Quaker Bible Index

(Gen 1:1)

GF4: 252 (1660): [Gen 1:1, see under Gen 1:9-12]

(Gen 1:2)

GF8: 17 (1669): For there is a form of godliness [2 Tim 3:5], and there is a form of sound words [2 Tim 1:13]; many have a form. All creatures have a form, the earth hath a form, and all things were brought into a form by the power of God; for the earth was once without form, and was void [Gen 1:2], and empty and confused. So they that be gone out of the covenant of God and life, and out of the power of God, are gone into a confused condition without form, a state which is out of the bond of civil men and women.

RBA 33, RBAF 25 (1678, II:7): by the Spirit God has always revealed himself to his children... The first step of all is ascribed hereunto by Moses (Gen 1:2), "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

(Gen 1:3)

GF2:312: [Gen 1:3, see under Gen 1:26-31

GF3: 262 (1659): The light was before scripture was given forth; the light was before the created lights were, and makes manifest all created lights [Gen 1:3]: for all created lights were created by it [Gen 1:16].

WPT 299 (1696 [Mod Eng]): Grace and the Spirit are by no means another thing [than the Light within], but merely other names, given to different manifestations or actions of the same eternal Principle. It is called Light because of its property of revealing and the resultant discerning. In the beginning of the old world, God said, "Let there be light," and there was light [Gen 1:3] In the same way, Light is present at the beginning of God's new creation in humanity.

(Gen 1:4)

HPS 294 (Susannah Blandford, 1698): And as a Man comes to be gathered into the Light, and changed into the Nature of Jesus Christ, the whole Creation will reap great benefit thereby, and as many as have seen the beginning of the good Work of God in what he did, He divided the Light from the Darkness, and saw the Light, and it was Good [Gen 1:4]; and so he went on in every day's work, till the whole creation was finished; and as we read in the Old, we must find it in the New, for he saith, I will make a new Heaven, and a new Earth, wherein shall dwell Righteousness [2 Pet 3:13].

WTG 289 (Anne Moore, 1756): ...this was a hard close meeting, and darkness seemed to cover the earth, and gross darkness the people [Isa 60:2]. Yea, I thought I never was made more sensible of the darkness of Egypt [Exo 10:21]; but oh! the Lord was pleased to give me a renewed cause to praise his great and holy name, who arose by his ancient love and power, and divided the light from the darkness [Gen 1:4], giving power to divide the word aright [2 Tim 2:15], and set forth the state of the meeting; several things being mentioned among them which is contrary to our holy profession. (WTG 289)

(Gen 1:5)

GF7: 63 (1653): And, my dear brethren in the covenant of life, keep to yea and nay [Mat 5:37], and (call the days,) First-day, Second-day, Third-day, Fourth-day, Fifth-day, Sixth-day, and Seventh-day, as they were given forth, and called by God in the beginning [Gen 1:5,8,13,19,23,31; 2:2].

EQ 313 (Samuel Fisher, 1661): And as for the great day, and the judgment thereof, it is the Light of the Lord (for the light he called day, and the darkness he called night[Gen 1:5]) and the judgment that the said Light layeth to the line [Isa 28:17]... [cf John 3:19-21]

(Gen 1:7-11)

JSS 49 (1792): ... the evangelist John, speaking of his eternity and divinity, does not say, "In the beginning was the son, and the son was with God, and the son was God," but "In the beginning was the Word."; [John 1:1] The word was strictly God, and in nowise distinct from him, as a second person in the trinity; but was truly the "everlasting Father." This everlasting Father, arising in his might, spake the word, "and it was so!" [Gen 1:7,9,11] Worlds and intelligences were spoken into being by the word of his eternal power!

(Gen 1:9-12)

GF4: 252 (1660): There is a power above all powers, and this power is making itself manifest: and this is God, whose power this is, who is an overruler, the creator, the former, and maker of all things in heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]; and gathered together the waters, and made the sea, and made the earth, and caused it to bud, and bring forth [Gen 1:9-12]; who hath all times and seasons in his hand [Psa 31:15], and placed man in the garden [Gen 2:8].

(Gen 1:16-18)

GF6:449: [Gen 1:16-18, see under Rev 12:3f]

(Gen 1:16)

[Other texts citing Gen 1:16: GF3:126 (under Mat 16:2f), GF3:131(Mat 23:13)

GF3:68f (1659):Which light [that every man is enlightened with that cometh into the world, John1:9] was before the word conscience was, or a natural light, the sun, moon, and stars, either [Gen 1:16]; for all things that were made, were made by it [John 1:3].

GF3:262: [Gen 1:16, see under Gen 1:3]

RBA 126 (1678, V/VI:16): ...as God gave two great lights to rule the outward world, the sun and moon, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night [Gen 1:16]; so hath he given man the Light of his Son, a spiritual divine Light, to rule him in the things spiritual, and the light of reason to rule him in things natural.

