Genesis · Chapter 1

V. 1. Observe here. 1. The effect produced,

The heaven and the earth-That is, the world, including the whole frame and furniture of the universe. But ‘tis only the visible part of the creation that Moses designs to give an account of. Yet even in this there are secrets which cannot be fathomed, nor accounted for. But from what we see of heaven and earth, we may infer the eternal power and godhead of the great Creator. And let our make and place, as men, mind us of our duty, as Christians, which is always to keep heaven in our eye, and the earth under our feet.

Observe 2. The author and cause of this great work, God. The Hebrew word is Elohim; which (1.) seems to mean The Covenant God, being derived from a word that signifies to swear. (2.) The plurality of persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The plural name of God in Hebrew, which speaks of him as many, tho’ he be but one, was to the Gentiles perhaps a favour of death unto death, hardening them in their idolatry; but it is to us a favour of life unto life, confirming our faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, which, tho’ but darkly intimated in the Old Testament, is clearly revealed in the New.

Observe 3. The manner how this work was effected; God created, that is, made it out of nothing. There was not any pre-existent matter out of which the world was produced. The fish and fowl were indeed produced out of the waters, and the beasts and man out of the earth; but that earth and those waters were made out of nothing.

Observe 4. When this work was produced;

In the beginning-That is, in the beginning of time. Time began with the production of those beings that are measured by time. Before the beginning of time there was none but that Infinite Being that inhabits eternity. Should we ask why God made the world no sooner, we should but darken counsel by words without knowledge; for how could there be sooner or later in eternity?

Verse 1. xrah ואת השמים ta אלהים ברא בראשית Bereshith bara Elohim eth hashshamayim veeth haarets; GOD in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.

Many attempts have been made to define the term GOD: as to the word itself, it is pure Anglo-Saxon, and among our ancestors signified, not only the Divine Being, now commonly designated by the word, but also good; as in their apprehensions it appeared that God and good were correlative terms; and when they thought or spoke of him, they were doubtless led from the word itself to consider him as THE GOOD BEING, a fountain of infinite benevolence and beneficence towards his creatures. A general definition of this great First Cause, as far as human words dare attempt one, may be thus given: The eternal, independent, and self-existent Being: the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only to himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind. Reader, such is the God of the Bible; but how widely different from the God of most human creeds and apprehensions!

The original word אלהים Elohim, God, is certainly the plural form of la El, or hla Eloah, and has long been supposed, by the most eminently learned and pious men, to imply a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature. As this plurality appears in so many parts of the sacred writings to be confined to three Persons, hence the doctrine of the TRINITY, which has formed a part of the creed of all those who have been deemed sound in the faith, from the earliest ages of Christianity. Nor are the Christians singular in receiving this doctrine, and in deriving it from the first words of Divine revelation. An eminent Jewish rabbin, Simeon ben Joachi, in his comment on the sixth section of Leviticus , has these remarkable words: “Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other.” See Ainsworth. He must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a Trinity, and of a Trinity in unity, is expressed in the above words. The verb arb bara, he created, being joined in the singular number with this plural noun, has been considered as pointing out, and not obscurely, the unity of the Divine Persons in this work of creation. In the ever-blessed Trinity, from the infinite and indivisible unity of the persons, there can be but one will, one purpose, and one infinite and uncontrollable energy. “Let those who have any doubt whether אלהים Elohim, when meaning the true God, Jehovah, be plural or not, consult the following passages, where they will find it joined with adjectives, verbs, and pronouns plural. “Genesis 1:26 3:22 11:7 20:13 31:7, 53 35:7. “Deuteronomy 4:7 5:23 Joshua 24:19 1 Samuel 4:8 2 Samuel 7:23 “Psalm 58:6 Isaiah 6:8 Jeremiah 10:10 23:36.

“See also Proverbs 9:10 30:3 Psalm 149:2 Ecclesiastes 5:7 12:1; “Job 5:1 Isaiah 6:3 54:5 62:5 Hosea 11:12, or Hosea 12:1 Malachi 1:6 Daniel 5:18, 20 7:18, 22.”-PARKHURST.

As the word Elohim is the term by which the Divine Being is most generally expressed in the Old Testament, it may be necessary to consider it here more at large. It is a maxim that admits of no controversy, that every noun in the Hebrew language is derived from a verb, which is usually termed the radix or root, from which, not only the noun, but all the different flections of the verb, spring. This radix is the third person singular of the preterite or past tense. The ideal meaning of this root expresses some essential property of the thing which it designates, or of which it is an appellative. The root in Hebrew, and in its sister language, the Arabic, generally consists of three letters, and every word must be traced to its root in order to ascertain its genuine meaning, for there alone is this meaning to be found. In Hebrew and Arabic this is essentially necessary, and no man can safely criticise on any word in either of these languages who does not carefully attend to this point.

I mention the Arabic with the Hebrew for two reasons. 1. Because the two languages evidently spring from the same source, and have very nearly the same mode of construction. 2. Because the deficient roots in the Hebrew Bible are to be sought for in the Arabic language. The reason of this must be obvious, when it is considered that the whole of the Hebrew language is lost except what is in the Bible, and even a part of this book is written in Chaldee. Now, as the English Bible does not contain the whole of the English language, so the Hebrew Bible does not contain the whole of the Hebrew. If a man meet with an English word which he cannot find in an ample concordance or dictionary to the Bible, he must of course seek for that word in a general English dictionary. In like manner, if a particular form of a Hebrew word occur that cannot be traced to a root in the Hebrew Bible, because the word does not occur in the third person singular of the past tense in the Bible, it is expedient, it is perfectly lawful, and often indispensably necessary, to seek the deficient root in the Arabic. For as the Arabic is still a living language, and perhaps the most copious in the universe, it may well be expected to furnish those terms which are deficient in the Hebrew Bible. And the reasonableness of this is founded on another maxim, viz., that either the Arabic was derived from the Hebrew, or the Hebrew from the Arabic. I shall not enter into this controversy; there are great names on both sides, and the decision of the question in either way will have the same effect on my argument. For if the Arabic were derived from the Hebrew, it must have been when the Hebrew was a living and complete language, because such is the Arabic now; and therefore all its essential roots we may reasonably expect to find there: but if, as Sir William Jones supposed, the Hebrew were derived from the Arabic, the same expectation is justified, the deficient roots in Hebrew may be sought for in the mother tongue. If, for example, we meet with a term in our ancient English language the meaning of which we find difficult to ascertain, common sense teaches us that we should seek for it in the Anglo-Saxon, from which our language springs; and, if necessary, go up to the Teutonic, from which the Anglo-Saxon was derived. No person disputes the legitimacy of this measure, and we find it in constant practice. I make these observations at the very threshold of my work, because the necessity of acting on this principle (seeking deficient Hebrew roots in the Arabic) may often occur, and I wish to speak once for all on the subject. The first sentence in the Scripture shows the propriety of having recourse to this principle. We have seen that the word אלהים Elohim is plural; we have traced our term God to its source, and have seen its signification; and also a general definition of the thing or being included under this term, has been tremblingly attempted. We should now trace the original to its root, but this root does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. Were the Hebrew a complete language, a pious reason might be given for this omission, viz., “As God is without beginning and without cause, as his being is infinite and underived, the Hebrew language consults strict propriety in giving no root whence his name can be deduced.” Mr. Parkhurst, to whose pious and learned labours in Hebrew literature most Biblical students are indebted, thinks he has found the root in hla alah, he swore, bound himself by oath; and hence he calls the ever-blessed Trinity אלהים Elohim, as being bound by a conditional oath to redeem man, &c., &c. Most pious minds will revolt from such a definition, and will be glad with me to find both the noun and the root preserved in Arabic. ALLAH [Arabic] is the common name for GOD in the Arabic tongue, and often the emphatic [Arabic] is used. Now both these words are derived from the root alaha, he worshipped, adored, was struck with astonishment, fear, or terror; and hence, he adored with sacred horror and veneration, cum sacro horrore ac veneratione coluit, adoravit.-WILMET. Hence ilahon, fear, veneration, and also the object of religious fear, the Deity, the supreme God, the tremendous Being. This is not a new idea; God was considered in the same light among the ancient Hebrews; and hence Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac, Genesis 31:53. To complete the definition, Golius renders alaha, juvit, liberavit, et tutatus fuit, “he succoured, liberated, kept in safety, or defended.” Thus from the ideal meaning of this most expressive root, we acquire the most correct notion of the Divine nature; for we learn that God is the sole object of adoration; that the perfections of his nature are such as must astonish all those who piously contemplate them, and fill with horror all who would dare to give his glory to another, or break his commandments; that consequently he should be worshipped with reverence and religious fear; and that every sincere worshipper may expect from him help in all his weaknesses, trials, difficulties, temptations, &c,; freedom from the power, guilt, nature, and consequences of sin; and to be supported, defended, and saved to the uttermost, and to the end. Here then is one proof, among multitudes which shall be adduced in the course of this work, of the importance, utility, and necessity of tracing up these sacred words to their sources; and a proof also, that subjects which are supposed to be out of the reach of the common people may, with a little difficulty, be brought on a level with the most ordinary capacity. In the beginning] Before the creative acts mentioned in this chapter all was ETERNITY. Time signifies duration measured by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies: but prior to the creation of these bodies there could be no measurement of duration, and consequently no time; therefore in the beginning must necessarily mean the commencement of time which followed, or rather was produced by, God’s creative acts, as an effect follows or is produced by a cause.

Created] Caused existence where previously to this moment there was no being. The rabbins, who are legitimate judges in a case of verbal criticism on their own language, are unanimous in asserting that the word arb bara expresses the commencement of the existence of a thing, or egression from nonentity to entity. It does not in its primary meaning denote the preserving or new forming things that had previously existed, as some imagine, but creation in the proper sense of the term, though it has some other acceptations in other places. The supposition that God formed all things out of a pre-existing, eternal nature, is certainly absurd, for if there had been an eternal nature besides an eternal God, there must have been two self-existing, independent, and eternal beings, which is a most palpable contradiction.

השמים ta eth hashshamayim. The word ta eth, which is generally considered as a particle, simply denoting that the word following is in the accusative or oblique case, is often understood by the rabbins in a much more extensive sense. “The particle ta,” says Aben Ezra, “signifies the substance of the thing.” The like definition is given by Kimchi in his Book of Roots. “This particle,” says Mr. Ainsworth, “having the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in it, is supposed to comprise the sum and substance of all things.” “The particle ta eth (says Buxtorf, Talmudic Lexicon, sub voce) with the cabalists is often mystically put for the beginning and the end, as a alpha and w omega are in the Apocalypse.” On this ground these words should be translated, “God in the beginning created the substance of the heavens and the substance of the earth,” i.e. the prima materia, or first elements, out of which the heavens and the earth were successively formed. The Syriac translator understood the word in this sense, and to express this meaning has used the word [Arabic] yoth, which has this signification, and is very properly translated in Walton’s Polyglot, ESSE, caeli et ESSE terrae, “the being or substance of the heaven, and the being or substance of the earth.” St. Ephraim Syrus, in his comment on this place, uses the same Syriac word, and appears to understand it precisely in the same way. Though the Hebrew words are certainly no more than the notation of a case in most places, yet understood here in the sense above, they argue a wonderful philosophic accuracy in the statement of Moses, which brings before us, not a finished heaven and earth, as every other translation appears to do, though afterwards the process of their formation is given in detail, but merely the materials out of which God built the whole system in the six following days.

The heaven and the earth.] As the word שמים shamayim is plural, we may rest assured that it means more than the atmosphere, to express which some have endeavoured to restrict its meaning. Nor does it appear that the atmosphere is particularly intended here, as this is spoken of, Genesis 1:6, under the term firmament. The word heavens must therefore comprehend the whole solar system, as it is very likely the whole of this was created in these six days; for unless the earth had been the centre of a system, the reverse of which is sufficiently demonstrated, it would be unphilosophic to suppose it was created independently of the other parts of the system, as on this supposition we must have recourse to the almighty power of God to suspend the influence of the earth’s gravitating power till the fourth day, when the sun was placed in the centre, round which the earth began then to revolve. But as the design of the inspired penman was to relate what especially belonged to our world and its inhabitants, therefore he passes by the rest of the planetary system, leaving it simply included in the plural word heavens. In the word earth every thing relative to the terraqueærial globe is included, that is, all that belongs to the solid and fluid parts of our world with its surrounding atmosphere. As therefore I suppose the whole solar system was created at this time, I think it perfectly in place to give here a general view of all the planets, with every thing curious and important hitherto known relative to their revolutions and principal affections.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRECEDING TABLES

IN Table I. the quantity or the periodic and sidereal revolutions of the planets is expressed in common years, each containing 365 days; as, e.g., the tropical revolution of Jupiter is, by the table, 11 years, 315 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes, 2 seconds; i.e., the exact number of days is equal to 11 years multiplied by 365, and the extra 315 days added to the product, which make In all 4330 days. The sidereal and periodic times are also set down to the nearest second of time, from numbers used in the construction of the tables in the third edition of M. de la Lande’s Astronomy. The columns containing the mean distance of the planets from the sun in English miles, and their greatest and least distance from the earth, are such as result from the best observations of the two last transits of Venus, which gave the solar parallax to be equal to 8 three-fifth seconds of a degree; and consequently the earth’s diameter, as seen from the sun, must be the double of 8 three-fifth seconds, or 17 one-fifth seconds. From this last quantity, compared with the apparent diameters of the planets, as seen at a distance equal to that of the earth at her main distance from the sun, the diameters of the planets in English miles, as contained in the seventh column, have been carefully computed. In the column entitled “Proportion of bulk, the earth being 1,” the whole numbers express the number of times the other planet contains more cubic miles, &c., than the earth; and if the number of cubic miles in the earth be given, the number of cubic miles in any planet may be readily found by multiplying the cubic miles contained in the earth by the number in the column, and the product will be the quantity required.

This is a small but accurate sketch of the vast solar system; to describe it fully, even in all its known revolutions and connections, in all its astonishing energy and influence, in its wonderful plan, structure, operations, and results, would require more volumes than can be devoted to the commentary itself.

As so little can be said here on a subject so vast, it may appear to some improper to introduce it at all; but to any observation of this kind I must be permitted to reply, that I should deem it unpardonable not to give a general view of the solar system in the very place where its creation is first introduced. If these works be stupendous and magnificent, what must He be who formed, guides, and supports them all by the word of his power! Reader, stand in awe of this God, and sin not. Make him thy friend through the Son of his love; and, when these heavens and this earth are no more, thy soul shall exist in consummate and unutterable felicity. See the remarks on the sun, moon, and stars, after Genesis 1:16. See Clarke’s note on “Genesis 1:16”.

Verse 1. In the beginning — That is, of this material, visible, and temporal world, (which was not without beginning, as many of the ancient heathen philosophers supposed,) and of time with relation to all visible beings. The creation of the spiritual, invisible, and eternal world, whether inhabited by the holy or fallen angels, is not here included or noticed. God — The Hebrew word µyhla Elohim, here and elsewhere translated God, has been considered by many learned men as signifying God in covenant, being derived from the word hla Alah, he sware, or bound himself by an oath. It is in the plural number, and must often, of necessity, be understood as having a plural meaning in the Holy Scriptures, being a name sometimes given to the false gods of the heathen, who were many, and to angels and magistrates, who are also occasionally called elohim, gods. When intended, as here, of the one living and true God, which it generally is, it has, with great reason, been thought by most Christian divines to imply a plurality of persons or subsistences in the Godhead, and the rather, as many other parts of the inspired writings attest that there is such a plurality, comprehending the Father, the Word, or Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that all these divine persons equally concurred in the creation of the world. Of these things we shall meet with abundant proof in going through this sacred volume Created — That is, brought into being, gave existence to what had no existence before, either as to matter or form; both making the substance of which the different parts of the universe were formed, and giving them the particular forms which they at present bear. How astonishing is the power that could produce such a world out of nothing! What an object for adoration and praise; and what a foundation for confidence and hope have we in this wonderful Being, who thus calls things that are not as though they were! The heaven and the earth — Here named by way of anticipation, and spoken of more particularly afterward. The aerial and starry heavens can only be included here. For what is termed by St. Paul the third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12., the place where the pure in heart shall see God, and which is the peculiar residence of the blessed angels, was evidently formed before, (see Job 38:6, 7,) but how long before, who can say?

Verse 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; all the orbs which revolve and shine in the expanse of heaven, measuring time by days, and years, and periods. By consequence, the sublime system of nature is not eternal. If matter were eternal, then the µyhla Elohim, O Qeothv, the Godhead or Divinity who acts here, is also material, dependent on matter, and a necessary agent. The perfections of wisdom, goodness and love, can no longer be attributed to him. These assumptions of atheism are everywhere refuted by nature herself. If any difficulty arise in proving the Being of a God, it is because nature overwhelms us with evidence, and with the blaze of his perfections.

Verse 1 is to be taken as a heading to the present section, (Genesis 1:1-2:3,) corresponding to the headings of the other sections. Comp. Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, etc. This first section has not the common formula, “These are the generations,” etc.: for this first chapter is a history of creations, not of generations. This is a distinction to be kept constantly in mind. See below, on verse 2, and notes on chap. 2:4. In the following notes an effort is made to indicate as fully as practicable the grammatico-historical meaning of the language of this most ancient Scripture. The world is full of attempts to “reconcile Genesis and geology:” we assume no such task, but endeavour to keep prominent the query, whether the vast amount of learned labour bestowed upon such attempted reconciliation has not been wasted over a false issue. Our exposition does not essay to solve the mysteries of creation, but merely to determine, as far as the original meaning and usage of his words admit, the most obvious import of the Hebrew writer’s language. See Introduction, pp. 56-67.

