"the tares are the children of the wicked one," and "the enemy that sowed them is the devil." Thus man as fallen is the "generation" of the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that worketh in the sons of disobedience."

And thus a second time (in Genesis iii.) we see "the generations of the heavens and the earth." But not here only. "It shall bruise thy head" has always been recognised as a promise of One that was to come, who should be seed of woman and Son of the most High God, “Generations of the heavens and the earth" like the unfallen Adam, yet One in whom the prince of this world should look for a hold in vain. John xiv. 30: "The prince of this world hath nothing (no hold) in Me."

Meanwhile the world as Satan had infected it grew into such a community of sinners, that the heavens and earth conspired against them to swallow them. Worldliness and civilisation, and lust and murder, and defiance of Divine Law, as depicted in Genesis iv., brought the doom.

of the whole progeny to pass. Only a remnant in the seed of Adam through Seth and Enos called (in some sense) upon the name of the Lord, and supplied a thread of continuance for "the generations of Adam" which follow, a book of life, in which some names might be written and not blotted out. "The book of the generations of Adam" is the book of life for the doomed "generations of the heavens and the earth."

The more carefully the contents of Genesis ii. 4 to iv. end are pondered, the more plainly will it appear that they really are an account of the "progeny of the heavens and the earth as completed" in the days of the Beginning. And this view proves not only satisfactory, but highly suggestive. One begins to see that it is not for nothing that these "generations of the heavens and the earth" have suggested to the mind of the reader the conception of a wedded pair. It occurs to one that there was more communication between "heaven" and "earth" in the days of Eden than there

is now. The LORD God could "walk in the garden in the cool of the day." Even after our first parents were banished from Eden there seems to have been a known "way to the tree of life," which could be kept by angels, and but for them might have been accessible to mankind. If these angels were visible, why not Satan? Is the idea of his converse with Eve after all so absurd as is often supposed? Granting that heaven and earth were really open to each other, what need of an allegory to make sense of the narrative? If things were not then as they are now, where is the absurdity? St. Peter has marked the assumption that "all things continue as they were from the beginning of Creation

wilful ignorance. If you ask, Then what has changed them? The deluge, is his reply. He says in fact, "The world before the flood was not as it is now. You persist in saying that it was." That," he says, "is wilful ignorance." "It was not." Surely we may examine the record of that world for indications of what it was.

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Finally, if the sketch of Genesis as consisting of eleven generations and a beginning is a true analysis of the book, what becomes of any other? For example, what becomes of the document called P in relation to this plan? The beginning of Genesis in chapter i., with the title of the second portion, "the generations of the heavens and earth," is given to P, the "priests' code." The entire story which exhibits these “generations," and justifies this most remarkable title, is ascribed to J, another document by another author, and of a different date. How are we to account for the story without the title by one hand, and the title without the story by another? And how does it come that the two fit perfectly, and make such wonderful sense? Here is a key without a lock dating in one century, and a lock without a key dating from another. Yet the key opens the lock.

"The generations of Adam" for the most part are ascribed to P. But the facts which alone make it needful to break off those generations at the name of Noah and make

Genesis vi.

a new beginning, are left out. 5-8, not being sufficiently statistical for P, is given to J. The title of the “generations of Noah" is given to P, with some of the story of the ark and flood. The remainder is made up by J and R (Redactor). P gives the title of the "generations of the sons of Noah," i.e. of all of them. But without particulars drawn from J, the lists would be very incomplete. If P had written before J, the difficulty would not be so obvious. As it is, we have the building begun first and the plan made afterwards. It is P who tells us first of different "tongues." But only from J do we learn how there came to be this difference! P supplies the title for the "generations of Terah"; but without J, SS, and E we should find ourselves very little able to justify the title or supply the Even the seven verses of P's generations of Ishmael" P is unable to complete. P also proposes "the generations of Isaac "-from chapter xxv. 19 to the end of xxxv., nearly one-fourth part of Genesis. But what P can have

contents.

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