Adam was not so
wicked as thus to refuse the gift and command of God! Such abstinence
would have been taking vengeance on himself for the grief he had
endured, and it would have meant to reject the gift of that blessing
which God had been pleased to leave to nature even in its fallen
state.

Moreover, this was a matter not left in the power of Adam. As Moses
has clearly shown, God had created him a male. He had, therefore, need
of a female, or wife, because the instinct of procreation was
implanted in his nature by God the Creator, himself. If therefore Adam
abstained, he did so for a reason only, intending to return to his Eve
after giving vent to his grief for a time.

31. Moses here expressly adds, concerning Adam, that he "begat a son
in his own likeness, after his image." Theologians entertain various
opinions as to the real meaning of those expressions. The simple
meaning is, that Adam was created "in the image" and "after the
likeness" of God, or that he was the image of God, created, not
begotten; for Adam had no parents. But in this "image of God" Adam
continued not; he fell from it by sin. Seth, therefore, who was
afterwards born, was begotten, not after the image of God, but after
the image of his father Adam. That is, he was altogether like Adam; he
resembled his father Adam, not only in his features, but he was like
him in every way. He not only had fingers, nose, eyes, carriage,
voice, and speech, like his father, but he was like him in everything
else pertaining to body and soul, in manners, disposition, will and
other points. In these respects Seth did not bear the image of God
which Adam possessed originally, and which he lost; but he bore the
likeness of Adam, his father. But this likeness and image were not of
God by creation, but of Adam by generation.

32. Now, this image included original sin, and the punishment of
eternal death on account of sin, which God inflicted on Adam. But as
Adam, by faith in the seed that was to come, recovered the image of
God, which he had lost, so Seth also recovered the same after he grew
up to man's estate; for God impressed again his own "likeness" upon
him through the Word. Paul refers to this when he says to the
Galatians, "My little children, of whom I am again in travail until
Christ be formed in you," Gal 4, 19.

33. Of the name Seth I have spoken above. It denotes command, and
voices the sentiments of one praying and prophesying good news, as if
Adam had