1. In the beginning — At the commencement of that series of events with which the creation and history of the human race are associated. Here is no necessary reference to the origin of matter, but simply to the opening of an epoch. God created — µyhla arb; a plural noun with a singular verb. Some have supposed this plural form of the name of God to be a relic of primitive polytheism, but its construction here with a verb in the singular, and its frequent use in the Hebrew Scriptures as the name of the One only God, forbids such a conclusion. The plural form of the name denotes rather the manifold fulness of power and excellency that exists in God. Not without reason have many Christian divines suggested that in this plural of majesty may also be an intimation of the plurality of persons in the Godhead. No sound logician, however, would cite this as a proof of the doctrine of the Trinity. It is to be mentioned only as a suggestion — a profound intimation — of the plurality of Eternal Powers in the Creator. It will be noticed that the writer does not here formally state the existence of God; much less does he attempt to prove his existence; but he simply assumes it as a fact. The word arb, which means, primarily, to cut, to cut down, (a meaning preserved in the Piel form of the verb, Joshua 17:15, 18,) and thence by a natural and easy process, to construct, to fashion, to produce, is in the Kal and Niphal always used to denote divine creations. It is never used to denote human productions. In verse 21 it denotes the creation of “great sea-monsters;” in verse 27, the creation of man; (comp. also Genesis 5:1, 2; 6:7; Deuteronomy 4:32; Psalm 89:47;) in Psalm 89:12, the establishing of the north and the south; in Isaiah 4:5, the creation of “a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night;” in Isaiah 45:7, the creation of darkness and evil, and in Isaiah 57:19, the creation of “the fruit of the lips” — praise to God, or prophecy. This varied usage of the word shows, that to create out of nothing is not its legitimate meaning: for pre-existing material is commonly supposed. Hence the meaning to found, to produce, to cause to arise. Applied thus uniformly to divine creations, arb is a more elevated word, and also more specific, than hc[, to make, which occurs much more frequently. This latter word is also used of divine creations, and so far may be said to be interchangeable with arb. Thus in verse 7, “God made the firmament” — verse 16, “God made two great lights” — verse 25, “God made the beast of the earth” — verse 26, “Let us make man” — verse 31, “Every thing that he had made” — Genesis 2:2, “His work which he had made” — Genesis 5:1, “In the likeness of God made he him” — Genesis 9:6, “In the image of God made he man” — Exodus 20:11, “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth.” But though applied to every thing to which we find arb applied, the word hc[ has a much wider and more general application, referring to any work of man, as to make a feast, (Genesis 19:3; 21:8; 26:30;) to make a heap of stones, (Genesis 31:46;) to do wickedness, (Genesis 39:9;) to do or show mercy, (Exodus 20:6;) to accomplish a desire, (1 Kings 5:8;) and so in a great variety of ways. Another word of kindred meaning is rxy, to form, to fashion. This is used in Genesis 2:7, 8, “The Lord God formed man of the dust;” and “the man whom he had formed;” and also in verse 19: “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air.” It is used of the forming of the dry land, (Psalm 95:5;) and of leviathan to play in the broad sea, (Psalm 104:26;) of the fashioning of a graven image, (Isaiah 44:12;) and of clay by the hand of a potter. Isaiah 29:16; 64:8. These three synonyme words are used together in Isaiah 43:7, and 45:18: “I have created him for my glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” The distinction to be drawn between these words seems to be this: arb denotes especially the bringing something into being; causing something to arise which had not appeared before; hc[ is a less dignified expression, indicating in general the same idea, but often applied to things and predicated of subjects which are never construed with arb. The word rxy, on the other hand, conveys the idea of giving particular form or shape to something. In this narrative of creation the three words are all alike applied to the divine production of man and beast upon earth. Comp. verses 21, 25-27, and Genesis 2:7, 8, 19. The heaven and the earth — Rather, the heavens and the land. What mean these words? It has been the prevailing assumption that in this first verse of the Bible they must stand for the entire universe. They have been explained as equivalent to the primordial matter of the universe; the original substance out of which the universe was subsequently formed. But why not allow the sacred writer to explain his own words? In verse 8, we are told that God called the firmament (or expanse above the land) Heaven, and in verse 10, the dry ground is called xra, Land. According to the constant usus loquendi of the Hebrew language, µymv, heavens, denotes the ethereal expanse above us, in which the luminaries appear to be set, and the birds fly, and from which the rain falls. Comp. verses 14, 15, 17, 20, 26, 28, 30; 2:19, 20; 6:7, 17; 7:3, 11; 8:2, etc. This may be safely said to be the common and almost universal sense of the word. When occasionally used of the abode of God, it is from the natural conception of him as the Most High, who is exalted above the heavens. Psalm 57:5, 11; 113:4. The word is dual in form, perhaps from some notion of the expanse as a divider of the waters above and below it, as described in verse 7. Tayler Lewis regards the word as more probably a plural which originated in the effort of the early world to penetrate in thought beyond the visible heaven, and conceive of a heaven beyond that, and a heaven of heavens higher still, from which God looks down to “behold the things that are in heaven (that is, the nearer heavens) and the earth.” Psalm 113:6. It is equally plain that the Word xra, land, denotes (not the cubic or solid contents of the earth, considered as a globe; such a conception seems never to have entered the Hebrew mind) an area of territory, a country, a region. The word occurs over three hundred times in this Book of Genesis alone, and in most of those places it can have no other meaning than that which we give above, and in no place does it require any other word to represent it than our word land. The word earth, in our modern usage, is so commonly applied to the matter of the earth, or to the world considered as a planet, or solid sphere, that it misleads us when used as a translation of the Hebrew xra.

V. 2. Where we have an account of the first matter, and the first Mover. 1. A chaos was the first matter. ‘Tis here called the earth, (tho’ the earth, properly taken, was not made ‘till the third day, Genesis 1:10) because it did most resemble that which was afterwards called earth, a heavy unwieldy mass. ‘Tis also called the deep, both for its vastness, and because the waters which were afterwards separated from the earth were now mixed with it. This mighty bulk of matter was it, out of which all bodies were afterwards produced. The Creator could have made his work perfect at first, but by this gradual proceeding he would shew what is ordinarily the method of his providence, and grace. This chaos, was without form and void. Tohu and Bohu, confusion and emptiness, so those words are rendered, Isaiah 34:11. ‘Twas shapeless, ‘twas useless, ‘twas without inhabitants, without ornaments; the shadow or rough draught of things to come. To those who have their hearts in heaven, this lower world, in comparison of the upper, still appears to be confusion and emptiness. And darkness was upon the face of the deep-God did not create this darkness, (as he is said to create the darkness of affliction, Isaiah 45:7.) for it was only the want of light. 2. The Spirit of God was the first Mover; He moved upon the face of the waters-He moved upon the face of the deep, as the hen gathereth her chicken under her wings, and hovers over them, to warm and cherish them, Matthew 23:37 as the eagle stirs up her nest, and fluttereth over her young, (‘tis the same word that is here used) Deuteronomy 32:11.

Verse 2. The earth was without form and void] The original term wht tohu and whb bohu, which we translate without form and void, are of uncertain etymology; but in this place, and wherever else they are used, they convey the idea of confusion and disorder. From these terms it is probable that the ancient Syrians and Egyptians borrowed their gods, Theuth and Bau, and the Greeks their Chaos. God seems at first to have created the elementary principles of all things; and this formed the grand mass of matter, which in this state must be without arrangement, or any distinction of parts: a vast collection of indescribably confused materials, of nameless entities strangely mixed; and wonderfully well expressed by an ancient heathen poet:—

Ante mare et terras, et, quod tegit omnia, caelum,

Unus erat toto naturæ vultus in orbe,

Quem dixere Chaos; rudis indigestaque moles,

Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners; congestaque eodem

Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum.

OVID.

Before the seas and this terrestrial ball,

And heaven’s high canopy that covers all,

One was the face of nature, if a face;

Rather, a rude and indigested mass;

A lifeless lump, unfashion’d and unframed,

Of jarring seeds, and justly Chaos named.

DRYDEN.

The most ancient of the Greeks have spoken nearly in the same way of this crude, indigested state of the primitive chaotic mass.

When this congeries of elementary principles was brought together, God was pleased to spend six days in assimilating, assorting, and arranging the materials, out of which he built up, not only the earth, but the whole of the solar system.

The spirit of God] This has been variously and strangely understood. Some think a violent wind is meant, because jwr, ruach often signifies wind, as well as spirit, as pneuma, does in Greek; and the term God is connected with it merely, as they think, to express the superlative degree. Others understand by it an elementary fire. Others, the sun, penetrating and drying up the earth with his rays. Others, the angels, who were supposed to have been employed as agents in creation. Others, a certain occult principle, termed the anima mundi or soul of the world. Others, a magnetic attraction, by which all things were caused to gravitate to a common centre. But it is sufficiently evident from the use of the word in other places, that the Holy Spirit of God is intended; which our blessed Lord represents under the notion of wind, John 3:8; and which, as a mighty rushing wind on the day of pentecost, filled the house where the disciples were sitting, Acts 2:2, which was immediately followed by their speaking with other tongues, because they were filled with the Holy Ghost, Acts 2:4. These scriptures sufficiently ascertain the sense in which the word is used by Moses.

Moved] tpjrm merachepheth, was brooding over; for the word expresses that tremulous motion made by the hen while either hatching her eggs or fostering her young. It here probably signifies the communicating a vital or prolific principle to the waters. As the idea of incubation, or hatching an egg, is implied in the original word, hence probably the notion, which prevailed among the ancients, that the world was generated from an egg.

Verse 2. The earth — When first called into existence, was without form and void: confusion and emptiness, as the same original words are rendered, Isaiah 34:11. It was without order, beauty, or even use, in its present state, and was surrounded on all sides with thick darkness, through the gloom of which there was not one ray of light to penetrate not even so much as to render the darkness visible.

The Spirit of God moved, &c. — To cherish, quicken, and dispose them to the production of the things afterward mentioned. The Hebrew word here rendered moved, is used, Deuteronomy 32:11, of the eagle fluttering over her young, and of fowls brooding over their eggs and young ones, to warm and cherish them: but, we must remember, that the expression, as here used, is purely metaphorical, and must not be considered as conveying any ideas that are unworthy of the infinite and spiritual nature of the Holy Ghost.

Ver. 2. And the earth was without form and void. whbw wht Tohoo ve-bohoo; when the mountains first appeared they were bare, and unadorned with vegetation. Jeremiah 4:23. On these words the rabbi Kimchi says, Tohoo designates the unformed mass, and Bohoo the form itself. The LXX read the conjunction disjunctively, ‘H de gh hn aoratov, but the earth was invisible, being enveloped in the darkness which covered the face of the deep. The earth was created in a liquid state, a chaotic mass, having the pure essence of every mineral in itself. On this subject, Moses, as the scribe of nature, is supported by universal tradition.

When the Brahmins solicited MENU, son of Brahma, to give them some account of the first creation, he spake thus—”This world was all darkness, undiscernible, undistinguishable, and altogether as in a profound sleep, till the self-existent invisible God made it manifest by the five elements, and with other glorious forms which perfectly dispersed the gloom. Designing to raise up creatures by an emanation of his own glory, he first created the waters, and impressed them with the power of motion. Hence the waters are called nàrá, because his first agana, or moving was on them.”—Asiatic Researches, vol. 1. p. 243.

Homer coincides with the Brahmins, and regards the ocean as the common parent from which all the productions of nature had their birth. Wkeanov d’osper genesi pantessi tetukqai:

Cicero gives it as an opinion generally received among the ancients, that fluidity was the pristine state of the watery mass from which all things were formed, conformably to the plan existing in the divine mind. Aquam esse initium rerum, Deum autem eam mentem qua ex aquâ cuncta fingeret.— De nat. Deorum, lib. 1. cap. 25.

A recent discovery of modern science has demonstrated that the earth was created in a liquid state. By measuring a degree of the sun’s meridian in every degree of latitude as far as the arctic region, it is found that the figure of the earth is a spheroid, whose diameter at the poles is nearly thirty seven miles less than at the equator. It must have assumed this figure from its diurnal motion while in a liquid state, and from the special design of the Creator, as it gives elevation to the torrid zone, and cools the heat by an increase of the trade winds, and moderates the northern cold by an oblation of the poles. This was first suspected by the Danes, as all their goods weighed less in the West Indies than at Copenhagen.

The spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. Though it be true, that the wind moved on the face of the waters, and with great violence; yet the rabbins read Spirit, as being connected with creative energies. The word is used for the brooding of a hen over her nest. So in Job, “By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens.” 26:13. Psalm 33:6.

2. And the earth was without form and void — Having stated in the first verse the great fact of the creation, the writer now proceeds to unfold the manner and order of that creation. Here we must differ from those critics who understand verse 1 of the primordial matter of the universe, and the following verses of a subsequent series of growths. The analogy of the entire Book of Genesis confirms the view of those who regard verse 1 as a heading or general statement of the substance of the whole following section, which the succeeding verses go on to elaborate in detail. So Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 10:1; 11:10, 27, etc., are respectively the headings of so many sections of this ancient Book of the Beginning and Generations of human history. In every instance, after first positing a general statement of his subject, the writer proceeds to narrate the details which his statement involves. The words used in the first verse needed an explanation, which the rest of the chapter at once supplies. The statement, so often made, that the conjunction and (w) at the beginning of verse 2 forbids the supposition that verse 1 is a summary of the whole chapter, is seen to be futile by a comparison of the immediate sequence of other headings of sections named above. The words whbw wht are rendered by Onkelos waste and empty; by Aquila, emptiness and nothing; by Vulgate, empty and void; and by the Sept., invisible and unformed. The words appear in the same form again in Jeremiah 4:23. They here describe the land as waste and empty, and the context shows that it was as yet covered with waters, so as to form a part and condition of the deep, over the surface or face of which there was darkness. Whether light had ever beamed upon that deep, or how the land and the waters came to be so intermixed, are questions on which the writer utters no sentiment. The Spirit of God moved (tpjrm, brooding, comp. Deuteronomy 32:11) upon the face of the waters — The Divine Spirit hovered down upon the deep, as the mighty Agent by whose power the darkness will be made to vanish, and beauty and order arise out of desolation and emptiness. Observe, here is no broad statement that darkness prevailed through the entire universe of God; nor is the deep or the waters to be identified with the entire surface of the globe.

V. 3, 4, 5. We have here a farther account of the first day’s work. In which observe, 1. That the first of all visible beings which God created was light, the great beauty and blessing of the universe: like the first-born, it doth, of all visible beings, most resemble its great parent in purity and power, brightness and beneficence. 2. That the light was made by the word of God’s power;

He said, Let there be light-He willed it, and it was done; there was light-Such a copy as exactly answered the original idea in the eternal mind.

3. That the light which God willed, he approved of.

God saw the light, that it was good-‘Twas exactly as he designed it; and it was fit to answer the end for which he designed it. 4. That God divided the light from the darkness-So put them asunder as they could never be joined together: and yet he divided time between them, the day for light, and the night for darkness, in a constant succession. Tho’ the darkness was now scattered by the light, yet it has its place, because it has its use; for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night. God has thus divided between light and darkness, because he would daily mind us that this is a world of mixtures and changes. In heaven there is perpetual light, and no darkness; in hell utter darkness, and no light: but in this world they are counter-changed, and we pass daily from one to another; that we may learn to expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God. 5. That God divided them from each other by distinguishing names. He

called the light Day, and the darkness he called night-He gave them names as Lord of both. He is the Lord of time, and will be so ‘till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity. 6. That this was the first day’s work, The evening and the morning were the first day-The darkness of the evening was before the light of the morning, that it might set it off, and make it shine the brighter.

Verse 3. And God said, Let there be light] rwa yhyw rwa yh YEHI OR, vaihi or. Nothing can be conceived more dignified than this form of expression. It argues at once uncontrollable authority, and omnific power; and in human language it is scarcely possible to conceive that God can speak more like himself. This passage, in the Greek translation of the Septuagint, fell in the way of Dionysius Longinus, one of the most judicious Greek critics that ever lived, and who is highly celebrated over the civilized world for a treatise he wrote, entitled Peri JUyouv, Concerning the SUBLIME, both in prose and poetry; of this passage, though a heathen, he speaks in the following terms:-Tauth kai o twn Ioudaiwn qesmoqeths $ouc o tucwn anhr,% epeidh thn tou qeiou dunamin kata thn axian ecwrhse, kaxefhnen euquv en tn eisbolh grayav twn nomwn, EIPEN JO QEOS, fhsi, tiÈ GENESQW fwv kai egeneto. GENESQW GE\ kai egeneto. “So likewise the Jewish lawgiver (who was no ordinary man) having conceived a just idea of the Divine power, he expressed it in a dignified manner; for at the beginning of his laws he thus speaks: GOD SAID-What? LET THERE BE LIGHT! and there was light. LET THERE BE EARTH! and there was earth.”-Longinus, sect. ix. edit. Pearce.

Many have asked, “How could light be produced on the first day, and the sun, the fountain of it, not created till the fourth day?” With the various and often unphilosophical answers which have been given to this question I will not meddle, but shall observe that the original word rwa signifies not only light but fire, see Isaiah 31:9 Ezekiel 5:2. It is used for the SUN, Job 31:26. And for the electric fluid or LIGHTNING, Job 37:3. And it is worthy of remark that It is used in Isaiah 44:16, for the heat, derived from (va esh, the fire. He burneth part thereof in the fire (va wmb bemo esh:) yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha! I have seen the fire, rwa ytyar raithi ur, which a modern philosopher who understood the language would not scruple to translate, I have received caloric, or an additional portion of the matter of heat. I therefore conclude, that as God has diffused the matter of caloric or latent heat through every part of nature, without which there could be neither vegetation nor animal life, that it is caloric or latent heat which is principally intended by the original word.

That there is latent light, which is probably the same with latent heat, may be easily demonstrated: take two pieces of smooth rock crystal, agate, cornelian or flint, and rub them together briskly in the dark, and the latent light or matter of caloric will be immediately produced and become visible. The light or caloric thus disengaged does not operate in the same powerful manner as the heat or fire which is produced by striking with flint and steel, or that produced by electric friction. The existence of this caloric-latent or primitive light, may be ascertained in various other bodies; it can be produced by the flint and steel, by rubbing two hard sticks together, by hammering cold iron, which in a short time becomes red hot, and by the strong and sudden compression of atmospheric air in a tube. Friction in general produces both fire and light. God therefore created this universal agent on the first day, because without It no operation of nature could be carried on or perfected.

Light is one of the most astonishing productions of the creative skill and power of God. It is the grand medium by which all his other works are discovered, examined, and understood, so far as they can be known. Its immense diffusion and extreme velocity are alone sufficient to demonstrate the being and wisdom of God. Light has been proved by many experiments to travel at the astonishing rate of 194,188 miles in one second of time! and comes from the sun to the earth in eight minutes 11 43/50 seconds, a distance of 95,513,794 English miles.

Verse 3. God said — Not by an articulate voice; for to whom should he speak? but in his own eternal mind. He willed that the effect here mentioned should be produced, and it was produced. This act of his almighty will is termed, Hebrews 1:3, the word of his power. Perhaps, however, his substantial Word, his Son, by whom he made the worlds, Hebrews 1:2, and Psalm 33:6, 9, is here intended, and whom the ancient fathers of the Christian Church thought to be termed the Word, John 1:1, chiefly for this reason. Let there be light, &c. — The noted critic, Longinus, in his celebrated Treatise on the Sublime, expresses his admiration of this sentence, as giving a most just and striking idea of the power of God. In bringing order out of confusion, and forming the sundry parts of the universe, God first gave birth to those that are the most simple, pure, active, and powerful; which he, probably, afterward used as agents or instruments in forming some other parts. Light is the great beauty and blessing of the universe; and as it was the first of all visible things, so, as the firstborn, it most resembles its great parent in purity and power, in brightness and beneficence. Probably the light was at first impressed on some part of the heavens, or collected in some lucid body, the revolution of which distinguished the three first days. On the fourth it was condensed, increased, perfected, and placed in the body of the sun and other luminaries.

Ver. 3. And God said, Let there be light. Though the atmosphere of the sun was not cleared till the fourth day, to receive and propel the light, yet the luminous fluid would so collect by affinity as to cheer creation with the dawn of day; and night is but the absence of light. In this most beautiful fluid the universe becomes the object of transporting vision, and the perfections of the invisible God are seen in his works. By the light, warmth and animation are conveyed to the animal and the vegetable world; and the eye is charmed with the exhibition of primitive colours in the rainbow, and in all prismatic refractions of light.

FIRST DAY — LIGHT, 3-5.

3. And God said — Or, Then says God. Having stated the condition of things at the time and place of the fiat of the “omnific word,” the writer now denotes a sequence by introducing the future or imperfect tense-form of the verb. The perfect tense of the preceding verbs, arb (verse 1) and htyh, (verse 2,) puts the reader back to an ideal standpoint — the beginning; the future tense of rmayw denotes a point of time future from that standpoint, though really in the past. Every creation of this chapter is preceded by these words, God said, from which doubtless arose the sublime New Testament conception that the worlds (ages) were made by the WORD of God. Hebrews 11:3. Hence, too, the doctrine of the Logos in John 1:1-3. Let there be light: and there was light — Well might Longinus and others call attention to the sublimity of this passage. The natural meaning is, that at the fiat of the Almighty light supernaturally broke in upon the confused deep, and revealed its desolate and empty condition. Whence the light proceeded, by what means it was produced, and how large an area it illumined, are questions as idle to essay to answer as, Of what did God create the great sea monsters, (of ver. 21,) and how many of them did he make? We are told in the verses next following that “God divided the light from the darkness, and called the light Day and the darkness Night.” The old question, Why this production of light on the first day, when the luminaries first appear on the fourth day? may be anticipated here. The making of an expanse to divide the waters above and the waters below, (verses 6, 7,) and the chaotic condition of the land and waters as previously described, warrant the conclusion that the atmosphere far into the upper heavens was filled with impenetrable mist, utterly shutting out the light of the sun and moon and stars. These luminaries were, of course, in existence, but at the time of this “beginning,” and from that portion of the earth’s surface here described, they were concealed. We know what it is now to have an impenetrable fog settle upon a region and abide for days. Comp. Acts 27:20. The plague of darkness which covered Egypt for three days was such as could be felt, and prevented any one from moving from place to place. Exodus 10:21-23. Is it, then, difficult to conceive a darkness covering all that region where God planted the garden of Eden, so dense as utterly to shut the celestial luminaries from view? We may, indeed, suppose that the light produced by this word of God was the light of the sun, forced through the intervening clouds and mist without dispelling them for three days. The sun would, in such a case, have been invisible. But as the earth continued its axial revolution, day and night were alternately produced, and thus God divided between the light and the darkness. Nothing hinders our supposing such a mode of producing the light, and dividing the light from the darkness.

