1 1 LUTHER STILL SPEAKING. THE CREATION: A COMMENTARY ON THE FIEST FIVE CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS. BY MAETIN LUTHEE. IF THEY HEAR NOT MOSES AND THE PROPHETS, NEITHER WILL THEY BE PERSUADED THOTOH ONE ROSE FUOlt THE DEAD." — Lllke 16. 31. "by it, he BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKTH." — Ileb. 11. 4. OUIGIXALLY PUBLISHED AT WITEXBERG IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1.544; AND NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, HENRY COLE, D. D., OF CLARE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. TnANBLATOR OF "SELECT WORRs" OF MARTIN LUTIIEIt, IN FOUR VOLUMES, AND OK VARIOUS OTHER WORKS OF LUTHER AND CALVIN. EDINBURGH: T, & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET. LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. MDCCCLVIII. ■HliKRAY AND GllilS, PUINTEKS, EDlNBUIiGH. PROPERTK PKIKCJSTOIT '^^C. ju„ 1883 .V*^"" TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. It is with inexpressible gratitude to God, and witli the sure ex- pectation of great delight and benefit to his own soul, (which pleasure and profit he doubts not the British Church of Christ will, as readers, also enjoy) ; that the writer again appears before the world, as the Translator of Martin Luther. This delightful "labour of love" had been planned and determined on, more than thirty years ago ; but the purposer having been hindered, ever since his original determination, by the double burden of education and the ministry of the Gospel, had despaired of ever being able to accomplish his fond design. The great and merciful, yet sovereign Disposer of all events, however, having now released him from his deep educational care and toil, by the inscrutable dispensation of a twofold affliction of the deepest kind, both domestic and personal ; and the weight and consequences of the same having quite disabled him from con- tinuing his exalted and delightful work of preaching the ever- lasting Gospel, he flies with a resigned, but willing, and glad, and wliole heart, to his translating pen and paper ; that he might spend in their efforts the feeble renniant of his bodily and mentai powers ; cherishing a fond hope, and breathing an earnest prayer, that the duration of his life and facidties may be divinely and mercifully prolonged, until his long-cherished design of translat- ing Martin Luther's unequalled " Commentary on the Book of Genesis," shall have been accomplished. This invaluable and last production of the loved and revered Reformer is a rich and precious mine of sacred wisdom; — a vast treasury of deep research, of varied scriptural knowledge, and of extensive Christian experience ; — in a word, it is a })ro- iv translator's preface. found and compreliensive Body of biblical, sacred-historical, doctrinal, spiiitual, and experimental Divinity. So that a Chris- tian mail, ^\l\o shall procure for himself Luther " On the Gala- tians," and Luther " On tlic Book of Genesis," may consider himself to possess a com])lete treasury of rich, solid, and saving Theoloffy. The l)lcssed Reformer's hnperishable " Connnentary on the Ejiistle to tlie Galatians," will dcvelope the great cardinal and all-comprehending doctrine of a sinner's justification before God, by faitli in Christ ; and will richly and marvellously describe the eli'ccts of that justification, as felt and eujo3^ed in the hearts of the redeemed. While the j)resent " Commentary on the Book of Genesis" will not only deeply penetrate and brightly dis])lay tlie stu])endous glories of the cukation, and the terribly- sublime catastrophe of the deluge and its righteous horrors ; but will deliglitfully ex])lain, as reflected by the beautiful mirrors of the LIVES of the patriarchs, almost every incident that can occur in the hfeof a saint: and will furnish him with matured wisdom, striking instruction, and strong consolatioji, on the road of his heavenly ])ilgrim;ige. Indeed, it is impossible to convey by any command of descrip- tion, an idea of the extent, depth, and richness of the mine of Christian knowledge and exjierience, Avhich Luther's long hid- den and unknown " Ex]wsition of the Book of Genesis" contains. The sins, trials, afflictions, faith, hope, deliverances, joys, and duties of Idngs, princes, magistrates, husbands, wives, parents, children, masters and servants, rich and poor, &c., are treated, as they occur in the lives of the patriarchs and promhient cha- racters of the Divine Record, with all that train of spiritual thought, that rich Avidth of heavenly meditation, and that sweet flow of affectionate expression, which characterise and gild the writhigs and the whole ministry of the noble and beloved Martin Luther. And proceeding, as all the divine matter of Luther's sweet and powerful ministration does, from a heart full of the fear, and love, and worship of the adorable God over all, it flows at once, grace for grace, into e-s'ery reader's heart, in which the same fear, love, and w^orship of God, are found. This incredibl}' laborious and as marvellously successfiil Re- former and servant of the Most High, was as remarkable for the tenderness and devotedness of his love, in which he served the TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. V church of Christ, as for the inclomitableness and terribleness of his spirit, by which he defended her from all her foes. He was an affectionate brother, and a gentle pastor, but an invincible adversary and a terrible champion. He was himself a beaiTtiful illustration of ^Aa^ great and graphic truth, which so strikingly and suddenly flashes forth from his " Commentary on the 51st Psalm," and which we have lately ap])lied also to his true yoke-fellow, fellow-minister of Christ, and fellow-champion for the Truth, John Calvin ; — " A saint," (says this humble yet " terrible" man) " is a lion before men, but a lamb before God !" (Song 6. 4). His " Commentary on the Book of Genesis" evidently rested with much weight and solemn and holy interest on the mind of Luther himself. He expresses himself as thus dee])ly interested, in many parts of the Avork. Indeed, a pro})hetic impression rested upon him, througliout the Exposition, — that this his great COMBIENTARY, aiid liis life, Avould tenninate together; which divine presentiment was, with sacred and beautiful singularity, actually realised. The holy servant of God concludes his expo- sition with these words ; — " This is nuio the dear Book of Genesis. May our Lord, God yrmd that others may do it better than I have done. I can no more : I am so ivealc. Pray to God for me., that He tnay grant me a good, holy last hourT One of the holy man's friends and collectors of these his com- ments, from his written notes and from his lips, records these re- markable coincidences nt the foot of the Commentary, in the following observations : — " Tlie man of God, Doctor Martin Luther, finished his Commentaries on the Book of Genesis in the year of our Tjord 1545, on the 11th day of November : having commenced them iyi the year 1535. Li his opening remarks he had said. This expositio7i 1 shall pore over ami die over (immorabor et immoriar^ : according to -which propliecy concerning himself he died, at Islebery, in his own country, in the year of our Lord 1546, on the ISth day of the month of February, piously and continually calling upon the Son of GodP Luther's age, Avhen he died, was sixty-three: the great climacteric of human male life. He was born in the j^ear 1483, and died, as above testified by his friend, in tlie year 154G. The great Reformer's death seems to have been the consequence of a premature old age, from exhausted bodily and mental ])owers : VI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. induced, no doubt, not only by his excessive and incredible labours, as a minister of Christ and Professor of Divinity, in the Theological Collegiate School of Wertemberg, but more espe- cially by the destroying conflicts of body and mind, which his mighty antagonism with the Papal Chvirch brought upon him ; all which conflicts were heated by the malice of the multitudes of that Church's infuriated defenders ; who poured in like raging floods, upon this almost alone champion for God and His Truth, from every side. Under these " fiery trials," his ever over- wrought frame, but ever undaunted spirit, though of iron con- stitution, could not but eventually and prematurely sink. The Translator's love and admiration of his revered and im- mortal author, and father in the faith, are greatly increased by the remarkable similarity of circumstances, under which Luther commentated, and his humble Translator translates. The simi- larity of these facts is so singularly striking, so circumstantially real, and so providentially complete, that the writer finds it impossible to resist his desire to pen a humble statement of them. Of this singular resemblance, the general substance has akeady been intimated at the commencement of these prefatory obser- vations : And its circumstantial particularity is unusually inter- esting, at least to the writer. It is most remarkable that this precious and richly matured Commentary, — was the last public work of Luther's minis- try and life ; and it will, in all human and solemn proba- bility, be the last effort of the life and public services of his feeble Translator. Luther's bodily and mental powers had been worn down to the last thread, by a foriy years' dm'ation of professorial, ministerial, and antagonistic exertions ; when he breathed his last, under the pressure of that threefold weight. The Translator's frame and constitution have been borne down to a like extremity of disability by 47 f years of scholastic toil, trial, and trouble ; and bv a 40 years' labour of pj'eaching The Truth, and writing in its dissemination and defence. Luther, by the sovereign will of God, died under the concen- trated constitutional struggle of his great climacteric ; for which solemn result, his previous forty years' unparalleled excess of bodily and mental exertion, had fatally ripened (as we have already intimated) his naturally iron constitution. The Translator, by translator's preface. vii the marvellously merciful and equally sovereign will of God, lias surmounted, thus far, two perilous paralytic shocks of Ids great climacteric ; (for which he also had been too surely ripening, by a half-century's threefold excessive labour of teaching, preaching, and writing), and he still lives to devote the feeble remnant of his powers to his long-cherished design of translating into English this glorious Commentary ; on which, by the necessary aid of an aman- uensis, he is now happily, delightfully, and gi-atifyingly engaged. Luther, under God's great blessing to His Church, did live to finish his long-meditated and devotedly pursued design. But whether the Translator will be permitted from on high to live to realise his thirty years' cherished hope of completing this Trans- lation of the holy Reformer's favourite and immortal labour, God only knows ; and the divine will and pleasure therein, time alone can reveal. May his fond service to God, and His people, and His cause, be also finished before lie leaves this world of sin, and sweat, and sorrow, to join his great and beloved Luther, and all those also who have " gone before," in that eternal state where all shall be glory ! — and where ' there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, but where God Himself shall wipe away all tears fi.'om off all faces ; and where former things are passed away' (Rev. 20. 