ther shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.' conceivable connection is there, apart from divine appointment, between the blood of a brute animal and the sins of a human being? Indeed there was much more reason to think that God would have been displeased with the unauthorized destruction of his creatures, than that he would so accept it as to forgive iniquity on account Such an offering without a divine warrant would have been at best a mere act of superstitious will-wor Of skins. That the beasts whose skins were allotted for a covering to our first parents on this occasion had been slain, it is natural to suppose; and there were no purposes for which they could have been slain, except those of food, of sacrifice, or of clothing. That they were not slain for food is evident from the fact that the grant of animal food was not made till the days of No-ship, for which no one could have ah, ch. 9. 3. Neither can it be admitted that they were slain merely for clothing; since it cannot be supposed that Adam would immediately after the sentence of the divine displeasure, have dared to kill God's creatures without his permission. Nor is it likely that God should order them to be slain solely for their skins, when man could have been supplied with garments made of other materials. It follows then that they must have been slain with a view to sacrifice. This alone supplies an adequate reason. The whole of the animal (as the primitive offerings were probably all holocausts) would here be devoted to the use of religion, except the skin, which would be employed for purposes of clothing. And even this might not be without its moral and religious ends; for while Adam and Eve thought only of a covering for their bodies, God pointed out to them a covering for their souls. They were despoiled of their original righteousness, and they needed a robe to cover their naked souls, that they might again stand before God without spot or blemish.' We undoubtedly see then in this incident the first institution of animal sacrifices; for that such a rite should have originated in mere human device cannot be maintained with any show of reason. How should it have entered into the mind of man to imagine that the blood of a beast could make satisfaction to God for sin ? What of it. 1 promised himself acceptance; for what superstition can be more gross than to believe without any authority for so doing, that God will transfer the sins of the sacrificer to the sacrifice, and that thus the sacrificer himself shall be pardoned? The very pagans themselves judged more rationally, for they are unanimous in ascribing the origin of sacrifice to a divine command. The divine acceptance therefore of the offerings must be regarded as a demonstration of a divine institution designed to prefigure the great atoning sacrifice, and that they were now appointed for the express purpose of directing the view of fallen man to the future propitiatory sacrifice which Christ should offer to God upon the cross. And how well such a symbolical rite was adapted to the end may be judged of from the following remarks by the Rev. J. P. Smith in his Treatise on Atonement and Sacrifice. The selection, presentation, and immolation of the unoffending animal, the regard paid to its blood, its consumption by fire, the solemn ceremonies which accompanied, and the particular confession and supplications of the worshipper,-must have powerfully impressed the ideas of sin and, guilt, the desert of punishment, the substitution of the innocent, and the pardon of the transgressor. When men were accustomed to symbolical actions, such a signification would be more readily apprehended and more 22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. i ver. 5. Like Isa. 19. 12. & 47. 12, 13. Jer. 22. 23. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever: k ch. 2. 9. solemnly felt than under our circumstances and habits. The refinements of advanced society and the general use of letters, have made us far less sensible to the language of living signs than the ruder children of nature have always been How much more must the impressions on the heart have been increased, when the first sacrifice was offered; when the parents of our race, recent from their guilty fall, were abased by the divine rebuke, driven from their blissful seat, and filled with dismay at the threatening of DEATH!-a threatening piercing their souls, but of the nature and effects of which they could form but a vague idea. But when directed by stern authority to apply some instrument of death to the lamb which, with endearing innocence, had sported around them, they heard its unexpected cries, they beheld the appalling sight of streaming blood and struggling agonies and life's last throes -they gazed upon the breathless body, -and they were told, THIS IS DEATH; how stricken must they have been with horror such as no description could ever paint! And how would their horror be aggravated to think that they themselves were the guilty authors of so much misery to the beings around them? It is easy then to perceive with what important and salutary lessons the rite of sacrifice was fraught.'-For some farther views on the subject of sacrifices, see note on ch. 4. 3, 4. 22. Behold the man is become as one of us. The usual interpretation put upon this passage has been to consider it as an ironical mode of upbraiding Adam with the issue of his transgression; as an indignant taunt at his credulity in trusting to the tempter's prom ise; q. d. 