from all eternity; and

by this same Word he made in time this world. And these holy fathers

applied the expression, "God made" to the person of the Son; for the

Son has in himself the "express image" of the person of the Father;

not only of his majesty, but of his power by which he created all

things. Hence the Son gives to all things their existence. And as by

the Father things are spoken into being, so are they also by the Son

or the Word of the Father, by whom "all things subsist." And to these

two persons is also added a third; the person of the Holy Spirit, who

"sees" and approves all things which are created.

These three expressions therefore, "said," "made," "saw," are spoken

by Moses in a beautiful and appropriate manner as attributive of the

three divine persons; that we might by these three expressions the

more distinctly understand that great article of faith, the Holy

Trinity. For the sole reason these props of our faith were religiously

sought by the holy fathers was, that the profound subject, the

doctrine of the Holy Trinity, so incomprehensible in itself, might in

some measure receive aid to its comprehension. Wherefore I by no means

condemn these pious attempts, because they are perfectly in harmony

with the analogy of faith and most useful also for the instruction and

confirmation of faith.

In this manner Hilary also distinguishes other attributes. "Eternity

is in the Father; form, in the image; and use, in the gift." He says

that the Holy Spirit is the gift for use, because he gives the use of

all things; in that he governs and preserves all things that they

perish not. The same fathers hold and affirm also, "The Father is the

mind; the Son the understanding; the Holy Ghost the will." Not that

the Father is without understanding or the Son without will. But these

are attributes; that is terms or expressions, which are not applicable

to three divine persons collectively, but to the one or the other

divine person, separately or differently. Not, as we have said, that

the Father is without wisdom, etc. But we thus portray and present

these divine things to our minds that we may better hold and explain

the article of faith on the Holy Trinity.

When therefore the sacred text says "And God saw that it was good,"

the divine expression implies God's intended preservation also of the

thing which he had in each case just created. For the creature itself,

thus newly created, could not stand unless the Holy Spirit should love

it, and unless this complacency of God in his own work should preserve

that work. For God did not thus create these things, designing to

forsake them when created, but he approves them and loves them still.

The great Creator by his divine agency still simultaneously stirs,

moves and preserves, after his own God-like method all things which he

hath made. I deemed it right thus briefly to touch upon these sacred

matters; for the godly thoughts of those, who have preceded us in this

holy study and whose course we are ourselves pursuing, are well worthy

our knowledge.

The expression in the above text, which Jerome renders "the creeping

creature that hath life," is in the original Hebrew NEPHESCH, and

signifies a "soul" or "life" or "something living." Moses calls fishes

by this name. With reference to birds, it is well known that they are

AMPHIBIOUS; that is they live either on land or in the air.

II. V. 21a. _And God created the great sea-monsters (whales)._

An inquiry may naturally here be made, why Moses mentions by name,

"whales" only. But it is so, that the Scriptures in general make

mention only of the greater fishes. The mention of "leviathan" and of

"dragons" in the Book of Job, and in other places of the Scriptures is

well known. It is certain however that all the large sea-monsters are

called by the name, "whales;" some of which have wings as the dolphin,

the king of fishes. Not however because it exceeds all other fishes in

size. For the eagle, the king of birds, does not surpass all birds,

nor is the lion, the king, larger than all other beasts.

I believe however the reason of this is that we might know that these

huge bodies are really the glorious works of God, and that we might

not through any terror at such awe-striking bulks, imagine that these

stupendous animals were not works of God, but unreal monsters. These

great facts of creation being thus established in our minds, it is

easy to conclude, that as these enormous bodies were created by God,

the lesser fishes, such as herrings, sprats, minnows, etc., were

created also by him. Let him who would contemplate this more deeply

read Job, Chap. 41. He will there plainly see in what lofty language

the Holy Spirit, by means of the poet-author of that book, lauds that

marvellous monster "leviathan," whose strength and confidence is such

that he contemns even the force of arrows. Such descriptions open our

eyes and encourage our faith to believe the more easily and firmly

that God is able to preserve us also, who are so indescribably less in

magnitude and strength.

A question here also raised concerning mice and doormice; whence and

how they originate and are generated. For we find by experience that

not even ships, which are perpetually swimming on the ocean, are free

from mice, and no house can be thoroughly cleared of mice but that

they will still be generated. The same inquiry may be instituted

concerning flies. And also whither birds go in the time of autumn.

If you ask Aristotle concerning mice, his argument is that some

animals are _homoigena_, "generated from a like kind," and others,

_heterogena_, "generated from a different kind," and that mice are

"heterogena," because mice, he says, are not generated from mice only,

but from putrid matter; the putridity of which is consumed and

gradually becomes a mouse.

If you ask by what power this generation is effected, Aristotle

answers that the putrid humidity of this matter is cherished,

generatively, by the heat of the sun; and that by this process a

living animal is produced; just as we see the bluebottle fly generated

from horse-manure. But this reasoning is far from satisfying me, for

the sun warms all things, but generates nothing, unless God speak it

into being by his divine power. Even supposing therefore that the

mouse were generated from putrid matter, yet the mouse would be a

creature of divine power.

The mouse is therefore a creature of the divine Word and power; and it

is, as I believe of an aqueous nature. Were it not a creature of the

divine Word and power, it would have no natural form nor would its

species be preserved. Whereas it has a form the most beautiful, in its

kind; legs of such exquisite symmetry, hair so smooth, as to make it

evident that it was created for a certain order of creatures by the

Word of God. In the mouse therefore we admire also the creature and

the workmanship of God. And the same may as certainly be said of

flies.

Concerning the disappearing of birds I have no certain knowledge. For

it is not very likely that they retire into regions farther south.

Indeed the miracle concerning swallows is known by experience, that

they lie as dead in the waters during the winter, and revive at the

approach of summer; which fact is indeed a great similitude and proof

of our resurrection. For these are operations of the divine Majesty

truly wonderful. Hence we see them, but we understand them not. And my

belief is that although a single swallow may appear unseasonably, now

and then, I doubt however whether it ever can be the case, such

swallow is restored from its death-like state by God himself.

Unto the creation work of the fifth day therefore belong all crawling,

creeping and flying creatures; and all other creatures which move in

any way in the air or the water.

III. V. 21b and 22. _And God saw that it was good. And God blessed

them._

Why did not God pronounce the Word of blessing upon the above

inanimate bodies of his creation also? In those cases he only said,

that the bodies which he had created pleased him, but he did not bless

them. But when he comes to the generation and propagation of living

bodies, then he institutes a new mode of their increase and

multiplication. Hence the sun and the stars, as we see, do not

generate from themselves bodies like unto themselves. But herbs and

trees have this blessing upon them, that they grow and bring forth

fruit. Still there is nothing in them like unto this present blessing,

pronounced by God upon the living bodies.

Moses therefore by this Word of the divine blessing makes a glorious

distinction between the bodies before created, and these living bodies

which were created on the fifth day, because here a new method of

generation is instituted. For in this case from living bodies are

generated separate kinds of offspring which also live. But this

certainly is not the case with trees nor herbs; for unless they be

sown anew they bear no fruit, nor does a seed grow simply from a seed,

but from a plant. But in the present instance a living body is

generated from a living body. This latter operation therefore, that

animal bodies should increase and be multiplied from bodies of their

own kind, is entirely another and a new work of God. Because a

pear-tree does not produce a pear-tree but a pear. But in the latter

case, that which a bird produces is a bird. That which a fish

generates is a fish. Marvellous indeed and numberless is the

multiplication of each species and infinite the fecundity, but it is

greatest in marine and aquatic animals.

What then is the cause of this wonderful and admirable generation or

propagation? The hen lays an egg; she cherishes it until a living body

is formed in the egg, which at length the hen hatches. Philosophers

allege the cause of all this to be the operation of the sun and the

heat of the hen's body. I fully grant all this. But divines speak much

nearer the truth, when they affirm that the whole generative process

takes place by the effective operation of the Word, here spoken by

God, "And God blessed them; and said, be fruitful and multiply." This

Word of God's blessing is present in the very body of the hen and of

all living creatures; and the heat by which the hen cherishes the egg

is essentially and effectively the heat of the Word of God; for

without this Word the heat of the sun or of the body would be utterly

ineffectual and useless.

Wherefore to this admirable part of his creation work God adds his

peculiar blessing in order that these living bodies now created on the

fifth day might be fruitful. From these circumstances may be seen what

this divine blessing is, namely, multiplication. Now when we bless we

can effect nothing. All we can do is to pray. But this prayer is

inoperative. We cannot effect the things for which we pray. But the

blessing of God carries with it actual fruitfulness and

multiplication. It is at once effectual. On the contrary the divine

curse is non-multiplication and diminution. And the curse is also at

once effectual.

Here again, the phraseology of Moses is to be carefully observed. What

Moses calls the blessing of God, philosophers call fecundity; that is,

when certain living and sound bodies are produced from other living

and sound bodies. Nothing resembles this in trees, for a tree does not

generate the like unto itself; it is the seed that produces the like

of the tree. This is a great and marvellous miracle, but like all

things else in the wonderful works of God, it loses its wonder from

our being always accustomed to behold it without reflection or

consideration.

Another question here arises concerning worms and various hurtful

creeping things; reptiles as toads; and venomous flies and also

butterflies. In all these living creatures there is a wonderful

fecundity. And it is singular that the more hurtful the creatures the

more prolific generally is their generation and the greater their

multiplication. But we will leave this question to our subsequent

comments on the third chapter of this book. For my belief is that at

the time of creation, now under consideration, none of these venomous,

hurtful or annoying creatures as yet existed. I believe that they

afterwards sprang from the earth, when cursed by God as the punishment

of sin, that they might afflict us and compel us to flee unto God in

prayer. But more on this subject, as I have just intimated, hereafter.

Thus have we then a sight of the living bodies created on the fifth

day. And we have seen that the Word of God, spoken on this day, is

still effectual; for fishes are still generated from mere and very

water. Hence fish-ponds and lakes still generate fishes. Minnows are

generated in fish-ponds, in which there were none before. For I see no

likelihood of truth in the trifling arguments of some, who will have

it that fishes caught by birds, drop their seed into fish-ponds and

lakes, while they are being borne along in the air by their feathered

captors; and that such dropped fish-seed afterwards increases and

furnishes the ponds. I believe therefore the true and sole cause of

all this generation and multiplication of fishes, to be God's

commanding Word to the water on the fifth day of his creation work to

bring forth fishes. I believe that this divine Word is still

effectual; and that it still works all these things!

PART VI. GOD'S WORK ON THE SIXTH DAY.

I. V. 24. _And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures

after their kind,_ etc.

We have now seen created the heaven with all its hosts, the sun, the

moon and the stars. We have seen the sea created, with its fishes and

birds. For as the fishes swim in the water so do the birds swim as it

were in the air. To the earth also we have seen added its ornaments of

herbs, trees and fruits. And now, before man is introduced into this

his dwelling place, as it were, beasts of the earth are added; and

beasts of labor and burden; and also reptiles. After all these things

man himself is also created!

Man however is not created that he might fly with the bird nor that he

might swim with the fish. But man has a nature common to all other

animals in this respect, that he is designed to live upon the earth.

For the use of ships is artificial, in the construction and use of

which man attempts to imitate the fishes and the birds. For the ship

performs both movements. It flies in the air and swims on the water.

We are not however here speaking of things artificial, but of things

natural.

The Hebrews here make a distinction of names and appellations. They

call BEHAMAH, those animals which we denominate "beasts of burden;"

and they distinguish by the same appellation the lesser beasts of the

wood; such as stags, goats, hares and whatever animals feed on food

common to us, and live on herbs and the fruits of trees. But they term

carnivorous beasts, such as wolves, lions and bears, etc., HAIESO

EREZ; which is generally and correctly rendered, "beasts of the

earth." But whether this distinction is uniformly observed I know not.

It does not appear to me that the observance of it is uniform. One

thing however is quite certain, that Moses here intended to comprehend

all terrestrial animals, whether they feed on flesh or on herbs. Of

all these he affirms that the earth is the mother, which brought them

all forth from herself by the Word, as the sea also brought forth all

fishes from herself by the same Word.

We have heard above however that God said to the water, "Let the water

be moved," etc., in order that by this its motion the sea might be

filled with fishes and the air with birds. And we have seen also that

afterwards the blessing of generation was first added. But here in the

creation of terrestrial animals, another word is used; and God says,

"Let the earth bring forth." He does not say, "Let the earth be

moved." For the earth is a quiescent body. Therefore in the creation

work of the fourth day, God also says, "And let the earth bring forth

grass," verse 11. For God wills that the earth should send forth both

animals and herbs without any motion.

But whether these animals were formed after the similitude of the

formation of man out of the "ground," or whether they burst forth on a

sudden, the Scriptures define nothing on the subject; yet as Moses is

here celebrating the formation of man as having been wrought by a

peculiar design and contrivance of the mind of God; my own opinion is

that all the other animals of the earth stood forth created in a

moment, as the fishes were made on a sudden in the sea. The reason God

did not here, Vs. 24 and 25, add his blessing is quite plain; because

it embraces all the creatures mentioned in these verses, when it is

afterwards pronounced on man, V. 28. It was sufficient therefore for

Moses to say in this place, "And God saw that it was good," V. 25. But

let us now approach the last and most glorious work of God: the

creation of man!

II. V. 26a. _And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our

likeness._

Here again Moses adopts a new phraseology. The divine expression is

not in this place, "Let the sea be moved," or "Let the earth bring

forth grass" or "fruits." But the remarkable Word of God here is, "Let

us make, or form, or fashion, or fabricate man." Wherefore this

expression implies manifest deliberation and counsel; the like of

which is found not in the creation of any former creatures. In those

cases God says simply without any deliberation, counsel or particular

design of mind, "Let the sea be moved;" "Let the earth bring forth,"

etc. But here where God wills to create man, he turns himself as it

were to deep thought and enters into profound counsel and

deliberation.

First of all then we have here indicated the signal difference between

man and every other creature of God and his high exaltation above them

all. Beasts do indeed greatly resemble man in many particulars. They

live with him; they eat with him; they are brought up with him; they

feed on many of the same things with him; they rest with him; they

sleep with him, etc. If therefore you consider their food, their

bringing up, their housing, their conservation, etc., there is a great

similarity between man and beast.

Moses however here sets before us the striking difference between man

and all the animals mentioned; when he affirms that man was created by

the peculiar counsel and providence of God; whereby he signifies that

man is a creature far excelling all other animals, which live a

corporeal life; which excellence was more especially prominent while

nature was as yet unfallen and uncorrupted. The opinion of Epicurus

was that man was created only to eat and to drink. This was not

separating man from beasts; for beasts have also their pleasures, and

they pursue them with delight. Whereas the sacred text before us

forcibly expresses the distinction and separation of man from beast,

when it affirms that God took deep thought and certain counsel in

forming man; which counsel was taken, not only to form man, but to

form him "in the image and after the likeness of God." This image of

God is a far different thing from the care of the belly and the

indulgence of the appetite; for these things beasts well understand

and eagerly crave.

Moses therefore in this place signifies to the spiritually minded that

we were created unto a life far more excellent than, and high above,

anything which this corporeal life could ever have been, even if

nature had remained perfect and uncorrupted by sin. For godly teachers

well affirm that if Adam had not fallen God would have translated him

from an animal life to spiritual life after a certain number of saints

had been perfected. For Adam was not designed by his creation to live

without food, drink and procreation. But all these corporeal things

would have ceased at an appointed time; after a number of saints had

been completed; and Adam, together with his posterity, would have been

translated to a life spiritual and eternal. These natural works of our

corporeal life, eating, drinking, procreation, etc., would still have

existed and would have been a service of gratitude to God; which

service we should have performed without any of that corrupt

concupiscence which cleaves to us since the sin of the fall and

without any sin of our own or any fear of death. This would indeed

have been a life of pleasure and of sweetness. Of such a life it is

lawful for us to think; but such a life is not now possible for us to

live. This however we have still left to us: We can believe and with

all assurance look for a spiritual life after this present life; an

end of this life in paradise; thought for us and destined for us by

God through the merits of Christ.

Wherefore the portion of the sacred text before us claims our especial

meditation in which the Holy Spirit so magnificently extols the human

nature and so distinctly separates it from all the other creatures of

God. For the mere corporeal or animal life of man was designed to

resemble in a great measure the life of the beasts of the earth.

Because as beasts require food, drink and sleep for the refreshment

and restoration of their bodies, so Adam was designed also to use

these even in his state of innocence. But that which Moses moreover

affirms, that man was so created unto this animal life that he was

also "made" in the "image" and "after the likeness" of God, this is a

manifest indication of a life different from and far above a mere

animal life.

Adam was endowed therefore with a twofold life: an animal and an

immortal life. The latter however was not as yet plainly revealed, but

held in hope. Had he not fallen by sin therefore, he would have eaten

and drunk, worked and generated in all innocence, sinlessness and

happiness. I have thought proper to make these admonitory observations

upon that difference which God made by his deep counsel between us men

and all other animals among which he permits us to live. I shall

return to this subject hereafter and shall dilate upon it to a greater

extent.

Secondly, I would remark upon this divine Word "Let us make," that it

pertains to the mystery and confirmation of our faith; by which we

believe that there is one God from all eternity and three distinct

Persons in one divinity or divine essence, the Father, the Son and the

Holy Ghost. The Jews indeed attempt in various ways to elude this

passage; but they can bring nothing solidly or effectually against it.

For this passage plagues them to death, to use the expression of Occa.

That author so describes all trying and tormenting questions, which he

finds he cannot solve.

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

includes the angels with himself; and also where he includes with

himself the earth and other creatures. But I would here ask in the

first place, why God did not use this same expression before in the

creation of the previous creatures? I would demand secondly what the

creation of man had to do with angels or angels with it? And I would

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

angels whatever but simply says, "Let us." Wherefore God speaks here

of makers or creators. This expression therefore could not design or

imply angels. In the fourth place, it is quite certain that it was

not, could not, and cannot, be said that we were created "in the

image" of angels. And fifthly and lastly, we have the divine Word in

both forms of expression in the plural and also in the singular

number, "Let us make" and "God made." Moses therefore here most

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

the very divinity itself and in the very creative essence, an

inseparable and eternal plurality. Suffer we not the gates of hell

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

And as to what the Jews say about God's joining the earth with himself

when he speaks by the pronoun we or us, that is frivolous and absurd.

For surely the earth is not our maker or creator. Why did not the

adorable God rather join the sun with himself, when he spoke. For

Aristotle affirms that man and the sun generate man. But neither would

this invention succeed; because we are not made in the image of the

earth but we are made "in the image" and "after the likeness" of those

glorious makers and creators who here speak and say, "Let us make,"

etc. These makers are three distinct persons in one divine essence. It

is in the image of these three divine and glorious Persons that we are

created, as we shall hereafter further hear.

And again, it is extremely absurd for the Jews to assert with

reference to this passage that God adopts, in the words he here uses,

the custom of princes; who, for the sake of reverence and dignity, use

the plural number when they speak. But the Holy Spirit does not

imitate this distancing pomp of terms, if I may so term it; nor do the

Scriptures know anything of such a manner of speech.

Wherefore most assuredly the Holy Trinity is here intended of God;

that in the one divine essence there are three divine Persons, the

Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; so that the Deity is not

separated here, even in this case of action or agency. For all three

Persons here concur and speak unitedly when they say, "Let us make."

For neither does the Father make any other man than the Son makes; nor

does the Son make any other man than the Holy Ghost makes. But the

Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, the one same God, are the one same

author of the one same work and are the one same creator.

Wherefore according to this scriptural argument and this holy

statement of the truth, the Deity or Godhead cannot be separated

objectively, as the object of divine worship, nor actively as the

creative agent. For the Father is not known, but in the Son through

the Holy Ghost. Hence as actively, so objectively, there is but one

adorable God; who nevertheless is in and within himself, substantially

or essentially Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three distinct persons in

one Godhead or Deity.

These divine testimonies of this book of Genesis ought to be dear and

delightful to us. For although both Jews and Turks deride us, because

we believe that there is one God, but three Persons in the Godhead,

yet unless they are prepared impudently to deny the authority of the

Scriptures, they must be compelled by the present text as well as by

the passages above cited to fall in with our doctrine. They may indeed

attempt to elude and avoid these testimonies, nevertheless the sting

of this passage still sticks fast in their hearts; they cannot get rid

of the divine expression "Let us make." They can assign no other

reason for it than we have here given. Nor can they otherwise explain

why Moses uses the plural noun ELOHIM. The reflections and natural

convictions arising from these divine expressions they cannot shut out

from their hearts and consciences, notwithstanding all the various

means which they adopt in order to do so. And if they deem it the

height of their wisdom to elude and get rid of these testimonies, do

they think that we are destitute of ability, and cannot find wisdom

enough to defend them? But the authority of the Scriptures on our side

is far mightier than all wisdom on theirs; especially since the New

Testament reveals the whole divine matter more clearly still. For

there the Son which is in the bosom of the Father teaches us all these

things with a clearness far surpassing all other testimony; whom not

to believe is the highest blasphemy and eternal death. Wherefore, bid

we farewell to all these blind corrupters of divine doctrines until we

meet them at the day of judgment!

But you will say perhaps that these testimonies are too obscure to be

appealed to as proofs of so important an article of faith. I reply,

these divine things were spoken at this time, thus obscurely,

according to the counsel and purpose of God; and for this very reason,

because they were all left to that Great Lord and Teacher, who was to

come; until whose advent the restitution of all things was reserved;

even the restitution of all knowledge and of all revelations. Those

mysteries therefore which "in the beginning" were set before us thus

obscurely, Christ when he came revealed, made known and commanded to

be preached. Nevertheless the holy fathers were in possession of this

knowledge by the Holy Spirit; though not so clearly as we possess it

now, who hear in the New Testament the names of the Father, and of the

Son and of the Holy Ghost plainly declared. For when Christ came it

was necessary that all those seals should be unloosed, and all those

things openly preached, which "in the beginning" had been purposely

delivered to us in obscure words in reverence to the Great Teacher who

was to come. And had not the Holy Spirit deferred this clear knowledge

to the time of the New Testament, Arians would have existed long

before the birth of Christ. Wherefore the Holy Spirit willed that this

sun of knowledge should be opposed to the devil in these "last times,"

that his eyes might be the more intolerably dazzled, that he might the

more virulently envy men such a brightness of knowledge, and be thus

the more terribly tormented.

Thirdly. A whole sea of questions is here agitated as to what that

"image" of God was in which Moses here says man was formed. Augustine

has dwelt largely on the explanation of this passage in his book "On

the Trinity." Those divines in general, who retain the division and

definition of Aristotle, follow Augustine. They consider the image of

God to be those powers of soul, memory, mind or intellect and will.

They affirm that the image of God consists in these three qualities;

which image, they say, is found in all men. And their argument is,

that as in divine things the Word is begotten of the substance of the

Father, and as the Holy Spirit is the complacency or good pleasure of

the Father, so in man from the memory proceeds the word of the heart,

which is the mind of the man; which word being uttered there is

developed the will, which will the mind beholds and with which it is

delighted.

These divines affirm moreover that "the similitude," after which man

was formed, stands in gratuitous gifts. For as a similitude is a

certain perfectness of an image, so, they say, the created nature of

man is perfected by grace. According to their views therefore the

"similitude" of God in man consists in his memory being adorned with

hope, his intellect with faith and his will with love. It is in this

manner, they assert, that man is created in the image of God; that man

has a mind, a memory and a will. Again they state the sacred matter

thus: Man is created after the "similitude" of God; that is, his

intellect is illuminated by faith, his memory is confirmed by hope and

constancy, and his will is adorned with love.

Fourthly. Divines give other divisions and definitions of the

qualities of this "image" of God, in which man was originally created.

They hold that memory is the image of the power of God, mind the image

of his wisdom and will the image of his justice. It was after this

manner that Augustine, and after him others, bent their minds on the

discovery of certain trinities of natural qualities or endowments in

man. For they thought that by this mode of explanation, the image of

God in man would be the more clearly seen. These not unpleasing

speculations do indeed argue faithful employment and great acuteness

of mental ability, but they by no means aid the right explanation of

this "image" of God.

Wherefore though I do not altogether condemn and reprobate this

diligence and these deep thoughts, by which divines desire to reduce

all things to a kind of sacred trinity, yet I doubt whether such

attempts are very useful, especially seeing that others may push them

too far. For it is on these grounds that some rest their disputes in

favor of free-will; which, they say, naturally follows from this

"image of God." They argue thus: God is free. Since therefore man is

created in the image of God, man also has a free memory, a free mind

and a free will. Out of this kind of reasoning therefore many things

fall, which are either spoken untruly at first, or are afterwards

wrongly understood or wickedly perverted. It is from this source that

the dangerous doctrine has arisen, according to which men affirm, that

God so rules and governs men that he permits them to use their own

mind and movement. By this sentiment and teaching many most

objectionable opinions have been generated. From this same source has

originated that pernicious saying, "God who made thee without thyself

will not save thee without thyself." Such men conclude that free-will

concurs with the grace and work of God, as a preceding and efficient

cause of salvation. Not unlike this is the saying of Dionysius, which

is more pernicious still: "Although devils and man fell, yet all their

natural faculties remained whole and entire; their mind, their memory,

their will," etc. If this be true therefore it will follow, that man

by his own natural powers can save himself.

These perilous opinions of some of the fathers are agitated in all

churches and schools, and I do not really see what the fathers wished

to effect by them. Therefore I advise that they be read with caution

and judgment. They were often spoken in a mood and with a peculiar

feeling, which we have not and cannot have, since we have not similar

occasions. Inexperienced persons therefore seize them all, without any

judgment, in their own sense, and not in the meaning the fathers had

at the time they were uttered. But I leave this and return to our

theme.

I fear however that since this "image of God" has been lost by sin, we

can never fully attain to the knowledge of what it was. Memory, mind

and will we do most certainly possess, but wholly corrupted, most

miserably weakened; nay, that I may speak with greater plainness,

utterly leprous and unclean. If these natural endowments therefore

constitute the image of God it will inevitably follow that Satan also

was created in the image of God; for he possesses all these natural

qualities, and to an extent and strength far beyond our own. For he

has a memory and an intellect the most powerful and a will the most

obstinate.

The image of God therefore is something far different from all this.

It is a peculiar work of God. If there be those however who are yet

disposed to contend that the above natural endowments and powers do

constitute the image of God, they must of necessity confess that they

are all leprous and unclean. Even as we still call a leprous man a

man, though all the parts of his leprous flesh be stupefied and dead,

as it were, with disease, except that his whole nature is vehemently

excited to lust.

Wherefore that image of God created in Adam was a workmanship the most

beautiful, the most excellent and the most noble, while as yet no

leprosy of sin adhered either to his reason or to his will. Then all

his senses, both internal and external, were the most perfect and

pure. His intellect was most clear, his memory most complete and his

will the most sincere, accompanied with the most charming security,

without any fear of death and without any care or anxiety whatever. To

these internal perfections of Adam was added a power of body and of

all his limbs, so beautiful and so excellent that he surpassed all

other animate natural creatures. For I fully believe that before his

sin the eyes of Adam were so clear and their sight so acute that his

powers of vision exceeded those of the lynx. Adam, I believe, being

stronger than they, handled lions and bears, whose strength is so

great, as we handle the young of any animal. I believe also that to

Adam the sweetness and the virtue of the fruits which he ate were far

beyond our enjoyment of them now.

After the fall however death crept in like leprosy over all the

senses. So that now we cannot comprehend this image of God by our

intellect. Adam moreover in his innocency could not have known his

wife Eve, but with the most pure and confident mind towards God; with

a will the most obedient to God and a soul the most free from all

impurity of thought. But now since the sin of the fall all know how

great is the excitement of the flesh, which is not only furious in

concupiscence, but also in disgust after it has satisfied its desire.

In neither case therefore is the reason or the will sound or whole.

Both are fallen and corrupt. And the fury of the desire is more

brutish than human. Is not this our leprosy then grievous and

destructive? But of all this Adam knew nothing before the sin of his

fall. His only peculiarity then was that he had greater powers and

more acute and exquisite senses than any other living creature. But

now how far does the wild boar exceed man in the sense of hearing, the

eagle in sight, and the lion in strength? No one therefore can now

conceive, even in thought, how far the excellency of man when first

created surpasses what he is now.