4). The Translator hesitates not a moment to express his fullest persuasion, that the Church of Christ will consider Luther's " Commentary on the Book of Genesis " to be the deepest and most spiritual Exposition of any book or portion of the Holy Scrip- tures, in existence ; entering the most deeply and clearly into God's mind, and furnishing the most profound, varied, and blessed edification for the family of heaven ; and also the most useful, truthful, valuable, and divine instruction for the world at large. As an expositor of the Holy Scriptures, Luther's comments contain a depth of investigation unpenetrated, a width of medi- tation unspanned, an extent of research unoccupied, a scriptural knowledge unpossessed, a variety of reflections unevinced, a mul- titude of wonders unrevealed, a number of beauties undiscovered, a value of instruction uncommunicated, a spirit of holiness un- breathed, a height of praise unascended, a depth of worship un- inspired, and a magnification and exaltation of the Scripture, as VUl TR^ys^SLATORS PREFACE. the Word of God, — unsurpassed and unequalled by any Com- mentator,— before, or since, himself. Nor does Luther's comprehensiveness fall short of any other of his numberless excellencies, as an interpreter of the Bible. To the Hebrew proficiency of a learned Gill, the exegetical tact of a lucid Poole, and the Scriptural instruction of a useful Matthew Henry, the great Keforraer and Commentator adds a depth of personal experience in divine things, and a knowledge of " the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" — peculiarly his own. The glorious excellencies of man and of woman, as male and female, at their original creation, their beauty and dignity, their transcendent superiority over all tlie other creatures, both as to their constituted natures and the end and object of their creation, — the concernment of the whole Three Divine Persons of the hoty, mysterious, blessed, and adorable Trinity in the creation of man, — and the plain, insubvertible, and undeniable 'proof thereby afforded of the Trinity in unity, in the eternal essence and majesty of the adorable God, is established with truthful, powerful, and commanding ability. Nor less so is the creation of the separate kinds of creatures, and the high and marvellous " dominion" over them all, which God committed unto man, Ilis (if we may use that term with reference to the adorable God) favourite creature ! In all this singularly grand development of the Creation, Luther is beautiful, majestic, entirely original, and surprisingly wonderful. The omnipotent power, infinite wisdom, and infinitely provident goodness of God displayed in the Creation, are also presented to our reflections, by our incomparable expositor, in a manner cal- culated to excite the highest admiration, and to inspire the pro- foundest reverence and worship. Tlie spoken Word, by which God created all things "in the beginnijig," and by the enduring and unceasing efficacy of wliich He still upholds, preserves, and perpetuates all things, especially the ' increase' and ' multiplica- tion' of the human race (Gen. 1. 23), and of all creatures of every kind; is treated with a j)rofundity and dignity of meditation and thought that exceed (it is probable) all ideas Avliich haA-e ever existed before in the human mind, upon the stupendous subject ; and the vvhole is handled in a "line of things" (2 Cor. 10. 16) unoccupied by any previous or subsequent servant of God ; and translator's preface. ix all is gilded with the brightest spots of particularity and circum- stantialit}^ ; which are as holy and worshipful as they are original and astonishing. A kindred marvellousness of exposition, and the same entirely new and peculiar line of things, pervade also the whole discussion of the original innocency and original sin of Adam and Eve. The profundity, magnitude, and malignity of original sin, — its irre- parable destruction of primeval innocency and happiness, — its awfiil loss of the knowledge and worship of God, and of com- munion and fellowship with Him, — its forfeiture of all the dignity of man, and of that "domhiion" over all the other creatures with which God had originally dignified him, — its awful and lament- able consequences, in all their terrible forms, of sin, sorrow, disease, pain, and helplessness, throughout tlie whole posterity of Adam, past, present, and to come, are opened with an appalling awe, a holy lamentation, and a solenni warning, which cannot fail to interest the saints of God, and to elicit their deep Ajviens to the horrible verities declared, and to bring them into a humbling fellowship with their revered father and great teacher in the faith, in all his holy fear, awe, grief, and lamentation ; while the whole Adam-lapsed world are taught the truth of their utter sin, de- pravity, and misery, and the loss, irrecoA^erable by them, of their primitive happiness, highness, and dignity. No man, it may with all safety be asserted, has ever opened up the deeps, nor laid bare the consequences of original sin, with an ability fi'om above, so profound, so astonishing, and so edifying, as Luther has done, in this his wonderful Commentary. The hol}^, and skilful, and commanding Commentator, moreover keeps close to his eye, as he proceeds, the ignorant follies of the ancient philosopher, and the inimical o])jections of the rationalist, the sophist, the sceptic, and the infidel of his day. lie ploughs up the roots of their ignorance or tlieir eumily, answers their alignments, silences their noise, and laments their blindness; or condemns their wickedness, and puts their principles to exposure and shame, in the testimony of every honest conscience ; exalt- ing, high above all the o])inions and wisdom of men, the diWne testimony and authority of God's revealed Word. The divine institution, end, object, and blessings of the S.vbbath are herein set forth by Luther, it is believed, with a holy rever- X TKANSLATOR S PREFACE. ence, a higlmess of value, and a gratitude for its multiform blessed- ness ; with a trueness of view and contemplation, and with an ac- curateness of description, as to its original glory and perpetual sanctity and importance, beyond the attempts of any other writer or speaker upon the subject. Nor will our beloved, profound, and astonishing expositor's views of the all-momentous transactions of the Jirst and only Sabbath (as Luther believes) spent by Adam and Eve in paradise, (which occurrences embrace, in his views, the awful catastrophes of their fall, their guilt, their shame, and their expulsion), fail of being read, both by the Church and by the world, with thrilling interest and admiration ; and with astonish- ment at the description given ; accompanied, of necessity, with horror, grief, and speechless awe, at the dreadful realities involved. The equally divine institution of ^Marriage,— its highness and holiness, — its great but little thought-of mysteries, (both in mar- ried sinners and in married saints), — its original innocency, and its now sin-caused necessity, have never, we believe, been set forth so scripturally, nor so heavily laden with its due praises, as by Luther. He speaks of its divine and wonderful intent, — its primeval perfection and blessedness, — its great present mercy, — its felicity, and the solemnity of its mutual obligations, — its frequent depravation, pollution, and perversion, — and its trials and troubles in the flesh (1 Cor. 7. 28), — with a contem])lation so new, so deep, and so holy ; that it cannot fail to call forth the love, and praise, and wonder, and to excite the thankfulness, of the saints to God, for an institution so blessed, so holy, and so mysterious ; and to arm them with courage and resignation under its now inevitable trials, and solemn responsibilities and duties. Heads of families will of course adopt due discretion and selec- tion in reading to their domestic circles some parts of our great Commentator's meditations on holy matrimony. The Translator has commanded the greatest delicacy and ch'cumspection in render- ing the various beautiful and wonderful passages upon this subject also : upon which Luther has given to the Church and to the world deep and holy tJioughts, which we believe the Most High never put in the mind of any previous minister of His Word. These thoughts are truthful and sublime ; and are all given in the present translation : for the glory of the Creator was so intimately wrapped up in many of them, on this sacred matter, that much of that glory translator's preface. xi would have been excluded and lost, had such passages been alto- gether omitted. They are therefore not withheld : but they are rendered with all the holy carefulness, which was consistent with fidelity. Nor does our noble father expositor fall short of, but the rather exceed himself, in his opening up the deeps of the temptation. The form and depth of Satan's policy therein, and its fatal suc- cess, are astonishingly developed; nor less so the weakness, credulity, and fall of our first parents. No man ever entered into the sublety of Satan as a tempter, nor into the weakness, deceiv- ableness, and fleshly lusts and inclinations of man, as Luther has done, in his commentative explanations of this portion of the divine record. He has opened to view, with surprising information, what Satan's temptations and aims ever were ; — what they were then, and what they are still. On the Flood also Luther is truly great : and equally deep and majestic. The causes of this awful visitation of the divine wrath, as arising from the sins of the antediluvian world, are marvellously disclosed and portrayed, and in vivid and terrible colours. The warnings also of the patriarchal Avitnesses for God — Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, &c., are described in all their solemn terror. While the consequences of that righteous execu- tion of God's overflowing vengeance are so depicted, as to over- awe the mind with the thoughts of the terribleness of their reality. Indeed, it may in all safety be affirmed, that there is not another description, either of the Creation or of the Flood, so great and so divine. In investigating, marking, and exhibiting the cotemporary incidents in the lives of the predelugean patriarchs, our beloved commentator is also most instructive and edifj-ing. He sliows, in a surprising manner, what patriarchs were coeval: and what they must tlierefore have seen of, and learned from, each other. This before untrodden path of Bible contemplation, Luther jiur- sues with his characteristic depth of reflection ; exciting, as he goes, the liveliest interest and wonder, and conveying the most delightful instruction. He increases all this holy interest also, by showing, in the most striking points of view, liow long these coevalities of certain patriarchs, antecedent to the Flood, must have existed : thus casting much liglit and glory upon the history xii TRiVNSLATOR's PREFACE. of the primitive patriarchal ages. In a word, this portion of the great Commentary bears pecuhar traces of the greatness, holi- ness, depth, and worship of the sonl of the heavenly Commentator. It is all of a piece with this suLlime Exposition of the sublime Book of Genesis. Tln-oughont the w^hole work, Luther remark- ably fulfils in himself, as the servant and instrument of God, that remarkable word ; " He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and briiigeth out to light the shadow of death," Job 12. 