To prepare for this morning’s conversation with Jonathan Fisk about Genesis 1:26-31 on Sharper Iron, I went back and read Luther’s commentary on these verses. They are a wonder.
Chiefly, I am struck at the awe Luther has for the un-fallen state of Adam and Eve. You can hear his longing for that state of perfection, and his corresponding groaning at how far we are fallen.
A few other observations:
- Luther picks up on the idea of the ancient church fathers that Adam and Eve would have, after a while, become spiritual beings. This is very strange to me.
- Luther has the great observation that Adam and Eve would have been perfectly equipped to have dominion over all the creatures, a perfect knowledge of why God created them. Now, after the fall, we look at an animal and only ask, “Can I eat it?”
- Luther doesn’t hesitate to find the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in these verses.
- Regarding the “image of God,” Luther will distinguish his teaching from may of the fathers of the church.
So, here’s Luther.
(You can download his entire commentary on Genesis 1-4 for free here, or purchase a copy for $15 here.)
Martin Luther on the Creation of Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:26)
GENESIS 1:26a. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
THE DIFFERENT CREATION OF MAN AND BEASTS
Here
First of all then we have here indicated the signal difference between man and every other creature of God and his high exaltation above them all. Beasts do indeed greatly resemble man in many particulars. They live with him; they eat with him; they are brought up with him; they feed on many of the same things with him; they rest with him; they sleep with him, etc. If therefore you consider their food, their bringing up, their housing, their conservation, etc., there is a great similarity between man and beast.
Moses however here sets before us the striking difference between man and all the animals mentioned; when he affirms that man was created by the peculiar counsel and providence of God; whereby he signifies that man is a creature far excelling all other animals, which live a corporeal life; which excellence was more especially prominent while nature was as yet unfallen and uncorrupted. The opinion of Epicurus was that man was created only to eat and to drink. This was not separating man from beasts; for beasts have also their pleasures, and they pursue them with delight. Whereas the sacred text before us forcibly expresses the distinction and separation of man from beast, when it affirms that God took deep thought and certain counsel in forming man; which counsel was taken, not only to form man, but to form him “in the image and after the likeness of God.” This image of God is a far different thing from the care of the belly and the indulgence of the appetite; for these things beasts well understand and eagerly crave.
Moses therefore in this place signifies to the spiritually minded that we were created unto a life far more excellent than, and high above, anything which this corporeal life could ever have been, even if nature had remained perfect and uncorrupted by sin. For godly teachers well affirm that if Adam had not fallen God would have translated him from an animal life to spiritual life after a certain number of saints had been perfected. For Adam was not designed by his creation to live without food, drink and procreation. But all these corporeal things would have ceased at an appointed time; after a number of saints had been completed; and Adam, together with his posterity, would have been translated to a life spiritual and eternal. These natural works of our corporeal life, eating, drinking, procreation, etc., would still have existed and would have been a service of gratitude to God; which service we should have performed without any of that corrupt concupiscence which cleaves to us since the sin of the fall and without any sin of our own or any fear of death. This would indeed have been a life of pleasure and of sweetness. Of such a life it is lawful for us to think; but such a life is not now possible for us to live. This however we have still left to us: We can believe and with all assurance look for a spiritual life after this present life; an end of this life in paradise; thought for us and destined for us by God through the merits of Christ.
Wherefore the portion of the sacred text before us claims our especial meditation in which the Holy Spirit so magnificently extols the human nature and so distinctly separates it from all the other creatures of God. For the mere corporeal or animal life of man was designed to resemble in a great measure the life of the beasts of the earth. Because as beasts require food, drink and sleep for the refreshment and restoration of their bodies, so Adam was designed also to use these even in his state of innocence. But that which Moses moreover affirms, that man was so created unto this animal life that he was also “made” in the “image” and “after the likeness” of God, this is a manifest indication of a life different from and far above a mere animal life.
Adam was endowed therefore with a twofold life: an animal and an immortal life. The latter however was not as yet plainly revealed, but held in hope. Had he not fallen by sin therefore, he would have eaten and drunk, worked and generated in all innocence, sinlessness and happiness. I have thought proper to make these admonitory observations upon that difference which God made by his deep counsel between us men and all other animals among which he permits us to live. I shall return to this subject hereafter and shall dilate upon it to a greater extent.