Wherefore I for my part understand the image of God to be this: that

Adam possessed it in its moral substance or nature; that he not only

knew God and believed him to be good, but that he lived also a life

truly divine; that is, free from the fear of death and of all dangers

and happy in the favor of God. This is apparent in Eve, who we find

talks with the serpent, devoid of all fear; just as we do with a lamb

or a dog. Therefore God sets before Adam and Eve this, as a

punishment, if they should transgress his command: "In the day that

thou eatest of this tree thou shalt surely die the death." As if he

had said, "Adam and Eve, ye now live in all security. Ye neither see

nor fear death. This is my image in which ye now live. Ye live as God

lives. But if ye sin ye shall lose this image; ye shall die."

Hence we see and feel the mighty perils in which we now live; how many

forms and threatenings of death this miserable nature of ours is

doomed to experience and endure, in addition to that unclean

concupiscence and those other ragings of sin and those inordinate

emotions and affections, which are engendered in the minds of all men.

We are never confident and happy in God, fear and dread in the highest

are perpetually trying us. These and like evils are the image of the

devil, who has impressed that image upon us. But Adam lived in the

highest pleasure and in the most peaceful security. He feared not fire

nor water, nor dreaded any of those other evils with which this life

is filled and which we dread too much continually.

Let those who are disposed to do so therefore extenuate original sin.

It plainly appears, and with awful certainty, both in sins and in the

punishment of them that original sin is great and terrible indeed.

Look only at lust. Is it not most mighty, both in concupiscence and in

disgust? And what shall we further say of hatred toward God and

blasphemies of all kinds? These are sad evidences of the fall, which

do indeed prove that the image of God in us is lost.

Wherefore when we now attempt to speak of that image we speak of a

thing unknown, an image which we not only have never experienced, but

the contrary to which we have experienced all our lives and experience

still. Of this image therefore all we now possess are the mere terms,

"the image of God!" These naked words are all we now hear and all we

know. But there was in Adam an illumined reason, a true knowledge of

God, and a will the most upright to love both God and his neighbor.

Hence Adam embraced his Eve, and immediately knew his own flesh. To

all these endowments were added others of less excellency, but

surpassingly excellent if compared with our present weakness. Adam had

a perfect knowledge of all nature, of animals, of herbs, of trees, of

fruits and of all other creatures.

When all these endowments are put together they do not compose a man

in whom you can at once behold the image of God shining forth, and

more especially so when to all these endowments you add "dominion"

over the whole creation. For as Adam and Eve acknowledged God to be

Lord, so afterwards they themselves held dominion over all creatures

in the air, on the earth and in the sea. Who can express in words the

excellency and majesty of this "dominion?" For my belief is that Adam

could by one word command the lion as we command a favorite dog. He

possessed a freedom of will and pleasure to cultivate the earth, that

it might bring forth whatever he wished. For the following chapters of

this book prove that there were at the time of which we are now

speaking neither thorns nor thistles, Chap. 3:18. Neither do I believe

that wild beasts were so savage and fierce as they are now.

But all these thorns and thistles, and this ferocity of beasts, are

the consequences of original sin, by which all the rest of the

creation contracted a corruption and a loss of its original

excellency. Hence it is my belief also that before the sin of Adam,

the sun was more bright, the water more pure, the trees more fruitful

and the earth more productive than since he fell. But through that

dreadful sin and that horrible fall, not only are the soul and the

body deformed by the leprosy of sin, but all things we use in this

life are corrupted; as we shall more plainly show hereafter.

Now the very intent of the gospel is to restore this image of God.

Man's intellect and will have indeed remained, but wholly corrupted.

The divine object of the gospel is that we might be restored to that

original and indeed better and higher image; an image, in which we are

born again unto eternal life, or rather unto the hope of eternal life

by faith, in order that we might live in God and with God and might be

"one" with him, as Christ so beautifully and largely sets it forth in

the seventeenth chapter of St. John.

Nor are we born again unto life only, but unto righteousness also,

because faith lays hold of the merit of Christ and sets us free

through the death of Christ. Hence arises another righteousness in us;

namely, that "newness of life," in which we study to obey God as

taught by the Word and helped by the Holy Spirit. This righteousness

however begins only in this life and can never be perfected in the

flesh. Nevertheless this newness of righteousness pleases God, not as

being perfect in itself nor as being any price for our sins, but

because it proceedeth from the heart and rests on a confidence in the

mercy of God through Christ. And further, through the Gospel comes

unto us this other blessing also conferred upon us through the Holy

Spirit, who resists in us unbelief, envy and other sins and

corruptions, to the intent that we may solemnly desire to adorn the

name of the Lord and his holy Word.

In this manner does the image of God begin to be restored in us

through the Gospel by this new creation in this life. But in this life

it is not perfected. When however it is perfected in the kingdom of

the Father, then will our will be truly free and good, our mind truly

illuminated and our memory constant and perfect. Then will it come to

pass also that all creatures shall be more subject unto us than ever

they were unto Adam in paradise.

Until all this shall be fulfilled in us, we shall never be able fully

to understand what that image of God was, which was lost by Adam in

paradise. This however which we now utter concerning it, faith and the

Word teach us, which discover unto us at a distance as it were the

glory of this image of God. But as the heaven and the earth "in the

beginning," were of rude unformed bodies, as we have shown before the

created light was added to them; so the godly possess within

themselves that unformed and imperfect image of God, which God will

perfect at the last day in those who believe his Word.

In conclusion therefore that image of God, in which Adam was created,

was excellent above all things, in which was included eternal life,

eternal security and all good. That image however is so marred and

obscured by sin that we cannot even in thought reach the comprehension

of it. For though we utter the words "the image of God," who is there

that can possibly understand what it is for a man to live a life of

security without fears and without perils, and to be wise, righteous,

good and free from all calamities or distresses either of soul or of

body? What was more than all this Adam was made capable of life

eternal. For he was so created that as long as he lived in this

corporeal life he might cultivate the earth not as doing a work of

trouble, nor as wearying his body with labor, but as enjoying an

employment of the highest pleasure; not as "deceiving or killing

time," as we say, but as performing a service to God and yielding an

obedience to his will.

This corporeal life was intended to be succeeded by a spiritual life,

in which man was not designed to use corporeal food and aliments nor

to perform any of those other things which he must necessarily do in

this natural life. But he was designed to live a life spiritual and

angelic. For such is the life eternal to come, described to us in the

holy Scriptures, a life in which we shall neither eat nor drink, nor

exercise any other corporeal functions. Hence Paul says, "The first

man Adam became a living soul," that is, he lives an animal life which

requires meat, drink, sleep, etc. But the apostle adds, "The last Adam

became a live-giving spirit," 1 Cor. 15:45. That is, he shall be a

spiritual man, in which state he shall return to the image of God; for

he shall be like unto God in life, righteousness, holiness, wisdom,

etc. It now follows in the sacred text:

V. 26b. _And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,_ etc.

To man, the most beautiful of God's creatures, who possesses the

knowledge of God and is the image of God, in which image shines forth

the similitude of the divine nature in an enlightened reason, in

righteousness and in wisdom, is now assigned _"dominion."_ Adam and

Eve are made rulers of the earth, of the sea and of the air. This

dominion is not only committed to them by the design and counsel of

God, but by his expressed command. We must in the first place consider

this great matter in a negative and exclusive sense, that it is not

said to any beast that it should have any dominion. And in the next

place we must view the matter in an absolute sense, that all animals,

nay, the earth itself with all created living things and all generated

from them, are subjected to the dominion of Adam, whom God by his

vocal and expressed command constituted king over the whole animal

creation. For these are the words which both Adam and Eve heard when

God said, "And let them have dominion." Here therefore a naked man

without arms, without walls, nay, without any vestiture of his own

body, but standing alone in his own naked flesh, finds himself lord

over all birds, all wild beasts and all fishes, etc.

This portion of the divine image also we have utterly lost, so that

now we cannot even conceive in thought that fulness of joy and

pleasure which Adam must have felt at the sight of the whole animal

creation before him and at the sense he was lord of them all! For now

all things are full of leprosy and full of stupidity, and, as it were,

of death. For who can now reach even in thought a conception of that

portion of the divine image, which Adam and Eve possessed, by which

they understood all the affections, the senses, the feelings and the

powers of all the animals of the creation. And yet, what would have

been their dominion over all created animals without this knowledge?

There is indeed in this life a certain knowledge of God in the saints,

derived from the Word and the Holy Spirit. But that knowledge of all

nature, that understanding of the qualities of all trees and the

properties of all herbs, that clear discernment of the natures of all

beasts, these are endowments of our nature now utterly lost and

irreparable.

If therefore we would talk about a philosopher, let us talk about

Adam! Let us speak of our first parents, while they were as yet pure

and unfallen through sin! For Adam and Eve had the most perfect

knowledge of God. And how indeed could they be ignorant of him, whose

very image they possessed and felt in themselves! Moreover of the

stars also and of the whole science and system of astronomy they had

the most certain knowledge.

Moreover that all these endowments were enjoyed by Eve, as well as by

Adam, is quite manifest from the speech of Eve to the serpent, when

she answered him concerning the tree in the midst of paradise. From

this speech it appears evident that she knew the end for which she was

created, and she shows also the author from whom she had received that

knowledge, for her reply to the serpent was, "God hath said," Gen.

3:3. Eve therefore did not hear these things from Adam only, but she

was by nature so pure from sin and so full of the knowledge of God

that she saw and understood the Word of God for herself. As to us in

our present state we still possess indeed some certain dull and as it

were dead remnants of this knowledge. But all animals besides are

altogether void of such understanding. They know not their Creator nor

their origin nor their end; nor whence nor why they were created. No

other animals therefore possess anything whatever of this similitude

of God. Hence it is that the psalm contains this exhortation, "Be ye

not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding," Ps.

32:9.

Although therefore this image of God be almost wholly lost, there is

nevertheless still remaining a mighty difference between man and all

other animals of God's creation. But originally, before the sin of the

fall, the difference was far greater and far more illustrious; while

as yet Adam and Eve fully knew God and all his creatures, and were

wholly absorbed in the goodness, righteousness and worship of God.

Hence also there was between Adam and Eve themselves a singular unity

of minds and of wills. Nor was there in the whole world an object

sweeter to Adam or more beautiful in his eyes than his Eve! Nor is a

wife, as the heathen say, a necessary evil. And why call they a wife

an evil? The reason is manifest. They know nothing of the cause of

evil. It was Satan. He it was who thus marred and corrupted woman's

original nature.

The influence however which we now have over beasts in this life, the

use which we make of them, and the things we cause them to do are not

effected by that dominion which Adam possessed, but by industry and

art. Thus birds and fishes, as we see, are taken by deception and

stratagem; and beasts are tamed in various degrees by art. For those

animals which are the most domesticated as geese, fowls, etc., were of

themselves and by their own particular nature wild. This leprous

nature of ours therefore still retains, through the goodness of God,

some appearance of dominion over the other creatures. This dominion

however is very trifling indeed, and far, very far, beneath the

original dominion. For under that there was no need of art or

stratagem, to give man influence over the beast. Every creature was

put absolutely under a state of obedience to the voice of God when

Adam and Eve were commanded by that voice to have dominion over them.

We do retain therefore the name and the semblance and as it were the

naked title of the original dominion, but the reality itself is almost

wholly lost. Still it is good for us to know and to think upon this

state of things, that we may sigh after that day which shall come, in

which shall be restored unto us all things we lost by the sin of Adam

in paradise. For we look for that life which Adam also ever held in

expectation. And well indeed may we wonder and render thanks unto God,

as indeed we do, that we, so deformed by sin, so dull, so stupefied,

and so dead by it, should be enabled through the merits and benefits

of Christ to look with assurance for that same glory of a spiritual

life, which Adam might also have looked for with all assurance,

without the dying merits of Christ if he had remained unfallen in that

animal life which possessed the image of God.

V. 27a. _And God created man in his own image, in the image of God

created he him._

Observe that the term likeness is not here used by Moses, but "image"

only. Perhaps the sacred historian wished to avoid amphibology, too

extensive circumlocution, and therefore he merely repeated the term

image. I see no other cause for the repetition, unless we receive it

as intended for emphasis, and as designed to signify the joy and

triumph of the Creator in this most beautiful work of his hands. The

purpose of Moses was probably to represent God as not so much

delighted with any of, or with all, his other creatures as with man,

whom he created in his own likeness. For other animals are termed

traces of God, man alone is said to be the image of God. For in all

the other creatures God is known as by his footsteps only, but in man,

especially in Adam, he is known truly and fully; for in Adam is seen

that wisdom, righteousness and knowledge of all things, that he may

rightly be called a microcosm or little world in himself; for he

understands the heaven, the earth and the whole creation. God

therefore, as Moses would here represent, is delighted in his having

made so beautiful a creature.

Without doubt therefore, as God was so delighted with this his counsel

and workmanship in the creation of man, so he is now delighted in the

restoration of that his original glorious work, through his Son our

Deliverer, Jesus Christ. It is always profitable to consider that God

is always thinking thoughts of good, yea the best thoughts towards us,

Jer. 29:11, and that he is ever delighted with these his thoughts and

this his counsel in our restoration to a spiritual life, by the

resurrection from the dead of those who have believed in Christ.

V. 27b. _Male and female created he them._

Moses here mentions both sexes together. That woman might not appear

to be excluded from all the glory of the life to come. For woman seems

to be a creature somewhat different from man, in that she has

dissimilar members, a varied form and a mind weaker than man. Although

Eve was a most excellent and beautiful creature, like unto Adam in

reference to the image of God, that is with respect to righteousness,

wisdom and salvation, yet she was a woman. For as the sun is more

glorious than the moon, though the moon is a most glorious body, so

woman, though she was a most beautiful work of God, yet she did not

equal the glory of the male creature.

However Moses here joins the two sexes together and says that God

created them male and female for a further reason that he might

thereby signify that Eve also being alike created of God, alike with

Adam became thereby a partaker of the divine image and similitude, and

also of the dominion over all things. Hence woman is still a partaker

of the life divine to come, as Peter says, "As being heirs together of

the grace of life," 1 Pet. 3:7. In all domestic life also the wife is

a partaker in ruling the house and enjoys, in common with her husband,

the possession of the offspring of the property. There is nevertheless

a great difference between the sexes. The male is as the sun in the

heaven, the female as the moon, while the other animals are the stars,

over which the sun and the moon have influence and rule. The principal

thing to be remarked therefore in the text before us, that it is thus

written to show that the female sex is not excluded from all the glory

of the human nature, although inferior to the male sex. Of marriage we

shall speak hereafter.

In the second place this same text furnishes us with an argument

against Hilary and others, who wished to establish the doctrine that

God created all things at once. For by the present passage of holy

writ our interpretation is confirmed that the six days mentioned by

Moses were truly six natural days, because the divine historian here

affirms that Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. This text

cannot be gainsaid. But concerning the order and manner of the

creation of man, Moses speaks in the following chapter, in which he

informs us that Eve was created a little after Adam, and that she was

not made from the dust of the ground, as Adam was, but from one of the

ribs of Adam, which God took from his side while asleep. These

therefore are temporal works; that is, works done at a certain time

and not all wrought at one moment, as were also the sacred facts "that

God brought every animal to Adam," and "that for Adam there was not

found an helpmeet for him," Chap. 2:19-20.

Many divines think also that it was on the sixth day that Adam sinned.

And therefore they hold the sixth day sacred on a twofold account,

because, as Adam sinned on the sixth day, so Christ also suffered for

sin on the sixth day. Whether these things really be so, I leave it to

them to settle as matters not fully known. Moses does affirm as a

certainty that man was created, and his wife also on the sixth day. My

thoughts on the matter, as I will hereafter show, are that it is much

more likely that Adam sinned on the seventh day, that is on the

Sabbath; just as on the Sabbath also Satan the most bitterly annoys

and torments the church while the Word of God is being preached. But

neither can Adam's sin having been on the Sabbath be clearly shown

from Moses. There are therefore, respecting both ways, "reasons

against reasons," as Cæsar Maximilian used to say. I leave these

doubtful things therefore to be settled by each one according to his

own judgment.

Lyra relates a Jewish fable, to which there is a reference in Plato,

that God originally created man in both sexes so that man and wife

were together in one body, but were divided or cut apart by the divine

power as the form of the back and spine seems to indicate. Others have

added more obscene trifles. But the second chapter overthrows and

refutes such lies. For should that be true how could it be written

that God took from Adam one of his ribs and built a woman out of it?

Such lies are found in the Talmud of the Jews and reference must be

made to them in order that we may see the maliciousness of Satan, who

suggests to men such absurd things.

Like this is the fable of Aristotle who calls woman a ............

man, _virum occasionatum_, and others call her a monster. But they

themselves are monsters and children of monsters, who calumniate and

ridicule such a creature of God, in whom God himself had delight, as

in the noblest of his works, and who as we saw was created by a

special counsel of God. We cite such heathenish and unbecoming things

to show that the human mind is unable to establish anything sure about

God or the works of God, but advances reasons against reasons,

"rationes contra rationes," neither does it teach anything perfectly

or fundamentally on these themes.

V. 28a. _And God blessed them; and God said unto them, Be fruitful,

and multiply,_ etc.

God did not utter this command to the other animals but to man and

woman only. Doubtless however all other animals are included in the

blessing: "Be fruitful."

This is the command of God to the creature added to his creation. But

O! good God! What have we here also lost by sin! How happy was that

state of man in which the generating of offspring was attended with

the highest reverence of God, with the highest wisdom and with the

purest knowledge of God! But the flesh is now so swallowed up with the

leprosy of lust that the body in the commerce of generation becomes

actually brute-like, and can by no means generate in the knowledge and

worship of God!

The progress of generation does indeed remain with human nature, but

it is lowered and weakened beyond description; and it is so absorbed

in lust that it differs little from the generation of the beast. To

all this are added the perils of gestation and parturition, the

difficulty of rearing children when born, and an infinity of other

evils; all which tend to impress us with the awfulness and magnitude

of original sin. The blessing of God on generation therefore which

still remains with human nature is a humbled and an accursed blessing,

if you compare it with that original blessing; and yet it is the

blessing of God, instituted of God himself, which he still preserves.

Wherefore let us acknowledge with gratitude and praise this blessing

of God which still remains, though thus deformed by sin. Let us feel

and confess that this inevitable leprosy of our flesh, which is all

mere disobedience to the will of God is the punishment of sin,

righteously inflicted of God. Let us wait however in hope for the

death of this leprous flesh, that we may be delivered from all this

filthiness and be restored to a perfection and glory, even far

exceeding the original creation of Adam!

V. 28b. _And have dominion over the fish of the sea,_ etc.

What use there was of beasts-of-burden, of fishes and of many other

animals in the primitive state of creation and of innocency, is

impossible for us clearly to determine, sunk as we are in ignorance of

God and of his creatures. What we now see is that we feed on various

kinds of flesh, on pulse, etc. Unless therefore these same things were

in the same use then, we know not why they should have been created,

but because we neither have nor see any other use for all these

creatures now. But Adam seems to have had no use, as we have now, for

those creatures, in addition to all that food which he had in

abundance from all the trees around him and from their fruits, which

were far nobler and richer than any we now possess or know. Nor could

he need raiment or money, who had all things under his immediate

dominion and power. Nor did he need to regard any avarice or

expectation in his posterity. Adam and Eve therefore being thus amply

provided with food, needed only to use these creatures to excite their

admiration and wonder of God, and to create in them that holiness of

pleasure, which we never can know in this state of the corruption of

our nature. But all things are quite the contrary now. For at the

present time, all the creatures together scarcely suffice for the

nourishment and gratification of man. And the case has been just the

same in all ages. Wherefore what this "dominion" of Adam "over the

fish of the sea" was, we cannot now conceive by any stretch of our

thought.

V. 29. _And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding

seed,_ etc.

Here behold what anxious care God took of the man whom he had created.

He first created the earth or his dwelling-place in which he was to

live. He then ordained other things he judged to be necessary for his

life and subsistence. And when at length he had created man, for whom

he had made all these glorious preparations, he blesses him with the

gift and power of generation. And now he gives him food, that nothing

might be wanting for him to live most easily and most happily. But my

belief is that if Adam had continued in his original state of

innocency, children from their very birth would have rushed forth to

the enjoyment of those pleasures which the primitive creation

furnished in infinite abundance. But it is perhaps vain in us to

attempt to enumerate these utterly innumerable blessings, which are

all irretrievably lost to us in our present state of life, and of

which we cannot with all our thought form the least conception.

V. 30. _And every green herb,_ etc.

Moses here seems to make a difference between "seeds" and the "green

herb." Perhaps it is because the herb is the food of beasts, and the

seeds were designed to serve as food for man. For my belief is that

without doubt the seeds we now use for food were far more excellent in

paradise than they are at present. I have no doubt also that Adam

would have refused to taste those various kinds of flesh, than which

we have no food which we deem more sweet and delicious, in comparison

with the sweetness of the fruits of those trees, which grew naturally

in paradise, from the eating of which there did not proceed that

leprous fatness, which is the consequence of such food now, but a

healthfulness and beauty of body and a wholesome temperature of all

its humors.

Now all varieties of flesh do not satisfy man, nor all kinds of pulse

nor all kinds of grain. We continually endanger the health of our

bodies by a surfeit of food. I say nothing now of those worse than

beast-like sins, which are daily committed among us by an excessive

use of meat and drink. All this is evidently the curse of God, which

has followed upon original sin and has continued until now. And I

believe also that venomous and noxious beasts and reptiles first came

out of the earth as accursed for the sin of man.

But here a question may arise, how we are to reconcile the apparent

discrepancy that all the trees in the field are given to Adam to

enjoy, and yet that afterwards a signal part of the earth, which the

Scriptures call paradise, is assigned to him to till? Another question

may be, whether the whole original earth may be called paradise? etc.,

etc. But these things we will leave to our meditations upon the second

chapter.

III. V. 31. _And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it

was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth

day._

After God had thus finished all his works, he here speaks after the

manner of one fatigued, as if he had said, "Behold I have now prepared

all things for man with all perfectness. I have prepared for him the

heaven as his canopy and the earth as his floor. His possessions and

his wealth are the animals with all the productions of the earth, the

sea and the air. The seeds, the roots and the herbs of the garden are

his food. Moreover I have made man the lord of all these things. And

he possesses the knowledge of me his God, and the use of all the

animals which I have created, all of which he can use as he will with

the greatest security, righteousness and wisdom. Nothing is wanting.

All things are created in the greatest abundance for the sustaining of

animal life. Now therefore I will rest! I will enjoy a Sabbath!"

But these things are almost wholly lost by sin, and we are at this day

like a carcass as it were of the first created man Adam; and we retain

but a shadow of the dominion which he possessed. Shall we not say then

that he has lost all things, who out of an immortal is become a

mortal, and out of a righteous man, a sinner? Out of one accepted of

God and grateful to God, cast off and condemned of God? For now man is

a sinner and mortal. If therefore these things do not, under divine

teaching, stir us up to the hope and expectation of a better day and a

better life to come, there is nothing that can stir us up to such hope

and expectation. Let these comments suffice for an explanation of this

first chapter of the book of Genesis. In the following chapter Moses

teaches us the nature of the work of this sixth day; how man was

created.

CHAPTER II.

PART I. GOD'S REST, SANCTIFICATION OF THE SABBATH AND CREATION OF

ADAM.

I. V. 1. _And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the

host of them._

Our Latin rendering of the text before us is "and all the adornment of

them." In the original Hebrew the expression is ZEBAAM, the "host" or

"army" of them. The prophets have retained this same form of speaking

and of calling the stars and the planets, "the host or army of

heaven," as Jer. 19:13, where the Jews are represented as having

adored "all the host of heaven." And God says by the prophet

Zephaniah, "I will cut off them that worship the host of heaven upon

the housetops." In the same manner also Stephen testifies concerning

the children of Israel in the wilderness that God "gave them up to

worship the host of heaven," Acts 7:42.

The prophets borrowed these forms of speech from Moses, who in this

passage calls the stars and other luminaries of heaven by a military

term, calling them the host or the warning army of heaven. After a

similar mode of expression he calls men beasts and trees the host or

army of the earth. Perhaps this is in anticipation of the solemn

realities that were to come. For God afterwards calls himself also the

God of hosts or of armies; that is, not of angels and of spirits only,

but of the whole creation also, which was for him and serves him. For

ever since Satan was cast off by God for sin he has been filled with

such desperate hatred of God and of men that he would, if he could, in

one moment empty the sea of all its fishes and the air of all its

birds, strip the earth of all its fruits and utterly destroy all

things. But God has created all these creatures that they may be a

standing army as it were; that they might fight for us and our

subsistence against the devil and against men also, and thus serve us

and be to us an unceasing benefit.

V. 2. _And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made;

and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made._

Here cavillers raise a question of this nature: Moses says that God

"rested on the seventh day from the work he had made;" that is, that

he ceased on the seventh day to work: while Christ says on the other

hand, John 5:17, "My Father worketh hitherto, or until now, and I

work." The passage contained in Heb. 4:3, helps to explain the present

text, where it is written, "If they shall enter into My rest," not

indeed into the land of promise, but into "My rest."

My simple and plain reply to the above question is, that a solution of

any difficulty that may be raised is furnished by the present text

itself, when it says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished."

The Sabbath or rest of the Sabbath here signifies that God so rested,

as not to have any further design of creating any other heaven and

earth. It does not signify that God ceased to preserve and govern the

heaven and the earth, which he had now created and finished.

Concerning the manner of the creation Moses gives us the fullest

information in the preceding chapter, that God created all things by

the Word! "Let the sea bring forth fishes;" "Let the earth bring forth

the green herb, the beast," etc., etc. And by the same Word, God also

said, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." Now all

these words of God remain unto this present day. And therefore it is

that we see the multiplication of all these creatures go on without

cessation or end. Wherefore if the world were to last for a number of

years endless and infinite, the power and efficacy of these words

would never cease, but there would still be continued a multiplication

of all these creatures perpetual and endless by the mere infinite

power of this Word of God; this Word of the first creation and

foundation of all things, if I may so express the original and

originating Word.

The solution of the question now under consideration therefore is easy

and plain. "God rested on the seventh day from the work which he had

made;" that is, God was content with the earth and the heaven which he

had created by the Word. He created not nor intended to create new

heavens or new earths, nor new stars nor new trees. God nevertheless

still works. He "worketh hitherto," as Christ says above. He forsakes

not nature, which he once made "in the beginning;" but he preserves

and governs it to this day, by the power of his Word. He has ceased

from his creation-work, but he has not ceased from his

government-work. The human race began in Adam. In the earth began by

the Word the animal race, if I may so speak; in the sea, the race of

fishes; and in the air, the race of birds. But the human race did not

cease in Adam, nor did all other races cease in the first created

animals of their kind. The Word originally spoken upon the human race

still remains in all its power and efficiency. The word, "Be fruitful

and multiply," ceases not nor ever will cease, nor the words, "Let the

sea bring forth fishes," nor "Let the earth bring forth beasts and the

air birds." The omnipotent power and efficacy of the original Word

still preserves and governs the whole creation.

Most clearly therefore has Moses established the great truth, that "In

the beginning was the Word," John 1:1. And as all creatures still

increase and multiply, and are preserved and governed, still in the

same way as they were "in the beginning," it manifestly follows that

the Word still continues and lives, and that it is not dead! When

Moses says therefore, "And God rested on the seventh day from the work

which he had made," his words are not to be considered as having

reference to the general course and laws of nature nor to their

continuous preservation and government, but simply to the "beginning;"

that God ceased from creating, ordering and ordaining all things, as

we generally speak, and from creating any new creatures or new kinds

of animals, etc., etc.