22. The LIVES also of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, and of Joseph, are opened up, and meditated on, Avith equal observation, pene- tration, and surprising disclosure of incident. And all is turned round to the instruction, edificatioji, and admiration of the saints in all ages, and in all offices and stations of the Christian pilgrim- age : nor less so to the whole world's life, office, and station. In a word, the mind of the great and revered expositor is on its holy and powerful and devoted stretcli, for the statement of the truth, the making darkness light, and the instruction of the famil}^ of heaven, throughout the whole Commentary. Nor will he fail of the love and blessing of the saints, nor of the honour and reward of his God, while his Commentary and time shall last ; and it is believed, that it will be coeval and co-existent with time, in some language of the earth. JNIay it be so in the English, as well as in the Latin, or German, or other languages. Upon considerate reflection, it becomes a matter of great sur- prise and marvel, how any man, situated as Luther Avas, could have attained to such an extent and depth of personal experience, in divine things, as those Avhich he possessed. He had been im- mured in a monk's cell until the age of 21 or 22. And during his ministry of 40 years and upAvards, his Christian associations, and fraternal fellowship in the faith of Christ, must have been very circumscribed. It could not have far exceeded the narrow bound of his OAvn church at Wertembei'g, and his few great and dear personal friends — INIelanchthon, Cruciger, Eorary, Theo- dore, &c. &c. ; while his comnnuncation and felloATshi[) Avith 'fel- low-labourers' in the vineyard of his Lord and jNIaster, must have been equally confined. These saints and fellow-labourers must have been comparatively fcAv in number, and those few, more or less widely distant, and difficult of access. Personal intercourse must have been rare, and generally impracticable. The principal translator's preface. xm medium of communication must have been epistolaiy correspond- ence. The ahnost only soiu'ces of personal experience must have been the deep and varied exercise of his own soul ; — those unceasing and terrible straits, into which he was so fi'equently driven by his fui'ious enemies, ever ready to destroy and to devour, — and the Word of God. Yet these, as he himself testi- fies, in his own few but memorable words, are the very means used of the Most Hii^h, in cf(uipping His greatest servants for their appointed work. " Teni])tation, mecUtation, and prayer (says the immortal Luther himself), make a minister !" Things are lamentably otherwise, in this our day, i]i the matter of religious communication. Experience fills every church, dwells on every tongue, and sounds from every pulpit. But the saving reality of it is, as rare now, as it ever has been since the world began ; and as it ever will be, until time and this world shall be no more. The pathway to heaven, in our days, is as religiousbf plain and broad, as that to hell. The " gate of life," however, is in reality as unalteredly and unalterahly " strait" and "narrow" as ever. The secret of the Almighty in the soul, the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdoni of heaven, and the " holding forth the Word of Life" in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, arc as rare and as "precious" now, as they were in the days of Samuel (1 Sam. 3. 1). True believers are no more nume- rous now, than when Isaiah comjjlained, " AVho hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed '?" (Is. 53. 1). There are, however, according to the predictive and promissory description of Jolm, in his divine visions of the time to come, "a few names even in Sardis ; though even the things that there remain, are ready to die" (Rev. 3. 2, 4.) Luther was as Avonderful as he was great, in this all-essential respect also. His personal experience in divine things, as Ave have just shown, was as deep, as his mind was mighty, large, and unljounded. Tliough called by the ]\Iost High, and con- tinued by His appointment, in the midst of papal darkness, idolatry, and error, with no companions but the saints of the Bible, nor any other divine light bat the lamp of the A^''ord to guide his feet, his heaven-taught soul was ministerially fur- nished, out of the Holy Bible, with as rich pasture for the slieep of Christ, as awful ammunition for the terror and destruction of XIV TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. the enemies, by which botli himself and they were perpetually encompassed. Readers of the great and beloved Luther, however, may be wisely and affectionately admonished not to be surprised, or offended, or hindered, by the somewhat large amount of rqyeti- tions, &c., which may fall in their way, while travelling through this magnificent Commentary. The causes of these recapitula- tions, Avere both unavoidable and intended. — As our great Exposi- tor delivered his comments on this momxentous and extensive book of the Holy Scriptures daily, in morning and evening lectures or sermons, it was humanly impossible to guard against repeti- tion, entirely. On the other hand, however, Luther's method of digesting his exposition, and his admirable plan of arranging it, as a whole, was to keep up a threaded series of connected lec- tures or sermons, from the beginning to the end. To preserve this excellent plan uniformly throughout, various repetitions and recapitulations were indispensable, to maintain the divine thread unbroken : as well as to aid, strengthen, and impress, the more deeply and lastingly, the memories of his divinity students, who constituted the essential and ostensible portion of his auditory. The prayerful perusal of far fewer than a hundred pages of this memorable production, will, by its profit and delight, effec- tually cure all sense or thought of ivearmess, in any godly reader of our wonderful Expositor. Svich rays of divine truth, unseen before, will beam forth upon the mind, ovit of the great depths of God's Word, and such sudden and unexpected flashes of the divine mind and purpose will burst upon the delighted and edified admiration, as will form a lasting remedy against all idea of weariness in the reader, and will redeem the great, blessed, and surprising Luther, for ever, from the imputation of being a heavy, wearisome, or uninteresting commentator ; even in those parts of his Commentary, which, as we have already said, were de- signed to be the more clogged with repetitive or recapitulatory observations ; form the causes which we have just stated. And these peculiar beams and flashes of divine truth, which break out upon the readers of Luther " on Genesis," will be found as impressive as they are astonishing, as instructive as they are unexpected, and as lasting as they are wonderful. They will be found, for years afterwards, as nails fastened in a sure place; translator's preface. XV as it is written, " The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies ; which are given from one shepherd" (Eccles. 12. 11). This has been the happy and saving experience of thousands, and is so of hundreds now living. Hence the sphere of Luther's mighty ministry was not bounded by his defence of the truth against the great and the powerful. By no means ; as numberless broken-hearted sinners have testi- fied during the last three centuries ; being comforted, blessed, and saved, by various remaining portions of his ministerial testi- mony. No ! the great and beloved German Reformer (as we have just remarked) was as rich a pastor, as a terrible warrior. He fed the sheep of Christ in the fattest pastures (Ezek. 34. 14), while he destroyed the wolves, with a sure destruction, on every side. Nor were his pastoral qualifications and resoui^es confined to the fold of his own day and field. Through the provident mercy of the Great Shepherd, Luther has left, in his precious remains, pastures for the sheep of the universal Church of Christ, in all ages and places. Nor will those pastui'es be either dried up or lost, until time, nations, and the churches of God in their midst, shall be no more. The present Translator has already enjoyed the delightful labour of supplying the English Church of Christ with many fields of pleasurable and profitable pastures from the noble Re- former's works : in which numbers of the sheep of the fold have sweetly fed, and lain down (Ezek. 34. 15), during the last thirty years ; and in which they still are feeding and laying down, here and there, where they are " scattered, in this dark and cloudy day," without fields, folds, or shepherds (Ezek. 34. 12).' And if his paralysed powers and imperilled life be spared for the holy purpose, the same Translator hopes to supply the sheep of the same fold with many rich meadows more, fi'om the same inex- haustible sources of the same great servant of God. The exten- sive production of the divinely and astonishingly gifted Luther, which is now under his feeble hand, and of which the pi'cscnt volume is tlie first instalment, will constitute by far the richest of all the fields, into which he has hitherto invited the sheep of 1 For an account of these translations of various remnants of the great and noble Luther's works, sec first page of Advertisements, at the end of the pre- sent Volume. xvi translator's preface. Christ to enter and feed : and in which they will find, not only " fat" pasturage (Ezek. 14. 15), but a "good fold" (Ezek. 34. 14), and a "green bed" (Song 1. 16) indeed. Tliis magnificent work will be found to embrace not only all the essential doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, but also the whole " patli of tlie just" (Prov. 4. 18), in every station and relationship of life ; from tlie king u])on the tlu'one, to the maid-servant that is behind the mill (Exod. 11. 5), and to the beggar upon the dung- hill (1 Sam. 2. 8) ; setting forth, witli rich and edifying instruction, the trials, the faith, tlie pra^-ers, and the deliverances of God's people, personal, domestic, ministerial, congregational, national, and in every possible form of the Christian life and pilgrimage. — Wherefore, as we have before remarked, he who shall have fur- nished himself with Luther's " Commentary on the Galatians," which sets forth the great fundamental doctrine otjustiji cation by faith, and shall have added to it Luther's admirable production now in hand (should the Translator's powers be spared him so long as to complete it, and should the Almighty be pleased to open doors for its pul)lication), will possess a richly stored treasury, or con- densed hodi/ of doctrinal, experimental, and saviiig cHvinity. The present English version of this colossal effort of the be- loved and admirable Luther's consecrated mind, is designed, by his revering Translator, not only for the ])ersonal edification of the saints, but for the worship of the family-altar, and even for that of the public congregation, in this day of darkness, dearth, and death : when the Word of the Lord is so " precious" (1 Sam. 3. 1) ; when the " poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst" (Is. 41. 7) ; and when a man may wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east, and may run to and fro, and seek, and find, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water — (blessed be the adorable God, whose temporal " mercies are over a^^ His Avorks!") — but of "hear- ing tlie Word of the Lord" (Ps. 114. D, and Amos 8. 11, 12). Li such a day as this, many a " little sanctuar}^" or worshipping knot of God's people (Ezek. 11. IG) may find the loved and deeply experienced Luther calculated, though dead, still to speak to their souls, through tliis his grand testhnony, more profitably than many, or perhaps any, ministers tliey maj- be able to procure in this dreary and dearthy last half of the nineteenth century. TILiVNSLATOR S PREFACE. XV ii The whole work, therefore, will be divided into portions or short sermons, for these various and important ends.^ This production of the pjrace and power of Martin Luther is unsurpassed and unequalled for depth, truth, and worship, by any exposition of the Hol}^ Scripture, of any expositor, either before or since Luther himself. It is the last, and thei'efore (as might naturally be concluded) the greatest work of the great Reformer ; the most matured, the most important, and the most precious testimony of his lips, or his pen. It is the concentrated essence of his personal and ministerial experience, extending over an eventful period of both, exceeding forty years ; and condensed into the last ten years of his valuable life ; the whole of which ten years, he solemnly devoted to this memorable Commentary, which, according to his own deep confession, was the favourite offspring, the greatest delight, and the peculiar glory, of his own soul. These statements and observations are all verified from the lips of tlie revered Reformer himself, and from the pen of one of his faithful friends. At the very commencement of this stupen- dous work, Luther uttered, with devoted determination, and with prophetic presentiment, these remarkable words — " Over this Commentary on the Book of Genesis / shall pore (immorabor) ; and over it I shall die (imraoriar)." And after ten years' Herculean labour of body, exercise of mind, and devotedness of soul, in the preparation and delivery of lectui'es on this Holy Book ; he ended his last lecture with these equally remarkable words, so truly verifying the predictive presentiment, which he had uttered at the commencement of this last and greatest of his labours : " Thus have I finished the dear [!] Book of Genesis. May our Lord God grant that others may do it better than 1 have done. I can no more : I am so weak. Pray to God for me, that He may grant me a good, holy, happy, last liour." Besoldus, that one of his foiu* faithful friends, who took upon himself to collect ' Had this originally designed arrangement been carried out, the number of such Sermons or Lectures, or portions, would have been from 1500 to 2000. But it was ultimately deemed preferable to let the Commentary remain as a whole; and to leave each head of a family, or ' help' (1 Cor. 12. 