*יי

7. The name Adam, employed in Genesis to designate man, is "the generic name of the human species." "Among the Jews," says Rosenmüller, "this was the generic name of the whole species," and used only "singularly for the first man, (as in v. 27, Gen. 1,) or collectively, (as in v. 26 and 28,) WHERE IT MUST BE REFERRED TO THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE." As an adjective the word Adam refers not to color, but to origin, to the earth, (which may be red, black, or sandy,) out of which man was made.‡

8. The specific attributes here given to man are those, not of any one race of men, but of the whole human family.

(a.) Man was created by the special counsel, co-operation, and agency of the entire Godhead in its plural, that is, in its triune character. (Gen. i. 26, and 27.) It is, therefore, at once, inadmissible, unphilosophical and profane, to introduce such a mysterious interposition of the Godhead for such an indefinite number of times as these theorists in question may choose to imagine. (See Calvin in loco.) The multiplication of causes beyond what is absolutely necessary to account for the effects, is in all cases unscientific. But in a case so supernatural, solemn, and mysterious as this, it is impiety as well as absurdity.

(b.) Man was created in the image or likeness of God. (Gen. i. 26, v. 1, ix. 6.) This may import, and in a figurative sense refer to, the majesty of man's countenance, his erect stature, and his other pre-eminent endowments. It has, however, special allusion to the soul of man, which in its nature is spiritual, invisible, and immortal, -which possesses the powers of reason, understanding, and will,—

See the Sacred Scriptures in Heb. and English, by De Sola and Lindenthal, two eminent Jews. London, A. M. 5664, or A. D. 1846, p. 4. + See Scholia in Genesi Lipsia, Tom. i. p. 82, where are given many learned authorities.

: See De Sola, ibid., p. 5, n. 7, and Rosenmüller in ibid., and Gen. ii. 7.

and to which were imparted knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. (Eph. iv. 24.) Man's nature possesses in itself all that is beautiful in inanimate nature, the life and growth of plants, the higher powers of beasts, the reason and wisdom of angels, and the moral lineaments of Deity. It is thus 7 olam hakaton, as the Hebrews denominate man, or a microcosmos, or miniature of the world, as he is called by the Greeks. This image of God in man is seen also in its effects, in that dominion over the earth and all its animals by which all are made to co-operate for the supply of man's wants, and for the increase of man's comfort. (Gen. i. 28, &c.) “The plural number," used in this grant to man, intimates, say Calvin, "that this authority was not given to Adam only, but to all his posterity as well as to him. And hence we might infer what was the end for which all things were created; namely, that none of the conveniences and necessaries of life might be wanting to men."

Now in all these characteristics of man, which form the specific character given of him, and upon which the constancy of species depends, all men are essentially alike, so far as this image is retained by any of the sons of men.*

(c.) But we are further told in this book of Genesis, after the record of the sin and fall of man, that " Adam begat a son in his own likeness after his image;" (Gen. v. 3. See De Sola, &c. ;) that is, all who have descended from him are born in that mortal, sorrowful, and sinful condition into which sin has plunged mankind bodily, mentally, and spiritually. The present characteristic image of all the Adamic race of man, therefore, is one of deceitfulness and sin. And as in this image all men of every race are naturally alike, they are all of the same origin. This point is fully and frequently enforced in the New Testament. (See Rom. ch. iii. and v. &c.)

The Adam here referred to in the Book of Genesis, therefore,

* See Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations.

must be the original stock of ALL the races of men, and not of any one only.

9. This appears further from the promise made to Adam and his posterity of a Redeemer. (Gen. iii. 15.) Those to whom this Redeemer is promised, are only such as are of "the seed of the woman," "of one blood" with her, and her posterity therefore by natural generation. No others, as the Apostle argues, are included. (Rom. v. &c.) The Redeemer who is here promised to this posterity of Adam, was also to be of "the seed of the woman," that is, "according to the flesh." The incarnate Redeemer was therefore to be "born of a woman"-of a virgin of the seed of Eve. This is the reason why in the New Testament the descent of Christ as man is traced from Adam to Joseph,-why He is called "the second Adam," "our kinsman," and why "He became flesh," and "took our nature upon Him." (See Isaiah, ch. liii., and the passages we have quoted in ch. iii. pp. 47, 48, 49.)

All the races of men, therefore, who are interested in Christ and in His gospel are, and must be of Adamic origin, seed, or blood. All to whom that gospel is to be sent must also of necessity be of the same stock. And hence, as it is expressly commanded to preach this gospel to EVERY CREATURE IN ALL THE WORLD, all must be of the same original Adamic family and origin.

10. Finally, all the languages and traditions of all the races of men preserve more or less fully a reference to the facts recorded in the Book of Genesis. And as they could never have originated these statements, they prove, therefore, their primitive unity in origin and in knowledge. (See our chapter on this subject, and see also many remarkable proofs of reference to this record from classic writers with authorities, in Rosenmüller, as above, pp. 84 and 85.)

II. But it is further alleged by our opponents that this early record of man's history is plainly composed of different productions, and refers to the creation and history of different races.

On this objection we remark,

1. That it contradicts the previous argument, as it would show that the Biblical record is not confined to one single race of men, but to several.

2. There is no proof that this record is made up of several distinct and different documents. "To our minds there is a perfect unity of design pervading the Book of Genesis, no undue repetition and no confusion. Viewed in a merely literary aspect, it is the most venerable monument of antiquity; in a historic or ethnographic light, the most valuable and satisfactory document in existence, and as a portion of the infallible rule of faith and practice for man, the foundation stone on which the whole edifice of revelation is built. Truly a writer may retrace his steps and enlarge his description for important reasons, without being charged with descrepancy. He is little versed in classic literature, whose mind does not recur to similar instances in the most trustworthy and polished writers of antiquity. And the oriental style resumes and repeats more than that of the west."

3. "If it could be proved that Genesis has, in part, been compiled from pre-existing documents, its inspiration would not fall away. These may have been written by patriarchs before Moses, to whom God revealed his will; or if the inspired Moses incorporated them into his writings, they have received, in each word and letter, the sanction of the Spirit of God speaking in him."

"In the writing of the Scriptures there were two agents employed, the Spirit of God, the true Author of the whole; and man acted upon by the Spirit, and speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. All Scripture, therefore, is given by inspiration of God. The men acted on by the Spirit, were acted upon as free and intelligent agents, and not as unconscious and senseless tools, and the peculiarities of their genius and previous culture were not lost from the writings which, under this celestial impulse, they produced."

Whether, therefore, this record was originally suggested by direct inspiration, or whether it was formed under divine guidance from many existing traditionary materials, it was all given by inspiration. It is all the word of God, and when properly understood and explained "by the other Scriptures" it is infallibly and immutably certain.

4. This record, we further affirm, does not refer to the creation of different races of men. It has indeed been affirmed that when it is said that "male and female, God created THEM," there is a reference to more creations than one. This is too puerile an objection to notice, and yet it is not beneath learned editors when the truth of a favorite theory is in question. The original words are "a male and a female created he them." God did not, therefore, create several males in several places, nor several females, but only one male and one female, who together constitute man, Adam, the generic parentage of the human species. This interpretation is in accordance with a Hebrew rule, by which a thing thus singularly expressed is limited emphatically to one. (See 1 Chron. xvi., 3; 2 Sam. vi., 19; Deut. vi., 13; Matt. iv., 10.) In this passage, therefore, we are taught that God created one male and then one female as the original stock of the whole human family.

5. But again, if the passage in Gen., ch. ii., &c., records the creation of a different race of men from that alluded to in ch. i., then the heavens and the earth, and every thing else which is declared in the first chapter to have been created, must also have been different from those referred to in the second. "The earth," spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis, may just as well mean Palestine or any other limited portion of the globe as in the second, and the animals and vegetables said to be created at the one period, may just as well be considered partial and territorial as in the other. But the creation referred to in both chapters must be the same, because all things that were created are declared to have been created within six days. The work of creation was then completed, and on the seventh day