With respect to Martin Luther before you. If you look at my individual

person I am a certain kind of new creature; because sixty years ago I

had no existence. This is the common thought and judgment of the

world. But the thought and judgment of God are far different. For in

God's sight I was begotten and commenced, being multiplied immediately

"from the beginning of the world." When God said, "Let us make man,"

he then created me also. For whatever God willed to create that he did

create when he spoke the word. All things did not then appear indeed

on a sudden before our existing eyes. For as the arrow or the ball

from the cannon, in which is the greatest velocity attached to the

works of men is in one moment directed to its mark, and yet does not

reach that mark without a certain interval and space between, so God

rushes, as it were by his Word, from "the beginning" to the end of the

world. For with God there is no before nor afterwards; no swift nor

slow; but all things to his eyes are at once present. For God is

simply absolutely independent of and alone, and separate from all

time!

These words of God therefore, and God said, "Let there be," "increase

and multiply," etc., create, constitute and ordain all creatures, as

they were, as they now are, and as they will be unto the end of the

world. God has indeed ceased from creating new creatures. For he has

created no new heaven, no new earth. But as he originally willed the

sun and the moon to perform their courses, so have they continued to

perform them to this day. As God then filled the sea with fishes, the

heaven with fowls, and the earth with beasts and cattle, so have all

these parts of his will been fulfilled to this day; and so have they

all been preserved to this moment, as Christ said, "My Father worketh

hitherto and I work." For the Word, which God spoke in the beginning,

remaineth unto this day; as it is said with great majesty in Ps. 33:9,

"He spake and they were made."

But here sceptics and objectors will present a further question for

reply. How can it be true, say they, that God made no new thing, when

it is evident that the bow of heaven or the rainbow was created in the

time of Noah? And when also the Lord threatened after the fall of

Adam, that it should come to pass that the earth should bring forth

thorns and thistles? Which thorns and thistles the earth would not

have brought forth had Adam not sinned. Also concerning the serpent,

the same cavillers say, that reptile ought to creep along almost

upright with its head bending toward the earth; for when first created

they say it was doubtless upright, as crows and peacocks move now. We

readily acknowledge that this is indeed a new state of things, wrought

also by the Word.

It is moreover true that if Adam had not fallen by sin, there would

not have been that ferocity in wolves, lions and bears, which now

characterizes them. And most certainly also there would have been

nothing in the whole creation noxious or annoying to man. For the text

before us plainly declares that all things God had created were "very

good." Whereas now, how numberless are the annoyances by which we are

surrounded? To how many and how great distresses, especially of

diseases, is the body itself subject? I will say nothing about fleas,

flies, gnats, spiders, mosquitoes, etc. What a host of dangers

threaten us continually from the greater ferocious and venomous

beasts?

Although there had been none of these new or altered things after the

creation, our sceptic objectors can surely believe that there was one

glorious and marvellous "new thing," Is. 7:14, "that a virgin should

bring forth a Son, the Son of God!" God therefore did not in the

seventh day cease to work in every sense, but he works still, not only

in preserving his whole creation, but also in altering and new-forming

the creature; wherefore that which we said above, that God ceased on

the seventh day from creating new orders of things is not to be

understood as true absolutely and in every sense.

But we further reply to our cavillers that Moses is here speaking of

nature in its yet uncorrupted state. If therefore man had stood

unfallen in the innocency in which he was first created, no thorns nor

thistles would have existed, no disease would have been known nor any

violence of beasts feared. This is manifest from the case of Eve; she

talks with the serpent without any fear whatever, and as we should do

with an innocent little bird or with a favorite little dog. Nor have I

any doubt that the serpent was an exquisitely beautiful creature and

gifted with the peculiar excellency of having the highest praise for

marvellous cunning, though then innocent cunning, even as foxes and

weazels have that name among us now.

Wherefore when Adam was as yet holy and innocent, all the animals of

the creation dwelt and associated with him in the highest pleasure,

being prepared to render him every kind of service gladly. Nor would

there have ever been known, if Adam had thus continued sinless, any

fear of a flood, nor would there consequently have ever existed a

rainbow in the heavens. But sin caused God to alter many things and

otherwise order them. And at the last day there will be an alteration

and a renewal far greater still of that whole creation, which as Paul

says is now by reason of sin, "subject to vanity," Rom. 8:20.

Finally therefore, when Moses here says that "God rested on the

seventh day," he is speaking with reference to the condition of the

world, as originally created; meaning that while as yet there was no

sin nothing new was created, that there were no thorns nor thistles,

no serpents nor toads, and if there were such they possessed no

venomous properties nor any inclination to harm. Moses speaks in this

manner concerning the creation of the world, while yet in its state of

perfection, unpolluted and unmarred by sin. It was then a world

innocent and pure, because man was innocent and pure. But now, as man

is no longer the same being, so the world is no longer the same world.

Upon the fall of man followed corruption and upon this corruption the

curse of the now corrupt creation. "Cursed is the ground," said God to

Adam, "for thy sake! Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto

thee!" Gen. 3:17, 18. Thus on account of one accursed Cain--sin, is

the whole earth accursed! So that now even when tilled it does not put

forth its original virtue. After this upon the sins of the whole world

is poured the flood over the whole earth, and the human race

throughout the whole world is destroyed, a few righteous persons only

being saved lest the promise concerning Christ should fail of being

fulfilled. And as it is manifest to us all that the earth is thus

deformed by sin, so my belief is, as I have before said, that the

light of the sun, when first created, and before the sin of Adam, was

far more pure and more bright than it is now.

It is a common saying of divines in all theological schools, "Clearly

distinguish times and you will harmonize all the Scriptures."

Wherefore we must speak far otherwise concerning the world, under its

present wretched corruption, by which it has been marred through the

sin of Adam, than concerning the world when as yet it was in its state

of original purity and perfection. Let us take an example still in our

sight and knowledge. Those who have visited the "land of promise" in

our day affirm, that there is nothing in it like unto that

commendation of it which we have in the holy Scriptures. In

confirmation of these statements a citizen of Stolberg, after having

visited Palestine and surveyed with all possible diligence of

observation, declared that he considered his own field in Germany a

far more delightful spot. For on account of the sin, wickedness and

ungodliness of men it is reduced to a positive pickle-tub, to "a salt

land not inhabited;" so actually is the very essence of the curse of

God upon it fulfilled, as it is said, Gen. 3:17, 18; Ps. 107:34. Thus

Sodom also before it was destroyed by fire from heaven was a certain

paradise, a garden of the Lord, Gen. 13:10. Thus does the curse of God

generally follow sin, and that curse so changes things, that from the

best they become the worst. Moses therefore, we repeat, is here

speaking concerning the state of all creatures in their original

perfection; as they were before the sin of man. For if man had not

sinned, all beasts and every other creature would have remained in

obedience to him until God should have translated him from paradise,

or from earth to heaven. But after his sin, all things were changed

for the worse.

According to these expressions therefore the solution given by us

above to all sceptics, cavillers and objectors stands good, that God

in six days finished his work, and that on the "seventh day" he rested

from all his work which he had made; that is, that he ceased from

ordaining the certain orders of things, and that then, whatsoever he

willed afterwards to work, he did work. But God did not say

afterwards, "Let there be a new earth;" "Let there be a new sea," etc.

With respect to that wonderful "new thing;" that, after the creation

was finished, the virgin Mary brought forth the Son of God, it is

indeed manifest that God made our calamity, into which we had fallen

by sin, the cause of this marvellous blessing. But God so wrought even

this mighty work that he showed beforehand that he would, by his Word,

do this glorious work also; even as he has also signified in his Word,

that he will by the same Word do other marvelous things.

Thus have we replied then to these questions of all cavilling

objectors concerning God's having finished the heavens and the earth

and concerning his having made other things new afterwards. We must

continue this explanation to learn what this Sabbath or rest of God

is, and also in what manner God sanctified the Sabbath, as the sacred

text declares.

II. V. 3. _And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because

that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and

made._

Christ says, Mark 2:27, that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not

man for the Sabbath." But Moses says nothing here about man. He does

not even say positively that any commandment concerning the Sabbath

was given to man. But what Moses here says is that God blessed the

Sabbath and sanctified it to himself. It is moreover to be remarked

that God did this to no other creature. God did not sanctify to

himself the heaven nor the earth nor any other creature. But God did

sanctify to himself the seventh day. This was especially designed of

God, to cause us to understand that the "seventh day" is to be

especially devoted to divine worship. For that which is appropriated

to God and exclusively separated from all profane uses is sanctified

or holy. Hence the expression "to sanctify," "to choose for divine

uses or for the worship of God," is often applied by Moses to the

sacred vessels of the sanctuary.

It follows therefore from this passage, that if Adam had stood in his

innocence and had not fallen he would yet have observed the "seventh

day" as sanctified, holy and sacred; that is, he would have taught his

children and posterity on that day concerning the will and worship of

God; he would have praised God, he would have given him thanks, and

would have brought to him his offerings, etc., etc. On the other days

he would have tilled his land and attended to his cattle. Nay, even

after the fall he held the "seventh day" sacred; that is, he taught on

that day his own family. This is testified by the offerings made by

his two sons, Cain and Abel. The Sabbath therefore has, from the

beginning of the world, been set apart for the worship of God. In this

manner nature in its innocency, had it continued unfallen, would have

proclaimed the glory and blessings of God. Men would have talked

together on the Sabbath day concerning the goodness of their Creator,

would have prayed to him, and would have brought to him their

offerings, etc. For all these things are implied and signified in the

expression "sanctified."

Moreover in this same sanctification of the Sabbath is included and

implied the immortality of the human race. Hence the Epistle to the

Hebrews speaks most beautifully concerning the rest of God, from the

95th Ps.: "If they shall enter into my rest." For the rest of God is

an eternal rest. Adam therefore, had he not fallen, would have lived a

certain time in paradise, according to the length of time which God

pleased; and afterwards he would have been carried away into that rest

of God, which rest God willed not only to intimate unto man, but

highly to commend unto him by this sanctification of the Sabbath. Thus

had Adam not fallen his life would have been both animal and happy,

and spiritual and eternal. But now we miserable men have lost all this

felicity of the animal life by sin; and while we do live, we live in

the midst of death. Yet since this command of God concerning the

Sabbath is left to the Church, God signifies thereby that even that

spiritual life shall be restored to us through Christ. Hence the

prophets have all diligently searched into these passages, in which

Moses obscurely indicates also the resurrection of the flesh and the

life immortal.

Further by this sanctification of the Sabbath it is also plainly shown

that man was especially created for the knowledge and worship of God.

For the Sabbath was not instituted on account of sheep or oxen, but

for the sake of men, that the knowledge of God might be exercised and

increased by them on that sacred day. Although therefore man lost the

knowledge of God by sin, yet God willed that his command concerning

the sanctifying of the Sabbath should remain. He willed that on the

seventh day both the Word should be preached, and also those other

parts of his worship performed, which he himself instituted; to the

end that by these appointed means we should first of all think

solemnly on our condition in the world as men; that this nature of

ours was created at first expressly for the knowledge and the

glorifying of God; and also that by these same sacred means we might

hold fast in our minds the sure hope of a future and eternal life.

Indeed all things which God willed to be done on the Sabbath are

evident signs of another life after this present life. For what need

would there be of God's speaking to us by his Word, if we were not

designed to live another and eternal life after this life? And if no

future life is to be hoped for by us, why do we not live as those

other creatures with whom God talketh not and who have no knowledge of

God? But as the divine Majesty talketh with man alone, and he alone

acknowledges and apprehends God, it necessarily follows that there is

for us another life after this life, to which it is our great business

to attain by the Word and the knowledge of God. For as to this

temporal and present life it is a mere animal life as all the beasts

live, which know not God nor the Word.

This then is the meaning of the Sabbath or the "rest" of God. It is a

sanctified day of rest, on which God speaks to or talks with us, and

we in turn speak to and talk with him in prayer and by faith. The

beasts indeed learn to hear and also to understand the voice of man,

as dogs, horses, sheep, oxen; and they are also preserved and fed by

man. But our condition as men is far better and higher; for we both

hear God and know his will, and are called to a sure hope of

immortality. This is testified by those most manifest promises

concerning the life eternal, which God has plainly revealed to us by

his Word, since he gave to the world the obscure significations

contained in this divine Book; such as this rest of God and this

sanctification of the Sabbath. However these indications concerning

the Sabbath are not obscure but evident and plain. For only suppose

for a moment that there were no eternal life after this. Would it not

immediately follow that we should have no need either of God or his

Word? For that which we merely require or do in this life we can have

and do without the Word of God. Even as beasts feed, live and grow fat

without the Word. For what need is there of the Word to procure meat

and drink, thus created for us beforehand?

As God therefore thus giveth us the Word, as he thus commands the

preaching and exercising of the Word, as he thus commands the

sanctifying of the Sabbath in the worship of himself, all these things

prove that there remaineth another life after this life, and that man

is created not to a corporeal life only, as the beasts are, but to a

life eternal, even as God, who commands and institutes these things,

is himself eternal.

But here another inquiry may arise concerning the fall of Adam itself,

upon which indeed we have already touched: On what day Adam fell,

whether on the seventh or on some other day? Although nothing indeed

can be said as certain on this matter, my free and full opinion is

that his fall was on the seventh day. It was on the sixth day that he

was created. And Eve was created about the evening or close of the

sixth day, while Adam was asleep. On the seventh day, which by the

Lord had been sanctified, God talks with Adam, gives him commandment

concerning his worship, and forbids him to eat the fruit of the tree

of knowledge of good and evil. For this indeed was the appropriate

work or duty of the seventh day: the preaching and the hearing of the

Word of God. Hence both from the Scriptures and from universal

practice, hath remained the custom of appointing the morning as the

time for prayer and sermons; as we have it also in the Psalms: "In the

morning will I stand before Thee, and will look up," Ps. 5:3.

On the seventh day therefore, in the morning, Adam appears to have

heard the Lord giving commandment concerning his domestic and national

duty, the private and public worship of God, together with the

prohibition concerning the fruit of the tree. Satan therefore unable

to endure this most beautiful creation of man and this holy

appointment of the Sabbath, and envying him so much felicity, and

moreover seeing all things so abundantly provided for him on earth,

and finding him in the possession of the hope of enjoying, after so

happy a corporeal life, an eternal life, which he himself had lost,

Satan seeing all this about the twelfth hour, perhaps after God's

sermon to Adam and Eve, himself preaches to Eve. Just as he has always

done to this day. Wherever the Word of God is, there he attempts also

to sow lies and heresies. For it agonizes him that we by the Word

become as Adam did in paradise, citizens of heaven. So Satan on this

occasion tempts Eve to sin, and gains the victory over her. The sacred

text before us moreover declares that when the heat of the day had

subsided, the Lord came into the garden and condemned Adam with all

his posterity to death. I am myself quite persuaded that all these

things took place on the very day of the Sabbath, which one day only,

and that not for the whole day, Adam lived in paradise, and enjoyed

himself in eating its fruits.

By sin therefore did man lose all this felicity. Nor would Adam, had

he remained in paradise in all his original innocence, have lived a

life of idleness. He would have taught his children on the Sabbath

day, he would have magnified God with worthy high-praises by public

preaching, and he would have stirred up himself and others to

offerings of thanks, by a contemplation of God's great and glorious

works. On all other days he would have worked by tilling his ground

and attending to his beasts, etc. But in a manner and from motives now

wholly unknown to man. For all our labor is annoyance, but all Adam's

labor was the highest pleasure, a pleasure far exceeding all the ease

that is now known. Hence as all the other calamities of life remind us

of sin and the wrath of God, so our labor and all our difficulty in

procuring food ought to remind us of sin also and to drive us to

repentance.

Moses now proceeds to describe man more particularly, repeating first

of all what he had said concerning his creation in the first chapter.

And though the recapitulations may seem superfluous, yet as the divine

historian wishes to maintain a continuation of his history, with all

due convenience and order, the repetition is by no means useless.

V. 4, 5a. _These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth

when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and

heaven. And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of

the field had yet sprung up._

"In the day" is here to be taken for an indefinite time, as if Moses

had said, At that time the state of all things was most beautiful; but

now I must describe a condition of things far different. We need not

here inquire however in a superstitious manner, why Moses chose to use

these rustic forms of expression concerning "the plants of the field"

and "herbs of the field." For his object now is to describe the

creation of man in its more circumstantial particulars.

V. 5b, 6. _For Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth:

and there was not a man to till the ground; but there went up a mist

from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground._

There was not as yet any rain, Moses says, to water the earth; but a

certain mist went up and watered the whole face of the earth, to cause

it to bring forth more abundantly afterwards. Now these things belong

properly to the third day.

III. V. 7. _And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and

breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living

soul._

Moses here returns to the work of the sixth day and shows whence this

cultivator of the earth came; namely, that God formed him out of the

ground, as the potter forms in his hand the vessel out of clay. Hence

Moses does not represent Jehovah God as saying in this case as in that

of all the other creatures, "Let the earth bring forth man;" but "Let

Us make man." He describes God as thus speaking in this case in order

that he might set forth the excellency of the human race, and that he

might make manifest that peculiar counsel to which God had recourse in

creating or making man. However after his creation man grew and

multiplied as all the other animals and beasts of the earth multiply.

For the seed of all animals coagulates in the womb and is formed in

the same manner in them all. In this case of generation there is no

difference between the foetus formed in the cow and that formed in the

woman. But with reference to their first creation Moses testifies that

there was the greatest possible difference. For he shows in this

divine record that the human nature was created by a peculiarity of

divine counsel and wisdom, and formed by the very finger of God.

This difference, which God made in the original creation of man and of

cattle, likewise manifests forth the immortality of the soul, of which

we spoke above. And though all the other works of God are full of

wonder and admiration and truly magnificent, yet that man is the most

excellent and glorious creature of all is evident from the fact that

God in creating him had recourse to deep counsel and to a mode

entirely different from that which he adopted in creating all the

other creatures. For God does not leave it to the earth, to form or

bring forth man, as it brought forth beasts and trees. But God forms

man himself, "in the image" of himself, as a participator of the

divine nature and as one designed to enjoy the rest of God. Hence Adam

before he is formed by Jehovah, is a mere lifeless lump of earth,

lying on the ground. God takes that lump of earth into his hand and

forms out of it a most beautiful creature, a partaker of immortality.

Now if Aristotle were to hear these things he would burst out into a

loud laugh and would say, that the whole matter was a fable; a very

pleasant one indeed but a very absurd one; that man, who was a lump of

earth as to his original, is so formed by divine wisdom to be capable

of immortality. For those ancient philosophers, as Socrates and

others, who taught the immortality of the soul, were laughed at and

almost cast out by all their fellows. But is it not the very extremity

of folly for reason to take this great offense, when it beholds the

generation of man to this very day full of greatest wonder! For who

would not judge it an absurdity to suppose that man, who is designed

to live eternally, should be born from one single drop as it were of

seed from the loins of the father? There is even a greater apparent

absurdity in this than in Moses saying, that man was formed from a

lump of earth by the finger of God. But by all this folly reason

plainly shows that she understands nothing of God, who, by the

efficacy of a single thought, thus makes out of a lump of earth not

only the seed of man, but man himself; and makes also, as Moses

afterwards says, the woman out of a single rib of the man. This then

is the origin of man!

Man therefore having been thus created, male and female, from their

blood under the divine blessing is generated the whole human race. And

although this generation is common to man and beasts, that similarity

by no means detracts from the glory of our original formation; that we

are vessels of God, fashioned by his own hand; that he is our potter

and we his clay; as Isaiah speaks in his 64th chapter. Nor does this

solemn state of things pertain to our original only, but pervades our

whole life, and even unto death and in the tomb we are still the clay

of this Potter!

From this same creation of man also we may learn, what the real power

of free will is, of which our adversaries boast so much. We have

indeed in a certain sense a free will, in those things which are put

under us. For we are by the command of God appointed lords of the

fishes of the sea, of the fowls of heaven and of the beasts of the

field. These we kill when we please. We enjoy the food, and other

blessings they supply. But in the things pertaining unto God, which

are above us and not put under us, man has no free-will at all. But he

is in reality as clay in the hand of the potter. He is placed under

the mere power of God, passively and not actively. In this our real

position we choose nothing, we do nothing. On the contrary we are

chosen, we are prepared, we are regenerated; we receive only; as the

prophet Isaiah saith, "Thou art our potter; we are thy clay," Is.

64:8.

But here a lawful and holy inquiry of a new description may be made.

As Moses speaks of the creation of man here in a new phraseology, "And

Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground;" and as he did not

use the same form of expression above, when the other living creatures

were created, so he here mentions a further distinction in man which

is not said of any other animate creature: "And God breathed into his

nostrils the breath of life." This Moses does not say in reference to

any of the beasts, though all beasts, as well as man, have the breath

of life in their nostrils. We may here therefore sacredly inquire

first, why it is that Moses is here led to speak thus. And secondly,

why it is recorded in this place concerning man only, that God

"breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a

living soul," when all animals throughout the whole Scripture are

called "living creatures." The divine expressions recorded by Moses

above are, "Let the earth bring forth every living creature after his

kind." But here the phraseology is altogether changed, "And man became

a living soul."

These were the things that, doubtless, moved the patriarchs, the holy

fathers and prophets of old, to examine diligently passages of this

description in order to discover what these singular forms of speech

might signify, being assured that the sacred historian intended by

them something peculiar and great and especially worthy of knowledge.

For if you look at the mere animal life of which Moses is here

speaking, there is no difference between the man and the ass. For the

animal life in both stands in need of meat and drink. It needs sleep

and rest. The bodies of both grow and are fattened alike by meat and

drink. And from the want of meat and drink both waste and perish

alike. In both the stomach receives the food and transmits it when

digested to the belly, which generates the blood, by which all the

members are refreshed and restored. When we consider these things in

themselves, I say, there is no difference between the man and the

beast. But Moses in this place so exalts the life of man that he says

of him alone of all animals, that he "became a living soul;" not a

living creature or a living thing like all the beasts of the earth,

but in a more exalted sense "a living soul;" and that, because he was

created "in the image of God," which image there can be no doubt

whatever, shone with a peculiar brightness in the countenances of Adam

and Eve, while yet in their state of innocence. Hence it is that even

after the sin and fall, the heathen poets, etc., concluded from the

position of his body, from his upright carriage and from the elevation

of his eyes to heaven, that man was a creature far more excellent than

any other creature in existence.

It is to this surpassing excellency that St. Paul refers when he

recites the passage before us in 1 Cor. 15:45. It is there written,

"The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a

life-giving spirit." By a living soul in this passage the apostle

means the animal life, which consists in eating, drinking, growing,

sleeping, generating, etc.; all which are found also in brutes. But by

an antithesis he says that "the last Adam was made a life-giving

spirit." This is a life which needs not, and knows not, the conditions

of the animal life. Paul moreover here teaches us that Adam, even if

he had not sinned, would yet have lived a corporeal life; a life which

would have needed meat, drink and rest; a life which would have grown,

increased and generated, etc., until God should have translated him to

that spiritual life, in which he would have lived without natural

animality, if I may so express it; namely, a life from within, derived

from God alone; and not a life from without as before, sustained by

herbs and fruits. And yet he would have been a man with body and

bones, etc., and not a pure spirit, as angels are.

My reply therefore to the new inquiry, above admitted, is this: God by

the mouth of Moses speaking in the passage before us designed to set

forth the hope of that future and eternal life which Adam, if he had

continued in his innocency, would have enjoyed after this present

animal life. As if Moses had said, Man became a living soul; not

merely in the sense of that life which beasts live, but in the sense

of that life which God afterwards designed Adam to live, even without

any animal life at all. And this same hope of immortality or an

immortal life, we now have through Christ. Although on account of sin

we are subject to death and all kinds of calamity. But Adam's natural

life, when he became a living soul, was designed to be far exalted

above that which we now live since the fall. He would have lived on

earth sweetly, happily and with the highest pleasure; and then would

have been translated at the time determined in the mind of God, out of

the animal life into the spiritual and eternal life; and that

translation would have been attended with no pain or trouble whatever.

Whereas we are not translated out of this animal life into the life

spiritual and eternal, but by death; and that, after an infinity of

evils, perils and crosses.

It was after this manner that we ought, like the holy prophets,

diligently to look into all these expressions of Moses, and to inquire

why it is that, with such depth of purpose and design, he speaks

concerning man in terms so different from those he used when speaking

of all other living creatures. The design evidently was that our faith

and hope of immortality might be confirmed, and that we might be

assured that although the life of man as to his animal life is like

that of all other living creatures, even of brutes, yet that he

possesses a hope of immortality unpossessed by, and wholly unknown to,

any other living creature; that he possesses and bears the image and

similitude of God, with no particle of which any other animal is

dignified or favored.

And thus by a most beautiful allegory, or rather by a most excellent

figure, Moses here intimates, though obscurely, that God would become

incarnate. For with reference to man's differing in no respect from a

sheep, as to his animal life, though created in the image and after

the similitude of God; that assertion is in fact, a kind of statement

by contraries, as they term it in the schools; or, according to

another term of theirs, an addition by opposition. And yet as man was

created in the image of the invisible God, by this sublime fact is

signified in obscure figure, as we shall hereafter hear from Moses,

that God would reveal himself in this world in the _Man_, _Christ_.

These seeds as it were of the greatest and most marvelous things, did

the prophets diligently search out and gather from the divine

historian Moses.

PART II. PARADISE.

I. V. 8. _And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there

he put the man whom he had formed._

Here rises before us a whole sea of questions concerning paradise. In

the first place, the word itself, whether it be Hebrew, Chaldean or

Persian, for I do not think it is Greek, though Suidas endeavors to

discover a Greek origin, is rendered by the Latins _hortus_, "a

garden." This garden, Moses says, was planted BE EDEN, in Eden. For

this name of the place is not appellative or descriptive, as our

translation renders it, "paradise of pleasure." EDEN does, indeed,

signify pleasure or delight, and from this name of the garden is

doubtless formed the Greek word adona, but the preposition being here

added to it plainly proves that Eden is in this place to be taken for

the proper name of a place; which is further proved by the particular

description of the place, for the garden is said to have been to the

eastward of it. Our translation renders it _a principio_, "from the

beginning," which is also a bad version of the expression. For the

original term is MIKKEDEM, which does not properly signify "from the

beginning," but "in front," that is according to our mode of

expression and meaning, "toward the East." For the original word is an

adverb of place, not of time.

Hence there arises here another matter of dispute, as to where

paradise is. Commentators puzzle and rack themselves on this point in

an extraordinary manner. Some will have its situation to be under the

equator between the two tropics. Others say it must have been a more

temperate atmosphere, to cause a place to be so richly and abundantly

productive. But why should I proceed? Opinions upon the subject are

beyond number. My short and simple reply to them all is, that every

question upon a place or thing which no longer exists, is idle and

useless. For Moses is here describing things which occurred before the

Flood and even before sin was in the world. Whereas, we have to deal

with things as they were and are since the sin of Adam and since the

Deluge.

My belief is therefore that this spot of earth was called Eden, either

by Adam or in the time of Adam, on account of that astonishing

productiveness and that delightful pleasurableness, which Adam

experienced in it, and that the name of a place so delightful,

remained with posterity long after the place itself was lost and gone.

Just as the names of Rome, Athens and Carthage exist among us at this

day, though scarcely any traces of those mighty states and kingdoms

can now be discovered.

For time and the curse which sins merit consume all things. When

therefore the world with all the men and beasts upon it was destroyed

by the Flood, this noble and beautiful garden perished also, and all

traces of it were washed away from the face of the earth. In vain

therefore do Origen and others enter upon their absurd disputations.

The text moreover says that this garden was guarded by an angel, lest

any one should enter it. Even if this garden therefore had not

perished by the curse which followed, as doubtless it did, yet man's

entrance into it is thus absolutely and forever prevented, as is

indicated by the guardian angel's flaming sword. Its place can nowhere

be found. This latter answer concerning the curse might be given to

all questioners and disputers, though the former argument concerning

the inevitable consequences of the Deluge, I deem less imaginative and

more conclusive.

