Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Martyr and Fa

gius quot

ed.

The reafon of Cain's

name.

was expressly appointed to have that feed, who was to bruise the serpent's head. Wherefore Adam, who by fin became the father of all who die, 1 Cor. 15. 22, called his wife Eve, from his faith in God's promife, believing, according to the word of God, that no man fhould have true life, but what would be derived from her. However the original of this was not in the woman herself, but in the principal seed, that was to defcend from her. This name therefore contains a confeffion of Adam's faith, and fhews, what Adam taught his children, and to what hope he formed them by the word of God: who, in the very name of his wife, as often as he repeated it, would have a lasting monument both of the promise of God and of his own hope.

!

[ocr errors]

XXXII, PETER MARTYR, that most excellent interpreter of fcripture, faw and taught these things long ago: who thus comments on the places Adem knowing that her feed, would bruife the devil and death, justly and with propriety, chofe to call her by that name, by which this falutary promise of God might at all times occur to his mind. Now Adam had entertained hopes of life by Chrift, and when he perceived, that his wife was to be the mother of him, and of all those, who were to be quickened by bim, called her name Eve, because she was the mother of the living. FAGIUS in like mannert we doubt, not, but Adam, by giving that name to his wife, bad a view to the promise concerning the feed, that was to bruise the ferpent's head; by which he hoped, that his wife was to be that perfon. Wherefore be named her

Chavah, which we call Eve, as if you would fay an enlivener; because dead mankind was to be made alive by her offspring. See alfo Pareus and others, all agre eing in the fame thing.

[ocr errors]

XXXIII. Eve difcovered the fame hope, when, upon bringing forth her firft-born, the cried out, Which words are variously rendered by interpreters. That which we think most agreeable, is, with Reuchlin, Pelicanus, Fagius,

.Gen. 4. I קניתי איש את יהוה

Forfterius

2

*

Forfterius, Luther, Clarius, Scindlerus and many others, to take as ufual. for the fign of the accufative cafe, and the meaning be, I have gotten a MAN JEHOVAH. Remarkable is the Chalde paraphrafe of Jonathan. And Adam knew Eve his wif, who was taken with a longing for that angel, and conceived and bore Cain, and faid, I have gotten the man, that angel of the Lord. Certainly our pious mother continually revolving in her mind that promife of God, which was the ground of all her confolation, as foon as the bore that male child, obferved in his birth a fign or token, that the promife would be performed. She therefore joyfully exclaims, the had now obtained that promifed feed: not that the imagined Cain was that feed, but that, in his birth, fhe could fee the first multiplication of mankind, and, in that multipli cation, an argument for her hope concerning the feed, eminently fo called, who was to arife in his appointed time. Seeing the laid hold of this with a great affurance of faith, and made it, as it were present to her mind, the now fo fpeaks, as if in the birth of Cain, he was actually poffeffed of that feed, which, by an argument taken from that birth, the expected with an affured faith. For, had fhe thought that Cain was the promifed Meffiah, and Jehovah himself, the would have paid him, tho' her own fon, religious worship, and by this means incurred the guilt of a horrid idolatry; till being apprized, either by the vicious difpofition of the child, or by fome other means, she had owned her mistake. Which our pious refpect to our common parent forbids us to believe. She moreover publishes an eminent confemon concerning the perfon of the Meffiah, whom the acknowledges to be God-man. She declares him to be man, by calling him man; at the fame time pointing out his excellence above other men: for,

s Adam and I are ufually diftinguifhed, fo that the laft viz Ib, implies excellency; and the first, yiz. Adam, meannefs. Chrift, indeed, in his humi

liation

Objecti

ons.

Anfwer

ed.

liation, was whinybin, a worm and not man, Pf, 22° 6: but confidered in himfelf he is now, the .man of the right hand of the Lord, Pf. 80. 17, and

py, the man his fellow Zech. 13. 7. She also makes profeffion of the divinity of the Meffiah, when the calls him JEHOVAH; and fignifies, that both natures fhould be united in one perfon, by joining these two, nins ws. Paul calls him, God manifeft in the flesh, 1 Tim. 3. 16.

איש את את יהוה

את אחיו

XXXIV. To this explication three things are principally objected. ft. If Eve intended this, the would have faid nnxx.doubling the fign of the accufative cafe: as in the following verfe, anns n 27 zan áðırqov autě Toy A"B. 2dly N often fignifies the fame as y, with; therefore fignifies with Jebovah as où with God. In this fenfe, Jonathan is faid to have wrought On Oy, with God, I Sam. 14. 45, that is, under the conduct and direction, or by the affiftance and help, of God, 3dly Filial respect prompts us to entertain right fentiments concerning the faith of our mother Eve; namely, that fhe knew and believed, the Meffiah was not only to be God-man, but alfo the feed of the woman, that is, the son of a virgin; for, without this her faith had been a mistaken, not a true faith, nor yielded her any comfort. She could not therefore think, fhe got in CAIN the Meffiah; as he was perfectly well affured, that Cain was not the fon of a virgin.