28), or ' teacher' (Eph. 4. 11), of "a little sanctuary," to make the selection of the Sermon, or portion, according to his own judgment, as circumstances should direct or require. b XVIU TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. and arrange for the press the fourth volume of the Com- mentary, " The History of the Patriarch Joseph," pens at the foot of tlie whole Commentary the following record : — " Tltat man of God, Dr Martin Luther, finished his Commentary on Genesis in the year of our Lord 1545; having commenced it on the llth day of Noveviber in the year of our Lord 1535. Li his opening lecture he had said, ' Over my Commentary on this book I shall jwre, and over it I shall die.^ And according to this prophecy con- cerning himself, he died at Islehery, in his oum co^intry, on the ISth day of the month of February, in the year of our L^ord 1546." The following is a synopsis of the subject-matter of this noble work ; by an inspection of which, any one hitherto unacquainted with it (and few there are who know its existence, for, like the two Treatises of Calvin, just published, under the title of " Calvin's Calvinism," it has lain unknown to the English Church of Christ for above 300 years), will be furnished with a summary view of its contents, and also of the form in which they are intended to appear, in the translation thus commenced — Vol. I. — The Creation and the Flood, . 750 pages. Vol. II. — The History of Abraham, . '. 1000 „ Vol. hi. — The Histories of Isaac andof Jacob, 1000 „ Vol. IV. — The History of Joseph, . . 1000 „ (8ro, to match the present volume.) It may perhaps interest those readers and lovers of Luther, who do not yet possess that knowledge, to inform them, that this great Commentary (like all his other Commentaries) was given to the world by its noble author in a series of sermons, or lec- tures, delivered (generally twice a day) in the Divinity School of Willemberg, and taken down at the time by his faithful, noble-minded, and God-fearing friends, Caspar Cruciger and George Horary, assisted by Vitus Theodore, and one or two others. These good and laborious men (furnished, perhaps, with the aid of Luther's own notes, &c.) collected the whole Commentary, formed it into these, originally four, folio volumes, superintended them through the press, and published them, accompanied with gracious and appropriate preface, to the Church and to the world. TRANSLATOK » PIJEFACK. XIX Vitus Tlieodore .su[)erintended the \\'HOLE WoRK, wrote its general preface, and collected and edited the first volume. The same holy and faithful friend of Luther collected and edited the second volume ; prefixing to it a lucid, beautiful, and gracious preface, written by Michael Roting. Jerome Besoldus of Norberg " diligently and faithfully" collected, from the resources of Cruciger, Rorary, and others, and edited the third volume ; introducing it with a mas- terly, descriptive, and edifying preface, from the pen of Me- lancthon. Besoldus also edited the fourth volume ; prefacing it bv an appropriate introduction, written by himself. Luther acknowledges these in^■aluable labours of his invaluable friends, and perpetuates the memory both of their immense labour and of their holy finendship in the following terms, in his oicii simjjle but sublime Preface to the whole AVork : — " These my lectures have happily fallen into the hands of two collectors, good and godly men ; Dr Caspar Cruciger, whose own works bear satisfactory witness of his abounding in the Spirit, and of devotedness to God ; and M. Geoi'ge Rorary, a presbyter of our own church : the example of whose great labours, herein, Vitus Theodore, the preacher of the Norberg church, following, has freely added his own services. All these, being faithful and de- voted ministers of the Word of God, have judged it altogether desirable that these my lectures should be published. I allow them, therefore, to follow (as the apostle saith) the ' full persuasion of their own mind' (Rom. 14. 5), because I see that they are moved by a holy desire to help the churches of God : and therefore I heartily approve their wishes in this matter ; and I as heartily pray for an abundant blessing of God upon them." JNIark ! dear reader, the vastness and the continuousncss of the labours of this pre-eminent servant of the Most High ! — Tico lectures, of probably one or two hours long, evevi/ day ! with all the inevitable aniount of thought and research in their prepara- tion ! For, of course, lectures of such depth were not delivered oflp-hand, as our modern boasted extemporaneons sermons ai'e. They were not offered to the Church and to the world, and to posterity and to God, without the most profound i)renicditati(jn. XX translator's treface. Added to all wbicli engagement of mind and time, this wonder- ful minister and defender of the truth had perpetually to combat his unceasing enemies, and to keep up the inconceivable extent of his correspondence ; labours, of the weight and extent of which we can form no adequate idea, and of which this great and won- derful and holy man makes frequent mention in his various and invaluable remains. What an ox-like labour (1 Cor. 9. 9 ; Kev. 4. 7), or (as the holy labourer himself expresses it in this his most wonderful labour, when commenting on Genesis 3. 19), what a ministemai " sweat !" Compared with the sweat of this laborious " man of God," what are we in this age — the good, yea, the best among us — whether as preachers of the Word, or writers of books ! — mere easy-lived, leisure-houred, little-to-do gentlemen ! It is scarcely necessary for us to intimate, that we are not here speaking against, or depreciating, extemporaneous preaching. It is the most desirable mode of ministering the Gospel, where God is pleased to bestow the required gifts. But the amount of pre- paratory waiting upon God, worship, meditation, and prayer, with which extemporaneous preachers enter the pulpit, is solemnly different in the several individuals. In the present case, how- ever, our great and revered Commentator came before an assem- bly of divinity students, to open to them, in his high office, as their divinity professor, the glory of the holy Book of Genesis. What a blessed ' college course' was that of Wittenberg, in the days of Luther, as a preparation of young men for the mini- stry of Christ, and for the ' preaching of the Word !' Should the present Translator's aflPiicted hfe and powers be spared to complete the intended English version of this gigantic work, unparalleled for magnificence and worth (for which hap- piness he has not, as already stated, the least reasonable ground to hope), its laboiu^ will consume the lengthened time of about ten years, at about tico or three hours per day ; thus translating about ttco of the great and beloved Luther's lectures each day — as many as he delivered each day, and probably in about the same time which he occupied in their delivery. Moreover, as this doubtless masterpiece of the gi*eatest of extra Bible saints and servants of the ]\iost High was the last (as has already been seen) of his immortal labours ; so its trans- TRANSLATOR a PREFACE. lation, or probably the first volume of it only, comprehend- ing " The Creation" and " The Flood," may be the last of its humble, but revering Translator's mental and bodily efforts. Hence the predictive and precious words of the great original (as above given) really breathe (as there also intimated) the pur- pose, and the prophetic presentiment of his humble Translator. " Over this Commentary I shall pore (immorabor), and over it I shall die (immoriar)^ Nor are the words of the great Commentator's concluding prayer less aj^plicable, than they are precious to his humble Trans- lator : for they are, and will be, he hopes, his last prayer, when he shall leave (as in all human probability he must do) his fond and devoted labour unfinished. " May our God grant that others may do it better than I have done. (The qualifications indis- pensable for his successor, the present Translator has already stated). I can no more : I am so weak. Pray God for me, that I may have a holy, happy, last hour." This majestic and priceless work (as has been mentioned at the commencement of these prefatory observations) has never left its hold of deep interest on the mind of the present Translator, for more than thirty years. About thirty years ago (as also above intimated), he commenced the labour of its translation ; which undertaking, however, his translation of the four volumes of " Select Works of Martin Luther" (as likewise before stated), and of other productions of the great Reformer, and the pressure, at the same time, of his scholastic, loriting, and ministerial labours, compelled him to discontinue. Three years ago, however, the greatest of all domestic afflictions, attended with paralysis in himself, forced him to relinquish both his school and his ministiy. After a little recovery from these severe \isitations, and some- times even in the midst of them, his fond hope of yet translating his beloved and revered " Luther on Genesis" revived. Before he resumed Luther, however, his mind was led to give to the Church and to the world the two just published treatises of the also immortal Swiss Reformer, entitled, " Cahin's Calvinism." Having, through Divine mercy, and by means nobly supplied by many of the friends of the truth, completed Calvin's two powerful testimonies, the translator, finally, returned to his ori- ginal design of thirty-three years' standing, — a translation of this A.U1 TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. last great work of Luther, his " Commentary on the Book of Genesis." But true it is indeed that — " God moves in a mysterious way!" — " How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past find- ing out!" (Rom. 11. 30). Yet, in His judgments, equally as in His mercies, " He is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in work- ing" (Is. 28. 29). In the midst of this his final attempt, the Translator was mysteriously, but righteously and wisely, overtaken by the visitation of a concussion of the brain, in a perilous rail- road collision. And though he is through great mercy recovered from its most dangerous features, he feels that his powers are too seriously injured and disabled, to leave him the least hope of accomplishing perhaps even the half of his original and whole design. He has however thus completed The Creation (which ^^^ll form a first 2?art of vol. i., and will consist of about 500 pages). He has also in hand The Flood (which will form, as seen in preceding synopsis, the second part of vol. i., and will make about 350 pages). These two parts will complete (if his life and powers be spared to complete them) the first of the originally FOUR roLio volumes. The Creation will appear, as soon as it shall please God to set ' before it an open door' (Rev. 3. 8), upon the praiseful hinges of "ways," Avhich He is able to make (Is. 43. 19), and of means which are all His own (Psalm 50. 