But what shall we say to that text of the New Testament, "Today shalt

thou be with me in paradise," Luke 23:43? And to that passage also,

"He was caught up into paradise," 2 Cor. 12:4? I have no hesitation

whatever in affirming that Christ did not go with the thief into any

corporeal place. For that point is made quite plain from the case of

Paul, who says, "that he knew not whether he was in the body, or out

of the body," verses 2 and 3. Wherefore my opinion is that in each

case by paradise is meant that condition or state in which Adam was,

when in paradise, full of peace and rest and safety, and full of all

those gifts of blessedness, which are enjoyed where there is no sin

and no death. As if Christ had said, today shalt thou be with me in

paradise, free from sin, and safe from death. Just as Adam in Paradise

was free from sin and from all death and from all curse. Thus I

believe paradise to be a paradise state. Just as the Scriptures, when

speaking of the bosom of Abraham, does not mean the very fold of the

robe which covered the bosom of Abraham, but descriptively that life

or state of life in which the souls of the departed enjoy the heavenly

life, and the peace and rest which "remain for the people of God,"

Heb. 4:9.

Wherefore my testimony concerning this text is, that Moses is here

giving us an historical description and informing us that there was a

certain place toward the East, in which there was a most beautiful and

fruitful garden. For, as I have before said, the Hebrew expression

MIKKEDEM properly signifies a place, not a time, as our version

improperly renders it. Hence it is usual with the Hebrews to call the

East wind KADIM, a dry cold wind which parches the fields. In that

region of the world therefore was paradise or a garden, in which there

were no teil-trees, nor oaks, nor scarlet-oaks, nor any other trees

that were barren, but the richest and noblest fruits of every kind and

trees of the noblest description; such as we now deem those to be

which bear cinnamon and the richest spices. And although all the rest

of the earth was cultivated, for there were as yet no thistles nor

thorns, yet this place had its far higher cultivation. This Eden was a

delightful garden, exceeding in cultivation and fecundity the whole

earth besides. Though all the rest of the earth, if compared with its

present miserable condition, was itself a paradise.

It was in this garden, which he himself had planted with such peculiar

care, that the Lord placed man. All these things, I say, are

historical. It is idle for us therefore to inquire at the present day,

where or what that garden was. The rivers, of which Moses afterwards

speaks, prove that the region of its situation comprehended Syria,

Mesopotamia, Damascus and Egypt, and it is in the midst of these as it

were that Jerusalem is situated. And as this garden was destined for

Adam with his posterity, it is in vain for us to imagine it to have

been a confined garden of a few miles extent. It was doubtless the

greater and better part of the earth. And my judgment is, that this

garden continued until the Deluge; and that before the Flood it was

protected by God himself, according to the description of Moses, by a

guard of angels. So that I believe it to have been a place well known

to the posterity of Adam, though inaccessible to them. And my opinion

is, that it continued thus known until the Flood utterly destroyed it

and left no traces of it remaining. Such is my mind on this subject.

And such is my reply to all questions which over curious men would

move concerning a place, which after the sin and the Deluge had no

longer any existence or trace of former existence.

Origen however is dissatisfied with any view of the extent of the

garden of Eden, corresponding to that which I have taken. His opinion

is that the distance of the rivers ought by no means to determine the

dimensions of the garden. But he is thinking all the time about such

gardens as we now generally cultivate. Hence he has recourse in his

usual way to an allegory. He makes paradise to represent heaven; the

trees, angels; and the streams of rivers, wisdom. But these triflings

are unworthy a divine. They may perhaps not be unbecoming an

imaginative poet; but they are out of place in a theologian. Origen

bears not in mind that Moses is here writing a history; and that, too,

a record of things, now long ago passed away.

After this same fashion do our adversaries absurdly dispute at the

present day holding that the image and similitude of God still remain,

even in a wicked man. They would, in my judgment speak much nearer the

truth, if they were to say that the image of God in man has perished

and disappeared; just as the original world and paradise have done.

Man in the beginning was righteous; the world in the beginning was

most beautiful. Eden was in truth a garden of delight and of pleasure.

But all these things were deformed by sin and remain deformed still.

All creatures, yea even the sun and the moon, have as it were put on

sackcloth. They were all originally "good," but by sin and the curse

they became defiled and noxious. At length came the greater curse of

the Flood, which destroyed paradise and the whole human race, and

swept them from the face of the earth. For if at this day rivers,

bursting their banks, inflict by their floods such mighty calamities

on men, beasts and fields, what must we suppose to have been the

awfulness and horror of the calamities brought upon the earth by the

universal Deluge! Whenever therefore we would speak of paradise, since

the Flood, let us speak of that now historical paradise, which was

once, but now has no longer existence in any trace. Let us speak of it

just as we are compelled to speak of the original innocence of man. In

doing so our utmost effort can effect no more than to reflect with a

sigh that it is lost, and that we never can repair or regain it in

this life.

But further, as Moses had before distinguished man in various ways

from the brutes, which nevertheless have the same origin as we have,

brutes being formed like us from the earth; so the divine historian in

this place distinguishes man from every other creature by giving a

description of that peculiarly delightful garden, and that superb

dwelling-place, which God had planted with great care and culture, and

prepared with magnificent splendor, far beyond anything of the kind

which he had bestowed on any other spot upon the face of the earth at

that time.

For the principal object of Moses in his sacred record of the creation

of man was to cause it to be clearly understood that man was by far

the noblest and most excellent creature, which God had made. The brute

animals had the earth, on the grass of which they might feed. But for

man, God himself prepared a more noble dwelling-place, in the

cultivation and adorning of which he might labor with extreme

pleasure, and in which he might find his food, separated from the

beasts indeed, but nevertheless holding all of them throughout the

whole earth under his dominion.

Therefore Origen, Jerome and all the other allegorists are alike

involved in the greatest folly, who because they can no longer find a

paradise on the face of the earth think that some other sense than the

natural one is to be given in its interpretation. But that there was a

paradise and that there is a paradise are two very different subjects

for consideration. Moses, as is the general nature of all such

narrations, merely records that there was a paradise. The case is the

same in reference to Adam's dominion over all the beasts. He could

call the lion, and command and manage him, according to his will and

pleasure; but it is not so now. All these glorious things are no more.

They are simply and merely, though sacredly, recorded by Moses as

having been in the beginning.

Another question is here agitated, as to the spot of the earth where

God created man. There are some who maintain with great warmth that he

was created in or near Damascus; because they find it recorded that

the soil of Damascus is red and fertile. But I pass by all idle and

vain inquiries of this description. It is enough for us to know that

man was formed out of the earth on the sixth day after all the other

animals had been created, and that he was placed by God himself in the

garden of Eden. But as to the very spot on which he was created, what

necessity is there for our knowing that? It is certain that he was

created out of paradise. For the text before us declares that he was

removed to or placed in paradise, before Eve was created who, as Moses

here shows, was created in paradise.

Now let us proceed to that which follows:

V. 9a. _And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that

is pleasant to the sight and good for food._

The contents of this verse properly belong to the description of

paradise. For although the whole earth had been so created as

naturally to bring forth trees and herbs, with their fruits and seeds,

yet this garden of Eden had its peculiar cultivation. A similitude

illustrative of the case before us may be derived from things as they

now are among us. Woods and fields bring forth their trees. But when

we select a place as a garden for special cultivation, the fruits of

the garden are always more excellent than those of the field. So

paradise, having been created for and devoted to peculiar cultivation,

beyond that which was bestowed on any other part of the earth, was

adorned with trees delightful to the sight, whose fruits were sweet to

the taste and for use. When therefore God said, in the first chapter,

verse 29, "Behold I have given you every herb and every tree for

food:" by that meat was meant necessary food. But paradise supplied

food for pleasure and delight; fruits better, sweeter and more

delicious than those which the trees of any other part of the earth

produced. On these the beasts also fed.

II. V. 9b. _The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the

tree of the knowledge (scientiae) of good and evil._

Moses so describes paradise that he makes God himself as it were the

cultivator of it; as a cultivator, who after he has planted a garden

with the greatest care according to his pleasure, selects this and

that tree from the rest, which he tills and loves as particular

favorites. One of these trees was "the tree of life," a tree created

to the end that man by feeding on it might be preserved with a sound

body, free from diseases, and not subject to fatigue.

Here again we find the man, whom God first created, highly

distinguished from the brutes; not only by the delightful spot in

which God placed him, but also by the exalted privilege of a longer

life, a life always continuing in the same state. Whereas the bodies

of all other living creatures grow in youth and increase in strength,

but in old age decay and perish. But the original condition of man was

intended to be far different. Had he continued in his innocence he

would have enjoyed his meat and his drink; a change of his meat and

drink and a conversion of them into blood would have taken place in

his body, but that commutation would not have been impure and foul as

it is now. This tree of life moreover would have preserved him in

perpetual youth, nor would he have experienced any of the afflictions

or inconveniences of old age. His brow would have contracted no

wrinkles, nor would his foot nor his hand nor any other part of his

body have known weakness or languor. By the blessing of the fruit of

this tree man's powers would have remained perfect for generation and

for labor of every kind; until at length he should have been

translated from this corporeal to his spiritual life. The other trees

would have supplied him with food the most excellent and the most

delicious; but this "tree of life" would have been as it were a

general medicine which would have preserved his natural life and

powers in perpetual and complete vigor.

Some may here interpose the question, How could this corporeal food or

natural fruit effect such a conservation of the body as to prevent it

from being weakened or debilitated by time? The reply is easy and

divine. "He spake, and it was done!" Ps. 33:9. For if God can make

bread of a stone, why should he not be able to preserve the natural

powers of man by a fruit? Even since the sin of the fall we see what

powerful properties the smallest herbs and seeds possess.

Look for a moment at our own bodies. Whence comes that peculiar

property of their nature that bread, eaten by them, is by their

natural heat digested and converted into blood, by the circulation of

which the whole body is strengthened and confirmed? Now bring together

all the fires and all the furnaces of the universe, you cannot produce

by them all this one single effect, the conversion of bread into

blood. But this mighty effect is produced by that small degree of

heat, which our natural bodies contain. There is no room for wonder

therefore that this tree should have become by the will of the Lord,

its Planter and Maker, "The tree of life!"

Adam possessed a natural and movable body, a body which generated, ate

and labored. These exertions are considered to produce decay or at

least some kind of change, by which at length man is naturally worn

out and destroyed. But by this appointment of nature, "the tree of

life," God provided a remedy, by the use of which man might have a

long and sound life, without any diminution of his powers and in

perpetual youth.

Thus all these things are historical facts. This is a point which I am

repeatedly admonishing every hearer and reader to bear in mind, lest

he should be stumbled by the authority of some of the fathers, who

leaving pure and positive history turn aside to hunt allegories. It is

on this ground that I am so partial to Lyra and so willingly rank him

with the best of commentators. He always carefully abides by and

follows history. And although he sometimes permits himself to be

swayed by the authority of the fathers, yet he never suffers himself

to be turned aside by their authority from the plain and real sense of

any portion of the Scriptures to allegories.

But much more wonderful is that which Moses here speaks concerning

"the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." For here we have to

inquire, what this tree was, why it was so called and what would have

been the consequence, or result, if there had not been this tree in

paradise. Augustine and those who follow him rightly consider the

matter, when they observe that the tree was so called from that which

was shortly to take place and to be ordained concerning it; and from

the solemn consequences which followed. For Adam had been so created

and the garden of Eden so planted and constituted that if any

inconvenience had occurred to his natural body and life, he had a

protection against it and remedy for it in "the tree of life," which

could preserve his powers and the perfection of his health at all

times. Wherefore if Adam had thus remained in his innocency, wholly

swallowed up in the goodness of his Creator and in the bountiful

provision which that goodness had made for him on every side and in

every way, he might have acknowledged God his Creator throughout that

life of innocence and might have governed all the beasts according to

his will, not only without the least painful toil or trouble, but also

with the highest pleasure. For all things had been so created as to

afford man the extreme of pleasure and delight without the least

degree of evil or harm.

After Adam therefore had been so created and so surrounded with every

blessing that he was intoxicated as it were with joy in God and with

delight in all the other creatures around him, God then creates a new

tree, a tree of knowledge and of distinction between good and evil, in

order that Adam by means of that tree might have a certain sign of

worship and reverence of God. For after all things had been delivered

into the hand of Adam that he might enjoy them according to his will

or according to his pleasure, God next requires of him that by means

of this "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" he should show his

reverence and obedience towards God as his Creator; and that he should

hold fast, as a sign of this exercise of his obedient worship of God,

that he would not taste any of the fruit of this tree; thus

refraining, as in obedience to God's prohibition.

All therefore that Moses has hitherto said have been things natural or

domestic, or political, or judicial, or medicinal. The present however

is theological. For here the Word of God concerning this "tree of the

knowledge of good and evil" is set before Adam, in order that by means

of this tree he might have a certain outward sign of the worship of

God and of obedience to God, to be performed by him in his nature, as

man, by the duty and service of an external work. Even as the Sabbath,

of which we have spoken above, pertains more especially to the

performance of the internal and spiritual worship of God; such as

faith, love, calling upon God in prayer, etc.

But alas! alas! the true institution of this external worship and

obedience toward God has been attended with the most disgraceful

results. For we find at the present day that the Word of God, than

which nothing is more holy, nothing more blessed, is an offense unto

the wicked. Baptism also was instituted of Christ, as the washing of

regeneration. But has not this divine institution become a great

scandal and excitement of offense by means of various sects? Has not

the whole doctrine of baptism been distressingly corrupted? And yet,

what was more necessary to us than this very institution of baptism?

It was most necessary in order that the animal man should have some

correspondingly animal or outward worship; that is, some outward sign

of worship and reverence of God, by which he might exercise an

obedience towards God even in his body.

The present text therefore truly belongs to the church and to

theology. After God had given to man a polity or national government,

and also an economy or the principles of domestic government, and had

constituted him king over all creatures, and had moreover appointed

for him as a protective remedy the tree of life, for the conservation

of his corporeal or natural life, God now erects for him a temple as

it were, that he might worship his Creator, and give thanks unto that

God who had bestowed upon him all these rich and bountiful blessings.

So at this day we have churches and an altar in them for the

celebration of the holy communion or supper of our Lord; we have

pulpits also, or elevated chairs, for teaching the people. And all

these things are thus prepared, not on account of necessity only, for

the sake of solemnity also. But this tree of the knowledge of good and

evil was itself to Adam his church, his altar, his pulpit; near or

under which, as the place appointed of God, he might perform his acts

of obedience to God, might acknowledge the Word and the Will of God,

might offer his thanks to God, and in which spot he might also call

upon God in prayer against temptations.

Reason indeed vents its rage that this tree was ever created at all,

because by means of it we have sinned and fallen under the wrath of

God and into death. But why does not reason on the same ground betray

its rage that the Law was ever revealed by God at all, that the Gospel

was ever revealed afterwards by the Son of God? For have not offenses

of errors and heresies, infinite, arisen on account both of the Law

and of the Gospel?

Let us therefore learn from this passage of Scripture that it was

necessary for man, being so created and constituted as to have all the

rest of the living creatures in his hand and under his dominion, that

he should not only privately, but publicly also, acknowledge his

Creator, should give thanks unto him, should offer him some public and

external worship, and have a certain form and work of obedience. If

therefore Adam had not fallen, this tree would have been a common

temple or church, a sure palace to which all might have flocked. Thus

it was afterwards, when nature was in her fallen and corrupt state,

the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple at Jerusalem were

places appointed for divine worship. As therefore this "tree"

eventually proved to be the cause of so awful a fall, it was rightly

called by Moses "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," on

account of the horrible and miserable event which followed.

Two questions may here be raised as to whether this tree of life was

one only or whether there were more; and whether the Scripture which

here speaks in the singular number should be considered as speaking in

the plural; just as we, speaking collectively, use the expression "the

pear," "the apple," whereby we mean pears and apples generally; either

of those fruits as kinds; not individual species or specimens of them.

To me it appears by no means absurd or out of the way that we should

understand "the tree of life," as a certain space in the middle of

paradise, or a certain grove, in which many "trees of life" of the

same genus or kind grew, and were called by the same name, "trees of

life." Hence it is probable that a certain grove was called

collectively "the tree of life," which was a kind of sacred retreat,

in which grew a number of trees of the same kind; namely, "trees of

the knowledge of good and evil," concerning which God pronounced his

prohibition, that Adam should not eat of any of them, and if he did he

should surely die the death. Not that there was anything in the nature

of this tree, or of any one of these trees, to cause death; but such

was the Word of God pronounced concerning it or them, which Word of

God was ever attended with its efficacy to all creatures; and the

efficacy of which Word still preserves all creatures, that they

degenerate not nor alter nor fail of their original form and intent;

that all creatures may be preserved in their original form and nature

by an infinite propagation!

Hence it was that by the Word the rock in the desert gave forth its

waters in all their abundance, Ex. 17:6, and that by the same Word the

brazen serpent healed all those that looked unto it, Num. 21:9. By

this same efficacy of the Word of God's prohibition, this one tree or

this certain species of many trees in the middle of paradise killed

Adam by his disobedience to that Word of God; not that the tree itself

was deadly in its own nature but because it was appointed by the Word

of God to be so in its effects. In the same way also are we to

understand the nature of the tree of life, of which God commanded Adam

to eat as often as he needed to restore his powers. It was by the Word

of God that the tree of life produced that restoration.

To reason indeed it seems absurd, that one apple could have such

deadly properties or produce such deadly effects as to destroy the

whole human race throughout its almost infinite succession; and that

too with a death eternal. But this was not the nature or the effect of

the apple in itself. Adam did indeed force his teeth into the apple,

but his teeth struck in reality upon the sting in the apple, which

sting was the prohibition of God, which made his bite to be

disobedience to God. This was the real cause of the mighty evil. Adam

thus sinned against God, disregarded his commandment and obeyed Satan.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in itself "good," the

tree which bore the most noble fruits. But as the prohibition of God

was attached to it and man disregarded that prohibition, the tree

became the deadliest of all poisons.

Just in the same manner as God has said, "Thou shalt not steal," Ex.

20:15, the man who touches the property of another as his own sins

against God. So in Egypt when the Jews were commanded of God to ask

silver from their neighbors and to carry it away with them; that was

no sin; they were justified by the command of God, to whom obedience

is due, whatever be the issue or result. So also the suitor when he

loves a virgin and has a strong desire of nature to possess her as his

wife and marries her, committeth no adultery; though the Law of God

forbids coveting and concupiscence. And the great reason is this,

matrimony is a divine institution and is a command of God to them who

cannot live chastely without marriage. Just the same also is the

nature of these two trees. The tree of life gives life, by virtue of

the Word which promises and ordains that life. "The tree of the

knowledge of good and evil" produces death by virtue of the efficacy

of the Word which prohibits the eating of it on the penalty of death

in case of disobedience.

This latter tree however is called "the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil," Augustine says, because after Adam had sinned by eating of

it he not only saw and experienced what good he had lost, but also

into what evil and misery he had been hurled by his disobedience. The

tree therefore was in itself "good," even as the divine commandment

attached to it was "good;" that it should be to Adam a tree of divine

worship, by which he should prove his obedience to God, even by an

external act of service to him. But by reason of the sin which

followed, the same tree became the tree of the curse. Moses now by

digressing a little proceeds to give a more extensive description of

the original "garden!"

V. 10. _And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from

thence it was parted, and became four heads._

Here again the Latin version is in error, when it makes the proper

name, Eden, an appellative. And here Origen and his followers are to

be condemned who have recourse in their usual way to allegories. For

the things here recorded by Moses as history, are facts. There

actually was a great river in Eden, by which the whole garden was

watered. That river rising from the east of the garden divided itself

into four streams, that no part of the garden might remain unwatered.

For, as I have before observed, we are here to have in mind a large

space or portion of the earth; because this garden was so constituted

that it might be, as to its original design, an appropriate and

perpetual habitation for Adam and his whole posterity, which was

equally designed to be most extensive.

Vs. 11, 12. _The name of one is Pishon; that is it which compasseth

the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that

land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone._

This is one of the most difficult passages in the writings of Moses,

and one which has given rise to the greatest offense in unholy minds.

For the real state of the facts recorded, as they are now before our

eyes, cannot be denied. The description here given by the sacred

historian applies properly to India, which he here calls "Havilah,"

through which the river Pishon, or the Ganges, flows. The other three

rivers Gihon, Hiddekel and Phrath; that is, the Nile, the Tigris and

the Euphrates are also well known; and it is equally well known that

the Nile and the last two rivers have their sources very distant from

each other. The great question therefore that naturally arises is,

since the whole world well knows how far distant these rivers are from

each other, how can the account of Moses be reconciled with the facts,

when he says that all these rivers issued from one fountain; that is,

that they flowed from one source in the garden of Eden toward the

east? For with respect to the Nile, although its source is unknown,

yet the arguments and proofs are plain that it flows from a region in

the south. Whereas it is quite certain that the Ganges and the Tigris

and the Euphrates flow from the north; sources in the entirely

opposite direction.

The account of Moses therefore militates against sense and fact as

they now are. This state of things has given occasion to many to form

conjectures that Eden was the whole world. Though such conjectures are

certainly false, yet they would not of themselves, even if true,

reconcile the statements of Moses, nor make all plain when he here

says that the source of all these rivers was one and the same. And

although it is very probable that if Adam had remained in his

innocence and his posterity had greatly multiplied in that state of

innocency, God would have enlarged this garden correspondently; yet

even that consideration would not justify the supposition that Eden

was the whole earth originally; for the sacred text most plainly

separates Eden from all the rest of the earth. What shall we say

therefore concerning this passage of Moses, contrary as it is to sense

and experience, as things now are, and on that account so liable to

cause offense being taken; especially since Origen and others have

built upon it so many marvelous and absurd fables? Some commentators

pretend that there is no difficulty at all nor any liability to

offense being taken; and therefore they walk dryshod as it were over

this deep sea. Such lack of candor however is also highly unbecoming a

commentator.

My opinion on the matter, which indeed I have already given, is that

paradise, which was very soon closed against man on account of sin,

and afterwards totally destroyed and swept from the earth by the

Flood, left not one trace or vestige of its original state remaining,

which can now be discovered. I fully believe, as I have before stated,

that paradise did exist after the fall of Adam, and that it was known

to his posterity; but that it was inaccessible to them on account of

the protection of the angel, who as the text informs us guarded Eden

with a flaming sword. The awful Deluge however destroyed all things.

By which also, as it is written, "All the fountains of the great deep

were broken up," Gen. 7:11.

Who can doubt therefore that the fountains of these rivers were also

broken up and confounded? As therefore since the Flood mountains exist

where fields and fruitful plains before flourished, so there can be no

doubt that fountains and sources of rivers are now found where none

existed before and where the state of nature had been quite the

contrary. For the whole face of nature was changed by that mighty

convulsion. Nor do I entertain the least doubt that all those wonders

of nature which are from time to time discovered, are the effects and

relics of that same awful visitation, the Deluge. In the metallic

mines which are now explored are found large logs of wood, hardened

into stone; and in masses of stone themselves are perceived various

forms of fishes and other animals. With the same confidence I also

believe that the Mediterranean sea before the Deluge was not within

the land. My persuasion is that the position which it now occupies was

formed by the effects of the terrible Flood. So also the space now

occupied by the Red Sea was doubtless before a fruitful field, and

most probably some portion of this very garden. In like manner, those

other large bays, the Gulf of Persia, the gulf of Arabia, etc., as

they now exist, are relic effects of the Deluge.

Wherefore we are by no means to suppose that the original source of

the rivers, of which we are now speaking, was the same as it is today.

But as the earth still exists and brings forth trees and their fruits,

etc., and yet these, if compared with those in their original and

incorrupt state, are but miserable remnants as it were of those former

riches which the earth produced when first created, so these rivers

remain as relics only of those former noble streams; but certainly not

in their primitive position; much less flowing from their original

sources. In the same manner, how much excellency has perished from our

bodies by sin! Wherefore the sum of the matter under discussion is

that we must speak of the whole nature since its corruption, as an

entirely altered face of things; a face which nature has assumed,

first by means of sin, and secondly by the awful effects of the

universal Deluge.

Nor has God ceased to act still in the same way. When he punishes sins

he still curses at the same time the earth also. Thus in the prophet

Zephaniah, God threatens that he will consume the fowls of the air and

the fishes of the sea, Zeph. 1:3. Hence the fact is that many of our

rivers have in this age a far less number of fishes than in the memory

of our forefathers. The birds also are much fewer in number than they

once were, etc. God threatens also, Is. 13, that He will punish in

this same way the sins of Babylon. For when men are taken away by

God's judgments the beasts of the earth also disappear and monsters

and destroying wild beasts alone remain, Is. 13:21, 22. For example

Canaan was one of the most fruitful lands; but now it is said to be as

it were a mere pickle-tub of unfruitful saltness, according to the

divine threatening in the 107th Psalm. If then such calamities are

inflicted of God as the punishments of the particular sins of nations,

what destructions and desolations must we consider the universal

punishment of the Flood to have wrought?

Let no one be offended therefore at Moses saying that four rivers,

which are at this day widely distant from each other and have now

different fountains, flowed from one source in the garden of Eden. For

as I have here repeatedly observed we are not to think that the form

of the world now is the same as it was before the sin of Adam. Origen

was indeed of this opinion himself, and yet he turned aside to the

vainest allegories.

The Nile indeed exists to this day, so does the Ganges. But as Virgil

says concerning the destruction of Troy, "A cornfield now flourishes

where Troy once stood," so if any one had seen the Nile and the other

great rivers mentioned by Moses in their primitive beauty and glory he

would have beheld them to be far different from what they are now. For

not only are their sources altered, but their qualities and their

courses are also changed; just as all other creatures are also

deformed and corrupted. Hence it is that Peter affirms "That the

heaven must receive Christ until the times of the restitution of all

things," Acts 3:21. For Peter here intimates, that which Paul also

testifies, that the whole creation was subjected to vanity, Rom. 8:20,

and that the restitution of all things is to be hoped for; the

restitution not of man only, but of the heaven and the earth, of the

sun and of the moon, etc.

My answer therefore to all questioners upon the passage before us is:

There is the Nile, there is the Ganges and there are other rivers

still in existence; but they are not now such as they once were; they

are not only confounded with respect to their sources, but altered as

to their qualities also. In the same manner also man has indeed feet,

eyes and ears, just as they were created and formed in paradise; but

all these same members are miserably corrupted and marred by sin. Adam

before his sin had eyes the most bright, a smell of body the most

pure, refined, delicate and grateful; a body the most perfectly

adapted to generation and to every purpose intended of God without the

least let, hindrance or obstruction in the performance of those

purposes as services in obedience to God. But how far removed from all

this aptitude, this service and this natural vigor are all our members

now! Just the same is the present nature of these rivers and of the

whole creation if compared with its original state and condition.

Let us look therefore in hope and faith for the "restitution of all

things;" not of the soul only, but of the body also; believing that we

shall have in that day a body better and more noble even than it was

when first created in paradise. For we shall not then be placed in a

state of animal life, subject by its nature to alteration and change;

but in the state and enjoyment of a spiritual life; that life, into

which Adam would have been translated, if he had lived without sin.

Into the hope of this life Christ brings us by the remission of sins;

and thereby makes our condition better and higher than Adam enjoyed,

but lost in paradise.

The Hebrew verb SAB, which Moses here uses, has a very extensive

meaning; it signifies "to go round," as watchmen go their round in a

city. Pishon, therefore, or the Ganges is still in existence, if you

speak of its mere name and stream; but if you consider its fertilizing

and fructifying qualities, its various other properties and the course

of its waters, even the remnants of the original noble river are not

to be found.

The land of Havilah is India, situated towards the east. This country

is celebrated both in the present passage and in other places in the

Scripture as most rich and abundant in every respect. So that at this

day the gems and the gold of India are considered the most precious

and most noble. I believe however, according to the phraseology here

adopted by Moses, that in "the land of Havilah" is included Arabia

Felix and other adjacent regions.

When Moses speaks of bdellium and the onyx stone, I take these

specimens of gems for gems in general. For we find India to abound

even at the present day, not only in jewels of the description

mentioned, but in emeralds, sapphires, rubies, garnets, diamonds,

etc.; for I retain their appellations as they are now used among us.

But here again I would bring back your attention to that which I have

before stated. Seeing that this region is endowed from above with such

a rich abundance of all things useful and precious; how much more

rich, abundant, opulent and divinely favored must we conclude it to

have been in its original state before the sin of the fall! Its

present productions and contents can scarcely be called even remnants

of its former excellency.