XXXV. We anfwer, to the first: that the repe tition of that particle, is indeed, frequent, but yet not univerfal; for we have inftances of the contrary, 1 Kings 11. 23, 1117 8; joy. If 8. 2,

עיר את ירושלם ,1 .4 .Ezeck .עדים נאמנים את אוריה Where the עשרת אלפים את איש יהודה 1.4 .Sam 1

fign of the accufative cafe is placed between two nouns, without a repetition. To the Jecond; we deny not, that is often equivalent toy but there is no inftance to prove, that what the Greeks

fay,

fay, or, the Hebrews exprefs in their language by

-as it is well known, they ufual : את אלהים or את יהוה What is adduced באלהים or ביהוה ly exprefs it by

from 1 Sam. 14. 45, is not to the purpose. For, there we have y but not ns. For, though thefe,particles, are fometimes equivalent, yet they ought not, to be confounded. And then, with God, does not fo much fignify with God's affiitance, as God not difapproving. Compare Ifa. 36. 10. With greater fhew of reafon might be urged Mich. 3. 8. no I am full of power by the fpirit of the Lord,that is, by the help of that fpirit, and Haba.3.13,

T

מלאת!

thou toenteft fortb for the יעאת לישע עמך לישע את משיחך

[ocr errors]

Jalvation of thy people, even for falvation with thy Miah, that is, falvation to be procured by his means. But the former paffage is very properly rendered, I am full of power with the Spirit of Jehovah, full of power no less than full of the fpirit. And the latter fhould feem to be thus pointed, that God may be faid to go forth with Chrift for falvation. To the third it might be answered, that there would be no abfurdity to fuppofe, that Eve was not fo well ac quainted with every thing, regarding the condition of the Meffiab. Who can affert, the knew, the Meffiah was to be born of a virgin, when the bleffed virgin herfelf did not know it, when he heard it -from the mouth of an angel, as appears from her words; bow hall this be, seeing I know not a man, Luke 1. 34. We deny not, that the Meffiah is eminently called the feed of the woman, becaufe he was to be born of a virgin: which the holy Ghoft afterwards more clearly foretold. But it is no crime to doubt, whether our mother Eve could have gathered this from thofe words; fince, in the facred language, even they are faid to be born of a woman, who are conceived in matrimony, as we fhewed Sect. XVII. One may affert this, and not tranfgrefs against that refpect due to our common mother; as it is certain,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

God

The occafion of Seth's

name.

God gradually brought his people to the knowledge of the Meffiah: nor does it overturn the faith of Eve, which might have been genuine and faving, tho' it was under this imperfect on, ignorance and mistake; as Peter had a true faith concerning Chrift, that is, a faving, and not a hypocritical, tho' he imagined thro' mistake, thatChrift could be the Saviour of his people, without fufferings, Mat. 16. 22. But we are under no neceffity to be obliged to fay any of these things, for we do not affert, our mother Eve received Cain, for the very Meffiah: but only we are of opinion, that, in the birth of Cain, the observed a fign or token of God's performing the promife, and fome thing to fupport her faith, which fhe was willing to declare and preserve the memory of, by giving him that name: and confequently that argument does not effect ato atsmes brok

us.

XXXVI. And we are not to pafs overs in filence, that when the afterwards brought forth another fon, she called his name Seth, because God) bath appointed me another feed instead of Abel, whom Cain flew, Gen. 4. 25. A fentence full of fpiritual affurance and of prophecy. She calls him feed, having a view to the proinife, and foretelling, that he would not only carry on the enmity with the ferpent, but also that from him, that eminent feed would come forth, by whofe power the ferpent's head was to be bruited. This feed fhe proclaims was given by God; as a fon not of nature only, but also of grace and promife, and accounted by God himself for a feed: nor only given, but alfo appointed, of God, that is, established and fecured by the counsel of God, that he should not be flain, but be the foundation of the future church,>to be propagated in an uninterupted fucceffion in his pofterity, and preferved down to Chrift. For the word to appoint, denotes a determination and steadinefs, as John 15. 16. I have chofen you, and ordained (appointed) you, that ye fhould go and bring forth frint. She therefore acknowledges Seth for the chofen feed,

and

« AnteriorContinuar »