THE IMAGE OF GOD
Secondly, I would remark upon this divine Word “Let us make,” that it pertains to the mystery and confirmation of our faith; by which we believe that there is one God from all eternity and three distinct Persons in one divinity or divine essence, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Jews indeed attempt in various ways to elude this passage; but they can bring nothing solidly or effectually against it. For this passage plagues them to death, to use the expression of Occa. That author so describes all trying and tormenting questions, which he finds he cannot solve.
Arguments for a Trinitarian Understanding of this Text
The Jews assert that God uses the same expression
And as to what the Jews say about God’s joining the earth with himself when he speaks by the pronoun we or us, that is frivolous and absurd. For surely the earth is not our maker or creator. Why did not the adorable God rather join the sun with himself, when he spoke. For Aristotle affirms that man and the sun generate man. But neither would this invention succeed; because we are not made in the image of the earth but we are made “in the image” and “after the likeness” of those glorious makers and creators who here speak and say, “Let us make,” etc. These makers are three distinct persons in one divine essence. It is in the image of these three divine and glorious Persons that we are created, as we shall hereafter further hear.
And again, it is extremely absurd for the Jews to assert with reference to this passage that God adopts, in the words he here uses, the custom of princes; who, for the sake of reverence and dignity, use the plural number when they speak. But the Holy Spirit does not imitate this distancing pomp of terms, if I may so term it; nor do the Scriptures know anything of such a manner of speech.
Wherefore most assuredly the Holy Trinity is here intended of God; that in the one divine essence there are three divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; so that the Deity is not separated here, even in this case of action or agency. For all three Persons here concur and speak unitedly when they say, “Let us make.” For neither does the Father make any other man than the Son makes; nor does the Son make any other man than the Holy Ghost makes. But the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, the one same God, are the one same author of the one same work and are the one same creator.
Wherefore according to this scriptural argument and this holy statement of the truth, the Deity or Godhead cannot be separated objectively, as the object of divine worship, nor actively as the creative agent. For the Father is not known, but in the Son through the Holy Ghost. Hence as actively, so objectively, there is but one adorable God; who nevertheless is in and within himself, substantially or essentially Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three distinct persons in one Godhead or Deity.
These divine testimonies of this book of Genesis ought to be dear and delightful to us. For although both Jews and Turks deride us, because we believe that there is one God, but three Persons in the Godhead, yet unless they are prepared impudently to deny the authority of the Scriptures, they must be compelled by the present text as well as by the passages above cited to fall in with our doctrine. They may indeed attempt to elude and avoid these testimonies, nevertheless the sting of this passage still sticks fast in their hearts; they cannot get rid of the divine expression “Let us make.” They can assign no other reason for it than we have here given. Nor can they otherwise explain why Moses uses the plural noun ELOHIM. The reflections and natural convictions arising from these divine expressions they cannot shut out from their hearts and consciences, notwithstanding all the various means which they adopt in order to do so. And if they deem it the height of their wisdom to elude and get rid of these testimonies, do they think that we are destitute of ability, and cannot find wisdom enough to defend them? But the authority of the Scriptures on our side is far mightier than all wisdom on theirs; especially since the New Testament reveals the whole divine matter more clearly still. For there the Son which is in the bosom of the Father teaches us all these things with a clearness far surpassing all other testimony; whom not to believe is the highest blasphemy and eternal death. Wherefore, bid we farewell to all these blind corrupters of divine doctrines until we meet them at the day of judgment!
But you will say perhaps that these testimonies are too obscure to be appealed to as proofs of so important an article of faith. I reply, these divine things were spoken at this time, thus obscurely, according to the counsel and purpose of God; and for this very reason, because they were all left to that Great Lord and Teacher, who was to come; until whose advent the restitution of all things was reserved; even the restitution of all knowledge and of all revelations. Those mysteries therefore which “in the beginning” were set before us thus obscurely, Christ when he came revealed, made known and commanded to be preached. Nevertheless the holy fathers were in possession of this knowledge by the Holy Spirit; though not so clearly as we possess it now, who hear in the New Testament the names of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost plainly declared. For when Christ came it was necessary that all those seals should be unloosed, and all those things openly preached, which “in the beginning” had been purposely delivered to us in obscure words in reverence to the Great Teacher who was to come. And had not the Holy Spirit deferred this clear knowledge to the time of the New Testament, Arians would have existed long before the birth of Christ. Wherefore the Holy Spirit willed that this sun of knowledge should be opposed to the devil in these “last times,” that his eyes might be the more intolerably dazzled, that he might the more virulently envy men such a brightness of knowledge, and be thus the more terribly tormented.