Vs. 13, 14. _And the name of the second river is Gihon; the same is it

which compasseth the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third

river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria.

And the fourth river is the Euphrates._

Moses mentions the three remaining rivers by name only, giving no

particular descriptions in reference to them. Gihon is the Nile. This

river, as it runs through all Egypt, takes in its course, Cush or

Ethiopia also, as well as Egypt. Hiddekel is the Tigris (in Armenia),

the most rapid river of all. "The fourth is the river Euphrates." As

if he had added, the river near to us.

In this passage therefore we have a description of paradise with its

four rivers. But now it is utterly lost and unknown; and no traces of

it exist except these four rivers. And even these, first rendered

leprous as it were and corrupted and marred by sin; and then changed,

altered and confounded in their sources and in their courses by the

mighty Deluge.

Moses now proceeds to describe how a law was given to Adam before Eve

was created, so that he might have a mode or form of external worship,

by which to show his obedience and express his gratitude to God.

PART III. THE INTRODUCTION OF MAN INTO THE GARDEN, THE COMMAND GOD

GAVE HIM AND THE THREATENING GOD ATTACHED TO IT.

I. V. 15. _And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden

of Eden to dress it and keep it._

After God had created and variously adorned the universe of heaven and

earth, he next prepared the garden of Eden, which he willed to be the

habitation and royal seat of man, to whom he had committed the

government over all other living creatures of the earth, the heaven

and the sea. And now God places man in that garden as in a citadel and

a temple, from which he had liberty to go out and to walk abroad in

any other part of the earth, which also was most fruitful and most

delightful; and there to amuse and delight himself with the beasts and

other animals when and as he wished.

And God gives to Adam a two-fold charge that he should work or till

this garden, and also that he should guard and defend it. Some faint

vestiges of this original command yet remain in these miserable

remnants of primitive things, which we still possess. For even to this

day these two things must ever be joined together: not only that the

earth should be tilled but also that the productions of that

cultivation should be defended. But both these great principles are

corrupted and marred in an infinite number of forms. For not the

tillage of the earth itself only but the defense of it also are filled

with every kind of misery and trouble. And what the cause of all this

sorrow is will be fully clear to us shortly in the following chapter

of this book. For we shall there see that this working or tillage of

the earth is defiled and embarrassed by thorns, by thistles, by the

sweat of the brow and by various and unending misery. For, to say

nothing about the labor and sorrow of procuring necessary food, what

difficulty, what labor attend even the bringing up a child from its

birth!

If Adam therefore had remained in his innocency he would have

cultivated the earth and planted his beds of spices, not only without

toil or trouble but as an amusement, attended with exquisite pleasure.

His children when born would not long have needed the breast of their

mother, but in all probability would have started on their feet, as we

now see chickens do by nature, and would have sought their own food

from the fruits of the earth, without the helplessness or weakness and

without any labor or sorrow of their parents! But now how great do we

behold to be the pain and misery of our birth, our infancy and our

growth!

If we speak of food and the misery attending it, not only have beasts

the same general produce of the earth, now no longer an Eden, which we

have; but men defraud men of the same and rob them of it by theft and

plunder. Hence hedges and walls and other strong defences are found

necessary for the protection of property; and even by these the

produce, we have obtained by the labor and sweat of cultivation, can

scarcely be preserved in safety. Thus we have indeed a remnant of the

labor of cultivation, but very far different from the employ of the

original tillage. Not merely because it is attended with the greatest

toil and distress, but because the ground itself, being as it were

unwilling, yields sparingly; whereas to Adam it yielded as it were

with the greatest joy and with the richest abundance, whether he sowed

his seed within Eden itself or in any other part of the earth. There

was then no danger from plunderers and murderers. All was in perfect

peace and safety.

In all these respects therefore we can form an idea of the mighty evil

of sin; when we behold the thorns, the briers, the sweat of the brow,

etc., which are before us. Whichever way we turn the magnitude of that

evil is ever present. Hence man did not fall by sin in soul only, but

in body also; and both participate in the punishment. For labor is a

punishment, which in the state of innocence was an amusement and a

pleasure. Even as now, in the present state of the misery of nature,

if any one has a productive garden, neither digging nor sowing nor

planting is a labor, but a certain devoted employment and a delight.

What then must have been this employment and delight in the garden of

Eden in the state of original innocence! How much more pleasurable and

perfect!

And here also we may reflect with profit that man was not created to

idleness, but to labor; no, not even in the state of primitive

innocence. Wherefore every state of an idle or indolent life is

condemnable; such for instance as the life of monks and nuns.

As the original labor and employment of man were unattended with

sorrow or distress, as we have shown, so also this guarding and

protecting of that which he possessed was full of pleasure and

delight; whereas now all such protection is full of labor and peril.

Adam could have stopped or driven away even bears and lions by one

single word. We have now indeed our means of defense, but they are

truly horrible; for we cannot do without swords and spears, and

cannon, and walls, and ramparts, and castle-fosses, etc.; and even

with all these we and our loved ones scarcely abide in safety. Hence

we have scarcely the feeblest traces remaining either of the original

work or the original protection.

Others expound this passage differently, making it to mean, "that God

might till and keep it." But the text speaks of human "tilling" and

human "keeping" absolutely. So Cain just below, Gen. 4:2, is said to

have been "a tiller of the ground." And in Job and Ecclesiastes kings

are called tillers of the earth or husbandmen; not merely on account

of their labor itself in tillage, but on account of their guardianship

and protection. But as I have all along said, labor and protection are

now hard and difficult terms? But originally they were terms denoting

a certain delightful employment and exquisite pleasure.

II. Ver. 16, 17a. _And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every

tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it._

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

domestic government (_oeconomia_) or civil government (_politia_). For

Eve was not yet created. And the church is here instituted without any

walls or any pomp; in a place all open and most delightful. After the

church was instituted domestic government (_oeconomia_) is

established, when Eve is brought to Adam as his life-companion. Thus

we have at God's hand a church before a private house; the former of

which indeed is greater and better than the latter.

And as to civil government (_politia_); before sin there was none; nor

was it needed. For civil government is a necessary remedy for corrupt

nature. Because the lust of men must be curbed by the chains and

penalties of the laws, that it transgress not all bounds. Wherefore we

may properly term polity, or civil government, the established

"kingdom over sin," just as Paul also calls Moses the minister and the

law the "ministration of sin and of death," 2 Cor. 3:7, 8; Rom. 8:2.

For the one and special object of civil government is to prevent sin.

Hence Paul says, "that the power beareth the sword" and is "the

avenger of evil doings," Rom. 13:4. If therefore, men had not become

evil by sin there would have been no need of civil government; but

Adam would have lived with his posterity in the greatest joy, peace

and safety, and would have done more by the motion of one of his

fingers than can now be effected by all the magistrates, all the

swords and all the gallows of a kingdom. There would then have been no

ravisher, no murderer, no thief, no slanderer, no liar. And therefore

what need would there have been of civil government, which is as it

were the sword, the caustic and the terrible medicine, which are

necessary to cut off and burn out noxious members of the state, that

its other members may be saved and preserved.

After the establishment of the church therefore in paradise is

committed unto Adam the government of his family. The church is thus

first instituted by God, that he might show by this as a sign that man

was created to another and a higher end than any of the other living

creatures. And as the church is thus instituted by the Word of God, it

is certain that Adam was created by an immortal and spiritual life to

which he would assuredly have been translated and conveyed without

death after he had lived in Eden and the other parts of the earth to

his full satiety of life, yet without trouble or distress. And in that

life there would have been none of that impure lust which now

prevails. The love of sex for sex would have been uncontaminated and

pure. Generation would have proceeded without any sin or impurity, in

a holy obedience unto God. Mothers would have brought forth children

without pain, and children themselves would have been brought up

without any of that misery and labor and distress with which they are

now always reared.

But who can find language capable of describing the glory of that

state of innocency, which we have lost? There certainly still remains

in nature a desire of the male for the female. There also proceed the

fruits of generation. But the whole is attended with a horrible

impurity of lust, and with overwhelming pains of parturition. To all

this are added turpitude, shame and confusion even between man and

wife when they would enjoy their lawful embrace. In a word, even here

and in all things else, is present the unspeakable awfulness of

original sin. Creation indeed is "good." The blessing of fruitfulness

upon creation is "good." But all these things are corrupted and

spoiled, by sin. So that even man and wife cannot enjoy them without

shame and confusion of face. Whereas none of these things would have

had existence if the innocency of Adam had continued. But as husbands

and wives eat and drink together without any shame; so there would

have been a singular and heavenly purity without any shame or

confusion of feeling, either in generation or in parturition. But I

return to Moses.

The church was originally instituted, as I have observed, before there

was any house or family or domestic government. For the Lord, we here

find, preaches to Adam and sets before him the Word. On that Word,

though so short, it highly becomes us here to pause awhile and dwell.

For this sermon of God to Adam would have been to him and to us all,

his posterity, had we continued in the original innocence, a whole

Bible as it were. And did we, or could we, possess that sermon now we

should have no need of paper, ink and pens, nor of that infinite

multitude of books, which we now require to teach us knowledge and

wisdom. The whole contents of these books put together, could we grasp

them in our minds, would not put us in possession of one-thousandth

part of that wisdom, which Adam possessed in paradise. Could we attain

to the sum of all the wisdom in all the world, this short sermon would

swallow up and overflow the whole. It would show us in all plainness

and fullness, as if painted on a tablet, that infinite goodness of God

which created this nature of ours pure, holy and perfect; and it would

show us with equal plainness all those impurities, calamities and

sorrows, which have since overwhelmed us by the inbursting of sin.

Since therefore, as the text shows, Adam alone heard this sermon from

God, it must have been preached to him on the sixth day, and Adam must

have afterwards communicated it to Eve on the same day. And if they

had not sinned Adam would have set this remarkable sermon or precept

before his whole posterity also; and by it they would have become the

most profound divines, the most learned lawyers and the most

experienced physicians. Now there exists an infinite number of books

by which men are trained to be theologians, lawyers and physicians.

But all the knowledge we can obtain by the help of all these books

together can scarcely be called the dregs of science, if compared with

that fund of wisdom which Adam drew from this one sermon of God. So

utterly corrupted are all things by original sin.

This "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," therefore, or this

place in which a number of trees like unto it were planted, would have

been, as we have said, a church, where Adam and his posterity, had he

and they continued in their innocency, would have assembled on the

Sabbath day; and Adam, after refreshment derived from the "tree of

life," would have preached God to those assembled, and would have

praised him for the dominion which he had given them over all other

creatures he had made. The 148th and 149th Psalms set forth a certain

form of such praise and thanksgiving, where the sun, the moon, the

stars, the fishes and the dragons are called upon to praise the Lord.

But there is no one psalm so beautiful, but that any one of us might

compose one far more excellent and more perfect, if we had been born

of the seed of Adam in his state of original innocence. Adam would

have preached that highest of all blessings, that he had been created

in and that his posterity bore the image and the similitude of God. He

would have exhorted them all to live a holy life without sin, to till

the garden in which God had placed them with all industry, to keep it

with all diligence, and to guard with all caution against tasting the

fruit of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil." This external

place, form, worship and preaching of the Word, man would most

certainly have observed on the Sabbath. Afterwards he would have

returned to his duties of laboring and guarding until the time

appointed of God had been fulfilled, in which he should be translated

without any death and with all sweetness to heaven.

We must now speak of all these blessings however as a lost treasure,

and we are deservedly left to sigh for that day, when all these things

shall be restored. It is nevertheless most profitable to remember the

blessings we have lost, and to feel the evils we suffer and in the

midst of which we live, in so much wretchedness that we may be thereby

stirred to look for that redemption of our bodies, of which the

apostle speaks, Rom. 8:23. For as to our souls we are already freed

and delivered by Christ; and we hold that deliverance in faith until

the "end of our faith" shall be revealed, 1 Pet. 1:19.

It is moreover very profitable to consider from this text that God

gave unto Adam a Word, a worship and a religion, the most simple, most

pure and most disencumbered of all laborious forms and sumptuous

appearance. For God did not command the sacrificing of oxen, nor the

burning of incense, nor long and loud prayers, nor any other

afflictions or wearyings of the body. All that he willed was, that

Adam should praise him, should give him thanks, and should rejoice in

him as the Lord his God; obeying him in this one great thing that he

ate not the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Of this worship we have indeed some remnants restored to us in a

certain measure by Christ, even amidst all this infirmity of our

flesh. We also are enabled to praise God and to give him thanks for

every blessing of the soul and of the body. But too true it is, that

these are but very remnants of the original worship of Eden. But when,

after this miserable life, we shall come among the company of angels,

we shall then offer unto God a purer and holier worship. And there are

also other remnants of this original felicity still vouchsafed unto

us; that by the blessing of marriage we avoid and prevent adulteries;

that this corporeal life has not only food, though procured with

infinite labor, but a protection and a defense of that which we

possess, secured unto us against all the evils and dangers which

surround us on every side. These are indeed merciful remnants, still

they are but miserable remnants if compared with the original

blessedness and security.

Moreover, brethren, ye are here to be admonished against false

prophets, through whom Satan endeavors by various means to corrupt

sound doctrine. I will give you an example of this in my own case, and

just show you how I was tormented by a fanatical spirit when I first

began to preach this doctrine, which I am now setting forth in my

Comments on the passage before us. The text indeed uses a Hebrew verb

signifying "to command;" "And Jehovah God commanded the man." Yet this

agent of Satan argued, and drew his conclusion thus:--"The Law is not

made for a righteous man." Adam was a righteous man; therefore, the

Law was not made for Adam; because, he was a righteous man. Upon this

argument he immediately pinned another; that this sermon of God

therefore was not a law but an admonition only; and that,

consequently, "where there was no law there was, as Paul affirms, no

transgression." And from this argument, that "where there is no law

there is no transgression," he crept on to the conclusion, therefore,

there was no original sin; the truth of which doctrine he consequently

denied. By thus connecting together these two passages of Scripture he

gained, as he considered, a marvelous victory, and he publicly

displayed his triumph as if he had discovered a treasure hitherto

unknown to the world. Now it is profitable thus to mark the mighty

attempts of Satan, that we may learn to meet them with wisdom and

skill.

Both the above passages, that the "Law is not made for a righteous

man;" and that "where there is no law there is no transgression" are

found in the Epistles of Paul, 1 Tim. 1:9, and Rom. 4:15. And it is

the business of a sound and skillful logician in divine things, to

mark carefully the aims and the devices of the devil; because our

sophistical reasoners, his miserable slaves, use them after him. They

pretend indeed to found their arguments on Scripture. For they know

that it would appear perfectly ridiculous to thrust upon men's minds

nothing but their own dreams. But they do not cite Scripture wholly

and honestly; they seize upon those parts of it only which seem at

first to make for them; but those portions which stand against them,

they either craftily pass over or corrupt by cunningly devised

interpretations.

Thus when Satan found that Christ trusted in the mercy of God under

his great hunger, he attempted to draw him into a forbidden

confidence, Math. 4:3, 4. And again, in the matter of his standing on

the pinnacle of the Temple, the devil tried to make him tempt God; by

quoting to him a passage seemingly adopted for his purpose, Ps.

91:11-12, "He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in

their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy

foot against a stone."

Now that portion of the passage in the psalm, which was contrary to

his purpose, Satan craftily passed over, "to keep thee, in all thy

ways." Here lies the whole force of this Scripture, that this

guardianship of angels is promised to us "in all our ways" or "in our

lawful calling" only. Christ in all divine wisdom sets before Satan

this as the true meaning of the sacred text, when he replies to his

face in this precept, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." By this

Christ signifies that the "way" of man is not in the air, but that was

the "way" of the flying fowls; but that the "way" of man was the steps

which led from the roof of the temple to the ground; and which were

made for the end that there might be a descent from the top of the

temple to the bottom, easy and without peril. When therefore we are in

our lawful calling and duty, whether that duty be commanded of God or

of men, which latter have a right to prescribe the duty of our

calling, while we are thus "in our ways," then we may assuredly

believe the guardianship of angels will not fail us.

The above example therefore will furnish a very useful rule to be

observed in our disputations with these fanatical tools of Satan. For

those who are not on their guard are often deceived when crafty men

transfer their arguments, after their own manner, from connected to

unconnected portions of the Scripture; or adopt dishonest connections

or divisions of the sacred text; but adduce not passages in their

integral state as they stand in the Word. Now this is the very method

adopted in the present case by my adversary, when he argues as above

from these two detached portions, "That law is not made for a

righteous man," and "Where there is no law, there is no

transgression." He who is not on the watch-tower of wisdom and caution

here is entangled before he is aware of it, and drawn into the

horrible conclusion, that there was no real sin in eating the first

apple; because, as our crafty opponents would argue, there was no law;

and, as they further argue, which is indeed true in itself, because

"where there is no law there is no transgression."

And I am by no means certain that some even in our day have not been

deceived by this very argument of the devil. For they so speak of

original sin as to make it not a sin itself, but a punishment of sin

only. Hence Erasmus, discussing this point with his famous eloquence,

observes, "Original sin is a punishment, inflicted on our first

parents, which we their posterity are compelled to bear for another's

fault, without any desert of our own. Just as the son of an harlot is

forced to endure the infamy, not by his own fault but by that of his

mother. For what sin could any man commit who had as yet no

existence?" These sentiments flatter human reason, but they are full

of impiety and blasphemy.

Wherein then is the syllogism of our crafty adversary unsound? It is

because, according to Satan's common artifice, the text on which it is

founded is not quoted entirely, but most perfidiously mutilated. For

the whole text stands thus, "The law is not made for a righteous man,

but for murderers, for adulterers," etc., etc. Wherefore nothing can

be more evident, nothing else can be concluded than that the apostle

Paul is here speaking of that Law which God revealed unto man after

sin was in the world; not of that law, which the Lord gave unto Adam

in paradise, while he was yet righteous and innocent. The Law, says

Paul, "was not made for a righteous man;" wherefore it insubvertibly

follows, that the Law of which Paul speaks was given to nature, when

not innocent, but sinning and liable to sin.

Is it not then the height of wickedness thus to confound passages of

Scripture in causes of such solemn moment? Adam after his sin was not

the same as he was before, when in his state of innocency. And yet

these men make no difference between the law delivered to man before

sin and the Law delivered to man after sin. But what the apostle says

concerning the Law, which was delivered to the world after it was

filled with sin, these instruments of Satan, lyingly and with the

greatest blasphemy, transfer and apply to the law, delivered to Adam

in paradise. Whereas, if no sin had existed the law prohibiting sin

would not have existed. For as I have said above, civil government and

laws, or cauteries, and the sword, and the "schoolmaster," as Paul

terms "the Law," would not have been needed in a state of innocent

nature. But the boy because he is now bad needs the "schoolmaster" and

the rod. So the prince, because he has disobedient citizens, equally

needs the crown-officer and the executioner. It is of this law that

Paul is really speaking; the law which nature when corrupted by sin

needed.

With respect to the need which Adam had of this commandment of God

concerning the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," I have shown

that need above. It was that Adam might have a settled external

worship of God and a work of external obedience towards him to perform

statedly. Thus the angel Gabriel is without sin, a creature most pure

and innocent, and yet he received a commandment from God to inform

Daniel concerning things of the utmost importance, and to announce to

the virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of Christ promised to

the fathers. These are positive commandments, given to a creature

perfectly innocent.

In the same manner there is here a commandment given of the Lord to

Adam before his sin that he should not eat of the "tree of the

knowledge of good and evil," which commandment Adam would have

fulfilled willingly and with the highest pleasure, had he not been

deceived by the craft of Satan. But Paul is referring to quite another

law; for he is plainly speaking of a law which was given, not to the

righteous, but to the unrighteous. Who is there, then, so stupid or so

insane, who will after all conclude that a law was not given to Adam

because he hears us affirm that Adam was a righteous man? For no other

conclusion can follow than that the law, which was made for the

unrighteous, was not the law that was given to the righteous Adam; and

on the converse it must follow that as a law was given to righteous

Adam, that law was not the same as the law which was afterwards made

for the unrighteous.

There is therefore in this syllogism or argument of our adversary, the

two-fold unsoundness of unjust connection and unjust division. There

is in it moreover a double equivocation. The first is in not making it

plain that the law before sin is one thing, and the law after sin

another. And in the second place, the equivocation lies in not making

it equally plain, that the righteous man before sin and the righteous

man after sin are each righteous, but in a different sense; that the

one is righteous by nature the other by new-creation and

justification.

It is most useful to examine thus the arguments and reasonings of our

adversaries, and in this manner to apply the science of sound logic to

good purpose in these momentous discussions. For the arts of logic

were not seriously intended to be used in the dead disputation of the

school only; but that the gravest and most sacred subjects might by

them be soundly explained and taught. And it is by the very false

reasoning now in question, that Satan does a great deal of business in

denying original sin. Whereas to deny original sin, is to deny

virtually the passion and resurrection of Christ.

Let the passage of the apostle Paul therefore, 1 Tim. 1:9, hinder us

not from determining with Moses in the text now before us, that a law

was here commanded of God to Adam though a righteous man, "That he

should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," in the

same way as commandments were also given to angels. And because Adam

transgressed this commandment he sinned, and begat and propagated his

children after him also sinners.

III. V. 17b. _For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt

surely die._

This penal threat also thus expressly added proves that it was a law,

not an admonition, that was given to Adam. And it moreover shows that

Adam was created in a state of innocence and righteousness. For as yet

there was no sin in existence because God did not create sin. If Adam

therefore had obeyed this command he would never have died, for death

entered into the world by sin. All the rest of the trees of paradise

therefore were created to the end that they might aid and preserve

unto man his animal life, sound and whole, and without the least evil

or inconvenience.

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

should have been an animal life without any death and without any

evils or accidental causes of death, which now abound, such as

diseases, boils and fetid redundancies, in bodies, etc., etc. The

reason is that no part of the body in the state of innocency was foul

or impure. There was no unpleasantness in the evacuations or

secretions. There were no impurities whatever. Everything was most

beautiful and delightful. There was no offense to any of the organs or

senses. And yet the life was an animal life. Adam ate, digested,

performed the functions of, and managed and regulated, his body. And

had he continued in his innocence he would have done all these and

other things the animal life does and requires, until he had been

translated to the spiritual and eternal life.

For this deathless translation also we have lost by sin. And now,

between this present and a future life, there exists that awful medium

passage, death. That passage, in the state of innocence, would have

been most delightful; and by it Adam would have been translated to the

spiritual life, or as Christ calls it in the Gospel, the life "as the

angels in heaven," Math. 12:25; in which state all animal actions

cease. For in the resurrection we shall neither eat nor drink nor are

given in marriage. So with respect to Adam, all animality would have

ceased and a spiritual life in glory would have followed; even as we

also believe it will be with us "in the resurrection" through Christ.

So also Adam would have put off his childhood glory of innocence, if I

may so term his natural life of innocency, and would have put on his

heavenly glory. He would have done with all inferior actions, which

however, in that childhood glory of innocency, would have been pure

and unattended with that sorrow which mars all things since the fall;

and would have been translated from his infantine glory of created

innocence, to that manhood of glorious innocence, which angels enjoy;

and which we also who believe shall enjoy in the life to come.

I call Adam's primitive, creative innocence the childhood of glorious

innocency, because Adam, if I may so speak, was in a middle state, or

a state of neutrality or liability; in a state where he could be

deceived by Satan; and could fall into that awful calamity into which

he did fall. But such a peril of falling will not exist in that state

of perfect manhood of glorified innocency, which we shall enjoy in the

future and spiritual life. And this indeed is that which is signified

in this threat of punishment. "For in the day that thou eatest thereof

thou shalt surely die." As if the Lord had said, thou mayest remain

indeed, if thou obey me, in this life, in which I have created thee;

yet thou wilt not even then, be immortal, as the angels are. It is a

life placed as it were in a middle, neutral or liable, state. Thou

mayest remain in it by obedience, and afterwards be translated into an

immortality, which cannot be lost. On the other hand if thou shalt not

obey me, thou shalt fall into death and shalt lose that immortality.

There is a great difference therefore between the created spiritual

state of angels and the created natural innocency of Adam. Angels as

they now are cannot fall, but Adam could fall; for Adam was created in

a state in which he might become immortal, that is, in which he might

continue in his original innocency without death, for he was free from

all sin and stood in a condition from which he might be translated out

of the childhood glory of original innocency into the manhood glory of

immortality, in which he could never sin afterwards. On the other

hand, Adam could fall out of this childhood glory of natural innocence

into sin, the curse and death, as indeed it sadly happened. Adam was

in a state of natural immortality, or which might have been a natural

immortality, because he had recourse to certain created trees, the

virtue of whose fruits produced preservation of life. But this natural

immortality was not so secured to him, as to render it impossible for

him to fall into mortality.

Why God willed to create man in this middle, neutral or liable state

is not for us to explain or curiously to inquire. Equally impossible

is it for us to say and unlawful to ask, why man was so created that

all mankind should be propagated from one man by generation, while

angels were not so created. For angels generate not nor are

propagated, because they live a spiritual life; but the counsel of God

in the creation of man is worthy the highest admiration, in that he

created him to an animal life and to corporeal actions, which also the

other animals have, and gave him also a power of intellect, which

indeed the angels also possess. So that man is a compound being, in

whom are united the brute and the angelic natures.

Moreover, as we have here come to consider the nature of angels, we

must not keep back the written opinions of some of the fathers, that

there is a certain similarity between the creation of man and that of

angels. This similarity however cannot be extended to the properties

of generation, which in the spiritual nature has no existence, but to

the imperfection that subsisted in each nature as to liability to

fall. For since man, as I have shown, was created in a kind of a

middle, or liable or pendent state, so also angels when first created

were not so confirmed in their natural standing that they could not

fall. Hence it is that Christ says concerning the devil, that he

"abode not in the truth," John 8:44. On these grounds the holy fathers

supposed that a battle or sedition arose between the angels, some of

those beings taking the part of some very beautiful angel, who exalted

himself above all the rest on account of certain superior gifts

bestowed upon him. These things are very probable nor are they at

variance with that which Christ here affirms by the Evangelist John,

that the devil "abode not in the truth;" nor are they inconsistent

with that which Jude also affirms in his epistle, that the angels

"kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," Jude 6.

In confirmation of these sentiments, the fathers adduce the passage,

Is. 14:12, 13. But with reference to Isaiah, he is evidently speaking

of the king of Babylon, who wished to sit in the throne of God, that

is, to rule over his holy people and his temple.

Whether, therefore, there really was this dissension and war among the

angels, or whether, which is more agreeable to my views, certain proud

angels, filled with envy and taking offense at the humility of the Son

of God, wished to exalt themselves above him, it is quite certain that

the angels also like man were in such a state of innocence as could be

altered. After the evil angels however had been judged and condemned,

the good angels were so confirmed in their standing that they could

not sin after that confirmation, for they were all elect angels, but

the reprobate angels were cast out.

So also, if the great dragon, or the evil angels, mentioned in

Revelations, had continued in their innocence, they also would

afterwards have been confirmed therein and could never have fallen.

The fathers, speaking on this subject, hold that the elect angels were

created in righteousness and were afterwards confirmed therein; but

that those who fell, "abode not in the truth," John 8:44. But we are

not to think that the angels are few in number, for Christ affirms,

Luke 11:18, that Satan has a kingdom, and that he is as the chief one

among robbers and governs all things in his kingdom by his authority

and counsels; and it is also said, in the same chapter that the devils

or evil angels have their prince Beelzebub, who was at the head of

this sedition in heaven.

But there has arisen a question here, in the discussion of which the

books of all the sophists are idly employed, and after all they

explain nothing. The question to which I allude is, "What was original

righteousness?" Some make it a certain quality, others give different

definitions. We however following Moses, will define original

righteousness to be so termed, because man was originally created

righteous, true and upright; not in body only, but especially in soul,

and because he acknowledged God; because he obeyed him with the utmost

pleasure; because he understood the works of God without any

instruction concerning them. This last faculty of Adam is wonderfully

exemplified by the fact, that when he had been in a profound sleep and

God had formed Eve out of one of his ribs, the moment he awoke he

recognized Eve as the work of God, saying "This is now bone of my

bones." Was not this a marvelous proof of intellect, thus at the first

sight to know and comprehend the work of God?

