the period can be fixed with precision, namely, at or soon after the Fall—when man departed from his state of integrity, and fell into sin. Of this we have a pretty distinct intimation in the Scripture narrative. Immediately upon man being found guilty, and convicted of a violation of the Divine commands,—it was declared to him, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee,"[1] Now here we find it denounced or foretold to him, that, in consequence of his sin, the very nature of the ground would be in a manner changed, which is implied in the word "cursed," and that it would bring forth certain things impliedly bad or at least useless, which did not exist before—namely, "thorns and thistles." This is sufficient to establish the principle, that, as a consequence of sin on the part of man, certain things, useless and noxious, came into existence, which did not exist before. The particular things here named are thorns and thistles; but if some things of the vegetable kingdom were thus now first produced, we may by a fair analogy conclude that other things of a similar character, useless and noxious, were then also first produced. And the same analogy may, without impropriety, be extended to the other kingdoms of nature, the mineral and the animal. For if the nature of the ground or earth were thus in a manner changed, as above remarked, then the substances which are in the ground or soil, and of which it is in great part composed, namely, mineral particles, must have undergone a change also; in fact, minerals are the basis of vegetables, and it would be hardly supposable, therefore, that new vegetable products
- ↑ Genesis iii. 17, 18.
