God made man upright and set him in Eden, as no angel was set in Heaven, as no other creature was set on earth-viz.: as the center and head of a system; which, if not formed around him, was suited to him, and was given into his hand-he being made ruler over it. His tenure of it hung upon obedience; but upon an obedience which in no respect was onerous or burdensome; it was an obedience which did not claim from him deeds of arduous labor, or any service which supposed painful privation. Abstinence from one tree was the test of dependance: but this test was a constant challenge as to the uprightness of his mind, the affectionate repose in God of his heart;-and, really (though that is generally overlooked) involved in it the principle of faith; not of faith as now, in an unseen God, whom we in a world of confusion may own and trust to; but still of faith in God. For though all around bore witness to His beneficence and love, there was a warning and a prohibition upon one point, the reason of which. Adam could not scan; it afforded to him the opportunity of showing the voluntariness of his subjection; and it would be the proof, if he did not so, that he not only forgot the claims of Divine glory to the obedience over every creature, but that he did not believe what God had said, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely. die." The prohibition was put in such form as to test his faith in God, and to prove whether or not he would count God to be true; and all that promised fair to be lying, if it came into collision with that word of God.
His failure we know: but it ought to be remembered what was the first mark of failure:-even his loose tenure of the word which. God had spoken.
No violence from without could move him; nor was it thus he fell;-self-betrayal was his folly, as it has been, ever since, of everything which God has since set up on the earth. The antediluvian world corrupted itself. Noah, to whose hand, on a new earth, the sword of government was entrusted, was disgracefully intoxicated in his own tent, and before his own children. The postdiluvian world built the tower of Babel from mistrust of its savior God. Abram went down into Egypt and betrayed his Sarai; Israel danced before the golden calf; and how soon, after Pentecost, was it seen, that, while men slept instead of watching for their Lord's return, an enemy came and sowed tares. So it always has been, and will be. That which God sets up, however feeble it may seem, is invincible, unless self-betrayed. And more than this, pressure of circumstances from without, if the heart and inner man remain true to God, do but give emphasis and power to its allegiance to God, and make them manifest to all around; yea, even as the darkness around makes more striking the light with which it is contrasted. And is it not a privilege from God that, when He has declared Himself for us, He leaves us where we may declare ourselves for Him? So was it in Eden. But the subtle foe was there; enemy of God, and active assailant of every fair work of His. That new, that fair scene-testimony, as it was, for and of God, escaped not his notice. Garbled quoter of the Word he now is, and was then. What so fitted as the Word of God for his purpose? What less likely to arouse Eve's suspicions? but it was a garbled quotation. "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," was the word of the Lord God. All is yours, but sorrow and judgment rest on your eating of one tree. Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" God has measured you a restricted portion, was that serpent's twisted version of it. Eve's reply, too, was no fair quotation. "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden [which was the tree of life], God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
This was her version. Her liberty had too forward a place, and there was surely laxity of spirit in the quotation altogether. Now the word, corrupted or diluted, cannot test the thoughts of the heart, and the notion gets before her of advancement. Poor thing! What reason had she yet had to trust to her own intelligence, to her own energy, purpose, or planning? What had she hitherto done for herself? What is a creature (because it is a creature) but a dependent? But laxity as to the word loosed the girdle of her mind; implicit subjection was not her object; and he who was fishing for her soul, stirred the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, and, deceived, she was beguiled. " And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat" (Gen. 3:66And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:6)).
What is lust but the expression of independence upon God? Lust is grasping (unbidden of God) after anything; whether the stirring of desire which leads to it is through flesh, the eye, or pride. Laxity as to the word left the heart and mind open to the adversary, and led Eve eventually into open rebellion against the God as to whose word she was careless.