From this same original righteousness also it arose that Adam loved

God and his works with all purity of affection; that he lived among

the creatures of God in peace without any fear of death or any dread

of disease, and that he enjoyed a body also the most obedient to the

will of God, without any evil desires and utterly free from that

impure lust, which we continually feel. So that a most beautiful and

most certain picture of original righteousness may be portrayed from

its entire contrast to that deep corruption, which we now feel

throughout our whole nature.

When human reasoners speak of original sin, they consider only its

wretched and unclean lust or concupiscence. But original sin is in

truth the entire fall of the whole human nature. The intellect is so

darkened that we can no longer understand God and his will, nor

perceive nor acknowledge the works of God. Moreover the will is so

wonderfully depraved that we cannot trust in the mercy of God nor fear

God, but living in security and unconcern, we disregard the Word of

God and his will and follow the concupiscence and violent lusts of the

flesh. The conscience also is no longer at peace and in quiet, and

when it thinks of the judgments of God it sinks into despair, and

seeks and follows after unlawful supports and remedies. And all these

sins are so deeply rooted in our nature that they cannot be entirely

eradicated through our whole life. And yet these miserable sophistical

reasoners do not touch upon these deep corruptions even in word. But

by taking this true view of original sin, it clearly demonstrates,

according to the nature of correlative proofs, what original sin

really was by its awful contrariety to that original righteousness.

Thus it is evident that original sin is the essential and entire loss

and deprivation and absence of original righteousness; just as

blindness is the privation or absence of sight.

Yes! the divine matters of original sin and original righteousness

extend much more widely and deeply than is imagined by the monks, who

understand original righteousness only as it refers to sexual

chastity. Whereas they ought first to look at the soul of man as the

seat of all sin and corruption and then turn to the body, and view it

as deriving all its defilement and pollution from the soul. With

reference to the soul the great proof of its fallen state under

original sin is, that we have lost the knowledge of God; that we do

not always and everywhere give thanks unto him; that we do not rejoice

in the works of his hands and all his doings; that we do not wholly

trust in him; that we begin to hate and blaspheme him whenever he

visits our sins with deserved punishments; that in our dealings with

our neighbor we follow our own interests, desires and objects, and are

plunderers, thieves, adulterers, murderers, cruel, unkind, unmerciful.

The ragings of lust are indeed a certain part of original sin, but

those sins and corruptions of the soul, unbelief, ignorance of God,

despair, hatred, blasphemy, of which calamities of the soul Adam knew

nothing in his state of innocence.

And in addition to these reflections, the numberless punishments of

original sin are to be contemplated. For whatever is now lost of those

endowments with which Adam was created and gifted, while his nature

was yet unfallen, is rightly considered the consequence of original

sin. Adam for instance was of a most perfect and sagacious intellect.

For the moment that Eve was presented to him he understood that she

was his own flesh. He had also the most minute knowledge of all the

other creatures. He was not only just and upright, but of a most

perfect and wonderful understanding in all things. He had moreover a

most upright will, yet not a perfect will; for perfection itself was

deferred from the state of the animal life to that of the spiritual

and eternal life. Let these comments suffice upon the sacred text

before us, Vs. 16 and 17, in which the church is constituted. Moses

now proceeds to marriage and domestic government (_oeconomia_).

PART IV. THE CREATION OF EVE.

V. 18. _And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be

alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him (which may be before him)._

We have just seen how the church was constituted by the Word and by

the establishment of a certain day, place and order of worship. For

civil government (_politia_) there was as yet no need, while nature

was innocent and without sin. Now domestic government (_oeconomia_) is

instituted. For God now makes the solitary Adam a husband by giving

him a wife and uniting her to him of whom Adam had need also for the

generation and multiplication of the human race. And as we have

observed above with reference to the creation of Adam that God created

him with deep purpose of mind and counsel, some here see that Eve also

was created with profound counsel and wisdom of design. By all this

Moses would show that man was a singularly excellent creature and that

he partook both of the human and the divine natures, of divinity and

immortality. Man therefore is a more excellent creature than the

heaven or the earth or any other creature which God made.

And Moses would also impress us with reference to the other part of

human nature, namely, woman, that she also was created with a peculiar

counsel and design of God. And the object of Moses in this particular

point of his divine instruction is, to show that this sex also had

great concernment, in that state of animal but innocent life, in which

Adam was created, and in that state of a spiritual and eternal life

also, which he expected. For the female sex was necessary for the

generation and multiplication of the human race. Hence it follows that

if the woman had not been deceived by the serpent and had not sinned,

she would have been in all respects equal to Adam. For her now being

subject to her husband is the punishment laid upon her of God since

sin and on account of sin; as are also all her other troubles and

perils, her labor and pain in bringing forth children, with an

infinite number of other sorrows. Woman therefore is not now what Eve

was at her creation. The condition of woman then was inconceivably

better and more excellent than now; she was then in no respect

whatever inferior to Adam, whether you consider the endowments of her

body or those of her mind.

But we may here inquire when God says, "It is not good that the man

should be alone," what is that "good" of which God is speaking, seeing

that Adam was righteous and had no need of the woman as we have, who

bear about with us our flesh all leprous with sin? My reply is, that

God is speaking of a common "good," or the good of the species; not of

personal good. All personal good Adam already possessed. He enjoyed

perfect innocency. But the common good of which all other animals

partook, he possessed not. He could not propagate his species by

generation. Adam was alone. Nor had he as yet a companion for that

wonderful work of generation and the preservation of his species. The

"good" therefore here divinely expressed, signifies the multiplying of

the human race. In the same manner also Adam, although innocent and

righteous, did not as yet possess that high good to which he was

created; namely, a spiritual and glorious immortality, to which he

would have been translated of God in his appointed time, if he had

continued in his innocency. The meaning of "good" therefore in the

text is, that Adam being himself a most beautiful creature possessed,

as far as his own person was concerned, everything he could require.

But there was yet wanting to him one thing, the "good" of God's

"blessing;" the generating and multiplying of his species; for he was

alone.

Now, as nature is corrupted by sin, woman is necessary, not only for

the multiplying of the human race but also for the companionship, help

and protection of life. For domestic government needs the ministration

of women. Nay, such is our wretchedness by the fall of Adam, that, to

our shame and sorrow be it confessed, we have need of woman as a

remedy against sin. Wherefore, in contemplating woman, we must

consider not only the place in domestic government which she fills,

but the remedy for sin, which God has made her to supply; as the

apostle Paul says, "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own

wife," 1 Cor. 7:2. And a certain master of divine sentiments also

eloquently observes, "Marriage was instituted in paradise as a duty

and an obedience to God; but since the fall it is a remedy also for

sin." Wherefore we are obliged to adopt a union with this sex to avoid

sin. This is indeed a sad and disgraceful confession to make; but it

is the truth. For there are very few now who take unto themselves

wives, purely as a duty of obedience to God; according to his original

will in the creation of man as male and female!

Other animals however have no necessity of this kind. Therefore they

as a rule come together once in the year only, and are contented with

that intercourse, as if by this fact they said, "We come together as a

duty to God!" But it is far different with men. They are compelled to

have recourse to their union with wives in matrimony to avoid sin.

Hence we generate and are born in the midst of sins on both sides. For

our parents do not come together as a pure duty to God, but as a

remedy also, for the sake of avoiding sin.

And yet it is by means of this very remedy and by this very miserable

state of things, that God fulfils his original blessing pronounced

upon male and female when he created them. And thus men, though in sin

and with sin, generate and are generated. But this would not have been

the case in paradise, had man continued in the innocency of his

original creation. Generation in that state would have been a most

holy yielding of obedience to God, utterly free from that impure lust

which now exists. And children would have been born in original

righteousness and rectitude. They would have known God immediately at

their birth, without any instruction or admonition. They would have

spoken of his holy name, praised him and given him thanks.

But all these glorious things are now lost. Yet it is profitable to us

to think upon them deeply, that we may hold fast some sense of the

real state in which we now are; namely, under all the effects of

original sin; and that we may rightly contemplate also the original

condition of Adam, a state of perfect righteousness, which state we

hope again to enjoy in all its blessedness at the "restitution of all

things," Acts 3:21.

With respect to the divine expression, "Let us make," I have already

observed that Eve was created, as well as Adam, by a peculiar counsel

of God, in order that it might be manifest that she was a partaker

with him of a better and an immortal life; a hope not possessed by any

of the other living creatures, who live a natural life only without

any hope of an eternal life.

That which the Latin renders "like him" in this passage, is in the

Hebrew, "which may be before him." God, by this expression also,

distinguishes the human female from the females of all other living

creatures, which are not always "before" their mates. But woman was

expressly created that she might be "before" her husband always and

everywhere. Even as the emperor also calls the life of married persons

"an individual life." Whereas the brute female requires her mate only

once in the whole year, and after she has conceived she returns to her

own kind and takes care of herself. Of her young, which were brought

forth at any previous time, she takes no care whatever. She does not

cohabit with her mate always.

The nature of marriage among mankind however is utterly different.

There the woman is married by the man that she may be "before him"

always and may cohabit with him as one flesh. And if Adam had remained

in his state of innocency, this individual life or cohabitation of man

and wife would have been most sweet and delightful. The embrace itself

also would have been most holy and reverential, and worshipful of God.

There would have existed none of that impurity and shame arising from

sin, which now exists.

Is not this fallen state of man most awful to contemplate! For in its

holy reality there was nothing more excellent, nothing more admirable

in all nature, than the fulfilment of the divine law of generation. It

was an act of obedience to God, the highest which man could perform

next to praising and lauding his glorious name, which obedience Adam

and Eve rendered unto God in as much holiness and freedom from all sin

as when they were engaged in acts of praise and adoration. The

fulfilment of this law of nature and of God indeed still continues.

But how wretched are these present remnants of the original innocency!

How horribly deformed by sin, pollution and baseness of every

description. All these things are deplorable evidences of nature's

original sin.

For the great and glorious ends of creation there was need of the

woman as a helpmeet for man. For man alone could not generate; nor

could the woman generate alone. As the apostle says, neither the man

nor the woman "had power over their own bodies" for that high end.

Hence the loftiest praises of each sex are, that the male is the

father and the woman the mother of the generation of mankind. The wife

in this high sense also is that helpmeet of the husband. But, as we

have repeatedly said, if we look at the state of originally-created

innocency, the generation of man has lost all its excellency, its pure

delight, its holiness and its worshipful obedience to God.

Moreover in this age and at this day, you may find many who wish that

they had no children at all born to them. And this far more than

barbarous inhumanity and enormity is found more particularly among

princes and nobles, who frequently abstain from marriage for the sole

reason that they may have no posterity. Still more base is the

practice found in those princes, who suffer themselves to be

counselled and persuaded not to marry, lest their families should

become too large for civil purposes. Such men are indeed worthy of

having their names blotted out from the land of the living, as the

punishment of their contempt of the laws and intents of God. Who is

there that would not execrate such swine-like monsters as these? These

inhuman beings however still further manifest in many base particulars

the nature and depth of original sin. Were it not for the consequences

of this mighty sin, we should all admire the fulfilment of the law of

God in generation, as one of the highest acts of the obedience and

worship of God. And we should extol it as one of the greatest gifts of

God with its due praise and admiration.

From the above inhuman abuse and contempt of marriage have arisen

those numerous reproaches of the female sex, which celibacy has

greatly augmented. Whereas it is one of the greatest of his blessings

that God has preserved for us women, even against the wishes and the

wills of such inhuman beings, both as a divine means of generation and

as a remedy also against the sin of fornication. In paradise woman

would have been indeed a helper in our duty and obedience to God, and

in our fulfilment of his command "to be fruitful and to multiply and

replenish the earth," Gen. 1:28. But now woman is in a very great

measure a medicine and remedy for sin. So that in truth we can now

scarcely mention the name of woman without shame; most certainly we

cannot unite ourselves to her without some sense and blush of that

shame. The mighty cause of all this is original sin. For in paradise

the union of man and woman would have been wholly free from the

thought of shame or impurity. The whole union would have been looked

upon and felt, as a duty of obedience to God, ordained by himself and

sanctified by the blessings he pronounced upon it.

The same calamitous state on account of sin rests upon us also, even

in the midst of all our spiritual gifts. For although we may have

faith and live in faith, yet we cannot be free from doubt, fear and

the sensible awe of death. These just punishments of original sin, our

holy fathers in the faith deeply saw and felt. That which now follows

is as it were a repetition of what has preceded, concerning the

creation of Adam, by which repetition Moses would more conveniently

arrive at his intended description of the manner in which woman was

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

have been already created.

V. 19a. _And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the

field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to

see what he would call them._

As if Moses had said, "God now willed by a certain deep and deliberate

counsel to create woman. For he saw that every other living creature

had a helpmeet for generation. Adam alone had none. God therefore now

brought all the living creatures of the earth and of the air to Adam,

to see what he would call them. And when Adam had given to each one

its appropriate name, he found no living creature like unto himself as

an helpmeet for him."

And here we are again struck with the wonderful knowledge and wisdom

which Adam possessed. Created as he was in innocency, righteousness

and knowledge, he beholds all living creatures stand before him; and

without any new illumination for the purpose, but by the pure

properties and excellency of his nature alone, he so discerns in a

moment the characteristic nature of each creature, that he gives it a

name exactly descriptive of its created peculiarities. Well indeed

might the "dominion" over all living creatures have been added of God

to man, to whom he had given such intellectual light as this! And this

"dominion" which God had conferred on Adam, he now ratifies anew by

bringing to him all creatures to be named according to his judgment.

By all this it is further manifest that Adam could by one single word

compel lions, bears, boars, tigers and any other of the noble animals

to do any thing he wishes, according to their natural properties and

powers; all which properties he thoroughly understood at a moment's

glance when he gave them their names. But all these original

endowments of man are utterly lost by sin.

No wonder therefore that we have no knowledge of the adorable God,

when we know nothing as Adam did of the natures, powers and properties

even of the beasts of the earth. There exist indeed very many books,

which describe the natures of the beasts and of plants. But what a

length of time, what an extent of observation and of experience were

necessary to collect the contents of all these volumes! In Adam

however there was a marvelously different illumination and intellect.

He discovered by a moment's glance at each living creature its whole

nature and all its separate faculties and created endowments; and that

too with a perfection far above that to which we can ever attain by a

whole life of devoted study and research in natural history. And as

this knowledge in Adam was a peculiar and eminent gift of God, so was

it greatly pleasing and delightful to God. And on account of this

pleasure God brought the living creatures to Adam and commanded him to

use the knowledge he had thus given him in assigning to each living

creature its appropriate name.

Vs. 19b, 20. _And whatsoever the man called every living creature,

that was the name thereof. And the man gave names to all cattle, and

to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for

man there was not found a helpmeet for him (to be before him)._

What an ocean of knowledge and wisdom there was in this one man! And

although Adam lost much of this knowledge by sin, yet my full belief

is that the whole contents of the books of all the wise, which have

ever been written throughout all ages since letters first had birth,

have not to this day equalled that wisdom which Adam possessed, even

after his sin and fall. But all has become obscured by degrees in his

posterity and is well nigh extinct altogether.

But we must here again note that Moses is still engaged describing the

creation-work and the divine transactions of the sixth day. For that

which he had briefly said in the divine expression, "_Let us_ make

man," Gen. 1:26, he now more fully explains in this second chapter, in

order that he might distinguish man from all other living creatures by

more than one recorded testimony. Wherefore he devotes this whole

second chapter to a more particular explanation of the creation of

man.

With reference to the man Moses has already said that he was made of

the dust of the ground, and that the breath of life was breathed of

God into his nostrils. He has also stated that the whole multitude of

living creatures was brought before Adam. When Adam had seen among

them all no helpmeet for him, woman was made to be his companion in

the generation and preservation of the human species. For God did not

will that the posterity of Adam should be made out of the ground, as

he himself was, but that it should be propagated as the other animals.

As to our bodily life we eat and drink, generate and are generated

just like all animals. However Moses is greatly concerned in his

thought to separate and distinguish man from all the animal creatures,

because in this way the end is reached that after this earthly life

man should become a partaker of the spiritual and eternal life. Now

all these things pertain, as we have just observed, unto the creation

work of the sixth day. For as God had said, "Be fruitful and

multiply," the explanation of the manner in which the woman was

created and brought to Adam became a necessary part of the sacred

narrative.

All this is moreover intended to lead us into the firm belief and

satisfaction of mind that six days were really occupied by God in his

creation of all things, contrary to the opinion of Augustine and

Hilary, who think that all things were created in a moment. To such an

extent do they depart from the history of facts and follow allegories

and indulge in I know not what kind of dreamy speculations. Nor do I

speak these things by way of reproach to the holy fathers, whose

labors we ought to venerate. I make these statements for the

confirmation of the truth and for our own consolation. The fathers

were great men. Yet they were men; men who had fallen and still liable

to fall. So that we have no ground for exalting ourselves like the

monks, who worship all things belonging to themselves as if they were

not liable to fall. Whereas for my part, it is rather a great

consolation to me than otherwise, that the fathers are discovered to

have erred and fallen at times also. Because my thoughts run thus: If

God pardoned sins and errors in them why should I despair of pardon

from him? On the other hand, despair immediately comes on if you begin

to think that the fathers did not experience the same things which you

feel and suffer. It is at the same time quite certain that there was a

mighty difference between the call of the apostles and the call of the

fathers. On what grounds therefore can we esteem the writings of the

fathers equal to the writings of the apostles?

But with special reference to the sacred passage of Moses before us,

how, I pray you, is it possible that six days should be either a

moment or an hour? Neither faith, which rests wholly in the Word, nor

reason itself, can admit this. Wherefore let us be assured, that there

were between the divine acts of the creation certain intervals. Thus,

Adam is first created alone. Then there are brought unto him all the

animals, not only that he might name them, but that he might be tried,

by seeing whether he could find in all this collection of creatures a

meet companion. After this, Eve is created. Lastly, these words are

spoken by the Lord, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely

eat," etc., which words struck the ears of Adam. All these things

carry with them a proof that they occurred at certain intervals of

time, unless indeed you would turn away like Origen from such plain

and positive historical facts to the most absurd allegories. For Moses

is not here giving us a record of God himself, in whose sight all

things past, present, and future are ever present in the same moment;

but he is recording a history of Adam, a creature of time, who was

made and who lived; and with whom as a creature there is a difference

between the present and the future. I have deemed it right to bring

these things to your recollection by this repetition. Now let us

proceed with Moses.

V. 21. _And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and

he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead

thereof._

Here again not faith only, but reason and fact also, prove that the

time of Adam's being awake was one space of time and the time of his

being asleep another. These spaces have evidently their intervals. As

therefore Adam was created in the sixth day, and all the animals were

brought to him on that day; as he heard the command of God concerning

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; as God sent upon him

sleep, it is manifest beyond dispute; that all these facts have

reference to time and to this animal life. And it is equally evident

that the days mentioned in the sacred record must be understood to

have been true and real days, contrary to the opinion of the holy

fathers. Whenever therefore we find the opinions of the fathers to

disagree with the Scriptures, we tolerate them with reverence and

acknowledge them to be our elders in the Church; but we do not for

their sakes depart from the authority of the Scriptures.

Elegant and true is that sentiment of Aristotle, in the First Book of

his "Ethics," "Where both friends and truth are near to us, it is our

sacred duty to give the higher honor to the truth." The philosopher of

old here plainly affirms that it is better to stand by the truth than

to show too much favor to those who may be our friends or even our

relations. Such a sentiment is nobly becoming a philosopher. If,

therefore, a natural man and a heathen holds that such a principle

should be maintained in moral, human and civil disputations, with how

much greater firmness should it be held in the discussion of those

things which stand on the manifest testimony of the Scriptures! How

jealous should we be of setting the authority of men above that of the

Word! Men may be deceived, but the Word of God itself is the wisdom of

God and infallible truth.

But with respect to this portion, namely, the divine history itself,

what I pray you, could be recorded more fabulous in the estimation of

human reason, if you wish to follow that? For could any one be found

who would believe this fact concerning the creation of Eve, if it were

not thus openly declared? For here all the other creatures stand as

plain examples to the contrary. Every other living creature is

generated from male and female, and is so generated that it is the

female that brings it into the light. But here the female herself is

created from the male; and that too with a no less wonderful creation

than that by which Adam himself was made a living soul, from the dust

of the ground. These facts are mere monstrosities and outrageous

absurdities, if you set aside the authority of the Holy Scriptures and

follow the judgment of reason. Hence it is that Aristotle affirms that

neither the first man nor the last man can be given as the foundation

of an argument. And reason would force us to affirm the same of her

naked self, without this text before us. For if it be received as a

truth, a truth which the uniform law of the whole creation testifies,

that nothing is born alive but from male and female, it is a true

conclusion that the first man cannot be accounted for in that way.

The same conclusion may also be declared to be correct by human reason

concerning the creation of the world, which the philosophers of old

therefore concluded to be eternal. For although reasons are put

together by reason, by which is proved that the world is not eternal;

yet reason herself, all the while, settles down with all her powers

upon this basis of conclusion. For what beginning will reason find in

nothing? And again, if you say that the world had a beginning and that

there was a time in which the world had no existence it will

immediately follow close upon your heels that, before the world there

was nothing at all. Other absurdities will follow in an infinite

series; by the multitude of which philosophers being struck plunged at

once into the conclusion that the world was eternal.

But again if you affirm that the world was infinite, there immediately

springs up before you another new infinity in the successive

generation of mankind. But then philosophy will not admit a plurality

of infinities; and yet it is compelled to admit them upon its own

conclusions, because it knows neither the beginning of the world nor

the beginning of mankind. This hostile contrariety and utter obscurity

brought the Epicureans into a state which compelled them to assert,

that both the world and mankind existed without any reason at all; and

that without any reason at all they would both perish; just as beasts,

which after they are dead, are just as if they never had been. From

premises like these other terrible conclusions naturally follow;

either that there is positively no God at all, or that he cares not at

all for human things. These are the labyrinths into which reason is

brought, when without the word of God it follows its own judgment.

Therefore it is very profitable thus to behold how impossible it is

that reason or our own wisdom should go beyond the above stated

limits, in its judgments concerning the creature. For what, I pray

you, does the philosopher with all his reasoning know of the heavens

or the earth or the world; seeing that he understands not whence

either of them came or in what end they all or either of them, are

appointed to terminate. Nay, what do we ourselves know concerning

ourselves? We all see that we are men. But ought we not to believe

also and know that we have this man for our father and that woman for

our mother? But how or why this is so can never be learned from human

reason. Hence all our knowledge and our wisdom lie only in the

comprehension of the material or formal cause; and even in these we

often make the most wretched mistakes. But as to the efficient and

final cause, we know nothing, nor can explain anything whatsoever. And

the saddest part of our ignorance is, that our deficiency is at its

worst when we come to dispute or to speculate concerning the world

into which we are born and in which we live. Is not this, I pray you,

a poor and miserable pretension to wisdom?

Hence Aristotle affirms, that man and the sun beget man. A noble

doctrine of human philosophy, truly! Follow this highest effort of

natural reason and it will bring you at length to the inevitable

conclusion, that both man and the sun are eternal and infinite, as the

same philosopher concluded the world itself was. For you will never

find a man who was or is in himself either the beginning or the end of

himself or of his race. Wherefore I myself am not able to discover by

my own reason, either the beginning or the end of my Martin Luther, if

I wish to understand either my beginning or my end, and not to believe

it. For as to our possessing a formal knowledge or a knowledge of the

forms of things, a cow possesses the same, which knows her own home,

or, as the German proverb has it, "The cow sees and knows the gate."

Here again the awfulness of the original fall and sin is revealed. For

we are thereby rendered so destitute of true knowledge that we cannot

of ourselves discover either our beginning or our end.

After all the disputations therefore of Aristotle, Plato, Cicero and

other philosophers of note, who have concluded from man's walking

upright, while all other animals have their heads inclined downwards,

looking towards the earth, and from his possessing the powers of

intellect, that man is a singular animal and created to immortality

according to all this argument and conclusion, what a poor, meagre and

almost futile wisdom is this! The whole of it after all is derived

from a contemplation of the form. And if you should still go on to

argue upon the material of man, would not the same human reason compel

you to conclude that this nature of ours is perishable, must be

dissolved and cannot be immortal?

What then is the conclusion of the whole matter? Let us learn it. It

is, that the only true wisdom is found in the Holy Scriptures and in

the Word of God. For the Word teaches us not only concerning the

material, not only concerning the form of the whole creation, but also

concerning the efficient and the final cause of all things; and

concerning the beginning and the end of all things; WHO created them,

_what_ he created and for what end he created that which he did

create. Without the knowledge of the two causes, the efficient and the

final, all our highest wisdom differs but little from that of the

beasts, which use their eyes and their ears, but know nothing of the

beginning or the end of what they see.

The text before us therefore is very remarkable. And the more it seems

to be contrary to all our experience and to reason, the more

diligently should we ponder it and the more firmly should we believe

it. By this text therefore we are taught the beginning of man, that

the first man did not exist by generation, as Aristotle and the other

philosophers, deceiving themselves by human reasonings, have dreamed;

that the propagation of the posterity of the first man is indeed

effected by generation; but that the first man himself was created

from the dust of the field and that the first woman was formed and

fashioned out of a rib of the man, extracted from him while he was

asleep. Here therefore we have the true beginning of man which all the

reason and philosophy of Aristotle could not discover.

The beginning then of man, as wrought of God, being thus established

by the testimony of Moses, there follows the propagation of man by

means of the union of male and female; in no degree less wonderful

than the original creation of each. The whole human race are

procreated by a single drop of human blood. On this propagation of

mankind it is that the apostle Paul eloquently displays his

philosophy, derived from this sacred portion of the Scripture, before

the philosophers of Athens, "The God that made the world and all

things therein," etc., "seeing he himself giveth to all life, and

breath, and all things; and he made of one blood every nation of men

to dwell on all the face of the earth; that they should seek God, if

haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far

from each one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our

being," Acts 17:24-28. Here Paul speaks before all the Athenian

philosophers of the propagation of mankind "by the blood of one," as

he expresses it. If therefore the whole race of mankind have been

generated from one small drop of blood of one man, and are still so

generated, as the experience of all men throughout the whole world

testifies, most certainly this miracle is no less wonderful and

admirable than were those original wonders, namely, the creation of

the first man from the dust of the ground, and that of the first woman

from the rib of the man.

But how is it that the original miracles of the creation of Adam and

Eve seem to us so wonderful and so incredible; while the still

standing miracle of the continuous propagation of man, which we all

know and daily see, excites no wonder or admiration at all? It is

because, as Augustine says, "Miracles become no miracles at all, by

familiarity." Hence we wonder not at the admirable light of the sun,

because we see it every day. For the same reason we admire not other

gifts and blessings of God's creation, but are blind and deaf to them

all. On the same ground Pythagoras well said, that a most sweet and

marvelous concert of sounds was effected by the harmony and velocity

of the motions and revolutions of the heavenly bodies, but that men

became deaf to this celestial concert by hearing it continually; just

as those who are accustomed to the roarings of the Nile are not at all

affected by the thunders of the water, while to others, who are not

accustomed to them, they are awful and intolerable. There is no doubt

that Pythagoras received this idea from the fathers by tradition. Not

however that they really believed in any actual harmony of sounds,

made by the motions of the heavenly bodies. Their meaning was that the

creation of these celestial bodies was truly delightful and marvelous;

but that their beauty and their glory were not duly observed by us

ungrateful and insensate beings; and that we did not render unto God

the praises due to him, as the Creator of such wonderful and admirable

creatures.

Thus also it is a great miracle that a small seed placed in the ground

should cause to spring forth a lofty and magnificent oak. But as this

is so familiar as an everyday occurrence, it makes no impression upon

us; just so little do we appreciate the nature and manner of our own

propagation. For why is it not worthy of the highest admiration that a

woman should receive human seed, which then grows, and as Job 10:11 so

beautifully says, "Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit

me together with bones and sinews;" that is, formed me and nourished

me in my mother until I was matured to live in the air, separated from

her. In this new state of existence I received no new nourishment, but

it came from the same mother in a new way and manner, in that from

both breasts of my mother as from fountains, her milk went forth by

which her infant was nourished. All this is most wonderful and utterly

incomprehensible, but lightly esteemed by us because we have truly

become deaf to this most pleasant and lovely music of nature.