V. 3, 4, 5. We have here a farther account of the first day’s work. In which observe, 1. That the first of all visible beings which God created was light, the great beauty and blessing of the universe: like the first-born, it doth, of all visible beings, most resemble its great parent in purity and power, brightness and beneficence. 2. That the light was made by the word of God’s power;

He said, Let there be light-He willed it, and it was done; there was light-Such a copy as exactly answered the original idea in the eternal mind.

3. That the light which God willed, he approved of.

God saw the light, that it was good-‘Twas exactly as he designed it; and it was fit to answer the end for which he designed it. 4. That God divided the light from the darkness-So put them asunder as they could never be joined together: and yet he divided time between them, the day for light, and the night for darkness, in a constant succession. Tho’ the darkness was now scattered by the light, yet it has its place, because it has its use; for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night. God has thus divided between light and darkness, because he would daily mind us that this is a world of mixtures and changes. In heaven there is perpetual light, and no darkness; in hell utter darkness, and no light: but in this world they are counter-changed, and we pass daily from one to another; that we may learn to expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God. 5. That God divided them from each other by distinguishing names. He

called the light Day, and the darkness he called night-He gave them names as Lord of both. He is the Lord of time, and will be so ‘till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity. 6. That this was the first day’s work, The evening and the morning were the first day-The darkness of the evening was before the light of the morning, that it might set it off, and make it shine the brighter.

Verse 4. God divided the light from the darkness.] This does not imply that light and darkness are two distinct substances, seeing darkness is only the privation of light; but the words simply refer us by anticipation to the rotation of the earth round its own axis once in twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, and four seconds, which is the cause of the distinction between day and night, by bringing the different parts of the surface of the earth successively into and from under the solar rays; and it was probably at this moment that God gave this rotation to the earth, to produce this merciful provision of day and night. For the manner in which light is supposed to be produced, see Genesis 1:16, under the word sun.

Verse 4. God saw the light, &c. — He beheld it with approbation, as being exactly what he designed it to be, pleasant and useful, and perfectly adapted to answer its intended end. God divided — Made a separation between the light and the darkness, as to time, place, and use, that the one should succeed and exclude the other, and that by their vicissitudes they should make the day and the night. Though the darkness was now scattered by the light, it has its place, because it has its use: for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night. God has thus divided between light and darkness, because he would daily impress upon our minds that this is a world of mixture and changes. In heaven there is perpetual light and no darkness; in hell, utter darkness and no light: but in this world they are counter-changed, and we pass daily from the one to the other, that we may expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God.

FIRST DAY — LIGHT, 3-5.

3. And God said — Or, Then says God. Having stated the condition of things at the time and place of the fiat of the “omnific word,” the writer now denotes a sequence by introducing the future or imperfect tense-form of the verb. The perfect tense of the preceding verbs, arb (verse 1) and htyh, (verse 2,) puts the reader back to an ideal standpoint — the beginning; the future tense of rmayw denotes a point of time future from that standpoint, though really in the past. Every creation of this chapter is preceded by these words, God said, from which doubtless arose the sublime New Testament conception that the worlds (ages) were made by the WORD of God. Hebrews 11:3. Hence, too, the doctrine of the Logos in John 1:1-3. Let there be light: and there was light — Well might Longinus and others call attention to the sublimity of this passage. The natural meaning is, that at the fiat of the Almighty light supernaturally broke in upon the confused deep, and revealed its desolate and empty condition. Whence the light proceeded, by what means it was produced, and how large an area it illumined, are questions as idle to essay to answer as, Of what did God create the great sea monsters, (of ver. 21,) and how many of them did he make? We are told in the verses next following that “God divided the light from the darkness, and called the light Day and the darkness Night.” The old question, Why this production of light on the first day, when the luminaries first appear on the fourth day? may be anticipated here. The making of an expanse to divide the waters above and the waters below, (verses 6, 7,) and the chaotic condition of the land and waters as previously described, warrant the conclusion that the atmosphere far into the upper heavens was filled with impenetrable mist, utterly shutting out the light of the sun and moon and stars. These luminaries were, of course, in existence, but at the time of this “beginning,” and from that portion of the earth’s surface here described, they were concealed. We know what it is now to have an impenetrable fog settle upon a region and abide for days. Comp. Acts 27:20. The plague of darkness which covered Egypt for three days was such as could be felt, and prevented any one from moving from place to place. Exodus 10:21-23. Is it, then, difficult to conceive a darkness covering all that region where God planted the garden of Eden, so dense as utterly to shut the celestial luminaries from view? We may, indeed, suppose that the light produced by this word of God was the light of the sun, forced through the intervening clouds and mist without dispelling them for three days. The sun would, in such a case, have been invisible. But as the earth continued its axial revolution, day and night were alternately produced, and thus God divided between the light and the darkness. Nothing hinders our supposing such a mode of producing the light, and dividing the light from the darkness.

V. 3, 4, 5. We have here a farther account of the first day’s work. In which observe, 1. That the first of all visible beings which God created was light, the great beauty and blessing of the universe: like the first-born, it doth, of all visible beings, most resemble its great parent in purity and power, brightness and beneficence. 2. That the light was made by the word of God’s power;

He said, Let there be light-He willed it, and it was done; there was light-Such a copy as exactly answered the original idea in the eternal mind.

3. That the light which God willed, he approved of.

God saw the light, that it was good-‘Twas exactly as he designed it; and it was fit to answer the end for which he designed it. 4. That God divided the light from the darkness-So put them asunder as they could never be joined together: and yet he divided time between them, the day for light, and the night for darkness, in a constant succession. Tho’ the darkness was now scattered by the light, yet it has its place, because it has its use; for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night. God has thus divided between light and darkness, because he would daily mind us that this is a world of mixtures and changes. In heaven there is perpetual light, and no darkness; in hell utter darkness, and no light: but in this world they are counter-changed, and we pass daily from one to another; that we may learn to expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God. 5. That God divided them from each other by distinguishing names. He

called the light Day, and the darkness he called night-He gave them names as Lord of both. He is the Lord of time, and will be so ‘till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity. 6. That this was the first day’s work, The evening and the morning were the first day-The darkness of the evening was before the light of the morning, that it might set it off, and make it shine the brighter.

Verse 5. God called, &c. — God distinguished them from each other by different names, as the Lord of both. The day is thine, the night also is thine. He is the Lord of time, and will be so till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity. The evening — Including the following night, and the morning, including the succeeding day, were the first natural day, of twenty-four hours. Some, indeed, by evening understand the foregoing day as being then concluded, and by the morning the preceding night: but the Jews, who had the best opportunity of understanding Moses, who here declares the mind of God in this matter, began both their common and sacred days in the evening, see Leviticus 23:32. The darkness of the evening, preceding the light of the morning, sets it off and makes it shine the brighter.

Ver. 5. And the evening and the morning were the first day. The day is reckoned by oriental nations by the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour. Matthew 20. The night allows the weary labourer time for repose, and cheers him in the morning by the welcome return of the rising sun.

5. God called the light Day — By whatever means or method God caused “the light to shine out of darkness,” (2 Corinthians 4:6,) it is important to observe that he called that light Day. Why now should we take it on ourselves to say, as so many expositors have ventured to do, that “day” in the first chapter of Genesis means a vast cosmogonic period or age? Shall we permit the sacred historian to define his own terms, as he most certainly assumes to do, or foist into his words the speculative theories of modern times? “The Hebrew word yom, (day,)” says Professor Guyot, “is used in this chapter in five different senses, just as we use the word day in common language: 1. The day, meaning light, without reference to time or succession. 2. The cosmogonic day, the nature of which is to be determined. 3. The day of twenty-four hours, in the fourth cosmogonic day, where it is said of the sun and moon, ‘Let them be for days, and for seasons, and for years.’ 4. The light part of the same day of twenty-four hours, as opposed to the night. 5. In Genesis 2:4, the week of creation, or an indefinite period of time.” — Creation, or the Biblical Cosmogony, pp. 50, 51.

Could any thing be more uncritical, arbitrary, and dogmatic than this deliverance of a Christian scientist? If we may put five different meanings upon one simple word, when the writer himself so definitely gives his own meaning, what may we not make the Bible say? The definition No. 4 above is the one which we adopt, (not, however, limiting it to twenty-four hours,) as being that of the sacred writer himself, and this, we believe, will be sufficient to meet the demands of this entire narrative of creation. The length of this day is not told. It was the period of light, whether twelve hours or a much greater length of time. So far as mere length of time is here denoted, there may have been but one day and one night in a year of our time. This would accord with Professor Warren’s hypothesis of the beginning of human life within the Arctic circle. (See his Paradise Found; the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole. Boston, 1885.) And the evening and the morning were the first day — Better, And there was evening and there was morning, one day. That is, the first day had its evening and its morning. We are not to understand the morning as equivalent to the day, and the evening to the night, nor are we to construe one day as grammatically in apposition with evening and morning. The simplest meaning is, that this first day, like all other days, had an evening and a morning. Evening was probably mentioned before morning in accordance with the ancient custom of reckoning days from evening to evening; not to indicate that the primeval darkness constituted the first evening.

V. 6, 7, 8. We have here an account of the second day’s work, the creation of the firmament. In which observe, 1. The command of God; Let there be a firmament-An expansion; so the Hebrew word signifies, like a sheet spread, or a curtain drawn out. This includes all that is visible above the earth, between it and the third heavens, the air, its higher, middle, and lower region, the celestial globe, and all the orbs of light above; it reaches as high as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is called here the firmament of heaven, Genesis 1:14, 15, and as low as the place where the birds fly for that also is called the firmament of heaven, Genesis 1:20. 2. The creation of it: and God made the firmament. 3. The design of it; to divide the waters from the waters-That is, to distinguish between the waters that are wrapt up in the clouds, and those that cover the sea; the waters in the air, and those in the earth. 4. The naming it;

He called the firmament Heaven-‘Tis the visible heaven, the pavement of the holy city. The height of the heavens should mind us of God’s supremacy, and the infinite distance that is between us and him; the brightness of the heavens, and their purity, should mind us of his majesty, and perfect holiness; the vastness of the heavens, and their encompassing the earth, and influence upon it, should mind us of his immensity and universal providence.

Verse 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament] Our translators, by following the firmamentum of the Vulgate, which is a translation of the sterewma of the Septuagint, have deprived this passage of all sense and meaning. The Hebrew word [yqr rakia, from [qr raka, to spread out as the curtains of a tent or pavilion, simply signifies an expanse or space, and consequently that circumambient space or expansion separating the clouds, which are in the higher regions of it, from the seas, &c., which are below it. This we call the atmosphere, the orb of atoms or inconceivably small particles; but the word appears to have been used by Moses in a more extensive sense, and to include the whole of the planetary vortex, or the space which is occupied by the whole solar system.

Verse 6. Let there be a firmament — This term, which is an exact translation of the word used by the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament, by no means expresses the sense of the word used by Moses, [yqr, rakiang, which merely means extension or expansion. And as this extension or expansion was to be in the midst of the waters, and was to divide the waters from the waters, it chiefly, if not solely, means the air or atmosphere which separates the water in the clouds from that which is in and upon the earth. Thus the second great production of the Almighty was the element which is next in simplicity, purity, activity, and power, to the light, and no doubt was also used by him as an agent in producing some subsequent effects, especially in gathering the waters into one place. It is true, we afterward read of the sun, moon, and stars being set in the firmament of heaven: but the meaning seems only to be that they are so placed as only to be visible to us through the atmosphere.

SECOND DAY — HEAVENS, 6-8.

6. Let there be a firmament — Hebrews, [yqr; Sept., sterewma; Vulg., firmamentum. The Hebrew word properly means something spread out; margin, expansion. It means the expanse, the open space above the surface of the land through which an observer looks away to what appears a vast concave surface above him. This open sky is metaphorically called the “firmament;” but we are not to suppose that the ancients, any more than the moderns, believed in a solid metallic firmament. The poetical language of Job 37:18; Isaiah 40:22; Psalm 78:23, etc., no more implies such a belief than similar metaphors in the poetry of the present day. In the midst of the waters — Between the waters below and the waters above, as is immediately explained. Let it divide — Let it serve as a divider of the waters below, (namely, the deep,) and the waters that float in cloudy masses above the face of the deep. Psalm 148:4.

V. 6, 7, 8. We have here an account of the second day’s work, the creation of the firmament. In which observe, 1. The command of God; Let there be a firmament-An expansion; so the Hebrew word signifies, like a sheet spread, or a curtain drawn out. This includes all that is visible above the earth, between it and the third heavens, the air, its higher, middle, and lower region, the celestial globe, and all the orbs of light above; it reaches as high as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is called here the firmament of heaven, Genesis 1:14, 15, and as low as the place where the birds fly for that also is called the firmament of heaven, Genesis 1:20. 2. The creation of it: and God made the firmament. 3. The design of it; to divide the waters from the waters-That is, to distinguish between the waters that are wrapt up in the clouds, and those that cover the sea; the waters in the air, and those in the earth. 4. The naming it;

He called the firmament Heaven-‘Tis the visible heaven, the pavement of the holy city. The height of the heavens should mind us of God’s supremacy, and the infinite distance that is between us and him; the brightness of the heavens, and their purity, should mind us of his majesty, and perfect holiness; the vastness of the heavens, and their encompassing the earth, and influence upon it, should mind us of his immensity and universal providence.

Ver. 7. And God made the firmament. [yqr rakia, the expanse or expansion, as Montanus reads, not only the atmosphere of the earth, but the whole ether in which the orbs of heaven revolve. Such is the import of the word in ver. 15, 17; and Daniel 12:3. By the laws of gravitation which subsist between the sun and the whole planetary system, the centripetal and centrifugal motions are so firmly regulated, that each moves in its orbit with the greatest precision, and all nature is bound by the universal chain. The earth’s atmosphere was cleared on the second day, and left adorned with ever-changing scenes of beauteous clouds.

7. God made the firmament — By his almighty fiat the dense mist that hung over the face of the deep, and was itself a vast expanse of waters, was lifted up to find a local habitation on high. Thus was formed the vast reservoir of the heavens, from which the rains descend to fertilize and refresh the land. “Next to the light,” says Jacobus, “is the law of the atmosphere, so essential to life in the vegetable and animal world. Here it is set forth as supporting the floating vapour, and keeping in suspense a fluid of greater specific gravity than itself. The formation of clouds is referred to by Job in language which reveals an acquaintance with the laws here established by the Creator: ‘He maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof; which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.… Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds?’” Job 36:27, 28; 37:16; compare also Genesis 2:6. “But why, it may be asked, did he not speak of this storehouse of waters as diffused through the firmament, instead of placing it above it? We answer: This would have been to convert the firmament of sense into the atmosphere of science, and phenomena into natural philosophy, which doubtless God could have done, but did not see fit to do.” — Barrows.

V. 6, 7, 8. We have here an account of the second day’s work, the creation of the firmament. In which observe, 1. The command of God; Let there be a firmament-An expansion; so the Hebrew word signifies, like a sheet spread, or a curtain drawn out. This includes all that is visible above the earth, between it and the third heavens, the air, its higher, middle, and lower region, the celestial globe, and all the orbs of light above; it reaches as high as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is called here the firmament of heaven, Genesis 1:14, 15, and as low as the place where the birds fly for that also is called the firmament of heaven, Genesis 1:20. 2. The creation of it: and God made the firmament. 3. The design of it; to divide the waters from the waters-That is, to distinguish between the waters that are wrapt up in the clouds, and those that cover the sea; the waters in the air, and those in the earth. 4. The naming it;

He called the firmament Heaven-‘Tis the visible heaven, the pavement of the holy city. The height of the heavens should mind us of God’s supremacy, and the infinite distance that is between us and him; the brightness of the heavens, and their purity, should mind us of his majesty, and perfect holiness; the vastness of the heavens, and their encompassing the earth, and influence upon it, should mind us of his immensity and universal providence.

8. God called the firmament Heaven — Rather, called the expanse Heavens. Here the writer defines the meaning of the word “heavens,” which he had used in the first verse. And he further represents the luminaries as set in the expanse of the heavens, (verses 14-17,) and the winged fowls as flying upon its face, (verse 20,) and hence called the fowl of the heavens. Verses 26, 28, 30. By a most natural process the word would become associated with things above, and be used to denote the dwellingplace of God. Hence, too, the notion of many heavens. Compare 2 Corinthians 12:3.

V. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. The third day’s work is related in these verses; the forming the sea and the dry land, and making the earth fruitful. Hitherto the power of the Creator had been employed about the upper part of the visible world; now he descends to this lower world, designed for the children of men, both for their habitation, and their maintenance. And here we have an account of the fitting of it for both; the building of their house, and the spreading of their table.

Observe, 1. How the earth was prepared to be a habitation for man by the gathering of the waters together, and making the dry land appear. Thus, instead of that confusion which was, when earth and water were mixed in one great mass; now there is order, by such a separation as rendered them both useful. (1.) The waters which covered the earth were ordered to retire, and to gather into one place, viz. those hollows which were fitted for their reception. The waters thus lodged in their proper place, he called Seas; for though they are many, in distant regions, yet either above ground or under ground, they have communication with each other, and so they are one, and the common receptacle of waters, into which all the rivers run.

(2.) The dry land was made to appear, and emerge out of the waters, and was called Earth.

Observe, 2. How the earth was furnished for the support of man, Genesis 1:11, 12. Present provision was made, by the immediate products of the earth, which, in obedience to God’s command, was no sooner made but it became fruitful. Provision was likewise made for time to come, by the perpetuating of the several species of vegetables, every one having its seed in itself after its kind, that during the continuance of man upon the earth, food might be fetched out of the earth, for his use and benefit.

Verses 9, 10. God said, &c. — From the production, or separation from gross matter, of light and air, and the assigning them their proper places and uses in the creation, God proceeds, on the third day, to separate, put in order, and control the clement nearest to them in quality and use, fluid like them, comparatively simple, and pure, and although not elastic, yet of great power. Let the waters be gathered into one place — The abyss in the bowels of the earth, Genesis 7:11, and the hollows connected therewith. Thus, instead of the confusion which existed when the earth and the water were mixed in one great mass, there was now order; and by such a separation, both were rendered useful: the earth was prepared for the habitation and support of man, and various orders of land animals, and the waters for the still more numerous tribes of living creatures, formed to abide and seek their sustenance in the seas, lakes, and rivers.

Ver. 9. And God said, Let the dry land appear. The elder opinion is, that the mountains rose by latent heat. But the expansive power of heat would swell the waters as well as the land. La Mertherie, editor of Annales de Chemie, contends, that the mountains rose by crystalization. Expansion is inseparable from crystalization, as is apparent from the icebergs in the north seas, rising high above the water.

In the liquid mass, the first state of the earth, every mineral essence would sport its configurations with the sublimest effects of chemical energy. The beautiful granite would augment into immense masses, and raise its sharply defined summits above the seas. So is the diamond rock near the Cape of Good Hope, two miles in extent without any visible fissure; and so is the granite at Mount Bineve in Scotland; and yet those rocks alternate in colour from white to green, red, and yellow. So also is the salt rock, extending for three miles at Cordova in Spain: and the iron rock at Taberg in Sweden is one entire mass, visible for four hundred yards. The primitive limestones have the like massy character. Dr. Townson, a Caledonian traveller, says, “I have followed the great chain of primitive limestone mountains in Hungaria for perhaps a hundred miles; yet they never appear to be divided into beds, though sometimes elevated a hundred yards.”—Philosophy of Mineralogy, p. 70.—Humboldt, an accredited traveller, confirms Dr. Townson’s statement. “The volcanoes of South America, he says, have their grand seat of action far below the granitic ranges.” And volcanoes are always seated in the ranges of limestone and iron.

The formation of the secondary or transition rocks, immediately followed the primitive and massy. They are the immense depositions of the rolling waters, which have broken by exsiccation into beds or strata, and crystalized into every species of rocks and of metals, conformably to the determinate laws of the essences which predominated in their formation. As the mountains continued to rise, the waters have so retreated from the vallies as to leave the fine shapes of landscape behind, and so inclined their torrents as to give an earlier meeting to a sister stream. These operations of the waters, and in strong characters, continued after the creation of living beings; and in fact, continue their operations in weaker characters to the present time, wherever the sea is making new land.