(Gen 1:26-31)

GF2: 312 (1686-7): The first man Adam was made on the sixth day of the week [Gen 1:26-31]; and Christ, the second Adam [1 Cor 15:45,47] was crucified on the sixth day of the week [Mar 15:42].... Christ arose from the dead on the first day of the week [Mat 28:1 ||]; and they that do believe on him are entered into Christ their rest [Heb 4:3]: the christians meet together to worship God on the first day of the week; and on the first day of the week it was, that God said, "Let there be light, and there was light [Gen 1:3]."

(Gen 1:26)

[Other texts citing Gen 1:26: GF7:165: (under Rev 14:3)]

(Gen 1:26f)

[Other texts citing Gen 1:26f: JN1:147: (under 1 Pet 4:3f)]

(Gen 1:27)

[Other texts citing Gen 1:27: JN1: 167 (under Gen 2:19 ), IP2: 105 (Gen 5:3), IP3:391 (Mat 22:37-39, Luk 10:27), EQ 310 (Samuel Fisher, see note under Gen 2:7)]

MFS 63 (1666): Here God joins them together in His own image [Gen 1:27], and makes no such distinctions and differences as men do, for though they be weak, He is strong.

MFU 194 (Margaret Fell Jr. [1633?-1706], 1656, rejecting a proposal of marriage): ...so with Christ Jesus, we are satisfied, who is our beloved, whom we have found [Song 3:4], who will give husbands in his time, who created the male and female in his own image [Gen 1:27], which is undefiled.

HPS 398 (Elizabeth Bathurst, 1679): .. that beauty of his inward Man wherein the Image of God stood [Gen 1:27], in which he had Communion and Fellowship with his Maker; through disobedience this was lost...

WPR 314 (1675): So God created man in his own image [Gen 1:27]. For any man then to say, Adam had not Light, were to suppose his Innocent State to be that of Darkness, and instead of, and being God's image, who is, and ever was, and always will be Light, he would have been wholly ignorant of him, in whose Image he is said to have been created.

JSS 62 (1782?): God made man in his own image. "In the image of God created he him." [Gen 1:27] There is therefore something in man, that must eternally pant for enjoyment, unless united to God, the source of all real good. The best and highest enjoyment short of this, is still a state of banishment....

(Gen 1:27f)

[Other texts citing Gen 1:27f: GF8:169 (Rom 1:18)]

(Gen 1:28)

[Other texts citing Gen 1:28: GF7: 78 (Rev 14:14f)]

EQ 502 (George Fox, 1680): God said to them "have dominion;" [Gen 1:28] he did not say to them "do thou have dominion without thy wife," but he said to them "have dominion", to them "be fruitful", etc., and to them all was blessed and good and they good also. Here was a blessed concord and unity.

(Gen 1:31)

[Other texts citing Gen 1:31: GF7: 63 (under Gen 1:5 )]

GF6: 437 (16–): Now here you may see all that God made was very good, perfect, and blessed [Gen 1:31]; and man and woman had no body of death [Rom 7:24], nor body of sin [Rom 6:6], though they had outward bodies when God made them.

HPS 398 (Elizabeth Bathurst, 1679): For Man and Woman in their Primitive state (wherein they were created) were good, as the rest of the Creatures of God. [Gen 1:31]

(Gen 2:2)

GF7:63 [Gen 2:2, see under Gen 1:5 ]

(Gen 2:3)

IP2: 44 (1660): Query 4. If the seventh day's sabbath be not moral and perpetual, then how comes it to pass that it was instituted or appointed from the first creation, when men by guilt stood in no need of a Saviour, nor yet of a ceremony [Gen 2:3]. Ans. That it was instituted or appointed from the first creation, or that God intended to require of man the observation of it had he abode in innocency, is not manifest in the Scriptures; but that God did then bless and sanctify it (in relation to the service he had for it), that is expressed in Scripture. [Gen 2:2f].... That it was given to Adam in innocency, or to all men in Adam, I do not find ... but its being practised before the giving of the law doth not prove its perpetuity, or that it was not given for a sign; for circumcision was instituted and observed long before the giving of the law [Gen 17:10-14], and sacrificing long before that [Gen 4:3-5], both which were signs of the inward, and not perpetual as to the outward observation of them.

(Gen 2:7)

GF3: 528 (1659): God, who hath all souls in his hand [Job 12:10], "breathed into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul [Gen 2:7]," and the soul is immortal and Christ the bishop of it [1 Pet 2:25] is immortal, and God hath it in his hand, which goeth against him that doth evil [Judg 2:15]....

EQ 310 (Samuel Fisher, 1661): As to the spirit of man, which is the best, highest, and most noble of the three aforesaid [Body, soul, and spirit], which concurs to the constituting of man in his primitive perfection, it is that breath of life, which God breathed into his soul after he had formed him (as to his body) of the dust of the earth, whereby he he came to be a living soul [Gen 2:7]; a soul that did partake of something of God's own life; whereby it did live in his sight. This is that living principle of the divine nature, which man did before his degeneration, and shall again after his regeneration, partake of.