Whereas could all these marvelous realities be seen and estimated by

the vision of true faith, they would be no more common things to the

beholder, nor less miracles, than that which Moses here records, when

he testifies that one of Adam's ribs was taken from his side while he

was asleep, and that the woman Eve was formed out of it by the hand of

God. For if it had pleased the Lord to form us as he did Adam, from

the dust of the ground, by this time that manner of forming man might

have ceased also to be a miracle in our sight; and we might now

perhaps be rather admiring the existing law of the generation of

mankind by male and female. So true is that barbarously-composed

perhaps, but by no means random-shot poetical line,

_Omne rarum carum: vilescit quotidianum._

"Rare things will e'er delight our eyes,

But common things are no surprise."

Thus if the stars did not rise every night and in all places, what

crowds would gather where the light of one night's starry heaven might

be witnessed! But now not one of us opens a single window to behold

the sight.

Most justly condemnable, therefore, is our ingratitude. For if we

believe God to be the efficient and final _cause_ of all things, ought

we not to wonder at his works, to be delighted with them, and to

proclaim them always and everywhere? But how few are there who do this

in truth and from the heart?

In vain therefore and absurd is the doctrine of Aristotle, that man

and the sun beget man. We learn from this book a far different cause

of propagation, the commanding Word of God which says to this and to

that husband, Thy drop of blood shall on this occasion become a male,

and on that occasion a female. But of this word reason knows nothing.

Therefore reason can do nothing but invent trifles and absurdities

concerning the causes of such mighty things. Medical professors,

following the philosophers, have given us their various opinions

concerning the propagation of mankind; and though reason may not be

able to deny the justness of many of them, yet all of them put

together cannot reach the _great first cause_. The Holy Spirit leads

us far deeper than all the opinions of men, when it sets before us the

Word of God, by which all things are created and conserved.

Hence the mighty reason why a man, and not an ox nor an ass, is

generated by a drop of human blood, is the effectual power of the Word

which was spoken by God at the creation of all things, "in the

beginning." It is in divine truth therefore that Christ teaches us in

the Lord's Prayer to call upon God as our _Father_, and that the Creed

teaches us to confess God as our _Creator_. When we look back

therefore to this first cause, then can we speak of all these things

with pureness, with holiness and with joy. But if we leave out the

first cause, we cannot even think of them without baseness and

obscenity.

From this part of our sacred discussion we further behold the horrible

nature of the fall and of original sin, in that the whole human race

is sunk in ignorance of its very origin. We see male and female come

together in marriage union. We see the female at her appointed time

bring forth from a drop of masculine blood her infant into the light

of heaven. These things, we repeat, are familiar to the sight and to

the knowledge of all; and yet, if the Word teach and instruct thee

not, thou knowest nothing of the marvelous work which is wrought and

which thine eyes behold. This ignorance is abundantly proved by the

vain disputations of philosophers, which we have just been

contemplating. Is not this then a miserable ignorance and a horrible

blindness?

Whereas, had Adam continued in his innocency, he would have found no

need of instructing his posterity in their origin, even as there was

no need of being himself instructed in the creation of his wife Eve,

for the moment he saw her he knew that she was "bone of his bones, and

flesh of his flesh." And had the original innocence continued, the

same knowledge of themselves would have existed in all the posterity

of Adam. They would all have understood the great final and efficient

Cause of which things we now know little or nothing more than the

beasts of the field themselves.

Therefore to the ears of reason this is a most beautiful and pleasing

fable which philosophers have with pleasure greatly misused, if they

heard it and just as they heard it, especially those versed in the

arts and wisdom of the Egyptians. But for us it is an inexpressibly

precious wisdom that makes known to us the fable the world judges

ridiculous; namely, that the genesis of the generation of man was

constituted by the Word of God. For God takes the dust of the earth

and says, "Let us make man!" Likewise afterwards he takes the rib of

Adam and says, "Let us make a helpmeet for man." We will now consider

the words themselves since we have referred sufficiently to the

doctrine as it was necessary to do so.

Having thus discussed, as was necessary, the divine facts themselves,

contained in the text before us, let us now consider the expressions

used by the sacred historian in recording them.

Jehovah God, says Moses, caused to glide or fall upon Adam THARDEMAH,

"a slumber" or a "deep sleep;" for the verb RADAM signifies "to fall

asleep as those do who become drowsy unaware and nod the head." For

there are various kinds and degrees of sleep. Some are heavy and

profound, which are so deep as to be disturbed by no dreams. These are

healthful, because they moisten the body, are beneficial to promote

digestion, and are attended with no distress to the head. Others again

are light, mingled as it were with wakefulness. In these latter,

dreams are more frequent. They also, more or less, distress the head

and are proofs of a weakness of body.

Moses says therefore that Adam was sunk into a profound sleep; so that

stretched on the grassy earth, he breathed deeply, as those do who

sleep well and sweetly. It was such a sleep that God, as Moses informs

us, caused to fall upon Adam. And this is indeed a sleep truly divine,

a most delightful gift of God, which comes down upon us like a dew

from above, and softly pervades and irrorates the whole body.

When Adam therefore was thus fallen asleep, the Lord took out one of

his ribs. The Hebrew word ZELA signifies, "the rib with the side."

Wherefore my view of the passage is, that the Lord did not take the

bare rib of Adam, but the rib clothed with the flesh, according to

that very expression of Adam below, verse 23, "this is now bone of my

bones, and flesh of my flesh." And God, be it observed, did this by

his Word. So that we are not to suppose that God used any cutting,

after the manner of a surgeon. God said, out of this bone thus clothed

with flesh, "Let there be woman!" and it was so. And God afterwards

filled up the aperture in his side with flesh.

Here a discussion is raised by some marvelous triflers of

commentators. They will have it that the male has more ribs on one

side of the body than on the other. But surgeons, who are anatomists,

know better than this. Lyra disputes the point thus: "Are we to

consider that the extracted rib was a superfluous one in the body of

Adam? If it was so, it was a monstrosity. If it were not so, it must

follow that Adam after- ..."[text not printed] At length, Lyra arrives

at the conclusion that the extracted rib was superfluous in Adam, as a

solitary instance; and that therefore when it had been extracted, the

body of Adam was perfect. And yet, that the body of Adam was deficient

in this extracted superfluous rib, because of the creation of the

woman out of it.

But to all these things we give an answer by the words, "God said!"

This divine Word settles all arguments of this description. What need

is there then of disputation as to whence God took any particular

portion of created material, who by one word of his mouth can create

and did create all things? All these idle questions however are used

by philosophers and professors of medicine, who dispute about the

works of God without the Word of God; whereas by so doing, they sink

out of sight both the glory of the Holy Scriptures and the glorious

majesty of the Creator.

Wherefore leaving all such questions as these, we will abide simply by

the history of the facts, as they are recorded by Moses; that Eve was

formed out of the rib of Adam, and that the aperture made in that part

of his body was closed up with flesh. Thus Adam was made out of the

dust of the ground. I was made out of a drop of my father's blood. But

how my mother conceived me, how I was formed in the womb, how my bones

grew there, Eccles. 11:5, all this I leave to the glory of my Creator.

It is indeed incredible that a man should be born from a drop of

blood; yet it is a truth. If therefore this Almighty power can produce

a human being from a drop of blood, why not from a lump of earth also,

why not from a rib!

And as to Adam's sleeping so profoundly, as not to feel what was done

unto him; this soundness of sleep is as it were a sweet picture of

that change which Adam would have witnessed had he continued in his

state of innocency. For a righteous nature could have experienced no

pains of death. Adam would have lived in the highest possible

pleasure, in obedience to God and in admiration of his works until the

time of his change, appointed of God, had come; and then he would have

experienced a removal something like this sleep, which fell upon him

so sweetly as he lay down amid the roses and beneath the richest

foliage of trees. And in such a departing sleep would he have been

changed and translated into the glorified spiritual life, feeling no

more in death than he felt of his body being opened and of the

extraction of the rib, with its flesh, from his side.

But now this nature of ours must experience the pangs of death. That

dissolution of the body however is followed in the saints by the

sweetest of all sleep, until the day when we shall awake unto a

newness of life and a life eternal. And as Adam here in all the

fulness of wonder exclaims this is now bone of my bones and flesh of

my flesh, and yet was so sweetly and deeply sunk in sleep, that he

knew not that his rib had been extracted from his side; so shall we in

that day exclaim, Behold, into what sudden glory does this body,

lately gnawed by worms, arise, etc.

Thus far have we spoken with sufficient copiousness upon the creation

of Eve, which creation, although it seems to human reason perfectly

fabulous, is yet most sure and true, because it is recorded in the

Word of God, which alone teacheth the truth concerning the two

principal causes of philosophers, the efficient and the final; and

concerning the great first cause of all causes. The knowledge of which

two causes, where it can be obtained, is of the utmost moment even in

natural things. For what doth it profit to know how beautiful a

creature man is, if you know not the end for which he was created;

namely, that he was created for the worship of God, and that he might

live to all eternity with God.

Aristotle does indeed say something of note when he makes the end of

man to be happiness, a happiness consisting in the action of virtue.

But in all this weakness of our nature, who is there that ever yet

attained unto that end, when even the very best of men are exposed to

a multitude of evils, which the common trials of life or the depravity

and malice of men are sure to bring upon them? That happiness of which

Aristotle speaks, requires tranquility of mind to make it perfect; but

who can always hold fast that peace of mind, amid such tossings to and

fro of human life? In vain therefore is such an end proposed by the

philosopher, which no man can attain.

The principal end of man's creation therefore, which the Holy

Scriptures set before us is, that man was created in the likeness of

God, with the divine intent that he should live forever with God, and

that while here on earth he should praise and extol God, give him

thanks and obey his Word in all patience. And this end we do attain by

some means or other, through grace, though with all infirmity in this

life, and in the life to come we shall attain unto it perfectly. Of

these things philosophers know nothing. And therefore the world, in

the height of all its wisdom, is yet sunk in the deepest ignorance,

wherever it is found destitute of the Word or of theology. For men

without the Word know nothing of their beginning or their end. I

mention not any of the other living creatures, who are not created, as

we have abundantly shown, to know any of these things, nor to partake

of these high blessings.

PART V. THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY.

V. 22. _And the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made

(built) he a woman, and brought her unto the man._

A new expression is this again, unheard before. Moses does not use the

verb "to create," or "to make," as in Gen. 1:26; but the verb "to

build." This has caused all commentators to conclude that some great

mystery lies under so singular a phraseology. Lyra thinks, with his

Rabbi Solomon, that the new form of the female body is intended to be

intimated. For, as the form of buildings is broader at the base, but

narrower at the upper part, so, he says, the bodies of women are

broader in the middle, and more contracted in the upper parts, while

men have wider chests and broader shoulders. But these are mere

peculiarities of certain parts of the body; whereas the Scripture is

speaking of the body as a whole, and calling it a building; just as

Christ himself calls the body the house of a man, Math. 12:29.

Others have recourse to an allegory, and say, that the woman is here

called "a building," on account of her being spoken of in the

Scriptures as a similitude of the Church. And as in a house there are

various parts, walls, beams, rafters, roof, etc.; so in the Church,

which is represented by the Holy Spirit under the similitude of a

body, on account of the diversity of its members, there are various

offices and administrators. As to myself I am by no means displeased

at anything that is appropriately advanced by those who would transfer

what is here said respecting the building of the woman, to Christ and

his Church. But as all these opinions amount only to an allegory after

all, the historical and proper meaning of this passage must be

diligently searched into and retained. For a woman, especially a

married woman, is here sacredly termed "a building," not

allegorically, but historically and really. And the Scriptures

universally use this form of expression.

Hence Rachel says to Jacob, "Take my maid Bilhah, that I may also be

built up by her," Gen. 30:3. The Scriptures speak in the same manner

also concerning Sarah, Gen. 16:2. And in Exodus, it is said concerning

the midwives, "that the Lord built them a house," Exod. 1:21; that is,

that the Lord repaid them for all the services which they had rendered

unto his people Israel, contrary to the command of the king, by

blessing them with a household and family. So again, in the history of

David, when he had it in his heart to build a house for the Lord, he

receives this answer from God by Nathan, "Furthermore, I tell thee,

that the Lord will build thee an house," 1 Chron. 17:10.

It is a form of expression therefore quite general in the Scripture,

to term a woman a domestic "building," on account of the fruits of

generation and the bringing up of the offspring. But the real nature

of this building up, which would have existed had Adam not fallen, we

have now lost by his sin; so that we cannot now reach it, as we have

all along observed, even in thought. Our present fallen condition in

this life retains certain small miserable remnants of the original

domestic life, cultivation of the earth, and defense of property; and

also of dominion over the beasts. We have the rule over sheep, oxen,

geese, fowls, etc.; though boars, bears, lions, etc., regard not this

our dominion. So also there remains a certain hardly visible remnant

of this female building. Whoso taketh to himself a wife, hath as it

were in her a certain nest and home. He dwells with her in a certain

place, as birds nestle with their young in their little nest. But this

dwelling together in the one nest they know not, who live unmarried

like the impure Papists.

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

of matrimony, their keeping house together, their being blessed

together with offspring, their bringing up their children, is a faint

picture and remnant of that blessed original married life, on account

of the nature of which, Moses here terms the woman a "building." The

posterity of Adam, had he continued in his innocency, would have taken

to themselves wives, would have parted from Adam their father, and

would have chosen for themselves certain little garden spots of their

own, and would have there dwelt with their wives, tilled the ground,

and brought up their children. There would have been no need of

splendid mansions built of hewn stone, nor of rich kitchens, nor

cellars of wine, which now make up the luxuries of life. But as birds

in their little nests, the married pairs would have dwelt together

here and there, diligently laboring and calling upon God. And the

women would have been the principal cause of their husbands living in

certain dwelling places in paradise. Whereas now, under our present

fallen and calamitous state by sin, we absolutely need houses of wood

and stone, to defend us from the injuries of the weather. And though

we cannot form even a conception, as we have said, of the original

felicity of man and woman in their marriage happiness, yet even these

miserable remnants, we repeat, are excellent gifts of God; to live in

the possession of which, without continual thanks, is wickedness in

the extreme.

With reference to the "dominion" which man received from the hand of

God, we feel how much of that dominion is lost since our fall and

defilement by sin. Yet, what an infinite mercy still remains to us,

that this "dominion" was given to man and not to the devil! For how

should we possibly have been able to stand in this matter, against

such an invisible enemy, especially if power to harm had been

possessed by him equal to his will? We might all have been in danger

of annihilation in an hour, yea, in a moment, if Satan had determined

to infuriate the wild beasts against us. Although well nigh all the

original "dominion" is lost, it is an infinite blessing that our

present remnants of it are not possessed by the devil!

It is an infinite mercy also that we possess our present remnants of

generation. Although, in the state of original innocency women, as we

know, would have brought forth without pain; yet there would have been

a much more extensive fruitfulness. Whereas now the blessing of

generation is impeded by numberless diseases. It often happens that

the fruit of the womb does not arrive at maturity and birth and

sometimes the woman is barren altogether. All these defects are the

punishments of the horrible fall of Adam and of original sin. Just in

the same manner, to this present day, is the woman the "building," and

house, and home of the husband. To the woman the man devotes himself.

With her he lives; and together with her, he undertakes the labor and

care of bringing up the family; as it is written below, verse 24,

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall

cleave unto his wife," etc.

But this living together as man and wife is not only attended with

those other trials, which afflict the marriage state in great number

and variety on account of sin, but is also astonishingly deformed and

marred by perverse nature; seeing that there are not only those who

consider it to be very wise and great to reproach the female sex and

to despise marriage, but who even forsake the wives whom they have

married, and cast off all paternal care of their children. Such men

destroy the building of God by their perverseness and wickedness. Men

of this description are a kind of monsters in nature. Wherefore let us

show our obedience to the Word of God by acknowledging our wives to be

the building of the Lord; through whom not only our house is built up

by generation, and by whom other necessary domestic duties are

performed; but through whom we the husbands themselves are also built

up, by our rising offspring around us. For wives are, as we have said,

a certain nest and center of habitation to which the husbands resort,

where they dwell and live in pleasure and happiness.

When Moses adds, "And he brought her unto the man," this is a certain

divine description of espousals especially worthy our observation. For

Adam does not take hold of Eve when created and draw her to himself,

according to his own purpose and will, but he waits till God brings

her to him; just according to the saying of Christ, "What therefore

God hath joined together, let not man put asunder," Math. 19:6, for

the joining of male and female is a lawful joining and ordinance, and

an institution divine.

Wherefore Moses here adopts his peculiar and appropriate phraseology,

"And he brought her to the man." Who brought her to the man? He, God,

Jehovah, Elohim, the Jehovah God, the Whole Divinity, the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Ghost. These all unitedly say to Adam, Behold, this

is thy bride with whom thou art to dwell and with whom thou art to

generate and bring up children. And there is no doubt whatever that

Adam received Eve with the utmost pleasure; for even now, in this

corrupt state of nature, the mutual love between bride and bridegroom

is peculiar, great and excellent.

But apart from the epileptic and apoplectic lust in the marriage state

today, it was a chaste and most pleasing love, and union itself was

most honorable and most holy. Now however sin pours itself in and

expresses itself from the eyes and ears everywhere, and then in all

the senses.

This passage demands particular notice. For it stands as the revealed

will of God, not only against all abuses of the sex and lusts of every

kind, but also as a confirmation of marriage, and all those impious

revilings and refusings by which the papacy has deformed and marred

matrimony. Is it not worthy of admiration that God instituted and

ordained marriage even in the state of innocency? Much more need then

have we of this divine institution and ordination in our present

state, wherein our flesh is weak and so corrupt through sin. This

divine consolation therefore stands proof and invincible against all

doctrines of devils, 1 Tim. 4:1. By the Scripture before us, we see

that marriage is a state of life divine; that is, ordained of God

himself.

What was it therefore that came into the minds of those tools of Satan

and enemies of Christ, who deny that there could be any holiness or

chastity in marriage, and who affirmed that those only were adapted

for ministers of churches who lived in celibacy, because the

Scriptures, they argued, said, Be ye clean that bear the vessels of

the Lord, Is. 52:11. Are then those who are married unclean? If so,

God himself is the author and institutor of uncleanness, who himself

brought Eve to Adam. Adam himself also did evil in suffering himself

to be persuaded to enter into a state of uncleanness, when his nature

in his state of innocency needed not marriage. But have not the

impious Papists suffered the righteous punishments of such

blasphemies? They have not only polluted themselves with harlots in

multitudes, but have indulged in other unmentionable wickednesses,

even unto abomination, and are at this day just ripe for the

punishments of Sodom and Gomorrah.

When I was a boy, marriage was positively considered so infamous on

account of all this impure and impious celibacy, that I used to

believe I could not even think of the married life without sin. For

the minds of men generally were filled with the persuasion that if any

one wished to live a holy life, and a life acceptable to God, a man

must never become a husband nor a woman a wife, but must take upon

them the vow of celibacy; and hence many men who had married became on

the death of their wives either monks or contemptible priests. All

those worthy men therefore who have labored and endeavored to cause

marriage to be honored as aforetime, according to the Word of God, and

to be held in all its due praise, have taken upon themselves a highly

useful and necessary service to the Church of Christ. So that now,

blessed be God, all men consider it to be good and holy to live in

unanimity and tranquility with a wife, even though it should be the

lot of any one, Prov. 16:33, to have a wife that is barren, or

laboring under any other affliction.

I do not however deny that there are some men who can live chastely

without marriage; but let these who have thus a gift greater than the

most of mankind, sail in their own ship. But as for that chastity

which the Pope so highly lauds in his monks and nuns, and contemptible

priests, it is in the first place polluted and contaminated by

numberless horrible sins; and in addition to all this, celibacy is an

institution of man without any warrant from the Word of God. O, what

triumphs would the Papists celebrate could they but prove by the Word

of God their celibacy to be a divine institution, as we can abundantly

prove marriage to be. With what mighty weight of the Pope's authority

would they compel all men to adopt their life of celibacy. Whereas now

the only commendation of celibacy, which they can discover, is a

tradition of men, or rather as Paul hath it, a doctrine of devils,

Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 4:1.

V. 23a. _And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of

my flesh._

The sentence which immediately follows, "Therefore shall a man leave

his father and his mother," etc., is cited by our Lord, Math. 19:5, as

the words of God himself, and not of Adam. But in that particular

point there is no difficulty whatever, because as Adam was pure and

holy the words of Adam may rightly be said to be divine words or the

voice of God, for God spoke through him. All the words and the works

of Adam in that state of innocency are divine, and therefore may truly

be said to be the words and works of God.

Eve is presented to Adam by God himself. And just in the same manner

as the will of God is prepared to institute marriage, so Adam is

prepared to receive Eve with all pleasure and holiness when brought

unto him. So even now also the affection of the intended husband

toward his betrothed spouse, is of a particular and elevated kind. It

is, nevertheless, deeply contaminated with that leprous lust of the

flesh which, in righteous Adam, had no existence.

It is worthy of our greatest wonder and admiration, that Adam, the

moment he glanced his eye on Eve, knew her to be a building formed out

of himself. He immediately said, "This is now bone of my bones, and

flesh of my flesh." These are not the words of an ignorant one, nor of

one who was a sinner; nor of one who was ignorant of the works and of

the creation of God. They are the words of one righteous and wise, and

full of the Holy Spirit; of that Holy Spirit who reveals to the world,

before ignorant of such high and holy wisdom, that God is the

efficient cause of marriage and of man's taking to himself a wife, and

that the final cause of marriage is that the wife might be unto her

husband a civil, moral and domestic habitation, and cohabitation. This

knowledge comes not from the five senses and reason merely. It is a

revelation, as we here see, of the Holy Spirit.

The expression HAPAAM, "now," "in this instance," or "at length," is

by no means useless or superfluous as it may at first seem. That very

word in this sentence, uttered by Adam, most beautifully expresses the

glad surprise and exulting joy of a noble spirit which had been

seeking this delightful meet companion of life and of bed; a

companionship full, not only of love, but of holiness. As if Adam had

said, I have seen all beasts; I have considered all the females among

them given to them of God for the multiplication and preservation of

their kind, but all these are nothing to me! This female however is

bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She is at length what and all

I want. With her I desire to live, and with her to obey the will of

God in the propagation of a posterity. This is the kind of overflowing

feeling of joy and love which this particular word "HAPAAM," used by

Adam, is intended to express.

Now however this true purity, innocence and holiness are lost. There

still remains indeed a feeling of joy and affection in the intended

husband toward his spouse; but it is impure and corrupt, on account of

sin. The affection of Adam however was most pure, most holy and most

grateful to God, when under the excess of it, he said, "This is now

bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." She is not made of stone,

nor of wood, nor of a lump of earth, as I was. She is nearer to me

than all this, for she is made of my own very bones and very flesh.

V. 23b. _She shall be called Woman (man-formed), because she was taken

out of Man._

As Adam knew by the Holy Spirit the things just mentioned, which he

saw not before, and as he praises God and extols him for his having

created for him a meet life-companion out of his own body; so now, by

the same Spirit, he prophesies of his Eve's future, when he says that

she ought to be called a man-formed or man-like female (_virago_). The

truth is, that it is utterly impossible for any interpreter to convey

through any other language the peculiar strength and beauty of the

original Hebrew expression. ISCH signifies a man,--and Adam says

concerning Eve, "She shall be called ISCHA," as if we should say, She

shall be called _vira_, from _vir_, a man. Because a wife is an heroic

or man-like woman; for she does man-like things, and performs man-like

duties.

This name Adam gives to the woman contains in it a wonderful and sweet

description of marriage, in which, as the lawyers express it, "The

woman shines in the rays of her husband." For whatever the husband

possesses, is possessed and held by the wife also. And not only is all

their wealth possessed by them in common, but their children also,

their food, their bed, and their habitation. Their wishes are also

equal. So that the husband differs from the wife in no other thing

than in sex. In every other respect, the woman is really a man. For

whatsoever the man possesses in their house, the woman possesses also;

and what the man is, that also is the woman; she differs from the man

in sex only. In a word the woman, as Paul remarks in his instructions

to Timothy, is man-formed and man-like by her very origin; for, as the

apostle says to Timothy, Adam was first formed, then Eve from the man,

and not the man from the woman, 1 Tim. 2:13.

Of this communion of all things in marriage, we still possess some

feeble remnants, though miserable indeed they be when compared with

what they were in their original state. For even now the wife, if she

be but an honorable, modest and godly woman, participates in all the

cares, wishes, desires, pursuits, duties and actions of her husband.

And it was for this end indeed that she was created "in the

beginning;" and for this end was called _virago_, that she might

differ in sex only from the father of the family, since she was taken

from man.

And though this name can apply in its strictest and fullest sense to

Eve only, who, alone of all women, was created thus out of man, yet

our Lord applies the whole sentence of Adam to all wives when he says

that man and wife are one flesh, Math. 19:5, 6. Although therefore thy

wife be not made of thy flesh and thy bones; yet, because she is thy

wife, she is as much the mistress of thy house, as thou art the master

thereof, except that by the law of God, which was brought in after the

fall the woman is made subject to the man. That is the woman's

punishment, as are many other troubles also which come short of the

glories of paradise, concerning which glories the sacred text before

us gives us so much information. For Moses is not here speaking of the

miserable life which all married people now live; but concerning the

life of innocency, in which, had that innocency continued, the

government of the man and of the woman would have been equal and the

same.

Hence it is that Adam gave the name, "woman," ISCHA, or "man-formed

female," _virago_ or _vira_, to Eve, prophetically on account of the

equal administration of all things with her husband in the house. But

now the sweat of the brow rests upon the man. And to the wife it is

commanded that she be in subjection to the man. There still remain

however certain remnants or dregs as it were of the woman's dominion.

So that the wife may still be called man-like female, on account of

her common possession of all things with her husband.

V. 24. _Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and

shall cleave unto his wife._

Christ in Math. 19:5 and Paul in 1 Cor. 6:16, apply these words of

Adam, as a common rule or law for our marriages since the loss of

original innocence. If therefore Adam had remained in his original

state of innocency, the children born unto him would have married; and

leaving the table and dwelling place of their parents, and living no

longer with them, would have had their own trees under which they

would have lived separate from their parents. They would have come

from time to time to their father Adam, sung a hymn, spoken gloriously

of God, called upon him, and then returned to their own houses.

And even now, though all other things are changed, yet this close bond

between married persons still remains firm. So that a man would leave

his father and his mother much sooner than he would leave his wife.

And where we find the contrary to this, for married persons are now

sometimes found to leave and forsake each other, all this is not only

contrary to the present divine command by the mouth of Adam, but such

things are awful signs of that horrible corruption, which has come

upon man through sin; and such corruption and unfaithfulness are

greatly increased by Satan, the father of all dissensions.

Heathen nations also have discovered that there is nothing more

appropriate for man nor beneficial for kingdoms than this oneness of

the life of married persons. Hence they affirm, that it is a

conclusion drawn from the law of nature that a wife, who shall retain

her individuality or oneness of life with her husband, even unto

death, is necessary for man. Hence also Christ himself says, that

Moses suffered the Jews to give their wives a bill of divorcement,

because of the hardness of their hearts; but that in the beginning it

was not so, Mark 10:4, Math. 19:8. These evils of divorcements have

all arisen since the fall through sin; as have also adulteries,

poisonings and such like, which are sometimes found among married

persons. Scarce a thousandth part of that primitive innocent, holy

marriage is now left to us. And even to this day the husband and the

wife have their home-nest, for the sake of mutual help and generation,

according to the command of God, issued by the mouth of our first

parent Adam; by which this state of married life and this leaving

father and mother is exaltedly and gloriously commended, as well as

commanded of God himself; as Christ also affirms in his reference to

the words of Adam, on which we are now dwelling.