Add to these, that almost every continent presents us with some new formation of rocks, or other minerals, as the white sparry rock of vast extent in South America, the gneiss in Sweden, and the chalk in England and France. The chalk being superposed on a blue clay, might occasion the mass to remain in a soft state longer than other limestone, which generally rests on a gravel: or from some unknown essence in its formation, so as to allow the silicious fluid time to separate and form its flinty nodules, which lie in parallel veins along the mass.

The small proportion of organic remains, which are found deep in the chalk, and more largely in some of the marmoreous ranges; and the abundance of coralites, and encrinites, and testaceous families which often cover the superior strata of those rocks, must all be regarded as depositions of the refluent seas, subsequent to the fifth day of the Mosaic creation.

Count Chateaubriand, a student of nature, who travelled in Asia and America, nearly coincides in this view of the primitive deposition of organic remains.

The coal formations, of which the new science boasts four ages, are in fact but two; the oldest, which burns with fusion, and the more recent, which burns with all the characters of charcoal. The coal which melts is mainly a marine deposition, mineralized in thin beds, and often at great depths. The other, as in Staffordshire, lies in thick beds, and is chiefly the timber of Noah’s flood: else what became of the timber which then covered the primitive world? Of this fact, after a long residence in those collieries, I am perfectly assured. I have traced the ramifications of large trees in those beds, which are thirty feet thick, and extend for seventeen miles in length by twelve in breadth. The bog coal is partial, and of more recent date. What need then have we to be sent from light to darkness, and told that “man, to whom only a short space of existence is allotted on earth, would,” by the study of geology, “have the glory of restoring thousands of ages, which preseded the history of his race, and thousands of animals that never were contemporaneous with his species. And would there not be some glory for man to overleap the boundaries of time by means of a few observations [au moyen de quelques observations,] to recover the history of this earth, and the series of events which preseded the birth of the human race?”—Cuvier’s Essay, pp. 2, 140.

Our reply is, that we have no chronometers; but on the contrary, in the vicinity of volcanoes, after exceptions for earthquakes and the overflowings of lavas, the ancient strata, though near the craters, are perfectly undisturbed. The disruptions of the earth are all local, and occasioned by irruptions of water on the ignited lavas. Those waters being instantly converted into vapour, tremblings, and sometimes burstings of the earth, are the immediate consequences. The mountain ranges, which abound with subterranean rivers and lakes, and widely communicate with one another, as is known by volcanic effects, greatly preserve the earth from destruction. If God gave a revelation at all to man, we should not doubt but that revelation comprised the history of his birth. We must not sacrifice to the novelties of science, the universal traditions of the primitive world.

THIRD DAY — LAND, SEAS, AND VEGETATION, 9-13.

9. Let the waters… be gathered… the dry land appear — The import of these words is, that the land was partially, if not wholly, hidden by the waters; thus further explaining the statement of verse 2, that it was desolate and empty, and made so by the dark overflowing deep. Now, by the divine fiat, the land is supernaturally elevated above “the face of the deep,” and the waters are made to flow off together into surrounding seas. How large a portion of land was thus made to appear is nowhere intimated. A very natural supposition is, that a large island was suddenly heaved up in the midst of the deep. And this was “the land” of the antediluvian world. On this land, thus raised in the midst of the seas, the garden of Eden was planted, and here man was first introduced. This miraculous elevation of the land from the waters we understand to be the true conception of 2 Peter 3:5, which, literally and accurately translated, is, “For it is hidden from them who will it, that the heavens were from of old, and the land (gh) from water and by means of water, consisting by the word of God.” Thus Fronmuller, in loc.: “The earth originated out of water — out of the dark matter in which it was comprehended — and through water, that is, through the agency of water, which partly descended into the lower parts of the earth and partly formed the clouds in the sky.” But all was effected by God’s word.

V. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. The third day’s work is related in these verses; the forming the sea and the dry land, and making the earth fruitful. Hitherto the power of the Creator had been employed about the upper part of the visible world; now he descends to this lower world, designed for the children of men, both for their habitation, and their maintenance. And here we have an account of the fitting of it for both; the building of their house, and the spreading of their table.

Observe, 1. How the earth was prepared to be a habitation for man by the gathering of the waters together, and making the dry land appear. Thus, instead of that confusion which was, when earth and water were mixed in one great mass; now there is order, by such a separation as rendered them both useful. (1.) The waters which covered the earth were ordered to retire, and to gather into one place, viz. those hollows which were fitted for their reception. The waters thus lodged in their proper place, he called Seas; for though they are many, in distant regions, yet either above ground or under ground, they have communication with each other, and so they are one, and the common receptacle of waters, into which all the rivers run.

(2.) The dry land was made to appear, and emerge out of the waters, and was called Earth.

Observe, 2. How the earth was furnished for the support of man, Genesis 1:11, 12. Present provision was made, by the immediate products of the earth, which, in obedience to God’s command, was no sooner made but it became fruitful. Provision was likewise made for time to come, by the perpetuating of the several species of vegetables, every one having its seed in itself after its kind, that during the continuance of man upon the earth, food might be fetched out of the earth, for his use and benefit.

Verse 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas] These two constitute what is called the terraqueous globe, in which the earth and the water exist in a most judicious proportion to each other. Dr. Long took the papers which cover the surface of a seventeen inch terrestrial globe, and having carefully separated the land from the sea, be weighed the two collections of papers accurately, and found that the sea papers weighed three hundred and forty-nine grains, and the land papers only one hundred and twenty-four; by which experiment it appears that nearly three-fourths of the surface of our globe, from the arctic to the antarctic polar circles, are covered with water. The doctor did not weigh the parts within the polar circles, because there is no certain measurement of the proportion of land and water which they contain. This proportion of three-fourths water may be considered as too great, if not useless; but Mr. Ray, by most accurate experiments made on evaporation, has proved that it requires so much aqueous surface to yield a sufficiency of vapours for the purpose of cooling the atmosphere, and watering the earth. See Ray’s Physico-theological Discourses. An eminent chemist and philosopher, Dr. Priestley, has very properly observed that it seems plain that Moses considered the whole terraqueous globe as being created in a fluid state, the earthy and other particles of matter being mingled with the water. The present form of the earth demonstrates the truth of the Mosaic account; for it is well known that if a soft or elastic globular body be rapidly whirled round on its axis, the parts at the poles will be flattened, and the parts on the equator, midway between the north and south poles, will be raised up. This is precisely the shape of our earth; it has the figure of an oblate spheroid, a figure pretty much resembling the shape of an orange. It has been demonstrated by admeasurement that the earth is flatted at the poles and raised at the equator. This was first conjectured by Sir Isaac Newton, and afterwards confirmed by M. Cassini and others, who measured several degrees of latitude at the equator and near the north pole, and found that the difference perfectly justified Sir Isaac Newton’s conjecture, and consequently confirmed the Mosaic account. The result of the experiments instituted to determine this point, proved that the diameter of the earth at the equator is greater by more than twenty-three and a half miles than it is at the poles, allowing the polar diameter to be 1/334th part shorter than the equatorial, according to the recent admeasurements of several degrees of latitude made by Messrs. Mechain and Delambre.-L’Histoire des Mathem. par M. de la Lande, tom. iv., part v., liv. 6.

And God saw that it was good.] This is the judgment which God pronounced on his own works. They were beautiful and perfect in their kind, for such is the import of the word bwc tob. They were in weight and measure perfect and entire, lacking nothing. But the reader will think it strange that this approbation should be expressed once on the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth days; twice on the third, and not at all on the second! I suppose that the words, And God saw that it was good, have been either lost from the conclusion of the eighth verse, or that the clause in the tenth verse originally belonged to the eighth. It appears, from the Septuagint translation, that the words in question existed originally at the close of the eighth verse, in the copies which they used; for in that version we still find, kai eiden o qeov oti kalon And God saw that it was good. This reading, however, is not acknowledged by any of Kennicott’s or Deuteronomy Rossi’s MSS., nor by any of the other versions. If the account of the second day stood originally as it does now, no satisfactory reason can be given for the omission of this expression of the Divine approbation of the work wrought by his wisdom and power on that day.

Verses 9, 10. God said, &c. — From the production, or separation from gross matter, of light and air, and the assigning them their proper places and uses in the creation, God proceeds, on the third day, to separate, put in order, and control the clement nearest to them in quality and use, fluid like them, comparatively simple, and pure, and although not elastic, yet of great power. Let the waters be gathered into one place — The abyss in the bowels of the earth, Genesis 7:11, and the hollows connected therewith. Thus, instead of the confusion which existed when the earth and the water were mixed in one great mass, there was now order; and by such a separation, both were rendered useful: the earth was prepared for the habitation and support of man, and various orders of land animals, and the waters for the still more numerous tribes of living creatures, formed to abide and seek their sustenance in the seas, lakes, and rivers.

10. God called the dry land Earth — Or, called the dry (substance) land. The name “land” was given to the dry ground, as distinguished from the surrounding waters, which were named Seas. Here every thing is simple and plain, and as verses 6-8 explained how “God created the heavens,” (verse 1,) so verses 9 and 10 show how he created the land.

V. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. The third day’s work is related in these verses; the forming the sea and the dry land, and making the earth fruitful. Hitherto the power of the Creator had been employed about the upper part of the visible world; now he descends to this lower world, designed for the children of men, both for their habitation, and their maintenance. And here we have an account of the fitting of it for both; the building of their house, and the spreading of their table.

Observe, 1. How the earth was prepared to be a habitation for man by the gathering of the waters together, and making the dry land appear. Thus, instead of that confusion which was, when earth and water were mixed in one great mass; now there is order, by such a separation as rendered them both useful. (1.) The waters which covered the earth were ordered to retire, and to gather into one place, viz. those hollows which were fitted for their reception. The waters thus lodged in their proper place, he called Seas; for though they are many, in distant regions, yet either above ground or under ground, they have communication with each other, and so they are one, and the common receptacle of waters, into which all the rivers run.

(2.) The dry land was made to appear, and emerge out of the waters, and was called Earth.

Observe, 2. How the earth was furnished for the support of man, Genesis 1:11, 12. Present provision was made, by the immediate products of the earth, which, in obedience to God’s command, was no sooner made but it became fruitful. Provision was likewise made for time to come, by the perpetuating of the several species of vegetables, every one having its seed in itself after its kind, that during the continuance of man upon the earth, food might be fetched out of the earth, for his use and benefit.

Verse 11. Let the earth bring forth grass-- herb--fruit-tree, &c.] In these general expressions all kinds of vegetable productions are included. Fruit-tree is not to be understood here in the restricted sense in which the term is used among us; it signifies all trees, not only those which bear fruit, which may be applied to the use of men and cattle, but also those which had the power of propagating themselves by seeds, &c. Now as God delights to manifest himself in the little as well as in the great, he has shown his consummate wisdom in every part of the vegetable creation. Who can account for, or comprehend, the structure of a single tree or plant? The roots, the stem, the woody fibres, the bark, the rind, the air-vessels, the sap-vessels, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits, are so many mysteries. All the skill, wisdom, and power of men and angels could not produce a single grain of wheat: A serious and reflecting mind can see the grandeur of God, not only in the immense cedars on Lebanon, but also in the endlessly varied forests that appear through the microscope in the mould of cheese, stale paste, &c., &c.

Verses 11, 12. Let the earth bring forth grass — Here we rise to organized and vegetative bodies. Thus, before God formed any living creature to abide upon the earth, he wisely provided for its sustenance. The herb yielding, seed, whose seed is in itself; that is, in some part of itself: either in the root, or branch, or bud, or fruit; which is sufficient in itself for the propagation of its kind, from generation to generation, as long as the world shall endure, without any new creation. How astonishing the wisdom and power that could effect this! O God! how wonderful art thou in counsel, and how excellent in working! God saw that it was good — “This clause is so often added,” says Pool, “to show that all the disorders, evil, and hurtful qualities that are now in the creatures, are not to be imputed to God, who made all of them good, but to man’s sin, which hath corrupted their nature and perverted their use.”

11. Let… earth bring forth grass — In explaining this entire narrative as a supernatural preparation of the soil, climate, and vegetation of the region where the first man appeared, we do not go about seeking the secondary causes by which any of the divine fiats were brought to pass. The divine power by which the grass, herb, and fruit tree of one particular region was brought into existence is doubtless competent to originate all forms of matter and of life. But we have no good reason to expect in this Scripture an answer to the many mysterious questions of biology. Here we have revealed to us the Almighty personal God, infinite in ability and wisdom to originate all things; but how he brought into being the numberless things which now arrest the observation or attract the inquiry of men, we do not believe it is the purpose of this Scripture to explain. It is certainly supposable that he produced the vegetation of Eden miraculously, as Jesus made the water wine, and multiplied the loaves and fishes; but it does not follow that he produced all other vegetation in the same way. We note here three classes, or perhaps three stages, of vegetable life: grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit tree bearing fruit. In the first the seed is not taken into account; in the second it is the principal consideration; while in the third the fruit which envelops the seed is made most prominent.

V. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. The third day’s work is related in these verses; the forming the sea and the dry land, and making the earth fruitful. Hitherto the power of the Creator had been employed about the upper part of the visible world; now he descends to this lower world, designed for the children of men, both for their habitation, and their maintenance. And here we have an account of the fitting of it for both; the building of their house, and the spreading of their table.

Observe, 1. How the earth was prepared to be a habitation for man by the gathering of the waters together, and making the dry land appear. Thus, instead of that confusion which was, when earth and water were mixed in one great mass; now there is order, by such a separation as rendered them both useful. (1.) The waters which covered the earth were ordered to retire, and to gather into one place, viz. those hollows which were fitted for their reception. The waters thus lodged in their proper place, he called Seas; for though they are many, in distant regions, yet either above ground or under ground, they have communication with each other, and so they are one, and the common receptacle of waters, into which all the rivers run.

(2.) The dry land was made to appear, and emerge out of the waters, and was called Earth.

Observe, 2. How the earth was furnished for the support of man, Genesis 1:11, 12. Present provision was made, by the immediate products of the earth, which, in obedience to God’s command, was no sooner made but it became fruitful. Provision was likewise made for time to come, by the perpetuating of the several species of vegetables, every one having its seed in itself after its kind, that during the continuance of man upon the earth, food might be fetched out of the earth, for his use and benefit.

Verse 12. Whose seed was in itself] Which has the power of multiplying itself by seeds, slips, roots, &c., ad infinitum; which contains in itself all the rudiments of the future plant through its endless generations. This doctrine has been abundantly confirmed by the most accurate observations of the best modern philosophers. The astonishing power with which God has endued the vegetable creation to multiply its different species, may be instanced in the seed of the elm. This tree produces one thousand five hundred and eighty-four millions of seeds; and each of these seeds has the power of producing the same number. How astonishing is this produce! At first one seed is deposited in the earth; from this one a tree springs, which in the course of its vegetative life produces one thousand five hundred and eighty-four millions of seeds. This is the first generation. The second generation will amount to two trillions, five hundred and nine thousand and fifty-six billions. The third generation will amount to three thousand nine hundred and seventy-four quadrillions, three hundred and forty-four thousand seven hundred and four trillions! And the fourth generation from these would amount to six sextillions two hundred and ninety-five thousand three hundred and sixty-two quintillions, eleven thousand one hundred and thirty-six quadrillions! Sums too immense for the human mind to conceive; and, when we allow the most confined space in which a tree can grow, it appears that the seeds of the third generation from one elm would be many myriads of times more than sufficient to stock the whole superfices of all the planets in the solar system! But plants multiply themselves by slips as well as by seeds. Sir Kenelm Digby saw in 1660 a plant of barley, in the possession of the fathers of the Christian doctrine at Paris, which contained 249 stalks springing from one root or grain, and in which he counted upwards of 18,000 grains. See my experiments on Tilling in the Methodist Magazine.

Verses 11, 12. Let the earth bring forth grass — Here we rise to organized and vegetative bodies. Thus, before God formed any living creature to abide upon the earth, he wisely provided for its sustenance. The herb yielding, seed, whose seed is in itself; that is, in some part of itself: either in the root, or branch, or bud, or fruit; which is sufficient in itself for the propagation of its kind, from generation to generation, as long as the world shall endure, without any new creation. How astonishing the wisdom and power that could effect this! O God! how wonderful art thou in counsel, and how excellent in working! God saw that it was good — “This clause is so often added,” says Pool, “to show that all the disorders, evil, and hurtful qualities that are now in the creatures, are not to be imputed to God, who made all of them good, but to man’s sin, which hath corrupted their nature and perverted their use.”

THIRD DAY — LAND, SEAS, AND VEGETATION, 9-13.

9. Let the waters… be gathered… the dry land appear — The import of these words is, that the land was partially, if not wholly, hidden by the waters; thus further explaining the statement of verse 2, that it was desolate and empty, and made so by the dark overflowing deep. Now, by the divine fiat, the land is supernaturally elevated above “the face of the deep,” and the waters are made to flow off together into surrounding seas. How large a portion of land was thus made to appear is nowhere intimated. A very natural supposition is, that a large island was suddenly heaved up in the midst of the deep. And this was “the land” of the antediluvian world. On this land, thus raised in the midst of the seas, the garden of Eden was planted, and here man was first introduced. This miraculous elevation of the land from the waters we understand to be the true conception of 2 Peter 3:5, which, literally and accurately translated, is, “For it is hidden from them who will it, that the heavens were from of old, and the land (gh) from water and by means of water, consisting by the word of God.” Thus Fronmuller, in loc.: “The earth originated out of water — out of the dark matter in which it was comprehended — and through water, that is, through the agency of water, which partly descended into the lower parts of the earth and partly formed the clouds in the sky.” But all was effected by God’s word.

V. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. The third day’s work is related in these verses; the forming the sea and the dry land, and making the earth fruitful. Hitherto the power of the Creator had been employed about the upper part of the visible world; now he descends to this lower world, designed for the children of men, both for their habitation, and their maintenance. And here we have an account of the fitting of it for both; the building of their house, and the spreading of their table.

Observe, 1. How the earth was prepared to be a habitation for man by the gathering of the waters together, and making the dry land appear. Thus, instead of that confusion which was, when earth and water were mixed in one great mass; now there is order, by such a separation as rendered them both useful. (1.) The waters which covered the earth were ordered to retire, and to gather into one place, viz. those hollows which were fitted for their reception. The waters thus lodged in their proper place, he called Seas; for though they are many, in distant regions, yet either above ground or under ground, they have communication with each other, and so they are one, and the common receptacle of waters, into which all the rivers run.

(2.) The dry land was made to appear, and emerge out of the waters, and was called Earth.

Observe, 2. How the earth was furnished for the support of man, Genesis 1:11, 12. Present provision was made, by the immediate products of the earth, which, in obedience to God’s command, was no sooner made but it became fruitful. Provision was likewise made for time to come, by the perpetuating of the several species of vegetables, every one having its seed in itself after its kind, that during the continuance of man upon the earth, food might be fetched out of the earth, for his use and benefit.

THIRD DAY — LAND, SEAS, AND VEGETATION, 9-13.

9. Let the waters… be gathered… the dry land appear — The import of these words is, that the land was partially, if not wholly, hidden by the waters; thus further explaining the statement of verse 2, that it was desolate and empty, and made so by the dark overflowing deep. Now, by the divine fiat, the land is supernaturally elevated above “the face of the deep,” and the waters are made to flow off together into surrounding seas. How large a portion of land was thus made to appear is nowhere intimated. A very natural supposition is, that a large island was suddenly heaved up in the midst of the deep. And this was “the land” of the antediluvian world. On this land, thus raised in the midst of the seas, the garden of Eden was planted, and here man was first introduced. This miraculous elevation of the land from the waters we understand to be the true conception of 2 Peter 3:5, which, literally and accurately translated, is, “For it is hidden from them who will it, that the heavens were from of old, and the land (gh) from water and by means of water, consisting by the word of God.” Thus Fronmuller, in loc.: “The earth originated out of water — out of the dark matter in which it was comprehended — and through water, that is, through the agency of water, which partly descended into the lower parts of the earth and partly formed the clouds in the sky.” But all was effected by God’s word.

V. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. This is the history of the fourth day’s work, the creating the sun, moon and stars. Of this we have an account, 1. In general, verse 14, 15. where we have, (1.) The command given concerning them. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven-God had said, Genesis 1:3 Let there be light, and there was light; but that was, as it were, a chaos of light, scattered and confused; now it was collected and made into several luminaries, and so rendered both more glorious and more serviceable. (2.) The use they were intended to be of to this earth. [1.] They must be for the distinction of times, of day and night, summer and winter. [2.] They must be for the direction of actions: they are for signs of the change of weather, that the husbandman may order his affairs with discretion. They do also

give light upon the earth-That we may walk John 11:9 and work John 9:4 according as the duty of every day requires. The lights of heaven do not shine for themselves, nor for the world of spirits above, they need them not; but they shine for us, and for our pleasure and advantage. Lord, what is man that he should be thus regarded, Psalm 8:3, 4. 2. In particular, Genesis 1:16-18, The lights of heaven are the sun, moon and stars, and these all are the work of God’s hands. (1.) The sun is the greatest light of all, and the most glorious and useful of all the lamps of heaven; a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power and goodness, and an invaluable blessing to the creatures of this lower world. (2.) The moon is a lesser light, and yet is here reckoned one of the greater lights, because, though in regard of its magnitude, it is inferior to many of the stars, yet in respect of its usefulness to the earth, it is more excellent than they.

(3.) He made the stars also-Which are here spoken of only in general; for the scriptures were written not to gratify our curiosity, but to lead us to God. Now, these lights are said to rule, Genesis 1:16, 18; not that they have a supreme dominion as God has, but they are rulers under him. Here the lesser light, the moon, is said to rule the night; but Psalm 136:9 the stars are mentioned as sharers in that government, the moon and stars to rule by night. No more is meant, but that they give light, Jeremiah 31:35. The best and most honourable way of ruling is, by giving light, and doing good.

Verse 14. And God said, Let there be lights, &c.] One principal office of these was to divide between day and night. When night is considered a state of comparative darkness, how can lights divide or distinguish it? The answer is easy: The sun is the monarch of the day, which is the state of light; the moon, of the night, the state of darkness. The rays of the sun, falling on the atmosphere, are refracted and diffused over the whole of that hemisphere of the earth immediately under his orb; while those rays of that vast luminary which, because of the earth’s smallness in comparison of the sun, are diffused on all sides beyond the earth, falling on the opaque disc of the moon, are reflected back upon what may be called the lower hemisphere, or that part of the earth which is opposite to the part which is illuminated by the sun: and as the earth completes a revolution on its own axis in about twenty-four hours, consequently each hemisphere has alternate day and night. But as the solar light reflected from the face of the moon is computed to be 50,000 times less in intensity and effect than the light of the sun as it comes directly from himself to our earth, (for light decreases in its intensity as the distance it travels from the sun increases,) therefore a sufficient distinction is made between day and night, or light and darkness, notwithstanding each is ruled and determined by one of these two great lights; the moon ruling the night, i.e., reflecting from her own surface back on the earth the rays of light which she receives from the sun. Thus both hemispheres are to a certain degree illuminated: the one, on which the sun shines, completely so; this is day: the other, on which the sun’s light is reflected by the moon, partially; this is night. It is true that both the planets and fixed stars afford a considerable portion of light during the night, yet they cannot be said to rule or to predominate by their light, because their rays are quite lost in the superior splendour of the moon’s light.

And let them be for signs] ttal leothoth. Let them ever be considered as continual tokens of God’s tender care for man, and as standing proofs of his continual miraculous interference; for so the word ta oth is often used. And is it not the almighty energy of God that upholds them in being? The sun and moon also serve as signs of the different changes which take place in the atmosphere, and which are so essential for all purposes of agriculture, commerce, &c.

For seasons] מועדים moadim; For the determination of the times on which the sacred festivals should be held. In this sense the word frequently occurs; and it was right that at the very opening of his revelation God should inform man that there were certain festivals which should be annually celebrated to his glory. Some think we should understand the original word as signifying months, for which purpose we know the moon essentially serves through all the revolutions of time.

For days] Both the hours of the day and night, as well as the different lengths of the days and nights, are distinguished by the longer and shorter spaces of time the sun is above or below the horizon.

And years.] That is, those grand divisions of time by which all succession in the vast lapse of duration is distinguished. This refers principally to a complete revolution of the earth round the sun, which is accomplished in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds; for though the revolution is that of the earth, yet it cannot be determined but by the heavenly bodies.

Verses 14, 15. Let there be lights, &c. — God had said, verse 3, Let there be light; but that was, as it were a chaos of light, scattered and confused: now it was called and formed into several luminaries, and so rendered more glorious, and more serviceable. Let them be for signs,

“An horologe machinery divine!”

to mark and distinguish periods of time, longer or shorter; epochas, ages, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes. For seasons — By their motions and influences, to produce and distinguish the different seasons of the year, mentioned Genesis 8:22. To give light upon the earth — That man, and other creatures, might perform their offices by its help, as the duty of each day required; as well as to call forth the moisture and genial virtue of the earth, in order to the production of trees, plants, fruits, and flowers, for the profit and pleasure of both man and beast.

Ver. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven. vmv shemesh, the sun to rule the day, this orb being the servant or equal minister of light to all the world; and the appellation of servant is thought to be a reprehension of sabianism, which taught men to worship the hosts of heaven.—See on Job 1:5. Jeremiah 7:18. Sir William Herschel discovered by his telescope of immensely magnifying powers, that the sun is an opaque body, and that his brightness consists in the splendour of his atmosphere, which attracts and propels the light. Astronomy has now adopted this discovery, and abandoned the old opinion, which presumed that the sun was a body of fire. The observations of astronomers have demonstrated to a considerable degree of certainty, that its axis is 883,210 miles; its circumference 2,774,692 miles. The sun has two motions, the one periodical in its own orbit, nearly circular, and the other round its axis in twenty five days, as is known by observing its maculæ or dark spots, and its faculæ or semitransparent spots.

FOURTH DAY — LUMINARIES, 14-19.

14. Lights — tram, luminaries, or lightbearers, thus differing from rwa, light, in verse 3. Light was made to shine out of the darkness upon the deep three days before these lightholders were made to appear in the expanse above the Eden land. Every interpreter has felt the difficulty of explaining this. For our hypothesis, see note on verse 3. The sacred writer speaks of these luminaries merely in their phenomenal relation to the land of Eden, and not as an astronomer of the nineteenth century A.D. He therefore fittingly assigns them to that day of the creative week when they first became visible from the land already described. Let them be for signs, and for seasons — That is, let them serve this purpose to the earth. Some suppose here a hendiadys, signs of seasons. This, however, is not necessary. There is also no sufficient reason for abandoning the natural meaning of the word signs, (tta,) as indicating remarkable phenomena in the heavens which, according to the Scriptures, sometimes indicate great events of judgment or of blessing. Comp. Jeremiah 10:2; Joel 2:30; Matthew 2:2; 24:29; Luke 21:25. The luminaries also serve as signs to indicate different points of the compass — signals to direct the path of the traveller on the land and on the deep. µyd[wm, seasons, or appointed times; from d[y, to fix, to appoint. The heavenly bodies serve to regulate and measure off these weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring seasons.

V. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. This is the history of the fourth day’s work, the creating the sun, moon and stars. Of this we have an account, 1. In general, verse 14, 15. where we have, (1.) The command given concerning them. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven-God had said, Genesis 1:3 Let there be light, and there was light; but that was, as it were, a chaos of light, scattered and confused; now it was collected and made into several luminaries, and so rendered both more glorious and more serviceable. (2.) The use they were intended to be of to this earth. [1.] They must be for the distinction of times, of day and night, summer and winter. [2.] They must be for the direction of actions: they are for signs of the change of weather, that the husbandman may order his affairs with discretion. They do also

give light upon the earth-That we may walk John 11:9 and work John 9:4 according as the duty of every day requires. The lights of heaven do not shine for themselves, nor for the world of spirits above, they need them not; but they shine for us, and for our pleasure and advantage. Lord, what is man that he should be thus regarded, Psalm 8:3, 4. 2. In particular, Genesis 1:16-18, The lights of heaven are the sun, moon and stars, and these all are the work of God’s hands. (1.) The sun is the greatest light of all, and the most glorious and useful of all the lamps of heaven; a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power and goodness, and an invaluable blessing to the creatures of this lower world. (2.) The moon is a lesser light, and yet is here reckoned one of the greater lights, because, though in regard of its magnitude, it is inferior to many of the stars, yet in respect of its usefulness to the earth, it is more excellent than they.

(3.) He made the stars also-Which are here spoken of only in general; for the scriptures were written not to gratify our curiosity, but to lead us to God. Now, these lights are said to rule, Genesis 1:16, 18; not that they have a supreme dominion as God has, but they are rulers under him. Here the lesser light, the moon, is said to rule the night; but Psalm 136:9 the stars are mentioned as sharers in that government, the moon and stars to rule by night. No more is meant, but that they give light, Jeremiah 31:35. The best and most honourable way of ruling is, by giving light, and doing good.

Verses 14, 15. Let there be lights, &c. — God had said, verse 3, Let there be light; but that was, as it were a chaos of light, scattered and confused: now it was called and formed into several luminaries, and so rendered more glorious, and more serviceable. Let them be for signs,

“An horologe machinery divine!”

to mark and distinguish periods of time, longer or shorter; epochas, ages, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes. For seasons — By their motions and influences, to produce and distinguish the different seasons of the year, mentioned Genesis 8:22. To give light upon the earth — That man, and other creatures, might perform their offices by its help, as the duty of each day required; as well as to call forth the moisture and genial virtue of the earth, in order to the production of trees, plants, fruits, and flowers, for the profit and pleasure of both man and beast.

FOURTH DAY — LUMINARIES, 14-19.

14. Lights — tram, luminaries, or lightbearers, thus differing from rwa, light, in verse 3. Light was made to shine out of the darkness upon the deep three days before these lightholders were made to appear in the expanse above the Eden land. Every interpreter has felt the difficulty of explaining this. For our hypothesis, see note on verse 3. The sacred writer speaks of these luminaries merely in their phenomenal relation to the land of Eden, and not as an astronomer of the nineteenth century A.D. He therefore fittingly assigns them to that day of the creative week when they first became visible from the land already described. Let them be for signs, and for seasons — That is, let them serve this purpose to the earth. Some suppose here a hendiadys, signs of seasons. This, however, is not necessary. There is also no sufficient reason for abandoning the natural meaning of the word signs, (tta,) as indicating remarkable phenomena in the heavens which, according to the Scriptures, sometimes indicate great events of judgment or of blessing. Comp. Jeremiah 10:2; Joel 2:30; Matthew 2:2; 24:29; Luke 21:25. The luminaries also serve as signs to indicate different points of the compass — signals to direct the path of the traveller on the land and on the deep. µyd[wm, seasons, or appointed times; from d[y, to fix, to appoint. The heavenly bodies serve to regulate and measure off these weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring seasons.

V. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. This is the history of the fourth day’s work, the creating the sun, moon and stars. Of this we have an account, 1. In general, verse 14, 15. where we have, (1.) The command given concerning them. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven-God had said, Genesis 1:3 Let there be light, and there was light; but that was, as it were, a chaos of light, scattered and confused; now it was collected and made into several luminaries, and so rendered both more glorious and more serviceable. (2.) The use they were intended to be of to this earth. [1.] They must be for the distinction of times, of day and night, summer and winter. [2.] They must be for the direction of actions: they are for signs of the change of weather, that the husbandman may order his affairs with discretion. They do also

give light upon the earth-That we may walk John 11:9 and work John 9:4 according as the duty of every day requires. The lights of heaven do not shine for themselves, nor for the world of spirits above, they need them not; but they shine for us, and for our pleasure and advantage. Lord, what is man that he should be thus regarded, Psalm 8:3, 4. 2. In particular, Genesis 1:16-18, The lights of heaven are the sun, moon and stars, and these all are the work of God’s hands. (1.) The sun is the greatest light of all, and the most glorious and useful of all the lamps of heaven; a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power and goodness, and an invaluable blessing to the creatures of this lower world. (2.) The moon is a lesser light, and yet is here reckoned one of the greater lights, because, though in regard of its magnitude, it is inferior to many of the stars, yet in respect of its usefulness to the earth, it is more excellent than they.

(3.) He made the stars also-Which are here spoken of only in general; for the scriptures were written not to gratify our curiosity, but to lead us to God. Now, these lights are said to rule, Genesis 1:16, 18; not that they have a supreme dominion as God has, but they are rulers under him. Here the lesser light, the moon, is said to rule the night; but Psalm 136:9 the stars are mentioned as sharers in that government, the moon and stars to rule by night. No more is meant, but that they give light, Jeremiah 31:35. The best and most honourable way of ruling is, by giving light, and doing good.

Verse 16. And God made two great lights] Moses speaks of the sun and moon here, not according to their bulk or solid contents, but according to the proportion of light they shed on the earth. The expression has been cavilled at by some who are as devoid of mental capacity as of candour. “The moon,” say they, “is not a great body; on the contrary, it is the very smallest in our system.” Well, and has Moses said the contrary? He has said it is a great LIGHT; had he said otherwise he had not spoken the truth. It is, in reference to the earth, next to the sun himself, the greatest light in the solar system; and so true is it that the moon is a great light, that it affords more light to the earth than all the planets in the solar system, and all the innumerable stars in the vault of heaven, put together. It is worthy of remark that on the fourth day of the creation the sun was formed, and then “first tried his beams athwart the gloom profound;” and that at the conclusion of the fourth millenary from the creation, according to the Hebrew, the Sun of righteousness shone upon the world, as deeply sunk in that mental darkness produced by sin as the ancient world was, while teeming darkness held the dominion, till the sun was created as the dispenser of light. What would the natural world be without the sun? A howling waste, in which neither animal nor vegetable life could possibly be sustained. And what would the moral world be without Jesus Christ, and the light of his word and Spirit? Just what those parts of it now are where his light has not yet shone: “dark places of the earth, filled with the habitations of cruelty,” where error prevails without end, and superstition, engendering false hopes and false fears, degrades and debases the mind of man.

Many have supposed that the days of the creation answer to so many thousands of years; and that as God created all in six days, and rested the seventh, so the world shall last six thousand years, and the seventh shall be the eternal rest that remains for the people of God. To this conclusion they have been led by these words of the apostle, 2 Peter 3:8: One day is with the Lord as a thousand years; and a thousand years as one day. Secret things belong to God; those that are revealed to us and our children. He made the stars also.] Or rather, He made the lesser light, with the stars, to rule the night. See Claudlan de Raptu PROSER., lib. ii., v. 44. Hic Hyperionis solem de semine nasci

Fecerat, et pariter lunam, sed dispare forma,

Auroræ noctisque duces.

From famed Hyperion did he cause to rise

The sun, and placed the moon amid the skies,

With splendour robed, but far unequal light,

The radiant leaders of the day and night.

OF THE SUN

On the nature of the sun there have been various conjectures. It was long thought that he was a vast globe of fire 1,384,462 times larger than the earth, and that he was continually emitting from his body innumerable millions of fiery particles, which, being extremely divided, answered for the purpose of light and heat without occasioning any ignition or burning, except when collected in the focus of a convex lens or burning glass. Against this opinion, however, many serious and weighty objections have been made; and it has been so pressed with difficulties that philosophers have been obliged to look for a theory less repugnant to nature and probability. Dr. Herschel’s discoveries by means of his immensely magnifying telescopes, have, by the general consent of philosophers, added a new habitable world to our system, which is the SUN. Without stopping to enter into detail, which would be improper here, it is sufficient to say that these discoveries tend to prove that what we call the sun is only the atmosphere of that luminary; “that this atmosphere consists of various elastic fluids that are more or less lucid and transparent; that as the clouds belonging to our earth are probably decompositions of some of the elastic fluids belonging to the atmosphere itself, so we may suppose that in the vast atmosphere of the sun, similar decompositions may take place, but with this difference, that the decompositions of the elastic fluids of the sun are of a phosphoric nature, and are attended by lucid appearances, by giving out light.” The body of the sun he considers as hidden generally from us by means of this luminous atmosphere, but what are called the maculæ or spots on the sun are real openings in this atmosphere, through which the opaque body of the sun becomes visible; that this atmosphere itself is not fiery nor hot, but is the instrument which God designed to act on the caloric or latent heat; and that heat is only produced by the solar light acting upon and combining with the caloric or matter of fire contained in the air, and other substances which are heated by it. This ingenious theory is supported by many plausible reasons and illustrations, which may be seen in the paper he read before the Royal Society. On this subject see Clarke’s note on “Genesis 1:3”.

OF THE MOON

There is scarcely any doubt now remaining in the philosophical world that the moon is a habitable globe. The most accurate observations that have been made with the most powerful telescopes have confirmed the opinion. The moon seems, in almost every respect, to be a body similar to our earth; to have its surface diversified by hill and dale, mountains and valleys, rivers, lakes, and seas. And there is the fullest evidence that our earth serves as a moon to the moon herself, differing only in this, that as the earth’s surface is thirteen times larger than the moon’s, so the moon receives from the earth a light thirteen times greater in splendour than that which she imparts to us; and by a very correct analogy we are led to infer that all the planets and their satellites, or attendant moons, are inhabited, for matter seems only to exist for the sake of intelligent beings. OF THE STARS

The STARS in general are considered to be suns, similar to that in our system, each having an appropriate number of planets moving round it; and, as these stars are innumerable, consequently there are innumerable worlds, all dependent on the power, protection, and providence of God. Where the stars are in great abundance, Dr. Herschel supposes they form primaries and secondaries, i.e., suns revolving about suns, as planets revolve about the sun in our system. He considers that this must be the case in what is called the milky way, the stars being there in prodigious quantity. Of this he gives the following proof: On August 22, 1792, he found that in forty-one minutes of time not less than 258,000 stars had passed through the field of view in his telescope. What must God be, who has made, governs, and supports so many worlds! For the magnitudes, distances, revolutions, &c., of the sun, moon, planets, and their satellites, see the preceding TABLES. See Clarke’s note on “Genesis 1:1”.

Verse 16. Two great lights — Or enlighteners, tram, meoroth, distinguishable from all the rest, for their beauty and use. Moses terms the moon a great light, only according to its appearance, and the use it is of to us, and not according to the strictness of philosophy. For there is abundant proof that most of the stars are much greater than the moon; although their immense distance makes them appear so much smaller to us. The greater light — Not only greater, as it appears to us, but incomparably greater in itself; being abundantly larger even than the earth; to rule the day — By its rise and gradual ascension in the heavens, to cause and increase the light and heat of the day; and by its declining and setting to impair and end the same: or to direct men in their actions and affairs during the day. To rule the night — To measure the hours of it, and give some, though a lesser light. “The best and most honourable way of ruling,” says Henry, “is by giving light and doing good.” Psalm 136:9, and Jeremiah 31:35, the stars are mentioned as being joined with the moon in ruling the night.

Ver. 16. And the lesser light to rule the night. This beautiful luminary, says Dr. Olinthus Gregory, is a secondary planet, being a satellite to the earth, about which she revolves in an elliptical orbit from one new moon to another, in twenty nine days, twelve hours, forty four minutes, nearly. Her mean distance from the earth is 240,000 miles, and she moves in her orbit at about 2,290 miles in an hour. Her diameter is about 2,180 miles, and her rotation on her axis is performed in the same time as her revolution through her orbit; hence it appears that her day and night, taken together, are just as long as our lunar month.

“The moon is a dark body, shining principally with the light she receives from the sun; hence, only that half which is turned towards us can be illuminated. If the moon shone by her own light, we should feel sensible heat from her rays; but the solar light which she reflects is so exceedingly weak and languid, that the most powerful burning glasses will not collect enough to make any sensible degree of heat. This has been accounted for, that the light of the moon is ninety thousand times less than day-light. How wonderfully is infinite goodness and wisdom displayed in this instance: for if the moon’s reflected rays produced heat, as the air of the night would then have a continual warmth, it is obvious, that it would be prejudicial to the health of mankind.”—Lessons, &c. p. 47. The moon, moving in an elliptical orbit, varies her power of gravitation on the earth, and with the aid of the sun, causes the highest tides at the full and change; and much higher tides at the vernal and the autumnal equinoxes: but the highest water does not appear till the fifth tide, after the full and change; that time being required to put the waters in the fullest motion. Above all, we should remark, that the moon is the constant and ever-welcome attendant on winter. In our winter, she sheds her cheering rays on the north; and in summer interchanging her beams with the sun, she visits the southern hemisphere, which is their winter. How adorable is this instance of the divine wisdom and love!