(Gen 2:8)

GF4: 252 (1660): [Gen 2:8, see under Gen 1:9-12)]

(Gen 2:9)

[Other texts citing Gen 2:9: WDS 298 (under Gen 2:17)]

MFU 158 (James Nayler, quoted by Margaret Fell, 1656): Concerning the fall of man. The Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden & the Tree of Knowledge of good & evil [Gen 2:9]. And both these were good in their place but the tree of knowledge was not good for food. Therefore did he that made it forewarn of it, as a thing wherein death was placed [Gen 2:17]: as in the other tree was life and herein was the blessing, and the Curse placed. The life & the Death, the obedience & the Disobedience, Election & Reprobation etc.

IP1: 255 (1659): Do not graft any of the fruit of the tree of life upon the tree of knowledge [Gen 2:9]; for it will not grow there: an appearance, a likeness of the true fruit may grow there; but the true fruit itself will not. My meaning is, do not make a treasury of knowledge in the understanding part, which is to perish; but know the true treasury of all the things of life, which is in the life itself; and in that understanding which is formed, kept, and lives in the life.

(Gen 2:10-14)

GFNJ 585 (John Hull, 1671): This morning George Fox, John Stubbs, and I were employed about finding out the signification of the four rivers of Eden [Gen 2:10-14], according to the Hebrew, together with the mystical meaning of them.

(Gen 2:16f)

WPR 53 (1669): Cites Gen 2:16f, 3:9 and other passages to show that saying "thou" to a single person "is neither improper, nor uncivil, but used in all languages, speeches and dialects, through all ages...."

(Gen 2:17)

[Other texts citing Gen 2:17: GF4: 157 (under Gen 3:1-6), GF4: 252, MFU 158: (Gen 2:9), GF6: 8f (Rom 1:22), JN1: 46f (Gen 3:4f )]

MFU 198 (1656): ...whosoever enters into the Kingdom must be as a little child [Mat 18:3] and as a fool, & this condition thou must witness if ever thou know the true & living God; And I see plainly that this is thy great & bitter enemy, thy high wisdom & comprehension, which is for the fire, for it is that which is cursed from god, which keeps thee from the obedience of that which is eternal, & so thou feeds upon the husk [Luke 15:16], & upon the tree of knowledge which is forbidden [Gen 2:17], which brought the curse upon all mankind, and as long as thou looks forth without thee [Eccl 12:3], thou shalt never know the hidden manna [Rev 2:17] which feeds the invisible....

JN1: 507): And whereas you would go about to prove Adam in the state of innocency under the covenant of works, and that he had the Levitical law (for that is the covenant of works), I answer: What were the works that he was to do for life? for the covenant of works saith, "Do this, and live": but he had the life already, while he stood in it; and so it was not to be obtained by working: and the Scripture saith, "The law was added because of transgression" [Gal 3:19]; which if it had been before the transgression, could not have been. And Adam in his innocency stood not by the moral law, as you call it: for that which was given to Adam was, "Thou shalt not eat" [Gen 2:17]; which nowhere in Scripture is called the covenant of works.

WDS 298 (1668): Some ... are drawn to delight their hearts in the gifts, parts, and knowledge which the Lord hath given them, more than in the Lord, the fountain from which they came; and so abuse the gift, and feed upon the fruit of the tree of knowledge [Gen 2:9,17] which puffeth up [1 Cor 8:1], and maketh man wise in his own eyes [Prov 3:7, Isa 5:21], and to say in his heart, "I am wise and rich, and see, and want nothing," when they are blind, miserable, naked, and want all things [Rev 3:17].

RBA 86 (1678, IV:2): [Through the Fall Adam] came to a very great loss, not only in the things which related to the outward man, but in regard of that true fellowship and communion he had with God. This loss was signified unto him in the command, "For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die" [Gen 2:17]. This death could not be an outward death, or the dissolution of the outward man; for as to that, he did not die yet many hundred years after, so that it must needs respect his spiritual life and communion with God. (RBA 86, IV:2)

(Gen 2:18-20)

[Other texts citing Gen 18-20: GF8: 69 (under Gen 3:16), GF8:169 (Rom 1:18)]

GF8: 61f (1674): So that all now in the restoration by Christ Jesus, into the image of God, may be helps-meet in holiness and righteousness, as Adam and Eve were in, before they fell [Gen 2:18,20] ....

EQ 505 (George Fox, 1680): So here, in the resurrection and restoration of man up again into the image of God [Col 3:10], Christ (who bruiseth the Serpent's head that defiled man [Gen 3:15], and sanctifies and renews up into the heavenly image, as Adam and Eve were in before they fell); here they come to be meet helps [Gen 2:18,20]; Not as it was in the fall: the woman was first in transgression, then Adam was set over the woman [Gen 3:16]; now here is unity, here is the headship in Christ Jesus.

(Gen 2:19)

JN1: 167 (James Nayler, 1653): Man was not created in sin, but pure and holy, in the image of God [Gen 1:27]; and while he stood here he had communion with God and had the pure wisdom of God by which he was able to see into the wonders of God and give names unto all creatures [Gen 2:19].

