PREFACE. THE Bible is the gift of God to his people; and the value of it may be best seen by the consideration, that the eternal Spirit of truth and wisdom was employed in its composition, and that the wisdom of Providence, in all its wondrous operations, has been engaged, from one generation to another, in its preservation. Men of reflection and piety have, in every age, desired to discover the full meaning of this written word of God; and the results of their inquiries, carried on by devout communings with the blessed fountain of knowledge, and by a sedulous use of all the aids of human learning, they have as anxiously desired to place before their fellow believers. Those eminent scholars who have done this in our days, have but followed the example of Apostolic fathers; and those who did so in the primitive times of the Gospel, but followed up the labours of inspired scribes and prophets. This general attention to the interpretation and illustration of the books of Scripture has naturally sprung from the advantages which some Christians possess over others; and we may rejoice that so much sound learning, and so many powerful exhortations and arguments to piety, have been thereby communicated to the world. When invited to pursue the track of the wise and good of so many ages in this sacred work, the Author of the following Notes, circumscribed as was to be the space allowed him, conceived that he might be able to contribute, by the form in which his brief annotations would appear, to the advancement of religious truth. With the humble hope of doing something towards the attainment of this object, he resolved not to allow the minuteness of the page or the letter to afford him an excuse for carelessness: As far as was practicable, therefore, he has everywhere given those explanations which seem most in harmony with the best ascertained sense of Scripture, and suggested those reflections which he believed might be most profitably pursued; supporting or correcting his own ideas in matters of doubtful import, by reference to the soundest critics; and in those of a plain and practical nature, exercising his privilege as a minister of the Gospel to speak to the conscience of the reader as he best might. Into those points of inquiry which have demanded long dissertations from the most careful and concise writers, he has of course not been able to enter; but he trusts that few things have been left unnoticed which the Christian may regard as material to the general understanding of heavenly truth. With feelings of the deepest humility he commends his undertaking to the blessing of God, and to the countenance of those wise and pious members of Christ's Church whose example he ardently desires to follow, and in fellowship with whom he hopes to be found both now and for ever. THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED GENESIS. Moses lived about the year of the world 2433, and was chosen by God to be the minister of the covenant which he made with the people of Israel. In this capacity he led them forth from Egypt, delivered the divine law, and established that vast system of religious polity by which they were to be kept as a distinct nation, and preserve unbroken the evidence of the first promise of a Redeemer and Saviour. To enable bim to perform the important duties with which he was thus charged, the Almighty illuminated and strengthened him with an abundant supply of heavenly grace. Thus assisted, he executed his office of a lawgiver and a prophet to the fulfilment, in all its essential parts, of the divine plan. The objects of the dispensation of which he was the minister were clearly detailed: the rewards and penalties of obedience or rebellion were set forth with the most perfect distinctness; every rite and precept of the law had its proper place in the system; and the whole was confirmed by signs and wonders, manifesting the presence and sanction of God. While thus effecting the purposes intended by the call of the Israelites, the Holy Spirit made him the medium also of a long series of revelations, and of details which, by their importance, and reference to the beginning of things, had themselves the interest and sublimity of revelations. These divine communications he wrote down, for the instruction not only of his own people, but for the permanent use of mankind at large. The volume he thus composed consists of that portion of Scripture which now forms the first five books of the Old Testament. In all those parts in which the peculiar laws of Judaism are set forth, or their spiritual signification is in any way alluded to, and in those where the future state of the nation is depicted, and the coming of the Redeemer foreshadowed, there Moses wrote, under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, as a prophet. In those parts where he records the history of the creation, and of the mighty events through the succession of which he traces the proceedings of God's providence, there he wrote as a historian, recording many things conveyed by tradition from the fathers, but adding even to them several circumstances which had probably escaped the common memory of his race; setting forth what was known in a stronger light; unfolding other portions of the history of creation, and of mankind, which had never yet formed the subject of human contemplation; and following throughout the guidance or dictation of the Holy Spirit. The concurrent testimony of antiquity establishes the authenticity of the books of Moses; and several of the most important facts which they record are found alluded to in the traditions and religious observances of the remotest nations. But the strongest and most obvious evidence to their truth, is that derived from the known and uncontradicted history of the Jewish people. They have been subject, from the most remote antiquity, to a peculiar system of laws, and no explanation can be given of the establishment of those laws, or of their persevering obedience to them, but that afforded by the Mosaic narrative. No reasonable and unprejudiced mind can suppose that a whole people would submit themselves to such a system as that laid down in these books, without the clearest proofs of its divine origin: nor is it to be imagined that, when received, the records in which its several ordinances were described, and the eircumstances under which they were established, would be ever otherwise than carefully preserved from all interpolations, or mixture with falsehood. Considered simply in the light of history, the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, may claim precedence of every other work, not only in point of antiquity, but in the incomparably higher interest and importance of its relations. The knowledge and devout feeling which the Christian brings to the study of its records, invest them with an interest still more profound; and he who has learnt to read them with a rightly directed spirit, has ever present to his mind the grandest subjects for reflection on which human thought can be employed. CHAPTER I. IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was pon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Ver. 1. The word Genesis, the title of this book, means generation, and is derived from the contents of the present chapter, in which are tecorded the beginnings, the birth, or creation, of the heaven and the arth, the entire visible universe. From God sprung the whole. Before he willed it, no particle of this vast frame of visible things existed. His treation of the heaven and the earth was the commencement of the ystem; and whatever exists derived is being from him. This first verse to be considered as a general 4 And God saw the light, that if was good and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 Aud God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. introduction to the narrative. The 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered. It was the energy of the Spirit of God that first quickened this mass, and prepared it to receive the successive and life-giving blessings of the Almighty Creator; and it ought to be remarked, with a feeling of reverential awe at the evident analogy of the divine proceedings, that the Holy Ghost, in the crea tion, moved over the depths of chaos before light was given, as at the commencement of the gospel dispensation he always preceded, by his operations, the great triumphs of faith.-Ver. 5. Darkness existed before light; hence the evening is |