16. Two great lights — This designation of the sun and moon is of itself sufficient to show that the work of the fourth day is phenomenal and popular, not scientific. We know that the moon is but the small satellite of a relatively small planet, and a mere atom as compared with the magnitude of some of the stars. But to man it is one of the two great lightbearers. He made the stars also — The Hebrew is simply, and the stars. That is, they, too, were made and placed in the heavenly expanse. They now first appeared above the newly elevated land where man was about to be created.

V. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. This is the history of the fourth day’s work, the creating the sun, moon and stars. Of this we have an account, 1. In general, verse 14, 15. where we have, (1.) The command given concerning them. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven-God had said, Genesis 1:3 Let there be light, and there was light; but that was, as it were, a chaos of light, scattered and confused; now it was collected and made into several luminaries, and so rendered both more glorious and more serviceable. (2.) The use they were intended to be of to this earth. [1.] They must be for the distinction of times, of day and night, summer and winter. [2.] They must be for the direction of actions: they are for signs of the change of weather, that the husbandman may order his affairs with discretion. They do also

give light upon the earth-That we may walk John 11:9 and work John 9:4 according as the duty of every day requires. The lights of heaven do not shine for themselves, nor for the world of spirits above, they need them not; but they shine for us, and for our pleasure and advantage. Lord, what is man that he should be thus regarded, Psalm 8:3, 4. 2. In particular, Genesis 1:16-18, The lights of heaven are the sun, moon and stars, and these all are the work of God’s hands. (1.) The sun is the greatest light of all, and the most glorious and useful of all the lamps of heaven; a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power and goodness, and an invaluable blessing to the creatures of this lower world. (2.) The moon is a lesser light, and yet is here reckoned one of the greater lights, because, though in regard of its magnitude, it is inferior to many of the stars, yet in respect of its usefulness to the earth, it is more excellent than they.

(3.) He made the stars also-Which are here spoken of only in general; for the scriptures were written not to gratify our curiosity, but to lead us to God. Now, these lights are said to rule, Genesis 1:16, 18; not that they have a supreme dominion as God has, but they are rulers under him. Here the lesser light, the moon, is said to rule the night; but Psalm 136:9 the stars are mentioned as sharers in that government, the moon and stars to rule by night. No more is meant, but that they give light, Jeremiah 31:35. The best and most honourable way of ruling is, by giving light, and doing good.

FOURTH DAY — LUMINARIES, 14-19.

14. Lights — tram, luminaries, or lightbearers, thus differing from rwa, light, in verse 3. Light was made to shine out of the darkness upon the deep three days before these lightholders were made to appear in the expanse above the Eden land. Every interpreter has felt the difficulty of explaining this. For our hypothesis, see note on verse 3. The sacred writer speaks of these luminaries merely in their phenomenal relation to the land of Eden, and not as an astronomer of the nineteenth century A.D. He therefore fittingly assigns them to that day of the creative week when they first became visible from the land already described. Let them be for signs, and for seasons — That is, let them serve this purpose to the earth. Some suppose here a hendiadys, signs of seasons. This, however, is not necessary. There is also no sufficient reason for abandoning the natural meaning of the word signs, (tta,) as indicating remarkable phenomena in the heavens which, according to the Scriptures, sometimes indicate great events of judgment or of blessing. Comp. Jeremiah 10:2; Joel 2:30; Matthew 2:2; 24:29; Luke 21:25. The luminaries also serve as signs to indicate different points of the compass — signals to direct the path of the traveller on the land and on the deep. µyd[wm, seasons, or appointed times; from d[y, to fix, to appoint. The heavenly bodies serve to regulate and measure off these weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring seasons.

V. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. This is the history of the fourth day’s work, the creating the sun, moon and stars. Of this we have an account, 1. In general, verse 14, 15. where we have, (1.) The command given concerning them. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven-God had said, Genesis 1:3 Let there be light, and there was light; but that was, as it were, a chaos of light, scattered and confused; now it was collected and made into several luminaries, and so rendered both more glorious and more serviceable. (2.) The use they were intended to be of to this earth. [1.] They must be for the distinction of times, of day and night, summer and winter. [2.] They must be for the direction of actions: they are for signs of the change of weather, that the husbandman may order his affairs with discretion. They do also

give light upon the earth-That we may walk John 11:9 and work John 9:4 according as the duty of every day requires. The lights of heaven do not shine for themselves, nor for the world of spirits above, they need them not; but they shine for us, and for our pleasure and advantage. Lord, what is man that he should be thus regarded, Psalm 8:3, 4. 2. In particular, Genesis 1:16-18, The lights of heaven are the sun, moon and stars, and these all are the work of God’s hands. (1.) The sun is the greatest light of all, and the most glorious and useful of all the lamps of heaven; a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power and goodness, and an invaluable blessing to the creatures of this lower world. (2.) The moon is a lesser light, and yet is here reckoned one of the greater lights, because, though in regard of its magnitude, it is inferior to many of the stars, yet in respect of its usefulness to the earth, it is more excellent than they.

(3.) He made the stars also-Which are here spoken of only in general; for the scriptures were written not to gratify our curiosity, but to lead us to God. Now, these lights are said to rule, Genesis 1:16, 18; not that they have a supreme dominion as God has, but they are rulers under him. Here the lesser light, the moon, is said to rule the night; but Psalm 136:9 the stars are mentioned as sharers in that government, the moon and stars to rule by night. No more is meant, but that they give light, Jeremiah 31:35. The best and most honourable way of ruling is, by giving light, and doing good.

FOURTH DAY — LUMINARIES, 14-19.

14. Lights — tram, luminaries, or lightbearers, thus differing from rwa, light, in verse 3. Light was made to shine out of the darkness upon the deep three days before these lightholders were made to appear in the expanse above the Eden land. Every interpreter has felt the difficulty of explaining this. For our hypothesis, see note on verse 3. The sacred writer speaks of these luminaries merely in their phenomenal relation to the land of Eden, and not as an astronomer of the nineteenth century A.D. He therefore fittingly assigns them to that day of the creative week when they first became visible from the land already described. Let them be for signs, and for seasons — That is, let them serve this purpose to the earth. Some suppose here a hendiadys, signs of seasons. This, however, is not necessary. There is also no sufficient reason for abandoning the natural meaning of the word signs, (tta,) as indicating remarkable phenomena in the heavens which, according to the Scriptures, sometimes indicate great events of judgment or of blessing. Comp. Jeremiah 10:2; Joel 2:30; Matthew 2:2; 24:29; Luke 21:25. The luminaries also serve as signs to indicate different points of the compass — signals to direct the path of the traveller on the land and on the deep. µyd[wm, seasons, or appointed times; from d[y, to fix, to appoint. The heavenly bodies serve to regulate and measure off these weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring seasons.

V. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. This is the history of the fourth day’s work, the creating the sun, moon and stars. Of this we have an account, 1. In general, verse 14, 15. where we have, (1.) The command given concerning them. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven-God had said, Genesis 1:3 Let there be light, and there was light; but that was, as it were, a chaos of light, scattered and confused; now it was collected and made into several luminaries, and so rendered both more glorious and more serviceable. (2.) The use they were intended to be of to this earth. [1.] They must be for the distinction of times, of day and night, summer and winter. [2.] They must be for the direction of actions: they are for signs of the change of weather, that the husbandman may order his affairs with discretion. They do also

give light upon the earth-That we may walk John 11:9 and work John 9:4 according as the duty of every day requires. The lights of heaven do not shine for themselves, nor for the world of spirits above, they need them not; but they shine for us, and for our pleasure and advantage. Lord, what is man that he should be thus regarded, Psalm 8:3, 4. 2. In particular, Genesis 1:16-18, The lights of heaven are the sun, moon and stars, and these all are the work of God’s hands. (1.) The sun is the greatest light of all, and the most glorious and useful of all the lamps of heaven; a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power and goodness, and an invaluable blessing to the creatures of this lower world. (2.) The moon is a lesser light, and yet is here reckoned one of the greater lights, because, though in regard of its magnitude, it is inferior to many of the stars, yet in respect of its usefulness to the earth, it is more excellent than they.

(3.) He made the stars also-Which are here spoken of only in general; for the scriptures were written not to gratify our curiosity, but to lead us to God. Now, these lights are said to rule, Genesis 1:16, 18; not that they have a supreme dominion as God has, but they are rulers under him. Here the lesser light, the moon, is said to rule the night; but Psalm 136:9 the stars are mentioned as sharers in that government, the moon and stars to rule by night. No more is meant, but that they give light, Jeremiah 31:35. The best and most honourable way of ruling is, by giving light, and doing good.

FOURTH DAY — LUMINARIES, 14-19.

14. Lights — tram, luminaries, or lightbearers, thus differing from rwa, light, in verse 3. Light was made to shine out of the darkness upon the deep three days before these lightholders were made to appear in the expanse above the Eden land. Every interpreter has felt the difficulty of explaining this. For our hypothesis, see note on verse 3. The sacred writer speaks of these luminaries merely in their phenomenal relation to the land of Eden, and not as an astronomer of the nineteenth century A.D. He therefore fittingly assigns them to that day of the creative week when they first became visible from the land already described. Let them be for signs, and for seasons — That is, let them serve this purpose to the earth. Some suppose here a hendiadys, signs of seasons. This, however, is not necessary. There is also no sufficient reason for abandoning the natural meaning of the word signs, (tta,) as indicating remarkable phenomena in the heavens which, according to the Scriptures, sometimes indicate great events of judgment or of blessing. Comp. Jeremiah 10:2; Joel 2:30; Matthew 2:2; 24:29; Luke 21:25. The luminaries also serve as signs to indicate different points of the compass — signals to direct the path of the traveller on the land and on the deep. µyd[wm, seasons, or appointed times; from d[y, to fix, to appoint. The heavenly bodies serve to regulate and measure off these weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring seasons.

V. 20, 21, 22, 23. Each day hitherto hath produced very excellent beings, but we do not read of the creation of any living creature till the fifth day. The work of creation not only proceeded gradually from one thing to another, but advanced gradually from that which was less excellent, to that which was more so. ‘Twas on the fifth day that the fish and fowl were created, and both out of the waters.

Observe, 1. The making of the fish and fowl at first. Genesis 1:20, 21 God commanded them to be produced, he said,

Let the waters bring forth abundantly-The fish in the waters, and the fowl out of them. This command he himself executed,

God created great whales, &c.-Insects which are as various as any species of animals, and their structure as curious, were part of this day’s work, some of them being allied to the fish, and others to the fowl. Notice is here taken of the various species of fish and fowl, each after their kind; and of the great numbers of both that were produced, for the waters brought forth abundantly; and in particular of great whales the largest of fishes, whose bulk and strength, are remarkable proofs of the power and greatness of the Creator.

Observe, 2, The blessing of them in order to their continuance. Life is a wasting thing, its strength is not the strength of stones; therefore the wise Creator not only made the individuals, but provided for the propagating of the several species, Genesis 1:22.

God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply-Fruitfullness is the effect of God’s blessing, and must be ascribed to it; the multiplying of the fish and fowl from year to year, is still the fruit of this blessing here.

Verse 20. Let the waters bring forth abundantly] There is a meaning in these words which is seldom noticed. Innumerable millions of animalcula are found in water. Eminent naturalists have discovered not less than 30,000 in a single drop! How inconceivably small must each be, and yet each a perfect animal, furnished with the whole apparatus of bones, muscles, nerves, heart, arteries, veins, lungs, viscera in general, animal spirits, &c., &c. What a proof is this of the manifold wisdom of God! But the fecundity of fishes is another point intended in the text; no creature’s are so prolific as these. A TENCH lay 1,000 eggs, a CARP 20,000, and Leuwenhoek counted in a middling sized COD 9,384,000! Thus, according to the purpose of God, the waters bring forth abundantly. And what a merciful provision is this for the necessities of man! Many hundreds of thousands of the earth’s inhabitants live for a great part of the year on fish only. Fish afford, not only a wholesome, but a very nutritive diet; they are liable to few diseases, and generally come in vast quantities to our shores when in their greatest perfection. In this also we may see that the kind providence of God goes hand in hand with his creating energy. While he manifests his wisdom and his power, he is making a permanent provision for the sustenance of man through all his generations.

Verse 20. The moving creature that hath life — Endued with self-motion and animal life. — How much soever we may be astonished at the stupendous vastness and magnificence of inanimate matter, the least piece that is animated and has life, is still more admirable. But who can conceive the nature of life? We see it daily around us, but cannot comprehend it! We observe that it enables millions and millions of creatures to act, as it were, of themselves, and to seek and obtain such enjoyments as give them a sensible pleasure; but how it does this surpasses all understanding: and we can reach no more of its nature, than that it is such an amazing property, as, if we think at all, must carry up our thoughts to that Almighty Being, who alone could bestow such a wonderful blessing, and who, in his exuberant goodness, has conferred it, not on one or a few merely, but on innumerable millions, and has inclined and enabled them to communicate it to millions and millions more of the same species with themselves, that shall succeed one another till time shall be no more! Thus in the work of creation, after the formation of light, air, water, and earth, the originals of all things, he proceeds from creatures less excellent to those that are more so: from vegetables to animals; and then from animals less perfect in their form to the more perfect. Such was the Creator’s progress in his work; and, in imitation of him, we should be continually advancing to greater excellence and perfection in our dispositions and actions. Fish and fowl were both formed out of the water: there being a nearer alliance and greater resemblance between the form of the bodies in general, and the motions of creatures that swim and of those that fly, than there is between either of these and such as creep or walk on the earth: and their bodies being intended to be lighter, and their motions swifter, the wise Creator saw fit to form them from a lighter and fluid element.

The waters are said to produce them abundantly; to signify the prodigious and rapid multiplication, especially of all the various species of fishes. The word in Hebrew, which generally stands for fish, also means multiplication; no creatures, it seems, multiplying so fast as they do.

Ver. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly. wxrvy isheretzoo, superabundance; as Leviticus 21:18. 22:23; a happy word to designate the plenitude of the marine creation. The great whales are named, which enjoy the cold of the arctic regions; the crooked serpent, the devouring shark, and all the marshalled armies of the smaller shoals. The testaceous families, exquisite in beauty and countless in species, bestudded all the latent rocks, while the waving fields of vegetation gave the richest food to the subterranean families. And though the ken of man has not surveyed the deep, the rolling tides bestrew the shores with the admirable productions of the latent world.

FIFTH DAY — FISH AND FOWLS, 20-23.

20. Bring forth abundantly — Hebrews, Let the waters teem with creeping things, living beings. hyj vpn, soul of life, or living soul, is in apposition with xrv, creeping thing. These crawlers, or creeping things, are meant to include “whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” ãpw[y ãw[w, and let fowls fly. In Genesis 2:19, the fowls are said to be formed out of the ground. All these creatures were first introduced by God’s word. They were creations, not evolutions. But their subsequent multiplication is conceived of as generations.

V. 20, 21, 22, 23. Each day hitherto hath produced very excellent beings, but we do not read of the creation of any living creature till the fifth day. The work of creation not only proceeded gradually from one thing to another, but advanced gradually from that which was less excellent, to that which was more so. ‘Twas on the fifth day that the fish and fowl were created, and both out of the waters.

Observe, 1. The making of the fish and fowl at first. Genesis 1:20, 21 God commanded them to be produced, he said,

Let the waters bring forth abundantly-The fish in the waters, and the fowl out of them. This command he himself executed,

God created great whales, &c.-Insects which are as various as any species of animals, and their structure as curious, were part of this day’s work, some of them being allied to the fish, and others to the fowl. Notice is here taken of the various species of fish and fowl, each after their kind; and of the great numbers of both that were produced, for the waters brought forth abundantly; and in particular of great whales the largest of fishes, whose bulk and strength, are remarkable proofs of the power and greatness of the Creator.

Observe, 2, The blessing of them in order to their continuance. Life is a wasting thing, its strength is not the strength of stones; therefore the wise Creator not only made the individuals, but provided for the propagating of the several species, Genesis 1:22.

God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply-Fruitfullness is the effect of God’s blessing, and must be ascribed to it; the multiplying of the fish and fowl from year to year, is still the fruit of this blessing here.

Verse 21. And God created great whales] הגדלים התנינם hattanninim haggedolim. Though this is generally understood by the different versions as signifying whales, yet the original must be understood rather as a general than a particular term, comprising all the great aquatic animals, such as the various species of whales, the porpoise, the dolphin, the monoceros or narwal, and the shark. God delights to show himself in little as well as in great things: hence he forms animals so minute that 30,000 can be contained in one drop of water; and others so great that they seem to require almost a whole sea to float in.

Verse 21. Great whales — The Hebrew word here rendered whales is sometimes put to signify great dragons of the wilderness; (see Jeremiah 9:11; 14:6; Malachi 1:3;) but it undoubtedly here means some very large inhabitants of the waters, and probably what we call whales, whose astonishing bulk and prodigious strength are amazing proofs of the power and glory of the Creator.

21. Great whales — µnynt, dragons, sea-serpents, or some other of the great monsters of the deep. The Septuagint has ta khth; the Revised Version, great sea monsters.

V. 20, 21, 22, 23. Each day hitherto hath produced very excellent beings, but we do not read of the creation of any living creature till the fifth day. The work of creation not only proceeded gradually from one thing to another, but advanced gradually from that which was less excellent, to that which was more so. ‘Twas on the fifth day that the fish and fowl were created, and both out of the waters.

Observe, 1. The making of the fish and fowl at first. Genesis 1:20, 21 God commanded them to be produced, he said,

Let the waters bring forth abundantly-The fish in the waters, and the fowl out of them. This command he himself executed,

God created great whales, &c.-Insects which are as various as any species of animals, and their structure as curious, were part of this day’s work, some of them being allied to the fish, and others to the fowl. Notice is here taken of the various species of fish and fowl, each after their kind; and of the great numbers of both that were produced, for the waters brought forth abundantly; and in particular of great whales the largest of fishes, whose bulk and strength, are remarkable proofs of the power and greatness of the Creator.

Observe, 2, The blessing of them in order to their continuance. Life is a wasting thing, its strength is not the strength of stones; therefore the wise Creator not only made the individuals, but provided for the propagating of the several species, Genesis 1:22.

God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply-Fruitfullness is the effect of God’s blessing, and must be ascribed to it; the multiplying of the fish and fowl from year to year, is still the fruit of this blessing here.

Verse 22. Let fowl multiply in the earth.] It is truly astonishing with what care, wisdom, and minute skill God has formed the different genera and species of birds, whether intended to live chiefly on land or in water. The structure of a single feather affords a world of wonders; and as God made the fowls that they might fly in the firmament of heaven, Genesis 1:20, so he has adapted the form of their bodies, and the structure and disposition of their plumage, for that very purpose. The head and neck in flying are drawn principally within the breast-bone, so that the whole under part exhibits the appearance of a ship’s hull. The wings are made use of as sails, or rather oars, and the tail as a helm or rudder. By means of these the creature is not only able to preserve the centre of gravity, but also to go with vast speed through the air, either straight forward, circularly, or in any kind of angle, upwards or downwards. In these also God has shown his skill and his power in the great and in the little-in the vast ostrich and cassowary, and In the beautiful humming-bird, which in plumage excels the splendour of the peacock, and in size is almost on a level with the bee.

Verse 22. God blessed them — Behold the cause of the continuance in existence, and of the fruitfulness and multiplication, of the sundry kinds of creatures! It is owing to this word only that, though thousands of years have rolled away since their creation, not one species of them, amid so many, has been lost. Hence the inclination in every creature to propagate its species, and hence the wonderful and tender care they take of their young, till they are able to provide for themselves! So that, notwithstanding the daily great consumption of the creatures for the food of man, there is still such a succession of them, that the innumerable multitudes consumed for our use are not even missed. How wonderful that Being who is the author of this fertility and plenteousness!

FIFTH DAY — FISH AND FOWLS, 20-23.

20. Bring forth abundantly — Hebrews, Let the waters teem with creeping things, living beings. hyj vpn, soul of life, or living soul, is in apposition with xrv, creeping thing. These crawlers, or creeping things, are meant to include “whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” ãpw[y ãw[w, and let fowls fly. In Genesis 2:19, the fowls are said to be formed out of the ground. All these creatures were first introduced by God’s word. They were creations, not evolutions. But their subsequent multiplication is conceived of as generations.