(Gen 2:23)

[Other texts citing Gen 2:23: GFJN 336 (under Heb 2:16), IP3: 46 (Luk 1:35)]

IP2: 281f (1662): [A true church is made by] that alone which makes a spiritual body, and which unites the body to the head. There must be a true nature, and union of that nature to the head, or there cannot be a marriage in spirit to the Lamb. Now the true church is Christ’s spouse, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, [Gen 2:23, Eph 5:30], as truly after the seed of Abraham after the spirit, as the Jews were after the flesh.

(Gen 2:23f)

GF7: 335 (1669): [In defense of Quaker form of marriage, taking each other before witnesses:] And as for Adam taking his wife alone, that was before there were any witnesses. But there was a form of words betwixt them before they went together, or he knew her, viz. "This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man; and they shall be one flesh." [Gen 2:23f]

[Other texts citing Gen 3: GF8:155 (John 6:53)]

George Fox, 1680 (EQ 502-504): mini-commentary on Gen 3

(Gen 3:1-6)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:1-6: GF6:445 (under Heb 2:14), GF8:71 (Gen 3:15), JN1:70 (Gen 3:14)]

GF4: 157 (1657): Now the way of the devil was from the truth, who abode not in it [John 8:44], and he deceived Eve, he that was from the truth, and she gave to Adam, who did eat [Gen 3:1-6], though before it was said to him, that he should die the death [Gen 2:17]; which led out of the command of God, and so into death, which he did, and died;

GF4:364 (1668): [context: Rom 1:31] nature is one, and would not destroy itself, and it hath affections to itself; but the serpent going out of the truth [John 8:44], leading man and woman from the truth [Gen 3:1-6], so corrupting and destroying nature in themselves, by which they are led by an evil spirit to destroy nature without them....

MFU 14 (1652):....examine and try whether the serpent be not head in thee [Gen 3:15], if thou wilt deal truly with thine own heart, thou shalt find that thou art full of serpentine wit, serpentine subtlety, [Gen 3:1] serpentine malice, pride and revenge which is of the devil and that all thy pharisaical profession, and thy looking without thee [Eccl 12:3] for other mens works and experiences, speaking without thee, therein thou eats of the tree of knowledge of good & evil, which the lord did forbid [Gen 3:6]....

IP1: 348 (1660):... the mind of God, the true meaning of the Scriptures, is not their rule; but an image which they have formed out if it; a meaning which their wit hath strongly imagined and fenced with arguments, and the real mind and intent of the Spirit is hid from them. So by this means many both deceive their own souls, and help to deceive the souls of others, missing the plainness and simplicity of the Spirit, and gathering senses in the wisdom and subtlety of the fleshly part, where the serpentine wisdom lodgeth, and twines about the tree of knowledge. [Gen 3:1-6]

IP3: 510 (1675): Ah! My poor, distressed, entangled Friend, While thou seekest to avoid the snare, thou deeply runnest into it: for thou art feeding on the tree of knowledge [Gen 3:5f], in giving way to these thoughts, reasonings, and suggestions, which keep thee from obedience to that which hath been made manifest to thy understanding.... What if I should say, that all this is but the subtlety of the serpent’s wisdom [Gen 3:1] to avoid the cross, and is not that simplicity and plainness of heart towards God, which thou takest to be; and that thou art loath to be so poor, and low, and mean in the eyes of others, as this practice would make thee appear?

IP4: 15 (167-): Meddle not with the things that the enemy casts into thy mind. Consider not whether they be so or no. He that considers of a temptation (in many cases) hath let it in, and is overcome already. When Eve did but hearken to what the serpent said, how soon was she lost and gone! [Gen 3:1-6]

HPS 36 (Sarah Jones, 1650): ...and so, dear babes, reason not with flesh and blood [Gal 1:16], nor with the voice of the Serpent [Gen 3:1], for if you do, you will darken the counsel [Job 38:2] of God in your selves, but in the power shut him out, for it makes in hir [sic] a state of innocence; had Eve done so, she had not been overcome....

RBA 321 (1678, XI:17): [Re objection to Quaker worship that it is unprofitable to be doing and thinking nothing when one could be meditating or praying:]...the first step for man to fear God is to cease from his own thoughts and imaginations and suffer God's Spirit to work in him: for we must "cease to do evil" ere we "learn to do well" [Isa 1:16f]; and this meddling in things spiritual by man's own natural understanding is one of the greatest and most dangerous evils that man is incident to, being that which occasioned our first parents' fall, to wit, a forwardness to desire to know things, and a meddling with them both without and contrary to the Lord's command [Gen 3:1-6].

SBD 56 (1750): ...But if we undertake the work [of vocal ministry] in our own time..., aspiring to appear knowing, well-read, and eloquent, we may discover our nakedness by aiming at forbidden knowledge, as our parents did. [Gen 3:1-6]

(Gen 3:1)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:1: GFJN 443 (under Rev 20:2)]

JN2: 438 (1655): indeed all that are from that Spirit's guiding are in error and can be no otherwise, ... and being more subtle than all the rest [Gen 3:1], brings in lies and false accusations against others, as though they was out of the truth [John 8:44] but he a friend unto it....

