n, and even to this day he continues that sad victory. But,
since a stronger one has come down from heaven to subdue him, the whole
Church of God shall, under her Head, and like Him, be victorious."

Footnote 4: _Briefe das Studium der Theologie betr._ ii. S. 225 (Tueb.
1808): "The serpent had injured them; it had become to them a symbol of
evil, of seduction, and at the same time of God's curse, of contempt
and punishment. To men the encouraging prospect was held out, that
they, the seed of the woman, were stronger and nobler than the serpent,
and all evil. They should tread upon the head of the serpent, while the
latter should be able to avenge itself only by a slight wound in their
heel. In short, the good should gain the ascendancy over the evil. Such
was the prospect. How clear or how obscure it was to the first human
pair, it is not our present purpose to inquire. It is enough that the
noblest warrior against evil, the most valiant bruiser of the serpent's
head from among the descendants of Eve, was comprehended in this
prospect, and indeed pre-eminently referred to. Thus, then, only an
outline, as it were, was given to them in a figure, the import of which
only future times saw more clearly developed."

THE BLESSINGS OF NOAH UPON SHEM AND JAPHETH.
(Gen. ix. 18-27.)

Ver. 20. "_And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted
vineyards._"--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to
till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain,
too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that
Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark
has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for
the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By
this remark, a defence of Noah on account of his drunkenness is
entirely cut off. Against such a defence _Luther_ expressed himself in
very strong terms: "They," says he, "who would defend the Patriarch in
this, wantonly reject the consolation which the Holy Ghost considered
to be necessary to the Church--the consolation, namely, that even the
greatest saints may, at times, stumble and fall."[1]

Ver. 21. "_And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was
uncovered within his tent._"

Ver. 22. "_And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his
father, and told his two brethren without._"--David is reproved in