No scripture seems to be better fitted to purge one's heart of all its natural self-confidence, than this chapter, Gen. 3 Or shall man, when fallen, have more purity of intelligence, love and purpose, than man unfallen had. If in Eden, man stood not against Satan, how can I, outside of Eden, sold under sin as I am in nature, justly count upon anything in myself? The folly and madness of so doing are apparent. But there is a rest for the weary and the lost, in that which was not shaken in Eden; even in that which found in the very ruin which man introduced into Eden, a scene in which it could unfold His own glory; I mean the mercy of God. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion: but more than this, He was even when creating the earth, preparing scenes in which, according to His own good pleasure,
He would show forth mercy; and that Seed of the woman, first named on earth after the fall, was the one for whom this globe was made, in order that its heavens and earth might become parts of His glorious mediatorial kingdom. No creature could stand if out of God or independent of Him, and be blessed; this was one lesson taught by the fall,; but brighter light gleamed and sparkled in the fall,-for then came there forth a testimony of redemption. God would become manifest in the flesh. The God-man would take up and redeem, from out of the fall, a people for God and Himself: the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Aye! the triumph of that blessed One shall be complete, and all headship shall be broken down before Him: none shall be allowed in the end, to walk abroad in heaven or on the earth, which bow not to His name.
Scene may follow scene, upon earth, showing the unmendableness of man. He goes from bad to worse; and the brighter the light, and the greater the privilege vouchsafed to him, the more vile does he show himself. But all the evil upon earth changes not, cannot change, God's pleasant purposes concerning His S on, manifest in the flesh, Lord of heaven and earth;-the one in whom it was purposed to set up in Him, and for Him, by the Spirit, a heaven and an earth, in which man should find perfect blessing: perfect blessing not out of God's presence nor with an occasional and transient visit, but centralized around Christi-in the various circles of blessing ordained for that blessed time, and therein abide forever. Man shall be blest, and permanently so; because He who is the Blesser then, able Center for all God's counsels and plans, is God manifest in the flesh.
The mode chosen for the announcement of this truth" is to be observed, " It" (the seed of the woman) " shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," was not a promise given to Adam or Eve, but an announcement, in their presence, to the serpent; -for he lay at the bottom of the mischief done; and the evil of the mischief was not chiefly in the marring of man as a vessel, but in the dishonor to Him whose workmanship man, the vessel marred, was. The gospel never will be seen clearly or be held with full blessing, unless looked at in its native width and magnificence of scope. If we look at it merely as suiting ourselves, or fallen man, or the human race, we look not at its unity and greatness. These are found in it, when it is looked at as the developed action of the Father's counsel for the Son. He should be the one who, in defeating Satan and pouring contempt and shame on him, should pour forth the blessedness of a display of the character of God as the God of mercy -and grace, such as never had been before,-such as it required a new sort of vessel to contain, gamely poor sinners, plucked by the power of the quickening Spirit, from the ruins of the fall.
Wonderful as the excellency and beauty of all in Eden was,-great and glorious as were Adam's possessions there, man brought forth, with all his ruin and misery, out of Eden, something that was more glorious, wonderful, and precious, than all that he left behind. Aye! that predictive declaration about the Seed of the woman was a bright light,-the germ of all mediatorial glory in heaven and on the earth. Unfallen, with every blessing of Eden his, Adam was not so rich or richly blessed as he was afterward, if that word was in his heart. He brought out of Eden a word, which when unfolded contains all that victory over Satan and his power which God has ordained for Christ,-a word, too, which is a sure prize to every one that receives it,-their security of being partakers in the blessings of His triumph.
And here, clearly, begins the trial of man in grace,- by the word of grace. It is important to remember, that God has not given up, as to man, his original relative position. He is God, and must be God; and if man is to be blessed by Him, man must be subject to Him, and be a receiver,-simply a receiver,-from Him. How, without impugnment to His holiness, God can deal with a sinner at all, was still wrapped up in darkness; but to suppose any other fountain or source of blessing and benefit, besides God, is to deny his glory as God. Man may do it,-does so every day, under the delusion of the fall. " Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" is still the delusion; and, until grace enters the heart, man not only accredits himself, though he is fallen, as being higher, wiser, and stronger, than he was when first created and unfallen, but also, he goes a step further, and assumes that he is as God,-having. a spring inexhaustible in himself; yea, and that he it is who is to be the giver to God Almighty. Nothing but grace can open a man's eyes and deliver him from the delusion of the fall, and give him to own God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-in their proper place, as to counsel, salvation, and power; -nothing but grace can deliver us from our own delusive idol, self.
