06.1.1. Adam, or Man

I. -- ADAM, OR MAN

FIRST, to trace this path in that world of thought and will which is within; for, to this day, when we sin, nothing else is done but what is here set forth in the man, the woman, and the serpent. (Note: Augustin. de Gen. c. Manich. l. ii. c. 14, § 21; Ambros. de Par. c. 15, § 73.) In this view the man is the understanding, the woman the will, (Note: I use the word "will" here for that general faculty of the mind by which we are inclined to certain actions, rather than for that determination to action, which is now generally called the "will," but which I believe to be the result of the united operation of the will and understanding. If the forms of language are any guide, (and surely they often utter the results of true and deep insight,) such words as thelema and voluntas may be quoted as witnesses that the old view of the will as the seat of love is in the main correct. Both thelema and voluntas describe the will as the organ of affection and desire, rather than of determination; and in this sense I here use the word.), the serpent some animal faculty or emotion in us -- good, when in subjection, but which may be a means, under the influence of the evil spirit, to tempt the will, and lead it to disobedience and independence, and so to misery. For the will, not the understanding, is that in us which is first assailed, seduced by some lower sense or emotion, which seems to promise more happiness. But for the will, the emotions would not be felt, but only thought about: but they are felt: hence they are passions; for we really suffer, though we should command, them. Only thus is man led away. For our understanding, -- that is, the man, -- cannot be led to consent to sin but by the will; that is, that part of the mind which loves, and which, as the woman to her husband, is formed to be subject, and ought to be obedient. (Note: Aug. de Gen. c. Manich. l. ii. c. 14, § 20; c. 18, § 28.) Here the will acts in independence. If this will stood firm, the temptation would be overcome. But the will yields, and becomes self-will, and then by it the man or understanding is seduced. The head goes wrong because the heart is first seduced, while yet the head or understanding is the man, whom the heart or woman should obey. But in every fall the heart perverts the head, the will tempts the understanding, as in every restoration it is out of the heart or will that the new life must come, "the woman’s Seed," which is divinely given to overcome the evil. And yet what zeal is shewn to enrich and deck the understanding, which, at the best, is only half our nature, while those affections are unkept, which, as being the spring and womb of every form of future life, are ever the first and special object of the tempter. Alas! we learn all this too soon by falls, in which the promise of forbidden knowledge is yet the bait to draw us aside. To know is yet the snare; and the will, once set on this, is quickly overcome. Then, "when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:14-15). Thus falls the will, throwing off dependence at the suggestion of a lower nature in us, which is very near it. (Note: Augustine marks that this is done in the evening, "in the cool of the day," (Genesis 3:8,) when the sun of love and light is declining. Aug. de Gen. c. Manich. l. ii. c. 16, § 24.) The results I need not follow here; for it is the same story in the outward application. But I may note the sentence on the "woman," -- pain in bringing forth, and subjection to her husband; as it is said, "And he shall rule over thee;" on the "man," bread by the sweat of his brow, with the earth cursed henceforth with thorns and briers (Genesis 3:16-19). For the fallen will, if it travails to bring forth other forms of life, produces them with pain and much difficulty: but, having done so, is more than ever subject to reason. (Note: Aug. de Gen. c. Manich. l. ii. c. 19, § 29.) While the understanding, -- that is the "man," -- finds the earth full of thorns: not easily does it gather truth, the bread of life; for, as the wise man says, "the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things" (Wis 9:15). On the one hand, there are the thorns and briers of perplexing questions, which, unless they are rooted out, will choke the good seed. On the other, the understanding itself is weaker, and must "sweat" for that, which once grew without labour. Thus truth, like fruit, has to be sought and waited for; the toil to gain it being ordained to strengthen, even while it corrects and humbles us. (Note: Georg. i. 121.) And if the man will not accept this sentence, the ground is quickly filled with thorns and thistles, so that he who will not eat by the sweat of his brow here, will have to gather bitter things both here and in another world. (Note: Aug. de Gen. c. Manich. l. ii. c. 20, § 30.)

I cannot write what crowds upon me here, as to the "woman," and her "Seed," who shall destroy and bruise the serpent; or how Christ, if He be "formed within" (Galatians 4:19), is made of the woman in us, that is the human will; growing thence, out of the womb of human affections, not by man, but by the Holy Ghost, who begets that new life, to be in due time born amidst beasts, out of a pure virgin affection, like Mary, in us; which is itself the fruit of numberless other affections, some grievously defiled as Rahab and Thamar, which have gone before. (Note: Rahab and Thamar are mentioned in the Lord’s genealogy, Matthew 1:1-25.) For from Adam to Christ are seventy-two generations, as from Abraham to Christ are forty-two (See Matthew 1:1-25 and Luke 3:1-38); that is, many a form of life is produced, and many an inward travail and death is known by us, before the will brings forth that life of faith, of which Abraham is the appointed figure. And after Abraham, or faith, more births will there yet be, in which the energy of nature is more or less manifest, before that form of life appears, which is of the Holy Ghost, and is the "perfect man." Some of these, as David and Solomon, are like, but yet are not, the perfect man, but only carnal forms or copies of Him; as we know that before God’s image comes in us, certain outward likenesses, and carnal prefigurings or preludings of it, in different measures will appear in us. Many a form of life grows, toils, withers, and dies, having produced another to succeed it, which again dies out, and this many times, before the image of God, the perfect man, the true Seed, comes. But it comes at last, and the serpent’s head is bruised. She, by whom came death, brings forth the Life-giver. (Note: Any one who cares to see how generally received this mystic application of Christ’s genealogy was among the Fathers, may do so by consulting the Catena Aurea on the Gospels, where the inward fulfilment is given in loco. See also the extract from the Ordinary Gloss further on upon the fifth chapter, in note 13, p. 92. Augustine just glances at this succession of forms of life in us, in his Confessions, l. i. c. 6, § 9. So Chrysostom says, "Dost thou not see every day a resurrection and a death taking place in the periods of our life?" Hom. on 1 Thessalonians 4:15, page 410 of the Oxford Translation.) And very wondrous is the woman’s name; for "Adam called his wife’s name, Eve," or Life, not while she stood, but after she had fallen, and by her fall had brought in death (Genesis 3:20). (Note: Eve, Heb. chavvah [H2332]. The LXX. here translate Zoe for Eve.) So within, the fallen will is "Eve;" fallen, and yet indeed the true "mother of all living." Only by the will is another life produced. It is the opener of all evil or good in the creature. As we love, we live. Therefore must we "keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of good or bad life" (Proverbs 4:23). So the Lord teaches, -- "From within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts," and every form of evil living (Mark 7:21); and out of the affections grows that life which is life, and is eternal. (Note: Aug. de Gen. c. Man. l. ii. c. 21, § 31. To the same effect is the well-known prayer in the Litany, -- "to receive the word with pure affection, and (so) to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit.") And yet the man, and woman too, though she is the mother of all living, are shut out of Paradise. A flaming sword keeps the way, while at its gate are placed cherubim. The fallen mind in mercy is shut out, because unfit to deal with heavenly things; while forms of truth (for these cherubim were such forms) reveal, as through a veil, some ray of glory such as the fallen mind and will can bear. For now a coat of skin in mercy covers both. Other things therefore in grace are made to agree thereto.

------------ But all this may be more clear to some, if we trace its fulfilment in the outward kingdom. The tale is one within or without, enacted before the face of the world, or carried on invisibly in the inmost soul of man.

Outwardly then we here have man as man. Human nature in its ways and griefs and hopes is drawn for us, with the exactness of One who views it as it is, and who presents the perfect figure of it in Adam to us, that, if we cannot look within, we may yet learn by Adam’s ways to know our own tendencies. We are shewn here, first, the way of man; then, the consequences; then, the remedy.