THE IMAGE OF GOD
The Church Fathers on the Image of God
Thirdly. A whole sea of questions is here agitated as to what that “image” of God was in which Moses here says man was formed. Augustine has dwelt largely on the explanation of this passage in his book “On the Trinity.” Those divines in general, who retain the division and definition of Aristotle, follow Augustine. They consider the image of God to be those powers of soul, memory, mind or intellect and will. They affirm that the image of God consists in these three qualities; which image, they say, is found in all men. And their argument is, that as in divine things the Word is begotten of the substance of the Father, and as the Holy Spirit is the complacency or good pleasure of the Father, so in man from the memory proceeds the word of the heart, which is the mind of the man; which word being uttered there is developed the will, which will the mind beholds and with which it is delighted.
These divines affirm moreover that “the similitude,” after which man was formed, stands in gratuitous gifts. For as a similitude is a certain perfectness of an image, so, they say, the created nature of man is perfected by grace. According to their views therefore the “similitude” of God in man consists in his memory being adorned with hope, his intellect with faith and his will with love. It is in this manner, they assert, that man is created in the image of God; that man has a mind, a memory and a will. Again they state the sacred matter thus: Man is created after the “similitude” of God; that is, his intellect is illuminated by faith, his memory is confirmed by hope and constancy, and his will is adorned with love.
The Dangers of the Father’s Views on the Image of God, especially in Regards to Our Free Will and Salvation
Fourthly. Divines give other divisions and definitions of the qualities of this “image” of God, in which man was originally created. They hold that memory is the image of the power of God, mind the image of his wisdom and will the image of his justice. It was after this manner that Augustine, and after him others, bent their minds on the discovery of certain trinities of natural qualities or endowments in man. For they thought that by this mode of explanation, the image of God in man would be the more clearly seen. These not unpleasing speculations do indeed argue faithful employment and great acuteness of mental ability, but they by no means aid the right explanation of this “image” of God.
Wherefore though I do not altogether condemn and reprobate this diligence and these deep thoughts, by which divines desire to reduce all things to a kind of sacred trinity, yet I doubt whether such attempts are very useful, especially seeing that others may push them too far. For it is on these grounds that some rest their disputes in favor of free-will; which, they say, naturally follows from this “image of God.” They argue thus: God is free. Since therefore man is created in the image of God, man also has a free memory, a free mind and a free will. Out of this kind of reasoning therefore many things fall, which are either spoken untruly at first, or are afterwards wrongly understood or wickedly perverted. It is from this source that the dangerous doctrine has arisen, according to which men affirm, that God so rules and governs men that he permits them to use their own mind and movement. By this sentiment and teaching many most objectionable opinions have been generated. From this same source has originated that pernicious saying, “God who made thee without thyself will not save thee without thyself.” Such men conclude that free-will concurs with the grace and work of God, as a preceding and efficient cause of salvation. Not unlike this is the saying of Dionysius, which is more pernicious still: “Although devils and man fell, yet all their natural faculties remained whole and entire; their mind, their memory, their will,” etc. If this be true therefore it will follow, that man by his own natural powers can save himself.
These perilous opinions of some of the fathers are agitated in all churches and schools, and I do not really see what the fathers wished to effect by them. Therefore I advise that they be read with caution and judgment. They were often spoken in a mood and with a peculiar feeling, which we have not and cannot have, since we have not similar occasions. Inexperienced persons therefore seize them all, without any judgment, in their own sense, and not in the meaning the fathers had at the time they were uttered. But I leave this and return to our theme.
Luther’s Understanding of the Image of God
I fear however that since this “image of God” has been lost by sin, we can never fully attain to the knowledge of what it was. Memory, mind and will we do most certainly possess, but wholly corrupted, most miserably weakened; nay, that I may speak with greater plainness, utterly leprous and unclean. If these natural endowments therefore constitute the image of God it will inevitably follow that Satan also was created in the image of God; for he possesses all these natural qualities, and to an extent and strength far beyond our own. For he has a memory and an intellect the most powerful and a will the most obstinate.
The image of God therefore is something far different from all this. It is a peculiar work of God. If there be those however who are yet disposed to contend that the above natural endowments and powers do constitute the image of God, they must of necessity confess that they are all leprous and unclean. Even as we still call a leprous man a man, though all the parts of his leprous flesh be stupefied and dead, as it were, with disease, except that his whole nature is vehemently excited to lust.