But man is out of Eden; and GRACE is the only thought consistent with God's plea for dealing with man or man's plea for approaching to God: the very fact of the continued existence of Adam was the proof of grace in God. -
Let us now look at Gen. 4 and 5 Short and concise history of man's conduct under the first display of grace! And here, as ever, man utterly fails. Yet, fail as he may, God changes not his counsel and plan about the mediatorial glory of redemption for his Son, and those that are his; for He had not failed; nor did the fresh proofs of the badness of that which the serpent had done induce the thought that, therefore, he should go unpunished. Surely, it was contrariwise; and, if man was allowed to develop and make manifest before all, in heaven and on earth, what the evil of the fall was, while God's patience was perfect,—[because, his power being perfect (and perfect, not only over all around, but perfect in self-possession too), He could wait-Wait, that man might hear of grace and live-Wait, that the real imbecility against Himself of the adversary might become the more evident;-1 still the counsel remained unchanged.
No sooner is Adam out of Eden, than we read of the birth of children. The first-born, Eve, called Cain, saying, " I have gotten the man from the Lord." And did she really think that this was the Seed of the woman promised-that he was Cain indeed (a possession)? Bitter delusion, if so she thought. Bitter counterpart, out of Eden, of the same haste she had made in Eden. Cain, the bandyer of words with God;-Cain, the murderer;- Cain, whose hand, hot with a brother's blood, should display the first sample of that death to which Eve had sold herself-What a possession was Cain! Righteous and true is the Lord in all his dealings; and his moral government often brings home first to the very bosom which carried forth seed prohibited to be sown, the harvest of its own folly. She had brought in death. The mother of death to her race, she should be the mother of the murderer, and should nourish and nurture in her own bosom the first murderer and the first victim of death! How must " possession" and " a passing breath," the names of her two sons, have, oft, in after-times, recurred to the mother's mind.
I do not say Satan is not to be traced in Gen. 4. Surely, to the eye of faith, he is seen there present,- lurking beneath the surface; but his power is not the thing which is sought to be illustrated, or which stands out in prominency in this portion. Neither, again, is the question at all about man's circumstances;-that is settled,-he is out of Eden, and in the sweat of his brow has to eat bread. The point of instruction, of Gen. 4 as a whole, I conceive to be, man. How will man act, if left to himself, out of Eden? How will man there treat the long-suffering of God, who, waiting to be gracious may still be manifesting his goodness? Alas! sad picture 1 we have that question answered here.
And, as in Eden, I see what the unfallen man is, as a creature, if left to himself; so here I see what the fallen creature's course will b; while on earth, and allowed to abide there.
1. We have to notice the simple guidance of faith, and its contrast, the error of nature. The firstlings of the flock bespoke faith, or the apprehension of that which was now in the Divine mind', the basis of every man's approach to him,-new as it might be to man; and the fruits of the earth, bloodless offering, though more venerable, told of a mind unguided by God, and left in nature's darkness.
2. It was the younger who was taken, the elder who was left, according to electing love.
3. And this appears -"The Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering." "He had respect," that was the point: but then it says, "To Abel and his offering;" not to the offering of Abel and to himself. The person is set before the way of approach, that grace might have its mark on the page.
4. See the effect of God's judgment upon the heart of unrenewed man. "And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."
5. What gentle dealing on the Lord's part! what grace shown! if, haply, the wanderer might yet return; if, yet, the assurance that one way was open to him as to Abel, and to all, might win Cain into the path of blessing. But man, as man, has no heart for God, no will to bow to Him, and own his absolute dependance for everything. The question is not, Has he a free will? but will the free-will of fallen man turn to God? That is the question.