WTG 336 (Ann Moore, 1760): And all doubts and fears being removed, a strong zeal was raised in my heart for the cause of the Lord on the earth, and I clearly saw the design of the subtle serpent [Gen 3:1], who, when he can't raise up, strives to cast us into despair.

(Gen 3:4-6)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:4-6: GF6: 8f (Rom 1:22)]

(Gen 3:4f)

MFU 358 (1664):...all that ever are betrayed, & ever was betrayed by the serpent, was under a pretense, of another thing then it was; for the old Serpent that abode not in the truth [John 8:44] said they should be as Gods [Gen 3:4f]; and so they entered into his temptations, & became as devils; & the same Serpent's alive still, and is tempting the innocent, where he can get hold or who will enter with him into this Temptation....

JN1: 46f (1653): The first man is of the earth earthly; ...he knows no other God nor greater happiness than what he sees with carnal eyes, & this all his actions witness; and this is he that is exalted above all that is called God and opposes God [Exo 5:2; 2 Th 2:4] in all his commands. When God saith, "Thou shalt not eat of the tree of knowledge, for if thou do thou shalt die" [Gen 2:17], he saith, You may eat of it and not die, but live better, be as God himself [Gen 3:4f].

(Gen 3:5f)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:5f: WPR 85 (Mar 13:33-37)]

EQ 385 (Francis Howgill and John Camm, 1654): We have little fellowship in the city. The pure simplicity is lost; all have eaten of the tree of knowledge [Gen 3:5f], and so is puffed up in knowledge and stumbles at the Cross [1 Cor 1:23].

(Gen 3:7)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:7: IP1:405 (under Gen 11:1-9), HPS 404f (John 1:48)]

GF3: 16 (Edward Burrough, 1658): ..we beheld all profession to be but as coverings with fig leaves [Gen 3:7], while the nature of transgression stood uncondemned and not crucified.

GF8:256f (1684): So the transgression of the command of God came, when the ear went out after the serpent, and the eye went after the fruit of the tree, which God forbid them to eat of. So here they came to see their outward shame and nakedness; who had fallen from the image of God that covered them; and therefore they went to cover the outward shame [Gen 3:7]. And now man and woman in the fall, are taking thought what they shall eat and drink, and what they shall put on [Mat 6:25]. And this is come upon them by forsaking the Lord's teaching, and following the serpent's.

WPR 79 (1669): [Cited against vain fashions:] Could it possibly be, that one from Palistina should bring us Father Adam's Girdle, and old Mother Eve's Apron to be shewen? [Gen 3:7] What laughing, what fleering, what mocking of their Grandfather's and Grandam's homely fashion would there be? surely their tailor would find but little custom, although we hear 'twas God himself that made them coats of skins [Gen 3:21].

RBA 309 (1678, XI:10): Yea should one ... from a sense of sin and fear of punishment seek to terrify themselves from sin, by multiplying thoughts of death, hell and judgment, and by presenting to their imaginations the happiness and joys of heaven, and also by multiplying prayers and other religious performances, as these things could never deliver him from one iniquity without the secret and inward power of God's Spirit and Grace, so would they signify no more than the fig-leaves wherewith Adam sought to cover his nakedness...[Gen 3:7]

RBA 447f (1678, XV:7): The use of clothes came originally from the fall; if man had not fallen, it appears he would not have needed them. But this miserable state made them necessary, in two respects: 1) to cover his nakedness [Gen 3:7], and 2) to keep him from the cold [Gen 3:21], which is both the proper and the principal use of them. Now, for man to delight himself in that which is the fruit of his iniquity, and is the consequence of sin, can be no ways lawful for him; so to extend things beyond their real use, or to superadd things wholly superfluous, is a manifest abuse of the creation, and therefore not lawful to Christians.

(Gen 3:8-13)

HPS 473 (Elizabeth Hendericks, 1672): Take heed of that Spirit that still will seek to excuse himself, and to diminish and hide that which is not well, and to lay the charge and fault upon another, and to clear himself by so doing [Gen 3:8-13]; this is the spirit of the world, and is out of the Truth, and by the Truth, and Light of God it is condemned [John 3:19-21]. This is he that appeared in Adam and Eve in the beginning after the Fall: And so Friends, You who are called to come out of the Fall, let nothing that is of that spirit and nature be cherished nor regarded, but that all may be judged in the Light, which is springing forth of that ground, that cursed ground in which the thorns and briars, and the weeds grows [Gen 3:17f], and let the fire consume it [Isa 10:17, Heb 6:8]: So dear Friends, keep nothing back, nor excuse nothing, nor diminish it not, that cannot stand in the Light and Truth of God, but is condemned and must be so for ever.