This "leaving father and mother" however is not to be understood as a

command that the children of Adam, when married, should have nothing

more to do with their parents. The command reaches only to dwelling

any longer with their father and mother. It enjoins the children when

married to have their own home-nest. In the present state of sin, and

all its various evils, we often find that children are compelled to

support their parents, when worn down with age and necessities. But

had paradise and all its innocency continued, the state of life would

have been inconceivably more exalted and blessed than our present

fallen and sinful condition. Yet even then this same command of Adam,

or rather of God himself, would have been obeyed. The husband, through

love of his wife, would have chosen his homestead and made his

home-nest with her, as the little birds do, and would have left his

father and his mother for that purpose.

This sentence of Adam is also prophetic. For as yet there was no

father or mother; nor consequently were there any children. Adam

nevertheless through the Holy Spirit prophesies of that married life,

which should be in the world, and predictively describes the separate

dwelling of man and wife, and the separate domestic authorities and

governments of the several families in all ages; that each family

should have their own nest habitation, authority and rule.

V. 25. _And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not

ashamed._

This short closing sentence of the present chapter might have been

omitted without any loss, seeing that it mentions a circumstance for

recording which there seems no great need. For what does it concern us

to know whether those in paradise walked about naked or clothed in

raiment? This little clause of the concluding sentence however is very

striking and very necessary. It shows us in a matter apparently quite

insignificant, how dreadful an amount of evil this nature of ours has

suffered through original sin.

All nations, more especially those of the north, hold nakedness of the

body in great abhorrence. In like manner the more grave and modest

characters among us, not only condemn short military jackets, as they

are called, which are worn by our youth, but avoid public baths. And

our uncomely parts, 1 Cor. 12:23, are always most studiously covered.

This among us is wisdom and a moral discipline worthy of all praise.

But Adam and Eve, Moses informs us, went about naked, and were not

ashamed. For them therefore to go about naked was not only not

disgraceful, but even laudable, delightful and glorious to God.

But all this delight and glory we have now lost by sin. We alone, of

all creatures, are born naked; and with an uncovered skin we enter

into this world. Whereas all the other animals bring into the world

with them, as coverings of their own, skins, hairs, bristles, feathers

or scales. We, on the other hand, continually need the shadow of

buildings to protect us from the heat of the sun, and a multitude of

garments to defend us from the rain, the hail, the frost and the snow.

Adam however, had he continued innocent, would have felt none of these

injuries or inconveniences. But as the human eyes retain still that

peculiarity of nature, that they are not evilly affected or distressed

either by cold or by heat; so would the whole body of Adam have been

entirely free from the distresses of cold or heat, had he never

fallen. Had Eve, our mother, sat among us naked the mere form of her

breast and other members of her body would not have offended us. But

now because of sin they awaken in us shame and inflame us with evil

lust and passion.

This brief clause therefore shows us the awfulness of the evil which

has come upon us, as the consequence of the sin of ... [text not

printed] ... would be considered a proof of utter insanity. That very

state of body therefore which was in Adam and Eve their highest glory,

would be in us, should we be seen in that state, our deepest shame. It

was the very glory of man and would have continued to be so, had he

remained in his original innocency, that while all the other animals

had need of hairs, feathers, scales, etc., to cover their

unsightliness, man alone was created with that dignity and beauty of

body, that he could appear uncovered, in the glory of his created

nakedness. But all this glory is lost. We are now compelled not only

for necessary protection, but for the sake of avoiding the deepest

turpitude, to cover our bodies with more study and care than any other

animals of God's creation. For they all come into the world covered by

nature.

After this manner therefore does this second chapter of the book of

Genesis more clearly and fully describe the creative work of the sixth

day. In what manner man was created by the wonderful counsel of God.

In what manner the garden of Eden was formed, in which man might have

lived in the highest possible pleasure. In what manner, by means of

the prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the

external worship of the future church was instituted by divine

authority. By what external worship and in which place, had the

prohibition of the tree of knowledge not been violated by Adam and

Eve, they would have testified their obedience to God, had they not

been deceived and drawn aside by the snares of Satan.

Some suppose that Adam with his Eve passed the night of the sixth day

in paradise until the following seventh day, the Sabbath. And what

occurred on the Sabbath day, the following chapter will inform us.

CHAPTER III.

PART I. THE TEMPTATION TO FALL.

V. 1a. _Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field

which Jehovah God had made._

In the preceding chapter, we were taught the manner in which man was

created on the sixth day; that he was created in the image and after

the likeness of God, that his will was good and perfect, and that his

reason or intellect was also perfect, so that whatsoever God willed or

said, that man also willed, believed and understood. And this

knowledge was necessarily accompanied by the knowledge of all other

creatures, etc. For wherever the perfect knowledge of God is, there

must also be, of necessity, the perfect knowledge of other things,

which are inferior to God.

This original state of things shows how horrible the fall of Adam and

Eve was, by which we have lost all that most beautifully and

gloriously illumined reason, and all that will which was wholly

conformed to the Word and will of God. For by the same sin and ruin we

have lost also all the original dignity of our bodies, so that now, it

is the extreme of baseness to be seen "naked," whereas originally that

nudity was the especial and most beautiful and dignified privilege of

the human race, with which they were endowed of God above all the

beasts of the creation. And the greatest loss of all these losses is,

that not only is the will lost, but there has followed in its place a

certain absolute aversion to the will of God. So that man neither

wills nor does any one of those things which God wills and commands.

Nay, we know not what God is, what grace is, what righteousness is;

nor in fact what sin itself is which has caused the loss of all.

These are indeed horrible defects in our fallen nature, to which they,

who see not and understand not, are more blind than moles. Universal

experience indeed shows us all these calamities; but we never feel the

real magnitude of them until we look back to that unintelligible but

real state of innocency, in which there existed the perfection of

will, the perfection of reason and that glorious dignity of the

nakedness of the human body. When we truly contemplate our loss of all

these gifts and contrast that privation with the original possession

of them, then do we, in some measure, estimate the mighty evil of

original sin.

Great causes of gross error therefore are created by those who

extenuate this mighty evil of original sin, who speak of our corrupt

nature after the manner of philosophers, who would represent human

nature as not thus corrupted. For such men maintain that there remain,

not only in the nature of man, but in the nature of the devil also,

certain natural qualities which are sound and whole. But this is

utterly false. What and how little remains in us that is good and

whole, we do indeed in some measure see and feel. But what and how

much we have lost, they most certainly see not who dispute about

certain remnants of good being still left in human nature. For most

certainly a good and upright and perfect will, well-pleasing to God,

obedient to God, confiding in the Creator, and righteously using all

his creatures with thanksgiving, is wholly lost. So that our fallen

will makes out of God a devil and dreads the very mention of his name;

especially when hard pressed under his judgments. Are these things, I

pray you, proofs that human nature is whole and uncorrupted?

But consider the state of those inferior things to these that pertain

unto God himself. The marriage union of male and female is an

institution appointed of God. How is that union polluted by the fall

and by sin! With what fury of lust is the flesh inflamed! By means of

sin therefore this divinely appointed union has lost all its beauty

and glory as a work of God, and is defiled with pollutions,

corruptions and sins innumerable. In like manner also we have a body;

but how miserable, how variously deformed by sin. It no longer retains

the dignity of nakedness, but requires careful and perpetual coverings

of its shame.

So also we possess a will and a power of reason. But with what

multiplied corruptions are they vitiated! For as our reason is

beclouded with great and varied ignorance, so our will also is not

only greatly warped by self-will, and not only averse to God, but the

enemy of God! It rushes with pleasure into evil, when it ought to be

doing quite the contrary.

This multiform corruption of nature therefore ought not only not to be

extenuated, but to be as much as possible magnified. It ought to be

shown that man is not only fallen from the image of God, from the

knowledge of God, from the knowledge of all other creatures, and from

all the dignity and glory of his nakedness, into ignorance of God,

into blasphemies against God, and into hatred and contempt of God; but

that he is fallen even into enmity against God; to say nothing at the

present time of that tyranny of Satan to which our nature has by sin

made itself the basest slave. These things, I say, are not to be

extenuated, but to be magnified by every possible description of them;

because if the magnitude of our disease be not fully known, we shall

never know nor desire the remedy. Moreover the more you extenuate sin,

the less you make grace to be valued.

And there is nothing which can tend to amplify and magnify the nature

and extent of original sin more fully and appropriately than the words

of Moses himself, when he says, that Adam and Eve were both naked, and

were not ashamed. No polluted lust was excited by the sight of each

other's nakedness. But the one looking on the other saw and

acknowledged the goodness of God. They both rejoiced in God, and both

felt secure in the goodness of God. Whereas now, we not only cannot

feel ourselves free from sin; not only do not feel ourselves secure in

the goodness of God, but labor under hatred of God and despair of his

goodness and mercy. Such a horrible state of the fall as this clearly

proves how far nature is from being in any degree sound and whole.

But with how much greater impudence still do our human reasoners make

this their affirmation of there being still left something sound and

whole, in the nature of the devil! For in the devil there is a greater

enmity, hatred and rage against God than in man. But the devil was not

created thus evil. He had a will conformed to the will of God. This

will however he lost, and he lost also that most beautiful and most

lucid intellect with which he was endowed, and he was converted into a

horrible spirit, filled with rage against his Creator. Must not that

have been then a most awful corruption, which transformed a friend of

God into the most bitter and determined enemy of God?

But here human reasoners bring forward that sentence of Aristotle,

"Reason prays for the best." And they attempt to confirm it by

passages from the Scriptures and by the opinions of philosophers, who

hold that right reason is the cause of all virtues. Now I deny not

that these sentiments are true, when they are applied to things

subject to reason; such as the management of cattle, the building of a

house, and the sowing of a field. But in the higher and divine things,

they are not true. For how can that reason be said to be right, which

hates God? How can that will be said to be good, which resists the

will of God and refuses to obey God?

When therefore men say with Aristotle, "Reason prays for the best,"

reply thou to them, Yes! Reason prays for the best, humanly; that is,

in things in which reason has a judgment. In such things, reason

dictates and leads to what is good and useful in a human, bodily or

carnal sense. But since reason is filled with ignorance of God and

aversion to the will of God, how can reason be called good in this

sense? For it is a well known fact, that when the knowledge of God is

preached with the intent that reason may be restored, then those who

are the best men, if I may so speak, and men of the best kind of

reason and will, are those who the most bitterly hate the gospel.

In the sacred matter of divinity therefore let our sentiments be, that

reason in all men stands as the greatest enemy against God; and also

that the best will in men is most adverse to the will of God; seeing

that from this very source arise hatred of the Word and persecution of

all godly ministers. Wherefore, as I said, let us never extenuate, but

rather magnify that mighty evil, which human nature has derived from

the sin of our first parents; then will the effect be that we shall

deplore this our fallen state and cry and sigh unto Christ our great

Physician, who was sent unto us by the Father for the very end that

those evils, which Satan has inflicted on us through sin, might by him

be healed, and that we might be restored unto that eternal glory,

which by sin we had lost.

But with reference to the part of sacred history which Moses describes

in this chapter, I have already expressed my mind; namely, that this

temptation took place on the Sabbath day. For Adam and Eve were

created on the sixth day; Adam earlier in the day and Eve in the

evening. On the following day, the Sabbath day, Adam spoke to his wife

Eve concerning the will of God; informing her that the most gracious

Lord had created all paradise for the use and pleasure of men; that he

had also created by his especial goodness the tree of life, by the use

of which the powers of their bodies might be restored, and continued

in perpetual youth; but that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of

good and evil, was prohibited; of which it was not lawful for them to

eat; and that this obedience to their merciful Creator they were

solemnly bound to render. After Adam had communicated this information

to Eve, he perhaps led her about in paradise and showed her the

prohibited tree. Thus did Adam and Eve in their original innocence and

righteousness, full of safety and security through their confidence in

their God so good and so merciful, walk about together in paradise;

considering together the word and the command of God; and blessing

their God on the Sabbath day as they ought to do. But in the midst of

all this happiness, Oh! the grief! Satan enters, and within a few

hours destroys all, as we shall in this chapter hear.

Here again is poured forth a whole sea of questions. For curious men

inquire, why God permitted so much to Satan as to tempt Eve? They ask

also, why Satan employed the serpent in his temptation of Eve, rather

than any other beast of the creation. But who shall render a reason

for those things, which he sees the Divine Majesty to have permitted

to be done? Why do we not rather say with Job, that God cannot be

called to an account, and that none can compel him to render unto us

his own reasons for all those things which he does or permits to be

done. Why do we not on the same ground expostulate with God, because

the grass is not green and the trees are not in leaf all the year

round now as in the beginning. For I fully believe, that in paradise,

had the state of original innocency continued, there would have been a

perpetual spring without any winter or frost or snow, as they now

exist since the fall and its sin. All these things depend wholly on

the will and power of God. This is enough for us to know. To inquire

into these things farther than this is impious curiosity. Wherefore

let us, the clay of his hands, cease to inquire into and dispute about

such things as these, which belong alone to the will of our Potter!

Let us not judge our God, but rather leave ourselves to be judged by

him.

The answer therefore to all such questions and arguments ought to be

this: It pleased God that Adam should be put under peril and trial,

that he might exercise his powers. Just as now, when we are baptized

and translated into the kingdom of Christ, God will not have us to be

at ease. He will have his Word and his gifts to be exercised by us.

Therefore he permits us, weak creatures, to be put into the sieve of

Satan. Hence it is that we see the church, when made clean by the

Word, to be put under perpetual peril and trial. The Sacramentarians,

the Anabaptists and other fanatical teachers, who harass the church

with various trials, are stirred up against her, to which great trials

are also added internal vexations. All these things are permitted of

God to take place, not however because it is his intention to forsake

his church or to suffer her to perish. But as wisdom says, all these

conflicts are brought upon the church and upon the godly, that they

might overcome them; and thus learn by actual sight and experience

that wisdom is more powerful than all things.

Another question is here raised, on which we may dispute perhaps with

less peril and with greater profit: Why the Scripture speaks of this

matter thus obscurely and does not openly say, that one of the fallen

angels entered into the serpent and through the serpent spoke to Eve

and deceived her? But to this I reply, that all these things were

involved in obscurity, that they might be reserved for Christ and for

his Spirit, whose glory it is to shine throughout the whole world, as

the mid-day sun, and to open all the mysteries of the Scriptures. As

this Spirit of Christ dwelt in the prophets, those holy prophets

understood all such mysteries of the Word. We have said above however

that as the beasts of the creation had each different gifts, so the

serpent excelled all other creatures in the gift of guile, and

therefore it was the best adapted for this stratagem of Satan.

Of this peculiarity in the serpent the present text of Moses is an

evident proof; for he says at the opening of this chapter, "Now the

serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God

had made." We marvel even now at the gift of insidious cunning in the

fox, and also at its astonishing ingenuity in escaping danger. For

sometimes when closely pursued by the dogs and quite worn out and

ready to drop with exhaustion, it will hold up its tail; and while the

dogs stop their course with the intent of rushing with all their force

to seize it, the fox with marvelous celerity secures a little

advantage ground and thus escapes their capture. There are also other

beasts whose remarkable sagacity and industry surprise us; but

subtilty was the peculiar natural property of the serpent, and

therefore it seemed to Satan to be the instrument best adapted for his

deception of Eve.

V. 1b. _And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not

eat of any tree of the garden?_

Human reasoners dispute also concerning the nature of this temptation,

as to what it really was; whether our first parents sinned by idolatry

or by pride or by self-security or simply by eating the fruit. But if

we consider these things a little more carefully, as we ought to do,

we shall find that this temptation was the most awful and the most

bitter of all temptations. Because the serpent attacked the good will

of God itself, and endeavored to prove by this very prohibition from

the tree of life that the will of God toward man was not good. The

serpent therefore attacks the image of God itself. He assails those

highest and most perfect powers, which in the newly-created nature of

Adam and Eve were as yet uncorrupted. He aims at overturning that

highest worship of God, which God himself had just ordained. In vain

therefore do we dispute about this sin or that. For Eve is enticed

unto all sins at once, when she is thus enticed to act contrary to the

Word and the will of God.

Moses therefore speaks here most considerately, when he uses the

expression, "And the serpent said." Here, WORD attacks _word_. The

WORD which the Lord had spoken to Adam was, "Of the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat." This Word was to Adam

the Gospel, and the law thus given was his worship. It was a service

and an obedience which in this state of innocence Adam was able to

render unto God. These are the Divine things Satan attacks. These are

the things he aims at overturning. Nor does he merely intend, as those

think who know nothing of the matter, to point out the tree to Eve and

to invite her to pluck the fruit. He does indeed point to the tree,

but he does something far worse than this. He adds another and a new

word, as it is his practice to do at the present day in the Church.

For wherever the Gospel is purely preached, there men have a sure rule

for their faith, and by that they are able to guard against idolatry.

But there Satan plies temptations of every kind, and he tries by what

means he can the most effectually to draw men away from the Word, or

how he can most completely corrupt the Word itself. Thus in the Greek

Church also, in the time of the apostles, heresies of every kind were

stirred up. One heretic denies that Christ is the Son of God. Another

denies that he is the Son of Mary, just as the anabaptists of our day

impiously deny that Christ assumed anything of the flesh of Mary. So

again in the times of Basil more particularly, men attempted to deny

that the Holy Ghost is God.

Our own age in like manner has witnessed the same examples of

heresies. For no sooner had a purer doctrine of the Gospel shone upon

us, than assailants of the works and Word of God of every kind rose up

on every side. Not however that temptations of other kinds cease. For

Satan still tempts to whoredom, to adultery and to other like great

sins. But this temptation, when Satan attacks the Word and the works

of God, is by far the heaviest and most dangerous; and that temptation

the most intimately concerns the Church and the saints.

It was in this manner therefore that Satan attacked Adam and Eve on

this solemn occasion. His aim was to tear away from them the Word, in

order that giving up the Word and their confidence in God, they might

believe a lie. When this takes place what wonder is it if a man

afterwards becomes proud, a despiser of God, an adulterer or anything

else? This temptation therefore is the head and chief of all

temptations. It brings with it the breach and the violation of the

whole ten commandments. For unbelief is the fountain-source of all

sins. When Satan has brought a man under this temptation and has

wrested from him or corrupted in his heart the Word, he may do

anything with him.

Thus when Eve had suffered the Word to be beaten out of her heart by a

lie, she found no difficulty whatever in approaching the tree and

plucking from it the fruit. It is foolish therefore to think of this

temptation, as the sophists and the monks think of it; that Eve, when

she had looked upon the tree, began to be inflamed by degrees with the

desire of plucking the fruit; until at last, overcome with the longing

for it, she plucked the fruit and put it to her mouth. The sum of the

whole temptation and her fall by it was that she listened to another

_word_ and departed from that WORD which God had spoken to her, which

was that if she did eat of the tree she should surely die. But let us

now contemplate the words of Moses in the order in which we find them.

In the first place Satan here imitates God. For as God had preached to

Adam, so Satan now also preaches to Eve. For perfectly true is that

saying of the proverb, "All evil begins in the name of God." Just

therefore as salvation comes from the pure Word of God, so perdition

comes from the corrupted Word of God. What I term the corrupted Word

of God is not that only which is corrupted by the vocal ministry, but

that which is corrupted by the internal persuasions of the heart or by

opinions of the mind, disagreeing with the Word.

Moses implies all this in his expression, "He said." For the object of

Satan was to draw away Eve by his word or saying, from that which God

had said; and thus by taking the Word of God out of sight, he

corrupted that perfection of will which man had before; so that man

became a rebel. He corrupted also his understanding so that he doubted

concerning the will of God. Upon this immediately followed a

rebellious hand, stretched forth to pluck the fruit contrary to the

command of God. Then followed a rebellious mouth and rebellious teeth;

in a word all evils follow soon upon unbelief or doubt concerning the

Word and God. For what can be worse than for a man to disobey God, and

obey Satan!

This very same craft and malice all heretics imitate. Under the show

of doing good, they wrest from men God and his Word. They take the

Word away from before their eyes and set before them another, and a

new word and a new god; a god which is nowhere, and no god at all. For

if you examine the words of these men, nothing can be more holy,

nothing more religious. They call God to witness that they seek with

their whole heart the salvation of the Church. They express their

utter detestation of all who teach wicked things. They profess their

great desire to spread the name and the glory of God. But why should I

enlarge? They wish to appear to be anything but the devil's teachers

or heretics. And yet, their one whole aim is to suppress the true

doctrine and to obscure the knowledge of God. And when they have done

this, the fall of their listeners is easily enough effected.

For unwary men suffer themselves to be drawn away from the Word to

dangerous disputations, Rom. 14:1. Not content with the Word, they

begin to inquire why and for what reason these and those things were

done. And just as Eve, when she listened to the devil, calling the

command of God into doubt fell; so it continually happens that we, by

listening to him, are brought to doubt whether God is willing that we,

when heavily oppressed with sin and death, should be saved by Christ;

and thus, being misled and deceived, we suffer ourselves to be induced

to put on cowls and cloaks in order that we may be crowned of God with

salvation on account of our works of perfection.

Thus before men are aware, another and a new god is set before them by

Satan; for he also sets a word before us; but not that Word which is

set before us of God, who declareth that repentance and remission of

sins should be preached unto all men in the name of Christ, Luke

24:47. When the Word of God is in this manner altered and corrupted,

then, as Moses says, in his song, "there are brought in among us new

gods, newly come up whom our fathers knew not, and feared not," Deut.

32:17.

It is profitable to be well acquainted with these snares of Satan. For

if he were to teach men that they might commit murder and fornication,

and might resist their parents, etc., who is there who would not

immediately see that he was persuading them to do things forbidden by

the Lord? And thus it would be easy to guard against him. But in the

case of which we are speaking, when he sets before us another word,

when he disputes with us concerning the will and willingness of God,

when he brings before our eyes the name of God, and of the church, and

of the people of God, then we cannot so easily be on our guard against

him. On the contrary there is need of the firmest judgment of the

spirit to enable us to distinguish between the true God and the new

god.

It is such judgment as this that Christ exercises, when Satan attempts

to persuade him to command that the stones be made bread, and to cast

himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple. For Satan's aim was to

persuade Christ to attempt something without the Word. But the Tempter

could not deceive Christ as he had deceived Eve. For Christ holds fast

the Word and does not suffer himself to be drawn away from the true

God to the new and false god. Hence unbelief and doubting, which

follow a departure from the Word, are the fountain and source of all

sin. And it is because the world is full of these that it remains in

idolatry, denies the truth of God and forms to itself new gods.

The monk is an idolator. For his imaginations are that if he lives

according to the rule of Francis or Dominic, he shall be in the way to

the kingdom of God. But this is making a new god, and becoming an

idolator. Because the true God declares that the way to the kingdom of

heaven is believing in Christ. When this faith is lost therefore

unbelief and idolatry immediately enter in, which transfer the glory

of God to works. Thus the Anabaptists, the Sacramentarians and the

Papists are all idolators! Not because they worship stocks and stones,

but because, leaving the Word of God, they worship their own thoughts.

The portion of the Scripture therefore now before us is designed to

teach us that the beginning of original sin was this effectual

temptation of the devil, when he had drawn Eve away from the Word to

idolatry, contrary to the first and second and third commandments.

Therefore the words stand here, "Yea, hath God said?" It is horrible

audacity for the devil to represent a new god and deny the former true

and eternal God with the utmost self-confidence. It is as if the devil

had said, "Ye must be fools indeed if ye believe that God really gave

you such a commandment. For God is by no means such a God as to be so

greatly concerned whether ye eat the fruit or eat it not. For as the

tree is 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;' how, think ye,

he can be so filled with envy as to be unwilling that ye should be

wise!"

Moreover this inexpressible malice fully proves that, although Moses

makes mention of the serpent only and not of Satan, Satan was the real

contriver of the whole transaction. And although these things had been

thus involved in obscurity in this sacred history of them, yet the

holy fathers and prophets, under the illumination of the Holy Spirit,

at once saw that this temptation was not the work of the serpent, but

that there was in the serpent that spirit, which was the enemy of

Adam's innocent nature; even the spirit, concerning whom Christ

plainly declares in the Gospel, "that he abode not in the truth; and

that he was a murderer and a liar from the beginning," Luke 8:44. It

was left however, as we have said, for the Gospel to explain these

things more clearly and to make manifest this enemy of God and of men.

But the fathers saw all this by the following mode of reasoning: It is

certain that at the time of the temptation all creatures stood in

perfect obedience, according to the sentence of Moses, "And God saw

everything that he had made and, behold, it was very good." But here

in the serpent, such a spirit manifests himself who proves to be the

enemy of God and who corrupts the Word of God, that he might draw away

man into sin and death.

It is manifest therefore that there was something, some spirit in the

serpent, far worse than the serpent itself by nature; a spirit which

might properly be called the enemy of God; a spirit that was a liar

and a murderer; a spirit in whom there was the greatest and the most

horrible and reckless unconcern; a spirit which trembled not to

corrupt the commandment of God and to tempt man to idolatry; though he

knew by that act of idolatry the whole human race must perish. These

things are truly horrible when they are viewed by us aright. And we

see even now examples of the same security and unconcern in Papists

and other sects; an unconcern by which they corrupt the Word of God

and seduce men.

Eve at first nobly resisted the Tempter. For as yet she was guided by

the illumination of that Holy Spirit, of whom we have spoken, and by

whom she knew that man was created perfect and in the likeness of God.

At length however she suffered herself to be persuaded and overcome.

With respect to the fall of the angels, it is uncertain on which day

the fall took place; whether on the second or on the third day. This

only can be proved, and that is known from the Gospel, namely, that

Satan fell from Heaven, for Christ himself testifies of the manner of

the fall, where he says, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from

heaven," Luke 10:18. But whether the heavens were then "finished" or

yet in their rude unformed state, we know not. The discussion of this

point however belongs not to our present exposition of the passage

before us. Our present duty is to contemplate the extreme malice here

disclosed, joined with the most horrible unconcern. For this spirit

trembles not to call the commandment of the divine majesty into doubt;

though he fully knew all the time, what an awful calamity must thereby

fall upon the whole human race.

In the second place the wonderful subtlety here exercised is

especially to be considered, which is discovered first in this: that

Satan attacks the highest powers of man and assails the very image of

God in him; namely, his will, which as yet thought and judged aright

concerning God. "Now the serpent was more subtle," says our text,

"than any beast of the field, which Jehovah God had made." But the

subtlety manifested in this instance far exceeded all the natural

subtlety of the serpent. For Satan here disputes with man concerning

the Word and the will of God. This the serpent in his natural state

and condition could not do; for in that, he was subject to the

"dominion" of man. But the spirit which spoke in the serpent is so

subtle that he overcomes man and persuades him to eat of the fruit of

the forbidden tree. It is not therefore a creature of God, in his

created good state, that here speaks; but it is a spirit, who is the

bitterest enemy of God and of men; a spirit, who is indeed a creature

of God, but not created thus evil by God. It is a creature, who abode

not in the truth; as Christ says, John 8:44. These facts are

consequences, plainly resulting from the Gospel and from the text of

Moses before us.

The subtlety which we are contemplating is seen also from the

stratagem of Satan in attacking the weak part of human nature; namely

Eve, the woman; and not Adam, the man. For although both of them were

created equally righteous, yet Adam excelled Eve. For as in all the

endowments of nature, the male strength exceeds that of the female

sex, so in the state of the innocency and perfection of human nature,

the male in some degree excelled the female. Hence Satan, seeing that

Adam was the more excellent creature, dared not attack him; for he had

fears lest his attempts should fail. And my belief is that if he had

attempted Adam first, Adam would have had the victory. He would more

likely have crushed the serpent with his foot, and would have said to

him, "Hold your tongue. The Lord hath commanded otherwise." Satan

therefore attacks Eve as the weaker part, and tries her strength. For

he sees that she has so much trust in, and dependence on, her husband,

that she will not think it possible that she should be persuaded to do

wrong after what her husband had told her.

By this portion of the sacred record we are also instructed concerning

the divine permission; that God sometimes permits the devil to enter

into beasts, as he here entered into the serpent. For there can be no

doubt that the serpent, in the assumption of whose form Satan talked