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Other thoughts, too, press into the mind when the subject of our contemplation is human tyranny, and the lust of domination. For can we forget that man has not been satisfied with an external sovereignty over his fellows, but has aimed to subjugate the inmost thoughts, the heart, the mind, the conscience of his brethren, that all may tend in subservience to his will! And of all tyrannies has not this been the most appalling, the most outrageous? Surely it has, and the coercion of man's animal form, of his body, when it has been subjected to the most brutal slavery, has only bid fair to rival, but has not really equalled, the desperate wickedness of the attempt to coerce his mind, his spirit, created at the first in the likeness of the triune God. Truly the soul sickens, when it traces upon the faithful page of history, the everaccumulating register of crimes, springing from this one prolific sin, the lust of power. In profane history, we meet with little more than the records of tyranny; in almost every paragraph we have an evidence of man's insatiable desire of dominion; and, alas, the annals of the church unfold to us the same sad tale, and here too we read “of wars and rumours of wars," of the fierce oppression of man by man, and all to effect the object of his spiritual degradation, to bring about the captivity of his soul, not to his Creator, but to his fellow mortal; not to God his Maker, but to his brother man. Again we repeat, happy the people to whom it is assigned to scatter the seeds of righteousness over a desolated earth, to loosen by their counsels the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burthens, that the oppressed may go free; that every yoke may be broken! Isaiah Iviii. 6.

VERSES 29, 30.-" And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so." The contents of these verses have been already alluded to in commenting on the preceding verse, when it was the object to shew that man's dominion over the inferior creatures did not at the first extend to the power of destroying life, and that no other sustenance except that of the green herb was provided for the food of the animals which are now carnivorous. To man every herb bearing seed was assigned for meat; but also in addition, every tree bearing fruit. To the inferior orders of living creatures, the green herb was appropriated; the distinction between the food of man and beast, and the pre-eminence of the human race, being here clearly indicated. And all became man's in the way of gift from God. Behold, says God, "I have given you every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing fruit, to you it shall be for meat." My gift extends to the whole vegetable world, with the exception of the green herb, which is destined for the use of those inferior living creatures over whom you will exercise dominion. Fear not, then, to appropriate my bounty to your own use, for you the fruit-tree, and the herb bearing seed were created.

VERSE 31.-" And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening

and the morning were the sixth day.

The contents of

this closing verse have also been adverted to before,

and it will not therefore be necessary to enlarge upon the fact which they assert. Suffice it to say, that faith yields a ready assent to the declaration in our text, and to every suggestion of unbelief, to every misgiving of heart, caused by the present untoward aspect of the world, replies with confidence, "from the beginning it was not so,” (Matt. xix. 8.) at first all things were good, "And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good."

The first scene of man's eventful history has now been opened to us. We have beheld the erection of a mighty theatre, upon whose stage man was evidently to be the chief actor, and we naturally seek, even at the outset, for some insight into the divine Artist's plan, and ask, to what purpose the stupendous apparatus he has erected, to what end the formation of man in his own image and likeness? Nor are we without materials to help us in this enquiry, for they have been provided for us by the very Being who devised the wonderful scheme. It is He who tells us that he created all things for himself, even to illustrate his own perfections, that to the powers and principalities in heavenly places he might make known by the church, his own manifold wisdom, (Eph. iii. 9, 10, 11.) according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; a purpose replete with love to man, concerning whom the Lord has said, "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him." Isa. xliii. 7. And what was that peculiar glory of the Lord which was to be illustrated in connexion with his creature man? Here too the scripture will help us to an answer, and if we would see that glory, as he desired to see it who penned for our instruction this

book of Genesis, we have only to learn of him, taking our place beside him in the clift of the rock, and then the Glory of God, that is, HIS GOODNESS, will pass before us, and the name of the Lord will be proclaimed: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin." Exod. xxxiii. 1823; and xxxiv. 5-7. The purpose, then, of the Lord towards man, is a purpose of loving-kindness, and when he purposes by means of his creature, to illustrate his own praise, it is “the praise of the glory of his grace" that is to be illustrated. Eph. i. 6. And so re-assured by this disclosure of the divine will in man's creation, we take courage, and are prepared to behold the sad eclipse of our first father's glory, in the confidence that the glory of the Lord will again arise upon him, and also upon us his fallen offspring; and in the sad thought that Adam soon lost that image of God in which he was created, and that we all with him have been despoiled of that image, we are yet comforted in the knowledge of that divine predestination of an elect people unto holiness, which took place before the foundation of the world, and which therefore secures unto that people, the restoration of the image and likeness of God. Eph. i. 3-5. But does nothing else suggest itself to our minds, when we look into that part of the eternal scheme of the divine providence, which has especial reference to the illustration of the Glory of God upon this earth? Surely when we contemplate the dealings of God with man, with the church, with the people whom he formed for himself that they should shew forth his praise, (Isa. xliii. 21.)

"the praise of the Glory of his grace," we are reminded of him who is emphatically “the man,” (John xix. 5.)—of him, who because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death; that is, the devil; (Heb. ii. 6—14.) of him, "who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man," even of him, who, being in the form of God, and equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and who, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Phil. ii. 6, 8. We behold then a mighty theatre, that of this earth, prepared for the exhibition of a stupendous drama, (the exhibition of the glory of God,) in which Adam and his children are indeed to perform a part, but not the chief part, for that was assigned, according to the eternal purpose of God, to his own Son, to "the man Christ Jesus," "the second Adam, the Lord from heaven,”—to him who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, who is before all things, and by whom all things consist, who is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence for it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell." Col. i. 15-19. And is it not most satisfactory, most consolatory to the believer who has come to the knowledge of what man was, and ever is, and ever must be in Himself, even in His best estate, that is vanity, (Psalm xxxix. 5.)to know

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