6. We find he goes out-talks with Abel about it- and then murders him. Lawless putting forth of power this! even if he meant not that which would follow; and sad reason that which the Word of God (in 1 John chap. 3) assigns for the deed; viz. because his own works were evil, and his brother's good. Affecting truth! but truth it is: there is nothing which more provokes enmity in the mind of fallen man, than a savor of godliness in another man.
7. " And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?"
What gentleness on the Lord's part! what seeking after conscience! but conscience was seared; hard as the nether millstone. Alas! the folly. of man's wisdom! With whom was this infuriate bandying words? Against whom was he restlessly throwing up the shoulder, as if He were unjustly assuming that he (Cain) had a duty to his brother? It was the Lord omniscient, almighty, who had made men to be helpers, the one to the other: who had, as yet, given the power of life and -death over man to no one, and whose rights Cain had just infringed, assuming to himself the right to slay Abel, because his works pleased God, as his own did not.
8. The judgment was just;-a curse, from the earth. But let it be observed, how this sentence upon Cain told of how precious, in God's sight, not only was the blood of the martyr Abel, but how precious was the earth still itself in his sight. For Adam's sin he had said (Gen. 3:17, 1817And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; (Genesis 3:17‑18)), " Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." But now he says (chap. 4:11), " Thou art cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
Cain fears for his own life, and turns to see what he can gain for himself. Fair subject he, in the school which Satan was conversant, and to which he alludes (Job 2:44And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. (Job 2:4)), " And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin-for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life."
Without deference to God; without one natural affection which will answer to that name brother; without a chord to respond and vibrate in unison with the heart of a father and mother, so bereaved and so afflicted, Cain has yet his fear for himself. And he turns, a suppliant, to the avenger of his brother's blood.
Touching occasion this for the Lord to show-how open His ear, how ready His hand to give freely! Cain is heard, and the much loved life is protected by a mark and a proclamation of the Lord. He gives to the unthankful and to the evil; causes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust-and is good to all His works.
But Cain was untouched by the goodness, and ver. 16 we read,-
"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord." Aye! the presence of the Lord suits not man when he is bent upon wickedness and self-will. But as it was the younger son who, having asked "for the portion of goods which falleth to me,"... "not many days after" ... "gathered all together and took his journey into a far country"-so likewise, here it is written. "Cain went out from the presence of the Lord'.'-the action was his own. He went out thither, where his own way, -the way of Cain (Jude),-might be undisturbed.
Fallen human nature has a religiousness of its own as had Cain. Among the heathen, it is to be seen in full development. It will not bow to the living and true God, nor own His way of grace and mercy in Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent; it cannot bear his people; its pleasure leads it out from the divine presence, and there it gets a name on the earth.
Let us glance at the family of Cain.
His first-born he called Enoch [or dedicated-; built a city and named it after his son " Enoch." Was it like Absalom that he desired the name to be remembered? Dedicated to whom? for what? Whatever he thought, the city looks like an overt act of rebellion against the Lord, though a sorrowful confession of his own distaste to the fugitive wandering life to which he himself had been doomed.
If he thought that himself would become a settler, then he showed his insubjection to the sentence recorded against him. If he sought to make a name on the earth for his family, dwelling outside of the presence of the Lord (wanderer as himself might be), he was rearing a pillar out of God's presence, to make his family to be a testimony of his own discontentment in being a wanderer. But his family had a name on the earth; for the city was called by Enoch's name. How unlike the heavenly Enoch of the next chapter, who passed over the earth lightly, and left no record save a heavenly one behind him!
The name Lamech is said to signify strong. That he was a remarkable man, one greatly characterized in his place, day, and family, for energy and wisdom of a certain kind, cannot be doubted.
In one branch of his family, leaving the city, there was a son, who was the first ensample of a Nomad cattle-holder; in another son was found the head of the science and art of music,-" the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." His other wife's children, too, were not without name; and one of them (Tubal-cain) was "an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron."
Thus polygamy, character on the earth, and the arts and sciences, were found in Cain's family.
