The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 26

pntrlnrchnl times before the giving of the MoRaic law. It is Rufficient t1J say, on the one hrmrl, that both in the Scriptural history of man during that period, and in many nntions of the Gentile world even to the preRent day, indicationR are found of a hebclomndal division of time,1 which cannot easily be accounted for nnlesR it were the result of some primeval tradition; on the other, that there is no intima- tion in the sacred history that this ordinance was given to man M a bw, in the propor sense of the word, and, therefore, we need not be surprised that it was obscured and almost forgotten, even as other fundamental principles of religion were, when there was nothing to give it a definite and permanent form. 14. The history of the creation of man contains then, we find, all the elementary principles of his religious and moral duty, and (what we may call) the elementary provision for the order of his own life. It is indeed an internal evidence of no small weight· to the Divine origin of the sacred history, that in this brief and so to speak condensed record, in which events of the largest import and the most profound signi- ficance are described in a few simple sentences, without any attempt to expound the mysterious truths bidden iri the story, or to extract moral and religious instruction from it, much lees to build up some system of religion upon the facts recorded-yet there are involved all the rudimentary truths both of religion and of morality. But it is necessary to observe, that in man's original state none of these were or could be laws in the strict sense of the word, that is, commands or prohibitions with promises attaclied to obedience, and threats of punishment for transgresssion. This Divine order, to which man's own nature belonged, required no law to enforce it on man. Created in God's image and likeness, good and pure in body, soul, and spirit, there was no temptation to him to depart from that order, nor any need for com- mands and prohibitions to restrain him from the sins to which we are liable. Not only had sin not entered into the world, but there was no concupiscence or tendency to sfo. 2 The lamb requires no chain to prevent it from ravening as the wolf. 15. Yet if this had been all; if man had been left simply in a state of innocence, with no temptation, no trial of his submission to the will of God, merely living according to his own pure nature, without any necessity to deny himself and exercise self-control, how could he have rendered reasonable and willing obedience, the true service of the spirit, to God hie Father? how could he ever have become what God certainly purposed that he should become, when he created him in hie own likeness ? We may affirm without any hesitation, since this was the method at.1:ually adopted in the wisdom and goodness of God, that it was essential to the spiritual development of man that he should be subject to some law by which he might be educated as a son of God, and might render spiritual obedience. .And, as far as we can judge, the law suitable for one in such a condition, 'that is, for one in the infancy of his moral and spiritual life, must take the form of a prohibition of some act, not in itself evil,- for that would be contrary to his nature and therefore no trial of obedience,-but indifferent in itself, yet such as his own nature might incline him to, with a penalty attached to the transgression of the law. And further, if we consider this law of paradise, as we must in order to understand its reason and its force, in the light of tl,e subsequent history of mankind, and of the teaching of St. Paul as to the ptuposes and the effect of the law given by Moses, it seems impossible not to conclude that the law given to man in his state of innocency was necessary, not only for the development 1 I nm informed by a lonrnod Chinese friend, that nlthough amongst them tho hebrlomnd,1! division is not retained, ye~, nccording to one of their sacre<l books, the I-King, or ' llook of Olumgea,' "tho revolution of the orucl' of tho uni verso is completed in seven days." 2 CF. Gon. ii. 25.  xii INTUODUCTION 1'0 THE PENTATEUCII.