10). The Translator cannot refrain from here recording, to the great glory of God, a signal instance of that eye and hand of His Divine providence which have presided over the translation of the " Creation" from first to last. To miderstand the record of the Divine interposition, to which allusion is thus made, the reader must be informed that the greater part of the matter which forms the present Preface, to the work, was written twehe months ago, in the form of a Notice, that the translation of the "Creation" was nearly completed : and expressing an entire ignorance of the loay and the means by which it could possibly be printed and published. They are Divine facts, in the providence of God therefore, as full of marvel as of mercy, and worthy of being here recorded to His praise, and the ad- miration of His people ; — that, even while the Translator was converting this part of the original Notice into the Preface, for the now completed volume, it came, in a most remarkable and wholly imexpected way, to the knowledge of a noble Lady in Scotland, Lady M ,that the "Creation," the first I'ART of Tjuther's great Commentary on the Book of Genesis (comprehend- ing the frrst fire rhap(rrs), urns translated ; and that the Translator was at a TRANSLATORS ritEFACE. XXli) loss for wai/s and means whereby to print and publisli it ; and, ai'ter two letters of favoured communication and explanation between the Translator and her Ladyship, this "noble'" disciple of the Redeemer (1 Cor. 1. 26), in her second letter, at once, with Divine vohlciiess of mind, purchased the manuscript, at its full fixed price, without one word about abatement ; and she also as nobly undertook to j)rmt and pubUah it, at her own expense ; requesting the thus favoured and honoured Translator to make arrangements for that purpose forthwith, which w^as accordingly done. Nor is this all. The glory of the Divine matter is vnder still. For, from her Ladyship's same communication, it appeared also, that she was herself "brought to the knowledge of the truth" (to use her own simple but solid words), some years ago, by reading the translations of Luther's " Select Works," contained in the four volumes mentioned in the advertisements, at the end of the present A'olume; and by reading also the same great and blessed Reformer's " Commentary on the Galatians." Having therefore been herself so blessed by the God-honoured testimony of the great and beloved Luther, her present holy acts of service to the cause of truth, were those of gratitude to God, of love and honour to the name of Luther, and of encour- agement to his humble Translator, by whose previous translating labours she had been so greatly and savingly benefitted. Nor must another circumstance be left unmentioned; which adds so much to the lustre of this golden footstep of the Divine providence ; and tends so remarkably to fulfil llis own Word, where He says, " I will make the place of My feet glorious" I (Is. GO. 13). Her Ladyship, it appears, had set her heart upon seeing this great " Commentary on the Book of Genesis" translated ; even from the time of her receiving so great a blessing, as that to which Ave have just alluded, by reading the four volumes of Luther's " Select Works :" in the last of which volumes, the present translator had stated it, as his solemn intent (if his life should be spared), to translate " Luther on Genesis" also. And her Ladyship once wrote a letter, long since the time of the publication of the four vols, in question, to inquire of the writer respect- ing his intended translation of the Commentary. To this letter, as far as he can now recollect, he replied, that his scholastic and ministerial labours had, up to that time, precluded the possibility of his entering on that great under- taking ; but that he had not given up the hope of doing so, at some future time. And during the year 1857, her Ladyship with the same " intense desire" of seeing Luther on Genesis translated ; and concluding, perhaps, that the present writer might have long ago "gone the way of all the earth;" had actually set herself to the work of getting the great " Commentary" trans- lated. For this, she had procured a copy of the original, and had diligently sought a person competent to undertake the translation ; and had also made inquiries concerning the cost of the work; but she found, by connnunication with her bookseller, that the expenses of the translation and printing of so great a work (comprising at least from eight to ten volumes of the same extent as the present) would be so vast, that she was compelled (o re- linquish all further thoughts of HCCom]>lishing the noble oliject of lier wirdirs. xxiv translator's preface. Just at this juncture, the present writer made his first communication with her Ladyship, as above recorded ; to inform her, that the " Creation" was just now completed ; and, to her astonishment, she found it to be by the Translator of the four vols, of the " Select Works." This communication, as may be naturally imagined, filled her Ladyship with surprise and delight ; under which feelings she commenced her reply to the writer's first letter, in these words : — " Mt dear Sir, — Your letter was the cause of much interest and surprise to me; for about the time that you completed your translation of "the Creation" by Luther, I was anxiously inquiring from every one I could think of, to know if there was any one who could and would translate it ; and I bought the work on Genesis in the original, in hopes to find some one to trans- late it ; but upon inquiring of Messrs and others, I found that the translation and publication would be so expensive, that I was obliged to aban- don the thought of it." ****** In a manner thus marvellous and merciful, were the Translator's purposes, expectations, and aspirations, of thirty years' standing, all answered and ful- filled : and especially those very particulars of hope and expectation, which the original Notice just mentioned had more immediately expressed : which NOTICE had formed a " Concluding Address," inserted at the end of the second volume of his lately published translations of Two Treatises of Calvin, entitled, " Calvin's Calvinism ;" the concluding words of which " Address," were these : — "We want, in God's great and righteous cause, in our time, a few ■wealthy and good Josephs of Arimathea(Matt. 27. 57), to supply the poverty of God's poor (James 2. 5), and the covetousness of the world's rich (Ps. 119. 36). God is able to find such, for the present [these expressions referred to the Avays and means needed of the then not quite completed translation of the " Creation," now thus marvellously published], or for any exigency of His Church, in any age or day ; whenever He is pleased to diffuse the Word of His truth, and to broaden the width of His glory ; and at the same time both to edify His chosen people, and to bear His own testimony to an ungodly and gainsaying world! May He be pleased so to work in this our day. " Thus have you, dear brethren and friends, presented to your sight and thoughts the greatness and the preciousness of Martin Luther's ' Comment- ary ON THE Book of Genesis ! ' together with the state of its translation, and the prospect of the means requisite for its publication. The result is now left to the good pleasure of the God of Luther, and of his humble Translator. " 3, Upper Islington Terrace, London, February 2, 1857." Should the present Translator not be so favoured and honoured of God as to live to see " The Creation" and " The Flood" launched in the bosom of the English Church ; the publication of even this one of them, will leave him the satisfaction, that he has afforded the British disciples of Christ a partial insight into translator's preface. XXV the greatness of this last work, and these " last words" of Martin Luther (2 Sam. 23. 1) ; and that he has given them some brief taste of the depth and richness of the knowledge of that great and bright servant of God, in Divine things. And he will at least have pointed out to some succeeding competent transla- tor a woi'k of years to accomplish, for the glory of God, and the edification of His people. Such a successor, however, to be suc- cessful, must not only possess classical and lingual competency ; but he must be one of the 'children of the Kedeemer, taught of the Lord' (Is. 54. 3). With the endowment of a somewhat wide and elevated mind, he must be a partaker of the faith, and spirit, and love, and religion, and worship of his great Commentator. No one without the possession of these qualifications, in an adequate degree, can do the work of a translator of Luther. He may trans-vert the testimony of the Keformer fi*om one language into another; but he can never trans-convey the mind nor trans-fuse the spirit of his author. He can never do justice to Luther, nor bring glory to God, nor profit His people. He can rise no higher, and can go no farther, in his usefulness, than the line drawn round the number of all such unqualified doers of His work by the Great Teacher Himself: " They shall not profit tliis people (God's people) at all." Nor can a labour of such magnitude and weight be sustained, even by a duly qualified translator, without corresponding encourage- ment from the Church of Christ, unless he have am])le time and ample means at his command. The fewness of the present Trans- lator's remaining days, and the circumscribed nature of his pecu- niary abilities, deprive him of both these indispensables. Nor have the exercise of due prudent care and consideration of price been wanting in the present case ; nor will they be so {D. V.) in the publication of any future translations or PART-translations of this great Commentary, should they, under the like Divine blessing, be published. For it is a matter of earnest desire with the Translator (as far as his influence and control shall be able to reach, and prudence shall justify), to bring the purchase and possession of this last and greatest work of the great Luther within the means of " the poor of this world, rich in faith," who form, for the most part, the members of Christ's Church on earth, and are the heirs of His kingdom (James 2. 5). This is a matter, however, which requires the greatest caution, XXVI TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. consideration, and judgment. Two things are to be duly pro- vided for. Not only facility of purchase for God's poor ; but also, the preservation of His great servant's greatest effort, as a work of standard divinity in the English language, in the midst of the Church and nation. To have brought out this magnificent Com- mentaiy, therefore, in 6d. or Is. numbers or pamphlets, and in corresponding paper and print, would have been a mode of pub- lication wholly injudicious, and utterly unworthy its greatness. It would have been as improper as impracticable. It could not have been done in the present, nor could be so in any future in- stance, with any right consideration, either of money, or length of years ; even if the immense labour of the translation were handed to a printer and publisher gratuitously. And after all, the preservatio7i of such an important work to future generations, must, by such a system of publication, be imperilled, and surely frustrated. Yes ! This splendid production of its immortal author, doubt- less the masterpiece of his memorable ministry and might, is a WORK, the worth and dignity of which demand, at our hands, as much the honour and respect of its most careful preservation and perpetuity, as the facilitation of its cheap purchase and use. And had this honour and foresight not been exercised by the great Luther's wise, laborious, devoted, and provident friends, whose names and memory he immortalizes with his own (as we have above seen) in his own Preface to this greatest of all Commen- taries, it would have perished long ago in the desolations and ashes of time. All possible considerateness for the poor of the flock, therefore, which can stand in due consistency with public reverence for, and public duty towards, the great and immortal Commentator, shall {D. V.) always be thoroughly exercised, as far as the present Translator shall have life and influence to com- mand its exercise. The present day of the professing Gospel Church, however, is one in which both wealth and influence considerably abound. But it is a day in which The Truth, in its life, and grace, and power, meets with little heart and soul reception and encourage- ment. It is a Sardian state, characterised by the name of life in the midst of death. " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead" (Tvev. 3. 