Page:The rock of wisdom.djvu/62

 things, to perform in time at least, else it may be too late.

Now a few remarks relating to historical accounts. Gen. 1st Chap. Sect. 1st. This book is so called from its treating of the generation, that is, of the creation and the beginning of the world. The Hebrews call it Bereseth, from the word with which it begins. A firmament by this name and the highest star, the lower part of which, he divideth the waters that are upon the earth from those that are above in the clouds. 1. Two great lights God created on the first day, which being moved from east to west by their rising and setting, made morning and evening; but on the fourth day he ordered and distributed this light, and made the sun and moon, though much less than the stars are here, called a great light, from its giving a far greater light to the earth than any of the others.

He rested &c. that is, be ceased to make or create any new kind of things, though as our Lord tells us, John 5. c. 17 v. he still worketh, viz. by preserving and governing all things and creating souls.

2. The tree of life, so called, because it had that quality, that by eating of the fruit of it man would have been preserved in a constant state of health, vigor and strength; and would not have died at all. 3. The tree of knowledge, to which the deceitful serpent falsely assumed the power of imparting a superior kind of knowledge beyond that which God was pleased to give. And the eyes, &c. Not that they were blind before the woman saw that the tree was fair to the eyes, nor that they were opened to anymore perfect knowledge of good, but only to the unhappy experience of having lost the good of original grace and innocence, and incurred the dreadful evil of sin, from whence followed a shame of their being naked, winch they minded not before, because being now stript of original grace, they quickly began to be subject to the shameful rebellions of the flesh: the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. And Adam and Eve, his wife, who conceived and brought forth Cain, and again she brought forth Abel, "and Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground." And it