'Behold, all ye angels the fruit of man's rashness! See how he has obtained the object of his ambition! See what he has gained by listening to the voice of the serpent! See the pitch of divinity to which he has raised himself by his newly-acquired knowledge of good and evil!' It is by some objected to this that it attributes to the Most High an unbecoming levity at the awful period when he was determining the fate of his fallen creatures. But as this kind of holy sarcasm is sometimes employed in the Scriptures, there is perhaps no insuperable objection to this view of the mean. ing of the text. But a preferable inter pretation we think is, to take the words as implying what the man had aimed and attempted to become, rather than what he actually had become. This is entirely agreeable to the Hebrew idiom by which an action is said to be done when it is merely attempted or proposed to be done. (See note on Gen. 37. 21.) This construction too is perhaps more in accordance with our natural sense of the gravity and solemnity of the whole proceeding, and makes the expression one rather of commiseration than of taunting reproach. Still the correctness of this interpretation cannot be positively affirmed.And now, lest he put forth his hand, &c. It will be observed that the sentence is defective, and is to be supplied in some such way as this ;-'And now care is to be taken lest,' or 'Now he must be driven forth lest,' &c. The clause omitted is plainly hinted at in the commencement of the next verse, 'Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden.'- -T And take also of the tree of life, and live for ever. That -T 23 Therefore the LORD God | Eden, to till the ground from sent him forth from the garden of whence he was taken. 1 ch. 4. 2. & 9. 20. they should henceforth be debarred from the sign. Thus viewed the exclusion is perhaps to be considered as an act of mercy, inasmuch as it cut the offenders off from the liability again to incur the divine displeasure by a renewed act of sin. is, in the hope, the vain hope, of living for ever. If it be asked how Adam would have sinned by eating of the fruit of the tree of life, which had not been prohibited, the proper answer is, that the sin would have consisted rather in the purpose than in the act-the purpose in this way to counteract and render null and void the sentence of death which he had incurred. Yet even in this he would have been disappointed, for the tree was intended merely as a sacramental pledge of the continuance of a happy life as long as he remained obedient, but was not, that we can learn, endowed with any remedial virtue to restore life when once lost. The language, it must be acknowledged, seems to imply, that, had man tasted of the tree of life, even after his rebellion, he would have lived for ever, and that he was expelled from Paradise to prevent such a consequence. | But this, as appears from several considerations, is an erroneous view of the text. When the first pair violated the divine command, they immediately became mortal, subject to infirmity and death, agreeably to the penalty, 'in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' This was the original doom, and therefore they could not avoid the penalty, and become immortal by eating of the tree of life after their transgression. The sentence incurred by their sin, would unavoidably take effect in the time appointed by the Almighty, whatever attempt the fallen pair had made to reverse it. They had forfeited life and could not avoid the punishment of their guilt. They were expelled from Paradise, then, not because their eating of the tree of life would have rendered them immortal, but because it was proper that having forfeited the thing signified 23. Sent him forth from the garden. The original denotes something more than a gentle dismission. It is the term used in speaking of the divorce of a wife from her husband, which implies a violent separation. So here, as appears from the ensuing verse, it is probably to be understood as signifying a stern and angry ejection.--¶ To till the ground from whence he was taken. Referring either to the element from which he was formed, or to the ground without the precincts of paradise; for he was created without those limits and afterwards 'taken' and placed within them. The original term for 'till' is the word usually rendered to 'serve,' and denotes all that servile work which should be requisite to procure a subsistence, and which makes man, as it were, a servant to the earth. Thus Eccl. 5. 9, 'The profit of the earth is for all; the king himself is served by the field (Heb. is servant to the field).' His tilling the ground, however, would be compensated by his increased enjoyment of its fruits, and his converse with the earth would naturally be improved to keep him humble and remind him of his latter end. Thus the curse was in a measure overruled to be a blessing in more respects than one. The diminished fruitfulness of the earth has a merciful tendency to restrain the progress of sin, for if the whole earth were like tne plains of Sodom in fertility, which are compared to the garden of God (Gen. 13. 10), its inhabitants would be very apt to be as Sodom and Gomorrha 21 So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden " Cherubims, and m ch. 2. 8. n Ps. 104. 1. Heb. 1. 7. in wickedness. The necessity of hard labour in obtaining a sustenance, which is the lot of the far greater portion of mankind, tends greatly by separating men from each other, and keeping down their spirits, to restrain them from the excesses of evil. Moreover, by experiencing the toils and hardships of life, man becomes more resigned to quit this world when commanded away by death, and is stimulated to fix his hopes of happiness on another and better state of existence. a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. employed and rendered 'placed' ( yashkan, made to dwell), is the root of Shekinah, a dwelling or tabernacling in a peculiar manner, as the God of Israel did among or between the cherubim-a mode of residence having a typical allusion to the future tabernacling in the flesh of his son Jesus Christ. If the cherubim here spoken of were really angels, as is generally supposed, still this does not militate with the idea that their office on this occasion was not only to keep man from re-entering the garden, but also to serve as a striking symbol of the same objects or truths as were afterwards represented by them in the tabernacle, the tem 24. Placed cherubims and a flaming sword. From subsequent descriptions it appears that the form of the cherubim was that of living creatures with wings, Ezek. 1. 