Wesley Corpus

But the very same marks of excellence are more expressly pronounced by God upon the human nature, when the race of mankind was to be propagated anew from Noah and his sons.” (Page 85.) 1. “And God blessed Noah and his sons.” (Gen. ix. 1.) With regard to this whole passage, I must observe, that God did not pronounce any blessing at all, either on him or them, till Noah had “built an altar unto the Lord, and” had “offered burnt-offerings on the altar.” Then it was that “the Lord smelled a sweet savour;” accepted the sacrifice which implied faith in the promised Seed; and for His sake restored, in some measure, the blessing which he had given to Adam at his creation; “and said, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”--On this, I need only observe, had Adam stood, or had not his fall affected his posterity, there would have been no need of this; for they would have “multiplied and replenished the earth,” in virtue of the original blessing. 2. Verses 2,8. “The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth; into your hands they are delivered: Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” On this likewise I would observe, What need was there of any such power over the creatures to be given to man, if he had not forfeited his former power? Had man remained subject to God, the creatures would have remained subject to him, by virtue of God’s original constitution. And why was it, but because man had lost this power, that God here in some degree restores it? But hence you “infer that all that power is restored, yea, more than all ; that we have a more extensive dominion granted to us over the brutal world, than was originally given to Adam.” (Page 86.) It has been commonly thought, that Adam had full dominion over the creatures, subject to him by a kind of instinct; whereas we have only so far power over them, that by labour and vigilance we may use or subdue them.