(Gen 3:9)

WPR 53: [Gen 3:9, see under Gen 2:16f]

(Gen 3:14)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:14: JN1:230 (under Gen 3:15)]

GF5: 267 (1677): ...Christ saith, "except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye have no life in you" [John 6:53]; for the wool is but the outside and clothing of the sheep; it is not flesh and blood. So they may have all the words of Christ, and the prophets and the apostles, and yet feed upon dust like the serpent [Gen 3:14], have the sheep's clothing [Mat 7:15], but have no life in them...

GF7: 251 (1665): If this ruler's meat be dust [Gen 3:14, Isa 65:25], that rules in the hearts of the disobedient, which got into Adam and Eve's heart by disobedience, what feed the ruled upon then, if the ruler's meat be dust?... if they obey the light, the truth, which the devil is out of, and abide just; by this they come to go upright, from under the slavery of him which upon his belly goes; they come to feed upon the life, Christ; and not upon the dust....

GF8: 212f (1682): And in all your meetings, if there is any difference between brother and brother, do not reflect one upon another in meetings, but speak to one another between yourselves, as Christ commands [Mat 18:15]....so that nothing may be seen in your meetings but the life, truth, and peace; so that the serpent, whose meat is dust [Gen 3:14, Isa 65:25], may find none in your meetings....

JN1: 70 (1653): [This wisdom] is not of God but is earthly, sensual, devilish [James 3:15]; and this wisdom must never enter into the kingdom, but is of the serpent, cursed above all creatures, more subtle than all the beasts of the field, eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:1-5), the judging of good and evil by carnal knowledge, creeping into the earth and earthly things, all for the belly, feeding on dust [Gen 3:14], and delighting in things that perish and fade away, painted on the outside, decking thee with pride, curiously invented (serpent-like) by this wisdom....

IP1 15 (1658): There is a spirit that mourneth deeply to the Lord, groaning inwardly [Rom 8:26], and his ears are open to it, and he will plead the cause of the seed; and churches and religions wherein the serpent can live and flourish, shall wither and come to an end. Dust is already become the serpent's food [Gen 3:14, Isa 65:25]. The spirit of man, in all his exercises of religion, knoweth not the bread of life [John 6:35, 48]; but the dead feed upon the dead, and the dead spirit of man loves to have it so.

(Gen 3:14f)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:14f: GF7:184 (Heb 7:16), JN1:148 (John 3:31)]

(Gen 3:15)

Other texts citing Gen 3:15: GFJN 12 (John 1:9), GF6:266f: (under Gen 22:16-18), GF7:72 (Rev 12:10), GF7:295 (Heb 2:10), GF8:60 (2 Pet 2:1), GF8:130 (Rev 13:8), GF8:141 (1 Jn 3:8), GFT 218 (Mat 1:23), MFU 14 (Gen 3:1-6), JN1:53 (Mat 4:8f), JN1:56 (Luk 23:12), JN1:57 (Rev 19:8), JN1:115 (Rev 12:13), HPS 440 (Mat 1:23), RBA 84 (Rom 5:15), EQ 505 (Gen 2:18-20), JSS 15f ( Gen 12:3), JSS 52 (John 14:12)]

GF7: 178 (1659): Friends, —Live in the seed of God that destroys the devil [Gen 3:15/Heb 2:14], who is the author and cause of wars and strife, and bringing of men and people into the earth, where the war, strife, and pride are: here the outward swordsmen have not learned yet to beat their swords and spears into ploughshares and pruning hooks [Isa 2:4]....

GF7: 279 (1666): And all Friends, that are in any temptations or troubles, look at Christ, who bruiseth the serpent's head [Gen 3:15], your adversary, your enemy, your troubler, your tempter, your defiler, your accuser, the wicked one; fear him not, but look at Christ Jesus, that bruiseth his head, breaketh his power and strength, and crusheth him to pieces; in Christ have you peace, which was before the devil was....

GF8: 6 (1669): And so the inward virgin minds, and souls, and spirits, that are hidden in the Lord, they will die before they lose their inward virginity, but will keep it to the marriage of the Lamb [Rev 19:7], as the wise virgins did [Mat 25:1-13]; by which power they are preserved over the man of sin, whom Christ their husband bruises the head of [Gen 3:15], and destroys him and his works....

GF8: 71 (1674): ... the devil and his instruments cannot get into this gospel, which is the power of God [Rom 1:16]; and that makes him rage; and he would not have the woman to have a share in it (who first deceived the woman [Gen 3:1-6], and now would again), nor the men neither. Nor he cannot get into the worship of God, which is in spirit and truth [John 4:24], which the devil is out of [John 8:44]; and therefore keep your posessions in the power of God, and your habitations there within, and in Christ Jesus, who bruises the head of the serpent [Gen 3:15], who is the head of all false orders, and disorders, and has made the world like a wilderness [Isa 14:17]...