1). All is "the form of godliness without TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XXVU the power' (2 Tim. o. 5). The inquiries concerning a Gospel minister (so-called) are not, Is he a saved man ? (2 Tim. 1. 9), Does he know the truth for himself? (John 8. 32), Is he sent of God to preach? (Kom. 10. 15), — but. Is he a man of talent? Does he discover particular abilities ? Is he eloquent ? Is he a popular preacher? The anxieties a Gospel hook are, Is it pleasingly and judiciously/ written ? — (that is, so that the Gospel may give no "offence!" Gal. 5. 11). Is it relieved by remarkable anecdotes ? Does it interest by striking incidents ? Does it delight and astonish by the introduction of charming and splendid scenery ? Is its author a popular writer? Such is the Gospel, and such are the Gospel preachers, the Gospel hearers, and the Gospel readers, of this our day. There is no room now-a-days for an independent, holy, truthful, power- ful, piercing, and convincing Calvin. Nor is there a more glad- ding hope, that the majestic, mighty, deep, surprising, sujq^assing, and edifying Luther will be hailed with a welcome as wide as his worth deserves. No ! We want, in God's great and righteous cause, in ovir time, a few wealthy, and good, and holy Josephs of Arimathea (IMatt. 27. 57), to supply the poverty of God's poor (James 2. 5) and the covetousness of the professing Church's rich (Ps. 119. 36, and Ps. 10. 3). God is able to find such for any exigency of His Church, in any age or day, whenever Tie is pleased to diffuse the Word of His Truth and to broaden the width of His glory, and at the same time both to edify His chosen people and bear His own testimony to an ungodly and gainsaying world !^ May He be pleased so to work in this our day.' ^ The preceding note, pages 22, 23, 24, will gratify the reader, by show- ing him the manner in which all these the Translator's hopes and aspirations, which had been entertained in entire dependence on God ten months before, were realised in the matter of the present volume to the very letter. Such is, indeed, ' the wonderful counsel' and ' excellent working' of our God (Is. 28. 29). Though it pleased Ilim to choose, in this instance, not a rich son of His, but a daughter! to do His holy work and to execute His heavenly will. ^ The last ten lines of this paragraph, from the words " No ! We want," &c., are given in the \owg foot-note, Yiage 22, &c., alluded to in the preceding note, but they are repeated in the text, in continuation, to show the parti- cular state of the mind of the Translator while writing the " Concluding Address" to the second volume of " Calvin's Calvinism," in which " Address" XXVIU TRANSLATORS PREFACE. " The Flood" is now under the same translator's hand ; and will be completed, he hopes (if God shall be mercifully pleased to vouchsafe health and strength for the purpose), by the end of the present, or the beginning of the next, year. The printing and publication of this {D. V.) forthcoming precious volume, are necessarily left by him in the same hand in which he left its present sister-volume, " The Creation." The writer, however, of these prefatory observations is constrained, ere he close them, here again to offer his high praises unto God, for the wonderful and altogether unexpected and unthought-of way in which He has thus, of His own infinite wisdom and resources, brought forth the volume now in the reader's hands. Nor is he aware that such comprehensive favour and marked honour have been bestowed by the Most High on any other volume, during the last century. Nay, it does not rest on his memory that any one, even of the original works of the great Luther, were so owned and honoured from above, as to be purchased by any wealthy individual, or by any prince or potentate of the great Keformer's days, and printed also at the expense of the purchaser. But such favourers of God's righteous cause will by no means lose their reward (Mark 9. 41, and particularly Matt. 10. 40-42). Nor can the writer withhold his inexpressible gratitude to God for having thus used, and owned, and honoured his " last days," in permitting him thus to serve his great and glorious Master with the feeble efforts of his pen (which Divine favour he has also above acknowledged), when he could no longer " stand up" to " speak in His name." Nor is it by any means the lightest part of this weight of pecu- liar favour under which he bows, as the bending corn to the sickle, that the adorable Bestower of it chose, as his patroness, a noble daughter in the faith, of whom Luther himself had been the spiritual and revered father. Though even that noble off- spring of the holy Reformer is not the only one who has been instructed in righteousness, comforted, encouraged, raised to hope, and saved, by his j)owerful testimony, when speaking through the medium of the British language, by the pen of the present, or lie was committing the then just finished " Creation" of Luther, which constitutes the present volume, entirely to the hands and will of God ; pos- sessing himself no means for the purpose; and perceiving no possible way (as fully stated above) in which it could be printed and published. TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXIX by the labours of other translators of his God-honoured remains. His Commentaries " On the Galatians, and on the Psalms," his Sermons, &c., have been thus made of eternal profit to hundreds. May the same gracious and wonder-working God work in tlie same marvellous way in the (Z). V.) forthcoming Commentar}^ on the " Flood ;" that it may call forth the same high praises of the Churches of Christ in Britain, to whom its circumstances may become known, as the present volume has done, and will doubtless hereafter do ; and may it create the same holy amazement, and gratitude, and gratification, to the end of his days, in the heart of The Translator. LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTICES. LITERARY. First — The principle upon which the following translation has been made, is that to which the Translator strictly adhered through- out his English version of the four vokunes of Luther's " Select Works" (to which allusion has already been made), and in his versions of other volumes of the great Reformer's remains. That principle has been to give faithfully the mind of Luther, convey- ing, as far as in him lay, the Reformer's faith, and spirit, and religion ; and retaining also as much of his peculiar mode and cast of expression, as could possibly be transferred from the idiom of one language into that of another. The present version is made from the edition of Luther's works, in seven volumes FOLIO, of which the seventh volume contains Luther's majinificent " Commentary on the Book of Genesis ;" edited by Besoldus, under the supei*vision of Melancthon, though the whole edition is generally called ' Melancthon's Edition,' and ^vas published at XXX TRANSLATORS PREFACE. Wirteiibui'g in 1544 (see preceding page xix. of Preface). That edition is in Latin : and it contains also many pieces of Luther, translated by various of his most intimate friends, from the German into Latin. But most of Luther's " Commentaries," as was the great " Exposition of Genesis" also, now before us, were delivered in lectures, in Latin, before his pupils and friends in the Divinity School of Wirtenburg (see Luther's own Preface, pages 2 and 4). Second — The original Hebrew is represented, throughout this translation, in Roman characters, for the following reasons : — 1st, Because the great Luther himself so represented the Holy Language throughout his Commentary ; and consequently the three devoted collectors and editors of the four volumes of the Com- mentary, Theodore, Besoldus, and Melancthon, (as stated pages xviii. and xix. o^our Preface,) retained also, with the greatest pro- priety, in their editions, the Roman character, according to the usage adopted by their great teacher and commentator himself. — 2d, Because very few of the English family of heaven are acquainted with the original Hebrew : and consequently its representation, in its own characters, would have been, to them, utterly useless. — 3d, Because those few of God's children who possess the advan- tage and privilege of an acquaintance with the Sacred tongue, can in a moment refer to their Hebrew Bibles for all satisfaction ; as to the exact expressions of the holy text itself, and for the fuller comprehension and enjoyment of the great Luther's criti- cal and exegetical remarks, in each or any particular passage in the Book of Genesis. — 4th, By adopting, as Luther himself wisely and usefully did, the Roman character, the illiterate Ger- man or English reader could always, and can still, get possession of the pronunciation or expression, in his own tongue, of each Hebrew word, or term, or phrase, to which the great Commen- tator devotes his invaluable remarks and explanations ; which im- portant advantage, had the characters of the original Hebrew been used, either by Luther himself, or by his primitive editors, or by his present English Translator, must have been, to all but Hebraists, wholly lost. Tliirdly — All the quotations by Luther from the ancient Latin and Greek authors — Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, Xenophon, Plato, Pindar, &c. — have been translated also, as a necessary duty, witli TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XXXI tlie text of the holy Commentator, for the greater service and profit of the unlearned Christian reader. Fourthly — Luther, like another Apollos, was so mighty in the Scriptures, and had every portion of them so present to his mind and memory, when thinking, or writing, or speaking on any one Divine subject ; that when, in commenting, he cited or referred to any sacred passage for confirmation of his statements, he scarcely ever mentioned the verse or verses of the sacred text which he quoted, or to Avhich he pointed as proofs, but indicated the chap- ter only. For the greater facility of reference, therefore, to the English reader, the present Translator has added, in each case, to the chapter, the verse or verses referred to by Luther, as his in- tended proof, or confirmation, or illustration. THEOLOGICAL. Angels. — It is not our intention (as we have observed in our foot-note on the subject of "Angels," page 51 of the following Commentary) to enter in these notices, at au}^ length, on theo- logical discussions ; which would be iitterly superfluous and use- less in themselves, and could have no other tendency than to entangle the mind of the Christian reader in the w^ebs of unpro- fitable mazes, to divert it from its admiration of the great glories of the Commentary itself, and to rob it of its great edification thereby. Indeed, the observations which we have offered the reader in i\\e foot-note in question, page 51, embrace substantially all that we design to say on this deep and oi\\j part{ally-XQ\eQ\Q([, but plainly revealed, subject of " the angels." That Avhich is re- vealed concerning those once high and heavenly, and still emi- nent and mighty beings, who are " all" important " ministers" of God, both in His salvation and in His destruction of men, is con- tained in the following portions of the Holy Scripture : — Gen. 2. 1, Exod. 20. 11, Job 38. 6, 7, Ps. Q^. 17,' Col. 1. 16, Ileb. 1. 21, &c. The war or rebellion of these excellent creatures in heaven, and the fall or ejection of the non-elect angels from that their original happy state, is contained, Rev. 12. 2-9, Luke 10. 18, 2 Pet. 2. 