EXPOSITORY REMARKS ON GENESIS.

No. IV.

BEFORE we pass on to the consideration of the sentence pronounced by the Divine Lawgiver upon our first parents, let us not fail to notice that much is implied in the fact of the Lord's first pronouncing the serpent's doom, before He proceeded to pass judgment upon the other criminals who stood convicted at His bar. For it must have been evident to those trembling culprits, that in the curse denounced against the serpent there was a hope of mercy for themselves, and that the bruising of Satan's head by the woman's seed, implied that man would as certainly overcome the evil one, as he had now been vanquished by him. And as the Lord pronounced this sentence upon man's destroyer in the presence of his victims, and before addressing Himself to them, they might naturally infer that they were not to be utterly deprived of the favour and loving-kindness of the Lord, and a feeling allied to hope would therefore spring up in the midst of that despair and death which was now encompassing them on every side. They were conscious that they were just about to hear the sentence of death passed upon themselves, and how alarming was their situation, how fearful the anguish of that expectation of death! Nevertheless an uncertain instinctive hope of ultimate deliverance, an undefined idea of the divine mercy had also a lodgment in their hearts (implanted there by the all-gracious Creator); and partially sustained by this incipient hope, by this newly-formed faith, they stood so far strengthened to hear the coming sentence as not to be immediately annihilated, or cast into irretrievable despair, upon its being uttered by the Almighty Lawgiver. And in this compassionate dealing of the Creator with His guilty creatures, we have our first scriptural view of the pity and forbearance of God—a pity and forbearance which springs essentially out of the divine nature, and forms a part of the divine character. (Ps. x. 3, 8, 9. Lam. iii. 22, 31, 32. Mic. vii. 18, 19.) That to the breach of the law of God penalties should be annexed, which penalties must also be enforced; that the disobedient must eat of the fruit of their own devi

ces; that if the creature sin, he must also suffer; all this flows necessarily out of the nature of God, and from this connexion of effect and cause there can be no possible appeal. God must either punish sin, or, in other words, He must either connect sin with suffering, or cease to be God. Cease to be God he cannot, therefore He must punish sin. But" He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men." (Lam. iii. 33. Jer. xxxi. 20. Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Heb. xii. 10.) The sinful creature is subjected to vanity by his Creator, but "not willingly." (Rom. viii. 20.)* The heart of the compassionate Creator yearns over the creature, formed in his own image and likeness; the Father's heart is moved within Him when he contemplates His unhappy fallen child, and He is heard to say, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return and destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man" (Hos. xi. 8, 9.) and again, in words of equal tenderness: "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him : I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." (Jer. xxxi. 20.) Nevertheless," whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;" therefore fallen man being still beloved of God and as much as ever the object of the divine solicitude, sufferings are to be assigned to him, not only as mementos of the just wrath of God on account of sin, but also as salutary correctives of that evil nature, which would now need severe and coercive discipline in order to restrain it and bring it into subjection. Also disobedient man must learn obedience by the things that he shall suffer, and his humble submission under the mighty hand of God was to become the best preparation for his subsequent exaltation to the glory which was yet in store for him. (1 Pet. v. 6.) The benign Lawgiver, then, having in some measure strengthened the hearts of His sinful children to hear the announcement of their varied future woes, now proceeded to pass upon them the fearful sentence of the Law: and first He addressed the woman who had been foremost in the transgression.

VERSE 16," Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."-The first, and usually the only idea that presents itself to the

Does not this text apply solely to the creatures that are made subject to change and suffering, not by their own faults, but by man's sin ?-En.

mind in connexion with these words, is that of wrath and suffering, but it ought not so to be; rather we ought also to discern in them clear indications of the divine mercy. For what said God to the guilty Eve? "Because thou hast disobeyed my law, therefore thy name shall no more be expressive of thy rank and office upon the earth, as the mother of all living;' (v. 20.) 'for children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward ;' (Ps cxxvii. 3.) and what recompense save that of unfruitfulness and death can be thy portion?" Not so: Eve was still appointed of God to be the mother of all living; the elect church was to be the fruit of her womb; the living who shall praise God were to spring from her, albeit with suffering and cruel pangs. "The sorrows of death were indeed to compass her about, and the pains of hell to take hold upon her, she was to find trouble and sorrow," (Ps. cxvi. 3.) but through the loving-kindness of the Lord, and the peculiar blessing which He had attached to the increase of the human race, (chap. i. 28.) all these sufferings she would remember no more, for joy that men were born into the world. (John. xv. 21.) It cannot be denied therefore that mercy was really interwoven in the sentence which appeared only to make mention of the suffering which was the punishment of sin; for amidst those predicted sorrows it would still be true, that "like as the arrows in the hand of the giant, even so are the young children. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them they shall not be ashamed when they speak with their ene mies in the gate." (Ps. cxxvii. 5, 6.)