GF8: 156 (1678): And dear friends, my love to you all in the seed of life and peace, which floweth as a river [Isa 66:12], and bruiseth the head of the serpent [Gen 3:15], that hath brought death and darkness, wo, misery, and imperfection upon and in man; and in this seed Christ is all nations blessed and elected; and out of it is the curse and reprobation. And out of this seed are all the false religions, false ways, false worships, and false churches, or bodies without heads, like so many monsters, which the seed of the serpent hath brought forth since the apostles' days, and then they have made them heads, out of their bodies, or churches, and when one head is fallen off, then another they make, and set it upon their body or church, having lost and gone from the true Christ. [Christ head of church/body: Eph 1:22f, 4:14-16, Col 1:18]

MFS 64 (1666): Let this word of the Lord, which was from the beginning, stop the mouths of all that oppose women's speaking in the power of the Lord, for He has put enmity between the woman and the serpent, and if the seed of the woman speak not, the seed of the serpent speaks, for God has put enmity between the two seeds. It is manifest that those that speak against the woman and her seed's speaking, speak out of the envy of the old serpent's seed. God has fulfilled His word and His promise [Quotes Gal 4:4f]

JN1: 230 (1653): Woe unto the covetous cruel oppressors who live upon dust [Gen 3:14], you grind the faces of the poor [Isa 3:15]... The fire of the Almighty is kindled, and it shall never be quenched till it hath...made you a curse to the generations that shall come after. Woe unto the envious serpents that seek to devour the innocent, that make a prey upon them that depart from iniquity: you are the head of the serpent that must fulfill what is spoken of you, and you now show the enmity that God hath put between the two seeds. Now thy rage is come, the seed is come whose heel thou art bruising, who shall bruise thy head; thy time is as short as thy rage is great. Rejoice all you that suffer it, that the Scriptures may be fulfilled.

IP1: 113 (1659): Man, by nature, is dead in trespasses and sins [Eph 2:1]; quite dead, and his conscience wholly dark. That which giveth him the sense of his death, and of his darkness, must be another thing than his nature, even the light of the spirit of Christ, shining in his dark heart and conscience. It is the seed of the woman which not only destroys, but also discovers, all the deeds of the serpent. [Gen 3:15]

IP2: 443f (1666): Here are the two seeds (the seed of the serpent, the seed of the woman [Gen 3:15]) whose striving and fight is in man, when God awakens the soul; the one whereof hath a nature, a desire, or lust contrary to the other. Now as the one of these prevails in any heart, so the other goes down. As the one gains life and power, so the other is brought into death and captivity. So that this is it every one is to wait for, after they once come to the sensible knowledge and experience of these two, to feel the flesh brought down, the lusts of it denied, the judgments of the Lord administered to it; so that the other may come up to live, thrive, and prevail in the soul, and so the soul witness salvation and redemption under its shadow.

IP3: 175 (1668): But how know I this seed? may some inquire. Ans. By its nature, by its properties, by its manifesting of itself in my heart. It hath that light, that life, that power in it, which I have never met with anywhere else. It bruiseth the head of the serpent at its pleasure, whereby I know it to be the seed of the woman. It dasheth in pieces (through subjection to it) whatever is contrary to God, and bringeth up his holy nature in me. It so bringeth me into the very image of his Son, that what I read in the Scriptures concerning the nature, righteousness, and work of salvation by Christ, I find formed and springing up in mine own heart, as I am gathered into, and brought forth in, this seed....

IP4: 350f (1675?): As [the seed] springs, and its operations are felt and received, it brings into the image and nature of God. It blots out the devil’s image in the mind, and makes like God and like Christ. Yea, here we have the very mind of Christ, and are one with the mind of Christ [1 Cor 2:16]. As in the serpent’s seed, the serpent’s image and nature are put on, so in this seed, the image and nature of Christ are put on [Gen 3:15].

RBA 305 (1678, XI:10): ...these two births of the mind proceed from two seeds in man respectively, to wit, the good Seed and the evil. [Gen 3:15] And from the evil seed doth not only proceed all manner of gross and abominable wickedness and profanity, but also hypocrisy, and these wickednesses which the Scripture calls spiritual, because it is the serpent working in and by the natural man in things that are spiritual, which having a show and appearance of good are so much the more hurtful and dangerous, as it is "Satan transformed and transforming himself into an angel of light" [2 Cor 11:14]....

HPS 56 (Sarah Blackborow, 1658): ...a Light... in which he may see the Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the Serpent, and their several natures and workings.... the one brings forth to the earthly, and begets into the death, the other into the heavenly, and begets to life.

HPS 256 (Joan Vokins, 1691): ...the Spirit of Light and Life ... opened my understanding, and revealed the mystery of the two seeds, how that one is for ever blessed, and the other cursed...

JSS 48f (1792): ...For, says the Most High, "I am God, and beside me there is no saviour." [Hos 13:4] And yet he never saved any, but through the "child born, and son given." [Isa 9:6] There never was any other way, but the way of the new birth, the begotten of God brought forth in the soul. This is the "seed of the woman," that ever "bruiseth the serpent's head" in man [Gen 3:15]: wherever this is brought forth, satan's head is bruised; and wherever satan's head is bruised in man, this is brought forth. This seed is not the seed of the woman, merely as born of Mary; but also as born in every redeemed soul, either man or woman, for in this sense they are all one in Christ [Gal 3:28]. Wherever Christ is brought forth, he is both the son of God, and the son of man: but of man only, and always, as his mother....

