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The genitive in English, by some called the possessive case, is formed by adding to the nominative the letter s, with an apostrophe before it, as king, king’s. It expresses a variety of relations, and was hence called by the Greeks the general case[18]. The relation which it most commonly denotes is that of property or possession, as, the king’s crown; and is, in general, the same with that which is denoted by the word of, as, the crown of the king, the rage of the tyrant, the death of the prince, equivalent to the king’s crown, the tyrant’s rage, the prince’s death.

The nature of the relation which the genitive expresses must, in some instances, be collected from the scope of the context; for, in English, as in most other languages, this case frequently involves an ambiguity. When I say, “neither life nor death shall separate us from the love of God,” it may mean, either from the love which we owe to God, or the love which he bears to us; for “God’s love” may denote either the relation which the affection bears to its subject, or that which it bears to its object. If the latter be the meaning intended, the ambiguity may be prevented by saying, “love to God.”