Lastly, as was said (vol. ii. page 433) in the paper, entitled " The Two Lamechs," this " strong" one knew how to subserve himself, in his day and generation, by a self-made application to himself of those parts of God's former sayings to Cain, as might suit his own purpose.
Such was the family of Cain; a little WORLD (or orderly system) set up by man, in which to make himself happy without God, and out of God's presence. Solemn thought! that reprieve of judgment should be frittered away in self-devised conceits and fading pleasures. Poor world! all its pleasures are but for a season; its day of reckoning is coming, and then where will be Cain's family? Where will be those that have walked in his way?
If man is left to himself in the day of grace-the world is what is produced. Thus far as to chap. 4:1-24.
A few words now on what follows.
As is the divine way,-the insignificant thing is spoken of first, and afterward that which is of importance. Cain's family is chronicled, and then comes Seth's family -that is, the world first, and then the line of promise, blessing, and descent.
"And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."
Cain was under sentence; and of his own accord he had " gone out from the presence of the Lord:" a new line is placed or set (Seth) in the place of Abel, who had been the representative of the household of faith. To Seth a son is born, and " then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord"-so I read it:-that is, as Cain was recorded as remarkable for cities, arts, sciences, character, etc. etc. out of God's presence; so the family of Seth took up this as their distinctive mark, " We are the Lord's." Sweet privilege for the meek and lowly this! But if it were done in pride of heart, it would be the harbinger of judgment. The Lord takes care to put in juxtaposition with this, "And Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image," and he called his name Seth.
The likeness and image of fallen Adam clave, still, to those who on earth were the Lord's,-and were his line for blessing and for testimony. First, observe how far from brilliant, either as to the things of God, or the things of earth this line of Seth was. As to the earth, nothing glorious is recorded: no city was built and named; there was no bettering of the human race, by discoveries, inventions or the effort to strike out some new path or to bring in some new convenience or pleasure into the family. And this was no bad token for it either. For, What is the power by which all these things are cultivated? It is the knowledge of good and evil, which came with the fall,-and nothing else. Yes; men may hide their own shame, if they will; or, they may foam out their own shame, in witty inventions; but after all, where gat they this power, and., what in their present condition, does it speak? It was stolen, stolen under the suggestion of Satan, sacrilegiously stolen from God, against His orders. That God may have used witty inventions, as printing for the Bible, and ships, and railroads, etc., for the passage of his servants, is quite 'true; but they owe not their existence directly to Him; and, if flowing out of the knowledge of good and evil which marks Him, as He said, " they are become as one of us knowing good and evil " (Gen. 3), they have flowed out, through that power, fraudulently and sacrilegiously stolen by man under Satan's guidance, from God. And what do they, in our present condition, bespeak? Of nothing but expediency to meet felt and confessed necessity. In Eden there was no necessity, and until the fall no expedient. The first thought of blending circumstances together so as to meet need which we read of, is in Gen. 3-" And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
And the second is like unto it, ch. 3 ver. 8. "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden."
A cover from their own eyes and a covert from the presence of the Lord, was what in these two expedients, these two wise blendings of circumstances, they sought; and is not a cover from our own eyes and a covert from the presence of the Lord (something which, by darkening our minds, may make the sense of His presence less painful) to be seen, by faith, on all that man thus glories in-arts, sciences, etc. He seeks them for himself, he being in ruin, and without the manifested presence of God with him, as it was with Israel when it went up out of Egypt and passed through the Red Sea, tarried forty years in the wilderness, and then entered the land in triumph. In the new heavens, on the new earth, what will be the place such things will have? One need not ask-where God shall be all in all-they could not live.
Down to verse 18, the birth, the living till marriage, the becoming parents, the living after that, the number of children and the deaths, is pretty much all that we read of.