4. With these portions of the Holy Scrijiture, therefore, to Avliich innumerable others might be added, the Christian reader is k-ft to read and behold for himself the exist- XXXll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. ence of angels, both elect and reprobate ; and to meditate on their war in heaven, on the fall and everlasting punishment of the non-elect angels, and on the sovereign use which God makes, both of these elect and iion-elect superior and mighty beings, for ministering to the salvation of His own people, and for the furthering, hastening, and sealing, by his rule and overrule and command, the destruction of the wicked. Paradise. — When the reader enters on his reference to the present prefatory notice, as directed by foot-note at page 131 of Commentary, he will, it is feared, be met by much confusion and difficulty : the whole of which, however, will be removed, it is hoped, by a brief word of caution. He is, in the first place, kindly requested by the Translator to observe, that there has been committed in this matter, by a grievous oversight, a threefold error. In the first place, there is altogether omitted to be in- serted the " corrected translation" on the paragraph on Paradise, at page 122 of Commentary. And, in the next place, there has been omitted, in the directive foot-note, page 131, to state the number of the page (122) of Commentary, in which the original and uncorrected paragraph on Paradise stands ; and also, con- sequently, in the third place, there has been omitted the note ap- pended to (or to have been appended to) the corrected paragraph, page 122 of Commentary. The corrected passage itself should have been inserted, and should have stood thus : — After the words " iii jMradise, free from sin, and safe from death," the remaining substance of the para- graph should have continued on thus — " a place where thou shalt only have to loait for the last day, Avhen these things shall be fully revealed : just as Adam in paradise was free from all sin, and all death, and all curse ; and yet there waited in hope of the future, and spiritual, and ' eternal life.' So that paradise, in each of the above cases, means an allegorical paradise, or a paradise state : in the same manner as the Scripture, when speaking of the ' bosom of Abraham,' does not mean the very folds of the robe which covered the bosom of Abraham, but, allegorically or descriptively, that life, or state of life, in which the souls of those who die in faith enjoy a heavenly life. They do really enjoy peace and rest ; and yet in that peace and rest wait for the future and eternal life and glory." translator's preface. xxxiii With reference to the doctrine of an intermediate state, involved in the above paragraph, it is not our intention (as we have ob- served above, under the article " Angels") to entangle the thoughts of our readers in the net of endless and unprofitable theological discussion. Such folly could have no other tendency (as also above observed) than to divert the mind of the Christian from its contemplation of the peculiar beauties and glories of this great Commentary, and thus to rob his heart of its edification by their striking instruction. Our own faith is, that the doctrines olP an intermediate state, whether of purgatory or of paradise, are " lying wonders" and " strong delusions" of the great harlot of the world (2 Thess. 2. 9 and 11) ; and that the design of the devil, by those lying wonders, was to give a gleam of hope to the Avicked, who had no hope ; by inducing them into a false hope of some hundreds or thousands of years of intermediate and purify- ing respite from their appointed and expected misery, before the eternity of that misery began ; and, on the other hand, the aim of the great deceiver was to tarnish the brightness of the hope of the just, b}^ leading them to expect some intermediate space of rest (ivithout the presence of Christ !), before they should enter into the hoped-for and longed-for glorious presence of their ador- able Lord and Redeemer. Therefore our object will be, having thus briefly stated our own humble views and faith on this " sandy" and delusive subject; simply to set before our readers some of those portions of the Holy Scriptures, which (as we believe) plainly teach the immediate state of heaven or hell, after death ; or by \\hich the entrance, immediately after death, of the wicked into their dreaded misery, and of the saints into their hoped-for feli- city, are clearly revealed. " Then shall the dust (says Solomon) return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Eccles. 12. 7). — Are we, then, to suppose, that after we have seen the body committed to the earth, the spirit goes into some intermediate state of thousands of years' duration, or unto the end of all things, before it returns to God who gave it, for the enjoyment of His presence, or for His consignment to misery ? Again, "Verily I say unto thee (saith our Lord to the penitent), To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23. 43). — Ai-e we here again to suppose, that neither the repentant and entreat- c XXXIV TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. ing thief was taken up into his appointed bhss in heaven with Christ, nor the hardened and raiHng thief cast into his appointed misery in hell, until after hundreds and thousands of years' exist- ence in an intermediate state, or until the end of all things ! Again, " And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee" (John 17. 11). — Was, then, the Father of our adorable Redeemer (and owr Father !) not in the heaven of heavens above, but in the intermediate regions of paradise, when Christ went to Him, after His atoning " cross and passion"?" or, did He not go to His Father until after His "precious death and burial ?" nor until the day of His "glorious resiirrection and ascension ?" And was the saved thief, together with the millions of millions of his fellow-redeemed spirits, who had de- parted from their bodies, since the world began, destined to re- main (without God and without Christ among them !) in an inter- mediate state of paradise ? and are they all confined in that God- less and Christless solitude still ? and must they there remain until the end of all things, befoi'e they can enter into the heaven of heavens of their Saviour and Kedeemer, and of their God in Him ! But enough ! It is vain and unprofitable, and entering too near the confines of danger and delusion, to pursue the subject farther. Kindred portions of the Holy Scripture might be pro- duced without number, and meditated upon, in the same awe- striking manner, even unto pain and dread of thought. Here, then, we leave the solemn subject; requesting the Christian reader to reflect further on the Scripture records of Dives and Lazarus, and of the glorified spirits of Moses and Elias, who descended from heaven icith their Lord, and appeared to the disciples, on the Mount of Transfiguration. And we entreat every such reader to meditate upon those portions of the Word, with heavenly reasoning, in the same manner as we have done, on the Scriptures now adduced. And after such meditation, with their Bibles in their hands, and breathed prayers ; we ask all brothers and sisters in Christ, what are their thoughts and con\T.ctions respecting an intermediate state of purgatory or paradise ! What marvel, however, that no larger a portion of this attractive patch, wdiich is worn so conspicuously on the cheek of the GREAT HARLOT OF THE WORLD, clave to the "beau- tiful garments !" (Is. 52. 1), with which God Himself clothed translator's preface. XXXV His mighty servant Luther ! nurtured as he had been, from a child, in the inmost cells of her "ABOMINATIONS" (Kev. 17. 5). What wonder, that the volumes of smoke arising from the smouldering ruins of ' MYSTIC BABYLON,' which the fire of God's Word, proceeding out of the mouth of this great destroyer, had caused, did not leave a wider stain of this baseless and unscriptural delusion on his "white robes" of righteovisness by faith (Rev. 19.8), in which he himself was arrayed of his God, and in which he was sent by his Divine Master to array other lost sinners, by hundreds, and in which he still arrays them, by His blessed testimony, to this hour ! — (See, as before, note, p. 51.) No ! Neither did these few insignificant spots of rust on this two-edged sword, sharpened and pointed of God Himself; nor did the above immaterial blemishes on the blade of this polished shaft, held m the hollow of God's hand (Is. 49. 2), prevent him from ' always triumphing in Christ,' or from making manifest the savour of His knowledge in every place where he came. No ! Luther ever was unto God ' a sweet savour of Christ, both in them that were saved and in them that perished.' To the one he was " a savour of death unto death, and to the other of life unto life." And who but one taught, and sent, and upheld, and owned and honoured of God, and well pleasing, as this His eminent servant was unto Him, even with these his immaterial defects, could have been sufiicient for these things ?" (2 Cor. 2. 14, 15, 16) ; yet such Luther was, and such he is still ! We have been thus careful and faithftil to represent Luther, attended with all his imperfections, just as he appears in his " Commentary," and in his character. And our objects, in so doing, have been, not to burnish up his defects to the brightness of perfections, nor to clothe his immaterial errors with the robes of truth, — not to justify or encourage the same imperfections in others, — but our reasons have been the following : — 1. To glorify God; by esteeming his servant, Martin Luther, very highly in love for his work's sake (1 Thess. 5. 13). 2. To instruct the reflective family of heaven; by shewing them what peculiarities, branded by the impressions of education, cither religious or civil, in which they might have been cradled, may cleave unto the greatest and best of men, even unto their dying hour. — (See note, page 51). XXXvi TRANSLATOll 8 PREFACE. 3. To comfort the saints and servants of the Most High ; by- causing them to see, that no immaterial defects or pecuharities, nor even miimportant views or errors, will either prevent their own final entrance into heaven, or hinder their ministerial usefulness on earth; provided that theivheartshe " right with God" (Ps. 78. 8 and 37) ; that they " stand not in any evil thing" (Eccles. 8. 3) ; that they draw not back from God's righteous ways, nor deal falsely in His covenants (Ps. 44. 17). 4. To annoy and defy the devil ; (thus to use Luther's own frequent manner and terms of expression), by defying him to do his best and his worst, to disparage the character of Luther, or to depreciate his worth in the affections of God's people ; or to diminish the force of his testimony, either in the consciences of the wicked, or in the hearts of the just. But here we desire to close our weak introductory observations ; being far more happy that we should " decrease," and that our beloved Author should " increase." Here, therefore, we retire from the reader's presence ; leaving him to talk and hold com- munion with Martin Luther himself, on the following page, in his own humbly sublime and meekly majestic Preface. A COMMENTARY BOOK OF GENESIS MARTIN LUTHER, TO THE GODLY READER. I DID not undertake my Lectures on the Book of Genesis with the intent, or e^-en with the thought, of their being pubHshed and made known to the world; but that I might, for a time, serve the present school of learners who heard me, and exercise myself, and my auditory, in tlie Word of God ; and also, that I might not finish the death of this body, in an old age altogether indolent and useless ; but that I might listen to the awakening voice of Psalm 104. 