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).
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 usmake 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;WHOcreated them,whathe 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,
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 finalcauseof 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 thegreat 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 ourFather, and that the Creed teaches us to confess God as ourCreator. 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 AdamTHARDEMAH, "a slumber" or a "deep sleep;" for the verbRADAMsignifies "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 wordZELAsignifies, "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.