101 lines
6.4 KiB
XML
101 lines
6.4 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Gen.i" n="i" next="Gen.ii" prev="Gen" progress="0.67%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Gen.i-p0.1">Genesis</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Gen.i-Page_1" n="1"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Gen.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Gen.i-p1"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Gen.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Gen.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Gen.i-p1.3">OF THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED</h5>
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<h2 id="Gen.i-p1.4">G E N E S I S.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Gen.i-p2"><span class="smallcaps" id="Gen.i-p2.1">We</span> have now
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before us the holy Bible, or <i>book,</i> for so <i>bible</i>
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signifies. We call it <i>the book,</i> by way of eminency; for it
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is incomparably the best book that ever was written, the book of
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books, shining like the sun in the firmament of learning, other
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valuable and useful books, like the moon and stars, borrowing their
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light from it. We call it the holy book, because it was written by
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holy men, and indited by the Holy Ghost; it is perfectly pure from
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all falsehood and corrupt intention; and the manifest tendency of
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it is to promote holiness among men. The great things of God's law
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and gospel are here <i>written</i> to us, that they might be
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reduced to a greater certainty, might spread further, remain
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longer, and be transmitted to distant places and ages more pure and
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entire than possibly they could be by report and tradition: and we
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shall have a great deal to answer for if these things which belong
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to our peace, being thus committed to us in black and white, be
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neglected by us as a strange and foreign thing, <scripRef id="Gen.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.8.12" parsed="|Hos|8|12|0|0" passage="Hos 8:12">Hos. viii. 12</scripRef>. The scriptures, or writings of
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the several inspired penmen, from Moses down to St. John, in which
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divine light, like that of the morning, shone gradually (the sacred
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canon being now completed), are all put together in this blessed
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Bible, which, thanks be to God, we have in our hands, and they make
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as perfect a day as we are to expect on this side of heaven. Every
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part was good, but all together very good. This is the <i>light
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that shines in a dark place</i> (<scripRef id="Gen.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:2Pet.1.19" parsed="|2Pet|1|19|0|0" passage="2Pe 1:19">2
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Pet. i. 19</scripRef>), and a dark place indeed the world would be
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without the Bible.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Gen.i-p3">We have before us that part of the Bible
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which we call the <i>Old Testament,</i> containing the acts and
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monuments of the church from the creation almost to the coming of
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Christ in the flesh, which was about four thousand years—the
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truths then revealed, the laws then enacted, the devotions then
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paid, the prophecies then given, and the events which concerned
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that distinguished body, so far as God saw fit to preserve to us
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the knowledge of them. This is called a <i>testament,</i> or
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<i>covenant</i> (<b><i>Diatheke</i></b>), because it was a settled
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declaration of the <i>will</i> of God concerning man in a federal
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way, and had its force from the designed death of the great
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testator, <i>the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,</i>
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(<scripRef id="Gen.i-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Rev.13.8" parsed="|Rev|13|8|0|0" passage="Re 13:8">Rev. xiii. 8</scripRef>.) It is called
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the <i>Old Testament,</i> with relation to the <i>New,</i> which
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does not cancel and supersede it, but crown and perfect it, by the
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bringing in of that better hope which was typified and foretold in
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it; the Old Testament still remains glorious, though the New far
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exceeds in glory, (<scripRef id="Gen.i-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:2Cor.3.9" parsed="|2Cor|3|9|0|0" passage="2Co 3:9">2 Cor. iii.
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9</scripRef>.)</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Gen.i-p4">We have before us that part of the Old
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Testament which we call the <i>Pentateuch,</i> or five books of
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Moses, that servant of the Lord who excelled all the other
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prophets, and typified the great prophet. In our Saviour's
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distribution of the books of the Old Testament into the <i>law,</i>
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the <i>prophets,</i> and the <i>psalms,</i> or <i>Hagiographa,</i>
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these are the <i>law;</i> for they contain not only the laws given
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to Israel, in the last four, but the laws given to Adam, to Noah,
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and to Abraham, in the first. These five books were, for aught we
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know, the first that ever were written; for we have not the least
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mention of any <i>writing</i> in all the book of Genesis, nor till
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God bade Moses write (<scripRef id="Gen.i-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.17.14" parsed="|Exod|17|14|0|0" passage="Ex 17:14">Exod. xvii.
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14</scripRef>); and some think Moses himself never learned to write
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till God set him his copy in the writing of the Ten Commandments
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upon the tables of stone. However, we are sure these books are the
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most ancient writings now extant, and therefore best able to give
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us a satisfactory account of the most ancient things.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Gen.i-p5">We have before us the first and longest of
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those five books, which we call <i>Genesis,</i> written, some
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think, when Moses was in Midian, for the instruction and comfort of
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his suffering brethren in Egypt: I rather think he wrote it in the
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wilderness, after he had been in the mount with God, where,
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probably, he received full and particular instructions for the
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writing of it. And, as he framed the tabernacle, so he did the more
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excellent and durable fabric of this book, exactly according to the
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pattern shown him in the mount, into which it is better to resolve
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the certainty of the things herein contained than into any
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tradition which possibly might be handed down from Adam to
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Methuselah, from him to Shem, from him to Abraham, and so to the
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family of Jacob. <i>Genesis</i> is a name borrowed from the Greek.
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It signifies the <i>original,</i> or <i>generation:</i> fitly is
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this book so called, for it is a history of originals—the creation
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of the world, the entrance of sin and death into it, the invention
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of arts, the rise of nations, and especially the planting of the
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church, and the state of it in its early days. It is also a history
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of generations—the generations of Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c.,
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not endless, but useful genealogies. The beginning of the New
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Testament is called <i>Genesis</i> too (<scripRef id="Gen.i-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Matt.1.1" parsed="|Matt|1|1|0|0" passage="Mt 1:1">Matt. i. 1</scripRef>,) <b><i>Biblos geneseos,</i></b> the
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book of the <i>genesis,</i> or <i>generation,</i> of Jesus Christ.
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Blessed be God for that book which shows us our remedy, as this
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opens our wound. Lord, open our eyes, that we may see the wondrous
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things both of thy law and gospel!</p>
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</div2> |