32. "I will sing unto the Lord, as long as I live ;" and especially, that I might be found, at my departure, among that " little flock," and in the number of those " babes," out of whose mouths ' God perfects praise,' and thereby destroys the enemy and avenger. For the world has always enough of monsters and devils, who blaspheme the Word of God, and cor- rupt and pervert it ; that God might not be clothed in his glory ; but that the devil might be adored, in his stead. The collection of these Lectures of mine, however, has fallen upon two persons, good and godly men ; — Doctor Caspar Cru- ciger, of whose worth his works bear an ample testimony, and show the greatness of his zeal, and his peculiar direction by the Spirit of God ; and M. George Rorary, a presbyter of oiir church ; the labours of which two collectors were seconded by those of Vitus Theodorus, minister of the church of Norberg ; all of them faithful and zealous ministers of the Word of God ; who judged it altogether right, that these my Commentative Lectures should be published to the world. Therefore I leave them to act according to their own judgment and inclination. I see that they are moved by a holy desire to help and ])rofit the churches of God ; and therefore I highly approve tlicir intentions ; and 4 MARTIN LUTHER, TO THE GODLY READER. I pray that the blessing of God may crown their labours with abundant success. I could wish however that such holy services and laudable endeavours, were spent upon an Author better deserving them. For as to myself, I am not one of whom it can be said ' lie did a good work ;' nor of whom you can say ' He tried to do a good work ;' I belong to the last order of authors, being one of whom it can be no more than said ' He desired to do a good vi'ork;' and truly happy shall I consider myself, if I shall be found worthy of being the last, in this last order. For all these my Comments were delivered extemporaneously, and in common and popular language ; just as the expressions came into my mouth, in a very homely way, and even mixed with German; and they are certainly more verbose than I could have wished. Not however that I am conscious to myself that I have spoken any thing contrary to the truth. But my one grand aim has been, to avoid obscurity, as much as possible ; and to deliver those things whicli I wished to be understood, in a manner and language as perspicuous as my abilities would allow me to adopt. For I very sensibly feel, that the great things on which I have here spoken, have been treated on by me in a style and method far beneath their dignity and importance. Biit I comfort myself by the proverb of old ' Let that man fail of success, who attempts to do a thing better than his abilities will permit;' and by this well-known holy saying also, ' God will have nothing required of a man, that is beyond the ability which lie hath given him/ (2 Cor. 8, 12.) But why do I multiply words ? That on which we here treat, is the Scripture ; — is the . Scripture, I say, of the Holy Ghost ; and, 'for these things (as Paul saitli) who is sufficient'? It is a river (says Gregory) in which the lamb may paddle, and the elephant, swim. It is the wisdom of God ! which makes ' the wise ones of this world,' fools, and " the prince" of it himself, also ; which makes babes eloquent, and eloquent men, babes. — In a word, he is not the best here who iinderstands all things, and who never fails ; (though such an one there never has been, is not now, nor ever will be) ; but he is the best here who loves the most : as it is written Psalm 1 ' Blessed is the man that loveth the law of the Lord, and meditateth therein.' It is abun- MARTIN LUTHER, TO THE GODLY READER. 5 dantly enough for us, if we delight in this Wisdom, love it, and meditate in it, day and night. We ^see what the Commentaries of the Fathers are. They certainly were not destitute of the desire to do well, hut they found not the way to do it. . And how ridiculously absurd are all those of this day, who have attempted an exposition of the great things of the Scriptures by a beautiful, (or as they term it, a pure), latinitrj, or by paraphrases ? being, all the while, men utterly destitute cf the Spirit and of spiritual understanding, and, as the proverb goes, ' Asses playing upon a harp' ! Jerome has rightly said, ' Every one brings to the tabernacle of the Lord what he can. One brings gold, another silver, another precious stones, and another the skins or the hair of goats. For of all these things the Lord has need : and the dif- ferent wills of those who offer their different gifts, all please him alike. Therefore it is that I permit these few 'goat's hairs' of mine to be published to the world, as my offering and sacrifice unto God : whom I beseech, in Jesus Christ our Lord, that he would, by means of me, give occasion to others to do more than I have done ; or, at least, to do it in a better manner. For as to my adversaries, and their God, (the devil ;) I believe, with holy pride and exultation in the Lord, that I have given occa- sions enough unto them, (for this I have ever done from the beginning of my ministry : and that willingly,) to cavil and calumniate ; which is the only kind of service they are worthy to perform ; for they neither can do, nor desire to do, any one thing that is good ; being, as Paul saith, " Men of corrupt minds; and, to every good work, reprobate" ! May our Lord Jesus Christ go on to perfect the work which he hath begun in us ; and hasten the day of our redemption ; at the drawing nigh of which, by the grace of God, we now lift up our heads ; for which we sigh and groan ; and for which we wait, in pure faith and a good conscience ; in which also we have served an ungrateful world ; — a world, which is the incorrigible enemy even of its own, to say nothing about our, salvation. — " Come Lord Jesus" ! And let every one that loves thee, say — " Come Lord Jesus" ! Amen. In the year 1544 from the Nativity of Christ. PEEFACE OF VITUS THEODOEUS. To the most illustrious Prince and Lord, John Ernest, Duke of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringa, and Marshall of Misnia, Vitus Theodoeus, sendeth greeting. These all-beautiful bodies of the world, — the heavens, the stars, the elements, the plants, and the living creatures, were created, and stationed, and disposed, with wonderful skill and wisdom, that we might acknowledge God to be their eternal Maker ; and might understand, that there was implanted in us a law of life ; by our obedience to which, it was his will that he should be worshipped. And this light would have shined into the minds of all men, "\^dthout doubting and without errors, if the nature of man had not procured to itself, by its rebellious contumacy, the most miserable darkness, and the most awful calamities. For how great, under the infinnity of our nature, this darkness of mind is, concerning the nature and the ynM of God, and con- cerning his providence and government of things, is abundantly manifest from the doubts which continually cling to the minds of all men : concerning which doubts, even Plato truly and wisely said, — ' that our minds are so overpowered with convic- tion, from the laws of the heavenly motions, and other evidences and testimonies, that we are compelled to confess, that this world had, for its ^laker, an eternal Mind ! bvit yet, that this convic- tion and persuasion are overcast and deranged with clouds and storms, when we look at the confusion in all human things, and PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. 7 when we see ourselves plunged into, and left in the midst of, so many miseries.' It is from these doubts, that all those mad-brained opinions of philosophers have arisen. Of these, some, as the Epicureans, have denied the existence of God altogether : others, as Aristotle and the Stoics, though they believed that God was an eternal mind, yet bound and confined him to second causes ; just in the same way as the poets fable that Saturn was bound by Jupiter. Thus they ascribe to him no action, but that which the general concurrence of second causes produces. Hence, having their minds infotuated with this delirium^ they can neither ask any good thing of God, nor expect any good thing from him : be- cause, with them, events are necessarily only consequents which responsively follow upon their natural Jii^st causes. While therefore these men thus reasoned, they did not bring forth their own private and personal opinions only, but the connnon errors which lie concealed, naturally, in the minds of the whole human race. The greatest part of mankind fix their eyes upon second causes ; but these never raise them so high as the Great Over-ruler of all ; so as to wait for the government, or pressing forth, of second causes from and hy Him ! as Elijah did, when he prayed for rain in the midst of a drought ; and as Isaiah did, when he di'ove back an army of the enemy, by prayer. When this darkness, in the mind of man, had followed upon the fall of our first parents, God came forth aneio out of his secret habitation, and immediately made himself known again, with a distinct voice, and with fresh testimonies ; that the human race might not appear to be made in vain, nor Avithout a mighty pm'pose ; nor to destruction only. The creation indeed was a great benefit and blessing from God. But much more so was his revealing and making himself known to the human race, from the very " beginning," by certain testimonies and evidences ; delivering, with a distinct voice, the niOMiSE of eternal life and sahation ; and making a declaration concerning a judgment to come ; in which, after this life, he would separate the righteous from the wicked. — The Law also, though known to nature at first, he renewed ; and showed what was his true worship. He caused it moreover to be attended with signs, wliich could be 8 PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. wrought by no power, less than infinite. He recalled the dead to life ; he stopped the motions of the heavens, and the course of the sun ; and he even turned the sun back in his course, to refute a liuman delirium ; wliicli pretended to suspend God, by second causes, as by the golden chain of Homer. — And lastly, the Son of God himself assumed human nature, and lived openly with us ; taught us, and became a sacrifice and oftering for our sins ; and, after having overcome death, rose and lived again, and discoursed with many, in an open and familiar manner ; and moreover preached to a great niultitu.de of hearers. And although these things, on account of their greatness, seem, to human judgment, to be mere fictions ; yet they are attested and sealed by sure and certain evidences and miracles ; so that they are as surely true as that it is mid-day when the sun has mounted, in his course, to the mid-heaven. To these blessings we are also to add this, — that God was pleased that there should be a History of the human race, fi'om the very "beginning;" and a Record of all those testimonies, by which he revealed himself, committed to writing, and engraven on Biblical monuments, which should remain for ever. Nor will God be known in any other way, than by these testimonies ; nor will he consider any assembly of men, who are ignorant of these testimonies, to be his church : nor will he receive the prayers of those, wdio do not call upon him, as that same God, who does thus make himself knoion, by these his testimonies. The Mahomedans call upon God as the Creator of universal nature ; but they set themselves against his Son, and his Son's doctrine. They sa}^, that he who can approve such doctrine, cannot be God. And as to his Son, in whom God more especially reveals himself, and concerning whom he says himself, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him," — on him they spit, with enfuriated madness ! And what says Plato here 1 — Although Plato does raise his mind, above the common opinions of the vulgar, and does not ascribe divinity to statues of wood and stone, but really does en- quire after God, with the most wuse reasoning; and although he defines Him to be, ' an eternal mind,' and the Great Cause of all good, in nature ; yet, he still errs very widely from the true God. ■ — But how is that ? (some one may say.) What description of PREFACE OF VITUS THEODORUS. 9 God will you find more appropriate than Plato's 1 — I acknow- ledge, that he thought most learnedly and wisely concerning the nature of God ; but concerning his ivill, he hangs in doubt him- self, and leaves all his readers and disciples in doubt also ; and, to use his own expression, ')(^eLfjLa^ofX6vov