5, and 10. 15, but Mo-ple, the visions of Ezekiel, and the ses goes into no particulars here because he wrote for those who were familiar with the figure of the cherubim embroidered in the curtains of the tabernacle, Ex. 26. 1, and who were acquainted with the form and perhaps with the mystical purport of those that overshadowed the mercy-seat, Ex. 25. 18. Whether the cherubim here mentioned were real living beings, or merely the same kind of emblematic or hieroglyphical images that we afterwards read of, accompanied with a fiery splendor resembling the vibrations of a flaming sword, it is difficult to say. There is undoubtedly a great degree of obscurity resting upon the subject of the cherubim wherever mentioned in the Scriptures, but that they were ordinarily symbolical beings intimately connected with the Shekinah, or visible divine glory, is beyond question, as they formed an essential part of the apparatus of the tabernacle and temple, in which God in his visible manifestation dwelt. Indeed the very word here mystic scenes of the Apocalypse; and that these had reference to the most important things in the gospel economy is undeniable. The present was in fact, if we mistake not, the first introduction of that remarkable symbol which was subsequently to become a permanent representative of the deepest mysteries of redemption, one of which the Jewish writers say, 'it is the foundation, root, heart, and marrow of the whole Levitical dispensation.' 'Paradise to be a fit residence for uncontaminated innocence, must have been something more than a place of sensual ease and enjoyment; it was surely a school of religious instruction, a place especially adapted to excite sentiments of piety and devotion, a place designed to convey spiritual knowledge by the visible, but emblematical objects that it contained. If such was the general and sublime design of the Paradisaical constitution, some highly instructive information must certainly have been intended to be conveyed by so splendid sword turning itself.' It is not we suppose to be inferred from this that the cherubim were armed with flaming swords which they brandished on eve that there were flames of fire of the shape of swords streaming or darting out from the midst of the cherubim, and displaying a constant flickering motion that would naturally strike ter ror into every one that approached. Similar fiery appearances are mentioned in connection with the cherubim in the remarkable vision of Ezekiel, ch. 1. 13, and are perhaps alluded to by the apostle, Heb. 1. 7, 'Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.' REMARKS. This chapter contains the record of the darkest, the most disastrous event, that has ever occurred in the history of our world. Indeed every other calamity by which the earth has been afflicted is to be traced to this as its primal source. Among the solemn reflections to which it gives rise are the following: and stupendous a display of celestial power as the cherubic emblems at the east of the garden of Eden. The best, perhaps the only means of communicating a knowledge of spiritual and in-ry side in an intimidating manner, but visible things in the early periods of the world was by symbolical representations; for which reason it was, in all likelihood, one of the modes by which the Almighty taught his creatures in the infancy of the human species. In attempting to explain the hieroglyphic meaning of the cherubim, it is easy for a luxuriant imagination to transgress the bounds of sobriety and reason; but some spiritual instruction they were doubtless meant to convey; and the proto-evangelical promise, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the head of the Serpent, combined with the reflected light from subsequent revelations, points out the mystery of redemption as the leading object of the celestial vision. The free communication with the Tree of Life was forbidden to the fallen, rebellious creature, and the only access to it that now remained, was through the mediatorial office of a Redeemer, who has remedied the evil originating from the Fall. This was typically discovered in the glorious and cherubic appearance at the entrance of the garden of Eden, an appearance not intended to drive our first parents from the Tree of Life in terror, but to inspire them with hope, to demonstrate to them that the Divine mercy was still vouchsafed to man, though now fallen, and to be an emblematical representation of the covenant of grace.' Holden. This momentous emblem, however, we conceive, has never been adequately explained in all its bearings, but is yet destined to open an immensely important and interesting field of biblical research.-For further remarks on the import of the cherubim, see note on Exod. 25. 18--22.And a flaming sword which turned every way. Heb. 'the flame of a (1.) We learn from it the unspeakable malignity of Satan as the grand enemy and tempter of mankind. What a fiendish disposition is that here manifested in plotting and effecting the ruin of the first pair, with their unborn posterity! How deadly must have been the hatred to purity and goodness which actuated him in this foul transaction! No injury or provocation had he received from them; no personal resentment or spirit of revenge could have prompted him to the fatal deed. It was the pure unmixed malignity of his nature that goaded him on to compass the overthrow of primeval innocence. It was hatred to goodness for goodness' sake. And let us not forget that such is the nature of all sin. Though it may differ in degree, in kind it is the same. The children of the wicked one, though prevented by the various restraints of providence from acting out |