Wherefore that image of God created in Adam was a workmanship the most beautiful, the most excellent and the most noble, while as yet no leprosy of sin adhered either to his reason or to his will. Then all his senses, both internal and external, were the most perfect and pure. His intellect was most clear, his memory most complete and his will the most sincere, accompanied with the most charming security, without any fear of death and without any care or anxiety whatever. To these internal perfections of Adam was added a power of body and of all his limbs, so beautiful and so excellent that he surpassed all other animate natural creatures. For I fully believe that before his sin the eyes of Adam were so clear and their sight so acute that his powers of vision exceeded those of the lynx. Adam, I believe, being stronger than they, handled lions and bears, whose strength is so great, as we handle the young of any animal. I believe also that to Adam the sweetness and the virtue of the fruits which he ate were far beyond our enjoyment of them now.
After the fall however death crept in like leprosy over all the senses. So that now we cannot comprehend this image of God by our intellect. Adam moreover in his innocency could not have known his wife Eve, but with the most pure and confident mind towards God; with a will the most obedient to God and a soul the most free from all impurity of thought. But now since the sin of the fall all know how great is the excitement of the flesh, which is not only furious in concupiscence, but also in disgust after it has satisfied its desire. In neither case therefore is the reason or the will sound or whole. Both are fallen and corrupt. And the fury of the desire is more brutish than human. Is not this our leprosy then grievous and destructive? But of all this Adam knew nothing before the sin of his fall. His only peculiarity then was that he had greater powers and more acute and exquisite senses than any other living creature. But now how far does the wild boar exceed man in the sense of hearing, the eagle in sight, and the lion in strength? No one therefore can now conceive, even in thought, how far the excellency of man when first created surpasses what he is now.
THE IMAGE OF GOD DEFINED AND DESCRIBED
Wherefore I for my part understand the image of God to be this: that Adam possessed it in its moral substance or nature; that he not only knew God and believed him to be good, but that he lived also a life truly divine; that is, free from the fear of death and of all dangers and happy in the favor of God. This is apparent in Eve, who we find talks with the serpent, devoid of all fear; just as we do with a lamb or a dog. Therefore God sets before Adam and Eve this, as a punishment, if they should transgress his command: “In the day that thou eatest of this tree thou shalt surely die the death.” As if he had said, “Adam and Eve, ye now live in all security. Ye neither see nor fear death. This is my image in which ye now live. Ye live as God lives. But if ye sin ye shall lose this image; ye shall die.”
Hence we see and feel the mighty perils in which we now live; how many forms and threatenings of death this miserable nature of ours is doomed to experience and endure, in addition to that unclean concupiscence and those other ragings of sin and those inordinate emotions and affections, which are engendered in the minds of all men. We are never confident and happy in God, fear and dread in the highest are perpetually trying us. These and like evils are the image of the devil, who has impressed that image upon us. But Adam lived in the highest pleasure and in the most peaceful security. He feared not fire nor water, nor dreaded any of those other evils with which this life is filled and which we dread too much continually.
Let those who are disposed to do so therefore extenuate original sin. It plainly appears, and with awful certainty, both in sins and in the punishment of them that original sin is great and terrible indeed. Look only at lust. Is it not most mighty, both in concupiscence and in disgust? And what shall we further say of hatred toward God and blasphemies of all kinds? These are sad evidences of the fall, which do indeed prove that the image of God in us is lost.
Wherefore when we now attempt to speak of that image we speak of a thing unknown, an image which we not only have never experienced, but the contrary to which we have experienced all our lives and experience still. Of this image therefore all we now possess are the mere terms, “the image of God!” These naked words are all we now hear and all we know. But there was in Adam an illumined reason, a true knowledge of God, and a will the most upright to love both God and his neighbor. Hence Adam embraced his Eve, and immediately knew his own flesh. To all these endowments were added others of less excellency, but surpassingly excellent if compared with our present weakness. Adam had a perfect knowledge of all nature, of animals, of herbs, of trees, of fruits and of all other creatures.
THE DOMINION OF ADAM AND EVE
When all these endowments are put together they do not compose a man in whom you can at once behold the image of God shining forth, and more especially so when to all these endowments you add “dominion” over the whole creation. For as Adam and Eve acknowledged God to be Lord, so afterwards they themselves held dominion over all creatures in the air, on the earth and in the sea. Who can express in words the excellency and majesty of this “dominion?” For my belief is that Adam could by one word command the lion as we command a favorite dog. He possessed a freedom of will and pleasure to cultivate the earth, that it might bring forth whatever he wished. For the following chapters of this book prove that there were at the time of which we are now speaking neither thorns nor thistles, Chap. 3:18. Neither do I believe that wild beasts were so savage and fierce as they are now.
But all these thorns and thistles, and this ferocity of beasts, are the consequences of original sin, by which all the rest of the creation contracted a corruption and a loss of its original excellency. Hence it is my belief also that before the sin of Adam, the sun was more bright, the water more pure, the trees more fruitful and the earth more productive than since he fell. But through that dreadful sin and that horrible fall, not only are the soul and the body deformed by the leprosy of sin, but all things we use in this life are corrupted; as we shall more plainly show hereafter.
The Gospel Restores the Lost Image of God
Now the very intent of the gospel is to restore this image of God. Man’s intellect and will have indeed remained, but wholly corrupted. The divine object of the gospel is that we might be restored to that original and indeed better and higher image; an image, in which we are born again unto eternal life, or rather unto the hope of eternal life by faith, in order that we might live in God and with God and might be “one” with him, as Christ so beautifully and largely sets it forth in the seventeenth chapter of St. John.
The Two-Fold Righteousness of the Image of God
Nor are we born again unto life only, but unto righteousness also, because faith lays hold of the merit of Christ and sets us free through the death of Christ. Hence arises another righteousness in us; namely, that “newness of life,” in which we study to obey God as taught by the Word and helped by the Holy Spirit. This righteousness however begins only in this life and can never be perfected in the flesh. Nevertheless this newness of righteousness pleases God, not as being perfect in itself nor as being any price for our sins, but because it proceedeth from the heart and rests on a confidence in the mercy of God through Christ. And further, through the Gospel comes unto us this other blessing also conferred upon us through the Holy Spirit, who resists in us unbelief, envy and other sins and corruptions, to the intent that we may solemnly desire to adorn the name of the Lord and his holy Word.
In this manner does the image of God begin to be restored in us through the Gospel by this new creation in this life. But in this life it is not perfected. When however it is perfected in the kingdom of the Father, then will our will be truly free and good, our mind truly illuminated and our memory constant and perfect. Then will it come to pass also that all creatures shall be more subject unto us than ever they were unto Adam in paradise.
Until all this shall be fulfilled in us, we shall never be able fully to understand what that image of God was, which was lost by Adam in paradise. This however which we now utter concerning it, faith and the Word teach us, which discover unto us at a distance as it were the glory of this image of God. But as the heaven and the earth “in the beginning,” were of rude unformed bodies, as we have shown before the created light was added to them; so the godly possess within themselves that unformed and imperfect image of God, which God will perfect at the last day in those who believe his Word.
In conclusion therefore that image of God, in which Adam was created, was excellent above all things, in which was included eternal life, eternal security and all good. That image however is so marred and obscured by sin that we cannot even in thought reach the comprehension of it. For though we utter the words “the image of God,” who is there that can possibly understand what it is for a man to live a life of security without fears and without perils, and to be wise, righteous, good and free from all calamities or distresses either of soul or of body? What was more than all this Adam was made capable of life eternal. For he was so created that as long as he lived in this corporeal life he might cultivate the earth not as doing a work of trouble, nor as wearying his body with labor, but as enjoying an employment of the highest pleasure; not as “deceiving or killing time,” as we say, but as performing a service to God and yielding an obedience to his will.
This corporeal life was intended to be succeeded by a spiritual life, in which man was not designed to use corporeal food and aliments nor to perform any of those other things which he must necessarily do in this natural life. But he was designed to live a life spiritual and angelic. For such is the life eternal to come, described to us in the holy Scriptures, a life in which we shall neither eat nor drink, nor exercise any other corporeal functions. Hence Paul says, “The first man Adam became a living soul,” that is, he lives an animal life which requires meat, drink, sleep, etc. But the apostle adds, “The last Adam became a live-giving spirit,” 1 Cor. 15:45. That is, he shall be a spiritual man, in which state he shall return to the image of God; for he shall be like unto God in life, righteousness, holiness, wisdom, etc. It now follows in the sacred text:
GENESIS 1:26b. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc.
DOMINION IS GIVEN TO ADAM AND EVE
To man, the most beautiful of God’s creatures, who possesses the knowledge of God and is the image of God, in which image shines forth the similitude of the divine nature in an enlightened reason, in righteousness and in wisdom, is now assigned “dominion.” Adam and Eve are made rulers of the earth, of the sea and of the air. This dominion is not only committed to them by the design and counsel of God, but by his expressed command. We must in the first place consider this great matter in a negative and exclusive sense, that it is not said to any beast that it should have any dominion. And in the next place we must view the matter in an absolute sense, that all animals, nay, the earth itself with all created living things and all generated from them, are subjected to the dominion of Adam, whom God by his vocal and expressed command constituted king over the whole animal creation. For these are the words which both Adam and Eve heard when God said, “And let them have dominion.” Here therefore a naked man without arms, without walls, nay, without any vestiture of his own body, but standing alone in his own naked flesh, finds himself lord over all birds, all wild beasts and all fishes, etc.
