of Adam. But widely, and for the most part, implicitly received, as is this notion of repetition, there is much in it that requires a less confused explication than theologians have yet given to it. It may be right;-but without descending to an over-scrupulousness in making the smallest minutiæ tally with the first chapter, - if it be a repetition, it is but reasonable to expect, that the whole narrative should be so consistent, that the body of facts contained in the second revelation, shall easily and convincingly fill up the outline which had been given in the first. How will it stand this test? Let us calmly investigate it.

In the first chapter, the sixth day's labour has comprised the formation, first, of "cattle, beast, and creeping thing," and next, of the human race in the persons of a single pair-male and female. In the more complete statement in the second chapter, it is arranged in the following mode and order. God is said to have first" formed man out of the dust of the ground." A garden is then prepared for his reception, in which he is placed. The law of his existence is next explained to him; and that covenant entered into, by which he was to abstain from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which had been planted in the midst of Eden, on pain of incurring the penalty of death. This done, the beasts and fowl are formed and led to Adam. "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." Now certainly in this account Moses would seem to intimate, that

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both the beasts of the field and the fowl of the air were formed subsequent to the introduction of Adam into Eden; a statement which is inconsistent with the first chapter, in which it is asserted that all things were created previously to man. It is true, that commentators have endeavoured to explain this by saying that the Hebrew will bear the translation, "the Lord God had formed every beast of the field, &c." Indeed this construction of the word seems indispensable to the idea, that this portion is a repetition; but allowing that it may be made to bear that sense, it is at best a forced meaning, and one which we should not expect in an account which was intended as a more full, clear, and manifest exposition of a subject full of mystery and difficulty. Let it be read, "the Lord had formed every beast, &c." and I should imagine it would strike the most cursory reader that it broke the natural current and continuity of the narrative, and was not a mode of expression which a writer would ordinarily make use of. But passing over this as a distinction of no extreme importance to our views, the animals and winged fowl having been named, no help among their numbers was found meet for Adam. the Lord God"-then-" caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." Adam received her with great joy; and doubtless with united praise and thanksgiving to God, the day closed in that calm happiness and tranquillity, which must have characterized all creation in Paradise.

"And

The first idea by which the mind is struck in perusing the account of this day, is the multitude of the acts which are compressed within its limits. Allowing the formation of "the beasts, cattle and creeping things," (mentioned in the first chapter as being part of the work of the sixth day) to have been an instantaneous creation;-that the word was spoken, and they arose simultaneously from the ground; we are yet instructed by Moses to believe, that a pause took place in the creative power, on the completion of this work;-as if to mark the distinction between irrational creation, and that last crowning work, the birth of a living soul in the spiritual likeness of its Divine Father. God is represented as collecting himself,-if the phrase may be used, for this last effort. The beasts are formed by a single command; and then is it that God exclaims "Let us make man, &c." However slight we may imagine the interval-one certainly existed. We glean it from the very form of the language which denotes a pause or reflection on the part of God-Let us make man-before he gave effect to his design.

Endued with life, he is placed in Eden; he is made fully to comprehend the reasons of his formation; and the purpose of his existence; he is instructed in his destined occupation "to dress the garden and to keep it ;" and above all, the strict devotional obedience which was expected of him, together with the fearful effects which would follow an infringement of a given law. These things must surely have been the work of considerable time. The governing laws of his whole life were then

made clear to him. He was formed upright and perfect, and therefore would not require repetitions of the commandment; for that necessity would of itself destroy the perfection of his nature, by exhibiting an infirmity,-to use the least expression,— if not a tendency or inclination to break the law. This feeling alone, without seeming to argue too much on words, might, in such a Being, be termed, sin. But although no repetition was required, we still adhere to the idea expressed for it was not only a recital of his own duty; not the mere dictation of a command to which he was to be subject, that was conveyed to him: but its paramount influence over man's latest posterities must have been made perfectly clear and manifest to his understanding. He was the representative of the whole human race, for good and for evil. If he kept the covenant, the world, through his obedience, would live in God's present favour, and become heirs to his choicest blessings. If he transgressed it, the world through his disobedience would be placed under the ban of God's wrath, and be delivered over to the power of death. As man's representative these things must, in all their bearings, have been explained to him. A choice was thus given him; its conditions must not only have been disclosed to, but grasped by his mind; and however high our ideas may be of the superiority and power of Adam's intellect, it cannot reasonably weaken them to suppose that some considerable time must have been consumed in making him so fully comprehend the nature, direction, and effects of the great scheme of probation which God had determined to confide to him. We must not

suffer our minds to be misled by the conciseness of Scripture. A fact, related to men, as to the Jews in Moses' time, two thousand five hundred years after it had happened, and when all the effects resulting from it were fully known, may be conveyed to them in the compass of a single sentence, although the various preparatives, and the accompanying agency may have occupied a large space of time to the original doer of it. There are many blanks and deficiencies, especially in the earlier parts of Scripture, which the imagination and judgment must fill up; taking care that we proceed on them by known and acknowledged principles of human nature, and the accumulating experience of the human mind; so that, however differently placed, a degree of identity between man and man may be preserved throughout. There really seems no adequate cause for thinking that Adam received the knowledge now in question by intuition; nor, that he did not imbibe it by those processes of thought and reflection in which a man would now receive them, could we suppose him placed under a similar revelation. Their reception was a matter in which both his reason and his judgment must have been involved;-the very fact of the covenant having been submitted to his choice, proves it ;-and it is but consistent with these powers, that his mind should have mastered them by certain steps and sequences and additions of knowledge, until his mind, filled with the subject, felt its overwhelming importance, and bowed in acquiescence.

But if this reasoning should seem inconclusive, is it, we ask, consonant with probability, that the consideration of these laws should be forced on