(Gen 3:16)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:16: EQ 505 (under Gen 2:18-20)]

GF8: 69 (1674): And some men may say, man must have the power and superiority over the woman, because God says, "The man must rule over his wife [Gen 3:16]; and that man is not of woman, but the woman is of the man". Indeed, after man fell, that command was. But before man fell, there was no such command; for they were both meet-helps, they were both to have dominion over all that God made. [Gen 2:18] And as the apostle saith, "for as the woman is of the man," his next words are, "so is the man also by the woman; but all things are of God" [1 Cor 11:12]. And so the apostle clears his own words; and so as man and woman are restored again, by Christ up into the image of God, they both have dominion again in righteousness and holiness, and are helps-meet, as before they fell. So then the man is not without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord.

(Gen 3:17)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:17: GF7:31f (under Mat 7:26f), MFS 31 (1 Jn 3:8), JN1: 167 (Gen 2:19), JN2: 287 (Gen 49:22), HPS 473 (Gen 3:8-13)]

GF7: 32 (1653): That mind, which doth speak of God, but lives not, dwells not, nor abides in the fear of God, that mind must suffer, and pass under the judgment of God, for the curse of God is upon that mind: for that mind is earthly, and of the earth, upon which the curse of God is [Gen 3:17].

(Gen 3:20)

JWJM 200 (17--): When we remember that all nations are of one blood [Gen 3:20]; that in this world we are but sojourners; that we are subject to the like afflictions and infirmities of body, the like disorders and frailties in mind, the like temptations, the same death and the same judgment; and that the All-wise Being is judge and Lord over us all, it seems to raise an idea of a general brotherhood and a disposition easy to be touched with a feeling of each other's afflictions. But when we forget those things and look chiefly at our outward circumstances, in this and some ages past, constantly retaining in our minds the distinction betwixt us and them with respect to our knowledge and improvement in things divine, natural, and artificial, our breasts being apt to be filled with fond notions of superiority, there is danger of erring in our conduct toward them.

(Gen 3:21)

GF8: 256, RBA 447f, WPR 79: [Gen 3:21, see under Gen 3:7]

(Gen 3:22-24)

IP3: 123 (1668) : Do ye know the paradise of God, and the tree of life there? Do ye indeed feed upon? Have ye passed through the flaming sword to the tree of life? And is the flaming sword (which once fenced from life, and the power thereof) set now to fence up the way to the tree of knowledge, that ye may feed no more thereon, and die, but feed only on that which is life, and gives life, and so live for ever? [Gen 3:22,24]

(Gen 3:24)

[Other texts citing Gen 3:24: GFT 218: (under Mat 1:23), JN1:44 (Jas 3:15-17)]

GFJN 27 (16--): Now I was come up in spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God [Gen 3:24]. All things were new [Rev 21:5], and all the creation gave another smell than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness, being renewed up into the image of God by Christ Jesus [Col 3:10], so that I say I was come into the state of Adam which he was in before he fell.

GFT 193f (1680): Man and woman came then to be driven out of the garden, and a flaming sword placed every way with two edges to keep the way of the tree of life. So everyone must come through this two-edged flaming sword before they can come into the paradise of God. They must know this sword to cut down the transgressing life and earthly wisdom, to burn it up, before man can come to inherit life. [Gen 3:24/Heb 4:12]

WDS 30 (1655): Then the Lord discovered to me, that his love could not be attained to by any thing I could do in any of these outward observations; and in all these turnings in my carnal wisdom, while seeking the kingdom of God without [Luke 17:20], thither the flaming sword turned, to keep the way of the tree of life [Gen 3:24], fenced me from it, cut me down, rent all my coverings, and destroyed that mind which looked out [Eccl 12:3] to find the kingdom of heaven.

IP1: 406 (1660): [used in context of proposition (p 404) "that man, by all the imaginations that can enter into his heart, and by all the means he can use, or courses he can run, cannot return back to God again, or so much as desire it."] "There is a flaming sword, which turns every which way, to keep the way of the tree of life" [Gen 3:24]; insomuch as no man can, by no means, come at the way to the true life, nor enter into the strait and narrow path that leads thereto [Mat 5:14], but as he is cut to the heart, his life let out, and he dies, and comes into unity with that which slays him, and keeps the way from him. [continued under John 1:13]

RBA 86 (1678, IV:2): Now whatever literal signification this [Gen 3:24] may have, we may safely ascribe to this paradise a mystical signification, and truly account it that spiritual communion and fellowship, which the saints obtain with God by Jesus Christ; to whom only these cherubims give way, and unto as many as enter by him, who calls himself the Door [John 10:7-9]. So that, though we do not ascribe any whit of Adam's guilt to men, until they make it theirs by the like acts of disobedience; yet we cannot suppose that men, who are come of Adam naturally, can have any good thing in their nature, as belonging to it; which he, from whom they derive their nature, had not himself to communicate unto them.