This portion of the divine image also we have utterly lost, so that now we cannot even conceive in thought that fulness of joy and pleasure which Adam must have felt at the sight of the whole animal creation before him and at the sense he was lord of them all! For now all things are full of leprosy and full of stupidity, and, as it were, of death. For who can now reach even in thought a conception of that portion of the divine image, which Adam and Eve possessed, by which they understood all the affections, the senses, the feelings and the powers of all the animals of the creation. And yet, what would have been their dominion over all created animals without this knowledge? There is indeed in this life a certain knowledge of God in the saints, derived from the Word and the Holy Spirit. But that knowledge of all nature, that understanding of the qualities of all trees and the properties of all herbs, that clear discernment of the natures of all beasts, these are endowments of our nature now utterly lost and irreparable.
If therefore we would talk about a philosopher, let us talk about Adam! Let us speak of our first parents, while they were as yet pure and unfallen through sin! For Adam and Eve had the most perfect knowledge of God. And how indeed could they be ignorant of him, whose very image they possessed and felt in themselves! Moreover of the stars also and of the whole science and system of astronomy they had the most certain knowledge.
Moreover that all these endowments were enjoyed by Eve, as well as by Adam, is quite manifest from the speech of Eve to the serpent, when she answered him concerning the tree in the midst of paradise. From this speech it appears evident that she knew the end for which she was created, and she shows also the author from whom she had received that knowledge, for her reply to the serpent was, “God hath said,” Gen. 3:3. Eve therefore did not hear these things from Adam only, but she was by nature so pure from sin and so full of the knowledge of God that she saw and understood the Word of God for herself. As to us in our present state we still possess indeed some certain dull and as it were dead remnants of this knowledge. But all animals besides are altogether void of such understanding. They know not their Creator nor their origin nor their end; nor whence nor why they were created. No other animals therefore possess anything whatever of this similitude of God. Hence it is that the psalm contains this exhortation, “Be ye not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,” Ps. 32:9.
Although therefore this image of God be almost wholly lost, there is nevertheless still remaining a mighty difference between man and all other animals of God’s creation. But originally, before the sin of the fall, the difference was far greater and far more illustrious; while as yet Adam and Eve fully knew God and all his creatures, and were wholly absorbed in the goodness, righteousness and worship of God. Hence also there was between Adam and Eve themselves a singular unity of minds and of wills. Nor was there in the whole world an object sweeter to Adam or more beautiful in his eyes than his Eve! Nor is a wife, as the heathen say, a necessary evil. And why call they a wife an evil? The reason is manifest. They know nothing of the cause of evil. It was Satan. He it was who thus marred and corrupted woman’s original nature.
The influence however which we now have over beasts in this life, the use which we make of them, and the things we cause them to do are not effected by that dominion which Adam possessed, but by industry and art. Thus birds and fishes, as we see, are taken by deception and stratagem; and beasts are tamed in various degrees by art. For those animals which are the most domesticated as geese, fowls, etc., were of themselves and by their own particular nature wild. This leprous nature of ours therefore still retains, through the goodness of God, some appearance of dominion over the other creatures. This dominion however is very trifling indeed, and far, very far, beneath the original dominion. For under that there was no need of art or stratagem, to give man influence over the beast. Every creature was put absolutely under a state of obedience to the voice of God when Adam and Eve were commanded by that voice to have dominion over them.
We do retain therefore the name and the semblance and as it were the naked title of the original dominion, but the reality itself is almost wholly lost. Still it is good for us to know and to think upon this state of things, that we may sigh after that day which shall come, in which shall be restored unto us all things we lost by the sin of Adam in paradise. For we look for that life which Adam also ever held in expectation. And well indeed may we wonder and render thanks unto God, as indeed we do, that we, so deformed by sin, so dull, so stupefied, and so dead by it, should be enabled through the merits and benefits of Christ to look with assurance for that same glory of a spiritual life, which Adam might also have looked for with all assurance, without the dying merits of Christ if he had remained unfallen in that animal life which possessed the image of God.