V. 20, 21, 22, 23. Each day hitherto hath produced very excellent beings, but we do not read of the creation of any living creature till the fifth day. The work of creation not only proceeded gradually from one thing to another, but advanced gradually from that which was less excellent, to that which was more so. ‘Twas on the fifth day that the fish and fowl were created, and both out of the waters.

Observe, 1. The making of the fish and fowl at first. Genesis 1:20, 21 God commanded them to be produced, he said,

Let the waters bring forth abundantly-The fish in the waters, and the fowl out of them. This command he himself executed,

God created great whales, &c.-Insects which are as various as any species of animals, and their structure as curious, were part of this day’s work, some of them being allied to the fish, and others to the fowl. Notice is here taken of the various species of fish and fowl, each after their kind; and of the great numbers of both that were produced, for the waters brought forth abundantly; and in particular of great whales the largest of fishes, whose bulk and strength, are remarkable proofs of the power and greatness of the Creator.

Observe, 2, The blessing of them in order to their continuance. Life is a wasting thing, its strength is not the strength of stones; therefore the wise Creator not only made the individuals, but provided for the propagating of the several species, Genesis 1:22.

God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply-Fruitfullness is the effect of God’s blessing, and must be ascribed to it; the multiplying of the fish and fowl from year to year, is still the fruit of this blessing here.

FIFTH DAY — FISH AND FOWLS, 20-23.

20. Bring forth abundantly — Hebrews, Let the waters teem with creeping things, living beings. hyj vpn, soul of life, or living soul, is in apposition with xrv, creeping thing. These crawlers, or creeping things, are meant to include “whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” ãpw[y ãw[w, and let fowls fly. In Genesis 2:19, the fowls are said to be formed out of the ground. All these creatures were first introduced by God’s word. They were creations, not evolutions. But their subsequent multiplication is conceived of as generations.

V. 24, 25. We have here the first part of the sixth day’s work. The sea was the day before replenished with fish, and the air with fowl; and this day are made the beasts of the earth, cattle, and the creeping things that pertain to the earth. Here, as before, (1.) The Lord gave the word: he said, Let The earth bring forth-Let these creatures come into being upon the earth, and out of it, in their respective kinds. 2. He also did the work; he made them all

after their kind-Not only of divers shapes, but of divers natures, manners, food, and fashions: In all which appears the manifold wisdom of the Creator.

Verse 24. Let the earth bring forth the living creature, &c.] hyj vpn nephesh chaiyah; a general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations, from the half-reasoning elephant down to the stupid potto, or lower still, to the polype, which seems equally to share the vegetable and animal life. The word wtyj chaitho, in the latter part of the verse, seems to signify all wild animals, as lions, tigers, &c., and especially such as are carnivorous, or live on flesh, in contradistinction from domestic animals, such as are graminivorous, or live on grass and other vegetables, and are capable of being tamed, and applied to domestic purposes. See Clarke on “Genesis 1:29”. These latter are probably meant by hmhb behemah in the text, which we translate cattle, such as horses, kine, sheep, dogs, &c. Creeping thing, cmr remes, all the different genera of serpents, worms, and such animals as have no feet. In beasts also God has shown his wondrous skill and power; in the vast elephant, or still more colossal mammoth or mastodon, the whole race of which appears to be extinct, a few skeletons only remaining. This animal, an astonishing effect of God’s power, he seems to have produced merely to show what he could do, and after suffering a few of them to propagate, he extinguished the race by a merciful providence, that they might not destroy both man and beast. The mammoth appears to have been a carnivorous animal, as the structure of the teeth proves, and of an immense size; from a considerable part of a skeleton which I have seen, it is computed that the animal to which it belonged must have been nearly twenty-five feet high, and sixty in length! The bones of one toe are entire; the toe upwards of three feet in length. But this skeleton might have belonged to the megalonyx, a kind of sloth, or bradypus, hitherto unknown. Few elephants have ever been found to exceed eleven feet in height. How wondrous are the works of God! But his skill and power are not less seen in the beautiful chevrotin, or tragulus, a creature of the antelope kind, the smallest of all bifid or cloven-footed animals, whose delicate limbs are scarcely so large as an ordinary goose quill; and also in the shrew mouse, perhaps the smallest of the many-toed quadrupeds. In the reptile kind we see also the same skill and power, not only in the immense snake called boa constrictor, the mortal foe and conqueror of the royal tiger, but also in the cobra de manille, a venomous serpent, only a little larger than a common sewing needle.

Verses 24, 25. Let the earth bring forth — He that of stones can raise children to Abraham, and who called forth the universe from nothing, could easily produce animals from the dull and sluggish earth, although inanimate. Cattle — Those tame beasts which do not shun the society of men, and are most useful to us for food, clothing, or various services. The beasts of the earth — The Hebrew word tyj, chaiath, generally signifies the wild beast, which is evidently its meaning here.

Ver. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and [wild] beast. Thus all nature was peopled with living beings. The Creator provided delicious food for each, adapted their clothing, their habitations and temperature to the climate, and bade them joyfully sport in the fields, stray in the forests, and play in the waters, while the blessing of their God crowned their movements with delight.

SIXTH DAY — ANIMALS AND MAN, 24-31.

24. Cattle… creeping thing… beast — As the sacred writer distributes the growth of the vegetable kingdom into three classes, (see verses 11, 12,) so also he presents three classes of land animals: hmhb, cattle, that is, the domestic animals; cmr, creepers, that is, reptiles and insects of the land, corresponding to the creeping things (xrv) of the waters; and xra wtyj, beasts of the land, that is, wild animals as distinguished from domestic cattle.

V. 24, 25. We have here the first part of the sixth day’s work. The sea was the day before replenished with fish, and the air with fowl; and this day are made the beasts of the earth, cattle, and the creeping things that pertain to the earth. Here, as before, (1.) The Lord gave the word: he said, Let The earth bring forth-Let these creatures come into being upon the earth, and out of it, in their respective kinds. 2. He also did the work; he made them all

after their kind-Not only of divers shapes, but of divers natures, manners, food, and fashions: In all which appears the manifold wisdom of the Creator.

Verse 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, &c.] Every thing both in the animal and vegetable world was made so according to its kind, both in genus and species, as to produce its own kind through endless generations. Thus the several races of animals and plants have been kept distinct from the foundation of the world to the present day. This is a proof that all future generations of plants and animals have been seminally included in those which God formed in the beginning.

Verses 24, 25. Let the earth bring forth — He that of stones can raise children to Abraham, and who called forth the universe from nothing, could easily produce animals from the dull and sluggish earth, although inanimate. Cattle — Those tame beasts which do not shun the society of men, and are most useful to us for food, clothing, or various services. The beasts of the earth — The Hebrew word tyj, chaiath, generally signifies the wild beast, which is evidently its meaning here.

SIXTH DAY — ANIMALS AND MAN, 24-31.

24. Cattle… creeping thing… beast — As the sacred writer distributes the growth of the vegetable kingdom into three classes, (see verses 11, 12,) so also he presents three classes of land animals: hmhb, cattle, that is, the domestic animals; cmr, creepers, that is, reptiles and insects of the land, corresponding to the creeping things (xrv) of the waters; and xra wtyj, beasts of the land, that is, wild animals as distinguished from domestic cattle.

V. 26, 27, 28. We have here the second part of the sixth day’s work, the creation of man, which we are in a special manner concerned to take notice of. Observe, 1. That man was made last of all the creatures, which was both an honour and a favour to him: an honour, for the creation was to advance from that which was less perfect, to that which was more so and a favour, for it was not fit he should be lodged in the palace designed for him, till it was completely fitted and furnished for his reception. Man, as soon as he was made, had the whole visible creation before him, both to contemplate, and to take the comfort of. 2. That man’s creation was a mere signal act of divine wisdom and power, than that of the other creatures. The narrative of it is introduced with solemnity, and a manifest distinction from the rest. Hitherto it had been said, Let there be light, and Let there be a firmament: but now the word of command is turned into a word of consultation,

Let us make man-For whose sake the rest of the creatures were made. Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made. Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth must be put together in him, and he must be allied to both worlds. And therefore God himself not only undertakes to make, but is pleased so to express himself, as if he called a council to consider of the making of him; Let us make man-The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consult about it, and concur in it; because man, when he was made, was to be dedicated and devoted to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 3. That man was made in God’s image, and after his likeness; two words to express the same thing. God’s image upon man, consists,

1. In his nature, not that of his body, for God has not a body, but that of his soul. The soul is a spirit, an intelligent, immortal spirit, an active spirit, herein resembling God, the Father of spirits, and the soul of the world.

2. In his place and authority. Let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion. As he has the government of the inferior creatures, he is as it were God’s representative on earth. Yet his government of himself by the freedom of his will, has in it more of God’s image, than his government of the creatures.

3. And chiefly in his purity and rectitude. God’s image upon man consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10. He was upright, Ecclesiastes 7:29. He had an habitual conformity of all his natural powers to the whole will of God. His understanding saw divine things clearly, and there were no errors in his knowledge: his will complied readily and universally with the will of God; without reluctancy: his affections were all regular, and he had no inordinate appetites or passions: his thoughts were easily fixed to the best subjects, and there was no vanity or ungovernableness in them. And all the inferior powers were subject to the dictates of the superior. Thus holy, thus happy, were our first parents, in having the image of God upon them. But how art thou fallen, O son of the morning? How is this image of God upon man defaced! How small are the remains of it, and how great the ruins of it! The Lord renew it upon our souls by his sanctifying grace!

4. That man was made male and female, and blessed with fruitfulness. He created him male and female, Adam and Eve: Adam first out of earth, and Eve out of his side. God made but one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one blood, descendants, from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another. God having made them capable of transmitting the nature they had received, said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth-Here he gave them,

(1.) A large inheritance; replenish the earth, in which God has set man to be the servant of his providence, in the government of the inferior creatures, and as it were the intelligence of this orb; to be likewise the collector of his praises in this lower world, and lastly, to be a probationer for a better state.

(2.) A numerous lasting family to enjoy this inheritance; pronouncing a blessing upon them, in the virtue of which, their posterity should extend to the utmost corners of the earth, and continue to the utmost period of time.

5. That God gave to man a dominion over the inferior creatures, over fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air-Though man provides for neither, he has power over both, much more over every living thing that moveth upon the earth-God designed hereby to put an honour upon man, that he might find himself the more strongly obliged to bring honour to his Maker.

Verse 26. And God said, Let us make man] It is evident that God intends to impress the mind of man with a sense of something extraordinary in the formation of his body and soul, when he introduces the account of his creation thus; Let US make man. The word אדם Adam, which we translate man, is intended to designate the species of animal, as wtyj chaitho, marks the wild beasts that live in general a solitary life; hmhb behemah, domestic or gregarious animals; and cmr remes, all kinds of reptiles, from the largest snake to the microscopic eel. Though the same kind of organization may be found in man as appears in the lower animals, yet there is a variety and complication in the parts, a delicacy of structure, a nice arrangement, a judicious adaptation of the different members to their great offices and functions, a dignity of mien, and a perfection of the whole, which are sought for in vain in all other creatures. See Genesis 3:22.

In our image, after our likeness] What is said above refers only to the body of man, what is here said refers to his soul. This was made in the image and likeness of God. Now, as the Divine Being is infinite, he is neither limited by parts, nor definable by passions; therefore he can have no corporeal image after which he made the body of man. The image and likeness must necessarily be intellectual; his mind, his soul, must have been formed after the nature and perfections of his God. The human mind is still endowed with most extraordinary capacities; it was more so when issuing out of the hands of its Creator. God was now producing a spirit, and a spirit, too, formed after the perfections of his own nature. God is the fountain whence this spirit issued, hence the stream must resemble the spring which produced it. God is holy, just, wise, good, and perfect; so must the soul be that sprang from him: there could be in it nothing impure, unjust, ignorant, evil, low, base, mean, or vile. It was created after the image of God; and that image, St. Paul tells us, consisted in righteousness, true holiness, and knowledge, Ephesians 4:24 Colossians 3:10. Hence man was wise in his mind, holy in his heart, and righteous in his actions. Were even the word of God silent on this subject, we could not infer less from the lights held out to us by reason and common sense. The text tells us he was the work of ELOHIM, the Divine Plurality, marked here more distinctly by the plural pronouns US and OUR; and to show that he was the masterpiece of God’s creation, all the persons in the Godhead are represented as united in counsel and effort to produce this astonishing creature.

Gregory Nyssen has very properly observed that the superiority of man to all other parts of creation is seen in this, that all other creatures are represented as the effect of God’s word, but man is represented as the work of God, according to plan and consideration: Let US make MAN in our IMAGE, after our LIKENESS. See his Works, vol. i., p. 52, c. 3. And let them have dominion] Hence we see that the dominion was not the image. God created man capable of governing the world, and when fitted for the office, he fixed him in it. We see God’s tender care and parental solicitude for the comfort and well-being of this masterpiece of his workmanship, in creating the world previously to the creation of man. He prepared every thing for his subsistence, convenience, and pleasure, before he brought him into being; so that, comparing little with great things, the house was built, furnished, and amply stored, by the time the destined tenant was ready to occupy it.

It has been supposed by some that God speaks here to the angels, when he says, Let us make man; but to make this a likely interpretation these persons must prove, 1. That angels were then created. 2. That angels could assist in a work of creation. 3. That angels were themselves made in the image and likeness of God. If they were not, it could not be said, in OUR image, and it does not appear from any part in the sacred writings that any creature but man was made in the image of God. See Clarke’s note on “Psalm 8:5”.

Verse 26. God said, Let us make man — We have here another and still more important part of the sixth day’s work, the creation of man. Having prepared a fit habitation for man, and furnished it with all things necessary for his use and comfort, God now proceeds to create him. But this he does, as it were, with deliberation, nay, and consultation, using a phraseology which he had not used with regard to any other creatures, thereby showing the excellence of man above every other being which he had made. And it appears from hence, that all the three hypostases, which still bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, were peculiarly concerned in the creation of man. For God did not speak thus to angels, who, although they were present, and rejoiced at the creation of the universe, (Job 37:4, 7,) yet had no hand therein, sundry passages of Scripture testifying that it was the work of God alone. In our image, after our likeness — Two words signifying the same thing. Here again we see the excellence of man above all other creatures of this world, none of which are said to be made after the image or likeness of God. Indeed, his pre-eminence above the brute creatures, and his high destination, are apparent in the very form of his body, the erect figure of which, set toward the heavens, points him to his origin and end. It is, however, in the soul of man, that we must look for the divine image. And here we easily discern it. Like God, man’s soul is a spirit, immaterial, invisible, active, intelligent, free, immortal, and, when first created, endowed with a high degree of divine knowledge, and with holiness and righteousness; in which particulars, according to St. Paul, Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10, the image of God in man chiefly consists. He was also invested with an image of God’s authority and dominion, and was constituted the ruler, under him, of all the inferior creatures. For God said, And let them — Male and female, (here comprehended in the word man,) with their posterity; have dominion over the fish of the sea, &c. — All the creatures, both wild and tame, are here included, over which our first parents, while innocent, had entire and perfect power and dominion, as they had also over the productions of the earth, and over the earth itself, to cultivate and manage it, as they should see fit, for their comfort and advantage.

Ver. 26. And God said, Let us make man; not Adam alone, but in him the whole human kind, that every man by natural affinity might be taught to love his brother, having all one Father, even God. He gave him a natural but humble name—Adam, or earth, teaching all men to know that they are but worms of the dust.

26. Let us make man in our image — This form of speaking in the first person plural is explained by some as conformity to the usage of human dignitaries, who are accustomed to speak of themselves in this way; while others suppose that God here addresses the angels of his presence. Others, again, find in these words a reference to the plurality of persons in the divine nature, but the ancient readers of the record would not be likely to comprehend this meaning. Nevertheless, here may be the germ which, by successive revelations, was at last developed into the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. All things conceptual or phenomenal originate in the great, uncreated, self-existent Essence, the fountain of Deity, the Father. These things become thought and form by and through the Divine Word, by whom all things exist. These existences are objects of approval to the Spirit, the Sensibility, so to speak, of God. As God looks over the objects of creation, it is the divine feeling that pronounces them “very good.” Accordingly, man bears the triune image of his God in having will, thought, and feeling, which correspond with our highest conceptions of Father, Word, and Spirit. Will, by which we mean the whole self-acting, conscious Ego; Thought, the only begotten and always begotten offspring of the self-acting, conscious Ego; and Feeling, or Sensibility, by which we appreciate and love; these are the personalities of man’s immortal nature. God is a spirit, and man’s immortal nature is a spirit also, bearing the divine triune impress of the Godhead. We should accordingly understand the “righteousness,” “true holiness,” and “knowledge” of Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10, as qualities or attributes of the divine image in which man was created, but not as constituting the image itself. The likeness was rather in the spiritual personality which made him Godlike as distinguished from all the rest of the animate creation. Likeness is not to be understood as something different from image, but rather as explanatory of it. And let them have dominion — This dominion is the natural superiority and headship which man holds over all the inferior orders of creation. Compare Psalm 8:5-8. Verses 29 and 30, taken in connexion with chapter 9:3, have been supposed to show that previous to the flood man’s food was restricted to substances in the vegetable kingdom. This was probably the case; but, after all, these passages do not prove that animal food was prohibited before the flood; and possibly the skins mentioned Genesis 3:21, were those of animals slain, not for sacrifices only, but for food.

V. 26, 27, 28. We have here the second part of the sixth day’s work, the creation of man, which we are in a special manner concerned to take notice of. Observe, 1. That man was made last of all the creatures, which was both an honour and a favour to him: an honour, for the creation was to advance from that which was less perfect, to that which was more so and a favour, for it was not fit he should be lodged in the palace designed for him, till it was completely fitted and furnished for his reception. Man, as soon as he was made, had the whole visible creation before him, both to contemplate, and to take the comfort of. 2. That man’s creation was a mere signal act of divine wisdom and power, than that of the other creatures. The narrative of it is introduced with solemnity, and a manifest distinction from the rest. Hitherto it had been said, Let there be light, and Let there be a firmament: but now the word of command is turned into a word of consultation,

Let us make man-For whose sake the rest of the creatures were made. Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made. Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth must be put together in him, and he must be allied to both worlds. And therefore God himself not only undertakes to make, but is pleased so to express himself, as if he called a council to consider of the making of him; Let us make man-The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consult about it, and concur in it; because man, when he was made, was to be dedicated and devoted to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 3. That man was made in God’s image, and after his likeness; two words to express the same thing. God’s image upon man, consists,

1. In his nature, not that of his body, for God has not a body, but that of his soul. The soul is a spirit, an intelligent, immortal spirit, an active spirit, herein resembling God, the Father of spirits, and the soul of the world.

2. In his place and authority. Let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion. As he has the government of the inferior creatures, he is as it were God’s representative on earth. Yet his government of himself by the freedom of his will, has in it more of God’s image, than his government of the creatures.

3. And chiefly in his purity and rectitude. God’s image upon man consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10. He was upright, Ecclesiastes 7:29. He had an habitual conformity of all his natural powers to the whole will of God. His understanding saw divine things clearly, and there were no errors in his knowledge: his will complied readily and universally with the will of God; without reluctancy: his affections were all regular, and he had no inordinate appetites or passions: his thoughts were easily fixed to the best subjects, and there was no vanity or ungovernableness in them. And all the inferior powers were subject to the dictates of the superior. Thus holy, thus happy, were our first parents, in having the image of God upon them. But how art thou fallen, O son of the morning? How is this image of God upon man defaced! How small are the remains of it, and how great the ruins of it! The Lord renew it upon our souls by his sanctifying grace!

4. That man was made male and female, and blessed with fruitfulness. He created him male and female, Adam and Eve: Adam first out of earth, and Eve out of his side. God made but one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one blood, descendants, from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another. God having made them capable of transmitting the nature they had received, said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth-Here he gave them,

(1.) A large inheritance; replenish the earth, in which God has set man to be the servant of his providence, in the government of the inferior creatures, and as it were the intelligence of this orb; to be likewise the collector of his praises in this lower world, and lastly, to be a probationer for a better state.

(2.) A numerous lasting family to enjoy this inheritance; pronouncing a blessing upon them, in the virtue of which, their posterity should extend to the utmost corners of the earth, and continue to the utmost period of time.

5. That God gave to man a dominion over the inferior creatures, over fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air-Though man provides for neither, he has power over both, much more over every living thing that moveth upon the earth-God designed hereby to put an honour upon man, that he might find himself the more strongly obliged to bring honour to his Maker.

Verse 27. So God created man in his own image — In his natural, but especially in his moral image, with an habitual conformity of all his powers to the will of God, his understanding clearly discerning, his judgment entirely approving, his will readily choosing, and his affections cordially embracing his chief good; without error in his knowledge, disorder in his passions, or irregularity or inordinancy in his appetites; his senses also being all inlets to wisdom and enjoyment, and all his faculties of body and mind subservient to the glory of God and his own felicity! But man being in honour did not abide, but became like the beasts that perish! What cause we have for thankfulness that this image of God may be restored to our souls, and how earnestly ought we to pray for, and how diligently to seek this most important of all attainments! Male and female created he them — Not at once, or both together, as some have unscripturally taught, but first the man out of the earth, and then the woman out of the man. They seem both, however, to have been made on the sixth day, as is here related, and as the following words, promising they should be fruitful, manifest: but the particular history of the woman’s creation is brought in afterward by way of further elucidation, and to introduce the account of the institution of marriage. God formed the woman from the man, and caused the whole race of mankind to descend from one original pair, that all the families and nations of men, being made of one blood, and proceeding from one common stock, might know themselves to be brethren, and might love and assist one another to the uttermost of their power: but, alas! what a sad reverse of this do we daily see exemplified before our eyes!

Ver. 27. The image of God. The Creator being a Spirit, his image in man must be that which belongs to celestial beings;

(1) knowledge;

(2) moral rectitude;

(3) liberty;

(4) immortality;

(5) sovereignty;

the Lord said, Let him have dominion. But his condition varied from that of his Maker; he was placed in a state of probation. God, says the text, created man in his own image; it was not impressed upon him, as the head of a sovereign on a coin, but holiness was an essential attribute of his soul. Oh lovely, wonderous, and happy sire; his body visible on earth, his countenance surpassing all the beauties of creation, his mind walking through the heavens, grasping at infinity and adoring his Maker. Thus in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. He proceeded with all the wisdom, the ease, and omnipotence of a God. The dark benighted chaos in one week presented the most beautiful earth, clothed with verdure, perfumed with flowers, and abounding in fruits. He chose to create the heavens and the earth in six days, that he might confer the greater honour and sanctity on the seventh day, as a type and figure of celestial repose.

SIXTH DAY — ANIMALS AND MAN, 24-31.

24. Cattle… creeping thing… beast — As the sacred writer distributes the growth of the vegetable kingdom into three classes, (see verses 11, 12,) so also he presents three classes of land animals: hmhb, cattle, that is, the domestic animals; cmr, creepers, that is, reptiles and insects of the land, corresponding to the creeping things (xrv) of the waters; and xra wtyj, beasts of the land, that is, wild animals as distinguished from domestic cattle.

V. 26, 27, 28. We have here the second part of the sixth day’s work, the creation of man, which we are in a special manner concerned to take notice of. Observe, 1. That man was made last of all the creatures, which was both an honour and a favour to him: an honour, for the creation was to advance from that which was less perfect, to that which was more so and a favour, for it was not fit he should be lodged in the palace designed for him, till it was completely fitted and furnished for his reception. Man, as soon as he was made, had the whole visible creation before him, both to contemplate, and to take the comfort of. 2. That man’s creation was a mere signal act of divine wisdom and power, than that of the other creatures. The narrative of it is introduced with solemnity, and a manifest distinction from the rest. Hitherto it had been said, Let there be light, and Let there be a firmament: but now the word of command is turned into a word of consultation,

Let us make man-For whose sake the rest of the creatures were made. Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made. Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth must be put together in him, and he must be allied to both worlds. And therefore God himself not only undertakes to make, but is pleased so to express himself, as if he called a council to consider of the making of him; Let us make man-The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consult about it, and concur in it; because man, when he was made, was to be dedicated and devoted to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 3. That man was made in God’s image, and after his likeness; two words to express the same thing. God’s image upon man, consists,

1. In his nature, not that of his body, for God has not a body, but that of his soul. The soul is a spirit, an intelligent, immortal spirit, an active spirit, herein resembling God, the Father of spirits, and the soul of the world.

2. In his place and authority. Let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion. As he has the government of the inferior creatures, he is as it were God’s representative on earth. Yet his government of himself by the freedom of his will, has in it more of God’s image, than his government of the creatures.

3. And chiefly in his purity and rectitude. God’s image upon man consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10. He was upright, Ecclesiastes 7:29. He had an habitual conformity of all his natural powers to the whole will of God. His understanding saw divine things clearly, and there were no errors in his knowledge: his will complied readily and universally with the will of God; without reluctancy: his affections were all regular, and he had no inordinate appetites or passions: his thoughts were easily fixed to the best subjects, and there was no vanity or ungovernableness in them. And all the inferior powers were subject to the dictates of the superior. Thus holy, thus happy, were our first parents, in having the image of God upon them. But how art thou fallen, O son of the morning? How is this image of God upon man defaced! How small are the remains of it, and how great the ruins of it! The Lord renew it upon our souls by his sanctifying grace!

4. That man was made male and female, and blessed with fruitfulness. He created him male and female, Adam and Eve: Adam first out of earth, and Eve out of his side. God made but one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one blood, descendants, from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another. God having made them capable of transmitting the nature they had received, said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth-Here he gave them,

(1.) A large inheritance; replenish the earth, in which God has set man to be the servant of his providence, in the government of the inferior creatures, and as it were the intelligence of this orb; to be likewise the collector of his praises in this lower world, and lastly, to be a probationer for a better state.

(2.) A numerous lasting family to enjoy this inheritance; pronouncing a blessing upon them, in the virtue of which, their posterity should extend to the utmost corners of the earth, and continue to the utmost period of time.

5. That God gave to man a dominion over the inferior creatures, over fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air-Though man provides for neither, he has power over both, much more over every living thing that moveth upon the earth-God designed hereby to put an honour upon man, that he might find himself the more strongly obliged to bring honour to his Maker.

Verse 28. And God blessed them] Marked them as being under his especial protection, and gave them power to propagate and multiply their own kind on the earth. A large volume would be insufficient to contain what we know of the excellence and perfection of man, even in his present degraded fallen state. Both his body and soul are adapted with astonishing wisdom to their residence and occupations; and also the place of their residence, as well as the surrounding objects, in their diversity, colour, and mutual relations, to the mind and body of this lord of the creation. The contrivance, arrangement, action, and re-action of the different parts of the body, show the admirable skill of the wondrous Creator; while the various powers and faculties of the mind, acting on and by the different organs of this body, proclaim the soul’s Divine origin, and demonstrate that he who was made in the image and likeness of God, was a transcript of his own excellency, destined to know, love, and dwell with his Maker throughout eternity.

Verse 28. Be fruitful, and replenish the earth — A large estate is given them, and they are to fill it with inhabitants, to cultivate it, and enjoy the fruits it produces. But these words rather contain a benediction and a promise, than a command, as appears from verse 22, where the same words are applied to the brute creatures, which are not capable of understanding or obeying a command.

SIXTH DAY — ANIMALS AND MAN, 24-31.

24. Cattle… creeping thing… beast — As the sacred writer distributes the growth of the vegetable kingdom into three classes, (see verses 11, 12,) so also he presents three classes of land animals: hmhb, cattle, that is, the domestic animals; cmr, creepers, that is, reptiles and insects of the land, corresponding to the creeping things (xrv) of the waters; and xra wtyj, beasts of the land, that is, wild animals as distinguished from domestic cattle.

V. 29, 30. We have here the third part of the sixth day’s work, which was not any new creation, but a gracious provision of food for all flesh, Psalm 136:25.-Here is, 1. Food provided for man, Genesis 1:29. herbs and fruits must be his meat, including corn, and all the products of the earth. And before the earth was deluged, much more before it was cursed for man’s sake, its fruits no doubt, were more pleasing to the taste, and more strengthening and nourishing to the body. 2. Food provided for the beasts, Genesis 1:30. Doth God take care of oxen? Yes, certainly, he provides food convenient for them; and not for oxen only that were used in his sacrifices, and man’s service, but even the young lions and the young ravens are the care of his providence, they ask and have their meat from God.

Verse 29. I have given you every herb-for meat.] It seems from this, says an eminent philosopher, that man was originally intended to live upon vegetables only; and as no change was made In the structure of men’s bodies after the flood, it is not probable that any change was made in the articles of their food. It may also be inferred from this passage that no animal whatever was originally designed to prey on others; for nothing is here said to be given to any beast of the earth besides green herbs.-Dr. Priestley. Before sin entered into the world, there could be, at least, no violent deaths, if any death at all. But by the particular structure of the teeth of animals God prepared them for that kind of aliment which they were to subsist on after the FALL.

Verses 29, 30. I have given you every herb — It does not appear that liberty was given to men to eat animal food before the flood. Indeed, there seems to have been no need of it, as before the deluge, and more especially before the earth was cursed for the sin of man, undoubtedly its fruits were not only brought forth in greater abundance, but were both more pleasant to the taste, and more strengthening and nourishing to the body, than they were after these events. And to every beast — Thus the great Lord of all took care for oxen, and every living creature that he had created, and made ample and continued provision for their subsistence.

SIXTH DAY — ANIMALS AND MAN, 24-31.

24. Cattle… creeping thing… beast — As the sacred writer distributes the growth of the vegetable kingdom into three classes, (see verses 11, 12,) so also he presents three classes of land animals: hmhb, cattle, that is, the domestic animals; cmr, creepers, that is, reptiles and insects of the land, corresponding to the creeping things (xrv) of the waters; and xra wtyj, beasts of the land, that is, wild animals as distinguished from domestic cattle.

V. 29, 30. We have here the third part of the sixth day’s work, which was not any new creation, but a gracious provision of food for all flesh, Psalm 136:25.-Here is, 1. Food provided for man, Genesis 1:29. herbs and fruits must be his meat, including corn, and all the products of the earth. And before the earth was deluged, much more before it was cursed for man’s sake, its fruits no doubt, were more pleasing to the taste, and more strengthening and nourishing to the body. 2. Food provided for the beasts, Genesis 1:30. Doth God take care of oxen? Yes, certainly, he provides food convenient for them; and not for oxen only that were used in his sacrifices, and man’s service, but even the young lions and the young ravens are the care of his providence, they ask and have their meat from God.

Verses 29, 30. I have given you every herb — It does not appear that liberty was given to men to eat animal food before the flood. Indeed, there seems to have been no need of it, as before the deluge, and more especially before the earth was cursed for the sin of man, undoubtedly its fruits were not only brought forth in greater abundance, but were both more pleasant to the taste, and more strengthening and nourishing to the body, than they were after these events. And to every beast — Thus the great Lord of all took care for oxen, and every living creature that he had created, and made ample and continued provision for their subsistence.

SIXTH DAY — ANIMALS AND MAN, 24-31.

24. Cattle… creeping thing… beast — As the sacred writer distributes the growth of the vegetable kingdom into three classes, (see verses 11, 12,) so also he presents three classes of land animals: hmhb, cattle, that is, the domestic animals; cmr, creepers, that is, reptiles and insects of the land, corresponding to the creeping things (xrv) of the waters; and xra wtyj, beasts of the land, that is, wild animals as distinguished from domestic cattle.

V. 31. We have here the approbation and conclusion of the whole work of creation. Observe, 1. The review God took of his work, he saw every thing that he had made-So he doth still; all the works of his hands are under his eye; he that made all sees all. 2. The complacency God took in his work. When we come to review our works we find to our shame, that much has been very bad; but when God reviewed his, all was very good. 1. It was good. Good, for it is all agreeable to the mind of the creator. Good, for it answers the end of its creation. Good, for it is serviceable to man, whom God had appointed lord of the visible creation. Good, for it is all for God’s glory; there is that in the whole visible creation which is a demonstration of God’s being and perfections, and which tends to beget in the soul of man a religious regard to him. 2. It was very good-Of each day’s work (except the second) it was said that it was good, but now it is very good. For, 1. Now man was made, who was the chief of the ways of God, the visible image of the Creator’s glory, 2. Now All was made, every part was good, but all together very good. The glory and goodness, the beauty and harmony of God’s works both of providence and grace, as this of creation, will best appear when they are perfected. 3. The time when this work was concluded.

The evening and the morning were the sixth day-So that in six days God made the world. We are not to think but that God could have made the world in an instant: but he did it in six days, that he might shew himself a free agent, doing his own work, both in his own way, and in his own time; that his wisdom, power and goodness, might appear to us, and be meditated upon by us, the more distinctly; and that he might set us an example of working six days, and resting the seventh. And now as God reviewed his work, let us review our meditations upon it; let us stir up ourselves, and all that is within us, to worship him that made the, heaven, earth, and sea, and the fountains of waters. All his works in all places of his dominion bless him, and therefore bless thou the Lord, O my soul.

Verse 31. And, behold, it was very good.] dam bwc tob meod, Superlatively, or only good; as good as they could be. The plan wise, the work well executed, the different parts properly arranged; their nature, limits, mode of existence, manner of propagation, habits, mode of sustenance, &c., &c., properly and permanently established and secured; for every thing was formed to the utmost perfection of its nature, so that nothing could be added or diminished without encumbering the operations of matter and spirit on the one hand, or rendering them inefficient to the end proposed on the other; and God has so done all these marvellous works as to be glorified in all, by all, and through all. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.] The word br[ ereb, which we translate evening, comes from the root br[ arab, to mingle; and properly signifies that state in which neither absolute darkness nor full light prevails. It has nearly the same grammatical signification with our twilight, the time that elapses from the setting of the sun till he is eighteen degrees below the horizon and the last eighteen degrees before he arises. Thus we have the morning and evening twilight, or mixture of light and darkness, in which neither prevails, because, while the sun is within eighteen degrees of the horizon, either after his setting or before his rising, the atmosphere has power to refract the rays of light, and send them back on the earth. The Hebrews extended the meaning of this term to the whole duration of night, because it was ever a mingled state, the moon, the planets, or the stars, tempering the darkness with some rays of light. From the ereb of Moses came the erebov Erebus, of Hesiod, Aristophanes, and other heathens, which they deified and made, with Nox or night, the parent of all things.

The morning-rqb boker; From rqb bakar, he looked out; a beautiful figure which represents the morning as looking out at the east, and illuminating the whole of the upper hemisphere.

The evening and the morning were the sixth day.-It is somewhat remarkable that through the whole of this chapter, whenever the division of days is made, the evening always precedes the morning. The reason of this may perhaps be, that darkness was pre-existent to light, (Genesis 1:2, And darkness was upon the face of the deep,) and therefore time is reckoned from the first act of God towards the creation of the world, which took place before light was called forth into existence. It is very likely for this same reason, that the Jews began their day at six o’clock in the evening in imitation of Moses’s division of time in this chapter. Cæsar in his Commentaries makes mention of the same peculiarity existing among the Gauls: Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatas prædicant: idque ab Druidibus proditum dicunt: ab eam causam spatia omnis temporis, non numero dierum, sed noctium, finiunt; et dies natales, et mensium et annorum initia sic observant, ut noctem dies subsequatur; Deuteronomy Bell. Gall. lib. vi. Tacitus likewise records the same of the Germans: Nec dierum numerum, ut nos, sed noctium computant: sic constituent, sic condicunt, nox ducere diem videtur; Deuteronomy Mor. Germ. sec. ii. And there are to this day some remains of the same custom in England, as for instance in the word se’nnight and fortnight. See also Aeschyl. Agamem. ver. 273, 287.

Thus ends a chapter containing the most extensive, most profound, and most sublime truths that can possibly come within the reach of the human intellect. How unspeakably are we indebted to God for giving us a revelation of his WILL and of his WORKS! Is it possible to know the mind of God but from himself? It is impossible. Can those things and services which are worthy of and pleasing to an infinitely pure, perfect, and holy Spirit, be ever found out by reasoning and conjecture? Never! for the Spirit of God alone can know the mind of God; and by this Spirit he has revealed himself to man; and in this revelation has taught him, not only to know the glories and perfections of the Creator, but also his own origin, duty, and interest. Thus far it was essentially necessary that God should reveal his WILL; but if he had not given a revelation of his WORKS, the origin, constitution, and nature of the universe could never have been adequately known. The world by wisdom knew not God; this is demonstrated by the writings of the most learned and intelligent heathens. They had no just, no rational notion of the origin and design of the universe. Moses alone, of all ancient writers, gives a consistent and rational account of the creation; an account which has been confirmed by the investigation of the most accurate philosophers. But where did he learn this? “In Egypt.” That is impossible; for the Egyptians themselves were destitute of this knowledge. The remains we have of their old historians, all posterior to the time of Moses, are egregious for their contradictions and absurdity; and the most learned of the Greeks who borrowed from them have not been able to make out, from their conjoint stock, any consistent and credible account. Moses has revealed the mystery that lay hid from all preceding ages, because he was taught it by the inspiration of the Almighty. READER, thou hast now before thee the most ancient and most authentic history in the world; a history that contains the first written discovery that God has made of himself to man-kind; a discovery of his own being, in his wisdom, power, and goodness, in which thou and the whole human race are so intimately concerned. How much thou art indebted to him for this discovery he alone can teach thee, and cause thy heart to feel its obligations to his wisdom and mercy. Read so as to understand, for these things were written for thy learning; therefore mark what thou readest, and inwardly digest-deeply and seriously meditate on, what thou hast marked, and pray to the Father of lights that he may open thy understanding, that thou mayest know these holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.

God made thee and the universe, and governs all things according to the counsel of his will; that will is infinite goodness, that counsel is unerring wisdom. While under the direction of this counsel, thou canst not err; while under the influence of this will, thou canst not be wretched. Give thyself up to his teaching, and submit to his authority; and, after guiding thee here by his counsel, he will at last bring thee to his glory. Every object that meets thy eye should teach thee reverence, submission, and gratitude. The earth and its productions were made for thee; and the providence of thy heavenly Father, infinitely diversified in its operations, watches over and provides for thee. Behold the firmament of his power, the sun, moon, planets, and stars, which he has formed, not for himself, for he needs none of these things, but for his intelligent offspring. What endless gratification has he designed thee in placing within thy reach these astonishing effects of his wisdom and power, and in rendering thee capable of searching out their wonderful relations and connections, and of knowing himself, the source of all perfection, by having made thee in his own image, and in his own likeness! It is true thou art fallen; but he has found out a ransom. God so loved thee in conjunction with the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Believe on HIM; through him alone cometh salvation; and the fair and holy image of God in which thou wast created shall be again restored; he will build thee up as at the first, restore thy judges and counsellors as at the beginning, and in thy second creation, as in thy first, will pronounce thee to be very good, and thou shalt show forth the virtues of him by whom thou art created anew in Christ Jesus. Amen.

GENESIS

Verse 31. Behold, it was very good — It had been said of each day’s work, except the second, that it was good, but now, of every thing, that it was very good. For man, the master-piece of God’s works, and his visible image and deputy here on earth, was now formed and constituted the head and governor of the whole. And all these wonderful works being connected together and dependant one on another, till the last link of the chain was made and added to the rest, some defect and imperfection must of necessity be attached to them all: but this being now finished, the whole was complete, and very good. The evening and the morning were the sixth day — No doubt, God could as easily have made the world and all things therein in an instant, as in six days: but he chose to form it in this gradual way, partly, perhaps, that his wisdom, power, and goodness, manifested in each part, might be more distinctly viewed and considered; and that he might show us how great things might rise from small beginnings, and be gradually accomplished; as also that he might set us an example of working six days, and resting on the seventh.

SIXTH DAY — ANIMALS AND MAN, 24-31.

24. Cattle… creeping thing… beast — As the sacred writer distributes the growth of the vegetable kingdom into three classes, (see verses 11, 12,) so also he presents three classes of land animals: hmhb, cattle, that is, the domestic animals; cmr, creepers, that is, reptiles and insects of the land, corresponding to the creeping things (xrv) of the waters; and xra wtyj, beasts of the land, that is, wild animals as distinguished from domestic cattle.