The continuity of the line of blessing which would be found in the Seed to come; that was the great thing for man; though, to grace divine, every little circumstance of the people of His choice is dear; every hair numbered; every circumstance cared for; and precious in His sight the death of his saints. Still, though the Lord's people are not to be great in the earth in its things, it is, and ought to be, a most humbling thing to see how few of them attain to any place of distinction in Him or in His things. Six links in the pedigree and no Enoch yet: none, as yet, of whom the Lord could speak as that they had found grace publicly to identify themselves with Him. I speak not now as to the question of standing in the line of testimony, or as to that of being individually blessed; but of this-why so many of those who are in the line of testimony, who are individually blessed, keep not practically their position of testimony, and the power of their blessing, so as to make it manifest to all? Why, alas, do so very few keep it at all, so as to be manifested to others, and to have their good works go before them? God is not unmindful of any work and labor of love for His name's sake; and that He loves to say the most He can for His servants, who can doubt? He made good the standing of Job before his friends, better than Job could; and how graciously, withal, does He make them taste the pre-eminency—they must be blessed through Job. He gives Job, too, a better character than he could give himself (see James 5:1111Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11)). And who can read the seventeenth chapter of John's gospel and not be astonished at the thoughts which the blessed Lord expressed to His Father about His poor feeble disciples. It is the mother's eye which makes the first-born babe so peculiar to her sight; it was faith-estimate of the people which made Balaam say such things about. Israel (Num. 24.1-9); and it is the Lord's own heart makes him speak so of his disciples. There is no unwillingness in God to praise us-quite the contrary; but, as for us, there are fifty Lots for every one Abram. And who of us, judging the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, are walking in heavenly spiritual Nazariteship, as we should?
2ndly.-As to Enoch. His name signifies dedicated. If he was dedicated to the Lord of heaven, and for a testimony upon earth for Him, then his name was as well chosen as was that of the other Enoch in Cain's family, if dedication to human interests on the earth was that which he was meant for.
We may notice, as to this Enoch, the name of his son. Methuselah- "(At) his death (he) sends:" as if some great event were before his mind. And, as has been observed, the death of Methuselah just preceded the deluge. Then observe the testimonial for Enoch. His excellency consisted not in deeds wrought or service (as man counts service) done; but he had chosen the better part-God was in all his thoughts, and his life told it" He walked with God." He walked with God! blessed privilege open to every member of the family, in the household of Faith, in every age-enjoyed, however, by but few. " He walked with God, and he was not, for God took him"; and, " By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb. 11.5); and the testimony in Jude closes his history-" And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (ver. 14, 16).
Brilliant exception to the rest of those whose honored place was in the line of testimony and of blessing before the deluge. How soon after Philadelphian praise and beauty does Laodicean failure and pride appear upon the stage; and how soon after Enoch does the night close in upon the antediluvian world. Indeed, it may be, that, like the testimony of Peter and John in Jerusalem, at Pentecost, Enoch was the token that evil had risen to its measured limit, and that judgment was at the very door: for oft, as has been remarked by others, a display of light and power are not the harbinger of blessing to that, before which they are set, but of judgment on it and of salvation to others.
Lamech, who-self-deceived and deceiving-prophesied smooth and soft things, (as has elsewhere been noted), was one sign of those last days. And who can read of his conduct in this respect, and think of the way in which, in our own day, the professing church is using prophetic Scriptures, and not tremble? If men will have " a rest" on this earth,-if they think to have glory, under the present heavens,-and the exaltation of man, as he now is,-they will find it in Babylon—the harlot and city but all there is Godless, Christless, and without the Spirit; earthly, sensual and devilish.
This is not our rest; it is polluted. Noah's inheritance and prospects lay under another canopy, in another sphere altogether, to that which Lamech supposed: but Lamech s tone of speech and thought, though different from the overt wickedness, which is afterward spoken of, chimed in with it; and tended to blunt the edge of the prophetic word of judgment coming. As one might have answered Noah, when he was a preacher of righteousness and busy preparing for judgment, "Nay, your own father and family correct your folly-hear what he said and how piously he spake." Infidelity does not always scoff openly. The second mark of the last days is recorded, chap. 6:1, 2, " And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all they chose."