But if this be so, and if it can be clearly proved, as it certainly can be, both from scripture and from the concurrent testimony of the human heart, when that heart is renewed and sanctified by grace, that children are an heritage from the Lord, and that the fruit of the womb is His reward, (Ps. cxxvii. 3.) what means it that God would in a way of judgment and not of mercy greatly multiply, not only Eve's sorrow, but also her conception? for the words of our text clearly signify that He would do this. For it may be fairly asked, if the multiplication of the human species be so great a benefit, and a blessing, coming immediately from God Himself, how does it agree with this, that God should yet predict to Eve a course of multiplied grief in connexion with a greatly multiplied conception, for there would seem to be a contradiction here; and that joy rather than grief would be naturally multiplied to Eve in the proportion that she should give birth to human kind. But is there indeed any contradiction here? Alas! no: for surely through that greatly multiplied conception of our first mother, a conception full of sorrow, there has sprung forth the serpent's brood, a race through whom grief was to

be multiplied to the woman and her seed. And have we not seen that in all ages of the world, a generation of vipers have issued from the fatally prolific womb of sin and death, and have sought to fasten on the vitals of the Church of God, causing their unhappy mother after the flesh many a pang of unutterable grief? To the mother of all living, these serpents, this generation of vipers, (Matt. iii. 7. 23. 33.) trace up their earthly origin, but surely they have no father in heaven, and their spiritual lineage must be traced down to hell. (John viii. 23. 41. 44.) They owe their birth not to the will of God, but are born of flesh and blood and of the will of man, and their conception therefore is a cause of unmingled grief to the elect Church, whom they cease not to persecute with unmitigated rage. (Matt. xxix. 35.) And these are the Esau whom the Lord is said to hate, as distinguished from the Jacob whom He loves, the twin nation who is to be separated from the too prolific bowels of his sorrowing mother, (Gen. xxv. 21-24.) and in whose birth and subsequent life on earth the mother of all living was to find the true multiplication of her sorrows.

To Eve then in spite of her sin the privilege was still assigned of giving birth to the elect church, whom she should bring forth with a joy of the Spirit commensurate to the bodily pain which was to be linked with child-bearing, and in the foreknowledge of the fact that from her would spring the illustrious Seed who should bruise the serpent's head, how cheerfully would she endure the anguish, through which she and the rest of her living offspring would be ultimately saved! (1 Tim. ii. 15.) But alas, there was another seed to be born (sad fruit of sin!) who would also call her mother, upon whose birth should she perchance for a while rejoice, fondly hoping that she had obtained it from the Lord, (chap. iv. 1.) she would afterwards be undeceived, and constrained, spite of her maternal feelings, to echo the voice of God concerning it, (1 John iii. 12.) and to say "you are of your father the Devil." The original purpose of God therefore in regard to His people whom He had decreed to form for Himself to show forth His praise, (the praise of the glory of His grace,) was evidently still to be accomplished, although upon the persons of the living race many a dark cloud of death would hover, and perchance no eye save that of the all-searchiag God would discover them to be the children of light and immortality. And it might even be, that amidst that serpent's brood many should arise, who would be wiser in their generation than the children of light, and who would exhibit to the eye of man a form and comeliness of a more attractive kind than the true church could boast: nevertheless, the foundation of

God would stand sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. (2 Tim. ii. 19.)

But it may be asked, are we to suppose because the Creator says in our text, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, that the seed of the serpent are therefore born into the world by the decree and will of God, who in such a case as truly creates the wicked unto sin and damnation, as the righteous unto holiness and life? God forbid neither our present text nor any other in the scripture makes the blessed God chargeable with the original creation of wicked beings, whether they be spirits or men, angels or devils. Far be it from us to suppose that from the primary creation of God sin or evil of any kind can have proceeded. In regard to this earth we are assured that all was at the first " very good," (chap. i. 31.) and we may well believe that only good and perfect gifts proceed from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. (James i. 16. 17.) To conceive otherwise is to impeach the nature of God, and oppose the record that is given us of that nature in His revealed word. But it is evident that God may without any infringement of His unchangeable loving-kindness permit the entrance of sin and misery into a creation which was altogether pure and happy as it was at the first formed by Himself, for in fact we know that this has taken place; and it is in vain to inquire how is the subsequent permission or infliction of evil, on the part of the Creator, to be reconciled with a benign nature, because we have no data by which to judge of the fitness of the divine providence. The counsels of God are a great deep, which we shall in vain attempt to fathom. But it should suffice us to be still, and to know that God is God; and whilst we thankfully accept of all the spiritual disclosures which He is pleased to make us in the scripture, we do well if we humbly refrain from passing judgment upon matters which are utterly beyond the limits of our comprehension. At the same time it should never be forgotten that God is not so reluctant to instruct us on the subject of his counsels, as we are indisposed to receive information in regard to them. He tells us many things that some of us are resolved not to hear; and under the pretence that He has Himself said that secret things belong unto the Lord, but the things that are revealed to us and to our children, (Deut. xxix. 29.) we reject revealed truths, affirming that they are of the number of the secret things which belong peculiarly to God: whilst on the one hand, therefore, we are right in admitting that only a little part of the great mystery of divine providence is as yet opened to us, we are also right if we insist, that much more of that mystery is disclosed to us in the scripture than ordinary readers are disposed to allow. Instead then of