The sons of God, were, I presume, those who called themselves by the name of the Lord, and the daughters of men were in Cain's family. And observe the corruption was from within the separated body. It is not said, "The sons of men took of the daughters of God"-but the reverse. It was God's witness which was betraying itself, was mixing the lines which God had separated. And what wonder, when a Lamech was the preacher? Earnestly did Paul warn upon this same subject (2 Cor. 6:14-1814Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14‑18)). "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
Alas! if I spake here my thought as to ourselves, it is this:-The world has too much hold over us, for us to see how much association with it we have. I condemn no one; I speak for myself and the church of God-the saints are not heavenly and divine in character as their Head would have them, -they are not, here below, like the widow that is desolate and trusts in God.
Thirdly, man had tampered with God's word; had trampled down, for the sake of indulging the lust of the eye and the flesh, the barriers which God had raised for His testimony upon earth. The next thing (and what wonder?) there is violence against his fellows: "the earth was filled with violence." When the in who are separated unto the Lord outwardly and in profession, become known on earth for their giants,-their mighty men, their men of renown,-it needs no great acquaintance with the human race, or with the Divine government, to be able to say that violence among men will soon plentifully show itself; and, then, judgment from the Lord will quickly follow. The boast of our day is not in height of stature or width of shoulder, but its boast and glorying is not in the Lord alone;-intellect is man's pride now. How perfect is the word of our God in warning as in guidance, and it has said, " Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited" (Jer. 17:5,65Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. 6For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. (Jeremiah 17:5‑6)). It is impossible to trust to man and the Lord. "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:2424No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)). And again, " Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord" (Jer. 9:23,2423Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23‑24)). See also the character of the king in Dan. 11.
The pride of man has already lifted him above family, title, and wealth, in this land and, in Europe, at least; but not above intellect. And when that comes to be honored, as it will be ere long, with full homage, then will men's hearts be blinded thoroughly to every folly. Let the French revolution be heard, if men will not hear Scripture, and let the stupid follies of the age of reason, and its immediate connection with the reign of terror be thought of. No considerate mind can doubt that we are on the eve of most eventful times in the history of both Christendom and the world. The entire revolution of everything throughout Europe, which the last twenty-five years have brought, cannot be hid. What, then, are the saints of God about, and where are they? There is but one Power which can keep them free from other influence, and that is the Holy Ghost. Are they led by Him,-are they walking in Him,-or are they loose and lax in their walk, yielding now to one influence, and now to another, as it may chance to suit their convenience? Never, perhaps, was there a time when the value of a sure guide, a faithful Eliezer [my God the helper, which is not far from the idea which John 14 and 16 give us of the Spirit's gracious services] was needed. In our scenes at home, we have seen and been made to feel the value of One who can detect " angels of light" (falsely so called), and can unravel the mass of truth tangled with error. The Spirit of God knows all the land-marks of truth; can detect every shoal and sand-bank of error. What a blessed thing to have such a one for Guide in such a day as this!
May the saints of God humble themselves under Him, and He will enable them to see and understand far more of the written word than they now do, and give them more power, too, to use what they have. But let them get and keep themselves entirely separate from evil. Let "cease to do evil, learn to do good," be the guide of their lives.
One word more. Not only is God's pleasant purpose about making the heavens and the earth to become scenes for the display of the glory of Christ, the ground, (which never can be shaken) of all his dealings with the earth; but, it is just because that never can be given up, that there have been, from time to time, acts of judgment upon various generations of men. The accomplishment of that purpose, and the development of that plan of redemption-glory, supposed God to be present, dealing (more or less directly) with man, in testimony, until the time came which was fixed for the display of the glory. To give up the testimony would have been to have shut out man from the glory. But man is so base, that without a check the world would have destroyed itself and its inhabitants, and, so far as it could, it would have driven God from it. Upon this ground, the Divine government has from time to time interfered to keep evil in check, and make it possible for God to continue dealing in grace, and for man to continue where the long-suffering of God is salvation.
- And thus, these solemn judgments, before which the heart quails, overwhelming as they are to a whole generation, speak in the language of heaven, not only judgment, but the fixity of the Divine purpose to bless, under Christ, the human race, both in heaven and on earth.
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen.